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People keep dogs as pets for their intense loyalty and vigilant protection of their owners. However, sometimes a dog’s defensive instincts can go wrong and might bite another person.
If you have been injured in a dog bite attack in Scottsdale, consult with an experienced dog bite lawyer from Stone Rose Law to see if you are entitled to compensation from the dog owner.
Call us at (480) 498-8998 to learn more in a free consultation about how one of our dog bite attorneys can help you evaluate your possible dog bite case.
Dog bites are common injuries. Depending on factors like the size and temperament of the dog, its bite can inflict painful, costly, and sometimes even lethal wounds.
Children are especially vulnerable to dog bites. About half of all children will be bitten by a dog at some point.
Most child dog bites happen between the ages of 5 and 9. Younger children tend to be bitten more often by dogs that are familiar, like a family dog or a neighbor’s dog. Adolescent kids usually receive bites from unfamiliar dogs.
Adults can also be the victims of dog bite injuries, with some occupations being more likely to be at risk for dog bites.
Postal workers, landscapers, utility workers, and electric and gas meter readers have long been acquainted with dog attacks and dog bites. The increasing prevalence of delivery services that bring goods we buy directly to our doors is becoming another increasing source of dog bites to workers.
The consequences of a dog bite can be immediate or delayed, short-term or long-term, and physical as well as emotional.
Physical wounds from dog bites are usually soft tissue injuries that are not life-threatening.
Common dog bite wounds include lacerations, puncture wounds, and bruising. More serious injuries can include avulsions and extensive bleeding.
Although dogs are often imagined to have “clean” mouths, a dog bite wound can still transmit infections. The most well-known dog bite infections are tetanus, septicemia, and rabies.
Tetanus is an infection that can come from puncture wounds. For those infected, tetanus has an 11 percent fatality rate.
Tetanus infections are uncommon in the United States because of widespread childhood vaccination programs in school. Also, other effective preventive measures exist for tetanus including a vaccine booster or a tetanus immune globulin injection (a “tetanus shot”).
Tetanus can lead to serious symptoms that, if left untreated, can lead to pneumonia, voice box spasms that can cut off breathing, pulmonary embolisms, seizures, severe kidney failure, and muscle spasms severe enough to cause bone fractures.
Septicemia is a bacteria that causes your body to undergo an extreme immune system response known as sepsis.
Sepsis is usually not fatal and most people will recover with medical treatment. Untreated sepsis, however, can worsen into a more serious condition known as septic shock. This is a low blood pressure condition that causes; organ damage because of low oxygen levels in your bloodstream.
Rabies is a viral infection that typically occurs after being bitten by an infected animal. It causes brain swelling and is almost always fatal if left untreated.
Rabies cases are very rare in the United States, and treatments exist that, if applied in time (before physical symptoms appear), are effective in curing the infection.
Even if a dog bite is non-life threatening, it can still have lifelong consequences. For example, a serious dog bite wound to your face that causes scarring and permanent disfigurement is something that can impact your social interactions and even your ability to enjoy some normal life activities.
A dog attack, especially by a large dog, can be a mentally traumatic event. It can leave you with emotional scars just as long-lasting as any physical ones.
In Arizona, this kind of long-term emotional trauma is compensable as a form of dog bite harm.
Although rare, dog bites can lead to the death of a loved one. If this is the case, the family of the deceased can file a wrongful death claim. This could be used to seek monetary damages for the death of the dog bite victim.
Arizona has two statutes that govern liability for injuries caused by dogs.
One is the state’s strict owner-liability law for dog bites. The other is the dog-at-large statute.
In Arizona, a dog owner is strictly liable for harm that the dog causes to anyone who is on public or private property at the time of the dog attack.
Proving a dog owner’s strict liability under Arizona’s dog bite statute means you must prove both of the following:
Arizona’s strict liability dog bite law does not protect trespassers or burglars. Anyone who enters your private property without permission or who is committing a crime on the property is not lawfully on the property.
In some cases, people can be lawfully present on private property without obtaining the owner’s permission. These include social guests (such as customers in a store), postal delivery workers, utility workers, meter readers, and public officials.
