A A A

What Should You Do After an Ohio Dog Attack?

Protect Your Legal Rights after an Ohio Dog Bite Injury

Your response right after a dog attack can be critical to preserving the evidence essential to any potential Ohio dog bite legal claim. Here are tips for what you should do:

• Obviously, if you or other dog bite victims need emergency medical assistance, ask someone to call an ambulance immediately.
• If you can, while you are still at the location of the dog attack, take the following steps:
• Get the name, address, and telephone number of the dog owner.
• Find out if the dog was inoculated for rabies, when the dog got the rabies shots, and the name and address of the veterinarian who administered the rabies vaccine.
• Ask for the dog owner’s insurance information.
• Take down the name, address, and telephone number of the person who was supposed to be supervising the dog (if that person is not the dog owner).
• Look around the dog attack scene to locate all possible witnesses to the Ohio dog bite. Ask for their names, addresses, and telephone numbers (home, cell, and work).
• Listen carefully to comments that the dog owner or witnesses make about events leading up to the dog bite, such as "the dog just ran away from me” or “the dog already bit someone else," and write down these comments.
• Report the dog attack immediately to your local health department, which will investigate whether the dog is so dangerous that it needs to be immediately confined in an animal control facility. Even if the dog is not taken away immediately, public health officials can order the dog owner to quarantine the dog inside the house or a pen for several days, to see if the animal shows symptoms of rabies.
• Ask the local health department to provide a copy of the official Animal Bite Report and to let you know whether the dog had rabies.
• If you did not go to the emergency room right after the Ohio dog attack, see a doctor as soon as possible. It is very important to get a check-up, because you may not be able to tell how badly you are hurt. Even if the dog bite seems minor, you may need a tetanus shot.
• Be sure to tell the doctor that your injuries resulted from a dog attack and follow all his or her instructions about further medical care, tests, or treatment.

If you or a loved one was seriously injured in an Ohio dog attack, talk with a dedicated Ohio dog bite lawyer. Please click here to get a simple, free, and confidential legal consultation form about your Ohio dog bite claim now.

After a serious Ohio dog attack, the dog owner or his or her insurance company may try to take advantage of the Ohio dog bite injury victim. To avoid this, follow these guidelines:

• Do NOT get into an argument with the dog owner about what happened.
• Do NOT sign any statements or documents about the facts of the Ohio dog attack.
• Do NOT answer questions from an insurance company or from an attorney representing the Ohio dog owner.
• Do take photographs of the dog bite injuries as soon as you can.

If you or a loved one was injured in an Ohio dog attack, contact a dedicated Ohio dog bite lawyer immediately.

Please click here to make out a simple, free, and confidential consultation form about your Ohio dog attack claim now.

Protect your legal rights. Take advantage of the Bernstein Approach today.