Dog Bite Accident Lawyer Los Angeles

Los Angeles Dog Attack Attorney

What to Do After a Los Angeles Dog Attack

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

Also, if you were attacked by a dog or any wild animal being kept by an individual, you most likely are entitled to receive compensation via the dog’s owner, and you also might really need that compensation to repay your medical expenses, reimburse you for lost revenue, pay for surgical treatment later on, as well as make it easier to rise above the discomfort and being affected by your injuries.

After that, get medical help. You will undoubtedly be in wonderful company, because 1,000 Americans show up in emergency rooms every day of the year because of dog bites alone!

Should you be harmed around the face, insist on treatment by a plastic surgeon because emergency room physicians are fantastic at keeping individuals alive but not always the best at making stitches and injuries look nice. After that, be sure to keep to the instructions from the physician and take all the prescriptions that are prescribed (aside from the painkillers, which usually are usually your discretion).

You may also be directed to stay out of the sunshine, use sunscreen, use scar reduction ointment, change bandages, report for follow up treatment, report for removal of stitches, massage the healing regions, etc. If so, do it!

The final decision as to whether or not you need rabies shots must be left to your physician. Shots are not always called for, because rabies may not be in your geographic location. Don’t be frightened if your doctor informs you that you do not need this painful treatment.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles Dog Bite, please give us a call now for a complimentary, private assessment with an experienced Los Angeles Dog Bite lawyer.

If the animal owner is insured, you may get a call from an insurance company representative. You should ask him or her for the following information:

• Name of insurance company
• Address of his or her business office
• Telephone number
• Claim number
• Name of the individual who is insured
• The money designed to pay medical expenditures (not everything, just medical expenditures)

Do not do any of the following:

• Do not talk about money, payment of money, repayment, personal injury value or whatever else concerning money
• Do not set up a meeting
• Do not write a letter or a memo
• Do not permit yourself to be tape recorded
• Do not allow the victim to be photographed
• Do not focus on who is accountable
• Do not accept any money

Measures to protect your legal rights

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

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

• Identify the dog. In a very serious situation, this could entail acquiring and analyzing a DNA sample, that will require a lawyer’s involvement.
• Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, if possible. If you can, obtain the dog license details.
• Get the name, address and telephone number of any prospective witnesses. You may have to return to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of neighborhood homes and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the incident a couple of times at the same time when the incident took place, because people often have a habit of coming to the same places as section of their daily schedule.
• Take pictures of all of your wounds, bruises and bloody clothing.
• If possible, acquire insurance information from the dog owner.
• If skin was lacerated or more serious, or if the damage ended up being to the face, or if the victim was a child, you can and really should consult with a lawyer for nothing.
• Get your lawyer started as the info is fresh! The details of your lawsuit have to be proved; the degree of your wounds must be established. As noticeable as the information and injuries may be to you, they will not likely be noticeable to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months following the attack. Furthermore, physicians are more interested in treating you than proving the type and level of your injuries to an insurance provider, so the proper paperwork must be asked for from them at the suitable times. Your attorney will get the essential facts and keep track of your treatment, so the insurance adjuster will fully grasp exactly what happened, and will give you an adequate sum of money, when possible.
• Retain your lawyer prior to taking part in 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 unsafe and, in that case, the fate of the dog. Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” but it goes by additional names as well. Because “dog court” procedures may inadvertently compromise the victim’s rights, she should not speak to animal control authorities until her lawyer compares the city and county ordinances, gains the department’s commitment as to which laws and processes they will be following, and is fulfilled that the problems addressed below will be settled fairly. If the victim obtains a subpoena, her testimony is essential, making it even more significant to promptly consult with with an attorney — because a subpoena must be followed, to its letter.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles Dog Attack, please give us a call today for your free, confidential assessment with an experienced Los Angeles Dog Attack lawyer.

The victim should remember the following:

• Do not sign anything! Yes, you normally can sign the clinic entrance documents (given that you were not bitten in the clinic itself).

However, sign nothing presented 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 landlord or other property owner.

• Do not be reluctant to consult a lawyer! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you lose all of your rights unless you report a court case within a specific amount of time after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, call a lawyer as soon as possible.

