Ever wondered what you actually have to do to make a whiplash claim for a road accident? Here is a guide on the process, and what you should look for when making a claim for whiplash compensation.

Making a Claim – The Process

If your road accident happened after 30^th April 2010, your claim will likely fall under the new Road Traffic Accident Protocol for personal injury claims if your injuries are not classed as too serious. This new process was brought in to play to make the process much quicker, and allow injury lawyers and insurers to exchange information over the Ministry of Justices’ secure online internet portal.

Your lawyers will complete an online Claim Notification Form and submit this to the other side. The other side then has 15 working days to accept liability for your accident for the claim to remain in the new, faster system. So long as the claim stays in the system (i.e. deadlines are met by both lawyers and insurers), your claim can be resolved in a matter of months. The claim may ‘fall out’ of this new faster system for a number of reasons. For example:
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It seems apt right now to write a blog on the actions of our insurance companies being slammed in the media. I say this as it is has been widely reported in recent days that insurers are selling information on to personal injury referral agencies and law firms for profit.

It is Jack Straw which has spurred on this issue and highlighted the conduct of our insurance companies after one of his constituents reportedly had an accident and was swamped with personal calls and texts to take on his claim; despite the fact that he was not even injured.

In response to this, Jack Straw, in a bid to discover how these companies had got hold of his constituents details, including his mobile telephone number, uncovered the fact that it is indeed insurance companies that had been selling on customers information.
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Did you know that if you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, you may be entitled to compensation? I would say that most of you are aware of this, given that there has been a lot of advertising on this matter in recent times.  However, are you aware that the compensation that you could be awarded does not solely relate to the injuries you have suffered? I would hazard a guess that most are probably unaware of this.  The reality is that if you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, you are entitled to make a claim for compensation that covers ALL of your losses. 

What do I mean by all of your losses? 

Well, here is a very quick example – if you have had to take time off work because of your accident, it may be that you have only been paid statutory sick pay, and that you have lost out on a certain amount of wages. Well, your lawyers can make a claim for this loss of earnings to make sure that you are put back in the position you would have been in had the accident not have occurred.  So, what exactly can a claim for compensation incorporate?  Here is a quick guide:
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If you are reading this blog, you may have been involved in a road traffic accident, and are suffering the effects of whiplash. If you are keeping up with the latest news, then you may also be expecting to get some calls and texts from law firms or referral agencies saying that they would like to take on your claim.

I say this as this is what happened to one of Jack Straw’s constituents after he had suffered an accident.  It was subsequently found that insurers actually sell on the information of their customers who have been involved in accidents. We of course have known about this practice for years. The good news is that it’s now more out in the open!

Law firms can pay up to £800, or even £1000, as it was reported in the Telegraph, for a claim. So if a law firm has paid so much for your claim, the profits they stand to make from the claim are greatly reduced. In order to redress the balance, it can then mean that they reduce the amount of time they spend on your claim, and therefore give you a poorer service. This in turn could impact on the amount of compensation you receive if they are not willing to fight tooth and nail to negotiate you the highest amount possible.
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Where you have been involved in a road traffic accident, and you have suffered an injury, if the accident was not your fault, it is highly likely that you will be due compensation for those injuries, and any losses that directly resulted from your accident.  This is because it is relatively straightforward to prove where the other side was negligent in road traffic accidents.  For example, if a third party vehicle drives into the rear of you vehicle, and you suffer whiplash, then it is quite clear that the accident was their fault and you should be due compensation.  So, what happens then if you believe you have a claim for compensation? How do you go about getting this compensation?

The first thing you should do, after seeking medical attention for your injuries, is to contact a specialist injury lawyer who has plenty of experience in dealing with road traffic accident claims.  This is because their experience should mean that they know what they are doing, and they are best positioned to advise you on your claim.  If the other side gets in touch with you and they want to settle your claim directly with you, our best advice is: do not settle it.  It is probably not in your best interests.  You should seek legal advice first to see if their offer is a good offer, or whether it should be rejected, and you should instruct someone to fight tooth and nail for your claim.

So – how long do claims take?
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If you have been involved in an accident where you have sustained an injury through no fault of your own, you may well be entitled to compensation.  For example, if you have been involved in a road traffic accident whereby a negligent third party driver has gone in to the rear of your vehicle, and you have sustained whiplash, in all likelihood you will be entitled to compensation for your injuries.

Although you may not be aware that you are entitled to compensation, there is no doubt about it that the other side’s insurers are fully aware of your position.  As such, they may somewhat, out of the blue, get in touch with you and offer to settle your claim with you direct.  They may offer you £250, £500, or maybe even £750.  At first instance, this may seem attractive; after all, you were not expecting any compensation, and you think that the offer sounds great.  But please take a step back for a minute.  Should you not look into how much your injury is actually worth? Why not get in touch with a quality injury lawyer who may inform you that, actually, your whiplash injury is worth over £1,000?

The process where the other side gets in touch with you and settles your claim directly with you is called ‘third party capture’.  This is because the other side have settled your claim for compensation in full and final settlement and you cannot go back and ask for more if your injuries have worsened, and you have not recovered.  That is it – your claim is finished.  At The Injury Lawyers, we have people ringing up each week asking us about their potential claim for compensation, only for us to have to break the bad news that they have under-settled their claim, and that there is nothing we can do about it.  What we ask is that if you receive an offer for compensation, you ask yourself why they are making this offer, and where they came up with the amount.  Are they doing it out of the kindness of their heart, and because they care about your suffering? Or are they doing it because they know that if they can get you to accept their offer, they have saved hundreds, if not, thousands, of pounds in not paying the true amount of compensation they would have had to have paid you with an expert injury lawyer on your side.  I believe the latter is the most likely.
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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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Whiplash compensation, or compensation for any injury, is split into two heads of claim – one for general damages, and one for special damages. Damages means the money that you get to settle your claim. I will go onto discuss each one in turn.

General Damages

General damages is compensation which you can claim for your injuries. A solicitor will place a value on your general damages by looking at the factors below:
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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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At The Injury Lawyers, we have a vast amount of experience in dealing with whiplash claims – and that is why we can say with confidence that we fight tooth and nail to get you the best possible amount of compensation.

Causes

We tend to see whiplash as a result of road traffic accidents more than anything else. This is because whiplash is caused by a sudden jolt to the head which thus causes the neck to move beyond its normal range. The impact felt from a car crash can have this jolting effect on the neck causing damage to muscles and tendons in that area.
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