As personal injury lawyers, our firm has handled many dog bite cases and we get calls and contacts about dog bite cases frequently. One of the questions we always ask a potential client with a dog bite case is: where did the incident occur? This tells us where to look for leash laws. We need to know what leash laws apply to the place where the bite happened to determine if a claim for money compensation can be made using the leash laws.
Violation of leash laws can give rise to a specific type of claim in a dog bite case called negligence per se. This establishes that the dog owner is automatically negligent if he or she broke the leash laws. Since leash laws are meant to protect people from dog bites, when someone breaks that law and causes injury, they are negligent as a matter of law. This mean you do not need to prove to a jury that the dog owner breached a duty of care. You only need to show the leash law was broken.
Most states and municipalities have leash laws that can be used to make a negligence per se claim. For example, in Kansas City, where the majority of our dog bite cases occur, the ordinance says, “It shall be unlawful for any person owning, keeping or harboring any dog … to permit, suffer or allow the dog … to run at large within the city.” In KC, i
If you have questions about dog bite cases or are interested in free consultation about a dog bite case, please contact us at any time at 816.867.8611.