Tennessee Injury Law Center : Lawyers for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death : Serving Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville

An experienced Tennessee motorcycle injury lawyer can help you gather evidence and present your case. 

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I am thinking about hiring a lawyer to help me with a dog-bite case involving injuries to my child. Can I find out if my lawyer has ever been disciplined by the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility?

Yes.

Lawyers are regulated by the Tennessee Supreme Court through the Board of Professional Responsibility. The Board of Professional Responsibility investigates lawyers that are accused of violating the ethical standards of the legal profession, which are set forth in Rule 7 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. A lawyer who violates the rules can be sanctioned by the Board of Professional Responsibility. The sanctions can be a private reprimand or as serious as disbarment, which means that the lawyer is prohibited for practicing law for some period of years or even life.

Lawyers and non-lawyers can file complaints with the Board about the conduct of a lawyer. The mere fact that a lawyer has had a complaint does not mean that the lawyer has done anything wrong – anyone can file a complaint about anything. Indeed, the clients of criminal defense lawyers not infrequently file complaints against their own lawyers, and people involved in divorce cases may file complaints against their spouse’s lawyers that have little basis fact. Thus, it is the substance of the complaint, not the facts of it, that is important.

You can look at the Board of Professional Responsibility website and see if a lawyer has received sanctions for violating a disciplinary rule. If you learn that your lawyer has had a disciplinary complaint filed against him or her, ask about it. If they deny it and you know it occurred, the denial says something about their integrity. If they explain what happened, use your common sense to determine whether the lawyer’s error was serious or minor or whether it is likely to happen again.

You should be very concerned with a lawyer who has an extensive history of complaints found to be valid by the Board of Professional Responsibility.

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I was jogging in my neighborhood when a dog started to chase me.  The dog bit me on the leg and, after I fell down, it bit me again on the arm before a passerby was able to get it off me.    I have some very ugly scars as a result of these bites and am now absolutely terrified of dogs.   What are my rights?

Under Tennessee law a dog owner has a duty to exercise reasonable control over his dog. If the dog's owner let the dog run free the owner is reasonable for the harm caused by the dog.

If you win your case, you are entitled to payment of damages.  Most injuries caused by dog bites are covered under the dog owner's homeowner's insurance policy.  

The damages that you may recover are discussed in our legal guide, Understanding Damages in Personal Injury Cases.

I suggest you meet with an experienced personal injury lawyer to gain a better understanding of how Tennessee law applies to the facts of your case.  Please remember that under Tennessee law personal injury claims must be filed against the responsible parties within one year of the date of the injury.  Failure to file suit within one year will result in a loss of your rights.

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I live in the country in Tennessee.  My dog runs loose.   The dog bit a neighbor kid over at his house about 700 feet down the road.  The dog never bit anyone before.  Am I responsible for what my dog did?  I thought every dog got one free bite?

A dog's owner used to be able to avoid responsibility for a dog bite if he did not know the dangerous propensities of the dog, but that is no longer the law if the bite occurs off the dog owner's property. Subject to several exceptions, if you let your dog run at large, you are responsible for injuries caused by your dog even if you had no reason to believe the dog was dangerous.

You report the bite to your homeowner's insurance as soon as possible.  Your homeowner's insurance policy may provide you with some protection in the event you are asked to pay medical bills or get sued  by the neighbor.

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My son was bit by a neighbor's dog.  What rights do I have in a lawsuit against the dog owner? 

You have the right to recover medical expenses that you paid or were paid by your insurance company.  (You almost certainly have to repay your health insurance company out of the settlement or judgment.)  You can also recover damages for loss of services of your child.

Under Tennessee law, you cannot recover damages loss of the relationship between you and your child because of the injuries or for your emotional distress at seeing your child deal with his injuries.  

However, you may be able to recover damages for emotional distress if you saw or heard the dog attack your son or came up on the scene of the event shortly after the dog attack occurred.    An experienced personal injury lawyer can tell you whether you qualify for recovery of this type of damages - they are dependent of the details of your case and your emotional injuries, if any.

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My 10-year old daughter was hurt in a car wreck.  Her dad and I are divorced.  Can I file a lawsuit on her behalf?

Yes, if you are the custodial parent you are permitted to bring a lawsuit on your daughter's behalf.  If you are not the custodial parent the appropriate person to bring the lawsuit is your daughter's father ( I assume that he is the custodial parent).  

Even if you are the custodial parent and have the right to file suit, you should work with the child's father and try to maintain a united front in the litigation.

