El Paso Dog Bite Lawyer
El Paso Dog Bite Lawyer
On This Page
- El Paso and El Paso County Dog Bite Statistics
- Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
- El Paso Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
- El Paso Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
- What To Do After an El Paso Dog Bite
- El Paso Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
- How To Report a Dog Bite in El Paso
- Who Can Be Held Responsible for an El Paso Dog Bite
- Filing a Dog Bite Claim in El Paso County
- Compensation for El Paso Dog Bite Victims
- Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
- Statute of Limitations for El Paso Dog Bite Cases
- Homeowner and Renter Insurance for El Paso Dog Bites
- Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your El Paso Case
- Frequently Asked Questions
- No Automatic Liability: Texas has no dog bite statute, so an El Paso claim turns on the owner's knowledge or the owner's carelessness.
- First Bite Cases: The negligence route asks how the dog was handled, not whether it had bitten before, so a first bite can still be a claim.
- Keep Dogs Restrained: Sections 7.08.030 and 7.12.010 require a dog to stay on the owner's premises or be under direct physical control on a secure leash.
- Three Designations: El Paso runs the state dangerous dog track plus local vicious dog and aggressive dog designations added by ordinance on January 20, 2026.
- Ten Day Observation: El Paso Animal Services says a dog that bites a human may be ordered quarantined at an animal hospital for a minimum of 10 days.
- Report Within Hours: Section 7.04.050(A) requires a bite report as soon as possible and no later than twenty four hours, made through 311.
- Two Year Limit: Adults have two years from the bite to file suit, and a government defendant can shorten the notice window to 90 days.
- Fifty One Percent: A claimant more than 50 percent responsible for their own injury recovers nothing under Texas proportionate responsibility.
If a dog attacked you in El Paso, the first thing to understand is that Texas law does not hand a bite victim an automatic win. There is no Texas dog bite statute and no statewide leash law, so a claim is built either on what the owner knew about the dog or on how carelessly the dog was kept and handled. That second path does not require the dog to have bitten anyone before, so do not assume a first bite leaves you with nothing.
This page covers the El Paso restraint rules, the three dog designations the city now uses, how El Paso Animal Services handles a bite and a quarantine, where to go for care, who else may be responsible, and the deadlines.
Dog Bite Laws takes dog attack cases only. Talk to us at no cost, and pay nothing unless we recover for you.
El Paso and El Paso County Dog Bite Statistics
We have not found a published El Paso dog bite count. El Paso Animal Services publishes monthly and yearly shelter reports, which in the department’s own description showcase impoundments, outcomes and live release rates. Those are shelter numbers, not bite numbers, and no bite or quarantine total for the city or for El Paso County has been confirmed on an official page. If you see an El Paso bite statistic quoted somewhere, ask where it came from.
What can be stated honestly is a statewide insurance figure. In 2025 the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm put Texas sixth among the states for estimated dog related injury claims, counting 1,313 claims and about $93 million in total value. That table measures claims rather than bites and also captures other dog related injuries, so read it as a rough gauge of statewide cost.
Texas Dog Bite Law: The One Bite Rule and Negligence
Texas liability for a dog attack is judge made law, not statute, and it starts with the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Marshall v. Ranne. Under that rule an owner is responsible when the dog had dangerous tendencies abnormal for a dog and the owner knew or had reason to know about them. Since a prior bite is the most obvious way to prove that knowledge, Texas is described as a one bite state. Prior lunging, snapping and neighbor complaints count too.
The more important route for most victims is plain negligence. Texas courts, including the El Paso Court of Appeals, have said a negligence plaintiff does not have to prove the dog was vicious. The question is whether the owner acted reasonably: an unlatched gate, a dog at large, a child walking a powerful dog, an owner who stood there while the dog kept biting. The Texas Supreme Court has recognized a duty to try to stop an attack in progress even when the dog had no history.
Keep the criminal side separate in your mind. Health and Safety Code chapter 822, the dangerous dog provisions and Lillian’s Law, decides seizure, designation, destruction and prosecution. It does not create your right to money and it does not make the owner automatically liable. A dangerous dog finding is useful to you as proof of what the owner knew, not as a payment.
El Paso Leash Law and Dog Ordinances
El Paso City Code section 7.08.030(A) requires anyone with charge, care, custody or control of an animal to keep it on their own premises by physical restraint, and allows it off the premises only under the direct physical control of a competent person. Section 7.12.010(A) says the same for dogs and adds that restraint on the owner’s own property must be appropriate and humane, and that a dog off the premises must be on a secure leash or under some other equivalent means of direct physical control. Section 7.04.010 defines at large as a dog off the owner’s property and not under the immediate control of a capable person, and Animal Services adds that a tethered dog cannot be left unattended.
