How Whiplash Related Injuries are Valued in a Car Accident Settlement

What is the settlement value of a whiplash injury case in the Atlanta area? This guide discusses how Georgia personal injury lawyers value and prove neck injury and whiplash claims.

Key Points:

• How fast you seek medical attention after an accident that causes whiplash can significantly impact the value of the settlement you receive.
• In determining the settlement, things like the total amount of past medical expenses, anticipated costs of future care, and the permanence of your injury all impact the amount you might be entitled to.
• Severe whiplash injuries that result in permanent damage typically receive higher settlements as compared to sprains or strains that can be recovered from.
• After a car accident, it’s the victim’s responsibility to prove the cause of their injury and its expected duration.
• In Atlanta, both accident attorneys and insurance adjusters often rely on Jury Verdict Research to assess and negotiate the value of a particular case.

Table of Contents

A Quick Guide to Understanding Whiplash

Whiplash is a common neck injury caused by a forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck, resembling the cracking of a whip. Whiplash mostly affects the soft tissues of the neck, like muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and car accidents (especially rear-end collisions) are the primary cause of whiplash.

An accident’s sudden impact causes the head to jerk forward and backward so abruptly that the intense motion can strain or even tear the neck’s soft tissues. This causes problems including pain, stiffness, and reduced range of motion.

While most people recover easily from whiplash with quick and appropriate treatment, sometimes the injury ends up causing chronic discomfort. It’s important to seek immediate medical attention after a suspected whiplash injury to increase your odds of optimal recovery and management.

Understanding the Medical Costs of a Whiplash Injury

Auto insurance companies often try to downplay the severity of whiplash because it’s the most common car accident-related injury. But, because the medical costs to treat whiplash can sometimes be upwards of thousands of dollars, it’s important not to underestimate the severity of whiplash or its impact.

Some of the potential medical expenses related to a whiplash injury can include:

• Initial Emergency Care: Immediately after the accident, victims might go to an emergency room or urgent care center for triage and consultation, imaging tests including X-rays or CT scans, pain management medications, and more – all of which can be very costly.
• Doctor’s Visits: Regular consultations with primary care physicians or specialists can accumulate costs, especially if multiple follow-ups are required.
• Specialist Appointments: Depending on the severity of the victim’s injury, they might need to be referred to a specialist like an orthopedic surgeon, neurologist, or pain management specialist.
• Physical Therapy: Whiplash victims are often encouraged to see a physical therapist in order to restore mobility and strength. These sessions, along with special equipment or tools needed for therapy and home exercise equipment or kits, can quickly add up in expenses!
• Medications: To treat the pain associated with whiplash, victims are often prescribed over-the-counter pain relievers and anti-inflammatories, prescription painkillers, muscle relaxants, or nerve pain medications. Sometimes, side effects or complications from the medications can further increase the costs associated with care.
• Imaging and Diagnostic Tests: Often, expensive medical tests are needed to diagnose and assess the severity of whiplash accurately. These procedures can include MRI scans to evaluate soft tissue damage and electromyography (EMG) to assess nerve function.
• Alternative Therapies: Patients will sometimes explore alternative treatments for their pain relief and healing, including chiropractic care, acupuncture, and massage therapy.
• Medical Equipment: Victims of car accident-related whiplash will often need to use supportive medical devices like neck braces or collars, as well as heat or cold packs.
• Surgical Interventions: In rare cases where whiplash is so severe that it necessitates surgical procedures, victims will have significantly higher costs of care for things like the surgery itself, the hospital stay, and post-operative care and medications.
• Long-Term Care: Chronic issues resulting from whiplash might require ongoing medical support for the victim, and that can lead to accumulated costs associated with periodic check-ups, long-term medication or pain management, ongoing physical therapy, occupational therapy, and more.

When You’re Not at Fault, Auto Insurance Companies Should Pay to Cover Your Medical Expenses

Because whiplash is often a subtle injury that isn’t discovered at the scene of the accident, if it isn’t quickly diagnosed by a medical professional, the at-fault driver’s insurance company might not even be aware of your pain and related medical expenses.

Since insurance companies base their settlement claim valuations on what was identified at the scene of the accident, they might issue a check that only covers basic damages and completely overlook the comprehensive costs associated with whiplash. So, it’s important not to accept their initial offer! Instead, make sure that all of your medical needs (and the associated expenses) are both thoroughly addressed and compensated for.

How Do You Get the Auto Insurance Company to Pay for a Whiplash Injury

To make sure you receive the compensation you deserve after an accident, it’s important to understand the necessary steps of submitting a claim and providing adequate evidence of your injury to the auto insurance company.

Avoid Accepting the Initial First Check

Accepting (and cashing) the first check offered by the at-fault driver’s insurance company implies that you approve of settling for that amount, which potentially forfeits your chance to receive any additional compensation even if other complications or injuries present later. Considering whiplash symptoms might not be immediately evident at the accident site itself, insurance companies often use this strategy because they’re hoping victims will accept the initial offer and they won’t have to pay out more later.

Receive a Comprehensive Medical Exam

To prove the authenticity and origin of an injury, including whiplash, and to have the strongest evidence for your claim, you’ll need a comprehensive, in-depth medical exam.

Simply stating your symptoms isn’t enough to prove whiplash; the examination and associated medical reports must unequivocally indicate injury to the neck due to the forceful back-and-forth motion typical of a car accident.

It’s recommended to have your examination within a week of the accident. Prolonged delays could lead insurance companies to doubt the accident as the injury’s cause. And, if medical experts aren’t able to identify any injury, securing additional compensation becomes considerably more challenging, if not impossible.

Proving That the Car Accident Wasn’t Your Fault

To maximize your compensation after a car accident, once you have a medical professional establish that it was the cause of your injuries, you’ll need to demonstrate that the accident wasn’t your fault.

