Burn Injury

Burn Injury Lawyer Serving Mississippi

A burn injury is one of the most debilitating wounds you or a loved one can endure. Burns can result in long-lasting psychological and other disorders as well as financial and, more significantly, bodily harm.

Our skilled Jackson burn injury lawyer at The Rollins Law Firm understands the unfortunate realities of a burn injury, especially when it’s been suffered through no fault of your own. When someone else’s carelessness causes a burn injury, such as a negligent apartment landlord or a workplace accident, the sufferer may be entitled to seek compensation for these and other damages.

In several instances, insurance adjusters and landlords may make a solid effort to reduce settlements to burn injury sufferers. It’s critical for victims to get in touch with our skilled Mississippi injury attorney as soon as possible following an incident to find out if they are entitled to damages for their suffering. We might be able to assist if you or someone close to you suffered from burns.

Why Do You Need a Burn Injury Lawyer in Mississippi?

Severe burn victims need to concentrate on their recovery and healing. Burns can be quite painful and need treatment for weeks or even months. During and after your rehabilitation, you or a loved one will require assistance with your financial needs.

Our knowledgeable burn injury attorney is aware that no amount of compensation will ever remove the trauma a burn sufferer has endured. However, the burn injury victim has the right to pursue damages from that party if someone else caused or contributed to the disaster.

Typically, this entails making an insurance claim or bringing a civil action for personal harm. In either scenario, you may profit from retaining a knowledgeable attorney to guide you through the burn injury claims procedure and ensure you receive the total compensation you are entitled to.

The magnitude of your injuries will determine how much you can recover. In rare circumstances, if your injuries impact your family members’ well-being, they may also be entitled to compensation.

Our knowledgeable Jackson burn injury lawyer can help in several ways during the legal process:

• To ensure that all deadlines and legal criteria are followed, our knowledgeable burn injury attorney can handle a load of gathering evidence, locating medical specialists, and completing all required documents.
• We can assist you in pursuing a just settlement to pay all of your expenditures and make up for any material, financial, and emotional losses.
• Our skilled Jackson burn injury lawyer may represent you in court if required and seek to negotiate a settlement on behalf of your burn injury claim.
• The Rollins Law Firm is knowledgeable in how to deal with powerful insurance companies to secure the highest compensation possible.

What Are the Types of Claims for Fire Injury Lawsuits That We Handle?

Our Jackson burn injury lawyer handles many lawsuits involving the following circumstances:

• Apartment building fires
• Workplace injuries
• Truck accidents and tanker explosions
• Motor vehicle accidents
• Electrical cord fires
• Defective products
• Locked fire exits
• Scalding water and pipes
• Electrical accidents
• Recreational fires (hotel, restaurant, retail outlet, nightclub)

These are just a few of the numerous ways that someone might get burned. Anywhere there is a hot or explosive item, burns can result. According to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, building fires, scalds, or contact with combustible substances or gases result in the most burns. No matter what kind of burn you have, you’ll require medical attention.

The Joseph M. Still Burn and Reconstruction Facility at Merit Health Central in Jackson is the only burn center providing care for Mississippi residents. This can make medical care expensive and challenging to obtain, mainly if your burn is severe and your location is distant enough to call for a helicopter.

How Safe is Your Apartment?

Burn injuries are frequently sustained in houses and buildings with landlords, including public housing. Even if the fire happened nearby where you reside, this might happen occasionally. However, some landlords would pressure tenants to refrain from bringing a claim against them even if their negligence led to the fire and consequent injuries.

Landlords are accountable for maintaining the condition of their rental properties and ensuring that they adhere to all applicable laws and safety regulations. They occasionally fail to uphold that duty, though. They may be responsible for the damages if a tenant suffers injuries due to a fire because they could not maintain adequate standards.

