Santa Ana Dog Bite Attorney

Santa Ana Dog Bite Lawyer

What to do after a Santa Ana Dog Bite

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Ana Animal Bite, please contact us today for a no fee, confidential assessment with an experienced Santa Ana Animal Attack lawyer.

The initial things to do after being attacked

It is important to identify the animal that attacked you, mainly because if it is a stray and you cannot identify it, you’re dealing with the potential of having 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 a person, you probably are eligible to receive compensation from the animal’s owner, and you also might really need that compensation to repay your medical charges, reimburse you for lost income, pay for cosmetic surgery later on, as well as help you overcome the discomfort and being affected by your injuries.

After that, get medical assistance. You are going to be in very good company, because 1,000 Americans arrive in emergency rooms every day of the entire year because of animal attacks alone! Should you be injured on the face, demand treatment by a cosmetic surgeon because emergency room doctors are amazing at keeping people alive but not always the best at making stitches and wounds look great. After that, don’t forget to follow the instructions from the doctor and take every one of the prescriptions that are prescribed (except for the painkillers, which normally are at your discretion). You might also be directed to stay out of the sunshine, use sun block, use scar tissue reduction cream, change bandages, go in for follow up treatment, report for removing of stitches, massage the healing locations, etc. If that’s the case, do it!

The verdict as to whether you need rabies shots must be left to your doctor. Shots are not always called for, because rabies may not be within your geographic location. Don’t be frightened if your physician tells you that you do not need this unpleasant treatment.

If you have been injured in a Santa Ana Dog Bite, please give us a call today for a complimentary, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Santa Ana Animal Attack attorney.

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

• Name of insurance carrier
• Address of his or her office
• Telephone number
• Claim number
• Name of the person who is insured
• The money designed to pay medical costs (not everything, just medical expenses)

Do not do any of the following:

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

Steps to protect your legal rights

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Ana Animal Bite, please contact us now for your free, confidential consultation with a skilled Santa Ana Animal Attack attorney.

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

• Identify the dog. In an extremely critical circumstance, this might entail getting and analyzing a DNA sample, which would call for a lawyer’s involvement.
• Get the name and address of the owner of the dog, if possible. If you’re able to, acquire the dog license information.
• Get the name, address and telephone number of any potential witnesses. You may have to return to the accident scene, and knock on the doors of neighborhood houses and companies. You also should revisit the scene of the accident a couple of times at the same time at which the accident took place, because individuals might have a habit of coming to the same places as part of their daily routine.
• Take photos of all of your injuries, bruises and bloody garments.
• If feasible, attain insurance information from the dog owner.
• If skin was lacerated or worse, or in the event the harm ended up being to the face, or if the victim is a young child, you can and really should speak with an attorney totally free.
• Get your attorney started when the info is new! The facts of your claim have to be proven; the magnitude of your traumas must be recognized. As noticeable as the specifics and injuries might be to you, they will not likely be obvious to an insurance adjuster sitting at a desk in an office building a couple weeks or months following the attack. On top of that, physicians are keen on treating you than proving the nature and severity of your injuries to an insurer, so the proper documentation must be requested from them at the proper times. Your lawyer will obtain the essential proof and keep track of your treatment, so that the insurance adjuster will fully grasp exactly what occurred, and will ensure that you get an acceptable sum of money, if possible.
• Retain your attorney prior to starting any kind of proceeding involving the dog! The laws of most cities, counties and states permit local authorities to decide whether a dog is harmful and, in that case, the fate of the dog. Often this is known as a “dangerous dog hearing,” but it goes by other names as well. Because “dog court” procedures may unintentionally compromise the victim’s rights, she should not communicate with animal control authorities until her lawyer looks at the city and county ordinances, obtains the department’s commitment as to which laws and procedures they will be following, and is satisfied that the issues addressed below will be resolved fairly. If the victim obtains a subpoena, her testimony is essential, making it even more crucial to promptly consult with a lawyer — because a subpoena must be obeyed, to its letter.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Ana Dog Bite, please contact us now for a no fee, private consultation with an experienced Santa Ana Animal Bite lawyer.

The victim should never do the following:

• Do not sign anything! Yes, you typically can sign the medical center entry papers (provided that you were not bitten in the medical center itself). However, sign absolutely nothing offered by any insurance company, the owner of the dog, or the property manager or other owner of the property where the attack happened. 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 an attorney! There are laws called “statutes of limitations.” They say that you lose all of your rights unless you report a court case within a certain period of time after sustaining a bodily injury. For that reason, get in touch with an attorney as quickly as possible.

