Santa Monica Dog Attack Lawyer

What to do after a Santa Monica Dog Bite

If you have been injured in a Santa Monica Dog Attack, please give us a call now for a complimentary, confidential assessment with an experienced Santa Monica Dog Attack lawyer.

The first things to do after being attacked

It is very important identify the animal that attacked you, mainly because if it is a stray and you are not able to identify it, you are facing the potential 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 someone, you probably are entitled to receive compensation by the dog’s owner, and you also may possibly genuinely need that compensation to cover your medical charges, reimburse you for lost income, pay for cosmetic surgery in the future, as well as help you overcome the discomfort and being affected by your injuries.

After that, get medical attention. You are going to be in wonderful company, because 1,000 Americans show up in emergency rooms every day of the year because of animal attacks alone! Should you be injured on the face, insist upon treatment by a cosmetic surgeon because emergency room physicians are fantastic at keeping individuals alive but not always the best at making stitches and wounds look nice.

After that, make sure to follow the directions from the physician and take all the medications which are prescribed (aside from the painkillers, which normally are usually your discretion).

You may additionally be directed to remain out of the sun, use sunscreen, use scar reduction ointment, change bandages, report for follow up treatment, report for removing stitches, massage the recovering areas, etc. If that’s the case, do it!

The final decision as to whether or not you will need rabies shots needs to be left to your physician. Shots are not always needed, because rabies may not be in your geographic location. You shouldn’t be frightened if your doctor informs you that you don’t need this painful treatment.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Monica Dog Attack, please call us today for your no fee, confidential consultation with an experienced Santa Monica Dog Attack attorney.

If the dog owner is covered by insurance, you might get a call from an insurance company 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 insured
•  The amount of money available to pay medical expenditures (not everything, just medical expenses)

Do not do any of the following:

•  Do not talk about money, payment of money, settlement, injury value or whatever else including money
•  Do not set up a consultation
•  Do not write a letter or a memo
•  Do not allow yourself to be tape recorded
•  Do not permit the victim to be photographed
•  Do not go over who is responsible
•  Do not accept money

Methods to protect your rights

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Monica Animal Attack, please call us right now for a no fee, confidential consultation with a knowledgeable Santa Monica Dog Bite attorney.

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

• Identify the dog. In an incredibly severe case, this may entail getting and analyzing a DNA sample, that would require an attorney’s involvement.

• Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, when possible. If you can, acquire the dog license details.

• Get the name, address and telephone number of any possible witnesses. You may have to return to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of neighborhood residences and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the incident several times at the same time at which the incident happened, because people may have a habit of going to the same spots as section of their daily schedule.

• Take photos of all of your injuries, bruises and bloody clothing.

• If possible, get insurance information from the dog owner.

• If skin was lacerated or worse, or in the event the harm was to the facial area, or if the victim was a young child, you can and should talk to an attorney free of charge.

• Get your attorney started while the facts are fresh! The details of your claim must be proved; the magnitude of your traumas must be recognized.

As evident as the facts and injuries may be to you, they will not likely be evident to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months after the attack.

On top of that, physicians are more interested in curing you than proving the nature and degree of your injuries to an insurance carrier, so the proper paperwork has to be requested from them at the proper times.

Your lawyer will obtain the necessary proof and keep an eye on your treatment, so the insurance adjuster will comprehend exactly what happened, and will provide you with an adequate sum of money, if possible.

• Retain your attorney before starting any proceeding concerning the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states make it possible for local authorities to decide whether a dog is harmful and, if so, the fate of the dog. Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” however it goes by other names as well.

Because “dog court” procedures may inadvertently compromise the victim’s rights, she should never communicate with animal control authorities until her attorney reviews the city and county ordinances, gains the department’s commitment as to which laws and steps they will be following, and is fulfilled that the problems addressed below will be settled fairly.

If the victim receives a subpoena, her testimony is required, making it even more significant to immediately consult with an attorney — because a subpoena must be followed, to its letter.

If you have been injured in a Santa Monica Dog Attack, please give us a call now for a free, private assessment with an experienced Santa Monica Dog Attack attorney.

