Consult specialist personal injury lawyers
Determining the validity of a dog bite claim is a complex matter that requires legal expertise.
If the attack happened in a public area, you’ll have to establish the ownership of the dog and whether the owner has the financial means to settle a claim. In this instance, you may have a strong claim on the grounds of negligence, given that the owner patently did not have control of the animal in a shared communal space.
The majority of attacks, however, occur on private property. More often than not, a claim referred to as a Pauparian action applies.
This means that even if the owner isn’t deemed negligent, you can still claim compensation on the basis that the animal acted contrary to the nature of its breed or species. The onus is then firmly on the owner to prove that the dog was either provoked or defending itself when the attack occurred.
