{"id":14964,"date":"2014-02-07T12:32:19","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T12:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/?p=14964"},"modified":"2014-02-07T12:32:19","modified_gmt":"2014-02-07T12:32:19","slug":"is-whiplash-a-real-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/2014\/02\/07\/is-whiplash-a-real-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Is whiplash a real injury?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The topic of this one comes from a chat me and some of my colleagues had yesterday at The Injury Lawyers<\/a> HQ when we were discussing the recent claim that one of our team has had to make. It\u2019s a whiplash claim<\/a>, and for those of you who have ever suffered from the injury, you\u2019ll know just how bad it can be.<\/p>\n

I myself have suffered a whiplash injury, so based on my experience and the experiences of others I have chatted to, and some official reports you probably didn\u2019t know about, here\u2019s a little insight in to the real whiplash injury.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Is it real?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

To quote Jon Snow on a Channel 4 news bulletin I remember seeing a few years ago, Britain allegedly has the \u201cweakest necks in Europe\u201d as we have the highest rate of claims for whiplash<\/a>, and there has been much discussion and debate over the \u2018compensation culture\u2019 and the \u2018whiplash epidemic.\u2019 So let\u2019s address these points to give you a proper insight in to whiplash claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Weakest Necks?<\/span><\/p>\n

The real reason why there are more claims in the UK is actually down to claiming itself being a more popular thing to do. Just because a person doesn\u2019t claim doesn\u2019t mean they are not injured. I know people who have said to me they wouldn\u2019t make a claim for whiplash, citing reasons that really is down to media fuelled myths.<\/p>\n

Call me bias as I work for an injury law firm, but did you know that an official government report concluded that the real reason our premiums have gone up is because of referral companies and insurers pushing people in to making claims? We\u2019ve blogged about this before when Jack Straw went on a mission to find out why members of his constituency were being pushed in to claiming by middlemen referrers. Read one of the news bulletins from the BBC here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Insurers would sell their own policy holders information to a solicitor if they were in a non fault accident. As such, it was the insurers themselves pocketing millions of pounds and increasing claims by giving information to solicitors who would then initiate claims on their behalf. Garages, hire companies, recovery companies, and even the police were found to have been involved in selling your information for profit to solicitors willing to pay for it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve always known about it \u2013 but we have never been involved in the referral system<\/b> as we have always believed it is wrong, and if you look at our years of blogging history you\u2019ll see loads of posts from us telling people to avoid getting caught up in it. A lot of those posts are probably from me as well!<\/p>\n

The government banned referral fees in April 2013 as a result. But this is all news you won\u2019t hear about too much in the press because of the size of the insurance industry and their influence on media.<\/p>\n

So its not about having the weakest necks in Europe \u2013 it\u2019s all been down to primarily the insurers encouraging people to claim for their own financial gain.<\/p>\n

Compensation Culture?<\/span><\/p>\n

Official government reports also concluded that there is actually no such thing as a compensation culture, and that it was nothing more than a media fuelled myth. As I said earlier, the influence of the insurance industry is huge, and remember \u2013 they don\u2019t want their profits denting by too many people making legitimate claims. They\u2019re quite happy to receive money from solicitors for it though!<\/p>\n

OK, so is it real?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Yes, of course it is. Let me go out on a limb here and ask you – am I someone who has committed a fraudulent act in making a whiplash claim and receiving compensation for it?<\/p>\n

I made my claim having suffered a genuine injury, which was medically diagnosed by both doctors and a private Orthopaedic expert I was seen by. I also had physio as well.<\/p>\n

Moving on to the chat I mentioned at the start of this blog, we were discussing that, in reality, whiplash never really goes away. I\u2019ve settled my claim, but every now and then I still get burning sensations and pain in the affected areas which I never had before. My partner who was also in the same accident as me says the same. My colleague also said the same.<\/p>\n

Its often referred to as whiplash syndrome.<\/p>\n

It gets much better, but never really leaves you. I have family members who also said the same thing as well. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not going to end up taking time off work and end up laid in bed as a result of it \u2013 but there is pain and it remains there.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t believe everything you read and hear in the news…<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

As with many things in life, with a big example being claiming social benefits, there are people that try and take advantage of the system. But that doesn\u2019t mean the many genuine whiplash victims should suffer.<\/p>\n

If you are suffering from whiplash, you\u2019re not doing anything wrong in claiming \u2013 so get a lawyer and get the money that\u2019s owed to you, because you\u2019ll probably find that certain things about whiplash will never properly leave you; ever!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The topic of this one comes from a chat me and some of my colleagues had yesterday at The Injury Lawyers HQ when we were discussing the recent claim that one of our team has had to make. 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