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Woman bitten by police dog can't expect big settlement if she sues

If the attacked woman does sue, she'd run right into a a state law that limits the amount one can claim in a negligence suit against a public official (or public dog) to $100,000, the attorneys at Parker Scheer explain:

... The $100,000 limit, a figure established by Massachusetts law-makers long ago, would not begin to compensate a person who suffers debilitating injuries as a result of a dog attack. Nevertheless, the Massachusetts legislature has shown no interest in updating this antiquated law. In more "civilized" States, such as New York, the liability of a governmental body (such as a city or town) is treated no differently than an individual charged with the very same negligence. ...

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Comments

The original blog speaks only about compensatory damages, but the law absolves public officials of punitive damages as well: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/258-2.htm.

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In this particular case, any idea whether a really good lawyer could successfully win a larger settlement despite this law? Perhaps on constitutionality grounds?

Hopefully the woman has only minor injuries with no lasting harm. But if a larger settlement is appropriate and not offered...

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What might those be? I think any $-based settlement would come from state tort law. I'm not sure how you'd obtain a monetary settlement on constitutional grounds or what those grounds might be.

I'm certainly no expert on dog-bite legal theories, but would be curious to hear if you have something specific in mind.

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I'm way out of my depth here, but I was wondering as a layperson whether there's a viable mechanism for challenging the $100K limit itself (say, it's inconsistent with the stated purpose to provide compensation and disincentives, or unconstitutional as relating to powers granted the government, or whatever attack works). And would this mechanism be part of the suit, or a separate effort that will be leveraged by the suit.

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They finally found the dog that bit the lady the dog bit.

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Destroy the obvious moral hazard.

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negligent or wrongful act or omission of any public employee while acting within the scope of his office or employment

I guess you could argue that the officer was not working at the time when his dog got loose, but I think the other side can argue that these dogs and officers are always working in a sense that these K-9s live with officers and the city pays for everything that goes along with the dog (food, leashes, fences maybe).

Just walking the dog for excersice might be a performance of this cops duties.

Either way I am willing to bet that the City of Boston is going to give this woman whatever she wants (within reason). 100K sounds good enough for this case to me.

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Has it been determined already that there will be no lasting damage to her face (scarring, neurological, muscle/skeletal, etc.), her other injuries will be fine, and the psychological trauma was minor?

Otherwise, I would guess 7 figures.

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if the max was really 100K, Id just give it to her.

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There are some details in today's Globe story:

-Wounds described as "superficial wounds to her face and stomach and a bite to her left leg that required stitches"
-Parker answered her front door yesterday, and had visible facial injuries

So the dog didn't rip her face off, as initial reports appeared to suggest. I'm sure it was still terrifying and painful... but if she didn't have stitches in her face and was at home already, the damage is not as bad as it might have been.

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100K? That won't even come close to covering her hospital bills and reconstructive surgery.

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If the presence of that K9 with that officer was funded by, say, Homeland Security or DEA or other federal programs, could she file a federal suit?

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Since the feds and state supply cities and towns with a lot of grants and other funded programs and equipment I would say no. I guess since he works for the City of Boston and gets paid by the city of Boston, the juristiction would all under the city.

But I should add that sometimes there are situations where the DEA has Boston officers working for them "full time" like on a task force or something where dogs might be used. I would still say that officer works for the city and not for the feds though.

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I was hit by a police car involved in a high speed chase in Berkeley CA. I was a passenger in a blue honda civic sitting at a stop light on a large 8 lane road right off the highway. The police car, which did not have a siren on, but did have flashing lights, ran into us head on as we sat waiting for the light to change. His excuse was that I was in a blue car in front of a blue house and he didn't see us.

I had a broken leg and ankle, some deep tissue injuries, and a big whiplash. Had we not been wearing seat belts we would have died.

THe city of Berkeley has a limit of $25K to sue the police. I hired an attorney, who took 1/3 of the settlement, leaving me with 17K for an injury that took 5 months to heal.

So I think $100k for a dog bite is very generous.

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As a teenager, I was hit head-on by a wrong-way drunk driver on I-93 who didn't survive the crash. He left no estate. In the 1970's, minimum coverage (which he had)was 5k/person, 10k/event. There were two of us in the car. After lawyers, I got $3750. I spent 6 months in the hospital and am permanently disabled. If Rampart Station of LAPD can create tens of millions in judgements due to shaky evidence on gang-bangers, (look it up),surely an ill-trained dog and handler may be worth more than 100k. In the law, one must have damages to sue for compensation. If in fact this woman is permanently harmed, she should go for it. It would be nice to see someone NOT get screwed.

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Can't she sue the dog and the officer separately? The dog was improperly trained and the officer was negligent in letting the dog get away from him while unleashed.

Not sure what legal standing the dog would have, but maybe the department in its stead or something. $100k from the dog/department and $100k from a suit against the officer?

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n

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A dog can't sue anyone!

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IMAGE(http://blog.timesunion.com/bark/files/2009/06/dogs_in_court.jpg)

200K it is!

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I had the judge for jury duty once.

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I saw some links about the officer. He seemed like a good and responsible guy. The gov't is the entity that decides to have the dogs, knowing that there will be some incidents in which they are liable. The gov't also has deeper pockets.

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