BURN INJURY ATTORNEY IN GAINESVILLE

Several sources can cause burn injuries, with the intensity of the source determining the seriousness of the injuries. Our 35 years of experience handling personal injury cases has uncovered three of the most common sources that cause burn injuries.

Thermal

When you think of burn injuries, you probably first think of a raging fire that consumes a structure. A thermal burn injury results when a victim comes in contact with an open source of heat, such as a flame, steam, or boiling water. The pain that develops after sustaining a thermal burn injury ranges from mild to excruciating. Treatment for the most severe form of a thermal burn injury can involve several skin grafts and other types of surgeries.

Electrical

Electrical burns, which typically develop unexpectedly, cause intense damage to tissue and internal organs. Causes of an electrical source of a burn injury include an exposed wire, a defective machine, and the electrification of water. Electricians are the most vulnerable to sustaining electrical burns, but an electrical burn also can cause harm to a homeowner who works on a home improvement project.

Chemical

When a toxic chemical makes contact with the eyes and skin, the result can be a serious chemical burn that can have long-lasting negative physical consequences. In addition to damaging the eyes and skin, toxic chemicals such as solvents, oxidizers, and thinning agents have the power to damage sensitive body parts and internal organs. Workers at manufacturing plants face the greatest danger from toxic chemicals.

When you sit down with one of the Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan for a free case evaluation, you can expect to answer several questions in addition to providing the attorney with copies of your medical records. You also have the opportunity to ask questions concerning the specifics of your case, as well as what transpires during the legal process.

You also should come away with a much better understanding of what Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers do for their clients.

Overseas a Thorough Investigation

One of the many advantages of hiring one of the Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan is having your case thoroughly investigated by one of more than 150 licensed investigators. The attorney handling your case gathers and organizes evidence to determine whether the other party committed one or more acts of negligence. In addition to collecting and organizing evidence, the investigator assigned to your case also interviews witnesses to provide legal support for the evidence.

Reviews Medical Records

One of the most important elements of a burn injury case is proving an act of negligence caused one or more injuries. Your attorney reviews the copies of medical records, as well as the medical bills sent to you for every procedure performed by the time you meet for a free case evaluation with one of the personal injury attorneys from Morgan and Morgan. To submit a reasonable claim for monetary damages, as well as a fair value for an insurance claim, your lawyer needs to know how much money you have spent to date on healthcare services.

Negotiate a Settlement

The goal of the Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers at Morgan and Morgan is to help you recover from the financial losses caused by your injuries. Getting an insurance claim approved is one way to recover financial losses, as is filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. In addition to these two financial recovery options, Morgan and Morgan also attempts to settle civil lawsuits by negotiating favorable settlements. This means your attorney will submit a reasonable offer that the other party’s lawyer can either accept, reject, or send back with a counteroffer. Your attorney might go through several rounds of counteroffers before both parties agree to a settlement or decide to move on to the trial phase of the litigation process.

Filing a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages requires your Gainesville burn injury lawyer to collect enough persuasive medical and physical evidence that demonstrates another party committed at least one act of negligence. Under the legal guidelines established by the judicial system, your attorney must demonstrate the presence of the four elements that define negligence.

Duty of Care

The duty of care doctrine states that another party has a legal responsibility to protect you against harm. In the case of a burn injury, another party assumes legal responsibility to prevent any type of accident or even a deliberate act from causing burn injuries. For example, if you work for a general contractor at a construction site, the general contractor assumes a duty of care to ensure you do not work in an environment that puts you at risk of sustaining one or more burn injuries.

Violating the Duty of Care Doctrine

Referring to our construction site example, if the general contractor did not take preventive steps to minimize the risk of you sustaining one or more burn injuries, the general contractor has breached the duty of care doctrine. Let’s say the general contractor did not properly store a case of solvents and as a result, caused you to sustain severe chemical burns. The general contractor breached the duty of care doctrine by not properly storing the toxic chemicals.

Causation

One of the roadblocks that can develop during a civil trial involves the other party’s attorney claiming the toxic chemicals did not cause your burn injuries. Proving causation is the key to winning a civil lawsuit that charges another party with committing one or more acts of negligence. The defendant’s lawyer might claim you sustained the burn injuries outside of the workplace. The most effective way to counteract the lack of causation claim is submitting medical evidence that proves you sustained burn injuries and employment records that indicate you sustained the burn injuries in the workplace.

Financial Losses

The last element of proving negligence, which is showing the court you suffered financial losses that were caused by one or more acts of negligence, can help you win a favorable legal judgment for monetary damages. Your personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan submits copies of bank statements, as well as employment records that demonstrate how much time you missed from work because of your burn injuries.

Yes, Florida follows the comparative fault legal principle when assessing the awarding of monetary damages. One of the Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers from Morgan and Morgan will determine how much of the blame for a burn injury incident you should assume. Comparative fault is based on the idea that not all civil lawsuits filed for personal injury cases involve the legal liability assumed by just one party. Many personal injury lawsuits end up assigning a percentage of fault to two or more parties.

For example, let’s assume you sustained burn injuries while fleeing a fire caused by grease that has accumulated in a restaurant’s kitchen. Although the restaurant should assume most of the fault for not removing the grease, the judge hearing your case might discover that you contributed to sustaining burn injuries by running through the kitchen to escape the fire. If the judge awards you $100,000 in monetary damages but assigns you 20 percent of the blame for sustaining your burn injuries, your net compensation decreases to $80,000.

One of the most important reasons to hire a burn injury attorney in Gainesville, Florida is to ensure you file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Most states have set a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit between two and four years, although some states go as high as six years and as low as one year. Florida has established a statute of limitations for filing a burn injury lawsuit four years from the day when you sustained burn injuries.

If you do not file a civil lawsuit before the expiration of the statute of limitations, the other party’s attorney will inform the court clerk about your failure to meet the deadline. The court clerk will then dismiss your civil lawsuit by removing it from the court docket. Four years is more than enough time to collect the evidence required to file a convincing civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. However, you should act with a sense of urgency for two reasons. First, you should recover your financial losses as quickly as possible, as rapidly mounting medical bills can put you in financial distress. Second, your lawyer wants to interview witnesses right after the burn injury incident to receive the most accurate account of what happened before, during, and after the personal injury incident.

The Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers from Morgan and Morgan have one goal to accomplish when representing clients. We provide the legal support necessary to get you the compensation that you deserve. We help you file a persuasive insurance claim, as well as a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. The key to filing a successful civil lawsuit involves proving the other party committed at least one act of negligence.

Morgan and Morgan litigates personal injury cases to recover three types of monetary damages. Economic damages recover the costs associated with medical care such as diagnostic tests, treatment programs, and physical therapy services. You also have the right to request compensation to cover the costs associated with prescription medications and the use of assistive devices while you recover from your burn injuries. If you missed time from work because of a burn injury incident, your attorney will calculate a value for lost wages.

Your lawyer also calculates a reasonable value for non-economic damages by using a formula that factors in the value of economic damages. Non-economic damages such as pain and suffering do not come with a price tag, but they can destroy the life of a victim of burn injuries. Acute fear of being around a thermal fire is one of the most common types of pain and suffering that is caused by a burn injury incident.

The judge hearing your case also might award you punitive damages, which punishes the defendant for committing one or more acts of negligence. Judges also award punitive damages to deter defendants from committing future acts of negligence.

Schedule a free case evaluation today with one of the Gainesville, FL burn injury lawyers from Morgan and Morgan.