Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Fort Worth
Abogado especializado en mordeduras de perro en Fort Worth
On This Page
- Fort Worth and Tarrant County Dog Bite Statistics
- Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
- Fort Worth Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- Fort Worth Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After a Fort Worth Dog Bite
- Fort Worth Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in Fort Worth
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Fort Worth Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Tarrant County
- Compensation for Fort Worth Dog Bite Victims
- Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
- Statute of Limitations for Fort Worth Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Fort Worth Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Fort Worth Case
- Preguntas frecuentes
- No Strict Liability: Texas has no dog bite statute, so the case is built on the owner's knowledge or the owner's carelessness.
- First Bite Counts: The negligence route needs no bite history, so a first bite in Fort Worth is still often a winnable case.
- Restraint Ordinance: Fort Worth section 6-13 requires restraint and diligent care, and a violation is a Class C misdemeanor carrying a fine up to $2,000.
- Two City Labels: Fort Worth runs a local aggressive dog category beside the state dangerous dog track, with a $500 annual dangerous dog registration fee.
- Ten Day Quarantine: Section 6-42(a) requires a minimum ten day quarantine running from the date of the bite, not from the day the dog is picked up.
- Report By Phone: Bite reports go to the 311 Fort Worth Contact Center at 817-392-1234, and the city code requires the report immediately.
- Two Year Deadline: Adults have two years from the bite to file suit, and a government defendant can cut the notice window to a few months.
- Fifty One Percent: A claimant found more than 50 percent responsible for their own injury recovers nothing in Texas.
A dog bite in Fort Worth works differently than it would in a strict liability state, because Texas has no dog bite statute making an owner automatically responsible. Liability runs through two routes: proof the owner knew or had reason to know the dog was dangerous, and ordinary negligence in how the dog was kept or handled. The second route needs no bite history at all, which is why a first bite in Fort Worth is still often a case worth bringing.
Below: what the Fort Worth city code requires of dog owners, how Fort Worth Animal Care and Control and the rabies quarantine work, which local hospitals carry state trauma designations, who can be responsible besides the owner, what you can recover, and how long you have.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases and nothing else. The consultation is free, and you pay no fee unless we recover money for you.
Fort Worth and Tarrant County Dog Bite Statistics
We have not found a published Fort Worth dog bite count. The city puts out a monthly Code Compliance report that opens with a Fort Worth Animal Care and Control infographic counting intakes, adoptions, citations and live release rates. The August 2026 report lists 1,493 animals taken in and 211 citations. There is no bite line, no quarantine line and no dangerous dog line in it. We have not found a Tarrant County bite total on an official county page either, so treat any local bite figure quoted online with caution.
The closest honest measure of scale is a statewide insurance number. The Insurance Information Institute and State Farm ranked Texas sixth in the country in 2025 by estimated dog related injury claims, with 1,313 claims statewide at an average cost of $70,885. Two cautions: it counts claims rather than bites, and the Institute notes the table also includes other dog related injuries such as fractures.
Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
Texas has no statute making a dog owner automatically liable, and no statewide leash law. Liability is common law, out of the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Marshall v. Ranne. If the dog had dangerous tendencies not normal for a dog and the owner knew or had reason to know, the owner is responsible even if the owner was careful. Because the usual proof of that knowledge is a prior bite, Texas is called a one bite state.
Do not stop there. The second route is ordinary negligence, and Texas courts hold that a negligence plaintiff does not have to prove the dog was vicious at all. It asks whether the owner handled or contained the dog reasonably: was it leashed, was the gate latched, had it gotten out before, who was walking it. The Texas Supreme Court has also held that an owner whose dog was never known to be vicious still has a duty to try to stop an attack once it has begun. In our experience the negligence route is often the stronger one, and a first bite does not automatically end a claim.
Health and Safety Code chapter 822, including the dangerous dog rules and Lillian’s Law, is criminal and administrative only. It decides whether a dog is seized, declared dangerous or destroyed and whether the owner is prosecuted. A dangerous dog declaration does not pay you a dollar. Your civil claim is separate, and the animal control file is evidence in it.
Fort Worth Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
Fort Worth City Code section 6-13(a) makes it unlawful for an owner to fail to keep an animal under restraint and to exercise diligent care and control over it. Section 6-1 counts a dog as restrained when the owner exercises diligent care and control and the dog is in an adequate enclosure, secured by a leash, or under the immediate control of a responsible person. That last route is narrow, and it does not apply on a street or sidewalk in a residential area. Enclosure standards matter after an escape: section 6-13(b) requires an outside perimeter barrier at least 48 inches high, and 72 inches for a dog the city has labeled aggressive. A violation is a Class C misdemeanor carrying a fine up to $2,000. It is strong evidence, not automatic liability: you still have to show it caused the bite.
