Dog bite lawyer: do you need to hire an attorney for a claim? | Malnar Injury Law | Personal Injury Lawyer in Colorado Springs

Dog bite lawyer: do you need to hire an attorney for a claim?

by | Sep 4, 2017 | Blog

If you’ve suffered a dog bite injury, you should seriously consider hiring an attorney. And there are a few reasons why.

First, you won’t have to directly liaise with your insurance company alone, since your attorney can help you. Second, you’re far more likely to receive money for your injury. And last, but not least, you’re far more likely to get everything that your insurance company is obligated to offer you.

Here’s our outline of why you should consider hiring a specialist dog bite lawyer, today!

dog bite lawyer

A dog bite lawyer like Malnar Law, P.C. can help you in a personal injury case. A Storyblocks image

You’re under no obligation to hire a lawyer for your claim

First things first, we’d like to clarify that you’re under no obligation whatsoever to hire a lawyer. You are more than welcome to deal with your insurance company on your own… But for the reasons we’re about to cover, this might not be such a good idea.

Insurance providers are not on your side. They don’t care that you’ve suffered an injury- all they care about is trying to minimise the amount that they offer you. That is, after all, how they manage to turn a profit every single financial year. Their job is to bring in more money than they give out, so when it comes to assessing your claim, they want to give you as little as possible. This is something we’ll return to later.

As a specialist dog bite lawyer, I’m 100% familiar with the tricks and games that insurance providers play. Even if you’ve been through a claim before, you won’t have that same experience. So while you’re entirely free to pursue a claim on your own, you might regret it in the end.

You can avoid resentment and unhappiness by hiring an attorney

What do we mean by that? By hiring a specialist lawyer, you avoid having to constantly prove yourself, and try to establish blame. Making your case to the insurance company means that you’ll have to prove yourself time and time again, as the provider tries to prove that you were at fault.

If you hire a dog bite lawyer, you won’t liaise with your insurance company on your own

Dealing with insurance providers is a nightmare at the best of time. But after an accident, it’s somehow even worse! While you’re in hospital, waiting to discover the extent of your injuries and the financial impact your injury will have, dealing with insurance is the last thing you’ll want to do.

The thing is, that the insurance providers know that. Their trade is to get you to settle, and to settle quickly, so that you don’t even get half of what you’re truly due. And they’ll use any trick in the book to get you to sign that agreement.

One example? Some insurance providers actually send a representative to your home, or to the hospital, to try and get you to sign away your right to sue. In exchange, you’ll receive a relatively small monetary settlement. If you do pursue your claim, they’ll dispute the extent of your injuries at every turn, delay your claim as long as possible, and do everything to deny liability by placing the blame on you. All to keep as much of what you’re owed as possible.

During your time of greatest stress, having to deal with these tricks is the last thing you’ll want. And that means one thing…

You can avoid resentment and unhappiness by hiring an attorney

What do we mean by that? By hiring a specialist lawyer, you avoid having to constantly prove yourself, and try to establish blame. Making your case to the insurance company means that you’ll have to prove yourself time and time again, as the provider tries to prove that you were at fault.

All the time you’re bringing your case, you’ll have the aggravation and frustration of dealing with your provider. But you’ll also feel unhappiness and resentment towards the dog’s owner. Why? Because they’re the ones who put you in this position!

Ultimately, though, they’re just a person like you. They don’t want to have to go through this, and neither do you. So avoid having to prove yourself, and blame somebody else, by hiring a specialist attorney who can liaise with your insurance provider instead of you.

If you hire a dog bite lawyer, you’re more likely to get compensated

Did you know that fewer than 1% of the people who are victims of dog bites are compensated? It’s true. In the U.S., 4.7 million Americans are affected by dog bites per year. But insurance companies only pay out for 15 to 16,000 of those victims. Do those numbers not add up to you? They don’t to us, either.

Without a specialist attorney, you hardly stand a chance of receiving your compensation. Hiring a specialist dog bite lawyer like myself will give you access to the knowledge and experience gained over decades of battling against these dirty tricks. Pursuing the case on your own, you’ll never have that.

If you hire a dog bite lawyer, you’ll receive more money

The insurance adjuster dealing with your case is told, as per company policy, to offer the victim of a dog bite attack (and, in fact, any claim) only about 15% of what they are entitled to. Of course, this means that the insurance provider gets to keep a hefty 85% of the money you should receive.

Hiring a contingency lawyer results in a similar scenario, except where you were losing before… Now you’re winning. If you ‘split’ the money with your insurance provider, you’re not likely to receive more than 20%. Contingency fee lawyers work on a 66/33% basis, meaning that you get two thirds of what you’re owed. 66% versus 20%, if you’re lucky- you do the math.