Learn What To Do If You Are Attacked By Your Neighbor's Dog
Being attacked by a dog can be a very traumatic experience. When you are attacked by a neighbor's dog, it is important to make sure that you properly handle the situation. Many people make the mistake of trusting that their neighbors will pay for the medical bills that are incurred from the injuries, but that is not always the case. The following guide walks you through the process you should follow in order to properly handle a dog attack.
Go to the Doctor
The first thing you need to do after being attacked by a dog is to go to a doctor. You need to have your injuries documented and may need to get a rabies shot, if the dog is not up to date on their rabies shot. The doctor will make sure that you do not have any major injuries and will give you stitches as needed. He or she will also create a report that annotates all of the injuries you incurred during the attack so that you can present them to your neighbor and a court if needed later on down the road.
Get a Police Report
Contact the police department to have an officer document the incident. He or she will get a statement from you, the owner of the dog, as well as any witnesses that saw the attack. These statements can be very important if you have to sue the dog owner to pay for your medical bills because it will establish what happened on the day of the event.
Get a Prior History Report
Contact the local animal control office to find out if the dog has a history of being violent. If there have been any other attacks reported, you can get a printout from the animal control office that you can then take with you to court to show that the dog has a history of attacking people.
Contact a Lawyer
Next, you need to contact a personal injury lawyer from a firm like Schey Piller Alspaugh & Wong Pc. Contact the lawyer to find out if there is anything else you need to do to prepare for a possible court case. He or she will give you recommendations for talking to the neighbor's homeowner's insurance company, if the neighbor has homeowners insurance, as well as help you know what to expect if the case does go to court.
Contact Your Neighbor
Finally, you need to contact your neighbor. Provide him or her with copies of your medical bills and give them an opportunity to pay for the bills. If he or she says that they are not going to pay for the bills because they do not feel their dog is at fault, take your case straight to court.
Give your neighbor a reasonable amount of time to come up with the money to pay for your medical expenses. If he or she has not started to pay for the bills within a month or two, you should have your lawyer proceed with a lawsuit. There are some states that have a statute of limitation when it comes to how long you have to file a lawsuit for a dog attack. You want to be sure you file the lawsuit before the statute of limitation is reached and a month or two is an adequate amount of time for the neighbor to begin to pay the medial bills their dog caused.