If you’ve been sued for a dog bite, two things have to happen fast: file a written answer with the court before your deadline, and call your homeowners or renters insurer the same day you were served. Miss the answer deadline and the court can enter a default judgment giving the plaintiff everything they asked for. Delay the insurance call and you risk a coverage denial that leaves you paying your own lawyer and any judgment out of pocket.
File the Answer Before the Deadline
A lawsuit arrives as a summons and complaint, and it requires a written response called an answer. In federal court, the deadline is 21 days after you’re served. State deadlines vary but typically fall between 20 and 30 days. If you let that window close, the plaintiff can get a default judgment and then garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, or place a lien on your property to collect.
Your answer has to respond to each allegation in the complaint with an admission, a denial, or a statement that you lack enough information to respond. It also has to raise any affirmative defenses you plan to rely on. In most jurisdictions, defenses you leave out of the answer are waived permanently. In practice, the attorney assigned by your insurer will draft and file this, which is why the insurance call cannot wait.
Call Your Insurance Company the Same Day
Homeowners and renters insurance policies typically cover dog bite liability, including both legal defense costs and settlement payments, up to the policy’s liability limits. Those limits commonly range from $100,000 to $300,000.1Insurance Information Institute. Spotlight on: Dog Bite Liability The insurer assigns a defense attorney to represent you at no additional cost. You generally don’t pick that lawyer, but insurance defense attorneys handle these cases routinely and know the local court.
Most policies require prompt notice of any claim, and some specifically define a reporting window. Late notification is one of the most common reasons insurers deny coverage, and a denial means you’re paying for your own lawyer and any judgment yourself. Call the day you’re served, and follow the call with written notice.
Coverage Gaps to Check
Some insurers exclude specific breeds from liability coverage entirely. Breeds commonly affected include pit bulls, Rottweilers, German shepherds, Doberman pinschers, chow chows, Akitas, and wolf-dog hybrids, among others. Insurers may also deny coverage based on a history of prior bites or aggressive behavior. If you discover an exclusion applies, an umbrella liability policy or standalone animal liability policy may fill the gap, but coverage generally has to be in place before the incident to apply, so this is a question for your agent now and a planning point for the future rather than a fix for the pending suit.
The insurance-appointed attorney works for you, but their fees come from the insurer. That creates a potential conflict when the claimed damages exceed your policy limits. If the plaintiff is seeking $500,000 and your policy caps at $100,000, the gap puts your personal assets at risk, and hiring your own attorney alongside the insurance-provided one gives you someone whose loyalty is undivided. The same goes for situations where the insurer denies coverage outright or issues a reservation of rights letter, which signals they may not pay the final judgment.
Preserve Evidence Right Now
Evidence gathered in the first few weeks often decides the case. Start collecting the following before your attorney is even assigned, and hand everything over at the first meeting.
- Your dog’s rabies vaccination certificate and full veterinary records, including any behavioral assessments. After a bite, most jurisdictions require a quarantine period, often ten days, and a current vaccination record can sometimes allow home quarantine rather than impoundment.
- Photos and video of where the bite happened: fencing, gates, warning signs, leash setups, and property boundaries. Any “No Trespassing” or “Beware of Dog” signage becomes evidence if the plaintiff claims they were lawfully present.
- Names and contact information for every witness. A neighbor who saw the plaintiff tease your dog through the fence can reshape the case.
- A copy of any animal control incident report from the municipality. Review it for errors because they tend to follow you into court.
- Training certifications, such as obedience class records or Canine Good Citizen certification. These matter in negligence cases.
Defenses Your Answer Must Raise
Affirmative defenses let you win even if the plaintiff proves every element of their case, and they generally have to appear in the answer or they’re forfeited. Which theory the plaintiff is suing under (strict liability, the one-bite rule, or negligence) depends on your state and shapes which of these carries the most weight.
Provocation
If the plaintiff was tormenting, hitting, or deliberately agitating your dog before the bite, provocation is your strongest defense, and it applies even in strict liability states. Courts ask whether the plaintiff’s actions would have caused a reasonable dog to react defensively. Children are a harder case because courts weigh a child’s age and maturity before deciding whether the behavior counts as provocation.
