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.

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.

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.

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

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.

It is this second excuse that is the dangerous one with regards to whiplash. We all have a tendency to make elaborate excuses to avoid facing situations head on, because, frankly it is just not very “British” to do so. None of us want to make a mountain out of a mole hill and God forbid we induce a situation of social awkwardness, shudder to think of it. Ironically, in the long run, especially with medical issues, the mole hill will become a mountain purely down to our own stubborn inactivity. This is why you should get proactive about the symptoms of whiplash as soon as possible.

Whiplash can be extremely painful if left untreated and in some cases it can leave you with bad back or neck pain for years and even for life. For once, call the doctor, and get some expert advice. You may need a physiotherapist to help you get your movement and comfort levels back to normal. After you’ve done this, if the whiplash was incurred through no fault of your own, you might want to consider contacting a solicitor.

There are currently a lot of articles in the media surrounding whiplash, especially surrounding the rising rates in whiplash claims and dually, the rising rates in fraudulent whiplash claims. Alarm bells should start ringing here because it is our inherent tendency to err towards inactivity that these articles are playing on. If you are genuinely suffering from whiplash, do not be put off in fear of an accusation of a fraudulent claim. This is just not likely; the frauds are weeded out because they are just that. Frauds. The solicitors specialising in whiplash claims nowadays are highly specialised, as are the legal doctors you will encounter if you pursue a claim. This rising rates are actually to your advantage. Equally heightening amounts of claims should not deter you; you deserve compensation just as much as the next person. Raised rates are in line with raised awareness of what you can receive and what you deserve.

Maybe we should take a leaf out of the American’s book on this one: causing a fuss really is necessary when it comes to whiplash.

However, when you have a justice minister, in the form of Jonathan Djanogly, giving a speech at an insurance industry conference and saying that whilst the Government is forging ahead with the changes to the legal system to make it much less fair for innocently injured members of the public to claim and therefore easier for insurers to fight claims made against them, he is doing this on the basis that insurers will reduce car insurance premiums once the new system is in place! Pah! Balloney! Nonsense! There is more chance of Barcelona playing a long ball football game, or of an insurance comparison website bringing out an advertisement which is not massively annoying.

If the Government seriously believes that insurers will drop premiums when they put in place systems to make claiming much harder and more costly for the victim, they are in for a rude awakening. Now I know this industry well, but it makes me wonder how often in other sectors the Government makes policy and decisions based on pure hot air, or how much money an industry pays to support them. I don’t like to dwell on it too long as I still believe that ultimately the Government is trying to do the right thing, but when you read Bernie Ecclestone’s book “No Angel” and you hear other stories about money changing hands in return for more favourable policies, you do start to worry…

A whiplash injury is caused during the course of a road traffic accident where the impact of the collision causes the head and neck to be thrown suddenly and forcefully back and forth causing the soft-tissue and ligaments in the neck to be stretched beyond their normal range of movement. It may not be immediately apparent that you have sustained a whiplash injury and many people walk away from minor road traffic accidents thinking, incorrectly, that have been unharmed. The symptoms of a whiplash injury often take several hours or even several days to develop and when they do appear you may start to feel pain, stiffness and discomfort in your neck, shoulders and upper back, headaches, restricted movement in your neck, nausea and lethargy.

As soon as you become aware that you may be suffering from a whiplash injury you should seek medical advice from either your GP or your local Accident & Emergency department. The medical staff will be able to confirm a diagnosis of your whiplash injury (and, hopefully, rule out anything more serious) and advise you on an appropriate course of treatment.

Treatment options may include strong painkillers, gentle mobility exercises and even a course of physiotherapy (depending on the severity of your injury). Surgical collars are rarely prescribed for whiplash injuries nowadays as they are thought to be more of a hindrance than a help.

In order to ensure that you recover from your whiplash injury as quickly as possible it is important to follow the medical advice you have been given and complete any course of treatment which has been prescribed to you.

If you have sustained a whiplash injury in an accident which was caused through no fault of your own, our expert Loyalty Law whiplash solicitors are here to help you. Call us today on 0800 142 2775 for a free, no obligation consultation.

Nicholas Jervis, Solicitor (non-practising) and Managing Director of Whiplash Claim Specialists Loyalty Law

Below is what might happened at a meeting that may or may not have happened three or four years ago in the hallowed offices of the Association Of British Insurer’s (ABI) about whiplash claims and a long term plan to lead to the Government’s plans today to curb whiplash claims (and with no thought of the innocent accident victim in the process).

“Right, welcome to you all. It is nice to see all of our major insurance companies represented today on what I know will be an interesting debate.

Now as you know the purpose of this meeting is to determine how we can make more profits from motor insurance policies. So does anyone want to start the ball rolling?”

Following lots of murmuring one of the representatives from a leading insurance company jumps up out his seat and exclaims:

“I have got it! Let’s make more people claim for whiplash!”

“Are you insane, replied another insurance company representative, “that will only ending up costing us lots more money in whiplash compensation payouts and also legal fees. Why one earth would we want to do that?”

Picking up on the idea of the first insurer another one started to run with it. “Oh I see what you are saying is this; if we make more of our insured claim for whiplash AND then when we refer our insured to a solicitor we charge the solicitors more and more to represent our insured by way of a referral fee we can make some extra money. However, isn’t a problem that whilst on the one hand we receive the referral fees from the solicitors, on the other hand we also will be settling more insurance claims for whiplash under our own policies?”

“Yes, that is a part of it, but let me come back to that” said the first insurer whose idea they were discussing.

