Glendale Dog Bite Lawyer

What to do after a Glendale Dog Bite

If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Animal Bite , please call us today at 1-888-602-3245 for your free, confidential consultation with a skilled Glendale Dog Attack lawyer.

The first things to do after being bitten

It is very important identify the dog that attacked you, because if it is a stray and you are not able to identify it, you’re dealing with the possibility of needing to submit to treatment for rabies, which can be painful. 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 animal’s owner, and you may possibly really need that compensation to cover your medical debts, reimburse you for lost income, pay for cosmetic surgery down the road, and allow you to overcome the pain and being affected by your injuries.

After that, get medical attention. You will undoubtedly be in good company, because 1,000 Americans arrive in emergency rooms every day of the entire year because of animal attacks alone! If you are injured around the face, demand treatment by a plastic surgeon because emergency room physicians are amazing at keeping people alive but not necessarily the best at making stitches and wounds look good. After that, you’ll want to stick to the instructions from the doctor and take all the medications that are prescribed (with the exception of the painkillers, which often are at your discretion). You might also be ordered to stay out of the the sun, use sunscreen, use scar reduction lotion, change bandages, report for follow up treatment, go in for removing of stitches, massage the recovering regions, etc. If that’s the case, do it!

The final decision as to whether or not you will need rabies shots must be left to your physician. Shots are not always required, because rabies may not be in your geographic location. Do not be frightened if your physician tells you that you don’t need to have this uncomfortable treatment.

If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Dog Bite , please give us a call right now at 1-888-602-3245 for a free, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Glendale Animal Bite attorney.

If the animal owner is insured, you may get a call from an insurance carrier 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 covered by insurance
• The money available to pay medical costs (not everything, just medical costs)

Do not do any of the following:

• Do not talk about money, payment of money, repayment, personal injury value or anything else including money
• Do not set up a meeting
• Do not write a letter or a memo
• Do not allow yourself to be tape recorded
• Do not let the victim to be photographed
• Do not go over who is liable
• Do not take any money

Steps to protect your rights

If you have been injured in a Glendale Dog Attack , please call us now at 1-888-602-3245 for a no cost, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Glendale Animal Bite attorney.

A dog attack victim has to do the subsequent things to preserve his or her legal rights:

• Identify the dog. In an extremely critical scenario, this may entail acquiring and analyzing a DNA sample, that would call for an attorney’s involvement.
• Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, if possible. If you’re able to, obtain the dog permit details.
• Get the name, address and telephone number of any prospective witnesses. You might have to go back to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of nearby homes and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the incident a couple of times at the same time when the accident happened, because individuals may have a habit of coming to the same places as part of their daily schedule.
• Take pictures 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 if the injury was to the facial area, or if the victim is a child, you can and should speak to a lawyer at no cost.
• Get your attorney started while the facts are new! The facts of your lawsuit must be proven; the degree of your wounds have to be established. As obvious as the facts and wounds might be to you, they will not likely be apparent to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a few weeks or months after the attack. Furthermore, doctors are keen on healing you than proving the type and severity of your injuries to an insurer, so the proper paperwork must be asked for from them at the appropriate times. Your lawyer will obtain the necessary proof and keep track of your medical treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will comprehend exactly what happened, and will provide you with an acceptable amount of money, whenever possible.
• Retain your lawyer before starting any proceeding relating to the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states allow local authorities to determine whether a dog is dangerous and, if so, the fate of the dog. Often this is referred to as a “dangerous dog hearing,” however it goes by some other names as well. Because “dog court” procedures may unintentionally compromise the victim’s rights, she should never speak with animal control authorities until her lawyer looks at the city and county ordinances, acquires the department’s commitment as to which laws and procedures they will be following, and is fulfilled that the concerns addressed below will be solved fairly. If the victim receives a subpoena, her testimony is required, making it even more necessary to instantly seek advice from with a lawyer — because a subpoena must be followed, to its letter.

If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Animal Attack , please contact us today at 1-888-602-3245 for a free, private assessment with an experienced Glendale Dog Attack lawyer.

