Burn Injury Lawyer in Burbank, CA
In Burbank, citizens can experience severe and catastrophic burn injuries suddenly and accidentally. Too frequently, they cause devastating outcomes that last a lifetime. You may experience unrelenting pain, psychological trauma, and permanent disfigurement as a burn victim. You often spend a lifetime adjusting to physical and emotional impairments and financial and lifestyle changes.
When someone else causes your burn injuries, they should compensate you for your damages. Unfortunately, negligent parties don’t always take responsibility for the injuries they cause. You should retain a Burbank burn injury lawyer to handle your legal challenges and allow you to concentrate on your recovery.
The United States Fire Administration states that 3,445 civilians died in fire incidents in 2010. Burn injuries are among the most physically painful and psychologically damaging types of injuries individuals can suffer. Burns cause harm that is both emotional and physical.
Most burn injuries frequently result in severe scarring and nerve damage that limits the skin’s ability to perspire and react to stimuli. Additionally, burn injuries are highly visible and can be extremely disfiguring.
If a person has been burned due to someone’s negligence, it is in their best interest to contact a practiced Burbank personal injury attorney.
We Make Negligent People Pay
At Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, we have always believed that negligent parties should take responsibility for their actions. Our burn injury lawyers have used their effort, expertise, and our firm’s resources to accomplish this goal.
Our legal team investigates our clients’ accidents and gives notice to responsible parties. We consider the unique legal issues of a burn accident and present your case in ways that compel cooperation. We have experience with responsible parties, insurers, and defense lawyers, and we implement all our knowledge to provide the best results possible.
Lawyer for Burn Injuries in Burbank, CA
Fire and burn litigation can be extremely difficult. It is nearly impossible to prove negligence without a thorough investigation by an experienced team of professionals. If you have suffered from a serious burn injury because of another person’s carelessness, you should contact a personal injury attorney.
There is no reason for you to deal with pain, trauma, and grief without compensation. Contact Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC, and talk to a qualified burn injury attorney today to evaluate your claim. The attorneys at Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC have years in personal injury experience. We attend our clients with care and understanding. Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, APC accepts clients throughout the California Central District Court and nearby cities including Visalia, Long Beach, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Irvine, Fresno, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles.
Call (818) 459-4999 or submit an online contact form today.
Our Firm’s Results
Our law firm has recovered over $100 million in compensation for our injured clients and their families. We prepared each case, resolved any liability issues, and presented our evidence when the timing was right. We finalized each case to produce an optimal outcome for each client.
When insurers and their attorneys cooperated, we reached settlements by negotiating informally. We have resolved cases through facilitated negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and other Alternative Dispute Resolution processes. We have also filed lawsuits, litigated, and let a judge and jury decide when necessary.
Every case involves different injuries and circumstances, and we can’t guarantee a specific result.
Still, we believe that our verdict & settlement results demonstrate our firm’s commitment to our injured clients.
Overview of Burbank Burn Injuries
Common Causes of Burn Injuries In Burbank
Recent national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System confirms 320,844 non-fatal burn injuries occur in a single year. Each year, Burbank residents become part of this national injury trend. They sustain accidental burns in private and commercial settings. Fires cause a significant number of these injuries.
Other circumstances responsible for burns include:
- Electricity: from ungrounded electrical contacts
- Appliance malfunctions: clothes dryers, stoves
- Open flames: candles, fireplaces, gas grills
- Contact with hot objects: often during industrial operations
- Cooking: scalding, hot grease
- Steam burns: often involving industrial appliances under extreme steam pressure
- Chemical exposures: usually due to industrial operations
- Seasonal issues: heating systems, space heaters, fireworks, Christmas decorations
Burn Injuries in the Home
The U.S Fire Administration‘s most recent data confirms that 63 percent of residential fires occur in one and two-family buildings. These events cause an average of 2,220 fatalities and 7,250 injuries each year.
The National Fire Protection Association determined that cooking, heating, and electrical problems frequently cause residential fires. Home fires often occur during January, February, and other cold months, primarily due to heating mishaps.
Burn Injuries in the Workplace
Severe burns occur in workplace settings, often due to known workplace hazards. If a team member sustains a burn injury on the job, employers owe only workers compensation benefits. If a negligent third party caused or contributed to the injuries, an injured team member could have the right to sue for damages.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has documented serious workplace burn injuries due to:
- Chemical burns
- Electrical burns
- Hot work: cutting, welding, heating
- Restaurant work: scalding from hot water or oil, burns from heated surfaces
- Explosions
Overview for Burn Injuries in California
Types of Burn Injuries
When you’re recovering from a severe burn injury, you learn that burn complications go beyond standard first, second, and third-degree categories.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences Burns page describes a first through sixth-degree scale for burn injuries:
- First-Degree: Minor surface damage that heals quickly and doesn’t usually cause a scar
- Second-Degree: Damages the skin and tissues just beneath the surface, sometimes requires skin grafts or scar revision
- Third-Degree: Severe damage that injures or destroys dermis and epidermis layers, sometimes destroys hair follicles, sweat glands, and deep tissue
- Fourth-Degree: Damage through skin layers down to underlying tissues and fat
- Fifth-Degree: Burns through skin and tissues, down to muscle
- Sixth-Degree: Destroys tissues to the bone, sometimes necessitates limb amputation
Severe and catastrophic burn injuries often affect other areas of a victim’s body.
- Internal Damage: Severe burn damage sometimes triggers an overactive inflammatory response and resultant organ damage.
- Vision Damage: Extreme heat sometimes affects vision.
- Inhalation Injuries: When inhaled heat, smoke, or chemicals cause damage, the injuries often require lengthy hospitalizations, long-term ventilator support, and longer recovery times.
