Tulsa Burn Injury Lawyers
Compassionate care when heat, chemicals, electricity, or radiation cause death or severe burns
Burn injuries can cause excruciating pain. They require immediate treatment by burn specialists. Physical pain and discomfort can last a lifetime. Burns typically cause scars and disfigurement, which can be quite traumatizing. Most victims, even with the best doctors, need psychological help to cope with their appearance, especially if the burns are on visible parts of the body such as the face or arms.
Burn injuries are generally considered catastrophic injuries because they can lead to health complications and disfigurement.
Table of contents
- Why choose Biby Law Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers
- How common are burn injuries nationwide?
- How much is my Tulsa burn injury worth?
- How do burn injuries happen?
- How are burns categorized?
- Treating burn injuries and their complications
- How Biby Law Firm can help you after a burn injury in Oklahoma
- What can you expect in burn injury settlement negotiations?
- Biby Law Firm can even the odds for you in settlement negotiations
- Experienced legal counsel for Tulsa burn injury victims
Why choose Biby Law Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers
The Tulsa burn injury lawyers at Biby Law Firm Injury and Accident Lawyers have the experience and resources to hold responsible parties accountable. Here’s how we can help:
- We can file legal claims against vehicle drivers and owners when a car, truck, or vehicle accident causes a fire.
- We can also file claims against construction site companies, restaurants, hotels, and any other property owners if their negligence causes a fire, explosion, or any other source of a burn injury.
- We can pursue compensation for your physical pain, your emotional scars, your disfigurement, your hospital and other medical costs, and your lost income.
Our practice areas
How common are burn injuries nationwide?
Burn injuries occur frequently in the United States.
- According to 2021 data from the CDC’s National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, approximately 398,000 emergency department visits were related to fire or burn injuries, along with about 252,000 visits involving injuries from hot objects or substances.
- About 29,000 burn-related hospitalizations occur every year.
- Each year, several thousand people in the United States die from burn- and fire-related injuries.
Although about 97% of people treated at burn centers survive, many survivors experience severe scarring and lifelong physical disabilities.
Many fire-related burn injuries are due to auto accidents, for example, when a car explodes or catches fire, or due to electrical or stovetop fires in residential and commercial structures.
How much is my Tulsa burn injury worth?
As with any injury claim, there is no way to say for certain how much your burn injury claim is worth until we know who may be at fault for causing your burn injuries and the full extent of the harm done to you and your property.
Generally, you can make claims for medical expenses, lost wages, lost income, earning potential, property repair and replacement costs, and pain and suffering. Because burn injuries are among the most painful and disfiguring injuries you can suffer, your claim may be worth more depending on where the burns are located.
How do burn injuries happen?
About 60 percent of burn injuries occur at home.
There are four major types of burn injuries:
- Thermal burns. These burns are due to contact with hot items such as fire, scalding liquids, hot frying pans, and boiling water.
- Chemical burns. Here, burns are due to skin contact with acids, chlorines, toxins, and cleaners.
- Electrical burns. These burns are due to contact with the electrical current of a live wire. Electrical burns can be life-threatening and may cause severe internal injuries.
- Radiation burns. These burns are due to cancer radiation treatments and other radiation treatments.
Burn injuries at work in Oklahoma
Although most burn injury incidents happen at home, a significant number of burn injury cases are work-related. According to organizations including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), workers in the following industries are at risk of on-the-job burn injuries:
- Manufacturing (metal, plastics, and food processing)
- Construction
- Food service and commercial kitchens
- Oil, gas, and chemical processing
- Utilities and electrical work
- Healthcare (chemical and thermal burns and burns from sterilants)
Burns may be connected with the Oklahoma oil industry
In Oklahoma, burn injuries can result from oilfield explosions and fires. These fires may result from a failure to follow OSHA and other industry safety standards. If you are covered by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance, Oklahoma law generally makes workers’ compensation your exclusive remedy against the employer, unless the employer failed to secure coverage or committed a narrowly defined intentional tort. Separate claims may still exist against negligent third parties.
Workers’ compensation in Oklahoma only applies to covered employees. Some oilfield workers are classified as independent contractors. Oklahoma courts look to the right-to-control the work, not just job titles, when determining whether workers’ compensation applies. Depending on the facts, injured workers may still pursue negligence claims against non-employer third parties.
How are burns categorized?