El Paso now runs three separate dog designations. The first is the state dangerous dog. Section 7.12.060 lets a suspected dangerous dog be impounded or quarantined and bars release until the owner meets the standards in Health and Safety Code 822.042, with failure to comply within 30 days treated as abandonment.
The other two were added locally by Ordinance No. 019835 on January 20, 2026. Section 7.12.070 covers the vicious dog, which section 7.04.010 defines as a dog that causes severe injury to or kills a domestic animal, livestock or fowl while at large, apart from dogs acting in a hunting capacity. Section 7.12.080 covers the aggressive dog, defined as a dog that menaces, interferes with public movement such as by chasing pedestrians or vehicles, or displays threatening behavior toward a person or animal while at large. Both start with a sworn statement and an investigation within 30 calendar days, and both give the owner 30 calendar days to comply: secure enclosure on the property, a secure leash off it, a posted warning sign, and a responsible pet owner course approved for Texas courts. A vicious dog must also be registered and tagged. An owner who disagrees has 15 calendar days to seek judicial review at the El Paso Municipal Court.
Section 7.12.020 also requires every dog four months or older to be registered, vaccinated against rabies and microchipped, renewed annually. Animal Services takes licensing questions at (915) 212-PAWS.
El Paso Animal Control and Rabies Follow-Up
El Paso Animal Services runs animal control for the city through its Animal Protection division. Title 7 does not use the phrase local rabies control authority. Section 7.04.030(A) puts enforcement with the director and the veterinary officer, and section 7.50.010(B) makes preventing and controlling the transmission of rabies a purpose of the Department of Animal Services.
Section 7.20.010 says that once the director is notified of an animal to human bite by the owner, the victim, a physician or another complainant, the director shall order the animal quarantined, except for animals classified as low risk. Under section 7.20.020(A) the owner must confine it immediately, promptly tell the program where and why, and keep it away from every other person and animal. Section 7.04.050(B) requires every veterinarian holding an animal quarantined for a bite incident to report its condition on the initial day of observation and again on the fifth and tenth days after the bite, which is the only ten day marker Title 7 attaches to a bite quarantine.
No section of Title 7 sets the quarantine length outright. For that, El Paso Animal Services states that an owner may receive an order to quarantine a pet at an animal hospital for a minimum of 10 days if it bites a human, and that depending on vaccination status and the circumstances, home observation may be an option instead. The city runs a state certified quarantine facility.
A dog alive and clinically normal at the end of that observation could not have been shedding rabies virus when it bit. Whether you need rabies post exposure treatment is decided by your doctor with the health department, and it is usually started without waiting. More on being bitten by an unvaccinated dog. Outside the city limits, Animal Services points residents to their own local animal control or law enforcement. For the unincorporated county that is the El Paso County Animal Welfare Department, which publishes 915-273-3470 on the county website.
What To Do After an El Paso Dog Bite
Work down this list.
- Call 911 if the injury is serious or the dog is still loose. If it is over and nobody is in danger, the El Paso Police Department lists (915) 832-4400 as its non-emergency line.
- Identify the dog and the owner. Name, phone number, address, and whether the rabies vaccination is current.
- Be seen the same day. Puncture wounds close over the bacteria and a dog bite infection often shows up a day or two later. Say plainly that it was a dog bite.
- Report it to 311. Call (915) 212-0000 or dial 3-1-1. El Paso Animal Services states that all animal bites must be reported and routes bite reports through 311.
- Photograph the wounds as they change over the first week, along with the yard, the gate, the leash and anything torn.
- Note what the owner did once the attack started, and who pulled the dog off. In Texas that can be its own basis for liability.
- Collect witnesses, especially anyone who can say the dog has been loose before.
- Save the paperwork, including discharge instructions, receipts, missed work records and your health plan’s explanation of benefits statements.
- Refuse a recorded statement until you have spoken with a lawyer.
El Paso Hospitals and Urgent Care for Dog Bites
A wound that keeps bleeding, a deep puncture, a bite to the face, hand or a joint, and any significant bite to a child should be seen in an emergency department.
- University Medical Center of El Paso. State-designated Level I trauma center in El Paso. The hospital labels (915) 544-1200 its main number.
- Del Sol Medical Center. State-designated Level II trauma center in El Paso. The hospital lists (915) 595-9000 as its main phone number.
- The Hospitals of Providence East Campus. State-designated Level II trauma center in El Paso, listing (915) 832-2000.
Las Palmas Medical Center, The Hospitals of Providence Memorial Campus and William Beaumont Army Medical Center carry state Level III designations in El Paso County. Wherever you are treated, ask that the wound be measured and described in the chart. In our experience that description is often worth more to a scarring claim later than a photograph taken after it has healed.
How To Report a Dog Bite in El Paso
El Paso Animal Services is direct about it: all animal bites must be reported, and if you or someone else has been bitten you contact 311 to make the report. The number is (915) 212-0000, or dial 3-1-1.
