Bakersfield Dog Bite Lawyer

Bakersfield Dog Bite Victims Have Valuable Legal Rights

Dog bite victims in Bakersfield enjoy significant legal protections and rights to compensation. California law generally entitles Bakersfield dog bite victims to seek compensation for their losses from the offending dog’s owner and may entitle them to pursue others for payment, too.

Dog Owner Strict Liability in California

California’s dog bite statute imposes what’s known as a strict liability on dog owners whose dogs bite others. Specifically, the law provides:

The owner of any dog is liable for the damages suffered by any person who is bitten by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness.

In a nutshell, this means that the dog’s owner has an obligation to pay for your dog bite injuries regardless of whether the owner did anything wrong in failing to prevent the dog from biting you. The only situations in which the owner may not have strict liability to you are those in which:

• You were bitten by a police K9 engaging in reasonable law enforcement actions
• The bite occurred at a location where you did not have the lawful right to be
• You provoked the dog to bite you
• The bite happened in a setting in which you assumed the risk of being bitten (such as if you are a dog trainer)

These are relatively limited exceptions. An experienced attorney at Kash Legal can help you understand if any of them apply to your case. If not, then there’s a good chance you can hold the dog owner strictly liable for your losses.

Negligence Leading to Dog Bite Liability

Regardless of whether you can hold the dog’s owner strictly liable, you may also have the right to seek compensation from anyone whose careless or reckless conduct contributed to causing the attack. All Californians have a basic duty not to engage in unreasonably dangerous actions that put others in harm’s way.

If a dog bit you in Bakersfield because the person walking an aggressive dog failed to take reasonable steps to keep it leashed, for instance, you may have a claim against that person. Likewise, you might pursue damages against a Bakersfield business that allowed a customer’s unruly dog to run free on its commercial property. Connect with the team at Kash Legal to explore the potential for holding someone at fault for failing to keep you safe from the dog that bit you.

Intentional Dog Attack Liability

Intentionally causing a dog to attack someone can also lead to liability. You may have a claim for damages against a dog’s handler that encouraged it to bite you. Similarly, a public agency like a police department could face liability to you for using excessive force when deploying a law enforcement K9 against you. Kash Legal possesses the know-how and resources to tackle the difficult cases in which someone intentionally causes a dog attack.