Hoạt động 24/7
Hoạt động 24/7
Louisiana makes a dog’s owner strictly liable for injuries the owner could have prevented, as long as the person hurt did not provoke the dog. That rule is Civil Code article 2321, and the Supreme Court of Louisiana held in Pepper v. Triplet that “could have prevented” means the victim must show the dog presented an unreasonable risk of harm. You do not have to prove the dog bit someone before, or that the owner was careless.
This page covers how that test works, what you must prove, the statewide running at large law, who counts as the owner, provocation and trespass, fault, a child’s case, landlords, deadlines, damages, the dangerous dog law, rabies confinement, settlements, and insurance. Three rules changed recently: the filing deadline went from one year to two for bites after July 1, 2024, a victim found 51 percent or more at fault is barred under the rule in effect since January 1, 2026, and in suits filed since that date, past medical bills paid by health insurance are limited to the amounts actually paid, without the old 40 percent add-back.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases. Talk to us for free, and pay no fee unless we recover money for you.
Louisiana’s dog bite rule is one sentence in the Civil Code. Article 2321 says “the owner of a dog is strictly liable for damages for injuries to persons or property caused by the dog and which the owner could have prevented and which did not result from the injured person’s provocation of the dog.” Article 2321 is on the Legislature’s own site. The Legislature reorganized the article in 2024 and 2025 to deal with livestock, but the dog sentence reads the same in substance as it has since April 16, 1996.
Dogs are treated differently from other animals. For other animals, the same article generally requires proof that the owner knew or should have known the animal’s behavior would cause damage and failed to use reasonable care. In Pepper v. Triplet, the Supreme Court of Louisiana noted that the courts of appeal read the 1996 revision as resulting “in an ordinary negligence standard for owners of all animals except dogs, whose owners continue to be governed by a strict liability standard,” and said the legislature “specifically continued strict liability for owners of dogs.”
So Louisiana is not a one bite rule state. The court in Pepper traced how Louisiana moved away from an old “first bite is free” line of cases decades ago, and article 2321 now asks about the risk the dog posed, not its record.
Strict liability is not automatic liability, though. The words “could have prevented” do real work, and the Pepper decision, issued January 21, 2004, is the case that explains them. A Louisiana victim can also sue in ordinary negligence under Civil Code articles 2315 and 2316 against anyone whose carelessness caused the bite, including people who do not own the dog.
Pepper sets out three things a victim proves against the owner: that the owner’s dog caused the injury, that the owner could have prevented it, and that the injury did not result from the victim’s provocation of the dog. The court then defined the middle element: “to establish that the owner could have prevented the injuries under Article 2321, the plaintiff must show the dog presented an unreasonable risk of harm.”
In plain words, the question is whether the risk the dog posed outweighed its usefulness. Once that is shown, the owner is presumed at fault and stays liable unless the injury was due solely to a third person’s fault or to a fortuitous event. What is not on the list matters as much: no proof of a previous bite, no proof the owner knew the dog was aggressive, and no proof the owner was careless.
Pepper itself, discussed in the trespass section below, shows how a claim can fail that test.
In practice a Louisiana case is built on two kinds of evidence:
Article 2321 also preserves res ipsa loquitur, a rule that lets the circumstances themselves support an inference of fault where the facts fit.
Louisiana has a statewide rule against dogs running loose. Revised Statute 3:2771 says no person shall allow a dog in his possession, or kept about his premises, “to run at large on any unenclosed land, or trespass upon any enclosed or unenclosed lands of another.” A companion statute lets any citizen, and requires the sheriff, a constable, or police, to seize a dog found unaccompanied and running at large on a road, street, or other public place. Parishes and municipalities that charge a dog license fee issue licenses under Revised Statute 3:2772; check the local ordinance where you were bitten as well.
For your claim, the question under Pepper is whether the dog presented an unreasonable risk of harm that the owner could have prevented. The court said: “Securing dogs in his or her yard is what is expected of a dog owner.” It also contrasted the facts before it with “a dog running down the street unfettered to prey upon the public.” An animal control report or impound record puts a loose dog on paper with a date.
