West Palm Beach Burn Injury Lawyers
A burn injury case has to answer who is responsible for the fire and what your medical care is going to cost, now and years from now. Both answers depend on records that belong to someone else. For example, the fire department’s investigation report, the property owner’s maintenance history, or the manufacturer’s testing, complaint, and recall records for the product that started the fire.
Fire departments close their files once a report is finalized. Property owners repair or replace whatever burned. Manufacturers alter or destroy units once no case is pending against them. Requesting those records in writing, before any of that happens, is usually the first step in building a burn injury case.
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel fights for burn injury victims in West Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County. A first conversation is free, and we can have it at the hospital if you are not able to travel.
Do I Have a Burn Injury Case?
A burn may become a legal claim when someone else’s negligence caused it. Generally four elements need to be present to have a viable case.
The Four Elements of a Burn Injury Case
- Duty: another party owed you reasonable care, the way a landlord owes it to tenants or a manufacturer owes it to anyone using its product.
- Breach: that party failed to meet it, by ignoring a complaint about flickering wiring, selling a water heater with a cutoff valve that failed, or leaving a torch burning near solvent.
- Causation: that failure caused your burn, which is usually where an origin-and-cause investigation comes in.
- Damages: your losses can be measured in hospital bills, surgeries still ahead of you, missed paychecks, and permanent scarring.
When all four are present, you may have a case. Our burn injury lawyers in West Palm Beach can help you determine whether your injury meets the criteria for a strong case.
Choosing a Burn Injury Lawyer in West Palm Beach
Choosing a West Palm Beach burn injury lawyer attorney means checking a few specific things before you hire anyone. Call more than one office, ask the same questions each time, and compare the answers before you decide.
- Read reviews from other clients.
- Ask about experience going up against large insurance companies.
- Confirm whether the attorneys are board certified in trial law.
- Ask who will personally handle your case from start to finish.
- Find out whether they are willing to go to trial if settlement offers aren’t adequate.
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel: The Smart Choice
Practicing for nearly 100 years, our reviews tell the story of our success in winning cases and our dedication to our clients’ wellbeing and future.
Three of our attorneys hold board certification in civil trial law, a credential that isn’t automatic. The Florida Bar requires at least five years of practice, 15 contested civil trials with at least five conducted as lead counsel, and a passing score on a separate exam, and it has to be renewed every five years.
Also, two of our attorneys spent years defending insurance companies before representing injured people, one for roughly twenty years and another at one of Florida’s largest insurance defense firms. Insurance-defense experience means they know how a carrier evaluates a burn injury and which medical records it might attack first.
Steps to Take After a Burn Injury in Palm Beach County
- Get treated, and keep going back. Ask your medical team directly about work restrictions, referrals, wound care at home, and which symptoms need urgent attention rather than waiting for the next scheduled visit.
- Keep the product exactly as it is. Do not repair it, throw it out, or send it back to the manufacturer for testing. Manufacturers can use that request to make a defective product disappear before anyone independent examines it.
- Report what happened in writing to the property manager, employer, or police agency. Ask for a copy of whatever report they generate, and write down the name of whoever you spoke with.
- Photograph the scene, the damaged equipment, the model and serial plate, and the burn itself every week or two as it heals.
- Save your bills, discharge instructions, work restrictions, pay stubs, and any texts about missed workdays to build your record of lost income.
- Find out which deadline applies to your case. Florida sets different deadlines depending on what caused the burn.
- Find out which agency investigated the fire. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue’s Fire Investigation Unit handles some fires, but West Palm Beach and several nearby cities run their own fire departments, so the agency that responded decides what records exist. See how Palm Beach County Fire Rescue handles investigations.
Causes of Burn Injuries and Who Can Be Held Responsible
To establish responsibility someone has to have owed you a duty, failed to meet it, and caused your injury, and most burns happen in places that feel unlikely to raise those questions. The American Burn Association reports that 61% of burns treated at burn centers happened at private residences, and that flame or flash injuries accounted for 46% of admissions between 2020 and 2024. Review the American Burn Association data. A fire in your own apartment could still be someone else’s responsibility.
Defective Products, Batteries, and Appliances
Lithium-ion batteries in e-bikes, scooters, and vapes fail and ignite. A thermal cutoff on a water heater can fail and let the tank overheat. Recalled appliances may stay in service because the owner wasn’t notified, and a warning label can sometimes leaves out a hazard the manufacturer already knew about.
