One of the most common injuries suffered after a car accident is whiplash injuries. Victims present with headaches, neck pains, thoracolumbar pains.
Studies show that in almost all road traffic accidents, many cars move at less than 14 mph, which is when such injuries occur.
Patients who suffer from low-velocity injuries mostly complain about more pain than a victim who may have suffered from a fracture. In that case, then it makes sense to look for an experienced legal team that can fight for their compensation.
Understanding Whiplash Injuries
The term whiplash has often been misused. This poses a hurdle, especially when one is seeking compensation for such injuries. According to Mayo Clinic, whiplash injuries result from the force or swift back and forth movement of the neck area.
Rear-end vehicle accidents prove to be the most common crash that results in whiplash injuries. If you got involved in a car crash a have chronic neck pain, you may be suffering from whiplash injuries, and you may need to work out your case with a Bakersfield car accident lawyer.
While some victim shows signs and symptoms within few days, other may take weeks. Some of the symptoms of whiplash injure include:
- Neck pain, especially when moving the neck
- Headaches
- Numbness of arms
- Dizziness
- Loss of neck mobility
When the pain is severe, the victim may experience:
- Depression
- Memory issues
- Blurred vision
- Lack of sleep
If you or your loved one has portrayed some of the above signs and symptoms, you need to seek medical help immediately. You may need to look for a doctor who is experienced in dealing with car accident injuries. That doctor can provide the necessary medical care after the car accident. As much as you may want to pursue your car accident case at that moment, your health comes first. The latter will also determine what to recover. Many whiplash injury victims may recover within few weeks. However, others take time and continue with the pain for months or years after the car accident.
Therefore, you will need to continue treatment until your doctor tells you to stop. The apparent reason is that your doctor knows how you were injured and the time such injuries may take to recover. The medical information will be helpful in your personal injury claim and will pose a large part of your settlement.
How Will I Prove Whiplash Injuries
There will be no compensation without confirmation of your whiplash injuries. Note that, unlike other injuries after a car accident, whiplash injuries pose a tough process for claims.
You will need to have medical records showing the nature and extent of your injuries. That way, you may have an easier time trying to convince the claim adjuster about your pains and how such injuries affected your life.
Remember that you will not only be filing a single claim for whiplash injuries. The cost of your injuries will be among the economic damages. If your injuries are serious, they will demand more medical expenses, which will lead to a higher damage award.
More often, injured victims suffer from pain and suffering due to whiplash injuries. In such a case, your lawyer can use a multiplier to come up with a definite figure. Such multiplier may range from 1.5 to 4 depending on how severe your injuries were.
When it comes to recovering compensation, there are a few things to consider for affair settlement:
Don’t accept the first offer: Insurance adjusters are known to offer a lower settlement of whiplash injuries.
Be careful on what you say: The insurance adjuster will be keen to record your conversation and use it against you.
You require time for recovery, and you may not have all the time to argue with the insurance adjuster. Therefore, it’s easier to retain a lawyer to bring to the attention that your injuries need much more than what has been offered.
How To Resolve Your Personal Injury Claim
Resolving your personal injury case will be determined by how much you have spent on medical costs, among other losses. And when you cannot agree on the amount of compensation, you will need to go to court.
A whiplash injury victim can suffer from both long and short-term consequences. Worse enough, some patients have reported that their recovery took more than a year after the accident.
In other cases, such injuries result in post-traumatic stress disorder as a victim may wonder what will happen if they don’t fully recover. Having an experienced car accident lawyer help with the best strategy to use for your case
If your injuries were intense, you are likely to stay longer with the pain. Again, it may not be easy to predict for how long this may continue. You cannot afford to miss working out your case with an experienced car accident attorney.