Will my Neighbor Hate me if I Hire a Lawyer After a Dog Bite?

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Will my Neighbor Hate me if I Hire a Lawyer After a Dog Bite?

The citizens of the great State of Utah are generally extremely amicable. Most of us know many of our neighbors. People in Utah have a very strong sense of community. We spend a great deal of time at social gatherings and we very much value relationships with our friends and neighbors in our local community. A dog bite incident can quickly cause distrust and strife between individuals who once were close. There is a common assumption that hiring a dog bite lawyer will further the tension and will damage relationships. That assumption is absolutely false. Most disagreements in life are based on miscommunication. Communication is never a bad thing when it is done in the right way. How can the parties involved in a dog bite incident be expected to communicate their wishes well one with another when they have no idea what the laws of the State of Utah are in regard to dog bites? Misunderstanding the law and the rights and responsibilities of the various parties leaves people completely unsure about what to expect. Even reasonable and intelligent people can easily disagree with one another when they are both shooting from the hip (merely stating their opinions) and neither really knows what is right.  By contacting a dog bite attorney, you can be quickly educated on what the state expects to happen when a dog bites a person. That knowledge and understanding can alleviate an awful lot of tension when you approach your neighbor to discuss how the situation should be handled.

The other major advantage of accepting a free consultation with a dog bite lawyer is that your lawyer will instruct you about the homeowners insurance claim process. Homeowners are required by their banks to pay for homeowners insurance. That insurance is there to protect the homeowner in the case of a disaster. The family dog attacking a neighbor is exactly the kind of disaster that homeowners insurance is there to pay for. When you contact a lawyer after a dog bite, the lawyer will work directly with the dog owner’s homeowners insurance. The homeowner will likely not pay anything out of pocket to cover your damages. The homeowner will likely never even be in contact with you attorney. The entire process becomes a step removed and alleviates any need for direct confrontation between the victim and the dog owner.

The worst thing that you can do after being bitten by a dog is to take matters into your own hands. Dog attacks are extremely scary. They cause a great deal of anxiety and anger. Things typically do not turn out well when people rush to decisions while they are angry. Victims of dog bites should fight the urge to return violence with violence. Physical force should only be used against the aggressive dog to the extent that it is necessary to eliminate the danger of the situation and to prevent future harm.

To not hire a dog bite lawyer is to be victimized twice. Your own family should come first. A dog bite injury can having lasting physical and emotional effects. Hiring a Utah dog bite lawyer is the only way to ensure that you are fully compensated for what has happened to you.

Does My Home Owners’ Insurance Policy Cover My Dog?

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Does My Home Owners’ Insurance Policy Cover My Dog?

The short answer is yes- probably, but it depends. Your homeowner’s insurance likely covers liability for all damages caused by your dog. So there is no need to ad insult to injury by being a jerk to your neighbor after your dog bites them. Instead, take the responsibility that is yours under Utah law and don’t worry- your insurance will cover everything. This is why you pay for insurance- in case something goes wrong.

Insurance is extremely important. You should always have a detailed conversation with a good insurance agent prior to choosing your insurance plan. Homeowners insurance and renters insurance are not exceptions to that rule. These policies will cover costly damage to your property; they will also usually cover theft of items that were stored in your insured property. An overlooked aspect of these types of insurance policies is the liability portion of the policy. Homeowners and renters alike have the ability to buy liability coverage so that they will be protected in the event that another person is hurt either on your property, or by your property. Homeowners insurance will always include some amount of liability coverage, but it is up to the consumer to educate himself or herself about the different amounts of liability coverage that can be purchased under their insurance policy. These liability policies will almost always include damages caused by the family pet such as a dog. Even where these types of damages are specially excluded, supplemental insurance can be purchased elsewhere. The great part for homeowners is that these policies that cover damage caused by your dog will also usually cover damage caused by your dog that does not even occur on your insured property.

There is a growing trend among homeowners insurance companies today to list dog bites as specific exclusions. Exclusions are things that are explicitly not covered by the insurance policy. It is of vital importance that you take the time to go over your exclusions with your insurance agent prior to choosing your homeowners insurance. If dog bites have been excluded, you should probably not own a dog. Dog bite laws can make claims extremely expensive and you will be left solely liable for any and all damages caused by your dog if dog bites are listed in the exclusion section of your policy. You should especially not purchase a Pit Bull or a Rottweiler if you find yourself in such a situation. Those breeds of dog can be particularly dangerous and therefore costly to you. In fact, these breeds of dog are so hazardous that many homeowners insurance policies will have breed-specific exclusions. Breed specific exclusions are exclusions of only certain dangerous breeds such as Pitt Bulls and Rottweilers. If you find yourself owning a dangerous dog, and your insurance company excludes your breed, there is yet another option to explore.

