Fort Wayne Burn Injury Lawyer

Burn injuries are some of the most painful, impactful, and serious types of personal injury that one can suffer. If you recently sustained a burn injury and suspect that another person or entity was to blame for causing it, you have every right to explore your legal options for recovery.

A lawsuit in Fort Wayne for a burn injury will generally succeed if the plaintiff can establish the four elements of negligence: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages. Upon succeeding in a lawsuit, victims can recover compensation for their medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.

You can take your first step towards justice right now by calling the seasoned Fort Wayne burn injury attorneys at Wruck Paupore. When you reach out by phone at (219) 322-1166 today, you can get your initial case assessment free of charge.

Proving Negligence for a Burn Injury in Fort Wayne

Critical in any burn injury lawsuit is proving that the defendant was to blame for causing the harm. In some cases, the defendant may have caused the burn injuries intentionally. However, most burn injuries that create liability result from negligence. To prove that the defendant negligently caused your injuries, you will need to satisfy four key elements: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

Duty of Care

The first step in any personal injury lawsuit claiming negligence is to establish the duty of care that the defendant owed to the plaintiff. A duty of care is a legal obligation created based on a relationship and defined based on the nature of that relationship. Therefore, the duty of care varies depending on the situation. For instance, the duty that a property owner would owe a dinner guest would be different from the duty that an electrician subcontractor would owe a worker on a construction site.

Breach of Duty

Once you have established what duty was created by the relationship between the plaintiff and defendant, you must show how the defendant breached that duty through either their actions or their failure to act. In other words, you generally must be able to demonstrate what a reasonable person would have done differently in the defendant’s position and how this would have prevented the accident from occurring. This is typically done through expert testimony, which can be difficult to obtain without the resources provided by an experienced Fort Wayne burn injury attorney.

Causation

In order to win a lawsuit claiming negligence, you will also have to be able to prove that the defendant’s breach of duty actually caused the incident. Indiana uses a cause-in-fact test for causation, meaning that a court must find that the incident would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s negligence. Even if the plaintiff was also at fault for causing the accident to a lesser degree, they can still recover. Still, the damages may be reduced proportionally to their amount of blame. Learn more about this rule, also known as comparative negligence, from a knowledgeable Fort Wayne burn injury lawyer before you give up on your case.

Damages

Finally, you must be able to demonstrate that you sustained a compensable injury as a result of the incident. Compensable injury is different than just any injury because it must be something that caused harm for which you could recover monetary damages in court. For instance, if you suffered a first degree burn that bothered you for a week but ultimately resolved on its own, you may not have compensable injuries.

Explaining Damages in a Burn Injury Lawsuit in Fort Wayne

For any burn injury lawsuit, identifying harms and calculating the compensation you deserve in turn is a necessary and important step. This can be difficult to do without a Fort Wayne burn injury attorney, as you may have suffered harms that you do not even realize are compensable.

Medical Costs

Serious injuries will require both immediate trauma care and long-term follow up care. The cost in both of these areas can be substantial, so it is important that the person or entity responsible for causing the injury is also responsible for paying for the cost of care. This includes hospital fees, surgeries, physical therapy, prescription medications, and other expenditures related to the burn injury.

Lost Income

In some cases, burn injuries can temporarily or even permanently prohibit the victim from fulfilling the requirements of their job or field. Financial expert testimony is often necessary to demonstrate just how harmful the injuries have and will continue to be for the victim’s ability to earn a living.

Pain and Suffering

All damages for direct financial consequences, such as medical bills and lost wages, are categorized as economic damages. However, a separate category, known as non-economic damages, accounts for the damages the victim suffers from the defendant’s negligence that are not, strictly speaking, monetary. This includes chronic pain, damage to personal relationships, and loss of enjoyment of life. For burn injury victims, their scars can be a painful reminder of their experience. This hardship will also factor into the total calculation of damages.

Punitive Damages

In certain situations, a court may decide to order that the defendant pay additional damage to punish them for their particularly reckless or maliciously harmful behavior. These damages are known as punitive damages. While they are not available for every case, they can be a sizeable portion of an award of damages, so it is always worth discussing with your Fort Wayne burn injury lawyer.

Wruck Paupore Can Help You Recover After a Burn Injury in Fort Wayne

When you call Wruck Paupore today at (219) 322-1166, you can receive a free initial case assessment from our experienced Fort Wayne burn injury lawyers.