Louisiana does not use “negligence per se” the way some states do. In Boyer v. Johnson (1978), the Supreme Court of Louisiana said it did “not intend to revive the doctrine of ‘negligence per se'” and that a violation of a criminal statute “does not automatically create liability”; such statutes serve as guidelines for the standard of care. That matters less here because article 2321 does not require proof of negligence in the first place.
One rule is stricter. Once a dog qualifies as dangerous under state law, it may leave its owner’s property only on a leash that prevents its escape or access to other people. A dangerous dog found loose is a violation by itself.
Article 2321 puts strict liability on “the owner of a dog” and does not define the word. Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal has read it narrowly. In George v. Paffen, 957 So. 2d 861, decided May 15, 2007, that court restated its rule that the strict liability of an animal’s owner under article 2321 “cannot be imputed to a non-owner.” Louisiana law separately declares dogs to be personal property, so the question is who the dog belongs to. Adoption or purchase papers, the parish license record, vet records, and who the dog lives with can help show it.
That does not leave everyone else off the hook. A person who is not the owner but had the dog that day, such as a relative, a dog walker, a sitter, or a boarding kennel, can still be liable in negligence under Civil Code articles 2315 and 2316. The difference is the burden: against a non-owner you prove carelessness, such as taking an aggressive dog to a crowded place or failing to latch a gate.
Watch for a different definition that has nothing to do with your claim. Louisiana’s rabies rules define an owner as “any person who keeps in his care or who harbors or has custody of a dog,” which is why the person caring for the dog is the one ordered to confine it after a bite. That definition governs the quarantine, not who pays you.
If ownership is unclear, read what determines ownership of a dog and name every possible owner early.
Provocation is written into article 2321 itself. The owner is strictly liable only for injuries that “did not result from the injured person’s provocation of the dog.” Pepper describes this element as part of what the victim establishes. Expect the owner’s insurer to look hard at your account of the seconds before the bite, and do not accept an adjuster’s description of your own conduct. Our page on dog bite provocation covers what courts tend to count.
Trespass is not listed as a defense in the article, but Pepper shows how it plays out. The plaintiff there unlocked his neighbor’s secured gate, by shoving a metal pipe that held it shut, and went into the fenced backyard to fetch a ball, knowing the dog inside was territorial and that he had never been given permission to enter. The court held that “until the plaintiff intentionally and knowingly entered the defendant’s backyard without authority,” the dog did not present an unreasonable risk of harm, so the strict liability claim failed. The court stressed that the owner had secured the dog behind the fence, and that by breaching what the owner had created, the plaintiff “negated that security.”
Assumption of risk is gone as a separate defense. In Murray v. Ramada Inns, decided February 29, 1988, the Supreme Court of Louisiana said “the assumption of risk defense no longer has a place in Louisiana tort law.” Conduct that used to be argued that way is now measured as comparative fault, which can reduce or, since 2026, bar a recovery. That is covered next.
The criminal dangerous dog statute has its own list of circumstances, including teasing, tormenting, abusing, or assaulting the dog. That list governs whether a court may declare a dog dangerous or vicious. Your civil claim turns on article 2321’s own provocation language.
Louisiana changed its fault rule on January 1, 2026. For decades it used pure comparative fault: a victim’s award was reduced by his or her share of fault, with no cutoff. Act 15 of 2025, House Bill 431, rewrote Civil Code article 2323. Now, if the victim’s share “is equal to or greater than fifty-one percent,” the victim “shall not be entitled to recover damages.” Below 51 percent, the award is reduced in proportion.
The arithmetic is simple and unforgiving. A victim found 50 percent at fault recovers half. A victim found 51 percent at fault recovers nothing. The comparison is to the victim’s own percentage, so it does not matter how the other 49 percent is split among other people. Fault is assigned to everyone who contributed, including people who were not sued.
Two features matter in a dog case. First, the article says it applies “regardless of the basis of liability,” so it reaches a strict liability claim under article 2321, not only a negligence claim. Second, a claim against an intentional wrongdoer is not reduced at all, which could matter where someone deliberately set a dog on a person.
If your bite happened before January 1, 2026, ask a lawyer which version applies. Act 15 states only that it takes effect on that date and does not say whether it reaches earlier injuries.
Either way, a dog bite claim is often a fight over percentages, and a casual statement to an adjuster can move a number across the line.
