This is a common question I hear when advising accident victims about their road accident claims whilst I’m setting them up on our systems and getting their claims rolling forward from day 1. It’s quite easy, with a good law firm that takes client care seriously, to get your whiplash claim up and running in a matter of hours; but, it’s a difficult to question to answer when asked how much compensation you are entitled to get for a whiplash injury!
Realistically, there is only one way to value a whiplash compensation claim: with an independent expert personal injury lawyer, and an independent medical report from a fully qualified medico-legal expert. Basically, you attend an appointment arranged through your lawyers, and they use the evidence given by the expert to value your claim and assess any further treatment needs you might have.
I can, however, give you guidance as to how much compensation you can receive for a whiplash claim. As well as the medical evidence, your lawyers will use their wealth of experience and knowledge, previous cases with similar injuries and circumstances, and what’s known as the JSB (Judicial Studies Board) Guidelines, in order to give you the best valuation possible.
Below are the JSB Guidelines relevant for some whiplash injuries:
Minor Whiplash Injuries – £875 to £5,150
Moderate Whiplash Injuries – £5,150 to £16,400
Severe Whiplash Injuries – up to £97,000!
The way to band which category your whiplash fits in to is with the medical report and the fully qualified personal injury lawyer.
What you need from your legal representative is to fit the following criteria; and it’s possible, and best, to get a lawyer that ticks ALL of these boxes:
Full Qualified Injury Lawyer
Make sure you’re dealing with an actual injury lawyer, and they are the ones representing you with conduct for your claim. You don’t want some unqualified claims handler with no experience and a ridiculous caseload of clients they can’t handle! Make sure you get an injury lawyer with a dedicated legal team at hand!
Independent Injury Lawyer
Go direct to an injury lawyer – avoid getting one referred to you by a claims management company. Claims companies are simply middle men – theior “legally trained advisors” can simply assess your claim over the phone, and then pass it over to a law firm to make the final decision. They of course take a handsome payout from the law firm for selling your claim on. This either comes from your compensation by a percentage or a deduction, or is drawn from the running costs for your claim – leaving you with a solicitor with far less money to fight tooth and nail for your claim. You can’t claim these referral fees back from the other insurers!
And speaking of your insurers – they actually do the same thing! It’s normally called Legal Expense Insurance, or Motor Legal Protection. Your insurers sell the details of your claim over to a solicitor for anywhere between £400 – £800. £800 is pretty much the base running costs for a straightforward road accident claim – so, you could end up with a solicitor with NOTHING to spend on your service and your payout. It’s crazy.
Genuine No Win No Fee
OK – so you’ve got your independent law firm directly. You now need to make sure you enter in to the right kind of No Win No Fee agreement. The term Genuine is a bit of a loose phrase – what you need to do is make sure that you cannot be charged whether the claim wins or loses.
Win – you keep 100% of your compensation because your lawyers will seek recovery of their fees back from the other side. BUT, what you then need is the guarantee – there should be an extra sentence stating that if your lawyers fail to recover any or all of their fees, they will NOT seek to recover anything from you. This essentially restricts your lawyer’s legal fees to whatever is recovered from the other side; meaning you cannot be physically charged.
Lose – your lawyers write all of their fees off, and you don’t pay a penny at all. There’s no fees, no disbursements, no insurance, no anything to pay for. You pay NOTHING!
High Service Levels
So – with an independent firm of specialist personal injury lawyers working on a Genuine No Win No fee, you’re on the right track. You now need to make sure that they will promise to fight tooth and nail for your maximum payout, and they will go the extra mile to provide you with the best service.
For example:
- Private medical care – at no cost to you right from the start of the claim; even if it loses.
- Regular updates – contact every 14 days, so you’re always in the loop.
- Calls, emails and letters answered and returned quickly – on the same day, or within 24 hours.
- Hire car needs and repair needs – all sorted as part of one bespoke service – with no costs to pay.
With the right lawyer on board, you’ll find that claiming for whiplash is actually a ridiculously easy process. Your lawyers do all the leg work for you. I can say this with confidence because we, The Injury Lawyers, offer you all of the above!
Just remember – not all firms will!
