Over $100 Million in Burn Accident and Injury Cases Settled & Awarded
Accidents and fires can cause burn injuries, which may lead to massive insurance claims or complicated litigation. If you’re a lawyer for a victim, you know that burns cause painful internal and external damage to tissue. More severe burns can result in permanent scarring, extensive and chronic pain, disabilities, and can even lead to death. Burn injuries often result from carelessness and can devastate a person and their family for life.
When someone’s negligence causes someone’s injuries, they can sue for damages. Burn injuries result from many types of accidents and often involve multiple negligent parties. Thus, litigation can grow incredibly complex. In fire and burn injury cases, it can help to speak with another attorney who has dealt with these matters.
If you are a lawyer working with difficult fire and burn injury litigation, Anthony Bruning can help you pursue the maximum compensation possible for your clients, take on your difficult cases, or educate others on the intricacies of these cases.
He’s spent many years fighting and winning these claims. Whether faulty wiring caused the fire, a badly made smoke detector failed to alert a family about an impending tragedy, or a landlord took shortcuts on repairs to save money, Anthony Bruning has seen it all over a career in which he’s recovered more than $100 million in settlements and awards for his clients.
Anthony Bruning knows how and where to look for liability and the best ways to pursue compensation from the most stubborn defendants and their insurance companies. Call the Bruning Law Firm today to see how he can help you and your clients get the most compensation possible under the law.
The Bruning Law Firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements and awards.
Burn Injury Cases Are Complicated—and We Can Help Other Attorneys With Them
The most important component of a burn injury claim is a qualified attorney who can address a case's many facets. To win, a legal team must establish that the defendant or defendants owed your client a duty of care, that a negligent party or parties breached the duty of care, that their breach caused the injury, and that your client suffered injuries.
Because burn injuries can result from so many accidents and circumstances, an attorney may need our help to identify the most appropriate parties against whom to pursue litigation. This involves the ability to investigate the fire’s cause and origin and is a major component in the outcome of any court case.
Because a fire scent is the best place to determine the source of the accident, it is not just crucial that victims retain representation as soon as possible but that their counsel gets up to speed on how to handle these cases.
Fire and burn injury lawyers must step in to stop the destruction of evidence and organize a fire investigation with the appropriate experts. If you are a personal injury attorney but inexperienced with fire and burn injury cases, our firm can consult with you to help guarantee that you can prove all the elements of your case.
Anthony Bruning Can Help You With Your Client’s Claim
Anthony Bruning has more than 35 years of experience as a personal injury trial lawyer, with experience in fire and burn injury cases. With a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from St. Louis University School of Law, he is dedicated to fighting for everyday people who need help after suffering injuries in serious accidents.
Mr. Bruning has won over 100 jury verdicts, with nearly a dozen of them being for more than $1 million. He is both well-respected and knowledgeable in the field and could help offer insight and strategy for your challenging cases.
Anthony Bruning has experience not only in identifying the best parties to litigate against but also in proving their fault. Ascertaining the correct party to sue is a crucial component of a fire and burn injury case. In some cases, fault is clear, and in others it takes time and investigation. Some cases involve a defective product and the manufacturer of the product is the best option to sue. In others, a landlord has failed to provide a working smoke detector or has created other dangerous living situations. In others, an employer allowed dangerous working conditions to persist.
Mr. Bruning has recovered millions of dollars for clients against product manufacturers, employers, landlords, and property management companies. In many cases, it is appropriate to sue multiple parties. While this makes a case more complicated, it can ensure the best outcome for your client. Mr. Bruning can help coordinate case strategy and identify and retain qualified experts for each case.
To know what type of experts to retain, an attorney needs to understand the intricacies of the case. Determining which experts to utilize can be complex. A legal team must first identify the issues within the case that could benefit from additional explanations, then work to locate experts who are willing to work on the case.
Mr. Bruning has worked extensively with fire investigators, building code experts, private investigators, medical experts, and others. Since many circumstances can cause fires and burn injuries, you need expert witnesses with backgrounds relevant to your case. Because of his work in the field, Mr. Bruning can recruit experts in each field quickly and act before evidence is lost or destroyed.
A fire and burn injury attorney must act swiftly to fight for the rights of their clients. Often, you need a court order to shut down a fire accident scene so that fire investigator experts can photograph and document evidence.
In one case, in his investigation, Mr. Bruning not only discovered which type of alarm failed to sound, but that the manufacturer had received hundreds of complaints about it—and that the company doctored alarms to pass safety inspections. He took the case to trial after his private investigator identified a whistleblower employee and obtained that employee’s testimony that the alarms were faulty.
His ability to hire experts and private investigators, and coordinate litigation strategy, led to his client receiving a $50 million verdict, including punitive damages.
Burn Injury Overview
Over one million burn injuries require medical attention each year in the United States, hospitalizing 50,000. Even more sadly, approximately 10,000 people die every year from injuries related to their burns. Alarmingly, one out of every 1500 people in the US will die from exposure to smoke, flames, or fire. In fact, burns are one of the leading causes of death in most age groups, and children under 15 make up almost one-quarter of all burn injuries. While fires and injuries are tragic events, it can be essential that burn injury victims and their families find the right lawyer to advocate for them, as they sustain scarring, life-long disabilities, and even death.
Heat, electricity, friction, radiation, and chemicals can cause burn injuries.
Doctors classify them in three levels of severity.
