West Virginia Complaint for Personal Injury from Dog Bite Due to Negligent Restraint of Dog by Defendant Owner

Civil Code 3342 covers injuries to people. It does not allow people to sue when a dog bites another dog in California. Under California law, canines are considered the personal property of their owners.

The state of California is a strict liability state. This means that if your dog bites another dog, animal or person, generally you are responsible for paying the vet bills and any other necessary damages to the owner of the animal that was bitten.

The average settlement from a dog bite claim was $43,653 in 2019. We here at QuoteWizard analyzed 2019 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm® dog bite claim data to see which states had the highest average cost per claim.

In the state of California, dog owners are almost always strictly liable for the damages their dogs cause in the event of an attack. As such, dog bite victims typically do not have to prove the owner was negligent in order to recover compensation for medical bills, lost income, and other damages.

No. The state of California classifies dogs as the personal property of the owner. Therefore, an injured dog owner can sue under a property damage theory of liability.

Strict liability allows more dog bite victims to recover compensation for their losses. While California uses strict liability for dog bite cases, other states have dog bite laws modeled after the one bite rule. The one bite rule only holds dog owners liable if they are aware of their dog's dangerous tendencies.

In the context of a dog bite lawsuit, strict liability means that the dog owner will be legally responsible for the dog bite even if he or she did not know that his or her dog had a tendency to bite. To put it more simply, a dog owner will be automatically responsible to a victim of a bite from his or her dog.