Burn injury cases rarely have just one defendant. Whether your burns came from a workplace accident, defective product, or building fire, multiple parties typically share responsibility—the property owner, equipment manufacturer, maintenance company, and safety inspector might all face liability.
California requires you to identify and sue all responsible parties within two years of your injury date, but determining who bears legal responsibility takes extensive investigation. Insurance companies representing different defendants often point fingers at each other while minimizing their client’s role in your injuries. This creates a complex web of blame-shifting that can delay your case and reduce your compensation if not handled strategically from the beginning.
As burn injury lawyers in Bakersfield, we know how to identify every responsible party and hold them accountable because we’ve been handling these multi-defendant cases for years. If a burn injury has harmed you or a loved one, call us for a free consultation at (661) 333-3333.
Why Does Local Experience in Bakersfield Matter?
When Opposing Counsel Recognizes Your Name, Settlements Get Serious
Since 1989, we’ve been handling burn injury cases in Kern County courtrooms. Three decades of consistent results creates a reputation that defense attorneys respect. They know we thoroughly investigate cases, work with top medical experts, and prepare every case for trial if necessary.
Your Recovery Is the Only Priority
Worried about legal fees? You shouldn’t be. We handle burn injury cases on contingency, which means you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you. We invest heavily in your case from day one—expert witnesses, medical consultations, accident reconstruction specialists—because we’re confident in our ability to achieve results.
You reach actual attorneys when you call, not answering services reading scripts. Burn injuries don’t follow business hours, and neither do the questions and concerns that arise during your recovery. When insurance adjusters contact you at unexpected times or you need clarification about treatment options, our personal injury attorneys will be available to guide you through each step.
Geographic Intelligence Transforms Complex Cases
Our office at 1601 New Stine Rd, Ste 360, Bakersfield, CA 93309, positions us at the center of Kern County’s industrial landscape. We understand which local facilities have histories of safety violations and workplace incidents. We know the local court procedures that can accelerate your case timeline or create strategic advantages.
We’ve built relationships with the region’s top burn specialists, reconstructive surgeons, and vocational rehabilitation experts over decades of practice. This network allows us to quickly assemble the medical team your case requires while ensuring you receive the specialized treatment burn injuries demand.
What Is a Burn Injury Case Actually Worth?
Compensation is a meticulous accounting of every past, present, and future loss—financial, physical, and emotional—stemming from your injury.
Economic Damages
These are the tangible, itemized losses your injury has caused. We work with financial and medical experts to project these costs over your entire lifetime.
Past and Future Medical Treatment: This is far more than the initial emergency room visit. It covers everything from ambulance transport and reconstructive surgeries to skin grafts, long-term physical and occupational therapy, and specialized treatments for complications.
Lost Income and Earning Power: We demand compensation for the income you have already lost. We also project the income you will lose in the future if the injury compromises your ability to return to your previous job or work at full capacity.
Rehabilitative and Assistive Needs: True recovery goes beyond hospital walls. This category includes costs for vocational retraining, modifications to your home for accessibility or sterile environments, and the expense of in-home nursing or long-term assistive care.
Non-Economic Damages
No dollar amount can erase your suffering, but these damages exist to acknowledge the profound, personal trauma of the injury.
Pain and Suffering: This accounts for the physical agony of the burn as well as the grueling recovery process and any chronic pain that may follow you for life.
Emotional and Psychological Trauma: A severe burn is a psychological wound too. This addresses the devastating impact of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that often follows such a traumatic event.
Scarring and Disfigurement: We pursue significant compensation for the permanent alteration of your appearance, acknowledging the deep social, professional, and personal trauma that comes with visible disfigurement.
Sometimes an injury is no accident. If the party who harmed you acted with malice, oppression, or fraud, California law allows for punitive damages. These are not designed to compensate your loss, but to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar behavior from happening again. They’re not commonly awarded, but if the facts of the case support it, we will pursue them.
Where Do Bakersfield Burn Injuries Happen?
Was your injury preventable? Many of the catastrophic burns we see are not random events; they are linked to high-risk industries and recurring scenarios right here in Kern County.
Kern County’s High-Risk Industries
Our region is an industrial powerhouse, and that comes with serious risks. When companies prioritize profits over safety protocols, their employees are the ones who get hurt.
