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Dog Bite Liability

Who pays when a dog injures someone - the strict-liability statutes most states have and what they cover, the older "one-bite" rule that survives in the rest, negligence and leash-law claims that exist under either, the defences of trespass and provocation, landlord and keeper liability, how homeowners' insurance responds, and the dangerous-dog proceedings that run alongside the civil claim.

Informational only - this is not legal advice. These definitions explain general legal vocabulary in plain English. They are not advice about your situation, reading them creates no attorney-client relationship, and the law differs from state to state and changes over time. For advice you can rely on, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state.

What it means

A dog owner's liability for an injury the dog causes is set by state law, and the states fall into two camps. A majority have a dog-bite statute imposing strict liability: the owner is liable for a bite (in some states, any injury the dog causes) to a person who was in a public place or lawfully on private property, without proof that the owner knew the dog was dangerous or was careless in any way. The remaining states keep the common-law rule, often called the one-bite rule, under which the owner is liable only if they knew or should have known of the dog's dangerous propensity - a prior bite, prior aggressive behaviour, or the dog's known temperament - so the first victim of a previously gentle dog may have no strict-liability claim. The label is loose: a dog that has lunged, snapped or been trained to attack can supply the knowledge without ever having bitten anyone.

Negligence is available in every state regardless of the statute: an owner who let a dog run loose in violation of a leash ordinance, left a gate open, or failed to control a dog known to be excitable can be liable on ordinary principles, and violation of an animal-control ordinance is often negligence per se. Injuries other than bites - a person knocked down by a jumping dog, a cyclist who crashes avoiding one - are covered by some statutes and by negligence in the rest. Defences are limited under a strict-liability statute: most exclude a trespasser, a person committing a crime on the property, and a person who provoked the dog, and many exclude injuries to veterinarians, groomers and kennel workers under an assumption-of-risk theory; comparative fault may reduce the recovery where the state applies it to strict-liability claims. A "keeper" or harbourer who is not the owner - a person walking or boarding the dog, a household member - is liable under many statutes as if they were, and a landlord is generally not liable for a tenant's dog unless the landlord knew of the danger and had the power to remove the animal.

Most dog-bite claims are paid by the owner's homeowners' or renters' liability insurance, which is why the identity of the owner and their policy is the first thing established; some policies exclude particular breeds or dogs with a bite history, and some insurers cancel after a claim. Separately from the civil claim, animal-control authorities may open a dangerous-dog proceeding under a state statute or local ordinance, which can result in registration, muzzling and confinement requirements, liability insurance requirements, or euthanasia after notice and a hearing, and an owner whose dog was already declared dangerous faces enhanced civil liability and, in many states, criminal charges for a later attack. Breed-specific ordinances exist in some localities and are pre-empted by state law in others. Bites are reportable to public health authorities in every state for rabies control, and the animal-control report is usually the most useful contemporaneous evidence of what happened.

Where this comes from

Dog-bite liability is state statute and common law and differs in every state. Representative strict-liability statutes are California Civil Code § 3342, Florida Statutes §§ 767.01 and 767.04, Illinois Animal Control Act, 510 ILCS 5/16, and Michigan Compiled Laws § 287.351; representative one-bite states include Texas (Marshall v. Ranne, 511 S.W.2d 255 (Tex. 1974)) and New York (Collier v. Zambito, 1 N.Y.3d 444 (2004), and Bard v. Jahnke, 6 N.Y.3d 592 (2006), which bar a common-law negligence claim against the owner and leave only strict liability on proof of vicious propensities). The common-law rule is restated in Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 509 and 518. Dangerous-dog proceedings are each state's own (California Food and Agricultural Code §§ 31601-31683 is a detailed model), and breed-specific regulation is a matter of state pre-emption law. No damages figure and no limitation period is stated here.

When people hire a lawyer for this

A person bitten by a dog should get the owner's name and address, report the bite to animal control, photograph the injuries as they heal, and see a lawyer before speaking to the owner's insurer, because the insurer's first questions - was the person on the property lawfully, did they provoke the dog - go straight to the statutory defences. Owners should notify their insurer immediately and should not discuss fault with the victim. The rule in the state where the bite happened decides whether the claim requires proof of the dog's history, which is why the same bite can be an easy claim in one state and a difficult one across the border.

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Part of the LawyerLand plain-English legal glossary. Definitions are written from primary sources - statutes and court rules - and each entry states the authority it rests on, or says plainly when the doctrine is state law with no national rule.

If you cannot afford a lawyer, civil legal aid programmes provide free help with many of these problems: civil legal aid programmes by state.

Related free reference tools: statute of limitations for a personal-injury claim, by state, quoted from each state's official text - part of LawyerLand's legal reference tools.