Whiplash advice needed as solicitor is not very helpful!

mip1978

I was invloved in a multiple collision nearly 4 weeks ago on a dual carriageway just before the slip road. The car behind me was shunted into me by the car behind her at about 60 miles an hour. I then shunted the car in front of me. The car behind me was a write off but mine is repairable. At the scene of the accident the ambulance driver checked me over and said to go to my GP later that day. I went to my GP to get checked over and he said he could feel stiffening and said I would suffer whiplash injuries and to rest.

The next day I couldn’t get out of bed and was suffering a lot of pain in my neck, arms and back and stayed in bed for 3 days. I took nerofen every four waking hours for 2 weeks and I am still suffering with neck and arm pain. I am receiving physio and have already had 3 sessions and the physio said I will have a fair few more sessions yet.

My solicitor (via my car insurance company) are being a bit aggressive with me and I feel they don’t believe me. I have a medical booked in on the 16th but my solicitor seems very reluctant for me to have this medical saying I may well be awarded less and to accept their first offer of £1250. I am feeling bullied into this by my solicitor and feel that my case is an inconvenience to her. I have told her that I would like the medical and that I can’t see my injuries being resolved in the next 3 or 4 weeks and she may as well have said ‘fine have it your way’

I didn’t ask to be involved in an accident and this is all extremely inconvenient but I would just like to be awarded a fair amount for the impact this has had on my life now and possibly for a while yet.

Am I being difficult? Should I just accept the £1250? Please help as I am feeling really confused.



Thank you

Halloway

Presumably the solicitor has a fair amount of experience in these matters and you reject their advice at your peril. Whiplash is always problematical as it is often not easy to verify (in other words, a lot of victims lie as to the extent of the whiplash).

Are you having to pay out for your therapy? If you can calculate how much you have already paid and are likely to pay in the next few months then that may help both you and the solicitor gauge whether the initial offer is fair or not. My instinct would be to take the £1250, unless to do so would put you seriously out of pocket.

dollywops

I have, unfortunately, been involved in 3 rear shunts, none of which were my fault. Each time the other driver has gone straight into the back of my vehicle. On each occasion, I have suffered various traumas, whiplash, back pain, neck pain, etc. Each time, I have received a course of treatment and also been referred for a medical to give an assessment. For my last accident, a company called Medico-legal did all the work and then passed on everything to the solicitor.

Your solicitor does not appear, in my honest opinion, to be giving you best advice. The last accident I had resulted in a payout of £2,000 approx, plus the cost of all the treatment I had. There were, and I presume still are, payout guidelines for various ailments. If I come to think about it, each of my settlements were around the £2000 mark, with all treatment paid for on top of that amount. There is no way that any treatment you have should come out of the monies paid to you.

If you are still undergoing treatment, with more to come, then at the moment, your claim cannot be finalised. Obviously, when the physio (or whoever) says that you are nearing the end of your treatment, that is a different matter.

Please understand, I am only giving you my opinion, but I really don't think you should settle at this stage.

mikeyk07

It appears you have been made a 'pre-medical' offer. A tactic insurers use to cut costs and settle a claim quickly. At this stage, with or without medical evidence your claim is worth more. It is highly unlikely you will be awarded less if you are still experiencing significant symptoms. Attend the medical examination, reject the offer and forward your receipts for the physiotherapy treatment to your solicitors requesting they obtain an interim payment from the insurers (the insurers may want to see the medical report before they issue payment though).

Crazy_Jamie

I'll try to shed some light on this as best I can, and try to rationalise what the solicitor is saying.

As far as valuing injuries goes, valuing a basic whiplash injury (which it looks like yours falls in to) is not difficult. The relevant characteristics are normally how bad the pain was and what was taken for it, and how long the symptoms lasted. Things like travel anxiety are often complained off but rarely increase the award noticeably, if at all. All in all it is difficult at this stage to value your injury because the symptoms have not yet subsided.

The difficulty that your solicitor is facing is that the offer of £1,250 was probably made via Part 36 of the CPR. I'm not going to go into detail about what that means, but very briefly it means that if this case proceeds to trial you have to be confident of getting more than that. If you don't 'beat' the offer (i.e. you get less than £1,250), there are adverse consequences in terms of costs. The offer has been made early and, to be honest, tactically that sounds like a well pitched offer in behalf of the Defendants at this stage. An eight week whiplash injury would ordinarily get more than £1,250, but as I said the specifics are important, and there would be a risk with rejecting an offer like that because judge's discretion in valuing injuries is never an exact science.

