Whiplash is a common neck and/or back injury that is usually the result of rapid acceleration or speeding up quickly or sudden slowing or stopping, called deceleration. A whiplash injury is most commonly caused by the motion made by a vehicle accident. In a sudden deceleration the head is normally thrown forward rather suddenly and violently. This motion puts a brief but very severe strain on the neck. This stretches the muscles and the ligaments in the neck. This already traumatic series of motions are the normally followed by a reflex contraction of the muscles, which then results in the head being jerked in the opposite direction. The resulting whiplash injury can be the cause of a serious disruption on a person's ability to go about the regular tasks of everyday life.

In a whiplash injury the soft tissues and sometimes even the vertebrae are severely affected. Often times the injury does not manifest itself for a day or two, but the pain and disability it can cause can last periodically up to a year. The degree of the injury as well as the severity of the pain and suffering from whiplash are quite often the subject of dispute in claims and lawsuits for damages that are caused by negligent driving.

Whiplash injuries can be quite painful and the pain it causes can sometimes be so severe that it can immobilize a person and prevent him from doing his normal everyday activities, much less work. In fact, it is not unusual to hear people suing someone for having caused them a whiplash injury. More often than not these whiplash injuries are already enough grounds for a person to file legal charges against the party or parties that caused the whiplash injury. Some people may balk at the idea of filing for damages for personal injury caused by accidents and even say that paying legal fees is just a waste of money because you are never sure if you will win the case. But truth in fact is, you have every right to file for these charges, and what's more, you have a right to ask for compensation for the errors committed by the guilty party or parties. Besides, by filing charges against the guilty parties, you are effectively stopping them from committing the same mistakes that could result in other people suffering the injuries as you did.

When filing a personal injury case against a person/persons there are some things that should be remembered. First of all, when you are filing these charges you are basically asking for damages. There are actually two types of damages that can be asked for:

" General damages covers pain and suffering caused by the injury and/or the accident
" Specific damages are for the loss of potential earnings or for specific costs associated with the accident

When it comes to making claims regarding the accident and the injury, claims must be made within three years from when the accident occurred. If the three years lapses before any claim is made then you can't make a claim anymore.