Burn Injury Consequences
The nonprofit Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center translates health information to make it more understandable. Their Living With a Burn Injury resource explains problems and issues common to recovering burn victims.
Some issues continue during and after recovery.
- Chronic pain and itching: Serious burns often cause debilitating and chronic pain. Continuing physical discomfort prevents sound sleep, limits a burn patient’s ability to work, and minimizes physical activities.
- Mental health: Psychological trauma continues even after healing and surgical scar revision. Residual scarring, physical limitations, and health restrictions often contribute to depression, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health issues.
- Physical limitations: Some burn patients require physical therapy, exercise, and strength training to regain physical stability before returning to normal activities.
Preventive Burn Safety Tips
Nearly half of the fire-related injuries take place in buildings without smoke alarms. However, burns can happen in a variety of ways. Certain jobs put their workers at a greater risk for burns, and young children are statistically burned the most. A few preventive tips you can do to prevent any future burns include:
- Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove
- Replace smoke detector every 10 years
- Keep water heater temperature under 120 degrees Fahrenheit
- Place a fire extinguisher in or near the kitchen
- Keep children out of the kitchen while cooking
- Check and discard electrical cords with exposed wires
- Wear sunscreen every day, and avoid peak sunlight
- Clean out dryer lint traps regularly
- Ensure all smoking products are stubbed out completely
- Keep chemicals out of reach, and wear gloves during chemical use
- Install electrical outlet covers
- Lock up matches and lighters
- Test smoke detectors once a month
- Measure bath water temperature before use
In addition to these tips, a practiced fire escape plan could save you from a bad burn. Write down your escape plan and have your family do a practice run once a month. In the event of a fire, make sure to crawl underneath the smoke. Doing this will minimize the risk of passing out.
Common Burn Injury FAQs
Who is responsible for Burn Injuries?
Fires and electrical and chemical accidents occur under varying circumstances.
Often, several entities share responsibility for causing or contributing to victims’ burn injuries.
- Product Manufactures: When a defective appliance, like a heater, causes a fire, manufacturers, designers, and others share legal responsibility.
- Premises Owners: Building owners and maintenance contractors share liability for electrical defects, proper smoke alarm management, and tenant access to safe exit routes.
- Vehicle Owners: If a passenger sustains burn injuries during an auto accident, the negligent driver can share responsibility for the damages.
- Chemical Manufacturers: Chemical manufacturers and distributors share liability when they provide inadequate warnings about a product’s volatile nature or inherent danger.
What Damages Can a Burn Accident Victim Recover?
When a Burbank burn injury attorney resolves a burn injury case, compensation usually includes economic and non-economic damages and sometimes exemplary damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages include payment for calculable out-of-pocket costs incurred during treatment and recovery. If you have not fully recovered, a settlement also considers future expenses.
Economic damages often include:
- Doctor and hospital bills
- Medications
- Physical therapy
- Home care expenses
- Psychological therapy
- Transportation
- Prosthetics and mobility equipment
- Home modifications for accessibility
- Lost income
- Funeral and burial expenses
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages consider your emotional, social, lifestyle, and psychological injuries.
These often include:
- Pain and suffering
- Anxiety and emotional distress
- Diminished spousal and family relationships
- Lost bodily functions
- Scars and disfigurement
- Wrongful death
Exemplary Damages
When a California jury awards damages, the state’s Civil Code sometimes allows exemplary damages as a punishment and disincentive. You must produce clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted out of malice, oppression, or fraud.
How Do Responsible Parties Defend Themselves?
Insurance companies usually investigate injury claims to evaluate liability. They will implement tactics and tricks to try and reduce the liability of their insured and place blame on you or others.
These tactics include:
- Twisting statements you make after the accident into being admissions of fault
- Examining your social media posts to use your activities to show your injuries weren’t severe
- Claiming your injuries resulted from other causes, not the accident
- Claiming evidence for your claim is weak, leveraging you to take a lower settlement
Insurers sometimes avoid claim payments by negotiating unreasonably. They also use the threat of litigation to push injured victims into accepting low offers. Victims may fall prey to this because of the immediate financial burden incurred from the accident and injuries, and discovery and litigation procedures delay settlements.
At Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, we have successfully negotiated and litigated cases with corporations, insurers, and defense attorneys. Our burn injury lawyers rely on our firm’s cumulative knowledge and resources to present the most robust case on behalf of our injured clients.
Finding an Attorney for Burn Injuries in Burbank, CA
If you sustained a serious burn injury, you need seasoned burn injury lawyers working on your behalf. At Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers, when we accept your case, we go to work protecting your legal interests. Our legal team has immense experience with burn injury accidents and taking all necessary steps toward recovery. We manage all communications with negligent parties, their insurers, and attorneys. We have committed our law firm to providing comprehensive service to our clients while pursuing the recovery they deserve.
Call Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers at (818) 459-4999 or complete our contact form to request your free, confidential case evaluation with a Burbank burn injury attorney.
Yarian Accident & Injury Lawyers Burbank Office
500 E Olive Ave Suite 720,
Burbank, CA 91501
(818) 459-4999
Additional Resources
Burn Triage and Treatment – Visit the website of the Chemical Hazards Emergency Medical Management, a resource for first responders, first receivers and other healthcare providers in case of a chemical attack. Read an article detailing what emergency responders should do in case of a burn.
Burn Injury Guide – Visit the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, the leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering anyone affected by a burn injury. A severe burn injury can be one of the most painful injuries that a human body can suffer. Uncover resources for basic burn injury information including types of physical and emotional recovery may be experienced.
Burns – Visit the website of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGM) which supports basic research that increases our understanding of biological processes and lay the foundation for advances in medical sciences. Read what causes a burn, the differences between the types of burns, burn treatment, burn resources, and support from NGIM.
