From 31st May, if you have a road traffic accident that was someone else’s fault, as a result of which you suffer whiplash injury and you decide to make a compensation claim, you will only be entitled to recover a fixed amount in compensation for the injury you have suffered.
How much will you get for whiplash injury under the new scheme?
| For Symptoms Lasting | Value |
| Up to 3 months: | £240 |
| 3-6 months | £495 |
| 6-9 months | £840 |
| 9-12 months | £1320 |
| 12-15 months | £2040 |
| 15-18 months | £3005 |
| 18-24 months | £4215 |
What else changed on the 31st of May in relation to road traffic accident claims and whiplash claims?
- The small claims limit increased from £1000 to £5000 for road traffic accident personal injury claims. This rule change means that you will no longer be able recover any legal costs if you use a solicitor to help you make a road traffic accident claim that is worth less than £5000. Your claim will go through a new portal (website) which was built with the stated aim of allowing the public to make their own claims through the portal (more on that shortly).
- The Civil Liability Act 2018, the piece of government legislation that is behind the new whiplash rules, defines a whiplash injury as ‘a soft tissue injury in the neck, back or shoulder’.
- The new rules prevent insurance companies from making offers to settle whiplash claims without a medical report having first been obtained.
- Motorcyclists, cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders and children who are injured in road traffic accidents are not subject to the new rules. That means the new £5000 small claims limit and the new RTA small claims portal do not apply to motorcycle accidents, cycling accident claims, pedestrian accident claims horse riding accidents and claims involving children. All of these types of claim are unaffected by the new rules.
As the new rules have only recently come into force, we are all still coming to terms with how they will work in practice. This article is not intended as an academic exercise, nor is its’ intention to point out how flawed these reforms are. (We’ve already made our feelings known on the subject in our blog Whiplash claims: why the proposed whiplash reforms should be scrapped).
However, it would be remiss of us not to make a couple of points:
- The government’s aim is supposed to be to make it ‘easy’ for claimants in person who suffer whiplash injury in a motor accident, to bring the claim themselves using the new, small claims RTA portal. The powers that be recognise claimants in person might some help in doing their own claims on the new portal. Therefore, they have produced some guidelines – all 64-pages of them!
It does beg the question – how user friendly is the new portal system and claims procedure if it takes a 64-page book to try and understand how to do you own claim?
- What happens if you suffer a whiplash injury and a non-whiplash injury in the same accident? The new portal has not been designed to deal with non-whiplash claims. The general consensus is that the problem thrown up by the issue of suffering multiple injuries including whiplash, in the same road traffic accident, will have to wait whilst someone takes such a claim to the Court of Appeal!
Mooneerams Solicitors and Whiplash Claims under the new rules
The new whiplash and road traffic accident claims rules were years in the making but only finalised at the very last moment.
Mooneerams have been helping the people of South Wales and beyond, to make road traffic accident claims and whiplash claims, since 2002. Ever since the whiplash reforms were first proposed, we have been clear in our own minds, that whatever form the new rules took we would continue to offer a complete No Win No Fee road traffic accident claims service to our clients. In other words, it would be business as normal.
It is business as normal.
Whatever type or road traffic accident you have been involved in and whatever type of injury you have suffered as a result, Mooneerams can help you to make a personal injury claim (as we have been doing for almost 20 years).
Contact us on 029 2048 3615 or contact us online and we will get back to you straightaway.