Fort Worth then runs two separate dog labels. The dangerous dog follows the state definition in Health and Safety Code 822.041: an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury outside the dog’s enclosure, or unprovoked acts outside it that make someone reasonably believe an attack is coming. Under section 6-15.3 the code compliance director may investigate and may take sworn statements from victims and witnesses, and if the director makes a determination the director must notify the owner in writing. The owner then has 15 days from that notice to appeal to municipal court. Section 6-15.4 requires the dog leashed or securely enclosed and muzzled off the property, and within 30 days registered, with a $500 annual fee, at least $100,000 in liability coverage or proof of financial responsibility, spay or neuter, and warning signs on the enclosure.
Beside it sits a purely local label, the aggressive dog, in sections 6-14 through 6-14.5. The definition sits in section 6-1 and reaches a dog that made an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury to another animal outside its enclosure, on more than one occasion bit someone who was lawfully inside its own enclosure, repeatedly tried to dig or climb out to get at someone where an enforcement officer saw it, or committed unprovoked acts that would make a person reasonably fear an attack. Notice that second prong: it reaches repeat bites on people who were lawfully inside the dog’s own enclosure. This appeal goes to the director, whose decision section 6-14.1 makes final, and under 6-14.3(d) an aggressive dog that later attacks a person also draws the dangerous dog process.
Fort Worth Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
Fort Worth Animal Care and Control is a division of the city’s Code Compliance Department, and section 6-1 makes that department’s director the local rabies control authority, the office a bite report has to reach.
Section 6-42(a) requires a dog that bites, or otherwise creates a possible rabies exposure, to be quarantined immediately for a minimum of ten days from the date of the bite, or longer if the rabies control authority thinks it necessary. Under 6-42(b) the owner has 24 hours from notification to submit the dog to a Texas Department of Health approved facility, or to a licensed veterinarian’s clinic in the city that has isolation cages, or to home quarantine. Home quarantine under 6-42(c) is an exception, not a default, and all five conditions must be met, including an approved secure enclosure, a current rabies vaccination or a dog not over 16 weeks old, and a dog that was not a stray. Release comes only on a written release from a licensed veterinarian, and only once proof of vaccination has been provided, all costs are paid, and the animal is not being held for legal proceedings.
What the ten days mean: a dog alive and clinically normal at the end of the observation period could not have been shedding rabies virus at the time of that bite. Whether you need rabies post exposure treatment is decided by your doctor with the health department, and it is often started right away rather than held for ten days. If the dog is never found there is no observation to rely on. Here is what it means to be bitten by an unvaccinated dog.
What To Do After a Fort Worth Dog Bite
Take these in order.
- Call 911 if anyone is badly hurt or the dog is still loose. Otherwise, Fort Worth police list 817-392-4222 to report a non-emergency.
- Get the owner’s name, phone number and address, and ask whether the rabies vaccination is current.
- Get medical care the same day. Bites seed bacteria deep under the skin and a bite infection can surface a day or two later.
- Report the bite. Call the 311 Fort Worth Contact Center at 817-392-1234, or dial 311 in the city. That starts the quarantine and creates the record.
- Photograph the wounds over several days as they change, plus the gate, fence or open door, and collect witness names and numbers before people leave.
- Write down what the owner did while the dog was on you, and who had to pull it off. In Texas that is its own ground for liability.
- Keep every record, including receipts, proof of missed work and your health plan’s explanation of benefits statements.
- Do not give a recorded statement to the owner’s insurer before you talk to a lawyer. Casual words about what you were doing get used to push fault onto you.
Fort Worth Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
Fort Worth has two state-designated Level I trauma centers. Deep punctures, a wound that will not stop bleeding, a bite to the face, hand or joint, and any serious bite to a child belong in an emergency department rather than a walk in clinic.
- John Peter Smith Hospital. State-designated Level I trauma center in Fort Worth. The health network lists 817-702-3431.
- Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. State-designated Level I trauma center. The hospital’s location page lists 817-250-2000.
- Cook Children’s Medical Center. A children’s hospital in Fort Worth, listed by Texas DSHS as a Level II trauma center with a contingent designation as of September 2026. It lists 682-885-4000 and states that this line is answered 24 hours a day.
Medical City Arlington is also a state-designated Level II center in Tarrant County. Wherever you go, say it was a dog bite and ask that the wound be measured and described in the chart. That description is the first proof of how bad it was.
How To Report a Dog Bite in Fort Worth
Fort Worth writes the reporting duty into its own code. Section 6-42(k) requires any person who knows of an animal that has bitten, scratched or otherwise created a condition that may have exposed a human being to rabies to report it immediately to the local rabies control authority, and requires the report to include the name and address of the victim and of the animal’s owner if known, plus any other information the caller has about the incident or the animal.
