Recent Recoveries
- $2,000,000Car crash — litigation settlement
- $1,750,000Slip & fall — litigation settlement
- $1,000,00018-wheeler — litigation settlement
- $850,000Tractor-trailer — litigation settlement
- $650,000Commercial collision — litigation settlement
- $650,000Trucking accident — litigation settlement
- $550,000On-the-job injury — litigation settlement
Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is decided on its own facts.
It happens in somebody’s garden, or on a pavement two streets from home, and it is over in about four seconds. What is left is a wound that has to be irrigated rather than stitched, a course of injections nobody had explained, and a neighbour on the doorstep saying the dog has never done anything like this before.
Children are bitten more often than adults, and they are bitten on the face and the scalp, because that is what is at the dog’s height. Which is why a dog bite claim is not shaped like the rest of personal injury: the largest part of it is a scar, and a scar on a growing child is valued over twenty years rather than over a course of treatment.
And then somebody reads that Texas is a “one-bite state” and quietly decides there is no point. That sentence is the most expensive misunderstanding on the subject, and the first section is about why it is only half true.
Texas is a one-bite state, and that is half the law
The first bite is only free against a strict liability claim. A negligence claim needs no prior bite at all, and both can be pleaded in the same suit.
You pay nothing to ask
The consultation is free, the fee comes out of the recovery, and there is no bill if we do not win.
Two years — and far longer for a child
Two years from the attack for an adult. A child’s clock does not start until they turn 18, which is most of who gets bitten.
Where It Starts
The one-bite rule is half of the law
Almost everybody who rings about a dog bite has already read that Texas gives every dog one free bite, and has half decided not to bother. It is a true description of one claim and a false description of Texas law.
Texas has no dog bite statute. What it has is two claims that can be brought over the same attack, and they ask completely different questions.
The first is strict liability, and it is the one everybody has heard of: prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous and you win without arguing about carelessness at all. That is the claim the “one bite” is about, and it is the harder of the two to prove.
The second is ordinary negligence, and it needs no history whatsoever. Did the owner take reasonable care to keep the dog under control? A gate that did not latch, a chain that had been fraying for months, a front door opened onto a delivery driver, a lead handed to a child — none of those requires the dog to have done anything before, and every one of them is a case.
The owners told the insurer the dog had never done this. The neighbours told our investigator it had bitten other children. Nobody had asked them, and the claim had been denied for months.
Aaron Genthe · Founder
- 01
We go looking for the first bite
The owner’s account of whether the dog had done this before is not the only account. Animal services, the neighbours and the dog’s own vet each keep one, and collecting them is the job.
- 02
We plead negligence as well as knowledge
A claim resting only on prior viciousness rises and falls on what an owner admits. A claim that also pleads how the dog was kept — the gate, the chain, the door left open — does not.
- 03
We answer “he should not have been there”
The standard denial on a child’s claim. In our own case it took an investigator, aerial photographs and the neighbours to prove the child had been invited, and the insurer had denied it flat.
The Test
Five ways a Texas owner ends up liable
They are not alternatives you have to choose between. Read the second one against your own attack — it is the one almost nobody arrives here knowing about.
Strict liability — the “one bite” route
This is the rule everybody has heard of, and it comes from Marshall v. Ranne, which put Texas on section 509 of the Restatement of Torts.
Negligence — and it needs no prior bite at all
The claim most people have never heard of, and usually the stronger of the two. It asks whether the owner or handler took reasonable care to keep the dog under control, and whether the failure caused the injury.
Negligence per se — the restraint rule
Texas has no statewide leash law, which surprises people. Restraint is a local matter, and in Dallas it is Chapter 7 of the city code: an owner commits an offence if the animal is not restrained at all times — in a fenced yard, in a pen, or on a lead in the owner’s own hands.
The dangerous dog statute — Chapter 822
A separate track, run by the city rather than by you. Once a dog is determined dangerous, its owner has 30 days to register it, keep it in a secure enclosure and carry at least $100,000 of liability cover for exactly this.
Whoever actually had the dog that day
The defendant is not always the person on the licence. Liability reaches the keeper or harbourer — the boyfriend minding it, the sitter, the kennel, the relative it lives with — because the duty attaches to control of the animal rather than to ownership of it.
Case Value
What your claim can actually include
“What is it worth?” is the first question on nearly every call, and no honest answer comes before a surgeon has said what is still ahead.
Economic losses
The half proved with paper. Keep the emergency department paperwork, every prescription and every receipt, including the ones that feel too small to matter.
