Personal injury attorneys meet countless victims who have been significantly injured in auto accidents, falls, and other incidents. These victims are many times left with life-altering injuries, as well as emotional and physical scarring that cannot be cured. Some of the most emotionally troubling types of accidents that result in personal injury involve vicious animal attacks.
When animals, specifically dogs, attack innocent victims for no apparent reason, they are often left with debilitating injuries and a fear of dogs that haunts them for much of their lives. Just this type of incident occurred in March of 2010, when a third grader was playing outside her Lithonia home after school when a neighbor’s two pit bulls attacked her. She lost part of an arm and will live the rest of her life with the other arm and both ankles scarred and disfigured. The dogs had reported bitten other children in the neighborhood, but on that particular day they had broken free of their kennel when their owner was not home.
Fortunately, the victim’s family feels that justice has been served after a jury awarded a $72 million verdict after finding the dogs’ owner guilty on six misdemeanor counts. Two of those included reckless conduct and owning a vicious dog.
Something that many citizens do not realize is that these types of verdicts can only be paid out to the victim if the at-fault party has insurance coverage and personal assets that can be tapped into. Unfortunately, the dogs’ owner did not have insurance in this case and will likely not have assets available to be tapped into for payment of the victim’s medical bills and pain and suffering. This means that while justice was served and a point was made to others about keeping animals restrained properly, the victimized girl likely will not see the $72 million. She and her family, however, are just happy that the message is out there for others and will hopefully keep this from happening to another innocent bystander. Attorneys in this case say that the family knew up front that it would not be a high-recovery case, but wanted justice to be served anyway.
At Jones & Swanson, we meet victims of these types of animal attacks regularly and have represented many in the past. Dog bite and dog attack victims are many times left with lacerations, bruising, and other physical injuries that are hard to recover from. Unfortunately the mental effects that an animal attack can have on victims are typically even more serious than the physical injuries. It is our goal when representing dog attack victims to obtain a monetary recovery that will help with medical bills so that they can better concentrate on overcoming their emotional scars. For more information on your rights after being attacked by a dog or other animal, contact Attorney Andrew Jones or Attorney Chase Swanson today at (770) 427-5498 or online at www.awjlaw.com.
Categories: Dog Bites, Firm News, Personal Injury
