Dog Bite |

What to Do After a West Los Angeles Dog Attack

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Animal Bite, please contact us today for a no cost, private consultation with a knowledgeable West Los Angeles Animal Attack lawyer.

The First Things to Do After Being Bitten

It is very important identify the animal that bit you, mainly because if it is a stray and you cannot identify it, you’re facing the potential of having to submit to treatment for rabies, which can be unpleasant.

Also, if you were attacked by a dog or any wild animal being kept by a person, you probably are qualified to receive compensation via the animal’s owner, and you might genuinely need that compensation to pay for your medical bills, reimburse you for lost income, pay for cosmetic surgery at some point, and allow you to overcome the pain and being affected by your injuries.

After that, get medical attention. You will be in wonderful company, because 1,000 Americans arrive in emergency rooms each day of the year because of dog bites alone!

Should you be injured on the face, insist upon treatment by a plastic surgeon because emergency room doctors are excellent at keeping men and women alive but not always the best at making stitches and wounds look great. After that, you’ll want to keep to the instructions of the doctor and take every one of the medications which are prescribed (except for the painkillers, which usually are at your discretion).

You might also be directed to remain out of the direct sun light, use sunscreen, use scar tissue reduction ointment, change bandages, go in for follow up treatment, report for removal of stitches, massage the recovering areas, etc. If that’s the case, do it!

The decision as to whether you will need rabies shots has to be left to your physician. Shots are not always necessary, because rabies may not be within your geographic area.

Don’t be frightened if your doctor informs you that you do not need this painful treatment.

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Dog Bite, please call us right now for a no cost, confidential assessment with a skilled West Los Angeles Dog Bite attorney.

If the dog owner is covered by insurance, you may get a phone call from an insurance carrier representative. Make sure you question him or her for the subsequent information:

Name of insurance carrier
Address of his or her office
Telephone number
Claim number
Name of the individual who is covered by insurance
The amount of money designed to compensate medical costs (not everything, just medical expenditures)

Take note of these following DON’T's:

Do not go over money, payment of money, settlement, damage value or anything else regarding money
Do not set up a visit
Do not compose a letter or a memo
Do not permit yourself to be tape recorded
Do not permit the victim to be photographed
Do not talk about who is accountable
Do not take any money

Ways to Protect Your Rights

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Dog Attack, please call us now for a no fee, private consultation with a knowledgeable West Los Angeles Dog Bite lawyer.

A dog bite victim must do the following things to protect his or her rights:

Identify the dog. In a very critical case, this might entail getting and analyzing a DNA sample, that would require a lawyer’s involvement.
Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, if possible. If you can, acquire the dog permit information.
Get the name, address and telephone number of any potential witnesses. You might have to return to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of nearby houses and businesses.

You should also revisit the scene of the accident a couple of times at the same time when the incident happened, because individuals often have a habit of coming to the same places as section of their daily routine.

Take pictures of all of your injuries, bruises and bloody garments.
If attainable, obtain insurance information from the dog owner.
If skin was lacerated or even more serious, or in the event the damage ended up being to the facial area, or if the victim is a young child, you can and should speak with a lawyer totally free.
Get your lawyer started when the info is new! The facts of your lawsuit have to be proven; the extent of your wounds have to be recognized. As apparent as the facts and wounds might be to you, they will not be obvious to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a few weeks or months following the attack.

On top of that, physicians are keen on curing you than proving the type and level of your injuries to an insurance provider, so the proper documentation needs to be requested from them at the proper times. Your attorney will obtain the essential proof and monitor your medical treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will understand exactly what took place, and will ensure that you get an adequate amount of money, when possible.

Retain your lawyer before participating 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 called a “dangerous dog hearing,” however it goes by other names as well.

Because “dog court” procedures may inadvertently compromise the victim’s legal rights, she should not communicate with animal control authorities until her attorney compares the city and county ordinances, obtains the department’s commitment as to which laws and processes they will be following, and is happy that the issues addressed below will be solved fairly.

If the victim obtains a subpoena, her testimony is essential, making it even more necessary to promptly consult with an attorney — because a subpoena must be followed, to its letter.

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Dog Bite, please contact us today for a no cost, private assessment with a knowledgeable West Los Angeles Dog Bite lawyer.

