Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Miami
Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Miami
On This Page
- Miami and Miami-Dade Dog Bite Statistics
- Florida Dog Bite Law: Strict Liability for the Owner
- Miami Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- Miami Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After a Miami Dog Bite
- Miami Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in Miami
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Miami Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Miami-Dade County
- Compensation for Miami Dog Bite Victims
- Comparative Fault in Florida Dog Bite Cases: The 50 Percent Bar
- Statute of Limitations for Miami Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Miami Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Miami Case
- Preguntas frecuentes
- Owner Pays: Section 767.04 makes a dog's owner liable for a bite in a Miami public place or while you were lawfully on private property, even if the dog never bit anyone before.
- 2,167 Reported Bites: Miami-Dade Animal Services counted 2,167 reported bites to humans in 2023, up from 2,031 in 2022. The county's count covers every species, not only dogs.
- Restraint Rule: Miami-Dade Code Section 5-20 makes it unlawful to let a dog run unrestrained on public property, in a building's common areas, or on someone else's land without consent.
- Ten Day Quarantine: County code holds the biting dog for 10 days from the bite, which can be at the owner's home if it looked healthy, and then requires a veterinarian's health certificate.
- Report It Twice: File with Miami-Dade Animal Services through 311 or its online bite report form, and make sure the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade has the case too.
- Two Year Clock: For a Miami bite after March 24, 2023, plan on two years to file suit, and expect the case to be filed in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.
- Over 50 Percent Bar: If you are found more than 50 percent at fault for your own injury in a suit filed after March 24, 2023, Florida law lets you recover nothing.
- Level I Trauma: Jackson Memorial and HCA Florida Kendall are the Level I trauma centers on the state's Miami-Dade list, and Nicklaus Children's is the county's pediatric trauma center.
If a dog bit you in Miami, Florida law makes the dog’s owner responsible for your injuries in most cases, whether or not the dog had ever bitten anyone before. That rule comes from Florida’s dog bite statute. What happens on the ground in Miami, from the quarantine of the dog to the court where a lawsuit is filed, is run by Miami-Dade County and its own code.
This page covers the bite numbers Miami-Dade publishes, the county’s restraint and dangerous dog ordinances, what became of the old pit bull ban, how the 10 day quarantine works, which hospitals the state lists as trauma centers, how to report a bite, who can be responsible, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, and how long you have to act.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases. Talk to us for free, and pay no fee unless we recover money for you.
Miami and Miami-Dade Dog Bite Statistics
Miami-Dade County does publish bite numbers, with one catch. In a March 2024 press release, Miami-Dade Animal Services reported 2,031 bites to humans in calendar year 2022 and 2,167 in 2023, an increase of 136 reported incidents. The county’s wording counts bites by any animal, so those totals include cats and other animals along with dogs. No City of Miami figure is published separately.
A second count comes from the state. The Florida Department of Health’s FLHealthCHARTS recorded 735 confirmed cases of possible rabies exposure among Miami-Dade residents in 2024, a rate of 26.3 per 100,000 people. The statewide rate was 32.3, and the department marks Miami-Dade’s rate as significantly lower. A case lands in that count only when the exposure leads to rabies shots or to testing or quarantine of the animal, and it is filed by where the person lives, not where the bite happened.
Both numbers miss bites nobody reported. The county’s online bite and rabies exposure dashboard is built from the reports people file through its Animal Bite Report, so your own report puts your bite in that record.
The only published money measure is statewide: the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm counted 2,347 Florida dog bite claims in 2025, averaging $62,375 against a national $65,450. That is an insurance average, not a Miami settlement figure.
Florida Dog Bite Law: Strict Liability for the Owner
Miami cases run on the same statute as the rest of Florida. Under Section 767.04, the owner of a dog that bites someone in a public place, or someone lawfully on private property including the owner’s own home, is liable regardless of the dog’s former viciousness or the owner’s knowledge of it. Florida rejects the one bite rule. A first bite on a Brickell sidewalk counts.
The statute has limits that come up in nearly every Miami claim:
- The Bad Dog sign. An owner who displayed a prominent, easily readable sign including the words Bad Dog is not liable under the statute, except to a victim under 6 or where the owner’s own negligence caused the harm.
- Your share of fault. Your own negligence reduces the award by its percentage, and a separate 2023 rule can bar recovery entirely.
- Owner only. The statute names the owner. A dog sitter, relative or landlord is reached through ordinary negligence instead.
The Florida dog bite law page covers each of these, plus Section 767.01 for injuries without a bite.
