To begin with, it may be best to consider what a whiplash injury actually is. Whiplash is an injury to the soft tissue in the neck, back and shoulders area where the tissue is stretched and strained after the body is thrown or jerked in a sudden, forceful movement. This is most common in car accidents.
The symptoms of whiplash commonly include pain in the neck, back, shoulders and arms. Other effects include dizziness, nausea and more often headaches. Although whiplash can be quite minor and resolve after a few weeks, more serious circumstances mean that you could be suffering for up to a year.
Trying to work with whiplash symptoms can be difficult, and a lot of the time client’s struggle coping with the injury in both physical and non physical jobs. For example, if you are suffering from pain in the lower back, then working in an office (being sat down a lot) can aggravate the pain – however on the other hand working on a building site and lifting objects can also make the pain worse.
Minor whiplash injuries can often be managed using pain killers and possibly some heat rub so some client’s can actually go to work with relative ease. Others, with worse symptoms, can hardly move, never mind trot off and do a full day’s work!
So what is the answer to knowing whether you can work or not? To be honest, a part of it is considering how you feel and determining how severe your symptoms actually are.
In order to do this, the most important advice I can provide on this subject is to always seek medical advice and attention as soon as you can, and as often as is necessary to do so. Your GP should be able to assess the extent of your injuries and confirm whether you are fit for work or not. Your GP will also be able to rule out any more serious causes of pain such as small fractures or tears in the ligaments and soft tissue.
If you are deemed not fit for work, the consequences of not attending work can have a serious affect on your financial situation; especially of you are only entitled to Statutory Sick Pay whilst you are off work. The difference between the Statutory Sick Pay you will receive and your normal weekly/monthly salary can be recovered within a claim for personal injury. Therefore it is important to keep hold of any pay slips showing this deduction whilst you are off work.
If you are entitled to be paid in full by your employer during your absence, your employment contract may contain a clause where you are obliged to recover the money paid to you on behalf of your employer when making a claim for personal injury. Most client’s are not aware of this and therefore it is important to check your employment contract to ensure you do not miss this.
If your GP advises that you can return to work, they may still impose certain restrictions on your work. Your GP, for example, can advise that you are only fit to work a certain number of hours each day and also state that certain aspects of your job should not be carried out due to your injuries. You can effectively be put on “Light duties”.
All in all, you can work with a whiplash injury, but it is vitally important that medical advice and attention is sought in order to confirm whether you are fit for full duties, light duties or shouldn’t be at work at all. Failure to seek medical advice could result in any injuries being made worse – and also any more serious injuries not being treated.
The Injury Lawyer’s deal in only personal injury claims and most of our client’s have had to take some time off work due to injuries. We are experienced in not only in fighting for the maximum amount of compensation for your injury but also recovering the losses resulting from any time taken away from work.
Please call our claims line – FREE from a landline or mobile – on 0800 634 75 75 for further legal and professional advice.