Each year, nearly 450,000 people in the United States need medical treatment for burn injuries. If you are the victim of an accident or were otherwise harmed due to the negligence of another party, the Queens burn injury attorneys at The Cassisi Law Firm may be able to assist you.

We have extensive experience assisting victims in pursuing the compensation they need to alleviate the financial burdens caused by their injuries. Many of our clients have come from the Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as from Suffolk and Nassau Counties.

For a free, no-obligation consultation, contact us online or call 718-441-5050 today. We offer legal services in English, Spanish, and Italian, and there are no fees unless we win your case.

There are many types of burn injuries, including scalding, electrical burns, friction burns, radiation exposure, and contact with caustic chemicals.

Additionally, burns are categorized according to severity:

• First-degree burns only burn the top layer of skin and may cause relatively temporary harm.
• Second-degree burns reach the second layer of skin, often blistering and leaving a scar.
• Third-degree burns injure all the skin layers, as well as tissue and other areas below the skin, and often require substantial medical treatment. Unfortunately, victims may need skin grafts and surgeries.

Second- and third-degree burns are classified as medical emergencies. If you suspect that you or someone else may have suffered a serious burn injury, seek medical attention right away.

The majority of accidents involving burns occur in the home, but many occur in workplaces and still others result from motor vehicle accidents, recreational activities, or other sources.

Some of the most common causes of burn injuries include:

• Fires
• Explosions
• Car accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Large truck accidents
• Construction accidents
• Medical malpractice
• Defective products
• Unsafe premises
• Work-related accidents

Regardless of how they occur, severe burns are incredibly traumatic. Not only do they pose life-threatening risks to victims, but they can also lead to scarring and disfigurement, resulting in lasting physical pain and emotional distress. Burn victims may need extensive medical treatment and ongoing care; they may be unable to return to work for weeks, months, or even years.

If you sustained severe burn injuries through no fault of your own, you do not have to simply suffer the consequences on your own. By filing a personal injury lawsuit, you can seek fair financial compensation for your damages and achieve a much-needed sense of justice.

When the negligence of another party is involved in causing a burn injury, the accident victim may be able to obtain damages from that party, known as the defendant. A cause of action for negligence can be brought when the defendant owed a duty of care to the injured person, the defendant breached that duty with some careless conduct, the victim was hurt as a result of the breach, and quantifiable damages arose from the harm. Each of these elements must be shown by the injured person to be more likely than not to be true.

In most—but not all—situations, the duty of care is defined as how a reasonable person would behave in similar circumstances to the defendant. A breach, thus, consists of conduct that falls short of this standard.

Burns can cause lasting physical and emotional harm to a victim, as they tend to be very painful and often affect a person’s physical appearance. Consequently, damages for these injuries can include a broad range of costs and losses.

Burn injury victims typically seek reimbursement for economic damages like medical bills, lost wages, and the costs of future treatment, as well as non-economic, more subjective forms of compensation, such as pain and suffering or scarring and disfigurement.

In some cases, an injured person may be partly at fault for causing his or her own harm. When this happens, New York’s rule of comparative negligence allows a victim to receive a reduced compensation award. The number of available damages will be proportional to the degree of fault that any defendant found liable bore in causing the injuries.

For example, if a jury decides that you were 25% at fault for the accident that caused your burn injuries, your total recovery will be reduced by 25%, meaning you will only be able to recover up to 75% of the total amount you would have otherwise received had you not been at all to blame. Because New York follows a pure comparative negligence rule, you are not barred from recovering compensation even if you were more at fault for the accident than the other person/party. You can still collect compensation for your damages if you were up to 99% to blame.

The issue of shared fault is one often used by insurance companies to limit payouts. The insurance company may try to argue that you were largely at fault for the accident, meaning they do not have to pay you the full amount you are seeking—or even very much at all. At The Cassisi Law Firm, we know how to fight back against these and other insurance company tactics aimed at reducing your recovery or denying your claim.

There is a limited time period of three years in which to bring a case when you have been hurt because someone else has acted carelessly. Moreover, critical evidence can decay or disappear with time, affecting the strength of your claim.

We do not charge any attorneys’ fees unless we recover compensation for you.

Call our office at 718-441-5050 or use our online contact form to request your no-cost, no-obligation consultation today