subject: How Long Does It Take To Claim For Whiplash? [print this page] Whiplash can be a painful and debilitating injury. Sufferers of its symptoms can face severe inconvenience and, in some cases, can face time off work that can result in loss of earnings. In order to ensure that you speed up the whiplalsh claim process and receive compensation as quickly as possible, there are a few steps you should take.
Have I Got Whiplash?
Whiplash is most commonly associated with rear impact car collisions. The head is snapped forward and then flicked back at high speeds, causing the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues to extend and contract suddenly and often far beyond their normal range. This can result in the tearing, bruising and swelling of the muscles, although this may not be apparent immediately after the impact. Symptoms can take hours, days or even weeks to become apparent. Symptoms can include neck pain and stiffness, numbness in the arms, ringing in the ears and blurred vision. If you suspect you have sustained a whiplash injury, then you must seek medical attention as soon as possible. The accurate recording of your symptoms by a GP could well be relied on as evidence to support your claim.
Other Information Required For A Whiplash Claim
Where possible, you should collect as much information as possible about the impact. This could include photographs of the impact, personal and insurance details from the other driver and witness statements. There is no such thing as providing too much information when it comes to launching a whiplash personal injury claim. The better a picture of the event that you can provide, the more likely you are to succeed. In addition, you should record all the symptoms you suffer. A diary of your condition and its progress can be valuable in the success of your claim.
Seek Help
You will certainly need to hire the services of a personal injury solicitor. Most solicitors will arrange a free initial meeting in which they will look at the basic facts of the event and decide whether or not you have a case to pursue. If it is decided that you do, you may be required to undergo further medical examination by a professional which will be arranged by the legal practice. This is to ascertain the extent of your injuries and, consequently, to calculate how much compensation you may be entitled to. In addition, you should also provide your solicitor with all the information you have collated regarding the details of your injury.
Continue to Record
Your solicitor should then take care of the legal proceedings and keep you informed as to how they progressing. However, even during the legal process, you should to continue to monitor and record your symptoms and, if appropriate, the number of days you are absent from work. Should your symptoms change, then you should seek medical attention before notifying your solicitor.
While the process of collating and supplying information might seem a lengthy one, it should be remembered that it will all serve to authenticate your claim. Because if the nature of whiplash injuries, they are the most commonly faked and exaggerated injuries in the insurance industry. Without all the relevant information, your claim could be subject to undue scrutiny that would serve only to delay its progress. Whilst how long it takes to make a claim for whiplash will vary from person to person, most whiplash claims can now be settled within a matter of a few months if all of the above evidence is obtained.