“This is how I see this working” he continued. “When any of our insured have an accident who do we force them to call us in the overwhelming fear that if they fail to do so we will void their policy and pay them nothing? So they have to call us for fear of non payment, even if they are not at fault, so we will always be the first port of call after an accident. So we have complete control over any potential whiplash claims not only from our insured but we can also find out if there were any passengers in the vehicle too.”

“Whilst I hear what you say" said a young insurer in the room, "we can’t actually force our insured and their passengers to claim whiplash compensation can we?"

“Well not quite,” replied the lead insurer, “but what do you think our insured will do if we constantly call them offering them easy money for doing nothing? They won’t be able to resist eventually. We will just keep dangling a few thousand pounds under their nose by calling them at least four or five times after the accident and they will eventually give in.”

“But what about our insured? Don’t we owe them a service or a duty” came the response from the young insurer?

“What do you mean” carried on the leader of the conversation? “The whole basis of our business model is to take an insurance premium from our insured and then when they need to claim do all that we can to avoid paying them so that we can increase our profits. Our business interests always come before the needs of our insured. Besides, they will be getting a couple of thousand pounds for their injury so we will be doing them a favour – well until we persuade the government to close the door on whiplash claims that is!”

This prompted the first insurer to reply now came back to his original point about increasing the cost of compensation. “Ok I can now see how we can make this work, but I still can’t get over the fact that ultimately we will still be paying out more for both whiplash compensation claims and also more for referral fees and legal costs, so this is going to cost us a lot more money!”

The lead insurer came back very calmly. “Don’t worry about this, you need to look at the longer term plan. In terms of the referral fees, of course the solicitors actually pay the referral fees out of their fixed costs we managed to pin down to them many years that have not been increased since they were brought in, so they are the ones who lose out when it comes to us putting up our referral fees from £200-300 per insured referred up to £1,000 per referral in the future. So we have nothing to worry about with that one, although of course we will later use the referral fees paid by solicitors as part of the reason why the cost of motor insurance premiums have gone up. The Government won’t understand the detail so we will be able to get that one past them.

However, I do accept that by increasing the number of people making a claim for whiplash compensation we will ultimately have a few years of paying out more compensation and so our motor insurance business will struggle for a few years. However, it will all be worth it. Let me explain why.

If we follow this plan for three or four years, calling our insured and forcefully persuading them to claim when otherwise they would not do so, we will make more and more people claim and in no time at all the UK will be the Whiplash Claims capital of Europe. We can get the media to cry how disgusting this is and then start working on the Government that they must stop this epidemic of whiplash claims. The beauty is that the Government won’t realise we created this artificially high number of people claiming by constantly cold calling our insured and making them claim, but will blame the solicitors as they always do, the claims companies and the victims who were injured. We will just say we are innocent victims in all of this and have been struggling to make a profit on car insurance for years. We will cite how many people we employ in the car insurance sector and that if the Government fails to take action insurance premiums will have to continue to rise dramatically and we will have to make redundancies.”

A wise old insurer replied “So what you are saying is we have three or four years of not making huge profits from Motor insurance but then, when the Government acts to cure this whiplash epidemic which we have created, and bans referral fees AND reduces the fixed costs that are paid to the lawyers, also making it much harder for anyone to claim whiplash compensation, we will then be in a position to make substantial profits for the next 100 years? That is absolutely genius!”

The young insurer was keen to join in with the excitement: “Oh yes that is great, and we could even reduce our insurance premiums too”, he said.

The older insurers looked around the table at each other and smirked: “Oh the young, they have so much to learn…”

“So,” said the chairman of the ABI, “shall we do it then?”

A unanimous “Aye” rang around the room.

If this fictitious discussion did take place, it would have been in or around 2008, and the results of this fictitious plan might just be coming to fruition right about now…….

Please leave your comments in the box below:

Nicholas Jervis

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

Seeking medical advice after an accident, even a minor accident, is incredibly important. As soon as you suspect you may be suffering from a whiplash injury you should seek medical advice from your GP or local Accident & Emergency department so that you can receive advice on how to best treat your injury. A delay in the correct course of treatment for your injury may lead to complications and may ultimately mean that you take a longer time to recover from your injuries that you would have done had you undergone, for example, some gentle mobility exercises or a course of physiotherapy.

Attending upon your GP or local Accident & Emergency department after an accident in which you have sustained a whiplash injury is also important as it helps to evidence the occurrence of the accident. That is to say, following your appointment or attendance in A&E, there will be in existence a record in your medical notes referencing the date, time and circumstances of the accident as well as a description of your injuries. In any subsequent claim for whiplash injury compensation these medical records can be extremely helpful in evidencing the fact that you were injured in the accident and that, as a result, you saw fit to seek medical attention for your injuries.

If, for example, a month (or even six months) has passed since your accident and you have not yet been to see your GP about your injury, you should make an appointment as soon as possible to do so. It is important for your GP to be able to rule out anything more serious than a whiplash injury and to advise you on an appropriate course of treatment for your injury if you are still experiencing symptoms.

You may still be able to make a claim for whiplash injury compensation if you have not been to seek medical advice for your injury. During the course of your claim your solicitor will arrange for you to be examined by an independent medical expert who will examine you and talk to you about your injuries and symptoms before preparing a report detailing the same.

Our expert Loyalty Law solicitors specialise in whiplash injury claims and are here to reassure you about making a claim even if you have not yet been to see your GP. Call us today on 0800 142 2775 for a free, no obligation consultation.