Spring Hill Burn Injury Attorneys

Common Causes of Burn Injuries in Spring Hill

Each year in the U.S., approximately 3,400 people die due to severe burn injuries. Inhalation burns, which affect the throat and lungs, cause the most fatalities. Another 40,000 burn victims are hospitalized, often in specialized burn treatment centers. On average, burn victims spend about one day in inpatient hospitalization units for every one percent of the total body surface area burned.

The many causes of burn injuries in Spring Hill include:

• Motor vehicle accidents: The roadways in and around Spring Hill are commonly congested, particularly as the city’s population grows. Whether you are participating in a community event at a local bar, running errands, or driving to work, commuting in our busy town can be dangerous. When cars crash, a fire can be caused by a spark near flammable chemicals, momentum can drag passengers causing friction burns, and surfaces can reach scorching temperatures in minutes.
• Faulty electrical wiring: In old houses and apartment complexes, housefires spark from faulty or improper wiring. In Spring Hill, over half of all homes are more than 30 years old. Even with a quick emergency response, an older building can go up in flames within minutes. Renters, who occupy nearly a quarter of all Spring Hill residences, should check with their landlords to determine whether the wiring in their buildings is up to code.
• Electricity or chemicals: As Spring Hill’s population grows, our community builds more residential dwellings and offices. At Spring Hill construction sites, ungrounded electricity and dangerous chemicals could easily burn construction workers, visitors, or even neighborhood children who wander into the construction site.
• Defective products: Unfortunately, sometimes appliances, tools, and even toys can cause a fire or carry an electrical current that burns victims. At Lucas, Macyszyn, & Dyer Injury Firm, we have the skills and experience to take on the companies that manufactured or sold you a defective product, causing your burns.

How a Burn Injury Can Affect Your Life?

While minor burns may heal without medical care, severe burns can be life-threatening. Severe burns devastate lives, affecting more than just the victim’s body—common issues faced by burn victims include:

Financial Distress

The average cost of a burn-related hospital stay is around $24,000, about twice the expense of a hospital stay that does not involve a severe burn. This cost can increase exponentially if the wound becomes infected or if there are other complications such as an irregular heartbeat caused by an electrical burn, an infection that leads to sepsis or necessitates limb amputation, or contractures, which involve burns on jointed areas where the new skin grows in too tight and reduces the range of motion.

In addition to expensive medical treatment, burn victims also often miss work while recovering from their injuries, attending follow-up appointments, or receiving treatment to address complications such as scarring. Victims may need additional skin graft surgeries to treat scarring, causing them to miss even more time from work.

While many individuals have insurance coverage for medical expenses through their employer, the high deductibles and copays add up quickly. Additionally, health insurance companies may place a lien on a personal injury settlement or award to obtain repayment if another person’s negligence caused the burns. Speak to our legal team about your case to find out how we can help you face your financial losses.

Difficulty at Work or School

In addition to missing work, burn injuries can cause other issues at work, especially if the burns are visible. Individuals with severe scarring or disfigurement often struggle in public job positions due to worries about their appearance or frustration with constant questions about what happened. Similar issues affect children who return to school after suffering a severe burn injury. More than a quarter of working-age adults who have suffered burn injuries cannot return to work after the injury.

Trials at Home

In addition to physical limitations, a severe burn injury can lead to a loss of confidence and an unhealthy self-image, keeping the person from participating in their usual activities. They may not wish to leave the house to go shopping, meet up with friends, or take a walk outside. This isolation can lead to depression and other psychological distress. Furthermore, financial losses can strain relationships, as families face economic hardship together.

Obtaining Compensation for a Spring Hill Burn Injury

When another person’s negligence injures you, you can seek compensation for your losses through Florida’s personal injury claims process. This process can be confusing, so reach out to an experienced lawyer to learn more. Some basics of the process include:

Hiring an Attorney

An experienced burn injury lawyer can give you the guidance you need to navigate this process. They will also protect you from making costly mistakes, defending your ability to seek compensation.

When you hire an experienced burn injury lawyer, they will start by investigating your case. Unlike an investigation by law enforcement or the insurance company, your lawyer works on your behalf. They gather evidence to answer questions about your case, such as sources of liability, available insurance resources, and how your accident happened.

