Dog bite law

Dog bite law

Web sites and other published material are now widely available which explain the basics of dog bite law and how this area of law applies to personal injury caused by dog bites. In contrast, this part of dogexpert.com is more limited in scope in that directs readers to legal resources that merit the attention of the animal behaviorist.

Dog bite law varies from state to state. Basically, dog bite law in this country is dichotomized into law which makes an owner strictly liable for injuries caused by a dog bite regardless of the owner's prior knowledge, and into law which makes an owner liable only if they had knowlewdge of the dog's dangerous nature (e.g. common law theory). In addition, in every state, recovery for person injury can also be made on the basis of negligence theory.

Some states like California and Michigan, make an owner strictly liable for a dog bite (barring certain caveats like trespassing and provocation) while other states, such as Texas and New York, do not have laws supporting statutory strict liability. In these latter states, the burden remains with the plaintiff to demonstrate that, prior to the incident in question, the dog owner had actual knowledge of the dangerous propensities of the dog.

One general trend in dog bite law, beginning around 2000, has been a shift away from the common law standard in favor of dog bite law favoring strict liability and negligence. For example, in Colorado, legislation lessened the significance of one-free bite and made liability based on negligence relatively more important. On the other hand, a recent appeallate decision in the state of New York reaffirmed the common law notion that an owner must have known (or possibly "should have known") of a dog's dangerous propensities in order for liability to be imposed.

Information pertaining to a property owners liability for a dangerous dog maintained by a tenant, and a wealth of information as it pertains to other areas of animal law, including domesticated farm animals, can be found on the excellent web site hosted by the Michigan State University College of Law.

As noted above, the reader should realize that this part of dogexpert.com, is presented from an animal behavior perspective, and therefore the content is sparse when compared with attorney Ken Phillips extremely comprehensive web site. The reader is directed to Phillips' site for a wealth of information on dog bite law using a legal perspective. Phillips make available products on his site which attorneys might find helpful.