Indiana Dog Bite Injury Lawyers
Practice Areas
Dog Bites
Dog bite injuries are far more common than most Americans realize. According to a 1996 study in the journal Injury Prevention, dogs bite one out of every fifty Americans every year. That's nearly 5 million people. Of these bite victims, 800,000 require medical help, according to a 1998 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The US Postal Service reports that nearly 3,000 mail carriers get bitten every year, on average. Over 360,000 dog bite victims wind up in emergency rooms at hospitals – that's more than 1,000 a day, according to a 2001 report put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Evidence suggests that dog bite injuries are on the rise. A 1994 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Dog and Cat Ownership," found that dog bites have increased at a faster rate than past trends would have predicted. Another paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that bites requiring medical attention increased by around 36% from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s.
Dog bites are a leading cause of child injury; bites are the fifth most common reason children wind up in the hospital emergency rooms.
Biting the hand that feeds
More than three out of four biting dogs belong to a friend of the victim or the family of the victim. These dogs are close to home, in other words. Thus, pursuing an injury claim related to dog bites can involve intra-familial and intra-friend-group disputes.
One bite rule
The One Bite Rule says that the owner of an animal like a dog can be liable for damages caused by the dog even if the animal has never attacked anyone before.
Although not all states hew to this "one bite rule" Indiana is a one bite rule stat, and strict liability is discussed in state statute IC 15-5-12 (liability for dog bites).
Getting help with your Indiana dog bite case
For a free, confidential assessment of your dog bite injury case, call (800)-278-9200 to set up an appointment with Indiana dog bite injury attorney Randy Sevenish. Explore our personal injury website for more details about attorney Sevenish or to schedule an appointment online.
