Massachusetts Burn Injury Lawyer: Your Rights After a Burn

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By Michael Shemtoub, trial attorney, Beverly Law. Updated November 2026.

What to do after a burn in Massachusetts

Call 911 for a serious burn. The American Burn Association’s referral guidelines call for burn center consultation for full-thickness burns, partial-thickness burns over 10% or more of the body, deep burns of the face, hands, feet, genitals or joints, and every chemical injury.

Keep whatever caused the burn and the clothes you wore, photograph the wound as it heals, and ask the business in writing to save its video.

The Department of Fire Services publishes state fire data and runs the Massachusetts Burn Injury Reporting System (M-BIRS) with the Department of Public Health (Fire Data and Statistics). The Massachusetts Bar Association runs a Lawyer Referral Service.

The deadline to file in Massachusetts

Personal injury suits must be started within three years after the cause of action accrues under G.L. c. 260, § 2A. Claims against doctors and hospitals also get three years, with a seven-year repose limit that does not apply to foreign objects (c. 260, § 4).

Accrual can come later than the injury. Under the discovery rule in Bowen v. Eli Lilly & Co., 408 Mass. 204 (1990), the claim accrues when the plaintiff discovers, or reasonably should have discovered, that she was harmed by the defendant’s conduct.

Public employers have their own first step. Under G.L. c. 258, § 4, you must present the claim in writing to the public employer’s executive officer within two years after the cause of action arose. For the Commonwealth and its agencies, that is the Attorney General. For a city or town, the statute names officials such as the mayor or clerk. The lawsuit itself is due within three years.

How fault works in Massachusetts

Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence under G.L. c. 231, § 85. Your negligence is compared with the total negligence of everyone you sue. More than 50% bars the claim. At 50% or less, your damages shrink by your share.

Say a guest at a rented lake house is burned when a gas fire pit flares. The jury puts 40% on the guest, 35% on the owner and 25% on the maker. Because 40% is less than the defendants’ combined 60%, the guest recovers 60% of the damages.

Damages and caps in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has no common-law punitive damages. They exist only where a statute expressly allows them (Flesner v. Technical Communications Corp., 410 Mass. 805 (1991)). The main one is the wrongful death statute, G.L. c. 229, § 2, which allows punitive damages of not less than $5,000 when death was caused by malicious, willful, wanton or reckless conduct or by gross negligence. Section 2 states no cap or burden of proof.

The § 60H exceptions cover substantial disfigurement and substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function, along with other special circumstances.

Burns at work in Massachusetts

Under G.L. c. 152, § 24, an employee who did not reserve common-law rights in writing at hire is held to have waived suit against the employer for a compensable injury. There is no intentional-injury exception. Compensation is doubled instead when the employer’s serious and willful misconduct caused the injury (§ 28).

Under § 15, you can take benefits and still sue a liable third party, like a contractor who left a wire live. The insurer can also sue once it has paid and seven months have passed. The recovery first repays the insurer and the excess goes to you. Attorney fees are shared in proportion, and settlements need board or court approval.

Burn centers in Massachusetts

Both Massachusetts centers in the ABA directory are ABA-verified, and both are in Boston: one for children, one for adults.

Source: American Burn Association, Find a Burn Center, directory checked November 2026.

Who may be liable for a burn

A burn often has more than one responsible party. A property owner may answer for a broken heater or scalding tap water. A contractor hired by your employer may have started a fire on site. A product maker can be responsible for a battery or pressure cooker that failed, and a utility for a gas leak or downed line. A restaurant can be at fault for a drink handed over with a loose lid. The ABA says hot drinks are usually served at 160 to 180°F, and its scald table shows 155°F water can cause a third-degree burn in one second (ABA scald guide).

How Beverly Law helps in Massachusetts

Beverly Law is a California firm, and its attorneys are licensed in California and Washington. When someone is burned in Massachusetts, the firm works with licensed Massachusetts attorneys through its referral network. A free case review connects you with a Massachusetts-licensed burn injury attorney, usually within one business day.

Related pages

• Burn injury lawyer · Burn injury law by state · Burn centers · Rhode Island · New Hampshire

This page is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws change; a lawyer licensed in Massachusetts can tell you how they apply to your case.

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Important: Attorney Advertising. This page is general information, not legal or medical advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Beverly Law is a California firm whose attorneys are licensed in California and Washington; for injuries in other states it works with attorneys licensed there through its referral network. Last reviewed: November 6, 2026.