Burn Injury Lawyer

Every year, over 450,000 individuals throughout the USA receive hospital treatment because of a burn injury they’ve sustained, as recorded by the American Burn Association. Individuals who suffer a burn injury will experience mental and physical suffering, pain, scarring, and, in some cases, life-altering consequences. 

If you or a loved one has been the victim of burn injury, legal representation from an experienced burn injury lawyer can help you recover the compensation you deserve.

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What Are the Most Common Causes of Burn Injuries?

Burn injuries can result from a range of accidents. The following are some of the most common causes of burn injuries:

Motor Vehicle Accidents

High-impact accidents, including pileups, rear ends, and T-bone accidents, can lead to motor vehicle fires that can result in severe injuries, including burns. Burn injuries involving a motor vehicle often happen because an individual is trapped inside their vehicle or is trying to help someone who’s trapped inside a burning vehicle. 

Structure Fires

Structure fires are another common cause of burn injuries. Often, individuals trapped inside a burning building may not realize it until the structure fire has already engulfed them. 

Workplace Accidents

Workplace accidents are common causes of burn injuries and can happen across a range of industries. For example, electrical and chemical burns can occur on construction job sites. At the same time, other workplaces, such as restaurants, may involve workers receiving scalding injuries caused by boiling water or other boiling fluids.

What Are the Degrees of a Burn Injury? 

Burn injuries are classified differently to determine their severity, how to treat them, and any complications that may result from them:

• First-degree burns: First-degree burns, also known as superficial burns, involve only the outer layer of the skin or epidermis being impacted. A mild to severe sunburn is a typical example of a first-degree burn. 
• Second-degree burns: Second-degree burns involve injury to the lower part of the skin’s layer, also known as the dermis, and victims may suffer peeling skin, scarring, and blisters. If the burn is two to three inches wide, it is considered a minor second-degree burn. Major second-degree burns span a larger surface area. Second-degree burns that happen to the hands, feet, face, buttocks, groin area, or across a major joint are also considered major second-degree burns. 
• Third-degree burns: A third-degree burn occurs when there is injury to the innermost layer of the skin. This type of injury can cause numbness because of nerve damage, resulting in permanent scarring, disability, and deformity. 
• Fourth-degree burns: Fourth-degree burns are the most severe type of burn injury, as the burn impacts the underlying tissue, muscles, ligaments, and even bones. These types of injuries are life-threatening and may cause a victim to experience a nervous shock immediately after the burn, with a secondary shock hours later.

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Additional Injuries Often Associated With Fires

After a fire, especially when considering structural fires, most people think that the main injury suffered by victims is a burn injury. However, burn injuries are typically the last to occur. Often, injuries many victims experience during a fire aside from a burn injury include the following:

Smoke Inhalation and Respiratory Distress

Over half of all fire-related deaths occur because of smoke inhalation and not because of the fire itself. Smoke inhalation can result in a range of life-threatening complications because of the harmful smoke particles that enter your bloodstream when you inhale them during a fire. Symptoms of smoke inhalation include trouble breathing, burning eyes, runny noses, chronic heart issues, and lung diseases. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Physical injuries are not the only type of injuries you may suffer after a burn. The violence of such an injury often leaves victims with mental health struggles, including post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD can include: 

• Vivid flashbacks
• Trouble sleeping 
• Intrusive thoughts or images
• Physical reactions include trembling, tingling sensations, nausea, sweating
• Sudden and unexplained mood changes

Death

In severe burn injury cases, a victim succumbs to their injuries. This is often the case when a victim suffers a fourth-degree injury that spans a great portion of their body. Complications from a burn injury result because a victim has gone into shock, suffered organ failure, respiratory failure, or has battled an infection.

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What Are Damages Available in a Burn Injury Case?

Burn victims can pursue a personal injury lawsuit against negligent parties and can collect damages for their pain, suffering, and losses. If a victim dies because of their burn injury, the victim’s estate or loved ones can also pursue legal action from negligent parties through a wrongful death lawsuit. 

When filing a personal injury lawsuit or a wrongful death lawsuit, plaintiffs can pursue the following damages: 

Economic Damages

Economic damages refer to the calculable and often tangible losses a victim has suffered because of a burn injury. Florida does not impose a cap on economic damages, which means that victims can recover all their economic losses. Examples of non-economic damages include the following: 

• Loss of income or lost wages
• Property damage
• Hospital bills 
• Medical bills for counseling and therapy
• Funeral and burial expenses
• Other easy-to-calculate, often monetary losses

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages refer to often difficult-to-calculate and intangible losses a victim sustains. To calculate non-economic losses, courts will use a Per Diem or Multiplier method that assigns a value to a victim’s or family’s non-economic losses. Examples of these types of damages include: 

• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Scarring and disfigurement 
• Loss of consortium 
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish 

Punitive Damages

Unlike economic and non-economic damages, punitive damages are not a type of compensatory damage, meaning they are not designed to compensate a victim for the losses they’ve sustained because of their injury. Rather, punitive damages are designed to punish a negligent party for their actions that led to a victim suffering a burn injury. Punitive damages are designed to deter a defendant and similarity-suited entities from behaving similarly.

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Florida’s Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

Under Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(a), victims generally have two years from the date of their injury to bring forward a personal injury lawsuit. If a victim dies from their injury, there is a two-year statute of limitations that surviving family members have to bring forward a claim. 

How Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys, Can Help After a Burn Injury

When you work with an experienced Tampa, Florida, personal injury attorney, you’ll have experienced legal representation working on your behalf to help you recover the compensation and justice you deserve. At Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys, our team of attorneys and investigators will help you do the following: 

• Accurately assess your damages: Our attorneys will work diligently to collect all evidence to prove your losses and the damages you are entitled to. 
• Prove liability and negligence: Under Florida’s comparative negligence laws, victims can still recover damages from their injury even if they were partly at fault. Our attorneys will work tirelessly to determine any and all parties that could be held liable in your case. 
• Bring in expert witnesses: Our attorneys will bring in expert witnesses, when applicable, from accident reconstructionists to medical specialists, to bolster your case. 
• Negotiate a fair settlement on your behalf: As expert negotiators, we will take the case to court if a settlement can’t be reached.

If You Have Suffered a Burn Injury, Jack Bernstein, Injury Attorneys, Are Here for You

If you or a loved one has suffered a burn injury, you are not alone. Our team of experienced attorneys, investigators, and paralegals will provide comprehensive support so you can recover the damages you may be entitled to and the justice you deserve. Contact us today to speak with an experienced Tampa, Florida, burn injury attorney who will fight for your rights.

Learn more about our practice areas.

Sources:

Burn Incidence Fact Sheet.

Chapter 95.11.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

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