The ordinance sets the deadline and the content. Section 7.04.050(A) requires a person who knows of an animal bite or scratch that could reasonably be foreseen as capable of transmitting rabies to report it as soon as possible and no later than twenty four hours after the incident, and the report must include the name and address of the victim and of the animal’s owner if known, plus anything else that would help locate the victim or the animal. Have that ready before you call.
Two practical points. There is no published online form for a bite report in El Paso, so plan on the phone. And the city warns that 311 is a non-emergency service, not monitored around the clock, with hours of 7:00 am to 11:00 pm Sunday through Thursday and 7:00 am to 2:00 am Friday and Saturday, and that emergency calls are transferred to 911. Reporting a vicious or aggressive dog goes through 311 too. Here is what happens after a dog bite is reported.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for an El Paso Dog Bite
Every Texas theory begins with the same element: the defendant owned or possessed the dog. The El Paso Court of Appeals threw out a judgment against a man who came to his parents’ property daily to feed a different dog, because nothing showed he possessed the one that attacked. Possession is proved, not assumed. Read more on what determines ownership of a dog. Consider each of these:
- Everyone in the household. Adults who fed, housed, walked or controlled the dog can be possessors even if someone else calls it their dog.
- A landlord or apartment owner. A bite in a breezeway, parking area or courtyard the landlord controlled is judged on actual or imputed knowledge of the dog’s tendencies. Inside a rental unit, with the landlord out of possession, you must show the landlord actually knew the dog was dangerous.
- A business that keeps a dog, including a guard dog kept chained, where Texas courts have charged the keeper with knowledge of the conditions it created.
- A public entity, which brings notice deadlines and statutory caps and needs a lawyer immediately.
One misunderstanding is worth correcting. The Texas parental liability statute in Family Code chapter 41 covers property damage, not personal injury, so it gives a bite victim nothing against the parents of a teenage dog owner. The route to the parents is that they possessed the dog and own the insured home.
Filing a Dog Bite Claim in El Paso County
El Paso is the seat of El Paso County, whose trial courts include district courts that hear civil cases and county courts at law with civil jurisdiction. A bite that needed surgery or left visible scarring, and any claim for a child, belongs with a lawyer who will place and prepare it. That part is handled for you.
What is yours to do:
- Follow the treatment plan. Missed appointments tend to become the insurer’s argument that you recovered quickly.
- Hold on to everything, including imaging reports, receipts and the statements showing what your health plan actually paid.
- Get the bite reported so El Paso Animal Services opens a file. Your lawyer can then ask for the bite record, the quarantine record and any earlier complaints about the same dog.
- Keep the insurer at arm’s length. Hand over your lawyer’s name and nothing else.
- Move quickly. Tenants relocate, dogs are rehomed and camera footage is overwritten in days.
In our experience most claims settle with the owner’s insurer. See how to file a dog bite claim.
Compensation for El Paso Dog Bite Victims
Texas sets no ceiling on pain, disfigurement or impairment damages in a claim against a dog owner. Those caps belong to medical malpractice cases and to claims against government bodies.
- Economic. Emergency treatment, wound repair, surgery and later scar revision, rabies post exposure treatment, therapy, counseling for fear and nightmares, lost pay, reduced earning capacity and replacement of what was destroyed.
- Non-economic. Texas juries answer these as separate line items: physical pain and mental anguish, disfigurement, physical impairment, loss of consortium, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life. Disfigurement carries real weight when the scar is on a face or a hand.
One rule catches people out. Civil Practice and Remedies Code 41.0105, as read by the Texas Supreme Court in the Haygood case, limits recovery of medical expenses to the amount actually paid or incurred rather than the amount billed, and the jury is never shown the billed figure. That is why the statements from your health plan matter as much as the bills. Exemplary damages are reserved for gross negligence or malice proved by clear and convincing evidence. See dog bite compensation, or try the dog bite settlement calculator.
Proportionate Responsibility in Texas Dog Bite Cases
Texas uses a modified comparative fault rule with a hard edge. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code 33.001 a claimant whose share of responsibility is greater than 50 percent takes nothing. At 50 percent the award is cut in half. There is no sliding scale past the bar, which is why an offhand answer to an adjuster can be so costly.
Under the bar, section 33.012 reduces the award by your percentage. If an El Paso jury values a case at $150,000 and assigns 20 percent to the injured person, the recovery is $120,000. At 51 percent it is nothing at all. The defense can also ask the jury to put a share on someone who is not a party, such as the person who propped the gate open.
No Texas statute makes provocation a defense to a civil claim. The word unprovoked belongs to the dangerous dog and criminal provisions. In your case provocation is simply argued as a percentage, and it is also used to reframe the dog’s earlier bites as understandable reactions rather than warnings the owner ignored. In our experience children are rarely assigned a meaningful share; see can a child provoke a dog.
