If you have been involved in an incident involving a dog bite, you need to be aware that in Ohio there is a strict liability statute and a negligence statute. A negligence case requires that the injured person prove that the dog owner failed to act with reasonable care in controlling or preventing the dog and that this failure resulted in Plaintiff’s injury. A strict liability case is based on Ohio’s dog bite statute and does not require that the injured person prove that the dog owner acted negligently.
Ohio revised code section 955.28(B) states that a dog owner, keeper or harborer is liable for any injury caused by a dog if:
1) The dog’s behavior caused the injury; 2) the injured person was not committing or attempting to commit a crime; 3) the injured person was not trespassing; and 4) the injured person did not provoke the dog by teasing, tormenting, or abusing it.
If you have been bitten by a dog, you have two years from the date of the incident in which you have to file a lawsuit against the responsible owner.
You must do the following things immediately:
- Contact the police and the animal control shelter and file incident reports. It is essential that the police and animal control center gather as much information about the dog owners’ insurance, particularly their homeowner’s insurance
information including insurance carrier, policy number, and address information;
- Gather as much information as you can about the owner of the dog, and obtain for yourself all of the owner’s insurance information including insurance carrier,
policy number and address information;
- Take pictures of all of your injuries;
- Obtain medical treatment as soon as possible. It is important, when you are at the emergency room, that you describe to the doctor in detail all of your injuries from top to bottom, describing the pain that you are feeling, describing all of your concerns, and describing all of your anxiety and stress;
- Immediately report the incident to the dog owner’s homeowners insurance
company. Provide them with the date of the incident and describe to them
exactly what happened and all of your resulting injuries;
- Do not agree to do any interviews with the adjusters of the homeowner’s insurance company without discussing your claim thoroughly with an experienced attorney;
- Make sure that you continue to follow up with your family doctor and continue to provide them with a thorough history of your injuries, limitations, and restrictions and how the incident impacted you
If you have been involved in a dog bite incident, you are not alone. I am here to help you but you need to act now by telling me more here or give me a call at 614-488-2270
