What to Do After a Glendale Dog Attack
It is very important to identify the dog that attacked you, because if it is a stray and you are not able to identify it, you are dealing with the potential 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 probably are qualified to receive compensation by the animal’s owner, and you also may really need that compensation to pay your medical debts, reimburse you for lost income, cover cosmetic surgery at some point, and help you conquer the pain and being affected by your injuries.
After that, get medical help. You will be in good company, because 1,000 Americans show up in emergency rooms every day of the entire year because of dog bites alone!
If you are injured on the face, insist on treatment by a cosmetic surgeon because emergency room doctors are excellent at keeping individuals alive but not always the best at making stitches and wounds look good.
After that, make sure to follow the directions from the doctor and take all of the prescriptions which are prescribed (except for the painkillers, which usually are at your discretion).
You might also be ordered to remain out of the sun, use sun block, use scar tissue reduction ointment, change bandages, go in for follow up treatment, go in for removal of stitches, massage the recovering locations, etc.
If that’s the case, do it!
The verdict as to whether you will need rabies shots must be left to your physician. Shots are not always needed, because rabies may not be in your geographic location. You shouldn’t be concerned if your physician tells you that you do not need this painful treatment.
If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Dog Attack, please give us a call now for your complimentary, confidential consultation with a skilled Glendale Animal Bite lawyer.
If the dog owner is covered by insurance, you may get a call from an insurance company representative.
You should ask him or her for the following information:
- Name of insurance company
- Address of his or her business office
- Telephone number
- Claim number
- Name of the person who is covered
- The amount of money available to compensate medical expenses (not everything, just medical bills)
Take note of the following:
- Do not discuss money, payment of money, repayment, personal injury value or whatever else relating to money
- Do not set up a meeting
- Do not compose a letter or a memo
- Do not permit yourself to be tape recorded
- Do not allow the victim to be photographed
- Do not talk about who is responsible
- Do not take money
Actions to protect your rights
If you have been injured in a Glendale Dog Bite, please call us right now for a no cost, confidential consultation with a knowledgeable Glendale Animal Attack lawyer.
A dog bite victim must do the subsequent things to preserve his or her legal rights:
- Identify the dog. In a very serious case, this may entail obtaining and analyzing a DNA sample, which will call for a lawyer’s involvement.
- Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, when possible. If you’re able to, acquire the dog license information.
- Get the name, address and telephone number of any prospective witnesses. You might have to return to the accident scene, and knock on the doors
of nearby houses and businesses. - You also should revisit the scene of the accident several times at the same time when the accident took place, because individuals may have a habit of visiting the same places as part of their daily schedule.
- Take pictures of all of your wounds, bruises and bloody garments.
- If feasible, get insurance details from the dog owner.
- If skin was lacerated or more serious, or if the harm was to the facial area, or if the victim is a child, you can and should consult a lawyer totally free.
Get your lawyer started while the facts are fresh! The details of your claim need to be proven; the extent of your injuries have to be established. As apparent as the details and wounds may be to you, they will not be apparent to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months following the attack.
On top of that, doctors are keen on healing you than proving the nature and severity of your injuries to an insurance provider, so the proper documentation must be asked for from them at the appropriate times. Your attorney will obtain the necessary facts and monitor your treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will comprehend exactly what took place, and will provide you with a sufficient amount of money, whenever possible.
Retain your lawyer before taking part in any kind of proceeding concerning the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states allow local authorities to decide whether a dog is dangerous and, in that case, the fate of the dog. Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” however it goes by some other names as well.
Because “dog court” procedures may accidentally compromise the victim’s legal rights, she should not get in touch with animal control authorities until her lawyer looks at the city and county ordinances, gains the department’s commitment as to which laws and procedures they will be following, and is pleased that the problems addressed below will be settled fairly.
If the victim receives a subpoena, her testimony is essential, making it even more important to instantly talk to with a lawyer
– because a subpoena must be obeyed, to its letter.
If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Dog Attack, please give us a call today for your complimentary, private assessment with an experienced Glendale Animal Attack attorney.
The victim must remember the following:
Do not sign anything! Yes, you usually can sign the medical center entrance paperwork (provided that you were not bitten in the clinic 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 attack took place. 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 an attorney! 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 specific period of time after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, contact an attorney without delay.
