Burn injuries can be quite severe and affect your quality of life. Burns can happen by accident, whether small or large, but when they occur and something (or someone) is to blame, the victim can bring forward a lawsuit against the liable party and receive damages. These injuries fall under personal injury, and a civil lawsuit must be filed.
Filing a burn injury lawsuit, and arguing it in a civil court, is an intricate legal task. As such, if you want to bring forward a lawsuit you should consult an experienced civil lawyer and allow them to argue on your behalf. A burn injury can occur for a variety of reasons, and common ones that lawsuits target are negligence and defects. Starting with the latter, California has stipulated that if a defective product causes injury, the designer, manufacturer, or seller can be held liable. However, it must be shown that the product was defective once it left the liable party (prior to reaching the plaintiff) and that the plaintiff used the product in a reasonable way. For example, if you set a product on fire (that had labels warning not to do so) and that fire causes burns on your body, the product wasn’t defective since you neither used it as intended nor heeded the warning.
Another common lawsuit claim is that the burn injuries were caused due to negligence. Negligence means that a person has a duty of care and because of wrong action or inaction, they breached that duty and, subsequently, caused injury to another party. Burns can be a result of negligence, but the plaintiff must show why that is true. The duty of care must be established, as well as the breach and the causal mechanism. Regardless of the claim brought forth, the plaintiff (and the defendant) should have proper legal counsel. If you are involved in a personal injury case, seek the advice of an experienced lawyer.
