Foley Burn Injury Lawyer

A severe burn injury can totally upend your life. In addition to causing tremendous pain and suffering, disability, and disfigurement, burns may require repeated hospitalizations, surgeries, and skin grafts, and some burns are serious enough to lead to death. Survivors may face mounting medical, rehabilitation, and household bills at a time they are unable to work.

If you or a loved one suffered a serious burn injury due to another party’s negligence or fault, you may be entitled to compensation through insurance or a personal injury lawsuit. While no amount of money can make up for the suffering you and your family are experiencing, fair compensation can ease your financial burdens and pay for the care and treatment you need to rebuild your life.

Alabama personal injury laws are complicated, and making mistakes can be costly. Insurance companies and their lawyers will try to deny claims or get you to accept the lowest settlement possible, or even escape paying altogether by blaming the injury on you, so it is difficult to recover compensation on your own.

The experienced Foley, Alabama, burn injury attorneys at Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana Injury Lawyers know how insurance companies operate and the tactics they use to deny claims. We are fully prepared to handle all legal hurdles in the fight for justice and the compensation you deserve.

We offer a free consultation to discuss your case and determine the best way to help, so call us today to get started while evidence and witnesses can be found.

Why Choose Our Foley Burn Injury Attorney

Burn injury cases are complex, and proving liability can be tricky, so you should look for an attorney you feel comfortable with who also has the experience, skills, and resources needed to handle your case. Here are some reasons why we believe that you should choose Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana Injury Lawyers:

• We are experienced. Our seasoned attorneys, C. Randall Caldwell, Jr., Drew Wenzel and Dee Asthana have more than 25 years of combined legal experience and are seasoned trial veterans with a long record of success.
• We have achieved notable wins, such as our $8,000,000 medical malpractice settlement.
• We come highly recommended by many satisfied clients.
• We know how to negotiate with insurance companies to settle most cases out of court, but we are also successful litigators well-known for our aggressive approach inside and outside the courtroom.
• Our team is highly regarded and often receives referrals from other firms.
• We offer free, no-obligation consultations, and there are no fees to you unless and until we win your case.

How Our Burn injury Lawyers in Foley Work for You

The catastrophic injuries and the long-term treatment that is often required for severe burns is overwhelming to both victims and family members, and the last thing you want to worry about is stress from a lawsuit. When you have our legal team on your side, we start working on your case immediately. We will:

• Meet with you to discuss how the burn injury happened, who the at-fault parties may be, and determine your damages and what your case may be worth
• Ensure you get proper medical treatment and that everything is documented
• Investigate the accident scene and gather and preserve evidence, such as from videos and photographs; ambulance, police, fire department, hospital, and medical records and reports; and interviews with witnesses and first responders
• Hire experts to reconstruct the accident and determine fault and life-care experts to testify as to the costs and extent of your burn injuries into the future.
• Communicate and negotiate with insurance companies and their attorneys for a fair settlement.
• Build your case and take it to court and advocate on your behalf if necessary.

Damage Awards Our Foley Burn injury Lawyers May Recover

In a successful burn injury case, Alabama allows recovery for all your damages — the costs and losses from your injuries. These include payment for both economic damages to cover your monetary costs, and non-economic damages, for damages that do not have a specific dollar value but negatively impact your life.

Economic damages may include:

• medical, rehabilitation, and caregiving costs
• modifications to a home or vehicle, such as to accommodate a wheelchair
• lost wages and projected lost future earnings
• damaged property.

Noneconomic damages may include:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress and PTSD
• Loss of bodily function or other physical disability
• Disfigurement and scarring
• Loss of quality of life and consortium.

In some rare cases, when it can be proven that the defendant’s actions that caused your burn were intentionally acted with “oppression, fraud, wantonness, or malice,”  Alabama Code § 6-11-20 allows the award of punitive damages. This additional award is intended to punish a defendant and to deter such behaviors in the future.

Damage Award Amounts

There is a wide range of damage amounts you may be awarded in a burn injury lawsuit, from the thousands to the millions of dollars, depending on the individual circumstances of the case and factors involved. While burn injuries tend to have high settlement value due to the pain and disfigurement involved, each case is different. Some factors that go into determining amounts are the severity and permanence of the burn injury, the costs of treatments, the degree of fault of the defendants, and the availability of insurance and assets.

Burn Injury Lawyers in Foley Must Prove Negligence

To win your case, our Foley burn injury lawyers must be able to prove that another party or parties (the defendants in the case) were negligent and at fault for causing your injury. For example, if a fire broke out in a restaurant, the cook or kitchen supervisor, the owner of the restaurant, the manufacturer of a defective oven or its parts, or the manufacturer of a faulty sprinkler and smoke detector system may bear responsibility, depending on the circumstances. Since there may be multiple factors and several liable parties involved in causing the fire, careful investigation, witness testimony, and use of accident reconstruction experts may be necessary.

Proving negligence legally involves establishing the existence of the following elements:

• Duty: The defendant owed you a duty of care not to cause harm.
• Breach: The defendant breached this duty by actions or failure to act.
• Cause: This breach resulted in the accident that caused your burn injuries.
• Damage: You suffered actual damages as a result.

Our attorneys would seek to name all potentially liable parties as defendants in the lawsuit, as they all may have insurance and assets that can go toward a settlement.

Burn injury Attorneys in Foley Answer Frequently Asked Questions

After a serious burn injury, you are bound to have questions. We can best answer individual concerns at your free initial consultation, but to get started, here are some answers to questions our attorneys are often asked:

Are there time limits for filing a lawsuit?

Yes, according to Ala. Code § 6-2-38, there is a statute of limitations, a deadline for filing personal injury cases, that is generally two years from the date the injury occurred. If you fail to file on time, the courts are likely to refuse to hear your case.

Should I speak to insurance companies?

No, the less you say to insurance companies the better.  Insurance companies want to pay as little as possible and may try to trick you into accepting a settlement for less than your case is worth or saying something that can be used against you. Tell the insurance company to speak to your attorney, and let our burn injury lawyers in Foley handle all negotiations and correspondence.

What if I did something to contribute to the accident that caused my burn injury? 

If you did something that contributed to the accident, contributory negligence laws in Alabama can prevent you from collecting any damages, even if another party is proven negligent. That is why it is so important for you to have a knowledgeable personal injury attorney to represent you and show that your actions in no way contributed to the accident that caused your burn injuries.

What if my loved one died from a burn injury?

If your family member died from a burn injury, our wrongful death attorney can help by pursuing punitive damages against the liable party through a wrongful death lawsuit. According to the law (Ala. Code 6-5-410), a punitive damage award is paid directly to the heirs of the deceased person, and not made part of the estate, so direct family members are most likely to receive the money.

Our Foley burn injury attorneys understand how much you are dealing with, and we will be there to answer all your questions and keep you informed throughout the entire legal process.

Get Help from Our Burn Injury Attorneys in Foley

At Caldwell Wenzel & Asthana Injury Lawyers, we have the skill, experience, and commitment to fight for maximum compensation for your burn injuries. We provide aggressive, results-oriented legal representation which serves our clients well. Other attorneys and insurance companies know that when we are handling a case, we will be prepared to take it all the way to trial.

Put us to work on your case now. We work on a contingency fee basis, so we collect no fees unless and until we win your case.

Call (251) 444-7000 today to schedule a free, no-obligation case consultation.