Arkansas 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 Arkansas

Water does not have to boil to cause a severe burn. The CPSC reports burns after six seconds at 140°F or thirty seconds at 130°F (CPSC). A third-degree burn damages or destroys the skin to its full depth and harms the tissue underneath (NIH/NIGMS).

Arkansas has no ABA-verified burn center, so ask the treating hospital how it handles serious burns and whether a transfer makes sense. Write down the date, the place and the people involved. Keep the product and photos of the scene. The Arkansas Bar Association’s “Arkansas Find a Lawyer” page is an online directory of lawyers; it is not a referral service, and the ArkBar is a voluntary bar (ArkBar).

The deadline to file in Arkansas

This page does not state a general filing period for Arkansas burn claims, because we have not confirmed one against an Arkansas court decision applying it to personal injury. Treat the deadline as short and get an Arkansas lawyer’s answer early.

What Martin v. Arthur (Ark. 1999) does settle is when the clock usually starts. The court wrote that “the statute in negligence cases begins to run from the date the negligent act is committed.” Only a positive act of fraudulent concealment tolls it. Product-liability claims work differently: they carry three years under § 16-116-103 and do not accrue until the plaintiff knew, or by reasonable diligence should have discovered, the causal link between the product and the injury.

Government defendants raise other issues. Counties, cities, school districts and other political subdivisions are immune from suit for damages except to the extent they are covered by liability insurance, and no notice-of-claim requirement appears in that statute (§ 21-9-301). Claims against the State itself go to the Arkansas State Claims Commission. Ask a lawyer about that commission’s filing deadline right away.

How fault works in Arkansas

Arkansas uses modified comparative fault with a 50% bar. Under § 16-64-122(b), if the fault chargeable to the person claiming damages is equal to or greater in degree than the fault chargeable to the defendants, that person cannot recover (§ 16-64-122).

Suppose a customer is burned by a steam line at a car wash. If the jury finds the customer 30% at fault for stepping past a warning cone, the customer recovers 70%. If the jury splits fault evenly, the customer gets nothing, because a tie bars the claim in Arkansas.

Damages and caps in Arkansas

Article 5, section 32 of the Arkansas Constitution bars any law limiting the amount recovered for personal injury or death outside the employer-employee relationship. Relying on it, the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the statutory punitive damages cap in Bayer CropScience LP v. Schafer, 2011 Ark. 518.

To win punitive damages, you must show by clear and convincing evidence (§ 16-55-207) that the defendant knew or should have known its conduct would naturally and probably cause injury and kept going with malice or in reckless disregard, or that it intentionally pursued conduct for the purpose of causing injury (§ 16-55-206).

Burns at work in Arkansas

Workers’ compensation rights and remedies are exclusive of all other rights and remedies of the employee (§ 11-9-105(a)). The statute’s only exception is an employer that fails to secure compensation. Then the employee may claim compensation or sue for damages (§ 11-9-105(b)(1)). The text has no intentional-injury exception.

Filing a comp claim does not affect your right to sue a third party, for example a contractor whose torch work started a fire at your workplace (§ 11-9-410(a)(1)(A)). The employer or carrier gets notice and may join the suit, and it holds a first lien on two-thirds of the net proceeds, after reasonable collection costs, for compensation paid or payable (§ 11-9-410(a)(1)(B)).

Burn centers in Arkansas

The ABA directory lists one burn center in Arkansas, and it is not verified.

Arkansas has no ABA-verified burn center. The ABA directory shows no verified center in neighboring Missouri either, so the list below covers the verified centers in Texas.

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

Who may be liable for a burn

Start with whoever controlled the source of the heat: a landlord who ignored a broken thermostat, a restaurant that served soup hot enough to scald, or the maker of a phone battery that failed. Contractors who are not your employer, and utilities that maintain gas and power lines, can share the fault as well.

How Beverly Law helps in Arkansas

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

Related pages

• Burn injury lawyer · Burn injury law by state · Burn centers · Texas · Missouri

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

Common questions

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Burn Injury Lawyer

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.