Qualified Dog Bite Case

Answer:

The question often comes up. You’ve been attacked by a dog and been injured. How do you know if you have a qualified claim? That’s a very common question. A potential client called our office the other day and asked that question. Here’s what one of our attorneys responded. The first thing is what is the nature and the extent of the injury. If you have a small puncture wound and that’s it, you probably don’t need a dog bite injury law firm. Even though you may have a claim, you can probably settle that one by yourself. Still, call us and one of our attorneys will still give you guidance to this whole process, explain how to do that on your own. You can always call back for more help. We’ll offer it to you. If you have anything serious, like you’re now having problems using something in your hand or you’ve got a scar or significant injury on your leg or something like that, then you’ve got enough injury that that definitely qualifies. As the attorney explained, that’s the first thing that we look at.

The second thing, and it often is the problem, is insurance coverage. Now, why is that the case? As the attorney explained, now insurance companies are getting a little wiser and they’re not just saying, hey, you own a home so if you own a dog and they bite somebody, we’re going to cover it. They now have provisions there that say if you have a pitbull or some other breeds, we are not covering it, unless you pay extra for that. Sometimes it’s significant or sometimes they just say no, they won’t cover it if you have that breed anyway. They’ve never gone to the extreme of saying, hey, we’re not going to cover any dog because the dog lovers will probably kill the insurance companies. Anyway, that can be a problem meaning that there isn’t insurance coverage. Another situation, very common, is that you have a renter who doesn’t have renter’s insurance. Let’s just say, it doesn’t even have to be a vicious dog. You never know. Anyway, if it’s a renter without renter’s insurance, then there’s a way you can file a claim against them in small claims court and stuff like that. If you call us, we’ll direct you, but it’s not going to be easy to collect compensation in that situation. Insurance coverage is usually the area that is the biggest issue. There are sometimes where we had a situation where a homeowner’s association had allowed one of the people in one of the complexes to keep this dog that had already bitten a lot of other people and they hadn’t done anything about it. The other bites weren’t terrible but they were significant. Then they put somebody in the hospital. The dog owner wouldn’t give any insurance information if he had any, who knows. One of our litigation attorneys actually brought a claim against the homeowner’s association because they did have insurance. It was proven that other people had complained and they knew that this dog was likely to attack people. Anyway, there are other situations where there’s no obvious insurance and sometimes we can still get compensation for you. That’s another reason that, even if you’ve been told there’s no insurance, call us anyway. It takes just a few minutes to talk to one of our attorneys. If we can find a way to get compensation for you, we’ll let you know, and if not, we’ll tell you that, too. Remember, the call is free. The information is free. Referrals to a plastic surgeon or whatever is free. Call us because, if you or a loved one have been a victim of a dog attack, we do care about you.