Valuing the Claim

An important service that your lawyer will provide is a valuation of your claim.

To value your claim, your lawyer will use a formula that accounts for factors such as:

• How much insurance coverage is available to compensate you
• The severity of your injury
• Whether you sustained permanent disabilities that reduce your ability to earn an income in the future
• The out-of-pocket expenses and psychological impacts of your injury

The Demand

Once your lawyer has estimated your claim’s value, they will likely send a demand letter to the at-fault party’s insurance provider. In addition to a request for payment of the claim, the demand contains details of how the accident occurred and documentation of your expenses.

The at-fault party’s insurance provider will assign an adjuster to evaluate the claim. This person will likely contact you and seem very kind and concerned about your injuries. However, their job is to find ways to reduce your claim’s value or deny it altogether. For this reason, you should let your lawyer handle all communications with the insurance company on your behalf so they do not use tricky tactics to deny your claim.

• How much insurance coverage is available to compensate you
• The severity of your injury
• Whether you sustained permanent disabilities that reduce your ability to earn an income in the future
• The out-of-pocket expenses and psychological impacts of your injury

Settlement Negotiations

After the insurance adjuster has evaluated the claim, they can take one of three actions:

• They can accept their insured’s liability and pay the demand in full
• They can deny your claim and provide you and your lawyer with a reason for the denial
• They can offer to settle the claim for less than its total value

If the insurance company denies your claim or offers you a low settlement, your lawyer will begin negotiating on your behalf to get you the offer you deserve. At Lucas, Macyszyn, & Dyer Injury Firm, our team has a reputation for negotiating relentlessly on behalf of our clients. Our approach ensures that nothing gets left on the negotiating table.

Filing a Lawsuit

f the insurance company refuses to offer you a fair settlement for your losses, you can file a personal injury lawsuit. In most Spring Hill burn injury cases, you must file a personal injury lawsuit within four years of the injury date. However, exceptions to this rule apply, so discuss your case with a lawyer near you to confirm when your filing deadline is.

You must file your lawsuit within this period, which is called a statute of limitations. Failing to do so will bar you from using the civil court system to seek compensation.

If you can no longer pursue your claim in court, you will likely not have much success getting an insurance company to provide fair compensation. Your lawyer will manage the timeline of your claim to ensure that you retain the right to seek compensation in court.

Note that after you file a lawsuit, the at-fault party’s insurance company can continue to make settlement offers. If you accept an offer, the court will dismiss your case. The vast majority of personal injury claims settle out of court. However, because there is no guarantee that any insurer will compensate a burn injury claim fairly, it remains of utmost importance that you can file a lawsuit if necessary.

Our legal team has extensive trial experience. Not all lawyers know how to take a case from negotiations to trial; if you want a team that can take care of you from the beginning to the end of your claim, contact us.

Proving Liability for the Accident that Caused Your Injury in Court

o represent your case successfully in court, your lawyer must establish how the accident happened and who was legally responsible for causing it. The individual or entity responsible for an accident is also responsible for compensating victims.

To prove liability, your lawyer will show the following elements to the court:

• The at-fault party owed you a duty of care.
• The at-fault party breached the duty of care.
• This breach caused an accident in which you suffered a burn injury.
• As a result of your burn injury, you incurred expenses and other losses.

Collecting Your Award

When your lawyer resolves your claim through a negotiated settlement or a court award, they will assist you in collecting your compensation. Personal injury lawyers usually work on a contingent-fee basis, meaning that they receive payment for their services through a percentage of your compensation award.

When your compensation award gets disbursed, they deduct the agreed-upon percentage and satisfy any outstanding liens before forwarding the remainder of the money to you.

The Types of Compensation You Can Seek through a Burn Injury Claim

Many burn injury victims do not realize that many different kinds of compensation are available in personal injury claims.

Some losses you can seek compensation for include:

• Medical expenses associated with treating your burn injury or related complications, including the cost of physical therapy and skin graft surgery
• Lost wages, benefits, or other income that you did not receive because you were too injured to work
• The loss of future earning capacity associated with permanent disabilities
• Property damage you sustained due to the accident, such as damage to your car or home
• Physical pain and suffering related to your injury