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If you are reading this blog, you may be one of those many unfortunate people each year who suffer from whiplash due to an accident. When clients first approach us at The Injury Lawyers, they will often ask us what we think their claim is worth. In answer to this, we are often able to give a ball park figure around what we think their claim may be worth – but answering this question with any accuracy is very difficult.

The reason why giving this answer is difficult, is that the answer comes at the later stages of your claim when a medical report is gained. This medical report does not only assess your injuries, but also will detail the effects that injury has had on all areas of your life. This is why, before sending you for a medical appointment, we advise our clients to ensure they inform the medical professional of all the effects that the accident and subsequent injuries has had on their life.

This medical report, together with the advice and expertise of a specialist personal injury lawyer fighting your corner, will ensure that you get the maximum amount for your claim. A specialist personal injury lawyer will not only use his / her expertise and experience to value your claim, he/she may also use something known as the Judicial Studies Board Guidelines. These guidelines set whiplash injuries into bands in order to value them – these bands are set out below:
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Road traffic accidents are, sadly, an unavoidable fact of life.  I’m sure that most people come across them in some form every day – whether it is by witnessing one, driving past one, or hearing about one in the news.  I am not sure exactly why there are so many road accidents, but I would imagine it is because of the increased amount of traffic on our roads and because of the human element which sees each and every one of us make mistakes.

Did you know that if you have been involved in a road accident that was not entirely your fault, and you have sustained some form of injury, you may be due some compensation? That is, you can make a claim through a quality injury lawyer to obtain compensation through the negligent driver’s insurance.  So – how do I do this?  Well, the best thing to do is to find a quality injury lawyer with years of experience in dealing with road accident claims, as it is this specific type of injury lawyer who is ideally experienced, and is best able to help you bring your claim for compensation successfully.

Will it take long? I am not sure I can do with the hassle?
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After an accident, you may feel that you do not want to deal with the hassle which comes with starting a claim for compensation. However, I am writing this blog to inform you that it does not need to be the hassle that you think – there are many ‘perks’ that come out of claiming for compensation.

Compensation Pay-Outs

If you go with the right firm, you should obtain 100% of your compensation with no deductions, and no charges to pay. The amount of compensation that you receive for your injuries is based on the severity of your suffering, the length of time you have suffered, and the effects the accident has had on all aspects of your life. What many people do not realise is that, not only can they claim compensation for their injuries, but also you can claim for any financial losses you have suffered as a result of the accident. A common example of a type of loss which can be claimed is that of a loss of earnings. Financial losses can make up a large part of a Claimant’s compensation – so it can be an important reason why someone may want to begin a claim.
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It’s a common question for accident victims to ask when they seek our expert advice and quality representation – how much is my whiplash claim worth?

It’s actually a difficult question to answer correctly – the only way to value your claim for whiplash is with this combination:

• A medical report from an independent qualified medico-legal expert – normally a General Practitioner or an Orthopaedic Consultant for whiplash injuries.
• A fully qualified expert personal injury lawyer

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If you have been involved in an accident that was not your fault, you may be entitled to a claim for compensation.  Together with this, you may be entitled to claim for any financial losses you have suffered as a result of your accident. This is because compensation is meant to put you back in the position you would have been in (as far as reasonably possible) had you not suffered from the accident. This makes good and fair sense – why should you be the one to suffer and be out of pocket due to the negligence of another?

Our team at The Injury Lawyers will fight tooth and nail to get all of your financial losses back for you – there is, however, a duty to which you must adhere to as well – to mitigate your losses. By this, I mean to keep your losses to a minimum where possible. A good example of this is for a loss of earnings claim. A loss of earnings can be claimed if you have been absent from work due to your accident, and have been left unpaid, or receiving a reduced pay, such as Statutory Sick Pay. However, in order to mitigate your losses, once you are able to begin work again, or even begin work on lighter duties, you should start work immediately.

