WHAT ATTORNEYS SAY TO DO FOR WHIPLASH AFTER A CAR ACCIDENT

Car accidents are often very sudden and the impact is almost always enough to rattle your body from head to toe. The neck region is the first to take the brunt of this force in most accidents and can leave accident victims in severe agony for days at a time.

While driving safely and following the traffic rules is a sure way to minimize the risk of traffic accidents, they don’t necessarily wipe out the possibility of one happening. Automobile accidents on the road are frequent and mostly very devastating, but if you get in one, there is no way to go but ahead.

By ahead, we mean going through the legal process for securing fair financial compensation for your losses with the help of a professional personal injury attorney.

However, this article is more or less concerned with one specific aspect of the accident: whiplash injuries and what you can do about them.

WHAT IS WHIPLASH?

As mentioned earlier, the impact of most car accidents is very sudden, leaving no time, in most cases, for the victims to brace themselves for the impact. But even if they do, the momentum might be so devastating that stiffening a couple of muscles might prove to an inadequate measure.

Even with the added protection of seatbelts and airbags, there is one area of the human body that remains vulnerable to damage: the neck. When it is jerked suddenly, the pain and suffering can be immense – very disproportionate to the size of the structure.

Let’s get one thing straight: whiplash is a soft tissue injury, it is not a trauma to the neck vertebrae. That being said, there is nothing “soft” about the pain and intensity of the injury itself. Whiplash is caused due to a sudden traumatic jerk in the neck that whips the structure back and forth like a pendulum, except there is no joy in witnessing this oscillation.

Not only is a whiplash extremely painful, but the suffering may last several days or even more, and the psychological impact may linger for much longer.

You have the right to sue the at-fault party for your losses with the help of an experienced personal injury lawyer.

WHAT ATTORNEYS SAY TO DO FOR WHIPLASH AFTER A CAR ACCIDENT? CAUSES & IMPACTS OF WHIPLASH

The most frequent cause of whiplash injuries in a rear-end collision. That is when the at-fault driver fails to stop in time and hits your car, bumper to bumper, from the rear-end. This almost always results in a range of injuries, but whiplash is almost always on the top of that list.

The sudden impact, or if you will: whipping, causes severe damage to the muscles and nerves passing through the afflicted area, although bones are not as much affected.

In a single whip-jerk of the neck, the brunt of the collision force is absorbed by this unanchored area, resulting in serious damage.

Whiplash can be easily diagnosed by a medical professional, and if you do have it, you’ll have to hang onto the reports and all the assorted details (doctor’s notes, medicine prescriptions, and bills) to seek a fair financial settlement for your losses.

Personal injury attorneys are usually more than willing to take cases on behalf of accident victims, sort out the details, and help them claim fair compensation for their damages including the whiplash injury and its effects on their lives (even if temporary).

SYMPTOMS COMMONLY ASSOCIATED WITH WHIPLASH INJURIES

Whiplash is almost always very painful, prompting the sufferer to rush to the hospital. It is a standard practice to seek medical care soon after a motor vehicle accident to get diagnosed for the damage you took. Common symptoms of whiplash include, but are not limited to:

• Pain and agony in the afflicted area, only intensifying in severity as time passes
• Moving the neck region becomes extremely difficult and even painful
• The head feels dizzy, sometimes very light, and there are recurring headaches
• The neck region may also start feeling numb in addition to the radiating pain
• This mixture of numbness and pain may travel to the arms and shoulders as well
• Accident victims might feel heavily fatigued for unexplainable reasons

Regardless of the severity of your symptoms or whether if you feel all of them or just a couple, you should not delay seeking medical attention. With all said and done, only a medical professional can diagnose this condition, you can’t call a judgment here.

The sooner you seek medical treatment, the faster you can hope to recover from the damages. Timely medical interventions can also prevent worsening of the condition, or better yet: explore other associated problems and complications before they become bigger problems.

Thus seeking medical attention should be your top-most priority irrespective of how the symptoms guide you (most people misread symptoms anyway).

Then you should get in touch with professional car accident lawyers to start your legal action against the at-fault party and claim your compensation from the insurance company.

DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT OF WHIPLASH – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

As stated earlier, only a trained medical professional can handle the diagnosis of this type of injury. Only the diagnosis of a medical professional will let you know for sure whether you’ve suffered from a whiplash or not. Primary care physicians employ highly detailed and well-structured tests and examinations to probe into the whiplash question:

They may first try out a physical examination, simply moving your neck, observing the movement freedom and the pain associated with this movement. This examination is very thorough and careful, thus no page will be left unturned.

However, if this simple process fails to locate the problem, then there are a couple of advanced imaging diagnosis options as well. These will cost a bit higher but they are necessary in some conditions, these techniques include MRI and CT scans, or x-rays.

The idea here to exclude the possibility of other types of injuries with similar symptoms and ascertain that the condition is whiplash indeed.

After this diagnosis, the doctor will prepare a treatment plan, usually involving physical therapy, to get you back on track with your health – but whiplash symptoms may not wither after a couple of days in every case, in extreme situations, the condition may linger even for years (in chronic form).

In such cases, you may need frequent chiropractic care to keep the discomfort at bay.

Accident victims must keep the expense records for everything with them. Your lawyer will take a look at them and factor them in your settlement negotiations with the insurance company to ensure that you get paid for all of your sufferings and the extent of this pain.

GATHER IRREFUTABLE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM BEFORE THE INSURANCE COMPANY

Okay, let’s talk money! We all know that auto accidents can leave victims in a deep state of pain and agony – this is true, no doubt about it, but the financial pressures are not minor either. Accident victims suffering from whiplash may need heavy painkillers and lots of bed rest to feel better and this means they won’t be able to go to work leading to financial disaster.

However, you can regain your financial grounds by pursuing the legal process of getting compensated for your losses by the at-fault party’s insurance company. For this, lawyers recommend that you document everything, literally everything, related to the accident. This includes all the evidence related to an accident such as:

• Clear photographs of the accident scene detailing the damages sustained.
• Your medical records showing that the current state resulted due to the accident, i.e. no previous traumatic brain injury.
• Diagnosis reports and doctor’s notes detailing the extent of your injuries.
• Complete record of your expenses such as loss of income, medical expenses, property damage, and so on.
• Evidence confirming the degree of damage, i.e. the results of imaging techniques.
• Police reports for the accident.
• A journal of your experience after the accident and the comments of your friends and family.

With such evidence at hand, legal teams are better able to deal head-on with insurance claims and win a favorable settlement. If the insurance adjuster refuses to cooperate, you always have the option of filing a personal injury lawsuit and settling matters in a court of law.

THE GLENN LAW FIRM IS ON YOUR SIDE

The most important aspect of securing financial compensation from the insurance company is to proceed carefully at every step of the process. Your legal team will represent you at all stages, and you should ideally take a backstage role, allowing the experts to handle the mess.

At the Glenn Law Firm, our team of experienced car accident attorneys is always up for challenging insurance claims and is ever-eager to settle favorably for your losses. If you’re worried about paying upfront, then you have nothing to worry about because we don’t ask for upfront fees.

We have helped a ton of clients with their personal injury claims, and we’ll do the same for you too.

The consultation is absolutely free so call us as soon as you can, and we’ll get started with sorting things out for you!