Los Angeles Burn Injury Lawyer

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

Los Angeles County has two ABA-verified burn centers, and in 2026 its superior court changed how it assigns injury cases. Burn degrees, grafts and damages in general are explained in our main burn injury lawyer guide, and statewide rules are on the California burn injury page.

Where a Los Angeles burn case is heard

A burn lawsuit seeking more than $35,000 is an unlimited civil case. In 2026 the Los Angeles Superior Court closed its Personal Injury Hub, which had been based mainly at the Spring Street Courthouse, and returned personal injury cases to independent calendar courts, where one judge handles a case from start to finish (Daily Journal, April 3, 2026). Downtown, independent calendar courtrooms such as Department 61 sit in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111 N. Hill Street (Los Angeles Superior Court, Department 61).

The court also has courthouses in other parts of the county, and choosing where to file is a decision your lawyer should make at the start of the case.

Where serious burns are treated in Los Angeles

Two Los Angeles County burn centers are verified by the American Burn Association. A third, in West Hills, is designated locally.

Sources: ABA Find a Burn Center, California EMSA burn center list, Dec. 2, 2025, UCLA Health, and the LA County burn resource manual for the LA General address.

LA General is also a Level I adult trauma center. So are Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to the state’s trauma center list (California EMSA, Aug. 2025). That matters when a burn comes with other injuries, such as a fall from a burning building or a crash fire.

The county plans for the day its burn beds run out. Its 2024 burn manual counts 62 burn beds in Los Angeles County and sets up a surge plan for any incident with 20 or more burn patients. Under that plan, an adult with second- or third-degree burns over 20% or more of the body, or a child 14 or younger with 10% or more, is treated as a major or critical burn and routed to one of 15 burn resource centers (LA County EMS Agency burn manual). Our burn center directory lists every verified center in California with addresses.

Wildfire burns: January 2025

The Palisades Fire started on January 7, 2025, and burned 23,448 acres. CAL FIRE’s incident page counts 6,845 structures destroyed, 975 damaged, 12 civilian deaths and three civilian injuries (CAL FIRE incident page). During the January fires, four patients were treated for severe burns at the West Hills burn center and one at LA General, the Los Angeles Times reported (LA Times via The Spokesman-Review).

Wildfire claims often turn on what started the fire and whether a utility or a public agency could have prevented it. Claims against a public entity carry the six-month deadline described below, which is far shorter than most families expect.

Apartment fires in Los Angeles

On January 5, 2024, a fire broke out on the third floor of a residential building in the 500 block of East Seventh Street downtown. A 69-year-old man suffered what the Los Angeles Fire Department described as severe second-degree burns over 30% of his body and was taken to a hospital in critical condition (CBS Los Angeles).

In an apartment fire case we look at the building’s smoke alarms and fire doors, whether exits were blocked, the wiring and gas appliances, and what the owner and manager knew about earlier problems. Our page on apartment fires explains landlord liability in detail.

Hot drinks and kitchens

A widely reported hot drink case was tried in this city. A Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned a $50 million verdict on March 14, 2025 for Michael Garcia, a delivery driver who was burned when a drink spilled as he picked up an order at a Starbucks drive-through (ABC7). On June 4, 2025 Judge Frederick Shaller turned down Starbucks’ requests for a new trial and a lower judgment (Courthouse News). Starbucks had said it would appeal, but the case settled later that month and was dismissed in July 2025; the terms were not made public (LASC case summary). The American Burn Association’s scald table explains why these cases are serious: liquid at 155°F can cause a third-degree burn in about one second (ABA scald guide). See our pages on scald burns and the Garcia v. Starbucks case.

Kitchen and plant workers in Los Angeles are burned on the job too. A workers’ compensation claim does not stop you from suing a company other than your employer, such as the maker of equipment that failed or a separate contractor working on the same site (Cal. Labor Code § 3852). Our workplace and refinery burns page covers those claims.

California rules for a Los Angeles burn claim

More on these rules, and our accident practice in the city, is on our Los Angeles accident lawyer page.

Talk to a Los Angeles burn injury attorney

Our office is in Los Angeles, at 4929 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 960, so we can meet you or your family near LA General or anywhere else in the city. Call Beverly Law at (310) 552-6959 for a free, confidential review in English or Spanish. You owe no fees or costs unless we win.

Common questions

Related pages

Burn Injury Lawyer

Important: This page is general information, not legal or medical advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different; talk to a lawyer about yours. Texas cases are handled by the firm’s Texas-licensed attorneys, Joyce Ondich and John Efstathiou. Last reviewed: November 6, 2026.