By Danielle Nicholson. Last Updated 15h September 2023. You may be wondering, ‘How much do you get for a whiplash claim?’. In this guide we look at the eligibility requirements to make a road traffic accident claim for a whiplash injury.
Minimum whiplash payout
If you are seeking compensation for whiplash, you may need to make your claim in a different way as per changes brought about by the Whiplash Reform Programme. We look at the changes introduced by the whiplash reforms in more detail throughout our guide as well as how they could influence the whiplash payout you could receive.
If you have valid grounds to make a personal injury claim following a road traffic accident, you may wish to instruct a solicitor. We conclude this guide with a look at the benefits of claiming with the support of a No Win No Fee solicitor.
If you need any help or if you would like to get a claim started, our advisors are available around the clock with free advice.
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Select A Section
- Payouts For Whiplash – Evidence That Could Support Your Claim
- Eligibility Criteria When Making Whiplash Compensation Claims
- How Much Is Compensation For Whiplash Worth?
- What Is The Minimum Whiplash Payout For Special Damages?
- Compensation For Whiplash – Claim Time Limits
- What Is The Current Whiplash Payout Scale In The UK?
- Whiplash Injury Compensation – Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
- Minimum Whiplash Payout Claims Information
Payouts For Whiplash – Evidence That Could Support Your Claim
Payouts for whiplash are unlikely to be awarded unless you have sufficient evidence to support your claim. You will need to prove third party negligence caused you injury. A personal injury lawyer specialising in car accident claims could help you gather evidence.
Accident evidence could include:
- Photographs of the scene.
- Dashcam or CCTV footage of the accident.
- A police report.
- Photographs of damage to your vehicle.
- Witness contact details.
Injury evidence could include:
- Medical records.
- Photographs of visible injuries.
Call our advisors to discuss whiplash payouts and what evidence you will require to claim. Alternatively, keep reading for information on the whiplash payout scale in the UK found in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021.
If you would like our advisors to carry out a free assessment of your case, please call the number above today. Our team will advise you about your options and could pass the claim to a personal injury lawyer from our panel. If they decide to work for you, it will be on a No Win No Fee basis.
Eligibility Criteria When Making Whiplash Compensation Claims
All whiplash compensation claims must be able to meet the following criteria for the claim to be valid:
- Another road user owed you a duty of care.
- This road use then breached their duty of care.
- As a result of this, you suffered an injury, such as whiplash. Altogether, this is known as negligence.
Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, road users owe each other a duty of care. Per this duty, they must use the roads in a way that avoids causing harm to themselves and others. Furthermore, they must follow the specific rules set out for them in the Highway Code to promote road safety.
If another road user were to breach this duty of care, this could cause you to suffer an injury, such as whiplash, and you could be eligible to make a whiplash claim. Later in this guide, we will discuss how the process of certain road traffic accident claims has changed with the introduction of the Whiplash Reform Programme.
To find out if you could be eligible to make a personal injury claim or if you have any questions about whiplash injury claims, you can contact our advisors.
How Much Is Compensation For Whiplash Worth?
You might be wondering, ‘How much is compensation for whiplash worth?’ Following the implementation of the Whiplash Reform Programme (WRP), the process of how certain low-valued road traffic accident claims are made in England and Wales changed. You will now need to make your claim via a different avenue if you are over the age of 18 and suffered injuries valued at £5,000 or less as a driver or passenger of a vehicle.
When making your whiplash claim, the amount of compensation you receive will be valued in accordance with the tariff set out in the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021. These are fixed amounts, and we have provided a table below of these listed amounts.
| Duration of injury | Lower | Upper |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 months | £240 | £260 |
| 3 – 6 months | £495 | £520 |
| 6 – 9 months | £840 | £895 |
| 9 – 12 months | £1,320 | £1,390 |
| 12 – 15 months | £2,040 | £2,125 |
| 15 – 18 months | £3,005 | £3,100 |
| 18 – 24 months | £4,215 | £4,345 |
Any additional injuries you have suffered that are not covered by this tariff, you will make your claim via the traditional route. If you make a successful personal injury claim, you will be awarded general damages. This head of claim compensates you for the pain and suffering your injuries have caused you.
The Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) is a document many legal professionals will use to help them when valuing this head of claim. This is because the JCG provided a list of guideline compensation brackets for various injuries. In the table below we have included some of the amounts listed in the 16th edition of the JCG. Please note that these figures should only be used as a guide.
| Type of Injury | Severity | Description | Amount of Compensation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whiplash | One or several whiplash injuries | Symptoms lasting 18-24 months. | £4,215 |
| Whiplash | One or several whiplash injuries | Symptoms lasting 15-18 months. | £3,005 |
| Neck | Severe (i) | A severe neck injury that is associated with incomplete paraplegia, or results in permanent spastic quadriparesis, or the person has very little neck movement despite wearing a collar for 24 hours a day for a few years. | In the region of £148,330 |
| Neck | Severe (ii) | Serious fractures or disc damage in the cervical spine that cause disabilities such as permanent brachial plexus damage. | £65,740 to £130,930 |
| Neck | Severe (iii) | Fractures, dislocations, severe soft tissue damage or ruptured tendons leading to chronic conditions. | £45,470 to £55,990 |
| Neck | Moderate (i) | Dislocations or fractures that cause severe and immediate symptoms that could lead to spinal fusion. | £24,990 to £38,490 |
| Neck | Moderate (ii) | A wrenching-type injury and severe disc lesions that result in limited movement and cervical spondylosis. | £13,740 to £24,990 |
| Neck | Moderate (iii) | Injuries like this could accelerate or exacerbate a pre-existing medical condition, usually less than five years. | £7,890 to £13,740 |
| Neck | Minor (i) | A soft tissue injury that fully recovers within one to two years. | £4,350 to £7,890 |
| Shoulder | Severe | Usually associated with neck injuries and involve damage to the brachial plexus. | £19,200 to £48,030 |
If you have any questions regarding whiplash claims and how much compensation you could potentially receive, do not hesitate to contact our advisors. They could also help you answer any specific questions you may have, such as ‘How much is the average whiplash claim in the UK worth?’
