Boca Raton Burn Injury Lawyer

Why choose Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath?

Burn cases turn on evidence that doesn’t survive long, like a failed appliance that gets thrown out or a burned vehicle that gets scrapped. What’s left a few months later is a photograph and an adjuster’s summary, which is a far weaker case than the one that existed the week of the fire.

For more than 40 years, Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath has represented injured people across South Florida. Our legal team includes more than 20 attorneys, more than 70 support professionals, 18 paralegal investigators, and two registered nurse paralegals who review medical records in-house. We also have our own trial support department.

Those resources decide burn claims at both ends. Paralegal investigators can reach the scene while it’s still intact, and the nurse paralegals read graft records, burn surface area, infection history, and future care recommendations the way a treating provider does. That’s how our Boca Raton burn injury lawyers put a number on treatment that hasn’t happened yet.

The sooner that work starts, the more of the case is still there to find.

Burn injury case results

Burns most often arrive as product liability, premises liability, catastrophic injury, or wrongful death claims. Some of our most notable results include:

• $14 million, class action product liability
• $11 million, product liability and wrongful death
• $11 million, catastrophic injury
• $7.5 million, settlement on a $100,000 policy for a paralyzed client

Every case turns on its own facts and its own insurance coverage. Past results don’t predict what another case is worth.

What our clients say

“I had an outstanding experience with this law office. From the very first consultation, the staff was professional, responsive, and genuinely cared about my case. Their knowledge, attention to detail, and dedication gave me confidence during a stressful time. I always felt like a priority, and the entire team treated me with respect and professionalism. Thanks to their hard work and expertise, I achieved a positive outcome.”
— Jason, Google review

“I had a great experience with Lytal, Reiter, Smith. From the beginning, the entire team was professional, supportive, and genuinely cared about helping me through my personal injury case. They took the time to explain everything clearly and made a stressful situation much easier to handle.”
— Iris, Google review

What causes burn injuries in Boca Raton?

Most serious burns trace back to a fire, a chemical, a hot surface, or a live wire that somebody was responsible for controlling. That responsibility is what turns a burn into a personal injury claim. The usual sources:

• Workplace fires and explosions: Restaurant kitchens, construction sites, warehouses, and industrial equipment across Palm Beach County.
• Apartment and condo fires: Often traced to faulty wiring, missing or disabled smoke alarms where they were required, unsafe space-heater setups, or poorly maintained water heaters.
• Defective products: A lithium battery that overheats, a pressure cooker that vents scalding steam, a leaking grill regulator, or a charger that melts down can support a defective product claim against the manufacturer.
• Vehicle fires: A car accident or a truck crash can produce burns when a fuel system ruptures or a cargo load catches fire, and those cases usually involve more than one liable party.
• Medical settings: Surgical fires, cautery injuries, prep solutions that pool under a drape, and heating pads left against a sedated patient are things medical professionals are trained to prevent, and a burn caused that way can support a medical malpractice claim.

Each route carries its own rules and its own deadlines, which is why a Boca Raton personal injury lawyer will usually look at more than one at the same time.

Who pays for a workplace burn injury? 

Let’s say a line cook is burned when a grease fire flashes up, and the hood suppression system had failed an inspection months earlier without being repaired.

Workers’ compensation can cover authorized medical care and part of an injured worker’s lost wages without requiring proof that the employer was negligent. In most covered cases, it is also the employee’s exclusive remedy against the employer. Florida’s intentional-tort exception is extremely narrow. The worker must prove by clear and convincing evidence either that the employer deliberately intended the injury or that the employer knew, based on prior similar accidents or explicit warnings, that its conduct was virtually certain to cause injury or death and deliberately concealed or misrepresented a danger the employee was not aware of.

The claim that usually matters is against somebody else. Here, that could be the contractor who inspected the system and signed off anyway. A separate claim against a negligent third party may provide damages workers’ compensation does not, including pain and suffering and additional lost earnings. Any recovery may also be subject to the workers’ compensation carrier’s reimbursement or lien rights. It’s the reason a burn injuries lawyer Boca Raton workers talk to will ask for inspection records before anything else.

What are the degrees of a burn injury?

Burns are sorted by how deep they go. A first-degree burn affects only the outer layer of skin, and a second-degree burn reaches the layer underneath. Third-degree burns go all the way through, destroying the full thickness of skin and the tissue below it, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Deep burns don’t heal on their own. They often need skin grafts, where surgeons move healthy skin from another part of the body to cover the wound. Because burned skin no longer works as a barrier, infection is a real risk during recovery, and large burns affect fluid balance across the whole body.

Recovery can run for years. Scar tissue tightens and limits how a joint moves, which is why many people need repeated procedures and long courses of therapy. None of that shows up in the first stack of medical bills, and an early settlement offer often doesn’t account for it. A Boca Raton burn injury attorney should be asking your treating doctors what the next five years look like.

How long do you have to file a burn injury claim in Florida?

Florida does not have one filing deadline for every burn injury claim. For an ordinary negligence claim that accrued after March 24, 2023, Florida Statutes § 95.11(5)(a) generally gives you two years to file suit. But other burn cases can follow different rules. For example, certain product-liability injury claims have a four-year limitations period, while medical-malpractice claims have their own two-year discovery rule and statute of repose. Wrongful death and workers’ compensation claims also have separate deadlines.