The victim must never do the following:

• Do not sign anything! Yes, you generally can sign the medical center entrance files (given that you were not bitten in the medical center itself).

However, sign nothing displayed by any insurance company, the owner of the dog, or the landlord or other owner of the property where the assault 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 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 report a court case within a certain period of time after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, get in touch with a lawyer without delay.

The dog bite victim’s right to a lawyer

A dog bite victim may have many distinct kinds of injuries and losses, from medical charges and emotional injury, to loss of the opportunity to earn income in the future because of disfigurement.

A victim may be eligible to recover these losses from another individual and that individuals insurance company, provided that the victim provides 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 abide by, particularly those spelling out who is responsible for the injuries and losses, and those imposing rigid guidelines of data and process to establish that liability.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Monica Animal Bite, please contact us today for your free, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Santa Monica Animal Attack lawyer.

Parents have special criteria any time their kids are wounded.

A hurt individual and his or her loved ones are not emotionally in a position of intensely enforcing their rights. The most critical task they experience is making sure the victim heals.

In death cases, the family members grieve; it does not acquire proof and prepare legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family need to be optimistic, so the tendency is to decrease the hurting, even ignore it whenever possible.

Nevertheless, it is there, and it may continue to be there for a long time — forever, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a must.

A lawyer with expertise in representing individuals 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 information critical to completely prove not only what occurred in the past but also what the long term effects will be, the techniques and procedures of insurance providers when dealing with critical cases like these, and how to properly assess these cases to ensure that the victims get exactly what they deserve.

An attorney with expertise has the talent to objectively analyze both the strengths and the weaknesses of a claim. 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 presence of threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance firm.

Furthermore, the methods frequently followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings may inadvertently compromise 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, gains the department’s determination as to which laws and techniques they will be following, and is content that the challenges addressed in another place in Dog Bite Law will be managed reasonably.

If you have been injured in a Santa Monica Dog Attack, please call us right now for your no fee, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Santa Monica Dog Attack lawyer.

The risks of not retaining an attorney

If you are dealing with the insurance firm without an attorney, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — there is no doubt of that.

Others with similar injuries have retained attorneys to show their claims to that same insurance company. One point that all those individuals have in common is a frame of mind of seriousness about what happened to them, and a driving desire to ensure they are dealt with fairly.

The insurance firm pays the proper amount to those individuals, but not the people who don’t take the first step of preserving their privileges by keeping an attorney.

The individual at the insurance firm that you are dealing with (called the “adjuster”) might well seem truthful and sympathetic — a very, good person, a caring person.

However, he or she must report to other people you will never talk to: a supervisor, a claims examiner, a local supervisor, and finally the corporate office.

The adjuster is paid an income and has a family. He or she wants to carry 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 wishes to aid you, because of some rapport which 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. These people are not familiar with you. To them, you are nothing but a person without an attorney.

You are not dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless company, and to that firm you are nothing but a file, a liability, a person who needs money that normally would be distributed to the investors as profit.

If you don’t retain a lawyer, you’re on your own, against all people at the insurance company, and all of its attorneys. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?

The prices of making a claim usually are fairly small, when compared to the amount of money which will be attained. In a normal claim, they may come to between $1000 and $2000.

However, cases that are being prepared 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 considerable risk of the expenses “consuming up” the recovery.

It needs to be noted that the contingency fee system is exclusively American and that it has been under attack in recent years. Because it enables normal individuals to obtain legal help, the corporate world — insurance companies and other industries — continues to be seeking to pass laws to abolish or cripple it.

These laws take a number of various forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s attorney can charge. Note that only the victim’s lawyer would be subject to any restriction, while the insurance industry’s attorneys would carry on to not just charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the substantial monetary coffers of their rich clients.

The tort program exists for the benefit of normal people as opposed to the interests of the business world, and consequently the program and its key players (the victims and their lawyers) constantly undergo attacks and continually need to fight for their legal rights.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Monica Dog Bite, please give us a call today for a no cost, private assessment with a skilled Santa Monica Animal Attack lawyer.