Many people recognize the necessity of a hot cup of coffee as they start their day. Yet, there are times when a hot cup of coffee can cause serious injuries that could easily lead to costly medical bills and complications.
From a legal perspective, knowing what to do after you suffer a burn from a coffee shop allows you to hold those who were negligent accountable. At Kwartler Manus, LLC, our Philadelphia personal injury lawyer is ready to fight for you.
First Steps After a Burn
While you may know the importance of seeking medical care to prevent further worsening, getting treatment is also one of the first steps to creating a personal injury case. Get medical care immediately. Document what took place and the extent of your injuries. Then, follow up with your doctor over the coming weeks and head to all appointments they give you.
By taking these steps, you will create documented evidence of your injury, its severity, and your overall losses. We also suggest keeping a log to record all medical care, lost time at work, and daily pain.
Report the Injury to the Coffee Shop
Contact the coffee shop as soon as possible after your accident. Provide a description of what took place, including the time and date when it occurred. Do not admit any fault, but do provide information that you sought medical care. You do not need to provide detailed medical information at this point.
Let them know you will be working with an attorney to handle the legal process. That way, the insurance company knows that you have legal representation.
Contact Our Personal Injury Attorney
When you have a financial loss from a coffee shop burn, you need an attorney to guide you. We encourage you to reach out to our attorneys as soon as possible for guidance. As soon as you contact our attorneys, we begin to build a strong case for you. A component of that process is ensuring you know your compensation rights. Here are some of the steps that you can expect.
We Determine Negligence
To file a personal injury claim, you must demonstrate negligence. That means the coffee shop owed you a level of safety, but they failed to provide it. Their failure led to your accident, and your accident resulted in financial loss.
In this case, we look at what happened. Obviously, many people go to a coffee shop and expect it to be hot. Rather, we look at what factors make this a potential case of negligence:
- Did the coffee shop fail to warn that the drink was hot? If you were expecting a cold coffee and took a big drink, burning yourself, that could be a concern.
- Did the coffee shop fail to provide a safe cup? If the person in the drive-thru spilled the coffee all over you because the lid was not on, that could account for negligence.
- Did the coffee shop’s equipment fail? Perhaps you went into the coffee shop, and the brewing equipment or carafes in the dining room spilled on you, causing burns.
In your case, we review every factor that may have contributed to this incident. That allows our legal team to determine who was responsible.
Gather Evidence to Support Your Claims
Our attorneys handle gathering evidence for you. This might include:
- Video of the event from the coffee shop
- Witness statements indicating what took place
- Your own statement
- Medical documentation about the extent of your injuries
Any information or documentation you have could help build a strong case for you. Share it with our personal injury attorney.
Building the Value of Your Claim
The next step in this process is making it clear what your losses are. To do this, we look at all the losses you have from the accident, including:
- Medical bills from the incident
- Ongoing medical care you may need
- Financial losses from missing time at work
- Emotional trauma and mental anguish
- Disfigurement from scarring
- Pain and suffering
By building a strong case for you, our attorneys will make it clear that someone should pay for your injuries and other losses to the fullest extent of the law. It may not seem like a burn from a cup of coffee can do this, but burns like this can create serious damage to tissue, increase the risk of infection, and cause serious scarring, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Seek Help from a Trusted, Local Burn Injury Attorney
At Kwartler Manus, our burn injury attorneys know that these types of accidents can create serious disruption to your health and life. Let us fight for you to receive fair compensation. Set up a free consultation by giving our legal team a call today. We would be happy to hear about your incident.