What Is The Minimum Whiplash Payout For Special Damages?
In addition to general damages, you may also need to make a claim for special damages. These are any costs or financial losses that you’ve incurred as a result of your injuries. As with general damages, expenses will vary from case to case, but you could ask for:
- Travel-related expenses. Travelling to and from medical appointments can incur costs. Therefore, you may be able to claim back expenses like fuel, parking or public transport costs so long as they’re a consequence of your injuries.
- Medical expenses. Any treatment you need will usually be performed for free by the NHS. However, it is possible that you may have to cover the cost of prescriptions, non-NHS services and over the counter medication like painkillers.
- Care costs. In some cases, you may need a carer to help you with your daily activities until you recover. If that’s the case, you could claim for any related expenses. For example, an hourly rate could be calculated for the time a relative spent caring for you.
- Adaptations to your home or vehicle. In more serious whiplash claims, you might need to adapt your home to help you cope with a disability. If that is true, the cost of those changes could be added to your claim.
- Lost earnings. When you lose income because of your injuries, you could claim them back. That could be the case if you have taken unpaid time off to recover or to attend a medical appointment.
- Future lost earnings. If your injury causes long-term symptoms that affect your ability to work, you could claim for future lost income too. The amount paid will be based on your age, salary and job prospects.
To find out more about what special damages you could claim for whiplash injuries, please call our team of specialist advisors today.
Compensation For Whiplash – Claim Time Limits
Previously we shared some examples of the whiplash compensation amounts you could receive following a successful claim. However, when claiming compensation for whiplash, or any other injury, after a road traffic accident, you must ensure that you make your claim within the relevant time limit. This time limit can be found in the Limitation Act 1980 and is generally 3 years from the date you were injured.
However, certain exceptions can be made to this time limit for minors and those who lack the mental capacity to claim as they are unable to pursue a claim themselves.
Minors will have 3 years to start their claim once they turn 18. Before this point, the time limit is suspended, and a litigation friend could claim on their behalf. A litigation friend is usually appointed by the court and could be a solicitor or family member, such as a parent.
The time limit is also suspended for those who lack the mental capacity to make a claim for themselves. Again, a litigation friend could claim on their behalf. However, if they were to regain this mental capacity, they will have 3 years to start their claim.
Contact our advisors today if you have any questions about the personal injury claims time limit or about claiming whiplash compensation in the UK. Our advisors are here to answer your questions and offer you free legal advice.
What Is The Current Whiplash Payout Scale In The UK?
Payouts for a whiplash injury can vary depending on how severe it is deemed to be. It also depends on whether you are claiming for any financial losses or loss of amenity caused by the injury.
As mentioned before, the Whiplash Injury Regulations 2021 re-established how payouts for whiplash are currently handled in the UK. A relatively minor case of injuries can have a whiplash payout scale of £5,000 or less.
Are Whiplash Payouts Capped?
A compensation payout for whiplash following a car accident or another kind of incident can potentially surpass any figure above £5,000 if it is deemed severe enough. If it’s valued below £5,000, then an online portal and a tariff-based system are applied as required under the Whiplash Injury Regulations.
Under these regulations, the tariffs applied are based on the recovery time associated with your injury. So if your whiplash injury lasts for no more than three months, then you could receive up to £260. On the other end of the scale, you could receive up to £4,345 if recovery takes you more than 18 months.
If a whiplash injury is severe enough to be valued over £5,000, then the tariff system does not apply. You can therefore claim for the injury’s value by following the more standard procedure that applies to most personal injury claims.
Whiplash Injury Compensation – Claim With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
If you are eligible to seek a whiplash claim payout, then you may consider working with a No Win No Fee solicitor. All of the solicitors on our panel can work with you in this manner if you have a valid claim.
There are different types of No Win No Fee contracts, one of which is called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). As per the terms of a CFA, you typically won’t pay a fee for their services:
- Upfront
- While the claim proceeds
- If the claim fails
If you are awarded whiplash injury compensation, you will pay a success fee from your award. This is capped by legislation.
Get in touch with our advisors today to find out how much whiplash compensation you could be owed and learn whether a solicitor from our panel could represent your case. You can reach them using the following methods:
- Call on 0161 696 9685
- Contact us through our website
- Use the pop-up chat window in the corner
Minimum Whiplash Payout Claims Information
Hopefully, you now understand whether you’re able to claim or not. In our final section of this article, we have added some resources that may come in useful during a claim.
The Highway Code – the rules of the road in England, Scotland and Wales.
Brake – The Road Safety Charity – a UK charity that aims to improve road safety and support those who’ve been seriously injured in crashes.
Shoulder Pain – advice on managing shoulder pain from the NHS.
As Advice.co.uk supports many different types of compensation claims, we’ve listed some additional guides below:
Concussion Claims – details of when you could claim compensation if you suffer a concussion during an accident caused by somebody else.
Pothole Accident Claims – a guide about claiming for injuries sustained in accidents caused by potholes.
Work-related Stress – details on when you might be compensated if you’ve suffered due to stress at work.
Other Useful Compensation Guides
- How Much Compensation for Eye Injury Claims
- Pedestrian Accident Compensation Claim
- Passenger In A Car Accident Claims Guide
- Shoulder Injury Claims Guide
To learn more about the potential whiplash injury compensation you could receive, please contact us for free legal advice at a time that works for you.