Dog Bite Injury

Dog bite injury cases can be a maze of state law and local ordinances.

In Southwest Florida, for example our counties have ordinances which govern domestic animals, including dogs:

• Lee County Ordinance #09-20
• Collier County Ordinance No. 2008-51
• Charlotte County Ordinance Nos. 98-70 and 2006-062
• Sarasota County Ordinance Ch. 14
• Manatee County Ordinance No. 06-18, § 1, 3-14-06

These county laws are in addition to the liability imposed upon a dog owner for a dog bite injury under Florida law Fla. Stat. §§767.01, 767.04, 767.11-13.

Each county in Southwest Florida has established an Animal Control or Animal Services department, which enforces local dog bite laws in the regulatory and criminal context. Here are some local animal control links:

A dog bite lawsuit is the dog bite injury victim's resources to pursue money damages, or compensation, for severe dog bite injuries, including:

Florida law imposes strict liability on the dog owner for a dog bite. Florida law is clear:

"The owner of any dog that bites any person while such person is on or in a public place, or lawfully on or in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, is liable for damages suffered by persons bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owners' knowledge of such viciousness. However, any negligence on the part of the person bitten that is a proximate cause of the biting incident reduces the liability of the owner of the dog by the percentage that the bitten person's negligence contributed to the biting incident."

Accordingly, a dog owner can be liable for a dog bite injury regardless of whether the dog had ever bitten someone before.

While a dog bite can impose liability on the dog owner, there is the provision which allows the dog owner's liability to be reduced by any comparative negligence of the dog bite victim.  Comparative fault on the part of the dog bite victim can come in the form of: provoking the dog, trespassing, or in some other way being negligent.

A dog bite injury can be very serious, including:

A dog bite injury victim can contact our law firm to speak to an experienced personal injury lawyer who will confidentially assess your dog bite claim.  If you are eligible for compensation, then our injury attorney can seek to obtain money damages from recoverable sources to help fix yours harms and losses.

Contact our Law Firm today regarding your dog bite injury claim.