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A serious dog attack in Hawaii can mean emergency surgery, permanent scarring, lost wages, and lasting trauma. Hawaii’s dog bite law, Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-9, holds an owner or harborer answerable for the injuries their animal causes — and where the owner already knew the dog was dangerous, that liability becomes strict, meaning you do not have to prove the owner did anything careless.
That framework rewards early, thorough investigation. At Dog Bite Laws, we build the record that shows what the owner knew and did, so Hawaii victims recover the full compensation the law allows — medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.
Economic damages are the direct, measurable financial losses caused by the attack. These include emergency room bills, hospitalization costs, surgery fees (including reconstructive or plastic surgery for scarring), follow-up medical appointments, prescribed medications, wound care, and physical therapy or rehabilitation. If injuries require ongoing treatment, future medical expenses are also recoverable.
Lost wages cover income you missed during recovery. If the injuries affect your ability to work long-term, for example, nerve damage to your hands, or PTSD that prevents you returning to your previous role, loss of future earning capacity can also be claimed. These figures are typically supported by employer records, tax returns, and expert testimony.
Non-economic damages cover the human cost of the attack. Pain and suffering accounts for the physical discomfort experienced during and after the injury. Emotional distress covers anxiety, depression, nightmares, and the lasting fear of dogs that many victims develop, particularly children. PTSD is common after dog attacks and has real, documentable medical value in a claim.
Permanent scarring or disfigurement carries significant weight, especially when it is visible on the face, neck, or hands. Loss of enjoyment covers activities the victim can no longer participate in due to physical or psychological limitations. Loss of consortium may be claimed by a spouse or family member when the attack meaningfully disrupts the victim’s relationships and family life.
If the victim is a minor, parents or legal guardians can file on their behalf for both economic and non-economic damages. Claims involving children often reach higher values due to the long-term duration of disfigurement and the psychological impact that can follow a child into adulthood.
With dog bite cases, punitive damages do not apply. They are reserved for situations where the dog owner’s conduct was especially reckless or malicious. For example, knowingly keeping a dog with a documented history of attacks without any precautions, or allowing an aggressive dog to roam free in a populated area after prior warnings. When punitive damages are available, they can significantly increase total recovery above compensatory amounts.
Several factors shape the final settlement value. The severity of the injury such as a deep facial wound requiring multiple surgeries, can settle for far more than a bite that heals cleanly. The visibility of scarring, the victim’s age, available insurance coverage, quality of medical documentation, and strength of the liability argument all play a role.
Our team has recovered over $1M in individual dog bite settlements. See real case results including a $505,000 settlement for a facial bite and a $295,000 recovery for a three-year-old victim. For a quick estimate of your own case value, use our dog bite settlement calculator.
The steps you take in the first 24 to 48 hours after a dog bite directly affect your ability to recover full compensation. Evidence disappears fast and early mistakes can be used against you.
Contact a Hawaii dog bite lawyer before accepting any settlement offer. Early offers typically undervalue long-term medical costs and non-economic damages. Once you accept, you generally cannot reopen the claim.
Hawaii gives dog bite victims two years from the date of the attack to file a personal injury lawsuit (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7). For children injured by a dog, the deadline is generally extended until the child reaches adulthood, but you should never assume extra time applies to your case.
Two years can pass quickly while you focus on recovery. Medical records must be gathered, insurance coverage identified, responsible parties confirmed, and evidence of what the owner knew preserved before it disappears. Contacting an attorney early protects both your health and your claim.
Dog bite settlements are paid through the dog owner’s homeowners or renters insurance policy. Standard homeowners policies typically include personal liability coverage between $100,000 and $300,000, and that coverage applies to dog bite incidents even when the attack happens away from the insured property. If the bite occurred at a rental property, the landlord’s policy may also apply.
Insurance companies will work to minimize what they pay. They may claim the bite was provoked, challenge the severity of injuries, or dispute liability. Having a dog bite lawyer handle all communication with the insurer protects your claim from being undervalued before you fully understand the scope of your damages.
Hawaii’s animal liability statute, Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-9, makes an owner or harborer of an animal answerable for the personal injury or property damage the animal causes. The victim must connect their injuries directly to the attack. Importantly, the statute allows recovery even where the owner did not know the animal was dangerous — the case can proceed on the owner’s unreasonable conduct without proof of prior viciousness.
When the owner did have knowledge that the dog had been vicious in the past, the liability tightens toward true strict liability: such an owner is charged with taking reasonable steps to prevent the dog from hurting anyone, and their failure to do so is what the law targets. Hawaii’s statute also reaches attacks by animals generally, not just dog bites, and covers the full range of harm an attack causes.
