If you have been injured in a Culver City Dog Bite, please contact us now for a no cost, confidential consultation with an experienced Culver City Animal Bite attorney.
The Initial Things to Do After Being Bitten
It is important to identify the animal that attacked you, because if it is a stray and you are not able to identify it, you are dealing with the possibility of needing to undergo treatment for rabies, which can be unpleasant.
Also, if you were bitten by a dog or any wild animal being kept by an individual, you most likely are eligible to receive compensation by the dog’s owner, and you may possibly really need that compensation to pay your medical expenses, reimburse you for lost revenue, cover surgical treatment later on, and help you rise above the pain and suffering from your injuries.
After that, get medical help.
You will undoubtedly be in good company, because 1,000 Americans show up in emergency rooms every single day of the entire year because of dog bites alone! Should you be injured on the face, demand treatment by a plastic surgeon because emergency room physicians are amazing at keeping people alive but not necessarily one of the best at making stitches and injuries look great.
After that, make sure to follow the guidelines from the physician and take every one of the prescriptions that are prescribed (except for the painkillers, which normally are at your discretion). You may also be directed to remain out of the direct sun light, use sun block, use scar reduction ointment, change bandages, go in for follow up treatment, report for removing stitches, massage the healing locations, etc. If that’s the case, do it!
The final decision as to whether you will need rabies shots needs to be left to your doctor. Shots are not always called for, because rabies may not be in your geographic area. Do not be frightened if your physician informs you that you do not need this uncomfortable treatment.
If you have been seriously injured in a Culver City Dog Bite, please give us a call now for a free, confidential consultation with a knowledgeable Culver City Animal Attack lawyer.
If the dog owner is covered by insurance, you may get a call from an insurance carrier representative.
Make sure you ask him or her for the subsequent information:
- Name of insurance carrier
- Address of his or her business office
- Telephone number
- Claim number
- Name of the individual who is covered
- The money offered to compensate medical costs (not everything, just medical charges)
Take note of the following:
- Do not go over money, payment of money, settlement, injury value or whatever else concerning money
- Do not set up a visit
- Do not write a letter or a memo
- Do not allow yourself to be tape recorded
- Do not permit the victim to be photographed
- Do not discuss who is responsible
- Do not take money
Methods to Protect Your Legal Rights
If you have been injured in a Culver City Animal Bite, please call us today for a complimentary, private consultation with an experienced Culver City Animal Bite lawyer.
A dog bite victim must do the subsequent things to protect his or her legal rights:
- Identify the dog. In an extremely severe scenario, this may entail acquiring and analyzing a DNA sample, that will require 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 permit information.
- 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 local houses and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the accident several times at the same time when the incident happened, because individuals may have a habit of visiting the same places as section of their daily routine.
- Take photos of all of your wounds, bruises and bloody clothing.
- If possible, acquire insurance details from the dog owner.
- If skin was lacerated or worse, 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 totally free.
- Get your lawyer started while the info is fresh! The facts of your claim need to be proven; the degree of your wounds need to be recognized. As noticeable as the information and wounds might be to you, they are not going to be noticeable to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a few weeks or months following your attack.
On top of that, doctors are more interested in curing you than proving the type and level of your injuries to an insurance provider, so the proper documentation must be requested from them at the proper times. Your lawyer will acquire the essential proof and keep track of your treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will understand exactly what took place, and will provide you with an acceptable sum of money, whenever possible.
- Retain your lawyer before starting any kind of proceeding involving the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states permit local authorities to decide whether a dog is dangerous and, if so, the fate of the dog. Often this is referred to as a “dangerous dog hearing,” however it goes by other names as well.
Because “dog court” procedures may accidentally compromise the victim’s rights, she should not contact animal control authorities until her lawyer looks at the city and county ordinances, gains the department’s commitment as to which laws and methods they will be following, and is fulfilled that the problems addressed below will be settled fairly. If the victim receives a subpoena, her testimony is required, making it even more critical to instantly consult with a lawyer — because a subpoena must be obeyed, to its letter.
If you have been injured in a Culver City Dog Attack, please contact us right now for your no cost, private assessment with a skilled Culver City Dog Attack attorney.
