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A serious burn doesn't end when you leave the hospital. Grafted skin has to be dressed, stretched, and kept under compression garments for a year or more, and scars can tighten enough to limit how you use your hands. If someone else caused your burn in Augusta, GA, an Augusta burn injury lawyer at Hawk Law Group can pursue compensation for all of it: medical bills, lost wages, scarring, and the treatment still ahead.
Hawk Law Group handles personal injury cases across the CSRA, including Augusta medical malpractice, wrongful death claims, brain injuries, Augusta workplace accidents, and more.
Call our Augusta office for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win your case.
Serious burns can be incredibly painful. They can make it impossible to work or enjoy the activities you enjoyed prior to the injury. Of course, burns are also expensive to treat–and health insurance won’t cover everything.
If another person was responsible for your injuries, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your injuries. Typically, that means filing a claim with insurance companies. Insurance companies, of course, know how the legal system works. They’ll use technical details about the law to try to avoid paying fair compensation.
An experienced Augusta personal injury lawyer can help you counter these scare tactics.
At Hawk Law Group, we’ve recovered some of the highest verdicts in the CSRA. Hiring us means you’ll have a team of lawyers to:
You don’t have to struggle with a complex insurance battle on your own. Call our Augusta personal injury attorneys today to learn more about how our team can help.
Burns can seriously damage the outer layer of skin, as well as the tissue underneath. Flames, heat, steam, and even radiation can cause severe injuries. The most serious burn injuries can even cause damage to bones and internal organs.
The severity of a burn will depend on many different factors, including:
Some burns cause only superficial damage to the outer layers of skin. More serious burns, on the other hand, have the potential to be life-changing or even fatal.
Here in the CSRA, severe burns are typically treated at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital of Augusta, the largest burn center in the country and one of only two state-designated burn centers in Georgia. Being treated close to home is a real advantage, but it also shapes your claim. Burn center care, including intensive care, repeated skin grafts, and months of outpatient wound care and therapy, is expensive and often spans a long period. Patients often receive separate bills from the hospital and from the physicians who treat them there. All of those records need to be gathered and documented, along with photos of the injury as it heals, so your demand reflects the full cost of treatment and the recovery behind it.
If someone else’s careless, reckless or wrongful acts caused the burn injury, you may be entitled to compensation. Call our personal injury law firm today for a free consultation.
Burns are grouped by what caused them, and the cause can point to who is responsible. Our Augusta burn injury attorneys represent clients who have suffered:
Whatever the type of burn, get medical care right away. Burns can leave permanent scarring and disfigurement. Then contact our lawyers for a free case review of your legal options.
Burns send hundreds of thousands of Americans to the emergency room every year. The CDC counted about 398,000 fire- or burn-related injuries in 2021, plus another 252,000 injuries from contact with hot objects or substances.
About 29,000 people are admitted to the hospital for burns each year, and roughly 3,800 Americans die in fires or from smoke inhalation annually. The South Atlantic region, which includes Georgia and South Carolina, accounts for more burn hospital admissions than any other part of the country, about 26% of the national total.
Young children are among the most vulnerable. Scalds from hot liquids cause most pediatric burns, and the median age of children admitted for burns is just 3 years old. Burn admissions also peak from May through August.
Doctors classify burns by degree, from first-degree (least serious) to fourth-degree (most severe). The symptoms depend on how deep the burn goes.
First-degree burns damage only the epidermis, the outer layer of skin. The skin turns red and hurts to the touch. Most first-degree burns heal on their own within about a week.
Second-degree burns, also called partial-thickness burns, go through the epidermis and damage the layer of skin beneath it.
Symptoms of a second-degree burn include:
Second-degree burns can leave permanent scarring and disfigurement, and deeper ones may need skin grafts.
Third-degree burns, or full-thickness burns, destroy the full thickness of the skin and damage the tissue underneath. Because they often destroy nerve endings, victims may feel little pain at first.
The skin may look white, yellow, or leathery. Most third-degree burns need surgery and skin grafting.
Fourth-degree burns pass through every layer of skin into muscle, tendon, and sometimes bone. The area may look white or charred, and bone can be exposed.
As with third-degree burns, nerve damage means victims may not feel pain right away. These burns are life-threatening and can lead to amputation.
