Protecting Your Rights and Your Future After a Devastating Burn Accident
Burns are among the more serious injuries that you can suffer in any accident. If you have sustained serious burns, the road ahead may be difficult. The recovery process is typically long, requiring ongoing medical treatment. Still, insurance companies are often reluctant to pay fair compensation. Having an experienced North Charleston burn injury attorney at your side from the beginning can make all the difference.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a burn accident, attorney Frank Hartman is a burn injury lawyer in Charleston with the drive to get you full financial compensation when you deserve it. Reach out to The Hartman Law Firm, LLC today to discuss your case.
Types of Burn Injury Cases We Handle
Research shows that human skin can begin to burn at 111°F. Sustained contact at 118° can cause first degree burns, and second degree burns can occur in seconds at 131°. At 162° F, cellular damage occurs, destroying skin.
Of course, not all burns are caused by high temperatures. Some of the most common types of burn injuries include:
- Thermal: Heat sources, such as a hot surface or flame, can damage the skin.
- Radiation: Prolonged exposure to any type of radiation, such as an X-ray, can burn the skin.
- Chemical: Strong acids, alkalies, detergents, or solvents can burn when they come into contact with the skin.
- Electrical: Electrocution from contact with a strong electrical current can cause serious burn injuries to the limbs or body.
You can even suffer a serious burn from scalds by a hot substance, such as grease or water. In the past, Frank represented a client who suffered serious burn injuries when they fell through the floor of their shower and were under scalding hot water for hours.
Degrees of Burn Injuries
There are four degrees of burn injuries, based on the severity. The degrees are as follows:
- First-degree burns affect only the outer layer of the skin. They may be very painful at first, but they are often temporary and leave little lasting effect.
- Second-degree burns are more painful, involving several leather layers of the skin, but not reaching through the skin.
- Third-degree burns are very serious. They destroy the skin, and they can reach the underlying bones, muscles, and tendons.
- Fourth-degree burns are when the damage reaches the bones, muscles, and tendons.
Third and fourth-degree burns are extremely serious, and they are often fatal. If a burn victim survives these injuries, they will be left with lasting damage for perhaps the rest of their life.
Success Stories from Our Clients
Treatments for Burn Injuries
Your burn injury treatment is often divided into two phases.
At the outset, you need medical treatment to stabilize your condition. Burns can lead to serious infections and respiratory distress and the initial hours and days after the injury. You may need intensive treatment at a specialized burn center.
Then, you may need long-term treatment, especially if the burns cause nerve damage in your body. Plastic surgeons could also perform skin grafts to repair the affected area. You would likely need far more than just one skin graft. These treatments are incredibly expensive.
As a burn injury lawyer, Frank tells clients to stick to their treatment plan and follow their doctors’ orders so their condition can improve as much as medically possible.
Causes of Burn Injuries
Burn injuries can happen anytime your skin comes into contact with anything extremely hot. You can suffer a burn injury in a sudden accident or based on prolonged exposure to something hot.
Obviously, burn injuries occur in many different ways. Some common examples include:
- Burning fuel in a crash
- Coming into contact with a hot surface
- Malfunctioning machinery
- A fire caused by an accident
- Extremely hot food or liquids
- Exposure to certain chemicals
No matter the cause, you may be entitled to financial compensation if you can prove that your burns were the result of someone else’s negligence.
Liability in Burn Injury Cases
The type of claim you have in a burn injury case depends on how the burn occurred–and sometimes on where it occurred. For example:
- If burn injuries occur in a car accident, a negligent driver who caused or partly caused your accident may be liable as in any other car accident case
- If the burn injury occurred at work, you will likely have a workers’ compensation claim, but should also speak to an attorney about possible third-party liability
- If the burn occurs as a result of a defective product, you may have a product liability claim
Identifying Third Party Liability in Burn Injury Cases
Since medical bills are typically high in burn injury cases and your ability to work is often limited, it’s especially important to make sure that you and your burn injury lawyer have identified all possible responsible parties. Here are a few examples of situations in which third parties may share liability for a burn injury.
