Burn Injury Lawyers
Trial Lawyers for Serious Burn Injury Cases
Make the trial attorneys of Fisher Redavid your legal champions after you have suffered a serious burn injury due to someone else’s mistakes. Our team is known for taking an aggressive approach that keeps the defendants on the retreat, which is often necessary for fiercely contested burn injury cases. We recently made headlines by securing an $800,000 jury award for a child who was severely burned by a McDonald’s Happy Meal. While no law firm can promise one case result or another, we believe major wins like the McDonald’s Happy Meal case speak to our abilities and steadfast dedication to our clients’ recoveries.
Are you an attorney with inquiries or a case to refer? Arrange a conversation with one of our lawyers or give us a call today at (888) 694-0708.
Causes of Burn Injuries
Serious burn injuries can be caused by a variety of sources, many of which are related to one party’s negligence. From a seemingly innocuous but dangerously overheated chicken nugget to poorly labeled chemical cleaners, our team has the experience and resources needed to work on a burn injury case involving any source or cause. If you were seriously burned, please let us know what happened, so we can see if you could have the grounds for a burn injury claim.
Different causes and sources of serious burn injuries include:
- Defective Products: If a product malfunctions and causes a burn injury, the manufacturer or distributor may be held liable under product liability law. This could include anything from defective electronic devices to faulty kitchen appliances, or as our attorneys saw secondhand through our newsworthy case, an unreasonably hot chicken nugget in a kid’s meal.
- Electrical Malfunction: Faulty wiring or defective electrical devices can cause severe burn injuries. The property owner or product manufacturer could be held liable depending on the circumstances. Evidence such as maintenance records or product recall information can be crucial in these cases.
- Unsafe Chemicals: Some burn injuries are not caused by a source of heat but instead by an unsafe chemical reaction. If you suffered a burn injury due to exposure to a caustic chemical, such as a product you purchased or one you were required to use in your line of work, then you might have a case.
Severities of Burn Injuries
The severity of your burn injury could be important for the development of your burn injury claim. The defendant could have a more difficult time refuting your claim if you have suffered a severe burn with medical evidence to back it up. You should always seek immediate medical attention after suffering a painful or severe burn injury. The medical records made during your care should describe the severity of your burn, which our burn injury lawyers can then use while building the case.
Burn injuries are sorted by degrees of severity, including:
- First: A first-degree burn is mild and should be treatable with in-home first-aid, like a cold compress and painkillers. The skin may redden and possibly swell, but more serious symptoms do not occur for a first-degree burn.
- Second: A second-degree burn destroys several layers of skin and possibly underlying soft tissue. Urgent medical care is required because a poorly treated second-degree burn can cause permanent scarring, infections, and other problems.
- Third: A third-degree burn is highly dangerous and destroys soft tissues, possibly down to the bone. Even if a third-degree burn only covers a small portion of the body, emergency medical care is required. If untreated, the consequences of a third-degree burn could cause permanent disabilities or death.
- Fourth or higher: Once a burn is severe and covers enough of the body to be categorized as a fourth-degree burn, it is no longer considered medically survivable. Such a catastrophic burn could warrant a wrongful death claim, depending on who or what caused the burn.
Lasting Consequences of Burn Injuries
Severe burn injuries are considered catastrophic injuries because they are highly likely to create lasting or permanent consequences for the survivor. When calculating your losses, our burn injury attorneys know to weigh the lasting consequences of a severe burn.
A catastrophic burn injury could cause you to experience these long-lasting complications:
- Disabilities: Depending on where you were burned, you could experience permanent disabilities due to it. For example, a severe burn to a joint can destroy the tendons and nerves there, effectively paralyzing the attached limb, or even calling for amputation.
- Permanent scarring: Severe burns usually cause permanent scarring. Skin grafts and surgery can help alleviate these scars, but they can rarely completely remove them. You might suffer mentally from the existence of a new scar, especially if it is in a highly visible area like your hands or face.
- Chronic pain: Catastrophic injuries like severe burns can cause pain that lasts for months or years after the injury heals as much as possible. If you lost a limb or digit due to a severe burn, then you could even suffer phantom pain, a perplexing and agonizing phenomenon that causes you to feel pain in a body part that no longer exists.
Future Damages for Burn Injury Claimants
Calculating the damages owed to you after suffering a serious burn injury is not a task we take lightly. We know that you could be facing the most difficult financial challenges of your life due to the consequences of your burn injury. Our goal is to maximize the compensation owed to you and pursue it tirelessly through settlement negotiations or litigation if that becomes necessary.
Important future damages to consider in your claim include:
- Future medical costs: You might require ongoing medical treatments and physical therapy to treat a catastrophic burn. We don’t think it’s right for you to be expected to pay for any of those medical costs if another party caused the injury, even if you need medical care for years.
- Future lifestyle changes: A burn injury that causes a disability can require you to change your lifestyle and living conditions. For example, you may need a wheelchair ramp installed in your home if a severe burn causes you to lose a leg.
- Future lost income: You could find it difficult to hold gainful employment if a severe burn injury has left you with physical disabilities. We can fight for the wages you have already lost while recovering, as well as future income that you can’t earn but likely would have had the burn injury never happened.
Get Legal Help Today – Call Our Firm
You have enough to deal with after being severely injured in an accident or due to a defective product. Don’t add to your stress by trying to handle the legal work of a burn injury claim. Instead, come to Fischer Redavid and speak with our reputable burn injury attorneys. We’re ready for whatever challenges lie ahead. With talented trial lawyers on staff, we can even take your case to the courtroom for litigation if it comes down to it.
Pick a fighting law firm. Call (888) 694-0708 to ask about burn injury claim representation now.
Burn Injury Claim FAQ
- Can I still file a claim even if I didn’t suffer a third-degree burn?
Many burn injury lawsuits involve third-degree burns, but not all. Some second-degree burns are serious enough to justify legal action if they are caused by a negligent third party. Deciding to pursue legal action or now depends on how your life was disrupted by the burn, not necessarily the burn’s degree. - Will my case be weakened if my burn scar fades?
Scars can fade with time and treatment. Your burn injury claim’s validity doesn’t necessarily fade as your scar fades, though. It might reduce the amount of non-economic damage you can demand based on a lingering scar, but that wouldn’t mean all aspects of your case matter less. - What is a statute of limitations on burn injury cases?
The statute of limitations is how much time you have to file a claim for a burn injury before you lose that option. The length of this statute varies from state to state. It is best to assume that you don’t have much time to start a claim and speak with a burn injury lawyer as soon as possible.