Florida Dog Bite Lawyer
A bite takes seconds, and the surgery, the shots and the fear go on for months. Florida does not give a dog one free bite. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. We have won these claims for Floridians from the Keys to the Panhandle, and we work them from five offices between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers.
These claims are almost always paid by a homeowners or renters insurance policy, not out of the owner’s pocket. That matters when the owner is a neighbor, a friend or a relative, which they usually are. Pursuing the claim is not the same as pursuing the person, and it is worth understanding that before deciding not to.
Winning dog bite claims for Floridians for more than thirty years
A dog bite claim arrives at a hard time, usually while the bills are still coming in and nobody has told you what happens next. You do not have to work it out on your own. The attorneys in this photograph have won these cases across Florida since 1993, from the Keys to the Panhandle, and one of them will handle yours from the first call to the last check.
Call 954-522-5800 for a free consult and a trial lawyer will tell you today whether you have a case. You pay us nothing unless we win, and we work from five offices between Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers.
Meet the attorneys →What Florida law does with a dog bite claim
The owner will tell you the dog has never done this before, and Florida does not let that be their defense. Meanwhile you are paying for the emergency room, booking a plastic surgeon, and only just learning that a homeowner policy may be what pays. Making that claim properly is our job, and we start the day you call.
Florida is a strict liability state for dog bites, which puts it among the more favorable places in the country to bring one of these claims. That does not make them simple: there is a statutory defense involving a sign, a reduction for the bitten person's own conduct, and the question of whether any insurance exists at all. Below is how each of those works.
Florida holds a dog owner liable for a bite regardless of whether the dog had ever bitten anybody before or whether the owner knew it might. There is no free first bite. The claim usually runs against the owner's home or renters insurance, and it must generally be filed within two years.
The deadline that ends a Florida dog bite claim
The filing deadline is the usual two years. What runs shorter is everything that establishes the dog, the owner and the history.
Two years to file
Most claims from an accident on or after March 24, 2023 have to be filed within two years. An older accident keeps the four years that applied when it happened. The period is in Fla. Stat. § 95.11. Where somebody died, the claim is a wrongful death action with two years running from the date of death.
A bite by a government-owned animal, including in some circumstances a police dog, involves Fla. Stat. § 768.28 and its notice requirements and caps, and it carries additional questions about the circumstances that do not arise with a family pet.
Days, to report it and start a record
Report the bite to animal control or the sheriff, because the report identifies the dog, the owner and the address, and it triggers the rabies observation period. Without it there is frequently no independent proof of which dog it was, and owners do move animals.
It also opens the file that will show whether the same dog has been reported before, which is the single most useful document in these cases even though it is not needed to establish liability.
Immediately, for the photographs
The wounds before they are treated and closed, then the healing as it happens, weekly. Scarring is a separate head of loss and it is proved with a record that only exists if somebody makes it. Nobody can go back later and photograph what week three looked like.
Photograph the location too: the gate, the fence, the leash, the tether, and any sign on the property, because a sign matters legally in a way that surprises people.
Weeks, for the tenancy and the history
Where the dog lived on rented property or in a complex, the lease, the pet paperwork, prior complaints to the landlord or the association and any prior incident reports all exist and all age out. They matter where the owner has no insurance and somebody else may.
Who can be held answerable
The owner is answerable by statute. Whether anybody else is depends on who had control of the animal and who knew about it.
- The owner of the dog. Fla. Stat. § 767.04 makes the owner of a dog that bites a person liable for the damages, whether in a public place or lawfully in a private one, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner's knowledge of it. No previous bite is needed, and no proof that the owner did anything careless.
- Whoever had the dog at the time. A sitter, a walker, a kennel, a groomer or a friend keeping it for the week. The statute is written about the owner, and a claim against somebody else who had charge of the animal is an ordinary negligence claim about how they controlled it. Both can exist at once.
- A landlord, in narrower circumstances. A landlord is not usually liable for a tenant's dog. That changes where the landlord knew the specific animal was dangerous and had the ability to do something about it, and where the bite happened in a common area under the landlord's control. Prior complaints in the file are what make or break it.
- A condominium or homeowners association. Common areas belong to the association, and where it knew about a dangerous animal in the community and enforced nothing, its own records show it. We can usually get the board minutes and the complaint logs.
- A business that allowed the dog inside. Shops, restaurants, bars and offices that permit dogs take on a duty about the space they control. It is an ordinary premises claim rather than a strict liability one, and it exists alongside the claim against the owner.
