What Are You Entitled To Claim For Whiplash?

When people think of making a claim for whiplash, usually after the occurrence of a road traffic accident, many people simply think of being compensated for the actual whiplash injury. Here we take a look at what other items can be included in a whiplash personal injury claim and how the claim is split into two parts.

A whiplash claim is made up of two parts – the claim for ‘general damages’ and the claim for ‘special damages’. The general damages claim is the claim for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity suffered by the Claimant as a result of the accident. The general damages claim is often the hardest part to quantify as each claim is different : whiplash injuries can be minor or quite severe and the time a victim takes to recover from a whiplash injury can vary from one or two weeks, to several years (indeed, in some cases, victims may never make a complete recovery from their whiplash injury). Therefore, to value the general damages part of the claim, the Claimant’s solicitor will usually instruct a medical expert to prepare a report detailing the Claimant’s injuries and providing a prognosis for the future. The Claimant will then have the choice of either instructing their solicitor to negotiate settlement of their claim based on the presumption that the prognosis in the medical report is entirely accurate or, alternatively, they can wait until the time suggested by the medical expert that full recovery should be made (i.e. 6 months after the accident) and settle the claim then. In the former case, the Claimant should be aware that if they settle their claim based on the medical prognosis and the prognosis does not turn out to be accurate (i.e. the Claimant goes on suffering from the injuries beyond the time estimated by the medical expert) they will not be able to go back and claim further damages as settlement of their claim would have been full and final. The ‘loss of amenity’ part of the general damages claim refers to the Claimant’s inability, due to the accident, to continue, for example, with their hobby of football or gardening and an amount of compensation can be claimed to compensate the Claimant for this loss.

The ‘special damages’ part of the whiplash claim refers to out of pocket expenses incurred by the Claimant as a direct result of the accident. These include items such as lost earnings, lost overtime, travelling expenses to medical appointments, prescription charges and treatment costs. The special damages claim is often easier to quantify as the items being claimed can usually be supported by documentary evidence such as payslips and receipts. It is important that as much documentary evidence is kept as possible as although items of special damage can often appear small and inconsequential, when added together they can often form quite a significant part of the whiplash claim.

It is important therefore than when putting together a claim for whiplash personal injury the solicitor and Claimant must communicate to ensure that all items that can be claimed for are included as part of the claim.

Bookmark This Article?

• Tweet This
• Delicious
• Digg
• reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

Can We Help You With A Whiplash Accident Claim?

If you ask us to help you with your Whiplash Claim, you will receive all of your compensation and you will pay nothing whether you win or lose your claim. We have helped the clients of both the Co-Op and RAC and have handled thousands of Whiplash Claims over the last few years. We use our specialist experience to benefit you by making a fast and professional claim for compensation for you.

To find out if we can help you please call us on 0808 178 9002 or complete our Online Enquiry Form and we will be in touch with you soon.

Legal Website Design - Samson Consulting © Gray Hooper Holt LLP.

This web site has been developed with valid XHTML / CSS / Site Map / Terms

Gray Hooper Holt LLP is a firm of solicitors and is Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Its registered office is at 6 Linkfield Corner, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1BB and its company number is OC318445.