Petoskey Dog Bite Lawyers

Victims of dog bite attacks may suffer severe and sometimes permanent injuries, including puncture wounds, deep lacerations, and nerve damage. Moreover, if a dog knocks a person to the ground in an attack, the person may suffer additional bodily injuries, including bone fractures or traumatic brain injuries.

If you are the victim of a dog bite or attack, speak with experienced and compassionate legal counsel right away to explore your legal options. The knowledgeable Petoskey dog bite attorneys at Michigan Injury Lawyers understand the intense pain, suffering, and inconvenience that often come with dog bite injuries.

Our legal team can meet with you to discuss the circumstances of your dog attack incident and determine your legal options for moving forward. For example, we can file a dog bite claim with the owner's homeowner insurance company.

Moreover, if the insurance company does not offer you fair monetary recovery, we can pursue litigation in the court system on your behalf. Our legal team has the experience, knowledge, and compassion to maximize the monetary recovery you receive for your dog bite injuries.

Please speak with our office directly today for a free case evaluation and legal consultation with a skilled Petoskey dog bite lawyer. We’re ready to assess your situation and protect your rights as a dog bite victim.

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Why Select Us for Your Legal Needs?

When selecting an attorney or law firm to represent you in your dog bite case, we know you have many options. The experienced Petoskey dog bite lawyers at Michigan Injury Lawyers can handle every step of the claims filing and litigation processes in your case. Our legal team has a solid track record of success, not only with settling dog bite claims favorably but also with successfully litigating those claims in civil court.

We also understand the tactics homeowner insurance companies routinely use to undervalue dog bite claims. We can combat those tactics by retaining experts to testify in your case, pointing to your medical records, and emphasizing other important documents.

Let us recover the monetary compensation and damages you need for your dog attack injuries. First, you must reach out to set up your free case evaluation.

How Much Money Is My Petoskey Dog Bite Case Worth?

The monetary compensation you may be eligible to recover in your dog bite claim or lawsuit depends on the specific injury or injuries you suffered in the dog attack incident and whether or not your injuries are permanent, as determined by a qualified medical provider. Other factors that may affect the types and amounts of monetary damages you recover in your dog bite case include the homeowner insurance company (and the adjuster) with whom you are dealing, the specific circumstances surrounding the dog attack incident, and whether or not you have to miss time from work to recover from your injuries.

First, dog bite victims may recover compensation for all their related medical expenses. In addition to receiving monetary damages for the medical treatment they already received, such as doctor visits, physical therapy, or surgical procedures, they can recover monetary damages for their anticipated medical costs, such as the cost of future surgery.

In addition, if a dog bite victim has to miss time from work to treat their injuries and make a full recovery, they may receive monetary compensation for their lost income. They can pursue a claim for loss of earning capacity if they suffered a serious injury, such as a permanent hand or arm injury, that prevents them from returning to their same job or occupation. In that scenario, the accident victim may recover damages for loss of earning capacity.

In addition to these potential economic losses, a dog bite victim in Petoskey can recover monetary damages for their intangible losses. Those damages compensate accident victims for their mental suffering, physical pain and suffering, loss of the ability to use one or more body parts, lost quality of life, permanent disfigurement, and permanent disability.

The experienced Petoskey dog bite attorneys at Michigan Injury Lawyers can review all your medical documentation and other losses to provide an estimated settlement value for you. We can then pursue the full monetary recovery you deserve and the maximum amount of monetary damages available in your case.

Where Do Dog Bite Incidents Frequently Happen?

Dog bite incidents may occur anywhere dogs and humans are near one another. Certain classes of people, including children and the elderly, are especially susceptible to dog bites and attacks. These incidents are particularly common in local neighborhoods, backyards, and local dog parks. Strange dogs may attack, but a bite might also come from a dog you know well, like a friend or neighbor's pet.

Sometimes, a dangerous dog may approach a person unprovoked and begin attacking or biting them. When this happens, the victim may fall, become incapacitated, and cannot get up. This can significantly increase the severity of the attack-related injuries.

If you suffered injuries in a dog attack in one of these locations, speak with an experienced attorney as quickly as possible about your options for moving forward. At Michigan Injury Lawyers, we can investigate your dog bite incident, explain your legal options, and handle every step of your case.

Dog Bite Law in Michigan

When it comes to dog bites and dog attacks, Michigan follows strict liability laws, making a dog owner automatically responsible for their dog's attack on another person, whether the dog bit anyone previously and whether or not the dog has shown any vicious propensities.

