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South Carolina makes a dog’s owner pay for the harm the dog causes without proof that the dog had ever bitten anyone before. Section 47-3-110 of the Code of Laws holds the owner, or any other person who has the dog in their care or keeping, liable for the damages suffered by a person the dog bites or otherwise attacks, as long as the victim was in a public place or lawfully on private property. The only defense the statute gives for the victim’s own conduct is provocation or harassment that caused the attack.
This page explains that statute and the common law negligence claim that sits beside it, what you have to prove, local leash rules, who counts as a keeper, the provocation and police dog exceptions, comparative fault and the 2026 change to how fault is split, a child’s case, landlord liability, deadlines, damages and the caps that apply, the dangerous animal law, reporting and rabies, and insurance. One point first: South Carolina’s public health work moved from DHEC to the new Department of Public Health on July 1, 2024, so older guides that send you to DHEC about a bite are out of date.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases. Talk to us for free, and pay no fee unless we recover money for you.
South Carolina has a dog bite statute, and it is the starting point for a claim here. Section 47-3-110 says that if a person is bitten or otherwise attacked by a dog while in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the owner’s own property, the dog owner or person having the dog in their care or keeping “is liable for the damages suffered by the person bitten or otherwise attacked.” The legislature last amended that section in 2013.
The statute grew out of a court decision. In Hossenlopp v. Cannon in 1985 the Supreme Court of South Carolina threw out the old one bite rule, which had made an owner pay only if he knew or should have known the dog was dangerous. The legislature wrote the statute the next year. In Harris v. Anderson County Sheriff’s Office in 2009, the court said the legislature “unmistakably adopted a strict liability approach for injuries caused by dogs,” save where the injured person provoked the attack.
Strict liability here means the owner’s care and the dog’s past are beside the point. Harris put it bluntly: as to a dog owner’s liability, negligence principles and fault have no place. A dog that was gentle for ten years and a dog with three prior complaints are treated the same way under the statute.
South Carolina also kept the older common law negligence claim. The Supreme Court allowed a victim to pursue both the statute and negligence against the same defendant in Clea v. Odom in 2011. The negligence claim matters mostly when the defendant did not own the dog, such as a landlord, and when punitive damages are on the table, both covered below.
Under the statute, a South Carolina victim proves four things:
The second element is broader than it sounds. In Elmore v. Ramos in 1997 the Court of Appeals held that “otherwise attacks” includes a dog that jumps on or pounces upon someone, and that no evil motive is needed. In that case a friend’s Labrador jumped on a visitor from behind and knocked her off a ramp, causing a compound fracture. A playful dog can therefore be an attacking dog under the statute, and if a dog attacked you without biting, read about a dog attack without a bite.
There are limits. In Padgett v. Mercado in 2000 the same court held that an animal control officer who hurt her shoulder lifting a struggling dog into a truck was not attacked, because the dog never bit or touched her. The court agreed the statute is strict liability but said the plaintiff “must still prove that there was an attack.” Causation is usually for a jury.
The third element can decide a case. Whether a visitor was a licensee, invitee, or trespasser is generally for the jury, and in Nesbitt v. Lewis the Court of Appeals held that a child who came along while her father mowed the dog owner’s lawn was at least a licensee, and that once her lawful presence was shown the statute “mandates awarding her damages.” Proof comes from the same places in every case: who owned or kept the dog, why you were there, photographs, and your medical records and bills.
South Carolina has no single statewide leash rule that applies everywhere. Section 47-3-50 makes it unlawful to let a dog run at large off property the owner owns, rents, or controls, and to keep a vicious or unruly dog without a fence, chain, or other restraint, but only in a county or municipality that has adopted penalty provisions under that article. A first offense carries a $50 fine. The code defines running at large as being off the owner’s or keeper’s premises and not under physical control by a leash or similar device.
Local law fills in the rest. Section 47-3-20 lets counties and cities pass their own ordinances for the care and control of dogs, so the leash rule that applies where you were bitten may come from a local code rather than from the state.
For the statutory claim, you do not need a leash violation at all. The owner is already strictly liable under 47-3-110 if the dog bit or attacked you while you were somewhere you had a right to be. What a citation or an animal control report adds is a dated official record of how the dog got to you. It can also matter to a negligence claim against someone other than the owner, and to punitive damages if the owner kept letting a dog known to be aggressive roam.
