In the U.S., roughly one person is burned severely enough to require treatment every 60 seconds. Open flames/flash burns account for roughly 46% of hospital admissions, while scalds from hot liquids/steam are the second leading cause.
Victims should file a claim for the burn injuries they suffered, especially if their work is affected. But how long do you have to file a burn injury lawsuit? And what is the statute of limitations for personal injury regarding burn injuries?
It’s important to understand the respective deadlines and state-specific rules to protect your legal rights. Else, you may lose the chance to pursue justice.
What a Statute of Limitations Is and Why It Matters
The statute of limitations requires all injury-related lawsuits to be filed within a specified time period, which begins after the actual injury occurs. The court will dismiss the claim if the time limit has passed, preventing the injured party from obtaining any legal protection.
Courts use equitable tolling to extend deadlines in exceptional circumstances, but those are comparatively unusual circumstances and must not be drafted into rules of convenience.
Each state establishes its own statute of limitations to determine time limits for personal injury claims, which include burn injuries. The majority of states require general personal injury claims to be filed within two to three years, while Tennessee and Louisiana enforce single-year time limits, and a few states permit extended filing periods, varying based on the type of claim.
The different rules for burn injury cases exist because each jurisdiction has its own regulations and different defendant types require different standards.
How the Type of Burn Injury Affects the Applicable Deadline
If you suffered severe burns due to negligence by another party, you may face serious injuries that are either severe or permanent.
Some severe burns have the potential to cause death, according to San Diego burn injury attorney Ken Sigelman, J.D., M.D. The particular facts that establish the nature of a burn injury case will determine which legal time limit or time limit framework will apply to the situation.
Burn injury lawsuits most commonly use negligence claims against private parties as their primary legal method, which follows the personal injury time limits established by each state that begin when an injury occurs.
Product liability claims arise when a burn results from a defective product such as faulty electrical equipment, a defective appliance, or a flammable material with an inadequate warning. The claims become subject to both a statute of limitations and a statute of repose, which applies to their claims.
Statute of repose
The statute of repose begins its time from the date when the product was either manufactured or sold, preventing any claims from proceeding regardless of when the injury took place or when it was first discovered.
Many states impose product liability statutes of repose, which extend from 6 to 12 years after the date of manufacture, whereas some states lack any statute of repose for product liability claims and some states maintain statutes that fall outside that time range.
The personal injury statute of limitations, which applies to all negligence cases, will also apply to premises liability claims that involve burns from an unguarded open flame or an unsafe heating system or a building fire caused by a landlord’s code violations, except for some states that treat property-related claims as special cases.
Workplace burn injuries lead to two simultaneous legal processes, which include a workers’ compensation claim that has its own shorter deadline plus a possible third-party lawsuit against a manufacturer contractor or any other non-employer whose negligence caused the injury.
Tolling Rules That Can Extend the Deadline
Multiple legal doctrines exist that enable plaintiffs to extend the standard duration of limitations through their burn injury claims. The discovery rule stipulates that the statute of limitations begins when the injured individual becomes aware of their injury and its underlying cause. This situation applies to chemical burn incidents and toxic exposure situations because in such cases, victims will not discover their actual harm until many months or years have passed.
Minority tolling allows plaintiffs who suffered injuries as minors to stop their limitations period from running until they reach adulthood. Most states begin their limitation period when the person who suffered an injury reaches 18 years of age.
This means that a burn survivor who experienced their injury as a child can file a legal claim based on the time they turned 18 rather than the time of their injury. Some states limit this extension in specific claim types, such as medical malpractice.
Mental incapacity tolling exists in multiple states because it automatically stops the limitations period when the plaintiff experiences mental incapacity at their time of injury. The rules for determining which mental disabilities qualify for this benefit differ among different legal jurisdictions.
The defendant’s fraudulent activities and efforts to hide essential case details will stop the time limit governing the claim. Several states acknowledge the fraudulent concealment doctrine, which enables defendants to extend their limitations periods through deceptive practices.
Government Entity Claims Require Additional Steps
The legal process requires special steps when a governmental body, its personnel, or its property causes burn injuries because these steps must be completed before a person can initiate a lawsuit.
Most states and the federal government require the injured party to submit an administrative tort claim to the relevant agency within a specific period before any lawsuit may be filed. Victims must inform the government about their injuries within a specified timeframe. In some states, they need to report their injuries within 90 days. Other states, however, need six months or more, while a few states need up to a year.
The government will reject all lawsuits that fail to meet administrative claim requirements even when the standard time limit for lawsuits has not yet expired.
The Federal Tort Claims Act (28 U.S.C. § 2675) requires federal agencies to receive administrative claims before they can proceed with legal actions. This must be filed by the claimant within two years after sustaining their injury.
Why Acting Promptly Matters Beyond the Legal Deadline
The limitations deadline is the outer boundary, not the optimal filing date. The physical evidence from the burn injury scene deteriorates at a rapid rate until it completely vanishes from existence.
The memories of witnesses may start to disappear. There are also systems that remove surveillance video content after a specified duration that can last from several days to several weeks.
The first-stage medical records, which document acute treatment, must be obtained to assess both the extent of the injury and its particular medical origin.
An attorney retained promptly after a burn injury can preserve this evidence before it is lost. They can investigate the cause while the facts are accessible and identify all potentially liable parties. This may include the property owner, manufacturer, employer, maintenance contractor, or other third parties before the limitations period becomes a constraint.
Key Takeaways
Determining the deadline for filing a burn injury lawsuit is important to make plans in fighting for your rights. You should first know the state laws and their specific legal claims.
Most states allow personal injury victims to file their claims within two to three years after they experienced their injuries.
The best method to establish which legal deadlines apply to a burn injury case is to hire a lawyer who specializes in personal injury and product liability cases after the injury occurs. What you need is to secure evidence that needs protection and know which parties might bear responsibility for damages.