Severe burns are among the most painful and dangerous injuries a human being can suffer. This is especially true for small children. A child’s small size allows a burn to easily cover a large percentage of the child’s body. In addition, a child’s skin is thinner than that of adults, rendering children more vulnerable to serious tissue damage from any burn injury.
Every year, 40,000 children are hospitalized for treatment of burn injuries, and approximately half of these children are under 4 years of age. The majority of these injuries are caused by accidents that could have been avoided or intentional assaults.
Child burn attorney Jeffrey Killino understands the costs, stress, and suffering involved in coping with a major burn and the increase in suffering that results from knowing a child’s burn might not have occurred were it not for someone’s negligence or the exposure of the child to a defective product. If your child has suffered a painful or disfiguring burn injury as a result of someone’s negligence or a defective product, contact child burn attorney Jeffrey Killino at 877-875-2927 to learn more about your legal options.
Burn Injuries We Handle
Our team of child burn injury attorneys and paralegals can help you with a case involving any kind of burn, including the following:
The Risks of Severe Burns
Burns are severely painful and can lead to many medical complications. Young children are especially vulnerable to outcomes such as
- Nerve damage
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Infection
- Loss of limb
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises parents to seek medical attention for a child who has suffered anything more than a minor burn. The AAP defines a minor or first degree burn as one that results in redness, tenderness, or soreness, looks and feels much like sunburn, and heals quickly.
Legal Liability for Children’s Burn Injuries
The Duty of Care Owed to a Child
A duty of care to take reasonable precautions for a child’s safety may arise under many different circumstances. The breach of that duty may lead to civil liability on the part of the person or entity owing the duty of care if the breach of duty results in injury to a child that is compensable under the law.
- Relationship between Adult and Child
The existence of a duty of care owed by an adult to a child often arises as a result of a relationship of some sort that has been formed between the adult and the child. If an adult has accepted the responsibility of watching over and caring for a child, a duty arises on the part of the adult to exercise reasonable care for the child’s safety during the time the adult is watching over or otherwise caring for the child.
This duty may arise, for example, when an adult agrees to perform babysitting duties with respect to a child or when the adult, as an employee of a daycare center or similar facility, is charged with the responsibility of supervising a child as part of the employee’s job. A student/teacher relationship may give rise to this relationship and concomitant duty, as well.
Any adult who owes a duty of reasonable care toward a child may be found to have breached that duty of care if the adult fails to take the precautions any person of ordinary prudence would take to prevent a child from sustaining a burn injury of any kind.
- Duty of Manufacturers of Products
Manufacturers of products intended for a child’s use as well as products that a child may reasonably be expected to use or gain access to have a duty to design and manufacture these products so that they do not present an unreasonable degree of threat to a child’s safety and health. This duty includes the duty to manufacture and design products that do not pose an unreasonable risk of burn injury to a child.
A product may also be determined to be defective as a result of the manufacturer’s or seller’s failure to warn of the products dangers, including the risks posed by the product of burn injuries to a child or adult. The failure to include such warnings is considered to render the product unreasonably dangerous—and, thus, defective—under product-liability law.
When a defect in a product’s manufacture, design, or warnings and/or instructions is determined to have been a cause of a child’s burn injuries, the manufacturer of the product as well as anyone in the chain of the product’s distribution may be found liable for legally compensable damages incurred by the child as a result of the burn injury in an action for product liability.
- Premises Liability
A duty to take reasonable care for the safety of a child may also arise on the part of the owner of premises (land or a building) on which a child is present. The law of premises liability may impose liability on the owner of premises, for example, if a child has been invited onto or is known to be present on an owner’s premises and the owner failed to take reasonable care to prevent the child from sustaining a burn injury while on the premises.
Contact Us
If your child has been badly burned as a result of someone’s negligent or intentional act or a defective product, contact child burn injury lawyer at 877-875-2927 for compassionate and experienced assistance with your case.
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