If You Hurt My Clients?? Oh, You’ll Pay For It!!

Burn injuries can occur as a result of many different types of accidents. Serious burn injuries can also be life-altering and catastrophic, depending upon the degree of the burn (first, second, third, or fourth degree). In addition to being potentially life-threatening, burn injuries may result in significant scarring, physical damage, and bodily harm, as well as severe mental anguish, embarrassment, and emotional distress.

Treatment for burn injuries may require long hospital stays, plastic surgery and reconstruction, physical therapy and rehabilitation, lost time from work (i.e. lost wages), and counseling.

If you have sustained a serious burn injury in an accident that occurred because of someone else’s carelessness or negligence, you may be entitled to monetary compensation for your injuries and damages under Louisiana law. The skilled personal injury lawyers at Egenberg, APLC may be able to evaluate your case and pursue legal compensation on your behalf. If the at-fault party’s insurance company refuses to offer a fair amount of money to settle your case, our experienced team of attorneys is not afraid to litigate your case or take it to trial, if necessary.

Causes of Burn Injuries
Burn injuries are most commonly sustained in motor vehicle accidents, while working on the job, or as a result of exposure to a defective product. Of the various degrees of burn injuries that accident victims sustain, thermal burns are by far the most common. These burns may be caused by exposure to hot metals, scalding liquids, flames contacting the skin, motor vehicle fires, defective space heaters, electrocution, building fires, chemical fires and spills, explosions, and faulty or defective work equipment or machinery.

Recovering Monetary Compensation in a Louisiana Burn Injury Case
Burn injuries can result in bodily scarring and the need for costly medical procedures and plastic surgery. Depending upon the circumstances, injured accident victims can generally recover monetary compensation for injuries and damages under one of the following theories of recovery:

Negligence – In a negligence case the injured plaintiff must be owed a duty of care by another person. In a motor vehicle accident case, drivers owe the plaintiff a duty to drive in a reasonable, careful, and prudent manner under the circumstances. When a driver fails to operate a motor vehicle in this manner by violating a traffic law or other rule of the road, and a serious burn injury results, then the at-fault driver can be held liable for that injury. In addition to the vehicle driver, the owner of the vehicle may also be held liable under a vicarious liability theory of recovery. In order to prove negligence, the burn injury must have been a proximate and foreseeable result of the accident.
Worker’s Compensation – The purpose of workers’ compensation law is to compensate injured workers for injuries that they sustain while on the job and though the course of their employment. A person may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits without regard to fault. In other words, the injury sustained in the scope of employment may be accidental, and someone else need not have done something wrong.
If a worker sustains a burn injury while on the job and in the scope of his or her employment, the injured worker may be entitled to worker’s compensation benefits, regardless of who was at fault for the burn injury. In terms of available benefits, the injured worker may be eligible for compensation for the time he or she was out of work (although the worker may not be entitled to the full amount of those lost wages). Moreover, upon a finding of permanency (i.e. that the worker was permanently disabled as a result of the accidental injury), the worker may be eligible to recover additional benefits in a lump sum. If the worker was injured in such a way that he or she cannot return to the same job—or the same job types—the injured worker may be eligible to recover vocational rehabilitation benefits.

Products Liability – If an individual sustained a burn injury as a result of exposure to a defective product (e.g., a product that was defectively manufactured or designed—or which lacked adequate and proper warnings about harms associated with product use), the injured plaintiff may receive compensation if the defective product proximately caused the burn injury or other damages.
Burn injuries can result in past, present, and future damages—not to mention major disruption to a person’s life. Compensation awarded to personal injury accident victims who sustained serious burn injuries may also include payment of all medical bills and expenses, lost wages for time missed from work, the cost of corrective surgeries (such as plastic surgeries) or other medical procedures necessary to rectify the burn injury, compensation for emotional distress and mental anguish, and compensation for pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life associated with the injury or injuries sustained.

To prove economic damages in burn injury cases, it will be necessary to introduce medical evidence, including the medical records and bills themselves, along with any lost wage documentation. When it comes to proving non-economic damages, including the psychological or psychiatric impacts associated with burn injuries, the testimony of the accident victim may be compelling. For example, the accident victim may be able to testify that because of a visible burn injury, he or she is ashamed to go out in public because of the embarrassment associated with the burn injury.

Contact a Louisiana Burn Injury Lawyer Today for a Free Initial Consultation and Case Evaluation
Burn injuries can occur under a variety of circumstances and can result in pain and embarrassment. If you or someone you love has sustained a burn injury because of someone else’s negligence, from exposure to a defective product, or while on the job, let the knowledgeable attorneys at Egenberg, APLC assist you with your case and help you to obtain the monetary compensation you need and deserve.

 

To schedule a free consultation and case evaluation with a Louisiana burn injury lawyer, please call us or contact us online today.

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“Mr. Egenberg and his associates handled my case with dedication and diligence. Brad pursued all of the issues that were important to me and remained accessible throughout. Brad is professional, approachable and well prepared. I highly recommend him.”

-Janet.