Ask your lawyer to pull the local ordinance for the place you were bitten. Whether breaking a city leash rule counts as negligence in itself is a question to work through for your specific case, not something to assume.
The statute reaches two kinds of defendant: the dog owner, and any “person having the dog in the person’s care or keeping.” In Harris the Supreme Court held you may sue either one. That case involved a sheriff’s police dog left at a veterinary clinic while its handler was on vacation, which attacked a veterinary assistant. The court held the injured worker could pursue the sheriff’s office, as owner, even though the clinic had the dog at the time, and it refused to carve out an exception for kennel workers.
Care or keeping takes more than proximity. Harris said the phrase “clearly requires that the ‘other person’ act in a manner which manifests an acceptance of responsibility for the care or keeping of the dog.” In Nesbitt, an adult son who lived with his mother and fed the dogs, took them to the vet, and played with them was a keeper. His sister, a part owner of the house who had lived elsewhere for five years and never cared for the dogs, was not liable at all.
So more than one person can be on the hook: the owner, a family member who looks after the dog, a boarding kennel or sitter who had it that day, and in some cases a property owner who took on its care. For background on proving who the owner is, read what determines ownership of a dog.
One situation needs early attention. If you were yourself walking, sitting, or caring for the dog that hurt you, tell your lawyer on the first call. Harris let a veterinary assistant hurt while the dog was kenneled at her clinic pursue the owner, and the court declined to create a kennel worker exception, but your own role with the dog needs to be looked at early.
Section 47-3-110(B) lists the cases where the statute does not apply. For the victim’s own conduct there is one: the person who was attacked “provoked or harassed the dog and that provocation was the proximate cause of the attack.” Both halves matter: there must be provocation or harassment, and it must have been the proximate cause of the attack. For background, see our page on dog bite provocation.
The second exception covers police dogs, added in 2013. A law enforcement dog is outside the statute only if every condition is met: it was working for a government agency, acting in direct and complete compliance with a lawful command of a certified canine officer, trained and certified to state standards, under a written agency policy, with no policy violation and no excessive force. The exception never applies when the bite lands on a third party bystander.
Trespass works through the statute’s own wording rather than as a separate defense. The statute protects people in a public place or lawfully in a private place, and it defines lawful presence to include anyone on the property to perform a duty imposed by state law, local ordinance, or federal law, including postal regulations, and anyone there by express or implied invitation of the owner or a lawful tenant or resident. A mail carrier, a guest, and a neighbor who was waved over are all covered. Someone who broke in is not.
Assumption of risk is no longer a complete bar in South Carolina negligence cases. In Davenport v. Cotton Hope Plantation in 1998 the Supreme Court folded it into comparative negligence, so it can reduce a negligence award but bars recovery only if that fault is greater than the defendant’s. Where it fits in a claim under the dog statute is not spelled out in the statute.
South Carolina uses modified comparative negligence. In Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., decided in 1991, the Supreme Court adopted the rule for causes of action arising on or after July 1, 1991: a plaintiff in a negligence action may recover if his or her negligence is not greater than that of the defendant, with the award reduced in proportion. Where there are several defendants, the plaintiff’s share is compared with all of theirs combined.
In numbers: a victim found 40 percent at fault recovers 60 percent of the damages. At exactly 50 percent the victim still recovers half. At 51 percent the victim recovers nothing on that negligence claim.
Nelson stated that rule for negligence actions. The dog statute has its own conduct defense, provocation that caused the attack, and Harris described that as the singular exception to the owner’s strict liability. Expect the owner’s insurer to argue comparative fault anyway, especially on the negligence count, and do not accept an adjuster’s percentage as settled law.
A 2026 change affects how fault gets divided among people. Act 42 of 2025, effective January 1, 2026 for claims arising or accruing after that date, rewrote Section 15-38-15 so a defendant can ask the jury to assign fault to someone who is not a party, if that person is disclosed within 180 days of the suit being filed or later for good cause. The same section bars putting a nonparty on the verdict form when “the causes of action involve strict liability,” and the Supreme Court has described 47-3-110 as imposing strict liability on dog owners, which gives a victim suing under the statute a strong argument that the exclusion applies. The older rule stays in place too: a defendant found less than 50 percent at fault generally pays only its share.