Premises Liability and Burn Injuries
A neighbor in your apartment building left food cooking unattended and started a kitchen fire, which spread to adjoining apartments and caused your injuries. Your neighbor will likely be found negligent, but may not have insurance coverage or resources to pay your damages.
However, you may also have a premises liability claim against the owner of the building. For example, if the building isn’t compliant with requirements for safety exits, or if emergency exits are blocked off and that stopped you from getting to safety quickly, your landlord may be partly responsible for your injuries. This is just one example and obviously won’t apply in every case–but it’s important to have an experienced burn injury lawyer in North Charleston assess your case for additional responsible parties.
Burn Injuries on the Job
Workers’ compensation provides an opportunity for employees who were injured on the job to get more streamlined access to medical care and replacement income. But the workers’ compensation system doesn’t provide for the same types of damages you can collect in a civil suit. For instance, you cannot recover damages for pain and suffering through workers’ compensation.
Workers’ compensation is an exclusive remedy, meaning that an injured employee generally can’t sue the employer for damages. However, in some cases you may be able to pursue a claim against a third party. For example, if your burns occurred when a defective piece of machinery caught fire during normal use, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer, separate from your workers’ compensation claim.
Third Party Liability in Car Accident Burn Injury Cases
The most common responsible party in a car accident case is one of the drivers involved in the crash. Still, other factors often contribute to a car accident or the resulting injuries. For example, if the vehicle you were riding in caught fire in a relatively low-speed collision because the vehicle was defective, you may have a product liability claim.
If the crash was caused in part by debris in the road or by the actions of a third driver, you may have a negligence claim against the party who left the debris in the road, the entity responsible for road maintenance, or the third driver who was not involved in the crash.
Third party liability doesn’t mean you can double-dip. For example, you can’t collect replacement income from workers’ comp and then collect the same lost wages through your product liability suit. Rather, a third party claim allows you to pursue damages that have not been covered. One simple example is that workers’ compensation typically pays ⅔ of your regular wages. While you can’t collect from a third party for the same losses, you can often collect the ⅓ you did not receive from workers comp.
How Much Your Burn Injury May Be Worth
Burns impact your life both in the immediate short-term and in the aftermath of an accident. You may need treatment years into the future. Each of these procedures can cost thousands of dollars and can mean lengthy recovery times.
Calculating the Real Financial Impact of Severe Burns
Serious burn injuries can have a lifelong impact. Determining what that impact will cost you across many years can seem overwhelming. You’ll have to consider things like lost future earnings, ongoing medical care, any assistance you may require to do things you used to be able to do yourself, special equipment you may require and more.
The best way to ensure that you don’t overlook anything is to work with a North Charleston burn injury law firm that knows how to identify and work with the best experts for your case. That may include expert witnesses to project lost future earnings, to calculate and explain the likely long-term cost of your medical care, to identify and explain any additional assistance you will require due to the burns, and even quantifying non-economic damages such as pain and suffering and loss of quality of life.
If our firm represents you, Frank can go after the full value of your burn injury damages, which can include:
- Medical expenses
- Plastic surgery costs
- Rehabilitation
- Lost wages
- Scarring and disfigurement
- Pain and suffering
- Embarrassment and humiliation
Burns are an extremely painful injury. It follows that your non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, may be very high. The more prominent the location of the burn, the more money to which you may be entitled.
Contact Our Charleston Burn Injury Lawyer Today
If you have suffered a serious burn injury, you must obtain full financial compensation if someone else is to blame for what happened. Between the expenses and the other impacts on your life, you will need every dollar that you get.
If you hire Frank as your attorney, he will fight for you and defend against the insurance company that will look to devalue your suffering. The first step in your financial recovery is to schedule a free initial consultation, where we can learn more about your situation and explain your legal options.
You can speak with our Charleston personal injury attorney today. Send us a message online or call us now at 843.300.7600.