Spending time with your friends is priceless, especially if your friends have dogs. Playing with your friend’s furry friend can be a fun experience, but do not forget that you are playing with fire if it’s a pit bull, Rottweiler, German Shepherd, or any other dangerous or aggressive dog breed.
If your friend’s dog bites you and you sustain an injury, you are facing a very tough decision: “How do I recover compensation without ruining this friendship?” And would that even be possible? This is the question we asked our dog attack lawyer from the Law Offices of Howard Kornberg.
The consequences of being bitten by a friend’s dog
Being a victim of a dog bite is not exactly a thrilling or cheap experience. After all, if your injury is serious, you will have to pay for medical expenses as well as take time off of work. But in addition to medical bills and loss of income, there’s also pain and suffering. Who is going to compensate you for all these losses and damages if it’s your friend’s dog?
After all, filing a lawsuit against your friend seems very unethical and not exactly “friendly.” So, if you do not want to ruin your friendship by suing your friend, what other legal options do you have to recover damages?
How to recover damages without ruining the friendship?
Our experienced dog bite attorney in Los Angeles explains that you have a right to seek compensation as long as your friend failed to comply with California’s dog bite laws and you did nothing to provoke the dog. Read more about situations in which you can lose your right to sue a dog owner for a dog bite.
More often than not, victims of dog bites have two options to recover damages: file a personal injury claim through insurance companies or file a personal injury lawsuit through court.
In California, you, as a victim of a dog attack, may be able to seek compensation even if the owner of the dog was not at fault. That’s because California has a strict liability dog bite statute, which means dog owners are always responsible for dog bites regardless of whether their dog manifested any signs of aggressiveness or viciousness or attacked anyone before the incident in which you sustained your injury.
How to seek compensation if you don’t want to sue your friend?
The mere thought of filing a lawsuit against your friend is bizarre, so what other options do you have to get monetary compensation for all the medical treatments you require to treat your injury and get rid of any permanent scars and pain? And on top of that, how do you get compensated for the loss of income and possible loss of earning capacity if you do not want to sue your friend?
“Well, it seems that you have only one option left: filing an insurance claim,” says our Los Angeles dog bite attorney. If you choose to file a personal injury claim through an insurance company in California, the good news is that you will not actually be suing your friend over a dog bite. If your friend is insured, the money to compensate for your damages will most likely come from his or her insurance company, not out of his/her own pocket.
However, more often than not, insurance companies employ unfair and dishonest tactics to pay dog bite victims as little as possible. Do not let your insurance adjuster pressure you into accepting a lowball settlement offer. Consult with our dog bite lawyer in Los Angeles at the Law Offices of Howard Kornberg to determine how much you actually deserve. Call 310-997-0904 for a free case evaluation.
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