Fort Lauderdale Dog Bite Lawyer
A dog got loose, and now the wound care, the shots and the calls from an insurance company are all on you, and none of it was your choice. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Broward County since 1993.
Dog Bite claims in Fort Lauderdale
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 does not give a dog one free bite. Under section 767.04 the owner is liable for a bite in a public place or where the person was lawfully present, whether or not the dog had ever shown aggression before. In Broward the bite report goes to Broward County Animal Care and Adoption, and the file it opens, including the quarantine record and any prior complaints about the same animal, is the documentation that turns a disputed account into a claim. Most of these are paid by a homeowners or renters policy rather than by the owner personally, which is why the claim is rarely against a neighbor in any practical sense.
Florida makes a dog owner liable for a bite whether or not the animal had ever shown aggression, so the argument in a Broward claim is usually about the share of fault and the value of the scar rather than about liability. The county animal file is what stops it becoming one account against another. Most claims carry a two-year filing deadline.
What to do after a dog bite in Fort Lauderdale
- Get treated, because infection is the real risk. A puncture that looks minor closes over bacteria and does not drain, which is why dog bites become serious days later rather than on the day. Hand and face wounds are the ones that need attention fastest. Rabies prophylaxis, where it is indicated, is time-sensitive, and the medical record from that first visit is also what establishes the injury happened at all.
- Report it, so a county file exists. A report to the county animal agency opens a file, triggers the rabies quarantine and creates an independent record of the animal, the address and the owner. Owners dispute the circumstances weeks later as a matter of routine. Without that file it becomes one account against another, and the person with the healed wound is the one who has to prove what happened.
- Photograph the wounds now, and keep photographing them. Before they are cleaned and closed, then at a week, at a month, and as they heal. Scarring is the largest head of loss in most of these claims and it is the one nobody documents, because by the time anybody thinks about it the only record is a mature scar and a description of what it used to look like.
- Get the owner’s details, and the property owner’s. Name, address, phone and any insurance. If the owner is a tenant, note who owns the property, because a landlord or an association that already knew about a dangerous animal can be answerable separately and usually carries a larger policy. Note anybody who saw it, since bites in a yard or a corridor rarely have neutral witnesses later.
- See a plastic surgeon before you discuss numbers. An early offer in a bite case is priced on a wound that has not finished healing, and it will not include revision surgery, laser treatment or the further procedures a growing child needs as a scar changes with them. A consultation puts a figure on what is actually ahead. A release signed before that cannot be reopened afterward.
Where these happen in Fort Lauderdale
Where a bite happened in Broward decides who else may be answerable alongside the owner, and it decides which records exist to prove it.
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Rental apartments and their common areas
A large share of this county rents, and a bite in a corridor, a stairwell or around a pool is not only the owner’s claim.
- Prior complaints about the same animal, which is what makes a landlord or a manager answerable
- Lease pet records and any registration the property required
- Property insurance separate from the tenant’s, which is frequently the larger policy
- Camera footage in common areas, which cycles within weeks
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Doorstep and driveway bites
Delivery drivers, postal workers, meter readers and service technicians make up a steady share of what we handle, and they are lawfully present.
- Route, scan and delivery records, which timestamp the visit precisely
- A compensation claim running alongside the bite claim where the person was working
- Gates, latches and fencing that had already failed, which is photographable
- Employer incident reports, which are usually more detailed than anything else in the file
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Parks, trails and beaches
Off-leash bites in public spaces, where the leash requirement is the starting point rather than the whole claim.
- Local leash ordinances, which are public and are worth citing rather than assuming
- Witnesses, who in a public place are neutral and are the best evidence in the file
- The animal control response, which fixes the animal and the owner to the incident
- Prior calls about the same dog at the same location
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Dog-friendly businesses
Broward has a great many restaurants, patios and stores that welcome animals, which adds a business to the claim.
- Whatever policy the business had about animals, and whether it was applied
- Incident reports, which a business writes for its own insurer and does not volunteer
- Camera coverage, which businesses have and parks do not
- Commercial liability insurance alongside the owner’s personal policy
What causes them
- Dogs off leash in parks, on trails and on beaches where leashes are required
- Dogs loose from a yard where a gate, a fence or a latch had already failed
- Delivery drivers, postal workers, meter readers and service technicians bitten at a door
- Landscapers, pool technicians and contractors bitten entering a yard they were sent to work in
- Bites in the shared corridors, elevators, lobbies and pool decks of apartment and condominium buildings
The injuries we see, and what each one turns on
Faces, and why children are hurt worst
A small child is at the height of a dog’s head, which is why the serious injuries in this practice are facial: lips, cheeks, eyelids and ears. They frequently need reconstruction rather than closure, and the scar is permanent in a way an adult’s is not, because it will be revised repeatedly as the child grows. Any assessment made before a plastic surgeon has seen the child is a guess.
Hands, wrists and forearms
Defensive wounds, and the most functionally serious injuries adults sustain. Tendon and nerve damage in a hand affects everything a person does with it, and the infection risk in a hand puncture is high enough that these are treated as urgent rather than routine.
Infection
The reason a small puncture is not a small injury. Bite wounds seed bacteria deep and then close, and the resulting infection can require admission, surgical washout and weeks of intravenous antibiotics. It is also the most common reason a bite that was shrugged off on the day becomes a serious medical problem by the weekend.