Some of a landlord’s responsibilities regarding fire safety can include:

• Ensuring the property’s electrical wiring is in good condition and safely installed.
• Make sure smoke alarms are on the property. 
• Having a safe and sturdy fire escape
• Keeping the fire escape clear
• Installing fireproof doors
• Having regularly serviced fire extinguishers on the property
• Keeping escape routes clear in shared areas of a building (such as the hallway or laundry room)

Is Your Landlord Following the Law?

Even if the landlord does not own an apartment complex, they must abide by the law. Federal and state laws specify how property management is required to safeguard their tenants from fire and regulations regarding hazardous conditions like rickety staircases and slick flooring. These regulations cover various topics, such as requirements for fire extinguishers, fire escapes, and more.

But not every landlord complies with these laws. In other cases, apartment complexes don’t follow their organization’s fire safety regulations and procedures. In these situations, if a fire breaks out and a tenant is hurt, the property owner may be held accountable for failing to provide the burn injury victim with fire safety precautions.

Smoke Detectors

If a smoke alarm is not placed correctly, a kitchen fire might start without anybody seeing it. One of the essential components of fire protection is smoke alarms. You can persuade your landlord to take action to ensure that your smoke alarms are functional.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires smoke detectors inside each bedroom and outside sleeping spaces. Therefore, every apartment should have two smoke detectors, one in the corridor and one in the bedroom. You should install three detectors in a two-bedroom apartment, four in a four-bedroom apartment, and so on.

Smoke detector design might also affect performance. An ionization smoke alarm, which is less expensive and more often installed, could not detect any significant amount of smoke in many apartment fires since they are slow-smoldering flames. A photoelectric smoke alarm is substantially more effective at detecting smoke.

Fire Extinguishers

A fire might spread without a fire extinguisher nearby, causing severe burns and high medical costs. A tenant may suffer unnecessary financial and physical injury due to a negligent landlord.

Whether your landlord is obligated to furnish units with portable fire extinguishers depends on your state or local code, but you must know where one is to be safe. Fire extinguishers may not be in your unit. Still, the NFPA and other applicable codes likely require an extinguisher to be present on your floor or in an easily accessible area.

 

What Are the Four Degrees of Burn Injuries?

Burn injuries are classified into different “degrees” based on severity. They are as follows:

First Degree Burn

First-degree burns only affect the epidermis, the skin’s outermost layer. There is typically no severe blistering with a first-degree burn. The majority of sunburns are first-degree burns. Patients who suffer from this superficial burn typically have painful, red, and patchy skin.

Second Degree Burn

Second-degree burns cause pain, redness, swelling, and blistering because they impact the skin’s surface and deeper layers. Second-degree burns, also known as “partial thickness burns,” can occasionally leave scars and are typically regarded as dangerous if they are greater than 2 to 3 inches broad on the face, hands, feet, groin, buttocks, or over a major joint.

Third Degree Burn

Third-degree burns, commonly called “full thickness burns,” cause the skin to darken or change color, turning it black, brown, white, or yellow. This burn affects the underlying structures and destroys and harms the epidermis and dermis. A third-degree burn can burn and seriously break bones, tendons, muscles, ligaments, and other bodily structures underneath the skin’s surface. Patients with third-degree burns frequently experience nerve damage.

Fourth Degree Burn

The most severe type of burns, fourth-degree burns, penetrate all layers of skin and are typically fatal because they harm the muscles, tendons, and bones in addition to the skin.

What Are the Common Types of Burns?

The type of burn you sustain can determine the severity of your injuries. The most common types include:

• Chemical Burn. This usually occurs due to contact with something that contains acid or alkali.
• Contact Burns. If you make direct contact with a hot object such as a stove, coal, or burning metal, you have a contact burn.
• Electrical Burns. These come from high-intensity heat sources such as electrical wires.
• Flame Burn. This type of burn comes from a fire.
• Flash Burns. Accelerants such as kerosene or gasoline cause these types of burns
• Scald Burns. These types of burns happen due to contact with boiling water.

Regardless of how your burn occurred, you will require medical attention. Even if you don’t believe it’s serious, getting help immediately is preferable to waiting and risking the pain worsening.

