One of the most difficult things many Arizona injury lawyers that deal with dog bite cases do is educate those who have been seriously injured due to a dog attack. Often the intricacies of a dog attack claim must be explained to the parent of a child who has been bitten by a dog. These tragic situations often involve a child that has been bitten on the face by a dog. As experienced Arizona dog bite attorneys, we know how easily these incidents can be prevented by dog owners, and how they can be guarded against by owners who take a bit of care. Too many dog owners unfortunately do see the dangers their animals present to children, even though they may love their dogs.
It is imperative that dog owners are held responsible for bites or other vicious attacks by their pets. We understand that many people would rather just forget about it and move on after being attacked by a dog. Yet since dog owners are so rarely prosecuted in criminal courts, it makes it even more important to bring these types of cases into the civil court system. Only by holding an owner liable for the damage caused by an attack by a pet dog will dog owners take better care to ensure that their dogs do not bite anyone. This will prevent other innocent victims from being injured due to owners’ negligence in such situations.
For this reason, it is important to take the time to talk with an experienced Arizona dog bite lawyer. By pursuing a personal injury claim, an injured victim of a dog bite not only may get compensation for his or her injuries, but that person is helping to prevent others from being injured by future dog attacks in Arizona. We invite you to call Breyer Law to speak with one of our experienced Arizona dog bite lawyers. We are happy to answer all of your questions so that you can decide how to proceed, and allow you to make the best decision for your family as to whether to pursue an Arizona dog bite claim and insurance settlement.
We are experienced Arizona dog bite lawyers, who can help someone who has suffered from a vicious dog attack. Often we hear similar stories about how the owners of a dangerous dog failed to keep it away from the public. Frankly, as dog bite lawyers, we would prefer to see fewer Arizona dog bite cases, as we know from experience that most of them can be prevented. That is why when we hear about children being bitten by a pit bull in Phoenix, Tucson, or elsewhere in Arizona, we often just shake our heads, roll up our figurative sleeves, and go to work pursuing these kinds of Arizona personal injury cases.
Regardless of the amount of work we do, we so often feel as if we are not making a difference. We would just like to see people put their dogs behind a fence or on a leash, so that we no longer read about something like this story, where a postal worker is attacked by two pit bulls. As personal injury attorneys in Phoenix, we want to know why the pit bulls were able to get out of the yard, and how they were allowed to attack the postal worker.
Like every dog bite victim, this woman has the right to seek compensation. She will likely lose time from work, have medical bills to pay from the attack, and experience a great deal of pain due to her injuries. Some things may be covered, but there may be some things that are not. Arizona allows a person to file a personal injury claim against the dogs’ owner in such cases and a person can generally, though not always, claim against that person’s home owner’s insurance. The dog bite victim may still have the right to file an Arizona dog bite lawsuit against their insurance even if the attack took place away from the property where the dogs should have been staying.
Arizona dog bite law limits the time in which legal recourse can be made to two years, and, if the dog happens to be a pit bull, a person must file within a year or lose some legal protections. For this reason, it is always advices that a person attacked by a pit bull or another type of dog retain the services of a competent personal injury lawyer with experience in such cases.
Source article:http://www.azfamily.com/news/homepagetopstory/stories/phoenix-local-news-020309-postal-worker-pit-bulls.169fc5a2.html
As experienced Phoenix dog bite lawyers, we see the same types of stories occur over and over. Ask any personal injury lawyer, and he or she will tell you that some things are just dangerous. It is unfortunate how many cases occur where pit bulls or other dangerous canines attack and seriously injure or even kill children.
There is really no excuse for owners of potentially dangerous animals not to keep them restrained. In a recent story from Phoenix we see that two pit bulls attacked a postal worker who was just doing her job. Many people reading about this incident may ask themselves why these two dangerous animals were not contained, in addition to why people in the neighborhood, rather than the owners, had to save the innocent letter carrier.
Like other dog bite victims, this woman has a right to be compensated for her injuries. This includes compensation for lost wages, pain and suffering, medical bills associated with the dog attack, and any out of pocket expenses along the way. Arizona law allows a dog bite victim to sue the owner, and there is often recourse from the house insurance policy for the residence at which the animals should have been contained. An Arizona dog bite claim is not limited just to the property where the dogs should have been. In fact, victims of dog attacks have equal rights to pursue a claim that happened off the property.
On the other hand, Arizona dog bite law prevents any lawsuit to take place after two years. To make matters even more restrictive, somebody who has been attacked by a pit bull in Arizona must bring a lawsuit within one year of the date of the incident or they lose some of the legal protections they have. Therefore, while in theory a lawsuit can be brought up to two years after an attack, it is very much to the benefit of a dog bit victim to seek out a lawyer early enough that the investigation can be accomplished and the chance to file the lawsuit in less than one year can be pursued.
If you or a loved one has been attacked by a dog, and especially a pit bull, you may want to seek out an experienced lawyer soon enough after the incident to enable a lawsuit to be filed within a year, if necessary. It is our opinion at Breyer Law Offices, however, that such cases can and should instead be prevented, so that Arizona dog attacks become a rare event.
