Practice Areas

Blog

Legal News

Appeals court upholds $16 million verdict against Allstate

Brain Injuries Account for Half the Deaths When Elderly Fall

KB Home to Pay Fine in EPA Probe of Alleged Water Run Off Violations

Emotional Distress Claim Allowed in Car Crash Lawsuit

Lawsuit Alleges Negligence Led to Toddler's Death

Nursing Home Sued after Losing 94 Year Old Patient

Settlement Would Move Brain Injury Patients from Nursing Homes

Near Fatal Drug Mix Up - Quaid Testifies of Peril to Newborn Twins

Trasylol Again Strongly Linked to Increased Risk of Death

Newsletters

Georgia Wrongful Death Lawyer and Serious Injury Attorney - Newsletter Fall 2008

Animal Attacks/Dog Bites

Man’s best friend. A dog can be a loyal and trusted friend. Unfortunately, much more often than you might suspect, a dog attacks in its zeal to protect its owner or its perceived territory. Dog bite injuries and their psychological effects are often times devastating. Emergency medical attention, ongoing counseling, nerve damage, and permanent scars are often an unpleasant reality for victims. The dog bite lawyer in Atlanta Georgia can help recover for those very real losses resulting from animal attacks to help offset past and future medical expenses, scarring and suffering inflicted by vicious animals.

Jason Schultz, P.C. protects the rights of dog bite victims and their families in Georgia. Attorney Schultz is a lawyer with the expertise and dedication required to provide top quality legal representation. If you or a loved one has suffered injury as a result of dog bite, he can help. Contact Jason Schultz, P.C. immediately for a free review of your case.

Almost 2% of the nation’s population suffers from a dog bite injury each year. Between 10 - 20 people die from dog bites annually, most of them children. The statistics are sobering and staggering. Jason Schultz P.C. is committed to bringing irresponsible dog owners to justice while representing the legal interests of dog bite victims.

Advocating for an injured child, Jason Schultz, P.C. will not harass or confront the dog owners, make them feel guilty, write threatening letters, embarrass them, foreclose on their home, drive them into bankruptcy, or have their dogs euthanized. At least, not unless one or more of those things is absolutely necessary, and never without the permission of the child's parents. If the parents want the lawyer to behave in a gentlemanly manner, then the case will be handled as instructed. After the claim is over and paid by the insurance company, the dog owners will realize that it was their insurance company that did all the work and paid all the money. Any of their initial fear and anger will be gone. They will understand that you were trying to do their best by hiring Jason Schultz P.C. and not trying to hurt them. Hiring an attorney is not the same as suing. Jason Schultz P.C. knows how to present a case to an insurance company so that the claim gets resolved without it going to court. When the victim is a child, at least 98% of the cases settle out of court, without a trial. Therefore a parent who retains Jason Schultz P.C. is not making matters worse, but actually is ensuring that the claim will be handled more quickly and efficiently.

Georgia has a kind of hybrid liability for dog owners. If there is no leash law enacted by the city or county at the time of occurrence, then a modified "first bite" or "one bite" rule applies, even though the dog need not have necessarily bitten someone before as the victim can show that the animal had vicious propensities. In the case of Supan v. Griffin, 238 Ga. App. 404 (1999), a case involving a bite on the owner's premises, it was held that the true test of liability is the owner's "superior knowledge of his dog's temperament." Supan's dog had previously attacked a dog belonging to one Keller, and threatened the man with "bared fangs, vicious growls and attack behavior." There was no prior bite victim. Nevertheless, these facts were sufficient to establish a triable fact as to Supan's prior knowledge of his dog's vicious propensity.

If there is a "leash" law requiring the animal to be on a leash, at heel or confined, "vicious propensity" can be proven by simply showing that the animal was required to be at heel or on a leash by an ordinance of the city, county, or consolidated government, and the said animal was at the time of the occurrence not at heel or on a leash." For example, the local law might state that all dogs must be confined on the premises of the dog owner or must be on a leash when not on the owner's premises.

Here are some, but not all, of the dangerous dog laws of Georgia:
4-8-20.
This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Dangerous Dog Control Law."
4-8-21.
(a) As used in this article, the term:
(1) "Dangerous dog" means any dog that, according to the records of an appropriate authority:
(A) Inflicts a severe injury on a human being without provocation on public or private property at any time after March 31, 1989; or
(B) Aggressively bites, attacks, or endangers the safety of humans without provocation after the dog has been classified as a potentially dangerous dog and after the owner has been notified of such classification.
. . .
(6) "Potentially dangerous dog" means any dog that without provocation bites a human being on public or private property at any time after March 31, 1989.

4-8-23.
(a) Upon receiving a report of a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog within a dog control officer's jurisdiction from a law enforcement agency, animal control agency, rabies control officer, or county board of health, the dog control officer shall make such investigations and inquiries with regard to such report as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this article. Any local government shall be authorized but not required to provide by ordinance or resolution for additional duties of a dog control officer in identifying dangerous dogs or potentially dangerous dogs and their owners to carry out the provisions of this article.
(b) When a dog control officer classifies a dog as a dangerous dog or reclassifies a potentially dangerous dog as a dangerous dog, the dog control officer shall notify the dog's owner in writing by certified mail to the owner's last known address of such classification or reclassification. Such notice shall be complete upon its mailing.
4-8-24.
. . .
(b) When a dangerous dog or a potentially dangerous dog is classified as such, the dog control officer shall notify the dog's owner of such classification.
. . . 4-8-25.
(a) It is unlawful for an owner to have or possess within this state a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog without a certificate of registration issued in accordance with the provisions of this Code section.
. . . 4-8-30.
It is the intent of the General Assembly that the owner of a dangerous dog or potentially dangerous dog shall be solely liable for any injury to or death of a person caused by such dog.

Frequent Questions for Animal Attacks/Dog Bites:

Free Consultation

Jason R. Schultz
PO Box 2270
Peachtree City, GA 30269

Phone: (404) 474-0804
Fax: (770) 692-3326

Free Book

The Ultimate Guide to Accident Cases in Georgia – The Truth about Your Injury Case

FAQs

Practice Areas

Blog

Automobile Accidents

General

Legal News

Library

Georgia Wrongful Death

Tractor Trailer Accidents

Automobile Accidents

Medical Malpractice

Premises Liability

Newsletters

General

Animal Attacks/Dog Bites

Frequent Questions for Animal Attacks/Dog Bites:

Free Consultation

Free Book

FAQs

Tractor Trailer Accidents

Automobile Accidents

Medical Malpractice

Premises Liability

Animal Attacks/Dog Bites

Case Results

Tractor Trailer Accidents

Automobile Accidents

Medical Malpractice

Premises Liability