What do you do after a dog bite incident in St. Petersburg? So we get many calls from people that have been victimized by dog bite accidents and incidents in St. Petersburg. And my first piece of advice is to contact law enforcement or animal control immediately. Often people immediately go out and seek medical attention and as a result, they do not contact law enforcement and therefore the documentation over the incident is lost. So if you’ve gone to the hospital and you did not have an opportunity to call law enforcement as soon as you get back home or release from the hospital, at least call the local police or the local animal control. They may not write a report, but at least you’ve attempted to document the situation. The reason why that’s important is later on down the road, when we make a claim against the insurance company, there’s at least some type of documentation to enforce the validity of your claim.
Now the second step in a dog bite, and obviously probably the most important aspect of it is to get proper medical attention. So once you’ve, if you’ve left the hospital and you need, uh, you need assistance with your medical bills, you can either bill health insurance or if you speak to a dog bite lawyer, they may be able to arrange some type of an agreement with a medical provider in St. Petersburg where your bills will be handled on what’s called a letter of protection. So what that means is you have a doctor that has a relationship with your dog bite lawyer who then will provide you medical and treat medical treatment on basically an IOU so you can get the treatment and then those bills will be repaid out of the proceeds of the settlement. Now, Florida law is very favorable to the victim of a dog bite.
In fact, Florida law states that it is that the owner of a dog is strictly liable for the actions of their dog in a dog bite. So again, unlike many states throughout the union that may have what’s called a one-bite rule in Florida, strictly liable if that dog bites you, that dog owner’s going to be liable. Now lastly, you may ask yourself, well, what where exactly do we recover compensation from after a dog bite in Saint Petersburg? Often we find that the, the victim of a dog bite, um, has some type of relationship with the owner of the dog. It may be your neighbor, it may be your friend’s dog, it may be your relatives’ dog. And there’s a bit of hesitation there over going after that person because of the relationship that you have. But what we do here at St. Petersburg personal injury attorneys, McQuaid and Douglas, is we pursue the homeowner’s insurance for that dog owner. So your friend, your neighbor, your relative is not going to be asked to pay anything out of pocket. And we understand the complexities of that relationship and we try to handle those claims as professionally as possible to avoid the avoid any type of hostility or bad feel bad feelings. So if you’ve been involved in a dog bite in St. Petersburg and you have any questions about what to do after that incident, please contact, contact us for a free consultation.
*The above has been transcribed by a third party service and has not been checked for accuracy.
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If you or a loved one have been injured in an accident, then you should take the proper measures to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve. Contact St. Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas today and speak with an attorney. For over 60 years our firm has been successfully helping people who have been injured due to someone else’s carelessness. We have been nationally ranked for decades by US News and World Reports as a Tier 1 law firm, which is the highest ranking that can be received. Sean McQuaid and Jonathon Douglas have dedicated their careers to continuing the firms legacy of superior legal representation.
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St. Petersburg Personal Injury Attorneys McQuaid & Douglas
5858 Central Ave suite a, St. Petersburg, FL (727) 381-2300
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Sean McQuaid and Jonathon Douglas were voted best personal injury attorneys in Saint Petersburg, Florida for 2019.
