The Personal Injury Process in Oklahoma

Tulsa Whiplash Injury Attorneys

Biby Law Firm personal injury attorneys handle whiplash insurance settlements and civil court claims

Traffic accidents are a common occurrence in Tulsa and elsewhere in Oklahoma. Given the nature of car accidents, whiplash injuries are a frequent consequence of motor vehicle collisions.

Because they are soft tissue injuries, whiplash injuries can be challenging to prove in insurance claims and in court. This is why, if you have been in a car accident and believe you have suffered whiplash as a result, having an experienced attorney from Biby Law Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers representing you in insurance settlement negotiations or in a personal injury action can improve your chances of receiving the compensation you need.

Practice Areas

Tulsa personal injury lawyers - Biby Law Firm

How can we help?

What are the primary causes of whiplash injuries?

Whiplash can occur when your head is suddenly and forcefully thrown back and forth in a whipsaw motion, hence the name. The injury comes from damage to the muscles, ligaments, tendons, nerves, and cervical discs in your neck.

Automobile accidents are a frequent source of whiplash. Most people associate whiplash with rear-end collisions, but it can also come from side-impact and head-on crashes. But vehicular accidents are not the only cause. You can experience whiplash from a slip-and-fall accident, an impact from participating in a sporting event, physical assault or abuse, or even being on an amusement park ride.

What are the common whiplash symptoms?

Medical professionals have created a system, the Quebec Task Force classification for Whiplash-Associated Disorders, to rank the severity of whiplash injuries and symptoms. This system ranks whiplash injuries using five grades of severity from 0 through 4. Each level includes the symptoms of the levels below it and adds additional symptoms.

  • Grade 0: There is no noticeable, immediate pain.
  • Grade 1: You experience some loss of mobility and pain. Grade 1 whiplash is largely subjective in nature.
  • Grade 2: At this level, you will experience musculoskeletal symptoms, including loss of mobility, along with pain and other symptoms, like decreased range of motion or tenderness. With proper treatment, you can recover completely, but you may be at risk for re-injury.
  • Grade 3: You will experience neurological symptoms, including loss of mobility, pain, ligament damage, and nerve damage. You may suffer long-lasting residual symptoms like loss of mobility and muscle weakness. At this level, permanent ongoing treatment may be needed to manage symptoms.
  • Grade 4: You may experience fractured vertebrae, severe muscle tears, and nerve damage. These symptoms usually require permanent ongoing treatment or surgery.

Aside from the five grade levels above, here are some additional considerations in evaluating a whiplash injury:

  • Age can play a significant role in whiplash injuries. The older you are, the slower your recovery will usually be.
  • If you have experienced a whiplash injury in the past, you will more likely experience severe damage if you experience a subsequent whiplash injury. A whiplash injury can also aggravate other pre-existing conditions you may have.
  • Whiplash injuries can cause spinal cord problems if sudden compression occurs in your neck.

What are the common issues in Oklahoma whiplash injury settlements?

Most whiplash injury cases settle out of court. This means that you will often need to negotiate with one or more insurance companies and attorneys to reach an agreement on how much your whiplash injury is worth.

The settlement value of your whiplash personal injury claim depends on considerations including the severity of your injury, your medical treatment needs, your lost wages and lost potential earning capacity, and intangible factors like pain and suffering.

Because whiplash is a soft-tissue injury, settlements frequently depend on the following factors:

  • Who was at fault for your injury?
  • How soon is your condition medically evaluated?
  • What evidence can you provide to prove your symptoms?

Who was at fault?

Because many whiplash injuries occur in connection with motor vehicle accidents, it is important to understand that Oklahoma uses a fault-based system for auto insurance claims. This means that the driver who was responsible for causing the accident will be responsible for paying damages. The injured driver will ordinarily make personal injury claims, including whiplash claims, against the policy of the at-fault driver.

One of the first hurdles you must clear in pursuing a whiplash injury claim in Oklahoma is that the state uses a modified comparative negligence standard when establishing whether you have a legal claim for damages.

Sometimes both drivers in an auto accident will share some of the blame for causing the crash. This blame-sharing is expressed as a percentage of fault.

  • Under Oklahoma’s modified comparative negligence standard, if, as a plaintiff, you are found to be more than 50% at fault for causing your harm, then by law you are barred from recovering anything through a personal injury claim.
  • If you are found to be 50% or less at fault, your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault.

A standard tactic of auto insurance companies is to look for ways to assign to you 50% or more of the fault for causing the accident as a way of denying you any claim settlement value. If they cannot do this, then they will seek to reduce your claim by pinning at least some percentage of blame on you.

It is important in settlement negotiations to be careful about how you answer questions the other driver’s insurance company asks you about the facts and circumstances of the accident. Insurance company negotiators and defense attorneys are skilled at asking questions designed to get you to admit fault, often inadvertently on your part. This is one key reason why it is to your advantage to have an experienced insurance claims attorney representing you during settlement negotiations.

How soon did you seek medical treatment?

The severity of your injury will affect the value of your settlement. Seeking medical attention as soon as possible after an auto accident is important for two reasons:

  • The earlier you seek medical attention, the more likely it is that your treating doctor can evaluate your medical condition and treat you for immediate injuries.
  • Soft-tissue injuries often do not manifest symptoms right away. This is true of some kinds of whiplash injuries. Prompt medical examination can help to diagnose and document these delayed-effect injuries.

Insurers and defense attorneys will try to exploit any delay on your part in seeing a doctor after the accident to argue that your whiplash injury is minor. The reasoning is that the longer you wait, the less your symptoms affect you in terms of pain or affect your ability to work or engage in day-to-day activities.

What evidence do you have to support your injuries and symptoms?

