Filing Whiplash Claims
Whiplash claims, a special type of personal injury claim, can be filed when someone suffers a whiplash injury. A whiplash injury, in which the neck is thrown back in a motion similar to the crack of a whip, is often the result of a car crash. It causes the head to be moved out of its correct position. Some whiplash injuries cause the head to be centred too far forward, and consequently the patient cannot turn his or her head to look straight upward, until therapeutic readjustments are performed. Most whiplash injuries occur during road accidents, but they can also happen in other situations, such as at certain amusement rides or while playing rough sports.
To be eligible for whiplash claims, the injury must have happened within the last three years. Furthermore, the claimant must have received medical attention for the accident in which the whiplash occurred. Also, the claimant must be able to prove that a doctor, chiropractor, or osteopath has diagnosed the injury as a whiplash.
If the injury was occurred during a road traffic accident (as the majority of whiplash injuries are), the patient can only file whiplash claims if the injury was deemed to be another person's fault. Whiplashes that are incurred when crashing into a stationary, vacant truck or car are normally ineligible, and are the responsibility of the driver and his or her insurer.
Whiplash injuries incurred in other ways may also provide grounds for whiplash claims. For instance, a machine operator may be liable if the operator's actions cause another worker on the team to be injured in that way.
Whiplash injuries are so widespread that some solicitors and firms deal in whiplash claims and nothing else, or almost nothing else. Personal injury law firms often have personnel whose sole occupation is to deal with cases of whiplash claims, thus relieving the firm's other solicitors of this duty. Of all forms of personal injury, whiplash is among the most often reported.
Generally the claimant of whiplash claims makes no payment to the solicitor; instead the person at fault, or the third-party insurer (insurer of the driver at fault), must pay. If the claimant loses whiplash claims, the solicitor receives no payment. Some firms, however, require part of the claimant a success fee, if the solicitor and claimant win. The solicitor is thus paid twice in such whiplash claims, compensating them for the loss the solicitor incurs in other cases.
The total sum of compensation (indemnity) which the claimant receives after whiplash claims are won generally corresponds to the total medical costs and other financial costs resulting from the whiplash injury.
Filing whiplash claims, or any personal-injury compensation claim, can be a lengthy process. The first step is a discussion with a solicitor, either in person or by way of the telephone. Generally the solicitor will be able to decide within ten minutes whether or not you have a sound case to pursue whiplash claims. If you do, the next step is to fill out the paperwork in order to make a contract with the solicitor. The whiplash claims case is then filed in the court, and may take several months to be reviewed. When the case is reviewed, you must appear in court with your solicitor, and the opposing side (the person at fault, the solicitor representing that person, or a legal representative of that person's insurer) will also appear. In some cases your doctor, chiropractor, or osteopath may also be summoned to the hearing for whiplash claims. The settling of whiplash claims may take a year or more in totality.