Call Us Today (732) 249-0444 Extensive burn damage is not only painful in the moment but damaged skin allows bacteria to enter the body. When these burns were not your own fault, you should not have to deal with the financial consequences in addition to the physical ones.
Burn patients face extensive medical treatment, including repeated skin grafts and possibly plastic surgery. Treatment is expensive and there is no guarantee you will recover completely. If someone acted recklessly or intentionally to cause your plight, a Perth Amboy burn injury lawyer may be able to get you the compensation you are due. Let our skilled catastrophic injury attorneys represent you in this difficult time.
Humans immediately recoil as a defense mechanism when their skin detects excessive heat. Sometimes, unfortunately, a sudden event makes it impossible to flee the heat, thus damaging the skin and making it less likely to regenerate fully. Some common sources of burn injuries include:
In many cases, a lawyer can negotiate with insurance companies that have issued policies to people responsible for the burn injuries. If settlement negotiations fall through, it may be time to bring the lawsuit to court. A Perth Amboy burn accident lawyer should be willing to fight hard for clients seeking compensation.
For a plaintiff to prevail and win compensation for a burn injury, they must prove negligence on the defendant’s part. If it goes to court, the jury will consider if the defendant meets the reasonable person test, which compares their behavior to that of a reasonable person in a similar situation. If the defendant’s behavior falls below that standard, the elements of duty and breach are met. If the defendant’s breach is the cause of the incident and the plaintiff is burned, the elements of causation and injury are met, and the defendant will probably be found negligent.
“Cause-in-fact” means the incident would not have occurred if not for a specific action. The cause-in-fact is necessary but may not be enough to prove the injury resulted from it. “Proximate” or legal cause determines if the defendant’s act is intricately tied to the events that led to the injury.
For instance, if an arsonist sets fire to a house and the resident suffers severe burns, setting the fire is both the cause-in-fact and proximate cause of the tragedy. But if a passerby suffers a heart attack after seeing their house on fire, it could be argued that the sight of the fire is the cause-in-fact because the person would not have had a heart attack if they were not seeing their home in flames. But it is probably not the proximate cause of the heart attack if the person had heart disease and would have suffered an attack anyway.
A local Perth Amboy attorney could review the circumstances of a burn event to determine if the elements of negligence are present.
Juries award compensatory damages to reimburse injured plaintiffs for their economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include medical bills, lost wages, and property damage. Non-economic damages allocate a dollar amount to what a person’s emotional angst, pain, loss of marital relations, and psychological trauma might be.
Punitive damages punish defendants who clearly, through evidence, were aware their actions would lead to severe harm or disregarded how much harm would be done. These damages may be available if someone intentionally set a fire.
If you sustain third-degree burns, your life will change forever. You may require extensive medical help and the psychological trauma from disfigurement will take a toll. You may even be unable to work. All of this deserves to be compensated.
Navigating the legal system can be daunting and you should not do it alone. A legal team that is skilled in negotiations and litigation should represent you. Call for an appointment with a Perth Amboy burn injury lawyer and do not talk to any insurance adjuster without their counsel.