If you are suffering from a dog bite injury in New York, you have a limited amount of time to file a claim and the process is complex. At Stephen Bilkis & Associates, our New York Dog Bite Injury Attorney Group will help you with the process of obtaining compensation for your injury and holding the owner responsible for their animal’s actions.

According to the New York Dog Bite Injury Attorney team, New York does not recognize cause of action of negligence for a domestic animal. However, New York does recognize that an animal’s owner can be held strictly liable for the animal’s actions if a vicious propensity can be previously established.

In addition to civil penalties and fines, the owner, or person who is harboring or keeping the dog, can be held responsible for medical expenses related to the injury caused by the dog to a person or to another domestic or farm animal. The owner can also be found responsible for the victim’s out of pocket expenses, lost wages, and other expenses. Our Staff of New York Injury Lawyers will help a dog bit injury victim seek a punitive damage award; punitive damages are an award of monies used to punish the negligent owner and deter other owners from similar careless actions. While these damages are applicable to a dog bite injury case, they are also applicable in many other personal injury cases. If you are suffering from an injury caused by another’s negligence actions, contact our New York Personal Injury Attorneys at Stephen Bilkis & Associates to discuss your available legal remedies. We have helped construction accident victims pursue personal injury claims and workers compensation claims against their employers; car accident injury victims successfully hold a negligent driver responsible for their careless behavior; patients hold their medical providers responsible for acts of medical malpractice; and many types of cases. Contact us at Stephen Bilkis & Associates to discuss your case.

In order to pursue your legal action against a dog’s owner, our experienced New York Dog Bite Injury Lawyer will need to determine whether a dangerous dog is a considered one that without justification or provocation either attacks or behaves in a manner which poses a serious or unjustified threat of injury. However, the victim’s conduct can exempt a dog from being considered a dangerous animal.

In addition, to being held responsible for medical costs, our New York Dog Bite Injury Lawyer states that the owner of a dangerous dog can also be required to pay a fine if his negligence results in a dog bite injury to another person or animal. The amount of the fine is dependent on whether the injury was to a person or an animal, the seriousness of the injury, and whether the dog was previously determined to be a dangerous dog. In New York, a serious injury is considered an injury that causes a wrongful death or presents a risk of death, causes disfigurement or physical impairment. If the dog was previously considered dangerous and the bite is a serious injury, a New York Dog Bite Injury Attorney from our office reports the negligent owner can be convicted of a misdemeanor and held liable for a $1000 fine and sentenced to 90 days in jail. However, if a dangerous dog escapes and kills an individual, the dog’s owner can be convicted of a Class A Misdemeanor. In this case, the owner will also be held to other penalties and civil liability under New York law.

Our hard-working New York Dog Bite Injury Lawyer Team has found that the New York legal system has long held that an owner can be held strictly liable for injuries caused by his dog, if the injury victim can show the dog is vicious or dangerous and that the owner either knew or should have known about the dog’s dangerous characteristics. Evidence of these dangerous propensities includes a prior biting incident, in addition to other factors such as growling, snapping or baring its teeth. However, our team of experienced litigators will tell you that “Beware of Dog” signs are not enough evidence to imply that the owner knew of the dog’s dangerousness. Our Lead attorney also states that a chained dog or dog that barked when people approached is insufficient to prove a dog was vicious.

Undisputable evidence of the dog’s vicious tendencies is any prior attacks committed by the animal. If you are suffering an injury from a dog that has previously attacked another, our New York Dog Bite Injury Attorney Group will attempt to locate previous victims as evidence of the dog’s dangerousness.

If you or your loved one are suffering from an attack by a dog or from any form of personal injury caused by the negligence of another person, contact Stephen Bilkis & Associates to learn about your legal rights. In addition to our skilled New York Dog Bite Injury Attorney, our staff of experienced attorneys at Stephen Bilkis & Associates has successfully handled a wide range of personal injury cases from construction accident cases to workers compensation injury cases that involve serious injury ie Brain Injury or Brain damage cases or those that involve spinal injury. Contact us today for your free initial evaluation at 1-800-NY-NY-Law, online, or stop by one of our convenient locations. We have offices located throughout New York City in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx and in Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk County.