Civil Code article 3468 says prescription, Louisiana’s word for the limitation period, runs against minors unless the Legislature creates an exception. The two year article for injury claims contains only one exception, for certain product liability cases involving permanent disability. So a child bitten by a dog generally has the same two years as an adult, counted from the day of the bite, not from an eighteenth birthday.
The child cannot bring the case alone. Under Code of Civil Procedure article 683, an unemancipated minor has no procedural capacity to sue, and the parents with parental authority, or a court-appointed tutor, file on the child’s behalf. Keep every bill you paid and every day of work you missed, separate from the child’s own records.
Louisiana also recognizes the harm to a parent who saw it happen. Civil Code article 2315.6 lets a parent, grandparent, or sibling who viewed the event, or came upon the scene soon after, recover for mental anguish that is severe, debilitating, and foreseeable. A parent who pulled a dog off a toddler can have a claim of their own.
Expect an insurer to raise a young child’s behavior as provocation. Read whether a child can provoke a dog before you answer an adjuster’s questions about it.
A Louisiana landlord is not strictly liable just because a tenant’s dog bit someone. In George v. Paffen, a boy playing next door was attacked by a tenant’s pit bull. Applying its earlier decisions, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal said a landlord “is not liable to a third person for injuries caused by his lessee’s animal” on a strict liability basis, because the owner’s strict liability under article 2321 cannot be imputed to a non-owner.
A landlord can still be liable in negligence under articles 2315 and 2316. That court has read this to mean the record must show the landlord had actual knowledge of the dog’s vicious propensity. In George, the landlord had received complaints mostly about the dogs barking and getting out of the yard, and animal control had inspected without issuing a citation. Over a dissent, the court found no evidence she actually knew the dog was vicious. Proof that a landlord knew about earlier attacks is what that test looks for.
What to collect if a rental property is involved:
A landlord who owns the dog is not a landlord case at all. That person is the dog’s owner under article 2321.
Two years from the day of the bite, for most people. Act 423 of 2024 created Civil Code article 3493.1, which says delictual actions, Louisiana’s term for injury claims, are subject to a liberative prescription of two years running “from the day that injury or damage is sustained.” The act took effect July 1, 2024, repealed the old one year rule, and applies only to claims arising after that date.
Filing suit against the dog’s owner also interrupts prescription against the owner’s insurers under the direct action statute, so you do not need to know the carrier’s name on day one to protect the claim.
Treat two years as an outside limit. The deadlines that decide cases come much sooner: the 10 day confinement period, animal control records, and wounds that need to be photographed before they close. Our guide to the dog bite statute of limitations explains how these clocks interact.
Louisiana’s reported cases show the range. In Pepper, the dog bit the plaintiff’s hand as he reached for a ball and then bit him on the stomach. In George v. Paffen, the family alleged that a pit bull pulled a boy to the ground and attacked him, leaving leg injuries that required surgeries. The injuries in these claims include:
Two Louisiana rules make careful medical records especially important. Civil Code article 2315 excludes future medical costs unless they are directly related to a manifest physical or mental injury, so a diagnosis matters, not just a worry. And since May 28, 2025, Code of Evidence article 306.1 says the lack of a prior history of an injury or condition “shall not create a presumption” that the event caused it. Without that presumption, causation has to be shown through the evidence, which is one more reason to get care and follow up from the first day.
Louisiana compensates a dog bite victim under Civil Code article 2315, which obliges the person at fault to repair the damage. Article 2315 provides that damages may include loss of consortium, service, and society for family members, and Louisiana statutes treat medical care and lost earnings as distinct categories of damages.
Past medical bills are measured by what was paid. Under Revised Statute 9:2800.27, when health insurance or Medicare paid a contracted provider, the recovery is limited to what was actually paid plus your copays, coinsurance, and deductibles, “and not the amount billed.” Act 466 of 2025 changed two things for suits filed on or after January 1, 2026: it repealed the old rule that added back 40 percent of the difference between billed and paid, and the jury is now told both the billed and paid amounts. Medicaid payments are limited the same way. If you had no insurance, the measure is what was paid and what is still owed, including bills secured by a lien.