Injury cases based on the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of a product carry a four-year deadline under Florida Statutes section 95.11(3)(d), not the two-year deadline that applies to ordinary negligence, and the product itself is usually the strongest evidence in the case, which is why it needs to be kept rather than returned.
Apartment Fires and Unsafe Property
Florida Statutes section 83.51 requires a residential landlord to comply with applicable building, housing, and health codes, to keep structural components in good repair, and, unless the lease says otherwise in writing, to install working smoke detection devices in single-family homes and duplexes at the start of a tenancy. Read section 83.51. Hotels, restaurants, and assisted living facilities answer to the Florida Fire Prevention Code under Chapter 633 on top of that.
Inspection reports, repair invoices, and prior tenant complaints can sometimes prove whether a landlord knew about a problem before the fire started. WPTV reported the 2022 death of an 80-year-old resident in a room fire at a West Palm Beach assisted living facility, where the fire investigation report indicated the sprinkler system had been shut off for roughly five months after a pipe broke. Read the WPTV report. Those were allegations reported by a news station rather than findings of liability, but they show what a maintenance log can reveal about a building that looked fine from the hallway.
Job Site Burns and the Third-Party Case
Workers’ compensation pays for medical care and part of your lost wages, but it pays nothing for pain and suffering. A case against someone other than your employer can, whether that is the manufacturer of failed equipment, a subcontractor’s crew, the property owner, or a chemical supplier, and figuring out which one applies takes a look at safety procedures, equipment condition, and the contracts governing the site.
Vehicle Fires and Chemical Exposure
Fuel and burning interiors cause thermal burns, battery acid and airbag residue cause chemical burns, and a damaged high-voltage battery pack can injure someone handling the car after a crash. A hazardous cargo crash adds the trucking company and its shipper as parties who may share responsibility for the injury.
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel handles all burn injury cases, including those caused by defective products, unsafe property, workplace hazards, and vehicle fires.
Working With Our Firm and the Case Process
Once you hire us, the case process will normally include the following actions:
- Preservation letters to whoever holds the evidence, and requests for the fire report, the origin-and-cause findings, and your hospital records
- An investigator, and an inspection under a protocol that lets both sides examine the product if one is suspected
- The medical and financial experts a burn case needs, including a life care planner and a vocational expert, to prove your future damages instead of guessing at them
- A demand to the insurance company, negotiation, and a lawsuit if the insurance company will not pay what the record supports
The investigation, the records, and the experts all build toward the same outcome: a demand, and if needed a lawsuit, all backed by evidence.
Insurance Company Challenges
An insurance company uses more than one tactic to limit what a burn injury pays out.
- Recorded statements: An adjuster may ask for a recorded statement while you are still hospitalized or on pain medication, when your account of the fire is least reliable. Don’t agree to any recorded statements.
- Causation disputes: The insurance company can argue that a follow-up surgery, physical therapy, or counseling session has nothing to do with the original fire.
- Shared fault: Part of that questioning goes toward assigning you a share of the blame, since Florida’s comparative fault rule reduces what you recover based on your percentage of fault.
- Policy limits: A policy limit can fall well below what a burn hospitalization costs, which is why finding additional layers of coverage is part of the work.
- Early releases: A release offered before your treatment is finished can close out needed care that hasn’t even been scheduled yet, which is why it any claim release needs review before you sign anything.
An insurance company negotiates differently with an attorney who is prepared to take a case to trial. Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel has been going up against insurers and securing settlements and verdicts for injured Floridians since 1927.
Compensation Available After a Burn Injury
Florida law allows a burn injury case to recover several types of damages, listed in the state’s standard civil jury instructions. The Florida Bar publishes the current instructions.
- Past and future medical expenses
- Lost earnings and lost ability to earn money
- Pain and suffering
- Disability, physical impairment, and disfigurement
- Mental anguish
- Loss of the capacity to enjoy life
Future medical care has to be proven with expert testimony instead of estimated. A life care planner can price out decades of pressure garments, laser treatment, and revision surgery, and a vocational expert can explain what work you can still do.
Compensation for a Wrongful Death Caused by a Burn
When a burn causes a death, Florida Statutes section 768.21 sets what the family can recover. Read section 768.21.