- An employer, where somebody was working. Delivery drivers, postal and utility workers, meter readers and home health staff are bitten constantly. They usually have a workers compensation claim and a separate claim against the dog owner, and the second is where the pain and suffering is.
How a Florida dog bite case actually runs
Liability is usually the easy part in these cases. The work is in the two defenses and in finding a policy.
- Get medical treatment, and let it be documented. Bite wounds are contaminated and infection is the common complication, so this is medical advice before it is legal advice. It also produces the record: what the wound was, where it was, how deep and what it needed.
- Report to animal control and get the file. The report identifies the animal and the owner and starts the observation period. Ask for the whole file on that address and that animal, because a prior report changes the tone of every conversation that follows even though the statute does not require one.
- Deal with the sign defense properly. Fla. Stat. § 767.04 gives an owner a defense where a sign easily readable and including the words "Bad Dog" was displayed prominently on the premises, except as to a person under six years old. So whether a sign existed, what it said and where it was are questions of fact worth photographing on day one, and the exception for young children is absolute.
- Establish what the bitten person was doing. The same section reduces the owner's liability by the percentage of the bitten person's own negligence that contributed to the incident. Provoking, teasing or ignoring a clear warning all get argued. What actually happened is established from witnesses and the physical setting rather than from the owner's account of it.
- Find the policy. Most of these claims are paid by home or renters insurance. Fla. Stat. § 627.4137 requires the limits of each known policy, including umbrella coverage, to be disclosed in a sworn statement within 30 days of a written request, and that letter is the point at which it becomes clear whether the case is worth what the injury is worth.
- The demand, built around the scarring. Photographs over time, the treating physician's opinion on what will remain, and where relevant a plastic surgeon's estimate for revision. On a child this is the whole case and it is worth taking time over.
- Suit, discovery and mediation. Fla. Stat. § 47.011 puts the case where the bite happened or where the defendant lives. Most Florida courts require mediation before trial, and Fla. Stat. § 768.79 lets either side serve a formal offer with fees running from a refusal the judgment beats by at least 25 percent.
What the claim is worth, and how that number is built
Two things drive the value of these claims and neither of them is the number of stitches: what the scar will look like in five years, and what it did to a child.
Scarring and disfigurement
Usually the largest part of the claim. A bite scar on a face, a hand or a leg is permanent, it changes with growth in a child, and revision surgery is frequently possible but never complete. It is proved with photographs taken over time and with a surgeon's opinion about what can and cannot be improved.
The medical care, including what comes later
Emergency treatment, infection management, and reconstructive or revision surgery that may be years away. On a child, surgeons frequently wait for growth to finish, which means the future care is the larger half and has to be costed rather than guessed.
Psychological injury, particularly in children
Fear of dogs, sleep disturbance, and avoidance that shapes daily life. It is real, it is treatable, and it is only compensable if somebody documented it, which means getting a child assessed rather than hoping they grow out of it.
Lost income, and a parent's time
Wages missed by an injured adult, and separately what a parent loses taking a child through months of appointments and procedures.
The reduction for what the bitten person did
Fla. Stat. § 767.04 reduces the owner's liability by the percentage of the bitten person's own negligence that contributed to the incident, and Fla. Stat. § 768.81 divides fault generally, barring recovery entirely from anybody found more than 50 percent responsible for their own harm. That is why the account of what happened in the seconds before matters so much, and why it should be recorded while witnesses are still findable.
What is repaid out of the recovery
Health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid are repaid from what is recovered, with Fla. Stat. § 768.76 keeping those payments from being deducted from the award because the repayment right already exists.
What changes from one part of Florida to another
The statute is the same across Florida. Whether there is anything to collect is not, and it varies with how people live.
Owners, renters and the gap between them
A homeowner almost always has a policy that responds. A renter frequently has no coverage at all, and a claim against somebody with no insurance and no assets is a judgment rather than a recovery. Establishing which situation you are in early saves months.
Breed exclusions and prior-bite exclusions
Home insurers in Florida commonly exclude particular breeds, or exclude any dog with a bite history, or cap what they pay for animal claims. So a policy existing is not the same as a policy responding, and the exclusions are read rather than assumed.
Communities, complexes and shared space
Where a great deal of Florida living happens in complexes and associations, bites happen in shared areas: a lobby, an elevator, a dog park, a walkway. That brings the association and the management company into it, along with records showing what they were told beforehand.