Arizona’s strict liability law only applies to the owner of the dog. Under ARS § 11-1001(10), an owner is legally defined as a person who keeps an animal for five days.
No one else, even another person who was supposed to be in control of the dog at the time of the biting incident, is strictly liable for the dog bite. However, they may be liable for negligence for failing to control the dog.
Another exception to the Arizona strict dog bite liability law is that it only applies to dog bites. If the dog causes harm unrelated to biting, the injured person must use another law to seek compensation.
A third limit on the applicability of the Arizona strict liability dog bite statute is that it specifically exempts some dog bite situations. Here are a couple of examples:
As mentioned above, Arizona’s strict liability dog bite law recognizes provocation of the dog as an affirmative defense. This means the dog owner must raise this defense for the court to consider.
The dog bite statute does not define what “provocation” means. Instead, it uses a reasonable person test: “Would a reasonable person, seeing the behavior of the victim that led the dog to bite, conclude that the victim’s acts were provocatory to the dog?”
Arizona court cases have found the following acts sufficient to support the provocation defense:
An intent to provoke the dog is not always needed to raise the provocation defense. A small child, for example, who playfully pulls on a dog’s tail could still provoke a bite response.
This law applies to dog attacks. A dog attack describes a case where a dog is loose without a leash, or a person responsible for being in control of the dog (not just the owner) loses that control.
The Arizona dog-at-large law makes the dog owner or the person controlling the dog liable for personal injuries or property damage the dog causes while it is out of control.
Unlike the strict liability law for dog bites, this statute is not confined to dog bites. It can include situations in which a dog knocks someone over, scratches someone, attacks another person’s pet, or damages property.
The main proof element to show a violation of the dog-at-large statute is that the dog was loose or “at large.”
Thus, a possible defense an owner might raise is that even though the dog was loose, it was loose in a place authorized for a dog to be off-leash, like a designated area in a park for off-leash animals.
A legal action under the Arizona strict liability dog bite statute or the dog-at-large statute requires you to file a lawsuit within one year of the injury or other harm done.
Scottsdale has its own city ordinances that apply to dog owners. Here are a few of them:
Scottsdale dog ordinances make either dog owners or those who were acting for the owners liable for code violations.
If you are a victim of a dog bite, then you may also be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against the owner or the person acting on the owner’s behalf based on common law negligence.
You prove your dog bite injury case in the same way as for any other personal injury. Simply put, you must prove the following to demonstrate the owner’s negligence:
You must also prove that you were bitten while occupying a space legally (not trespassing).
If you are successful in proving a negligence-based case for a dog bite injury, you can recover monetary damages for three kinds of harm:
Unlike dog bite claims based on Arizona statutes, you have two years after the dog bite incident to file a lawsuit for negligence-based personal injury lawsuit..
This two-year statute of limitations is suspended if the bite victim is a child under the age of 18. In most cases, however, a child dog bite victim’s parents will sue the dog owner on their child’s behalf instead of waiting for the child’s independent personal injury case to ripen.
The most important thing to do after a dog bite or an at-large dog attack is to seek appropriate medical treatment.,serious injuries.
Some other things you can do that can help your Scottsdale dog bite lawyer to support your dog bite injury claim in settlement negotiations or in trial include:
If you or a loved one of yours has been bitten by a dog, call us at the Stone Rose Law firm for the aggressive representation you deserve. Whether you need a dog bite attorney in Scottsdale, Chandler, Maricopa County, or elsewhere in the state, our Scottsdale dog bite lawyers are here to help.
Call Stone Rose Law at (480) 498-8998 or contact us online for more information and to schedule a free case evaluation with a qualified dog bite attorney today.
If you have been bitten by a dog, do not wait. If your medical condition worsens, the dog’s owner can argue that you are negligent for and try to reduce your recovery.
Also, do not forget that Arizona law gives you as little as one year to file your legal claim for a dog bite injury.
Let us help you to preserve your claim and to win the maximum compensation you need. Call us today.