The laws are frequently weak, city budgets for animal control too low, and enforcement policies too soft to get dangerous dogs off our streets.

However, you do not have to accept the current status quo. First, demand that your representatives in city government pass the right laws and put teeth in them. That includes tougher laws and strict enforcement policies. Every city needs to have a leash law (i.e., dogs have to be on a leash at all times unless they are  securely fenced upon the owner’s property) and a dangerous dog law that (a) gives the animal control department the authority to euthanize dangerous dogs and (b) applies to dogs that bite people or other animals or requires a person to take defensive action.

Second, use the small claims court to make the wrongdoer pay for damage caused to other dogs. Third, be the squeaky wheel — complain to the bad dog owner’s landlord, the police, the homeowner’s association, neighborhood watch, animal control, the city council and everyone else. He might be forced to change his behavior or a landlord or another of those organizations might succeed in pressuring him to do so.

Finally, you can retain an attorney to analyze your local animal control laws, and write a strong letter to the authorities that will remind them of their duties. The letter also can be used to communicate to the mayor, the police, the city council, and the county board, not to mention the press.

“How do I find the law in my city, county and state?”

First, if you are a dog bite victim, you should not attempt to handle your case yourself unless no blood was drawn, bones broken, sprains incurred, etc.

Instead, send Mr. Phillips an E-mail message at kphillips@dogbitelaw.com and start a discussion with him about your incident. If you have other reasons for researching the law, keep reading.

There are four equally important sources of dog bite law. You have to research all of them. They are the city laws, county laws, state statutes, and state cases.

For city law, do one or more of the following:

Contact your city clerk and ask for a written copy of the dog laws of your city.

Go to the nearest library or law library, and ask the reference librarian to (a) show you the municipal code of your city, and (b) help you find the dog laws.

On the Internet, the best resources for city law are listed on the Links page of this web site. Another Internet source would be your city’s website, if there is one. You also can contact your city clerk and ask whether the municipal code is online; if so, get the URL (i.e., the online address).

For county law, contact the county clerk instead of the city clerk, and ask the clerk or librarian for the county code instead of the

municipal code. Counties frequently have websites, which are good sources of all kinds of practical information. The link page of this website also leads to county codes.

For state statutes, go to Legal Rights of Dog Bite Victims in the USA. It has a complete discussion of state statutes and cases. If your state has a dog bite statute, you will find a link to it. There are also links to some jurisdictions that do not have dog bite statutes.

For state laws that are not mentioned on this website, use Findlaw . First click on the name of your state. Then select “Primary materials – Cases, Codes and Regulations.” Then click on “Statutes” or “Revised Statutes” to find the statutory laws (the best place to start). Search for the word “dog” and read everything that comes up.

For state cases, follow the directions for state statutes on this website. If you want to find a case that is not on Dog Bite law, first you need to be warned about something. It takes a legal education to understand the meaning of court decisions, and to know how to apply court decisions to specific incidents. If you want to try, find the cases on Findlaw or on FastSearch. However, it is highly recommended that you try to find on Dog Bite Law the analysis that you need.

Homeowner Association Liability for Dog Bites

A homeowner association may be liable for permitting dangerous dogs to remain on the common areas and private streets owned and controlled by the association. The Board of Directors of these associations have a fiduciary duty to manage and operate the common areas, including making them safe and warning of any known dangerous conditions. Although there are not many cases establishing precisely the liabilities and responsibilities of homeowner associations pertaining to dogs, the prudent association would be well advised to enact Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (called “CC&Rs”) that would place reasonable restrictions on an owner’s ability to house vicious and potentially dangerous animals.

Attorney Kenneth Phillips is widely regarded as the leading authority in the field of dog bite law in the United States. He is the author of this website, Dog Bite Law, the most complete source of information about dog bites in print or on the Internet. It is ranked first by Google and Yahoo, and is linked to or cited as authority by law review articles, legal publications, books about dog law, and over 2,500 other websites, including the United States Department of Agriculture.

Attorney Phillips also is the author of The Dog Bite Law Blog, a web log of news and opinion about dog bites. In addition, he has written Dog Bite Litigation Forms for Plaintiffs’ Lawyers, What To Do If Your Dog Has Been Injured Or Killed, and numerous articles for legal publications, such as Getting the Most Out Of Your Dog Bite Case (Trial Magazine, Feb. 2006).

He has appeared regularly on national television, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and the Today Show. He has been heard on radio throughout the USA and as far away as New Zealand and China. He has written for, and been the subject of articles in, numerous newspapers and magazines around the world, including Time, People, Good Housekeeping, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times.

He has assisted state and local lawmakers in the drafting of dog bite laws, and testified regarding their suitability. He is a popular speaker at conferences for dog owners, canine professionals and attorneys throughout the United States. The videos of his seminar for canine professionals, entitled Avoiding Liability When You Train, Shelter or Adopt-Out, and his seminar for plaintiffs’ lawyers, entitled Anatomy of a Dog Bite Case, are legal best-sellers.

Kenneth Phillips is often asked whether he is too busy to represent clients, whether a client’s case is “too small,” or whether a question from E-mail will “slip between the cracks.” The answer is “No!” Mr. Phillips literally practices what he preaches. His expertise in dog bite law is the result of representing clients in large and small cases, answering the weighty and routine questions, and hearing about new issues from visitors to this website

www.dogbitelaw.com

kphillips@dogbitelaw.com