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How much money could the victim of a burn incident expect to obtain in a settlement? What considerations would go into a calculation of the settlement’s value?
One major consideration: What was the extent of the defendant’s liability?
• Did the incident take place while the victim was at work?
• Had the employer been negligent?
• Had the employer failed to provide employees with all of the necessary protections?
• Was the burn-associated event preventable?
• Did a faulty electronic product cause the victim’s burns?
• Did someone set a piece of the victim’s property on fire?
• Had the defendant set the fire intentionally?
• Had someone thrown a hot liquid, or acid at the person that suffered the burns?
Had the product manufacturer failed to provide consumers with clear and precise instructions? That would indicate that the incident had been preventable. Hence, failure on the manufacturer’s part to prevent an accident would provide the plaintiff’s lawyer with a reason for seeking a larger settlement.
Another consideration: Where did the victim get burned?
Personal Injury Lawyer in Hamilton knows that depending on the location of the affected body part, the resulting level of the victim’s embarrassment or depression might become a significant reason for requesting a large settlement.
Possible damage awards
An award for physical pain: the size of that award would depend on the amount of money that had been paid to those that helped to treat the burn victim. An award for emotional and mental pain and suffering: Someone that had been burned could suffer a great deal of emotional and mental trauma. Disfigurement of a region of the body might cause embarrassment or depression.
An award for punitive damages: That could add to the amount of money that was awarded to the plaintiff. Not all plaintiffs with burns should expect to enjoy an award for punitive damages. The court grants those when the defendant’s behavior has been viewed as reprehensible.
Possible meaning of settlement in case with burn injury claim
In some states, if an injured employee wins a settlement in a worker’s compensation case, then that same employee can no longer receive weekly medical benefits. In most states, completion of a settlement agreement does not have to guarantee the delivery of a compensation package, if the burn injury claim had triggered a worker’s compensation case. The settlement must be approved by the state compensation agency, before the responsible party feels compelled to pay the injured employee.
If the employer had been negligent, the affected worker would have the option of filing a lawsuit, as opposed to pursuing a worker’s compensation claim. Still, that would not guarantee the winning of a larger payment. The employer might not appear in court, in an effort to fight the lawsuit.