Dog Bite

What to do after a Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Bite?

If you have been seriously injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Attack , please call us right now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for your no fee, confidential assessment with a skilled Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Bite attorney.

The first things to do after being bitten

It is very important identify the animal that attacked you, mainly because if it is a stray and you cannot identify it, you are facing the possibility of having to submit to treatment for rabies, which can be unpleasant. Also, if you were bitten by a dog or any wild animal being kept by a person, you most likely are eligible to receive compensation from the dog’s owner (or insurance company of said owner), and you also might genuinely need that compensation to pay for your medical expenses, reimburse you for lost revenue, cover surgical treatment down the road, and allow you to overcome the discomfort and suffering from your injuries.

After that, get medical attention. You will undoubtedly be in wonderful company, because 1,000 Americans arrive in emergency rooms each day of the entire year because of dog attacks 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 necessarily the very best at making stitches and wounds look great. After that, you’ll want to keep to the instructions from the physician and take all the prescribed medicines that are prescribed (aside from the painkillers, which usually are usually your discretion). You might also be required to remain out of the sunlight, use sun block, use scar reduction cream, change bandages, go in for follow up treatment, go in for removing stitches, massage the recovering areas, etc. If so, do it!

The verdict as to whether or not you need rabies shots needs to be left to your doctor. Shots are not always needed, because rabies may not be within your geographic area. Do not be alarmed if your doctor informs you that you don’t need to have this painful treatment.

If you have been seriously injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Bite, please call us right now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for a complimentary, confidential assessment with an experienced Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Bite lawyer.

If the dog owner is covered by insurance, you might get a phone call from an insurance carrier representative. You should ask him or her for the following information:

• Name of insurance carrier
• Address of his or her business office
• Telephone number
• Claim number
• Name of the individual who is covered by insurance
• The amount of money offered to compensate medical expenses (not everything, just medical bills)

Do not do any of the following:

• Do not go over money, payment of money, settlement, damage value or anything else regarding money
• Do not set up an appointment
• Do not compose a letter or a memo
• Do not allow yourself to be tape recorded
• Do not let the sufferer to be photographed
• Do not talk about who is liable
• Do not accept money
• Actions to protect your legal rights

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Bite, please contact us today at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for a no fee, confidential consultation with a skilled Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Attack lawyer.

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

• Identify the dog. In a very serious circumstance, this might entail acquiring and analyzing a DNA sample, which will call for an attorney’s involvement.
• Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, when possible. When you can, acquire the dog permit information.
• Get the name, address and telephone number of any possible witnesses. You may have 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 a couple of times at the same time at which the accident happened, because people might have a habit of going to the same places as part of their daily regimen.
• Take photos of all of your injuries, bruises and bloody garments.
• If possible, attain insurance information from the dog owner.
• If skin was lacerated or worse, or if the harm ended up being to the facial area, or if the victim is a child, you can and should consult with an attorney at no cost.

Get your lawyer started while the facts are new! The details of your claim have to be proven; the severity of your traumas have to be recognized. As noticeable as the details and injuries might be to you, they are not going to be evident to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months following your attack. Furthermore, physicians are interested in healing you than proving the nature and degree of your injuries to an insurer, so the proper documentation must be asked for from them at the appropriate times. Your lawyer will get the necessary proof and monitor your treatment, so the insurance adjuster will fully grasp exactly what happened, and will give you an acceptable amount of money, if possible.

Retain your attorney prior to doing any proceeding relating to the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states allow local authorities to decide whether a dog is dangerous and, if so, the fate of the dog. Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” but it goes by some other names as well. Because “dog court” procedures may inadvertently compromise the victim’s legal rights, she should not talk to animal control authorities until her attorney looks at the city and county ordinances, obtains the department’s commitment as to which laws and methods they will be following, and is fulfilled that the issues addressed below will be settled fairly. If the victim receives a subpoena, her testimony is required, making it even more necessary to immediately seek the advice of with a lawyer — because a subpoena must be followed, to its letter.

If you have been seriously injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Attack , please call us now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for your complimentary, confidential assessment with an experienced Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Bite attorney.