Oil & Gas Operations: The oilfields are a landscape of inherent danger. Well blowouts, pipeline ruptures, and equipment failures can trigger fires and explosions.
Agricultural Work: From farm equipment fires to exposure to corrosive chemical fertilizers, agricultural workers face unique and serious burn risks daily.
Industrial & Manufacturing Plants: Factories and warehouses are filled with hazards. Electrical malfunctions, chemical spills, and accidents involving superheated machinery are frequent causes of devastating injuries.
Catastrophic Collisions on Our Roads
Vehicle fires after a major truck accident or car crash are a terrifying reality on roads like Highway 99, Interstate 5, and the Rosedale Highway (SR 58). The constant flow of commercial vehicles—especially tanker trucks hauling flammable materials—puts every driver at greater risk.
Unsafe Locations (Premises Liability)
Property owners have a legal duty to maintain a reasonably safe environment. When they neglect this duty, the consequences can lead to catastrophic injuries—and potential premises liability claims.
Apartment & Hotel Fires: Negligent landlords who fail to install or maintain smoke detectors, fix faulty wiring, or provide clear fire exits put lives at risk.
Restaurant Accidents: Commercial kitchens are high-pressure zones where grease trap fires, gas leaks, and deep fryer malfunctions can erupt into flash fires, burning both staff and patrons.
Dangerous Products: The hazard could be in your own home. Faulty space heaters, water heaters, electronics, or kitchen appliances can malfunction due to design flaws, causing severe electrical or thermal burns.
How Burn Severity Defines Your Legal Case
Follow Your Treatment Plan Religiously
Go to every doctor’s appointment. Attend every physical therapy session. Fill every prescription. If you miss appointments, the insurance company might misinterpret this as “proof” your injuries aren’t as severe as you claim.
Thermal Burns: The most frequent type, caused by contact with fire, steam, scalding liquids, or hot surfaces in industrial, commercial, or residential settings.
Chemical Burns: These are caused by contact with corrosive substances like industrial solvents, strong acids, or even potent cleaning products, which can cause damage that deepens long after initial contact.
Electrical Burns: Contact with a live electrical source, like a downed power line or faulty wiring, is incredibly dangerous. These burns cause severe, often invisible damage to muscles, nerves, and organs beneath the skin.
Radiation Burns: While less common, these burns happen from overexposure to sources like medical X-rays or industrial equipment used for manufacturing and testing.
How Severity Dictates Compensation
The “degree” of a burn directly translates to the value of a legal claim, as it signals the intensity of medical care, recovery time, potential for permanent damage, and the extent of suffering.
First-Degree:
These superficial burns only affect the outer skin layer (epidermis) and, while painful, typically heal without major intervention.
Second-Degree:
Damaging the second skin layer (dermis), these burns cause blistering and intense pain, and carry a high risk of scarring and infection.
Third- & Fourth-Degree:
These are life-altering injuries that destroy all skin layers and can damage the underlying fat, muscle, and bone. They guarantee permanent disfigurement, require agonizing surgeries like skin grafting, and often demand a lifetime of care.
California Laws That Apply
Two state laws will shape your ability to recover money.
The Two-Year Deadline: According to California’s statute of limitations you have only two years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, you lose your right to seek compensation. There are exceptions to this, however; contact a lawyer to see if you qualify.
The Pure Comparative Negligence Rule: What if they say you were partly to blame? California law still allows you to recover damages even if you are found to be partially at fault. Your final award is simply reduced by whatever percentage of fault is assigned to you. An attorney can give you specific advice on how this applies to your case.
How Insurance Companies Handle Burn Injury Claims
Insurance companies balance two competing priorities: paying legitimate claims and maintaining profitability for shareholders. This creates predictable patterns in how they evaluate burn injury cases.
The Recorded Statement Strategy
Adjusters request recorded statements within days of your accident, framing this as gathering your version of events. The timing creates significant challenges. Pain medication affects your clarity and the shock impacts your memory.
Minor inconsistencies between your recorded statement and later testimony become leverage points. Casual remarks like “I should have been more careful” get reframed as admissions of fault. Medical symptoms you downplay initially—because adrenaline masks pain—later contradict claims about injury severity.
Early Settlement Pressure Points
Settlement offers made shortly after the accident address immediate costs: emergency room treatment, initial surgeries, and short-term wage replacement. They exclude long-term realities of burn recovery.
