Prime Minister: “Now listen here chaps, we really have to do something about this terribly out of hand Whiplash Claims business. There is clearly a compensation culture and we have to nip it in the bud.”

Major: “I don’t like to challenge your process of thought Prime Minister, but if you remember you did ask me to write that report for you, and despite my best endeavours I actually couldn’t find any proof of their being a compensation culture. If you remember I had to say that despite no evidence to prove one, there was a perception of a ‘Compensation Culture’ and perception is reality. Luckily, because those lawyer chappies are such a disparate group no one picked me up on it, amazing really.”

PM: “Yes, well that’s as may be, but let’s not allow the hard evidence to ruin a good story; it has never stopped the tabloids after all”.

Aide: “It all seems rather odd to me. I hear that the insurers have actually created this whole whiplash claims business. They have created a business of farming out their client’s contact details to solicitors who will pay for them because they are not very good at or interested in the marketing of their business generally. So insurers, realising this, started flogging their clients to the highest bidding solicitor. So they sell on their own client’s details to solicitors and they also sell on the other driver’s contact details if their insured collides with someone causing them injury, meaning they will have to pay out more compensation, and yet they keep coming back and telling us that this whiplash claims business is all the solicitors fault. It is a very strange business. I even heard that some insurers put pressure on the solicitors firms that they send all the claims to to settle them quickly because they know this will keep the costs of claims down. I don’t know about you Prime Minister, but if anyone actually presents this hard evidence to us we will struggle to justify our continued blaming of solicitors and the public!”

Major: “It all sounds very fishy to me.”

Prime Minister: “That’s it, Major, you have got it.”

Major: “Let’s keep that between ourselves can we PM, I told you it is getting better”.

PM: No, not that. Fishing is the answer! You are right, we can’t keep blaming the public and solicitors when clearly it is the insurers that are whipping up the Whiplash Claims business into a frenzy.”

Major: “Ah yes, very funny. ‘Whipping up’, I get you.

PM: “What, no major I am not making gags, that was the old Tory party. What I mean is, we should take a leaf out of the Fishing world. Did you see that Monty Halls programme recently. He went on the big trawlers and was bemoaning fishing quotas and how so much fish had to be thrown back into the sea. But let’s not worry about the details; the important thing is the quota part. Let’s bring in quotas for whiplash claims for the insurance companies. Let’s limit the amount of whiplash claims victims the insurers can sell on to solicitors. Then if they catch too many, they will have to throw them back and leave them to their own devices to find a solicitor. But by limiting the insurers from trying to snare innocent members of the public in their nets, the number of whiplash claims will drop dramatically.”

Major: “Ah, yes. It will go back to how it used to be before insurers cold called victims and sold on their details. People will just make a claim if they are genuinely injured. Good idea PM, I think you have hit the mackerel on the snozzle. Now put it back in the sea dear fellow, you have caught more than your fair share this month!”

Please add your comments below, we would love to hear your views:

Nicholas Jervis

Solicitor (non-practising) and Managing Director of Loyalty Law.

I believe that plane safety is one of the things we can be most proud of in the UK. Thankfully there are very few incidences that cause injury to people, and long may that continue. So it was a surprise when Virgin Atlantice flight VS27 from Gatwick to Orlando was forced to return to Gatwick only 20 minutes after taking off due to a fire on the plane. Apparently the fire was not serious or life threatening but clearly the plane had to return. So why were so many people relatively seriously injured when the plane was evacuated at Gatwick?

It sounds like a lot of the problem was panic, from the outsiders point of view. Whilst aircraft crew are trained in evacuations, thankfully as I said due to the good safety records, they rarely have to put this practice into play. So possibly some of the staff panicked, and it sounds as though people evacuated the plane too quickly, bumping into each other at the bottom of the emergency plane evacuation shoots.

In addition to this, apparently the wind may have lifted the shoots off the tarmac, so as people shot off the bottom of them they had a drop to the tarmac. Perhaps these two reasons explain why so many people suffered ankle fractures and spinal injuries.