The victim must never do the following:

Do not sign anything! Yes, you usually can sign the clinic entry papers (given that you were not bitten in the medical center 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 landlord 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 report a court case within a specific amount of time after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, call a lawyer as quickly as possible.

The dog bite victim’s right to a lawyer

A dog bite victim may have several various kinds of injuries and losses, from medical costs and mental harm, to loss of the possibility to generate income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be eligible to get back these losses from another individual and that individual’s insurance company, provided that the victim presents the necessary proof, first to the insurance company and then perhaps in a court of law. There are two sets of laws the victim must abide by, particularly those spelling out who is at fault for the injuries and losses, and those imposing rigid guidelines of evidence and process to create that liability.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Bite, please give us a call right now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for a no cost, confidential consultation with a knowledgeable Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Attack lawyer.

Parents have special factors when their kids are harmed.

A wounded person and his or her loved ones are not mentally qualified of intensely enforcing their rights. The biggest task they confront is ensuring the victim heals. In death cases, the loved ones grieve; it doesn’t gather data and put together legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family have to be optimistic, so the tendency is to minimize the suffering, even ignore it whenever possible. Nevertheless, it is there, and it may remain there for a long time — forever, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a necessity.

An attorney with experience in representing people with these kinds of injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has studied the outcomes of dog bite injuries, how to obtain the information needed to completely prove not only what happened in the past but also what the future consequences will be, the strategies and steps of insurance agencies when handling major circumstances like these, and how to properly examine these situations to make sure that the victims receive what they deserve. A lawyer with expertise has the talent to objectively analyze both the strengths and the weaknesses of a lawsuit. Furthermore, a lawyer is the only person that can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being taken care of fairly. Without the threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance carrier.

Furthermore, the methods regularly followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings could unintentionally compromise the victim’s rights. A victim and her family members consequently must not start conversations with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, gets the department’s determination as to which laws and steps they will be following, and is satisfied that the issues dealt with somewhere else in Dog Bite Law will be solved reasonably.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Bite, please give us a call now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for a free, private consultation with an experienced Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Attack lawyer.

The risks of not retaining a lawyer

If you are working with the insurance company without an attorney, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance carrier isn’t — you can be assured of that.

Others with very similar injuries have retained lawyers to show their lawsuits to that same insurance carrier. One point that all those people have in common is an attitude of importance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to make sure they are treated fairly. The insurance firm pays the suitable amount to those individuals, but not the people who don’t take the initial step of defending their rights by keeping an attorney.

The person at the insurance company that you are working with (called the “adjuster”) may appear honest and sympathetic — a very, good individual, a nurturing person. However, he or she needs to report to other people you will not talk to: a supervisor, a claims examiner, a regional supervisor, and ultimately the corporate office. The adjuster is paid a salary and has a family. He or she wants to carry 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 needs to assist you, because of some connection which you believe has developed involving 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 nothing but an individual without an attorney.

You’re not working with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless corporation, and to that firm you are nothing but a file, a liability, an individual who wants money which normally might be distributed to the shareholders as profit.

If you do not retain an attorney, you’re on your own, against all individuals at the insurance firm, and all of its attorneys. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?

The prices of making a law suit are actually relatively small, compared to the amount of money that is to be attained. In an normal claim, they might come to between $1,000 and $2,000. However, cases that are being prepared for trial become very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately only 2% of claims actually go to trial, so there is no considerable threat of the costs “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 normal residents to obtain legal help, the corporate world — insurance providers and other industries — may be attempting to pass laws to abolish or cripple it. These laws take several different forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the amount that a victim’s attorney may charge. Note that only the victim’s lawyer would be subject to any constraint, while the insurance industry’s attorneys would proceed to not just charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the huge monetary coffers of their wealthy clients. The tort program is available for the advantage of everyday people rather than the interests of the business world, and consequently the system and its crucial players (the victims and their attorneys) consistently suffer attacks and constantly must fight for their rights.

If you have been seriously injured in a Los Angeles County or Southern California Dog Attack, please contact us right now at (310)789-2007 or (213)255-5897 for a complimentary, private assessment with a knowledgeable Los Angeles County or Southern California Animal Bite attorney.