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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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With all the law firms out there competing for your business, it is no wonder that clients get confused about which firm to take on their claim! Hence why I write this blog today – to hopefully point out a few of the items which you can look for in a firm to help with your search:

100% of your compensation

Before instructing a firm, you should check through the no win, no fee agreement thoroughly. You should be checking to ensure you will always receive 100% of your compensation, with no deductions or hidden charges whatsoever. Compensation is meant to put you in the position you would have been in had you not suffered the accident – any reduction to this money would be unfair and unjust.
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Many people think of compensation solely in regard of their injuries. Compensation, however, is meant to place you in the position you would have been in had you not have suffered from the accident; so, if you are out of pocket due to the injury, this is simply not right or fair. In light of this, claimants for personal injury are also allowed to make a claim for their financial losses.

Financial losses are something that your solicitor should advise you about from the outset of your claim. Should liability be admitted on your claim, these losses will be collated and drafted into a Schedule of Loss to disclose to the other side in order to invite offers for settlement. Any claim for a loss made should be supported by evidence, such as receipts and invoices, and it should be noted that it is not always guaranteed that you will recover all of which you attempt to claim.

I have listed some of the more common types of loss claimed below:
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If you have been injured as a result of an accident that was not your own fault, you may have a strong claim for personal injury. With so many law firms out there, it can be a difficult decision as to who to choose to fight for your claim.

A first point to note is that many firms out there are not actually personal injury law firms. Many simply act as referral agents. These agents can sell your claim on for as much as £800 to a law firm. Logic tells us that if a law firm spends £800 on your claim, they have decreased their margin for profit, and so to balance this reduction out, they may work less on your claim, and provide you with a lower level of service. We firmly believe this is crazy!

So, the first useful point has been made – go to a law firm direct.  Once approaching a law firm directly, there are other factors which you may also need to research before instructing them. Firstly, you may want to know how much experience they have with personal injury claims such as your own – whether it is an accident at work, or a product liability claim, or a road accident, for example.
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Whiplash claims are one of the more common types of injury claims we secure thousands of pounds in compensation for when it comes to clients we represent. Road accidents are common, and it’s easy to end up in one (I should know – I’ve got a whiplash injury claim going through as we speak!)

There is a lot more to a whiplash claim than most people think – you can only truly understand what its like to suffer from this complicated injury by suffering the symptoms yourself. So, if you’re reading this, and you are suffering with whiplash, I know how you feel, and I sympathise with your suffering.

So – How do you secure your whiplash injury compensation? Well, I am pleased to tell you that it’s a very straightforward process with the right injury lawyer on board. Here are the Do’s and Don’ts for whiplash injury compensation claims, and an insight in to how much your claim could be worth.
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Whiplash is a common injury suffered following any sort of road accident – as a car driver, a passenger on a bus, or a motorcyclist / cyclist. It’s caused by the ligaments and tendons in your neck and back being stretched beyond their normal range of movement because of the impact of the collision.

As Whiplash Claims Experts, we get a lot of calls from people looking for whiplash compensation advice, and we are always able to help them out and successfully secure their compensation as quickly as possible.

The common questions we are asked:
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So – what is a claim for compensation? Do you have a claim? How do you make one? Are there any costs involved? Let me fill you in:

What is a Claim for Compensation?

A claim for compensation is the idea of compensating you for any suffering and loss caused after an accident that was through no fault of your own. Whether you’ve been hit by another negligent driver whilst out on the road, had an accident at work, slipped on a wet floor, or tripped over a hazardous defect / obstacle whilst out and about, if it wasn’t your fault, you may have a claim.
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The weekly trip to the supermarket is just one of those tasks that has to be done for many of us. We go to the supermarket as it has lots of choice, a range of offers and low prices, and we also feel it is a safe environment to take our children in to, as well as those who are elderly. For the most part this is true – for the majority of people, the trips to the supermarket go by uneventfully and safely. However, there are those, many of whom we see here at The Injury Lawyers, who have the opposite experience.

If you have had an accident in a supermarket which has caused you injury and it was not your fault, there is a high chance that you have a claim for personal injury.  However, it is the breach of duty of the owner, together with causation, which needs to be proven; this is why gaining the advice and representation of a specialist personal injury lawyer is essential. I go on to explain what this means below:

Breach of Duty
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The value of your whiplash claim is dependent on a number of things. We can give you a rough idea as to how much you could be entitled to claim for; but ultimately, these factors need to be taken in to account:

• Specialist Injury Lawyer – make sure you have a fully qualified expert injury lawyer on your case, working on a Genuine No Win No Fee basis. This means 100% compensation for you if you win – no deductions, no charges. If the claim loses, you pay nothing – not a penny.
• The Severity of Your Suffering – the more you suffer, the more it is likely to be worth.
• The Length of Your Suffering – the longer you suffer, the more it is likely to be worth.
• The Impact the Suffering has on you – the bigger the impact, the more it can be worth. Things like domestic issues, social implications, and employment implications are taken in to account
• Your Losses – on top of your whiplash compensation, you can claim for lost earnings, medical expenses, travel expenses, and other financial losses that are a direct result of your accident and injuries.

So – why does the type of lawyer you have make a difference for your claim amount? Well, if you get an independent firm of expert injury lawyers, with years and years of experience in dealing with whiplash claims, you have a far better chance at securing the maximum amount of compensation you are entitled to get.
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