Burn Injuries

New York City Burn Injury Attorneys

At the New York City law office of Smiley & Smiley, LLP, we understand that burn injuries can change your life forever and require multiple skin grafts and years of rehabilitation/physical therapy. The lifelong financial toll of a burn injury can be in the millions of dollars. The reduced quality of life and emotional damage caused by scarring and other effects of serious burns must also be taken into account. Your personal injury settlement or verdict should reflect these lifelong financial and emotional costs. 

Let Our Family Take Care of Your Family

Our lawyers include a father-son team and a close family friend, all with more than 15 years of experience (attorney Guy Smiley has more than 55 years of personal injury experience). Together, we have successfully recovered many millions of dollars for clients who have suffered serious burns and who have lost loved ones in fires occurring in vehicles, homes, apartments, commercial buildings and elsewhere. We have handled injuries ranging from hands that were burned by irons to entire families who perished in residential fires. 

Let our family help your family recover full and fair compensation. We represent clients on a contingency fee basis, which means that you will not pay us unless we recover compensation for you. 

No Two Burn Injury Cases are Alike

Our experience has taught us that no two burn injury cases are alike. They can vary greatly in regard to insurance issues and the various legal processes. When car accidents cause burn injuries, it is vital to determine all causes of the accident and injuries, and to determine which insurance coverages apply. In apartment fires, it is important to determine where the fire originated, whether the blaze could have been prevented and whether proper safety features were installed and in working order. Explosions are a whole different matter. 

No matter what caused your burn injuries, we have the resources, knowledge and experience to represent you well, including on-staff accident investigators. 

Recent Cases Illustrate Our Effectiveness in Handling Burn Injury Cases

Smiley & Smiley, LLP, has provided representation in the following sort of cases: 

Our clients were a single-parent father and his five-year-old son. Both were severely burned when their apartment became engulfed in flames. Our investigation revealed that the cause of the injuries was the absence of working smoke detectors. We settled the case against the defendant for $1.15 million. 

Our client lost two children in a tragic apartment fire in Queens. We worked with our investigators and forensic fire experts to investigate 1) the source of the fire, 2) the manner in which it spread and 3) the cause of death. Our investigation revealed that the building’s owner had illegally converted incorporated attic space into the apartment, and that he hadn’t bothered to provide a proper means of escape from the attic in the event of a fire. We settled the case for $1 million. 

Our client’s two-year-old was badly scalded and burned when struck by water emitted by a defective radiator. Following the child’s one-month stay at the Cornell Burn Center we proved that the owner of the building failed to properly maintain the radiator, resulting in a breach of warranty of habitability. Our representation resulted in a $3.5 million settlement.