Dog Bite Injury Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA Injuries, Evidence and Liability

The statute does not ask what the dog did last year

Civil Code section 3342 makes the owner of any dog liable for damages suffered by a person bitten in a public place or lawfully in a private place, the owner's own property included. The statute says this applies regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner's knowledge of it. Nobody has to dig up an earlier bite. The same subdivision defines lawful presence on the owner's land: being there to perform a duty imposed by the laws of this state or by federal postal regulation, or being there on the owner's invitation, express or implied. Once ownership and a bite are settled, the argument narrows to where you stood and why.

The City ordinance gives you a second theory

Municipal Code section 53.06.2 keeps a dog on its keeper's premises and lets it leave only under the control of a competent person, restrained by a substantial chain or leash not exceeding six feet, or inside a dog exercise or training area established under section 63.44. Evidence Code section 669 then presumes that a person failed to exercise due care where an ordinance was violated, the violation proximately caused the injury, the injury was of the kind the ordinance was written to prevent, and the injured person belonged to the class it protects. The presumption can be rebutted by proof that the person did what an ordinarily prudent person wanting to comply would have done, so the physical details matter: photograph the lead, measure it if you safely can, and record whether any posted exercise area covered that ground.

The same afternoon can also be a misdemeanor

Under section 53.34, a person who owns, controls, possesses or is in charge of a dog and permits it to be at large on public property, or on someone else's private property, is guilty of a misdemeanor if the animal bites, attacks or injures a person or another animal. A conviction bars that person from owning the same species for three years and directs the Department not to issue or renew a license for it. Ask early whether a citation exists. It is dated, official, and written by somebody other than the dog's owner.

If the dog was working for a public agency

Subdivision (b) of section 3342 withdraws the statutory action against a governmental agency using a dog in military or police work. One case is a bite that happened while the dog defended itself from an annoying, harassing or provoking act. The other covers a dog assisting an employee in the apprehension or holding of a suspect on reasonable suspicion, the investigation of a crime or possible crime, the execution of a warrant, or the defense of a peace officer or another person.

Subdivision (c) removes that shelter where the person bitten was not a party to, a participant in, or suspected of the conduct that prompted the dog's use. Subdivision (d) allows the shelter only where the agency has adopted a written policy on necessary and appropriate use. Where any public body sits in the facts, Government Code section 911.2 requires a written claim no later than six months after the cause of action accrues, and section 945.6 allows six months from the day a written rejection is delivered or mailed to get a suit on file.

The first ten days belong to Public Health

County Veterinary Public Health puts the quarantine for a biting dog or cat at a minimum of ten days and holds biting livestock for thirty. The vast majority of quarantines are served in the animal's own home, while an animal impounded by an animal control agency finishes confinement in a shelter (Reporting Animal Bites). The County rabies manual describes the alternative: strict confinement under a licensed veterinarian, with release possible after five days where the veterinarian examines the animal on the fifth day or later and certifies no clinical signs (quarantine guidance). Public Health also states that a bite report does not mean the animal has been deemed dangerous, and that anyone who believes it is dangerous has to file a separate report with the local animal control agency. Pasadena, Long Beach and Vernon take their own reports.

Two years, and the week that decides whether you keep them

Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1 sets a two-year period for a claim over injury to a person caused by another's wrongful act or neglect. That looks generous beside the six-month government claim rule, which is why the public-entity question belongs in the first weeks rather than the twentieth month. Ordinary evidence ages on its own schedule anyway. Lobby and doorbell footage gets overwritten, torn clothing goes in the bin, and a puncture over a knuckle that looked shallow on Sunday can declare itself as an infection by Wednesday.

What the first contact looks like, and how the money side is written

The productive first exchange is an inventory rather than a story: date, address and unit, the animal and its owner, the report number, treatment so far, and whether any agency touched the facts. On the fee side, California attaches no percentage to a claim against a dog's owner. Business and Professions Code section 6147 requires a written contract signed by both people, a duplicate handed over at signing, the agreed rate on the page, an account of how costs bear on the fee and on the client's share, and plain language that no law sets that rate. A contract missing any of it is voidable at the client's option.