What Are the Challenges a Personal Injury Attorney Faces in a Dog Bite Case?

Video transcript: I have. A matter of fact, just recently, I unfortunately had to turn down a dog bite case. Again, one of the biggest issues we run into in dog bite cases is where is there going be a recovery? You know, insurance a lot of times won’t cover the dogs or the breed of dogs that you end up seeing in these cases: Pit Bulls, Chows, Doberman Pinschers. You know kind of the more aggressive breeds, most insurance actually excludes that from coverage. The other thing you run into is, you know, if a person is renting a home or an apartment, they probably don’t have any liability coverage.

Unlike a homeowner who typically has coverage under their policy. Then if there is no insurance coverage in a dog bite personal injury case, you know, there’s very few assets you can recover, you can take from someone here in Texas. But the idea that there’s a one free bite rule just isn’t the law in Texas. There is what’s called negligent handling of an animal and then there’s also strict liability, which under certain circumstances, it doesn’t matter what the facts were. The pet owner of the animal owner is strictly liable. But usually you can show negligent handling of an animal, so there isn’t this one free bite rule.