A child in one of our cases suffered severe second- and third-degree burns from excessively hot water while a guest on the property. We resolved that case for more than $1 million, and it is included in our case results. A Newport burn claim comes down to three things: who was at fault, whose insurance pays, and a filing deadline that does not wait.
Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. represents Newport clients burned by an unsafe property, a defective product, or an accident at work. Which of those it was usually decides who you claim against and whose insurance pays, and it is the first thing worth pinning down.
Who Represents Newport Burn Injury Clients?
Ronald J. Resmini is known for founding court-annexed arbitration in Rhode Island. That grounding in Rhode Island procedure shapes how a burn claim gets built here, whether the burn traces back to a landlord, an employer, or a manufacturer. You can read more about his background on his profile.
We represent Newport clients in workplace accidents, head and brain injuries, and defective products claims. Those are the same categories a burn injury usually comes from.
How Is Fault Decided in a Rhode Island Burn Claim?
Being partly at fault does not end your claim in Rhode Island. It changes the math. The state follows pure comparative negligence, and under § 9-20-4, the fact that you were not fully careful, or that a danger was open and obvious, does not bar recovery. Your damages are reduced instead by the share of fault a judge or jury assigns to you. The statute sets no percentage cutoff for that reduction. The same rule applies whether you are claiming against a property owner or against a product maker.
Expect an insurer to press this point hard. Fault is one of the few arguments pure comparative negligence leaves open to it, and an insurer defending a claim raises fault often. That usually arrives as questions about what you did or did not do around the heat source. Those questions go to your share of an award. They do not decide whether you have a claim at all.
Who Pays for a Burn Injury in Newport?
The at-fault party’s liability insurer pays. Rhode Island does not route a burn claim through your own policy first, so the question that matters early is who was responsible for the hazard, not what your own coverage says.
If the burn happened in a vehicle, the at-fault driver’s policy is the starting point, and for a serious burn it is often nowhere near large enough. A driver can meet Rhode Island law with as little as $25,000 per person for bodily injury, defined at § 31-47-2(13)(i)(A). That figure is a floor, not a ceiling. The driver may well carry more, so what the policy really covers is worth finding out early rather than assuming the minimum.
Your own policy matters here too. Under § 27-7-2.1(a), the insurer shall provide uninsured motorist coverage equal to the bodily injury liability limits on the policy. The named insured can sign down to a lower limit in writing, but never below the state minimum limits. That same statute treats an underinsured driver the same as an uninsured one, so uninsured motorist coverage can still have a part to play where the at-fault driver carried too little insurance for the harm done.
Where Does a Burn Injury Claim Come From?
A Newport burn claim usually starts in one of three places, and which one applies decides who you claim against:
- A property owner’s failure to keep the premises safe.
- A defective or unreasonably dangerous product.
- An injury that happened on the job.
A burn from excessively hot water or an exposed heat source at a rental or a business most often falls into the first group, unsafe premises.
Where the burn happened at work, the picture changes. § 28-29-20 makes workers’ compensation the exclusive remedy against an employer that carries the coverage the law requires, and that exclusivity reaches the employer’s directors, officers, agents and employees too.
A workplace burn often involves someone beyond your employer, though. § 28-35-58 preserves a separate claim against anyone other than the employer whose actions created the liability, such as a subcontractor, a property owner, or the maker of defective equipment. You can pursue that claim and collect workers’ compensation at the same time. For a serious burn, the third-party claim is often the larger of the two, so it is worth working out early who else was on that job site.
How Long Do You Have to File a Newport Burn Injury Claim?
Three years, counted in most burn cases from the date of the injury. The clock runs from when the claim accrues, and under § 9-1-14(b), an action for injury to the person must be commenced within three years of accrual. A small number of exceptions can move that date. Miss the deadline, though, and the claim usually ends before anyone examines how the burn happened.
Where a burn results in death, the timing works differently. § 10-7-2 gives three years from the date of death, or from when a wrongful act unknown at the time was or should have been discovered. That claim belongs to the estate, so the executor or administrator appointed to handle the estate is the one who brings it. Family members have their own separate claims, under § 10-7-1.2, for the companionship they have lost. A defendant found liable in a wrongful death case owes damages of not less than $350,000, a statutory floor rather than a figure a family will necessarily collect.
Three years sounds like a long time. It goes quickly when you are still in treatment and the evidence about how the burn happened sits on someone else’s property.
Where Is a Newport Burn Injury Claim Heard?
Usually in Superior Court, and where you file turns on where the parties live rather than on where you were burned. Venue in Rhode Island’s Superior Court depends on where you or the defendant live, or where a defendant can be found, under § 9-4-3. A burn injury claim serious enough to need a lawyer typically proceeds in Superior Court.
So a Newport burn claim is not automatically a Newport filing. That holds whether the burn happened at a private home, a business, or a job site in the city.
Newport Burn Injury FAQs
Can an insurer deny my claim because the burn hazard was obvious?
No. Under § 9-20-4, an open and obvious danger does not bar recovery on its own. Insurers often argue that hot water or an exposed flame was obvious, but that argument only affects how fault is divided. It does not block recovery.
Will my own health insurance pay for treatment while my claim is open?
Generally, yes. Your health insurer typically covers treatment as it happens, while the at-fault party’s liability insurer is the one who ultimately pays for the claim itself once it resolves. Health insurers commonly seek reimbursement from any settlement you receive. That is standard in Rhode Island’s at-fault system, where your own coverage is not the final payer.
Does uninsured motorist coverage protect a family member who was burned in my car?
Rhode Island’s uninsured motorist statute counts an underinsured driver as uninsured. Whether a household member counts as an insured under your policy depends on how that policy defines who it covers. So the next step is to pull out your own auto policy and read its definitions section alongside the uninsured motorist limit it shows. This comes up often after a vehicle fire or an airbag-related burn, so it is worth doing early rather than once the claim is already underway.
What happens when I contact Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. about a Newport burn injury?
We offer a free consultation to talk through what happened. As we put it, “We promise to call back within the hour if we are busy, and we personally take your calls, not a call center.”
Does Rhode Island have no-fault insurance for a burn injury from a car accident?
No. Rhode Island is a traditional at-fault state, with no PIP and no tort threshold to clear first. The at-fault party’s insurer pays the claim, and your own auto policy is not the first stop. People who have lived in a no-fault state often assume the same rule applies here.
Can I collect workers' compensation and still bring a claim for a workplace burn?
Often, yes. If someone other than your employer caused your injury, a subcontractor or a property owner or the maker of defective equipment, you can pursue that person for damages while you collect workers’ compensation. The compensation is then reimbursed out of what you recover.
Will being mostly at fault stop my Newport burn injury claim?
No. Rhode Island sets no percentage cutoff for fault under § 9-20-4. Someone found mostly at fault is not barred from recovering. The award is simply reduced by that share, and the statute itself sets no cutoff at which a claim fails.
Do I have to file my Newport burn injury claim in Newport?
No. Where the claim gets filed turns on where you or the defendant live, or where the defendant can be found, not on where you were burned. A burn claim serious enough to need a lawyer usually proceeds in Superior Court. So the city the burn happened in does not settle which courthouse the case goes to, whether it was a private home, a business, or a job site.
Talk to Us About Your Newport Burn Injury Claim
Rhode Island gives you a limited window to file, and how the burn happened decides which deadline and which court apply. Law Offices of Ronald J. Resmini, Accident & Injury Lawyers, Ltd. can go through the details with you, whether the claim involves a property owner, a product, or a workplace, and explain the options. Call 401-367-4655 or contact us to set up a time to talk. The consultation is free.