What to Do If Your Are Injured By a Dog Bite

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hello my name is Robert Geller and I am
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an attorney in the Tampa Bay area and
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our firm handles personal injury cases
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and today I want to discuss what you
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should do if you’re injured as a result
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of a dog bite or in another type of
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animal injury and so first I want to
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talk about what you can do if you’re
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injured as a result of a dog bite or a
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dog attack so we live in Florida and in
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Florida you are allowed to bring a claim
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against a owner of a dog if you’re
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injured as a result of the dog biting
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you or alternately if the dog causes you
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some type of injury and what I mean by
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that is that let’s say the dog jumps on
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you and knocks you down you’re still
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able to bring a claim against a owner of
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the dog so in Florida we call that
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strict liability as long as you can
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prove that that person owned the dog and
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that your injuries were caused by that
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dog either bite or attack you can bring
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a claim against them
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Florida is a little different than some
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other states because in Florida you do
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not have to prove that the owner of the
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dog had prior knowledge of the dog
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either attacking or biting you or biting
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another person so all you have to do is
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prove ownership and that you are injured
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now there are some examples of certain
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defenses that can be raised against you
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if you are attacked or bit by an animal
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couple of those examples are first of
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all if the owner of the dog
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has prominently displaced bad dog signs
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on the property and you then choose to
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enter the property even though they have
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those prominently displaced bad dog
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signs the owner can raise that as a the
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offense also of course if you go and it
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provoked the animal you know you go
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raise your fist to the animal are you
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trying to scare the animal or you do
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something to provoke the dog then the
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owner also has a defense to your strict
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liability claim I have seen that in some
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of the cases I’ve handled where I once
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represented a lady who was injured
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actually the dog jumped on the lady
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knocked her down severely hurt her spine
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but unfortunately the owner of the dog
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raised the fact that the lady should
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have been on the property to start with
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because there were bad dog signs on the
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property so what happens if you are
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injured by another animal in Florida
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let’s say you’re injured by I’m going to
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use a cow or a bowl because I’m gonna
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explain to you an example of a case that
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I once handled in Florida you can still
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bring a claim against an owner of an
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animal like a cow or a bull or even a
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horse as long as you can show that the
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owner did something wrong in maintaining
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or caring for the animal that’s a little
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different than the dog bite cases
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because you don’t have to show the owner
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did anything wrong you only have to show
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that the owner owned the dog and you can
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bring your claim you don’t have to show
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that they did something wrong so let’s
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say for example you’re injured you’re
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driving down the highway and this is a
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real example of a case that I once
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handled let’s say you’re driving down
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the highway and it’s in the middle of
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the night and you’re driving careful you
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have your headlights on but all of a
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sudden a cow jumps in the middle of the
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road
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and you crash into the cow well the cow
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is a very big animal and in my case my
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client actually went through the
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windshield and had some very severe
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injuries as a result of this crash and
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what you can do and in my case the case
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that I handled we were able to show that
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the owner actually was not a causal bull
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but the owner of the bull did not keep
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cows in a pen and so somehow the cat the
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bull tried to get out of the pen and
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looking for a cow and I got on the road
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and caused my client injury so we were
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able to show that the farmer the owner
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of this particular bull did not act
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reasonably in maintaining this animal to
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cause my clients some severe serious
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injuries so if you are injured at all
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any kind of injury automobile acts are
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anything or injured by a dog or injured
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by a cow or any kind of other animal
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please free feel free to call us that
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we’d be glad to help you with your case
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my name is Robert Keller and again I’m
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an attorney in Tampa Bay area thank you
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