If you have suffered whiplash, then you have suffered a personal injury and so you may be entitled to raise a personal injury claim for compensation. For help at this stage call 01252354412 or fill out the online form at the top of this page.
If you are attempting to raise a claim for compensation having suffered whiplash, you will need to follow a set of well-established rules and processes under UK personal injury law. Any personal injury claim is centred on demonstrating to a court that you were owed a duty by someone else not to be exposed to harm, and that they failed to discharge this duty. In effect, you will need to be able to demonstrate that someone was negligent.
Demonstrating negligence is not a particularly easy process, and involves two things being proved:
- The existence of a duty of care that was owed to you.
Whiplash injuries tend to originate from car or road traffic accidents. In most cases, it can be easy to show that you were owed a duty of care by other drivers. In the UK, all road users – car drivers, bus drivers, motorbike drivers etc. – are all expected to drive with ordinary care and skill, and not to do anything that is likely to result in someone else suffering harm e.g. whiplash.
The situation would be slightly different if your whiplash resulted from a trip or fall in a public place, e.g. park or a pavement. Generally it is the responsibility of the local authority to maintain all public places. Therefore they will owe a duty of care to all members of the public.
- Evidence that the duty of care owed to you was not honoured.
Establishing that the duty of care owed to you was not honoured is often the more difficult task. This is where you will have to establish negligence on the part of the person that your claim is against.
It is important to be aware that no court will easily find that someone has been negligent. There must be clear evidence that another person’s actions made a material contribution to your being injured and suffering whiplash.
In the context of road traffic accidents, it can be helpful in proving negligence if you can evidence a breach of the Highway Code on the part of the Defender. The situation is slightly more complex when dealing with whiplash resulting from trips or falls in public places. Those claims will need to demonstrate to a court that the local authority having responsibility for the area, had allowed it to fall into such a condition such as to cause someone to suffer injury.