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What Does California’s Strict Liability Dog Bite Law Mean?

When you suffer a dog bite, you will likely have suffered a range of different injuries. Whether it be puncture wounds, broken bones, infection, or nerve damage, you will be in need of medical treatment or even surgery. What this means is that you will need compensation, and compensation requires determining liability.

Thankfully, when a dog bite occurs in California, there are specific statutes in place to handle determining liability for the resulting injury claim.

Free Consultation for California Dog Bite Victims

No matter how the dog bite occurred, an experienced California dog bite lawyer can help you through what can sometimes be a complicated process. As with any injury, you will be dealing with an insurance company to get your compensation.

The team of experienced California dog bite lawyers at Maison Law know how California law applies to your dog bite situation, and how to negotiate and handle insurance companies and their tactics for devaluing your claim.

To learn more about how our team can help you, contact us today to get started with a free consultation.

What Does California’s Strict Liability Law Mean For Dog Bites?

California law has a system for governing dog bites and who is responsible. This system is known as “strict liability, meaning that a person or party may be considered liable for an injury even if the dog bite was not caused intentionally.

Thus, when a dog bites you in California, the dog’s owner is considered liable and is responsible for covering your damages. California’s dog bite law has further provisions for liability, as well:

  • The owner is still liable if the dog bite occurs in a public place or on private property where the dog bite victim was invited onto the property.
  • The victim cannot recover damages if they provoked the dog into the attack.

What this means for you is that, in the vast majority of dog bite incidents, the dog’s owner will be responsible for your injuries. The only scenario in which the owner would not be responsible for your injuries would be if you were trespassing on the owner’s property or if you provoked the dog into biting you.

Dog Owners and California Insurance Coverage

Even with strict liability, there is still a procedure for pursuing compensation from the dog owner’s insurance company. Namely, as the dog bite victim, you will need to establish the following facts:

  • The owner does legitimately own or otherwise was in possession of the dog that bit you.
  • The owner had a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent the dog from biting you or others.
  • The owner failed to meet that duty
  • The owner’s failure to meet the duty caused the dog bite and injury.

With these facts in place, negligence will have been established. Policy wise, if the owner doesn’t have specific coverage for a dog bite, then their homeowner’s insurance will be responsible for covering any damages.

Like any other personal injury claim, you will have to deal with California’s comparative negligence law. Under comparative negligence, any percentage of fault attributed to you can be deducted from your gross award. So, if you were found to be 20% at fault for the dog bite incident, 20% of your gross damages will be deducted from your overall settlement.

How Will An Insurance Company Approach My Dog Bite Claim in California?

Comparative negligence isn’t the only tactic that insurance companies can use to devalue your claim. In fact, an insurance company’s ultimate goal is to save as much money for the company as possible, which means paying you as little as possible. In order to do this, adjusters and investigators have numerous strategies in place to devalue your claim, which is centered around the following:

  • Delaying your claim – The first step in the process is to delay the claim for as long as possible. This is often achieved by administrative holdups, like misdirecting you on filling out claim forms or persistently requesting documentation from you. Certain insurance companies try to impose a short time frame in which you can actually file a claim. Another delay strategy involves lowballing you on a settlement offer, knowing you will refuse it and thereby stretching out the process.
  • Denying your claim – The second strategy insurance companies take is to deny your claim outright. This is difficult to do in a dog bite claim, yet they will still try to muddy the water regarding the circumstances of the incident. Even with strict liability, they will attempt to mitigate their insured’s fault by getting you to provide a bad statement, accuse you of not seeking medical attention or that you failed to report the incident in a timely manner.
  • Defending your claim – If the first two tactics fail, the third strategy is to use the insurance company’s significant resources to actually defend against a lawsuit. Every lawsuit is a gamble, even ones involving dog bites. Furthermore, litigation is time consuming and expensive, so an insurance company has deeper pockets to go through a long litigation.

As you can see, dealing with an insurance company in a dog bite claim is not that much different than any other personal injury claim. When they employ these strategies against your claim, they’re trying to minimize their damage as much as possible. Thus, it’s important that you take immediate steps after a dog bite to make sure your claim remains viable.

What to Do After a Dog Bites You In California

Obviously, the tactics the insurance company uses to devalue your dog bite claim revolves around your inaction in the aftermath of the bite incident. Because of strict liability, that is really the only defense the insurance company has. So, in the immediate aftermath of a dog bite, you should do the following:

  • Seek medical attention
  • Document the bite wound and other details of the incident
  • Follow your doctor’s wound-cleaning orders
  • Report the incident to local animal control officers
  • Identify witnesses

Taking these actions will ensure that your claim remains solid. It also ensures that your damages will have a strong medical and legal basis. In a dog bite claim, you can recover the following::

  • Medical bills
  • Pain and suffering
  • Lost income
  • Any property damage related to the incident, such as broken eyeglasses or a damaged phone.
  • Punitive damages, if the dog owner’s conduct was particularly outrageous.

Outside of comparative negligence, a dog bite is one of the more straightforward claims for damages that you can have in California. At the same time, every case is unique and there is never a guarantee of a positive outcome. Still, with our team by your side to guide you through the process, we can help make sure your claim is as strong as possible.

Dedicated California Dog Bite Lawyers Will Help You

Dogs can be some of the best companions for humans, providing loyalty, protection, and love. But any dog can, unfortunately, give in to their instinctual nature and bite you or another person. When this happens, serious injuries can occur and change the course of your life.

That’s where the team of experienced and dedicated California dog bite lawyers can help you. We have years of experience in dealing with dog bites and the ensuing insurance claim process. Let us guide you through this sometimes maddening exercise and help you recover the compensation you need to get back on track.

Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more.

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