Dog Bite Law

• Should parents get a lawyer for their injured child?
• Does an adult need a lawyer for a dog bite claim?
• If I get a lawyer, won't this ruin everything -- take a long time, be expensive, hurt my relationships, and make them put the dog down?
• A dangerous dog terrorizes my neighborhood. What can I do to stop it?
• How do I find the law in my city and state?
• Which are the one-bite states?
• How can I get compensated for a dog bite in a one-bite state?
• How do I get the evidence that I need to prove the dog was vicious?
• What and where is the Dog Bite Law Wiki?
• I have a question about something from the Dog Bite Law Bookstore

No, because you will probably just be making an insurance claim. 99 out of 100 of these cases are settled out of court just as soon as the doctors are ready to make a solid "prognosis." That is usually about one year from the date of the accident. So this is not going to be like what you see in movies and on TV.

Some fear that getting an attorney will make people angry and lead to bad relationships with friends, neighbors and family members. That also is not true; an experienced lawyer knows how to press a dog bite claim without even making accusations in most cases, without taking money out of anyone's pocket, and without destroying relationships.

Dog lovers sometimes fear that their attorney will have the attacking dog put down. That is not true; you are entitled to tell the lawyer to take no such action, and he or she is required to obey your wish.

Another fear is that the legal fees will make the victim's net settlement a lot smaller. That also is not true. A person who tries to act like a lawyer will end up leaving 80-90% of the settlement "on the table." This will "cost" the victim that 80-90%. A "real" lawyer will cost only 25-33% of the settlement. So getting a lawyer is actually cheaper than trying to do it yourself.

Finally, people fear having to pay legal costs out of their own pockets. That doesn't ever happen. Lawyers who represent dog bite victims do not charge the victims anything up front. When the case is over, the lawyer is paid out of the settlement or judgment.

Want to read a letter from a father who made a dog bite claim for his son? He addresses all of these issues from the standpoint of a concerned parent. If so, click here.

The laws are frequently weak, city budgets for animal control too low, and enforcement policies too soft to get dangerous dogs off our streets. However, you do not have to accept the current status quo.

First, demand that your representatives in city government pass the right laws and put teeth in them. That includes tougher laws and strict enforcement policies. Every city needs to have a leash law (i.e., dogs have to be on a leash at all times unless they are securely fenced upon the owner's property) and a dangerous dog law that (a) gives the animal control department the authority to euthanize dangerous dogs and (b) applies to dogs that bite people or other animals or requires a person to take defensive action.

Second, use the small claims court to make the wrongdoer pay for damage caused to other dogs. I have written a book entitled What To Do If Your Dog Is Injured Or Killed. It's a self-help book for dog owners whose companions have been wrongfully harmed, whether by dangerous dogs, negligent animal control officers, vicious neighbors, the malpractice of a veterinarian, or any other way.

Without having to retain an attorney, readers will be able to secure justice for their pets and themselves. The book contains legal advice, the strategies that I use in my own cases, and prewritten letters and forms for getting compensated in or out of court. The book is inexpensive and easy to use. Click here to read how to buy it.

Third, be the squeaky wheel -- complain to the bad dog owner's landlord, the police, the homeowner's association, neighborhood watch, animal control, the city council and everyone else. He might be forced to change his behavior or a landlord or another of those organizations might succeed in pressuring him to do so.

Finally, you can retain an attorney to analyze your local animal control laws, and write a strong letter to the authorities that will remind them of their duties. The letter also can be used to communicate to the mayor, the police, the city council, and the county board, not to mention the press.

There are four equally important sources of dog bite law. You have to research all of them. They are the city laws, county laws, state statutes, and state cases.

For city law, do one or more of the following:

Contact your city clerk and ask for a written copy of the dog laws of your city.

Go to the nearest library or law library, and ask the reference librarian to (a) show you the municipal code of your city, and (b) help you find the dog laws.

On the Internet, the best resources for city law are listed on the Links page of this web site. Another Internet source would be your city's website, if there is one. You also can contact your city clerk and ask whether the municipal code is online; if so, get the URL (i.e., the online address).

For county law, contact the county clerk instead of the city clerk, and ask the clerk or librarian for the county code instead of the municipal code. Counties frequently have websites, which are good sources of all kinds of practical information. The link page of this website also leads to county codes.

For state laws that are not mentioned on this website, use Findlaw . First click on the name of your state. Then select "Primary materials - Cases, Codes and Regulations." Then click on "Statutes" or "Revised Statutes" to find the statutory laws (the best place to start). Search for the word "dog" and read everything that comes up.