If you fail to mitigate your losses, the other side can refuse to pay you for it. With the example as set out above, they could not refuse to pay for all your loss of earnings, but only for the proportion that you incurred whilst you were unable to work. Hence, it is crucial that you make the effort to keep your losses to a minimum.
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So – how do you make a claim for compensation?

The best thing you can possibly do is to get in touch with a quality injury lawyer who specialises solely in personal injury claims, and who has years and years of experience.  They are best able to help you through your claim for compensation.  After all, they do this everyday for a living.  This professional injury lawyer will also be able to provide you with free legal advice to make sure that you have excellent prospects of success for your claim.

If your injury lawyer genuinely believes that you have a claim for compensation, they ask you for all the detailed circumstances of your accident so that they can produce a letter of claim.  A letter of claim is the first contact you – well, the injury lawyers on your behalf – have with the other side; that is the negligent third party.  This letter will detail the exact nature of your accident, the location of your accident, and details of your injury.  It will then proceed to set out why we believe the Defendant is negligent and is therefore responsible for your injuries and should pay you compensation. 
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A rear end shunt refers to a situation where a negligent driver collides into the rear of your car. This most commonly happens when the innocent party is sat stationery, and the negligent driver fails to take heed of the fact that traffic has stopped in front of him.

A common injury associated with these types of accidents is that of whiplash. Whiplash can be experienced by different people in different  – I have listed the common symptoms below:

• Pain, stiffness and/or tenderness in the neck area
• Reduced or even loss of mobility in the neck
• Pins and needles type sensations in the arms
• Recurrent  and severe headaches

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Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), also know as Vibration White Finger, affects thousands of people each year.  It is an industrial disease and is normally found in people who have been exposed to large amounts of vibrations in their hands and/or arms.  The typical effects of this disease is for the sufferer to feel a sort of numbness in their fingers; in particularly severe cases, their fingers may turn white.  Worse still, the sufferer could lose all feeling in the affected hand, or their whole hand may actually turn white, or they may lose their fingers.  If you believe you have any of these symptoms, it would be wise to firstly consult a doctor – should you be diagnosed with HAVS, get in touch with a quality injury lawyer who will be able to advise you as to any potential claim you may have.

The people who tend to suffer from HAVS are manual labourers who are exposed to vibrations on a daily basis, having handled vibrating hand tools, such as chainsaws or drills, for prolonged periods of time.  If your professional injury lawyer believes you may have a claim for compensation, it will be because they believe that your employer has allowed you to be too frequently exposed to vibrations. 

It is interesting to know that in the last seven years the Government has paid compensation in a sum of £100m to those who have contracted HAVS.  Furthermore, in 1997 one case saw seven coal miners being awarded over £125,000 in compensation each having suffered HAVS as a result of their working activities.
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It seems no surprise that we are getting an increasing amount of road traffic accident claims. One reason for this could be the increasing amount of traffic on the roads, with many people not paying the necessary care and attention.

One accident hotspot that I will discuss in this blog is that of roundabouts. Many people can find roundabouts difficult to navigate and nerve wracking to tackle – especially some of the larger ones. If someone is not completely sure of where they are going and are unsure of which exit to take, and which lane to be in, this can be understandable – but it is sometimes these people who cause many of the accidents on our roundabouts.

Accidents can occur on a roundabout for a number of reasons – some of which I list below:
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I am all too aware of the dangers of the motorway, due to driving almost 70 miles a day to and from work! It is on these journeys that I have witnessed the aftermath of many accidents, and so come to write this blog today. Being such a frequent user of the motorway, I know that most of the time motorway journeys are uneventful and safe; however, with my experience of working in a personal injury law firm, I know that there are a small minority of drivers where this has not been the case.

Accidents can occur on motorways for many reasons – I have listed some of these reasons below:

• Driving too closely to the car in front and not taking heed of the traffic slowing down ahead.
• Not realising their junction is coming up soon and so cutting across a multitude of lanes to exit the motorway.
• Merging lanes without completing the proper checks, and so colliding with another vehicle.
• Undertaking – i.e. overtaking cars in a faster lane

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