Homestead dog bite lawyer

Which Florida laws apply to a Homestead dog bite claim

The rules are the same across Florida, so they are written out in full on one page rather than repeated here. They are explained on the statewide dog bite page, with the statute text linked.

Florida does not give a dog one free bite. Fla. Stat. § 767.04 makes the owner liable for a bite in a public place, or where the bitten person was lawfully in a private place including the owner’s own property — and it says so regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of it.

Two things cut against that. If the bitten person’s own negligence was a proximate cause, liability is reduced by their percentage of fault. And an owner who displayed an easily readable sign including the words "Bad Dog" in a prominent place is not liable — except to a person under 6, and except where the damages were proximately caused by the owner’s own negligent act or omission.

Lawfully present is defined, not assumed. It covers someone performing a duty imposed by state or federal law or by postal regulations, and someone there on the owner’s invitation, express or implied. The deadline is two years.

What follows is the part that is specific to Miami-Dade County — where these claims arise, where you will be treated, which courthouse the case goes to, and how the records are obtained.

What the statute actually imposes

Nearly everybody believes Florida gives a dog one free bite. It does not. Section 767.04 makes the owner of a dog liable for a bite in a public place, or where the bitten person was lawfully in a private place, and it says so regardless of the former viciousness of the dog and the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness.

So the owner’s state of mind is not an element. Whether they knew the dog was dangerous, whether it had ever growled at anyone, whether it had been reported before — none of that has to be proved to establish liability.

Which moves the whole case to one question: where was the bitten person standing. A public place, and the statute applies outright. A private place, and it applies if they were lawfully there.

And lawfully there is defined rather than argued. The statute covers a person performing a duty imposed by the laws of the state, by the laws or postal regulations of the United States, or by the ordinances of a municipality — and a person who is on the property by the owner’s invitation, express or implied. A mail carrier on a rural Redland route is lawfully present by operation of law, whether anybody invited them or not.

Where nobody can tell where the property ends

In most of the county a property line is a fence. In the Redland it is frequently a row of avocado trees. Five-acre and ten-acre parcels with a gate at the road and nothing marking the sides, canal banks, and driveways that run a hundred yards before reaching a house.

That makes "lawfully in a private place" a genuine question of fact rather than a formality. Someone walking up an unmarked driveway to knock on a door is almost certainly there by implied invitation. Someone who crossed an unmarked line into a grove may be in a different position, and that distinction is worth getting right at the start.

It also makes photographs of the boundary urgent. What was fenced, what was gated, what was posted and what a person approaching could actually see. Fences get built and signs get put up after a bite, and a photograph from the first week is the only version of the property as it was.

Loose dogs are a separate and common pattern. A dog that was off its own property and bit someone in the road is a public-place bite, and the statute applies without any question about entitlement to be there at all.

A real defense, with two real exceptions

The statute contains a defense most people have never heard of, and it is very specific. An owner who displayed in a prominent place on their premises an easily readable sign including the words "Bad Dog" is not liable, except as the statute goes on to provide.

The first exception is age. The sign defense does not apply to a person under 6 years of age. A bite to a young child on a property with a Bad Dog sign is not defended by that sign.

The second exception is the owner’s own negligence. The sign does not help where the damages were proximately caused by a negligent act or omission of the owner — a gate left open, a dog let loose, a chain that was known to be broken.

And the sign has to actually satisfy the statute. Prominent, easily readable, and including those words. A faded sign on the back of a gate, or one that says something else entirely, is worth photographing exactly as it was and exactly where it was, because how it is described later and how it actually looked are usually two different things.

Animal Services and the health department, both

A bite in Miami-Dade County should be reported to Miami-Dade Animal Services, which takes an Animal Bite Report, and the county’s Pet Adoption and Protection Center is at 3599 NW 79th Avenue in Doral. The county directs bite reports through that form.

And every bite case should also go to the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, reachable at 305-324-2400. That is the rabies-exposure side of it, and it is a medical priority rather than a legal one.

Reporting is what creates the official record of the dog. It establishes the animal’s identity, its owner, and its vaccination status, and it starts an investigation file that exists independently of any insurance claim. A bite that is never reported is a bite with no record of the dog at all.

It is also the first thing an insurer looks for. Where there is no report, the adjuster’s opening position is that the event is unverified. Where there is one, the identity of the dog and its owner is already established before any claim is made.

Scarring, children, and the records that matter

A bite in this area is treated at Homestead Hospital, at 975 Baptist Way, or at an urgent care on US-1. Serious facial or hand injuries and anything requiring reconstruction are referred north, and pediatric cases are routinely transferred to Nicklaus Children’s.

Photograph the wound before it is closed and at every stage after. A bite claim is substantially a scarring claim, and the value of a scar is established by what it looked like at the start, how it healed, and where on the body it is. A healed scar photographed only at the end understates what happened.

Children are the majority of serious bite victims, and their cases are different. A scar on a growing child changes over years, and the surgical opinion about future revision is part of the claim rather than a separate matter. A settlement for a minor also requires its own approval process, which takes time.

Infection and nerve injury are the two things that get missed. A puncture that looked minor and a hand that is not working properly three weeks later belong in the medical record as a continuing problem rather than being mentioned in passing.

Where the Homestead office is, and how to get there

DAPENALAW is at 100 NE 15th Street, Suite 210, Homestead, FL 33030, open Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:00. The direct number is (786) 900-0184.

The office is at 100 NE 15th Street in downtown Homestead, a short drive from the Florida Turnpike and from US-1, and minutes from the South Dade Justice Center where many of these cases are heard. It is the closest office for Florida City, the Redland, Leisure City and Naranja.

You do not have to come in. The first conversation can be by phone or video, documents are handled electronically, and where an injury makes travel difficult the meeting happens where you are. The Homestead office is the closest one for Homestead, Florida City, Leisure City, Naranja, Princeton, Goulds, the Redland, Silver Palm and the area around Homestead Air Reserve Base. The Sunset Drive office in South Miami is usually the shorter drive from Kendall, Cutler Bay and the rest of the county.

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