Lake Forest Dog Bite Attorneys

Were you or a member of your family attacked by a dog? Besides the cost of medical care, you may also be dealing with serious physical pain and scarring. In some cases, a severe bite wound can prevent a person from earning an income for several weeks or even months. Our dog bite attorneys in Lake Forest can review your claim and help you navigate the legal system. The consultation is free, and we won’t charge any attorneys’ fees unless we win. Call 1-800-GO-HARRIS to get started.

Important Steps to Take After Being Attacked by a Dog

If you were bitten by a dog, there are certain steps you can take immediately afterward to protect your rights and strengthen your personal injury case. While your health should be your top priority, it pays to start thinking about your eventual claim as soon as possible. Here are a few steps you should take after the attack:

• Document Everything: Gathering evidence at the scene can help your lawyer build a strong case. As such, you should attempt to document as much of this evidence as you can. Even seemingly insignificant details may go on to play a pivotal role in proving liability, causation, and damages down the line. Important evidence may include eyewitness statements and contact details, photographs of the dog and the scene, and notes on the locations of nearby surveillance cameras that may have recorded footage of the incident.

• Seek Immediate Medical Attention: It’s likely that the insurance company or opposing party will be looking for any reason to challenge your claim. As such, if you don’t take sufficient steps to mitigate damages such as minimizing your healthcare bills, property repairs, lost income, and other losses, the opposing party may attempt to hold you liable for at least a portion of your damages. Seeking immediate medical attention and following your doctor’s instructions are two ways you can mitigate damages.

• Stay Away from Social Media: You may want to post online to reassure family and friends that you are doing well. However, these posts may be used by the defense to argue that you are exaggerating the extent of your injuries. There are other ways your social media activity could compromise your claim. For instance, you may inadvertently imply that you instigated the attack. As such, our Lake Forest dog bite lawyers advise you to deactivate your social media profiles for the duration of your personal injury case.

Can I Post on Social Media While My Claim Is Pending?

Social media has become an important part of our everyday lives. It’s a way to stay connected with friends and family, and in the wake of a serious injury, a network to reassure your loved ones that you are doing okay. But making any posts on social media after suffering a personal injury could be incredibly harmful to your claim. Insurers and rival parties may hire investigators to pore through your posts to find any evidence that could be used to dispute liability, causation, and damages. Even online comments that aren’t directly related to your case, accident, or injuries could be used to challenge your claim. Here are a few mistakes that our Lake Forest dog bite attorneys have seen claimants make online:

• Having a Public Profile: Social media accounts are often set to public by default. In this setting, anyone can view your posts—including rival parties in a personal injury case. To avoid the risk of your information falling into the wrong hands, you should switch to “private.”

• Posting Pictures: You may be spending every day in extreme agony, gritting your teeth just to make it through the next 10 minutes. So when you finally have a few bright moments, you may be tempted to take a snapshot or two to document the happy occasion. However, these photographs can spell disaster for your personal injury claim. For instance, if you posted a picture of yourself having fun at a party a few weeks after the attack, the opposing party could use this image to argue that your injuries are not that severe. Not only should you steer clear of posting pictures online, but you should also ask friends and family not to tag you in posts until your case has concluded.

• Accepting New Friend Requests: It’s just a harmless friend request, right? Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Rival parties may employ a range of tactics to gain access to your social media activity, and one of these could include sending you a connection request. Once accepted, the investigator will have free reign to comb through your social media feeds to gather evidence that could be used to challenge your claim. Until your claim is resolved, you should not accept any new friend requests.

Call 1-800-GO-HARRIS to Speak with a Lake Forest Dog Bite Lawyer

Our attorneys have a track record of success in dog bite cases of varying complexity. We have won more than $300,000,000 for clients. For a free consultation, send us a message or call 1-800-GO-HARRIS.