The route is the phone. Call the 311 Fort Worth Contact Center at 817-392-1234, or dial 311 inside the city. Do not count on reporting a bite through the city website. Fort Worth publishes an online animal issue form for general complaints, but its service list has no bite option, so the call is the report. Under section 6-42(j) the owner has a duty too, to submit the animal for quarantine to the rabies control authority or to any police officer.
Report even if you know the owner and even if the owner apologized. It records the dog, the owner’s address, the vaccination status and any earlier run-ins with animal control. More on what happens after a dog bite is reported.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Fort Worth Dog Bite
A Texas claim starts with proof that the defendant owned or possessed the dog, and possessor is read broadly. In a case tried in Tarrant County, a jury held the parents who owned the house and the dog liable along with their adult son, who was only staying there temporarily. Read more on what determines ownership of a dog. Screen for:
- Everyone who kept the dog. Every adult at the address, anyone who fed, walked or housed it, and whoever is named on the rabies certificate or city registration.
- A landlord or apartment owner. If the bite happened in a breezeway, parking lot or laundry area the landlord controlled, the standard is actual or imputed knowledge of the dog’s tendencies. Inside a rental where the landlord is out of possession, you must show the landlord actually knew the dog was dangerous and could control the premises.
- A government owner or handler, a harder case with short notice deadlines and statutory caps. Call a lawyer the same week.
One myth to bury: Texas Family Code chapter 41, the parental liability statute, reaches property damage only. It gives a bite victim nothing against the parents of a teenager who owns the dog. The real route to the parents is that they housed, fed and controlled the dog, and own the home the insurance is written on.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in Tarrant County
Fort Worth is the seat of Tarrant County, whose trial courts include civil district courts, civil county courts and justice of the peace courts. A case with surgery, scarring or a child victim belongs in district court. Your lawyer decides where it goes and tracks the deadlines. Your part matters more:
- Keep treating. In our experience gaps are one of the first things an adjuster points to.
- Keep the paper, including imaging reports, receipts and the explanation of benefits statements showing what was actually paid. Here is what counts as medical evidence in a dog bite claim.
- Report the bite so your lawyer can request the animal control file, the quarantine record and any prior complaints about the same dog.
- Say nothing recorded. Give the insurer your lawyer’s name and stop.
- Call early. Dogs get rehomed, tenants move out and cameras overwrite in days.
In our experience most claims never see a courtroom. Preparing one as if it will be tried is what we find moves the offer.
Compensation for Fort Worth Dog Bite Victims
Texas puts no cap on pain, disfigurement or impairment damages in a dog bite case. The caps people have heard about apply to medical malpractice and to claims against government bodies, not to a claim against a dog owner.
- Economic losses. Emergency care, wound repair, surgery and later scar revision, rabies post exposure treatment, therapy, counseling, lost wages and lost earning capacity and childcare.
- Non-economic losses, which Texas juries award under separate labels: physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, loss of consortium, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life. Disfigurement and impairment are their own line items, which matters enormously in facial scarring cases.
One Texas rule surprises everyone. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.0105, as the Texas Supreme Court read it in the Haygood case, you recover medical expenses actually paid or incurred, not the amount billed. If a $60,000 bill was settled by your health plan for $18,000, the recoverable figure is $18,000, and the written off part of the bill does not go in front of the jury. For how claims are valued, see dog bite compensation and the average dog bite settlement in Texas.
Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
Texas does not use the pure comparative fault rule some states use. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.001, a claimant found more than 50 percent responsible for their own injury recovers nothing at all. At exactly 50 percent you still recover half. That cliff is a strong reason not to guess your way through a conversation with an adjuster.
Below the bar, section 33.012 simply reduces the award. If a Fort Worth jury values a case at $200,000 and finds the injured person 20 percent responsible for reaching over a fence after being told not to, the recovery is $160,000. At 51 percent it is zero.
No Texas statute makes provocation a defense to a civil dog bite claim. The word unprovoked appears in the dangerous dog and criminal statutes, not in the civil case. What provocation does is become a percentage, and it is also used to recast a dog’s earlier bites as justified reactions rather than warning signs. A Fort Worth jury rejected exactly that argument in a case where the owners said every earlier bite had been provoked. Read more on dog bite provocation.
Statute of Limitations for Fort Worth Dog Bite Cases
An adult bitten in Fort Worth generally has two years from the date of the bite to file suit, under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003. A wrongful death claim runs two years from the date of death. A demand letter, an insurance claim or an animal control report does not stop the clock, and missing it ends the case no matter how badly you were hurt. More on the dog bite statute of limitations.
