Beware of Dog Signs and Liability
Were you attacked by a dog in Nevada? Learn about beware of dog signs and liability to see if you can recover damages for your dog bite injuries in this video by Las Vegas dog bite attorney Craig Murphy.
Here’s a scenario: someone has a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign on their fence and someone in your family has been attacked by that dog and you’ve suffered significant injuries. Does that ‘Beware of Dog’ sign free them from their responsibility to you? It really depends on what the circumstances are that led to you being attacked by that dog. Let’s take a look at a couple of scenarios.
Someone that has a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign on their fence left their gate open and they put their dog out back. Your kids are out front playing in the street and the dog comes charging out and attacks your kids. That ‘Beware of Dog’ sign does not protect them under that situation.
Now, say your kids are playing ball and they hit their ball over the fence into another yard, and it says, ‘Beware of Dog,’ but they climb over the fence anyway to get the ball, and they’re attacked by the dog. In that situation, they may be protected because your child went over the wall. There may be circumstances where it is reasonable, or not, but their insurance company will defend that case based upon that ‘Beware of Dog’ sign, and it’s not going to be an easily won case.
Here’s another scenario: Say you’re over at someone’s house and they have a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign on their front door, and you go in and have coffee with them. You’re just having a chat and all of a sudden, the dog comes charging out and latches onto your leg and rips it apart. Do they avoid their responsibility because they had a ‘Beware of Dog’ sign? No. They knew that that dog had tendencies to attack. They invited you in, and they failed to properly secure their animal. You have a claim against them.
As you might be able to tell from all of these scenarios, these are very fact-specific cases; they’re very complicated cases. Because of that, typically the insurance company is going to deny your claim. You need to have an attorney who deals with these types of claims on a regular basis. If you have been attacked by a vicious dog and you have questions, give me a call. I’d be glad to talk to you, step you through the procedure and the analysis, and see what we can do.
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