How much compensation is paid for whiplash?

Question

José Manuel Alburquerque · Accepted Answer

Compensation is paid for each day it takes to heal, as with any temporary injury, plus the cost of treatment and any lost earnings. In 2026, each day is paid at about 39,20 euros, or about 67,96 euros if the injury prevents you from working or from carrying out a significant part of your usual activities. As whiplash is usually diagnosed solely from the pain the injured person describes, the law requires that the accident could have caused it and that the symptoms appear within a medically explainable time. If after-effects remain, they are only paid for if a conclusive medical report proves them. What the law requires When whiplash is diagnosed from the pain reported by the injured person, without medical tests to confirm it, it is paid for if these four criteria are met: That there is no other cause, such as a previous condition, that fully explains the discomfort. That the symptoms appear within a medically explainable time. It carries great weight if they appear, or if you are seen by a doctor, within 72 hours of the accident. That the injury is in the part of the body affected by the accident, unless there is a medical explanation for it being elsewhere. That the injury is consistent with the way the accident happened, taking into account its intensity and the other circumstances that make the injury more or less likely. In low-speed collisions, insurers often dispute this last criterion with biomechanical reports, which study the force of the impact. The law does not set a minimum speed. It requires the intensity of the impact to be assessed together with everything else. How much is paid With the 2026 amounts, whiplash that takes 30 days to heal is paid at about 39,20 euros a day, 1.176 euros in total. If you could not work on 10 of those days, those 10 are paid at 67,96 euros and the other 20 at 39,20 euros, 1.463,60 euros in total. The two amounts are not added together for the same day, because the amount for a moderate day already includes the basic one. In addition, the costs of rehabilitation, medicines and travel are paid, provided they are documented and reasonable. So are any lost earnings, if you prove them. If there are after-effects An after-effect of whiplash is only paid for if a conclusive medical report proves that it is still present after the recovery period. That is why you should continue the treatment until you are discharged and ask for the report to describe in detail the discomfort that remains. If the insurer denies the injury or the after-effect, you can ask the “Instituto de Medicina Legal”, the public forensic medicine institute, for a report, which the insurer pays for.