Burn Injuries at Work: How Much Is My Injury Claim Worth?

Forget online compensation calculators. It is simply not possible for a one-size-fits-all calculator to give you an estimate of the value of your settlement due to the unique aspects of each burn claim. How much you will get will depend on many factors related to your accident and the aftermath.

The medical care needed after burn injuries can mean a heavy financial burden for the victim. Because burn injuries are often so costly, it is important for you to consult an experienced workers’ compensation attorney for representation if you have been in an accident that caused them.

These are the biggest determinants of how much your burn injury claim will be worth:

  1. How severe your injuries are.
  2. How much your medical treatment has cost.
  3. What types of medical treatment you have received.
  4. What your chances of making a full recovery are.

Here is a more in-depth look at several of the factors that determine what a burn injury claim’s value is:

How Bad Your Accident Was and How Severe Your Injuries Are

The severity of your accident and injuries will play an enormous role in determining your claim’s value. For example, if you suffered a minor first-degree burn on a part of your body that your clothing normally covers, your claim will be worth much less than if you ended up with third-degree burns that required multiple skin grafts on large portions of your body and will leave prominent scars.

How Much Medical Treatment You Have Had to Undergo Since You Were Injured

As a general rule, more medical treatment means higher total medical treatment costs. Medical bills are an important component of any workers’ compensation claim, and claims involving burns are no different.

Your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier should be paying all your injury-related medical costs, so you will need to be sure to submit all your injury-related medical records and bills to the insurance carrier for payment or for reimbursement if you have already paid them.

What Type of Medical Treatment You Have Received and How Much Your Medical Treatment Has Cost You

If you sustained burns that required only a couple of appointments with your family doctor and some topical ointment to heal, you should consider yourself extremely fortunate. Your medical bills should be minimal, your recovery should be speedy, and you should escape most, if not all, of the lingering effects more severe burns can have.

On the other hand, if you have had surgery and your injuries are not merely limited to skin issues—say, if your burns have left you unable to use an arm or a leg and you require skin grafts or if major organs were damaged—the path to recovery will be considerably more fraught and you will have many more obstacles to overcome.

Surgeries and ongoing maintenance treatments are expensive, so claims involving injuries requiring these measures are likely to be worth a significant amount.

Whether You Need to Make Modifications to Your Residence or Your Vehicle Due to Your Injuries

Injuries so severe that they necessitate, for example, the installation of a ramp on your residence or hand controls in your vehicle, those modifications should be covered under your employer’s workers’ compensation coverage. Keep all the receipts from these and any other modifications, as well as the receipts for any other medical equipment you need to purchase after your accident.

What Your Prognosis Looks Like and How Likely It Is You Will Be Able to Return to Work in Your Pre-Injury Capacity

Disfigurement, future pain and suffering, and future medical treatment can heavily affect your claim’s value. A good prognosis with minimal disfigurement and little recommended future medical treatment means your claim will be worth less than it would be if you were left with visible scars and needed multiple future surgeries.