Dog Bites: How we help

Dog bite cases carry a social awkwardness that most injury claims do not. The owner is often someone you know — a neighbor, a friend, a relative — and people frequently delay getting help because they do not want to create a conflict.

The Part Nobody Wants to Talk About

It helps to know how these claims usually resolve in practice. A claim following a dog bite is typically directed at an insurance policy rather than at a person's savings, most often a homeowners or renters policy, which exists precisely for events like this one.

Understanding that changes how people feel about proceeding. You are generally not asking a neighbor to pay out of pocket. You are making a claim against coverage they bought for exactly this circumstance. We are happy to explain how that works before you decide anything.

Who May Be Responsible

The owner is the obvious starting point, but not always the only one. A person who had temporary care of the dog may be involved. Where the attack happened on rental property, a landlord may be relevant if they knew about a dangerous animal on the premises. A kennel, groomer, daycare, or sitter can be responsible for a dog in their care.

Establishing where the dog lives, who controls it, and which policies exist is early work, and it determines whether there is meaningful coverage at all.

Where the animal lives matters practically as well as legally. A dog kept at a rented property, at a relative's home, or at a business raises different questions about which policies exist and who was actually in control of it at the time. People are often surprised that the answer is not simply the person holding the leash. We work this out early, because it determines whether a claim has anywhere meaningful to go.

Documenting the Injury Properly

Dog bites carry infection risk that is disproportionate to how the wound looks initially. Puncture wounds seal at the surface while remaining deep, and prompt medical attention matters for health reasons before it matters for any claim.

Photograph the injury at each stage. Bite wounds change substantially over the first weeks, and scarring continues to develop for months. A photograph taken at the emergency room and another at six months tell a story that a single image cannot. Keep the records from every provider, including any rabies protocol and any follow-up with a plastic surgeon.

Scarring and What It Means Over Time

Many bites land on the hands, arms, and face. Facial scarring in particular has consequences that outlast the medical treatment entirely, and this is an area where early offers tend to be furthest from reality.

Revision surgery is often not possible until scarring has matured, which can take a year or more. Settling before anyone knows whether revision is needed, or what it will cost, means accepting a figure for an unknown. We generally advise clients against resolving a significant scarring case early for that reason.

Photographs are the one thing only you can create, and the window closes as you heal. A consistent series taken in similar light every week or two costs nothing and gives any later evaluation something concrete to work from. People almost always wish they had taken more.

When the Bitten Person Is a Child

A large share of serious dog bite injuries involve children, in part because a child's face is at the height of a dog's head. These cases require additional care: injuries to a growing child can need revision as they develop, and the emotional aftermath — a lasting fear of dogs, disrupted sleep — is real and worth documenting.

Claims involving minors also carry procedural requirements around approving any settlement, which we handle so that families do not have to navigate them.

Injuries That Are Not Bites

Not every dog injury involves teeth, and claims are sometimes abandoned because people assume otherwise.

Dogs knock people down, particularly children and older adults, and a fall caused by a large animal can produce fractures and head injuries as serious as anything a bite would cause. Dogs chase cyclists and runners into the road. People are hurt pulling an animal away from someone else, or falling while retreating from one.

If an animal caused your injury, the mechanism matters less than you might think. It is worth a conversation regardless of whether you were actually bitten.

What to Do in the First Days

A few practical steps make a considerable difference later, and all of them are easier now than in a month.

Get medical attention promptly, given the infection risk. Identify the owner and the animal, including where it lives, rather than relying on a first name. Ask whether the dog is vaccinated and current. Report the incident to animal control, which creates a record independent of anyone's memory and may surface prior complaints about the same animal.

Photograph the wound before it is dressed if you can, then again as it heals. And do not give a recorded statement to an insurer before you know what your treatment will involve.

Working With Our Firm

We handle dog bite claims on contingency, so there is no fee to talk and no attorney fee unless we recover for you. We work throughout Miami-Dade and Broward, in English and Spanish.

If you or your child was bitten, call us. We can explain how the claim would work, including who it would actually be directed at, before you commit to anything.