Have you or a loved one suffered from a burn injury and have questions?? Read these 5 common burn injury questions, then call our attorneys.
1) What should I do if I was seriously burned?
If someone has been a burn injury victim, has serious burn injuries, what do they need to do now to protect their case and have the best result possible? That question was posed to one of our attorneys recently. The attorney answered the client and said the number one thing is always, and we’ll help you do this, get the best medical care possible. Sometimes our clients are on access programs. They can only see a limited number of doctors. There are good doctors on those programs, but are the very best doctors on those programs? Not necessarily. Call us. We can actually refer you to additional doctors. We don’t have to replace the doctor that you’re seeing, but additional doctors that can give you and your doctor a second opinion. Maybe they have some techniques that are not being used for therapy or skin grafts or whatever. At least you’re aware. Maybe they just say, hey, your current doctor is doing fine. Keep on with them. That’s confirmation for you. That’s the number one thing. Call us so you get the best medical care possible.
The other thing that is important is, once you get the best medical care possible, when it comes time to settle your case, we often hire professional photographers to photograph your injuries and scarring and things like that. Because if you just take a picture on a selfie camera and send that to the insurance adjustor versus having the proper lighting so that it really emphasizes what you’re going to be living with, that can make a big difference in dollars and cents. Especially nowadays when we have social distancing, photographs are even more important because probably the adjustor isn’t going to see you in person.
There are other important things that need to be addressed in burn injury cases but they do vary depending on a lot of details. Was it a defective product? Was somebody else at fault? Call us and let one of our attorneys analyze your case. Again, the call is free. The information is free. The earlier you contact us, the more difference we can help you with. Even if you haven’t decided you want to hire us, the information will be helpful to you. Make the call because our most important client is always you.
2) What are some common mistakes people make after a burn injury?
What are some of the most common mistakes that people make when they have a burn injury, particularly in Arizona? In fact, that question has been posed before to one of our attorneys. Our attorney answered that question by saying the number one most common mistake is that people think that we’ll just see how things shake out before we even talk to an attorney. Now, there’s nothing terribly wrong with seeing how the other insurance company is going to treat you, but the reason why you don’t want to wait to at least talk to a lawyer or somebody in a law firm early on is because the insurance adjustor is going to be your best friend at first.
They’ve been trained to control you in one of two ways: being very nice, or if that doesn’t work, being very nasty. You’ll get one of those versions. Typically, if you have a serious burn injury, you’ll get the very nice treatment. They know that your case could be worth a lot of money. If you get the very nice treatment, they’ll even say, “Why would you want to call a lawyer? All they’re going to do is take most of your money. You don’t want that and I’m so nice. You know that because I’m so nice, it’ll all work out. We’ll pay you a fair amount in the end.” By the time you find out that that’s not true, your case could be damaged.
Call us early on. You don’t have to hire us right away but at least call us right away. We’ll have one of our attorneys analyze your specific situation. We can warn you about some other mistakes that might happen. Then if you want to go ahead and test the water with the insurance adjustor, at least you’ll be warned about the tricks that they often do and what happens but there’s so many mistakes that can happen.
The best thing to do is just call us. We’ll have one of our attorneys analyze your case together with you. Then the statistics from the insurance company’s own statistics shows that if a person calls and speaks to a lawyer just once, even if they don’t hire them, they settle their case for significantly more money than if they never talk to a lawyer. At least make that call. Do yourself a favor. It can’t hurt. Remember the call is free, the information is free, and we’re here to help you.
3) How do I select the right attorney for a burn injury?
If you have been the victim of a horrible burn injury, how do you choose the right attorney to handle the case? That is an important question. We had that raised recently by a potential parent. The situation was where it actually was a child that had been burned. It was a complicated factual situation. There was some question about whether the child at-fault. Newsflash, our attorney told the family— children are not considered at-fault. Sometimes insurance companies try to blame parents, but even then, these are complicated situations.
