New York Burn Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one suffered serious burn injuries in a New York accident, you are likely facing excruciating neuropathic pain, mounting medical expenses, and insurance adjusters pressuring you to sign away your rights while you are still in the hospital.

At Raphaelson & Levine, we don't let insurance companies dictate your recovery. Named Best Lawyers in America® for Personal Injury Litigation in New York City (2026), our firm has protected the rights of burn survivors for over 33 years.

We have secured more than $1 Billion in compensation because we understand the medical and legal complexities of catastrophic burn care—from chemical burn injuries requiring specialized treatment to thermal burn cases involving electricity and flame exposure.

Our New York burn injury lawyers act within 24 hours to preserve surveillance footage and industrial logs before they are deleted. We collaborate with burn reconstruction surgeons to document your lifetime medical needs, ensuring the insurance company pays for every skin graft, debridement procedure, and physical therapy session you will ever require.

Call (212) 268-3222 now for your free burn injury case review. You pay nothing unless we win.

Do I Qualify for a Burn Injury Lawsuit?

At Raphaelson & Levine, we have developed a specialized evaluation process to determine if your case meets the criteria for a New York burn injury claim.

When you speak with us during your free consultation, we'll discuss several key factors that help establish whether you have a valid legal claim:

• Where did the injury occur? The location of your accident often determines which parties may be held liable. When we speak, we'll explore whether your burns happened at a workplace, apartment complex, construction site, public property, or in a motor vehicle.
• What caused the burn? Understanding the specific cause helps us identify potential negligent parties. During your consultation, we'll discuss whether your injuries resulted from an explosion, chemical exposure, defective product, scalding water, radiator malfunction, electrical hazard, open flame, ultraviolet radiation exposure, or other dangerous conditions. The cause directly impacts who can be held accountable.
• Has a doctor diagnosed the severity? Medical documentation is crucial to proving your damages. We'll review your diagnosis—whether you suffered 2nd degree, 3rd degree, or 4th degree burns—and discuss how the severity affects your case value and the compensation you may recover for medical treatment, pain and suffering, and long-term care needs.

No Obligation to Move Forward: During your free case review, we'll provide honest guidance about whether you have a viable lawsuit. Even if we determine you don't have a strong case, we'll explain why and discuss any other legal options you may have. You're under no obligation to hire us, and the consultation costs you nothing.

Critical Deadlines: How Long Do Burn Injury Victims Have to File A Claim?

In New York, the statute of limitations for personal injury lawsuits is three years from the date of the accident under CPLR § 214. However, if your injury involved a municipal entity—such as the City of New York, the NYCHA, or a public school—you must file a Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident under New York General Municipal Law § 50-e.

This strict deadline applies whether your case is in Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, or Upstate New York.

Critical evidence like surveillance footage is often overwritten within 30 days, and physical site conditions (like defective wiring or broken water heaters) are often repaired by landlords to hide negligence.

We move immediately to preserve this evidence before it disappears—protecting your ability to prove your personal injury lawsuit with witness testimony and expert witness analysis.

Understanding the statute of limitations is crucial in personal injury law.

Missing this critical deadline can bar your claim permanently, denying you the financial compensation you need for decades of ongoing treatment, pain management, and the loss of quality of life you and your family experience daily.

Who Is At Fault in a New York Burn Injury Accident?

In New York, liability for a burn injury often extends beyond the person immediately present at the scene to include property owners, product manufacturers, and corporate entities. Establishing the defendant's breach of their duty of care requires thorough investigation and expert testimony.

To maximize your recovery and shift the burden of proof onto negligent parties our investigation identifies every layer of insurance coverage, from the defendant's insurance policy limits to any umbrella policies.

Injured? Get Your Free Case Evaluation

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212-268-3222

Common Burn Accident Scenarios We Litigate

Our attorneys are deeply familiar with New York laws. We use violations of the New York City Housing Maintenance Code and the New York State Multiple Dwelling Law as powerful evidence of negligence.

New York's fire‑safety and building‑maintenance provisions are designed to protect tenants from exactly the kinds of hazards that cause many apartment‑fire burn injuries.

