Imagine being in a serious car accident. The violent collision with another vehicle causes your head to snap forward and back with terrific force. You can’t easily move your head and neck the next day without blinding pain. You probably have whiplash.
Whiplash is a severe soft tissue injury in the neck that is common after a serious motor vehicle accident. It’s understandable to wonder how much your whiplash injury is worth in a lawsuit. Below is more information about whiplash injuries and case values. If you have additional questions, a local personal injury attorney can help. They can review your whiplash injury case and determine your legal options.
What Is Whiplash?
Whiplash is a soft tissue neck injury caused by the rapid back-and-forth movement of the head and neck during an accident. Whiplash is common in auto accidents when a sudden collision causes the head to snap forward, back, or left and right.
Whiplash can cause significant pain, immobility, and many health issues that can last for months or years. Someone with a whiplash injury may have difficulty working, getting dressed, driving, and doing things they enjoy. Medical treatment and rehabilitation can be expensive, and paying for them without financial assistance is difficult.
If you have whiplash from a recent accident caused by another party, you can obtain compensation in a personal injury claim or lawsuit. A personal injury attorney can review your case for free today to determine if you have a strong case.
How Much Is A Whiplash Claim Worth?
A whiplash injury usually affects the ligaments, tendons, and other soft tissues in the neck, but it can also affect the neck vertebrae. The injury’s severity depends on the collision’s severity and how much force was sent through the neck.
How much you may receive in a whiplash injury claim depends on many factors. Some whiplash injuries can be worth a few thousand dollars, and others tens of thousands of dollars. Significant factors in the value of your whiplash injury claim are:
Severity Of The Injury
Whiplash injuries can be minor, moderate, or severe, depending on the accident. The more pain and immobility from the whiplash, the longer it takes to heal. This means there will be higher medical costs. Whiplash claims with the highest value usually involve other injuries, such as head trauma, broken bones, and spinal cord injuries. When you have more severe injuries, you will need more medical care, including hospitalization, surgeries, rehabilitation, and more.
How The Injury Affects Your Life
Whiplash can prevent you from doing things that people typically do, such as getting dressed, cooking, eating, using the restroom, driving, and engaging in hobbies and exercise. It can be bad enough that you cannot work or not work as much as you once did. The pain and disability can also affect your personal relationships. Your settlement may be higher if you have a lower quality of life from the whiplash.
You can help get more money regarding how it affects your life by keeping a pain journal in writing or video. Describe how the injury and pain are affecting and limiting your daily activities. Your attorney can use this information to show that you have significant pain and disability that affects your daily living.
Medical Expenses
The more severe the whiplash, the higher the medical expenses will be. People with severe whiplash may need surgery and months or years of rehabilitation. Cases involving long-term medical care or permanent damage will have a higher value.
Quality Of Your Attorney
Maximizing compensation for a whiplash injury is difficult. The injury is to soft tissues and is difficult to see on imaging scans. Insurance companies are notoriously skeptical about paying large claims for whiplash injuries, so the quality of your attorney is critical. A skilled personal injury attorney will maximize your whiplash compensation by gathering vital evidence to prove your case. They will use doctor and expert testimony and your medical records to prove that you have a severe neck injury that deserves the most compensation.
Whiplash Is Often Accompanied By Brain Injuries
Sudden acceleration and deceleration of your head and neck can cause damage other than whiplash. Injuries to the neck and spine tissues are common, including muscle sprains and strains, bulging or herniated discs, etc. However, whiplash can also lead to concussions and brain injuries. When the head snaps back and forth, the brain may smash into the front and back of the skull and cause bruising or bleeding.
Research shows that patients with mild brain injuries from whiplash may have cognitive issues months or years after the accident. For example, you can have problems with memory, planning, attention, problem-solving, and abstract reasoning. These are severe consequences; your attorney will help you and your medical team document them in the legal claim. You can be entitled to more compensation if your whiplash injury has caused these kinds of effects.
Brain injuries can be involved with some of the long-term consequences of whiplash. For instance, people with neck pain and whiplash are more likely to suffer a condition where the brain pushes down into the spinal canal. It can cause many long-term health issues that necessitate expensive medical care.
If your whiplash injury involves brain injuries as well, the value of the claim may be much higher. Many cases with brain injuries require years of medical care and rehabilitation, and the claim can be worth six or seven figures.
Why Some Whiplash Cases Are Worse Than Others
Insurance companies and their attorneys always want to know why certain accident victims have worse whiplash injuries than others. They usually believe the accident victim exaggerates their injury to get more money. However, research shows that some accident victims can be more adversely affected by a whiplash injury than others.
There are many risk factors mentioned in the scientific literature that show why certain auto accident victims have more complications from whiplash. Some of these risk factors are:
- Rear-end accident: Your vehicle being hit from behind can make the whiplash injury more severe and painful. The impact of being directly behind the driver can make the head snap back and forth more violently.
