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If you have been injured in an accident which was not your fault, and you believe you have a potentially successful claim for compensation, it is important that you have an expert injury lawyer on your side. Only this way will you be able to obtain the maximum compensation that you deserve in the shortest possible time. At The Injury Lawyers, we are experts in the field of personal injury claims, having dealt with thousands of cases over many years, and getting our clients the maximum compensation they deserve. Here is a quick guide as to what you should be looking for in an injury lawyer:
You must keep 100% of your compensation
If you do not receive 100% of the compensation which has been agreed for your accident, this is the same as having your claim under-settled. If your lawyers are to take even a penny away from your compensation, you are undercompensated. At The Injury Lawyers, we do not believe in charging our clients for our services whatsoever. That is why we work on a genuine no win, no fee agreement, which means that we will never charge you for our work. Before you instruct an injury lawyer, please have a good read through their paperwork. You must make sure that you keep all of your compensation, and that you are definitely not being charged any lawyers fees.
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How do you recover from a whiplash injury? What’s the best course of treatment to aid you with a faster recovery? What do you do!?
If you are currently suffering from whiplash, I have some potentially bad news for you:
- Whiplash is a much more complicated injury than most people think
- Whiplash recovery is difficult to predict; most victims’ suffering gets worse before it gets better
- Whiplash can not only cause pain and stiffness in the neck, shoulders, and back: it can also cause headaches, dizziness, pins and needles, and even sickness and vertigo in some cases.
- There is no magic cure for whiplash!
So – what can you do? You can aid your recovery by firstly seeking advice from your GP, a walk in centre, or a hospital, and you can help to speed up your recovery by getting treatment from a physiotherapist, or chiropractor, or an osteopathic expert if your symptoms warrant their intervention.
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What to Look for When Choosing a Personal Injury Lawyer
Recently, I have heard some fairly worrying stories from client’s who have been shopping around for Law firms to instruct for their personal injury claims. These stories have included:
‘‘x’ law firm have said they will take 25% of my compensation upon winning my claim’.
‘‘y’ law firm said that if it goes to court and I lose I will have to pay the court costs’.
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If you have a personal injury claim it is advisable to bring the claim with a law firm using the no win no fee system. By doing it this way, it means that there is less risk to you in having to pay your solicitors costs, which can run into thousands of pounds.
In saying this, you must read the no win no fee agreement through fully, as many law firms still place a large onus on the clients to pay their costs in certain situations.
At The Injury Lawyers, win or lose a claim, we do not charge our costs – i.e. the time we have spent on a case, to our clients, which is reflected in our genuine no win no fee agreement.
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How Much Compensation for Whiplash?
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:
Which Law Firm Should You Instruct?
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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