The Initial Things to Do After Being Attacked
It is very important to identify the animal that bit you, mainly because if it is a stray and you cannot identify it, you are facing the possibility of needing to undergo treatment for rabies, which can be unpleasant.
Also, if you were attacked by a dog or any wild animal being kept by someone, you most likely are qualified to receive compensation by the dog’s owner, and you may really need that compensation to cover your medical charges, reimburse you for lost income, cover plastic surgery later on, and help you conquer the discomfort and suffering from your injuries.
After that, get medical assistance. You are going to be in very good company, because 1,000 Americans show up in emergency rooms every single day of the year as a result of dog bites alone!
Should you be harmed around the face, insist on treatment by a cosmetic surgeon because emergency room doctors are great at keeping people alive but not necessarily the best at making stitches and wounds look great.
After that, don’t forget to keep to the directions from the physician and take all of the prescribed medicines that are prescribed (with the exception of the painkillers, which often are at your discretion).
You may additionally be required to remain out of the direct sun light, use sunscreen, use scar tissue reduction cream, change bandages, report for follow up treatment, report for removing of stitches, massage the healing areas, etc. If that’s the case, do it!
The verdict as to whether or not you will need rabies shots must be left to your doctor. Shots are not always needed, because rabies may not be in your geographic location. You shouldn’t be frightened if your doctor tells you that you don’t need this unpleasant treatment.
If you have been seriously injured in a Brentwood Animal Attack, please give us a call right now for your free, private assessment with an experienced Brentwood Animal Bite lawyer.
If the animal owner is covered by insurance, you might get a call from an insurance company representative. Make sure you question him or her for the subsequent information:
- Name of insurance carrier
- Address of his or her company
- Telephone number
- Claim number
- Name of the person who is covered by insurance
- The money available to pay medical costs (not everything, just medical bills)
Take note of the following:
- Do not discuss money, payment of money, repayment, injury value or whatever else concerning money
- Do not set up a session
- Do not compose a letter or a memo
- Do not permit yourself to be tape recorded
- Do not allow the sufferer to be photographed
- Do not discuss who is accountable
- Do not accept money
Actions to Protect Your Legal Rights
If you have been injured in a Brentwood Animal Attack, please give us a call now for your free, confidential assessment with a skilled Brentwood Dog Bite attorney.
A dog attack victim must do the following things to preserve his or her legal rights:
- Identify the dog. In a very severe case, this may entail getting and analyzing a DNA sample, that will call for a lawyer’s involvement.
- Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, if possible. If you’re able to, obtain the dog license details.
- Get the name, address and telephone number of any potential witnesses. You may need to go back to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of neighborhood homes and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the accident a couple of times at the same time when the incident took place, because individuals might have a habit of going to the same places as section of their daily regimen.
- Take pictures of all of your injuries, bruises and bloody clothing.
- If feasible, get insurance details from the dog owner.
- If skin was lacerated or even more serious, or if the injury ended up being to the face, or if the victim was a young child, you can and should seek the advice of a lawyer free of charge.
- Get your lawyer started as the facts are fresh! The facts of your lawsuit must be proven; the severity of your injuries have to be established. As obvious as the specifics and injuries might be to you, they are not going to be apparent to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months following your attack.
Furthermore, physicians are keen on treating you than proving the nature and level of your injuries to an insurance company, so the proper documentation has to be asked for from them at the appropriate times.
Your lawyer will obtain the essential proof and keep track of your treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will fully grasp exactly what happened, and will give you an adequate sum of money, whenever possible.
* Retain your lawyer prior to starting any kind of proceeding involving the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states permit local authorities to determine whether a dog is unsafe and, in that case, the fate of the dog.
Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” but it goes by other names as well. Because “dog court” procedures may accidentally compromise the victim’s legal rights, she should never contact animal control authorities until her attorney reviews the city and county ordinances, gets the department’s commitment as to which laws and methods they will be following, and is satisfied that the problems addressed below will be solved fairly.
If the victim obtains a subpoena, her testimony is required, making it even more crucial to promptly consult with with an attorney — because a subpoena must be obeyed, to its letter.
If you have been seriously injured in a Brentwood Animal Bite, please contact us right now for your complimentary, private consultation with a skilled Brentwood Dog Bite lawyer.
The victim must remember the following:
* Do not sign anything! Yes, you usually can sign the hospital entry paperwork (given that you were not bitten in the hospital itself).
However, sign nothing presented by any insurance company, the owner of the dog, or the landlord or other owner of the property where the attack occurred. Do not write to, or make a report for, any insurance company, dog owner, or landlord or other property owner.
