Who Will Pay The Legal Fees For My Whiplash Injury Claim?
Copyright (c) 2011 Robert Gray
If you have been injured in a road traffic accident and have suffered a whiplash injury you may be feeling anxious about whether to make a claim for whiplash injury compensation. As well as concentrating on recovering from your whiplash injury and seeking the most appropriate treatment, you may be concerned about whether making the decision to try and obtain compensation for your injuries is likely to cost you any money. This article looks briefly at how a whiplash injury occurs, how the claims process works and, most importantly, who pays the costs of your whiplash injury compensation claim.
A whiplash injury is a common injury amongst road traffic accident victims. The injury quite often occurs when one vehicle strikes another vehicle in the rear causing the head and neck of the driver and passengers to suddenly be thrown back and forth causing the muscles and ligaments in the neck to be stretched beyond the normal range of movement. This can result in a whiplash injury which can present as pain in the neck and shoulders, headaches, restricted movement of the neck, pins and needles, lethargy and nausea. Treatment required to treat the injury varies depending on the severity of the injury sustained (and this itself will depend on factors such as the speed of the collision).
When you first instruct a whiplash injury solicitor to pursue a claim for compensation on your behalf they will take down all the information regarding your accident and injury. They will arrange for you to be seen by an independent medical expert who will assess your injuries and prepare a report detailing their findings. As your claim progresses, your solicitor will also take down details of all of the out of pockets expenses you have incurred as a direct result of the accident, such as lost earnings and treatment costs, and will collate this information in a document called a 'Schedule of Special Damages'. Your solicitor will then send the medical report and Schedule of Special Damages to the third party's legal representatives and will invite them to make an offer of settlement.
Most whiplash injury solicitors will pursue your claim under a no-win no-fee agreement and you should check that this is the case before you formalise your instruction to your solicitor. In a no-win no-fee agreement you will not have to pay any legal costs whether you win or lose your claim. If you win your claim your solicitor will be entitled to recover their costs from the third party in addition to any compensation they secure for you. You will keep 100% of your compensation. If you lose your claim you will be protected by an insurance policy (which is a policy taken out at the time of signing up for the no-win no-fee agreement) and this policy will cover the costs of any legal fees incurred by your solicitor.
To conclude, although finding yourself in a position where you have been injured in an accident can be a worrying and distressing time, if you chose to instruct a specialist whiplash injury solicitor to pursue your claim for you, they will be able to put your mind at rest about the costs involved and about how, win or lose, you will not end up out of pocket.
About the Author
Need expert Accident Whiplash Solicitors? Visit http://www.grayhooperholt.co.uk/personal-injury/accident-whiplash.html?
To find out how much for a whiplash claim, see http://www.grayhooperholt.co.uk/personal-injury/how-much-for-whiplash-claim.html.
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