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What You Need To Know About Burn Injury Compensation Claims

If you have suffered burns after an accident, then our dedicated burn injury claim solicitors could help. 

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£85 million in compensation

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Advice On Making A Burn Injury Claim

If you have suffered burns after an accident, then our dedicated burn injury claim solicitors could help. 

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What You Need To Know About Burn Injury Compensation Claims

Severe burns are potentially life threatening injuries.  Even minor burns can have significant cosmetic and psychological impacts on the injured person. This guide to making a burn injury claim covers key areas of the claims process including the eligibility criteria, who your claim will be made against and some examples of how a burn injury could be sustained. 

You will also see a compensation table containing some compensation guidelines for your reference. 

At the end of this guide, we examine the No Win No Fee agreement offered by our solicitors, focussing on the benefits to you of starting your claim under such a contract. 

Our advisors are on hand 24 hours a day to answer your queries and provide free eligibility assessments. Get in touch today via:

Am I Eligible To Make A Burn Injury Claim?

A burn injury claim is a type of personal injury claim made after sustaining burns in an accident. There are a number of different accidents where burn injuries could occur and the severity can vary greatly. We’ll look at some potential scenarios further down.

The general requirements to make a personal injury claim are that a third party owed you a duty of care, and then breached this duty, causing you to be injured. A duty of care means a legal obligation for someone’s safety. 

The duties of care owed on the roads, at work and in public places have been summarised below:

  • Employers must, under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974,take reasonable steps to ensure employee safety. 
  • Those in control of public places, legally referred to as “occupiers,” must take steps to ensure the reasonable safety of all visitors to their premises as per the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957
  • Every road user, from pedestrians to HGV drivers, owes a duty of care to each other. The law requires all road users to do everything within their reasonable power to avoid causing each other harm. This means abiding by the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code

For a free consultation regarding your eligibility to claim, contact our advisory team today.

How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Burn Injury?

A successful burn injury claim will see you awarded personal injury compensation. There are two heads of claim that this compensation may be awarded under. These are:

  • General damages: compensation for the physical and psychological impacts of the burn injuries.
  • Special damages: compensation for any financial harm caused by those injuries. More on this later. 

Those tasked with determining a potential general damages figure during the claims process can refer to your medical documents alongside the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document contains the guideline compensation brackets for various types of injury.

We have used the brackets for burns and bodily scarring in the table below. It should be emphasised that the first entry was not taken from the JCG publication, 

Compensation Table

Please note that this information has been included for guidance purposes only. 

Type of InjurySeverityGuideline Award FigureNotes
Multiple Very Serious Injuries With Special DamagesVery SeriousUp to £500,000 +The injured person will have experienced very serious injuries as well as significant financial harm such as lost earnings, medical bills and care needs.
Scarring to Other Parts of the BodyBurns Covering 40% or More of the BodyLikely to exceed £127,930Awards for burns are influenced by the percentage body cover, the thickness, cosmetic impacts and psychological impacts.
A Number of Noticeable Laceration Scars or One Single Disfiguring Scar£9,560 to £27,740Multiple noticeable lacerations or a single disfiguring scar to a limb, the chest or back.
Single Noticeable Scar Or Several Superficial Scars£2,890 to £9,560One noticeable scar, or several superficial scars with minor cosmetic deficit.
Facial DisfigurementVery Severe Scarring£36,340 to £118,790In relatively young claimants where there is a very disfiguring cosmetic effect and severe psychological reaction.
Less Severe Scarring£21,920 to £59,090Substantial disfigurement and a significant psychological reaction.
Significant Scarring£11,120 to £36,720Where the worst effects have been reduced by surgery and the psychological impact has diminished to minor levels.
Less Significant Scarring£4,820 to £16,770Multiple small scars where appearances is not markedly affected.
Trivial Scarring£2,080 to £4,310Minor effects.

Special Damages And Your Claim

Special damages are the second head of claim personal injury compensation can be awarded under. We have set out a few potential examples here:

  • Loss of earnings due to time taken off work to recover from your injuries.
  • Medical bills, prescriptions and counselling sessions.
  • Care expenses if you cannot prepare meals, care for dependents or maintain your property safely by yourself.
  • Transport costs if you are unable to drive to and from work or medical appointments.

It is important you can prove any losses you are seeking compensation for so retain copies of your payslips, invoices, tickets and receipts as evidence of any costs you have incurred.

It is important we stress that this section is intended to serve as guidance only. As each claim is assessed individually, we cannot make any guarantees about the potential value of a payout. To find out if you are eligible to make a claim, and get a more personalised idea of what compensation you could be entitled to, contact our team today using the contact information provided below

A person applying lotion to their superficial partial thickness burns after receiving medical treatment.

