Dog Bites & Premises Liability
Property owners and dog owners have legal responsibilities. When they fail to meet them, we hold them — and their insurers — accountable.
California Holds Dog Owners Strictly Liable
Under California law, a dog's owner is generally liable for bite injuries even if the dog had never bitten anyone before — no “one free bite.”
Most dog bite claims are paid by the owner's homeowners or renters insurance. These claims have their own complications: some policies exclude certain breeds, carriers contest the lasting impact of scarring, and the most serious cases involve children. We document the attack, confirm coverage, and build the claim around the medical evidence — including plastic surgery consultations and the long maturation period of scars.
When a Child Is Hurt: Protecting the Recovery
Dog attacks disproportionately injure children, often in the face. Beyond the immediate treatment, these cases involve questions parents shouldn't have to navigate alone: How will scarring look years from now? Does the child need counseling? And legally — how is a child's settlement protected?
In California, a minor's settlement must be approved by the court through a minor's compromise proceeding, and the funds must be protected — often through a blocked account or structured settlement that grows safely until adulthood. We have handled substantial dog bite settlements for young children from demand through court approval and structured funding, while also pursuing the parents' own claims for what they witnessed. Our representative matters include a $652,000 settlement for a dog attack involving young children. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Premises Liability: Unsafe Property
Property owners and businesses must use reasonable care to keep their premises safe. We handle claims involving:
- Slip, trip, and fall hazards in stores, common areas, and rental properties
- Dangerous conditions created during construction and renovation work
- Falls caused by contractors who left work areas unprotected
- Inadequate maintenance, lighting, and warnings
Negligent Security: When a Business Fails to Protect Its Patrons
Bars, nightclubs, and other businesses that invite the public in must take reasonable steps to protect patrons from foreseeable harm — including violence. We have litigated negligent security claims involving overcrowding, untrained or inadequate security staff, failures to call police, and decisions that put a victim back in harm's way. In one representative matter, a patron seriously injured in an assault recovered a $400,000 settlement from the business's insurer. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
What If the Defendant Has No Insurance?
Some firms walk away when there's no policy to collect from. We don't — not when the case justifies the fight. In one matter, after winning a judgment against an uninsured contractor whose negligence seriously injured our client, we pursued the contractor's license bond, fought through a bankruptcy filing, unwound a fraudulent property transfer, and ultimately collected substantially more than the original judgment. It took persistence over years — and it's the kind of persistence we believe injured clients deserve.