Burn Injuries

Most burns happen in and around the home and result from minor mistakes.

However, even when burns are accidental, they cannot—and should not—always be blamed on the victim. In some cases, family friends, property owners, and event organizers assume a measure of responsibility for your safety when they put you near anything that could cause serious injury. If their negligence caused your accident, they could be liable for its costs.

Here’s what you need to know about burn injuries and liability:

A Simple Guide To Burns

Burns can have many causes, including fire exposure, dangerous chemicals, or electricity. Different kinds of burns, like chemical and thermal burns, can affect the body differently. However, doctors use the same basic classification system to express the severity of a burn’s impact on the body and skin, irrespective of cause.

You may already be familiar with the burn scale. If you are not, it places burns into the following categories, which increase with injury severity:

1. First-degree burns. A first-degree burn is a superficial burn that only affects the outermost layer of skin, the epidermis. Most first-degree burns, such as sunburn, cause mild pain and will resolve without treatment within days or weeks.

2. Second-degree burns. Second-degree burns penetrate past the epidermis into the next layer of skin tissue, the dermis. These burns are much more painful and may look red, blistered, or swollen.

3. Third-degree burns. Third-degree burns damage the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis.

Some medical professionals use the term “fourth-degree burn” to describe a more complex injury involving the destruction of the epidermis and dermis and damage to muscle, tendons, and other tissue.

People who have suffered serious burn-related injuries also face many risks.

Thermal injuries, for instance, are very susceptible to infection. And infection can, in some cases, be more dangerous than the burn injury itself. In contrast, electrical burns can “arc” through the body, potentially causing irreversible damage to the heart and brain.

How To Tell If Somebody Else Is Liable For Your Burn Injuries

Treatment for any severe burn can be expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally exhausting. However, if you did not cause your injury, you may not be responsible for paying the recovery costs. Some of the potential defendants in a burn injury claim could include, but are by no means limited to, the following:

1. A company that sells a defective product;
2. A landlord who does not do routine maintenance, therefore exposing tenants to exposed wires and other dangers;
3. An employer who negligently fails to provide chemical safety training, enact effective protocols, or provide employees with protective equipment; or
4. A family friend, neighbor, or colleague who failed to attend to and manage a bonfire properly.

Generally, you are entitled to file a personal injury lawsuit if another person’s negligence caused your injuries, but New York’s legal system has additional expectations. In the context of a typical personal injury lawsuit, burn victims will usually be asked to establish each of the following:

1. The at-fault party, or defendant, owed you a duty of care;
2. The defendant violated their duty of care by acting negligently;
3. The defendant’s negligence was the direct cause of your injuries; and
4. You sustained damages as a result of the defendant’s negligence.

Every case is different, though, and your lawsuit may be subject to very different requirements depending on whether the defendant is an individual, a private business, or a government entity.