* Do not be reluctant to consult a lawyer! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you lose all of your legal rights unless you report a court case within a certain time frame after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, contact a lawyer as quickly as possible.
The Dog Attack Victim’s Right to a Lawyer
A dog bite victim may have many various kinds of damages and losses, from medical bills and emotional harm, to loss of the chance to gain income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be eligible to recover these losses from another person and that person’s insurance company, given that the victim presents the essential proof, first to the insurance company and then perhaps in a court of law.
There are two sets of laws the victim must stick to, specifically those spelling out who is at fault for the injuries and losses, and those imposing tough guidelines of facts and procedure to establish that liability.
If you have been injured in a Brentwood Dog Bite, please contact us today for a free, confidential assessment with a skilled Brentwood Animal Attack attorney.
Parents Have Particular Factors When Their Children are Harmed
A hurt person and his or her family are not mentally ready of vigorously enforcing their rights. The most crucial task they deal with is ensuring that the victim heals. In death cases, the relatives grieve; it does not gather evidence and prepare legal briefs.
In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family need to be hopeful, so the tendency is to lessen the suffering, even disregard it whenever possible. Nevertheless, it is there, and it may stay there for a while — permanently, if wounds turn into ugly scars.
Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a necessity. An attorney with experience in defending persons with these injuries brings value to your lawsuit.
He or she has examined the outcomes of dog bite injuries, how to accumulate the data crucial to completely prove not only what happened in the past but also what the long term effects will be, the methods and procedures of insurance firms when handling considerable circumstances like these, and the best way to effectively examine these instances to make sure that the victims get what they deserve.
A lawyer with expertise has the ability to objectively evaluate both the strengths and the weaknesses of a lawsuit. Furthermore, a lawyer is the only person who can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being cared for fairly. Without the presence of threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance provider.
Furthermore, the procedures often followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings may unexpectedly endanger the victim’s rights.
A victim and her family members therefore should not speak with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, gets the department’s determination as to which laws and procedures they will be following, and is content that the challenges dealt with in another place in Dog Bite Law will be managed fairly.
If you have been seriously injured in a Brentwood Animal Bite, please contact us today for a free, private assessment with a knowledgeable Brentwood Animal Attack lawyer.
The Risks of Not Retaining an Attorney
If you are dealing with the insurance firm without a lawyer, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance carrier isn’t — you can be assured of that.
People with comparable injuries have retained lawyers to show their claims to that same insurance carrier. One thing that all those individuals have in common is a frame of mind of importance about what happened to them, and a driving desire to be sure they are cared for fairly.
The insurance firm pays the appropriate amount to the individuals, but not the ones who don’t take the preliminary step of safeguarding their rights by holding onto an attorney.
The person at the insurance firm that you are dealing with (called the “adjuster”) might well seem to be honest and sympathetic — a very, excellent individual, a nurturing person.
However, he or she must report to others you will never talk to: a supervisor, a lawsuits examiner, a regional supervisor, and lastly the corporate office. The adjuster is paid a salary and has a family. He or she wants to keep on working for that company, and maybe get a raise and a promotion.
None of that will be risked for you.
Even if the adjuster wishes to assist you, because of some connection that you feel has developed between the two of you, you will not necessarily be dealt with fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. They don’t know you.
To them, you’re nothing at all but an individual with no an attorney.
You are not dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless company, and to that corporation you are nothing but a file, a liability, someone who needs money that normally might be dispersed to the investors as profit.
If you don’t retain a lawyer, you are on your own, against all those people at the insurance firm, and all of its lawyers. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?
The prices of making a law suit are generally somewhat small, compared to the amount of money which is to be obtained. In an common claim, they might come to between $1000 and $2000. However, cases which are being arranged for trial become very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars.
Fortunately only 2% of lawsuits actually go to trial, so there is no substantial chance of the prices “eating up” the recovery.
It should be noted that the contingency fee system is distinctively American and that it has been under attack in recent years. Because it enables regular individuals to get legal help, the corporate world — insurance agencies and other industries — continues to be seeking to pass laws to abolish or cripple it.
These laws take numerous different forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s attorney can charge. Note that only the victim’s lawyer will be subject to any constraint, while the insurance industry’s attorneys would carry on to not only charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the vast monetary coffers of their prosperous customers.
The tort program is available for the benefit of everyday individuals as opposed to the interests of the business world, and therefore the program and its key players (the victims and their lawyers) regularly experience attacks and continually need to fight for their legal rights.
