Although a dog may seem friendly, if you accidently encroach on their territory, they can become protective and sometimes bite. If you were bitten by a dog without provoking it and you were injured, you can seek compensation.
Dog Bite Laws
In Pennsylvania, dog bite victims are differentiated and compensated in different ways. Dog bite laws are based on a common law called the “Dog Law.” This law states that if a dog tends to bite often or has bitten someone before without provocation, then you can recover full compensation for your injuries. To recover compensation, you would should hire a personal injury attorney in Allentown, PA, to represent you.
Dog Bite Distinctions
If a dog has never bitten anyone before and bites you, the dog bite law makes a distinction between severe and non-severe injuries, which can affect how compensation is awarded. An Allentown personal injury attorney should be retained to help you prove you were injured by the dog without provocation, especially for a severe injury. A severe injury is categorized as one which causes “broken bones or disfiguring lacerations requiring multiple sutures or cosmetic surgery.”
If the bite is categorized as severe, then a personal injury attorney can help you recover medical expenses, legal damages, and other losses. For injuries labeled as non-severe, only medical expenses can be recovered from the dog’s owner. In these cases, you only need to prove who the owner of the dog who bit you is.
As with all personal injury cases, the basis of recovering compensation is negligence. If the dog was roaming free or was not properly restrained with a chain or behind a fence, then your personal injury attorney can help prove negligence and get you the compensation you deserve for any injuries you suffered when bitten by the dog.
