Making a Whiplash Claim Without a Solicitor: The Official Injury Claim Service Step by Step

Can you use the service?

The Official Injury Claim service was set up by the government for minor road traffic injury claims. You can use it if all of these apply:

• you are 18 or over when you start the claim
• the accident happened in England or Wales on or after 31 May 2021
• you were a driver or passenger in a vehicle
• you believe someone else was wholly or partly at fault, and their vehicle had UK registration plates
• your injury is worth £5,000 or less, and your whole claim, including financial losses, is £10,000 or less

It is not for motorcyclists and pillion passengers, cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders or wheelchair and mobility scooter users, who are treated as vulnerable road users, and it is not for children. Those claims follow the normal rules and legal costs can usually be recovered.

What to have ready before you start

The claim goes more smoothly if you gather these first:

• the other driver's name, registration number and, ideally, their insurer. If you don't know the insurer, the askMID service can look it up from the registration.
• the date, time and place of the accident and a short account of what happened
• any police reference number
• photos of the vehicles and the scene, and names of witnesses
• a note of your symptoms from the start, including when they began and how they affect work, sleep and driving
• receipts for prescriptions, physiotherapy, travel to appointments and anything damaged
• proof of lost earnings, such as payslips or a letter from your employer

The five stages

1. Start the claim

Create an account and enter the details of the accident, your injuries and the other driver. The service sends the claim to the compensator, which is usually the other driver's insurer.

2. Liability: does the insurer accept fault?

The compensator has 30 business days (40 if the Motor Insurers' Bureau is dealing with an uninsured driver) to say whether it accepts that its driver was at fault. It can accept fully, accept but argue you were partly to blame, or deny fault. If fault is denied or disputed, you can challenge the decision, and if you cannot agree, a judge will decide at a hearing.

3. The medical report

Once fault is accepted, you need an independent medical report. The service helps you book an appointment with an expert through MedCo, the system that allocates medical experts for whiplash claims. The expert examines you, asks about your symptoms and gives a prognosis: how long they expect your symptoms to last. That prognosis decides which tariff band your claim falls into. The cost of the report is paid by the compensator if the claim succeeds.

Read the report carefully before you accept it. If it gets facts wrong, such as the date symptoms stopped or missing a symptom you reported, you can ask for it to be corrected.

4. The offer

After the medical report is uploaded, the insurer has 20 business days to make an offer. It should cover the tariff amount for your injury plus your financial losses. You can accept it, or reject it and make a counteroffer with reasons.

Do not settle before you have the medical report. For whiplash claims the law does not allow compensators to pay out without medical evidence.

5. Court, if you cannot agree

If you cannot agree on the amount, or on fault, the claim can go to a judge in the small claims track. The service provides forms and guidance. You would usually pay a court fee, which you can claim back if you win, and fee help may be available if you are on a low income.

How much the tariff pays

For road traffic whiplash, compensation for the injury itself is a fixed amount set in regulations. It depends on how long your symptoms last and the accident date.

Accidents between 31 May 2021 and 30 May 2025 use the lower 2021 amounts. The differences are set out in whiplash tariff 2025 vs 2021. A court can increase the amount by up to 20% only in exceptional circumstances.

Your financial losses are added on top: lost earnings, prescriptions, physiotherapy, travel to appointments, care from family and damaged belongings.

Solicitor or no solicitor? The maths

In claims through this service, legal costs are generally not recoverable from the other side. A solicitor who takes your case on a no win no fee basis will usually take a success fee from your compensation, capped at 25% including VAT of your damages for the injury and past losses.

Take a common example: whiplash lasting seven months with no psychological injury, after a June 2025 accident, gives a tariff of £965. Add £240 of physiotherapy receipts and £120 of lost pay, and the claim is worth £1,325. A 25% deduction would be about £330, leaving you with roughly £995. Doing it yourself, you keep the full £1,325, but you do the paperwork.

A solicitor is more likely to be worth the fee when:

• the insurer denies fault or says you were partly to blame
• you have other injuries alongside whiplash, such as a broken bone or a knee injury
• your claim may be worth more than £5,000 for the injury
• you have a significant psychological injury, not just travel anxiety
• your losses are complicated, for example self-employed earnings

Mistakes that cost people money

• Not mentioning every symptom to the medical expert. Anything missing from the report is hard to add later.
• Accepting a report that understates how long symptoms lasted, which can drop you into a lower band.
• Forgetting financial losses. Keep every receipt and write down mileage to appointments.
• Leaving it too late. The general time limit is three years from the accident.
• Using a claims company that cold-called you. You do not need a paid intermediary to use a free government service.

Where to get help

The Official Injury Claim service has a support centre and guidance on each stage. Citizens Advice can also help you understand your options, and some trade unions and legal expenses insurance policies attached to car or home insurance provide free legal help for road accidents. Check your policy documents before paying anyone.