Legal Recourse For Burn Injuries
Posted on: 26 May 2015
Burn injuries rank among the worst kinds of pain from which you can suffer. Burn injuries can cause scar tissue build-up, leave you with mental and emotional hang-ups, and the pain from which you can suffer can be quite intense—and in some cases even last a lifetime. This is why you should know what recourse you can take if you happen to have suffered from a burn, whether severe or minor. If someone is liable for your burn pain or scar, you may have a personal injury case on your hands.
In this brief article, you will learn what kind of burn injury can be considered a personal injury case, what constitutes negligence in these cases, what sort of compensation you can receive for such an injury, and information about working with a personal injury attorney.
What Kind Of Burn Injury Can Be Considered A Personal Injury
There are a variety of different burns from which you can suffer, including scalds, thermal, electrical, chemical, and radiation burns. The severity of the burn also differs; generally speaking, these burns are ranked in degrees. A first degree burn is a minor burn which only affects the epidermal layer of the skin and causes no scarring, while a fourth degree burn can burn several layers of skin, causing deep pain, emotional trauma, and obvious scarring.
Essentially, any of these burns can be considered in a personal injury case, so long as a lawyer will take the case because he or she believes she can prove the defendant is liable for damages. What this means is that your lawyer will be able to prove that the defendant caused the burn. Although, as a rule of thumb, first degree burn cases are few and far between.
Negligence In Burn Cases
Negligence is a form of liability that can be proven in personal injury cases. It is often times employed in burn cases, due to the fact that many burn cases are accidental. Negligence is essentially the proof that a person did not act in accordance with behavior to which a rational person would have committed him- or herself. There are numerous examples of negligence in burn cases. If, for example, your child was receiving a cup of hot chocolate from a vendor at a local fast food restaurant, and the vendor happened to spill the cup of chocolate onto the child, this would most likely be considered a form of negligence in a court of law.
Compensation
Determining whether or not a plaintiff will receive compensation – or damages – from any personal injury case is difficult to determine due to a series of mitigating factors. For example, one must take into consideration the location of where the burning took place, the severity of the burn and whether or not the defendant could even be considered liable for damages. Damages tend to include placing a monetary value on medical bills, gas bills (to and from the hospital, for example), and emotional trauma.
Burn victims can also be compensated for their pain and suffering. Often time burn victims have to undergo extensive reconstructive surgery, which is painful and time consuming. Burn victims also may suffer psychological trauma due to the accident, as well as emotional trauma when they start to recover and have to live with their new, altered appearance.
Suffering from a burn can be a traumatic and deeply painful experience; especially if that burn is due to the negligence of another. Hopefully, this article has armed with you knowledge regarding how to pursue legal recourse regarding your burn and gave you insight into some of the damages that you might be qualified to receive.
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