AXA Insurance Claims Guide – How To Claim Compensation For Whiplash
In this guide, we are going to look at the legal process of making an AXA car insurance whiplash claim. If you have been injured in a road traffic accident that was not your fault, then if the party that caused the accident is covered by an AXA vehicle insurance policy, a personal injury lawyer could be able to process a personal injury claim against AXA for you.
We have tried to cover every aspect of making a claim in this guide. However, there may be unique aspects of your own claim that this guide doesn’t touch on. If this is so, then our claims team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide you with any additional information you need. All you need to do is speak to one of our claim advisors on 0800 073 8804 to proceed with an AXA personal injury claim.
Select A Section:
- A Guide To Whiplash Injury Claims Against AXA Insurance
- What Is Whiplash About?
- Should I Make An Injury Claim Through My Own Insurance?
- What Might An Insurance Provider Not Want You To Know?
- What Is A Split Liability Agreement?
- Should I Accept The First AXA Whiplash Claim Offer?
- Should I Accept An Offer Before I Have Seen A Doctor?
- Calculating Whiplash Injury Claims Against AXA Insurance
- Other Compensation An AXA Personal Injury Claim Might Include
- No Win, No Fee AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claims
- Contact Our Experts Today To Make An AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claim
- Claims Guides And References To Making An AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claim
A Guide To Whiplash Injury Claims Against AXA Insurance
This is a guide about how to claim for whiplash injuries against AXA. Whiplash is regarded as one of the most commonly claimed injuries in the UK each year. This guide should provide you with enough of a background about the claims process to help you decide how to progress with your own claim. We start this guide by taking a look at what whiplash is—how it is defined, caused, and treated, as well as the kinds of symptoms whiplash manifests.
The next part of this guide looks at some key facts related to the claims process itself. We look at whether a claimant should accept an initial or pre-medical settlement from AXA. We also cover split liability claims and knock-for-knock claims.
The final part of this guide pertains to financial aspects of the claim. We have listed some of the most common kinds of damages that claimants are awarded. We have also provided a table that details the range of compensation you could be able to claim for several different injuries. Finally, we go over how a No Win, No Fee solicitor can offer you a way to have your claim processed at reduced financial risk.
If you have any questions about the claims process, your own claim, or anything else related to whiplash claims, please talk to one of our claims advisors on the phone number at the top of the page. They will be happy to provide you with all the assistance you need to get your claim underway.
What Is Whiplash About?
Whiplash is what is termed a nonspecific injury. What this means is that the symptoms are generalised, and no root cause can be diagnosed. Instead, it is general damage to the neck muscles and ligaments. that combine to produce the symptoms of whiplash. These symptoms can include:
- Headaches ranging in severity from trivial to chronic.
- Having difficulty moving the head or general stiffness of the neck and shoulders.
- Pain in the neck that can range in severity from slight to severe.
- Muscles spasms in the shoulders or arms, as well as pins and needles or general numbness.
Two or more of these symptoms combined can be deemed to be a whiplash injury if the cause is viable. For example, if a patient has just been involved in a car accident and their neck was subjected to significant trauma, whiplash would be expected. However, if the patient has not suffered recent neck trauma, the diagnosing doctor might seek an alternative diagnosis.
Whiplash is a very difficult medical condition to treat, due to its nonspecific nature. Generally, whiplash treatment consists of prescribing painkillers and anti-inflammatory medication. The NHS has published detailed information about whiplash and its causes, symptoms and treatment.
Should I Make An Injury Claim Through My Own Insurance?
In general, it is not possible for you to make an AXA accident claim for an injury, such as whiplash, which you were the cause of. Most vehicle insurers specifically deny claims for self-inflicted injuries. Of course, you can claim against an AXA insurance policy held by a third party that caused an accident.
However, there is one situation whereby a claimant will claim against their own insurance provider. This happens when a knock-for-knock claim is in play. We will cover this in its own section below.
What Might An Insurance Provider Not Want You To Know?
It is in the best commercial interest of every insurance firm to pay the least compensation possible for every personal injury claim. There are some tricks that insurance companies use to try and get claimants to settle for less and we will cover these in later sections. You need to know that in order to maximise the amount of compensation you get, you should keep the following in mind:
- Generally, people who accept an early settlement offer receive less compensation.
- Using your own accident and injury solicitor can increase the level of compensation you receive.