Burns are categorized according to their severity and the depth of the burn, meaning how far the burn penetrated your skin. The core categories, according to Stanford Children’s Hospital, are:
- First-degree burns. These superficial burns affect your skin’s outer layer, called the epidermis. Signs include redness, dryness, and pain, with no blisters. Mild sunburn is a common example. There’s rarely any long-term damage.
- Second-degree burns. These partial thickness burns penetrate the epidermis down into the dermis, the lower level of your skin. Blistering, redness, swelling, and pain are common symptoms of second-degree burns.
- Third-degree burns. These full-thickness burns destroy the epidermis and dermis. These burns may even affect subcutaneous tissue, your skin’s innermost layer, and look white, or blackened and charred.
- Fourth-degree burns. These burns penetrate the layers of your skin and deep tissue. They can also damage muscle and bone and destroy nerve endings, thus eliminating any sensation of pain. Fourth-degree burns are extremely serious and can be life-threatening.
Treating burn injuries and their complications
The treatments vary depending on the type and the degree of the burn. First-degree burns usually heal on their own. Second and third-degree burns require medical care, including hospitalization. Fourth-degree burns are often deadly.
In addition to damaged skin, you may also suffer:
- Sepsis
- Permanent scarring
- Infections
- Difficulty breathing
- Contracture
- Nerve damage
- Hypothermia
- Damage to bones and joints
Additional compensable complications from burn injuries
The physical effects of a burn injury are often only the beginning of what you can suffer. A serious burn injury often leads to long-term complications that can affect your ability to work or to engage in daily life activities that allow you to enjoy life.
Burn victims may need skin grafts and plastic surgery, and may also need to seek help from pain management doctors. Many patients need physical and occupational therapy. The mental and emotional trauma you can experience in the aftermath of a burn injury can require consultation with psychologists and other mental health professionals.
How Biby Law Firm can help you after a burn injury in Oklahoma
A key consideration with burn injury compensation is that many Oklahoma personal injury claims, including burn injury claims, settle out of court. This means that the negotiating ability of your burn injury lawyer is at least as important as your lawyer’s skill in the courtroom.
What can you expect in burn injury settlement negotiations?
Because of the often-catastrophic consequences of burn injuries, which can result in substantial settlement payouts, insurance companies are incentivized to fight in negotiations. Insurance claims adjusters can be tough negotiators who can use many kinds of tactics and methods meant to get you to settle for less than the maximum fair compensation.
These tactics and methods can begin almost immediately, like when a claims adjuster invites you to make a recorded statement. The reason for this request is to pin down your testimony about what happened to cause your injuries and your actions afterward, so that if you say anything later that is inconsistent with your recorded statement, it can be used to challenge your recollection, if not your truthfulness.
Some insurance negotiation strategies are subtle, designed to wear you down. The insurance company can keep making more and more requests for information, be slow to respond to your communications, or take its time conducting its own investigation into the cause of your injury. All of these play on the financial stress you may be experiencing, so that when the insurer offers you a low-ball initial settlement offer, you might accept it out of a sense of desperation and frustration.
Other strategies can be blunter. The insurer may claim that you have not provided enough evidence to state a claim or argue that you submitted your claim improperly. If your burn injury occurred after you had suffered some other injury, the insurer might argue that your current symptoms are based on a pre-existing condition. You may be accused of exaggerating your symptoms and your treatment needs.
In more extreme cases, the insurance company may even accuse you of making fraudulent claims. The insurance company may refuse to settle with you and, at least initially, force you to go to court.
Biby Law Firm can even the odds for you in settlement negotiations
All of this is why, when you must negotiate with an insurance company, a personal injury defense lawyer, or both, you need an experienced, tough negotiator to act on your behalf. That is what you will have when you hire Biby Law Firm.
A Tulsa burn injury lawyer from Biby Law Firm will review your medical records and any witness statements and investigate the cause of your injuries. Together, we can create a plan to help you and your family move forward, starting with negotiating a fair compensation package for you.
Experienced legal counsel for Tulsa burn injury victims
At Biby Law Firm, we can fight for burn injury victims in and around Tulsa. We can work with your doctors to fully understand how much pain you are in and what your lifetime medical needs will be. Our firm is committed to holding the individuals and companies responsible for your burn injuries accountable.
To discuss how a Tulsa burn injury lawyer will fight for you, contact us to schedule an appointment. We handle personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. We proudly serve clients in Green Country, including the communities of Tulsa, Grove, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Claremore, Jenks, Sand Springs, Sapulpa, Wagoner, Owasso, Muskogee, and the surrounding areas.