Meet your host:
 Attorney Kenneth Phillips is the author of this web site. He has a unique law practice: he represents only people who have been bitten by a dog.
His clients include children and adults throughout the United States.
Mr. Phillips welcomes E-mail from visitors to this website, especially dog bite victims and their families. He responds personally and answers questions for free. Click here to write to him and receive his personal reply within hours (his E-mail address is kphillips@dogbitelaw.com). Reporters seeking interviews or information are welcome to click here.
Mr. Phillips is widely recognized as the nation's leading authority on dog bite law. A frequent guest on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, MS-NBC, Fox News Channel, and Court TV, he has been called "the dog bite king" (Today Show and Lawyers Weekly), "a leading expert in dog bite law" (Good Housekeeping), and "the nation's best known practitioner of terrier torts" (Los Angeles Times).
Find out more about him at Meet Kenneth Phillips. For announcements about his own cases and the work flow at his law office, go to Kenneth Phillips on Twitter.
Overview of Dog Bite Law :
American dog bite law consists of civil and criminal law, found in state statutes, county and city ordinances, and court decisions. The laws vary widely among jurisdictions.
The key issue in a dog bite case is the extent to which the jurisdiction follows the old English "one bite rule." This ancient law shields a dog owner or harborer from liability, civilly and criminally, until he has a certain degree of knowledge that his dog is dangerous or vicious. When he has this knowledge, however, the one-bite rule rule makes the owner strictly liable for bite injuries.
In civil law which deals with compensation to injured people, roughly two-thirds of the states have statutes which either eliminate or modify the one-bite rule, making dog owners liable for all dog bites provided that the victim neither trespassed nor provoked the dog. In some states, the dog bite statute makes liability automatic, while in others, there are conditions or limitations.
Injuries caused by negligent handling or confinement of a dog, or by violating a leash law, also make a dog owner liable in almost all states.
To learn more about the civil laws, start at Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA and from there click on the link to your state. For criminal laws, go to Dangerous and Vicious Dogs. For model laws that create a fair balance between the rights of the community and dog owners, see Model Dog Bite Laws.
To help decide what to do after a dog bite, read Does an Adult Need a Lawyer for a Dog Bite Claim? or Should Parents Get a Lawyer for Their Injured Child?
To learn the statistics and how to prevent dog bites, go to the list of topics in For Journalists, Lawmakers and Academics.
Search the Dog Bite Law Website :
Try the Index, the Glossary, or Google Search:
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The Dog Bite Law Bookstore :
What To Do If Your Dog Is Injured Or Killed
by Attorney Kenneth Phillips is a legal self-help book that tells a dog owner how to get reimbursed for vet bills,
and compensated for your anguish when your dog is wrongfully injured or killed.
Download immediately and use today.
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Pleadings, interrogatories, admissions, document production, a 50-topic deposition outline, and much more.
Save hours of work with Mr. Phillips'
Dog Bite Litigation Forms.
Only for plaintiffs' lawyers. Good in all states. Cheaper than the cost of typing them.
Download immediately and use today.
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Tips and tricks that cannot be found anywhere else.
Anatomy of a Dog Bite Case
is a video of Mr. Phillips' 2-1/2 hour seminar for plaintiffs' lawyers.
Learn strategies and tactics, the new causes of action, how to overcome all of the common defenses,
how to settle your case, and more. Inexpensive. Good in all states.
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Avoiding Liability When You Train,
Shelter or Adopt Out is an all-in-one self-help package for trainers, rescue groups, and shelters. Includes ready-to-use legal documents by Mr. Phillips, and his 1-1/2 hour seminar explaining everything in plain, simple language. The Q&A sessions on this DVD are fun and illuminating. Prevent trouble before it begins!
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 If you have a valid case but it's not "big enough" for a lawyer, the $1 Dog Bite Forms are for you. Attorney Kenneth Phillips wrote "fill-in-the-blanks" letters and forms to help the dog bite victim get the compensation he or she deserves. Powerful self-help for only $1 per form. Buy just what you need. New ones are being added every week, by request.
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In the news:
Persons killed by dogs in June 2009: Two Americans died from dog bite injuries this month.
On June 15, 2009, two pit bulls killed Justin Clinton, 10, a resident of Texas. The dogs and the boy were on public property. Justin is the USA's 16th canine-inflicted human fatality in 2009. Texas is the nation's leader in fatal dog attacks. It is a one-bite state.
On June 27, 2009, two pit bulls and a collie mix killed Gabrial Reese Mandress, 3, of Marion, Illinois. The dogs belonged to his parents, and he was killed in his own back yard. Illinois is a strict liability state.
Read The Dog Bite Law Blog for information and commentary on recent death cases, plus updates on dog owner prosecutions and other legal news pertaining to dog ownership.
The death count: The USA has sustained 17 fatal dog attacks in 2009. There were 23 in 2008, and 33 in 2007. For details (including a month-by-month breakdown of canine homicides since July 2006) see Dangerous and Vicious Dogs. For Attorney Kenneth Phillips' commentaries about "canine homicides" and related issues, go to The Dog Bite Law Blog.
 Abolish the "one bite rule" and prevent dog bites: In 2007 and 2008, there were 29 canine homicides in the 21 states that either do not have a dog bite statute, or have one that incorporates the one bite rule.
By contrast, the same period saw only 27 fatal attacks in the other 29 states, which are the ones that have rejected the one bite rule in whole or in significant part.
In other words, the states that do not impose strict liability have more fatal dog attacks. That statistic supports the view that the one bite rule needs to be abolished in the USA.
This old English law demands little or no vigilance on the part of dog owners. A single dog owner can own one biting dog after another, without fear of civil liability, because every dog gets that one free bite, mauling or killing. To learn more about the deadly one bite rule, click here.
Twenty-nine American states have rejected the one bite rule in whole or part because its primary effect in modern times is to prevent dog bite victims from making insurance claims for anything more than medical expenses. Dog bites are covered by liability insurance, such as homeowners, renters and some umbrella insurance policies, but the victim still must prove that his claim rests on legal grounds. The one bite rule makes this difficult or impossible in many cases, and therefore benefits insurance companies at the expense of the injured, who are mostly children.
There should be no right to bite. The one bite rule should be rejected in every state and country. Children in one bite states like Texas, North Carolina and Maryland are entitled to the same rights as kids in strict liability states.
Famous dog bite cases: The Diane Whipple case (People v. Knoller). The Lilian Stiles case (Texas v. Jose Hernandez). For more news and opinion: Read the "editorial section" of Dog Bite Law. Hard-hitting and opinionated, it covers the daily news about dogs (from killings of humans, to cruelty, to new and sometimes terrible laws for dog owners), and presents Attorney Kenneth Phillips' brutally incisive opinions about laws, mistakes and moral issues involving dogs.
Tip of the month:
If you are bitten by a dog, learn about liability here or by talking to a knowledgable lawyer. Do not ask police or animal control officers about civil liability. Their answer most often will be based on criminal and administrative law, not civil liability law. In other words, their answer will not be about liability to pay compensation to the victim, but only about whether the dog owner or dog will face administrative consequences such as a fine, confinement of the dog, or euthanasia (which are only some of the alternatives).
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Dog Bite Litigation Forms
Here are some of the most controversial and important cases and issues in dog bite law. These topics are for students in high school, college or law school who wish to write about dogs and the law. 