After $2.2 Million Award, Dog Bite Victim Sue Gorman Says System is Still Flawed - DogsBite.org

After $2.2 Million Award, Dog Bite Victim Sue Gorman Says System is Still Flawed - DogsBite.org:

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Last week, a Pierce County jury awarded Gorman $2.2 million in damages. Jurors assigned 52% of the blame to the dogs' owners and 42% to Pierce County, leaving the county on the hook for $924,000. Gorman's attorneys -- Michael McKasy and Shelly Speir -- successfully argued that county animal control was negligent for not taking action against the dogs' owners despite numerous complaints about their pit bulls "running loose and terrorizing people."

In the King 5 video,1 Gorman said she believes safety issues still persist in the county. She said the crux of the problem in her case was a failure of communication between the Pierce County Auditor, who handles animal control issues, but does not share these complaints with the Sheriff's Department (and vise versa). Four years after her ordeal, Gorman believes little has been done to change the system that allowed the dangerous dogs to nearly kill her.2

"It's just real scary that it could happen again to anyone in any neighborhood," Gorman said.

Gorman's victory against Pierce County is yet another victory won by a dog bite victim against a county. Local governments who continue to sweep dangerous dog complaints under the rug and/or fail to properly penalize owners of these dogs must take notice. As recently as June, a potential lawsuit against a Florida county arose after the fatal mauling of Roy McSweeney. In that case, the pit bulls had viciously attacked two people prior to killing McSweeney.