- Legal advice will help you to decide whether accepting a pre-medical settlement is a good choice in your case.
Our claims team is available 24/7 to provide you with free legal advice related to your whiplash claim. Whether you have general questions about the claims process or specific questions about your own case, they can help you.
What Is A Split Liability Agreement?
A split liability agreement describes a situation whereby both parties involved in the accident share the blame. There are two possible scenarios here. In the first scenario, one party will have caused the accident, but the other party will have contributed to it in some way. For example, a driver pulls out of a side road into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist. The motorcyclist is late reacting to the hazard as they were looking for something in their tank bag and were not paying due care and attention. There is no doubt the driver of the car caused the accident by pulling out without looking. However, the motorcyclist might have avoided the accident had they not been distracted. In cases such as this, the two legal teams representing the defendant (the car driver) and the claimant (the motorcyclist) would agree on a reduced level of liability, and any compensation won would reflect this reduction.
In the second scenario, both parties involved in the accident will be equally to blame. This results in what is termed a knock-for-knock claim. Each party will claim against their own insurance for the harm they have suffered. This will, of course, have a negative effect on no claims bonuses and could increase the cost of vehicle insurance.
If you are unsure about who might be liable in your own claim, we can help. Talk to one of our claim advisors and they will evaluate your claim for you.
Should I Accept The First AXA Whiplash Claim Offer?
When you make an AXA whiplash claim, one of the first things that AXA will likely do is offer you a rapid settlement. This is often done automatically once AXA has admitted liability. Commercially, it makes sense for AXA to try and pay the least compensation possible. An early settlement is offered to try and tempt people into taking a quick settlement. Before you accept an early offer, consider the following:
- You are not under any pressure to accept the offer. You might find that you can get more compensation if you use an accident and injury solicitor to pursue the claim in court.
- You have plenty of time to reach a decision. In general, the time limit for making a claim is three years from the date of the accident.
- It doesn’t make sense to accept any offer of compensation before you know the extent of your injuries and whether you will make a full recovery.
- AXA may ask you to sign a document at this stage. Don’t do this. Have a solicitor check over exactly what you are signing first.
- AXA may have offered you free legal help. You don’t have to accept this help and you are free to appoint your own solicitor if you wish.
If you have received an offer of a settlement before the claim has been actioned, you may like to talk it over with our claims team to help you decide whether you should accept it or not.
Should I Accept An Offer Before I Have Seen A Doctor?
As we covered in the above section, every insurance firm attempts to minimise the amount of compensation that they have to pay claimants. One way to do this is to offer what is known as a pre-medical settlement. At this stage, you will not have undergone a medical examination by an impartial doctor, and you will not be in possession of critical information such as:
- How bad your injuries are.
- How long it will take you to recover.
- Whether you will have to pay for any private healthcare.
- Whether there is a possibility that you could be left with some form of long-term or permanent disability.
Without this information, a solicitor will not be able to value your claim accurately and tell you whether the pre-med settlement being offered is too low. Additionally, a pre-med settlement is not going to include certain types of damages, including:
- Lost income because you took time off work.
- Lowered income in the future because your capability to work will be negatively affected.
- Private medical costs, such as physiotherapy.
- Care costs such as hiring a nurse to help you out at home.
If you have been offered a pre-medical settlement by AXA, you might like to talk it over with our claims team. One of our advisors will help you to evaluate the settlement offer and help you decide whether it is a good idea to accept it or not.
Calculating Whiplash Injury Claims Against AXA Insurance
You may have tried using a personal injury claims calculator to get a rough idea of how much you could be able to claim in compensation. You might also like to look your injury up in this table below. The figures contained within have been taken from the Judicial College Guidelines, a legal publication used by solicitors and the courts to value claims.
