Burn Injury Attorneys in Savannah, GA

Helping the Victims of Severe Burns Find a Path to Recovery

Around 50,000 Americans end up in the hospital each year due to burn injuries. Though burns aren’t always top-of-mind, many of us spend our days surrounded by hazards, meaning we could be affected at any time. Plugging in a defective phone or computer charger could result in electric shock. Car accidents may light fires if highly flammable gasoline is exposed. Heavy industrial chemicals can destroy skin that’s not covered by sufficient protective equipment. Such disasters are rare enough that most don’t think about them, but when they strike, they can change your life forever.

Anyone who has suffered a severe burn injury is likely to need extensive treatment in the hospital or perhaps with burn specialists. The process may include painful skin grafts that can leave scars and affect a patient’s mobility. After these treatments are complete, many need physical and vocational therapy before they can even consider returning to their lives as they were before. This adds up to months or even years lost and expenses that may seem downright impossible to cover. Those who find themselves in this situation because of someone else’s careless actions should not have to pay these costs alone.

Filing a personal injury claim may be the best way for you to see justice done and receive the financial help you need. We understand how stressful it can be to have to worry about money while also trying to recover from a severe injury. If possible, our team would like to lessen that burden. Tate Law Group is here to help guide your burn injury claim and provide the legal support you need.

Call us today at (912) 234-3030 to speak with one of our experienced trial lawyers. In Savannah and beyond, we want to help those who received terrible burn injuries due to someone else’s negligence.

Severe Burns Can Affect Your Entire Life

We’ve all singed a finger on a hot pan or burned our tongues by being too eager to drink our coffee, tea, or cocoa, but second- and third-degree burns are exponentially more painful and damaging. The difference is not just the size of the burn, but its depth:

• A first-degree burn only affects the outer layer of your skin, the epidermis. These burns heal on their own.
• A second-degree burn affects both the epidermis and the skin’s inner layer, the dermis. Burns of this severity often require skin grafts and result in permanent scarring.
• A third-degree burn damages both layers of skin and can affect underlying tissues. These burns may also destroy hair follicles and sweat glands. All third-degree burns require skin grafts and the damaged area may have increased sensitivity even after it is fully healed.

After receiving a skin graft, complications like contracture and scarring can affect a patient’s mobility and even contribute to bone and joint problems. Some burn patients, for reasons not yet known, suffer chronic pain of the burn site for years after the injury. These issues contribute to burn injury patients’ trend of not being able to return to their previous job as well as other sacrifices they are forced to make. From medical concerns to financial difficulty to body image anxieties, burns can upend a victim’s life completely. Pursuing a burn injury claim is one of the only ways to receive compensation for all these losses.

How a Lawyer Can Help Your Burn Injury Claim

If you are going to file for compensation after a burn, it’s vital to know who is legally responsible for your damages. Sometimes it’s easy to tell who is at fault—others, not so much. When you work with us, our attorneys will fully investigate the accident to determine liability. Here, we break down some hypothetical burn accident cases so you can see how that might work.

A Fire After a Car Accident

Scenario: At a four-way stop, after you’ve come to a full halt and look both ways, you proceed through the intersection. Just then, a driver in a shiny new Tesla sports car appears, exceeding the speed limit and blowing through the stop sign as if it weren’t there. Because of the high speeds involved, both cars are heavily damaged in the resulting accident. Your vehicle spills gasoline onto the roadway, which then ignites. As you struggle to open your mangled car door, you suffer second- and third-degree burns on your arm.

Liability: It doesn’t matter which car spilled the gas—the person who caused the accident is responsible for all of its consequences, including a fire started by your ruined car. So, this seems to be a straightforward case, where you would file a claim against the other driver’s insurance. Or would you? While investigating, our attorneys learn a witness saw smoke coming from the Tesla first, and upon reviewing another bystander’s footage, determine the blaze was actually ignited by the Tesla’s damaged battery. This doesn’t mean its driver is no longer at fault for your injuries; after all, the force of the crash likely caused serious harm. However, if you can prove the Tesla caught fire due to a battery defect, you may be able to sue the company for all burn-related damages.

A Chemical Spill on the Job

Scenario: You and a coworker are transferring ammonia from a pressure tank care to a pressure nurse tank when the connecting hose comes loose and ammonia begins to escape. Because it boils at -28°F, the ammonia spills out as a liquid but then turns to gas. You and your coworker both sustain chemical burns on your feet and legs as well as inhalation burns.

Liability: Because this accident happened on the job, you and your coworker can both file for workers’ compensation regardless of who or what caused the accident. While helping you with your claim, our lawyers may also decide to investigate whether the connecting hose failed because it was made of materials that can be damaged by ammonia. If so, it’s possible you could file a product liability claim against the manufacturer and recover compensation for damages not addressed by workers’ comp.

A House Fire Caused by a Gas Stove

Scenario: You’re making your first batch of pancakes on your new gas stove when you smell smoke. Your first thought is for your pancakes, but by the time you realize they’re not the source, flames are already creeping up your walls. Your curtains catch, then your cupboards, and by the time you’ve turned off the stove and grabbed your phone, the blaze has you nearly surrounded. You make it out of your house, but experience inhalation burns from the smoke and third-degree burns along the hand and wrist you used to turn off the stove.

Liability: Ruling out consumer misuse is always necessary in product liability cases, so our team will start by working with a fire investigator to determine the area of origin for the blaze. It’s clear you didn’t start the fire from behind the stove, so it must have been the stove itself, right? It’s possible—or there’s a chance the company that installed your new range made a mistake when hooking up the gas lines. Filing a claim against a manufacturer for a technician’s mistake won’t get you the help you need, so it’s important to find the right cause before making any moves.

Burn Injury Liability Can Be Complex

Because the potential causes of burn injuries are numerous, finding the moment of negligence behind them isn’t always straightforward. Whether there is a singular or multiple causes, or your injury happened at work or during your personal time, it’s important to have a lawyer who can work with experts to fully investigate the accident and understand the scope of your injuries. Serious burns will likely impact you for the rest of your life—and you want an attorney who will fight for the compensation you need to access treatment and other necessities.

Our Hardworking Team Can Help You Get Started

Tate Law Group has been fighting for Georgia injury victims for over a decade, and during that time we’ve recovered more than $100 million for them. Our attorneys are prepared to fight hard in every case and we’re not afraid to go to trial if that’s what it takes to win justice. Let us know your story—and we’ll fully explain your legal options.

Call our Savannah team at (912) 234-3030 to schedule a free consultation today. We are here and ready to talk to you.