Punitive damages are allowed in Louisiana only where a statute provides for them. The Supreme Court of Louisiana has said that “punitive or other penalty damages are not allowable unless expressly authorized by statute,” and article 2321 itself does not provide for them.
Claims against government are capped. If a police dog or a parish facility is involved, Revised Statute 13:5106 limits general damages against the state or a political subdivision to $500,000 per injured person, with medical care, related benefits, and lost earnings outside that limit. A suit against a political subdivision is also tried by a judge, not a jury, unless the subdivision has waived that rule. For a broader overview, see dog bite compensation.
Louisiana’s dangerous dog law is in the criminal code, at Revised Statutes 14:102.12 through 14:102.17. Under Revised Statute 14:102.14, a dangerous dog includes “any dog which, when unprovoked, bites a person causing an injury.” One unprovoked injurious bite fits that definition. A dog also qualifies after two incidents within 36 months off its owner’s property that forced someone to defend themselves, or two that injured a domestic animal.
The owner of a dangerous dog must keep it indoors or in a secure enclosure, defined as one built to keep young children out and the dog in. Off the property it must be leashed so it cannot escape or reach people. If a court has found the dog dangerous, warning signs reading “Beware of Dog” or “Dangerous Dog” must be posted, and the owner has two days to notify animal control in writing if the dog is moved, sold, or dies. Violations carry a fine of up to $300, and the dangerous designation goes into the dog’s license records.
A vicious dog is a dog previously determined to be dangerous that later, unprovoked, seriously injures or kills a person. Owning one is a crime punishable by a fine of up to $500, up to six months in jail, or both. A district attorney, sheriff, or animal control officer may petition the district court, which must hold a hearing within five days. A dog found vicious is humanely euthanized, a dog found dangerous may be if it poses an immediate threat to public health and safety, and the owner of a vicious dog may be barred from having any dog for up to three years. Failing to confine a dog after a dangerous finding is contempt, with a fine of $100 to $500.
A declaration does not pay a victim anything by itself. What it gives you is an official court finding about the dog. Revised Statutes 14:102.12 through 14:102.17 define these categories by behavior and do not name any breed.
The rabies rules come from the state Sanitary Code, which the Louisiana Department of Health enforces. When any dog bites a person, the dog “shall be confined … for a minimum of 10 days following the bite,” or killed and its head sent to a state laboratory for rabies testing. No rabies vaccine is given during the observation period, so signs of illness are not confused with a vaccine reaction, and any signs during those 10 days must be reported immediately to the local health authority. The full text is in the department’s rabies chapter of the Sanitary Code.
Confinement means a cage or other setup where the dog cannot contact any person or other animal, and tethering is not permitted. The Sanitary Code also requires every dog over three months old to be vaccinated against rabies by a licensed veterinarian, so ask the owner for the certificate and write down the veterinarian’s name.
Reporting runs through local agencies. Call the animal control agency for the parish or city where you were bitten, and for a stray, contact your doctor and the parish health unit, as the department advises. Local rules vary. In East Baton Rouge Parish, for example, bites “must be reported to the Animal Control and Rescue Center,” which takes a bite report and tries to find, quarantine, and observe the animal for ten days, according to the city-parish. A report also creates a dated record of the dog, its owner, and its vaccination status. Here is what happens after a dog bite is reported, and what happens if you don’t report it.
Some perspective helps. The department describes rabies as occurring regularly in bats and skunks in Louisiana but rarely in dogs, and its August 2019 rabies summary reports that the last case of human rabies acquired in Louisiana was in 1953. If the dog’s vaccination status is unknown, read about being bitten by an unvaccinated dog and let your doctor decide on treatment.
The latest Triple-I and State Farm report does not give a Louisiana figure. For 2025, the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm reported a national average of $65,450 per dog-related injury claim across 28,450 claims. That is an insurance claim average across every claim, large and small. It is not a settlement value and it does not predict any one case.
What actually moves the number in a Louisiana case:
Our page on dog bite settlement amounts explains how injury severity drives value nationwide, and the dog bite settlement calculator gives a rough sense of ranges.
The dog owner’s homeowners or renters liability coverage is often where the money comes from. The Insurance Information Institute says these policies typically cover dog bite liability up to the policy’s liability limits, usually $100,000 to $300,000. The Louisiana Department of Insurance, in its 2016 consumer’s guide, describes a homeowners policy as a package of property and liability coverage, and notes that personal liability and medical payments coverage do not apply to bodily injury caused by an intentional act of the insured.