Miami Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
Chapter 767, Florida’s dog statute, has no general leash rule for dogs that have not been classified as dangerous, so the restraint rules that apply in Miami come from local ordinances. Most of them are county rules. Chapter 5 of the Miami-Dade County Code says it applies in the incorporated and unincorporated areas of the county, which puts the City of Miami under it, and county Animal Control Officers enforce it.
The core rule is Section 5-20(d). It is unlawful to allow a dog, willfully or through failure to use due care, to be unrestrained or at large on public property, in a common area of a private building or development, or on someone else’s private property without the owner’s consent. At large means off the owner’s property and not under the owner’s physical custody and control. The written exceptions are a park area where a city or the county has authorized dogs to be off leash, and authorized hunting, and in both cases a competent person must be supervising.
Other county rules that show up in Miami cases:
- Parks and beaches. Section 5-20(b) keeps dogs out of public parks and beaches except where dogs are specifically allowed. Inside City of Miami parks, City Code Section 38-57 allows a dog only in a designated area or on a leash strong enough to keep it from running free.
- Tethering. Under Section 5-21, a dog may be tied up outdoors only if the person responsible is outside with it and in sight, among other conditions, and tethering never excuses a Section 5-20 violation.
- License and vaccination. A dog over 4 months must be vaccinated against rabies, licensed with the county, and wear the license tag.
- Repeat offenders. Under Section 5-23.2, an owner found guilty more than once under these sections is barred from acquiring additional dogs for three years.
Miami-Dade was long known for its pit bull ban, adopted in 1989. Its text, Sections 5-17 through 5-17.7, is still printed in the county code, but a 2023 state law removed the exemption that had protected local breed rules adopted before October 1, 1990, and Section 767.14 now allows local dog rules only if they are not specific to breed, weight, or size. Section 767.04 itself says nothing about breed, so the owner’s liability does not depend on what kind of dog it was.
Against the owner, a restraint violation is supporting evidence, not the basis of liability, because Section 767.04 already makes the owner pay without proof of fault. In deJesus v. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (1973), the Florida Supreme Court explained that violating a statute written to protect a particular class of people from a particular kind of injury is negligence per se, while violating other statutes, such as traffic regulations, is only prima facie evidence of negligence. Ask your lawyer which category a Section 5-20 violation falls into.
Miami Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
Two agencies handle a Miami bite. Miami-Dade Animal Services, which runs the county’s Pet Adoption and Protection Center in Doral, investigates the dog and enforces Chapter 5. The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade handles the human side: whether you need rabies shots.
The quarantine rule is Section 5-19 of the county code. A dog that has bitten a person is quarantined for 10 days from the date of the bite at the owner’s expense. The Animal Services director or the Health Department director decides where: impounded at a designated place, with a licensed veterinarian, or at the owner’s home. The county’s own guidance is that a dog that looked healthy when it bit can be confined by its owner for the 10 days, while a dog with no owner is quarantined at the shelter for up to 10 days.
The code adds steps many owners miss:
- Home confinement is enforceable. An owner who quarantines at home is liable for failing to keep the dog properly confined.
- A health certificate at the end. When the quarantine ends without signs of rabies, the owner must take the dog to a veterinarian for a certificate that it is healthy and its rabies vaccination is current, and give it to Animal Services within 10 days of that exam.
- A microchip. The owner must also have the dog microchipped, registered, and the chip number given to Animal Services.
- Signs of rabies. A dog that shows signs of rabies during quarantine is euthanized and tested by the Health Department laboratory.
Service dogs and police dogs with current rabies vaccinations are exempt from the quarantine. Do not wait for the 10 days to run before seeing a doctor. If shots are recommended, DOH-Miami-Dade describes a first visit with rabies immune globulin and vaccine, then vaccine doses on days 3, 7 and 14.
What To Do After a Miami Dog Bite
- Call 911 for a severe injury. Do the same if the dog is still loose.
- Wash the wound. The county’s instruction is soap and water for at least five minutes, then medical attention right away.
- Identify the dog and the owner. Get a name, the address where the dog lives, and the insurance carrier. If the owner refuses, Florida law gives you or your doctor the right to the information on the dog’s rabies vaccination certificate.
- Report the bite. Notify Animal Services and the Health Department, as described below, so the 10 day quarantine starts.
- Photograph the scene, including gates, latches, leashes and every sign at the entrances. In a condo or apartment building, photograph the hallway, lobby or garage.
