by Katherine Liebermann


If you are a resident of Orange County and have recently suffered a whiplash injury caused by a car accident you have been involved in, you may contact and consult an Orange County Auto Accident Lawyer in order to exactly know what your rights are, before you sign any settlement agreement with any insurance company. This lawyer will orient you with the compensation that you are entitled to. You have a period of 3 years from the date of the injury in which to bring proceedings to court. If you fail to do so then your compensation claim may be forfeited.

What is Whiplash?

Whiplash is considered the most common injury caused by automobile accidents. It hurls your head violently backward (hyperextension) and forward (hyperflexion)- injuring your neck. The injury is worse when the neck was turned to the side at the time of the accident. Whiplash can cause problems for intervertebral joints, discs, and ligaments, cervical muscles, and nerves. It is often encountered in addition to concussions plus more severe injury. The results of whiplash could be short-term or lifelong, and may leave the neck forever vulnerable to injury. The injury may also stretch out to arms and shoulders.

Having this injury can also leads to long-term disability in 10% of people injured in car accidents. Roughly 1,000,000 people are exposed to whiplash injury in the U.S. each year. Nearly 25% of these cases result in chronic pain and disability. 1 in 7 whiplash victims will still have significant pain more than 3 years after the accident.

Most patients with whiplash recover in a few weeks or at most, a few months, but 15 to 20% of people develop chronic pain. Whiplash isn't a trivial problem, because once it has occurred, only 70% have recovered fully by twelve months and just 82% have recovered completely by two years. Aside from neck pain, there are several symptoms associated with the whiplash syndrome and include sleep issues, poor concentration and memory, blurry eyesight, ringing ears, fatigue, and weakness.

The treatment for whiplash syndromes depends upon the stage and degree of the condition and which structures have been injured. In addition to soft tissue injury, pain that persists after 4 to 6 months is usually because of injury to the facet joints, one or more discs, or both. The diagnosis can usually be made by injections, MRI, and X-rays. Treatment methods are usually successful, but demands physical rehabilitation, injections, and occasionally surgery.

Whiplash injury can be a painful experience both physical and financial. Serious whiplash injury prevents you from working and doing normal tasks like driving and taking the kids to school. Recovering from a whiplash injury usually takes between 3 to 6 months but can be much longer if the injury is extreme.

With increasing traffic on our roads, many more accidents occur where whiplash injury happens. Any accident relating to the shoulders and neck can be painful and have to be compensated for.

How can I get the right compensation for this Injury?

The answer is quite simple: speak to a Orange County Auto Accident Lawyer who will not only become your legal advisor but will take care of the process of claiming your accident compensation.




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