Burn Injury Attorney Palm Beach Gardens

Burn injuries are often long-lasting, causing both physical pain from the skin and nerve damage, as well as emotional pain from the trauma, continuing pain, and disfigurement. Every personal injury case is unique to the facts: who is responsible, how is the entity responsible, the circumstances of the incident, the severity and location of the injuries, and whether the injuries are permanent and incapacitating. Burn cases might include punitive damages, depending on the specifics. No matter how strong your claim might be, finding the deep pocket so that your claims can be compensated requires investigation and savvy.

At Swan Law, you will find knowledgeable, compassionate, and experienced Palm Beach Gardens burn injury attorneys ready to pursue a claim on your behalf. We will devise a strategy to secure a maximum recovery, whether by negotiation or litigation.

Why Choose Blake Swan as Your Burn Injury Attorney

The reputation of a personal injury attorney matters, especially in the early stages of a claim for burn injuries. Blake Swan has the credentials that impress insurance companies and defense attorneys. They know that claims filed by the Swan Law Firm are legitimate causes of action. We get results for our clients.

The Swan Law Firm is a top-ranked attorney among the National Trial attorneys Top 40, recovering over $90 million on behalf of clients from around the country.

The Swan Law Firm will fight till you get paid!

A successful personal injury attorney has a combination of skills:

• Up-to-date knowledge of Florida burn victim law and civil procedure
• Compassion and dedication to our clients
• Trial experience that backs up aggressive negotiating strategies
• A reputation among insurance companies and defense counsel
• Professional, strategic, and effective

This professional attitude means that we will aggressively, and ethically, advocate for our clients so that we can recover the compensation that you deserve.

When Assessing the Viability of a Claim, Keep the Following Elements in Mind

Every initial consultation with a burn injury attorney begins with an assessment of your claim. What makes Swan Law Firm unique is how we go about gathering the information and assessing the viability of your claim.

We listen to our clients. We are compassionate. We will guide you through recovery. We understand from our experience just how traumatic and enduring the impact of burns can be on you and your family.

Burn injuries can arise from many types of situations:

• Boating accidents
• Car and truck accidents
• Defective products
• Electrical accidents
• Household fires
• Workplace accidents

When assessing the strength of your claims, at the Swan Law Firm, we ask these types of questions:

• Where are the burns located on your body?
• How were you burned?
• Where were you injured? Workplace? Commercial establishment? On private property?
• Who appears to be responsible?
• Are there assets and existing insurance policies to cover the cost of liability?

A careful analysis, and investigation, is often required to determine the viability of your claim. You want experienced attorneys to be conducting this initial assessment. Where the injury appears on your body is an important aspect of evaluating the value of a claim. Obviously facial injuries and those causing permanent incapacity are the most serious. How were you injured goes to the heart of liability and determining who are the responsible entities. Where you were injured—at work, at play, at someone else’s home—often determines whether there are applicable insurance policies to fund a settlement. Workplace injuries caused by your employer or fellow employee are litigated differently, through worker’s compensation. Is the theory of the claim based on statutory obligations or negligence? And although it might not be immediately apparent, sometimes there are hidden responsible parties who can be included in a lawsuit to gain access to assets and additional insurance policies.

Compensation Available in Burn Cases

Burn injuries often cause physical as well as emotional pain, both of which are recoverable under Florida law. The intense pain and scarring caused by burns, with all of the residual medical and psychological impact are the basis for financial recovery, once liability is established. Burns can cause a type of pain and suffering that diminishes the quality of your life, limiting your activities, preventing you from engaging with family and friends, and even preventing your return to work and supporting your family. Unfortunately, burn victims have a higher likelihood of various emotional disorders, such as depression or social withdrawal. These consequences are part of a viable claim for damages, when presented in a comprehensive narrative by an experienced and capable burn injury attorney, like the Swan Law Firm.

Punitive Damage Assessment

In some instances, punitive damages can be added onto any demand for compensation. Punitive damages are assessed when the defendant has engaged in dangerous behaviors in violation of statutes, intentional harmful conduct, or engaged in persistent negligent activities. An award of punitive damages is intended to act as a deterrent, to pressure a defendant into conforming its behaviors to legal and societal standards.