Trespassing
Someone who entered your property without permission has significantly weaker legal standing to claim damages. In many states, strict liability statutes only protect people who were lawfully on the property. Trespassing doesn’t always eliminate liability completely, courts treat child trespassers differently from adults, and mail carriers, delivery drivers, and utility workers are generally considered to have implied permission to be there.
Comparative Negligence
Most states use a comparative negligence system that assigns each party a percentage of fault. A plaintiff found 40% responsible for their own injuries recovers 40% less. In some states, a plaintiff who crosses a 50% or 51% threshold recovers nothing. A few states still follow contributory negligence, which bars recovery entirely if the plaintiff bears any fault. Ignoring posted warnings or reaching into a fenced yard feeds directly into this defense.
Assumption of Risk
This defense applies when the plaintiff knew the risk and voluntarily accepted it. It’s most effective against veterinary staff, groomers, and trainers who understand the inherent risks of handling animals, and it can also apply to someone who ignored explicit verbal or posted warnings or who already knew the dog was aggressive from prior interactions.
Statute of Limitations
A dog bite lawsuit can only be filed within a set number of years after the bite. Some states allow as little as one year, others as many as six, with two to three years the most common range. If the plaintiff filed late, the statute of limitations is a complete defense and the case gets dismissed. Your attorney will check this first and should raise it in the answer regardless.
What the Plaintiff Can Recover
Dog bite plaintiffs seek two broad categories of damages. Economic damages cover measurable financial losses: emergency room visits, surgeries, prescription medications, physical therapy, follow-up appointments, future medical care, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity if the injuries are permanent. These come with receipts and are relatively straightforward to verify.
Non-economic damages are harder to quantify and often account for the largest portion of a claim: pain and suffering, emotional distress, anxiety or phobias triggered by the attack, scarring and disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. Plaintiffs’ attorneys frequently use scarring photographs and therapist testimony to drive these numbers up. The average dog bite liability claim costs roughly $65,000, and severe attacks involving facial injuries or children can produce claims several times that amount.1Insurance Information Institute. Spotlight on: Dog Bite Liability Knowing which category a demand falls into helps you evaluate settlement offers and spot inflated claims.
What Happens After the Answer
Once your answer is filed, the case moves into discovery. Both sides exchange documents, witness lists, and other evidence, and attorneys take depositions, which are sworn out-of-court interviews where witnesses answer questions under oath. Anything said in a deposition can be used to challenge a witness’s credibility at trial if the story changes later. Discovery typically runs several months and can stretch longer in cases with extensive medical records.
Most courts then require the parties to attempt settlement, either through a settlement conference with a judge or mediation with a neutral third party. The vast majority of dog bite cases settle at this stage. The plaintiff avoids the risk of losing at trial, and you avoid the risk of a jury awarding more than any settlement number on the table. If mediation fails, the case goes to trial, where a judge or jury decides liability and damages. From service to final resolution, the process commonly takes twelve to twenty-four months.
Parallel Risks Beyond the Civil Case
A civil lawsuit isn’t the only legal track running. Many municipalities have an administrative process that can classify your dog as “dangerous” or “vicious” after a bite report. Animal control investigates and may schedule a hearing, you’ll receive written notice, and you have the right to present evidence and call witnesses. If the officer designates your dog as dangerous, consequences can include mandatory confinement, muzzling in public, warning signs on your property, additional liability insurance requirements, and in the most serious cases, euthanasia. You generally have a right to judicial review of the designation.
Criminal charges against owners are uncommon but possible. If a dog seriously injures or kills someone and the owner knew of dangerous tendencies, prosecutors may file charges ranging from misdemeanors to felony manslaughter in fatal attacks. A criminal investigation runs separately from the civil suit, and statements made in one proceeding can be used in the other. If criminal charges are a realistic possibility, hire a criminal defense attorney in addition to whoever is handling the civil case, and be careful about what you say in depositions and insurance interviews until you’ve talked to that lawyer.