At The Injury Lawyers we hear from our clients on a daily basis what a debilitating condition whiplash can be. This is why we treat it with the utmost seriousness and fight tooth and nail to maximise our client’s compensation.

Causes

Whiplash is caused by a sudden jolt to the head, causing the neck to move beyond its normal range. This in turn causes nerves, muscles and tendons in the neck to be damaged. This damage causes the symptoms of whiplash that I will discuss in the following blog.
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What is a referral fee?

This is a sum of money that a lawyer may pay an insurer in order to obtain the details of a person who has been involved in an accident, and could likely make a claim for compensation.  Once they have the victims’ details they may cold call them or bombard them with intrusive text messages informing them that they could make a claim for compensation and that this lawyer could represent them.  By paying the referral fee the lawyer has the first chance to convince the victim to instruct them to deal with their claim.  Paying a referral fee is therefore a way of obtaining business.

Have referral fees always been around and how much are they?

It is estimated that referral fees have been around for approximately 20 years.  Typically a referral fee will be in the region of £200 to £1,000 and the value ultimately turns on how much the claim is likely to be worth.  For example, if the injured party’s injuries are particularly severe and long lasting, their claim will be worth a lot more than someone who has suffered a 2 month minor whiplash claim.  As such, the referral fee for the more severe injury may be greater than the whiplash injury because it will ultimately net a lawyer more money in the long run through carrying out more work.
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Many people may think that claiming for compensation is complex, complicated, and full of hassle. Well, I am writing this blog to explain that it doesn’t have to be that way, and that claiming for personal injury is very procedural and systematic – so, whether you are perusing a claim against a global corporation or against an individual, the system is the same.

The system I am about to describe is that which most personal injury claims run through, except for road traffic accidents that took place after 30^th April 2010 and are below a value of £10,000. If your claim is the exception then feel free to have a look at some of our other helpful blogs which will explain that process.

The first stage of beginning a claim for compensation is your solicitor sending out a Letter of Claim. This is the first correspondence a Defendant will receive on the matter and it aims to set out all the accident circumstances, your injuries, and the reasons for their negligence.
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OK – so you have had an accident through no fault of your own, and you believe you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries and any suffering you have had to endure. Who do you speak to for advice, and who do you instruct for your claim?

In all honesty, it’s entirely up to you! I of course will suggest that you speak to us as we are a firm of specialist personal injury lawyers. We are an actual law firm, so we do not pass details over to anyone else to have your claim – it’s us that advise you, and it’s us that represent you.

But aside from my attempts to sway you over to our service, here is a quick guide as to what you should look out for when it comes to getting the right advice and getting the right lawyer for your claim:
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What is Personal Protective Equipment?

Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE as it is more informally known, is equipment which can be used or worn to protect you from risks to your health and safety.  There is a wide range of PPE which is available depending on the job that you do, and the risks that are involved. PPE can range from safety boots, to safety goggles, to respirators.  PPE can be so important, as it does not just protect from those one-off accidents, but also those medical conditions which form over a period of time – known as industrial diseases. An example of an industrial disease is Vibration White Finger – the risk of getting this condition can be reduced through the use of PPE, such as anti-vibration gloves.  In severe cases of Vibration White Finger, a sufferer can lose all feeling in their fingers and through to their hands.

What are your employer’s duties?
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If you are reading this blog it is most likely because you have suffered a whiplash injury, and you want to know how much compensation you could be due.  This comes as no surprise to us at The Injury Lawyers because it is a question we get asked every day.  Unfortunately, there is no straightforward answer – but as experts in our field we can provide an estimate as to the value of your claim.

According to the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) Guidelines the following values for your whiplash injury apply:

Minor whiplash injuries = £875 to £5,150.00

Moderate whiplash injuries = £5,150 to £16,400

Severe whiplash injuries = £16,400 to £97.000

Here are a few further things to consider:
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Motorcycle accidents are unfortunately becoming more and more common. This is maybe due to the fact that motorcyclists are the more vulnerable road users in comparison to say cars users. Motorcycles do not have the same obvious in built protection such as that of welded metal and crumple zones which cars offer, and so once an accident occurs there are often more serious injuries involved. This is one of the reasons why for victims of motorcycle accidents choosing a specialist personal injury lawyer with a wealth of experience can make all the difference.

Being seriously injured means that your case is likely to be more complex and may last longer. In this instance it is especially advisable to avoid using referral agencies for your claim. Referral agencies simply sell on your claim onto a law firm giving them a drop in their profits to begin with, which can mean that you get a poorer service and possibly a claim that drags on longer than it needs to.

If you have been in an accident as described above, you may be looking for a law firm to instruct on your claim. I have therefore set out some of the benefits which you should look for in a firm below:
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Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), or Vibration White Finger as it can also be known, is a condition which affects many peoples’ lives. The Health and Safety Executive report that the number of new cases of Vibration White Finger (VWF) assessed for Industrial Injuries Disability Benefit was 850 in 2008/09 alone.

HAVS affects those people whose work exposes them to vibrations on a prolonged basis. To give an idea of those sectors of industry which are hit worst by this condition, the HSE have undertaken a survey. In this survey they found that between 2007 and 2009 it was in industry involving extraction for energy and water supply that assessments for HAVS was by far the highest, with the construction industry coming in second, and the manufacturing industry in third.

It can be seen from this that it is mainly manual workers that are more likely to suffer from the condition. This is because it is the use of vibrating machinery such as chain saws or pneumatic drills which can cause the problem. The prolonged period of vibrations to the hands causes damage to blood vessels, nerves and joints which can cause the following symptoms:
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Well – me personally, I do. But what I’m talking about here is the common question accident victims ask me when they are looking for advice as to whether they are entitled to make a claim for compensation.

The best way to find out if you have a potentially winning claim is to speak with an expert at a specialist personal injury law firm. The guide below will hopefully help you out on your quest to find out if you are entitled to receive what could be thousands of pounds in compensation for any injuries you have sustained in an accident.

 Who’s at Fault?
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It was interesting to read in the Telegraph this week that Axa Insurance has taken the commendable stance of now refusing to accept referral fees for personal injury claims.  This announcement came shortly after Jack Straw exposed what he considers the insurance industry’s ‘dirty little secret’ of referral fees.

A referral fee is a fee paid by a solicitor to an insurance company who will in return provide the details of their policy holder to the solicitor so that they can hopefully deal with their claim for compensation.  As a spokesman for the Admiral Group explains: ‘When one of our customers calls us for help with a claim that was not their fault, we refer them on to a retained accident management company who help sort out their claim…If the claim needs to be referred to a lawyer then the accident management company will pay us a referral fee.’  A referral fee will typically be in the region of £200 and £1,000 depending on the potential value of the claim.  The Telegraph has suggested that in 2010 Admiral Group received over £100m in referral fees!!!

Interestingly, Axa have stated that the reason behind their new refusal to accept referral fees was in order to combat a growing ‘compensation culture’.  I say interesting because to me it would seem that it was companies like Axa who were actually fuelling this so-called ‘compensation culture’.  By bombarding people with text messages advising them of their potential to make a claim for compensation, and by accepting extortionate fees from some personal injury solicitors for details of people with potential injury claims, for example, is to serve to fuel this supposed ‘compensation culture’.  Then to say that insurance premiums are going up because people are making more and more claims for compensation seems a bit cheeky when actually by accepting referral fees is to encourage claims for compensation in the first place.
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