Whiplash is a common soft tissue injury affecting the neck’s muscles, tendons, spinal discs, and nerves. It is caused by sudden accelerations or decelerations that cause the head to whip back and forth, such as in falls, auto accidents, and sports injuries. Whiplash injuries can result in medical bills, lost wages, and significant pain and suffering. Injured victims can seek compensation through a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party with a Summerville whiplash lawyer.
If you suffered a whiplash injury in South Carolina, contact the experienced Summerville car accident lawyers at Murphy Crantford Meehan for a free consultation. We’ll review your case and explain your options for seeking the compensation you deserve. Our Summerville whiplash attorneys will also answer your questions about the legal process to prove the legitimacy of your whiplash injury.
Those suffering from whiplash injuries can experience a broad range of symptoms, including:
You should seek medical attention if you experience any of the symptoms listed above after a car crash, fall, or other accident.
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Seeking medical attention as soon as possible after a possible whiplash injury is not only important for your physical health but also for your potential personal injury lawsuit. Health benefits of early medical intervention include:
Your personal injury lawsuit will also benefit from prompt medical attention in the following ways:
Recovering compensation for whiplash typically involves filing a personal injury lawsuit for damages against the party responsible for the accident that caused your injury. Whiplash lawyers in Summerville can play an integral role in proving fault and securing compensation for whiplash victims. An experienced whiplash lawyer in Summerville can help you through the legal process of seeking the compensation you deserve, including:
Your lawyer will investigate the incident to identify all parties liable for your injury. Some of the most common defendants in whiplash injury lawsuits are negligent motorists and property owners or managers who allowed a hazard, like a wet floor, to remain on their property. Summerville car accident attorneys are skilled in investigating accidents to identify all liable parties.
Your lawyer will gather evidence connecting the at-fault party’s negligence to your injury. This evidence may include security or traffic camera footage, eyewitness statements, expert testimony, and your medical records.
Your lawyer will calculate the compensation sought through your lawsuit under South Carolina law. This includes money for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Your lawyer will file your lawsuit within the three-year deadline outlined in South Carolina’s statute of limitations for personal injury.
Your lawyer will negotiate with the at-fault party’s insurance company and seek a fair settlement that covers all of your losses.
If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, your lawyer will take your case to trial and seek the maximum compensation for your whiplash injury.
Proving you suffered a whiplash injury can be a bit more challenging than proving some other, more visible injuries. Since whiplash affects the soft tissue, it’s often not visible unless there’s extensive bruising present. A Summerville car accident lawyer can help gather the necessary evidence to prove your whiplash injury. Your personal injury attorney will likely use these evidence to prove that your injury occurred, such as:
Your medical records are one of the best pieces of evidence when establishing the validity and severity of your whiplash injury. These records can include your initial diagnosis, the treatments you underwent, and medical images showing the extent of the damage to your soft tissue. While MRIs are the best way to visualize the damage to your muscles and ligaments, your treating physician may also order X-rays or CT scans to check for additional damage to your spinal discs.
Testimony from your treating doctor or another medical professional can be valuable evidence in support of your case. It can be difficult for the at-fault party to push back against testimony provided by a medical professional who has looked at your medical records or examined your injury directly.
After any kind of personal injury, it’s a good idea to keep a pain journal. This is a notebook in which you write down your daily pain levels, how your injury impacts your daily routine, and how you feel emotionally. Your lawyer may use the entries in your pain journal as supporting evidence to show the extent to which your injury disrupts your life.
Whiplash victims can seek compensation for various losses they experience because of their injuries. Some of the most prevalent types of compensation sought in personal injury lawsuits for whiplash include:
Call Murphy Crantford Meehan‘s personal injury lawyers or contact us online for a free case review if you suffered a whiplash injury in Summerville, South Carolina. Our law firm is dedicated to helping Summerville residents secure fair compensation for their whiplash injuries by guiding them through South Carolina’s legal system with our compassion and experience. Contact our Summerville personal injury lawyers at (843) 832-1120 or call us online.
Below, you’ll find answers to some of the most common questions asked by those suffering from whiplash after a personal injury:
Yes, you can still file a lawsuit or insurance claim for whiplash if your symptoms didn’t appear immediately after the car accident that caused your injury. Adrenaline can mask the pain immediately after a car crash, and many whiplash victims only report symptoms like pain or stiffness in the neck days after the incident that caused it. The longer you wait to seek medical treatment and get a formal diagnosis, the more wiggle room the defendant and their insurance company have to try to claim your injury isn’t connected to the accident. However, an experienced whiplash attorney in Summerville can collect the necessary evidence to push back against those claims.
If the at-fault driver’s insurance company denies that whiplash is a legitimate injury, your attorney can use evidence, including MRI images and medical professional testimony, to prove that it is. Fortunately, whiplash is an injury commonly accepted to result from car accidents. That works in your Summerville car accident lawyer‘s favor.
If your whiplash injury results in long-term medical treatment, your lawyer must accurately calculate your future medical expenses. That’s so you don’t run out of compensation for those treatments. To calculate your future medical expenses, your lawyer will typically consider a few factors, including:
The longer your condition is likely to persist, and the more intensive the treatment you’ll need, the more compensation you should seek for your future medical expenses. An accurate assessment requires the assistance of an experienced attorney who has handled cases like yours before.
Yes, you can recover compensation for emotional distress caused by a whiplash injury. Emotional distress falls under the larger umbrella of pain and suffering, for which you can seek compensation. However, to seek compensation for emotional distress, you must have a diagnosis for a condition such as anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). You must be able to connect that diagnosis to the accident that caused your whiplash injury.
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