Does a Dog Bite Cause Muscle Damage?

No one wants to be bitten by a dog. It is a real nightmare to be on a pleasant walk and have a dog attack you out of nowhere and bite you. Does the dog have rabies? Who owns the dog? Why wasn’t the dog confined as per the law? How do you get the right treatment for your injuries and recover from this awful experience? Hopefully, there will be witnesses who can help. Hopefully, someone will know who owns the dog. The police must be called to capture the dog for testing so it does not attack others.

How Common Are Dog Attacks?

When you are bitten by a dog, you might wonder why It was you or if you did something to provoke the attack. Often, you did nothing wrong. There are more than 52,000,000 dogs in the United States and they can not all be good and well behaved. 38 to 40 million households in the U.S. own one or more dogs. In San Diego County there are almost one-half million dogs. In San Diego County alone there are 6,000 reported dog attacks every year. With the City Heights and Encanto neighborhoods get the most dog bite incidents at 94 bites each year each.

City neighborhoods see more dog bites because of more interactions of dogs with people in the more dense populations. Postal workers are the most bitten group of people in San Diego with 35 reported bites a year.

What Damage Can a Dog Bite Cause?

Dog bites are unique because of the wide range of damage they can cause a person. Dog bites cause injuries including:

• Abrasions
• Lacerations
• Puncture wounds
• Crushing wounds
• Avulsion is the tearing away of skin, muscle, and more.
• Muscle damage

These injuries can cause damage to muscles, tendons, nerves, skin, blood vessels, ligaments, and more. If the bite is to the face it can affect the appearance and underlying features that contribute to the ability to eat, breath, speak, drink, smile, and more.

The CDC states that dog bites are a more serious health problem for children than mumps, measles, and whooping cough combined. Over 50% of dog bites happen to children and over 26% of them need to go to the emergency room for treatment of injuries.

What are a Victim’s Rights in Filing a Lawsuit Against a Dog Owner?

As unpleasant as a dog bite can be, victims do have rights. In California, there is a strict doctrine of liability for dog bite incidents. So, when a person is bit, they only need to prove that the dog was owned by the defendant and that the dog bite took place on public property or on private property where the person had a legal right to be. There needs to be proof that the victim was bitten and the bite caused an injury.

There used to be a “one free bite” rule where if it was the first time the dog bit someone, the owner would not be found liable. That has changed, and now the dog owner can be found legally liable for even the first bite incident of their dog. So if a person is injured in a dog attack with biting, they can file a California personal injury suit against the dog owner. The exception is if the person was trespassing on the dog owner’s property.

Why should You Hire a Law firm?

A lot of dog bites happen when people are visiting friends or relatives. It is hard to ask people you know for fair compensation for their dog’s actions. If it is a stranger’s dog who bit a person, it is not easy to deal with those dog owners either. Hiring a law firm helps put one degree of distance between the defendant and the victim.

The laws related to liability for dog bites are complicated and a person who is already injured and stressed by the biting incident needs legal help. A law firm can quickly determine if there is a liability case to pursue and then handle all the details while the injured person has a chance to get treatment and heal.