That’s why you do need to call us and talk to one of our attorneys because even then, there’s legal cases that say even if a parent does something that may have in some way might have contributed to the child’s burn injury, that cannot reduce the child’s recovery. That’s a legal thing that you’d have to talk to one of our attorneys about but insurance adjustors by and large, they’re not aware of that. Hey, Mom, Dad, you’re at fault. That scalding whatever, we weren’t responsible, or that product that was defective, no, that was you, Mom, that was you, Dad. If that’s happening, you call us first. We can prevent that from being literally thrown back in your face.
The other thing that you need to do is when you’re choosing an attorney or a law firm for a burn injury is you want to ask them about their experience and outcomes. We’ve handled cases involving electrocution and death. Those things are very specialized experts. If your loved one has survived or you, then the follow-up care can be prolonged and it’s very important. All those things go into choosing the right law firm if you or a loved one has a burn injury. Talk to them, ask them what their experience is, ask them what the outcomes have been, and that will help you decide and make the right choice for you or your loved one. Remember the call is free, the information is free, and we’re here to help you.
4) How long does a burn injury claim take?
How long does it take to resolve a burn injury claim in Arizona? That’s important because people who have already been burned, literally, because of reckless conduct or a defective product, the last thing they want is to be burned again by the legal system. What we do is make sure that doesn’t happen. The way we do that is by being proactive and being involved in your care as early as you contact us.
There are great doctors out there at giving treatment who make very poor witnesses in legal proceedings. You can stay with a great doctor but we’ll refer you to another doctor for an additional second opinion and a doctor who understand how to testify in deposition. Most of those cases are going to be settled without going to court, but when the insurance companies sees that the doctor has a good reputation, they will want to settle. On the other hand, if it’s a nice doctor, does a good job for you, but really, he’s afraid of testifying, the insurance company won’t bother.
As far as resolving your claim, as long as we get good testifying experts to bolster what your treating doctors are saying and they confirm it, those cases usually resolve as soon as you reach what’s called maximum medical improvement. How long does it take for you to reach maximum medical improvement? That’s something between you and your doctor. Once you’ve reached that point, most of the time, insurance companies, especially if the burn injury is pretty shocking, they want those settled quickly. That part is good news.
Remember, if you’ve had a burn injury in Arizona from a defective product or perhaps someone else’s fault, a reckless conduct, call us. The call is free. The information is free. It can make a big difference the earlier you call us in the ultimate value of your case, thousands of dollars, possibly tens of thousands of dollars, and in rare cases, millions of dollars. Call us. We’re here for you.
5) How do I determine the value of a burn injury claim?
If you or a loved one suffer a serious burn injury, how do you determine what the value of your claim is? That’s a perfect reason to call our firm and talk to one of our attorneys. One of our attorneys advised somebody recently that had that question. The first question that an attorney would ask in that situation, and did ask, was what was the nature and the extent of the burn injury. Most people know that there’s different classifications of burn injury. The easiest way is to take some photographs and share them. You can do this over the phone. How long has it been since the burn injury? If it’s only been a few weeks, then there’s a possibility that things are going to get a lot better. If it’s two years ago, well, hopefully, you didn’t wait that long, but let’s just say it’s been a year, then maybe that’s as good as it’s going to get.
We’ll refer you to experts, maybe even outside the doctors you’ve already seen. Maybe you’ve been through skin grafts already but there may be ways that the appearance can still be improved. You can get a second opinion about that. Basically, it comes down to a “shock the conscience” standard. If it’s a situation where people will always react strongly to an injury, those cases are worth a lot more money. Why? You as a person or a loved one lives with that.
In a situation where you want to know, get an idea of the value of your claim, call us. Talk to one of our lawyers. You can send us photos. We can at least give you an idea. Another reason why the value of the claim can differ is not just your injuries and the scarring, but also the circumstances of what led up to it. If we can show that the at-fault company or product or whatever knew about something like this and ignored it, then your claim can be worth a lot more. Again, that’s a reason to call and have one of our attorneys give you a specific analysis of your case, including the value. Remember the call is free, the information is free, and the referrals are free to experts and doctors. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can get on the road to not only physical recovery but also financial recovery because the most important client that we have is always you.
Have you or a loved one suffered from a burn injury and have questions about a burn injury? After reading these 5 common burn injury questions, contact experienced Gilbert Burn Injury Lawyers at Free Injury Advice today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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