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Even though dogs may have the reputation of the man’s best friend, most of the people often tend to forget that they are in fact animals. As a result, sometimes their canine instincts prevail and they attack a person, causing him terrible physical and also severe emotional trauma. A personal injury lawyer in Brantford is going to be able to deal with cases of this particular regard as there are clear legislative regulations set forth to govern misfortunes of this type.
The act in question is called the Dog Owner’s Liability act which was introduced as R.S.O. 1990, CHAPTER D.16 but was later amended 2006, c. 32, Sched. C, s. 13. It sets incredibly strict provisions when it comes to injuries caused by domestic animal attacks. The owner is not only responsible for the injuries that his animal has caused, but he is also responsible if he has no fault for the accident what so ever. This means that even if the pet acted on his own free will, which is of course rather impossible to prove, the owner is going to be liable for the damages that it has caused. The easiest way to determine this is when the owner of the animal wasn’t around at the time of the incident.
This means that leading a case of this kind is very preferable by the majority of Personal Injury Lawyers in Brantford because there is nothing to prove besides the actual fact of the injury. Of course, this is not as simple as it may sound because the damages have to be related to this particular animal. If there are witnesses that could testify to this happening then the situation becomes a bit more clear, but if there are not it’s required to conduct some serious medical investigation. However, once the injury is related to the dog in question, the claimant can address his owner and file monetary compensatory claims for the injuries, medical treatment and other ancillary reasons.
However, the laws allow certain exceptions. There is something which the law refers to as contributory negligence. This is such behavior on behalf of the injured party which in some ways has provoked the attack of the animal. A personal injury lawyer in Brantford should definitely account for this because it limits the responsibility of the owner of the animal to certain extents which requires it to be accounted for.
Furthermore, the assessment is done individually for each particular case on behalf of the court. This is due to the fact that the circumstances are absolutely always going to be different which requires proper and thorough investigation for the sake of enforcing the law as intended. It is the job of the personal injury lawyer in Brantford to formulate the claim but besides that all else lies within the hands of the judges.