If a custodial parent refuses to file a lawsuit for a child and the non-custodial parent believes that a lawsuit should be filed, an experienced personal injury  lawyer can explain the steps you must take to assert the claim.

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 I have a personal injury case going to try in Cookeville, TN next month.  How many jurors need to vote for me for me to win?

You will probably have a 12-person jury.  That is the typical number of jurors in a civil jury trial in Tennessee.  You and your opponent may agree to a lesser number of jurors, but you will almost certainly have 12 jurors (and one or more alternate jurors) hear the case.

All twelve jurors must vote for you for you to win the case.  Some states permit a lesser number (10 of 12, 9 of 12) but in Tennessee the jury verdict must be unanimous unless the parties to the lawsuit agree on that the verdict may be something other than a unanimous verdict.  For obvious reasons, the defense will rarely agree to such a proposal.

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I was visiting my neighbor.  He has a dog that is usually chained up but ran up behind me after I stepped off my neighbor's porch and bit me on the back of the leg.  I fell down and he bit me again on the arm before my neighbor was able to get him off me.   The dog was chained up because he bit someone about 3 years ago, but now they leave him off the chain from time to time to let him get exercise in the yard.   I ended up getting an infection from the bites, have missed four weeks of work and spent thousands of dollars in medical bills.  What are my rights?

Under Tennessee law a dog owner has a duty to exercise reasonable control over his dog.  If you are bitten by a dog on the dog owner's property while you are on the property with the owner's permission you have to prove that the dog owner knew or should have known about the dog owner's dangerous propensities and that that he or she did not exercise reasonable control over the dog.

If you win your case, you are entitled to payment of damages.  Most injuries caused by dog bites are covered under the dog owner's homeowner's insurance policy.  

The damages that you may recover are discussed in our legal guide, Understanding Damages in Personal Injury Cases.

I suggest you meet with an experienced personal injury lawyer to gain a better understanding of how Tennessee law applies to the facts of your case.  Please remember that under Tennessee law personal injury claims must be filed against the responsible parties within one year of the date of the injury.  Failure to file suit within one year will result in a loss of your rights.

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I was in a car wreck about 6 months ago.  The other driver admitted fault.  My medical bills are about $25,000.   I have been released by my doctor.  My lost wages are $2000.   How quickly will my case settle?

At the outset you need to understand that your case may not settle at all.  In Tennessee the insurance company does not have a duty to settle your case and in fact does not even owe you a duty to fairly evaluate your case.    It can settle a case, or not settle a case, on whatever schedule it wants to put in place.

However,  if the insurance company wants to settle the case it needs to have information from your lawyer.  At an absolute minimum, the company needs the accident report, your medical records and bills, perhaps some of your previous medical records, proof of lost wages from your employer, and an understanding of how the injuries have impacted your life.  To the extent you claim a permanent injury, future medical expenses, future loss of earning capacity, or other damages, the insurance company will need proof of that.

Lawyers communicate this information by way of a settlement demand.   All of the relevant information is gathered and the important information is highlighted in a letter.  In our office we attempt to gather all of this information before your are released from your doctor (except the final office note) and have a demand package ready to go to the insurance company within thirty days of when medical treatment is complete.  Lack of cooperation from one of the providers of information will affect our ability to get the demand package out on time.

Insurance companies always ask for more time to evaluate the demand package.  Then, the negotiations start and those can last several weeks even if everyone agrees that the case should be settled.

So, the short answer to your question is there are too many variables to say if your case will be settled and how quickly it will be settled.   It is fair to say that a case cannot settle if your attorney does not promptly gather and exchange information with the insurance company.  This is yet another reason to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer who will aggressively pursue your rights.

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My child and I were in a public park.  A man was there with his dog.  He did not have it on a leash.  The dog ran over, knocked my child down, and bit her on the face.  She has lots of stitches and may have a scar.  The dog's owner said that the dog has never done this before.  What are my child's rights?

In Tennessee a dog owner has the duty to keep a dog under reasonable control at all times and to prevent the dog from running at large.  If the dog owner does not do so and the animal injures a person on public property (or on private property of someone other than the dog owner) the dog owner is responsible for the dog's actions.

Under these circumstances, this is true even though the dog has never bitten anyone else.

There are several exceptions to this general rule.  For example, if your daughter was harassing or provoking the dog the dog owner would not be liable for the dog's action.

If the dog owner is responsible, the law permits you and  your daughter to recover damages from the owner.  Read more about the damages that can be recovered in our legal guide "Understanding Claims Related to Children."

An experienced personal injury lawyer can fully explain what rights you and your daughter have. 

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