A fair few people don’t make whiplash claims because they can’t be bothered with the ‘hassle’ or have been offered some money directly by an insurer and don’t think that getting an expert injury lawyer on board is worth it if when they may only get a couple of hundred pounds more compensation. I would say this is the wrong way to approach things, and here’s why:
A new whiplash claiming system was introduced in April 2010 which drastically cut down the amount of time whiplash claiming takes. Under the old system you had to get all your details together, produce a Letter of Claim which outlined these details and then send this to the Defendant who had a period of 21 days to acknowledge it and then a further 3 months from when they acknowledged the Letter of Claim to investigate your accident and come back with either an admission or denial of liability.
For a very straightforward accident which was clearly the Defendant’s fault, it could take nearly 4 months for them to admit liability. I could understand why some people got a little frustrated about this. But this has all changed!
Under the new system, the Road Traffic Accident Protocol, you submit a Claim Notification Form online via the Ministry of Justice portal. Your injury lawyer will do this for you and it’s dead easy to complete, it just notes what happened in your accident and who was involved. This is sent to the Defendant’s insurer who only has 1 business day to acknowledge the Claim Notification Form and then a further 15 business days to admit or deny liability.
That could previously take 4 months, it now takes roughly 3 weeks! I am sure you will agree that there’s hardly any hassle now; and if you have the right expert injury lawyer fighting tooth and nail for you, you will barely have to lift a finger.
Once you have received an admission of liability it is just a matter of getting you to attend a medical appointment at a time and place convenient for yourself. This should only take about 20 or 30 minutes and is very important because the medical report allows your claim to be properly valued as it demonstrates what injuries you have suffered and how long you are likely to suffer for. Generally, the more severe your injuries are and the longer your injuries last, the more your claim is worth. With your permission, the medical report is disclosed to the Defendant and offers to settle your claim made. All in all, in just few weeks from when the admission of liability was received, your claim could be settled. No hassle at all.
If you have received an offer directly from the insurer and it seems like a good offer and you are not sure whether to bother getting an injury lawyer on your side because you may only get a couple of hundred pounds more compensation consider the following. Do you know for definite how long you will be suffering for? Will you need any medical treatment? Does their offer really reflect the value of your claim? If you are unsure about any of these answers, the best thing you can do is get some free legal advice to make sure you do not under-settle your claim. After all, there is no going back and asking for more compensation later. Considering you can get free legal advice and can get someone like ourselves to act on your behalf at no cost to yourself, it would seem a great idea to at least give us a call to make sure you make the right decision!
Give us at The Injury Lawyers a call today on 0800 634 75 75 where our friendly team will be more than happy to help.
