Compensation award following dog attack at farm shop

Our client, a young lady in her early 20s, was visiting a farm shop with her parents when the farm shop’s unrestrained guard dog approached and attacked her.

The attack caused severe lacerations to her leg which has resulted in permanent visible scarring and left our client very conscious about the appearance of her leg when wearing skirts or shorts. She also felt her relationship with her partner was negatively affected afterwards, in part because she didn’t want her partner seeing the scarring.

She was also left feeling very cautious and apprehensive around dogs.

We helped our client find the right therapy for the scarring, which has helped her become less self-conscious of it and has also helped her overcome her fear of dogs to the extent she now owns a small dog herself. We also helped her recover the costs of purchasing camouflage make up, which has allowed her to cover the scarring when she wants to wear shorts or skirts.

The case centred around occupiers’ liability – the dog was not restrained and allowed to roam free in the customer areas of the farm shop.  Things became complicated as the owner of the farm shop died part way through the litigation without having reported the incident to his insurers.  The case was only brought to their attention when the executors of the Estate found our correspondence when clearing out his affairs.

This prevented early treatment intervention and lengthened the psychological distress to our client, who didn’t know for years whether she would receive any compensation for the trauma she suffered as a young woman.

We were delighted to be able to secure compensation of £35k.