Katy Dog Bite Attorney
Not all dogs are Man’s best friend. As a dog bite victim, you understand this. Recovering from a dog bite or dog attack can be a long process, both physically and psychologically. You should not have to make a financial recovery on top of it all. In almost all cases, the dog’s owner is responsible for your damages, and our Katy dog bite attorneys at The West Law Office can help you make that happen. By filing a personal injury lawsuit against the dog’s owner, you can recover your vast expenses, such as medical bills, lost wages and earning capacity, pain and suffering, damages for scarring and disfigurement, emotional and psychological damages, and more.
Proving Liability
In order to hold the dog owner accountable for your injuries, you must establish that:
- The defendant owned or cared for the dog;
- The defendant had a duty of care to prevent the dog from escaping from a home, biting, or attacking others;
- This duty was breached;
- The breach in duty led to your injuries.
As such, even if you were invited into the home of the defendant for a dinner party, and their dog bit you, it could very well be argued that the owner breached their duty of care to separate their dog from you and other guests. Similarly, if a dog escapes a backyard by jumping a fence, then bites a person on their own lawn, or if a leashed dog lunges and bites a passerby on the sidewalk, the victim can hold the dog owner liable in all of these scenarios.
Comparative Negligence and Dog Bites
As with car crashes and other types of personal injuries, any degree of fault of the victim (plaintiff) can be subtracted from their damages. For example, if the victim was 10 percent at fault for the incident, the value of their claim essentially drops by 10 percent. In the case of a dog bite or dog attack, anything that the victim did to antagonize or rile up the dog could be construed as the victim’s own negligence. Examples of when the victim’s claim could be reduced due to their own fault include:
- Teasing the dog;
- Roughhousing with the dog;
- Intentionally frightening the dog; and
- More.
Instances in which the plaintiff may have no claim at all, due to being more than 50 percent at fault, include the following:
- Attacking the dog;
- Attacking the dog’s owner;
- Antagonizing the dog;
- Trespassing or burglary; and
- More.
Call a Katy Dog Bite Attorney Today
By filing a claim against the dog’s owner, you are actually going up against the homeowner’s insurance company. As such, even if the dog’s owner takes responsibility themselves, or is a friend of yours, their insurance company will still fight back and attempt to reduce the value of your claim, or blame you for the dog bite. As such, you always need to work with a Katy dog bite attorney following any sort of dog attack. Call The West Law Firm today at 281-347-3247 for a free consultation.
