My 4yr old son got attacked by our neighbors dog

[Tear87]

My son who was 4 yrs old at the time got attacked by our neighbors pitbull mix... The dog came off their property and on to ours and went straight for my son the owner was inside the house but it took him awhile to even know what was going on til my boyfriend screamed i'm going to kill this dog, he was trying to get my son to safety and the dog just kept coming at my son, he wasn't even going after my boyfriend at all, the owner finally came out grabbed the dog took it inside and somehow the dog got out again and came right back for my son, the owner ran back out and finally got the dog away and safely put him somewhere where he couldn't get out again, my son had gotten bit on his right arm by his elbow and his right side by his hip, we took him to the hospital where they treated him they told us they don't suture animal bite wounds because they tend to get infected. Come to find out the dog wasn't up to date on shots so that was another worry we had to wait out plus my boyfriend had just had emergency surgery to have his appendix removed a week prior to this incident and wasn't supposed to lift anything heavier than his shoe the doctor said for 6 weeks, but had to fight off this dog that was attacking my son. I tried to get a lawyer but they told me since there's no insurance to go after since their renters not home owners they wouldn't do anything because they won't make any money from it it's basically a waist of time for them. I believe even the people who own the property have an exclusion for pets on their policy or something. So they told me to file a civil suit or small claims suit which is what i did against the owners of this dog, now were waiting for the pretrial, now when we took my son to the hospital he had medicaid which covered the visit at the time, but now my son is terrified of dogs I mean ridiculously afraid, he screams if he even hears a dog if he see's one that's it he goes crazy, even my mom's dogs he was very weary of and didn't turn his back on then and moved slowly and he's known them forever he id massively traumatized by this incident. two examples: one we were at my friend house for 4th of July she knew what happened so she put her dog in the room before we got there. we went inside after the fireworks and the dog was barking, my son covered his ears and said he wanted to go home he didn't wanna be there, I tried telling him its ok the dog isn't mean and he;s put up, well he wasn't having it. The house started filling up with smoke bc the trash can had caught fire outside and smoke was pouring into the roof so we had to get out of the house so I grabbed the kids and was calmly getting them out when she had to get the dog out as well she put him on a leash and was bringing him out and my son saw he flipped out knocked over stuff on the tables jumping up onto the back of the couch screaming for dear life, its was crazy he wouldn't let me put him down once i picked him up so we had to leave, the for Halloween we got halfway down my aunts block when my son heard a dog he tuned around ran non stop as fast as he could screaming half a block all the way to my aunts house into the room, he said he didn't want to go trick or treating, so I had to drive my car around and he made my cousin go to the doors to get his candy. My son refuses to play outside and is stuck in the house all the time because he's terrified to go outside, and its not just at my house its at his dad's or anywhere he goes. My 5yr old should be able to be like a normal 5yr old and play outside and ride a bike and all that but won't because of this incident its so sad how emotionally distressed my son is. He's been seeing a counselor about this, and he needs to go to a therapist because he can't live this way, I'm getting a letter from her stating whats going on and what he's suffering from to take with me, I'm suing for medical bills which i now realized medicaid paid for also for therapy that he now needs and his pain and suffering mental and physically, in a small claims the most you can go for is 5,000 do you think that's asking too much seeings how this incident has caused so much mental damage and physical damage to my son?

 

[racer72]

US law only.