- Photograph your wounds. Repeat every few days as they heal.
- Get witness names, including doormen, building staff and neighbors who have seen the dog loose before.
- Write down what the owner said, in English or Spanish, as close to word for word as you can.
- Keep every bill and explanation of benefits. Florida’s 2023 medical evidence rule limits evidence of paid bills to the amounts actually paid.
- Give no recorded statement. Sign nothing for the owner’s insurer until you have talked to a lawyer.
A bite to a child’s face or hands belongs in an emergency department, and scar treatment can be a year or more away.
Miami Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
The Florida Department of Health’s trauma center list, updated July 23, 2026, names five trauma centers in Miami-Dade County:
- Jackson Memorial Hospital. Level I. Its trauma center is the Ryder Trauma Center.
- HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. Level I.
- Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Pediatric trauma center, the only one on the state’s Miami-Dade list.
- HCA Florida Aventura Hospital. Level II.
- Jackson South Medical Center. Level II.
Urgent care can clean a shallow bite, start antibiotics and check your tetanus status. Go to an emergency department if the wound is deep or will not stop bleeding, if it is on the face, a hand or a joint, if the dog is unknown or unvaccinated, or if redness, swelling or fever start in the days after. A dog bite infection can turn a minor looking puncture into a second round of treatment.
Tell the staff it was a dog bite. Under the county’s guidance, a private doctor or emergency room that treats a bite is required to report it to the local Health Department, and the chart becomes evidence of when and how you were hurt.
How To Report a Dog Bite in Miami
Miami-Dade’s code makes it the duty of every doctor and veterinarian, and every other person who knows of or witnessed a bite, to promptly report it to the Department of Health. The county’s instructions to a bite victim are to get medical care first and then report to both agencies.
- Miami-Dade Animal Services. Call 311, or file the county’s online bite report form. It asks for your name and contact details so an Animal Control Officer can be dispatched to investigate.
- Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade. The county says every bite case should also be referred to the department, whose epidemiology office handles rabies exposures. If you were treated by a doctor or an emergency room, they report it too, but confirm the department has your case.
- 911. For an attack in progress or an injury that needs an ambulance.
Have this ready: the date, time and exact address, a description of the dog, the owner’s name and address if you know them, and the names of witnesses. Ask for a case number. Our guide to what happens after a dog bite is reported covers the next steps.
A report is not the same as a dangerous dog request. Under Section 5-22, the person asking must sign a sworn affidavit or file a police report and give Animal Services a copy, and the county will not investigate an anonymous complaint. The director must designate a dog dangerous if, unprovoked, it endangered, attacked or bit a person. The owner then has 7 calendar days to appeal, with a hearing within 21 days. A designated dog must be registered within 14 days, sterilized, microchipped, kept in a six-foot enclosure with a top, and muzzled and leashed outside, never within 50 feet of a school ground. State law since July 1, 2025 adds at least $100,000 of liability insurance. A dog never declared dangerous that causes severe injury without provocation is, under county code, confiscated and euthanized after a 10 business day appeal window.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Miami Dog Bite
The statutory claim runs against the owner. In Florida’s Belcher Yacht decision, the state Supreme Court read Section 767.04 as reaching only the owner, not a keeper who does not own the dog. Others can still be responsible in negligence:
- The owner. Sometimes a business. See what determines ownership of a dog.
- A dog walker, sitter or relative. Liable for their own carelessness, such as walking a dog they knew lunged at people.
- A landlord. Under the Vasques v. Lopez test from Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal, a landlord can be liable for a tenant’s dog if the landlord knew the dog was there, knew it was dangerous, and had the ability to control its presence, including through the right to end the tenancy.
- A condominium association or building manager. In a city of high-rises, many Miami bites happen in hallways, elevators, lobbies and garages. Section 5-20(d) makes it unlawful to let a dog be unrestrained in a common area of a private building. Whether an association or manager that is not the landlord can be liable for a resident’s dog is a question to raise with your lawyer, and any complaints made to management about the dog are worth collecting.
- A business with a guard dog. A business that owns the dog can be the owner under the statute.
Chapter 5 casts a wider net for code enforcement, treating anyone who owns, harbors, or has custody of a dog, and the owner of the property where it is kept, as responsible. Those are county code enforcement rules. Section 767.04 still reaches only the owner, and in Huie v. Wipperfurth (1994) a Florida appeals court declined to stretch even the state’s broader dangerous dog definition of owner to the bite statute.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County makes up Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit, and which of its courts hears a dog bite case depends on the amount claimed.
