A burn injury can change everything about how you live, work, and feel about yourself, and it can do so in a matter of seconds.

Whether flames from a house fire, scalding liquid, a defective product, or a workplace accident caused your injury, you deserve answers about who is responsible and how you will pay for your care.

A Wisconsin burn injury lawyer at LawtonCates can help you understand your options and pursue the compensation you need to recover.

You do not have to sort through medical bills, insurance adjusters, and an uncertain future on your own.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

The sooner you speak with us, the sooner we can preserve evidence about how your burn happened.

Common Causes of Burn Injuries We Handle

Burn injuries happen in more places than most people expect, and the setting where your burn occurred often determines who bears responsibility for it.

We handle cases involving the following:

  • Vehicle fires – Car and truck accidents can cause fuel tanks or batteries to ignite, trapping occupants inside a burning vehicle.
  • Defective products – Faulty wiring, batteries, or appliances can catch fire or overheat because of a design or manufacturing flaw.
  • Workplace accidents – Construction sites, factories, and restaurants expose workers to open flames, chemicals, hot equipment, and electrical hazards.
  • Chemical exposure – Household cleaners, industrial chemicals, and pool chemicals can cause severe burns when they splash onto skin or eyes.
  • Electrical accidents – Exposed wiring or faulty equipment can deliver an electric shock severe enough to burn skin and internal tissue.
  • Property hazards – Landlords and business owners who ignore fire code violations or faulty electrical systems can put visitors and tenants at risk.

Most burns, even minor burns, require medical treatment. They are categorized by degree:

  • First-degree burns are often superficial and affect only the outer layer of skin. These typically heal within weeks.
  • Second-degree burns involve the outer and lower levels of the skin. These can potentially take months to heal and may require skin grafts.
  • Third-degree burns reach lower into the subcutaneous (fatty) tissue. These burns destroy nerve endings and often require medical treatment like skin grafts.
  • Fourth-degree burns are the most extreme and involve damage to the muscle, tendon, or bone. These are life-threatening and often require specialized surgery.

No matter how your burn happened, the party responsible for creating the hazard should pay for your recovery, not you.

Where Burn Victims Get Treated in Wisconsin

Serious burns require specialized care that most hospitals cannot provide.

UW Health’s Burn and Wound Center in Madison is the only hospital in Wisconsin verified by the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association to treat both adult and pediatric burn patients at this level.

The center admits more than 400 patients and completes roughly 4,000 outpatient visits each year, which means burn victims from across Wisconsin, not just the Madison area, often end up receiving treatment close to LawtonCates’ own offices.

Nationally, burn centers admit an estimated 29,165 patients a year, with an overall inpatient mortality rate of 2.7 percent, according to the American Burn Association.

Even survivable burns can require years of surgery, skin grafts, and physical therapy, and the cost of that care adds up quickly.

What Makes Burn Injury Claims Different

Burn injuries are unlike other personal injury claims. Burns are among the most painful and disfiguring injuries a person can suffer.

Scarring and disfigurement can affect a person’s appearance for the rest of their life, and many burn survivors need multiple rounds of reconstructive surgery years after the initial injury.

Contracted skin around joints can permanently limit movement, sometimes requiring additional surgery just to restore basic function.

Many burn survivors also experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, or depression, and this emotional toll deserves real consideration in a Wisconsin burn injury claim.

Because of these long-term consequences, valuing a burn case correctly requires looking well beyond the initial hospital bill.

Our attorneys work with medical experts to project future surgeries, therapy, and lost earning capacity. This way, a settlement reflects what your recovery will cost well into the future, not just what it has cost so far.

If you reach a settlement before the full scope of your recovery is clear, you may be left covering major expenses on your own years down the road.

How Fault Is Determined in a Wisconsin Burn Case

Burn injury cases often involve more than one potentially liable party, and figuring out who bears responsibility can require a thorough investigation.

Depending on how you were burned, your claim might fall under:

  • Product liability, if a defective item caused your injury
  • Premises liability, if a property owner ignored a known hazard
  • A third-party workplace claim, if a contractor or equipment manufacturer caused your burn on the job

Wisconsin follows a comparative negligence rule under Wis. Stat. section 895.045, which allows you to recover compensation as long as you are not found more than 50 percent at fault for your own injury.

If you are found partially responsible, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of fault.

Our attorneys will investigate your accident, identify every party who contributed to your injury, and build a case that accounts for how fault may be shared among multiple defendants, since more than one insurance policy may ultimately need to contribute to your recovery.

How LawtonCates Builds Your Burn Injury Case

For nearly 70 years, LawtonCates has represented Wisconsin families after life-changing injuries.

As a burn injury attorney team, we understand that recovery from a serious burn takes far longer than a typical injury claim. As such, we build cases with that timeline in mind, working closely with medical providers to document how the injury will affect your life for years to come.

Our attorneys have secured significant results for victims of negligence, including a $2.3 million settlement in a wrongful death case and a $1.25 million settlement for a client injured in a serious accident.

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome in your case, but they reflect the preparation and advocacy we bring to every claim we handle.

And client reviews like this one sum up why people appreciate the work we do:

“I highly recommend Dixon Gahnz and LawtonCates for all of your legal needs. Dixon took the time to listen to our case and provided guidance to us every step of the way. He always made sure he listened to our concerns while explaining the process, strategies and options we had moving forward. We always felt he had our best interests in mind. We will never go anywhere else.”

– Jeff M.