Can Injured Passengers Claim Compensation From Virgin Atlantic?

In short, the answer is probably ‘yes’! For a person in the UK to be able to claim compensation they must first show that the person or company that they want to claim compensation from (in this case Virgin Atlantic) owed them a duty of care. Clearly on board their plane there is a clear duty of care to each and every passenger.

Next they must show that Virgin Atlantic breached that duty of care. There are two potential causes for breach of duty of care here. The first is the evacuation procedures, and whether they were followed properly. The second is whether the equipment provided for the evacuation, namely the evacuation shoots, were fit for the job. If they did lift off the ground then this may well be grounds for breach of duty of care by Virgin.

Finally, the injured person must show that the breach of any duty of care caused the injury that is the subject of their claim for compensation from Virgin Atlantic. Clearly, if the injury was caused on the evacuation shoot or at the bottom of it, it will be easy to tie that injury to the plane evacuation.

Free Compensation Enquiry

If you were injured on the Virgin Atlantic flight VS27 and would like to find out more about your legal rights, any action you can take (if you choose to) and how we can help with private medical treatment, please call us free on 0800 142 2775 or complete our short Online Enquiry and we will be pleased to explain your options.

What Is Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction?

Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction affects the joints in the jaw. The most prominent symptom is pain around the jaw joint. This can be localised pain at the joint but can also spread to the head, neck, temples, and towards the tragus of the ear.

Typically, symptoms consist of pain, restricted jaw movement and a tense sensation in the joint and surrounding muscles. The joint may also click; this is a possible symptom of Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction when combined with other symptoms, not alone.

The disorder can be caused in a number of ways, including stress, grinding of teeth at night, arthritis, infections, congenital disorders, trauma and more.

Whiplash and Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction

The cause we are concerned with, in the context of whiplash, is trauma. Whiplash trauma is a little known cause of this disorder. Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction can be brought on by whiplash. This may not be the primary injury that comes to mind when you think of whiplash, but it can be long term symptom. Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction does not necessarily present itself immediately after the impact but will present itself over time. It can be extremely painful and irritating for the sufferer.

When a car, and its passengers, experiences a rear shunt, the body is flung forwards then rapidly backwards in a jerking motion. This causes the muscles, disks, bones and ligaments to be stretched out then contracted in a short space of time. This can cause Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction due to the bones and ligaments becoming slightly misaligned, and also due to the muscles tensing up.

What should you do?

If you experiencing this kind of pain after a car crash your first port of call is your GP. First things first, get a medical diagnosis to ascertain whether or not it is Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction you are suffering from and follow the course of treatment that they recommend for you. Secondly, you may be able to claim for compensation if you are suffering from this injury, or any other injury caused by whiplash. If you would like to receive the compensation you deserve and would like advice as to whether your claim is viable and how to go about claiming, contact us today. We can help you at every step of the way.

Call us today on: 0800 142 2775

Or on our Nailsea Office Number: 01275 75 00 44

Alternatively fill in a free online enquiry here. One of our specialist advisors will get back to you as soon as possible. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Legal expenses insurance seems like a brilliant add-on to your current car insurance. I can’t afford a solicitor if I have the misfortune to need one can I? Right? WRONG.

Every legal firm in the UK is able to process your claim on a no win-no fee basis. Their fees will be reclaimed from your winnings. A better legal firm means better winnings. Your insurance company will automatically send your claim to a large firm which they have a business deal with to put forward your injury claim, individuals at these firms deal with up to 300 claims a month as opposed to other firms which deal with 150 a month and have time to get you the compensation you deserve. Is this news to you? This was news to me too. Until I started a new job with a non-practising solicitor I thought I had got a fantastic result from my whiplash claim, £2500 and my legal expenses covered by my insurance. However I now know I could have received up to double that amount if I had gone with a different solicitor.