What Florida law requires you to prove
Florida does not give a dog one free bite
Under Fla. Stat. § 767.04 the owner is liable for a bite in a public place, or where the person bitten was lawfully on private property, whether or not the dog had ever shown aggression before. The old one-bite rule people have heard about is not the law here. A prior history still matters, because it defeats arguments about provocation and it can support a claim against a landlord or an association that knew, but it is not required.
The two limits on that, and the exception inside one of them
The same statute reduces damages by the share of the bitten person’s own negligence, which is where provocation is argued. It also gives an owner a defense where a sign reading "Bad Dog" is displayed prominently on the property, which is a genuine limitation and surprises people. That defense does not apply where the person bitten is under six years old, and it does not apply where the owner’s own negligence caused the bite.
When it is not a bite, and who else can be answerable
A dog that knocks somebody over, runs into them or causes a fall has not bitten them, and Fla. Stat. § 767.01 makes owners liable for damage done by their dogs more broadly. Beyond the owner, a landlord, an association or a management company can be answerable in negligence where it knew a dangerous animal was on the property and did nothing, and a boarding or grooming business can be answerable for an animal in its care. Most claims arising on or after March 24, 2023 carry a two-year deadline under Fla. Stat. § 95.11.
The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide dog bite page rather than being restated in every market.
How we prove it in Broward County
A bite claim lives on documentation made in the first days, because a healed wound and a disputed account are what remain after that.
- The report to Broward County Animal Care and Adoption, and the file it opens on the animal and the owner
- The rabies quarantine record, which independently identifies the dog and the address
- The medical record from the first treatment, which establishes the injury and its mechanism
- Photographs of the wounds before closure and at intervals while they heal
- Prior complaints and prior bite reports at the same address or involving the same animal
- Lease pet records, association files or business incident reports where somebody other than the owner may be answerable
- Photographs of the property, including any signage and the condition of gates and fencing
- A plastic surgeon’s assessment of what further treatment the scarring will need
The photographs are the item people miss. Everything else on that list can be requested months later, and the record of what a wound looked like at three days cannot be created by anybody after the fact.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in Fort Lauderdale is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled dog bite claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. 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 →
How insurance companies handle these claims
Because liability is usually not seriously in question, an adjuster on a bite claim is working on two things instead: reducing the share and closing the file before the injury is finished declaring itself.
- The dog was provoked
- The main route to reducing a claim, since Florida cuts damages by the bitten person’s share of negligence. What it usually rests on is the owner’s account of what a child or a delivery driver did in the seconds before. The county file, the animal’s prior history and any witness answer it, and a prior complaint about the same dog tends to end the argument.
- The dog had never done anything like this before
- Irrelevant to the owner’s liability, and stated as though it were decisive. Florida imposes liability whether or not the animal had a history. Where a history does exist it matters for a different reason: it supports a claim against a landlord, an association or a business that knew and allowed the animal to stay.
- There was a sign
- The statutory defense is narrower than it sounds. It requires a sign in a prominent place reading "Bad Dog", it does not apply at all where the person bitten was under six, and it does not apply where the owner’s own negligence caused the bite. Signage is also frequently not where an owner later says it was, which is why photographs of the property taken early are worth more than an argument later.
What a claim can include
Medical care, and the surgery still ahead
Emergency treatment, washout and antibiotics, then reconstruction. Future procedures are the part an early offer never includes and the part that decides whether a settlement holds up.
Scarring and disfigurement
The largest head of loss in most of these claims, and the one that depends entirely on a record being made while the wound was healing rather than after it had.
Revision surgery for a growing child
A scar on a child does not stay the same size. It is revised as they grow, sometimes over years, and the cost of that is quantified by a surgeon rather than estimated by an adjuster.
Why Wolf & Pravato in Fort Lauderdale
A Broward dog bite case is filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit at the Broward County Courthouse, and this office has worked in it since 1993. Where the animal file has to be obtained from the county and prior complaints traced to an address, being in the county is a practical advantage rather than a claim on a page.
Richard Pravato has been Board Certified in Civil Trial law by The Florida Bar since 2004. The Bar lists 861 lawyers in the state holding it against a membership over 109,000. What it means in practice is that the other side knows the file can go in front of a jury, and files that can go to trial are priced differently from files that cannot.
The first conversation is free. We are paid out of the recovery or not at all, and if we do not think there is a claim worth bringing we will tell you that rather than take it.
Fort Lauderdale dog bite questions
Does it matter that the dog had never bitten anyone before?
No. Florida imposes strict liability on the owner regardless of whether the dog had a history, which is the opposite of the old one-bite rule people have heard about. A prior history still helps, because it defeats arguments about provocation and it can support a claim against a landlord or property manager who knew. But the absence of one changes nothing about the owner’s responsibility.
I was bitten making a delivery. Does that complicate things?
It usually adds to the claim rather than complicating it. You were lawfully on the property, so strict liability applies to the owner. Because you were working, there is very likely a compensation claim running alongside it through your employer, and the two are handled together. Your route and scan records also timestamp the visit, which is better evidence than most bite claims have.
The insurer offered to settle within two weeks and the wound is still healing.
That is exactly the timing to be careful about. A scar at two weeks is not the scar at a year, revision surgery is common, and once a release is signed it cannot be reopened. What we would want before any number is discussed is a plastic surgeon’s view of what further treatment is likely, which is what turns a guess into a figure.
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.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
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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. We are at 2101 W Commercial Blvd, Suite 1500, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.