Burn Injury Lawyer

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What Should You Do in Case of a Burn Accident?

If you are burned in an accident, make sure to get medical treatment right away and follow all of your doctor’s advice. Then hire a lawyer so he can organize a lawsuit and get the documents and statements from witnesses to prepare for trial. The attorney also defends the victim.

If the burn injury happened in an auto accident and you’re able to move around, at the scene, first check on all passengers, drivers and pedestrians involved. If they need medical help, summon an ambulance immediately. Don’t move anyone who is unconscious or reports neck or back pain.

Call the police to report any deaths, injuries or significant property damage and request a police report on the accident. Get the names and badge numbers of officers who come to the scene. It usually takes a couple of weeks to get the local police, sheriff or California Highway Patrol (CHP) to complete the report and make it available for pickup. Most law enforcement agencies charge a fee for the report.

Ask all the drivers for their names, driver’s license numbers, telephone and address. Take down license plates and insurance information from every driver involved. Also get passengers’ names, addresses and phone numbers. This is a great time to start snapping pictures on your cell phone to help you with disseminating all of this information once you are calmed down. If there are witnesses, write down their version of what happened and their information too. Again, you can’t take too many pictures.

What You Should Not Do In Case of a Burn Accident

Make sure that you:

• Don’t admit to any degree of fault to any parties that may be present when you are burned.
• Don’t speak with the other side’s insurance company without first calling our office. Please keep in mind, the insurance company will want to take a recorded statement to protect themselves, not you. They represent the people that injured you, and they are trying to reduce their financial liability.
• Don’t give a recorded statement to anyone, especially insurance companies, they will use your own word against you later on in the case.
• Talk only to your lawyer, the police and your own insurance company about the accident. If another insurance company calls you, refer them to your lawyer or your own insurance company.

What To Do After You Go Home

When you go home or soon after, contact your insurance company and let them know about the accident. Don’t lie or misrepresent the truthful facts of the accident or they may deny coverage if you’re caught. Obtain a copy of the police report or contact our office and we can help you with that.

Photograph your burns. It can help a case to show the before the accident, too.
If you are injured, make sure to record visits to doctors and other medical practitioners, the drugs and treatments they prescribe and what you spent on them. Pain and suffering are harder to quantify and qualify, but take notes on how you feel physically and mentally because of the impact of the crash.

Also write down all time lost at work, note what activities at work or home that you can no longer participate in, and tell how the aftermath of the wreck has affected your family life.

When Can It Be Considered Neglect?

The owner of the property on which you get burned may be considered negligent when he acts in a careless and thoughtless manner or has unsafe conditions. Also, the manufacturer of a defective product could be at fault. Negligence comes in two forms: when the party failed to do something that would have prevented the burn, or when the owner did something he should not have done.

California law requires people to have safe premises or work environments, and they may be considered negligent when they fail to act carefully. A person bringing a lawsuit must prove he was injured through the defendant’s actions or conditions he allowed on his property or in his product. The plaintiff must prove that he suffered injuries or losses.

What to do after a burn injury?

Before anything else, seek immediate medical attention for your burn injury. In case the injury is not severe, you can take a few pictures of the scenario to document how it happened. But all of that comes after you have taken care of your health.

Once you have recovered and are in a stable condition, get in touch with a burn injury lawyer. From there, your attorney will guide you on things to do and avoid. Always remember that safety comes first. There are several ways to win a lawsuit but very few ways to get your health back.

What to do after a burn injury from a vehicle accident?

In case your burn injury is a result of a vehicle accident, there are additional steps to take. The first step, as always, is to make sure you are alright. If there are other people around who are also injured, make sure they are alright. If something does not feel right about someone, do not try to move or turn them. Call 911 immediately and wait for help to arrive.

Now, if you left the scene without much damage, make sure you take pictures of the number plates involved in the accident. You should also talk to witnesses, if any, to ensure that there is consistency in the accounts. After that, get in touch with a burn injury lawyer.

Now here’s what you cannot and should not do. Do not, in any way, take accountability for the action. Never say that you were also at fault. Those things are for the court to resolve. You would not be eligible for any compensation if you have any fault in the accident.

How to win compensation for a burn injury?

Under California civil code, not every burn victim is eligible for compensation. They become eligible only when the injury is a direct result of someone else’s negligence. The burden of proof is on you when you are demanding compensation for a fire injury. The accused party does not need to prove their innocence, you need to prove their fault.

It can be quite a challenge to get compensation for a burn injury without a burn injury lawyer. But you have a strong case when all the facts align in your favor and you have a competent burn injury lawyer working for you.

In case the victim of the fire injury could not survive, family members can file a lawsuit against the accused. It will make the family eligible to get compensation and will also hold the accused responsible.

Causes of burn injuries

You can claim compensation for any type of burn injury, be it from a car accident or explosion. It can also be due to power circuit failure or chemical spillage. As long as there are other people who have caused the fire, you would be eligible for compensation. The cause of the fire need not be immediate.

You cannot claim compensation for burn injuries that are caused by your own negligence or natural factors. For instance, if you blow up cooking equipment and get a fire injury, nobody is responsible to compensate. Only if there were serious manufacturing defects that caused the fire would you get compensation. You cannot get compensation for natural fire injuries, like a forest fire or lightning-induced fire.