Have you recently been attacked by a dog and have questions about what to expect after being bitten by a dog? Contact our Tampa attorneys now.
1) Steps to Take After Being Bitten by a Dog
There is a statute that holds a dog owner to be liable for any damages caused by a dog bite- If you are bitten by a dog, you want to find out who the owner of the dog is
- Next you will want to notify animal protections services, as they may come out and investigate the case for you
Dog bite cases are a little bit different than say a slip and fall case. In Florida there is a statute that holds a dog owner to be strictly liable for any damages caused by a dog bite. In some states they have what’s called the one-bite rule. Say a person goes out and adopts a dog from the animal rescue, and they’ve had the dog for a number of weeks. The dog has never exhibited any sort of vicious propensity. One day the mailman shows up to have you sign for a registered letter, and the dog attacks the mailman.
In some states they would say, well, that’s the owner’s first notice that the dog had vicious propensities. Therefore, the owner is not liable for that first bite because they had no notice that the dog had vicious propensities. Fortunately, Florida is not one of those states. They have a statute that says that the owner is strictly liable for the economic damages.
In the case of a dog bite, one of the things you want to do is first of all find out who owned the dog. Perhaps take a picture of the dog if you can. You’ll want to report the dog bite to the facility or the owner where the dog bite occurred. You may want to make some notes about what you were doing because there may be a claim that you were taunting the dog or you were trespassing. One of the key questions is were you on the person’s property when the dog bit you? If so, were you there with the owner’s permission?
There are a number of issues in a dog bite. Also, you want to notify animal protection. They may come out and investigate. You may actually find out that the dog has bitten other individuals. Clearly that would be something very relevant to the negligence of the owner in that they knew that this dog had vicious propensities as a result of them biting or corralling or snapping at other people.
Another thing you might want to do is talk to people that routinely go on the property. For example, the mailman, the newspaper boy, any delivery men that you know deliver to that property because you may find that some of them have either been bitten or snapped at or the dog has displayed vicious propensities to those individuals. That will help in prosecuting your claim against the owner of the dog.
2) What to Do if You Were Bitten by a Dog
If you’re bitten by a dog there’s important information you need to get from the owner. First of all if the dog has it’s shots, secondly you may want to report the information to animal protective services, they may want to come out and do an investigation and oftentimes that’s very helpful to the lawyer if animal protective services comes out and does an investigation. They’ll look into the history of the dog, where the dog came from, whether it was involved in any other incidents where it bit someone, whether the dog has vicious propensities, where the dog owner got the dog, how long he’d had the dog, and whether he was aware of the vicious propensities. So oftentimes animal protective services can be very helpful to the lawyer in prosecuting the case for the dog bites.
3) What to Do if I get Bit by Someone’s Dog
After any dog bite, one of the important things is to seek prompt medical attention. Oftentimes dog bites involve bacteria so they are treated differently than a laceration in a car accident or on the job injury. It’s very important to get prompt medical attention. There should be a concern as to whether or not the dog had its vaccination and shots and that’s something that needs to be looked into very quickly oftentimes by animal protective services. It’s important that you not only notify the dog owner or whoever is taking care of the dog, but also the local animal protective services to have them properly investigate the dog bite.
Have you recently been attacked by a dog and have questions about what to expect after being bitten by a dog? If so, contact our experienced Tampa Dog Bite Lawyers to schedule a free legal consultation and case evaluation to get started on your claim.
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