Legal Question in Personal Injury in California
injuries to animals
I'm not sure which area of law this goes to...there is no animal law in the choices. But perhaps someone can still help me. My dog was hit by a bicyclist riding downhill on a road where it is off limits to people but dog owners bring their pets off leash on this road often. We were the only ones on the road and he had already rode past us a couple times and on the 3rd time he hit my dog. Unfortunately my dogs were off leash and I know there's an off leash law, I should've had my dogs on leash. I came out of the vet with a huge bill. Is this something that I can sue the bicyclist to pay for half of the vet bill? Or will the off leash law be my losing case? Do I have any options at all? Is this even worth trying to pursue in court? Thank you!
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: injuries to animals
You already have 3 excellent answers.
I cannot improve on them.
Good luck
Re: injuries to animals
You have nothing to lose by going to small claims court. Do it!
Re: injuries to animals
You can sue the bicyclist, and can probably recover at least a portion of the vet bill.
Your violation of the leash law means that you were negligent, but the bicyclist was probably also negligent. The judge or jury will decide what percentage of fault each of you bears and should make the cyclist pay his proportionate share of the bill.
Good luck.
Re: injuries to animals
Do you even know who the bicylist is? You can sue in small claims. There is a doctrine called "comparative fault" in CA. The court will apportion fault and then award accordingly.
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