Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Louisville
Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Louisville
On This Page
- Louisville and Jefferson County Dog Bite Statistics
- Kentucky Dog Bite Law: Strict Liability for the Owner
- Louisville Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- Louisville Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After a Louisville Dog Bite
- Louisville Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in Louisville
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Louisville Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Jefferson County
- Compensation for Louisville Dog Bite Victims
- Comparative Fault in Kentucky: Pure Comparative Fault With No Bar
- Statute of Limitations for Louisville Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Louisville Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Louisville Case
- Preguntas frecuentes
- Strict Liability: Under KRS 258.235(4) the owner of a dog that injures you in Louisville is responsible for the damage, and the Supreme Court of Kentucky called that strict liability in Maupin v. Tankersley (2018).
- 972 Reported Bites: The health department's open data bite file holds 972 separate dog bite reports dated 2025, by our count, up from 852 in 2023.
- Leash Off Your Property: Metro Code Chapter 91 requires a dog off its owner's premises, where permission has not been granted, to be on a lead or leash under the control of someone physically able to control it, except inside a designated off-leash area.
- Ten Days From the Bite: Louisville's code requires a dog that bit someone to be quarantined for ten days counted from the time of the bite, at the owner's expense.
- Two City Labels: Louisville can declare a dog dangerous or potentially dangerous, which brings an approved enclosure, a muzzle off the property and a leash no longer than four feet.
- One Year Only: An adult has one year from the bite to file suit under KRS 413.140(1)(a), and a child's own claim generally runs until the nineteenth birthday.
- No Fault Cutoff: Kentucky's pure comparative fault lowers an award by the victim's share of blame without ever barring it, even above 50 percent.
- Level I Trauma: UofL Hospital and Norton Children's Hospital are the two Jefferson County hospitals on Kentucky's trauma system list dated April 11, 2025, both at Level I.
If a dog bit you in Louisville, the owner is responsible for your injuries under Kentucky’s strict liability statute, whether or not the dog ever bit anyone before. Kentucky dog bite law lets your own share of fault lower the award without ending the claim, but it gives an adult only one year to file suit, half the time many people expect.
This page covers our count of the bite reports in Louisville Metro’s open data file, the leash and dangerous dog rules in Metro Code Chapter 91, which agency handles the bite and the ten-day quarantine, the Level I trauma centers in Jefferson County, how to report, who can be held responsible, where a case is filed, and the deadlines.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases. Talk to us for free, and pay no fee unless we recover money for you.
Louisville and Jefferson County Dog Bite Statistics
Louisville Metro publishes a record-level file of bites. The Department of Public Health and Wellness posts its bite data file on the city’s open data portal: bite incidents reported to and investigated by the department, with identifying details removed. Each row records the species, the date, and whether the bite was to the body or the head.
The file does not publish a yearly total, so we counted it. Each incident appears twice, once as the first entry and once as a follow-up under the same number, so we counted distinct incidents, by the reported date of the bite. By our count, the department’s file holds these dog bite reports:
- 2023: 852 dog bite reports.
- 2024: 927 dog bite reports.
- 2025: 972 dog bite reports, 120 of them coded as bites to the head.
Read those numbers as a floor. They count bites that reached the health department, and a bite nobody reported is not in them. The file also has some obvious date entry errors, so a few records may sit in the wrong year.
Louisville Metro Animal Services has not posted an annual report with bite totals; its annual reports page says the 2025 report is coming soon.
Kentucky Dog Bite Law: Strict Liability for the Owner
State law decides the claim, and it favors the person who was bitten. KRS 258.235(4) says any owner whose dog is found to have caused damage to a person “shall be responsible for that damage.” In Maupin v. Tankersley, decided February 15, 2018, the Supreme Court of Kentucky held that this is strict liability. Once a jury finds the defendant owned the dog, liability is fixed.
So Kentucky is not a one bite rule state. You need not prove an earlier bite, that the owner knew the dog was aggressive, or carelessness. The statute does not crowd out ordinary negligence. In 2025 the Supreme Court repeated that negligence and strict liability are “two separate and distinguishable legal concepts,” which matters when the person you need to reach, such as a landlord, is not a statutory owner.
Louisville’s own code has a section on the same subject. Metro Code section 91.028 states that any person owning, controlling, or having care or custody of any animal “shall be liable for any personal injury caused by such animal” and must take reasonable and necessary precautions to protect all persons from physical harm from it.
