Fort Lauderdale Burn Injury Lawyer

 

Burn injuries tend to affect a victim’s emotional well-being as much as the physical body. Bad burns are highly traumatic and can result in significant scarring, disfigurements, or amputations. Many burns are “catastrophic” injuries in the eyes of the law, meaning they result in permanent damage. Even more minor burns can take hospital stays, skin graft surgeries, and weeks of rehabilitation. After a burn injury in Fort Lauderdale, you need legal assistance to find out if you could qualify for financial compensation. Contact the burn injury lawyers today at Chalik & Chali Law Offices for a free, no obligation consultation.

Call Our Fort Lauderdale Burn Injury Attorney’s Today

Speaking to an attorney can help you understand the legal elements that may be involved in your case. There could be more than one defendant liable to pay for your damages, such as a manufacturing company for a dangerous product and your employer for lack of burn prevention gear. Our lawyers will listen to your story carefully and tell you if we think it has merit as a personal injury, premises liability, product liability, or other type of case in Fort Lauderdale.

Compensation for Burn Injuries

The more damaging your burn injury, the more compensation you are likely to receive. Catastrophic burns that cause permanent scarring, disfigurement, disability, amputation, and/or emotional trauma could be eligible for significant settlement or judgment awards. The skill of your attorney can determine how much you take home, as can the extent of your damages and the costs of medical care. You could receive payment for the following damages:

• Hospital bills. Seek recovery for your past and future hospital stays, doctor’s appointments, surgeries, medications, treatments, rehabilitation, therapies, live-in care, and disability-related medical treatment.
• Lost wages. Recover the full amount of wages you missed from having to stay home from work while you were healing. If you can’t return to your previous position because of a permanent disability, you can also seek lost capacity to earn.
• Pain and suffering. The Florida courts permit claimants to seek restitution for non-economic damages for burns. These damages can include physical pain, emotional suffering, psychological damage, and mental anguish – from the accident itself and/or the aftermath of living as a burn survivor.

Maximize your recovery award by trusting your case to the Law Offices of Chalik & Chalik. We have experience handling even the most severe and complex burn injury claims in Miami. We aren’t afraid to negotiate with insurance companies, take claims to court, or take other actions in pursuit of fair and full recovery for clients.

When Can One Sue for a Burn?

Thermal, chemical, electrical, and radiation burns can occur in a variety of environments. A person could sustain a terrible thermal burn in a car accident or house fire. Chemical burns can happen in the workplace, when handling acidic substances. Electrical burns and shocks can stem from faulty wiring or dangerous electrical products. Radiation burns can occur from bad sunburn or equipment that uses ultraviolet lights like tanning beds. After a burn injury that requires significant medical costs and/or causes immense pain and suffering, talk to an attorney. You might be eligible for compensation on one of a few grounds:

• Negligence. If someone else’s act of negligence or recklessness contributed to you getting burned, you may be able to sue the individual or the company that employs the person. An employer, coworker, or another driver could all be defendants in burn injury negligence cases.
• Unsafe premises. If you suffered burns after a building caught on fire or some element on the property burned you, you might have a claim against the property owner. Premises liability laws make property owners liable for injuries that occur on their properties if the owner reasonably should have known about the risk and done something to prevent harm.
• Defective product. Sometimes defective products such as electrical equipment or water heaters cause bad burn injuries. If the manufacturer or distributor let the product go to the consumer with an assembly error, dangerous design, or marketing defect that made the item unsafe for use, it could be liable for subsequent burns.

Common Causes of Burn Injuries

• Workplace injuries
• Hot water and steam
• Electrocution
• House fire
• Chemical Exposure

The immediate and associated costs of these injuries can quickly pile into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not only are there medical bills for emergency treatment, but you must also face the reality of ongoing care, lost wages from missed time at work and even the very real pain and suffering that follows.

What to Do After a Burn Injury?

Burn injuries need immediate medical attention. Otherwise, they could become infected and even lead to sepsis, a deadly type of infection. The actions you take after suffering a burn can decide how well your injuries heal, the long-term scarring you may experience, and the outcome of your personal injury claim. Taking a wrong step could hurt your health and your odds of financial recovery. Here’s what to do after a burn injury in Florida:

1. Gauge the severity of the burn. There are three degrees of burn injuries. First-degree burns are the most minor and generally will not require medical attention unless they cover a large area of the body, it’s on your face, or on a major joint. Second- and third-degree burns, however, demand immediate emergency care.
2. Tend to the injury yourself. If it’s a first-degree burn, you won’t experience any blistering of the skin. Soak the wound in cool (not ice cold) water for at least five minutes. Apply a cream with an anesthetic or aloe vera. Use an antibiotic ointment and wrap the wound loosely with clean gauze. Take ibuprofen for pain relief.
3. Go to the hospital. Treat second-degree burns the same as first-degree burns (except run under cool water for at least 15 minutes) unless they affect a widespread area or your face. If you suffered a worse burn, go to a medical center for professional treatment.
4. Follow the doctor’s orders. Obey treatment instructions exactly. Burns are serious injuries that are prone to harmful complications. You may have to undergo surgeries such as skin grafts or amputations for the most severe burn injuries. Keep copies of all medical records, bills, and prescriptions.
5. Call an attorney. Once you’re on the mend from your burn injuries and have time to dedicate to legal matters, call the Law Offices of Chalik & Chalik. Discuss your accident with one of our lawyers and find out if you have grounds for a burn injury claim. The sooner you call a lawyer, the better for your case.

When in doubt about your burn injury, go to the doctor. Do not attempt to care for bad burn injuries on your own or by using questionable home remedies such as eggs or butter. These are not proven as effective remedies and may cause infections. Seek professional care for the best possible patient outcomes. Then consult with a lawyer about potential financial compensation.

While no good attorney can guarantee a specific amount of compensation, ours can give you an accurate estimate of what your burn injury claim might be worth. Severe third-degree burns that resulted in permanent damage or disfigurement could garner a six- or seven-figure settlement because of the immense impact on the victim’s physical and emotional life. More minor burns could result in enough to cover medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and mental anguish. At the Law Offices of Chalik & Chalik, our burn injury lawyers understand the law in this area and can help you navigate the complex legal system so that you can get the compensation you deserve.