The victim should in no way do the following:

Do not sign anything! Yes, you normally can sign the clinic admission papers (given that you were not bitten in the medical center itself). However, sign absolutely nothing displayed by any insurance company, the owner of the dog, or the property manager 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 property manager or other property owner.
Do not hesitate to consult an attorney! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you eliminate all of your legal rights unless you file a court case within a certain time frame after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, call an attorney without delay.

The Dog Bite Victim’s Right to a Lawyer

A dog attack victim may have many various kinds of injuries and losses, from medical charges and psychological injury, to loss of the prospect to generate income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be entitled to recover these losses from someone else and that person’s insurance company, provided that the victim presents the essential proof, first to the insurance company and then possibly in a court of law. There are two sets of laws the victim must adhere to, namely those spelling out who is at fault for the injuries and losses, and those imposing rigid guidelines of proof and process to identify that liability.

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Animal Bite, please give us a call right now for a free, private assessment with a skilled West Los Angeles Animal Bite attorney.

Parents have particular factors if their children are harmed.

A hurt person and his or her family are not mentally ready of vigorously enforcing their privileges. The most crucial task they experience is making certain the victim heals.

In death cases, the relatives grieve; it does not obtain data and prepare legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family have to be optimistic, so the tendency is to lessen the suffering, even disregard it wherever possible. Nevertheless, it is there, and it may remain there for a long time — permanently, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a must.

An attorney with experience in representing people with these kinds of injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has studied the results of dog bite injuries, how to accumulate the facts essential to completely prove not only what took place in the past but also what the long term outcomes will be, the methods and steps of insurance providers when dealing with significant instances like these, and how to properly review these situations to ensure that the victims receive exactly what they deserve.

A lawyer with expertise has the capacity to objectively assess both the strengths and the weaknesses of a lawsuit. Furthermore, an attorney is the only person that can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being treated fairly. With no threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance firm.

Furthermore, the treatments often followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings could accidentally endanger the victim’s rights. A victim and her relatives consequently should not speak with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, acquires the department’s commitment as to which laws and processes they will be following, and is satisfied that the issues addressed somewhere else in Dog Bite Law will be resolved fairly.

If you have been seriously injured in a West Los Angeles Dog Bite, please call us right now for a no cost, private assessment with an experienced West Los Angeles Dog Attack attorney.

The Challenges of Not Retaining an Attorney

If you are dealing with the insurance company without a lawyer, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — you can be assured of that.

People with equivalent injuries have retained lawyers to present their lawsuits to that very same insurance carrier. One thing that all those people have in common is an mindset of importance about what happened to them, and a driving need to ensure they are cared for fairly. The insurance company pays the right amount to the individuals, but not the people who don’t take the preliminary step of guarding their legal rights by maintaining an attorney.

The individual at the insurance firm that you are dealing with (called the “adjuster”) might well seem to be honest and sympathetic — a very, very nice person, a caring person. However, he or she has to report to other people you will not talk to: a supervisor, a claims 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 organization, and perhaps 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 rapport which you believe has developed between the both of you, you will not always be dealt with fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. These people don’t know you. To them, you’re nothing at all but a person with out a lawyer.

You aren’t working with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless corporation, and to that corporation you are nothing but a file, a legal responsibility, somebody who wants money which otherwise would 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 lawyers. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?

The prices of creating a law suit are generally reasonably small, compared to the amount of money which will be obtained. In an average claim, they might come to between $1000 and $2000. However, cases that are being prepared for trial become very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately only 2% of lawsuits actually go to trial, so there is no substantial risk of the expenses “eating 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 regular citizens to get legal help, the corporate world — insurance companies and other industries — has been trying to pass laws to abolish or cripple it.

These laws take a number of different forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s attorney can charge. Note that only the victim’s attorney would be subject to any limitation, while the insurance industry’s lawyers would carry on to not only charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the huge monetary coffers of their successful clients.

The tort program is available for the advantage of normal individuals as opposed to the interests of the business world, and consequently the program and its crucial players (the victims and their lawyers) regularly experience attacks and continually must fight for their rights.

If you have been injured in a West Los Angeles Dog Attack, please call us right now for your free, confidential consultation with an experienced West Los Angeles Animal Attack attorney.