The full treatment of defenses, ownership and the 2017 landlord amendment is on our Kentucky dog bite lawyer page.
Louisville Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
Kentucky’s dog statutes, KRS chapter 258, contain no general leash requirement, so the leash rule that applied where you were bitten is local. In Louisville it is Chapter 91 of the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Code, which the city’s animal services department links as its animal ordinance.
- Restraint at all times. Section 91.002 requires every animal except community cats to be kept under restraint at all times.
- On the owner’s property. A dog must be confined in a secure enclosure or accompanied by the owner and under the owner’s direct control.
- Off the owner’s property. Away from the owner’s premises, where permission has not been granted, the dog must be on a lead or leash and under the control of a responsible person physically able to control the dog.
- Off-leash areas. The exception is an enclosed off-leash area designated by state or Metro parks, and it never applies to a dog the city has labeled dangerous or potentially dangerous.
- Chains and tethers. Section 91.091 bars keeping a dog only on a fixed-point chain or tether between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. or for more than one hour in any eight, and no tether may let the dog leave the owner’s property.
Chapter 91 defines an owner as any person owning or keeping animals in Jefferson County, and its definition of dog covers any dog regardless of age. If you were bitten in one of the small cities inside the county, ask whether that city has its own rules.
A violation is supporting proof, not the basis of liability. Kentucky’s negligence per se statute, KRS 446.070, lets a person injured by the violation of a statute recover, but the Supreme Court of Kentucky has said in T & M Jewelry v. Hicks (2006) that its “any statute” language is limited to Kentucky statutes and not federal statutes or local ordinances. A citation still matters as a record: a dated animal control record showing the dog was loose answers the adjuster who later claims you walked into the dog’s yard.
Louisville Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
Two Louisville Metro agencies handle a bite.
Louisville Metro Animal Services. LMAS is the animal control agency for the consolidated government, run from its Animal Care Complex on Newburg Road. Its dispatchers take service requests from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day, and “bite/quarantine cases” are on its list. Officers can impound a dog, cite the owner into Jefferson County District Court, and start the city’s dangerous dog process.
Public Health and Wellness. The health department receives bite reports and issues the quarantine order. Its rabies control page says a pet’s bite must be reported to the department, which may then order the animal quarantined.
The quarantine rule in Louisville is firmer than the state’s. State law lets a health officer confine a dog for up to ten days. Metro Code section 91.072 says a dog that bit a person “shall be quarantined for ten days from the time the bite occurs.” The owner pays every fee, an owner who fails to quarantine properly is subject to citation and the dog is impounded for the rest of the period, and a dog without a microchip gets one at the owner’s cost.
The owner can ask for quarantine at home, elsewhere, or at the LMAS facility. After ten days a health department representative visits and releases the dog only if it appears healthy, and an unvaccinated dog leaves with an order to be vaccinated.
Do not wait for the ten days to decide about rabies shots. The department’s guidance is that the first dose of post-exposure treatment can only be given in a hospital emergency department, with later doses on days 3, 7 and 14. The same page lists rabid bats found by the department’s lab in Jefferson County every year from 2021 to 2025, three of them in 2025.
What To Do After a Louisville Dog Bite
The first day sets up everything that follows, and in Kentucky the clock is short.
- Wash the wound. Use soap and water for at least ten minutes, as the state health cabinet advises, then get medical care.
- Choose the emergency department. Go there if the dog is unknown or its vaccination is in doubt, because that is where Louisville’s first rabies dose is given.
- Identify the owner. Get a name and address and ask for the rabies certificate. If the owner will not talk, note the exact address where the dog lives.
- Report it the same day. Make sure the bite reaches the health department and LMAS, since the quarantine runs from the bite, not from your call.
- Photograph the scene. Capture the wound, the leash or lack of one, the open gate, a tether that reached the sidewalk.
- Collect witness names, including neighbors who have seen this dog loose before.
- Keep every bill and explanation of benefits, plus a log of missed work.
- Decline a recorded statement. Sign nothing for the owner’s insurer until you talk to a lawyer.
- Put the one-year date on your calendar today.
A child bitten on the face, head or hand belongs in an emergency department the same day. Our guide to medical evidence in a dog bite claim explains which records carry weight later.
Louisville Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
Kentucky’s trauma system list, kept by the Kentucky Board of Emergency Medical Services and dated April 11, 2025, names two Jefferson County hospitals, and both are at the top level.
- UofL Health, UofL Hospital. Level I trauma center, verified by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.