Medical treatment
Emergency care, the wound course, rabies prophylaxis, surgery, and the reconstruction still ahead — not only the bills already printed.
Future and revision surgery
On a child’s facial scar this is a plan running to adulthood, costed by the surgeon rather than estimated by an adjuster.
Lost income
Wages, shifts and self-employed work missed, counted on what was actually earned rather than on a base rate.
Lost earning capacity
Where a hand, a nerve or a tendon ends the work you did, this is the largest figure in the case.
A parent’s own losses
The time taken off to sit with a child through treatment, the travel, and the care nobody was paying for before.
Non-economic losses
The half no invoice arrives for, and the half a first offer leaves out. On a dog bite it is usually the larger of the two, which is unusual and is worth knowing before anybody signs anything.
Disfigurement
Valued in its own right, over a lifetime, and separately from the surgery that caused or repaired it.
Pain and suffering
The attack, and the treatment it took to put right — which on an open wound course is weeks of it.
Mental anguish
Nightmares, avoidance and the fear of dogs that follows a child into adulthood. The commonest lasting injury here.
Physical impairment
Grip, sensation, fine movement, and whatever the hand will not do again.
Loss of consortium
A claim belonging to a parent or spouse for what a serious injury took out of the relationship.
Texas Law
The six rules that decide a dog bite claim
Even where the owner was plainly careless, these six shape what you recover. The first catches families out more than any other rule on this site.
Two years, and a child’s clock has not started
An adult has two years from the attack to file. Where the injured person is under 18, section 16.001 suspends the limitations period until their eighteenth birthday, so the claim ordinarily survives until they are 20.
There is no Texas leash law
Restraint is a city and county matter, not a state one. Dallas requires an animal to be restrained at all times — a fenced yard, a pen, or a lead in the owner’s own hand — and limits tethering to three hours in twenty-four.
Texas will not let a city regulate by breed
Section 822.047 permits a county or municipality to place stricter requirements on dangerous dogs, but expressly forbids requirements aimed at one breed or several breeds.
Provocation and trespass are the two real defences
The two things actually argued. Provocation is narrower than it sounds — a child stroking a dog, running past it or startling it is not provocation, and a toddler cannot provoke in law at all.
Your share of the blame comes off the top
Texas applies modified comparative fault. Any percentage of responsibility assigned to you reduces the recovery by that much, and over 50% you take nothing.
The criminal case is not your case
A prosecution under section 822.005, a dangerous-dog determination, an order that the dog be destroyed — none of these compensates you, and none of them has to finish before your claim can be brought.
The First Week
What to do after a bite
In order, and written for somebody with a dressing on their arm or a frightened child in the next room.
- 01
Get the wound seen today, and say it was a dog
Bite wounds are treated differently from other wounds — irrigation, often left open, antibiotics, a tetanus check and a decision about rabies. A stitched bite is a trapped infection, so where you go matters.
- 02
Report it, and get the case number
Ring Dallas Animal Services, or the animal control service for whichever city you were in. A report starts the ten-day observation, puts the dog on file, and creates the record that proves the next victim’s case as well as yours.
- 03
Identify the dog and the owner before you leave
The name, the address, a phone number, and a photograph of the dog if you can take one safely. An unidentified dog means rabies prophylaxis, and an unidentified owner means no claim at all — this is the step that decides whether there is a case.
- 04
Photograph everything, and keep photographing
The wounds before they are dressed, and then weekly as they heal and scar — the healing series is what a scar is valued on, and nobody can go back and take it. Also the gate, the fence, the chain, the yard, the torn clothing.
- 05
Say nothing to their insurer, and sign nothing
Their adjuster will ring within days, sympathetic, asking for a recorded statement and a medical authorisation. The statement exists to produce a sentence about what you or your child were doing to the dog; the broad authorisation opens your entire medical history.
- 06
Ring somebody before the ten days are up
The step with a deadline on it. While the dog is in observation the city is holding a live file, the neighbours still remember, the fence has not been mended and the owner has not yet been coached.
The Process
What happens when you call us
If you have never worked with a lawyer before you may feel overwhelmed, or a little suspicious.
- 01
Free case review
You call or message. We ask what bit you, whose it was, where you were standing and what you have already been asked to sign.
- 02
We find the dog’s history
The animal services file, the 311 log, the previous complaints and the neighbours — which is what turns “he has never done this” into a document that says otherwise.
