A Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Recover From Dog Bite Injuries
Dog bites can cause serious injuries. Luckily, a personal injury lawyer can help you recover compensation for your losses.
Homeowners’ or renters’ insurance usually covers a victim’s losses. This is true whether the attack happened in a house, apartment, condo, or yard.
Often, proving liability requires showing that the dog had vicious propensities that the owner knew or should have known about, such as previous attacks or a history of aggressive behaviors.
1. Injuries
A dog bite can lead to severe injuries, such as tetanus, infection, and rabies. All wounds from dog bites should be treated immediately to prevent complications.
Dog bites may also crush, dislocate, and break bones in the body. Crush injuries are especially common when the dog’s teeth or claws do not puncture the skin, but cause pressure and damage to underlying tissue.
Extensive scarring is another common effect of a dog bite. In some cases, the extent of the scarring can be reduced with skin grafts and other medical treatments.
Dog owners are liable for their dogs’ attacks under civil laws in many states. In addition, their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance often covers the cost of a victim’s losses.
2. Medical bills
The treatment for a dog bite can be extensive, resulting in high medical bills. You may also be forced to take time off work, costing you lost wages. Your personal injury lawyer can help you obtain a comprehensive picture of all your economic damages and non-economic damages related to the incident.
Having a skilled lawyer can make sure the insurance company does not try to settle your claim for too little. Often, the initial settlement offer is meant to get you to go away with as little money as possible.
If you have health insurance, your health care provider can bill the third-party dog owner for the costs of treating the injuries you suffered. If the money you recover from your lawsuit is more than what your health insurance pays, then your insurance can request reimbursement under state and federal laws on subrogation.
3. Pain and suffering
If you are suffering from pain and trauma as a result of a dog bite, a personal injury lawyer may be able to help you get the compensation you need. Your lawyer will fight to get you full restitution for your losses so that you can heal without the financial burden.
In addition to the physical pain you have endured, your lawyers may also seek damages for emotional distress and lost quality of life. This is because traumatic experiences have a hard time being quantified and are often undervalued by insurance companies.
You might also be entitled to a reimbursement for any loss of income you have suffered due to your injuries. In addition, your lawyer might be able to secure payment for future lost income as well.
4. Lost wages
If you’ve been bitten by a dog, it is important to seek immediate medical treatment. Not only will this ensure that your injuries are treated, but it also helps create a record of the incident for legal purposes. This will include documentation of the name of the dog, its owner, and relevant details.
If your injuries are severe, they may prevent you from working for a long period of time. In this case, you can receive compensation for lost wages.
Your lawyer will use your medical records, photographs of your injuries, and witness statements to build a convincing case that improves your chances of receiving full compensation for your losses. This includes past and future medical bills, pain and suffering, and loss of income.
5. Disfigurement
A severe dog bite can leave scarring on the face, hands, or legs. These marks can cause victims to feel self-conscious, and they may interfere with their ability to participate in certain activities such as working, engaging in hobbies, or enjoying social relationships.
Infections are also common in dog bite wounds. A doctor will prescribe antibiotics to prevent infections and treat any infection that develops. Keeping the wound clean, following doctors’ instructions for treatment, and taking all medications as directed are key to decreasing the risk of infection.
A personal injury attorney at TopDog Law can help you get the compensation you deserve for your dog bite injuries. Contact us today to see how we can help. Our firm’s founder, James Helm, has a competitive edge and isn’t afraid to fight for you.
6. Mental anguish
After a dog bite, many victims suffer from severe emotional trauma. They may develop depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This type of psychological injury is called mental anguish, which falls under the umbrella term “non-economic damages.”
While it can be difficult to quantify mental anguish in dollars and cents, a seasoned personal injury lawyer will know how to document this form of harm for a claim to succeed. This includes medical documentation of PTSD symptoms and keeping personal journals or records that detail how the emotional distress has impacted a victim’s daily life.
Being attacked by a dog can be terrifying, especially if the victim is a pet lover. Victims often develop cynophobia after the attack, which means that they are fearful of animals. This limits their quality of life and prevents them from participating in normal activities such as going on walks, shopping at pet stores or visiting friends and family with pets.
7. Damages
Dog bites can cause devastating injuries and long-term complications. A personal injury lawyer can help victims recover compensation for their resulting expenses.
This includes past and future medical bills, rehabilitative costs, and lost income. In the most severe cases, victims may be entitled to damages for non-economic losses such as pain and suffering.
Some states have statutory limits on non-economic damage awards, but your attorney will best know how to overcome these limitations. If the owner of the dog was particularly outrageous or egregious in their failure to control or treat the animal, they may be required to pay additional amounts in punitive damages. This is intended to punish the owner and deter them from taking similar actions in the future. This amount is in addition to all other monetary damages awarded to victims.