- Norton Children’s Hospital. Level I pediatric trauma center, also verified, and the place for a child with a serious bite.
Other emergency departments in the county can treat a bite and give the first rabies dose; the trauma designation matters for a mauling, heavy bleeding, or a bite to a child’s face or neck.
Urgent care can clean a shallow bite and start antibiotics. Use an emergency department if the wound is deep, is on the face, a hand or a joint, if the dog is unknown or unvaccinated, or if redness or fever show up later, a sign of dog bite infection.
Tell staff it was a dog bite. KRS 258.065 requires a physician to report a dog bite to the local health department within 12 hours, and Metro Code section 91.075 makes hospitals, clinics, veterinarians, peace officers and animal control officers in Louisville subject to the reporting requirements of that statute as well.
How To Report a Dog Bite in Louisville
A report creates the dated official record your claim leans on, and in Louisville it can go to more than one place.
- Public Health and Wellness. The department receives bite reports and orders the quarantine. If a doctor treated you, the doctor’s report should reach it; if no doctor did, state law puts the duty on you, or on a parent for a child.
- LMAS dispatch. Use the LMAS animal control line to open a bite case. Dispatch asks for your complaint and a description of the dog, the exact address, then your name and contact details. Anonymous reports are allowed, but LMAS says they make investigations harder.
- Metrocall 311. Takes animal service requests weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., by phone or through the Metrocall 311 customer service portal.
- 911. For an attack in progress, a serious injury, or an emergency after LMAS dispatch closes.
Write down the name of every officer you speak with and any case or citation number.
If an officer did not see the violation, Metro Code section 91.073(F) gives you a lever: at the request of a complainant who witnessed it, the officer “shall take a sworn written statement” and file the complaint with the District Court.
A report can also start Louisville’s dangerous dog process. Under section 91.150, no dog may commit an attack, and an officer who sees the attack or the wounds can impound the dog and cite the owner. Under the alternative procedure in section 91.151, the LMAS director decides whether the dog is potentially dangerous (among other grounds, an unprovoked bite, scratch or bruise to a person) or dangerous (among other grounds, an unprovoked severe attack, meaning bites or violent shaking that cause serious physical trauma or death). The owner gets certified mail notice and five days to appeal. Under section 91.152, a labeled dog must live in an approved enclosure secure enough to keep children from contact with it and stay on a leash no longer than four feet outside it, and the chapter’s restraint rules require both kinds of labeled dog to be muzzled off the owner’s premises. Separately, under KRS 258.235(5), a person attacked off the owner’s or keeper’s premises can ask the district court to declare the dog vicious. See what happens after a dog bite is reported.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Louisville Dog Bite
Kentucky’s definition of owner is broad. Under KRS 258.095(5) it includes everyone with a property right in the dog and everyone who keeps or harbors it, has it in their care, or permits it to remain on premises they own and occupy, or lease and occupy.
- More than one owner. The buyer, and a person who owns or leases and lives in the home where the dog is allowed to stay, can both qualify. Read what determines ownership of a dog.
- Whoever had the dog that day. Anyone who keeps or harbors the dog or has it in their care, such as a friend who has the dog in their care for the week.
- A landlord or apartment complex. Since a 2017 amendment effective June 29, 2017, the property-based part of the owner definition covers premises a person both owns and occupies, or leases and occupies, and in February 2025 the Supreme Court of Kentucky read that to mean landowners are statutory owners only if they both own and occupy the premises. In the same case, Deramos v. Anderson Communities, it allowed a tenant who alleged she was attacked in an apartment common area by a neighbor’s dog to go forward with a negligence claim against the landlord. Older Kentucky decisions looked at what the landlord knew about the dog and what area the landlord controlled.
- A business. Kentucky’s general definitions let “person” extend to corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies under KRS 446.010(33), and the Court of Appeals said in Jordan v. Lusby (2002) that the owner definition was designed to reach those who keep dogs owned by others, such as kennel owners.
There is a trap for people who work with dogs. Kentucky’s Court of Appeals has held that a groomer and a paid dog walker, having the dog in their care, were owners themselves and could not sue the dog’s legal owner under the statute. In the dog walker’s case the court also said that an owner who is not strictly liable is not necessarily exempt from negligence, so tell your lawyer on the first call if you were caring for the dog.
