West Palm Beach 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 833-370-8692 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our West Palm Beach personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Palm Beach County since 1993.
Dog Bite claims in West Palm Beach
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.
Section 767.04 gives an owner a partial defense where a sign reading "Bad Dog" is displayed prominently on the property, which is a genuine limitation people are surprised by. It 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. Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control takes the report and handles quarantine, and its file is where a prior history shows up. Where the bite happened at a rental property, the landlord may also be reachable if they knew about the animal.
Florida makes a dog owner liable for a bite regardless of the animal’s history, subject to two limits: the share of the bitten person’s own negligence, and a narrow defense where a "Bad Dog" sign is prominently displayed. That defense does not apply to a child under six. Most claims carry a two-year filing deadline.
What to do after a dog bite in West Palm Beach
- 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 West Palm Beach
A large share of the bites in this county happen to somebody who was sent to a property to do a job, which produces two claims rather than one.
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Workers entering a yard
Landscapers, pool technicians, pest control, meter readers and contractors, which is the most common serious bite claim in this county.
- A compensation claim through the employer, and a separate claim against the owner
- Work orders and scheduling records, which establish that the visit was expected
- Gate and access arrangements, and whether the owner was asked to secure the animal
- Prior incidents at the same property, which employers and route companies frequently record
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Gated communities and managed properties
A great deal of Palm Beach County lives behind a gate, and the association usually has rules about animals in writing.
- Association rules on animals, and whether the property enforced its own
- Board minutes and complaint records showing what was known about a particular dog
- Management companies, which are separate businesses with separate insurance
- Common area cameras and gate logs, which cycle within weeks
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The signage question
This county has a lot of signed property, and the statutory defense turns on details that owners misremember in their favor.
- What the sign actually said, since the defense is specific about the wording
- Where it was, and whether it was prominent, which is a photograph rather than an argument
- Whether the person bitten was under six, in which case the defense does not apply at all
- Whether the owner’s own negligence caused the bite, which also removes it
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The western county
Agricultural and equestrian property out past Wellington, where dogs are loose by design and distances are long.
- Working and guard animals, which are still covered by the same statute
- Long distances to definitive care, which matters where infection develops
- Very few witnesses and no camera coverage, putting the weight on the county file
- Property boundaries and whether the person bitten was lawfully present
What causes them
- 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
- Bites at a friend’s or a relative’s home, which is where most serious injuries to children happen
- Dogs at outdoor dining, breweries and stores that allow them
The injuries we see, and what each one turns on
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.
Nerve damage and loss of function
Numbness, weakness and permanent loss of sensation, particularly in the hands and face. These are proved with treating records and with a specialist assessment rather than with photographs, and they are frequently the part of a claim that gets left out because the scar is more visible.
The psychological injury, which is not soft
Children who were bitten develop lasting fear of animals, sleep disturbance and avoidance, and it is well documented enough that it is treated rather than dismissed. It is recoverable, and it needs a record made while it is happening rather than a description offered a year later.
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 Palm Beach County
The two limits Florida places on strict liability are both answered with photographs and records taken early, which is the whole argument for moving in the first week.
- The report to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, and the file it opens
- The rabies quarantine record, which independently identifies the animal and the address
- Photographs of the property, including any signage, its wording and where it actually was
- Photographs of the wounds before closure and at intervals while they heal
- The medical record from the first treatment, which establishes the injury and its mechanism
- Work orders, route records and employer incident reports where the person bitten was working
- Association rules, board minutes and complaint records where a managed property is involved
- A plastic surgeon’s assessment of what further treatment the scarring will need
Where the person bitten was working, the compensation claim and the claim against the owner run together and are worth handling together. The second pays for the scar and for pain, and the first does not.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in West Palm Beach 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.
- 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.
- You were not supposed to be there
- Strict liability applies where somebody is in a public place or lawfully on private property, so an adjuster will look for a reason the visit was not lawful. Delivery drivers, service workers, contractors and invited guests are lawfully present. Where the person was working, there is frequently a compensation claim running alongside this one.
- An offer, while the wound is still healing
- This is the practice where an early settlement does the most damage. A scar at eight weeks is not the scar at a year, revision surgery is common, and a child’s scar will need work repeatedly as they grow. The number should follow a plastic surgeon’s assessment rather than precede it, and a release cannot be reopened.
What a claim can include
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.
Psychological treatment
Therapy for fear of animals, sleep disturbance and avoidance, which is common after a bite and particularly in children. It has to be documented while it is happening.
Lost income, including a parent’s
Time off work for the injured person, and for a parent attending appointments and surgeries with a child. The second is routinely left out of a claim because nobody asks about it.
Why Wolf & Pravato in West Palm Beach
A Palm Beach County dog bite case is filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach, and the firm’s office on Vista Parkway is in the county. Where a claim depends on the county animal file, association records and prior complaints at an address, being local is what makes that routine.
Board Certification in Civil Trial law is the Bar’s own measure of trial experience, and 861 of Florida’s 109,000-plus lawyers hold it. Richard Pravato has held it since 2004. It is the credential that changes how an adjuster reads a file, because it says the case has somewhere to go if they will not pay it.
Asking costs nothing and there is no fee unless we win. If we look at what happened and think the claim is not worth pursuing, we will say so on the first call instead of signing you up.
West Palm Beach dog bite questions
There was a "Beware of Dog" sign. Does that end my claim?
Not on its own. The statutory defense requires a sign in a prominent place reading "Bad Dog", and it does not apply at all if the person bitten was under six, or if the owner’s own negligence caused the bite. Signage is also frequently not where the owner later claims it was, which is why photographs of the property taken early matter so much.
I was bitten working on somebody’s property.
That is two claims rather than one, and both are worth pursuing. Compensation through your employer pays authorized medical care and a portion of your wages regardless of fault. The claim against the dog’s owner pays for the scarring, for pain and for the full wage loss, none of which compensation covers. They run alongside each other and are handled together.
The dog was a working farm dog, not a pet.
The statute does not distinguish, and an owner remains liable for a bite where the person was lawfully present. What tends to be argued instead is whether the visit was lawful and whether anything the person did counted as provocation. Both are answered from the county file, the work order if there was one and any witness, rather than from the owner’s account.
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.
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.
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 Vista Parkway, Suite 4500, West Palm Beach, FL 33411.