Bar room fight results in award for injured bartender – $1,001,000

While working at her fiance’s bar in Antioch, our client suffered a serious bite, and wounds from a dog brought in by a customer. 

The customer, who was fighting with another patron, retrieved his vicious, barking dog from his pick-up truck, and lost control of it. Out of its owner’s control, the dog attacked our client, latching onto, and crushing her right forearm with its teeth, gouging the radial bone of her arm. The dog owner was later arrested for using his dog as a deadly weapon in assaulting our client. Dunnion Law and the client later discovered the dog had bitten another woman on her right forearm, just a week before the bar incident.

As someone who worked as a bartender, as well as boxed and strength trained for fitness, our young client now suffers with ongoing arm pain, and a permanent visible scar. Extensive orthopedic and plastic surgery were needed to repair the client’s damaged arm tissue and tendons, but neither completely relieved her of her arm pain or scarring.

Dunnion Law successfully argued that compensation for our client’s serious and permanent injuries, and the amount that a jury may have awarded the client as punitive damages against the dog owner, warranted recovery of the full insurance limit of $1,000,000. The insurance carrier for the dog owner’s homeowner’s policy agreed and paid the full insurance limit, plus $1,000 in medical expenses.