If you have been injured due to a dog bite, you may be wondering what to expect. The first thing that happens after filing a DC dog bite claim is that the defendant needs to be served. This means actually physically serving the papers of the lawsuit to the individual you are attempting to sue. These people can oftentimes be difficult to find. A skilled dog bite attorney could help you find them, serve them, and hold them accountable. Contact a lawyer today and know that you are in capable hands.
Is Filing a Dog Bite Claim Necessary?
Before filing a DC dog bite claim, it is important to know that there is never a requirement to file a dog bite claim. However, a precursor to a successful claim is that one needs to prove there was knowledge that the dog is dangerous. If someone owns a dog for five years and the dog has never done anything aggressive towards anyone, then there would be no reason to suspect that the dog would suddenly attack someone.
That also dovetails with the idea that people are responsible for their dogs. Essentially, if the owners of the dog have noticed that the dog has attacked one person in the past, they are now aware of their dogs’ vicious or violent propensities. Once the owner is aware of that, then they are responsible if the dog ever bites someone else.
Factors That Determine the Necessity of Going to Court
The biggest factor in deciding whether or not filing a DC dog bite claim is a good idea is whether or not there is available insurance. Even when there is insurance it is important to consider whether there is some other factor that might prevent someone from recovering. This is very fact-dependent. For example, if someone has a dog they know to be violent, they fail to do anything to protect the public at large from this violent dog, and they have insurance, then that case will probably not go to court.
On the other hand, if there is a situation where there is no evidence on record that the dog had any violent propensities and there are defenses available to the person, such as the dog was on a leash and the person ran up and tried to pet it anyway, that will be one that is probably more likely to go to court. Also, the bigger or more severe the injury is the less likely the case will go to court and the more likely it is that the defendant will settle. It depends on the amount of risk or exposure that the lawyers believe their parties would be subject to in court.
Importance of Entitlements in Dog Bite Claims
When filing a DC dog bite claim, the victim must understand that the biggest factor regarding whether or not they can settle is if the other person has insurance. If someone who is sued has insurance there is a much better chance that they will agree to settle than if they do not. If a person does not have insurance, they likely will not have many assets to go after and will go to great lengths to protect them. From the outset, people need to understand how difficult it can be to recover in dog bite cases.
Impact of Multiple Defendants on a Claim
If there are multiple defendants in a dog bite case, how the case will look depends on what exactly each defendant involved did. If there are both a landlord and a tenant involved in a case, they will usually have different lawyers and will seek different outcomes. Obviously, the tenant’s defense will be very different than the landlord’s considering how difficult it is to hold a landlord liable for the actions of their tenant’s dog.
Development of a Dog Bite Case
The development of the case will again depend a lot on whether or not there is insurance involved in the case. If there is an insurance company involved, they will hire lawyers and the lawyers will typically want to do a thorough investigation including depositions and written discovery in order to determine whether or not they want to settle.
Counterintuitively, if there is more than enough insurance to compensate the individual for their claim, the case will actually take longer. When there is adequate insurance involved, the case will typically go through the entire litigation process before it concludes. If an individual wishes to move forward with filing a DC dog bite claim, they should consult an experienced attorney that could help them hold the responsible parties accountable.