Dr. Mitch Stanlick, a Murfreesboro, Tennessee chiropractor, says that whiplash is already an under-diagnosed injury in the United States. This is compounded, says Dr. Stanlick, by the fact that symptoms of potential whiplash cases are also under-reported. Whiplash occurs when the neck is suddenly forced to hyperextend. The damages are mild, moderate, or severe strains to neck and back muscles, ligaments, joints, discs, and pinched nerves. If a whiplash injury goes unattended, the problem could surpass minor soft-tissue stress and become chronic pain or a crippling disorder. Whiplash symptoms can appear anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks after an auto collision, work-related accident, or even sports mishap.

Earlier this year, medical physicians for Sidney Crosby, captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, diagnosed the hockey professional as having whiplash. Crosby, according to sports medicine sources, suffers from whiplash caused from an incident that occurred on the ice last year. Does whiplash affect (more…)

Personal insurance lawyers have hit back at Prime Minister David Cameron’s description of H and S legislation as ‘an albatross around the neck of British businesses’. He told a meeting of business leaders that costs amounting to billions of pounds left entrepreneurs fearful of speculative accident-at-work claims.

Mr Cameron, speaking in Berkshire, said 2012 should go down in history as the year ‘we get a lot of this pointless time-wasting out of the British economy and British life once and for all,’ insurancetimes.co.uk reports.

The Government has recently consulted on their plan to raise the £10,000 cap on the value of low-value personal injury cases dealt with by their fixed fees arrangement. This would mean fewer cases where fees were charged independently by specialist lawyers.

But David Bott, President of the Personal Injury Lawyers’ Association, said he had grave concerns the Government was acting too quickly to change the system without sufficient concern for people involved in personal injury compensation claims.

‘The danger is that workers could be exposed to an unnecessary risk of injury and then be left with a civil justice system that cuts them off from their right to full and fair redress’, he said.

Mr Cameron earlier promised to ‘kill off damaging health and safety culture’ to help boost business growth.

Mr Bott countered:

‘Instead of watering down the rules which are designed to protect workers, businesses should be made to feel confident in their knowledge they have nothing to fear from litigation provided they take reasonable steps to prevent needless injury. Any fear businesses have should be for the welfare of their staff, not legal costs.’

The Prime Minister’s plan for capping legal fees was broadly welcomed by major insurers. Director Otto Thoresen, of the ABI (Association of British Insurers) said his organisation looked forward to the opportunity to discuss this important issue with the Government.