Whiplash is a pretty painful injury to suffer with. I’m recovering from it myself – and if you are reading this as a whiplash sufferer, or if you have recovered from a whiplash injury, you will know where I am coming from!
The symptoms can actually be a lot more complicated and a lot more varied than most people think. The symptoms that are generally associated with whiplash are:
- Pain in the neck, and / or back, and / or shoulder areas. Affected areas can be sore, stiff, or ache.
- Reduced movement in the affected areas
- Headaches, and sometimes dizziness and sickness
- Pins and needs in the arms
- Tingling sensations in affected areas
The injury itself is caused from the rapid movement of your neck from one place to another – e.g. back and forwards, or to the side. The fast motion of the neck being jerked to another position and back, like the crack of a whip (hence the namesake!), causes the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your neck and potentially back and shoulders to be stretched beyond their normal range of movement. This stretch beyond the normal range of movement is essentially the cause of the damage and the subsequent symptoms.
How You Get Whiplash
So, how can you end up with a whiplash injury? The most common cause of whiplash injuries is from road accidents – if you are suffering with any of the symptoms above and you have recently been involved in a road accident, your whiplash probably appeared as a direct result of the accident. Whether you were crashed in to the back of, hit from a side road, smashed in to on a roundabout, or injured due to a bus driver not paying attention and braking too hard (like me – my claim is ongoing but has already been accepted by the bus company), then you may well have a whiplash claim for compensation.
You can also end up with whiplash from sports injuries, slips, trips, falls, and other occasions where you body is suddenly and potentially violently jerked.
Making a Whiplash Claim
If the accident you were in was through no fault of your own, you will likely have a successful claim for whiplash compensation. All you need to do is follow the following simple steps and you should receive your compensation payout in no time:
Get Medical Attention
Visit your GP, a walk in centre, or local hospital as soon after the accident as possible. Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal that can be done about whiplash injuries other than taking pain medication, anti-inflammatory medication, and doing some exercises that your medical attendant may likely advised you to do.
Speak to Your Insurers – AFTER You Have Spoken to a Lawyer
It’s common practice to advise your insurers that you have been in an accident; however, you should do this AFTER you have spoken to a lawyer. Unfortunately, when you advise your insurers you have been in a non-fault accident, little £ signs are likely to flicker in their profiteering eyes. There’s an insurance that many people have on their policies called Legal Expenses Insurance, or Motor Legal Protection, that has been the key to unlocking millions of pounds for insurers to cash in on at the potential cost of you – the injured accident victim!
They will normally tell you that you have the benefit of such insurance that guarantees you free legal cover and a solicitor. Now, don get me wrong, it is a form of insurance; but as your insurers refer you over to one of their approved panel of solicitors, they do so for a handsome fee of around £800.00 – £1,000.00
Before you panic, it’s likely you will not have to pay that full amount. You may suffer a deduction from your payout, but if you do manage to get a 100% compensation deal, the compromise comes from your service levels. As confirmed by both the Law Society, Bar Council, former Justice Secretary Jack Straw, and several others whom have looked in to the problem, the practice of referrals has the potential to reduce the quality of legal services on offer.
If you type in to Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any other search engine “Jack Straw Referral Fee Bans” you will see what I mean. If your insurers are trying to refer you, you need to get out whist you can, as the practice of insurers providing solicitors is soon to be made illegal – the bill has been passed and the legislation is on its way.
The problem is that the money the solicitor wastes on buying your case from the insurers comes straight from the budget used to run your case. For winning a whiplash claim, we typically get between £1,250.00 – £1,500.00 in fees; so, wasting £1,000 on a referral fee leaves your solicitor a little cash strapped to provide you with any quality service. The common complaints are always the same – solicitors never call you back, very rarely update you, show little or no interest in your recovery and losses, and advise you to accept low offers as they can’t be bothered / don’t have the money to fight for a higher payout.
So yes – through going down this route, you could end up with less compensation!
Speak to a Proper Law Firm
Find your very own independent firm of specialist personal injury lawyers who do not accept referral fees from insurers or claims companies. We are a specialist firm of whiplash lawyers – we are actual lawyers; we’re not a group of different lawyers or firms, and we are no middle man or referrals agents. We are the real deal – we give you the advice, we take on your claim, and we fight your corner and settle for the highest possible payout.
Make sure you get a lawyer working on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis. This means that you will receive 100% of your payout – no deductions, no charges. If the claim loses, you pay nothing. With a proper from like us, there really are no hidden costs or insurance fees to pay. We take out our own insurance policy for your case that you never pay for or contribute towards – the other side pay for it when we win the case.
So, why pay your own insurers for a policy that the insurers for the person at fault should be paying for?
Feel free to get in touch on 0800 634 75 75 for more advice and information on whiplash claims.