We have experience across all types of fire accidents and burn injury cases, including:

• Apartment Fire Burns (Premises Liability): We hold landlords accountable when they violate fire safety codes, fail to maintain electrical systems, or ignore tenant complaints about dangerous conditions. These premises liability cases often involve multiple defendants including property management companies and building owners.
• Defective Product Burns (Product Liability): When a defective appliance, tool, or consumer product causes your burns, we pursue the manufacturer, distributor, and retailer under strict product liability laws. These cases require expert witness testimony about manufacturing defects and design flaws.
• Workplace Burns (Third-Party Liability): While workers' compensation covers immediate medical costs, we identify third parties—equipment manufacturers, general contractors, subcontractors—whose negligence or gross negligence caused your workplace accident. This allows us to recover full damages including pain and suffering that workers' comp doesn't provide.
• Motor Vehicle Fire Accidents: We handle burn injuries from car accident fires, truck explosions, and motorcycle crashes where vehicle defects, fuel system failures, or hazardous material transport caused your injuries. These cases may involve both the vehicle operator and manufacturer liability.
• Radiation and Chemical Burn Cases: We represent victims of radiation burn injuries from medical malpractice, industrial accidents involving radioactive materials, ultraviolet exposure, and chemical burn incidents where protective equipment failed or hazardous substances were improperly handled.
• Wrongful Death Claims: When burns prove fatal, we file wrongful death claim actions on behalf of surviving family members, recovering damages for loss of consortium, funeral expenses, lost financial support, and the pain and suffering your loved one endured before death.

Unique Challenges in Burn Injury Litigation

Burn cases present specific legal hurdles that general practice firms often fail to navigate.

We have the resources and trial experience to handle the most complex scenarios, including:

• Workers' Compensation Limits: While you generally cannot sue your employer, we identify third parties—such as equipment manufacturers or subcontractors—who can be sued for full damages in a personal injury lawsuit. This dual-track approach maximizes your total compensation beyond the limited nursing care and medical benefits workers' comp provides.
• The "Serious Injury" Threshold: For burn injuries arising from covered motor vehicle accidents, we work to prove that your scarring and disfigurement satisfy New York’s ‘serious injury’ threshold under Insurance Law § 5102(d). We work with plastic surgeons and burn specialists who testify about permanent impairment to establish serious injury to pursue full pain‑and‑suffering damages beyond basic no‑fault benefits.‍
• Shared Liability: Even if you were partially at fault for the accident, New York's pure comparative negligence laws allow us to recover a portion of your damages. The defendant cannot escape liability by arguing you share some responsibility.‍
• Punitive Damages in Cases of Gross Negligence: When defendants act with reckless disregard for safety—such as landlords who knowingly violate fire codes or manufacturers who hide known product defects—we pursue punitive damages to punish egregious conduct and deter future negligence.

How Common Are Fire, Explosion, & Burn Injuries in New York City?

New York City faces a severe burn injury crisis that sets it apart from other major metropolitan areas. Our New York fire accident lawyers and burn injury attorneys leverage this data to prove your case is part of a systemic pattern of preventable negligence—not an isolated incident.

NYC Burn Injury Statistics (2010-2023)

According to a comprehensive study of NYC burn hospitalizations, 11,444 burn injury hospitalizations occurred across New York City from 2010-2019, with significant disparities by neighborhood and demographic factors. This translates to over 1,100 severe burn injuries requiring hospitalization every year in New York City alone.

How Many Fires Occur in NYC Each Year?

The FDNY reported 23,901 structural fires and 12,594 non-structural fires in FY 2023 alone—totaling over 36,000 fire incidents in a single year.

How Deadly Are Apartment Fires in New York?

104 civilian fire deaths occurred citywide in 2023, with residential structure fires accounting for the majority of fatalities across all five boroughs. The Bronx and Brooklyn experienced the highest fire death rates, often in aging apartment buildings with code violations.

Is New York's Fire Injury Rate Higher Than Other States?

Yes. Research from the FEMA U.S. Fire Administration shows that New York has a higher rate of fire injuries per 1,000 fires than the national average, particularly in aging apartment buildings where landlord negligence creates preventable fire hazards through faulty wiring, missing smoke detectors, and blocked fire escapes.

New York Laws We Use to Prove Landlord Negligence

We are deeply familiar with the specific local codes that govern fire safety and building maintenance in New York City:

• New York City Housing Maintenance Code: Requires landlords to install and maintain smoke detectors, keep electrical systems in safe condition, and provide adequate egress.
• New York State Multiple Dwelling Law: Establishes fire safety standards for apartment buildings including sprinkler systems, fire-resistant construction, and emergency lighting.
• Administrative Code of NYC: Sets specific requirements for boiler temperatures, electrical inspections, and building maintenance.

When landlords violate these codes, we establish negligence per se—meaning the violation itself proves negligence, shifting the burden of proof onto the defendant to explain why they ignored the law.

We also leverage occupational safety data showing workplace burn accidents in employment settings—from construction sites to restaurant kitchens—often stem from systematic safety failures rather than worker error.

NYC's dense construction environment, aging infrastructure, and high-volume food service industry create unique burn injury risks that OSHA data shows are preventable with proper safety protocols.