Although it might be obvious you were injured, the amount of compensation you receive largely hinges on being able to prove the other driver’s liability. Hiring an experienced car accident lawyer like the team at The Millar Law Firm can help in these situations since they can assist with collecting the necessary evidence to prove fault.

Accurately Calculate the Cost of the Accident

After establishing the injuries and fault, it’s essential to calculate the total financial burden of the accident in detail otherwise the insurance company might overlook or even intentionally ignore the cumulative costs. Therefore, enlisting a lawyer’s assistance can ensure these expenses are accurately documented in a demand letter.

When a car accident causes whiplash, the victim’s expenses can include both immediate and future medical bills, lost wages, and potential future treatments or therapy. Additionally, you might want to consider seeking compensation for your pain and suffering, costs for physical therapy or chiropractic treatments, necessary medications, adaptive equipment, and any decrease in future earning capacity.

Documenting all these expenses meticulously and consulting with a professional to ensure comprehensive compensation is essential!

Historic Whiplash Settlement Values

The Millar Law Firm regularly analyzes surveys of case settlements and jury verdict outcomes from all over the state of Georgia, including the Atlanta metro area, to accurately assess and determine equitable case values. We’ve found that, based on reported settlements and verdicts from 2000 to 2020, the typical whiplash settlement amount in Georgia ranged from $25,000 to $35,000.

Surprisingly, the average whiplash settlement in Georgia actually exceeded the median amount awarded, but this is because the average incorporates the most extreme and catastrophic cases, often involving severe, permanent injuries from car accidents that necessitate surgery.

Contrastingly, the median settlement amount includes minor cases that might only require chiropractic care or conservative treatments and therefore reflects a much broader spectrum.

Whiplash Settlement Frequently Asked Questions

If Whiplash is a Long-Term Injury, Will I Get a Higher Settlement?

In general, yes, but other still several other factors that come into play that make a long-term whiplash injury settlement amount increase or decrease.

If the whiplash injury is severe enough that it requires substantial and prolonged treatment, it’s true that a higher settlement amount is more likely to be received. However, if you happen to have a history of the same whiplash-type injury, or neck pain before the accident happened, the insurance company will likely offer a lower settlement amount. In these cases, you have a choice to file a lawsuit and let a jury determine the actual value of your claim.

In general, a more severe and long-term injury will likely result in a higher settlement offer, but only if you have the medical evidence to support your case!

What Do You do if the Car Insurance Company Challenges Your Claim of a Whiplash Injury?

If the at-fault driver’s car insurance company challenges or rejects your claim of a whiplash injury, you do have choices! If you and your accident attorney can prove your injury with compelling evidence and the insurance company still won’t cooperate, litigation might be a good option.

Similarly, you can strengthen your case with beneficial additional information like detailed X-rays, expert medical opinions, and recommendations beyond just the routine medical bills.

Can you Receive More Compensation for Whiplash if it’s a Permanent Injury?

Yes, the compensation for a whiplash injury can significantly increase if it’s determined to be permanent. In general, the value of a claim is based on factors like current medical bills and the cost of anticipated future care, so, if the whiplash injury is permanent, its valuation can be substantially higher.

The inability to recover fully can involve needing continuous treatments, possible surgeries, or prolonged therapies, all of which increase the total possible compensation amount. For cases that involve permanent injuries, expert medical opinions might be needed to definitively establish a direct link between the accident and the sustained injury and to clarify the long-term impacts. In these situations, compensation can range from thousands to even hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the injury’s impact and the associated costs.

Additionally, temporary whiplash injuries, which often lead to full recovery, might still warrant compensation above the immediate medical expenses, based on the injury’s severity.

If a Whiplash Injury from a Car Accident puts you out of Work for a While, Can that Increase the Settlement Value?

Yes! If a whiplash injury from a car accident causes you to be unable to work for a period of time, it can increase the settlement amount you receive since lost wages are a key component of determining the value of the compensation. If you’re unable to work because of the injury, you are entitled to recover the wages you would have earned during that time.

Additionally, if the injury affects your ability to earn in the future, or if it forces you to have to make a change in your career or capacity to work, you might also be entitled to more compensation for future lost earnings or diminished earning capacity as a result. When seeking a settlement, thoroughly document your lost wages and any potential future wage losses to ensure fair compensation.

If I cause a car accident and suffer from whiplash, will my auto or health insurance cover the related expenses?

If you’ve caused the accident and suffer from whiplash, whether or not you’ll be covered really depends on the type of insurance policy that you have.

Auto Insurance: Most auto insurance policies come with a component known as Personal Injury Protection (PIP), which is designed to pay for medical expenses regardless of who’s at fault in the accident. So, if you have PIP as part of your auto insurance policy, it can cover your medical bills up to the policy limits – even if you’re the one at fault.

Health Insurance: If your auto insurance doesn’t cover all of your medical expenses, or if you don’t have PIP, you may be able to use your health insurance to cover the remainder. However, it’s essential to note that your health insurance company might seek reimbursement if your auto insurance company pays for any portion of the medical bills.

Lack of Insurance Coverage is One Challenge Whiplash Victims Deal With

In any personal injury case, having lots of evidence and proof to back up your claim is always important. But if there isn’t enough insurance coverage, all the evidence in the world might not help much…

When trying to get money for your injuries, it matters how much insurance the other driver has and, unfortunately, in Georgia, the required car insurance amount is pretty low.

However, there’s still some good news for people with whiplash: the insurance that drivers must have in Georgia usually covers whiplash injuries. But if the driver who caused the accident doesn’t have car insurance, it can be hard for the injured person to get any money.

In either case, working with an experienced accident attorney or team like The Millar Law Firm can help you receive the most favorable outcome possible.