Today there are third party private insurance companies that are in the business of offering insurance specifically for pets. These types of policies can be purchased for only a few hundred dollars per year because they only apply to pets so the risk each year is minimal. They typically cover both injuries to your dog that require veterinary services as well as damage caused by your dog in the form of liability protection. That few hundred dollars per year can buy you several hundred thousand dollars worth of liability coverage. If you own a dangerous breed, I certainly recommend looking into one of these supplemental policies.

Many policies of both homeowners insurance and renters insurance have a liability limit of $100,000 in the State of Utah. That means that any damages over the first $100,000 will need to be paid by the homeowner. Insurance agents will advise you that if you own a medium or large sized dog, you should pay a little extra to up your liability limits to something more in the ballpark of $300,000. After all, what is the point of having insurance if it does not leave you feeling secure?

If you have been injured by a dog, contact a Utah Dog Bite Lawyer immediately. He or she can assist you in navigating through the treacherous claims process and can ensure that you will be fairly compensated for your loss.

Code: 05056

Should I Hire a Lawyer if a Dog Bites Me?

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Should I Hire a Lawyer if a Dog Bites Me?

There are just over 4.5 million occurrences of a dog biting a human each year in the United States alone. Many of these are one-bite attacks. Some of those type of attacks do not require very serious medical attention, but the experience can remain emotionally traumatizing. Being bitten by an angry dog can be an exceptionally scary event. Victims of dog bites can attest to that fact. Of the 4.5 million dog bites each year, over 800,000 of them result in extremely serious medical conditions. A good number of those 800,000 serious attacks are from occurrences involving multiple dogs.

When one person injures another person, the at-fault person should pay to help the injured victim recover. That is the way the law works. Allowing your dog to bite someone triggers the same legal chain reaction. It is possible to recover for you dog bite injuries without the help of a dog bite lawyer. It is also possible to stich up your dog bite wound yourself rather than going to the doctor, but I would not recommend it. You go to the doctor because he is an expert. He can treat your injury much better than you are able to. The same rule applies to hiring a dog bite lawyer. You could work directly with the homeowners insurance company that covers the neighbor whose dog bit you, but you will be shortchanged. Insurance companies are extremely successful financial because they are experts at getting their insured to pay their premiums, and they are experts at paying out as little as possible for each claim. When you do not consult an experienced dog bite lawyer, you’re choosing to go up against an entire team of trained attorneys all on your own. You are outgunned, and out-manned. I do not recommend it.

There are cases when an attorney may not be entirely necessary. Perhaps you know the person who owns the dog that bit you. After all, more than half of all the dog attacks in the U.S each year occur on the property where the dog resides. If you are on the dog’s property, you probably know the dog’s owner. Some owners may be very responsible and caring. They may realize that the laws of this great country do not let them allow their dog to attack their neighbors. They may want to avoid any claims going to their homeowners insurance at all. They may believe that those claims could result in an increase of their insurance premiums. They also may not want to force you to wait to be reimbursed by their insurance company while your expensive medical bills mount up. If that is the case, they may offer to pay you an amount out of pocket to help make up for their mistake. If the dog bite was a minor one, this may be a great route to solve the problem. Intelligent parties can typically solve problems by freely negotiating. However, if the dog bite was serious, I do not recommend this course of action. It is impossible for you to know the extent of your injuries immediately following the attack. A Utah dog bite lawyer can provide you with a free consultation to go over your rights before you agree to settle your claim.

If you have any doubt at all about how to conduct your affairs after you have been bitten by a dog, your best bet is to contact an attorney. A little knowledge can go along way. There is little worse than being victimized by an angry dog and then being victimized again by an aggressive insurance company. Don’t let it happen to you.