A proven record, anywhere in Florida
Our five offices run from Fort Lauderdale to Fort Myers, and a bite anywhere in the state is still our case. We have litigated in courts across Florida.
The insurance behind a Florida dog bite claim
Almost every dog bite claim in Florida is paid by a homeowners or renters policy, and almost every difficulty in these cases comes from that fact.
Home and renters insurance is the usual source
Standard policies cover liability for injuries caused by a household pet, ordinarily anywhere rather than only at the property. It is why a claim against a neighbor or a friend is not the personal confrontation people fear: the money comes from an insurer, not out of their pocket.
Exclusions that leave a family with nothing
Excluded breeds, an exclusion for any dog with a prior bite, a sub-limit for animal liability, or a policy that lapsed. Each is common and each is discovered only by asking for the policy rather than accepting a summary of it.
Umbrella coverage, which people forget they bought
An umbrella policy sits above the home policy and frequently carries a million dollars or more, and it is routinely left out of the first response to a claim. Fla. Stat. § 627.4137 requires disclosure of the limits of each known policy including excess and umbrella coverage, in a sworn statement, within 30 days of a written request.
Where the owner has no insurance at all
The claim still exists and the question becomes whether anything can be collected. That is when the other parties matter: whoever had the dog at the time, a landlord who knew, an association that enforced nothing, or a business that let the animal in.
What pays for treatment in the meantime
Health insurance, repaid at the end out of any recovery. Some home policies also carry a small medical payments benefit that pays without regard to fault, and it is worth asking for, though anything put in front of you for signature alongside it should be read by a lawyer first.
Strict liability, and the one thing that reduces it
What the statute says
Fla. Stat. § 767.04 makes the owner of a dog liable for damages to a person bitten in a public place, or lawfully in a private place including the owner’s own property, regardless of the dog’s former viciousness or the owner’s knowledge of it.
That is a much stronger position than in states requiring proof that the owner knew the animal was dangerous. What the statute does provide is a reduction: negligence on the part of the bitten person that helped cause to the incident reduces the owner’s liability by that percentage.
What to do in the first days
- Get medical attention; bite wounds carry a high infection risk even when they look minor
- Report the bite to animal control, which creates an independent record
- Photograph the wounds over several days as they develop and heal
- Identify the owner and the dog, and get the rabies vaccination status
- Photograph where it happened, including any gate, fence or leash involved
Who would handle your case
Your case is handled by one of the trial lawyers below, and you will know which of them has it from the first conversation. They do dog bite work week in and week out, they will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Brian H. Malamud Senior Trial Attorney More than twenty-five years on the Wolf & Pravato trial team. Brian Malamud has handled your kind of case many times over, and he knows early which parts of it are going to decide it. Full profile → -
Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile →
Dog Bite questions we are asked
The dog had never bitten anyone before. Does that protect the owner?
No. Florida does not follow a one-free-bite rule. Under Fla. Stat. § 767.04 liability attaches regardless of the dog’s former viciousness and regardless of whether the owner knew of it. That is the central difference between Florida and many other states.
It was a friend’s dog. Do I have to sue them personally?
In practice the claim is nearly always paid by their homeowners or renters insurance, which is what that coverage exists for. Most people find that changes how they feel about bringing it. We can explain how the claim would actually proceed before you decide anything.
I was bitten while on the owner’s property. Does that change things?
Not if you were lawfully there. The statute covers a person lawfully on private property, including the owner’s own. Being an invited guest does not reduce the protection. Trespassing is a different matter.
Questions that apply to any Florida injury claim, fees, deadlines, recorded statements and shared fault, are answered on our injury claim FAQ. What we have recovered is on recent case results.
Five Florida offices
We take dog bite claims statewide. Each market below has its own page on this claim, with that office's address, its direct number and the court a case there is filed in.
Fort Lauderdale dog bite claims
2101 W Commercial Blvd, Fort Lauderdale. Serving Broward County.
View →Miami dog bite claims
1111 Brickell Avenue, Miami. Serving Miami-Dade County.
View →West Palm Beach dog bite claims
2101 Vista Parkway, West Palm Beach. Serving Palm Beach County.
View →Boynton Beach dog bite claims
1375 E Gateway Blvd, Boynton Beach. Serving Palm Beach County.
View →Fort Myers dog bite claims
1825 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers. Serving Lee County.
View →Other claims we handle
Three of the closest to this one. The full list is on our Florida practice areas page.
Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. If it is not, we will say so.
We take cases anywhere in Florida.