For a child, section 16.001 does not start the clock until the 18th birthday, so the practical deadline is the 20th birthday. A parent’s own claims, such as bills the parent paid, should be treated as running on the ordinary two year clock.
If a government body is involved the deadline is far shorter. Written notice has to reach the governmental unit within six months under section 101.101, and a Texas city charter is allowed to shorten that. The Texas Supreme Court has enforced a 90 day charter deadline. If the dog belonged to a city, a county, a school district or a public employee on duty, get a lawyer on it within days so the charter period can be checked and met.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for Fort Worth Dog Bites
In the ordinary Fort Worth case the money comes from the dog owner’s homeowner or renter policy, through its personal liability coverage. The Insurance Information Institute describes the structure plainly: those policies typically cover dog bite liability and legal expenses up to the limits, typically $100,000 to $300,000, and above that the owner is responsible for the rest. Many homeowner and renter policies also carry a small medical payments to others coverage that pays reasonable medical expenses without any finding of fault.
No Texas statute requires an ordinary dog owner to carry liability insurance. There is one exception. The owner of a legally dangerous dog must obtain liability coverage or show financial responsibility of at least $100,000 under Health and Safety Code 822.042, and Fort Worth section 6-15.4(b)(2) repeats that requirement, with section 6-15.4(b)(1) adding the $500 annual registration fee. Note the phrase show financial responsibility: a registration does not prove a policy exists, so ask animal control for the proof the owner filed.
Coverage is not guaranteed. The Institute notes that once a dog has bitten someone an insurer may charge more, decline to renew, or exclude that dog. A denial does not end your case. It turns it toward the owner personally and toward any other policy, such as a landlord’s.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your Fort Worth Case
Dog Bite Laws works on dog attack cases and nothing else. In Fort Worth that means knowing how to get the Fort Worth Animal Care and Control file and the quarantine record, whether the city labeled the dog aggressive or dangerous, and how to build the knowledge and negligence proof Texas requires when there is no strict liability statute to fall back on.
We handle the insurer, gather the records, work through medical liens, and file suit when a company will not deal fairly. Nothing is due up front and there is no fee unless we recover money for you. We also handle cases in Dallas and Austin.
If you or your child was bitten in Fort Worth, talk to Dog Bite Laws for a free case review. We will tell you plainly whether there is a case and what it would take to prove it.
Preguntas frecuentes
They are two separate city tracks. The dangerous dog label follows the state definition, is decided by the code compliance director under section 6-15.3, and carries registration, a $500 annual fee, $100,000 in coverage, muzzling and signage. The aggressive dog label is local, reaches conduct like repeated escape attempts or bites inside the dog's own enclosure, and its appeal goes to the director rather than a court. Either finding is evidence of what the owner knew. Neither pays you anything by itself.
It can be, but only as an exception. Section 6-42(c) allows home quarantine solely if all five conditions are met: an approved secure enclosure, a current rabies vaccination or a dog under 16 weeks, daily monitoring with immediate notice of any change, observation by the rabies control authority or a veterinarian on the first and last days, and a dog that was not a stray at the time. If any condition fails, the dog belongs in an approved facility or a veterinary clinic.
Fort Worth Animal Care and Control covers the city. Tarrant County Public Health states that animal control for unincorporated areas is handled by the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and gives the Sheriff's Dispatch line as 817-884-1213. The same page routes dangerous dog registration to its Environmental Health Division at 817-321-4960 and says to call 911 for any animal that poses a danger. Your civil claim against the owner works the same either way.
Sometimes. Report it anyway so Fort Worth Animal Care and Control can try to identify and impound the dog, and ask neighbors and nearby businesses about cameras and about the same dog getting out before. Without the dog there is no ten day observation, so your doctor and the health department will usually recommend rabies post exposure treatment, and that cost belongs in the claim if an owner is later identified. Your own health coverage handles the bills meanwhile.
Two things. Medically, an unvaccinated dog still gets the ten day observation, but it cannot stay in home quarantine under section 6-42(c) unless it was under 16 weeks old at the time, so expect it to be confined at a facility or a clinic. Legally, it is evidence. Texas requires rabies vaccination by 16 weeks, and Fort Worth section 6-41(a) makes keeping an unvaccinated dog over four months old an offense.
The dog owner's liability insurer generally pays once, at the end, as part of a settlement. Until then the bills run through your own health insurance, or through a medical payments to others coverage on the owner's policy if it has one, or in some cases through an arrangement your lawyer makes with the provider. Keep every explanation of benefits statement, because Texas measures recoverable medical expenses by what was actually paid or incurred.
Infórmanos sobre la mordedura de perro que has sufrido
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Otras ciudades de Texas en las que prestamos servicio
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Testimonios de clientes
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