Louisiana amended its direct action statute, Revised Statute 22:1269, in 2024. Under the current text, an injured person has no right of direct action against the insurer unless a listed exception applies, such as the owner’s bankruptcy or insolvency, failed service or no answer within 180 days, the owner’s death, or a dispute over coverage. The insurer is left out of the case caption, and the court does not tell the jury about insurance unless the Code of Evidence requires it. The insurer can still be joined at judgment or settlement, and suing the owner interrupts prescription against the owner’s insurers.
Do not take the owner’s word that there is no coverage, and check for umbrella policies and coverage held by anyone else who had the dog.
For the full sequence, read our guide on how to file a dog bite claim.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases, and Louisiana is a state where the details decide the result. Article 2321 is favorable to victims, but Pepper’s unreasonable risk test, the new 51 percent bar, and the paid-not-billed rule for medical expenses all give an insurer room to push back. Our job is to build the proof that the bite was preventable, keep your share of the fault where it belongs, identify the owner and anyone else who had the dog, get the animal control and confinement records, and find every policy that might pay.
We deal with the insurance company so that you do not have to, and we keep a friendly phone call from turning into a fault percentage assigned to you. We work on a contingency fee, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we recover money for you. Founding attorney Michael Agruss leads a team that focuses on injury clients and handles the paperwork from the first call.
We take dog bite cases across Louisiana, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Metairie. If you or your child was bitten, contact us for a free consultation. We will tell you honestly whether there is a claim worth bringing and how much of the two years you have left.
No. Louisiana Civil Code article 2321 holds a dog's owner strictly liable for injuries the owner could have prevented, without any proof of an earlier bite or that the owner knew the dog was aggressive. The Supreme Court of Louisiana requires the victim to show the dog presented an unreasonable risk of harm, which it described as showing that the risk of injury outweighed the dog's utility.
For a bite after July 1, 2024, two years from the day you were bitten, under Civil Code article 3493.1. Bites on or before that date had only one year under the old rule. If the person died, the family has one year from the death or two years from the injury, whichever is longer. These are outer limits, and evidence like confinement and animal control records is easier to gather in the first weeks.
Generally not. Louisiana lets the limitation period run against minors unless a law says otherwise, and the two year article has no exception for an ordinary dog bite. That means the parents usually must file the child's claim within two years of the bite. The parents bring the suit for the child, and a parent who saw the attack may have a separate claim for severe mental anguish.
It depends on when you were bitten. For bites on or after January 1, 2026, Civil Code article 2323 bars any recovery if you are found 51 percent or more at fault, and reduces your award by your percentage if you are below that. For earlier bites, ask a lawyer whether the older pure comparative rule applies. Either way, avoid recorded statements until you have advice.
Only in limited situations. A Louisiana appeals court has held that a landlord is not strictly liable for a tenant's dog, because article 2321's strict liability belongs to the dog's owner. That court allows a negligence claim against a landlord only where the record shows the landlord actually knew the dog was vicious. Written complaints, prior attack reports, and the lease terms are the evidence that decides that question.
Not automatically. The Sanitary Code requires the dog to be confined and watched for at least 10 days, or else euthanized and tested for rabies. Separately, a court may declare the dog dangerous after an unprovoked bite that injures someone, which brings confinement and leash requirements. Euthanasia is required only when a court finds the dog vicious, meaning a dog already declared dangerous later seriously injured or killed a person.
Not if health insurance or Medicare paid the bills. Revised Statute 9:2800.27 limits recovery of those past medical expenses to the amounts the insurer actually paid, plus your copays and deductibles. In suits filed on or after January 1, 2026, the old 40 percent add-back is gone and the jury hears both the billed and paid figures. If you had no insurance, you can recover what you paid and what you still owe, including bills secured by a provider's lien.
"*" là ký hiệu cho các trường bắt buộc
"*" là ký hiệu cho các trường bắt buộc
Hãy liên hệ với chúng tôi qua điện thoại, email, tin nhắn hoặc trò chuyện trực tuyến để trao đổi về trường hợp của bạn.