Defenses Available To Dog Owner If Same Canine Has Caused A Personal Injury

The first part of this article will focus on defenses that the law community has deemed acceptable. The second part will spotlight a defense that was tried, but ended with the arrest of the dog owner. That unfortunate result underscores the wisdom behind contacting a Personal Injury Lawyer in Kitchener, before attempting any defensive move.

Strategies to try with a lawyer’s help

Ask the injured party to come forward with medical documentation of his or her injuries. If none is available, the court might disprove the case that has been filed by the canine’s victim. Offer proof that the pet was not lose. Use that fact to highlight the owner’s effort to carry out his or her duty, that of controlling a pet canine.

Does any evidence suggest that the injured person was partially responsible for the vicious attack? Did he or she do something to provoke the dog’s anger? Proof of that fact would at least lower the amount of money that the court could award, as compensation for the dog-bite injury.

Has the statute of limitations been exceeded? If that is the case, then the court will refuse to hear the case that has been filed by the dog’s owner.

A dog-bite incident that made the news

Recently, the defensive move used by one of the many dog owners fell way outside of the circle of defenses that are allowed by the court. The overly aggressive lady and dog-lover first met-up with the victim on a jogging track. The dog’s future victim was jogging; the dog-lover was walking her pet.

That pet escaped from the owner’s control and lunged at the female jogger. The jogger used her pepper spray as a defense. Nothing more happened at that point in time.

Later the same two women, still in the same general area, met again. The woman with the pepper-sprayed pet recognized and attacked the bitten female jogger. Moreover, she did not limit her revenge to hitting the pet’s victim; she actually bit the jogger’s arm.

Members of the law enforcement community do not like vigilantes. The dog-lover was arrested. Her story should serve as a warning to anyone that owns a pet canine. Consult a lawyer before seeking to defend your position. Lawyers know a range of strategies that can be used by the defendant in a personal injury case, one that arose from a biting incident.

One such strategy calls for demanding medical proof of the victim’s injury. The arrested woman aggravated the injury, instead of working with an attorney to go after the required proof. Furthermore, reports about the incident suggest that the woman with the sharp teeth could not control her pet, and even encouraged the pet’s aggressive behavior.