The victim must never do the following:

• Do not sign anything! Yes, you typically can sign the clinic entry paperwork (provided that you were not bitten in the clinic itself). However, sign absolutely 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 hesitate to consult a lawyer! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you lose all of your legal rights unless you file a court case within a certain period of time after sustaining a bodily injury. Therefore, get in touch with an attorney as soon as possible.

The dog attack victim’s right to a lawyer

A dog bite victim may have several different kinds of injuries and losses, from medical debts and emotional destruction, to loss of the possibility to earn income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be entitled to get back these losses from another person and that individuals insurance company, provided that the victim presents the essential evidence, first to the insurance company and then possibly in a court of law. There are two sets of laws the victim must follow, particularly those spelling out who is responsible for the injuries and losses, and those imposing tough rules of proof and procedure to create that liability.

If you have been injured in a Glendale Dog Bite , please call us right now at 1-888-602-3245 for a free, confidential assessment with a skilled Glendale Dog Attack attorney.

Parents have particular factors whenever their kids are injured.

A hurt person and his or her loved ones are not emotionally ready of intensely enforcing their privileges. The most significant task they face is ensuring the victim heals. In death cases, the relatives grieve; it does not collect information 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 reduce the hurting, even ignore it whenever possible. Nevertheless, it is there, and it may be there for quite a while — for good, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a necessity.

A lawyer with expertise in representing people with these types of injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has examined the effects of dog bite injuries, how to gather the data needed to completely prove not only what took place in the past but also what the future effects will be, the strategies and steps of insurance agencies when handling critical cases like these, and how to effectively examine these cases to ensure that the victims receive exactly what they deserve. A lawyer with experience has the ability to objectively assess 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 worrying about threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance provider.

Furthermore, the methods normally followed by animal control departments in “dog court” hearings may unexpectedly compromise the victim’s rights. A victim and her loved ones therefore must not speak with animal control authorities until her lawyer reviews the city and county ordinances, acquires the department’s dedication as to which laws and procedures they will be following, and is satisfied that the challenges dealt with in other places in Dog Bite Law will be settled fairly.

If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Dog Bite , please give us a call now at 1-888-602-3245 for a no cost, confidential assessment with an experienced Glendale Animal Attack lawyer.

The challenges of not retaining an attorney

If you are dealing with the insurance company without a lawyer, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — you can be assured of that.

Other people with very similar injuries have retained lawyers to present their claims to that same insurance company. One point that all people have in common is an attitude of significance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to be sure they are dealt with fairly. The insurance company will pay the right amount to those individuals, but not the people who don’t take the preliminary step of protecting their legal rights by keeping an attorney.

The person at the insurance firm that you are working with (called the “adjuster”) may seem sincere and sympathetic — a very, excellent person, a caring person. However, he or she must report to other individuals you will never talk to: a supervisor, a lawsuits examiner, a local 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 help you, because of some bond which you feel has developed involving the both of you, you will not necessarily be treated fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. They don’t know you. To them, you are absolutely nothing but an individual with out a lawyer.

You are not dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless corporation, and to that company you are nothing but a file, a legal responsibility, an individual who needs money which otherwise would be distributed to the investors as profit.

If you don’t retain an attorney, you are on your own, against all individuals at the insurance company, and all of its lawyers. When was the last time that you heard a happy ending to that story?

The fees of creating a law suit usually are somewhat small, when compared to the amount of money which will be acquired. In an typical claim, they might come to between $1000 and $2000. However, cases that are being prepared for trial become very expensive — tens of thousands of dollars. Fortunately only 2% of lawsuits actually go to trial, so there is no significant chance of the prices “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 regular individuals to acquire legal help, the corporate world — insurance agencies and other industries — have been seeking to pass laws to abolish or cripple it. These laws take a number of different forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s lawyer can charge. Note that only the victim’s lawyer would be subject to any restriction, while the insurance industry’s lawyers would carry on to not just charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the vast monetary coffers of their successful customers. The tort system exists for the advantage of regular individuals rather than the interests of the business world, and consequently the system and its essential players (the victims and their lawyers) continuously undergo attacks and regularly must fight for their rights.

If you have been seriously injured in a Glendale Animal Bite , please contact us now at 1-888-602-3245 for your complimentary, private consultation with a knowledgeable Glendale Dog Attack lawyer.