Nowadays, if you have been involved in a road traffic accident and have been injured through no fault of your own and you want to get compensation for your injuries, the process of doing so is actually straightforward and fast.
A couple of years ago you could have been waiting a few months just for the other side to admit liability and your claim may not have been settled until a year down the line, but now, most claims can be settled in a few months. This is because of a new protocol led by the Ministry of Justice being put in place, and I will quickly outline this for you:
The first thing you should do is instruct a quality injury lawyer who will recover their fees from the other side for their work and won’t seek to reduce your compensation payout in anyway. They are best placed to do the legal work for you and make sure that everything goes smoothly.
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I must get asked this question at least everyday working here at The Injury Lawyers as it is an important aspect of making a claim – how much compensation am I likely to get? As we are expert personal injury lawyers, here is a quick guide to help explain valuing whiplash compensation:
Before I start it must be noted that not every claim will be the same. Each whiplash claim is different as people are affected in different ways.
It is often very difficult to determine how much compensation you are entitled to at the beginning of a claim. In order to value how much compensation you deserve you first must obtain medical evidence and only then can you get an accurate valuation. Obtaining medical evidence is simple and easy because we do all the work for you. We will organise a medical appointment at a time and place that is convenient for you and all you have to do is attend. The medical evidence will comprise of a report which will outline the injuries you sustained as a result of the accident and state how long you are likely to suffer from these injuries. With this information we are then able to value your claim.
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Its common for a third party insurer to do anything to settle a whiplash claim as soon as possible. They do not care that you’re injured and how it is affecting your life, they just want to get rid of the claim as quickly as they can and save themselves as much money as possible! So do not be fooled if the third party insurer offers you an inviting sum of money to settle – you may well deserve far, far more!
Third party insurers usually offer a sum around £1,000.00 to settle a claim before any medical evidence has been obtained, which is known as a pre-medical offer. Medical evidence is used to value your whiplash claim as it consists of a report outlining the injuries you sustained in the accident and how long you are likely to suffer for. Without this evidence it is impossible to value your claim – therefore by accepting a pre medical offer you could be settling your claim for far less than it is actually worth!
Accepting a pre-medical offer seems extremely tempting, but there are serious risks. If you accept a pre medical offer then there is no going back! Once you have accepted to settle your claim you cannot claim for any more compensation if you discover that you are still suffering from your injuries months down the line, or if you incur any more out of pocket expenses. So if your solicitor advises you not to accept a pre medical offer, they are doing this for your own good.
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The other day I was speaking with a gentleman who had great prospects of a successful claim for compensation. I advised him of this but he was a little worried that his claim might take a long time and was not sure whether to go ahead.
At The Injury Lawyers we come across this a lot – people have an idea in their head that the claims process is hard work and could take a lot of time to get settled and as such they find this off-putting. The thing is, the reality of claiming for injuries from a road traffic accident is that it is actually very straightforward in the vast majority of circumstances, and then whole claim could be done and dusted within just a few short months!
Yes, a few years ago, road traffic accident claiming could have taken a fair while. This was because the Defendant was allowed almost four months to just simply come back with their position on liability, or in other words, whether they admitted or denied fault for the accident. This was unacceptable; so from April 2010 the process was reformed. The Defendant’s insurer now only has a period of just over two to three weeks to admit or deny liability.
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In the UK there are thousands of road traffic accidents occurring on our busy roads, which means there are a lot of claims for whiplash. Whiplash is one of the most common types of injuries associated with road traffic accidents; what many people do not realise is that they can claim for compensation for suffering from a whiplash injury.
The law states that if you have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligent actions you are entitled to claim for compensation and be financially placed back in the position that you would have been in if the accident had not occurred. On the injury side of things, we cannot take away the pain you have endured, but we can settle your case for a financial sum as compensation for the suffering you have endured. And so you should be able to – why should you suffer from the pain and inconvenience of whiplash just because of someone else’s negligent actions?
