Tanning bed burns are severe skin wounds caused by overexposure to ultraviolet radiation in a commercial tanning unit. The primary cause of the burns is often attributed to malfunctioning equipment, inadequate maintenance, or operator negligence. These injuries range from mild skin erythema to deep tissue injuries requiring surgical care and skin grafting.
What is the legal feasibility of suing a California tanning salon over such injuries? In this blog, you learn how statutory torts and gross negligence can supersede the normal scope of liability waivers. It will be based on the Filante Tanning Facility Act, the California Business and Professions Code § § 22700-22708, and the California Supreme Court decision in City of Santa Barbara v. Superior Court. The legislation made it clear that the public policy cannot enforce gross negligence waivers.
You also learn how these particular legal frameworks provide a pathway for recourse despite having signed a release form. However, this is only if the salon's actions were more than mere negligence and qualified as recklessness.
Ordinary vs. Gross Negligence
The liability waiver that you signed is the first document that the defense counsel of the tanning salon will provide. You may recall that you signed the form, acknowledging that you were aware of the dangers of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and accepted the risk of injury, without holding the business liable for any resulting injuries.
Although this waiver is an effective defense in most cases, it can be contested in California. The nature of the negligence that caused your burn is the sole basis for its legal authority. You have to learn the difference between gross and ordinary negligence.
rdinary Negligence
Ordinary negligence consists of a mere failure to take reasonable care, for example, the failure of an employee who fails to wipe down a bed to a standard of perfection. In case your injury was caused by a simple and unintentional error that is regarded by the law as an inherent risk, the waiver you signed is likely to be enforced by a court, because the right of adults to contract against their right to sue because of simple negligence is respected in California law.
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Gross Negligence
The law becomes significantly different when the actions of a salon cross into the realm of gross negligence. The case was based on the precedent established by the California Supreme Court in City of Santa Barbara v. Superior Court. The court ruled that liability waivers cannot be enforced when they aim to protect a defendant against liability in cases involving increased levels of misconduct.
According to the court, gross negligence is a gross deviation from the usual standard of behavior or a careless attitude towards the safety of others. In case the tanning salon was grossly negligent, the waiver that you signed would be void. Gross negligence of a tanning salon is something that extends way beyond an error.
Examples include:
- When an employee manipulates a safety timer to allow you a longer session than the maximum allowed by the manufacturer
- When a person with fair skin that always burns, Fitzpatrick Skin Type I, is placed by an operator into a high-intensity bed
- The use of non-compatible replacement bulbs, which are rated as hotter and produce radiation levels many times greater than those of the bed, without changing exposure times
In the above examples, the salon was aware that it was putting you in a risky situation, and the waiver would not defend them.
Violation of the Filante Tanning Facility Act
Your case against a tanning salon is strengthened by the regulatory framework, specifically the Filante Tanning Facility Act. This is a stringent law with non-negotiable obligations for tanning facilities. In cases where a salon breaches a law intended to safeguard the population and your injury results from the breach, it gives rise to the legal term of negligence per se. The court assumes the salon was at fault, as it violated the law, and places the burden of proof on your side.
Under 18 Ban
The prohibition of minors is one of the most critical parts of this act. It is illegal for any person under 18 to use an ultraviolet tanning device in California. In the case of a minor or a parent of a minor who was burned, the facility has violated the statute. Since the waiver was signed in the furtherance of an illegal act, it is invalid in the first instance. A contract cannot conceal the fact that the service offered was unlawful.
Timer Accuracy
The equipment is another area where the Act has strict requirements concerning timers. The legislation stipulates that all tanning devices must have a timer within a range of ten percent. More importantly, this timer should be placed remotely in a way that prevents you, the customer, from determining your own exposure time. The operator must regulate the session time. If the salon allowed you to set your own time or they had a broken timer that could not be turned off, they have breached their statutory responsibility.
Mandatory Warnings
Moreover, the legislation requires specific warnings on photosensitivity. The salon must provide you with a written statement indicating that certain medications may cause abnormal skin sensitivity or severe burning. These consist of the usual medications like antibiotics, diuretics, and birth control pills.
