whiplash claim after RTA <cringe>

[geekgirl]

Could anyone advise on claiming for personal injury (whiplash) after a car accident please?

Dh was waiting at traffic lights a week ago and someone ran into the back of his car at full pelt (tangled sandal apparently ). He's very achey and has a lot of muscle soreness all over his back & sides, he's been the GP so has a proper diagnosis.

Straight after the accident we spoke about it and dismissed claiming for it as it seems to be such a moneygrabbing thing to do - but we're having second thoughts now really. He has been in pain for a week now and it wasn't his fault...

I am not sure how to go about claiming for personal injury - googling it just throws up millions of ambulance chaser websites

You can go through your household insurance for this, on my contents insurance I have legal cover, give them a call and they can advise you.

You can call a local solicitor (check they are personal injury though), they will be able to sort this out for you. The law society web site has a list of qualified solicitors who are in your area and what they specialise in.

Accidents happen.

Have you been financially threatened by the accident?

It's only a week since the accident. It might be a bit soon to be claiming for permanent damage.

If not permanent damage, then why would you claim? I seriously don't get this compensation culture.

Why not wait and see if your livelihoods/long-term health is compromised.

Has he spoken to his own insurer ? My mum was plagued by a company in similar cirucmstances wanting her to pursue a claim Agree a week isn't long to recover and he would need to demonstrate losses to really have a claim (ie time of work for appointments)or long term pain and suffering, the extent of which may well not become apparent until later on, if at all.

dh is a contractor so doesn't get paid if he's not at work - if he had to go and see a physio for instance it would quickly get very expensive in terms of lost earnings, so we're rather twitchy about anything that might affect his health. If he wasn't able to drive due to backache it would be nothing short of disastrous.

I do generally agree with you, pooka, and that was my attitude until yesterday - we've been in a few rear-enders and never even considered claiming for a bit of a sore neck afterwards. This is different though - he is in proper pain and has muscle spasms etc. There was nothing he could have done to prevent the accident.

Guess we'll give it another week and see how things are then.

you can try ringing someone just to ask for advice - if he's losing money i would personally

Does he have legal cover on his car insurance - if so they will help him with this.

Are you claiming from the other driver for car damage? I would have thought the claim would be tied in with the damage claim could you check with your own insurance?

spoke to insurance this morning - personal injury and getting back our excess (didn't realise we'd have to pay the excess - bloody unfair ) are dealt with by a solicitor the insurance referred us to. They'll sort out physio for dh if he's still in pain in a week or so and then take it from there.

having had similar, i'd say claim for it! someone hit me at 50 mph. that was 12 years ago & i will never fully recover. in reflection the payout was fairly measly.

i would also STRONGLY recommend going back to the gp & asking for physio, but i warn you - it took the NHS 6 months to get me an appointment, by which time there was 'significant damage' & the muscles had scarred, hence it being perm. damage. at the time of the accident, i was told 'you're young, you'll get over it'. the physio told me i should have been seen asap, and i needed 3 appts a week, for over an hour, for several months, before i could even move my arms & neck properly again.

so, please, act now, don't be 'polite'. it's not about making a fuss, or being grabby, it's about looking after your dh's health for the rest of his life.

fwiw, what would happen to the other driver if her 'tangled sandal' had made her run into people at a ped crossing? sorry, crap drivers should be taken off the roads, not treated politely.

I agree its not about money grabbing. We got hit at a junction and my neck ached like mad.
I had loads of sleapless nights and thought - well I was only minding my own business driving carefully. I saw this company wwww.itsmyclaim.com on a post (Had an accident and my MOT has run out.) They let you make a claim yourself without signing up to things so you can always go to a ssolicitor later if you want to.

You should talk to a solicitor, even just to try to claim back his loss of earnings along with asking his insurance company to pay for private physio treatment (that?s what has been offered to me) and then decide if you want to claim for personal injury ? this may affect him for a lot longer than you?d think ? it?s surprising how long injuries from a car accident can hinder you!

