How to Recover Damages After a Burn Injury

Any personal injury lawsuit is a complex process. To recover damages that cover your expenses and compensate for loss of employment, income, or enjoyment, there are many steps. The process can take months, if not years.

Recovering damages in a burn injury lawsuit requires the help of a burn injury attorney. It’s important to have someone who advocates for you. After all, recovering from a burn injury is a painful process in itself. Pain, scarring, and permanent damage are common with burn injuries, which is why settlement values are often higher.

To establish your claim and recover damages, the following steps are necessary:

Determine the Severity of the Injury

A 1^st degree burn is mild and associated with some reddening and discomfort. It doesn’t usually require medical treatment and takes a few days to heal. A 2^nd degree burn is painful and causes redness and blistering; the skin may be glossy and leak fluid. Urgent medical treatment should be sought, while a 3^rd degree burn is the most severe. It penetrates the skin and can damage underlying tissues. Skin is often dry, leathery, and may be white, brown, or black.

Prove How You Were Injured

Your claim should indicate exactly how you were burned. Common causes of burns include scalding by hot liquid, electrical burns, smoke inhalation, chemical exposure, gas explosions, and radiation burns. Exposure during a building fire can cause extensive thermal burns. An automobile or workplace accident, defective product, or negligence by the owner of a public facility (restaurant, hotel, etc.) can be the cause.

Establish Liability

To recover damages, you need to prove there’s sufficient evidence against the defendant. As the plaintiff, you must prove the defendant owed a duty of care to you, they breached that duty, and this breach was a direct cause of your injuries. If they breached a duty of care, but the breach was unrelated to your injury, the case probably won’t be valid.

Determine Compensation

A burn injury can limit your mobility, impede your ability to sweat, and cause irreparable nerve damage. Your skin might be hypersensitive to heat, cold, or sunlight. Some burns lead to amputations, while emotional suffering is common after a serious burn.

You’ll likely seek compensation for medical expenses. Skin grafts are common after burns and can include functional grafts to restore normal function to the arms, face, or other affected areas; cosmetic grafts restore a victim’s appearance after burn trauma. Grafts often require multiple surgeries and extended hospital stays.

In addition to primary medical treatment, the costs of therapy, medications, follow-up appointments, and travel must be factored into your monetary recovery. Emotional, mental, and physical anguish can be included in your compensation. Your attorney will help determine the value of your claim.

Punitive damages can be sought if the defendant was extremely negligent or intentionally caused harm. If you were intentionally burned, punitive damages are likely. For gross negligence, it’s harder to predict whether you’ll receive them. For example, it would have to be proven a manufacturer was responsible for a product defect that directly resulted in you getting burned.

Call Our Burn Injury Lawyer Today

The Law Offices of Jacob Emrani specializes in many types of personal injury cases. We can help you win maximum compensation for a burn injury and its impacts, and you’ll pay no fees until we win your case. Our team has won many multi-million-dollar settlements. Call us at 888-865-8289 for a free case evaluation and to get started on your burn injury lawsuit.