A burn injury can be devastating and life-changing. Even minor burns can cause sensation loss and disability that impacts the person for the rest of their lives. If you were burned at work, in a public place or during a road traffic accident because of someone else’s negligence, you could be owed burn injury compensation from the person at fault. This guide examines burn injury claims.
Key Takeaways In Burn Injury Claims
- You could have an eligible compensation claim for even relatively minor burns.
- You’re owed a duty of care in various places and if this duty is breached by those responsible, they could be liable to compensate you for the physical, psychological and financial harm your injuries cause you.
- Evidence can help to support a claim and much of it is relatively straightforward to gather together.
- You don’t have to deal with the burns claims process on your own. Our solicitors can support eligible claimants through a type of No Win No Fee agreement.
- When working this way, there are no immediate or ongoing costs that need to be paid to your legal team for their services.
The sections below will detail everything you need to know about how to claim for burn injuries. We also invite you to discuss your potential claim now with our dedicated advisors:
- Submit your claim online to see how much compensation you could be owed.
- Ask the live discussion forum below a question for an immediate response.
- Call on 0800 073 8804 to learn more about starting a burn injury compensation claim.
Select A Section Of Our Burn Injury Claim Guide
- Eligiblity To Make Burn Injury Claims
- Common Causes Of Burn Injuries
- How Are Burns Classified In The UK?
- Proving Burn Injury Claims
- What Could A Burn Injury Claim Be Worth?
- How Can Legal Expert Help Me?
- Get More Information
Eligiblity Make Burn Injury Claims
Eligibility to claim personal injury compensation starts with meeting three essential criteria. You need to show the following:
- A duty of care covered you at the time of the accident.
- The third-party responsible breached their duty of care to you.
- You suffered harm as a result.
These points define negligence and form the basis for eligible burn injury claims. We now explain the duty of care in more detail as it relates to three areas where a burn injury might commonly happen because of another’s negligence:
Accidents At Work
Legislation called the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA) outlines the duty of care for UK employers. It states that employers must take proportionate and reasonable steps to ensure their employees are protected from harm whilst working. If an employer does not enact health and safety measures and an employee is burned, they could have a valid claim against that employer.
An example might be if the owner of a warehouse allows chemicals to be stored and labelled incorrectly and a member of staff suffers very severe scarring from chemical burns. Or if the wrong fire extinguishers were placed in an office environment and because of this, staff suffered a burn injury in a fire.
Advisors are happy to help clarify the grounds for your accident at work burn injury claim if you get in touch.
Road Traffic Accidents
A duty of care is owed by all road users to each other. They must exercise care when driving and navigating the roads to avoid causing damage and harm to others. They are required to follow both the rules and regulations in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code to comply fully with their duty of care.
For example, if a driver fails to give the motorway their full attention (by looking at a mobile phone instead) the collision could cause other drivers severe burns in the resulting crash.
Burn injuries can also impact passengers who are trapped in a car after the driver caused an accident. These life-changing, serious road accidents can involve multiple injuries, so please discuss them with our advisors.
Accidents In A Public Place
The third party responsible for any area open to the public owes them a duty of care as well. This is detailed in legislation called the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957. It requires them to implement whatever measures are deemed necessary to reasonably prevent the public from encountering harm while using their facilities and services as intended.
A legitimate claim could be made against a restaurant owner who failed to adequately warn about a hot surface or hot liquids. If a customer suffered superficial partial-thickness burns when encountering this hazard, the owner might be liable. Burns in public places can also be the result of poor fire prevention or electrical hazards.
However you were harmed, if others were to blame, speak to our advisors about building your personal injury claim. They can discuss the circumstances leading up to your injury and explain the burn injury claims process.
Common Causes Of Burn Injuries
Burns of all severity can be acquired in several different ways:
- A fire exit can be blocked or locked. preventing safe escape from a fire.
- An exposed hot surface can burn anyone who accidentally touches it.
- Uncontained steam can scald the face and hands.
- Faulty electrical devices are capable of burning the hands and face.
- Incorrectly stored or handled chemicals can cause corrosive burns and injury from inhalation.
- Inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) can result in a worker suffering burns.
Because of the seriousness of burn injuries, fire and chemical regulations are very stringent. However, negligence does occur. If you were a victim of a burn injury caused by others, speak to us about burn injury claims.
How Are Burns Classified In The UK?
The NHS classifies burns and scalds in four categories:
- Superficial epidermal burn – Where the top layer of skin (epidermis) becomes red, puffy and painful, but without blisters.
- Superficial dermal burn – Where both the epidermis and part of the dermis underneath are burned leaving a painful, pale pink colour with small blisters.
- Deep dermal or partial thickness burn – Deeper damage to the epidermis and dermis making the skin red and blotchy, damp, swollen and with larger blisters. This can be either very painful or painless.
- Full thickness burn – Cases where all 3 layers of skin (third-degree burns) are burned away exposing pale or blackened tissue beneath and leaving the remaining skin dry and white, or with black or brown discolouration and no blisters. The skin texture is waxy or leathery and the wound can be painless.
Find out if you can seek compensation by calling the team and asking about burn injury claims.
