Should I Sue After An Animal Bite In West Virginia?

Whether or not it’s a good idea to sue after an animal bite depends largely on the circumstances. Specifically, it’s important to consider how serious the injury is and how carelessly the animal’s owners acted.

The second point is especially important because animal bite cases revolve around the idea of negligence. Whether in a dog bite case or a car crash case, negligence is measured against the expectations for reasonable care under the circumstances. So, to win your animal bite case, you’ll need to prove the owner failed to act with reasonable care.

Two Key Factors In Animal Bite Cases

Nearly all animal bite cases involve dogs, so we can safely swap “dog” for “animal” as we look more deeply into the issues. There are two key factors to consider when you’re trying to prove someone acted negligently in a dog bite case:

•      The location
•      The dog’s prior history

The location matters because West Virginia law says that owners are liable for damages their dogs inflict while “running at large.” Generally, this means dog owners have a greater responsibility to care for their pets in public locations than they might have in their own homes. A dog in its owner’s yard may not be running at large when it bites an intruder. On the other hand, that same dog may be considered running at large if it runs out of the yard and attacks a child down the street.

Additionally, if a dog has attacked someone previously, a reasonable person might expect the dog’s owner to be more careful. After all, negligence is the failure to exercise reasonable care, so when it’s clear the dog can present a threat, it’s reasonable to expect an owner to take greater care. You always have to look at the circumstances.

A Look At The Damages In Dog Bite Cases

You might not want to file a lawsuit after a dog bite that causes only superficial damage. However, some dog bites and other animal bites can lead to really serious damage. In those cases, it’s probably worth your time to file a claim. We had one case where a dog mauled a client, and we resolved that case for $1 million.

Usually, though, it’s the children that get bit, and a lot of those bites result in facial scarring. Those scars can stay with them for their lifetimes and treating that kind of damage can be expensive. Typically, in those cases, we’ll send the children and their parents to a plastic surgeon to get an estimate for scar revision. It’s then up to the parents and their child to choose whether they want to pursue the scar revision surgery. Even if they do, most of the time, you’re not going to totally erase the scar. There’s often going to be some scar that stays with that child forever, so you might have both medical expenses to address as well as noneconomic damages associated with the disfiguring scar.

Most Dog Bite Cases Are Relatively Straight-Forward

At least, in my experience, most cases have been generally pretty clear-cut. You either have significant damages, or you don’t. And you either have an owner who should have known better, or you don’t.

One of our cases kind of shows how these things come together. We represented the victim in a case that involved a Rottweiler. The dog already had a history of attacking other dogs, and its owner allowed it to run loose. When it came across a lady who was walking her small dog, the Rottweiler started attacking the other dog. The lady tried to pick up her dog to stick it in her coat, and the Rottweiler attacked her. So, the dog had a history, and it was running loose in the public. Those were the main factors for negligence, and the woman suffered enough damage to make it worth filing a lawsuit.