We represent local victims who are struck by reckless drivers and left with painful neck injuries. If you have suffered whiplash or any serious neck or vertebrae injury, contact us for a free consultation.
You can find out more about how we can earn more for car accident victims on our Bakersfield Car Accident Lawyer page.
How to Tell If You Need a Car Accident Lawyer After Suffering Whiplash
The question of whether you need a lawyer for your case is often answered by how long it takes you to heal and the size of your medical bills. If your pain goes away in a few days and you only have car repair bills to consider, you can probably handle your own claim just fine.
But when whiplash is serious, or you endure spinal column damage in the neck, your cost of care will go up. This creates a chain reaction with the at-fault driver’s car insurance provider, leaving them frantic to hit the brakes on your settlement check.
A lawyer can come to your rescue and present evidence when insurers attempt to falsely blame you for the accident. Once the matter of fault is settled, your lawyer begins work securing the maximum in compensation from the insurance company. You could use every cent you can to pay bills now and cover any care you could potentially need down the road.
These are a few of the types of injuries that may leave you in need of a lawyer:
- A whiplash diagnosis with pain that lingers more than a few days
- A vertebra is fractured in your neck
- You suffer a herniated disk between your vertebrae
- You suffer serious tendon, ligament, or muscle damage in the neck
- You experience paralysis in your limbs
- Your child or another family member suffers a serious neck injury in an accident
California permits car accident victims to file claims themselves, without a lawyer. But when your medical bills are expensive, you may need care for weeks or months, a lawyer can provide a strong safeguard and add value to your case.
Take Advantage of a Free Case Consultation After a Bakersfield Accident
If you’re not sure if your whiplash is serious enough to file a claim over, there’s an easy, no-risk way to find out. Contact us for a free case consultation.
Let’s go over your options and how much your neck injury could be worth. The answer may be a lot different from what an insurance adjuster is letting on.
Even if your case doesn’t require a lawyer’s help, we still want to prepare you for the tactics insurance companies may try to unleash if you file yourself. We want you to have the best outcome for your case, even if you don’t end up needing our help.
Determining How Much You Should Receive in Compensation
The severity of your injuries will also play a big role in setting the value for your settlement check. The longer you take to heal and the longer you must receive medical care, the higher your medical bills will go. These economic damages can be easily totaled and demanded from a car insurance company.
The longer your neck is stiff and painful, the longer you may be unable to fulfill your job duties. You may not even be able to earn a full paycheck. Any income you lose out on must also factor into the settlement offer you receive.
Your lawyer would consider these factors when determining how much to demand on your behalf.
These damages and others must be acknowledged in a settlement offer, or your attorney would reject it and demand more.
Your lawyer would fight to make sure these hardships and others were compensated:
- The total on all your current medical bills
- The total estimate for any care you could require in the future
- Estimates on a lifetime of care if you must live with a permanent physical disability
- Support for the physical pain you experience
- Support for the emotional trauma you must cope with
- Support for the loss of enjoyment of life caused by a serious injury
- Support for the income you may lose while down with an injury
- Support to help you find a new career if an injury keeps you out of your former job or profession
Complications from Whiplash in a Car Accident
Bakersfield motorists can be struck from nearly any direction along busy routes, like Truxtun Avenue and Niles Street. Any impact can snap the head and neck back and forth, stretching muscles and tendons, and putting dangerous stress on the spinal column. This motion and strain can result in a condition known as whiplash.
Whiplash most commonly appears after a rear-end collision, but victims in all types of impact angles are at risk.
Victims often must deal with restricted motion and a lot of pain. It can make simple tasks like picking up a child or even driving again very difficult.
Johns Hopkins Medicine reports on the classic symptoms of whiplash:
- Neck stiffness
- Pain when moving the neck
- Reduced range of motion
- Pain experienced in the shoulders and back
- Headaches
- Numbness in the arms and hands
Victims may be forced to wear a neck collar and take anti-inflammatory and pain medication, as well as muscle relaxants. Expensive physical therapy sessions might also be ordered.
Many victims see pain go away in a few weeks. But if the injury involves damage to the vertebrae, surgery could be required. Some victims could be dealing with pain the rest of their lives.
Each possibility must be explored and costs estimated so that victims don’t accept a quick insurance settlement only to find out they’ll need support for months or years. A skilled attorney works with doctors to make sure clients receive the support they’ll need for as long as necessary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Should I Do at the Accident Scene?
Check on everyone’s condition if your neck injury allows it. Dial 911 and request an ambulance if you or anyone else is hurt. Then, once the scene is secure, try to collect some important details for your case. Get photos of the damage to the vehicles, your injuries, and the entire location. Get witness contact information. Give officers a full account of what happened so they can write up an accurate accident report.
How long do I have to file a car accident claim?
Car accident victims have up to two years to seek injury compensation. But waiting months or years to speak to a lawyer isn’t the best idea. Contact a car accident lawyer as soon as possible. If you’ll need a legal representative for your case, your lawyer will want to get started immediately investigating what happened. It’s important to get these details before evidence can disappear and witnesses become harder to track down.
What if I need a car accident lawyer but can’t afford to pay one?
After a frightening accident, you probably won’t be in the best financial shape of your life. That’s okay, because you won’t need it to hire Maison Law Accident & Injury Lawyers. You don’t pay us anything unless your case is successful. Then, if we win, our pay comes out of the settlement check that a car insurance company must send you.
Contact a Bakersfield Whiplash Injury Lawyer
If you have a serious neck injury after a crash on a Bakersfield street, and another driver caused the collision, contact us to schedule a free consultation. It’s a confidential, no-obligation review of your case with a real, local attorney.
If we need to represent you against a giant insurance company, we’ll do so with as little disruption to your life as possible. We’ll handle the frustrating insurance claims process while giving you the time to focus on healing.