There are numerous cases of burns caused by the fact that a client was using such a medication as doxycycline, which made the skin hypersensitive to UV light. If the salon did not provide this required written warning, it violated one of the main legal requirements.
Evidence You Must Preserve When Building Your Case
When you feel that your burn injury was the result of negligence, your lawsuit depends upon the evidence you collect right after the accident. You should do so quickly because tanning salons often alter surveillance footage, and in their daily business operations, they frequently shred maintenance records, which are crucial in supporting your statement.
Medical Records
The initial step you need to take is to ensure that you have complete medical records. You should consult the doctor as soon as possible. An official diagnosis by a doctor, in which you were burned with the first, second, or third degree, is non-negotiable in determining damages and providing an official connection between your injury and the tanning session.
Without it, the defense will be able to claim that you have been burned by someone else. Meanwhile, you should start a photographic record of your injuries and capture high-resolution images of them daily to track the blistering and peeling process, as well as any subsequent scarring.
Preservation Letter
You or your lawyer should send a preservation letter to the tanning salon. This formal legal correspondence requires them to preserve every piece of evidence, such as surveillance videos of the date of your visit, which can be used to demonstrate the amount of time you spent in the room. Above all, it enables them to maintain documentation of the maintenance logs for the particular bed you occupied.
These records are the black box of your case, including the time bulbs, the hours they were used, and when they were replenished. This fact is essential because new bulbs produce much more UV radiation. In the case where a salon has installed new lamps but failed to decrease exposure time, which is one of the standard safety measures, the logs will indicate negligence. They also indicate whether the salon used improper, high-output bulbs, which is a common cause of severe burns.
Reimbursement of Your Torts
When you sue a careless tanning salon, you are demanding that they pay you damages to recover your losses. Knowing the types of damages available will assist you in determining the possible value of your claim.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the measurable financial losses that you have incurred. This covers all your past and future medical bills related to your burn, including:
- Emergency room visits
- Dermatologist appointments
- Prescription creams
- Corrective surgeries, such as skin grafting
Lost wages also fall under this category. If your burn was so intense that you were unable to work, you are allowed to be compensated for the lost revenue. You can also claim loss of earning capacity in case the injury leads to permanent damage, which affects your performance in terms of doing your job in the future.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages cover the intangible, subjective damages resulting from your injury. This involves the physical pain and suffering with the excruciating burns and the emotional pain, anxiety, and depression that have mostly come after such a traumatic experience. Moreover, non-economic damages are applied to permanent scarring and disfigurement.
If you are left with scars from the burn, the law considers that this will be a significant loss to quality of life and will compensate you. California does not impose any limit on pain and suffering damages in this kind of personal injury case.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages may be awarded in instances when the salon's actions were especially outrageous. They are not meant to pay you but to punish the accused. In extreme cases of gross negligence, to recover punitive damages, you must demonstrate that the defendant conducted their actions with malice or a deliberate ignorance of the danger, and that is achievable.
What If I Asked for More Time?
The defense of the tanning salon is likely to blame you. They will probably claim that you had asked them to be given the longest time possible, demanded to use the hardest bed, or did not obey instructions. However, you must be familiar with the doctrine of pure comparative negligence, which is applicable in California, and understand its relevance to your specific situation.
With this law, you cannot be excluded from receiving damages just because you were partly to blame for having caused your own injury. In its place, a court apportions a portion of fault to each party, and the overall damages award of yours is merely decreased by your portion of fault.
For example, a jury finds that you are liable for a total of $100,000 in damages, but you are found to be 40 percent at fault for demanding a longer session with the salon. You would still recover $60,000 from the salon, representing the 60 percent portion of the blame.
More importantly, the salon has a professional responsibility to reject dangerous requests, even if you request an extension of the session. The trained transaction professional is the operator. The Filante Tanning Facility Act and general industry standards require that they restrict exposure based on your skin type and the manufacturer's recommendations. If you request 20 minutes but safety measures define a maximum of 10, the operator is obligated to refuse your request. Their inability to do so is in itself a form of negligence.