Proving Burn Injury Claims
Evidence plays a fundamental part in personal injury claims. It’s important to collect together as much proof as possible that the burn injuries you sustained were the result of a breach of the duty of care owed to you. Therefore, the following can help:
- Medical records detailing the injuries.
- CCTV, dashcam and helmet cam footage.
- Contact information for eyewitnesses. These people can be approached for statements later into the claims process.
- Photos or mobile phone footage of the injuries, or the circumstances/area where the injury happened.
- Serial numbers of electrical appliances, copies of fire safety certificates and the labels on any substances that burned you.
Call to learn more about evidence that can support burn injury claims.
What Could A Burn Injury Claim Be Worth?
A successful burn injury claim can be awarded for two types of loss: general and special damages. The main head of loss (general damages) applies a figure to the following:
- The physical pain.
- Psychological suffering.
- Any permanent disability.
- The overall impact on the quality of the person’s life and ‘loss of amenity’.
Those responsible for calculating these amounts might refer to the medical reports submitted as evidence. In addition to this, they often confer with publications like the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This offers a way to see what awards were made to successful personal injury claims in England and Wales in the past. However, the award brackets in the JCG are only a guideline.
The table below uses excerpts from the JCG (except the first line) to illustrate. As all claims are different, please only use this table as a guide. Get a more accurate idea of how much compensation may apply to your claim by speaking to our advisors.
Compensation Guidelines
| Injury Type | Severity | Guideline Award |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple injuries and special damages award for plastic surgery, care costs and loss of income. | Severe | Up to £1 million plus. |
| Burn injury | When 40% or more of the body is effected. | Likely to be more than £127,930 |
| Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) | (a) Severe | £73,050 up to £122,850 |
| (b) Moderately Severe | £28,250 up to £73,050 | |
| (c) Moderate | £9,980 up to £28,250 | |
| Facial Disfigurement | (a) Very Severe Scarring | £36,340 up to £118,790 |
| (b) Less Severe Scarring | £21,920 up to £59,090 | |
| (c) Significant Scarring | £11,120 up to £36,720 | |
| (d) Less Significant Scarring | £4,820 up to £16,770 | |
| Hair Damage | (a) Damage From Defective Chemical Applications | £8,960 up to £13,450 |
Could I Claim Special Damages?
There are often financial repercussions from injuries as serious as burns. These can also be included in the compensation for burn injury claims under the head of loss called special damages. To have financial damage included, you will need to put forward documents that prove the losses or expenses, for example:
- Receipts for domestic care.
- Medication and treatment costs that you had to pay for yourself (such as plastic surgery for scar treatment).
- Payslips and bank statements showing a drop or loss of earnings caused by the burn injuries.
- Any unforeseen childcare costs caused by the injuries or hospitalisation.
- Invoices showing the cost of altering your home or car to accommodate a new, permanent disability. For example, if you lost fingers in the fire and need an adapted vehicle now.
Other financial impacts may be adding to your stress right now. Discuss them all with our team and see if you have grounds to claim them back in a compensation claim for burn injuries.
How Can Legal Expert Help Me?
Anyone is free to start a personal injury compensation claim with or without legal help. But we offer an opportunity to find out whether skilled experts in this field could handle your compensation claim for you. Our solicitors offer many excellent services to eligible claimants, such as:
- They will help you gather supporting evidence and witness statements to strengthen your claim.
- They can liaise directly with burn specialists to obtain detailed medical reports.
- They will argue for the maximum compensation owed to you.
- Their expertise provides a more precise idea of how much compensation applies. And they will calculate an amount that takes into account both your current costs and those predicted in the future.
Placing your claim in professional hands means you can concentrate on your recovery while a skilled solicitor works hard to get you the best settlement for your particular case. To discuss burn injury claims and find out if you are eligible to work with one of our personal injury solicitors, speak to a member of the advisory team.
The Benefits Of A Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA)
Our specialist solicitors can also use a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) to provide their services. This version of a No Win No Fee contract usually means:
- No initial solicitors fees apply to start work on your burn claim.
- No solicitors fees apply as work on the claim moves ahead.
- Should the claim fail, no legal fees apply for work completed by the solicitor.
- A successful burn injury claim means that a ‘success fee’ payment applies.
- Importantly, a legal cap fixes this deductible percentage. This guarantees you receive nearly all of the personal injury compensation awarded.
Interested in learning more about the burn injury compensation claim process? Start the conversation about burn injury claims now:
- Call on 0800 073 8804 to talk to us about your minor or serious burn injuries.
- Fill out our claim online form for a call back at a time that suits you.
- Use the pop-up discussion window in the corner.
Get More Information
In addition to this guide on making a burn injury claim, these other guides might prove helpful:
- This guide looks at public liability claims after accidents out and about.
- Here, we discuss burns from fireworks claims.
- Also, you can read about a claim after injury because of no eye protection at work in this guide.
External guidance:
- This looks at guidance for those with fire safety responsibility from GOV.UK.
- Here are more related details about making small, non-domestic spaces safe from fire from the Home Office.
- Lastly, treatment for burns and scalds from the NHS.
We value your interest in our burn injury claims guide. For help or assistance with any of the issues raised, just connect with the team.
