A dog often attacks when it has aggressive tendencies, feels overly defensive, or has been abused in some way. These animals can cause a lot of damage when they attack and those injuries can be severe.
The most frequently seen injuries can include:
A dog’s teeth are capable of a lot of damage. They’re long and pointy, which can make the bites more difficult to effectively clean. An infection from a dog bite can result in a whole new set of injuries and expenses.
It is crucial that you get your injuries check out immediately after you have been hurt. You do not want to wait because you may end up with a severe infection. Even after you’ve seen a doctor, since it is hard to initially clean the wound, you should look out for signs of infection.
If you do not seek treatment right away, you are risking not only your health, but the success of your case. The insurance company will find it suspicious that you waited to get care from a medical professional. They will try to claim that you are lying about your injuries. Do not give them a reason to try to eliminate or reduce your claim.
When you begin a dog bite case, before you can truly bring the claim, you have to be able to find out who the liable party was in the incident. Then you need to determine whether or not this person is actually responsible for what happened based on the circumstances of the incident. In most cases, with only a few exceptions, you typically identify the liable party as the owner of the dog.
South Carolina is hard on the owners of dogs who behave in an aggressive way. This is a fairly unique scenario in which the owner of the dog will always be liable of the damages that the dog has done regardless of if they were aware of the dog’s vicious tendencies. Essentially, you can typically turn to the owner of the dog for a dog bite case.
Something that you need to be aware of after you have been attacked by a dog are the laws that South Carolina have. If you are educated early on about these laws, then you have a better chance at full compensation. You risk ruining your case if you are not well versed in a dog bite case.
The first thing that you absolutely need to know is how much time you are given to bring your case. In South Carolina, you are given three years starting from the date of the accident to bring your case. While three years may seem like it is a long time, it goes by quickly, and you want your lawyer to have as much time as possible to get you the compensation that you deserve. If you delay, you make your lawyer’s job harder and this may mean that they cannot help you in a limited amount of time. If you miss the deadline, you are no longer eligible for compensation
After you have brought your claim before the statute of limitations runs out, you need to be able to show the insurance company that you did not bring the attack on. Part of that means proving you were not trespassing on someone’s property which resulted in the attack. That would be an instance where the owner of the dog would not be liable for someone’s injury.
We understand how traumatic it can be to get a dog bite and have to deal with the injuries that come after that. You are likely in a lot of pain and we are sorry you have to go through this.
Our North Augusta dog bite lawyers want to turn this tough situation around and get you the fullest and fairest amount of compensation possible. We will work tirelessly to win you the compensation that you deserve. Please call our office today to set up a free initial consultation to go over the details of your case.