Symptoms of Whiplash You Can Not Afford to Ignore

Jed Dietrich, Esq., Is a Recognized Super Lawyer Committed to Protecting the Rights of Car Accident Victims Across the Buffalo-Niagara Falls Region. If You or a Loved One Has Been Hurt in a Buffalo Car Crash That Was Not Your Fault, The Dietrich Law Firm P.C. Could Help You Explore Your Best Options for Effective Legal Relief.

Car accidents have life-altering outcomes, but their consequences are not always self-evident.

After a crash, some injuries are impossible to detect. Whiplash, a recognized medical condition that is caused by the rapid back-and-forth movement of the head and neck, is notorious and, at times, difficult to diagnose. Symptoms can take anywhere between several hours and several days to become apparent. Even when symptoms begin to present, they are often so vague that many accident victims attribute them to a bad night’s sleep or an ordinary headache.

Over time, however, whiplash symptoms can grow progressively worse, making it difficult, if not impossible, to live life without chronic pain and discomfort.

You should not have to suffer for another driver’s mistake. A personal injury lawsuit cannot undo a life-changing injury, but a negotiated settlement or court-ordered award could provide the resources you need to start building back. Since our founding in 2005, the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. has helped our clients in Buffalo and throughout Upstate New York secure more than $300 million in damages. We could help you, too, but you have to act fast. Call Jed Dietrich, Esq., today at 1-716-839-3939 to speak to a whiplash lawyer and find out how much your case could be worth.

Whiplash is a common injury that occurs when the head is subjected to a sudden, strong force that causes it to rapidly move back and forth. It is a complex injury that can affect multiple parts of the body at once, including your:

1. Bones;
2. Muscles;
3. Ligaments;
4. Nerves.

Whiplash has many potential causes, but it is most often associated with rear-end car crashes. Your risk of whiplash is influenced by a wide range of risk factors. High-impact collisions are more likely to lead to whiplash than minor fender-benders, but some studies have found that whiplash can occur at speeds as low as 5 to 15 miles per hour.

Car insurance companies have spent decades trying to malign whiplash, positing it as a make-believe condition used to artificially inflate the value of personal injury claims.

This is not true.

Doctors and hospitals across the country recognize whiplash as a legitimate diagnosis that can take a serious and long-term toll on survivors’ mental health and physical well-being.

A big part of the reason that insurance companies try to cast whiplash diagnoses as controversial is that they are all but impossible to either confirm or validate. Unlike a broken bone or internal organ damage, whiplash cannot be detected through medical imaging or laboratory testing. Instead, doctors base whiplash diagnoses on your description of symptoms.

Whiplash symptoms can vary from person to person and in their overall severity.

Some of the most common symptoms of whiplash include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Stiffness and tenderness in your neck or around the site of a visible injury;
2. Neck pain that spreads through your head, face, and shoulders;
3. Muscle spasms that can make it hard to move your head and neck;
4. Feelings of numbness in the neck and upper back;
5. Burning and tingling sensations in the neck, upper back, shoulders, or upper arms;
6. Recurring headaches, which most often start near the base of the skull;
7. Vision problems that have no obvious cause;
8. A hoarse voice and difficulty swallowing;
9. Dizziness and vertigo;
10. Ringing in the ears (tinnitus).

Some people with whiplash experience non-physical symptoms, including insomnia, depression, and difficulty focusing on routine tasks. Notably, most accident victims who are diagnosed with whiplash do not experience every symptom. Whiplash also tends to have a delayed onset. This means that it can take several hours, days, or weeks for symptoms to become noticeable. You might not notice that anything is wrong in the meantime.

You should never have to pay for an accident that was not your fault.

In New York, car accident victims have a right to file a claim for compensation against the person or party who caused their injuries. Lawyers, judges, and insurance companies use the term “damages” to describe the kinds of compensation available in these claims.

Your damages are dependent on several factors, including, but not limited to, the following:

1. The severity of your injury;
2. The estimated time of recovery;
3. The extent to which your diagnosis has and will continue to impact your overall quality of life.

Damages vary from case to case, but they all tend to fall into the same categories: economic, non-economic, and punitive.

Economic damages compensate verifiable financial losses, such as the money you have spent at the doctor’s office, the income you have lost from work, and the anticipated costs of future or continuing care. Non-economic damages, in contrast, are meant to alleviate subjective forms of pain, suffering, and hardship. Depending on the circumstances of your case, you could be entitled to non-economic damages for emotional pain and suffering, physical pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment, among others.

Punitive damages differ in a key respect. Where economic and non-economic damages are structured to provide compensation for a combination of financial, physical, and emotional hardship, punitive damages are levied solely as punishment against egregiously negligent defendants. This could happen if the other driver intentionally caused the crash or otherwise engaged in some form of extraordinarily reckless behavior.

New York law does not cap damages in most whiplash claims, but that does not mean you should wait to contact a lawyer. Under state law, all personal injury lawsuits are subject to strict statutes of limitations. If you wait too long to contact a lawyer, the statute of limitations applicable to your claim could lapse. Once this happens, the court might dismiss your lawsuit on a technicality, even if all the evidence is on your side.

Do not take chances with your rights: contact the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. today at 1-716-839-3939 to speak to a whiplash car accident lawyer and schedule your 100% free, no-obligation consultation as soon as possible.

Call the Dietrich Law Firm P.C. immediately at 1-716-839-3939 so that our aggressive, tenacious, and hardworking personal injury lawyers can fight to obtain the best result for your personal injury claim in Buffalo, New York. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and there is never a fee until we WIN for you!