Dog bite lawyer
Shalhoub Law Injury & Accident represents people bitten by dogs in West Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County. That includes claims arising from dog attacks, and the question of who actually pays. Attorney Paul R. Shalhoub spent years defending insurance companies before he began representing injured people, and he handles every case himself, from the first call through trial.
Florida holds dog owners strictly liable, with no first-bite excuse, including for injuries to children.
The demand is built around what actually moves a file, because Paul spent the early part of his career on the other side of it.
Reach us
Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Calls answered 24 hours
Phone: (561) 208-5058
Email: info@shalhoubinjurylaw.com
What this claim involves
Who is responsible
Florida makes a dog’s owner liable for a bite without any need to prove the dog had bitten before.
What it is worth
Medical bills, lost income, future care and the part that is not on a receipt. How value is calculated →
How long you have
Two years for most Florida negligence claims. Florida injury deadlines →
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
Nothing up front. The fee is contingent on winning or settling the case.
What Paul Shalhoub does on a dog bite claim
Concretely, in the order it happens.
| Identify the policy before anything else | Almost every dog bite is paid by a homeowner’s or renter’s liability policy, not by the owner personally. Finding out whether one exists, what the animal liability limit is, and whether the breed is excluded decides what the claim can realistically become |
| Get the animal control file | The report, the quarantine record, the rabies vaccination status and any prior complaints about the same dog at the same address. Prior complaints are not needed to win under Florida law, but they change the value of the case and the owner’s appetite to resolve it |
| Photograph before it heals | Bite wounds change appearance within days and the scar is the claim. Photographs at intake, at suture removal, and again at three and six months do more for a scarring case than any argument |
| Get the right treater involved early | A facial bite on a child is a plastic surgery question, not an urgent care question. Future revision surgery has to be documented by someone qualified to opine on it or it does not exist in the file |
| Answer the comparative argument in advance | The statute reduces recovery by the bitten person’s own negligence, so the carrier will ask what you were doing. Establishing where you were lawfully standing, and why, closes that off early |
Do you need a lawyer for a dog bite?
An honest answer, including when it is no.
Where you probably do not. A nip from a dog you know, broken skin but no stitches, one urgent care visit, and the owner is a friend or relative who has already offered to pay the bill. If there is no scar and no infection, a claim is unlikely to be worth the relationship.
Where you probably do. The bite needed stitches or any surgical repair. It is on a face, a hand or near a joint. The person bitten is a child. There is an infection, nerve damage or loss of function. The owner is a tenant, a landlord is involved, or nobody will say who the dog belongs to. Or the insurer has started asking what you did to provoke the dog — which is the comparative negligence argument beginning.
The consultation is free, so finding out which one you are in costs a phone call.
Florida has no “one free bite” rule
The statute is unusually direct, and it is worth reading rather than paraphrasing.
Section 767.04 makes a dog’s owner liable for damages to a person bitten in a public place, or lawfully in a private place including the owner’s own property, “regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owners’ knowledge of such viciousness”.
That single clause removes the defense most people assume exists. The owner does not get a free pass because the dog had never bitten anyone before. You do not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. In many states that proof is the whole case; in Florida it is not an element at all.
| Where you were | A public place, or lawfully on private property. You are lawfully there when performing a duty imposed by state or federal law or postal regulation — which covers mail carriers, meter readers and delivery drivers — or on the owner’s invitation, expressed or implied |
| Your own conduct still counts | The statute reduces the owner’s liability by the percentage of the incident the bitten person’s negligence caused. Provocation is not a complete defense; it is a percentage |
| The “Bad Dog” sign | An owner who displayed an easily readable sign reading “Bad Dog” in a prominent place is not liable — with two exceptions written into the same sentence |
| Exception: a child under six | The sign does not protect the owner as to a person under the age of 6 |
| Exception: the owner’s own negligence | The sign does not protect an owner where the damages were proximately caused by a negligent act or omission of the owner — an unlatched gate, a dog left loose, a chain that was known to be failing |
The sign defense is narrower than owners believe. It is raised often and it fails often, because the two exceptions cover a large share of real cases: young children, and owners who did something careless with a dog they knew needed controlling.
Who actually pays, and why that question comes first
The dog’s owner is liable. The dog’s owner is rarely the one who writes the check.
Dog bite claims are paid out of homeowner’s and renter’s liability coverage. That has three consequences worth knowing before anyone decides whether to pursue it:
| A renter can be covered | Renter’s policies carry liability coverage. People assume a tenant has nothing and drop the claim without checking |
| Animal liability is often sub-limited | Some policies cap animal liability well below the policy limit, or exclude particular breeds entirely. Which one applies is a document question, answered by reading the policy rather than guessing at it |
| A landlord is sometimes separately liable | Not under s. 767.04, which attaches to the owner, but on ordinary negligence where the landlord knew about a dangerous animal on the property and did nothing |
| Pursuing the claim is not pursuing the person | This matters in the common case where the dog belongs to a neighbor, a friend or a family member. The claim is made against a policy that exists precisely for this |
That last point is the reason a lot of legitimate claims never get made. People do not want to sue someone they know, and nobody ever told them that an insurer, not their neighbor, is on the other side.
What to do in the first week
The medical part is obvious. The rest decides the claim.
| Get the wound treated and say it was a dog | Bite wounds are treated differently from other lacerations because of infection risk, and the chart needs to record the mechanism |
| Report it to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control | This creates the independent record of what happened, and it starts the rabies observation process for the dog |
| Get the owner’s name, address and insurer | Along with the rabies vaccination certificate. Without an address there may be no policy to find |
| Photograph the wound, the location and the dog | Including where the dog was confined, or was supposed to be. A gate, a latch or a broken fence is evidence that disappears when it gets repaired |
| Write down who saw it | Neighbors move and memories shorten. A name and a number now is worth more than a statement attempted a year later |
If the dog has bitten before, animal control will usually know. That history does not change whether the owner is liable — the statute already settles that — but it changes what the case is worth and how quickly an insurer wants it resolved.
Related claims we handle
The practice is injury work only, so the neighboring claim types are handled in the same office by the same attorney. See every practice area
Medical malpracticeMissed diagnoses and surgical errors, under Florida's pre-suit investigation requirements.Learn more →
Traumatic brain injuryInjuries that do not show on the outside and change memory, work and family life.Learn more →
Wrongful deathClaims brought by the personal representative under the Florida Wrongful Death Act.Learn more →Common questions
Do I have a dog bites case?
The call is free and Paul gives a straight answer, including when the answer is no.
How long do I have to file?
Two years from the injury for most Florida negligence claims under Florida Statute 95.11. Claims against a government body require written notice first and run on a different clock.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer?
Nothing up front. The fee is a percentage of the recovery. We advance case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fees or reimbursement of those costs unless we recover compensation for you.
Will I deal with Paul or with staff?
With Paul. He handles every case personally.
Talk to Paul, not a case manager
Consultations are free and confidential. We advance case costs, and you owe no attorney’s fees or reimbursement of those costs unless we recover compensation for you. Paul handles every case personally.