Keeping Insurance Companies Honest About Whiplash | Newsletter October 2013

One of the most common injuries in a car accident is a so-called “whiplash” injury. Because these injuries can be slow in developing, insurance companies often try to take advantage of your whiplash injury to deny you payment. That’s why you need the Law Offices of Dianne Sawaya.

I call whiplash “so-called” because whiplash is not a medical term. In an accident that causes whiplash – typically when you are rear-ended – you suffer what is called cervical hyperextension (when your head is thrown back) and cervical hyperflexion (when it is thrown forward). If your head is turned to one side instead of facing straight forward when you are crashed into, your neck injuries can be much worse.

Generally it takes from a day to several days for the extent of a neck injury to become apparent. For that reason, many people who have been rear-ended don’t address their injury right away. That can be a mistake – and that’s where the insurance companies pounce.

Because you may not realize the extent of your injuries and delay seeing a doctor, the insurance company will try to claim that there is no connection between your symptoms and your neck injury. Also, the speed of the impact or the damage to your car isn’t a good guide to the severity of your injury. Low-speed crashes can do as much damage as one at high speed. But we regularly hear insurers say, “Look, there’s almost no damage to the car. Your client can’t possibly have been hurt that much.”

Insurance companies will try anything to get out of paying you what you deserve. If you’ve been hurt in a rear­end collision and think you have a neck injury, give me a call today. We’ll get to the bottom of it, help protect you from the games insurance companies play and get you the money you deserve.

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