Category · 1 topic
Injury & Liability Law by State
Who pays when someone gets hurt. The category opens with dog bites, the injury question where state law splits most cleanly into camps you can actually name.
Pick a topic
Each topic opens a state-by-state hub; every figure inside is cited to the official statute.
The one question dog bite law answers
Every dog bite case starts with the same question: does the owner pay even if the dog had never hurt anyone before? States answer it in two main ways. Strict liability states say yes, the owner is responsible for a bite regardless of the dog's history. One-bite states say the owner is only liable if they knew or should have known the dog was dangerous, which in practice often means the first bite is legally free. A third group mixes the two, applying strict liability only in certain places or to certain injuries, or leaving bites to ordinary negligence rules.
The label matters because it decides what you must prove, and it sits on top of details that vary by state: trespasser and provocation defenses, deadlines to file, and whether the rule covers only bites or any injury a dog causes. Each state page names the camp, cites the statute or the controlling rule, and explains the exceptions in plain language. This category is the newest on the site and currently holds this single topic; more liability topics are being researched and will join it as their statute checks finish.