Insurance negotiators and defense attorneys will not be inclined to take your word for it when you are claiming whiplash injury symptoms. They will want to see evidence. If you lack evidence, then you can expect arguments suggesting you are exaggerating your symptoms or that your symptoms relate to a pre-existing condition.

Forms of evidence you can provide include records and doctors’ notes of medical examinations, diagnoses, and treatment. You can also provide witness statements regarding your symptoms, and any pain journal you keep documenting symptoms, including when and how they occur.

Your personal injury attorney can help you identify, gather, and organize your evidence to prepare for settlement negotiations.

What can you recover for a whiplash injury in Oklahoma?

How much your whiplash injury claim may be worth depends on the nature and severity of your injury, the kinds of money damages you can claim, and whether the at-fault party has insurance.

The severity of your whiplash injury

Minor whiplash injuries, like Grade 0 or Grade 1, will have a lower settlement value than a Grade 3 or Grade 4 injury. Severe whiplash cases may require extensive medical treatment and can significantly impact your ability to work and your quality of life.

If you have a pre-existing neck or spinal cord injury, whiplash may aggravate it. It is possible that an insurance company claims adjuster will argue that your symptoms are mostly or entirely the result of the pre-existing injury, so having an experienced personal injury attorney can be helpful in dealing with this tactic.

Economic damages

Economic damages compensate you for out-of-pocket, tangible losses you suffer. How much you can recover for economic damages depends on your ability to prove them. Examples of economic damages include:

  • Hospital bills, like inpatient stays and surgery costs
  • Outpatient costs, including specialist treatment
  • Ongoing medical treatment, including physical therapy
  • Prescription drug costs
  • Costs to repair or replace your vehicle and other property damage
  • Lost wages during your recovery, and possibly lost future earning potential

Non-economic damages

Non-economic damages can compensate you for the ways a whiplash injury affects your mental and emotional well-being and diminishes your overall quality of life.

Compared to economic damages, non-economic damages are harder to calculate because you will not have bills, invoices, and receipts to evidence them. Still, these damages can have a significant value that can sometimes exceed that of your direct damages.

Examples of non-economic damages include:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress and mental anguish
  • Reduced quality of life, based on the inability to engage in daily life activities
  • Anxiety and depression, possibly including post-traumatic stress disorder
  • Loss of companionship and loss of consortium

Calculating pain and suffering in settlement negotiations often involves the use of the multiplier method, although this is not required under Oklahoma law. This starts with the sum of your economic damages and then multiplies it by a number that corresponds to the severity of the pain and suffering endured.

Under current Oklahoma law, non-economic damages in many personal injury cases are subject to statutory limits. In many cases, the cap is up to $500,000. The cap does not apply if the jury finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that the defendant acted with reckless disregard, intentional malice, or fraud, or in wrongful death cases. The cap is also inapplicable if the injured victim can prove they suffered a severe, permanent injury.

What insurance coverage does the at-fault party have?

The policy limits of the insurance company you are negotiating with can affect how much you may be able to recover in settlement. That said, without the assistance of an attorney it is unlikely that a critical piece of the equation will ever be disclosed to the party making a claim.  Failing to understand and appreciate that every insurance policy has a limit, and sometimes a very low limit, can cause unnecessary trouble on any given claim.

Additionally, some drivers may be uninsured. While some drivers who carry only minimum insurance may not have enough coverage to pay the full cost of your whiplash claim, many drivers have no insurance at all. In either of those scenarios, you may need to resort to uninsured motorist coverage from your own insurance provider, provided you carry that coverage.

How Biby Law Firm can help you receive compensation for a whiplash injury

In addition to all the factors above, there is one more to add: the quality of your legal representation.

Although you can represent yourself when negotiating with insurance companies and defense lawyers in an Oklahoma personal injury claim for whiplash, we want you to know that you don’t have to. Not when you can have Biby Law Firm negotiating on your behalf. Here are some specific ways we can help you.

Negotiating with insurance companies and defense lawyers

The insurance claim adjuster you deal with will likely be an experienced, tough negotiator. These individuals can employ a variety of tactics to reduce the value of your whiplash claim, like trying to get you to harm your own case by making a recorded statement to be used against you later or offering you a low-ball initial offer while promising to fight your claim if you do not accept it.

If you must deal with a defense attorney as well as a claim adjuster, then your negotiation challenges can be even greater.

Hiring an experienced Biby Law Firm personal injury attorney can be instrumental in leveling the field in negotiations with insurance companies and defense attorneys:

  • We can ensure that your legal claim for personal injury is filed in court within Oklahoma’s applicable two-year statute of limitations.
  • We help you gather sufficient evidence to support your claim and to make insurance companies treat your claim seriously in negotiations.
  • We can help you to reduce the risk of making inadvertent statements that can be used to assign blame for the accident to you.
  • We investigate the facts of the accident to find any possible third parties that may be liable to you.
  • We can see that your case is properly prepared to go to trial if necessary.

Speak with a Tulsa whiplash injury lawyer today

At Biby Law Firm, our Tulsa personal injury lawyers understand how a whiplash injury can affect your ability to work and to engage in daily life activities. Attorney Jacob Biby has been recognized by Super Lawyers for nine straight years for his commitment to helping his clients obtain just recoveries – recoveries that will help victims move forward with their lives. Similarly, Patrick Collogan has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for ten straight years for his work on behalf of personal injury victims.

Contact us to speak with a skilled Oklahoma whiplash trial lawyer. Biby Law Firm proudly serves all of Oklahoma, including the communities of Broken Arrow, Bixby, Claremore, Jenks, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Wagoner, Owasso, Muskogee, and the surrounding areas.