- What’s going on?
- Who do you turn to?
- What will eventually happen?
Whiplash Claims Today
The process and understanding of whiplash claims has changed so much over recent years. Whiplash claims are naturally one of the most common personal injury claims as it’s the standard injury you end up with in the vast majority of road accidents. The motion of your neck being jerked thanks to a collision or a sudden stop damages the muscles and tendons in the neck, shoulders, and back area, causing this extremely common injury.
Given how common they are, whiplash claims receive a lot of bad press as well as scrutiny from the government and those who have been fortunate enough never to have suffered with the injury. If you have been in a road accident, you will probably have been called left right and centre by insurers and solicitors who are all telling you they are the best people to solve or your problems.
Stop – take a breath of nice fresh (albeit cold) air – read this guide
Who Do You Turn to?
If you are suffering from whiplash and you need to make a claim, your head will naturally been turned towards your own insurers when they call you to offer you the benefit of Legal Expense Insurance or Motor Legal Protection that’s been sitting on your insurance policy for who knows how long.
You may well have been paying for it – so your insurers may tell you that you may as well use it since it’s there and ready for you to make use of. But making use of this little addition to your policy could be very dangerous indeed. They will basically allocate you a solicitor from one of their panel of approved lawyers, and advise that the insurance you have in place safeguards you from any legal costs for claiming.
The current buzz in the press abut Whiplash Claims is that the practice of insurance companies being involved in referring you to a solicitor is soon to be made illegal. What your insurers don’t tell you is that they will take a handsome referral fee for passing your details over to a solicitor using the insurance. This is in the region or (normally) £800.00 – £1,000.00, and has the potential to either badly affect or destroy your claim.
This fee is paid for by your solicitor, and will come straight out of the running costs for your claim; and may even be covered by a percentage deduction or some form of admin fee from your compensation. We get paid around £1,500.00 for a whiplash claim on average; if your solicitor only receives this for your case, but has spent £1,000.00 on ‘buying’ your case from your own insurers, they have £500.00 to spend on you and your claim. This is the equivalent of two full hours of work by a fully qualified long practicing injury lawyer; which isn’t a lot of time to spend on preparing the paperwork at the start of your case, submitting the vast amounts of information to the other insures, keeping you updated, reviewing and researching the medical evidence and value of your claim, fighting for the highest payout, funding medical evidence and treatment, etc.
For this important reason alone, you need to get your own independent firm of specialist injury lawyers working on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis. You will not be charged for the claim whether you win or lose, and you will have a lawyer with a full budget to spend on you and your case.
Avoid getting referred to a solicitor at ALL costs
What will Happen?
If you go down the route of insurance or claims company referred solicitors, you could end up never being updated, never having calls returned, receiving no treatment, a prolonged claim, and less compensation as your solicitors try and push you in to settling for a lower amount as they can’t afford to fight for a higher payout.
If you get your own independent lawyer working on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis, and offering a fantastic level or service, you should receive 100% compensation, no deductions or hidden charges, private medical care that never costs you a penny, a fast, reliable, friendly, and efficient service, and the maximum amount of compensation payable to you.
And no – it’s a myth that all No Win, No Fee lawyers will try and charge you, or will make you pay for insurance. We don’t!
