We’ve all heard of people getting into minor fender-benders, hiring an attorney, and suddenly hitting the jackpot. Some people have even been arrested for purposefully staging car accidents with hopes of making it big. My experience has shown: the gold-rush days of auto accident recoveries have long ago passed. If you get in a car wreck, don’t expect to retire anytime soon. You’ll likely get some money, but nowhere near an amount you’ll think is fair to make up for all your pain and suffering, inconvenience, and lost time. Worse, people with legitimate injuries now must fight for proper compensation from auto insurance companies. If you get into a car accident, and suffer anything less than a broken bone, prepare for a fight. This is bad news for many LegalMatch consumers who have automobile collisions. I went through and tabulated the most commonly cited injuries they suffered from auto accidents in 2008. Next to each injury, I cite the percentage of people who cited the ailment when posting their auto accident case on LegalMatch:
- Neck pain 49%
- Lower back pain 42%
- Headaches 39%
- Shoulder pain 37%
- Upper back pain 34%
- Difficulty sleeping 31%
- Anxiety 25%
- Cuts and bruises 20%
- Loss of feeling in part of body 12%
- Broken bones 10%
Of the thousands of auto accident cases posted on LegalMatch in 2008, it’s not surprising that the most commonly cited injuries are neck and back pain. Many people in auto crashes suffer traumatic whiplashes from blunt force impacts, which inevitably lead to neck pain and headaches. And with any of the ailments noted above, they can make it very difficult for someone to sleep properly. The only physical manifestations of an injury noted above are “cuts and bruises”, which 20% of people suffered, and “broken bones”, which 10% of people cited. The rest of the injuries are not visible injuries that a doctor can see. This makes it very difficult for insurance companies to determine who is telling the truth and really suffering, and who is trying to milk them for an unmerited windfall.