Florida Burn Injury Attorneys

Pushing for Burn Safety by Advocating for Burn Survivors

Burn injuries can range from minor sunburns to third-degree burns that require weeks, even months, of treatment to heal. Sadly, serious burns are not uncommon either, as according to the American Burn Association (ABA), they affect about 450,000 people in the United States every year.

If you have suffered a burn injury due to another party’s wrongful acts of negligence or carelessness, our Florida burn injury attorneys at Michles & Booth can guide you through the claims process and assist you in pursuing legal compensation for your injury. Do not let negligent parties and their insurance companies cheat you out of the compensation you legally deserve and need to help you fully recover.

Contact Michles & Booth online to schedule a free case evaluation with a Florida burn injury lawyer.

Pursuing a Burn Injury Claim

Burn injury claims fall under the umbrella of personal injury law because they are directly concerned with the injury that a person suffered due to someone else. Burn injury claims are never xerox copies of one another; instead, they greatly vary depending on who caused the burn injury and how, the degree (or severity) of the burn, how long it took to heal, and whether there will be any long-lasting effects.

Therefore, the first step to filing a burn injury claim in Florida is to take stock of how severe your burn was and attempt to determine how much the burn negatively affected your well-being and life on a day-to-day basis and as a whole.

Degrees of Burn Injuries

Medical professionals categorize burns in degrees according to severity, with a first-degree burn being the least severe. First-degree burns are those that only damage the outer layer of skin, which is also called the epidermis. These are mild and typically heal on their own.

Second-degree burns injure both the epidermis and the layer of skin underneath it (the dermis). If your burn injury causes blistering, reddening, and/or swelling of the skin and is accompanied by quite a lot of pain, you may have sustained a second-degree burn.

Next are third-degree burns, one of the most severe categories of burns, which affect the epidermis, the dermis, and even deeper tissues. Whitened, blackened, or charred and numb skin indicate a third-degree burn.

Last are burns of the fourth degree and beyond, which are lumped together here because they are not considered survivable. These burns affect muscles, bones, and nerve endings.

The more severe your burn, the higher stakes your case tends to be due to the significant negative impacts that a catastrophic burn can have on your life. If your burn injury was severe, do not wait to contact an attorney to begin your claim.

Types of Burns

There are also different types of burns, from electrical burns to thermal burns, and more. The primary types of burns include:

• Electrical burns: This encompasses any burn sustained from coming into contact with a current of electricity. Electrical burns can result from using defective products, being on unsafe premises, or because of another’s negligence in the workplace, such as by having to work in hazardous conditions.
• Thermal burns: These burns result from contact with a hot object or surface, such as a hot pan, scalding liquid, or fire. Since hot items and fires can be encountered anywhere, there is no limit to where a person may sustain a thermal burn: at work, at home, in a structure or car fire, etc.
• Cold burns: As the name implies, these burns result from a person’s exposure to freezing temperatures. These burns are commonly referred to as “frostbite” and may arise from having to work in freezing conditions, such as in an industrial fridge or outside in a severely cold climate, without being provided the proper gear to protect oneself.
• Radiation burns: A sunburn may be the most common type of radiation burn, but radiation can cause a slew of burns in ways that can be attributed to another party’s actions. For instance, X-rays and radiation therapy, when delivered incorrectly or in the wrong amounts, can cause great harm to a person and might be the focus of a burn injury claim.
• Chemical burns: This includes any burn sustained because of a chemical reaction, such as contact with a caustic cleaning solution or detergent or from accidents in school or industrial labs. Many chemical burn injury claims tend to hinge on inadequate product warnings.

As you can see, the type of burn you sustained will reveal a lot about with whom the fault lies. Thus, the next step to filing a claim is to determine who was at fault for the burn. This may be a product manufacturer, motor vehicle driver, or employer, among others. In a free consultation, a Michles & Booth attorney can help you uncover who was legally liable.

Establishing Liability

Although you may know who is responsible for your burn injury, you will have to establish this beyond a reasonable doubt in order to win your claim and obtain compensation. Often, the best way to ensure that this is done effectively and without wasting time and money is to solicit the help of a legal professional, particularly one with a history of successfully handling these claims.

A seasoned burn injury lawyer can help you substantiate your claim with the evidence you already have, as well as uncover additional evidence through investigation and, in some cases like those involving truck crashes, through accident reconstruction.

Damages Available to Florida Burn Survivors

If your lawyer resolves your claim in your favor, you could be compensated for damages such as pain and suffering, medical treatment for the burn injury, any therapies you need to regain your health, emotional distress, missed time from work and/or school, long- or short-term disability, and/or any other damages directly related to the burn injury in question.

Your Case Is Our Top Priority

At Michles & Booth, we understand that a burn injury can cause serious harm to an individual and may require them to travel down a long and arduous road to recovery. We also understand that a successful burn injury claim may be the only way for a burn survivor to afford the treatment they need to heal. For these reasons, our Florida attorneys remain passionate about helping burn survivors hold the negligent parties that harmed them morally, ethically, and financially accountable for their actions.

Our skilled and experienced attorney team has the resources necessary to tirelessly fight for your maximum legal compensation. We also provide one-on-one legal counsel until your case is resolved so you can rest assured that you will be kept in the loop about your case’s trajectory. With conveniently located offices in Pensacola, Crestview, Fort Walton Beach, and Tampa, our Michles & Booth lawyers are always ready to help burn survivors throughout the state of Florida.

To schedule a free consultation with a Michles & Booth burn injury lawyer, call 850-438-4848 today.