After a car accident, many people, from insurance company claim adjusters to juries, typically view reports of whiplash injury with suspicion. Still, any Los Angeles car accident attorney can probably look back on cases where clients have experienced debilitating long-term effects from an injury that some people believe does not exist.

Whiplash is an injury that is often difficult to prove with imaging tests, but it is very real. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), it affects up to 83 percent of patients involved in collisions, and it is a common cause of chronic pain and disability. Victims have the right to expect fair treatment when pursuing compensation for these injuries.

Diagnosis Often Comes From Office Exams

When patients come to doctors with complaints of neck pain after an accident caused their heads to wrench back and forth or from side to side, they generally assume that whiplash is the most likely diagnosis. As such, a thorough physical exam is often enough to confirm the diagnosis and begin appropriate treatment. Patients are often asked many questions during that exam, most of which concern the following:

• The intensity of the pain
• How movement affects the pain
• The time lapse between the event and the symptoms
• Other symptoms that developed since the accident
• Any injuries or maladies experienced prior to the accident

In particularly severe cases, doctors may conduct certain imaging tests, such as X-rays or CT scans that can reveal bone damage, or MRI tests that can detect certain soft tissue injuries, including spinal cord, disk or ligament damage. These types of serious injuries are not necessarily the same as whiplash. However further examination of patients with whiplash often reveals more extensive damage.

Whiplash Injury Claims Deserve Fair Treatment

Even in the most basic cases of whiplash, victims do not typically recover until one or more months have passed. Additionally, some believe that accident victims who experience a rapid onset of pain, severe neck pain, headaches and pain that radiates into the arms have a greater likelihood of facing a lifetime of chronic pain.

It only takes a moderate rear-end collision to force the head — which is approximately the weight of a bowling ball — sharply backward and then forward on the delicate neck. Yet, many individuals assume that claims of whiplash are simply ploys to pursue compensation from insurance companies or drivers who cause the collisions. These claims can be particularly challenging since whiplash symptoms do not always reveal themselves until a day or more after the collision.

A moderate collision does not generally require legal assistance unless victims experience injuries — particularly ones like whiplash, which is challenging to prove. To help develop the evidence needed for an effective claim, call The Rudman Law Firm APC at 844-478-3626 / (844) 4RUDMAN, at our Los Angeles office at 213-375-3777 or at our Studio City office 818-769-6969.