Burn Injury Lawyer Lake County
Burn injuries are serious and life-threatening. After suffering a severe second-degree or third-degree burn, you might find yourself dealing with the aftermath of the accident, including the physical, emotional, and financial impact of the injury. You deserve legal representation from an experienced burn injury lawyer in Lake County.
Since 1988, the lawyers at Theodoros & Rooth, P.C. have been serving the people of Northwest Indiana as a trusted burn injury lawyer Lake County law firm. We work as a team to help each of our clients get the best possible outcome for their injury case. We want to help you, too.
Our office is available 24/7 to answer your questions. To schedule a free initial consultation, contact the attorneys at Theodoros & Rooth, P.C.
Why Do Burn Injuries Happen?
Burn injuries happen for many reasons. Determining the cause of the accident is crucial for financial recovery. An accident can happen for any reason, including some of these common reasons that burn accidents happen.
Thermal Burns
Thermal burns are one of the most common types of burns. Thermal burns occur when a person’s skin comes into contact with an open flame.
Chemical Burns
Chemical burns can be incredibly painful. Chemical burns happen when someone is exposed to a hazardous chemical. A burn injury victim might get a chemical burn while getting services from an esthetician, at work, depending on their job, or because of some other form of negligence.
Electrical Burns
Electrical burns happen when a person is exposed to an electrical current. For example, electricians and other tradespeople can be at a significant risk of electrical burns.
Scald Burns
Scald-type burns happen when a person’s skin is exposed to steam or hot liquids. These types of accidents usually happen because someone is negligent. Scald burns occur in kitchens, construction sites, or other workplaces where injuries can happen.
Inhalation Burns
An inhalation burn happens when the victim breathes in toxic chemicals. These injuries can cause serious respiratory damage. Determining every potentially responsible party after an inhalation burn can be tricky. Work with an experienced burn injury lawyer to learn how to protect your legal right to recovery.
Types of Burn Injuries
Generally, different types of burns are classified based on their severity. Here are the three types of burn injuries:
First-Degree Burns
These are the minor types of burn injuries. A first-degree burn usually only affects the surface level of your skin, think of a sunburn. First-degree burns typically heal fully and do not require much, or any, medical intervention.
Second-Degree Burns
Second-degree burns are more serious than the surface-level burns classified as first-degree burns. Second-degree burns affect the color and texture of the victim’s skin. A victim of second-degree burns can leave them with pain and redness.
Third-Degree Burns
Third-degree burns are the most severe classification of burns. Third-degree burns penetrate through each layer of skin and can cause permanent tissue damage.
What Treatment Options Are Available for a Burn Injury?
The treatment options available after a burn injury depend heavily on the severity of the burn. Examples of treatments for burn injuries can include the following:
- Over-the-counter pain medication
- Skin grafts and surgery to remove dead tissue
- Pain management
- Surgery for scarring
Examples of Long-Last Effects of a Burn Injury
If you have suffered from a burn injury, your life might change significantly. Here are some examples of the long-term effects that you might suffer from after a burn injury:
- Chronic pain
- Infections and increased susceptibility to serious infections
- Disfigurement
- Organ damage
- Scarring
- Depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Chronic itching and dry skin
What Should I Do Immediately After a Burn Injury Accident?
What you do immediately after an accident that caused a burn injury is critical to your physical health and the well-being of your claim. Consider taking these steps after an injury-causing accident.
Seek Medical Help Immediately
After getting burned in an accident, seek medical attention immediately. Burns are serious injuries and can cause significant complications, especially if left untreated.
While seeking medical attention is important for your physical health, insurance companies often use the fact that you did not seek medical attention after an accident as evidence against the victim.
Comply With Your Medical Treatment Plan
As important as it is to get medical attention immediately after a burn injury accident, it is just as vital that you complete your medical treatment plan. Failure to do so can leave you vulnerable to negative assertions from the insurance company.
Keep a Journal of Your Injuries
Keeping a journal of your injuries after a burn-causing accident can help create evidence that can be helpful for your claim. Having a journal of your emotions, mental state, and how your injuries have affected you can help you recall and describe the full extent of your injuries and losses.
Contact Your Insurance Company
You will likely need to speak with your insurance company at some point after the accident. Insurance companies might even reach out to you after learning about the accident. However, it is important to remember that insurance companies are not your advocate. Speak to an attorney before making any statements to an insurance adjuster.
Contact Our Lake County Burn Injury Attorneys
Contact an attorney as soon as possible after a burn injury accident. The best way to make sure that your legal rights are protected is to have an experienced attorney on your side. Contact a burn injury attorney before making any decisions regarding your case.
Who Is Liable After a Burn Injury Accident?
Determining liability after an accident is necessary for recovering the proper compensation following a burn injury accident. There are many potential defendants after an accident that caused a burn. Working with an attorney is the best way to ensure that all potentially responsible defendants are held accountable.
Here is a list of potential defendants for a burn injury accident.
