Should I Get a Lawyer for a Dog Bite in California?

Being bitten by a dog can be a traumatic experience, as well as extremely dangerous and even deadly. On top of the injuries caused by these attacks, the psychological trauma a victim experiences can last for years. This is especially true when the victim is a small child.

Dogs are wonderful animals, and it is no surprise to any dog owner why they are referred to so lovingly as "man's best friend." However, even friends can make mistakes or act up making bites possible at any time. This is why you should know what to do if you are bitten by a dog and how California's laws may affect a dog bite case.

What do I do if my child or I get bitten by a dog?

First off, defend yourself and the people you care about. Human lives always come above animal lives in the eyes of the law.

If the dog's owner is on the scene and you or your child is bitten, you need to get the owner's personal information, including their name, phone number, and address. If the bite is serious, get medical attention right away.

Look for signs of rabies on the dog, such as frothing at the mouth, erratic behavior, rolling eyes, or stumbling. If you have been bitten by a rabid dog, you only have a very small window of time to get right to a hospital and injected with life-saving antidotes, or you will die. Rabies is not recoverable without immediate treatment. You can read more about rabies in dogs by following the link.

Should I call the police?

This depends somewhat on the situation. By all means, you should call 911 if you're seriously injured and cannot get yourself to a hospital. If the dog is wild or the owner is not around and the animal continues to act aggressively, you have a responsibility to call the police so that they can subdue the dog before it injures someone else.

Dog owners are often understandably very attached to their dogs, but sometimes that attachment can run so deep that they fail to put the safety of other people first. If you are dealing with an aggressive dog owner in addition to a biting dog, do everyone a favor and call the police. It's the officers' job to make sure you, the dog, and anyone in the vicinity are safe.

I've been bitten by a dog. When should I call a lawyer? Do I need one?

There are several circumstances under which a person who has been bitten by a dog is not going to be able to successfully sue for damages, so you should rule these ones out.

If it can be shown that the victim provoked the dog, particularly repeatedly, and even more so if the provocation came despite warnings from the owner, the victim has almost no case to make. The same goes for situations in which the victim was trespassing on private property or committing a crime such as robbing the dog's owner or assaulting the owner. Lastly, your case will be harder if the dog owner or their attorney can prove that your own carelessness led to the incident.

With those in mind, when do you have a good case? Different states have different laws about when the dog owner is liable for damages in dog bite cases. Here in California, a dog's owners are held strictly liable for their pet's actions. These laws mandate that the dog owner is liable for damages from a bite, whether they knew the bite was dangerous or not. So, if your neighbor brings home a new German Shepherd puppy that looks super cute, and one day it wanders into your garden and bites your finger off, your neighbor is 100% liable for damages.

In a state that follows the one-bite rule, owners are liable if they have any reason to know ahead of time that their dogs are dangerous. This would apply, for example, to a case where someone has a trained pitbull attack dog and the dog bites an innocent passerby on the sidewalk.

If you're thinking about filing a lawsuit in California, you should review the California Civil Code before seeking compensation in dog bite cases. It also never hurts to call an attorney anyway and check to see if you might qualify for personal injury compensation. A lawyer can tell you more about the kinds of evidence you'll need to have a successful case.

(Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)