The Dog Attack Victim’s Right to a Lawyer
A dog attack victim may have many different kinds of damages and losses, from medical expenses and psychological injury, to loss of the prospect to gain income in the future because of disfigurement.
A victim may be eligible to get back these losses from someone else and that person’s insurance company, given that the victim presents the required evidence, first to the insurance company and then possibly in a court of law.
There are two sets of laws the victim must follow, namely those spelling out who is at fault for the injuries and losses, and those imposing rigid rules of facts and procedure to identify that liability.
If you have been injured in a Glendale Animal Bite, please contact us now for a free, private consultation with a knowledgeable Glendale Dog Attack lawyer.
Parents have special considerations when their kids are hurt.
A wounded person and his or her family are not mentally able of intensely enforcing their privileges. The most critical task they face is ensuring that the victim heals.
In death cases, the family members grieve; it doesn’t gather evidence and prepare legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family must be positive, so the tendency is to minimize the suffering, even disregard it as much as possible.
Nevertheless, it is there, and it may remain there for a long time — for good, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a necessity.
A lawyer with experience in representing individuals with these types of injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has researched the outcomes of dog attack injuries, how to obtain the data required to completely prove not only what occurred in the past but also what the future effects will be, the practices and steps of insurance providers when dealing with major situations like these, and how to properly review these cases to ensure that the victims receive what they deserve.
A lawyer with experience has the capacity to objectively assess both the strengths and the weaknesses of a claim. Furthermore, an attorney is the only person that can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being taken care of fairly. Without worrying about threat of a lawsuit, you’re at the mercy of the insurance provider.
Further still, the methods often followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings may inadvertently endanger 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, acquires the department’s determination as to which laws and processes they will be following, and is content that the matters addressed elsewhere in Dog Bite Law will be managed reasonably.
If you have been injured in a Glendale Dog Attack, please call us right now for a no cost, private assessment with an experienced Glendale Dog Bite lawyer.
The Hazards of Not Retaining an Attorney
If you are working with the insurance firm without a lawyer, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — there is no doubt of that.
Others with related injuries have retained lawyers to present their lawsuits to that very same insurance company. One issue that all those individuals have in common is an attitude of importance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to be sure they are taken care of fairly. The insurance company pays the appropriate amount to those people, but not people who don’t take the initial step of defending their privileges by keeping an attorney.
The individual at the insurance company that you are dealing with (called the “adjuster”) may seem to be truthful and sympathetic — a very, very nice person, a nurturing person. However, he or she has to report to other individuals you will never talk to: a supervisor, a lawsuits examiner, a regional manager, 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 perhaps get a raise and a promotion. None of that will be risked for you.
Even if the adjuster wants to assist you, because of some connection that you feel has developed between the both of you, you will not necessarily be cared for fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. They are not familiar with you. To them, you’re nothing at all but an individual with out an attorney.
You aren’t dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless corporation, and to that firm you are nothing but a file, a liability, a person who needs money which normally might be dispersed to the shareholders as profit.
If you don’t retain an attorney, you are on your own, against all individuals at the insurance company, and all of its attorneys. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?
The fees of making a claim are often fairly small, when compared to the amount of money that will be attained. In an normal lawsuit, they may come to between $1000 and $2000.
However, cases that are being put together for trial end up being very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately only 2% of lawsuits actually go to trial, so there is no major risk of the charges “consuming up” the recovery.
It needs to be noted that the contingency fee system is uniquely American and that it has been under attack in recent years. Because it enables normal citizens to get legal help, the corporate world — insurance providers and other industries — continues to be attempting to pass laws to abolish or cripple it.
These laws take many various forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s attorney may charge. Note that only the victim’s lawyer would be subject to any restriction, while the insurance industry’s lawyers would carry on to not only charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the vast monetary coffers of their prosperous clients.
The tort program exists for the advantage of everyday people as opposed to the interests of the business world, and therefore the program and its crucial players (the victims and their lawyers) continuously experience attacks and continually must fight for their legal rights.
If you have been injured in a Glendale Animal Attack, please give us a call today for a no fee, private consultation with a skilled Glendale Dog Attack attorney.