Burns are some of the most severe and painful injuries that people can suffer. These injuries could happen anywhere, including on the road, at dangerous properties, and even in your own home. They can cause scarring and disfigurement, lead to hazardous infections, and even threaten your life. Staggering medical expenses and extensive lost income often accompany severe burns, not to mention pain and emotional distress.
The Atlanta burn injury lawyers at Butler Kahn understand how devastating it can be to suffer a burn injury due to someone else’s carelessness or recklessness. We take each client’s burn injury lawsuit personally. We believe the people of Atlanta deserve the dedicated work, personalized service, and compassionate care that can make a difference.
Burn injuries change lives. When you or a loved one is injured, you deserve an honest, hard-working, experienced burn injury lawyer in Atlanta who will take the stress of seeking proper compensation for a burn injury off of you.
We are ready to talk with you about your situation during a free consultation whenever you want to reach out to us. We offer a free consultation to burn injury victims. You can reach us by phone or by filling out our online contact form.
How Can a Burn Injury Attorney Help Me?
When people suffer catastrophic burn injuries, they often assume that insurance will cover the cost of medical treatment and other losses they experience. But the reality might be very different. Those responsible for your injuries could deny responsibility, their insurers might refuse coverage, and you could be facing unexpected expenses – all while dealing with a painful and potentially lasting injury.
Our Atlanta burn injury attorneys can help you with every part of your case and keep the focus on what’s best for you. We deal with injury cases every day, and we know how to protect your rights.
Our burn injury attorneys can help you by:
Explaining your rights and options for compensation
Connecting you with the resources you need for your burn injuries
Handling discussions with insurance companies
Taking care of the paperwork a burn injury claim requires
Building a case for the economic damages and non-economic damages you deserve
Negotiating from a position of strength with insurance companies
Preparing a burn injury lawsuit and taking your case to court if a settlement is impossible
Types and Degrees of Burn Injuries
Many different types of accidents could cause severe burn injuries. While some people might think that burns only happen from exposure to fire, quite a few other causes can lead to burn injuries.
Types of burn injuries include:
Thermal burns
Chemical burns
Electrical burns
Friction burns
Radiation burns
According to the National Institutes of Health, burns come in several degrees of severity. These range from first-degree burns to sixth-degree burns. Each degree of burn comes with its own challenges and its own treatments. What are the differences between them? The answer is that the more severe the burn, the more it affects the skin and deeper tissues.
First-degree burns – These types of burns affect the outermost layer of the skin. They can cause the skin to become red and can result in significant pain.
Second-degree burns – This category of burns is more severe and may penetrate more deeply. Second-degree burns can affect multiple layers of skin and can result in blistering and scarring. They are often extremely painful.
Third-degree burns – Third-degree burns are severe burns that may affect all layers of skin. Like other higher-degree burns, these injuries can result in permanent nerve damage and require skin graft surgery.
Fourth-degree burns – These serious burns can be life-threatening and may extend into the fat layers beneath the skin.
Fifth-degree burns – Like fourth-degree burns, these major burns can endanger the victim’s life. When burns extend into the muscle, they are considered a fifth-degree burn.
Sixth-degree burns – Sixth-degree burns are life-threatening and could extend to the bone.
Common Causes of Burn Injuries
There are many possible causes for a serious burn injury, ranging from contact with fire or steam to exposure to chemicals or radiation.
Some top causes of burn injuries include:
Exposure to fire at home, on the road, or at dangerous properties
Contact with hot liquid or steam
Chemical exposure from cleaning agents or toxic industrial materials
Radiation from medical imaging equipment
Exposure to heat or fire from defective products
Electrical burn injuries in the workplace
Compensation for Burns Injuries
If you suffered a burn injury due to someone else’s negligence, you could be entitled to significant compensation under Georgia law. The types and amount of compensation you could seek will depend on the facts and circumstances of your situation.
For example, suppose you suffer a burn injury in a motor vehicle accident caused by another driver’s careless actions. In that case, you might be entitled to different compensation for an accident at work. That is because your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company will typically provide limited benefits for injuries sustained while on the job.
If you were injured at work, you could be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for:
Two-thirds of your average weekly earnings, up to a capped maximum
Coverage of medical expenses, including the cost of medical equipment
Compensation for disabilities
If you suffered severe burn injuries outside of work – or if a non-employer third party was liable for your workplace injury – you may be able to seek other types of compensation through a personal injury lawsuit. An Atlanta burn injury lawyer can help.
You could obtain compensation for your burn injuries for:
Medical bills
Rehabilitation expenses
Future medical costsÂ
Lost wages
Diminished earning capacity
Physical pain and psychological suffering
Disfigurement and permanent scarring
Mental anguish
Diminished quality of life
Punitive damages in exceptional cases
What Type of Lawsuit Can Burn Victims File?