I was in a car accident last Thursday where we were in standing traffic and the 7.5ton wagon with a full load behind us thought we were moving and ploughed right into the back of us and shunted us into the back of another car ? the car is a write off and we?ll only get about £400 for it regardless of the fact that if sold privately beforehand we would have got about £1,500 ? they aren?t bothered about the condition of the car, the engine, the additional extras, etc ? just what the computer says it?s worth

My partner was driving at the time and had to take 2 days unpaid from work and is still very very sore, although he has been given some wonderful painkillers so he said he only wants to claim for his loss of earnings, although he may feel differently in a couple of weeks, especially as he isn?t allowed to play or train for rugby until he has recovered.

I on the other hand am 21 weeks pregnant and have bruising on my chest and under my bump from them pulling tight, I also have severe back and pelvic pain which can?t be eased by anything other than paracetamol which is rubbish so I just have to suffer it.

My midwife and GP have warned me that the extent of my back injuries may make my pregnancy more uncomfortable once I am bigger and could hinder my labour too, especially as I had pelvic trauma ? I?ve now been taken off midwife led care and have to attend the hospital for all my appointments and I have also been advised that I may have to be signed off for maternity leave early :-(.

I will be making a claim, not because it?s an easy way to make money, but because with a little one on the way we have other priorities, we can?t afford for my partner to take time off work, we can?t afford to spend money on a new car (£400 won?t buy us a good reliable car), I can?t really afford to be signed off maternity early as I only get statutory maternity pay so I was planning on leaving it as late as possible to finish, the list of how this affects us goes on.

Why should we suffer and be out of pocket for someone else?s poor driving?

xxx

Your car insurance company should pursue the claim for you, both for the damage to your car and for the injuries caused. Speak to them again and say that you are likely to want to pursue a personal injury claim.

As the other person went into the back of your DH, it is she who is at fault.

As other posters have said, you can claim for loss of earnings, and for the physio that your DH needs to enable him to become pain free again.

There is nothing at all wrong with seeking compensation for an accident when it genuinely lessens your quality of life. That is what insurance is for.

I had a broken spine on either C5 or C6 following an rta when a car ran into me from behind on a motorway sliproad.

Agree with the physio, also, if you can take it Naprosyn is a good anti-inflammatory. Also, in some areas it is still possible to get coproxamil which is good for pain.

Apart from physio, please, please anyone get a FULL thyroid function blood test. This means TSH, T4 and T3 both free and combined and anything else they can think of. The thyroid can de damaged in whiplash injuries, and you can have virtually every symptom know to man or beast, but unless your TSH is outside the 'normal' range you cannot get treatment.

At least if you get a test done now, then at least in the future you have something that relates to you to refer back to.

It took me 10st weight gain and 12 years before I finally got my diagnosis of an underactive thyroid and a hell of a lot of misery. Anything that can be done to avoid that is worth doing, believe me.

I had legal cover in my car insurance - they phoned me to start the claim. I was self-employed and had to take a week off work as the work I do was too strenuous with the damage to my neck.

I saw an osteopath regularly anyway - he helped to talk me through what needed to be done immediately and saw me 3 days later after the inflammation had subsided.

It is imperative to see some kind of therapist, physio, osteopath or chiropracter, sooner rather than later because the neck damage from a whiplash can have such long-lasting effects; and the more delay there is to the treatment, the longer it takes to "fix" it.

Any money spent can be included in the compensation claim.

He should be taking anti-inflammatories (ibuprofen for example, not paracetamol) if he is still in pain with it.

Definitely go to the GP and start the physio ball rolling.

• Get referral to physio from the GP. if he's already been in, he made be able to get the referral done over the phone.

• Contact your insurers. Assuming you had fully comp insurance your insurers will want to claim the cost of repairs/hire car etc and they'll have a panel of law firms they use.

Even if you only had 3PFT, your insurers may be able to recommend a firm of solicitors.

Check your household insurance to see if you have cover for personal injury claims, and contact them.

• Or just contact the Law Society for recommendations in your area.

• Do not contact those ridiculous firms that advertise on the television/side of buses who promise to pay you cash etc - they're charlatans!

For personal injury claims, you'll be able to find (good) lawyers v easily who will do it on a no win no fee basis so your expense will be minimal.

• Keep receipts for every single thing you spend - painkillers, taxis etc.

• If you're doing lots of help around the house etc for your husband, tally up how much more you're doing than you would normally do - he can include a claim for your unpaid care in his claim.

Hope he gets better soon.