This is also a principle that opposes the argument of the assumption of risk. Although you bear the usual risks involved in tanning, such as slight reddening of the skin, you do not bear the risk of the salon's negligence. You cannot expect some defective timer, improperly fitted bulbs, or an operator disregarding the required safety measures.
Your tan request is based on the premise that the equipment is in proper operation and is operating legally. If it was faulty or was not used according to the law, your comparative negligence could be low, no matter what you demand.
Violations of Statutory Duty and Negligence Per Se
The Filante Tanning Facility Act has a legal tool, known as negligence per se, which is often a key factor in securing a settlement. In an ordinary negligence case, you should subjectively insist that a reasonable person would have done something different.
However, once a defendant breaks a safety statute and you suffer as a result, the burden of proving this is removed. The court assumes negligence on the part of the defendant. It is not a question of what a reasonable salon would have done, but just whether they complied with the law.
Consider the need for protective eyewear. The statute states that a facility should not permit an individual to use an ultraviolet tanning device if that individual fails to wear protective eyewear. If you have had your eyes burned, the salon will always fault you because you did not wear the goggles. However, under the statute, they have the responsibility to require you to wear them. Their inability to do this physically prevents them from defending themselves by not following the law.
On the same note, the law requires the facility to ensure that the temperature inside does not exceed 100°F. Tanning beds generate a significant amount of heat. If the malfunctioning air conditioning is the cause of your passing out and getting burnt, then the salon breaching this temperature regulation was the direct cause of your injury.
It is these legal facts that necessitate hiring a specialized attorney. A general practitioner presents a simple case of a burn. One of the specialists finds a failure to place the required warning sign in the appropriate font size or an annual form that was not renewed. All the administrative failures create a picture of a facility that appears to disregard the law. Thus, it becomes much easier to demonstrate that they did not care about the safety precautions that caused you injuries as well.
The Settlement Negotiation
After your attorney proves gross negligence, maintains the evidence, and computes your damages, it is time to negotiate. You must be ready to face the fact that the insurance company of the salon will be aggressive. They will be heavily dependent on the assumption of risk narrative, which essentially means that you voluntarily entered the salon to receive radiation.
Your lawyer will refute this by presenting evidence of the statutory violations committed by the salon. Insurance companies are risk-averse. They are aware that when a jury is informed that the salon has breached state laws regarding minors, timers, or medical warnings, they are likely to become angry and impose massive damages. The objective of the negotiation is to use these statutory failures to negotiate a settlement that will meet all your economic and non-economic interests and thus avoid the risk of a trial.
However, you must be patient. It is the time-consuming nature of determining the entire extent of a burn injury, and you should not resolve your case until your doctors say that you have reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI). The scarring may take up to one year or more to mature, and you may need revision surgeries months after the initial injury.
You will lose your right to compensation for these future treatments if you settle too soon. An effective attorney will ensure that the settlement proposal includes a life care plan, which considers future dermatological screening and other necessary medical care.
You should be knowledgeable about settlement liens. If your health insurance covered the original treatment of your burn, you are entitled to receive reimbursement through the settlement funds through a process called subrogation. Your health insurance company will bargain with your attorney to have this lien lowered so that you get a higher percentage of the settlement money in your pocket.
Find a Los Angeles Personal Injury Near Me
Suffering a severe burn at a Los Angeles tanning salon leaves you with physical scars and significant financial burdens. The belief that a signed waiver leaves you powerless is a misconception that benefits negligent business owners. You need an experienced personal injury lawyer to mount strong defenses and prove the salon violated the strict mandates of the Filante Tanning Facility Act.
At The LA Personal Injury Law Firm, our attorneys understand the difference between a simple accident and the gross negligence that entitles you to compensation. We are committed to thoroughly reviewing maintenance logs, timer calibration records, and employee training protocols to build a compelling case on your behalf. Contact us at 310-935-0089 to schedule your complimentary consultation and start your journey to recovery.