Negligent Actors
Several factors can contribute to causing a burn injury. It can be hard to determine who is potentially responsible for causing the accident. Here are some common examples of those who caused an accident:
- Negligent drivers in case of an injury-causing traffic accident
- Negligent service providers, like hairdressers using hot tools, or restaurants that cause a burn
- Employers in cases of workplace accidents
Property Owners
If a property owner fails to maintain safe conditions on the property, then they might face legal consequences if someone is injured. This concept is known as premises liability. Premises liability laws require all property owners to maintain their property to avoid injuries, including burns.
Negligent Manufacturers, Distributors, and Retailers
Potentially responsible defendants in a burn injury case can also include product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. This area of the law is called product liability. The law requires all parties involved in getting a product to market to avoid negligence and causing injury. These product liability laws allow plaintiffs to sue manufacturers, distributors, and retailers for their damages after an accident.
No matter who caused the accident or why it happened, you deserve full and fair compensation after an accident that caused an accident.
Potential Compensation After a Burn Injury
Burn injuries can bring wide-ranging financial losses for the victim. Your burn injury can leave you permanently disabled, unable to work, and with ongoing medical expenses. Here is how a burn injury can turn your life upside down and what our Lake County burn injury lawyers can seek damages for.
Medical Expenses
Medical expenses following a burn injury can vary based on the severity of the burn. Burn victims might need minor intervention, like cool running water or over-the-counter pain medication. However, your burns might require skin grafts or other surgeries to fully treat.
Lost Wages
Serious injuries, like burn injuries, can make you miss work. The more work that you miss, the more the bills pile up. Even after an accident, your regular expenses continue, and you will need support in the form of financial compensation to ensure that you do not drown in debt.
Loss of Earning Capacity
The loss of earning capacity refers to your inability to return to the same industry or work at the same capacity that you did before the accident. For example, if you worked in a physically demanding job, such as construction, and the burn injury rendered you unable to return to work, your losses are compensable.
Rehabilitation Costs
Burn injuries often leave victims needing long-term rehabilitation to be fully healed. Rehabilitation can quickly become expensive. If someone’s negligence caused your injury, then they should pay, not you.
Property Damage
Burn injuries can happen from various types of accidents, including car crashes. Suppose the accident caused property damage in addition to the burn injuries. In that case, you might be entitled to recover financial compensation for the property damage.
Pain and Suffering
Burn accident victims might have immense pain and suffering. Pain and suffering damages include the value of a victim being forced to deal with the injuries that were caused by the accident. This is a separate compensable loss. If you are unsure about whether you are entitled to recover for pain and suffering damages, discuss the possibility of recovery with a burn injury attorney.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are available if the defendant’s actions are particularly outrageous, though these kinds of damages are only awarded in rare circumstances. You should work closely with our burn injury attorneys serving Lake County to learn about the availability of punitive damages in your case.
Indiana’s Comparative Fault Laws
Indiana’s comparative fault laws might impact the outcome of your burn injury case. States with comparative fault laws reduce the amount of financial compensation that a party can collect based on their assigned percentage of fault. Indiana has a comparative fault statute.
In Indiana, if a plaintiff is deemed to be 51 percent or more at fault, they are barred from recovering damages. Work with an attorney to help protect your rights, even under state comparative fault laws.
How Can a Burn Injury Attorney in Lake County Help Me?
Hiring our burn injury attorneys in Lake County can help you make the most out of your case. Here are some of the ways that a member of our legal team can help you.
Evaluating The Facts
Our experienced burn injury attorneys can help you by reviewing the facts of your case. Our lawyers can closely review your claim to determine its viability and give you a general estimate of its potential monetary value.
Negotiating With Insurance Companies
Working with insurance companies can be difficult, especially if you are not represented by a lawyer. Insurance companies are for-profit businesses, so they are concerned with their profits. That means you need a team of your own. At Theodoros & Rooth, P.C., we are here to help!
Answering Your Legal Questions
Having a Lake County burn injury attorney means that you will benefit from their knowledge of the local legal community. Our lawyers regularly collaborate with other professionals, including insurance companies, judges, and fellow lawyers. Let us use our experience to handle the local legal system.
Gathering Evidence
Obtaining evidence can be challenging. Having a lawyer working with you can increase your odds of getting evidence that can sometimes be hard to get.
Representing You In Court
If your case cannot be settled, then your attorney will represent you in court. Taking a case to court can be intimidating, so having a lawyer on your side can help you achieve the best possible results. Our Lake County burn injury lawyer will stand up for you and protect your rights against anyone who wants to take advantage of you.
Contact Our Burn Injury Lawyer in Lake County, Indiana
Our team of attorneys at Theodoros & Rooth, P.C. has over 75 years of combined legal experience. We are committed to utilizing our skills to help you obtain the financial recovery to which you are entitled under the law. And that is just what we are—a team! We want to come alongside you to help you win.
Our burn injury attorneys are available to chat with you 24/7. To request a free case review, contact our Northwest Indiana law firm today.