Legal Remedies

The notice of the certified letter I wrote to the woman who owns the pit bull that attacked Porch Boy was delivered on Saturday, but they haven't signed for it yet. If they go by and pick it up today that will give them only a 24-hour turnaround time to get the payment to me. I have an appointment with Dr. May tomorrow morning at 8AM to assess the repair to the hernia on P Boy's tummy. I have NEVER left Dr. May's office with anything less than a $100 payment made, so I figure that the total amount of vet services will be in the $1000 range at the very least. If P Boy requires surgery to repair the hernia, much more.

So I did a little research on filing a small claims case. It costs $30 to file the case and $65 to have the defendant served with notice that they are being sued. An additional $5 for each witness that requires a subpeona and there's no guarantee that I'll win. It's very good that I have the witness and I plan to ask the other folks that live near that corner if they saw the attack. I'm also going to take photos of my torn/dirty clothes. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of my bruises and scrapes, but I'm glad I have those of P Boy's injuries. So I think I have a good case. And I can include damages for pain and suffering (both mine & P Boy's) up to the maximum $10,000 allowed in small claims court. I can only make a claim for money, though. I can't make any ancillary demands (like a written apology for instance, or for requiring them to get rid of the dog).

Even if I do get a judgment in my favor, there's no guarantee that they would actually pay it. I might have to file additional papers to get the judgment attached to their credit report. And they do have the right to appeal to a Civil Court-at-Law where I would have to do the whole trial over again. So this could become a long, protracted affair.

I also discovered that I can file a "Dangerous Dog" case where the JP has the authority to order the dog be euthanized. I will not do that. Although I did threaten to kill the dog myself when I was so angry about the unprovoked attack, I don't want him to be put down. I just want them to put him into an escape-proof kennel since he clearly can't be restrained by the fence alone. Or give him to someone who lives out in the country where he won't be confused by the territorial boundaries of his property line.

Although I personally think of him as a "dangerous dog" I was told by someone who works for a JP that she had never heard of a judge ordering a dog be put down unless it had attacked a human - typically a child. So, like the Animal Control folks said, a dog-on-dog attack is not going to mean more than just a slap on the hand of the owners. And not a very hard slap at that.