You should clarify with your solicitor whether that offer is just for general damages (i.e. your injury), or whether it is for everything. By 'everything', I mean that you're also entitled to the costs of repairing your car, cost of physio (if not already paid for by the Defendant), out of pocket expenses for travel to physio, buying medication etc. If the offer of £1,250 is for everything, then on the limited information I have it looks too low. If it is just for your injury (which is called general damages) and not for your other expenses (known as special damages), then I can understand why your solicitor is considering accepting it.

But you should certainly clarify what the offer is in relation to. You should also ask your solicitor any more questions that you have in relation to in depth reasons as to why the offer should be accepted. They should be able to give you in depth reasons as to why they think it is best to accept it (i.e. not only that you're unlikely to get more, but why you're unlikely to get more, with reference to your symptoms).

EDIT: One more thing. You may be questioning why they're not waiting until your symptoms have died down and getting a medical report. In the vast majority of cases like this a medical report should be obtained. The reason why they're probably considering early acceptance is because Part 36 offers only stay open for 21 days, after which time they can be withdrawn (and you have to beat it, as explained above). However, most Part 36 offer are not actively withdrawn, and under new rules they don't automatically expire. So it is likely that this offer will remain open past the 21 day period (most do nowadays), but your solicitor will be mindful of the fact that it could be withdrawn.

EDIT2:

mikeyk07 wrote:

At this stage, with or without medical evidence your claim is worth more.

At this stage it's not in terms of general damages. An award of £1,250 for a four week whiplash would by no means be a guarantee. I appreciate that these symptoms are going to go on longer from what the OP is said, but I am conscious that there is no medical evidence to support the assertion that it's going to last three or four more weeks, just the OPs opinion (not saying that that is unreliable, just that it is not the opinion of a medical expert). If the injury goes on for four more weeks then yes, the injury is probably worth more. But if it only goes on for, say, six weeks, there is a lot more of a risk in relation to that offer. Again, assuming that it is just for general damages.

mikeyk07 wrote:

forward your receipts for the physiotherapy treatment to your solicitors requesting they obtain an interim payment from the insurers (the insurers may want to see the medical report before they issue payment though).

If liability is admitted, I would like to think that this has already happened and she's not paying for the physio herself. Then again it often doesn't happen, so if she is currently paying for her own physio this is solid advice.

mip1978

Thank you to you all for your advice!

Especially thank you for your advice Crazy Jamie and I was hoping you would reply reading previous comments about you.

Just to clarify I am not paying for physio as the 3rd party admitted [FONT=&quot]l[/FONT]iability to the police who attended the scene within m inutes and I was contacted by the physio 10 days later for assesment.

When the £1250 offer was presented to me my solicitor said it was for an expected recovery period of 6 weeks just for my injuries so I beleive it is for 'general damages' as you call it. I appreciate what you are saying when you say it is the OP' opinion at the this stage so is it worth me asking him to clarify why he thinks it is going to take more sessions to assist my recovery and present this to my solicitor?

Thank you again for taking the time to help me

Crazy_Jamie

mip1978 wrote: »

Just to clarify I am not paying for physio as the 3rd party admitted [FONT=&quot]l[/FONT]iability to the police who attended the scene within m inutes and I was contacted by the physio 10 days later for assesment.

I'm glad to hear that. It helps all parties when physio is sorted out quickly and paid for by the Defendant when liability is admitted. It's irritating to hear about insurers who don't take that approach, because they're just being difficult.

mip1978 wrote:

When the £1250 offer was presented to me my solicitor said it was for an expected recovery period of 6 weeks just for my injuries so I beleive it is for 'general damages' as you call it. I appreciate what you are saying when you say it is the OP' opinion at the this stage so is it worth me asking him to clarify why he thinks it is going to take more sessions to assist my recovery and present this to my solicitor?

OP means Original Poster, as in I thought it was just your opinion that it was going to take three or four weeks longer to heal. On reflection you're probably basing that on information from the physio, so I apologise for the confusion there. I'm simply wary of the fact that there is no medical report to back up the assertion that this injury is going to take three or four more weeks to heal.

