Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

I live in California. I have a pitbull that got loose from my house and bit another dog. He has already been declared a vicious dog. Animal control kept him for 3 weeks but then released him back to me after charging me $3,000. My parents are being sued by the owner of the dog that my dog bit. The owner says that my dog bit him, but I saw the entire thing and there's no way he got bit...only his dog. What amount of money in punitive and compensatory damages are my parents facing in this lawsuit? The man says he has permanent damage to his hand.


Asked on 4/17/12, 2:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

I doubt that your parents will be hit with punitive damages in a dog-bite case, though I can imagine scenarios in which they might. There is no way to guess the amount of compensatory damages with the limited information you have given us. That will depend upon the nature and extent of the plaintiff's injury, the cost of his medical care (including foreseeable care in the future), how much pain and suffering he has endured, and whether he has lost any income as a result. Of course, this presumes that he can prove he really was injured by the dog and that your parents are legally responsible.

If the plaintiff is a retiree with a modest injury then the damages will be relatively low. But if he his a young neurosurgeon who has lost out on decades of a high-paying career, the compensatory damages could be many millions of dollars. The likely range in your parents' case is somewhere in between, but I have no idea where.

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Answered on 4/17/12, 2:46 pm


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