Marietta Burn Injury Lawyer
Burn injuries are often a particularly severe and painful kind of injury. Not only do they require extensive care, but the overall ordeal can be very uncomfortable and difficult to cope with. If you have sustained a burn injury that was due to another person’s negligence, contact a Marietta burn injury lawyer today to begin determining your legal options.
As with all personal injury cases, proving fault for a burn injury involves presenting evidence to clearly connect the negligence of another person or entity with your injury. Although this is difficult to do alone, an experienced personal injury attorney could work to streamline the process and may be able to help you recover compensation.
Types of Burn Injuries
Each burn injury case is unique and the circumstances that cause the injury can vary greatly. However, burns most commonly stem from thermal, chemical, or electrical sources. Any of these sources could cause burns of varying degrees, from first-degree burns that cause only minor surface-level skin damage to third-degree burns that require hospitalization, skin grafts, and other intense and expensive treatments.
Understanding the causes of each type of burn injury and the associated financial repercussions can be important when trying to effectively prove fault and recover compensation. Using their experience with similar cases, a seasoned Marietta burn injury attorney could help you navigate legal roadblocks and present your injuries and damages as convincingly as possible.
Proving Fault in Burn Injury Cases
As per Official Code of Georgia §51-11-7, residents of Marietta suffering from burn injuries must prove that the defendant was at least 50 percent or more at fault for the accident that led to their injury. It is also important to understand how compensation is adjusted according to compensation.
Consider a case where the victim is suffering from a burn injury due to a car accident. If the alleged defendant caused the accident by running a red light but the plaintiff is deemed partially responsible because they were speeding, the latter party would see a reduction in available compensation. In this case, if the plaintiff was 10 percent at fault, they would only be entitled to 90 percent of their total damages.
In this same scenario, if the victim is deemed 50 percent or more at fault for the accident, they would not be entitled to any compensation. As such, it is important to approach these cases with help from a dedicated burn injury lawyer in Marietta, since the defense will almost always try to assign partial fault to the defendant in order to minimize.
Statute of Limitations
An individual suffering from a burn injury has two years from the date of their injury to file a lawsuit, as per O.C.G.A. §9-3-33. For claims filed against a city or county, however, the statute of limitations is reduced to six months. The statute of limitations for formal claims against the state is two years.
Possible Compensation Resulting from Burn Injuries
Back in 2010, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that caps on compensation for personal injury cases are a violation of the constitution. As a result, residents of Marietta have no limits on the amount of potential compensation they could recover for damages like:
- Past and future medical expenses;
- Past and future lost wages;
- Lost income because of permanent disability;
- Pain and suffering;
- Emotional distress;
- Loss of consortium.
Consulting a Marietta Burn Injury Lawyer
Burn injuries can be physical and emotionally damaging and lead to many kinds of expenses. As difficult as the first steps may be, fighting for justice could help you move forward and put your injury behind you. If you are suffering from a burn injury due to another person’s negligence and believe that you deserve compensation, contact a Marietta burn injury lawyer today.
