How a Beware of Dog Sign Affects Your Claim

Answer:

When we’re dealing with dog bite cases or dog attack cases, the question often comes up, “What about the Beware of Dog sign?” Whether the dog owner had one or didn’t have one, the client always wants to know how that plays into the claim. It can vary. Most of the time, a Do Not Trespass or Beware of Dog sign ultimately has very little impact on the outcome of the case. That’s not to say they’re insignificant or they’re totally irrelevant, but, it’s just that, normally in my experience in dealing with dog bite and dog attack cases, the other factors and other facts in the case tend to play a much larger role in determining liability and certainly in determining damages and determining fault than those types of signs. The reason for that is, usually, almost without fail, and certainly in the cases that I have seen or been around, whether there were signs or whether there were not signs, the dog bites or dog attacks usually take on one of two scenarios.

In the first scenario, the dog left the dog owner’s property and attacked someone off property, in which case, the signs are completely irrelevant. It was the dog that left and attacked them. In the other scenario, the person who was attacked, the victim was a guest of that dog owner on their property. In other words, they were invited over or asked to come onto the property, either as a social guest or as a business guest. Think of someone there to perform some type of maintenance work, checking the meter on their house or socially just for a visit, such as children coming over to play.

In those situations, even with the signs there, factually and ultimately what determines the outcome of the case is not the sign and not the victim seeing or not seeing a sign, or knowing or not knowing about the dog or the history of the dog, but much more on the dog owner and the history of the dog, the dog owner’s knowledge of that dog’s breed, of that dog’s past behavior, of prior incidents involving the dog, signs and signals of an aggressive behavior or violent aggression towards humans that that dog has exhibited. All those things come a lot more into play normally in these cases than the ‘Beware of Dog’ sign. Normally the signs aren’t there until after the bite or the attack happens, but, even when they are, it’s these other factors that typically have a lot more impact on the outcome of the claim than a sign.

It’s a great question that comes up a lot in these cases, but hopefully that helps answer any outstanding issues or questions people have about that. As with any dog bite or dog attack case, each one stands on its own unique set of facts and there’s multiple levels of complexity to those cases. Even if it seems like a simple case, there are typically multiple levels of complexity in dog bite and dog attack cases, from the damages to proving liability and apportioning fault that really require experienced counsel being involved.

At the Brad Morris Law Firm, we have had some success litigating these cases. We’ve been involved in some cases that had really sad and almost catastrophic injuries involved; sometimes these cases even involve death. We’re available through our website or through our phone to try to get you on the path to justice and a full recovery. If you, a family member or loved one have been the victim of a dog bite or dog attack, reach out to us. We’ll try to get you pointed in the right direction and answer your questions.