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The Injury Lawyers: Proud to never pay insures, claims companies, or other companies money for claims; all of our clients come directly to us, meaning we can dedicate all of our resources on to our fantastic service, and fighting tooth and nail for a maximum payout!

How do you make a claim for whiplash? Here is the best advice on what to do, and what to avoid.

What to Avoid
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Legal Expenses Insurance, Motor Legal Protection, and the practice of insurers allocating you a solicitor after a road accident is a topic we regularly cover as an independent firm that refuses outright to get involved in this practice. We have been advising people about the downfalls of letting your insurers refer a solicitor to you for years, and it now transpires that former Justice Secretary Jack Straw has done some investigation into the matter, and has spoken out against what he has labelled as the insurers industry dirty little secret.

Following complaints from his constituents, which Mr Straw followed up aand he has publically brought to light and blasted what he has termed as the “huge racket” of insurers passing on details to personal injury lawyers for extortionate fees; a practice we have been speaking out against for years. The BBC and The Guardian are currently reporting on the matter as we speak (http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9524000/9524476.stm), (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jun/28/jack-straw-insurance-customer-details).

The reports confirm that Straw has said that “the practice had driven a surge in no-win, no-fee claims this year which put up premiums – all with the insurers’ knowledge”. We often see the insurers complaining that personal injury claims are driving up premiums – as you can see, it’s the insurers themselves that are akin to this apparent problem.
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What is whiplash? How does it affect you? How can you make a claim for it? These are three of the primary questions that people ask about whiplash claims and whiplash injuries. So – Here’s a little advice to help you out!

Whiplash Explained

Whiplash is a general term used to describe the damage to muscles, ligaments and tendons, normally in the neck, back, and shoulders area, from the areas being stretched beyond their normal range of movement. The stretch occurs from a the fast back, forwards, or sideways movement caused normally from a collision or a harsh brake in a vehicle, or even from slipping over and falling fast, or a fall from height.
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A whiplash injury is normally caused after a road accident – it can also be caused after a slip or a fall, however. Basically, anything that involves your neck / head being jolted forwards, backwards, or sideways quickly can cause a whiplash injury. It’s called whiplash for a reason – imagine an actual whip hitting a tree. It flies forward at speed, cracks the tree, and whips back. It’s this sharp movement that normally causes the injury.

When a whiplash injury occurs, your muscles and ligaments are stretched beyond their normal range of movement. This can lead to several symptoms that sufferers will endure; the below are all classis symptoms of a whiplash injury:

• Pain in the neck, shoulders, and all over, or just particular sections of, the back.
• Reduced movement and stiffness in the affected areas.
• Sleeping difficulties caused by the pain.
• Headaches – sometimes drowsiness, dizziness, and even vertigo in some cases.

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If you have been injured in an accident which was not your fault, and you believe you have a potentially successful claim for compensation, it is important that you have an expert injury lawyer on your side.  Only this way will you be able to obtain the maximum compensation that you deserve in the shortest possible time. At The Injury Lawyers, we are experts in the field of personal injury claims, having dealt with thousands of cases over many years, and getting our clients the maximum compensation they deserve.  Here is a quick guide as to what you should be looking for in an injury lawyer:

You must keep 100% of your compensation

If you do not receive 100% of the compensation which has been agreed for your accident, this is the same as having your claim under-settled.  If your lawyers are to take even a penny away from your compensation, you are undercompensated.  At The Injury Lawyers, we do not believe in charging our clients for our services whatsoever.  That is why we work on a genuine no win, no fee agreement, which means that we will never charge you for our work.  Before you instruct an injury lawyer, please have a good read through their paperwork.  You must make sure that you keep all of your compensation, and that you are definitely not being charged any lawyers fees. 
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How do you recover from a whiplash injury? What’s the best course of treatment to aid you with a faster recovery? What do you do!?

If you are currently suffering from whiplash, I have some potentially bad news for you:

• Whiplash is a much more complicated injury than most people think
• Whiplash recovery is difficult to predict; most victims’ suffering gets worse before it gets better
• Whiplash can not only cause pain and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and back: it can also cause headaches, dizziness, pins and needles, and even sickness and vertigo in some cases.
• There is no magic cure for whiplash!

So – what can you do? You can aid your recovery by firstly seeking advice from your GP, a walk in centre, or a hospital, and you can help to speed up your recovery by getting treatment from a physiotherapist, or chiropractor, or an osteopathic expert if your symptoms warrant their intervention.
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Recently, I have heard some fairly worrying stories from client’s who have been shopping around for Law firms to instruct for their personal injury claims. These stories have included:

‘‘x’ law firm have said they will take 25% of my compensation upon winning my claim’.

‘‘y’ law firm said that if it goes to court and I lose I will have to pay the court costs’.
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If you have a personal injury claim it is advisable to bring the claim with a law firm using the no win no fee system. By doing it this way, it means that there is less risk to you in having to pay your solicitors costs, which can run into thousands of pounds.

In saying this, you must read the no win no fee agreement through fully, as many law firms still place a large onus on the clients to pay their costs in certain situations.

At The Injury Lawyers, win or lose a claim, we  do not charge our costs – i.e. the time we have spent on a case, to our clients, which is reflected in our genuine no win no fee agreement.
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This is a common question I hear when advising accident victims about their road accident claims whilst I’m setting them up on our systems and getting their claims rolling forward from day 1. It’s quite easy, with a good law firm that takes client care seriously, to get your whiplash claim up and running in a matter of hours; but, it’s a difficult to question to answer when asked how much compensation you are entitled to get for a whiplash injury!

Realistically, there is only one way to value a whiplash compensation claim: with an independent expert personal injury lawyer, and an independent medical report from a fully qualified medico-legal expert. Basically, you attend an appointment arranged through your lawyers, and they use the evidence given by the expert to value your claim and assess any further treatment needs you might have.

I can, however, give you guidance as to how much compensation you can receive for a whiplash claim. As well as the medical evidence, your lawyers will use their wealth of experience and knowledge, previous cases with similar injuries and circumstances, and what’s known as the JSB (Judicial Studies Board) Guidelines, in order to give you the best valuation possible.
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Many clients upon approaching The Injury Lawyers tend to ask what their claim may be worth. This can be a difficult question to answer at the early stages of a claim, due to reasons I will discuss later in this blog. We are, however, able to give approximate figures which we feel your claim may centre around – these are approximate, as in order to accurately assess a claim, we would use a medical report:

A medical report: Once liability has been admitted on your claim, a solicitor would send you to be medically examined. This can take place at a time  and location convenient for you. After the examination, the medical professional would compile a report not only detailing your injuries and when they predict that these injuries will resolve, but also detailing the effects the accident has had on all areas of your life. This is why at The Injury Lawyers we advise our clients prior to their examination to ensure they inform the medic of all the relevant effects as fully and as accurately as possible. The medical report then provides a basis for which your claim can be valued.

JSB Guidelines: Another tool at the disposal of a specialist personal injury solicitor is that of the Judicial Studies Board Guidelines. These set whiplash injuries into bands in order to value them. I have set out these bands below:

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