A child bitten in South Carolina gets more time than an adult. Under Section 15-3-40, the time a person is under 18 does not count against the limitation period, but the extension cannot run more than one year past the eighteenth birthday. For a child bitten when young, that points to the nineteenth birthday as the outer limit. For a teenager, have a lawyer calculate the exact date, and do not wait for it. The same tolling rule applies to claims against government bodies under the Tort Claims Act.
Do not let the longer clock lull a family into waiting. A parent’s own claim for bills the parent paid may not get the child’s extra time, so raise that question with a lawyer early. Evidence also fades fast: the quarantine record, the names of neighbors who saw the dog loose, and photographs of the wounds in the first weeks.
Expect the owner to point at the child. South Carolina no longer uses fixed age cutoffs for a child’s carelessness. In Standard v. Shine the Supreme Court adopted the standard of a child of like age, intelligence, and experience under like circumstances, and overruled the older presumptions. For the statutory claim the question is narrower anyway: did the child provoke or harass the dog, and did that cause the attack? If an adjuster says the child provoked the dog, read whether a child can provoke a dog.
If a child’s wound may scar, an early offer made before anyone knows how the scar will heal deserves caution.
The starting rule protects landlords. Under South Carolina common law a landlord is not liable to a tenant’s guest for injuries from an animal a tenant keeps on leased property. The Supreme Court held in 1999 that the residential landlord and tenant act’s fit and habitable duty did not change that, and the Court of Appeals applied the rule in Bruce v. Durney, where a father let his daughter’s family live rent free on his land and was not liable when their dog bit a child.
The leading exception is common areas. In Clea v. Odom in 2011, a tenant had kept his dog chained to a tree in an apartment complex common area for nearly ten years. The dog had already attacked a six year old boy, and the landlord had threatened to make the tenant get rid of it but never did. Then it attacked a visiting two year old.
The Supreme Court let both claims go forward against the landlord. On negligence, it relied on the landlord’s statutory duty to keep common areas reasonably safe and on evidence that he knew the dog had attacked a child before and failed to fix it. On strict liability, it held that a landlord who controlled the common area where the dog was continuously kept could have the dog “in his keeping” under 47-3-110, which was a question for a jury.
Put plainly: a South Carolina landlord is usually not responsible for a tenant’s dog inside the tenant’s own unit or yard. Clea opened the door where the attack happened in a common area the landlord controlled and there was evidence the landlord actually knew of a prior attack, and where the landlord could be found to have the dog in his keeping. Prior complaints to management, emails, and lease terms about pets are the kind of evidence that matters in these cases.
Most South Carolina dog bite suits must be filed within three years. Section 15-3-530 gives three years for an injury to the person and three years for a liability created by statute, so the strict liability claim and the negligence claim run on the same clock.
The government route needs care. Filing a verified claim under Section 15-78-80 is optional, not required, and it goes to the agency or political subdivision whose employee was involved, or to the Attorney General if the right defendant is unclear. Harris itself was a claim against a sheriff’s office over its police dog. The Act also lists exceptions in Section 15-78-60 that can bar some claims against a government body, so these cases need early review.
Treat every one of these as an outer limit. Our guide to the dog bite statute of limitations walks through how these clocks interact.
South Carolina’s dangerous animal law defines bodily injury in four parts: broken bones, lacerations, punctures of the skin, and any physical injury resulting in death. That definition was written for criminal penalties, but it is a useful checklist for a civil claim too.
Where a severe attack is treated matters. The South Carolina Department of Public Health lists five adult Level I trauma centers: Grand Strand Medical Center, Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, the Medical University of South Carolina, Prisma Health Richland, and Spartanburg Medical Center. MUSC is the state’s only pediatric Level I trauma center, with pediatric Level II centers at Prisma Health Richland, Prisma Health Greenville Memorial, and Grand Strand. The state trauma system page lists the full roster.
Compensation in a South Carolina dog bite case falls into two groups. Economic damages cover medical bills, future treatment such as scar revision, lost wages, and reduced earning capacity. Noneconomic damages cover pain and suffering, disfigurement, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life. See our overview of dog bite compensation for how each piece is proved.
