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Burn Injury
New Hampshire Burn Injury Lawyer
Burn injuries are some of the most painful and debilitating injuries anyone can suffer. If you are the victim of a burn injury, you may be experiencing short or even long-term health and financial problems. Teale Law is here to help. Burn injuries often create a “gateway” to other areas of law aside from cases of negligence, making the building of a case for settlement or trial potentially more complicated. Teale Law has the experience, strength, and tenacity to aggressively pursue compensation for your pain and suffering, lost wages, and medical bills. If you or a loved one has suffered from any type of burn injury, especially a 3rd or 4th degree burns, it is important that you work with a reputable burn injury lawyer.
Contact Teale Law immediately at 603-935-7425. Consultations are always free. Our firm will fight to get the financial compensation you need to help you recover from your injury. Attorney Charles Teale has the experience and resources needed to provide you with the results you deserve. Contact us to schedule your free consultation today. You will not pay any fee unless we are successful in obtaining compensation for you.
How do serious burn injuries happen?
Individuals become victims of significant burn injuries in many ways. Common causes of burns include heat (fire, touching a hot surface, scalding from hot liquids, steam), chemical exposure at home or at work, contact with electrical sources (electrical burns), burns from sources of radiation caused by tanning devices or medical equipment (such as X-rays and radiation therapy), and friction burns (abrasions). Even excessive cold temperatures can lead to burn conditions.
Long Term Effects of Serious Burn Injuries
You can experience both immediate and lasting effects from a serious burn injury. The immediate physical effects may include intense, debilitating physical pain from the destruction of skin and other body tissues, shock coming from low blood volume and difficulty maintaining body temperature, difficulty breathing, pneumonia and sepsis (a form of bacterial infection). If you are employed, these initial symptoms may limit your ability to work, leading to reduced income at a time when you need money to pay for treatment by first-response providers like ambulances and emergency rooms. You may require days or even weeks in a specialized burn treatment or trauma facility, further adding to your financial burden.
Unfortunately, sometimes these short-term problems are only the beginning. One of the worst aspects of serious burn injuries is that they often have lingering health and financial consequences that can last for years, and even possibly for the rest of your life. These consequences include:
ECONOMIC:
Significant burn injuries affect your ability to return to your job. In some cases, you may suffer from permanent partial or complete disability that permanently limits your ability to work. As we indicated above, this can lead to a significant financial crisis where you have lost income coupled with mounting medical bills. Many times, this can be terrifying to contemplate. Modern medical technology helps. Your chance of surviving a massive burn injury is better now than ever. Within the last 50 years, fatalities from burns have declined substantially. However, you can become an economic victim of this very success. Long-term burn treatment and rehabilitation is a team effort involving an impressive array of health care specialties. Healthcare providers work hard to treat your wounds in order to restore you to the best possible condition. You may receive treatment from general, orthopedic, and plastic surgeons, infectious disease specialists, physical, occupational, recreational, and respiratory therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists, social workers, and vocational counselors, dietitians, and more. And as you may already suspect, these specialists all cost large amounts of money.
PHYSICAL:
Scar tissue, joint, tendon, and muscle damage can interfere with range of motion and other formerly routine activities. Skin grafts are painful and can take an excessive amount of time to heal, often requiring multiple surgeries. Unfortunately, burn injuries can also affect organs and other vital anatomy.
PSYCHOLOGICAL:
In addition to long-term physical consequences, you should not overlook the mental health impact that this kind of wound can have. The loss of independence caused by mobility restrictions, the negative emotional impact of scarring, and the impairment of physical relationships with loved ones can all take psychological tolls that, from a legal standpoint, are just as significant as your physical injuries.
What are the legal considerations connected to burn injuries?
Teale Law will diligently investigate your case and purse compensation for your injuries from all negligent parties. You may have a claim for compensation against an individual, a company, or governmental agency. Burn injury cases based on the negligence of another are typically pursued in the same manner as any other cause of action, including causes of actions arising from a car accident or a slip-and-fall injury.
Burn injury claims can trigger the application of other areas of law
Workers’ compensation and Social Security disability:
If your injury happened at work (Ex. chemical burn, electrical burn, steam burn, gas burn), you may have a claim for workers compensation If you suffer a long-term disability, this can also lead to a possible claim for Social Security disability benefits.
Products liability:
If your injury came from using an unreasonably dangerous product in its design or manufacture, such as an electrical appliance or tool, you may have a claim against the manufacturer of that product.
Medical malpractice:
Your claim for compensation could expand to individual healthcare providers, treatment facilities, or both if medical professionals improperly diagnosed your injury, unreasonably delayed treatment, or provided the wrong treatment for your injury.
Wrongful death:
If the person who suffered the injury was not you but a family member, such as a spouse or child, and that person dies as a result (for example, a car accident that leads to fatal burn injuries), then you may have a wrongful death or survival action available to you.
These additional areas of law may require your personal injury attorney to investigate not only the facts of how the injury occurred, but also:
Legal considerations (such as strict liability for hazardous conditions)
The application of the statute of limitations in the State where your injury occurred (generally three years in New Hampshire for personal injury)
Negotiating with healthcare and workers compensation insurers and the attorneys who represent them
Agency-specific documentation filing requirements and deadlines
Expert witnesses to support indirect claims for money damages (such as proving impairment level or causation).
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Your attorney should also be prepared to deal with arguments that defendants and their attorneys may attempt to use to reduce your settlement amount or court award, such as claiming that you were at least partly to blame for the harm you suffered (comparative fault). Each serious burn injury case is unique. The attorney who represents you must be well-versed in more than just negligence law to understand all of the claims available to you and who to pursue for those claims.
If you or a loved one has recently experienced a burn injury requiring medical treatment, and you want to know more about your possible legal options, contact Teale Law directly for a Free Confidential Consultation.
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The members of our legal team are dedicated and serve as compassionate advocates for our clients – protecting their rights while providing a high level of personalized attention. It is the firm’s mission to maximize your recovery while keeping you informed every step of the way.
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