The Dog Attack Victim’s Right to a Lawyer

A dog attack victim may sustain many different kinds of injuries and losses, from medical payments and mental damage, to loss of the chance to generate income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be eligible to get back these losses from another person and that person’s insurance company, provided that the victim provides the necessary proof, first to the insurance company and then possibly in a court of law.

There are two sets of laws the victim needs to follow, particularly those spelling out who is accountable for the injuries and losses, and those imposing rigid rules of evidence and procedure to establish that liability.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles Dog Bite, please call us right now for your no fee, confidential assessment with an experienced Los Angeles Animal Attack attorney.

Parents have particular criteria when their children are hurt.

A wounded person and his or her loved ones are not emotionally capable of intensely enforcing their privileges. The most significant task they confront is ensuring that the victim heals. In death cases, the loved ones grieve; it doesn’t obtain data and prepare legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family have to be upbeat, so the tendency is to lessen the suffering, even ignore it wherever possible.

Nevertheless, it is there, and it may stay there for quite a while – permanently, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a necessity.

A lawyer with experience in defending persons with these injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has analyzed the outcomes of dog attack injuries, how to collect the facts vital to completely prove not only what happened in the past but also what the future outcomes will be, the methods and processes of insurance providers when dealing with major circumstances like these, and how to properly evaluate these instances to make sure that the victims get what they deserve.

An attorney with knowledge has the capacity to objectively analyze both the strengths and the weaknesses of a claim. Furthermore, an attorney is the only person who can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being taken care of fairly. With no threat of a lawsuit, you’re at the mercy of the insurance company.

Furthermore, the treatments regularly followed by animal control departments in “dog court” proceedings could unintentionally endanger the victim’s rights. A victim and her family consequently shouldn’t speak with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, obtains the department’s commitment as to which laws and steps they will be following, and is pleased that the issues addressed in other places in Dog Bite Law will be fixed fairly.

If you have been injured in a Los Angeles Animal Attack, please call us today for a no-fee, private consultation with a knowledgeable Los Angeles Dog Attack attorney.

The Risks of Not Retaining an Attorney

If you are working with the insurance firm 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 comparable injuries have retained lawyers to show their claims to that same insurance company. One factor that all those people have in common is an attitude of significance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to be sure they are treated fairly.

The insurance company will pay the proper amount to the individuals, but not the people who don’t take the preliminary step of protecting their legal rights by holding onto a lawyer.

The person at the insurance firm that you are dealing with (called the “adjuster”) might well seem to be honest and sympathetic – a very excellent person, a patient person. However, he or she needs to report to other individuals you will never talk to: a supervisor, a claims examiner, a regional supervisor, and eventually the corporate office.

The adjuster is paid a salary 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 needs to aid you, because of some bond that you feel has developed involving the both of you, you will not necessarily be taken care of fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office.

They are not familiar with you. To them, you’re absolutely nothing but a person without a lawyer. You aren’t working with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless company, and to that firm you are nothing but a file, a legal responsibility, a person that wants money that otherwise would be dispersed to the shareholders as profit.

If you don’t retain an attorney, you’re on your own, against all those 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 expenses of creating a law suit are frequently rather small, when compared to the amount of money that will be received. In a normal lawsuit, they may come to between $1000 and $2000. However, cases which are being arranged for trial become very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately only 2% of lawsuits actually go to trial, so there is no major risk of the fees “consuming up” the recovery.

It should be noted that the contingency fee system is exclusively American and that it has been under attack in recent years. Because it enables ordinary individuals to get legal help, the corporate world – insurance providers and other industries – may be trying to pass laws to abolish or cripple it.

These laws take several distinct forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s attorney may charge. Note that only the victim’s attorney would be subject to any constraint, while the insurance industry’s lawyers would carry on to not only charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the substantial monetary coffers of their successful customers.

The tort system is available for the advantage of normal individuals as opposed to the interests of the business world, and consequently the system and its major players (the victims and their lawyers) constantly suffer attacks and constantly need to fight for their rights.

If you have been seriously injured in a Los Angeles Dog Attack, please call us now for a no-fee, confidential assessment with an experienced Los Angeles Dog Attack attorney.