Tipos de seguro que pueden aplicarse en los casos de mordedura de perro de Texas

When a dog attack occurs, the damages can be devastating. The scarring and damage caused by the ripping and tearing of the dog’s teeth can be very costly to repair. Some cannot be repaired. When this happens, the first question the victim must address, is: “how will the medical costs be paid for?”

Desafortunadamente, las leyes de Texas y las leyes de bancarrota pueden hacer que la recuperación de daños contra personas sin cobertura de seguro sea muy difícil. Como resultado, la existencia de un seguro a menudo puede ser muy crítica para un caso exitoso. Existen varios tipos de seguro que pueden ser beneficiosos para una víctima de ataque de perro. Las tres fuentes a considerar son:

• Seguro de salud personal
• El seguro de responsabilidad del propietario del dueño del perro y / o el seguro sin culpa
• El seguro para inquilinos
• Seguro de responsabilidad civil

Leyes de Texas Homestead y leyes de bancarrota Responsabilidad por juicios

Texas homestead laws and bankruptcy laws protect debtors from creditors. Under the Texas Homestead Act, a judgment creditor cannot take away a person’s home, car, tools of their trade, certain animals, pets and up to $60,000 in additional personal property in order to satisfy a judgment debt. For victims of dog attacks, this means that when a negligent dog owner’s dog injures them, they may take them to trial and win, but they may never collect a dime from the individual. If the owner does not own his home outright, he can simply transfer any assets he holds in excess of the $60,000 protected threshold into payment against his mortgage and he is now “judgment proof.” Additionally, a judgment proof debtor can extinguish liability for any judgment simply by filing bankruptcy. Thus, a judgment against an uninsured dog owner can be difficult if not impossible to collect. This is why looking for all avenues of insurance to collect against is critical.

Seguro de salud personal

Because some dog bite cases may result in judgments that are near-impossible to collect, it is important to inquire whether you the victim have health insurance available to cover the costs up front. Some health insurance policies will deny coverage if they believe that you have another avenue of recovery for your medical. This is because they have a clause that allows them to become secondary to any available liability insurance.

When the victim is a child, sometime medicaid can be made to pay for the medical expenses. It is up to the parents to apply and try to get medicaid coverage. As with any insurance, there are always problems that develop. Insurance plans have certain deadlines and requirements of coding procedures that they use as an excuse to kick back claims and refuse to pay them. If they victim does not stay on top of what is paid and what is rejected, often the medical provider will get lazy and let the claim filing period lapse thereby losing the right to file a claim. Thus, it is important to stay on top of any health insurance claim.

Seguro para propietarios de casas

El seguro de propietario es la fuente más común de recuperación para reclamo de mordedura de perro. There are two separate parts of a homeowner’s policy that may apply when a dog attacks. However, dog and/or animal exclusions may render homeowner’s insurance inapplicable.

A. Seguro Medpay para propietarios de viviendas

Medical payments is optional coverage or “medpay” insurance is a form of no fault insurance that kicks in to cover any persons who are injured upon the insured property. It is designed to cover medical expenses incurred when someone gets injured on the property in any way. The advantage of this policy is that the typical medpay policy requires no proof of liability or negligence on the part of the dog owner. You just prove the injury occurred on the covered property. The downside of this type of policy is that it is typically a very small policy. It may be as low as $500.00. Which means it is unlikely to cover the full extent of damages involved in a dog attack case. It also does not cover intangible damages such as pain, suffering, mental anguish, scarring, disfigurement or punitive damages.

B. Seguro de responsabilidad del propietario

Homeowner’s liability insurance is the primary source of recovery in dog bite cases. Homeowner’s liability insurance is insurance that covers the homeowner in the event that their negligence or actions causes injury to another. Homeowner’s insurance protects the homeowner even if they injury occurs off the property–as is often the case of a dog bite that occurs while the dog is running at large. Homeowner’s liability insurance may range from as low as $50,000 up to the millions and is largely determined by the amount of assets the homeowner has to protect. The disadvantages of this type of insurance is that you must prove negligence on the part of the owner. In the case of dog attacks, this may be difficult due to the Texas una regla de mordida. Además, el seguro de responsabilidad civil del propietario está sujeto a los términos de cobertura del contrato, lo que significa que puede estar sujeto a exclusiones.

C. Exclusiones de mordidas de perro en las pólizas de responsabilidad del propietario

Dog attacks across the United States cost insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars each year. As a result, many homeowner’s insurance companies have added exclusions to their policies to combat the cost of dog bite verdicts and settlements. The exclusions may be as restricting as to exclude “all damages caused by animals.” Or, they may be very narrowly-tailored to exclude dog attacks by certain specific breeds that are generally thought to be more likely to be dangerous dogs such as pitbulls, presa canarios, rottweilers or akitas. These exclusions must be carefully read to determine whether they apply in any specific case.

In addition to animal exclusions, many homeowner’s liability insurance policies contain other exclusions that can affect a dog bite claim. An exclusion against paying for punitive damages can prevent an injury victim from being able to fully recover against repeat offenders and grossly irresponsible dog owners. Additionally, most homeowner’s policies exclude renter’s, residents of the home and sometimes even persons in control of the premises such as a dog sitter.

El seguro para inquilinos

Apartment and condo dwellers who do not own the property are generally not covered under the property owner’s homeowner’s insurance policy. To make up for this, renter’s can obtain their own renter’s liability insurance policy. These policies work exactly like homeowner’s policies but are for renters. Unfortunately, it is rare to see a renter carry this type of coverage.

Seguro de responsabilidad civil por perros

When a homeowner’s insurance policy does not provide liability coverage that includes his dog, he may be able to obtain insurance through some companies that issue independent dog liability insurance. This may be necessary in cases where a dog has attacked before and the state has declared it a dangerous dog. Once a dog is declared dangerous by a municipality, the owner is required by law to carry $100,000.00 in liability coverage. This type of coverage may also be required in order to keep a dog in certain rental properties. These policies can be purchased in various amounts and are typically found where some law or housing rule requires the owner to carry a specific amount of dog liability coverage. They are extremely uncommon.

Conclusión y Comentarios

Finding insurance coverage is very important in dog bite cases dues to Texas homestead and bankruptcy laws that are unfriendly to creditors. All types of insurance coverage should be explored as avenues of recovery including health insurance, homeowner’s liability and medpay insurance, renter’s insurance, and dog liability insurance. Because finding out what coverage exists can be difficult, it would be wise in every dog attack case to hablar con un abogado de mordeduras de perro para determinar cuáles son sus derechos y la probabilidad de prevalecer. Simmons y Fletcher, PC, ofrecen consultas gratuitas a víctimas de ataques de perros en Texas.