Understanding Oregon’s “One Bite Rule” for Dog Bite Claims
According to Oregon Restatement of Torts §518, all dog owners are held strictly liable when their pet causes another person serious harm—if they have reason to believe that the animal is dangerous and/or they are negligent in preventing an attack. This would be the case if a pet owner had failed to post warning signs on their property, failed to keep their dog on a leash while in a public space or failed to remove an aggressive dog from a potentially volatile situation. If someone was subsequently injured as a result, the victim would have grounds to pursue compensation from the pet owner. The type of damages that they would be entitled to would depend on the circumstances of the incident, however, as Oregon’s “one bite rule” denotes responsibility in two different ways.
Under the law, the victim of adog bite can pursue economic damages from the pet owner without necessarily having to prove that they had negligently contributed to the attack. Instead, one bite is sufficient enough to provide the victim with grounds for compensation. As such, they would be able to recover economic damages for things like the cost of their medical treatment, rehabilitative therapy, lost income, etc. If they have reason to believe that the dog owner had previously been aware of the animal’s aggressive propensities, however, they may be able to pursue non-economic damages, as well. Whennegligence is involved, the victim would be entitled to compensation for emotional distress, loss of consortium, inconvenience, pain and suffering, etc.
For this reason, it is vitally important that you discuss your case with aPortland personal injury attorney if you or someone you loved was attacked by a dangerous dog. Although you may be able to recover compensation for the financial losses that you have sustained, we would like to ensure that you are able to recover damages for the emotional pain and suffering that you have endured, as well. In order for us to do so, we will need to prove that the pet owner was negligent in upholding their responsibilities. As such, we highly recommend that you get in touch with our firm as soon as possible. We will move quickly to gather evidence and collect witness testimony, but this must be done within a reasonable amount of time after the attack.
To get started on pursuing the level of compensation that you deserve, we ask that yougive us a call at 971-645-7176 for a free initial consultation with our Portland personal injury lawyer. You can even contact us online if you would prefer by submitting afree case evaluation form directly from our website.