By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 2nd February 2024. Suffering a burn injury can be life-changing. Not only do you have to deal with the trauma and pain, but you may also have to live with the consequences. In some cases, you can make a burn injury claim under personal injury law to get compensation.
In this guide, we explore the process of claiming compensation for a burn injury in more detail. We look at the criteria to make a claim and look at how much your burn injury claim could be worth.
We also discuss how you can take advantage of our No Win No Fee service to take action today.
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Burn Injury Claims Guide
Select A Section:
- How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Burn Injury?
- Could I Make A Burn Injury Claim?
- How Can You Suffer A Burn Injury?
- Claim Compensation For A Burn Injury With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
- Find Out More About Burn Injury Compensation Claims
How Much Compensation Can I Claim For A Burn Injury?
If your burn injury claim is successful, you will receive compensation for the pain and suffering caused by your injuries. This is compensated for under the head of claim known as general damages.
When calculating general damages payouts, a publication known as the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) could be used to help. This publication provides guideline compensation brackets for a range of injuries at different severities.
To illustrate the levels of compensation for general damages, we have compiled a table below. The figures you see, aside from the top figure, are from the 2022 edition of the JCG. However, these are only guidance.
| Burn Injury Type | Typical Amount | Description/Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries to include financial costs and losses. | Up to £200,000+ | For cases with multiple serious injuries causing significant pain, suffering and financial loss, such as loss of income, care costs and medical expenses. |
| Severe Psychiatric damage (a) | £54,830 to £115,730 | The injured person will have marked problems relating to life, work, education and relationships and the prognosis will be very poor |
| Moderately Severe Psychiatric damage (b) | £19,070 to £54,830 | The injured person will have significant problems relating to life, work, education and relationships, but the prognosis will be more optimistic than in more severe cases. |
| Scarring to Other Parts of the Body | Likely to exceed £104,830 | Scarring from burns which result in a greater degree of pain and continuing psychical or psychological injury. |
| Scarring to Other Parts of the Body | £7,830 to £22,730 | This bracket will be appropriate for a number of noticeable laceration scars, or a single disfiguring scar, of leg(s) or arm(s) or hand(s) or back or chest. |
| Scarring to Other Parts of the Body | £2,370 to £7,830 | A single noticeable scar, or several superficial scars, of leg(s) or arm(s) or hand(s), with some minor cosmetic deficit. |
| Facial Disfigurement – Very Severe Scarring (a) | £29,780 to £97,330 | This level of award will be appropriate where the claimant is young and the cosmetic effect is very disfiguring. |
| Facial Disfigurement – Less Severe Scarring (b) | £17,960 to £48,420 | Leaving scarring that is quite prominent and which causes a significant psychological reaction. |
| Facial Disfigurement – Significant Scarring (c) | £9,110 to £30,090 | The worst effects may be reduced by plastic surgery. |
| Facial Disfigurement – Less Significant Scarring (d) | £3,950 to £13,740 | May be one large or several smaller scars which can be camouflaged and which mar but don’t markedly affect the appearance of the injured person. |
Your injuries may also cause you financial costs and losses. You could receive compensation for these under the head of claim known as special damages.
Cost and losses that you may be able to claim for, providing you have supporting evidence such as receipts, payslips or bank statements, for example, could include:
- Care costs – if you have not been able to look after yourself and have needed to pay for care at home.
- Medical expenses – if you have had to pay for any kind of medical treatment, such as for prescription medicines, for example.
- Travel expenses – if you have had to pay to get your medical appointments due to your injuries, or you’ve needed to pay for transport to get you to an appointment with your solicitor.
- Lost income – if you have needed to take time off work to recover from your injuries and lost out on pay as a result.
To learn what evidence would support a claim for special damages, or to ask further questions such as “How much compensation can I claim for a burn injury that has left me unable to work?” please contact an advisor.
Could I Make A Burn Injury Claim?
To be eligible to make a burn injury claim, you would need to prove that:
- Someone owed you a duty of care.
- This duty was breached.
- You suffered an injury as a result of the breach.
There are various parties that owe you a duty of care. These include:
- Employers – Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, your employer owes you a duty of care. They must take reasonably practicable steps to prevent you suffering illness or injury due to your work or the workplace.
- Occupiers – Those in control of public places are known as ‘occupiers’. Under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957, they would owe you a duty of care. They must ensure your reasonable safety while you are using that space for its intended purpose.
- Road Users – Road users owe each other a duty of care to use the roads in a way that avoids causing harm to others and themselves. They must also follow the rules and regulations set out for them in the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the Highway Code.
If someone were to breach the duty of care they owed you, and this caused you to suffer a burn injury, you may be eligible to make a personal injury claim for compensation for your burns.
To check the eligibility of your case, you can contact an advisor. They could also answer questions about your claim, such as, “How much is my burn claim worth?”
Personal Injury Claim Time Limits
If you are looking to make a claim for a burn injury caused by someone else’s negligence, you might wonder if there’s a personal injury claim time limit. The Limitation Act 1980 dictates the personal injury claim time frame. In most cases, the time limit for a personal injury claim is 3 years. This means you would have three years from the date of the accident or the date you became aware that your injuries were caused by negligence to start your claim.
There are some exceptions to this time limit. Contact our team to learn more.
How Can You Suffer A Burn Injury?
Now we have explained who could claim compensation for burns, let us look at the types of incidents that could lead to such an injury. There are various ways you could suffer a burn injury. Some examples may include:
- While working with dangerous chemicals, your employer fails to provide you with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as safety goggles and gloves. Due to this, you suffer a chemical burn.
- A drunk driver is driving down the wrong side of the road and crashes head-on into your car. You suffer a burn injury when the airbag deploys, as well as a broken arm.
- A hairdresser fails to perform a scalp test before applying bleach to your scalp. Due to this, you suffer serious bleach burns.
These are just a few examples. However, you must remember that in order to make a burn injury claim, you will need to prove your injury was caused by someone breaching a duty of care they owed you.
To learn whether you could be eligible to claim burn injury compensation, please contact an advisor.
Claim Compensation For A Burn Injury With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
If you’re eligible to claim compensation for burns you suffered in an accident, you might wish to get help with your claim. One of our solicitors may be able to assist you. They could help you with gathering relevant evidence to help support your claim and negotiating a compensation payout for you.
Furthermore, one of our solicitors may offer to represent you in your claim on a No Win No Fee basis under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). Under this arrangement, you will not have to pay the solicitor working on your case any upfront or ongoing service fees. You also won’t be required to pay them for their work if your claim fails.
Instead, if your case successfully concludes with a payout, they would deduct a legally capped success fee from this.
To check your eligibility to work with one of our solicitors, please contact our advisors. They can also help answer any of your questions and offer you free advice.
Make A Claim
If you have suffered a burns injury due to a road accident or any other form of accident and you would like to make a claim for compensation, please get in contact with us. We will be able to commence the claims process for you.
Our team of dedicated professional advisors can be contacted on 0800 073 8801.
We hope this guide to making a claim for a burn injury has been helpful. Below you can find further helpful resources.
Find Out More About Burn Injury Compensation Claims
If you’d like to learn more about burn injury claims, check out the links and resources below:
- Compensation Calculator
- Hospital Negligence Claims
- NHS – Treating burns
- NHS – Chemical Burns
- HSE – Scalds and Burns
- Finger Injury Claim Calculator
Thank you for reading our guide on how to make a claim for a burn injury. We hope that any questions you have about burn injury claims have been answered, but if not, please get in touch.