The victim must remember the following:
- Do not sign anything! Yes, you generally can sign the hospital entry papers (given that you were not bitten in the hospital itself). However, sign nothing offered by any insurance company, the owner of the dog, or the landlord or other owner of the property where the assault happened. Do not write to, or make a report for, any insurance company, dog owner, or property manager or other property owner.
- Do not hesitate to consult a lawyer! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you lose all of your legal rights unless you file a court case within a certain period of time after sustaining a bodily injury. For that reason, get in touch with a lawyer as soon as possible.
The Dog Bite Victim’s Right to a Lawyer
A dog bite victim may sustain numerous distinct kinds of damages and losses, from medical costs and mental damage, to loss of the chance to gain income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be eligible to get back these losses from another individual and that person’s insurance company, provided that the victim presents the required 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, namely those spelling out who is responsible for the injuries and losses, and those imposing strict guidelines of facts and procedure to identify that liability.
If you have been injured in a Culver City Dog Attack, please contact us right now for a free, private consultation with an experienced Culver City Dog Bite lawyer.
Parents Have Particular Criteria Any Time Their Kids are Injured
A wounded person and his or her loved ones are not emotionally capable of vigorously enforcing their rights. The most crucial task they encounter is making sure the victim heals. In death cases, the loved ones grieve; it is not going to collect facts 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 minimize the hurting, even ignore it wherever possible.
Nevertheless, it is there, and it may stay there for quite a long time — for good, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a must.
An attorney with expertise in defending individuals with these kinds of injuries brings value to your claim. He or she has researched the outcomes of dog bite injuries, how to collect the data essential to completely prove not only what occurred in the past but also what the long term outcomes will be, the strategies and procedures of insurance firms when handling significant circumstances like these, and the best way to effectively evaluate these situations to ensure that the victims receive what they deserve.
An attorney with experience 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 taken care of fairly. Without the presence of threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance company.
Furthermore, the procedures often followed by animal control departments in “dog court” hearings may unintentionally compromise the victim’s rights. A victim and her relatives consequently should not converse with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, gains the department’s commitment as to which laws and techniques they will be following, and is satisfied that the matters addressed in other places in Dog Bite Law will be fixed fairly.
If you have been seriously injured in a Culver City Animal Bite, please contact us today for a free, confidential consultation with an experienced Culver City Animal Bite attorney.
The Hazards of Not Retaining an Attorney
If you are dealing with the insurance firm without an attorney, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — you can be assured of that.
Others with very similar injuries have retained attorneys to present their lawsuits to that same insurance carrier. One factor that all those individuals have in common is an perspective of importance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to make sure they are treated fairly. The insurance firm pays the right amount to people, but not the people who don’t take the initial step of preserving their rights by maintaining an attorney.
The individual at the insurance company that you are doing business with (called the “adjuster”) may seem to be honest and sympathetic — a very, excellent person, a nurturing person. However, he or she has to report to others you will not talk to: a supervisor, a claims examiner, a local supervisor, and finally the corporate office. The adjuster is paid a salary and has a family.
He or she wants to proceed working for that company, and maybe get a raise and a promotion. None of that will be risked for you.
Even if the adjuster hopes to help you, because of some connection which you think has developed between the both of you, you will not necessarily be handled fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. They don’t know you. To them, you are absolutely nothing but a person with no an attorney.
You aren’t dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless company, and to that company you are nothing but a file, a legal responsibility, an individual who wants money which normally would be distributed to the shareholders as profit.
If you do not retain a lawyer, you’re on your own, against all people at the insurance company, and all of its attorneys. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?
The expenses of creating a claim are actually fairly small, when compared to the amount of money that is to be obtained. In an average claim, they may 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 claims actually go to trial, so there is no sizeable threat of the expenses “consuming 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 people to acquire legal help, the corporate world — insurance agencies and other industries — have been attempting to pass laws to abolish or cripple it. These laws take several diverse forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s lawyer can charge.
Note that only the victim’s attorney will be subject to any constraint, while the insurance industry’s attorneys would continue to not just charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the vast monetary coffers of their rich customers. The tort program is available for the advantage of common people as opposed to the interests of the business world, and therefore the program and its major players (the victims and their attorneys) continuously experience attacks and constantly need to fight for their rights.
