Dog Bite Injury Lawyers
At about seven in the morning on Tuesday, October 1st of 2024, police were called by someone reporting hearing a woman screaming for help from a dog attack. She was being brutally attacked by six loose dogs. Although she tried to defend herself, there’s only so much you can do against six strong, vicious dogs. Officers rushed to arrive at the 8000 block of Road 10 Northwest in Ephrata in Grant County.
When authorities arrived at the scene, they found the neighbor that had called, who said that she drove the injured woman home after the dogs stopped attacking her. The victim was lucky that her neighbor was home and went outside to intervene and stop the attack. Without the neighbor’s heroic actions, the woman may have been killed. Paramedics went to the 67-year-old victim’s house and found that she was severely injured. They immediately started treating her, and then transported her to Columbia Basin Hospital for further medical care. She was later taken to a medical care facility in Spokane. Grant County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that she was released on Wednesday, and is expected to recover.
The owners of the dogs, who live close to where the attack happened, were spoken to. They were concerned about the victim and apologetic. They surrendered all of the dogs to Animal Control Officers to be taken into custody. As is procedure, the dogs are on a 10-day hold at Grant County Animal Outreach while their vaccination status is verified. After undergoing this holding period, the dogs will be humanely euthanized. This is standard when a dog attacks a person.
The owner of the dogs was cited with an infraction for each animal, $1,025 each for a first offense. With six dogs, the fine totals $6,150. The dogs are classified as Potentially Dangerous/Dangerous Dogs. According to the Sheriff’s office spokesman, Kyle Foreman, the dogs were known to be a problem in that neighborhood. They had previously attacked livestock and other animals, and acted aggressively towards people walking on the block. According to neighbors, it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. All six of the dogs were either pitbulls or pitbull mixed-breed dogs.
Every year, thousands of people are attacked by dogs across America. Data shows that pitbull-type dogs are overrepresented when it comes to how many serious injuries they cause compared to other breeds. Pitbulls are to blame for about 22.5 percent of the dog bites that occurred in 2019, despite the breed being only 8 percent of the total dog population. 48 people died from dog attacks in 2019. Despite regulations against the breed that exist in over 900 cities in America, as well as in military housing, pitbulls caused 69 percent of these fatalities. It’s important to remember that any type of dog can bite and injure a person though, and that there are many friendly and well-trained pitbulls out there. However, this case that our blog post went over today contributed to this statistic regarding the pitbull breed.
Dog bites and dog attacks can cause serious injuries that result in damages such as disability, medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more. If somebody was bitten by another person’s aggressive dog, they shouldn’t have to bear the burden of paying for medical care and other expenses related to the attack. Victims are able to recover compensation for what they went through. Dog bite injury claims are one type of claim that we handle here at Seattle Injury Law. We specialize in personal injury law, so we deal with a variety of types of injury cases. We can help you get an estimate for how much your claim is worth.
Dog Bite Injury Law Firm in Seattle, Wa.
Under Washington state law, a dog owner can be held responsible if their dog bites another person and at the time that the attack happened, that person was either in a public place or in a private place they were allowed to be. Lawyers can then argue that a dog owner is responsible for the injuries incurred.
Let’s go more in-depth about the types of damages that a person can suffer from a dog bite injury and that a personal injury attorney can help you recover compensation for. The first type is economic compensation, which are types of losses that are easily monetarily calculable (proven with bills, receipts, etc.). This includes emergency medical care, follow-up medical attention, rehabilitaiton, physical therapy, plastic surgery reconstruction, lost wages, prescription medications, childcare, cleaning, or nursing services, and other out-of-pocket expenses.
The other type of damages is non-economic. This is harder to measure, and doesn’t have a set monetary amount. Instead of proving these damages with receipts or bills, non-economic damages can be given for psychological distress, physical pain and suffering, lowered quality-of-life, loss of companionship, and more. Although they aren’t as easily calculable as economic damages, that doesn’t mean that they are less real. Our attorneys at Seattle Injury Law have various ways to calculate non-economic damages when someone was injured by a dog.
There isn’t a set, specific amount of compensation that a dog bite injury victim in Washington can expect to receive. The amount of compensation that a person receives depends on a variety of factors. Some of these include how severe the injury is, how much follow-up care the person ends up needing, how long recovery time takes (if the person ever fully recovers), the level of psychological and physical pain, trauma, and suffering, the impact that the attack has on the person’s daily life going forward, and more.
Seattle Injury Law has connections with experts that are well-equipped to properly assess the case and calculate estimated losses. These experts are able to provide testimony, if needed. The average amount of compensation that a victim receives from a dog bit claim is around $50,000, although it’s important to remember that this number can be vastly different depending on the facts of the case.
If you or a loved one was injured by a dog attack, it’s important to reach out to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible so that you can recover compensation. We take the time to fully understand the individual situations of all of our clients so that we can best represent them, and recover as much compensation as possible for them. Our personal injury attorneys have helped other people that were injured by dog attacks. We will stand up for you against insurance companies that don’t have your best interests in mind.
Get in touch with Seattle Injury Law as soon as possible to receive a free case consultation.
