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A serious dog attack in Louisiana can mean emergency surgery, permanent scarring, lost wages, and lasting trauma. Louisiana’s dog bite law, La. Civ. Code art. 2321, imposes strict liability on a dog’s owner for injuries the dog causes — injuries the owner could have prevented and that the victim did not provoke.
That rule is more favorable to victims than the general negligence standard Louisiana applies to other animals. At Dog Bite Laws, we hold negligent owners and their insurers accountable so Louisiana 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 Louisiana 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.
Louisiana gives dog bite victims two years from the date the injury is sustained to file a lawsuit (La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1). This two-year prescriptive period applies to injuries arising after July 1, 2024, and replaced Louisiana’s long-standing one-year deadline — a change that makes confirming your exact deadline especially important.
Even two years can pass quickly while you focus on recovery. Medical records must be gathered, insurance coverage identified, responsible parties confirmed, and evidence of the containment failure 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.
Louisiana’s animal-liability rule, La. Civ. Code art. 2321, treats dogs differently from other animals. While the owner of most animals is answerable only if they knew or should have known the animal was dangerous and failed to use reasonable care, the article provides that the owner of a dog is strictly liable for injuries to persons or property caused by the dog — injuries the owner could have prevented and that did not result from the victim’s provocation.
In practice, a Louisiana dog bite plaintiff must show three things: that the dog caused the injury, that the owner could have prevented it, and that the victim did not provoke the dog. The plaintiff does not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. The statute also reaches property damage and injuries beyond bites.
Louisiana’s strict-liability rule for dogs is not automatic — the plaintiff must still show the owner could have prevented the attack. That element usually turns on how the dog was contained: an unfenced yard, an open gate, a dog off-leash in public, or a known escape route all point to preventable harm.
Because the owner will often argue the attack was unavoidable, documenting the containment failure early — through photos, witness accounts, and animal-control records — is one of the most important things a dog bite attorney does in a Louisiana case.
For a full breakdown of the laws, liability rules, and reporting requirements, see our dedicated Louisiana dog bite laws guide.
Where strict liability under art. 2321 is contested, a Louisiana victim can also pursue an ordinary negligence claim under La. Civ. Code arts. 2315 and 2316. Negligence requires proving that the owner owed a duty to exercise reasonable care in controlling the dog, breached that duty, and that the breach caused the injuries.
A violation of a local leash law or parish 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 Louisiana cases, but responsibility can extend further. A keeper or harborer 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 may all share liability.
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, and under art. 2321 it is especially powerful: an injury that results from the victim provoking the dog defeats strict liability entirely. Ordinary reactions — flinching, walking past, or protecting a child — are not provocation, and we push back hard on inflated versions of events.
Louisiana now applies modified comparative fault with a 51% bar under La. Civ. Code art. 2323, which replaced the state’s former pure comparative fault system for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026. You can still recover as long as your share of the fault is less than 51% — but if you are found 51% or more responsible, you recover nothing, and any award is reduced by your percentage of fault. Countering an insurer’s attempt to push your share past that line is central to a Louisiana dog bite case.
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. Louisiana logged 113 dog attacks on U.S. Postal Service employees in 2023, ranking the state 16th in the nation (U.S. Postal Service, Louisiana newsroom, 2023).
Louisiana’s civil-law system is distinctive: rather than a stand-alone dog bite statute, its rules flow from the Civil Code, which singles out dogs for strict liability while holding other animals to a negligence standard.
Louisiana’s tort landscape has shifted recently — the prescriptive period for injury claims doubled to two years in 2024, and the state moved from pure to modified comparative fault effective in 2026. These changes make it more important than ever to confirm how the current rules apply to your specific 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 Louisiana 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.
For injuries arising after July 1, 2024, Louisiana’s prescriptive period is two years from the date the injury is sustained under La. Civ. Code art. 3493.1. This replaced Louisiana’s former one-year deadline, so it is critical to confirm which rule applies to your case. Claims involving children may be treated differently. See our full Louisiana dog bite laws guide for detail.
No. Under La. Civ. Code art. 2321, the owner of a dog is strictly liable for injuries the dog caused, which the owner could have prevented, and which the victim did not provoke. You do not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous — though evidence of prior aggression can still help show the harm was preventable.
Louisiana now follows modified comparative fault with a 51% bar for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2026. As long as your share of the fault is less than 51%, 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. Note that provoking the dog can defeat a strict-liability claim entirely under art. 2321.
Yes. La. Civ. Code art. 2321 covers injuries to persons and property caused by a dog — not just bites. That means harm from a dog knocking someone down, chasing them into traffic, or causing another kind of injury can fall within the statute, so long as the owner could have prevented it and the victim did not provoke the dog.
Nothing up front. We handle Louisiana 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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