Firstly, you can be assured I’m speaking from plenty of experience here as a man who has not only advised countless victims making whiplash claims with The Injury lawyers, but also as a sufferer of the injury myself. I’ve had a claim and settled it last year for quite a bad stint of whiplash, so I know how agonising it can be.
Here is a quick guide about what you need to know when it comes to working with a whiplash injury.
Can I work?
The answer really depends on the severity of the injury and nature of your employment. Most people can work with a whiplash injury and manage the pain with medication. A medical professional will normally recommend what steps you should take to keep pain and discomfort as minimal as possible, which can include regular breaks and stretches throughout the day.
For office workers you can normally work with a whiplash injury. For people who work in industries where manual handling is involved, it may be more difficult and it may be recommended for you to take some time off work.
But whether you should take time off work can be down to personal preference and medical opinions. You should seek advice and if you need to be signed off, you should take the advice given.
I personally didn’t take any time off at all – I just made sure I stretched and bought a back support for my chair.
Mitigation of Loss
When making a claim there is a significant duty on you to mitigate your loss – which means to make all reasonable efforts to minimise the losses as much as you can. So if you don’t need to be off work, you shouldn’t take time off work and incur lost earnings and try to claim them back.
The insurers will only pay you losses that are deemed to be reasonable. You will be seen by a medical expert who produces a report for us to value your claim, and a part of this report is to confirm whether any reasonable losses you want to claim for are deemed to be medically reasonable. If they are deemed to be reasonable, you shouldn’t have any problems claiming them back. If the expert thinks they are not reasonable, you may struggle to get them paid for.
Most people can work with a whiplash injury, so don’t think you are not suffering bad enough if you don’t need any time off work.
Can I still claim if I am able to work?
Great news – of course you can!
A claim is normally set out in two parts – one for your injuries and suffering alone, and the other for your losses and expenses. So you can work and incur no losses or expenses on your part whatsoever, but you can still make a claim for whiplash injury compensation.
Remember – seeking medical advice is the best way to find out if you personally can work with your injuries or not. It’s all down to individual circumstance.
