Service Animal Dog Attack Lawyer in Los Angeles, CA Access Rights and Restraint Duties

The access right, and the condition attached to it

Civil Code section 54.2 provides that every individual with a disability has the right to be accompanied by a guide dog, signal dog or service dog, especially trained for the purpose, in the places specified in section 54.1, without being required to pay an extra charge or security deposit, while also providing that the individual is liable for any damage done to the premises or facilities by the dog. Subdivision (b) extends comparable rights to authorized trainers and states that those persons shall ensure the dog is on a leash and tagged as a guide, signal or service dog by an identification tag issued by the county clerk, animal control department or other authorized agency. Subdivision (c) provides that a violation of a right under the Americans with Disabilities Act also violates the section.

The criminal provision behind access disputes

Penal Code section 365.5 entitles a blind, deaf or disabled person who is a passenger on a common carrier or other public conveyance to have a specially trained guide, signal or service dog, and prohibits denial of admittance to accommodations, facilities, medical facilities including hospitals and clinics, private schools, hotels, lodging places and places of public accommodation because of that dog. Subdivision (c) makes interference with those rights a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, and subdivisions (d) through (f) define guide dog, signal dog and service dog, the last as any dog individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability.

Where park rules make the distinction explicit

Municipal Code section 63.44 bars animals from City parks except in listed cases, and one of those cases is dogs which have been specially trained and are being used by blind or otherwise disabled persons to aid and guide them in their movements. A separate exception covers licensed dogs led by a leash not more than six feet long, and another covers licensed dogs under the control of a competent person inside designated dog exercise and training areas, which the ordinance identifies by location, including the fenced area at Silver Lake Recreation Center, portions of Runyon Canyon Park and the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, and a 1.4-acre fenced portion of Barrington Park. The ordinance draws those categories separately, which means a trained working dog and a pet under the off-leash exception are not being treated the same way.

The general restraint rule

Outside those exceptions, Municipal Code section 53.06.2 requires a dog off its keeper's premises to be under a competent person's control on a substantial chain or leash no longer than six feet. Municipal Code section 53.34 addresses animals at large and makes the offense a misdemeanor where the animal bites, with an ownership prohibition of up to three years available after conviction. Where an ordinance is violated, Evidence Code section 669 presumes failure to exercise due care where the violation proximately caused the injury, the injury resulted from the nature of occurrence the enactment was designed to prevent, and the injured person was in the protected class.

The vaccination rule that includes its own leash term

Health and Safety Code section 121690 requires, in rabies areas, licensing after a dog attains four months of age and vaccination after three months, and allows an exemption where a licensed veterinarian determines annually that vaccination would endanger the dog's life, submitted on a departmental form with statements from the veterinarian and the owner and issued by the local health officer. The statute provides that an exempt dog is considered unvaccinated and, at the discretion of the local health officer or designee, is subject to stated conditions when off the owner's premises, including being on a leash not exceeding six feet under the direct physical control of an adult. Dogs under four months are addressed separately.

When a working dog is the animal injured

An attack on a service animal raises the handler's own losses as well as the animal's care. The measure of compensation in Civil Code section 3333 is all the detriment proximately caused, whether or not it could have been anticipated. Where a person is bitten, Civil Code section 3342 directs liability to the owner of the offending dog regardless of former viciousness or knowledge, and Food and Agricultural Code section 31602 includes, in its potentially dangerous definition, a dog that unprovoked on two separate occasions within the prior 36-month period killed, seriously bit, inflicted injury or otherwise caused injury attacking a domestic animal off the owner's property.

The reporting and confinement files

County Veterinary Public Health takes bite reports, states that all persons with knowledge of a bite must report, and notes that the current location of the biting animal is among the most important parts of the report (Reporting Animal Bites). The County rabies manual describes the confinement fee under County Code section 11.04.225 as not assessed for police service dogs or guide dogs (quarantine provisions). A dangerous-animal report is separate and follows Municipal Code section 53.34.4 inside the City.

Scope

General information about published statutes, ordinances and agency material. It is not legal advice about any access dispute or attack. Questions belong with the attorney who advertises on this site.