If your smoke alarm did not work during a fire and you were injured, you may have lawsuit against your landlord, the company that owns your apartment or rental house. Your smoke alarm lawsuit gives you the right to sue for answers, compensation, and justice.
Our lawyers will gather evidence to help determine if the product was defective. If you were renting, we will investigate a lawsuit against the landlord and others. If you hire our law firm for your defective smoke alarm lawsuit, we will immediately begin an independent investigation to build a case for a lawsuit against a landlord, alarm manufacturer (product liability), and other responsible parties.
Lawyers at Pritzker Hageman recently won a $10-million dollar settlement for a man who had third-degree burns over sixty percent of his body. “It’s crucial to do an independent investigation in any fire case,” said attorney Eric Hageman. “In doing so, we have found liability for failure to provide working alarms.”
Smoke Alarms Save Lives
Property owners are responsible for having working alarms. If a fire causes personal injury or wrongful death and there was not an alarm, the owner of the building may be legally responsible, meaning the company would have to pay “money damages” to those injured and the families of those who died. Compensation can include amounts for medical expenses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, disability, cost of care, lost wages, and other losses.
In an apartment fire lawsuit settled by Pritzker Hageman attorneys, the detector in the apartment did not work, and the landlord had not fixed it. A couch in the apartment caught fire and quickly burned, spreading the fire and filling the apartment with smoke. The mother and one son died. A daughter suffered severe brain damage (cerebral anoxia) from oxygen deprivation.
Proving Your Case
To win your lawsuit, the elements of the case usually include the following:
- Someone had a duty to provide a working smoke detector (landlord, manufacturing plant owner, manufacturer);
- That person or company breached that duty of care;
- The breach of that duty; and
- Damages (losses to the people injured and the families of people killed).
There may be multiple parties that had a duty of care. Depending on the facts of your case, you may be able to sue one or more of the following:
- An employer;
- A property owner (landlord, manufacturing plant owner, office building owner); and/or
- A manufacturer.
When you hire a burn attorney at Pritzker Hageman law firm to represent you, we will thoroughly investigate the fire and determine who should be sued to compensate you for your pain, suffering and financial losses.
Compensation for Burn Injuries
In a case involving a fire alarm that didn’t work compensation generally includes amounts for medical expenses, loss of earnings, disfigurement, disability, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of quality of life.
The degree of the injury is taken into account:
- Second Degree;
- Third Degree;
- Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Degree (some doctors only categorize burns to 4 degrees).
Smoke from fires can cause fatal injuries due to smoke inhalation.
In some cases, it may be possible to make a claim for punitive damages, money in such an amount that is punishes the party at fault.