Neck Pain After a Car Crash: When to Seek Legal Help

It is very common to experience a sore neck after a car accident, especially if you were involved in a rear-end crash. A sore neck may be a symptom that doesn't appear immediately after an accident. You may even feel fine but then realize in the hours or days following the crash that your neck begins to hurt. 

This is because your neck is a sensitive area of the body, and when it is thrown back and forth or from side to side during an accident, you may begin to suffer symptoms that cause radiating and chronic pain throughout your head, neck, and shoulders. This can make it hard for you to go back to work or to undertake physical activities that were commonplace for you prior to the accident. 

If another person was responsible for the accident and your injuries, you may be entitled to receive compensation for these damages. Your damages can include medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses directly related to the crash itself. The support of an experienced and qualified personal injury attorney is strongly recommended if you find yourself in this situation. 

At Morgan & Morgan, we know that you shouldn’t have to suffer due to someone else’s negligence on the road. If someone else is responsible for your injuries, you shouldn’t have to bear the burden of the consequences. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation case evaluation to learn how you may receive compensation for your sore neck after a car accident.

What Is Neck Strain or Whiplash?

Whiplash is also referred to as neck strain, and this refers to any blow or impact that causes your head to suddenly move forward or backward. Although it is frequently caused by vehicle accidents, any incident that causes your head to move forward and back in this way can lead to neck strain. The sudden force of a car crash can tear or stretch the tendons and muscles in your neck. 

Neck strain also affects many people who play contact sports. Neck strains, however, can easily be confused with neck sprains, although these are unique medical conditions. Neck strains are caused by damage to the tendons or muscles, which are the bands of tissue that connect your muscles to your bones. Neck sprains, however, are caused by ligament tears, the tissues that connect each of your bones to one another. The symptoms, causes, and treatment of neck strains and neck sprains, however, are typically the same, and both may show up in a personal injury lawsuit after a vehicle accident.

What Are Symptoms of a Sore Neck After a Car Accident?

The symptoms of whiplash are typically very difficult for an accident victim to ignore. They can include tenderness, pain when moving your head forward and backward, difficulty rocking your head from side to side, tightness in the neck, tenderness throughout your shoulders, and headaches at the base of the skull that move forward towards your forehead. You may notice that the symptoms of a sore neck after a car accident don't appear until several hours or days later. 

Get immediate medical attention for any car accident injuries, especially since your neck injury may occur at the same time as a serious head injury. 

Some symptoms of a concussion, for example, can be confused with whiplash and vice versa. If you begin to experience new symptoms of a sore neck after a car accident or other problems, you need to report these concerns to your doctor, especially if the symptoms are getting worse after your initial visit. Your doctor can recommend various types of treatment to you and help you to understand your best chance of recovering from this accident. 

When you follow a doctor's orders, that may put you on the path to recovery, but this does not always mean you will make a full recovery immediately. You may need to file a personal injury claim to help cover the financial gap for this time period between when you're hit and when you make a full recovery.

What Will a Doctor Prescribe for a Sore Neck After a Car Accident?

If you're diagnosed with whiplash, your doctor will likely recommend that you take painkillers or other medications and that you ice your neck to reduce swelling and pain for 15 minutes every three to four hours over the course of several days. You can also apply moist heat to your neck after two or three days of icing it, and you can also use a neck collar or brace.

When Will My Whiplash Disappear?

Recovery time will depend on the severity of the injury itself and the type of accident. Many cases of a sore neck after a car accident will resolve in a few days. 

Other kinds of neck strains, however, can take weeks to heal. Everyone heals at a different rate, and your decision to get medical attention and start taking the diagnosis and treatment seriously will also influence your ability to make a recovery. Your doctor may suggest that you start some form of physical rehab once the acute symptoms of neck strain are gone. This will help you recover more quickly and effectively, while also reducing the odds of straining your neck in the future. 

You may begin with soft stretching exercises and increase the intensity as you get better. Do not get involved in any exercise activity, however, until you've had a chance to talk to your doctor. Your doctor will advise you about any alterations you need to make to your practices and exercise and whether it is safe for you to return. 

You want to avoid doing anything that will aggravate the injury. If you're involved in the midst of a personal injury lawsuit, any carelessness or strenuous activity could indicate to the other side that you're not as seriously injured as you claim to be.

If you notice that you're not making a full recovery, it is a good idea to share your concerns about this with your physician. Your doctor may recommend alternative treatments or may tell you that you have reached maximum medical improvement, the point at which it is expected that you will not recover any further. This is an important point to reach for the purposes of your personal injury lawsuit. 

Do I Need to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?

If you're already beginning to receive medical bills associated with the accident and feeling the stress of missed time at work, you are not alone. It is commonly stressful for people who live through an accident. If you believe that someone else is responsible for the accident and the injuries you sustained, a personal injury lawyer is a valuable resource to help you file a lawsuit and recover the compensation you need. 

An attorney is there to answer your questions at each phase of the process and advise you about whether settlements or other considerations should be responded to immediately. Your lawyer will also help you to determine if your case is severe enough that it makes sense to file a personal injury lawsuit. 

Many attorneys can also help move the settlement negotiation process along so that you may be able to arrive at a lump sum amount to help you move on from this accident and close this chapter of your life. The experienced attorneys at Morgan & Morgan have years of experience working with accident victims, including those who have reported sore necks after a car accident. 

You may have a severe enough sore neck that you have substantial medical bills from just this medical condition alone, but it may also be the case that you're dealing with multiple medical conditions at once. These medical bills can be significant, even when you have a health insurance policy in place. You may have no other recourse than to file a lawsuit to help recover compensation, and the attorneys at Morgan & Morgan can help you do just that.

Reach out to us today to schedule a free case evaluation about your sore neck injury claim. If your medical bills are substantial or if you are continuing to live with chronic pain from the accident, our team of personal injury attorneys will do everything possible to investigate liability in your lawsuit, identify evidence that helps support your claim, and fight to ensure that you get a fair settlement or fight for a jury verdict in your favor.