How Long Does Someone Have To Bring A Dog Bite Claim In California?
Barring any special circumstances, you have two years. If you are a minor, your statute starts when you are eighteen, so you have two years from your eighteenth birthday.
What Does A Personal Injury Attorney Have To Prove In A Dog Bite Claim?
Under the Dog Bite statute, you have to prove,
1) Who owns the dog;
2) You have to prove that your client was bitten by their dog;
3) You have to prove there are damages.
Advice for People Contemplating Negotiations with Insurances on Their Own
My advice would be doing nothing on your own. The only person that is going to be getting a cheaper deal is the insurance company, because they will try to pay you a lot less money than they owe you for the claim. Personally, I have not seen it work out very well when people negotiate with the pet owners. They generally offer some very small amount of money without the proper understanding of what the full measures of someone’s damage can be.
What If Someone Cannot Afford A Personal Injury Attorney?
No one will fall under that category with us because we charge a contingency fee. That means if we do not collect from the responsible party, they do not have to pay attorney’s fees. Our fees come out of the settlement.
Can You Relate Some Personal Experiences That You Have Had Handling Dog Bite Claims?
The insurance companies always want to pay a small amount at first and with proper advocacy, we make a huge difference in the amount of money that they end up receiving. I have also seen situations where people have tried to negotiate with the pet owners themselves and they are talking dollars like five hundred and things like that. I just recently had a case that the home owner was trying to negotiate the claim and offering a few hundred dollars and the case ended up settling for thirty thousand dollars. They hired me and we set up the case properly and handled it correctly as you can tell by the numbers, because we got a much larger settlement.
There is a lot of moving parts to a dog bite. Once they get started with the defense, there is the assumption of risk and trespass and so you need an advocate to get you through all that and not try to handle it with people who are experts in defeating your claim. You need to get an expert at bringing one of these claims.
What Sets You Apart In Handling Dog Bite Claims?
What sets us apart is I am highly experienced with dog bite claims. I have done numerous amounts of these and I have seen almost every gyration that a dog bite claim could take. The level of experience you get with our firm is extremely high.
Is A Dog Bite Case Involving Children More Emotionally Charged?
Absolutely. Anytime a child is injured, the parents are emotionally charged. Unlike almost any other personal injury case, the dog owners are generally in the same emotionally heightened state, because they get real defensive about their dogs. All kinds of things happen then after someone’s dog bites you. They are generally a whole lot less friendlier than you would expect.
Can An Animal Be Put Down for Attacking A Child In California?
Yes. That is handled by Animal Control and it is a separate thing. It does become very emotional, and that is something that the dog owners are worried about and they seem to go into this defense mode. It can be very disconcerting for someone who has just been attacked.
For more information on Statute Of Limitations For A Dog Bite, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling 858-909-9090 today.