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Everything You Need to Know About Filing a Burn Injury Claim in California

If you have been burned due to someone else acting negligently, then filing a burn injury claim might be the best way to recover compensation for your damages. If you have questions, contact Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 and request a free legal consultation. Otherwise, keep reading to get the basic facts about these types of injuries.

If the Burn Cost You Money Then You Can File a Claim

If you suffered a minor burn that you treated and it healed, then you cannot likely successfully file a personal injury claim. However, if there were financial damages, then you might be successful. This would include costs such as medical bills, lost wages, and property damage. Your next step is to ensure that you can prove negligence.

How to Establish Negligence in a Burn Injury

In order to sue someone for your burn injury, you will need to prove negligence. This is a multi-part process. First, you must prove that the person or entity you plan to sue owed you a duty of care. You must then prove that the duty of care they owed you was breached, that the breach caused the injury, and that the injury caused the financial loss we discussed previously.

“Duty of care” refers to the obligation to prevent harm from happening to another person. This duty of care can occur between people who do not know each other, such as a driver who has a duty of care to not injure other drivers on the road or a manufacturer who designs products. A “breach” refers to the defendant not upholding that duty.

Take this example: A person uses a curling iron in the way the curling iron is intended to be used. When they are done, they turn the power to the “off” position. Hours later, they come back to put the curling iron away, only to be burned because the curling iron did not turn off as it was supposed to.

In that case, it is possible that the manufacturer or designer of the product could be found at fault because they do have a duty of care to their customers. The question then becomes whether or not they breached that duty of care or if the accident was beyond what they could have or should have known would happen.

The Real First Step is Contacting a Personal Injury Attorney

While there are a few steps involved in proving your case, if you believe that you have a case then your first step should be to consult with a personal injury attorney who can help you determine if you do have a case. You can do that by calling Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 now for a free legal consultation. We can go over the case, determine what the likely cause was, and help you determine the best way forward.