Accepting early settlements typically includes broad release agreements. You waive rights to future compensation even if complications develop later. Insurance companies understand that burn injuries evolve unpredictably. What appears to be a minor burn initially might require multiple surgeries and permanent disability accommodation.
Liability Investigation Tactics
California’s comparative negligence laws reduce your compensation based on your percentage of fault in the accident. If a court determines you bear 30% responsibility, your settlement decreases by that amount. Insurance investigators focus intensively on finding evidence of your contributory negligence.
Documentation Delays and Administrative Burdens
Insurance companies request extensive documentation throughout your claim. Each request includes specific deadlines and formatting requirements. Missing documentation delays your entire claim. Burn injury treatment involves numerous specialists: plastic surgeons, physical therapists, pain management doctors, psychologists. Coordinating records from multiple providers creates administrative complexity during an already challenging recovery period.
These delays serve the insurance company’s timeline, not yours. The longer your claim remains unresolved, the more willing you might become to accept lower settlement offers just to end the process.
Steps to Protect Your Claim
What can you do right now? While focusing on your physical recovery, these simple actions will preserve the strength of your future legal claim.
Follow Your Treatment Plan Religiously
Go to every doctor’s appointment. Attend every physical therapy session. Fill every prescription. If you miss appointments, the insurance company might misinterpret this as “proof” your injuries aren’t as severe as you claim.
Document Everything
Keep a simple journal. Note your daily pain levels, side effects from medication, and how the injury stops you from doing everyday tasks. Save every bill, receipt, and email related to your injury in one folder.
Go Dark on Social Media
Assume every post is being watched. A photo of you smiling at a family dinner becomes “evidence” that you’re not suffering. The only safe move is to stop posting entirely.
Decline a Recorded Statement
You have no legal obligation to give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurer. When they ask, use this phrase: “My attorney will contact you to provide any necessary information.”
Gather Official Reports
Get copies of all incident reports—from the police department, fire department, or your employer (including any Cal/OSHA report for a work accident). These documents establish the foundational facts of your case.
Get Clarity and Answers Today
Let a dedicated Bakersfield burn injury lawyer take on the legal battle against the insurance companies so you can pour all of your energy into healing.
Contact the Law Offices of Mickey Fine today for a free, confidential consultation. Call (661) 333-3333 today.
Law Offices of Mickey Fine – Bakersfield Office 930 Truxtun Ave, #110 Bakersfield, CA 93301 Phone: (661) 333-3333
How do I file a burn injury claim in Bakersfield, CA?
If you believe that your burn injury was caused by the negligence of another party, the best thing you can do for yourself is to contact an experienced Bakersfield burn injury lawyer like Mickey Fine. Mickey has years of experience dealing with burn injury cases and will do everything that he can to recover the compensation that you deserve. Mickey will collect evidence, establish a guilty party and ensure that you are treated fairly in your case.
Who will pay my compensation for a burn injury?
In most burn injury cases, the negligent party’s insurance company is responsible for paying damages to the injured party. Whether your burn injury was caused by a defective product or a car accident, the insurance company that covers the negligent party will cover your compensation.
How much compensation am I entitled to for my burn injuries?
As a burn injury victim, you may be entitled to various damages based on the circumstances of your accident. You may receive economic damages and damages for non-financial hardships know as punitive damages. Some damages you may be able to be compensated for include the following:
Ambulance rides
Hospital bills
Medical devices and assistance
Loss of enjoyment of life
Loss of income
Pain and suffering
Physical therapy
Loss of earnings potential
Surgical costs
How long will my burn injury claim take to resolve?
There is no way to tell how long a burn injury case may take as each case we deal with is very different. The length of a case is determined by a number of different factors including the collection of evidence, negotiations, and litigation if the case goes to trial. The key for any victim is to try and remain patient throughout the process and know that Mickey Fine is doing all that he can to recover the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
Should I accept an insurance settlement for my burn injury?
It should be noted that the insurance companies are almost never on your side. Due to this, they will never come to you with an offer that is adequate for your injuries. It is important that you speak to Mickey Fine about the specifics of your accident before accepting any insurance settlements. Mickey will be able to speak with you and find out the true value of your case because he has experience dealing with the unfair deal insurance companies offer injury victims.
