There have been a lot of media reports for many years that claim to debunk whiplash injuries. For those who have never had any experience with whiplash it can be easy to be suckered in to the way the media suggests that whiplash isn’t a proper injury or isn’t as bad as people make it out to be.
Well the truth is far simpler than you may think – whiplash is a real injury and let me explain to you some things about it that you probably didn’t know.
What is whiplash?
Whiplash is a term used to describe the injury and suffering of your muscles in the neck, back, and shoulder area being stretched beyond their normal range of movement. This overstretching can lead to symptoms like pain, soreness, stiffness, reduced movement, and aches. It’s fairly obvious to see how the injury can be caused – in car crashes where whiplash is the typical injury suffered, you are often thrown forward and the muscles and tendons are damaged.
Is it bad?
Whiplash is not normally just a little bit of pain and stiffness. Even in low impact crashes it can lead to weeks or even months of suffering. In many cases it doesn’t necessitate loads of time off work or being bed ridden for weeks because many people are capable of muddling through it; but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t painful and uncomfortable.
One of my favourite terms I say to people when I’m advising them about a whiplash claim is that the injury is often a lot more complicated than most people think. It really is one of those things where people will snub it based on bias media reporting until they end up with the injury themselves. Only when you’re suffering with a whiplash injury do you realise that it’s no laughing matter.
Why do the media negatively report whiplash claims?
UK media is often very bias for many reasons. It can depend a lot on money, and money is one thing that insurers generally have quite a lot of. They are private profit making business with a duty to their shareholders so they want to restrict claims and restrict payouts to save their profits. The legal fees for many road accident claims are fixed at a rate of just over £500, so lawyers actually don’t have a great deal at all to profit from whiplash claims.
If they can deter you from claiming, they save themselves a great deal of cash!
Is it wrong to claim whiplash?
Not at all. If your house burns down, what do you do? You claim on your insurance of course; claiming for whiplash is no different.
Expert medical evidence is used to confirm that the injury is related to the accident. If it isn’t, then you can’t claim for it and the expert will put this in their report. The media experts are independent with a duty to the court – not to victims.
I myself have had whiplash before and I can tell you now it’s not a joke injury at all. I’ve settled my claim but I still get problems on occasions even now-and-again where the symptoms flair back up for a short period of time after certain activity.
My accident was in May 2011 – so that goes to show you how bad it can really be.
Don’t suffer in silence and don’t listen to the media reporting – if you have a genuine whiplash injury, make a claim!
