Fall off chair causes whiplash

Whiplash is a contentious subject bearing in mind allegations that it is often either made up or grossly exaggerated as an injury, due to the fact it is a muscular injury and therefore difficult to disprove. When thinking of whiplash we also tend to think of car crashes and typically, rear end shunts.

In an interesting recent case, a very overweight bus driver suffered an injury when a chair he was sitting on during a tea break broke. The bus driver in question is apparently claiming up to £75,000.00 and you might ask how on earth such an accident might equate to such a large claim. The answer to this is that in addition to a claim for general damages for pain and suffering for the whiplash injury, the individual is claiming the injury caused severe depression which in turn means that he has a claim for special damages for ongoing loss of earnings. This aspect (the special damages) is what makes claims potentially much higher since general damages for pain and suffering under English law are in reality quite modest.