What Are the Common Causes of Burn Injuries?

Burn accidents often occur due to the negligent actions of another person or company. The most common categories include:

Car Accident

The vehicle’s fuel tank may immediately catch fire in an accident caused by an inattentive, impaired drug or alcohol, or purposefully negligent driver. Due to the negligence on the side of the manufacturer or the maintenance provider, the vehicle may potentially catch fire.

Chemical Accidents

These burn injuries generally happen at work when companies expose employees to dangerous or poisonous materials that unintentionally ignite.

Defective Products

Computers, appliances, and other everyday items like machinery might catch fire due to poor manufacturing. This may result in severe injuries that happen right away.

Electric Shock

Workers who often come into touch with electrical currents, such as linemen, run the risk of suffering electrical burns or electrocution injuries.

Improper Supervision

When the person in charge of their care does not exercise adequate supervision, children, old adults, and those with severe impairments risk significant burns. The caregiver could use poor judgment and put the helpless person in a scalding hot bath without first testing the water’s temperature.

Workplace Accidents

Harmful materials and faulty wiring are two typical instances of workplace fire causes. The entire structure might explode, severely injuring burn victims who survive for the rest of their lives.

As with any injury, your rehabilitation should be your primary concern. The statute of limitations in Mississippi is three years, so if you’re thinking of pursuing a personal injury claim, you shouldn’t wait too long.

Who is Liable in a Burn Injury Lawsuit?

A burn injury case may specify one or more people or businesses as the responsible parties if they contributed to the victim’s injuries. The victim is the plaintiff, and this party is called the defendant.

Generally, there are four elements to such a case:

• The defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff
• This duty of care was breached in some way
• The plaintiff suffered quantifiable injuries
• The breach of care was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries

Can You Take Legal Action Over Your Burn Injury?

Burn injuries may be excruciatingly painful, result in major bodily injury, and put a person under stress. When victims know or suspect that another’s negligence or carelessness was the cause of their catastrophic injury, they frequently have numerous questions about it.

Contact our knowledgeable Mississippi burn injury lawyer immediately for an initial consultation if you have questions about whether your burn injury qualifies you for financial assistance for your physical or emotional suffering. We are skilled at pursuing the highest possible compensation for these severe and disabling injuries.

What Are the Steps to Take After a Burn Injury?

You should take the following steps if you were burnt in a vehicle accident, at work, or on someone else’s property to safeguard your health and potential future legal claim:

Seek Medical Attention

You might need emergency medical attention to lessen the effects of a burn injury over the long run. No matter your injury’s seriousness, you should still use caution and visit a doctor. The only way to guarantee that your medical difficulties are being handled correctly is to do this.

Instant medical treatment can also help establish a connection between your injuries and the accident. This is a crucial component of any personal injury claim since the opposing party will argue that your injuries weren’t the event’s product but something else.

 

Document Your Injuries

Injuries, especially burn injuries, will change over the years. Before a judge or jury considers the evidence in your case, it can take months or years if a trial is necessary. It’s possible that at that time, your wounds have healed. For this reason, it is essential to document your injuries.

Take pictures of your injuries as they progress and document each stage of healing. This will give the jury or judge a greater picture of the extent of your injury. Additionally, our burn injury lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi, would advise you to keep a pain diary to record your feelings as you go through medical care and healing.

Contact Our Burn Injury Lawyer

You might not be aware of all of your legal choices. Our experienced Jackson burn injury lawyer can review the details of your case to identify prospective defendants who may have contributed to your injuries deliberately or carelessly.

We can also look into how the negligent party’s conduct resulted in severe burn injuries and handle communication with them or the insurance provider.

What Are the Potential Compensations for Burn Injuries?

A tort claim allows a personal injury victim to sue for compensation to make them “whole” again. This indicates that the victim has a right to total compensation for all of their damages. This covers medical-related costs, missed pay, modifications to their capacity to carry out daily tasks, and pain and suffering.