- 03
We find the policies
Homeowner’s, renter’s, umbrella, and the landlord or business behind them. Exclusions get read properly rather than accepted as an adjuster describes them.
- 04
We value it and we negotiate
Future and revision surgery costed by the surgeon, disfigurement valued in its own right, and suit filed if the numbers will not move.
- 05
You get paid
We go through the settlement line by line, including what a health insurer or hospital lien is owed and what we got that reduced. Nobody leaves here wondering what just happened.
Client Reviews
What our clients say about us
Published as they were written. None of the three is from a dog attack — we do not have one — so they are about how the firm handled a case rather than about what it paid.
Rated five out of five stars
“They work really hard for you and know what they’re doing. They are thorough. I worked with different team members at different stages of my case and each one was kind but honest with the progress and possible outcomes. I feel like they undersold what they can do.”
Phoebe Sembel
Rated five out of five stars
“He knew what therapy and doctors I needed. Along my recovery, Aaron would call and ask how I was doing and not only that, cared about my physical pain and agony with upbeat information and treated me like an individual, not just a case.”
Adrianne Miller
Rated five out of five stars
“Mr. Genthe is an honest and caring attorney who truly helped me through this traumatic experience. He was with me every step of the way and was very informative on the process.”
Margaret Mijarez
Your Attorney
The lawyer who works your case
This page has promised you a real attorney rather than a call centre several times over. It is only fair to say who that is.
Founder · Trial Attorney
Aaron Genthe
A Texas A&M graduate who went into personal injury straight out of law school, Aaron spent years as a litigator at one of the larger firms in Dallas — long enough to build a reputation as an aggressive and effective attorney, and long enough to watch how easily a client becomes a file number at a firm that size.
He started Genthe Law Firm so that the person you speak to about your injury is the person who tries it. On a dog bite that matters early: the case is won by somebody going out and finding what the dog did before, and that is not work a call centre knows how to do.
- Practising since
- 2015
- Cases handled
- Hundreds, in Dallas and across Texas
- Education
- Texas A&M graduate
- Fee
- Contingency — nothing unless you recover
Questions
Dog bite FAQs
The questions people ask on the first call, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
Texas is a “one-bite state”. Does that mean I have no claim?
No, and this is the most expensive misunderstanding on the subject. The one-bite rule applies to a strict liability claim, where you win without proving carelessness by showing the owner knew the animal was dangerous. It is one route, not the law.
The owner says the dog has never bitten anyone before. Now what?
Now somebody checks, which is most of the work. Animal services keeps a file on reported bites, 311 logs complaints about loose and aggressive dogs, the vet has behavioural notes, and the neighbours have been living beside it for years.
My child was bitten. How long do we have?
Longer than you think, for the child. Under section 16.001 the two-year period does not start running until they turn 18, so the child’s own claim ordinarily survives until they are 20.
It was a friend’s dog. Do I have to sue my friend?
You are claiming against their homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, which is precisely what that part of the policy is for and what the premium has been paying for. In most cases the insurer handles it end to end and your friend’s involvement is a phone call and a form.
Should I report the bite if I do not want the dog put down?
Report it. A report starts the ten-day rabies observation, which in most cases is the thing that lets you stop a course of injections, and it puts the dog on file so that the next person bitten is believed.
Also Handled Here
If your injury was something else
The neighbouring claims this firm litigates most often, including the two a dog attack most often turns into.
- 01Daycare InjuryChildren hurt in somebody else’s care
- 02Slip & Fall AccidentsThe other claim brought against an occupier
- 03Traumatic Brain InjuryWhere a child was knocked down as well as bitten
- 04Wrongful DeathWhere an attack was fatal
- 05Pedestrian AccidentsChased into the road, or struck backing away
- 06Bicycle AccidentsA dog running out at a rider on the street
- 07Car AccidentsA crash caused by an animal loose in traffic
- 08Construction AccidentsSite and guard dogs on commercial premises
Read more on dog bite and animal attack claims
- What Affects the Value of a Dog Bite Settlement in Texas?What actually drives the number
- Identifying and Treating Dog BitesWound care, infection and when to worry
- 4 Reasons to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer After a Dog BiteWhat a lawyer does that you cannot
- Are Some Dog Breeds More Likely to Bite People?Why the breed is not the claim
- Are You Provoking a Dog Attack?The defence, and how narrow it is
- Dallas Doberman Pinscher Bite LawyerA second breed page, same law
- Fort Worth Dog Bite LawyerTarrant County, and a child’s recovery
- What To Do After a Dog Bite AccidentThe first week, at length
