When you suffer a severe burn over a large enough area of your body, that means your skin, the body’s largest organ, is compromised. The skin acts as a waterproof shield to keep bacteria from invading your body. It also regulates your temperature. Losing these abilities is life-threatening and if the skin will not regenerate, you face a lifetime of medical intervention.
Matters are made worse if someone else acted negligently, causing your catastrophic injuries. Now you are staring down mounting medical bills, and you cannot work until your physician clears you to return, a stressor because monthly bills do not stop and wait for your paycheck to resume. In civil law, you have a right to compensation from a negligent party who injures you. Call a Port St. John burn injury lawyer to discuss what happened to you and how we can help.
First-degree burns are minor and do not blister. These occur when the epidermis is involved, and they can be treated at home. Second-degree burns damage the outer layer and the dermis, the layer beneath the surface. Blisters appear, and touching the area is painful. The far more injurious third-degree burn destroys all layers of skin, though it will not always be painful because it also completely damages the nerves. The most severe and potentially deadly is the fourth-degree burn, which destroys all skin layers and in varying degrees muscles, tendons, and bones. This is usually fatal.
Always consult a physician if you are seriously burned because infections and other complications are common. Some situations that are likely to cause burn injuries are:
Once you have received medical care for your burns, contact a Port St. John lawyer to explore your options for burn injury compensation based on negligence.
When burns are caused by someone else’s negligence, your personal injury attorney must prove four elements to prevail in a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator. The law relies on a hypothetical reasonable person who follows the law and behaves as society expects. All people have a duty to behave like the hypothetical person, and when they fall below that standard, the duty is breached. If the substandard acts cause an accident in which you are injured, the tort of negligence is established. A Port St. John attorney knows the elements of negligence and will want to discuss these elements in your burn injury case.
When our attorneys negotiate with big insurance companies, we know they consult data-driven numbers that favor their position to the detriment of yours. They may pick and choose settlement numbers used in cases far less serious than yours, and they will probably accuse you of contributing to your accident, thus, the settlement should be reduced. Their low offers are in deference to their mission: reward shareholders by keeping payouts low. We rely on our own determination about how much you will need for medical care, now and in the future, lost wages, and the emotional trauma of disfigurement and long-term pain and suffering.
If a settlement offer is unacceptable, we head to court and present an aggressive case to the jury. The mission of our attorneys is to get you the most money possible because we know you are hurting financially after a serious burn.
When you are severely injured in an accident, the person who caused it should be held responsible for compensating you if they are found negligent. Our job is to assemble the facts into a complete picture to prove they were. And then we calculate the amount of compensation you will need to live comfortably.
Many attorneys do not like to litigate and will accept an insurer’s lowball offer to avoid court. This tactic is not fair to you, and we believe in fairness. To discuss the parameters of a settlement or jury award in your case, contact a Port St. John burn injury lawyer now.
The Umansky Law Firm Criminal Defense & Injury Attorneys