Recovery from a serious burn can take a year or longer. After the hospital come compression garments worn most of the day for a year or longer, daily stretching to keep scars from locking joints, and often more surgery.
Possible long-term consequences of a serious burn include:
About one in five burn survivors develops PTSD, and roughly two in five deal with depression. Georgia law allows compensation for disfigurement and mental anguish.
Contact our Augusta lawyers to pursue compensation for serious burns, including future treatment.
Some of the most common causes of burn injuries include:
The cause decides who can be held responsible. A burn on the job may involve a workers' compensation claim plus a separate claim against a negligent subcontractor or equipment maker. An apartment fire may point to a landlord who ignored wiring problems or broken smoke detectors. A crash fire may involve a negligent driver and a defective fuel system.
If you were burned and someone else was responsible, call us today. Our lawyers will investigate what caused your injury and who is responsible.
The value of a burn injury case depends on how severe the burn is and how long its effects last.
Factors that shape your case value include:
Georgia's comparative fault rule also matters. If you are found partly at fault, your award is reduced by your share of the blame, and you can't recover anything if you are 50% or more at fault.
No two burn cases are the same.
Georgia law lets injured people seek both economic damages (your financial losses) and non-economic damages (the personal toll of the injury).
Depending on your injuries, you may be able to recover compensation for:
For burn survivors, scar revision, contracture release, and additional grafts can continue long after the first hospital stay.
If you lost a family member to a fatal burn injury, we can also help you pursue compensation for wrongful death.
In Georgia, most burn victims have two years from the date of the injury to file a personal injury lawsuit (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Miss that deadline and you will likely lose your right to sue for damages.
Some claims move faster. If a city, county, or state agency may share the blame, Georgia requires a written notice of claim well before the two-year deadline: as little as six months for claims against a city. And because many CSRA residents live or work across the river, a burn suffered in South Carolina may fall under that state's different filing rules.
Evidence can also disappear as fire scenes are cleaned up and damaged products are discarded.
Contact Hawk Law Group for a free consultation. We'll review what happened, explain your rights under Georgia law, and tell you whether you have a case.
An experienced Augusta burn injury lawyer handles the insurers, the records, and the deadlines while you get through treatment. You pay nothing unless we win.
338 Telfair St. Augusta, GA 30901
(706) 722-3500
Yes. Georgia pauses the deadline for a child's own injury claim until the child turns 18, which generally gives them until their 20th birthday to file. Some related deadlines, such as notice requirements for claims against government entities, may not be paused, so it's still worth talking to a lawyer early.
The family may be able to bring a wrongful death claim. In Georgia, that claim generally must be filed within two years of the date of death, not the date of the burn. Georgia law sets the order of who can file, starting with the surviving spouse.
Yes, as long as you were less than 50% at fault. Georgia reduces your award by your share of the blame, so a person found 20% at fault recovers 80% of their damages. At 50% or more, you recover nothing (O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33).
You generally can't sue your own employer; workers' compensation is the remedy for that (O.C.G.A. § 34-9-11). But if someone other than your employer contributed to the burn, such as a negligent subcontractor or the maker of defective equipment, you may be able to file a separate injury claim against them while also receiving workers' comp benefits (O.C.G.A. § 34-9-11.1).
Under a 2025 Georgia law (SB 68), defendants can show the jury the amounts actually paid for your medical care, not only the amounts your providers billed. That can affect how the medical expense part of a claim is valued.
Did you sustain an injury at work or develop an occupational illness? If so, hiring an experienced Augusta Burn Injury Lawyer can be essential for your fight for benefits.
(888) 771-1110The personal injury lawyers at Hawk Law Group represent accident victims throughout the Central Savannah River Area, including Augusta, Avera, Belvedere, Blythe, Crawfordville, Davisboro, Evans, Gibson, Grovetown, Harlem, Hephzibah, Jackson, Lincolnton, Louisville, Martinez, Millen, New Ellenton, North Augusta, Sandersville, Sparta, Stapleton, Thomson, Warrenton, Waynesboro, and all surrounding communities in Aiken, Edgefield, and Richmond Counties.
Hawk Law Group is a personal injury law firm serving clients in Augusta, GA, and surrounding areas. With over 71 years of combined experience, we have recovered hundreds of millions on behalf of injury victims. Contact us for help today.