For state cases, follow the directions for state statutes on this website. If you want to find a case that is not on Dog Bite law, first you need to be warned about something. It takes a legal education to understand the meaning of court decisions, and to know how to apply court decisions to specific incidents. If you want to try, find the cases on Findlaw or on FastSearch. However, it is highly recommended that you try to find on Dog Bite Law the analysis that you need.

The one-bite states are those which follow the English rule for determining the civil liability of owners of domestic animals (including but not limited to dogs) that injure a person.

A minority of American states continue to follow the one-bite rule. For a diagram showing those states, look to the right of this paragraph.

The one-bite states have seen the greatest number of fatal dog attacks in recent years. There is no state-by-state study of dog bites, so it is not possible to compare the number of bites in one-bite states to the number in strict liability states.

To read more about the one-bite rule, see the home page of Dog Bite Law and also The One Bite Rule.

"My son was bitten in a one-bite state. I contacted the homeowner's insurance company of the dog owner. They told me that there is a 'first free bite' rule, and said they will not pay anything over $1,000. Is there nothing that I can do?"

In order to make a claim, people in your state have to produce evidence of the following kind:

First, evidence that satisfies the one-bite rule. This consists of proof that (a) the dog previously behaved viciously toward people, and (b) the dog owner knew about that previous vicious behavior.

Second, evidence of the violation of an animal control ordinance at the time of the accident in question. This consists of (a) the existence of a city, county or state law that regulated the confinement or control of the dog, and (b) proof that there was a violation of that law at the time of the accident.

Typical examples are a leash law, a law that prohibits dogs from be at large, and a law that prohibits dogs from trespassing on private property or being present in certain public places. An important and often overlooked example is a prior order from the animal control authorities, requiring special confinement or control of that particular dog.

Third, in most jurisdictions, evidence of negligence that caused this accident. The negligence can be on the part of almost anyone whose unreasonable behavior caused or contributed toward the accident.

For more information, see Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA and be sure to read Should Parents Get a Lawyer for Their Injured Child?

The evidence can take a number of different forms: admissions from the mouth of the dog owner, animal control records and police reports establishing a prior bite, statements from neighbors or other witnesses, or veterinarian records if you can get them on the attacking dog.

Those other witnesses can include neighborhood kids, people who walk their dogs in the neighborhood, people who visit the dog park if there is one, mail delivery workers, FedEx and UPS drivers, gardeners if there are any, people who jog or ride bikes down the block, people who wait at a nearby bus stop, and the adjacent neighbors to the north, west, east and south.

To find witnesses, you need to visit animal control, the police station, and the post office. You need to phone the UPS and FedEx offices in the vicinity of the accident. You should create flyers that say you were bitten by a dog that lives at such-and-such an address, or you are a mom or a dad whose child was bitten, and that you desperately need information about the dog in order to pay your medical bills.

Most importantly, you must go to the location of the accident and talk to children, the neighbors and people walking, jogging, biking, delivering, gardening, and working there.

Anyone who gives you favorable information has to be "open" to speak with your attorney. Anonymous witnesses are of little use. You need to obtain names and contact information. If a child seems to have information, get the gist of it but conduct your "interview" in the presence of his mother or father, to avoid any appearance of impropriety and to ensure their cooperation later on.

In my experience, every dog that injures a person seriously has behaved viciously in the past. Therefore you should not give up until you uncover that prior behavior.

For more information, read Investigating the Attacking Dog. If you are an attorney, the tools and strategies you need are found in Anatomy of a Dog Bite Case.

The Dog Bite Law Wiki is a place on the Internet where people involved in cases handled by Attorney Kenneth Phillips can collaborate. For example, if you are a client, you can go to your "space" on the wiki and help prepare the memorandum of facts, the witness list, responses to interrogatories, and the like. Every space on the wiki is completely private and secure, protected by passwords and encryption.

If you have been invited or want to learn more, click here to go to the Dog Bite Law Wiki.

If you have business on the wiki but have not been invited, contact Attorney Kenneth Phillips and he will send you an invitation to the appropriate space.

The Dog Bite Law Bookstore offers some important legal self-help items. All of the written materials are by Kenneth Phillips, the author of Dog Bite Law. You will find timely, practical and inexpensive solutions at the bookstore. And you can pay with PayPal.

If you are a dog owner and your dog was injured or killed through someone else's fault, you should consider getting see What To Do If Your Dog Is Injured Or Killed.

If you are a canine professional, you should check out Avoiding Liability When You Train, Shelter or Adopt-Out.

If you are an attorney who represents plaintiffs, get Dog Bite Litigation Forms and, for a complete solution to your dog bite cases, Anatomy of a Dog Bite Case. The latter is Attorney Kenneth Phillips' "tips and tricks" seminar. You won't find this material anywhere else!

If you purchased a product from the Dog Bite Law Bookstore and you have questions about how to use it, please see the Instructions and Troubleshooting page of this site.