If you have been involved in a car accident you may well have been injured. Despite what Jack Straw has stated in the past, whiplash is a medically recognised injury to your cervical spine comprising of a soft tissue injury to your neck. It is normally caused by a wrenching type movement when your car comes to rest in a violent way as it goes from speed to rest very quickly.

Those who have suffered a whiplash injury will recognise that the symptoms do not automatically appear and can sometimes only become apparent some hours later or even the following day. The symptoms normally take the form of a painful neck, restriction of movement to the neck and maybe even headaches. If these or any any such symptoms appear following a car accident you must contact your doctor immediately or go to the accident and emergency department of your nearest hospital.

Upon examination you may simply be prescribed painkillers or to wear a neck brace however, in more serious cases a course of physiotherapy may well be recommended.

Following a car accident your first piece of general housekeeping will be to inform your insurers that an accident has taken place. You will be asked the name and details of the other person or persons involved in the accident which you should have got from them at the scene. It is also a good idea to take a note of the type, colour and registration of the cars involved. Importantly, if there are any independent witnesses to the accident ensure that you get their details. If there are any potential issues as to whose fault the car accident is then their evidential input may well be invaluable.

After you have given all this information to your insurance company they will ask you if you have been injured or not. If you have then tell them straight away. If you have been to either hospital or your GP let them know and give as many details as you can. If you have been injured in a car accident and it was not your fault your insurers should let you know that you are entitled to compensation for that injury.

A personal injury claim is part and parcel of your accident claim and can be a very complicated area of law. In recent times there have been a large amount of claims management companies that have appeared who will want to sign you up to use one of their "expert" panel of solicitors to make that personal injury claim for you. In some circumstances insurance companies will sell your data to these claims management companies who will them pass the information on to their expert panel of personal injury solicitors for what is called a referral fee.

A referral fee is an amount of money that a solicitors firm will pay to the claims management company for your accident data. This does not mean that they have you as a client but they will try their very best to sign you up as they will have paid a lot of money for that accident data. If you have been injured following a car or motorbike accident and decide to make a personal injury claim you have the right to choose which solicitors firm deals with your case. You do not have to go with a firm recommended by your insurers. A personal injury claim is a complicated process and you need to have total confidence in the solicitors firm that is dealing with it.

Always try and use a solicitors firm that has been personally recommended to you. You can also look at the website for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) who are a Law Society recognised body for specialist personal injury solicitors. If you have been injured as a result of a motorbike accident you may wish to look at the website for Motorbike Lawyers who are a specialist solicitors firm who deal exclusively with personal injury claims for motorbike riders.

Which ever route you go through for your personal injury claim may we wish you a speedy recovery.