Child Facial Dog Bite Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA Severe Injury Findings and Court Approval

Why the wound description matters beyond medicine

State law contains a definition that turns a clinical description into a legal category. Food and Agricultural Code section 31604 defines severe injury as any physical injury to a human being that results in muscle tears or disfiguring lacerations, or requires multiple sutures or corrective or cosmetic surgery. Facial bites frequently meet that description on the first emergency-department note. The definition is used to separate the categories in the dangerous-dog chapter, since section 31602 defines a potentially dangerous dog partly by reference to a bite causing a less severe injury than section 31604 describes. So the words a treating clinician chooses on the first day may end up quoted in an administrative or judicial proceeding months later, which is a reason to obtain the full chart rather than a discharge summary.

The liability rule does not soften for a child, and does not harden either

Civil Code section 3342 applies the same way: the owner answers for a bite suffered in a public place or while the person is lawfully in a private place, regardless of the former viciousness of the animal or the owner's knowledge of it. Where an ordinance violation is in the facts, Evidence Code section 669 presumes failure to exercise due care on the four stated conditions. That section also contains a subdivision written for young people: under subdivision (b)(2), the presumption may be rebutted by proof that the person who violated the enactment was a child and exercised the degree of care ordinarily exercised by persons of that maturity, intelligence and capacity under similar circumstances, though not where the violation occurred during an activity normally engaged in only by adults and requiring adult qualifications.

The clock, and the one exception that closes early

Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 sets two years for an action for injury caused by the wrongful act or neglect of another. Section 352 provides that where a person entitled to bring an action is under the age of majority, the time of that disability is not part of the limitations period. Subdivision (b) then withholds that tolling from an action against a public entity or public employee for which a claim must first be presented. Where a public agency is anywhere in the facts, the six-month presentation rule in Government Code section 911.2 governs the written claim for a personal injury cause of action, and the suit deadline in section 945.6 measures six months from the day a written rejection is mailed or delivered. A family relying on a child's tolling can lose the public-entity part of a case while the private part is still open.

Nobody settles a child's claim alone

Procedure requires an adult and a judge. Code of Civil Procedure section 372 requires a minor who is a party to appear by a guardian or conservator of the estate or by a guardian ad litem appointed by the court, and provides that the person so appearing has power, with the approval of the court, to compromise the action, agree to the judgment, and release the claim pursuant to that compromise. Money or property to be paid for the benefit of a minor is then handled under the Probate Code chapter beginning at section 3600.

Where the money goes afterward

Probate Code section 3611 lists what the court may order for the remaining balance. A guardian or conservator of the estate may be appointed and the balance delivered to that person. The balance may be deposited in an insured account at a financial institution in this state, or in a single-premium deferred annuity, subject to withdrawal only on court authorization. It may go to a special needs trust established under section 3604 after a hearing, with notice mailed to named state directors at least fifteen days beforehand. Where the balance does not exceed twenty thousand dollars, the court may hold it on other conditions it determines to be in the minor's best interest, and where it does not exceed five thousand dollars for a minor, it may be paid to a parent without bond on stated terms. Families are often surprised that a settlement does not arrive as a check; the statute explains why.

Facial injuries and the timing problem

The measure of compensation is broad. Civil Code section 3333 allows all the detriment proximately caused, whether or not it could have been anticipated. That breadth is precisely why a facial claim for a growing child sits awkwardly with early resolution: the surgical plan, the revision schedule and the eventual appearance are opinions that treating specialists form over time. Photographs at fixed intervals, in consistent light, are the cheapest record a family can keep, and the operative reports and clinic notes are the documents that later carry the discussion.

The public files that run in parallel

A bite report and a dangerous-animal report are different filings. County Veterinary Public Health states that a bite report does not mean the animal has been deemed dangerous and that a separate report must go to the local animal control agency (Reporting Animal Bites). Inside the City, dangerous-animal procedure appears at Municipal Code section 53.34.4, with hearing procedure at section 53.18.5.

Scope

General information about California statutes and Los Angeles procedures, not legal advice, and not a description of any child's case. Questions about a specific injury belong with the attorney who advertises on this site.