A burn injury lawsuit may demand damages for the following:

• Scarring
• Disfigurement
• Tissue damage
• Infection
• Organ failure
• Circulation problems
• Failure of the senses
• Loss of sensation
• Respiratory problems
• Permanent disability
• Pain and suffering

The damages you experienced will determine the compensation you may be entitled to. To determine the possible compensation you might be able to collect from your burn injury claim, including the fair value of each kind of compensation, our skilled burn injury lawyer will investigate the facts of your case.

How We Handle Burn Injury Claims in Mississippi?

Our skilled burn injury lawyer will determine if you have a valid claim for damages under Mississippi law. As we manage your case, we could:

• Collect and preserve any pertinent evidence, such as photos of the accident site, police reports, and fire department reports.
• Review your treating doctors’ reports and medical records.
• Work with medical professionals to assess the severity of your injuries and the cost of any upcoming operations or rehabilitation services you may require.
• Hire safety inspectors, electricians, or accident investigators to assist in identifying the cause or causes of the accident and figuring out who may be held accountable for your injuries.

How to Prevent Burns?

Focusing on preventing fires is the greatest strategy to protect yourself from suffering burn injuries when it comes to avoiding burns. Even though many individuals don’t consider how a fire might significantly impact their lives, fire safety is crucial. The CDC offers the following advice on how to prevent fires and how to spot and escape one promptly:

• Have smoke detectors on every floor to spot and escape one promptly from your home.
• Change the batteries of your smoke detectors every year.
• Draw floor plans to identify your emergency exits and the best routes for escape in the event of a fire.
• Know the exits and pathways for escape in any building that you enter.
• Never leave your food cooking on the stove unattended.
• Don’t leave candles unattended.
• Keep grills over 10 feet away from your home.
• Don’t smoke indoors; don’t toss cigarette butts in the grass or near the house.

Check the doors and door knobs with the back of your hand to determine whether a fire is burning. Additionally, you must always use the stairs when there is fire instead of any elevators. Crawling on the ground could provide you with the cleanest air, allowing you to see through it and inhale less smoke if the air is polluted with smoke, making it difficult for you to see.

It’s crucial to leave a burning building as quickly as possible to prevent both injuries from worsening. Smoke inhalation can be just as hazardous as burns. Our skilled Jackson burn injury lawyer could assist you if you sustained burn injuries due to a fire or similar incident brought on by someone else’s negligence. We’ll help you in obtaining compensation for the damages you’ve endured.

How Are Burn Injuries Treated?

You can treat a burn in various ways, depending on its severity. You may perform several first aid procedures on a light burn to speed up healing and prevent infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends running cool water over the burn but never placing ice on the burn. 

Make sure you use a lot of water to dilute the chemical and wash it off the skin if chemicals cause the burn. After you’ve finished running it under water, cover the wound with fresh bandages.

You should never use oil, pastes, turmeric, or raw cotton to burn since these might aggravate the damage. Ice should also never be applied to burns. Get medical attention even if you believe you have a minor burn. You can assure the greatest possible healing for your burns by receiving the appropriate medical attention for your wounds.

What is the Long-Term Impact of a Burn Injury?

Burn injuries can be particularly challenging to recover from because of the apparent damage. This damage can be disfiguring, and burn injuries can cause unbearable pain. This is not the kind of ailment that you treat, let heal, and then ignore.

A person’s life may be affected by burn injuries for a long time. Nothing about a burn injury is simple to cope with, from dealing with unpleasant and disfiguring scars to dealing with psychological anguish and lifetime pain.

Our Skilled Mississippi Burn Injury Lawyer Will Fight for You

When recovering from a catastrophic accident, people frequently feel overwhelmed. They need time to relax and recover even when concerned about missing work, paying medical expenses, and how fast they can recover.

Our skilled Jackson burn injury lawyer from The Rollins Law Firm will defend your rights, so you don’t have to do it alone. We’ll seek just compensation and see that those responsible for your injuries are held accountable for their deeds. Contact us right away to schedule an initial consultation. We’re prepared to help.