How do you handle a bed bug infestation? Many people automatically throw out as much furniture as they can, call the exterminators and fumigators, temporarily move into a hotel or motel, and pay a huge bill and refurnish their homes. They spend an abundance of money to get their lives back on track. If you have been affected by a bed bug infestation, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Another party could have contributed to the incident by not properly cleaning an area and causing you to suffer damages. If you were in a location with a bed bug infestation, you should contact one of our expert lawyers at the Bed Bug Legal Group for more help. We can help you take legal action to collect compensation from the liable party. A bed bug attorney in Modesto / Stanislaw County / Merced / Turlock can assist you.
What are Bed Bugs?
Bed bugs are nocturnal creatures that feast on human blood. They can be very troublesome to deal with in a home and they can be nearly undetectable in a hotel if you do not know what you are looking for. Bed bugs are small, only about 1.5 to 5mm in size; round and flat; reddish-brown in color; and move around by crawling. They cannot jump like fleas and other insects can.
The pests like to make their homes in places near where their victims sleep for quick and easy access in the night time hours. When you fall asleep, bed bugs emerge from their nests and bite exposed parts of the body. Their saliva has anesthetic qualities to it that prevent you from feeling the pain of the bite. Once they have sunk their beaks in, the anticoagulant also present prevents your blood from clotting too quickly and allows the creatures to feast for up to ten minutes at a time. They can move to another location, usually in a specific zigzag pattern, and continue to drink before they become engorged. Interestingly, bed bugs can last for many weeks off one meal; you may not even know that there are bed bugs nearby if they are in hiding while subsisting on their last meals of blood.
Sometimes, people confuse bed bug bites with flea bites. If you see a pest jump, it is likely a flea, and certainly not a bed bug. Flea bites hurt and itch more than bed bug bites, and fleas are usually near animals and animal beds as opposed to human beds.
To learn more about bed bugs, contact a bed bug attorney in Modesto / Stanislaw County / Merced / Turlock.
How Can I Find Bed Bug Nests?
There are some telltale signs of bed bugs nearby and you should be aware of what they are. If you do not see the insects themselves crawling around, you should be on the lookout for what they leave behind. The nests are usually located in places that do not get a lot of heat or light, such as in between creases of mattresses, behind picture frames and electric outlets, underneath baseboards, behind molding, below sofa and couch cushions, and more.
Juvenile bed bugs shed their skins as they reach adulthood, and the exoskeletons can be found near the nests themselves. Eggs are small, oval-shaped, cream-colored, and found in bunches; they are not in large groups, as females do not lay many eggs at a time. The sheets on which you sleep may also have bloodstains on them that result from droplets during feeding sessions. The bugs also leave behind droppings in the form of tiny black or brown mounds. Further, if you smell a musty or sweet odor, you should look even closer for the creatures.
If you are in a hotel, you should take care to investigate the entire room before going to sleep for the night. Finding a bed bug infestation can prevent you from going through a lot of trouble later on, especially if you suffered any bites.
If you intend to purchase any used furniture from an outlet store, you should check every section of the item and investigate nearby pieces as well. Bringing ajn infested piece of furniture home can cause the bed bugs to spread to other places in your house, leading to a lengthy removal process.
Before moving into an apartment, you should check every nook and cranny for bed bugs, as landlords can be sneaky about their renting processes. Some landlords will do the minimum duty in cleaning, and if they do not detect any bed bugs, they will rent the apartment out. The longer it takes for the bugs to emerge, the likelier it is that your landlord can claim that you were partially responsible and that the apartment was clean.
You should not be clueless regarding a bed bug infestation. Call a bed bug attorney in Modesto / Stanislaw County / Merced / Turlock to receive more help.
What Do I Do after Being Bitten?
As soon as you detect that you were bitten by the bed bugs, you should gather as much evidence as possible. Take photos of the bites and show where you were hurt. If you go to the hospital, retain the medical bills and doctor’s notes that they will give to you. The affected furniture, beds, mattresses, and other things should be kept and not thrown away. If you get rid of this evidence, your claim will be extremely hard to prove. You should take photos of the nests and bugs that you find.
Importantly, you should not contact the responsible party until you have assembled as much evidence as you can because they will generally try to reduce liability and eliminate the chance of a lawsuit. A hotel manager, for instance, will likely move you to another room, apologize profusely for the incident, offer you a refund, and even offer you free compensation later on for more stays. You will not be allowed to return to the room to gather any more evidence, as the cleaning crews will swiftly remove or hide the bugs from the area. If you accept any gifts or compensation, the manager will claim that you were already paid for the inconvenience, and seeking legal restitution will be harder.
Your step after acquiring your evidence, or as soon as you detect the bites, should be to contact an experienced bed bug attorney in Modesto / Stanislaw County / Merced / Turlock.
How Can I Sue for Bites?
There are various bases for lawsuits regarding bed bugs, some of which include breach of contract, breach of health code, and negligence. A negligence-based lawsuit presumes that you were owed a duty of care by the responsible party, and due to a breach, an incident arose that caused you physical injuries. Bed bug bites count as physical injuries, so you can file a personal injury lawsuit against a hotel, motel, resort, landlord, used furniture store, and other party. You should not take legal action without the assistance of an attorney, however.
The reason it is important to seek legal counsel is simple – you very likely will not have the necessary experience, time, money, or energy to follow the many steps of a lawsuit. Your focus should be on getting your life back in order, not making sure all of you documents are filed on time and trying to rush across town to depositions and negotiations. Our lawyers at our firm take care of all the leg work for you and make sure that your claim is filed within the statute of limitations (personal injury claims, for instance, have a two year deadline).
Reach out to a bed bug attorney in Modesto / Stanislaw County / Merced / Turlock to learn more about the legal process.
What Can I Receive from a Bed Bug Lawsuit?
The compensation you can get includes coverage of your medical expenses form both the past and the future, lost wages from the past and the future, damaged property that was thrown away or in need of replacing, emotional pain and suffering, and more.
Emotional stress is very real and may be more damaging than any physical damages; you may be stricken with PTSD, fear, or anxiety and unable to deal with insects, hotels, or triggering events. The wounds may take some time to heal.
How Does the Bed Bug Legal Group Help?
Our expert team of attorneys at the Bed Bug Legal Group has been handling bed bug lawsuits for years. We specialize in the area and feel that we are the best choice for all victims. We will aggressively negotiate with insurance agents and will make sure that your claim is handled swiftly; some insurance companies like to throw claims out without considering them or delay as long as possible in hopes of making victims accept terribly low offers. We do not rest until we are satisfied.
Call our law firm today to receive a free legal consultation with one of our accomplished lawyers. We will give you more information about the lawsuit and look over your case, and if you hire us, we will give you our zero fee guarantee, which states that you will not have to pay any out of pocket expenses throughout the process. We only get paid if we win, and if we lose, you owe us nothing whatsoever.
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