Whiplash injuries can result in medical bills, lost wages, and other losses for which you can seek compensation through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. While these injuries are most commonly found in car accident victims, they can arise from any incident that causes the head to shake back and forth violently.
By understanding the steps to take after a whiplash injury, you can improve your chances of recovering the compensation you need.
What Is Whiplash?
Whiplash is a soft tissue injury affecting the neck’s muscles, tendons, and ligaments. It occurs when significant forces cause the head to shake violently, such as in a motor vehicle accident. This violent shaking can strain or cause tears in the soft tissue, leading to pain, dizziness, and a lack of mobility.
Rear-end accidents are among the leading causes of whiplash injuries, as an impact from behind can send the head whipping back and forth. Even a relatively low-speed rear-end impact can cause these injuries. However, the greater the impact, the more severe the injuries typically are.
Long-Term Effects of Whiplash
When seeking compensation for whiplash, it’s vital that you consider the long-term effects of the injury. In the long term, whiplash can lead to chronic neck and shoulder pain, persistent headaches, numbness or weakness in the extremities, jaw pain, and even difficulty concentrating or sleeping.
These long-term effects could impact your future medical costs and ability to work, increasing the value of your claim. For this reason, it’s always important to reach maximum medical improvement, which is the point at which you are unlikely to recover further, before settling an injury claim or lawsuit.
When Can You Claim Compensation for Whiplash?
You can file a claim for compensation for a whiplash injury in Georgia when someone else’s actions cause it. Through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit, you will have to provide evidence showing that the at-fault party was primarily responsible for your injuries.
Under Georgia Code Section 51-12-33, the compensation an injury victim can receive through trial award is reduced by a percentage equal to their degree of fault. For example, if you are found to be 30 percent at fault for your whiplash injury, you could only recover 70 percent of your compensable losses from the at-fault party. Additionally, the law bars you from recovering compensation if you are 50 percent or more at fault.
While this law specifically applies to trial awards from personal injury lawsuits, it can also impact your insurance claim. Insurance companies typically don’t offer more money as a settlement than they think you would be able to get through a lawsuit. If the insurance company believes a jury would find you 20 percent at fault, they won’t offer a settlement worth more than 80 percent of your losses.
Proving Whiplash After a Car Accident
Proving a whiplash injury after a car accident can be complex because these injuries often aren’t visible. That can make it easy for insurance providers to claim that your injuries either aren’t real or aren’t as severe as you say.
Some of the most effective evidence for proving you suffered a whiplash injury after a car accident include:
- Your medical records detailing your injuries and the treatments your doctor prescribed for them
- Medical imaging that rules out other types of injuries as the cause of your symptoms
- Testimony from your treating doctor or other medical professionals about your injury and its symptoms
In addition to medical evidence, it’s important to gather other types of evidence that connect your whiplash to the incident so the insurance company can’t claim that something else caused your injury. Examples of other necessary evidence to collect are:
- Accident scene photographs
- Incident reports
- Eyewitness statements
- Vocational expert testimony
- Traffic or security camera footage
Calculating Compensation for Whiplash Injuries
Calculating the value of your whiplash injuries involves determining your economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages compensate you for the tangible losses you suffered because of your injury, including medical expenses and lost wages. Non-economic damages compensate you for the intangible losses you suffered, including the pain and suffering you experienced and your whiplash injury’s impact on your daily life.
Calculating economic damages involves adding up your medical bills and other expenses. One of the most common ways to calculate non-economic damages is to multiply your economic damages by a number between 1.5 and five, depending on the severity of your injury. The worse your injuries, the higher the number.
Seeking Compensation for Whiplash Through an Auto Insurance Claim
If your whiplash injury was caused by a car or other motor vehicle in an accident, the primary way to seek compensation is through an auto insurance claim. In Georgia, you file your claim with the at-fault driver’s insurer.
In Georgia, all drivers are required to have the following minimum amounts of liability coverage:
- $25,000 per person for bodily injury
- $50,000 per accident for bodily injury
- $25,000 per accident for property damage
Depending on the severity of your injuries and the number of people splitting the insurance money, the compensation you receive may not be enough to cover all your expenses. If this is the case, you may be able to seek additional compensation for your whiplash through an underinsured motorist claim or a personal injury lawsuit.
How Long Do You Have to File a Whiplash Injury Claim in Georgia?
Under Georgia Code Section 9-3-33, whiplash injury victims have two years to file insurance claims or personal injury lawsuits against the parties responsible for the accidents that harmed them. Failing to file your claim or lawsuit within this period will result in the state’s courts barring you from recovering compensation for your injuries.
Contact Our Georgia Whiplash Injury Lawyers
If you suffered a whiplash injury in a Georgia car accident, call Chris Hudson Law Group at (706) 863-6600 or contact us online for a free consultation with a skilled member of our legal team. Our car accident lawyers will review your case, explain your options for seeking the compensation you need, and walk you through the insurance claim process.