Miami motor vehicle accidents are very terrible experiences. This is because of the trail of injuries and property damage they leave in their trail. One such dangerous injury is whiplash. It’s an injury to the neck with severe consequences, yet not easy to notice.

If you sustain whiplash injuries in a Miami crash, it’ll be best to speak to a car accident lawyer. They can help you get compensation for your losses from the injury. Proceeding on your own may be unwise since you may not know exactly how much you deserve for whiplash.

What Is Whiplash?

Whiplash is an injury that occurs when a person’s head forcefully moves backward and forward. The forceful jerk stretches the soft tissues of your neck beyond their usual motion ranges. The extra strain may cause a sprain or tear to your neck, which is a severe injury.

Causes of Whiplash

Any accident or collision that causes sudden forceful movements can cause whiplash injuries. For instance, whiplashes are very common in rear-end accidents. This is because the impact causes the car behind to jerk the other vehicle forward forcefully.

Other causes of whiplash include:

• Car accidents
• Horse riding accidents
• Slip and falls
• Cycling accidents
• Blunt trauma to the head
• Physical abuse, especially assaults
• Sporting accidents

What Are the Symptoms of Whiplash?

If you’re ever in any of the accidents above, you should check if you have whiplash. However, whiplash injuries don’t always appear after a crash. It may take a day or two to notice that you have any such wounds. Therefore, it would be best to look out for the following signs:

• Neck pain or stiffness
• Inability to move your neck
• Irritability
• Dizziness and fatigue
• Memory problems
• Blurred vision
• Sleeping problems
• Severe back and shoulder pain
• Headaches

How Much Can I Get for Whiplash?

There’s no fixed amount of damages for whiplash in Miami. Rather, many factors affect how much money you can get. Some of such factors include:

• The extent of your injuries
• Cost of medical treatment
• Lost wages

Injuries

The severity of your wounds always impacts the amount of compensation you can collect. Therefore, the worse your injuries, the more you get. Furthermore, if you sustain more injuries than whiplash, you’ll also get a higher payout.

Again, whether you’ll require future medical attention plays a great role. An excellent lawyer will consider this in calculating the damages to ask for. Finally, if the injury leads to permanent disability, you’ll also be eligible for a higher settlement.

Medical Costs

The severity of your injuries directly impacts your medical costs. For instance, if you require only a slight medical examination at the point of injury, your settlement will be low. However, if your neck requires surgical repair, you can claim a higher amount. You’ll need your medical records to prove how much you already spent on medical treatment. Furthermore, if you require future medical attention, your lawyer should also calculate and add the bill.

Lost Wages

Whiplash may affect your effectiveness at work. So, you may have to stay home for a while. If it wasn’t a work injury, your employer might have no responsibility to retain you on pay. The inevitable implication is that you’ll lose your earnings for a while.

Thankfully, you can recover all lost wages. You’ll need your employment documents to prove this loss type. The preceding would include your previous paychecks and employment letter.

Calculating Your Whiplash Payout

To determine how much you deserve for your injury, your attorney will calculate your general and specific damages together. Special damages are those losses you can easily tie to a specific dollar amount. It includes medical care and lost wages. Conversely, you can’t easily place a dollar amount on general damages because they’re intangible losses. These include pain and suffering and any psychological effects of your injury.

Miami Personal Injury Attorneys Can Get You Fair Compensation

If you’ve sustained whiplash injuries in a Miami auto accident, you may be eligible for damages. You can recover compensation from your insurance carrier because Florida is a no-fault insurance state. This means that you can’t immediately sue the fault party for your losses.

However, if you suffer a serious injury, you can go beyond your insurance policy. You can now file a third-party insurance claim against the responsible party. For these processes, it’ll be best to hire the best Miami personal injury attorneys. 

We can get you the right amount of compensation for your injuries. Therefore, it’ll help to call us today for a consultation on your case.