When a Dog Bites, the Real Question Is Often Insurance

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By Michael J. Epstein

The phone calls often start the same way.

A parent whose child was bitten while walking home from school. A delivery driver attacked on a front porch. A neighbor injured in a shared hallway of an apartment building.

People assume the legal question is about the dog. Whether it had bitten before. Whether the owner knew it was aggressive. Whether the animal should have been restrained.

Those issues matter. But in my experience, the first and most important question is much simpler.

Was there insurance.

I have handled dog bite cases for years across New Jersey. The injuries are often shocking. Deep lacerations. Facial wounds. Nerve damage. Scars that will not fade. For children especially, the trauma can last long after the stitches come out and the bandages come off.

Once the emergency room visits end, reality sets in quickly. Surgery bills arrive. Therapy appointments stack up. Parents miss work. Someone has to pay for all of it.

That is where homeowners and renters insurance quietly becomes the center of the entire case.

New Jersey law generally holds dog owners responsible when their animal bites someone who is lawfully on public or private property. You do not have to prove the dog was dangerous before. You do not have to show the owner ignored warning signs. If the dog bites, the owner is legally on the hook.

That rule sounds simple. The real world rarely is.

Most dog bite cases are paid not out of a person’s savings account but through insurance policies tied to the home or apartment where the dog lives. A typical homeowners policy includes personal liability coverage. So does most renters insurance. Sometimes a landlord has coverage that applies. Occasionally a commercial policy comes into play if the incident happened at a business.

When that coverage exists, cases can move forward in a way that gives injured people a path to medical care and some measure of closure.

When it does not, everything changes.

I have had to sit across from families and explain that even though the law is on their side, collecting money may be another story entirely. A judgment on paper does not pay hospital bills if the person responsible has no assets, no property, and no meaningful income. Courts cannot create funds that are not there.

Those are brutal conversations. Parents come in expecting the system to fix what happened to their child. Sometimes the law agrees with them completely. The economics do not.

Renters insurance is often the missing piece. Homeowners usually know they carry liability coverage. Renters frequently do not realize how important their modest monthly policy can be. For the cost of a streaming subscription, a renter can carry substantial protection for injuries that occur in or around the apartment.

When renters skip that coverage, they are not just risking their own finances. They are limiting the options for anyone who gets hurt.

Even when a policy exists, it is rarely as simple as filing a claim and waiting for a check. Some insurers exclude certain breeds. Others cap coverage at surprisingly low amounts. Some policies contain animal related exclusions buried deep in the fine print.

That is why dog bite cases often begin with an investigation that has little to do with the dog itself. Who owned the animal. Who lived in the household. Who owned the property. What insurance policies were active on the date of the bite. Whether exclusions apply. Whether more than one policy might be available. Whether a landlord had prior notice of a dangerous animal on the premises.

Those questions shape the case long before anyone walks into a courtroom.

For people who have just been injured, the legal side of things can feel overwhelming. Medical care comes first. It always should. But there are practical steps that matter early on. Reporting the incident to animal control or police creates an official record. Getting the owner’s name and address is critical. Asking whether there is homeowners or renters insurance can feel awkward but it is necessary. Photographs of injuries and the location of the attack can become important months later when memories fade.

One thing I caution clients about is relying on promises that the owner will take care of the bills. Sometimes that happens. Often it does not. Once the invoices arrive, goodwill has a way of evaporating.

There is also a lesson here for dog owners. No one brings home a puppy expecting it to lead to a lawsuit. Most owners believe their dogs would never hurt anyone. Many are right.

But responsible ownership includes preparing for the worst case scenario. Liability coverage protects the owner from financial disaster while ensuring that someone who is hurt can actually receive medical care. Without it, both sides are exposed.

Dog bite cases are emotional. They involve neighbors who know each other. Children playing outside. Workers delivering packages. Ordinary days that suddenly go very wrong.

Behind the scenes, however, these cases turn less on teeth and more on paperwork. Policies. Limits. Exclusions.

When insurance is in place, the legal system has a chance to work the way people expect it to.

When it is not, even a strong claim can run straight into a wall.

That is something homeowners and renters should think about now, not after sirens have already arrived.

And it is something injured families deserve to understand early, before months pass chasing answers that may never materialize.

About Michael J. Epstein

Michael J. Epstein, a Harvard Law School graduate, is a trial lawyer and managing partner of The Epstein Law Firm, P.A., a law firm based in New Jersey.