Because Hawaii treats an owner who already knew the dog was dangerous more harshly, evidence of what the owner knew is often the difference between a hard-fought case and a straightforward one. Prior bites, complaints to animal control, aggressive lunging or growling, ‘beware of dog’ signage, and breed-specific containment all speak to that knowledge.
Even without proof of prior viciousness, a Hawaii victim can still recover by showing the owner failed to exercise reasonable care in controlling the dog. Building both angles at once — the knowledge record and the negligence record — is one of the most important things a dog bite attorney does in a Hawaii case.
For a full breakdown of the laws, liability rules, and reporting requirements, see our dedicated Hawaii dog bite laws guide.
Beyond the statute, Hawaii expressly allows dog bite victims to pursue an ordinary negligence claim — either in situations the statute does not squarely cover or to recover additional damages. Negligence requires proving that the owner owed a duty to exercise reasonable care in controlling the dog, breached that duty, and that the breach proximately caused the injuries.
A violation of a county leash law or animal-control ordinance can also support a claim of negligence per se, where the owner’s breaking of a safety law is treated as evidence of negligence itself. We investigate every available theory to maximize your recovery.
The dog’s owner is the primary defendant in most Hawaii cases, but the statute itself reaches any harborer of the animal. Responsibility can extend to a keeper who cared for the dog, a landlord who knew a dangerous dog lived on the property and did nothing, or a parent of a minor owner.
Identifying every responsible party matters because it can open additional insurance coverage — often the difference between a policy that fully covers your injuries and one that falls short.
Provocation is the defense insurers raise most often, claiming the victim triggered the attack. In Hawaii, the statute only excuses the owner where the animal was teased, tormented, or abused without the owner’s negligence or involvement — ordinary reactions like flinching, walking past, or protecting a child are not provocation, and we push back hard on inflated versions of events.
Hawaii applies modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-31. You can still recover as long as your share of the fault is not greater than the defendant’s — but if you are found 51% or more responsible, you recover nothing, and any award is reduced by your percentage of fault. Insurers know this and will try to push your share of blame past the line, which is exactly where experienced representation pays off.
Dog attacks are a serious and rising cost nationwide: U.S. insurers paid about $1.86 billion across 28,450 dog-related injury claims, an average of roughly $65,450 per claim, and more than 5,200 postal workers were attacked by dogs in 2025. The Hawaii Police Department recorded 231 dog bites reported on Hawaii Island (the Big Island) in 2022, up from 87 in 2019 (West Hawaii Today (citing Hawaii Police Department), 2022).
Hawaii’s dense residential neighborhoods on Oahu, Maui, and the other islands mean unrestrained dogs and postal, delivery, and utility workers regularly cross paths — a common setting for serious bites.
Dog control in Hawaii is handled largely at the county level, with each county setting its own leash, licensing, and dangerous-dog rules. A local ordinance violation can strengthen a civil claim, and we look for one in every case.
Dog Bite Laws is led by Michael Agruss, Managing Partner and personal injury attorney with a track record of results in dog bite cases. He is supported by Michael Bertucci, Taylor Kosla Unterberg, and Zara Saiyed, a team that handles dog bite cases across Hawaii and multiple other states.
The firm has recovered millions of dollars for dog bite victims. These results reflect the firm’s approach: identify every liable party, document every dollar of damages, and push for a full settlement before resorting to trial.
The team is available 24/7 and takes every case on a contingency basis. There are no upfront legal fees and no costs unless we win.
Read more client testimonials or contact us directly for a free, confidential case review.
Hawaii’s statute of limitations for personal injury is two years from the date of the bite under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7. Claims involving children are generally extended until they turn 18, but missing the deadline otherwise ends your right to recover. See our full Hawaii dog bite laws guide for detail on how deadlines are calculated.
Not necessarily. Under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 663-9, you can recover by showing the owner failed to use reasonable care, even without proving the dog was known to be dangerous. But where the owner did already know the dog was vicious, liability tightens toward strict liability. That is why evidence of prior aggression, complaints, or warnings is so valuable to your case.
Hawaii follows modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar. As long as your share of the fault is not greater than the dog owner’s, you can still recover, though your damages are reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found 51% or more responsible, you recover nothing — which is why insurers work hard to shift blame onto victims, and why having a lawyer protect your account matters.
Hawaii handles most dog control at the county level rather than through a single statewide dangerous-dog statute. Each county sets its own leash, licensing, and impoundment rules, and a documented violation of one of those ordinances can serve as powerful evidence of the owner’s negligence in your civil claim.
Nothing up front. We handle Hawaii dog bite cases on contingency — you pay no fee unless we recover money for you. Your case review is free, and you can reach us by call, text, email, or chat 24/7.
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