Here’s how:
At The Injury Lawyers we are expert whiplash lawyers having dealt with thousands of whiplash claims over many years. In fact, not a day goes by without one of our busy team progressing a whiplash claim towards settlement. Due to this experience, we are able to give you a rough idea as to how much your claim may be worth.
What you have to understand is that the value of your claim is dependent on the severity of your whiplash and how long you suffer your whiplash for. For example, a severe whiplash injury will be worth more than a moderate whiplash injury lasting the same amount of time. Likewise, a minor whiplash injury lasting six months will likely be worth more than a minor whiplash injury lasting one month. At the start of your claim we don’t know how severe your whiplash is and how long it will last; we don’t have a crystal ball unfortunately, and that is why we cannot give you an exact valuation. However, there are some guidelines that suggest how much a claim may be worth.
The Judicial Studies Board (JSB) guidelines suggest several figures for different types of whiplash injury. We can also say that a minor whiplash injury is worth £2,500.00 as in fact this was the average payout for a whiplash claim last year. A whiplash injury lasting 3 – 5 weeks though may only be worth £1,000.00.
To get a more precise value for your whiplash injury, you will need a legal medical report. This will typically be obtained once liability for your claim has been admitted and will be arranged at a time and place convenient for you and should only take 20 or 30 minutes. This legal medical report is key to valuing your claim because a medical expert will provide a diagnosis and prognosis (how long you will suffer for) and with this information a quality injury lawyer can properly value your claim. As we don’t have a medical report at the start of your claim, it is impossible to value your claim. An injury lawyer will not know how bad your whiplash is as they are not a medical expert and they will not know how long you will suffer with your whiplash.
It is also worth noting that the figures I have mentioned for whiplash injury compensation only relate to the whiplash injury itself. Your claim could be worth more if you have suffered any other related losses, for example, a loss of earning due to having to take time off work, or costs of medication and/or travel expenses in getting to and from medical appointments. Naturally, the greater your losses, the more your claim will be worth.
If you want to discuss how a whiplash claim is valued in more depth, give our expert and friendly team a call today for free on 0800 634 75 75. If you have got whiplash and we believe you have good prospects of a successful claim for compensation we will let you know and then if you decide you want to pursue a claim just let us know and we can get the ball rolling on this claim today!