Burn injuries can be extremely painful and difficult to treat. Oftentimes, treatment for severe burn injuries can last the entire lifetime of the burn victim. There are specialty doctors and facilities that handle the treatment of burn victims. When prosecuting a lawsuit involving burns, it is important that the client has the right experts who understand the complex nature of their injuries to prove their damages and future medical care associated with their injuries. The San Antonio burn injury lawyer at Hill Law Firm has experience and success in making sure that client’s injuries are properly proven to a jury.
San Antonio Burn Injury Resources
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Why Choose Our Attorneys?
Why Does the Type of Injury Matter in a Lawsuit?
Types of Burn Injuries
Treatment Options for Burn Patients
When Should You Call a Lawyer?
How a Burn Injury Lawyer Can Help
Filing a Burn Injury Claim
Potential Compensation for a Burn Injury
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Why Choose Our Burn Injury Attorneys for Your Case?
- We care about our clients and will be there for you every step of the way. We understand how traumatic burn injuries are, both physically and emotionally. You don’t have to handle a personal injury claim alone.
- Our burn injury attorneys have years of experience and can go up against any defendant, large or small. We will fight for you to hold a negligent party accountable. We can handle even the most complicated cases.
- Our San Antonio burn injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This means we won’t charge you anything for our services unless we secure financial compensation on your behalf. If we don’t win, you won’t pay.
Why Does the Type of Injury Matter in a Lawsuit?
Burn injuries are some of the worst injuries we see. A lawyer’s job is to make sure that they can communicate the extent of burns, nature of burns, and complications associated with burn injuries suffered by victims. It is important that the past and future medical care and costs associated with a victim’s burns are fully explained and proven to a jury when trying a case involving a burn victim.
An insurance company will most likely try to pay you less than you deserve for severe burns. Hiring an attorney can prevent an insurer from taking advantage of you – helping you fight for maximum compensation for what may be a lifetime of necessary care. If you or a loved one has been burned, you need an attorney who has represented other burn victims in other cases. Our San Antonio personal injury attorneys have not only represented burn victims, they have fought for their rights and tried burn cases to verdict.
What are the Different Types of Burn Injuries?
There are multiple types of burn injuries depending on the source of the burn and its severity. It is important for a doctor to know the source of the burn injury, as each type requires a different treatment plan. The four types of burn injuries are thermal, electrical, chemical and radiation. People can be burned in many different ways, including:
- Automobile fires
- House fires
- Chemical burns
- Gasoline fires
- Explosions
- Flash fires
- Industrial fires
- Steam exposure
- Hot liquids
- Electrical fires
In addition, a physician will classify a burn by degree according to its severity. There are generally four types of burn injuries:
- 1st Degree – damage to the first layer of the skin
- 2nd Degree – damage to the outer and inner layers of the skin
- 3rd Degree – destruction of all layers of the skin, sometimes referred to as “full thickness” burns
- 4th Degree – burns that destroy all layers of skin as well as all tissues and muscle all the way to the bone
A first-degree burn may not require professional medical care unless it covers a large or vulnerable area of the body, but all other burn injuries need professional attention to help prevent infections and other complications.
What are the Treatment Options for Burn Patients?
People with serious burns often undergo some of the most painful treatment imaginable. Patients in the burn unit of a hospital, may undergo exposure to painful liquid baths in “tubs,” endure painful skin grafts and debridement procedures. Often times healthy skin from other, unaffected areas of the body are used as “donor skin” for the burned areas. Recent technology has even allowed doctors to experiment with artificial skin and skin from animals, such as pigs, for burn patients. Some people also suffer from a loss of vision if they were burned near the eyes/face.
It is very important for someone with burns to undergo a complete mental health examination in addition to their physical treatment. Many burn patients suffer from depression, anxiety, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”). A psychological consultation is critical for these patients.
When Should You Call an Attorney?
Even if you sustain a burn injury, it does not necessarily mean you have the power to file a personal injury lawsuit in Texas. Only certain elements will give you grounds for an injury claim, such as the legal doctrine of negligence. Someone is negligent if he or she fails to act with reasonable care – such as a driver causing a fiery car accident by texting and driving or an employer failing to protect a worker from chemical burns with proper gear.
The elements necessary to prove negligence in a burn injury case are duty of care, breach of duty, causation and damages. If a defendant has a duty of care owed to the plaintiff, it means he or she has a legal or ethical obligation to act with a certain amount of caution or prudence. A breach of duty is an act or omission that falls short of the required standard of care. Causation means that the plaintiff’s burn injury would not have happened but for the defendant’s breach of the duty of care. Damages refer to specific losses suffered by the victim – losses for which he or she is now pursuing financial compensation.