- Older age: Older injury victims may have more severe whiplash pain. However, younger accident victims may receive more compensation in a claim.
- Cervical lordosis: How curved your spine is may affect the severity of the injury.
- Previous whiplash injury: If you have a previous injury to the neck, it can make your current whiplash injury worse.
- Lack of impact awareness: If you didn’t have time to anticipate the impact, the injury could be worse.
- Preexisting condition: People with existing spine issues may have worse whiplash symptoms.
How To Maximize Your Whiplash Injury Claim
How much you can receive in a whiplash injury claim depends on many factors. There are several things you can do to increase the chances of significant compensation for your whiplash injury:
Get Medical Care Immediately
You should always get medical care immediately after the auto accident. A whiplash injury isn’t obvious on the surface, and the insurance company will question your injury and its relation to the accident if you don’t get medical care right away. You may not feel whiplash symptoms for a few hours or days, but you should go to the ER immediately if you have these symptoms:
- Numbness in your hands and arms
- Arm, shoulder, and upper back pain
- Blurred vision
- Pain when you move your head and neck
- Reduced range of motion in the neck
- Memory problems
- Trouble sleeping
Remember, insurance companies are more likely to question injuries that are hard to see with imaging scans and medical tests. Whiplash is a severe soft tissue injury, but it isn’t obvious that a broken bone is on an x-ray. The sooner you seek medical care and get a whiplash diagnosis from the doctor, the better for your claim.
Follow Your Doctor’s Treatment Plan
Follow what your doctor says to treat your whiplash injury. It is critical for a rapid recovery and to maximize your settlement compensation. Not following your treatment plan for your whiplash will show the insurance company or jury that you are not seriously injured.
It’s common for insurance adjusters and juries to question soft tissue injuries because they cannot be easily seen. They are real injuries, but some may assume that you are making the injury up. Please don’t give them any reason to believe that, so follow your doctor’s orders. Attend every appointment and make up any you miss immediately.
Retain A Personal Injury Attorney
Getting the most compensation for a whiplash injury after a car accident is difficult without an attorney. The insurance company will likely question and doubt soft tissue injuries. But your personal injury lawyer knows how to prove that your whiplash injury is real and that you have damages and losses from the injury. If the personal injury lawyer thinks there is a strong case, they recommend filing a claim with their assistance.
What You Can Receive In A Whiplash Claim Or Lawsuit
The settlement or jury award you receive in a whiplash claim is based on several types of damages. You may receive compensation for some or all of the following:
- Medical bills: You should receive compensation for ER visits, doctor visits, medication, chiropractic treatments, physical therapy, medical equipment, and future medical costs to reach maximum medical improvement or MMI.
- Lost earnings: You should receive compensation if you miss work because of your whiplash injury. You also can be entitled to lost earning capacity if you cannot work or do your previous job. Future medical expenses with whiplash injuries are less common, but you may receive future lost earnings because not every soft tissue injury in the neck heals properly.
- Pain and suffering: Most whiplash claims include some amount of pain and suffering. Calculating pain and suffering compensation for a whiplash injury is subjective. The insurance adjuster will likely downplay pain and suffering compensation for a whiplash injury, but pain and suffering is real with soft tissue injuries. Your attorney will demand the most compensation possible.
Do You Need A Whiplash Injury Attorney?
Whiplash is one of the most common auto accident injuries. Fortunately, many whiplash injuries are relatively mild and only last two to four weeks. Many heal on their own. However, you should always go to the doctor if you suspect a whiplash injury. The injury can get worse, and delaying treatment can make it last longer.
Whether you need a lawyer for a whiplash injury claim depends on the case. For a minor case, you may try to settle the claim with the insurance company without an attorney. A fair settlement without a car accident attorney is possible, assuming no hospitalization or surgery.
However, for a more serious injury that will cause severe pain and hospitalization, you should always have an experienced whiplash injury lawyer help you. Insurance companies try to pay as little as possible for soft tissue injuries. You can have months of pain and be unable to work, so you need the most compensation.
If you have a whiplash injury, the best route is to call a car accident attorney. They can review your accident and medical records and recommend how to proceed. The attorney won’t take the case unless there is a high chance of serious compensation. The consultation is free, so there is no risk of having a personal injury attorney reviewing the case.
Speak To A Personal Injury Attorney Today
Did you suffer whiplash in a recent auto accident? Did another party cause the incident? You can be entitled to compensation for your whiplash injuries and losses. Many insurance companies may try to pay you less than you deserve for your whiplash injury. Don’t let the complexities and uncertainties of a whiplash injury claim overwhelm you. Hiring an experienced auto accident attorney will maximize your whiplash claim payout. Speak to a personal injury attorney today for free to find out if you have a strong case.