The dog bite victim’s right to a lawyer

A dog bite victim may have several distinct kinds of damages and losses, from medical charges and emotional damage, to loss of the chance to earn income in the future because of disfigurement. A victim may be entitled to recover these losses from another individual and that individuals insurance company, provided that the victim provides the essential evidence, first to the insurance company and then perhaps 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 strict guidelines of proof and process to establish that liability.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Ana Dog Attack, please give us a call now for a complimentary, private consultation with an experienced Santa Ana Animal Attack lawyer.

Parents have special things to consider any time their children are wounded.

A wounded individual and his or her loved ones are not emotionally able of vigorously enforcing their privileges. The most significant task they encounter is making sure the victim heals. In death cases, the relatives grieve; it is not going to gather proof and put together legal briefs. In cases short of death, the victim and his or her family must be positive, so the tendency is to minimize the hurting, even disregard it as much as possible. Nevertheless, it is there, and it may stay there for quite a while — for good, if wounds turn into ugly scars. Therefore, a vigorous advocate is a must.

A lawyer with expertise in representing persons with these types of injuries brings value to your lawsuit. He or she has analyzed the effects of dog attack injuries, how to obtain the facts required to completely prove not only what transpired in the past but also what the long term effects will be, the strategies and processes of insurance providers when handling critical situations like these, and the best way to effectively examine these cases to ensure that the victims receive everything that they deserve. An attorney with experience has the talent to objectively analyze both the strengths and the weaknesses of a claim. Furthermore, a lawyer is the only person who can turn a claim into a lawsuit if you are not being treated fairly. Without worrying about threat of a lawsuit, you are at the mercy of the insurance firm.

Furthermore, the treatments typically followed by animal control departments in “dog court” hearings may unintentionally compromise the victim’s rights. A victim and her loved ones consequently should not converse 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 content that the issues addressed elsewhere in Dog Bite Law will be managed reasonably.

If you have been injured in a Santa Ana Dog Attack, please contact us today for your no cost, confidential assessment with an experienced Santa Ana Animal Attack lawyer.

The challenges of not retaining a lawyer

If you are dealing with the insurance company without an attorney, then, as seriously as you are taking your injuries, the insurance company isn’t — there is no doubt of that.

Others with similar injuries have retained lawyers to show their claims to that very same insurance company. One point that all those people have in common is an frame of mind of importance about what happened to them, and a driving wish to ensure they are taken care of fairly. The insurance company pays the right amount to the individuals, but not the ones who don’t take the first step of defending their legal rights by maintaining an attorney.

The person at the insurance company that you are interacting with (called the “adjuster”) may appear genuine and sympathetic — a very, very nice individual, a caring person. However, he or she has to report to others you will never talk to: a supervisor, a claims examiner, a local manager, and lastly the corporate office. The adjuster is paid an income and has a family. He or she wants to carry on working for that organization, and maybe get a raise and a promotion. None of that will be risked for you.

Even if the adjuster wants to aid you, because of some connection which you think has developed between the both of you, you will not necessarily be dealt with fairly by the supervisor, claims examiner, regional manager, and corporate office. They don’t know you. To them, you are nothing at all but an individual with no a lawyer.

You’re not dealing with the adjuster, you are dealing with a faceless company, and to that company you are nothing but a file, a liability, a person that needs money which otherwise might be distributed to the investors as profit.

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

The fees of making a lawsuit usually are comparatively small, compared to the amount of money which is to be obtained. In an typical claim, 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 claims actually go to trial, so there is no substantial threat of the costs “eating up” the recovery.

It needs to be noted that the contingency fee system is uniquely 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 — has been seeking to pass laws to abolish or cripple it. These laws take numerous various forms, such as an arbitrary limit on the quantity that a victim’s lawyer may charge. Note that only the victim’s attorney will be subject to any restriction, while the insurance industry’s lawyers would proceed to not only charge their usual hourly rates but also rely upon the vast monetary coffers of their wealthy clients. The tort system is available for the advantage of ordinary individuals rather than the interests of the business world, and consequently the system and its critical players (the victims and their lawyers) consistently experience attacks and constantly must fight for their legal rights.

If you have been seriously injured in a Santa Ana Animal Attack, please contact us today for your free, confidential assessment with a knowledgeable Santa Ana Dog Bite attorney.