So how do you go about making a claim for compensation? Well, first of all, you need to find an expert personal injury lawyer who can guarantee you 100% of your compensation and provide a genuine no win no fee agreement. We here at The Injury Lawyers can do just that!
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Whiplash injuries can cause people much distress, pain and an inconvenience. Here at The Injury Lawyers we know too well about the terrible effect whiplash can have on our clients. The injury does not only affect your health, but it can also affect any aspect of your life which can sometimes cause great difficulties. If you have suffered or are suffering from whiplash I am sure you know exactly what I am talking about.
Most people do not realise that they can claim compensation for a whiplash injury, they just think that the pain will eventually go away and everything will be ok.
However, most of the time whiplash injuries can last up to 6 months and if you have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligent actions you are entitled by law to claim for compensation.
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In April 2010 a new system to deal with road traffic accident claims was introduced and has made claiming quicker and more straightforward. Before April 2010 the claims process could be a little bit slow – it could take nearly 4 months for the Defendant to admit liability in the most straightforward of cases, and then could take several more months, maybe a year or so, to get settled. Now you could have your claim settled in just a few short of months!
Under the new system, if you have been involved in a relatively straightforward road traffic accident you will need to submit what is called a Claim Notification Form. If you have the right injury lawyer on your side they will do this for you. In any event it is quite straightforward and just outlines what happened in your accident and details those involved.
Once ready, this gets submitted online via the Ministry of Justice Portal to the Defendant’s insurer who has just one business day to acknowledge it. The Defendant’s insurer then has a further 15 business days to come back with their position on liability – in other words, whether they admit or deny fault for the accident. Compared to the old system which could take several months, this is a vast improvement.
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If you are a passenger in a motor vehicle which has been involved in a road accident and you have been injured, we have a little good news for you; you are entitled to compensation and your claim has one of the best prospects of success and should not take long at all.
It is very unlikely that as a passenger you were to blame for the accident you were involved in. You would have had to have been distracting the driver or doing something along those lines to be considered in any way at fault. If you were in the vehicle whose driver was not at fault for the accident, you are almost certainly going to have a successful claim.
Likewise, even if you were in the car that caused the accident, you probably won’t have been at fault and again are almost guaranteed a successful claim.
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You should know from the outset of your claim that without medical evidence and without knowing precisely what losses you have suffered as a result of the accident your were injured in, it is nigh impossible to properly value your claim. This is because a medical report is the only source of information that an injury lawyer can value you your claim from and because your related losses can have a significant effect on the value of your claim.
A medical report provides a diagnosis of your injuries – in other words, what your injuries are and the extent of these, and also provides a prognosis – an idea of how long a medical expert believes you will suffer from your injuries for. The general rule is that the more severe your injuries and the longer they last, the more your claim will be worth.
In terms of losses, there are many heads of losses that you can claim. For instance, if you have had to have time off work because of your injuries then you can make a claim for any monies that you have lost out on. Likewise, if you have had to pay any travel costs getting to and from a medical appointment or have had to pay for medication, these costs can be claimed from the Defendant.
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I am sure most of us realise that is illegal to drive without insurance – one thing is for certain however, some of us choose to drive without insurance. In fact, each year, one million people drive on our roads without insurance.
Given that the usual route to getting compensation if you have been injured by a negligent third party in a road traffic accident is by pursuing their insurance company, this begs the question, how do you get compensation from an uninsured driver?
An expert injury lawyer should advise that you can still make a claim for compensation through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau who were set up back in 1946 to help those who suffer at the hands of negligent uninsured drivers. After all, just imagine a scenario where you were unable to get compensation for you injuries simply because the Defendant committed the offence of driving without insurance, this would not be right. That is why, each year, when you pay for your insurance premium, about £15 to £30 of this goes to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau compensation fund. You just never know, one day it may come in handy for you!
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