Claims against Louisville Metro itself face an immunity defense. Under KRS 67C.101(2)(e), the consolidated government “shall be accorded the same sovereign immunity granted counties, their agencies, officers, and employees.” The dog’s owner remains liable under the state statute either way.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Jefferson County
Jefferson County has two trial courts, and the amount at stake decides which one hears a case.
- Jefferson District Court. It has exclusive jurisdiction of civil cases worth up to $5,000 under KRS 24A.120, and its small claims division hears claims up to $2,500 under KRS 24A.230. It sits in the Louis D. Brandeis Hall of Justice at 600 West Jefferson Street, with the Circuit Court Clerk, and it also hears Chapter 91 citations and state vicious dog complaints.
- Jefferson Circuit Court. A court of general jurisdiction under KRS 23A.010, it takes civil claims above that amount. It sits in the Jefferson County Judicial Center at 700 West Jefferson Street.
The one-year deadline is a deadline to file suit, not to open an insurance claim. A case still in negotiation as the year ends has to be filed to stay alive.
Your part is to go to every follow-up appointment, keep the bills and pay stubs, get the LMAS and health department case numbers, photograph the wound weekly, and call early while the dog and the witnesses can still be found. Our guide on how to file a dog bite claim walks through the rest.
Compensation for Louisville Dog Bite Victims
A Kentucky dog bite claim seeks the losses the bite caused. In the 2025 Deramos case, for example, the injured tenant sought past and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, and compensation for the loss of her own dog. Your own share of fault, if any, reduces the total.
Kentucky has no cap against a private owner. Section 54 of the Kentucky Constitution bars the General Assembly from limiting what an injured person recovers, so against a private owner the practical limit is insurance and assets.
If an owner destroys the dog in a way that prevents rabies testing or quarantine, state law makes that owner liable for your rabies treatment, and the quarantine fees under section 91.072 fall on the owner, not you.
Punitive damages are available but hard to win. KRS 411.184 requires clear and convincing proof, and after Williams v. Wilson (1998) gross negligence remains a basis for them. The focus is the defendant’s conduct, not ownership: KRS 411.186 tells the jury to weigh factors such as the likelihood that serious harm would arise from the defendant’s misconduct and the defendant’s awareness of that likelihood. A scar on a child’s face is valued differently from one on a forearm.
For more on value, see dog bite compensation and our dog bite settlement calculator. The Insurance Information Institute and State Farm put the national average dog-related injury claim at $65,450 in 2025, an industry average that does not predict any one Louisville case.
Comparative Fault in Kentucky: Pure Comparative Fault With No Bar
Kentucky adopted pure comparative fault in Hilen v. Hays in 1984, and KRS 411.182 applies it to all tort actions. Maupin applied it to dog bites in 2018. Maupin directs that the jury first decide whether the defendant owned the dog, which fixes liability, then be told of your duty to use ordinary care for your own safety, and then set damages and split them by fault.
The arithmetic has no cliff. A victim found 20 percent at fault recovers 80 percent of the damages. A victim found 60 percent at fault still recovers 40 percent. There is no 50 or 51 percent line in Kentucky.
That is why the seconds before the bite get argued. An insurer will point to provocation, such as reaching over a fence, petting a strange dog, or stepping into a yard. Louisville’s dangerous dog rules use similar words. Under section 91.150(B), a dog is not deemed dangerous or potentially dangerous solely because it bit someone tormenting or abusing it or entering the owner’s property to commit a crime, but simple trespass onto private property is not considered provocation. Those exemptions are written for the city’s labels for the dog. Do not guess at what happened in a recorded call with an insurer.
Statute of Limitations for Louisville Dog Bite Cases
One year. KRS 413.140(1)(a) requires an action for an injury to the person to be filed within one year after it accrued, and for a dog bite that is the date of the bite. A health department report, an LMAS case, or an open insurance claim does not stop that clock.
- Adult bitten in Louisville: one year from the date of the bite.
- Child bitten in Louisville: one year after turning 18, so by the nineteenth birthday, for the child’s own claim.
- A parent’s own claim for the child’s injury: treat it as one year from the bite.
- Louisville Metro involved: Metro has the same sovereign immunity as a county under KRS 67C.101(2)(e), so talk to a lawyer within days about any claim against Metro itself.
- A state agency involved: claims for negligence by the Commonwealth go to the Board of Claims within one year, with no extra time for a child.