- Small claims. A claim of $8,000 or less, not counting costs, interest and attorney fees, can go through the small claims rules in county court. The Miami-Dade Clerk says it may be filed where the defendant lives or where the bite happened.
- County court. Claims over $8,000 and up to $50,000 for cases filed since January 1, 2023.
- Circuit court. Claims above $50,000. The Eleventh Circuit’s Circuit Civil Division, which hears tort cases over that amount, sits at the Osvaldo N. Soto Miami-Dade Justice Center. A bite with surgery, scarring or a child victim usually belongs here.
Most Miami claims settle with an insurer before a lawsuit. If the victim is a child, the court still has a role. Eleventh Circuit Administrative Order 08-18 A1 sets local rules for settling a minor’s injury claim, filed or unfiled. At a gross settlement of $50,000 or more, the judge must appoint a guardian ad litem to review it for the child, and no order approving a minor’s settlement over $15,000 is entered without an open guardianship in the Probate Division.
While a lawyer handles the filing, save the Animal Services case number and any quarantine or dangerous dog paperwork, and keep a log of missed work or school. Medical evidence in a dog bite claim explains which records matter most.
Compensation for Miami Dog Bite Victims
A Miami dog bite claim can include economic damages, such as emergency care, surgery, later scar revision, rabies shots, therapy and lost wages, and non-economic damages for pain, scarring, disfigurement and mental anguish. Chapter 768, the part of Florida law that governs negligence damages, caps what a government defendant pays and caps punitive damages, but it sets no dollar cap on non-economic damages against a private dog owner.
How medical bills are proved surprises most victims. Section 768.0427, for lawsuits filed after March 24, 2023, limits evidence of paid medical bills to the amount actually paid, regardless of the source. Unpaid bills are proved by a formula that turns on your coverage, and treating under a letter of protection triggers required disclosures.
Punitive damages need clear and convincing evidence of intentional misconduct or gross negligence and are generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000.
If the dog belonged to a government body, payment is capped at $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident unless the Legislature acts, with no punitive damages. A 2026 bill to raise those caps was vetoed on June 30, 2026. Dog bite compensation explains what moves the number, and the Florida average dog bite settlement page covers value.
Comparative Fault in Florida Dog Bite Cases: The 50 Percent Bar
Until 2023 Florida used pure comparative fault. House Bill 837 added Section 768.81(6), which says a party found greater than 50 percent at fault for their own harm may not recover any damages. It applies to lawsuits filed after March 24, 2023, so the date of filing controls, not the date of the bite.
The arithmetic: at 30 percent fault on a $100,000 case, you recover $70,000. At exactly 50 percent you still recover half. At 51 percent you recover nothing.
Section 768.81 defines a negligence action to include claims based on strict liability, while Section 767.04 has its own rule that the bitten person’s negligence reduces the owner’s liability by percentage. Expect the insurer to argue that the bar applies. In Miami that fight tends to be about small moments: reaching to pet a dog in a building elevator, stepping into a yard to deliver a package, separating two dogs at a park. For a child under 6, do not assume fault is off the table. In Swindell v. Hellkamp (1970), the Florida Supreme Court held that, absent a legislative declaration, a child under six is conclusively presumed incapable of contributory negligence, but in Reed v. Bowen (1987) the same court held that the dog bite statute, as then written, overrode that rule and let a jury decide whether a four-year-old had provoked the dog. The provocation clause has since been replaced by the bitten person’s comparative negligence. Expect the insurer to argue a young child’s fault, and ask your lawyer how these cases apply. Write down what happened before an adjuster asks. Our guide to dog bite provocation covers the arguments.
Statute of Limitations for Miami Dog Bite Cases
Florida cut the negligence deadline from four years to two in 2023, now Section 95.11(5)(a), for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023.
- Bitten after March 24, 2023: plan on two years from the date of the bite.
- Bitten on or before March 24, 2023: the old four-year period still applies. Four years from a bite on March 24, 2023 is March 24, 2027, so if your bite was in early 2023, act now.
- A child was bitten: Florida pauses the clock for a minor only in narrow cases, such as a child with no parent or guardian, so a child living with a parent generally has the same two years.
- Miami-Dade County or the City of Miami involved: a written claim to the agency within three years under Section 768.28(6). For a county or a city, the statute does not require the copy to the Department of Financial Services that a state agency claim needs, and you generally cannot sue until the claim is denied in writing or six months pass without a final decision.