| Type of Injury | Severity | Compensation Range | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neck Injury | Minor (iii) | Up to £2,300 | This compensation range is for soft tissue damage with full recovery within 3 months. |
| Neck Injury | Minor (ii) | £2,300 to £4,080 | This compensation range is for soft tissue damage with full recovery within 1 year. |
| Neck Injury | Moderate (i) | £23,460 to £36,120 | This compensation range is for fractures or dislocations that might need spinal fusion. |
| Neck Injury | Severe (iii) | £42,680 to £52,540 | This compensation range is for dislocations, fractures and severe soft tissue damage which leads to severe conditions, extensive treatment and significant disability of a permanent nature. |
| Shoulder Injury | Minor (i)-(iii) | £2,300 to £7,410 | This compensation range is for painful soft tissue damage to the shoulder where full recovery is made within in less than two years. |
| Shoulder Injury | Moderate (c) | £7,410 to £11,980 | This compensation range is for soft tissue damage which takes over 2-years to recover from and also injuries like frozen shoulder. |
| Shoulder Injury | Serious (b) | £11,980 to £18,020 | This compensation range is for shoulder dislocations or brachial plexus damage which results in movement loss with pain in the shoulder, neck and elbow. |
| Shoulder Injury | Severe (a) | £18,020 to £45,070 | This compensation range is for brachial plexus damage which leads to significant disabilities. |
If you would like to get a much more accurate estimate of the value of your claim, we can arrange for a solicitor to do this for you. Please call our claims team to proceed.
Other Compensation An AXA Personal Injury Claim Might Include
When a personal injury solicitor is successful in a claim, the claimant will be offered a settlement package that will be made up of two heads of claim: general damages and special damages. Here’s a bit more about each one:
- General damages – paid to compensate for physical and psychological harm, specifically for:
- Suffering and pain – at the time of the accident and whilst receiving triage.
- Stress and trauma – of the initial accident and subsequent emergency care.
- Psychological harm – such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Long and painful recovery – if the patient will have to undergo painful medical treatment for some time before they have recovered fully.
- Long-term or permanent disability – if the patient will never recover fully and will have to live with a disability.
- Special damages – paid to compensate you for financial and other losses, such as:
- Loss of current income – if you had to take time away for work and lost out on your wages/salary.
- Lowered future earnings – if your injuries will leave you with a reduced capacity for work, or even unable to work at all.
- Private medical costs – if you had to pay for treatment that wasn’t available for free on the NHS.
- Costs of care – if you needed a nurse at home to care for you, or you had to hire carers to assist with day to day upkeep of your home.
- Travel costs – to reimburse you for out of pocket expenses paid out for travelling to have your injuries treated, or to deal with any aspect of the claim itself.
If you would like to know the kinds of damages that may apply in your own claim, we can be of assistance. Call our claims team and speak to an advisor, they will evaluate your claim for you, and try to give you an indication of the kinds of damage you may be able to claim for.
No Win, No Fee AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claim
It is possible to make AXA injury claims by using the services of a No Win, No Fee solicitor. This kind of fee arrangement is more correctly termed a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under a CFA, the solicitor enters into a contract with the claimant to provide legal services without any prior payment or payment of any fees during the claim. And if the case does not succeed, the claimant will not have to pay any of the costs the solicitor has incurred in pursuing the case. If the case comes to a successful conclusion, the solicitor may seek a small contribution toward their fees. This contribution is known as a success fee and forms a percentage of the compensation awarded. Don’t worry, success fees are legally capped and will be agreed with you before the claim begins.
When you first contact the solicitor and they begin working on your claim for you, then you won’t be charged any kind of new claims fee for the work to begin. You also will not be charged any ongoing legal fees while the claim is being processed. Some claims, especially complex ones, can take months to resolve. You won’t have to pay no matter how long it takes to process the claim.
As you can see, the financial risks involved in making a claim are almost entirely mitigated under a CFA. If you would like further information on how a CFA works, please talk to a member of our claims team. They will answer any questions you have.
Contact Our Experts Today To Make An AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claim
Contact the Legal Expert claims team on 0800 073 8804, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They’ll discuss your circumstances with you, evaluate your claim, and if it has favourable prospects of success, will refer you to one of our specialist solicitors who’ll get to work right away. We look forward to hearing from you!
Claims Guides And References On Making An AXA Car Insurance Whiplash Claim
You may find these links to external sites have some useful information that is relevant to your claim:
NHS Inform Exercises For Neck Problems
UK Government Information On Whiplash Claims Reform
National Institute For Health And Care Excellence Information About Whiplash
You can also read over these addition guides we have published on this site:
- A Guide To How Long Whiplash Lasts
- Information On Whiplash Symptoms
- How Much Compensation Can Be Claimed For Whiplash?
- Hastings Direct Insurance Claims Guide
- Tesco Insurance Claims Guide
- Admiral Insurance Claims Guide
- Aviva Insurance Claims Guide
Written by Wheeler
Edited by Billing