- Lost support and services
- A spouse’s loss of companionship and mental pain and suffering
- A minor child’s loss of parental companionship and guidance
- Funeral and medical expenses paid by a survivor
- The estate’s lost earnings between the injury and the death
Medical Bills, Liens, and Your Net Recovery
What you take home is less than the settlement amount itself.
- Hospitals typically list a higher price on the initial bill than what your insurance company pays after negotiating it down. Florida Statutes section 768.0427 only lets a case count that lower, paid amount, not the higher number on the original bill. Read section 768.0427.
- If you had no health insurance, the case instead uses 120% of the Medicare rate for your unpaid bills, or 170% of the state Medicaid rate for a service with no Medicare rate.
- Health insurance, Medicare, and hospital liens get repaid out of your recovery before you see any of it, and negotiating those down is part of what determines what you keep.
Key Florida Laws That May Apply to a Burn Injury Case
Premises Liability and a Property Owner’s Duties
Florida premises liability law comes from a combination of English common law traditions, state statutes enacted by the Florida Legislature, and Florida case law. From this set of laws, what a property owner owes you depends on why you were there, with the highest duty owed to customers, tenants, and other invited visitors. Landlord duties under Florida Statutes section 83.51, like maintaining smoke detectors and keeping the property up to code, and fire code requirements under Chapter 633 for hotels, restaurants, and other public buildings may apply as well.
Deadlines to Bring a Burn Injury Case
Florida Statutes section 95.11 sets two years for negligence and for wrongful death, and four years for injury cases based on the design, manufacture, distribution, or sale of a product. Read section 95.11. Cases against a government body carry separate notice requirements, and a single burn can carry more than one deadline at once, since an apartment fire started by a defective heater points at both a landlord and a manufacturer.
Shared Fault Under Section 768.81
Florida Statutes section 768.81 on comparative fault reduces your recovery by your share of fault, and a person found more than 50% at fault for their own harm recovers nothing. Read section 768.81. That rule is exactly why an insurance company has an incentive to argue you used the product wrong or reacted too slowly, and documentation from the first day is what answers that argument.
Burn Injury Questions We Hear From Palm Beach County Families
How much is a burn injury case worth in Florida?
No two burn cases have the same value. Total body surface area burned, the depth of the burn, the number of surgeries you have had and still need, permanent scarring, whether you can go back to your job, and how much insurance coverage is available all factor into it.
Can I sue if I was burned at work?
Workers’ compensation is usually your only remedy against your employer, and it pays nothing for pain and suffering. A separate case against a manufacturer, subcontractor, property owner, or equipment supplier can proceed alongside it.
Who is responsible for a fire in a rental apartment?
It depends on what caused the fire. A landlord who ignored code obligations or failed to maintain smoke detection under Florida Statutes section 83.51 may be responsible, while a fire started by a defective appliance points instead at the manufacturer.
Do I need a lawyer for a burn injury?
A small burn with clear fault and finished treatment can settle without one. Burns needing grafts, revision surgery, or time away from work carry future costs that are difficult to value without medical and vocational proof.
What if a defective product caused the burn?
Keep the product exactly as it is and do not return it to the manufacturer. Product cases carry a four-year deadline under Florida Statutes section 95.11(3)(d), and the item itself is usually the strongest evidence available.
How long does a burn injury case take?
Burn cases generally take longer than other injury cases, since a burn cannot be valued accurately until treatment stabilizes, and that can take a year or more when skin grafts and revision surgery are involved.
Is a burn injury settlement taxable?
Under IRC section 104(a)(2), damages received for personal physical injuries are generally excluded from federal gross income, though punitive damages are not. See IRS guidance on settlements. Talk to a tax professional about how that applies to your situation.
What can a family recover if someone died from burns?
Florida Statutes section 768.21 allows recovery for lost support and services, a surviving spouse’s loss of companionship and mental pain and suffering, a minor child’s loss of parental companionship and guidance, funeral and medical expenses paid by a survivor, and the estate’s lost earnings from the date of injury to the date of death.
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel Fights for Burn Injury Victims
Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel has fought for injured Floridians since 1927, in cases against manufacturers, landlords, employers, and insurance companies alike. Whatever you have right now, whether it is phone photos, a discharge packet, a report number, or a coworker’s name, is enough to start.
Call us at (561) 655-2028 or send us an email today. The consultation costs nothing, and you owe us nothing unless we recover money for you.