2 years ago I was involved in a car crash just before southbound junction 25, Taunton, on the M5. The accident was absolutely no fault of my own, whilst driving at a normal speed in the middle lane a silver people carrier merged into the front end of my vehicle without checking his blind spot. The driver was using breathing apparatus and had been advised not to drive by his doctor. The cars stuck together due to the speed of the collision and we swerved left across the three carriageways. We hit the left crash barrier, my vehicle rolling 3 times and landing on its roof in the process. Both vehicles landed on the other side of the barrier. Having climbed out of the window of my vehicle me and one of my passengers were boarded at the scene and taken to hospital. The motorway was closed in both directions for 2 hours. To say the least I was incredibly lucky to only have severe whiplash. There was lack of evidence to convict the other driver of dangerous driving and the case was dropped.

When my insurance company contacted me to say they were putting forward a personal injury claim for me and sending me to a physiotherapist for treatment I was extremely happy, I didn’t think I could afford a lawyer, I was on a gap year and working full time in a pub. I just didn’t have the cash to cover legal expenses. If only I had known what I know now.

I went through the motions, attended my physiotherapy, filled out the forms and went to a legal doctor for a medical assessment. However, my insurance only covered a certain number of physiotherapy sessions. By the final session my back pain was not completely gone but was a lot better than it was so my physiotherapist and I agreed being discharged was probably the best route to take rather than the hassle of claiming for more sessions. Once again, I now know that I could have received more treatment as I was still in pain and still am to this day.

I was told over the phone by my solicitors that they had to get my claim through the courts within a year for me to receive a decent amount of compensation. In reality this was just a means to an end, I believe that they had their own best interests at heart, not mine. An injury claim will only be dropped after 3 years, and even then they can still keep the claim going by issuing a claim through the courts. A few months after being discharged from my physiotherapist my back pain worsened and now a year on my back pain is still an issue. It is sporadic but 2 years after the accident and at only 21 years old I should not be in this much pain on a regular basis. I believe that I should have received £4000 or more for my claim if only I had searched for a different lawyer. I also believe that I could have received more treatment which might have prevented me from suffering pain nearly two years after the accident.

The only bonus of having legal cover included in your car insurance is it saves you the time spent looking for your own lawyer. Personally I would have rather spent a few hours searching for a better solicitor rather than have been short changed almost £2000 and still being in pain. Learn from my costly mistake and don’t let this become your story.

Lucy Forbes

Articles published in the Telegraph in January of this year cried out to us to “Kill the Compensation Culture” and that 6/10 doctors report a rise in fraudulent whiplash injury claims. But do not take heed, and definitely do not be deterred from making a claim if you are genuinely a victim of a whiplash injury.

If you have suffered whiplash you well know how painful the repercussions are, stiff neck, severe back pain, reduced movement. Just because a select few are trying to con the system and get some money when they don’t deserve it; it does not entail that you should not utilise the system to make a legitimate claim. That is what it is there for.

Let’s not back pedal here, to ten or twenty years ago when we were afraid to make a claim regarding any kind of personal injury and when “to sue” was a running joke and only something the Americans did. There is a very valid reason that the number in claims has gone up and that is because people now have the know-how to progress a claim and get their deserved compensation.

No one deserves on going back or neck pain that has been caused by the negligence of a third party. Nowadays the whiplash claims market is diverse and competitive. Most lawyers will offer a no win no fee deal on your claim, or better. You have the licence to shop around as much as you like to find a lawyer who works for you. You want a good dynamic and good a price from your lawyer and now is the perfect time to get it. Specialised solicitors are rife regarding whiplash claims; you are getting a lot more for your time and money than you used to. Whiplash solicitors deal with a multitude of claims day in, day out and truly know how to get the best they can for you.

Don’t miss the boat, this really is the best situation you could be in (minus your whiplash, quite obviously) So get your act together and don’t let the media scare you off, you genuinely have nothing to lose.