Punitive damages are different. Under Section 15-32-520 they require clear and convincing proof that the harm came from wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct, and the defendant can ask for a separate trial phase. Section 15-32-530 caps them at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000, a figure adjusted each year for inflation. The cap rises in some cases and disappears entirely where the defendant intended harm, was convicted of a felony for the same conduct, or acted while substantially impaired by alcohol or drugs.
In a dog case, whether the statute alone supports punitive damages is an open question. In Nesbitt the Court of Appeals threw out a punitive award because the dogs were fenced and had never tried to attack anyone, and it expressly left open whether punitive damages are ever available under the dog statute itself. Prior attacks, ignored complaints, and a dog let loose after a warning are what move a case toward that line.
Government defendants are capped. The Tort Claims Act limits recovery to $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence, with no punitive damages and no interest before judgment. And if a court convicts an owner under the dangerous animal law, that person must pay the victim’s medical expenses from the attack.
South Carolina’s state law speaks of a dangerous animal rather than a dangerous dog, and it covers dogs and cats alike. Under Section 47-3-710 an animal is dangerous if its owner knows or reasonably should know it has a tendency to attack unprovoked, if it makes an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury to a person outside its required confinement, or if it is kept or trained for fighting. An animal is not dangerous “solely by virtue of its breed or species,” and one that attacks a trespasser does not qualify.
The rules that follow are strict. A dangerous animal must be confined securely indoors or in a locked, clearly marked pen that keeps the public, including children, out. It may leave the property only if safely restrained. The owner must register it with local law enforcement and show liability insurance or a surety bond of at least $50,000 covering injuries it causes.
Penalties climb fast. The owner of a dangerous animal that makes an unprovoked attack and injures a person away from where it must be confined commits a misdemeanor carrying up to $5,000 or three years for a first offense, and a felony carrying up to $10,000 or five years for a second. Officers may seize the animal while a case is pending, and a court may order a dog destroyed if it remains a continuing threat of serious harm.
The state’s dangerous animal article, Sections 47-3-710 through 47-3-770, sets out no hearing to declare an animal dangerous. Dangerous status turns on the definition, criminal charges, seizure petitions, and the registration requirements each county sets, and counties and cities may adopt their own procedures by ordinance under Section 47-3-20. For a victim, what matters is evidence: a prior registration, a seizure, or a conviction is evidence the owner knew. In South Carolina, breed alone proves nothing under this article.
South Carolina puts a reporting duty on the victim in some cases. Under Section 47-5-90 every physician who treats a bite must report it to the county health department by the end of the next working day. If no physician attends to the bite, the bitten adult, or the parent or guardian of a bitten child, must report it by the end of the next working day. The Department of Public Health’s guidance asks providers to report by phone within 24 hours, and anyone can use its online Animal Incidents Reporting form.
That department is new. South Carolina split DHEC into two agencies on July 1, 2024, and rabies control, bite reports, and quarantine notices now come from the Department of Public Health. The statute’s text still says DHEC, which is why older articles do too.
After a report, the health department serves notice on the dog’s owner to quarantine the dog at the owner’s expense, at home or at a shelter or other designated place, for at least ten days after the bite. A veterinarian or rabies control officer may examine the dog during that time, daily if desired. Under the department’s guidance, a healthy dog available for the ten day quarantine means the person bitten should not start rabies shots unless the dog shows signs of rabies. Ask your doctor, and see what happens after a dog bite is reported.
South Carolina’s Rabies Control Act requires every dog owner to keep the dog continuously vaccinated against rabies, with a metal tag on its collar. Rabies is still active in wildlife here. The department reported 81 confirmed rabies cases in 2024 and an average of about 144 a year since 2002. If the dog that bit you was not vaccinated, read about being bitten by an unvaccinated dog.
South Carolina does not appear in the Insurance Information Institute’s 2025 table of the ten states with the most dog bite claims. The national figure is the honest benchmark: the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm put the average dog-related injury claim at $65,450 for 2025. That is an average across every claim, large and small. It is not a settlement value and it does not predict any one case.
What moves the number in a South Carolina case:
For more on how values are built, see dog bite settlement amounts, and use the dog bite settlement calculator for a rough range.
