A new innovative way of claiming for whiplash injuries

What have the whiplash reforms changed?

Part of the reforms relate to the funding of your legal fees. Previously, if your whiplash claim was worth over £1,000, the insurer of the driver at fault would be responsible for paying your reasonable legal fees, enabling you to get representation without worrying about the cost. The reforms have raised the £1,000 limit to £5,000, meaning your claim has to be worth over £5,000 before the insurer will pay your reasonable legal fees. As most whiplash cases are valued at less than £5,000, most people who get whiplash injuries as a result of road traffic accidents will be affected.

Additionally, the whiplash reforms have reduced the amount of compensation you can now receive for a whiplash injury.

How do you now make a claim for whiplash?

The MoJ have set up a new self-service online portal system called Official Injury Claim (OIC) for those who’ve had a whiplash injury to register a claim, without seeking legal advice, and represent themselves as a Litigant in Person.

While we hope the process through the MoJ's portal will be straightforward, not all claims for whiplash are. There are challenges when representing yourself in a whiplash claim. You'll need to gather medical evidence to support your claim and if the insurers of the vehicle at fault deny responsibility, negotiations will have to take place and you may even to have to attend and represent yourself in court. This can be quite a daunting, time consuming, stressful and complex process for anyone who doesn't understand the legal system.

There’s nothing stopping you seeking legal representation from a number of personal injury lawyers. However, if you decide to do this, please be careful when signing any terms and conditions. If the hourly rate ends up more than any compensation you receive, you may end up out of pocket.

Slater and Gordon's micase platform is the solution

To ensure that people are still able to access legal representation, while not risking being left out of pocket, Slater and Gordon have introduced the micase platform. Just like the OIC, this is a self-serve claims portal. However, unlike the OIC, with micase, you also get legal representation.

To ensure you don’t end up out of pocket, if you use micase, you’ll be charged a small percentage of your compensation if you win your case, so there’s no financial risk.

Why would you use the micase platform?

There are a number of benefits when using micase:

• It’s simple, straightforward and easy to use
• You can track progress of your claim 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• You can access micase anywhere, on any device
• No need to keep paperwork, your documents are all stored on the platform
• Legal experts will represent you, dealing with all the complexities so you don’t have any additional stress
• You’ll be charged a small percentage of your compensation if you win, so there’s no financial risk to you

If you’ve had a whiplash injury and want legal representation to seek compensation, simply register your claim today.

The above information was correct at the time of publication.