Statute of Limitations for El Paso Dog Bite Cases
Civil Practice and Remedies Code 16.003 gives an adult two years from the date of the bite to file suit, and two years from the date of death for a wrongful death claim. Nothing you do with an insurance company pauses that clock, and no amount of injury saves a claim filed late. More on the dog bite statute of limitations.
Section 16.001 holds the clock for a child until the 18th birthday, which in practice means the 20th birthday. A parent’s own claims, such as the bills the parent paid, should be treated as running on the ordinary two year period.
Government claims are the trap. Written notice has to reach the governmental unit within six months under section 101.101, and section 101.101(b) lets a Texas city charter impose a shorter period, which the Texas Supreme Court has enforced at 90 days. If the dog belonged to a public agency, or a public employee on duty was handling it, call a lawyer within days so the correct charter period can be identified and met.
Even with two years available, waiting costs you. Records are purged, dogs are rehomed and policies lapse.
Homeowner and Renter Insurance for El Paso Dog Bites
The money in a typical El Paso case comes from the dog owner’s homeowner or renter policy. The Insurance Information Institute describes the usual shape: those policies cover dog bite liability and legal expenses up to the policy limits, commonly $100,000 to $300,000, and anything above the limit falls on the owner personally. Many policies also carry a small medical payments to others coverage that pays reasonable medical expenses without a finding of fault, which is worth asking about early.
Texas does not require an ordinary dog owner to insure the dog. The exception is the dangerous dog, whose owner must carry liability coverage or show financial responsibility of at least $100,000 under Health and Safety Code 822.042. El Paso does not rewrite that requirement. Section 7.12.060 points to the state statute, so ask for the proof the owner filed, and remember that showing financial responsibility is not the same as holding a policy.
A denial is not the end. The Institute notes that after a bite an insurer may raise the premium, decline to renew, or exclude the dog. The claim then shifts toward the owner personally and toward any other policy that might apply, including a landlord’s.
Why Choose Dog Bite Laws for Your El Paso Case
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack claims and nothing else. In El Paso that means knowing how to pull the Animal Services bite and quarantine records, whether the department opened a vicious or aggressive dog investigation, and how to prove the owner’s knowledge and carelessness in a state with no strict liability statute.
We deal with the insurer, assemble the records, negotiate the medical liens and file suit when an offer is not serious. There is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we recover for you. We handle cases in San Antonio and Houston as well.
If you or your child was bitten in El Paso, contact Dog Bite Laws for a free review. We will give you a straight answer about whether there is a claim and what proving it would take.
Frequently Asked Questions
The dangerous dog is the state category and it covers unprovoked attacks or threatening acts toward people outside the dog's enclosure. El Paso added two local categories by ordinance in January 2026. A vicious dog is one that severely injures or kills a domestic animal, livestock or fowl while at large, and an aggressive dog is one that menaces, chases pedestrians or vehicles, or displays threatening behavior while at large. Both carry 30 day compliance requirements and neither pays you compensation.
The city ordinance does not put a number on it. It requires the director to order quarantine once a bite is reported, and requires the owner to confine the animal immediately, tell the department where it is, and keep it away from everyone until the department releases it. El Paso Animal Services states separately that a dog that bites a human may be ordered quarantined at an animal hospital for a minimum of 10 days, with home observation possible depending on vaccination status and circumstances.
No online bite form is published. El Paso Animal Services routes all bite reports through 311, at (915) 212-0000 or by dialing 3-1-1. The city notes that 311 is a non-emergency service that is not monitored around the clock, with hours of 7:00 am to 11:00 pm Sunday through Thursday and 7:00 am to 2:00 am Friday and Saturday, including holidays, and that emergency calls are transferred to 911. If the dog is still a danger, call 911.
Not necessarily, but act fast. Report it so Animal Protection officers can try to locate and impound the dog, and check with neighbors and nearby businesses for cameras or earlier complaints about the same animal. With no dog there is no observation period, so your doctor and the health department will usually start rabies post exposure treatment, and that expense becomes part of the claim if an owner is identified later. Your own coverage carries the bills until then.
It helps in two ways. El Paso requires every dog four months or older to be registered, vaccinated and microchipped under section 7.12.020, so a lapse is a violation the department will document. It also affects the quarantine, because an unvaccinated dog is far less likely to be allowed home observation and is more likely to be confined at a veterinary facility. Medically, your treatment decision still belongs to your doctor and the health department.
The dog owner's liability insurer normally pays once, at the end, in a settlement rather than along the way. In the meantime the bills go through your own health coverage, through a medical payments to others coverage on the owner's policy if it carries one, or occasionally through an arrangement your lawyer reaches with a provider. Save the statements showing what was actually paid, because that figure is what Texas lets you recover.
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