As I said in my first post, on the assumption that this is a six week injury then £1,250 is a decent offer in terms of general damages, and one that I'm not surprised that your solicitor has so strongly considered. However, if you're concerned that your injury is going to last longer than six weeks, then I would ask the physio his opinion at this stage in terms of recovery. The severity of symptoms in that period is important as well. It's not just a case of adding of adding on one third to the £1,250 for eight weeks rather than six. The weeks that you're in pain are worth more, if that make sense. So if it's going to last another four weeks, but those last two are going to show very minor symptoms, say some stiffness with no pain, then the offer based on six weeks is still attractive.

But as I said earlier, go to your solicitors with your queries and make sure you get answers. Bug them if you have to. It's their job to answer your questions and set your mind at ease with things like this, and currently it doesn't sound like they're doing it adequately.

mrsthrifty_2

good advise here from Crazy Jamie but do discuss your queries before accepting and take time to think through all the answers you are given by your solicitor.

My Son was a passenger in 2007 and suffered neck whiplash , controlled only by medication. He was offered £750 , his solicitor at this time said to reject, he was then offered £1000, Solicitor then advised to accept as his injury by now had completely recovered and to take it any further would need a medical accessment and possibly wouldnt result in any more as he was by now ok, the £1000 was paid out on the paramedics report from the scene of the accident.

On 5th Jan he was involved in an accident, no fault of his, had a month off work and has now returned on light duties , he has neck whiplash again, a leg problem and severe internal bruising to the kidney area in his back. Instantly he was sent a pysio appointment who suggested 15 - 20 sessions oh his first examination , he has since had his medical assessment which has posed a ? that he might need more than this.

In view of all this his solicitor has stated she doesnt feel he is in a position to settle this PI claim yet while still undergoing treatment and has had him sign to this effect and this has now been sent along with the medical report to the third party insurers

In both of the above I trusted and felt/feel the solicitor was/is doing the best for my son, if you have doubts or are not happy discuss before you agree or sign anything

sarahg1969

Only 4 weeks ago, and you've clearly not settled down, and your solicitor is already advising you to go for a medical, just 6 weeks post-accident? And is already talking about settlement?

I personally would want to wait until my injuries had plateaued and/or resolved before having a medical. Only then will you know how long they might take to fully recover.

Alison_B

Please do not settle unless you feel you are OK. I was a passenger in a car that was hit from behind. This happened 4 years ago. I felt a little uncomfortable the day it happened but the day after I started to lose feeling in my right arm and hand and I went to the hospital where I was x-rayed and told that I had nerve damage. I suffered for months and was unable to drive for 4 months. In light of this, I now still suffer with travel anxiety. I have had numerous sessions with a physiotherapist, have councelling and had a couple of medicals.

My solicitor was pretty laid back and I feel that they dragged their heels a bit but in the long run it was the best thing because I was able to get the best treatment for my injuries. It is 4 years since the accident and I am still suffering now with pains in my neck and find it difficult to sleep.

I was offered £1200 a couple of months after the accident which my solicitor advised me to decline. I was then awarded another thousand but again as I wasn't right, was told to reject it. I finally settled after 3 years and received a larger settlement but I would give every penny back if I could get the pain and discomfort I am suffering taken away.

SolicitorMidlands

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Only 4 weeks ago, and you've clearly not settled down, and your solicitor is already advising you to go for a medical, just 6 weeks post-accident? And is already talking about settlement?

I personally would want to wait until my injuries had plateaued and/or resolved before having a medical. Only then will you know how long they might take to fully recover.

I do not agree with this - you can have a medical at any time and the expert will estimate a prognosis period, i.e. the period of time he thinks your symptoms are likely to take to resolve. Once you have obtained that report you have a decision to make - you can either wait and see how your symptoms settle before settling your claim. If your symptoms do not settle within the time period estimated by the expert then your solicitor will obtain your updated medical notes and records and instruct the expert to re-examine you and prepare an addendum report. There is no guarntee that the expert will attribute ongoing symptoms to the accident or that waiting will result in a higher offer being made.

Alternatively, you could settle your claim based on the current evidence but if your symptoms do not resolve after you settle, you are unable to return for any further damages.

If you are experiencing significant symptoms then 1,250 is a low offer. However, without a medical report your solicitor will be unable to advise you on the suitability of that offer.

If you are continuing to experience symptoms reject the offer and get your solicitors to arrange a medical appointment. If you are unhappy with their service, see if you can transfer your case.