The type of personal injury claim a burn injury victim needs to file will depend on how the burn happened.
For example, if someone is burned on a business’s property, they would file a premises liability lawsuit. If they were injured by a defective product that started a fire, they could pursue a product liability lawsuit. If they were burned in a car accident, they would file a car accident lawsuit against the other driver or another at-fault party.
If you have questions about what type of burn injury case you are eligible to file, our experienced Atlanta burn injury lawyers are prepared to review your case and inform you of your rights and legal options at no cost to you.
Talk to Our Atlanta Burn Injury Lawyers for Free
If you’ve suffered a burn injury through no fault of your own, contact Butler Kahn to discuss your situation whenever you are ready for legal advice. We only take a small number of personal injury claims so that we can devote our full attention to you.
We are real lawyers handling real cases. We’re ready to stand up and fight for you.
We serve all areas of Atlanta, including Brookhaven, Druid Hills, Buckhead, Chastain Park, Garden Hills, Piedmont Heights, Midtown, Downtown Atlanta, Grove Pak, Inman Park, South Atlanta, East Atlanta Village, West End, and Atlantic Station.
Frequently Asked Questions
Burns are classified from first-degree, which affects only the outer layer of skin, up through sixth-degree burns, which can extend all the way to the bone. Generally speaking, the higher the degree, the deeper the tissue damage and the more likely the injury will require surgery, such as a skin graft, or pose a life-threatening risk.
Sometimes both. Workers’ comp covers a portion of your medical costs and lost wages regardless of fault, but if someone other than your employer — like a contractor, equipment manufacturer, or property owner — contributed to the accident, you may be able to pursue a separate personal injury claim against that third party for additional compensation.
If a malfunctioning appliance, faulty wiring, or a product prone to catching fire caused your injury, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer or distributor, separate from any claim against a property owner or driver. These cases often hinge on proving the product had a design, manufacturing, or warning defect.
There’s no set number — it depends heavily on the degree of the burn, whether it caused permanent scarring or disfigurement, the cost of ongoing treatment, and how much work you missed or can no longer do. Severe burns that require multiple surgeries or long-term rehabilitation generally settle for significantly more than minor burns that heal without lasting effects.
That would typically fall under premises liability, since property owners in Georgia have a legal duty to keep their property reasonably safe for visitors. That could apply to anything from a burn caused by scalding water in a hotel room to an exposed electrical hazard at a business.
Yes, permanent scarring and disfigurement are recognized forms of damages in Georgia personal injury cases, separate from your medical bills and lost wages. Because these losses affect your daily life indefinitely, they’re often a significant part of a serious burn injury settlement.
Get emergency medical treatment first — burns can worsen quickly and aren’t always as severe-looking as they actually are underneath the skin. Once you’re stable, try to preserve evidence of what caused the burn, whether that’s a defective product, a hazardous condition, or a vehicle involved in the accident, before it’s discarded or repaired.
Generally yes — most burn injury claims fall under Georgia’s two-year statute of limitations for personal injury cases. Product liability and premises liability claims can have additional nuances depending on the facts, so it’s worth confirming your specific deadline with an attorney rather than assuming the standard timeline applies.
Workplace chemical burns are usually covered by workers’ compensation, which pays a portion of your medical bills and two-thirds of your average weekly wages up to a capped amount. If the chemical exposure resulted from a defective product or a non-employer’s negligence, you may also have a separate claim outside the workers’ comp system.
Proving negligence typically involves showing that the responsible party had a duty to keep you safe, failed to meet that duty, and that failure directly caused your burn. Depending on the case, that can mean gathering maintenance records, product recall data, safety inspection reports, or witness testimony about the conditions leading up to the accident.
Jeb ButlerState Bar: #116955
Jeb Butler’s career as a Georgia trial lawyer has led to a $150 million verdict in a product liability case against Chrysler for a dangerous vehicle design that caused the death of a child, a $45 million settlement for a young man who permanently lost the ability to walk and talk, a $3,973,260 settlement after a boating accident, and a $1,250,000 settlement in a pedestrian case, and numerous other verdicts and settlements, many of which are confidential at the defendant’s insistence. Jeb has worked on several cases that led to systemic changes and improvements in public safety. He has been repeatedly recognized as a Georgia SuperLawyer and ranks among Georgia’s legal elite. Jeb graduated in the top 10% of his class at UGA Law, argued on the National Moot Court team, and published in the Law Review. He is the founding partner of Butler Kahn law firm. Connect with me on LinkedIn