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Common Causes Of Burn Injuries You Can Claim For

Burns can be sustained in many different ways and we cannot possibly cover every eventuality in this guide. That being said, below you will see an illustrative example for each third party a claim could be made against. 

Workplace Accidents

Your employer failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment in a chemical processing plant. A spill occurred, and a hazardous substance splashed onto your face, causing a serious chemical burn to your face and a loss of vision.

Accidents In Public

Your coffee order was dangerously hot, and the lid had not been attached properly. The boiling liquid spilt and badly burnt your legs, causing severe scarring and nerve damage

Road Traffic Accidents

You were travelling along a main road when a van suddenly pulled out of a side road, causing a multi vehicle collision. Your fuel line was damaged in the crash and your vehicle burst into flames. You sustained serious burns before firefighters were able to remove you from the car. 

Our dedicated advisory team are available 24/7 to provide further information and assess potential claims free of charge. Talk to us today using the contact details given below.

How To Make A Burn Injury Claim

Once you have received your eligibility assessment,  eligible claimants will be connected with a specialist personal injury solicitor. Below, you will see summaries of two key aspects of the claims process. 

Gather Supporting Evidence

Evidence is a key aspect of making a burn injury claim. The proof you collect will be used not only to help value your injuries but also to demonstrate the fault of the third party. We have set out some potential evidence examples here:

  • The first thing we always recommend is to seek professional medical help. While your health is the primary concern, the medical records from your treatment are very useful evidence for showing what harm sustained and how serious it was.
  • CCTV or dashcam footage of the accident.
  • Workplaces with 10 or more employees are required to maintain an accident book. You can take a copy of your incident report from this. 
  • Company maintenance and training logs can also be used to show these tasks were performed incorrectly or ignored altogether.
  • Following a road traffic collision, it is very important to take down the insurance information of the other vehicles. If the driver has no insurance or has failed to stop, you can still claim, and our advisors can provided more information. 

One of specialist personal injury solicitors could help you with gathering evidence if you have a valid claim. To get your free eligibility consultation, contact our advisors today.

How Long You Have To Begin A Claim

The Limitation Act 1980 imposes a standard 3 year time limit on personal injury claims. However, exceptions to the general limit can be made in some circumstances, these are:

  • Those under the age of 18 at the time of their accident cannot claim on their own behalf and will therefore have the 3 years counted from their 18th birthday. This gives them until they reach 21 to start their claim. 
  • In cases where the injured person does not possess sufficient mental capacity to claim for themselves, the time limit is paused indefinitely.

In these situations, a parent, guardian or other suitable adult of sound mind can apply to be the injured person’s litigation friend. This will give them the authority to make decisions about the claim and begin and legal proceedings much sooner. You can learn more about the time limits, and check if any exceptions are applicable in your particular circumstances by talking our advisors via the contact information given below.

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Considering A No Win No Fee Agreement

Our solicitors can offer their services to eligible claimants on a strictly No Win No Fee basis with a contract called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). The CFA provided claimants with a number of very desirable benefits including:

  • No fees to pay for the solicitor to begin working on your claim.
  • You will also not incur any fees for this work during the claims process.
  • And if the claim fails, you will not be paying any fees. 

You will receive a personal injury compensation payout if your burn injury claim succeeds. A percentage of this payout will be taken as the solicitor’s success fee. But since The Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013 caps success fees at a maximum of 25%, you will keep the majority of whatever is paid out.

Why Choose JF Law For Your Compensation Claim?

At JF Law, our solicitors have years of experience in handling personal injury claims and operate to the highest standards of professionalism and discretion. While you do not have to use a solicitor when making your claim, having a trained legal professional in your corner will be of substantial benefit to you.

Some of the tasks a solicitor could undertake for you or assist you with can include:

  • Helping you to gather supporting evidence.
  • Explaining all the legal jargon.
  • Communicating with the defendant’s representatives on your behalf.
  • Calculating a potential compensation figure.
  • Negotiating a final settlement amount.

Contact Us

Our advisors are on hand 24 hours a day to answer your queries and provide free eligibility assessments. Get in touch today via:

A solicitor discussing with their client how to claim compensation for serious burn injuries with a gavel hammer on the desk and justice scales in the background

More Information

You can read some of our personal injury claims guides here:

These external resources provided additional information that you may find useful:

We appreciate you taking the time to read our guide to burn injury claims. For more information, and to get a free, no obligation eligibility assessment, contact our advisory today using the details provided above.

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