Part 1
It is amazing to me that there are so many instances of people being bit by dogs daily.
We all love dogs very much. Perhaps you have a dog of your own and love it almost as much as another person. That is very admirable.
Pittsburgh Dog Bite, Wrongful Death, Car Accident, Medical Malpractice and Slip & Fall Attorney Bernie Tully is talking about another dog ownership situation.
These are cases where owners of dogs just are not responsible and probably shouldn’t even own pets. The reason for that is that sometimes dog owners do not take proper care of their dogs.
They let them run wild on the streets. The unfortunate result is that people are bit by these dogs.
I recently had a case in which a beautiful young 8 year old girl was severely bitten by a family member’s dog.
She had ghastly scars on her face above the eye as a result of the dog bite. Those scars are permanent.
That case settled for a very substantial amount of $$.
Each case, of course, is different. The question is how do you handle these kinds of situations.
The first and most important point, I guess, is whether the owner of the dog has insurance.
If they do not have insurance, that is going to create a major issue because the insurance companies are usually the ones who pay these major dog bite cases.
The second question is how easy is it to determine who owns the dog.
If a person is bitten by a dog on the street, there may be some issue as to who owns the dog. The owner is probably not going to take responsibility if they are told their dog seriously injured another person.
Pittsburgh Dog Bite, Wrongful Death and Car Accident Attorney ernie Tully has another case right now that we are dealing with in terms of a 13 year old who was severely bitten by a relative’s dog on the owner’s porch area.
How do you value a severe ghastly scar that took 99 stitches to close?
If a jury assesses that kind of case, what number do they give to the innocent minor child for the injuries she will have for life?
These are serious questions to consider.
If you have been following these blogs, you probably know the answer. Each case is very subjective and different. What one jury may feel the value of permanent scars to a person is, could be completely different than another jury in the same area.
Tomorrow we will talk about the other important points to think about in deciding whether to pursue a dog bite claim. But for now just remember dog bite cases can be very serious cases indeed.
That is it for now. Thanks for reading.
Bernie the Attorney