First Time My Dog Bit Someone

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First Time My Dog Bit Someone

Many states require a dog bite victim to prove negligence in order to recover against the dog’s owner after a dog bite incident. Negligence is a fancy lawyer word that really just means that somebody was not careful enough. For example, if you know that your dog loves to attack small children, and you decide to let your dog run free in a children’s playground, you are being negligent. You are falling extremely far below a reasonable or expected standard of care. An owner who was not negligent would train their dog extremely well, he or she would not allow children to play with the dog, and in the event that the dog was forced to be around children, the dog would be leashed and muzzled. In a state where you must be able to show that the dog owner was negligent, it would be difficult to win the lawsuit if the dog has never before bitten anyone. That is why many states have codified the “One bite rule.” The one bite rule dictates that a dog owner cannot be liable for the resulting injuries if that particular dog has never before bitten anyone. The reason for this law is that even a reasonably careful person may not take very man steps to prevent their dog from biting someone if they have had their dog for a number of years and the dog has never before shown any signs of aggression. In states that follow the one bite rule, dog bites are documented so that a dog owner may be liable the second time the dog bites someone. At that point the dog has shown a propensity to be violent and a reasonably prudent person would take precautionary measures to prevent a second attack. If that second attack occurs, then the dog owner has been negligent.

The State of Utah does not allow such shenanigans. Utah dogs are not given one free pass. Just as people are subject to prosecution the first time they assault someone, dog owners are subject to liability the first time their dog bites and injures someone. Some are fans of this law and others are not. Dog owners argue that it is overly burdensome to expect them to be automatically liable for any and all damages caused by their dogs. Then again, a victim of a dog attack may offer a very compelling viewpoint that dog attacks can be extremely physically and emotionally damaging and they should be prevented at all costs. After all, what is the incentive to own a knowingly dangerous and aggressive animal? Surely their costs to society are not outweighed by their utility.

Most victims of dog attacks feel mistreated and slighted. Offering to help pay for medical bills can go a long way to mending a relationship and making things right. Those that have been bitten by dogs should understand that the dog owner likely did not intend to injure them. The dog owner would almost always go back in time and prevent the attack if they could. At the same time, dog owners should understand that the victim did not ask to be bitten by a dog. No victim would intentionally allow himself or herself to be bitten in an attempt to collect a settlement. That would be absurd. Contacting a dog bite lawyer should be the first thing you do after an accident, he or she can educate you as to your rights and help you resolve the problem as amicably as possible.

I Was On Someone Else’s Property

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I Was On Someone Else’s Property

Many people wonder whether their dog bite claim will be defeated by the fact that they were on the dog owners property when they got bit by the dog? The short answer to this question is—absolutely not. Utah is a strict liability state when it comes to dog bite law. That means that dog owners must pay for the harm caused by their dogs almost regardless of the fact situation surrounding the incident. The one obvious exception to that rule is police canines. If the police use their canines to track down a criminal, the criminal cannot sue the police force over the dog bite injury. Because Utah dog bite laws are so favorable to victims of dog bites, dog owners should make sure to take good care of their dogs and do everything they can to ensure safety for their friends and neighbors.

When it comes down to it, the path to recovery for injuries from a dog bite may be easier when one is bitten on the dog’s property as opposed to one’s own property. The reason for that is two fold: one, landowner liability is a well-established legal principle, and two; homeowners insurance is usually the end game. Landowner liability is the idea that an owner of property should be responsible for injuries that happen to others while they are on his or her property because the owner of the property is in the superior position to know and understand the dangers that may be present on that property and therefore they are in the position to more adequately protect against those dangers. The law seeks to place the burden of caution on the party who has the best ability to prevent the harm. The second reason is that the overwhelming majority of meritorious dog bite claims are settled and paid out by homeowners insurance companies as opposed to being paid out by the dog owner herself. No one wants their neighbor to have to pony up the cash for their medical expenses after a dog bite, but why should a victim have to bare the costs of expensive medical treatments that were not their fault? Homeowners insurance steps in to fill that gap. Most homeowners insurance policies cover the family dog. These policies typically follow the dog even when that dog leaves the property, but it is always an easier case if the injury occurred on the property that is directly covered under the terms of the policy.

It is of note that more than half of dog bite incidents in the U.S in 2012 occurred on the property of the dog owner. These situations are usually a fact scenario where a dog owner invites guests over, the dog is uncomfortable with the guests, and someone gets bit. Where the law becomes a bit more convoluted is when the victim was actually not ever invited over to the property but was instead a trespasser. In many states, a trespasser would not be able to bring a claim against the dog’s owner after being bitten by their dog. In Utah, a trespasser would still have a winning claim because Utah is a strict liability state with regard to dog bites. Unless the circumstances are particularly extreme, even an uninvited person has the right to not be bitten by an angry dog. The dog owner will receive sympathy from the courts if the dog was acting in self-defense of the owner against a dangerous intruder, but the dog owner will not receive much leniency if a child wanders into an unfenced yard and is attacked by a dog.

If you or someone you know has been bitten by a dog while they were in the home of a friend or neighbor, contact a dog bite attorney today.