If someone else was negligent, careless or reckless and this resulted in your burn injuries, contact an attorney. A personal injury lawyer will listen to your story and let you know if your case has merit. The lawyer will search for the required elements of a claim and determine if there is enough evidence of negligence to hold one or more parties accountable for your burns. If so, he or she may offer to represent you during an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit in San Antonio.
How a San Antonio Burn Injury Lawyer Can Help
The extensive and often life-changing consequences of a severe burn injury make it important for a survivor to speak to an attorney. While a lawyer can help with any type of injury claim, it is even more imperative to contact an attorney for a critical or catastrophic injury, such as a third-degree burn with permanent physical and mental health effects. Severe injuries come with a higher risk of being taken advantage of by an insurance company, as well as a greater need for a fair case outcome.
An experienced burn injury lawyer in San Antonio can help your case with various services, such as:
- Conducting a comprehensive investigation of your burn injury incident or accident.
- Determining who or what caused or significantly contributed to your burns.
- Identifying the liable party or parties – those who may be held financially responsible.
- Collecting and preserving any evidence available to support your injury claim.
- Working with your doctors to obtain medical records and other burn injury evidence.
- Calculating a full and fair amount of financial compensation for your medical care and losses.
- Preparing and filing the legal paperwork necessary to bring a claim against the defendant(s).
- Actively and aggressively pursuing maximum compensation during settlement negotiations.
- Representing your burn injury case in court in San Antonio, if necessary.
You can count on your lawyer to seek the results that you deserve while you focus on your medical treatments and future. Throughout your case, your lawyer will have connections to doctors, medical experts, accident reconstructionists and other specialists who can help you better understand your injuries and move forward. The legal process can be made simpler – and more rewarding – with an experienced attorney by your side.
Filing a San Antonio Burn Injury Claim
If you wish to pursue compensation for a burn injury in San Antonio, your first step should be gathering information. The more documentation you bring to your first meeting with a personal injury attorney, the better. Write down a detailed description of the incident that injured you, along with a timeline of events. Include the names of anyone who witnessed the incident, as well as anyone you reported it to, such as the police or your employer. Request copies of any accident reports, police reports or medical records connected to the incident.
Then, retain a burn injury attorney for assistance with the claims-filing process. You will need to obtain the required claims paperwork, fill it out completely and file it in the county where the burn injury occurred. In San Antonio, this is the Bexar County District Court, located at 100 Dolorosa, San Antonio, Texas 78205. You will need to pay a filing fee and have the papers served on the defendant. From there, your lawyer can take over settlement negotiations or represent you during a personal injury trial.
What Is the Texas Personal Injury Statute of Limitations?
You only have a limited amount of time to file a burn injury claim in San Antonio. All personal injury cases in Texas must be filed before the state’s statute of limitations expires. Texas Revised Statutes Section 16.003 states that a person must bring a lawsuit for personal injury no later than two years from the day that the cause of action accrues.
For most burn injury claims, the statute of limitations is two years from the date that the injury occurred. If you wish to file a San Antonio wrongful death claim for a loved one’s fatal burn injuries, however, you have two years from the date of death. You must act quickly to contact an attorney and initiate your claim; if you miss your deadline, you will most likely lose the right to hold the defendant responsible.
Potential Compensation for a Burn Injury
At Hill Law Firm, we know that it takes much more than financial compensation to recover from a severe burn injury. However, we also know what a financial strain a serious injury can have on a family – and how much economic stability can help victims move on. You may have to live with the impact of a burn injury for the rest of your life, but that doesn’t mean you need to struggle financially.
Holding someone accountable for your burn can result in financial compensation for the following losses, among others:
- Medical bills: the price of an ambulance ride, ICU stay, surgeries, medicines, medical devices, around-the-clock care, physical therapy, rehabilitation, psychiatric care and any other medical care connected to your burn injury.
- Lost wages: the income that you lost from missing work from the date of the accident to when you filed your claim, as well as lost future capacity to earn due to a long-term disability.
- Pain and suffering: physical pain, chronic pain, nerve damage, emotional distress, mental anguish, lost quality of life, loss of consortium, psychological trauma, PTSD, inconvenience and other noneconomic damages.
- Property damage: the cost of repairing or replacing any property that got damaged or destroyed in the accident, such as a motor vehicle in a car accident case.
Filing a lawsuit can help you heal emotionally and psychologically by bringing you a sense of justice. It can show the defendant that there are consequences for his or her actions, as well as potentially shed light on an injury hazard in your community, such as a dangerous premises or negligent business owner. However, it can also help you move forward with the financial security that you need.
Why Hire Hill Law Firm to Represent Me for my Burn Injuries?
Justin Hill routinely helps victims of burn injuries. The San Antonio burn lawyers at Hill Law Firm has had great successes at trial representing victims of burn injuries. If you are thinking of hiring an attorney to represent you in a burn case, please call the experienced and proven burn injury lawyer at Hill Law Firm.