California Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
California dog bite injuries can be very serious and traumatic events. Recently, Robert Walch resolved a Los Angeles dog bite injury claim for $300,000 at Mediation. A lawsuit had to be filed on this case as the other party denied that the bite even occurred, despite the overwhelming evidence. It was clear in this case that the dog owner was not being truthful to try to avoid liability.
Through extensive research, our law firm was able to find a prior incident involving the same dog from many years earlier. The defendants denied that there were any prior incidents and this was just one of numerous lies that defendants represented in this case. It is a shame that the defendant dog owners made this case extra difficult by repeatedly lying, even when under the penalty of perjury. Had they just been truthful, this dog bite injury claim would have been resolved much sooner for our client.
In this particular incident, our client did nothing wrong, but he was bit by the defendants’ dog, which caused not only physical injuries, but also emotional injuries due to the scarring. This is an important element to dog bite claims, as sometimes the victim requires psychiatric therapy to deal with the injuries and their altered appearance.
One thing that distinguishes dog bite claims from car accident claims is that dog bite claims are typically covered under the homeowners insurance policy for the dog owner. Because it is homeowners coverage, there is typically more liability coverage available than the average car accident. In California, many times we will see people only have $15,000 in liability coverage on their auto insurance policy. However, homeowners insurance policies are typically in the six or seven figures, which means that when the injury is bad enough, there is usually enough insurance coverage to recover a fair amount for the dog bite and attack injuries.
If you are injured by a dog, contact our office for a free consultation and we will do our best to help you.