dogs most likely to bite children
My son was attacked by a dog, and I only got $5000. What else can I do?
My son adn I went to a friends house, and when we were there, her dog attacked my son, by biting his face! We rushed him to the ER and the hospital had to call in a plastic surgeon to fix his face. He is going to have some perm. scars now. The ins. co. gave me a check for $5,000. The medical bills alone are at $19,000 right now (thank God I have ins.) I have talked with a few lawyers and they are all telling me the same thing: Since the dog has never had a history of bad behavior like this, and since it grew up around children, there’s not a lot we can do. The lawyers tell me that if we take the home owners ins. co to court, we most likely wouldn’t win. Is there ANYTHING I can do? Am I just screwed here? I mean, what about when he gets older and his face starts to expand, and he needs more plastic surgery work? Who’s going to have to pay for that? Me? My son is only 2 years old. Any info anyone has would be great! Thanks
You shouldn’t have accepted the check from the insurance company. You probably had to sign papers relieving them of further responsibility. A civil case would be difficult because there was no way the owners could have known the dog was a biter, because there was no previous bad behavior. In fact, if you go to court, they will say that your son antagonized the dog in some way. Like pulling his tail or taking his toy or his food.
I don’t know how bad the scars are, but children usually heal up quite well from some pretty awful things. By the time hes a teen what looks so frightening now may be only a very thin line or lines.
You really shouldn’t have taken that check, especially since the medical bills weren’t in yet.
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