Were you bitten by someone else’s dog in Jefferson County, WI? You may deserve significant compensation from the dog’s owner. An experienced Jefferson County dog bite lawyer at Eisenberg Law Offices, S.C. is here to help you recover the maximum compensation possible to cover your medical bills, lost income, trauma, and other bite-related damages.
Our lawyers have over 140 years of experience advocating on behalf of injured clients and their families. To date, we’ve put our experience to work in recovering over $100 million in settlements and verdicts for injured clients like you.
Just call our law firm at (608) 256-8356 in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, to schedule a free consultation today.
Dog bites can cause a significant amount of damage. Many victims struggle with long-term physical injuries in addition to lasting emotional trauma. If you were injured, the dog’s owner should be held liable for failing to control their animal.
Even when a dog owner does want to make things right, they’ll likely have to file a claim with their insurance company to cover your damages. That can make it even more difficult to recover the compensation you deserve.
An experienced Jefferson County dog bite attorney at Eisenberg Law Offices, S.C. can help. Over the years, our founding attorney has been recognized by Super Lawyers and America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators for our high-quality legal services.
Hire us, and you’ll have a team of legal experts to:
We’re always here to discuss your case. If you were bitten by a dog, call our Jefferson County personal injury lawyers to set up a free consultation today.
Wisconsin is a strict liability state when it comes to dog bite injuries. Dog owners in Wisconsin are responsible for the damages caused by their dog bite injuries. You don’t have to prove the dog’s owner knew the dog had vicious tendencies to hold them accountable for the dog’s bite.
If you can, however, prove that the dog had harmed someone in the past, a second law applies.
The dog’s owner will be responsible for paying double the value of your damages if you can prove:
Note that a dog’s owner in Wisconsin can also be liable based on negligence theories. All people have a duty to use a reasonable amount of caution to prevent reasonably foreseeable harm to others. “Reasonable caution” in dog bite cases may include keeping the dog on a leash or secured on the owner’s property.
Negligence is most often relevant in cases where a dog’s owner tries to avoid liability by blaming the victim for provoking the dog bite.
Dog bites are much more common than you might imagine. Nearly 12,500 Americans are hospitalized each year to treat dog bite injuries. Roughly 1,000 dog bite victims visit emergency rooms every day with dog bite injuries.
While many dog bite injuries are minor and heal on their own, with time, others can result in severe and even catastrophic injuries.
No two dog bite injuries are exactly the same. Characteristics of both the victim and the dog can impact the severity of the injury. As such, your lawyer will have to evaluate the specific facts of your case before offering an estimate of your case value.
Facts that tend to be most relevant are:
Injuries that are serious and obvious tend to result in higher compensation awards. Still, it’s important to have an experienced Jefferson County dog bite attorney review the facts before you take a settlement offer.
Dog owners rarely want to take full responsibility for the damage caused by their dog. A lawyer can negotiate with their insurance company on your behalf and fight for a settlement that accounts for all of your damages.
“Damages” is the legal term for the losses you have suffered because of your injury. A personal injury claim allows you to seek compensation for two categories of losses: economic damages and non-economic damages.
You’ll be entitled to the full value of your:
You can also seek compensation for the pain and trauma caused by the dog attack, such as:
Insurance companies are known for attempting to downplay the impact a dog bite injury has on a victim’s life. Our lawyers will work closely with you as we work to establish the value of your personal and subjective non-economic damages. In some cases, we may even bring in experts to convince the insurance company to take your losses seriously.
You pay nothing to hire our law firm until we’ve recovered compensation in your case. This contingency fee arrangement ensures that all personal injury victims can access legal representation without worrying about upfront fees. When we recover compensation for your injuries, you’ll pay a pre-agreed percentage of your settlement or verdict.
Provocation is the common defense dog owners use to avoid paying a victim the full compensation they would otherwise receive. If you did something to provoke the dog to bite, your compensation award will be adjusted to reflect that.
Under Wisconsin’s contributory negligence law, you can still recover compensation for your injuries if your share of fault does not equal or exceed 51%. Your compensation award will be adjusted downward based on your percentage of fault if you were 50% or less responsible.
In cases where the owner had notice of the dog’s prior vicious tendencies, the rule granting double damages only applies after applying the comparative negligence rule.
Dog bite injuries can extend well beyond the bite wound itself. That’s especially true if the victim is thrown to the ground due to the force of the attack.
Some examples of the types of injury claims we handle at Eisenberg Law Offices, S.C. include:
While dog bites are rarely fatal, it’s always possible that a severe dog bite injury could prove deadly. If you lost a loved one because someone else’s dog bit them, our wrongful death attorneys are here to help you fight for justice.
The statute of limitations in Wisconsin is three years. You have three years from the date of the attack to initiate a lawsuit. Wait longer than three years, and you can no longer seek compensation from the dog’s owner.
As the victim, you shouldn’t have to struggle with medical bills, lost income, and trauma on your own. An experienced Jefferson County dog bite attorney can help you fight to hold the dog’s owner responsible. Contact Eisenberg Law Offices, S.C. to learn more about your legal rights today.
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