To recover monetary compensation for dog bite injuries in Michigan, the dog bite victim needs only to establish:

• That an individual was the owner of the dog that bit the victim, pursuant to licensing and vaccination records, along with a witness testimony
• That the dog in question bit or attacked the victim, evidenced through witness statements, medical records, photographs, and other documentation
• That the dog bite caused the accident victim to suffer one or more physical injuries, as evidenced through the victim's witness testimony and medical records

Retain legal counsel who can assist you from the very beginning of your case. A Petoskey dog bite lawyer at Michigan Injury Lawyers can gather the evidence necessary to prove your case and pursue the monetary compensation you need and deserve for your injuries.

Petoskey Dog Bite Injuries

When a dog attacks a human being, the victim may suffer extremely serious injuries and damages. A person's injuries will depend primarily upon their age, the specific circumstances surrounding the dog attack, and whether or not the dog knocked the accident victim to the ground.

Some of the most common injuries that a victim may suffer from a dog's bite include:

• Deep lacerations that require stitches
• Bruises
• Nerve damage in the affected body part(s) 
• Broken bones (especially in the hands or arms)
• Puncture wounds
• Bite marks and teeth marks on the victim's skin
• Visible scarring

In addition to these injuries that may result from a dog bite, attack victims may suffer other injuries if the attacking dog knocks them on the ground. Those injuries may include traumatic head and brain injuries, soft tissue contusions, rib fractures, broken bones, and internal injuries.

If you suffered any of these injuries following a dog attack incident, you must immediately get the medical help you need and follow through with all prescribed medical treatment.

While you focus your attention on getting better, the experienced Petoskey dog bite attorneys at Michigan Injury Lawyers can begin handling the legal components of your case. Specifically, we can start gathering important documents necessary to establish your legal burden of proof.

Those documents may include copies of your medical records, medical bills, photographs of your injuries, and other potential evidence to use in your case. Once your medical treatment ends, we can submit these documents to the dog owner's insurance company and begin pursuing the settlement compensation you deserve to recover in your case.

Taking on the Insurance Company in a Petoskey Dog Bite Case

Following a dog bite or attack incident, you will likely be dealing with the dog owner's homeowner insurance company. Homeowner insurance companies, like other insurance companies, want to pay as little monetary compensation as possible to settle a dog bite claim. The more compensation the insurance company has to pay you, the less they can keep in-house for themselves.

Therefore, insurance companies often resort to various tricks and tactics to undermine a dog bite victim's claim. For example, the insurance company might argue that the bite victim somehow provoked the dog into attacking them.

At other times, the insurance company adjuster might contend that the victim's injuries are not all that serious or that they are pre-existing and unrelated to the dog bite incident.

Our experienced legal team knows how to combat the insurance company's aggressive tactics. For example, we can retain a medical expert who can causally relate your injuries to the dog bite or attack that happened to you.

A medical expert can also state, based upon a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that one or more of your dog bite injuries are permanent. This is especially true if you suffered a disfiguring injury that resulted in permanent scarring.

Our legal team can also highlight pertinent medical records and other documents in your case. Finally, if the dog owner's insurance company refuses to offer you the fair monetary damages you deserve, we can threaten the insurance company with litigation in the Michigan court system.

Our legal team will do everything possible to secure you the highest amount of monetary recovery in your dog bite case.

Legal Steps to Take Following a Petoskey Dog Bite

After suffering injuries in a dog bite occurrence, there are several steps that you can take to help streamline your case. First, you should get all the medical attention you need, treat continuously for your injuries, and refrain from discharging yourself for medical care.

If the insurance company notices significant gaps in your medical treatment or if you discharge yourself from a treatment facility, they refuse to pay you favorable monetary damages.

Next, you need to gather and retain pertinent documents in your case. These documents may include copies of police reports, medical treatment records, medical bills, lost income documents, and photographs of your injuries, the attacking dog, and the incident scene. Once you give us those documents, we can assemble them into a complete demand package to forward to the insurance company on your behalf.

Call a Petoskey Dog Bite Lawyer Right Away About Your Potential Legal Options

If you suffered injuries in a dog attack incident, get the legal representation you need right away. If a dog bite victim fails to take timely legal action in their case, the state statute of limitations may prevent them from filing a lawsuit and recovering the monetary damages they need.

Dog bites can have long-lasting effects on victims. A severe bite can affect victims for life. There's too much at stake not to reach out to a lawyer who works in this area of law.

At Michigan Injury Lawyers, our skilled and compassionate legal team can guide you through every step of the process and work to pursue the highest amount of monetary damages available in your case.

For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with an experienced Petoskey personal injury attorney, please call us at (231) 649-2720 or contact us online to learn more.

Petoskey Office Location

Michigan Injury Lawyers Office
314 Howard St.
Petoskey, MI 49770
231-649-2720