Dog Bite Claim in NC?

In short, dog bites are weird cases in NC.  To put them in a nutshell, though, there are really three main issues with them:  History of the dog, existence of insurance, severity of the bite. 

In a manner of speaking, the owners have a way out if the dog doesn’t have a known “dangerous propensity” that they are aware of.  If the dog has bitten someone else before, then they are super on the hook for it (what is known as strict liability), though you likely won’t know this without the animal control report and maybe asking AC for a history of reports on the dog (or some inside info from neighbors, etc.).  That doesn’t mean you can’t prevail if there’s no previous bite.  A dangerous propensity can be something other than a bite.  It can be growling, lunging, dog aggression, etc.  You can also go a straight negligence route; that would be the old reasonable person standard.  Like if you left a big dog with a toddler on a deck alone and there’s no rail and it knocks them off.  

Then there is always the problem of coverage.  You can have the clearest liablity (strict or otherwise) but if the owner doesn’t have homeowners or renters insurance, you probably won’t see any actually meaningful recovery out of it.  I tend to firmly but nicely ask the owner to provide their insurance carrier with my info and a report on the incident, then see what happens.  About 70% of the time they comply.  But sometimes they just stay silent.  There are ways to get around them stonewalling you without filing suit but they are uncertain.  This can be frustrating because the only way to really put the pressure on them to give you insurance info is the file suit, but you kind of don’t really know if the case is worth filing suit on without knowing there is coverage. It can be a leap of faith, which is scary.

Then, probably the biggest issue in most situations, so maybe I should have led with it, is the severity of the bite.  These cases can be frustrating, so if it’s two puncture wounds and one ED visit (with no necessity for a rabies shot) then the juice is probably not going to be worth the squeeze anyway.  But there are bites and there are BITES.  Where was the bite?  How bad does it look?  What treatment is needed?  Will scarring be an issue?  Surgery necessary?  Rabies shots (those are about $20k)?  While I firmly believe it’s always better to have your health than a good case, obviously, the further up this scale you go, the more it may be worth the hassle of going through all of this.  If you’re in a situation where the first two things are easy (Clear liability, insurance is already in play/in contact) then you can normally get even a small one settled with reasonable effort.  And if the injuries are bad, you may need to wait a bit to see how they heal, but you can often get them settled.  If you do not have one or both of the first things, then maybe filing is the only answer, but you’re really going to have to think about whether it’s worth it if the damages aren’t that bad.  

Like I said, these are weird. If you have a dog bite claim in NC, call a lawyer who has handled them. Call me at 919-929-2992.