Do not plan around the last day. The ten-day quarantine record, the LMAS file and fresh wound photographs are easiest to gather in the first weeks. Our guide to the dog bite statute of limitations explains how these clocks interact.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Louisville Dog Bites
In most Louisville cases the money comes from a homeowners or renters liability policy rather than the owner’s own pocket. The Insurance Information Institute says these policies typically cover dog-bite liability up to the policy limits, usually $100,000 to $300,000, with the owner responsible above that.
- More than one policy. Because Kentucky’s owner definition reaches anyone who keeps, harbors or cares for the dog, the person watching it that day may carry separate coverage.
- Apartment complexes. A landlord can still face a negligence claim, so ask about the landlord’s liability coverage too.
- No dangerous dog insurance rule. Kentucky’s dog statutes in chapter 258, which set the rules for court-declared vicious dogs, do not require their owners to carry liability insurance. Louisville’s section 91.152, which sets the requirements for owning a dangerous or potentially dangerous dog, lists an approved enclosure, a short leash, a muzzle for a dangerous dog, photographs, a microchip and an annual fee, not insurance.
- Breed. Do not assume there is no coverage because of what kind of dog it was. Ask for the policy itself, and look at every other policy that might apply.
Ask early, in writing, for the carrier’s name and the policy limits. It is a normal request, not a lawsuit.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Louisville Case
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases, and a Louisville case is built from local records: the health department bite report and quarantine order, the LMAS case and any dangerous dog determination, the sworn statement filed under section 91.073(F), and the medical chart from UofL Hospital or Norton Children’s. Strict liability does much of the work, so our effort goes to filing inside one year, finding every statutory owner and policy, and holding down the fault an insurer tries to put on you.
Founding attorney Michael Agruss built the firm around injured people who need someone else to carry the paperwork.
We also handle cases in Lexington and Bowling Green. Contact us for a free consultation, and do it soon, because the one-year clock started the day you were bitten. There is no fee unless we recover money for you.
Preguntas frecuentes
Yes. Metro Code Chapter 91 requires every dog to be under restraint at all times. Off its owner's premises, where permission has not been granted, a dog must be on a lead or leash under the control of a responsible person physically able to control it, unless it is inside a designated enclosed off-leash area. On the owner's property it must be in a secure enclosure or with the owner and under direct control. Kentucky's own dog statutes, KRS chapter 258, contain no general leash requirement.
Yes. The health department may order the quarantine, and its rabies page tells owners to let it know if they choose a location other than home or the Metro Animal Services facility. Louisville's code fixes the quarantine at ten days counted from the time of the bite, and a health department representative releases the dog only if it appears healthy at the end. An owner who does not quarantine properly is subject to citation, and the dog is impounded for the rest of the period.
Potentially dangerous is the lower label: an unprovoked bite, scratch or bruise to a person, among other grounds. Dangerous is for an unprovoked severe attack, meaning bites or violent shaking that cause serious physical trauma or death. Both require a secure enclosure approved by the LMAS director and a leash no longer than four feet outside it, and the chapter's restraint rules require both to be muzzled off the owner's premises. The owner can appeal the director's determination within five days of receiving notice.
A claim against Metro itself faces an immunity defense: under KRS 67C.101(2)(e), Louisville Metro has the same sovereign immunity granted Kentucky counties, so talk to a lawyer before counting on that claim. Prior complaints to LMAS can still matter in your claim against the dog's owner, because the older common-law negligence rule looked for proof that the owner knew of the dog's vicious propensities, and KRS 411.186 has a jury weigh the defendant's awareness of the likelihood of serious harm when deciding punitive damages.
Only a very small one. The small claims division of Jefferson District Court hears claims up to $2,500, and District Court as a whole handles civil cases up to $5,000. A claim for more than $5,000 goes to Jefferson Circuit Court. Small claims also does not change the one-year filing deadline.
For a serious bite, especially to the face, head or neck, go to Norton Children's Hospital, the Level I pediatric trauma center on Kentucky's trauma list. Any emergency department can clean a wound and give the first rabies dose, which Louisville's health department says must start in an emergency department. Tell staff it was a dog bite so the bite is reported to the health department.
Generally one year from the bite under KRS 413.140(1)(a). A child's own claim can be filed until one year after the child turns 18. Treat a parent's claim for the child's medical bills as running one year from the bite. Reports to LMAS or the health department, and talks with an insurer, do not pause the deadline.
Infórmanos sobre la mordedura de perro que has sufrido
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Otras ciudades de Kentucky en las que prestamos servicio
Otros estados en los que prestamos servicio
Testimonios de clientes
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