Greenville Dog Bite Lawyer
If you’re seeking a Greenville dog bite lawyer, it’s likely that you or a loved one recently experienced a traumatic injury. Dog bites often involve deep wounds and scarring; especially arm, hand, and facial scarring. These sometimes catastrophic injuries can alter the trajectory of your life and leave you with enormous medical bills.
You shouldn’t have to face the negative effects of someone else’s mistake on your own. At Whitley Law Firm, our highest priority is you. We want to hear your story so we can understand – really understand – what you’re hoping to get out of working with a lawyer. We will treat your dog bite case with the compassion you and your family deserve. During the process, we want to offer you wholehearted care and support, so you feel like you have an advocate on your side, not just a lawyer.
Contact our firm at (919) 785-5000 to begin fighting for compensation and accountability today. We also offer free, comprehensive legal advice for your initial consultation to make sure we’re the right option for you.
You Could Be Entitled to Recover Your Personal and Financial Damages
Severely injured people suffer a cascade of related effects, such as financial insecurity, emotional anguish, and loss of quality of life. These losses, while invaluable, can be assigned a dollar amount as we calculate what you may be owed. Our goal when estimating your case value is to pursue a settlement or court verdict that will improve your quality of life after the resolution of your case.
In a dog bite claim or lawsuit, compensable losses include:
- Medical expenses
- Emotional trauma, like pain and suffering
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Impaired quality of life
From the outset of your case, we’re here to listen. We can determine which damages you qualify for and estimate the potential value of your losses. During this part of the process, compassion is key. We want to know all your pain points so we can tailor our approach to your unique circumstances – we want working with Whitley Law Firm to feel like one big hug.
When it comes time to pursue your compensation, though, we’re no-nonsense. We treat our clients like family, so we’re prepared to pull out all the stops when it comes to protecting their futures. We don’t take no for an answer and will pursue every legal avenue to secure the compensation you deserve.
Who Is Held Liable for a Dog Bite Injury?
North Carolina’s legislature has enacted several statutes that apply specifically to dog bite cases. Under NC G.S. § 67-12, a North Carolina dog owner may be deemed strictly liable for bite injuries (meaning that we don’t have to provide evidence of negligence to win compensation) if the dog owner intentionally, knowingly, and willfully allows a dog more than six months old to run around at night without supervision.
A dog owner may also be deemed liable if a dangerous dog inflicted the bite injuries. For a dog to be deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous, it must:
- Have injured someone or another domestic animal in the past
- Be owned or trained for the purpose of dog fighting
- Have approached a person not on the owner’s property in a vicious manner
We can gather the evidence you need to demonstrate the owner’s negligence according to North Carolina dog bite laws. If they are strictly liable, we can show that your incident meets these qualifications. Allow our team to handle the investigation, so you can focus on your health and recovery.
What is North Carolina’s One Dog Bite Rule?
Under the one bite rule, those bitten by dogs in North Carolina can also take action against a dog owner if the dog previously bit a person (or acted as though it wanted to), and the owner had prior knowledge of the dog’s conduct.
We Will Prove the Liability of the At-Fault Party for Your Dog Bite Injuries
If the dog owner cannot be deemed liable under one of the above statutes, then the owner could still be found negligent. A dog owner owes a duty of care to act the way a reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances.
If the dog owner breaches that duty of care – such as by neglecting or abusing a dog to the point of aggression – then the dog owner could be held liable for any injuries or damages that the dog inflicts on others.
We Will Gather Evidence That Indicates Causation and the Liable Party
Negligence, in a dog bite case, is established through evidence, which often includes the following:
- Medical records
- Incident reports
- Footage of the dog attack
- Witness statements
- Expert input
- Other relevant pieces of evidence
At Whitley Law Firm, we strive to give our clients breathing room so they can recover from their injuries and spend time with their families. To do so, we manage every aspect of your dog bite investigation. We will interview witnesses, request incident reports, and strive to clarify every detail.
We Will Use the Evidence to Demonstrate the Elements of Negligence
We will use the evidence we gather as proof that the responsible party’s negligence meets these criteria:
- Duty of care: The liable party had a responsibility to act prudently and keep you from harm.
- Breach of duty: By behaving negligently, like letting a dangerous dog off-leash, the liable party breached this duty.
- Causation: The liable party’s negligent behavior led to your dog bite incident and resulted in injuries.
- Verifiable damages: Your medical records and expenses show that you suffered verifiable damages.
We Will Prepare Your Case for Trial if a Settlement Cannot Be Reached
While building your case, we will prepare for every outcome. We strive to settle dog bite claims before a trial takes place, but our pre-litigation and litigation management team always prepare for further legal action, should it become necessary. During some cases, we workshop our legal arguments with focus groups to go the extra mile.
Contact a Greenville Dog Bite Attorney
You get two things when you choose to work with Whitley Law Firm: compassionate support and tenacious representation. Doing right by our clients means truly understanding the details of their cases and aggressively fighting to protect their best interests. With us by your side, you can rest easy knowing that we will do everything in our power to produce a positive case outcome.
It all boils down to The Whitley Advantage: a combination of factors, from empathy to the detail-oriented work ethic that defines our firm. Contact us today to learn what a Greenville dog bite lawyer from Whitley Law Firm can do for you.
