Dog Bites and Personal Injury in California

Dogs can be wonderful pets, but they can also cause some very serious injuries.  Dog bites and/or dog attacks have resulted in some very serious injuries, and some significant jury verdicts.

Questions associated with dog bites

There can be a number of issues associated with a dog bite case.  Who was the owner of the dog?  What if anything prompted the attack?  Was another dog involved, and can you recover damages for injuries to that dog?  Is there insurance?  Was the dog owner a renter, such that he did not have liability insurance that will cover the incident?  If the owner was a renter, without insurance, is the landlord liable?  There and other questions may arise in the dog bite case.

California Code of Civil Procedure section 3342

In California, there is a “dog bite” statute.  Some people have the belief that a dog “gets one free bite”.   This is a misconception.  California, at Code of Civil Procedure section 3342 makes the dog owner strictly liable for his/her dog’s bites.  What does this mean?  This means that the injured party does not need to show nor prove that the dog owner was negligent in allowing the dog to bite the party.  All one has to show is that the owner’s dog bit the person, and the statute makes the owner liable for the injuries, which will include all medical bills, scarring, future medical bills, and pain and suffering.  However, the dog owner is able to show, if the facts demonstrate, that the injured party was negligent.  This negligence could be in the form of taunting the dog, or some other similar conduct.

Scienter – Knowledge of an animal’s potential to cause harm

In addition, California has another rule of “scienter”, or knowledge of the animal’s dangerousness.  Here a keeper of an animal who knows that the animal has some past dangerous behavior is also liable, without having to show or prove that the owner or keeper was negligent.  In a case against an owner this “scienter” theory is not necessary.  However, in a case against someone other then the owner, such as a landlord, when the dog owner is a renter and has no insurance, this theory of recovery could be very helpful.

It’s a matter of Negligence

Of course all persons are legally responsible for their own negligence.  Negligence is the failure to act reasonably, and in the context of a dog bite, or other animal bite, or other animal caused injury, each case would have it’s own facts from which the attorney would need to review to determine who are the negligent parties.