What should you do if an insurance company makes an early offer to settle your whiplash personal injury claim?

Any victim of a motor vehicle accident who has sustained a whiplash injury, or perhaps a more serious injury, will know that the days and weeks that follow can often be distressing as you begin the recovery progress and start to realise how many aspects of your life have been affected by the injury you have sustained. It is becoming more and more common for third party insurance companies to approach victims at this vulnerable time, usually very soon after the accident, to try and persuade them to settle their claim. This article looks at why an insurance company would do this and why you, the injured party, should be wary of accepting any such offer.

It is usually in the interest of the insurance company to settle your personal claim as soon as possible – if it was not, they would not put such an offer forward. By making an early offer, they will often get away with paying you less compensation that you actually deserve and will avoid paying legal costs. Ultimately, insurance companies – like most other businesses – are in business to make money and to make profits, and the less compensation they have to pay out, the more those profits increase.

Whilst it can be tempting if you, for example, receive an offer from an insurance company soon after your accident to settle your claim for, say, £800 there are some important reasons why you should be wary of accepting the offer. Firstly, the insurers offer to settle your claim will be in ‘full and final settlement’ of your claim. This means that if you accept the offer and then continue to suffer from your injuries for much longer than you expected, you will not be able to go back and claim additional compensation. It is likely, in this case, that you will have been under-compensated for your injuries.

In addition, there are certain steps that need to be taken to ascertain how much your whiplash injury claim may be worth. These steps often take time and cannot be carried out in just one or two weeks following the accident. When you instruct a solicitor to help you with your whiplash injury claim your solicitor will instruct a medical expert to assess your injuries and prepare a report detailing your symptoms and giving a prognosis for the future. Your solicitor will use this report to value your whiplash injury claim. Your solicitor will also ensure that you have access to the necessary treatment to aid your recovery. It is unlikely that you will be advised to settle your claim before you have either made a full recovery from your injuries or a strong prognosis for the future has been obtained by a medical expert. Again, this is to protect you from the risk of accepting a lesser amount of compensation that you are actually entitled to.

In summary, you should not accept an early offer from an insurance company for your whiplash injury claim without first obtaining legal advice. Until your injuries have begun to settle and you have a clear idea how long it is going to take you to make a full recovery neither your solicitor nor the third party insurance company will be in a position to place an accurate valuation on whiplash injury claim.

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