Which deadline applies depends on how the burn happened, who caused it, and the legal theory behind the claim. That is one reason to investigate early. Evidence can disappear long before the applicable filing period expires.

Evidence runs out faster than the deadline does. The burned vehicle gets scrapped. The building gets repaired. The product that failed gets thrown away by the property manager who is now a defendant. Witnesses change jobs and stop answering.

One caveat worth knowing: when a second- or third-degree burn covers 10% or more of the body and came from a flammable substance, anyone treating it has to report it to the sheriff’s office if they suspect violence or unlawful activity (Fla. Stat. § 877.155). That report doesn’t exist in most accident cases, so the ordinary burn claim gets built from the scene, and that means starting early.

What if you were partly at fault for the fire?

You can still recover, as long as your share stays at 50% or below. Florida uses modified comparative negligence, and under Fla. Stat. § 768.81(6), anyone found more than 50% at fault for their own harm recovers nothing.

Below that line, your award drops by your percentage. If a jury values the case at $500,000 and puts 20% of the fault on you, you collect $400,000.

Medical negligence works differently. The 50% bar in § 768.81(6) does not apply to injury or wrongful death claims arising out of medical negligence under chapter 766, although a patient’s damages can still be reduced by their percentage of fault.

Expect an adjuster to suggest you were careless, because every point of fault they can assign to you cuts what the insurance company owes. The burn injury attorneys Boca Raton clients work with answer that with records: inspection reports, scene photographs, maintenance history, and accounts from the people who were there.

What compensation can you get for a burn injury? 

Burn injury victims seeking compensation in Florida can generally recover economic and non-economic damages. Boca Raton burn injury attorneys pursue both types of damages.

Economic damages are the losses with a paper trail:

• Emergency care, surgery, skin grafts, and hospital stays
• Future medical expenses, including revisions and scar treatment
• Medication, physical therapy, wound care, and in-home help
• Lost wages during recovery
• Reduced earning capacity if you can’t return to the same work
• Property damage from the fire

Medical bills for a major burn can run into six figures before rehabilitation even starts.

Non-economic damages cover what the injury did to your life. Pain and suffering is part of it. So is permanent scarring and disfigurement, which carries weight in burn cases that it doesn’t carry in most other personal injury cases, along with the mental health toll that often follows a fire. If the burn results in death, Florida’s Wrongful Death Act allows the decedent’s personal representative to bring a claim for the benefit of eligible survivors and the estate.

How do Boca Raton burn injury attorneys prove your case?

The first job is preserving what’s left. The burn injury lawyers Boca Raton families call after a fire should be sending spoliation letters within days, so a landlord, an employer, a contractor, or a manufacturer can’t quietly discard the evidence. Fire origin-and-cause investigators go in while the scene is still intact.

From there, the file gets built out of inspection and permit records, maintenance logs, prior complaints about the same hazard, product recall history, and the testimony of the people who were there. In a case involving a car accident, that extends to the vehicle itself and any recall or fuel system history behind it.

Every burn injury lawyer Boca Raton residents hire should be able to explain, in plain terms, how they plan to prove the case.

Burn injury FAQs

What is considered a catastrophic burn injury?

There’s no single statutory definition that applies across every Florida claim. In practice, a burn gets treated as catastrophic when it’s deep enough or widespread enough to cause permanent impairment, usually meaning third-degree burns, burns needing grafts, burns that cross a major joint, or burns to the face and airway. The label matters less than the medical proof behind it.

Can you sue a property owner for a burn?

Often, yes. Property owners have to keep the premises reasonably safe, and that covers fire hazards like faulty wiring, disabled smoke alarms, blocked exits, and unsafe water heater settings. The question is whether the owner knew or should have known about the hazard and failed to fix it.

Can a family member file a claim on someone’s behalf?

Yes, but not automatically. Depending on the circumstances, a court-appointed guardian or an agent acting under a valid power of attorney with the necessary authority may be able to act for an injured person. If the burn causes death, the decedent’s personal representative brings the wrongful death action for the benefit of the statutory survivors and estate.

How much does a burn injury lawyer cost?

Nothing up front. Our attorneys in Boca Raton handle burn cases on a contingency fee basis, so the fee comes out of a recovery, and you pay no attorney’s fees unless compensation is recovered. Case costs like expert fees and filing fees are advanced and explained in writing before you sign anything.

What happens if I was partially at fault?

Your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, and it’s barred entirely if you’re found more than 50% responsible. Fault percentages are argued, not assigned automatically, which is why evidence gathered early tends to decide the number.

Talk to a Boca Raton burn injury lawyer today

If you or a family member was burned because of someone else’s negligence, a burn injury attorney in Boca Raton can review what happened and tell you honestly whether there’s a claim worth bringing. Lytal, Reiter, Smith, Ivey & Fronrath has been doing that in Palm Beach County since 1985.

Call (561) 655-1990 or contact us online for a free case evaluation. We work on a contingency fee basis, and you pay no attorney’s fees unless compensation is recovered.