One argument should not change your plans. Section 95.11 still gives four years to an action founded on a statutory liability, a line the Legislature left in place in 2023, and a lawyer could argue a Section 767.04 claim fits it. Do not count on that argument. File within two years.
Building camera footage and a neighbor’s memory fade long before any deadline. The dog bite statute of limitations guide explains how these clocks interact.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Miami Dog Bites
In most Miami cases the money comes from insurance, not the owner’s savings. The Insurance Information Institute says homeowners and renters policies typically cover dog bite liability up to the policy limits, commonly $100,000 to $300,000, with the owner responsible for anything above that.
Miami’s housing changes where to look:
- Condo owners and renters. The Insurance Information Institute’s statement covers renters policies as well as homeowners policies, so a dog owner who rents is not automatically uninsured. Ask for the carrier and policy number.
- Other policies. A landlord’s, business’s, or umbrella policy may also apply, depending on who else is responsible for the bite.
- Declared dangerous dogs. Since July 1, 2025, Florida requires the owner of a dog classified as dangerous to carry at least $100,000 of liability insurance and give proof to animal control. If Animal Services had already designated the dog, ask for that proof.
- Breed. The Insurance Information Institute says some insurance companies will not insure homeowners who own certain breeds of dogs. Do not accept a verbal no coverage; get the policy reviewed.
A recorded statement is where the 50 percent fault argument usually starts, and an early offer rarely accounts for scar revision.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Miami Case
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases. In Miami that means pulling the Animal Services investigation and quarantine record, the Health Department file, any dangerous dog affidavit and hearing, the building’s complaint history and camera footage, and every insurance policy that might respond, before they disappear.
We deal with the insurer while you heal, and we watch the details that can cost a Florida claim: a Bad Dog sign, a fault percentage, and medical bill proof under the 2023 rules. Read about founding attorney Michael Agruss. We also take cases in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville.
If you or your child was bitten in Miami, contact us for a free consultation. There is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we recover money for you.
Preguntas frecuentes
The county's 1989 pit bull article is still printed in the Miami-Dade Code, but its legal footing changed. A 2023 Florida law, effective October 1, 2023, removed the exemption that had protected local ordinances adopted before October 1, 1990, and Section 767.14 now allows local dog rules only if they are not specific to breed, weight, or size. For your claim, breed is not the test. Florida's statute makes the owner liable for a bite regardless of the dog's former viciousness, and it says nothing about breed.
It can be. County code lets the Animal Services or Health Department director choose a shelter, a veterinarian, or the owner's home for the 10 day quarantine, and the county's guidance is that a dog that looked healthy can be confined by its owner. The owner is liable if the dog is not properly confined, and must get a veterinarian's health certificate and a microchip at the end. If you see the dog loose during those 10 days, report it.
Start with the dog's owner, who is liable under Florida's bite statute because you were lawfully in the building, and whose homeowners or renters policy may cover the bite. County code also makes it unlawful to let a dog run unrestrained in a building's common areas. If the owner rents the unit, the landlord can be liable in negligence if the landlord knew the dog was there and dangerous and had the ability to control its presence. Ask the front desk for incident reports and camera footage the same day.
Both. Miami-Dade Animal Services, reached through 311 or its online bite report, investigates the dog and runs the quarantine. The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade decides with your doctor whether you need rabies shots, and the county says every bite case should be referred to it. A doctor or emergency room that treats you also reports, but confirm the department has your case and keep the Animal Services case number.
Often, yes. Eleventh Circuit Administrative Order 08-18 A1 covers minors' injury settlements in Miami-Dade, whether or not a lawsuit was filed. A gross settlement of $50,000 or more requires a court-appointed guardian ad litem to review it for the child, and a judge will not approve a minor's settlement over $15,000 without an open guardianship in the Probate Division. Those steps protect the money until the child is an adult.
Only if the claim is $8,000 or less, not counting costs, interest and attorney fees, and only in the county where the owner lives or the bite happened. That fits a minor bite with a short treatment bill. It rarely fits a bite with stitches, scarring, rabies shots or a child victim, because the small claims rules cover only claims of $8,000 or less.
Often, yes. Florida's statute covers a bite in a public place, such as a city or county dog park, and makes the owner liable without proof the dog was dangerous before. County code allows dogs off leash only in park areas authorized for that, under a competent person's supervision. Expect the insurer to argue that you were partly at fault, especially if you stepped in to separate dogs, so write down what happened and get witnesses' names. See who is liable at a dog park.
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