This data supports our negligence claims and helps establish the defendant's breach of duty of care, proving your accident was foreseeable and preventable.

Average Burn Injury Settlement Amounts: What is My Claim Worth?

There is no fixed average for a New York burn injury settlement because value is determined by the severity of your injuries and the available insurance coverage. However, we focus on securing compensation that covers your Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI) and total Life Care Plan costs.

Factors that drive your New York burn settlement value:

• Total Body Surface Area (TBSA): Higher percentages of burn coverage significantly increase non-economic damage awards for pain and suffering.
• Degree of Burn: 3rd-degree burns and 4th-degree burns requiring skin grafts and affecting deeper tissue, muscle, and bone command higher settlement tiers.
• Location of Scarring: Permanent disfigurement to the face or hands results in higher "loss of enjoyment of life" compensation and loss of consortium damages for spouses.
• Liability Cap: The total insurance policy limits available from all defendants, including umbrella policies that extend coverage beyond standard limits.
• Medical Evidence: Documentation from expert witnesses including burn surgeons, pain management specialists, and medical economists who calculate lifetime costs.
• Employment Impact: Lost wages and reduced earning capacity when burn injuries prevent you from returning to your career in nursing, construction, or other fields requiring physical ability.

According to the American Burn Association, many burn injury victims require hospitalization, surgery, and long-term rehabilitation. We make sure your settlement accounts for decades of specialized care.

We understand the medical reality of how burns destroy the epidermis and deeper tissue layers, affecting muscle, bone, and nerve function permanently.

Types of Damages We Recover for New York Families

In New York personal injury claims, we recover economic and non-economic damages for victims of serious burns, ensuring your settlement accounts for both immediate trauma and future medical necessities.

Economic Damages

We work with medical economists to calculate your total financial loss, including:

• Emergency Burn Center Care: Costs can often exceed $500,000 for initial stabilization and ICU stays where medical professionals treat the wound, prevent infection, and stabilize vital signs.
• Future Reconstructive Surgeries: We project costs for the 5-15 surgeries typically required over a decade to repair damaged skin, tissue, and underlying structures.
• Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation: Long-term physical therapy to prevent contractures, maintain mobility, and regain function in burned areas.
• Lost Wages: Compensation for the time you are unable to work and your reduced future earning capacity across your remaining employment years.
• Medical Equipment and Supplies: Specialized wound care products, pressure garments, pain management devices, and adaptive equipment.
• Property Damage: Replacement of personal belongings destroyed in fires or explosions.

Non-Economic Damages

We specialize in proving the "Serious Injury Threshold" under NY Insurance Law § 5102(d) by documenting the profound impact of your symptoms:

• Neuropathic Burn Pain: We document how exposed nerve endings cause chronic agony that medication cannot fully resolve—pain management becomes a lifelong necessity affecting your quality of life daily.
• Permanent Scarring and Disfigurement: Scar tissue that limits mobility, causes psychological trauma, and affects employment opportunities when visible on the face, hands, or other exposed areas. Research shows that burn injuries involving the hands significantly impacts functional outcomes, affecting your ability to work, perform daily tasks, and maintain independence.
• Psychological Trauma: We fight for damages related to PTSD, anxiety, depression, emotional distress and the social impact of permanent disfigurement that affects your mental health and family relationships.
• Loss of Consortium: Compensation for spouses who lose companionship, affection, and intimacy due to your catastrophic injuries.
• Pain and Suffering: The physical agony of the initial burns, repeated surgeries, wound care, and chronic pain conditions that persist for years or life.
• Loss of Quality of Life: Inability to participate in activities you enjoyed before—from playing with children to pursuing hobbies and careers that required physical ability.

Additional Damages in Severe Cases

• Neck Pain After a Car Accident: We hold insurers accountable when cervical trauma complicates burn recovery in motor vehicle accidents, ensuring underlying spinal damage is valued properly alongside burn injuries.
• Traumatic Brain Injury: If an explosion caused a concussion or blast injury, we secure compensation for long-term cognitive impairment requiring ongoing medical attention and affecting communication abilities.
• Smoke Inhalation Injuries: When fire accidents cause respiratory damage requiring long-term pulmonary care and affecting lung tissue permanently.
• Cancer Risk: We account for increased cancer risk from radiation burn exposure and toxic chemical burns that require lifelong monitoring and early detection protocols.

Recent New York Burn Injury Case Results

Our personal injury lawyers have a proven history of securing maximum burn accident compensation for survivors across New York through skilled negotiation and trial when necessary.

No amount can fully restore health or replace the suffering burn victims endure, our commitment is to secure justice and every dollar of compensation you deserve.