Punitive damages are difficult to predict. Gross negligence is a complicated legal principle to establish, as is intentional misconduct. However, the threat of punitive damages is often a strategy to motivate the defendant, and insurance company, to settle a claim, fearing the adverse publicity and financial burden of an award of punitive damages. However, frivolous claims for punitive damages work to undermine the credibility of a burn injury attorney, so any inclusion of these types of claims requires a realistic assessment of the facts and theories of liability.

This is why hiring a skilled and experienced burn injury attorney like the Swan Law Firm puts you in the hands of competent, and compassionate, attorneys whose experience will knowingly guide you through the process. You want the Swan Law Firm on your side.

Evaluating a Burn Injury

Burn injuries are categorized medically by degrees. There are four degrees of burn damage, based upon the depth of injury below the skin.

• 1^st Degree Burns: are the least serious. Only the surface layer of the skin is burned, causing swelling and redness. However, ordinarily, no medical attention is required. The burn will heal on its own within a week or two, unless complications arise. Infection is a common complication of even these less serious burns.
• 2^nd Degree Burns: In addition to the skin’s surface layer, the next layer, the dermis layer, is also damaged, causing blistering, swelling, and scarring. Unlike 1^st degree burns, 2^nd degree burns can cause permanent skin discoloration.
• 3^rd Degree Burns: The two outer layers of skin—surface and dermis—are destroyed, including the nerve endings. These injuries don’t turn the skin red, they turn the skin black or charred on lighter skin, or white in appearance on darker skin. Skin grafts might be necessary. Because the nerve endings are damaged, the residual pain can last a lifetime.
• 4^th Degree Burns: These are the deepest burns, destroying all layers of skin, bones, muscles, nerves, tendons, and sometimes organs. In addition to being life-threatening, these types of injuries are agonizingly painful, and the pain and disfigurement can be permanent.

Types of Burn Injury Compensable Damages

Once liability is established, a successful plaintiff suing for burn injuries can claim different types of damages. We have already discussed the possibility of punitive damages.

• Medical Expenses: Medical expenses for burns can be extensive, and can include ambulances, imaging tests (MRIs, X-rays, CT-scans), hospital stays, doctor visits, surgery (including plastic and cosmetic surgery), reconstruction, therapy and rehabilitation, prosthetics, medication, medical devices, in-home health care, and out-of-state travel to other medical facilities. Burn victims might develop respiratory diseases as a result of inhaling smoke, requiring occupational and rehabilitative services.
• Pain and Suffering: This is a qualitative, subjective determination, and is often the largest component of any burn injury settlement. Insurance adjusters will place a value on pain and suffering, and it is the job of an experienced burn injury attorney to dispute that figure and bring it higher. Each client’s situation is unique. Was the client trying to get pregnant? Do the burns cause chronic pain? Can the client tolerate pain medication? Is addiction to pain medication an issue? What kinds of future rehabilitative services are required, and how effective will they be?
• Lost Wages: A foreseeable consequence of a burn injury is missing work, either temporarily, or becoming permanently disabled. Lost wages compensate the client for missed time for medical appointments and recovery. Lost wages are calculated differently for hourly and salaried employees. A salaried employee might miss out on bonuses, profit sharing, or other performance incentives, due to lost time at work. Unfortunately, some severe burn injuries might mean loss of gainful employment permanently. Lost wages compensate for that loss of future income.
• Property Damage: Along with personal injury, there might be property damage resulting from the fire or combustion. Property damage might include loss of a car, truck, or boat; damage to a home and its contents; and damage to personal items such as jewelry, clothing, and accessories.

Types of Burn Injury Settlements

Burn injuries can be caused by a defective product, negligence, or intentional wrongdoing.

