Maison Law represents California victims who have been injured after a trip-and-fall caused by a dog. Our California Dog Trip-And-Fall Injury Lawyers assist victims in getting the support they need to make a full recovery. Please contact us after an accident caused by a dog for a free, no-obligation consultation for you and your family. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out what your case may be worth and how to hold dog owners responsible.
How Can a Lawyer Help Me If a Dog Causes Me to Trip?
If you suffer a serious injury due to a fall caused by an out-of-control dog, you should speak to a skilled California Dog Accident Lawyer. After suffering a broken bone, a Traumatic Brain Injury, or even a bite wound, victims should receive help in paying their emergency room bills and for any medical care that follows.
Dog owners can usually be held responsible for these incidents, but their insurance providers won’t make it easy for you to secure the help you need in recovery. Your lawyer safeguards your rights when insurance companies look for ways to blame you for your fall or try to downplay your injuries and shortchange you on support.
Your lawyer fully investigates your case and collects the strong evidence needed to prove that a dog’s actions and a dog owner’s negligence contributed to a tripping incident and fall. Insurance adjusters will look for ways to avoid taking responsibility, but your lawyer files a claim backed with evidence so they can’t deny their liability.
California Dog Tripping Hazards
Dogs often can’t control their excitement when visitors arrive. They can run wild around the visitor’s legs and cause a fall to the ground or down a flight of stairs. A pet can also get protective and charge visitors, taking out their legs.
Accidents might happen at a California park. Dogs on leashes might wrap around the legs of a victim and cause someone to lose their balance. They may trip someone inadvertently while racing around a dog park.
In these cases, it’s up to dog owners to restrain or isolate their pets to protect anyone who enters their property or who may be nearby when they are in public places. When pet owners are negligent in this responsibility, they can be held liable for every medical cost the victim builds up while in recovery. Recovery may happen over a few days, but some victims need that support for weeks or months.
Who Is Legally Responsible for Dog Tripping Incidents?
Dog owners are responsible when their pets trip people and cause them to fall. However, the evidence must demonstrate that the dog’s actions and the dog owner’s lack of control contributed to the trip-and-fall.
The dog owner’s insurance provider (usually homeowners or renter’s insurance) will do everything in its power to pin the blame on someone else. They may try to say the victim was careless and would’ve fallen without the dog’s help. An insurance adjuster could also try to blame your pain on a preexisting injury. Your lawyer is your safeguard against this treatment.
You may have heard of the concept of “strict liability” when it comes to California dog bite incidents. It means that dog owners are held responsible for most bite incidents, even if it’s the dog’s first incident of aggression. Proving a dog owner is to blame is easier under strict liability. There’s little additional evidence needed of what happened because the bite is the most important proof.
But strict liability wouldn’t apply to tripping incidents that cause injuries when no bite was inflicted. But dog knock down accident victims may still file injury claims, but different personal injury laws would apply. Victims would just need to provide a bit more evidence that a dog caused the fall. A Maison Law attorney fully investigates your case and helps you secure the evidence you need to show that a dog owner’s negligence was fully to blame for what happened.
What Is My Dog Tripping Injury Worth?
A free consultation with an experienced dog accident lawyer is a great way to determine what your injury may be worth. However, it’s hard to estimate what any dog-involved accident claim is worth until your lawyer hears about what happened and the specifics of your medical care.
The amount you receive in an insurance settlement check will be determined by how severe your injury is and how long it takes to heal. Your claim’s value will also depend on some non-economic factors. This can include the amount of pain you’ve had to endure and will have to put up with in the future. The emotional trauma you experience can also increase the support you should receive.
These and other factors will have to be considered when determining what you’ll demand from a homeowners insurance provider:
- Hospital and rehabilitation cost totals
- Estimates on lifelong support for a long-term disability or a disfigurement
- Totals on travel costs to and from doctor visits
- Support for physical pain
- Support for emotional distress
- Totals on your lost paychecks and benefits while you miss work shifts
The negotiating skills of your lawyer also play a large role in the amount of money you take home. There are no federal or state guidelines for dog attack settlement amounts. The amounts are often determined by how much pressure your lawyer can place on the insurance adjuster to do the right thing by relying on a strong case backed by evidence.
Contact a California Dog Accident Lawyer
California law allows dog attack victims up to two years from the date of the accident to file an injury claim. You shouldn’t delay when looking into filing a case. If you wait, evidence can be harder to secure and witnesses harder to locate.
After you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury caused by a dog, contact a skilled Maison Law Lawyer to discuss your case, free of charge. It’s a no-risk opportunity to find out about all the benefits available to you and how to hold an insurance company fully responsible.
You won’t need any upfront money if you decide we can help you earn the most for your injury and recovery costs. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. Then our fee comes out of the insurance settlement check you receive.