Recent client results:

• $6,550,000 settlement: For a Queens resident who suffered life‑altering burns when a towering, dried‑out Christmas tree ignited a devastating apartment fire in New York City. Our team conducted a nationwide asset search that uncovered an additional $1,000,000 in previously undisclosed insurance coverage, significantly increasing the recovery available to our client.
• $25,500 settlement (secured within 90 days): For a New York woman who suffered hand and wrist burns after an improperly secured coffee‑cup lid at a Dunkin’ Donuts location caused scalding coffee to spill onto her skin, a risk that has led to similar hot‑coffee burn lawsuits across the country.
• $25,000 settlement: For an airline passenger from the Bronx who sustained second‑degree burns when a flight attendant spilled hot coffee on her during in‑flight turbulence, causing painful scald injuries consistent with what burn specialists describe as deep, blistering partial‑thickness burns.
• Max‑policy settlement: For a young man in Nassau County who suffered second‑degree burns at a Whole Foods store when a heat lamp on an open shelf contacted his hand, creating a localized but intensely painful thermal injury requiring professional medical treatment.
• Max‑policy settlement: For a Queens woman who suffered burns during a moxibustion treatment performed by an acupuncturist, an avoidable injury consistent with published medical literature identifying burns as the most common adverse event associated with moxibustion when it is performed improperly or too close to the skin.

Note: Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. Every case is unique.

Why New York Burn Victims Choose Raphaelson & Levine

New Yorkers choose us because of our core values—the 4 R's: Resources, Respect, Reputation, and Results.

We maintain relationships with leading burn specialists and physicians at Weill Cornell, NYU Langone, and ABA-verified burn centers including the Burn Center at Westchester Medical Center to ensure our clients receive gold-standard comprehensive burn care while we handle the legal battle.

Local Burn Injury Attorneys in NYC: Our burn injury attorneys have decades of combined experience in New York personal injury law, with deep expertise in catastrophic burn cases. We understand the medical complexities—from epidermis damage to deeper nerve, muscle, and bone injuries—and how these injuries affect every aspect of life for New Yorkers.

Trial-Ready Approach: While many burn injury attorneys settle quickly, we prepare every case for trial. Insurance companies know we have secured multiple million-dollar verdicts and settlements through litigation, which motivates them to make fair offers during negotiation rather than face us in court.

No-Win, No-Fee Guarantee: We operate on a strict No-Win, No-Fee basis, meaning you never pay a cent upfront for our services. We advance all costs for expert witnesses, medical records, investigations, and trial preparation. You only pay attorney fees if we recover compensation through settlement or verdict.

Comprehensive Support: We coordinate with medical providers to ensure you receive proper wound care, physical therapy, pain management, and psychological counseling. We understand that healing from burn injuries requires a team approach involving legal advocacy, medical treatment, and family support.

Related Practice Areas

Our personal injury law firm handles all types of catastrophic injury cases throughout New York City:

• Car Accidents: When motor vehicle accidents result in burn injuries from vehicle fires or explosions
• Motorcycle Accidents: Thermal burns from road rash and vehicle fires affecting riders
• Truck Accidents: Commercial vehicle accidents involving hazardous materials and fuel fires
• Dog Bite Cases: Animal attacks requiring medical treatment and causing permanent scarring
• Premises Liability: Property owner negligence causing injuries on unsafe premises
• Product Liability: Defective products causing injuries including burns, lacerations, and other harm

Our New York personal injury attorneys serve clients throughout Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Long Island, and Upstate New York with the same commitment to excellence and client communication.

New York Burn Injury FAQs

Injured in a Fire or Explosion? Start Your Recovery Today

Time is critical in a burn injury case. Evidence disappears, witnesses forget details, and strict legal deadlines under the statute of limitations are counting down. Insurance companies begin building their defense immediately, hiring their own expert witnesses to minimize your claim.

At Raphaelson & Levine, we fight to protect your rights and secure the maximum compensation you deserve for medical bills, lost employment income, pain and suffering, and loss of quality of life. Our burn injury lawyer team has secured over $1 Billion for injured clients through dedicated advocacy, aggressive negotiation, and trial litigation when necessary.

Whether your significant burn injuries resulted from a car accident, truck collision, motorcycle crash, premises liability incident, product defect, workplace explosion, chemical burn exposure, electrical burns, flame burn, thermal burn, radiation burn, fire related injuries or any other negligent act—we have the expertise to handle your personal injury claim.

Call Raphaelson & Levine now at (212) 268-3222 for a free, confidential case evaluation with a New York City burn injury lawyer nearby.

You pay nothing unless we win. Let us fight for the justice and financial compensation you and your family deserve while you focus on healing and medical recovery with proper physical therapy, pain management, wound care, and psychological support.

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