However anyone who has ever suffered a whiplash type injury will know that whiplash can cause a great deal of pain, discomfort and inconvenience. Whiplash is a genuine injury and an injury which is compensatable in law. I believe the main difficulty or the reason why whiplash claims receives such a bad press is due to the perceived difficulty in diagnosing the condition.
If you have sustained whiplash following a road traffic accident then it is your right to claim compensation.
As part of the claim you may be offered a course of physiotherapy, which would usually be on a private basis if you have a good lawyer working for you like us. The physiotherapy is to aid your recovery. Although whiplash may be seen as a relatively minor injury, it is an injury after all – and it is not always so minor. It is your right to claim compensation if you have sustained a whiplash injury as a result of a road traffic accident which was not your fault.
How do you know if you are suffering from whiplash? Symptoms of whiplash typically include pain and stiffness in the neck, back, and shoulders area. If you have sustained a whiplash injury you may also experience pain and stiffness in the muscles in your head, chest, shoulders and arms. Other common symptoms include headaches and dizziness. It is often the case that people are involved in a road traffic accident and following the accident they are not aware that they have suffered an injury. A few hours later or within the next 24 or 48 hours people notice the onset of pain in their neck and back. This is common.
A diagnosis of whiplash from your GP may be made following a simple description of the symptoms and the accident circumstances. The main problem with whiplash is there is no definitive way to diagnose it. Your GP can carry out a physical examination of the muscles in your neck, back, and shoulders, and this may reveal stiffness or limitation of movement.
In terms of the claim for compensation, your Solicitor would simply submit a form to the Defendant’s insurers. This is known as a Claim Notification Form (or CNF for short). This form contains relatively brief details of the accident. The claim progresses from there and in terms of complexity it is always more straight forward, as you would expect, if there is no dispute regarding who was at fault for the accident. You would be medically examined by an expert, usually a GP in these cases, and the GP would prepare a medical report. It is the medical report that you can use to try and recover compensation.
We deal with many whiplash claims here at The Injury Lawyers. Unfortunately whiplash is a very common injury and if the accident was not your fault then it is your right to make a claim for compensation. Do not hesitate to call us today on 0800 634 75 75 to discuss your claim.