- First-degree burns/superficial burns: These affect only the outer layer (the epidermis) of your skin. The area affected is red, painful, and dry, but not blistered. A mild sunburn is an example of a first-degree burn. These do not usually do long-term damage.
- Second-degree burns/partial-thickness burns: These affect both the outer layer and part of the underlying layer (the dermis) of your skin. They are red, blistered, and painful.
- Third-degree burns/full-thickness burns: These destroy all three layers of the skin (the epidermis, dermis, and fat), and often also result in damage to other systems including bones, muscles, and tendons, and can destroy nerve endings. Full-thickness burns result in a white, charred, or leathery site. Most require skin grafts in an attempt to protect the open wounds.
Mental and Physical Complications and Costs of Burns
Burn injuries are physically, mentally, and financially debilitating. Even a moderate burn often costs upwards of $200,000 in treatment. Severe burns, without complications, can cost about $1.5 million to treat. When there are complications, a severe burn injury may cost over $10 million. Clearly, medical costs are often financially devastating, and a legal team must understand the multifaceted nature of these cases to help ensure that their clients receive all the damages they deserve.
Physical Complications. Because severe burns can cause damage to multiple tissues and organ systems of the body, medical complications are common. The biggest risk with all burn injuries, but especially third-degree burns, is infection. This is because damage to the skin allows exposure to bacteria and viruses.
Additional potential complications of third-degree burns include:
- Deadly infections, such as pneumonia and sepsis, which can cause organ failure
- Scarring
- Arrhythmia/cardiovascular disturbances
- Dehydration
- Disfigurement
- Fragile skin/skin breakdown
- Fluid and swelling in tissues
- Low blood pressure resulting in shock
- Amputation
- Permanent physical disabilities
- Permanent nerve damage
- Skin graft failure
- Chronic pain
- Inhalation injury
- Cataract/corneal injury
Mental Complications. Burn victims commonly experience emotional damage including PTSD, anxiety, and depression in addition to their physical injuries. Moreover, because recovery from burn injuries often requires long healing times, victims lose earnings and reduced earning potential.
The younger the victim is, the greater the reduction in earning potential because they may be incapable of working for decades of their life. Family members may also suffer from lost earnings as they have to take time off work to care for their loved one. Additionally, they often suffer emotional damages from the trauma of their loved one’s accident.
As a burn injury lawyer, you must help ensure that you recover compensation for all your client’s damages, including:
- Ambulance costs
- Emergency room treatments
- Hospital expenses, including initial stay, and any surgical and diagnostic costs
- Ongoing medical expenses, including any follow-up hospitalizations
- Rehabilitative care
- Long-term care and skilled nursing for day-to-day life
- Anticipated future care based on the extent of the injury
- Lost earnings and diminished future earning potential for the victim and their loved ones
- Pain and suffering and emotional distress for the victim and their loved ones
- Permanent impairment
- Reduction in quality of life
- Wrongful death damages for loved ones if an accident is fatal
What Sorts of Accidents Result in Burn Injuries?
- Industrial disasters
- Workplace injuries
- Lack of smoke detectors or faulty smoke detectors
- Noncompliance with fire codes
- Poor electrical wiring
- Automobile accidents
- Scalding burns
- Apartment fires
Burn injury cases are often complex and may involve multiple defendants. Some cases focus on a landlord’s violation of their duty to inspect and maintain smoke detectors in apartments, others involve an employer's failure to keep their employees safe.
You know that a client needs to talk to a burn injury attorney as soon as possible after their accident so that you can gather vital evidence before it is destroyed and can identify the party or parties responsible for your client’s injuries. We have the experience to help you look for and preserve that evidence, strengthen your client’s case, and improve your chances of recovering the most possible compensation.
Collaborate With, Refer Cases to, or Consult With Our Burn Injury Lawyers
If your clients were in an accident resulting in serious burns, they need a burn injury attorney they can trust and who can fight for them. They need an advocate who will work to recover the compensation they deserve to cover medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. However, burn accidents are complicated and complex, so often they need a team of lawyers to get the best possible outcome.
At The Bruning Law Firm, Anthony Bruning welcomes case collaborations and referrals from our colleagues across the country. While we acknowledge that you have your own set of legal skills and relationships with your clients, we realize that some cases require either special legal experience or a substantial financial commitment to successfully obtain recoveries from major insurance companies and corporations. We can provide that.
Complex fire, explosion, and burn injury cases require extensive investigation and expert witnesses. Coordinating these cases requires experience and resources.
While we are in St. Louis, Anthony Bruning can consult on cases nationwide. If you want to refer a case or explore co-counsel opportunities, contact us online or call (314) 735-8100 today to discuss a possible relationship. We look forward to helping you and hearing about your case.
The Bruning Law Firm
Address: 555 Washington Ave Ste 600A,St. Louis, MO 63101
Phone: (314) 916-1632
Client Testimonial
"AJ and team were so delightful to work with. They were very responsive to all emails and phone calls. I always knew which step we were on in the process of getting my lawsuit settled. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the amount the settlement was for was twice that of the original coverage of the insurance company. I don’t know how they did it but I am very pleased with the service they provided. Hands down easiest process, and people to deal with. 100% recommend if you have a personal injury case to be worked. Hopefully I won’t need their services again, but if I do I won’t hesitate to call." - Amanda W.
Rating: 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
February 2020
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