What to Do After an Animal or Dog Bite
You have been bitten by a dog and you don’t know what to do. First, contact a Santa Clarita Dog Bite Attorney to know your rights and proper medical and legal steps. Dog bites are common and you may have suffered injuries which are painful, and possibly permanent, and you don’t know how you are going to pay for the necessary medical treatment. Your going to need help, but where do you start? Contact a Santa Clarita Dog Bite Attorney.
When get a dog bite from a dog, you want to make sure to identify the animal as soon as possible. Identifying the animal from a dog bite will be important for several reasons. For one, identifying the animal or dog will help in identifying the person who owned or was keeping the animal or dog so that you may hold that person responsible for your injuries and damages. Additionally, if you are able to identify the animal or dog, you may be able to avoid having to undergo painful precautionary treatment for rabies. Dog bites can require extensive and expensive medical treatment including plastic surgery. The first step to recovering compensation for those damages is to identify the animal or dog, as well it’s owner or keeper.It hardly seems necessary to say, but an injury from a dog bite should be treated with the appropriate medical care right away. Injuries from a dog bite can be severe and permanent. The emergency room at your local hospital is the obvious first thought for treatment. However, these very helpful facilities are not generally known for their expertise with reconstructive plastic surgery. If the dog bite wounds are severe, or involve any part of the face, you should demand treatment from a plastic surgeon if one can be made available. Insist on it. The difference in results of wound treatment by an emergency room doctor versus a plastic surgeon can be substantial. After all, plastic surgeons are specially trained in making wound repair look good, while emergency room doctors are focused more on keeping people alive. Wherever treatment is rendered, it is important to follow through with a prescribed treatment plan. Even if a plastic surgeon was not available at the time of the initial treatment, if the wounds from the attack are significant, you may want to seek a follow-up consultation with a plastic surgeon regarding a recommended treatment plan. Whatever the prescribed treatment plan is, make sure you do your best to follow the plan as recommended.
If the person who owned or was keeping the dog or animal can be identified, the next step is to determine if that person had insurance coverage for the kinds of harms caused by the dog or animal attack. If possible, call the owner or keeper of the dog or animal and get their insurance information. Once you have the dog bite information, call the insurance company and get the claim number, address of the office, and telephone number of the person assigned to handle the claim on behalf of the insurance company.
DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING:
DO NOT discuss the facts of the incident
DO NOT discuss settlement or agree to accept any money
DO NOT agree to meet with the insurance representative
DO NOT give a statement to the insurance company
DO NOT authorize your conversation to be recorded
DO NOT discuss who is responsible for the attack
Unfortunately, you can expect the insurance company to make every effort to minimize the value of your claim. Before proceeding further, it is recommended that you consult with an experienced Santa Clarita dog bite attorney.