Insurers paid $1.86 billion in dog-related injury claims nationwide in 2025, according to the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm, so a homeowners or renters policy is often where the money comes from. The South Carolina Department of Insurance tells homeowners that the liability part of their policy “also pays for damage caused by your pets,” and covers both the cost of defending them in court and any court award, up to the policy limit. It also describes no-fault medical coverage for someone injured in the home, which can pay early bills regardless of fault.
Limits matter. The Insurance Information Institute says standard homeowners and renters policies typically cover dog bite liability up to policy limits of about $100,000 to $300,000, with the owner responsible above that. In a serious case, ask whether there is an umbrella policy, a landlord’s commercial policy, or a business policy where a kennel or groomer was involved.
Two South Carolina specific points. First, the owner of a dangerous animal must show at least $50,000 in liability insurance or a surety bond to register it with local law enforcement. If the dog that bit you had already been treated as dangerous, ask whether that coverage exists. Second, the Insurance Information Institute notes that insurers use dog breed lists to deny, non-renew, or limit homeowners and renters coverage, so read the policy’s exclusions before assuming the dog is covered.
So do not take the owner’s word that there is no coverage. The adjuster works for the dog owner’s insurer, not for you.
For the full sequence, read our guide on how to file a dog bite claim.
Dog Bite Laws handles dog attack cases, and South Carolina’s statute makes the owner liable without proof of fault. The work that decides a case sits elsewhere: proving you were lawfully where you were, answering a provocation claim with facts, finding every owner and keeper, including a landlord who controlled a common area, getting the health department’s quarantine record and any animal control file, and building medical proof of scarring and emotional harm. When a city, county, or sheriff’s office is involved, it also means meeting the Tort Claims Act’s shorter clock.
We deal with the insurance company so you do not have to, and we keep an early phone call from turning into an argument that you provoked the dog. 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 built the firm to carry the legal work for injured people while they heal.
We take dog bite cases across South Carolina, including Columbia, Charleston, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Rock Hill, and Spartanburg. If you or your child was bitten or knocked down by a dog, contact us for a free consultation. We will tell you honestly whether there is a claim worth bringing.
No. The Supreme Court of South Carolina abandoned the one free bite rule in 1985, and the legislature then passed Section 47-3-110, which holds a dog's owner or keeper liable for a bite or attack on someone in a public place or lawfully on private property. The victim does not have to show the dog had bitten before or that the owner was careless. Provocation that caused the attack is the main defense.
Very possibly. The statute covers a person "bitten or otherwise attacked," and the South Carolina Court of Appeals held in 1997 that a dog jumping on or pouncing on someone is an attack, even when the dog was being playful. The court has also said there must be an actual attack, so an injury from lifting or handling a dog that never touched you in an aggressive way does not qualify.
Three years is the general rule for a claim against a private owner, and the safe course is to count from the day of the bite. A child's time is paused until 18, but the extension cannot run more than one year after that birthday, so for a young child the nineteenth birthday is the outer limit. If a county, city, or other government body is responsible, the Tort Claims Act generally allows two years, or three if a verified claim was filed with the agency first.
It depends on where the attack happened and what the landlord knew. South Carolina landlords are generally not liable for a tenant's dog on the tenant's own leased space. In Clea v. Odom, though, the Supreme Court let a family's claims go forward where the dog was kept in a common area the landlord controlled and the landlord knew it had already attacked another child.
Yes. A physician who treats a bite must report it by the end of the next working day, but when no physician is involved, South Carolina law makes the bitten adult, or the parent or guardian of a bitten child, responsible for reporting it by the end of the next working day. Reports go to the local office of the Department of Public Health, which took over this work from DHEC in July 2024.
Sometimes. Since 2013 the dog bite statute excludes a working police dog only when all of its conditions are met, including a lawful command from a certified handler, a written agency policy that was followed, and no excessive force. The exception never protects an agency when the dog bites a bystander. The Tort Claims Act is the exclusive civil remedy for a tort committed by a government entity, with a two year deadline and a $300,000 per person cap.
Not necessarily. On a negligence claim, South Carolina lets you recover as long as your share of fault is not greater than the defendants' combined share, reduced by your percentage. The dog statute itself names one conduct defense, provoking or harassing the dog in a way that caused the attack. Get advice before you accept any percentage.
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