Postal carrier suing for dog inside the house?

Back in December the woman who delivers my mail twisted her ankle on my front step. She said it happened because she was startled by my dog who jumped against the screen door and barked when she was delivering the mail. We have a very strong, steel barred screen door that is always locked and so the dog didn't get out of the house and there's no way he could have come in physical contact with her. Last week (May, five months after the incident) I got a letter in the mail from a law firm informing me she's suing for this. Is there any way I'm going to be held liable? Can I countersue for a frivolous lawsuit? I do have homeowners insurance so I'm sure any judgement against me would be covered but I'm inclined to do anything and everything I can to ensure this woman does not get a penny on principle alone!Postal carrier suing for dog inside the house?
Total crap; get your insurance company and it's lawyer involved.
I agree with wiz. This is mainly your insurance company's problem.



Don't worry too much about keeping money from her on "principle". Principle is a good way to end up paying out a lot more money than you need to.Postal carrier suing for dog inside the house?
Just pass this information on to your home owner's insurance and let them hash it out. That's what you (hopefully) pay them for.
You have two approaches on this...



Fight it or pay her off.



To fight it, Get a lawyer.



First thing to find out is how long that mail carrier was on the job and if she had delivered to your house before. Then check the dates of when the dog was there. If you can prove she had delivered before and the dog was there before, then you can show that she was aware of the dog and it should not have scared her. If you can show she had ANY contact with the dog before, that would be even better.



It that turns out not the case and this was the first time she delivered to your house, you still might be covered.



Your lawyer can check with the post office and see if they had any "dog warning" notices on your house. Mail carriers have those to warn replacement mail carriers about "bad dogs" along their routes. If there was a note that you had a dog then she had no reason not to know about it.



Also, If you had a sign on the outside of the house or on the gate into your yard saying "beware of dog" then you are pretty much covered as you did give warning there was a dog there.



What you need to prove is she knew you had a dog and therefore should not have been startled by it.



Also, have your lawyer make a small token offer to settle. Make it small so she will reject it. Once that is done, when she loses the case, she will have to pay legal fees as you did offer to settle.



In the meantime, put a mail box at the curb so she does not even have to get her butt out of the mail truck!



The other option is to pay her off.



If she is asking for just a few thousand dollars, this would be the better approach. In conjunction with your homeowners insurance company, make an offer about half of what she is demanding, unless it is totally out of line. If she is open to being paid off, she will probably come back with asking for 75% and you agree.



However if she is asking for a LOT of money, fight it. Dogs is an occupational hazard of being a mail carrier and she should not be allowed to make a ton of money because a dog jumped on a screen door.Postal carrier suing for dog inside the house?
I think that the allegation is that your dog jumping up on the door startled the mail carrier and because of this she fell or lost her footing and twisted her ankle. I do not think that she is trying to say that the dog actually knocked her over or that the mail carrier felt that the dog could have attacked her. I think it is the idea that the dog suddenly jumped up against the door and scared her. The argument will probably be that the dog should have been contained better so that it could not startle people. I would not be surprised if this case actually wins. I bet that they have came along with a video camera sometime and secretly filmed the dog jumping against the door just to show how alarming it could be. Also, this might depend on the condition of the area around your door and whether or not you have advertised that there is a dog on the property. I highly doubt that a countersuit from you will do much good. This case might not be frivilous at all.
It's not frivolous, the case probably has merit. The fact that the screen door is strong and locked is only evident to you. If I am not expecting it, and a large dog lunges at me through a screen door, I don't know that the door will hold it back, and I'm going to be startled.



You can argue in court that the mail carrier should have expected this as part of their job; and that they'd been to house before (if they had) and would have previously seen the dog (if they would have). These are facts in mitigation.



Your home insurance policy includes liability insurance for just this kind of issue. Forward all correspondence to them, and don't talk to the lawyers or the mail carrier until this is settled. If you talk to the other parties, your insurance company might say you've damaged the case and refuse to cover you.
hey if it was your best friend, and your dog, which needs a strong steel door to restrain it, barked and startled or frightened them , and they fell on the step s and got hurt, they could still sue you.



You would be wasting your time fighting it.



Not only that, you probably have to let the homeowner's insurance handle it according to the terms of your policy, otherwise they will not pay any settlement or judgment.



Anyway, you think after 200+ years, the Post Office of all places doesn't know about dog laws and liability?



You'd be better off investing your time and effort in training your dog to not bark at people, or to get a mailbox that is away from the house, and a "Beware of Dog" sign.
I would just go to court and let the judge tell her how ridiculous her lawsuit is. She is a mail person. They know they could come n contact with dogs. She should have been more aware. I am sure this is not the only dog she comes across. You have made sure that they dog could not get out. So you have done your part. Not to mention, how can she really prove that your dog caused her to sprain her ankle. Its her word against the dogs. Not gonna happen. I just saw on the news a dog that got out , ran into the street, and was struck by a car. The car owner sued the family for damages to his vehicle and lost because you have to prove that the homeowner intentionally did something wrong. So she really has no case. And yes I would at least countersue for the legal fees. Maybe for the future you should have a "Beware of dog" sign posted so you won't have to worry about it happening again.