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Colorado Dog And Animal Bite Lawyer

Call (888) 471-5989 to speak with a personal injury attorney.

If you've ever owned a dog, or a pet of any kind, chances are there has been a time when it ran away, broke free, or you were unable to control it. Animals are unpredictable, no matter how domesticated they may be. For dogs especially, certain breeds are more likely to run away or become violent, something that worries many owners and the public in general. If someone does become a victim of a severe dog bite, there are certain laws which provide them with rights to file a dog bite lawsuit against the dog's owner(s). The Colorado dog bite law was created to help the injured person in filing a lawsuit to recover monetary damages related to dog bite injury.

Colorado has some of the most strict, detailed and complicated laws regarding dog bites. There are actually five different classes that pertain to the level of injury inflicted by a dog bite. The laws outline what an injury is, and what the victim is entitled to based on the severity of the injury. They include:
Serious bodily injury victims
Victims who suffered non-economic loss or injury (pain and suffering, emotional distress)
Victims who did not suffer serious injury and cannot prove requirements of the one-bite rule
Bite victims who knowingly entered a dangerous situation or provoked behavior
Severely injured and disfigured victims who suffered physical impairment
Colorado is unique in that it limits the amount of damages a victim can receive based on their injures. The cap for non-economic damages is $350,000 and limited to only the conditions outlined in the law. Each class is treated separately and has certain limits and expectations of what must be proven and how much they can recover. Class five, or those severely injured, impaired and disfigured have no limit to the amount of damages they can recover.

Under the Colorado liability statute indicates that an individual or a personal representative of an individual who suffers any serious bodily injury or death caused by being bitten by a dog is permitted to initiate a civil action in order to recover monetary damages against the owner of the dog, whether the dog was vicious or the owner had knowledge or lack of knowledge of the dog's viciousness. This will only happen if the victim who suffered the injury was legally on public or private property at time that the injury occurred or the victim did not do anything to provoke the dog. The strict liability statute is applicable in cases that there is an increased risk of death, serious permanent bodily damage, impairment of an organ of the body or a fracture of a limb.

A dog owner would not be liable if:
Injury occurred while the injured individual was trespassing on the owner's property.
There was clearly a visible no trespassing sign on the property.
If the victim veterinary, dog trainer or health worker acting to perform his or her duties.

If you are a dog owner in Colorado you must do whatever is deemed necessary to protect yourself against a lawsuit. Protection may mean putting up a sign that warns others that your dog may bite. If someone tries to tease the dog and gets bitten, the individual may be partially negligent for any dog bite occurrence. Dogs are naturally predatory animals, and are capable of inflicting severe physical damage on, or even killing an individual. Some breeds of dogs are inherently more aggressive than others, but even the most well behaved dog are capable of attacking without warning.