- I'm going to talk about how much whiplash is worth
in a personal injury case.
Watch the entire video so you can see all the factors
that affect the value of a whiplash case.
I'm attorney Justin Ziegler.
Really quickly, whiplash occurs
when you're in a car accident, for example.
And your neck goes forward and then back.
Whiplash can occur in many other types of accidents.
I'm gonna primarily focus on car accidents, however.
It can also occur in a slip and fall
and many other types of accidents.
The first thing to note for a personal injury case
involving whiplash is the other driver
or a driver needs to be negligent or careless
for you to have a personal injury case.
By personal injury case I mean, one where you may be able
to recover money for pain and suffering.
Your out-of-pocket medical bills
that aren't paid by your own insurance such
as health insurance or PIP and lost wages.
Examples of negligence are if a driver was speeding,
failed to yield the right of way and made a left hand turn
in front of you, improper backing up.
If the other driver or a driver was not careless,
you get zero for pain and suffering and the other damages
that I discuss that your own insurance does not pay for.
If you're looking for a settlement
in a whiplash accident case, you should know
that car insurance companies plays a tremendous amount
of weight on the amount of damage to the vehicle.
For example, if you look at this car right here,
you can see there's zero damage to the back of it.
If you claim that your light has been totally turned
upside down and that you have whiplash, neck pain
from an accident, you're gonna have a very tough time
getting the insurance company
to pay you a good deal of money for your case.
The car insurance companies gonna say,
"We believe that a jury is likely going
to find your whiplash was not caused by the accident.
On the other hand, if you have a tremendous amount
of property damage and the car looks like essentially
like it's been flattened, you're ability to prove
that your whiplash was caused
by the accident is generally gonna be easier.
The sooner that you complain about whiplash
after a car accident, all things equal the easier
it's gonna be that will link the whiplash
to the accident and prove your case.
Someone who takes an ambulance to the hospital
is generally speaking gonna have an easier time proving
that the whiplash was caused by the accident as oppose
to someone who waits four months and their first complaint
of whiplash or neck pain is to a doctor.
Now the law that greatly favors the defendant driver
and the insurance company is in Florida in most
but not all car accident cases, a doctor is going
to need to say that your whiplash is permanent
in order for you to even get one penny
for past or future pain and suffering.
It's a very tough standards.
What happens is when the jury goes to decide your case,
they are asked the question that says,
"Did the claimant suffer a permanent injury
as a result of the accident?"
If the jury checks no,
even if they wanna award you money for pain and suffering,
legally they're not allowed to do it.
Now, insurance adjusters know that this question is asked
so often times in a whiplash case
will send you a letter saying,
"We believe you have a soft tissue injury.
We believe your injury doesn't meet the tort threshold
in order to get money for pain and suffering.
We believe that your injuries not permanent.
And thus we're not offering you anything
for payment suffering or very little."
In car accident cases, the insurance company,
the other sites insurance company is allowed
to hire a doctor to examine you.
Now this normally occurs after a lawsuit has been filed.
That doctor 99% of the time, if you have whiplash,
if that's what your claim is going to say,
"Whiplash normally resolves four
to six weeks after an accident.
It should have already been resolved.
Your injury is not permanent.
Your injury is not related to the accident."
Certain insurance companies for example in Florida,
are known for offering very little amount
of money in whiplash claims.
They have a reputation for doing this
and we routinely see this low offers and then it's up
to that client whether they wanna fine lawsuit
or try to negotiate and get a better offer.
As with any personal injury case including one
with whiplash, the more medical treatment
that you get within reason, increases the full value
of the case and it does this because it increases your
out-of-pocket medical bills.
The doctors are making notes of your paying.
And after all personal injury cases founded
in your pain and suffering can also increase your lost wages
if the doctor says that you're unable to work.
If you get less medical treatment for example,
you don't go to the doctor
or you go to the hospital one time and that's it.
Or just a few doctor visits.
Don't expect to get a whole lot of money for your case.
Now several things can increase the full value
of a whiplash claim.
One of them is if a car rolls over,
if the car that you're in rolls over.
Those cases by the juries are considered more exciting
and interesting and the jury has an easier time all things
equal, accepting the fact that whiplash
or neck pain can be caused by a rollover
as opposed to a minor impact.
This is the actual truck that my client was driving
in a case that settled for $20,000.
His primary complaint was whiplash
yet some other soft tissue problems.
And Progressive happened to be the auto insure
both the at fall parties auto insure who made a left
in front of him and hit him.
And my client's uninsured motorist insure,
my client had uninsured motorist insurance.
The other driver only had up to $10,000
so we then made a claim
against Progressive's uninsured motorist insurance.
And the total settlement was for $20,000.
One of the reasons why Progressive paid
that $20,000 is because it was a roll over crash.
Another fact that can significantly increase the value
of a whiplash claim is if the other driver
caused the accident was arrested for drunk driving.
If he's convicted, it's even better.
The reason being is you can then make a claim
for punitive damages and those damages are designed
to punish the other driver.
They're in addition to your out-to-pocket medical bills,
lost wages and pain and suffering.
And because the other driver's insurance company has a duty
to act in good faith and protect their own insured,
they're more likely to offer extra money
if their insured was drunk.
If that happens you're gonna wanna request a whole DUI file
from the court house and a lot of other documents.
I mentioned in most Florida car accident cases
that if your only claim is for whiplash,
the doctor has to say that your whiplash is permanent
in an order to get money for pain and suffering.
One of the exceptions to this is if you're on a motorcycle.
Another exception is if you're from another state
and you don't have access
to personal injury protection insurance.
In either of those two scenarios,
your whiplash does not need to be permanent
in order to be entitled to recover money
for pain, suffering and mental anguish
and other damages like that.
Although there's no guarantee
large trucking insurance companies are known
for paying higher settlements for whiplash claims.
That's because trucking insurance adjusters are used
to dealing with larger amounts of money.
Juries have a biased against eighteen wheelers.
And also the impact from this accidents
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