• Product Liability: In a product liability settlement, the injured party must have been properly operating a piece of equipment or product as instructed by a manual or instructions when a burn injury was sustained. This might entail an exploding product, a fire caused by a product, catching a piece of clothing that causes a fire or malfunction, or using a product that doesn’t protect from heat or fire.
• Negligence: Negligence can be categorized as general or gross. General negligence means that someone has failed to act according to a statutory or common law duty to act safely and cautiously. The duty of care might be set by statute or common law, as established by court decisions in prior negligence cases.
• Intentional Wrongdoing: When the responsible party acts intentionally to inflict pain and injury, this can be prosecuted as a crime by the state as well as being pursued civilly through filing a personal injury claim. A plea of guilty or a verdict of guilty can speed up the resolution of any civil claim.

Establishing Liability in Burn Injury Cases

To succeed in a claim for burn injury, there must be a viable theory of liability and a responsible party with financial means or an insurance policy. The theory of liability can be based on product liability law, negligence, or intentional conduct, often criminal. Some product liability claims are considered strict liability. That means that you do not need to prove negligence, only that the product caused the burns.

In addition to product liability, another theory, and the most common theory of liability in burn injury cases is due to negligence. To prove negligence, your burn injury attorney must show that there was a duty of care, the duty of care was breached, injuries were caused by that breach of duty, and the extent of injuries caused. Negligence can be general or gross. Gross negligence is difficult to prove but once shown, can result in an award of punitive damages.

Lastly, injury might be caused by intentional acts, which are often criminal. Filing a civil claim to accompany the state’s criminal claim, might speed up any recovery, if the defendant has financial assets.

Once a theory of liability is constructed, a personal burn injury attorney will locate the responsible parties. They are not always obvious. There are often hidden partners or corporations whose assets can be tapped because they failed in their duty of care. For instance, if you are injured at work, you might be limited to a worker’s compensation suit against your employer, but a defective product or activity by a third-party might open the possibility to suing other entities for damages, thus adding to the worker’s compensation award.

How Blake Swan Can Help You

Every potential client who approaches the Swan Law Firm for a free consultation will be interviewed to determine the viability of your claim. This process involves reviewing the evidence, medical records, and perhaps conducting a brief investigation to locate the responsible parties and their financial assets, including insurance policies.

Once a case is taken, and a retainer agreement drafted and signed, the Swan Law Firm will contact the insurance carriers, if any, to feel out whether negotiation or litigation is the best course of action for you. If the insurance carrier has undervalued the damage, and not offered an appropriate pre-filing settlement, then the Swan Law Firm will file suit on your behalf. Our goal is to maximize your recovery in the shortest period of time. However, not all cases can be settled without a trial. Especially complicated or serious burn injury cases require a trial before a jury. And Blake Swan and his team has the experience and fight you want in a trial attorney.

We Fight Until You Get Paid

At the Swan Law Firm, we will guide you through the legal process and aggressively pursue your claim, maintaining integrity and offering you compassion and understanding during this difficult time. We are committed to providing our clients with the best legal representation based on their needs and our professionalism. Your case will begin with a Free Consultation.

We are standing by ready to assist you 24/7. Call us now at Swan Law Firm 561-291-7492 or fill out the contact form below to schedule your free consultation.

Our Florida office is located at:

11410 Jog Road, Suite 100
Palm Beach Gardens, FL, 33410

Our telephone number is: 561-291-7492

Or email Blake Swan at: bswan@swanlawfirm.com

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do I have to file a burn injury claim in Palm Beach Gardens?: Under Florida law, you have up to four years to file a claim for personal injury. In some instances, the statute of limitations can be extended, however, most claims must be filed within four years.

How do I prove negligence in a burn injury case? Negligence can be proved by a criminal conviction, a statutory violation, or a breach of a standard of care. The statutory violation or breach of the standard of care must be the actual cause of the burn injuries to be compensable.

Can I still pursue a claim if I was partially at fault for my burn injury? Florida is a comparative negligence state, meaning that any fault of yours might reduce but not negate a recovery.

What should I expect during the burn injury claim process? Once a retainer agreement is signed, your burn injury attorney will investigate the claim in order to devise a theory of liability, identify all of the responsible parties, locate assets and insurance policies, and construct a coherent story about how you were injured and who was responsible. You and your attorney will weigh the benefits of a faster settlement for less money alongside the risk of trial. You should expect your burn injury attorney to keep you informed of any newly discovered evidence and settlement offers.