Valueing Time for a Claim?

Martynt74

Martynt74

Martynt74

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Joined
20 Feb 2004
Posts
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Location
Hondon de las Nieves, Spain
I was out on a run on Saturday when a dog ran out of a house and bit my leg and arm. It initially charged my leg from the left, and then as i've jerked it's seen movement and grabbed onto my forearm. The owner came running out shouting at me not to move, and then came and pulled the dog away from me, explaining he hadn't seen me coming and had opened the gate to go out.
I've ran past the house multiple times before and can always hear the dogs barking as they must be used as guard dogs, but obviously they're usually locked away. I mentioned it to a guy at a checkpoint and was told they refer to it as the "Big Bear House" on account of the size of the dogs. I'm not sure what they were, but certainly Alsatian sized. I'm 6'3 and they were about waist height.

This happened around mile 8 of a 40 mile run, and it certainly affected me the remainder of the way round with pain in both my arm and leg, my arm also kept going numb and tingly for ~2 hours which played on my mind. I got home, and realised it'd broken the skin in both places and was bruising up quite a bit. My base layer top, base layer shorts and shorts were also damaged. The next day i went to A&E to check if i needed a tetanus jab or medication incase it got infection (have antibiotics).

I was going to leave it there, but my wife rightly pointed out i should report it as it could've been pretty serious had it been a child running past. I did so, and during the discussion i asked whether it was reasonable to claim for compensation to recover costs incurred. Now things like petrol, parking, clothing etc are all pretty easy to work out. However i'm wondering whether it's also reasonable to recover an element of cost for the time spent going to A&E. Probably about 5 hours in total including travel time. Which wasn't the way anyone wants to spend a Sunday!

Anyone got any thoughts? I'm not really bothered about claiming for anything above that. It's an accident and beyond some pain/bruising it's not really that bad.
 
any dog who runs out and bites someone needs reporting. Owners can't keep their dogs under control. It's as simple as that.

and yes, your wife is right, could have been a small child. They certainly won't have kept still, and would have probably started screaming making the situation much worse.

....and the excuse he didn't see you coming is such a lame one. Regardless, should have been on a lead before he opened the gate.

The police will go round for a chat, and keep a record of it. That in itself 'might' make him think twice.

Just imagine if you don't report it, and something terrible happens.
 
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Why did you continue the run?? :D

Mentioned it to a guy on a checkpoint? It was an organised run?

Who did you report it to? Police? RSPCA?
 
McGray said:
Was this an organised event?
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Yeah it was, i mentioned it to the organisers

LiE said:
Did you actually incur a financial loss?
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Yeah, about £100 in damaged clothes, prescription fees, parking at the hospital and petrol costs. All which wouldn't have been required if not for being bitten. I'm not setting out to pretend i'm now terrified of dogs or running to claim big bucks.

TheOracle said:
any dog who runs out and bites someone needs reporting. Owners can't keep their dogs under control. It's as simple as that.

and yes, your wife is right, could have been a small child. They certainly won't have kept still, and would have probably started screaming making the situation much worse.

....and the excuse he didn't see you coming is such a lame one. Regardless, should have been on a lead before he opened the gate.

The police will go round for a chat, and keep a record of it. That in itself 'might' make him think twice.

Just imagine if you don't report it, and something terrible happens.
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Yeah, the police are going round. They asked me what i wanted to be done, and it's just more to make the guy more aware and to tie the dogs up if he's opening the gate than anything more.
 
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coupe69 said:
I don't understand how you think being attacked by a dog is an accident?
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Well it's an accident in that the guy didn't intentionally set his dog to attack me, it's purely accidental that i was running past at the time the gate was open. Careless potentially, but nothing more than that.

Stu999 said:
Why did you continue the run?? :D

Mentioned it to a guy on a checkpoint? It was an organised run?

Who did you report it to? Police? RSPCA?
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It's been in my diary for about 2 years and kept being deferred due to Covid. It was either carry on or make my way back to the car which was ~8 miles at that point anyway.

Yeah, to the police through 101
 
Won’t the organisers have insurance for things like this?

I’m not sure beyond that who/what you are claiming from. Are you going to small claims him? Loads of solicitors seem to offer support on this, “small claims dog bite” gets a good result on Google.
 
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Ahleckz said:
Won’t the organisers have insurance for things like this?

I’m not sure beyond that who/what you are claiming from. Are you going to small claims him?
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I hadn't thought of going through the insurers. My first port of call was just to try and contact the owner to try and agree something directly. If he refuses then i'd likely give up. It's not huge amounts of money and would be too much hassle going down small claims and not prepared to make a big deal of it going through some injury solicitors.

The policeman i spoke to was going to broach the subject on my behalf and pass on my contact details.
 
Zenduri said:
Ignoring the time element, what are your total costs so far?
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My guess would be ~£130 as mentioned above. If it can't be resolved through a short ~5 minute chat/letter directly with the owner i'd likely just drop it and move on.
 
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Martynt74 said:
My guess would be ~£130 as mentioned above. If it can't be resolved through a short ~5 minute chat directly with the owner i'd likely just drop it and move on.
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nvm seen the breakdown above.

Just ask him to cover the cost of the clothes the dog destroyed . It was an accident, you have reported the dog. If someone told me they would charge for their time following an accident i think i would laugh at them. It's different if you were working and it happened.

If he wont cover the cost of the clothes then take it up with the event organisers or move on with life
 
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Martynt74 said:
My guess would be ~£130 as mentioned above. If it can't be resolved through a short ~5 minute chat/letter directly with the owner i'd likely just drop it and move on.
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I'd be surprised if you asked for money from the dog owner that they paid up. Still would be worth chatting with them so they understand what you had to go through.
 
LiE said:
I'd be surprised if you asked for money from the dog owner that they paid up. Still would be worth chatting with them so they understand what you had to go through.
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Yeah, it's quite possible. The suggestion i was given was to suggest we agreed a figure and then if they said no ask for their pet insurance details to take it up with them in the hope that it then gives them more inclination to agree as i think insurance would require more of a prosecution to move anything along.

In reality i'm just glad the weather was decent and i wasn't wearing my jacket as that's considerably more expensive!
 
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