You have been in a Kentucky auto accident or car accident where you have been rear ended.  Your neck is hurting.  You are in severe pain.  You’ve been to the emergency room and you have now gone to your family doctor or chiropractor.  He has diagnosed you with a strain/sprain of the neck.  What does this mean?  Well I’m not a doctor but over the course of years of handling personal injury cases and car accident cases, I can tell you that a strain sprain of the neck usually means some sort of ligament damage.  Similar to the ACL which holds your knee, in place there are ligaments that hold your vertebrates in place throughout your back.  These ligaments can be stretched during an auto accident just as a football player would stretch or tear the ligaments of his knee.  How severe your auto accident neck injury is depends on what grade of strain sprain strain that you have.  There are three grades:  

• Grade 1 is the over stretching of the ligament.
• Grade 2 is a partial tearing of the ligament.  This may or may not heal.  If it does heal there will be scar tissue that forms.  This is considered a permanent change in the ligament structure and lead to some instability around the vertebrae or the joint.
• Grade 3 this is a complete tear of the ligament and can require surgery.  This leaves the joint area very unstable.  This is a permanent injury.

            When you receive a strain sprain diagnosis from your doctor ask him exactly what this means.  Ask your doctor to clarify whether or not this is a permanent injury and what grade it is.  This will have a direct effect on your physical recovery and your financial recovery in your Kentucky automobile accident case.

One of the most common car accident cases that walk into my office is what is commonly called “whiplash”. You will also hear them referred to as a soft tissue injury or a sprain/strain. These are the most difficult cases to prove in a  Kentucky court or to convince an insurance adjuster to pay what one would consider a reasonable amount. Kentucky accident victims suffering from these injuries are hurt, they are in pain and the injury is having a detrimental affect on their quality of life. If people are hurt why are these cases so difficult?

There are a number of factors:

·        There are no tests that easily show a whiplash injury.

·        Someone can easily fake this injury because the complaints are subjective.

·        Insurance companies have been successful in denying these claims.

·        There is often little property damage involved in the accident.

·        The accident victim thought the pain would go away so they didn’t go to the doctor.

·        When they did go to the doctor they went to someone that did not have an expertise in this type of injury.

·        Juries of suspicious of what they cannot see.

So how can an accident victim who has a whiplash injury get a reasonable settlement for their injury? Unfortunately there is no way to guarantee an outcome. What you can do is take steps that will give you the best chance for a satisfactory outcome. Some of these steps are:

·        Get checked out by a qualified doctor immediately.

·        Follow your care plan.

·        Document your complaints. Take pictures of the damage to your car.

·        Be careful what you say to the insurance company.

·        Speak with an attorney that concentrates in car accident cases to answer your questions. Most give a free consultation.

·        Be completely honest about your pain and injury.

I could go on for ever about what to do and not to do in an accident case. In fact I have! I wrote a book entitled “7 Potholes That Can Wreck Your Kentucky Accident Case”. If you have been injured in an accident in Kentucky and would like more information on the process click the link on the right I will be happy to send you a copy at no charge.