California does not give a dog one free bite. Most people believe it does, including a fair number of owners, and it is the reason a lot of valid claims never get made.
Civil Code 3342 makes an owner strictly liable, and it says so in terms. An owner is liable for the damages suffered by any person bitten “while in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness.” You do not have to show the dog had done it before. You do not have to show the owner was careless. Two facts carry the claim: you were bitten, and you were lawfully where you were.
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What Section 3342 Does Not Cover
Two limits, and they matter because a claim that falls outside the section is not a claim that fails. It is a claim that runs on a different rule.
It covers bites, and only bites. If a dog knocked you off a bicycle, ran into you, chased you into the road or scratched you, section 3342 does not apply. That claim runs on ordinary negligence under Civil Code 1714, where you show the owner failed to control the animal. It is a good claim; it is just proved differently. Where the dog put you into traffic or off a bike, the case may also involve a driver or run alongside a bicycle claim.
You have to have been lawfully present. Public place, or private property you were invited onto or entitled to be on. The statute spells out that people carrying out a duty imposed by state law or by postal regulations are lawfully there, which is why a mail carrier bitten on a driveway is inside the section. Anyone bitten while working, whether delivering, reading a meter or making a service call, usually has this claim running alongside a work injury claim, and the second one covers pain and suffering that workers compensation does not.
A police or military dog is treated separately. Subdivision (b) excludes an action against a governmental agency using a dog in that work in the circumstances it lists. Where a public agency is involved at all, the six-month claim deadline below applies.
Who Pays a Dog Bite Claim?
Usually not the owner personally. Homeowner and renter insurance policies commonly cover dog bite liability, which is the practical reason this rarely becomes a dispute between neighbors over someone’s savings. It is worth knowing before deciding whether to pursue it, because the fear of bankrupting a neighbor stops more of these claims than the law does.
Where the dog belonged to a landlord’s tenant, the landlord may also be liable where they knew about a dangerous animal and had the power to remove it. That is a premises claim in substance, and it turns on the same question of notice. Where the bite happened at a business, on a job or at a rental property, there may be a commercial policy behind it.
An attack in the street can also put somebody into traffic, which makes it a pedestrian claim against the driver at the same time. Where an attack is fatal, and on small children it occasionally is, the family’s claim is a wrongful death claim and the rules on who may bring it are stricter than most families expect.
The Paper Trail Most People Never Ask For
This is the part that turns a disputed bite into a straightforward one, and it exists whether or not anyone tells you about it.
Health and Safety Code 121690 requires a dog to be licensed under the ordinance of the responsible city or county, and to be vaccinated against rabies “by a licensed veterinarian with a canine antirabies vaccine approved by the department”. So for any given dog there should be a license record and a vaccination record, held by animal control and by a veterinary practice.
Three things follow.
The records identify the dog and its owner, which answers the most common practical problem in these cases: the owner who walked away and cannot now be found.
Reporting the bite creates the record rather than starting a fight. An animal control report documents the incident, the animal and the rabies status on a date close to the event, and that matters medically as well as legally.
A gap in the paperwork is itself evidence. An unlicensed, unvaccinated dog is a fact about how that animal was kept, and it goes to a negligence claim even where strict liability already covers the bite.
In Bakersfield, that report is a police record
This is worth knowing before you go looking for it. Inside the city limits, Animal Control is a unit of the Bakersfield Police Department, part of its Special Operations Division. It is not a separate county animal services department, and the responsibilities it lists include dangerous animal situations, dog bites and quarantines.
Two practical consequences follow, and neither is obvious:
The bite file is a police record. People go hunting for “animal control records” as though they were a different kind of document held somewhere else. Inside the city they are generated by a police unit, which means the same department that holds collision reports holds this.
The counter and the field officers keep different hours. Animal Control is at 201 S Mount Vernon Avenue, (661) 326-3436, and its office is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Mondays. Field officers work seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with after-hours response for injured stray animals. So the officers may respond on a day the office is shut, and if you are trying to reach a person about a report on a Monday, that is why nobody is answering.
One limit worth respecting: the department’s remit is stated as within the city limits. A bite somewhere else in Kern County is another agency’s, and we do not assume which one.
Has anyone told you California gives a dog one free bite?
It does not. Civil Code 3342 makes an owner liable regardless of what the dog had done before.
What Injuries Do These Claims Involve?
Dog bite injuries are unusual in that the lasting cost is often not the wound.
Puncture wounds carry infection risk out of proportion to how they look, which is why the first medical record matters even where the bite seemed minor at the time.
Nerve and tendon damage to the hands and forearms, from the instinctive movement of putting an arm up, can outlast the visible injury by years.
Scarring and disfigurement are valued separately from pain and suffering where they are permanent and visible, and on the face they are usually the largest item in the claim.
The psychological injury is real and is compensable. A lasting fear of dogs after an attack changes how somebody uses a street or a park, and in children it is frequently the part that persists longest after the wound has healed.
Children, and Why These Claims Are Different
Most serious dog bite injuries in any county happen to children, and two things follow that adults’ claims do not raise.
The injuries are usually to the face, head and neck, because of height. That puts scarring and disfigurement at the center of the valuation rather than at the edge of it, and those are valued over a lifetime and across revision surgery that may be years away. Where a child struck their head being knocked down, the brain injury question arises as well.
The deadline is paused. Code of Civil Procedure 352 pauses the ordinary limitation period while an injured person is under 18. The six-month government claim deadline is not paused in the same way, so if a public agency is involved somebody has to act within months regardless of the child’s age.
Settling a child’s claim needs court approval in California, which is a protection rather than an obstacle, and it is a reason not to accept an early offer from an insurer directly.
How Long Do I Have to File?
Two years from the date of the bite, under Code of Civil Procedure 335.1.
Six months to present a written claim to a public entity, under Government Code 911.2, where a public agency’s animal was involved or where the bite happened on public property.
Children, as above.
Worried about suing a neighbor?
Homeowner and renter policies commonly cover dog bites. It is usually the insurer that pays, not the person.
Where Does a Bakersfield Dog Bite Case Go?
A dog bite claim seeking more than $35,000, which covers any bite serious enough to scar or to need surgery, is an unlimited civil case. Those are filed at the Metro Justice Building, 1215 Truxtun Avenue, and heard in Kern County before a Kern County jury.
Most of these never reach a courtroom, because the liability rule is strict and the argument is usually about the figure rather than about fault. That does not make the venue irrelevant. The settlement figure an insurer offers is shaped by what it thinks a local jury would do.
On the medical side, the serious bites in this county are treated at Kern Medical, 1700 Mount Vernon Avenue, a Level II trauma center. Whichever facility treated you, the record made on the day is the document that fixes the severity of the wound before it began to heal, and photographs taken in the first week do work that no later description can.
Why Bakersfield Clients Choose Culver Legal
We come to you. If you are in the hospital, at home and unable to drive, or a long way out in the county, we will meet you where you are.
Our team speaks Spanish, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Mandarin and Korean. Explaining what happened in your own words is not a convenience, and on a child’s injury it matters more than usual.
The economics are simple. The firm works on contingency and advances the costs of the case, so there is nothing to pay up front and no fee unless we win. We advance the case costs, and if there is no recovery you are not charged those costs either. Culver Legal has recovered $200 Million and counting, and answers the phone 24 hours a day.
Bakersfield Dog Bite FAQs
Does California really not give a dog one free bite?
Correct. Civil Code 3342 makes an owner liable for a bite “regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owner’s knowledge of such viciousness”. Whether the dog had ever bitten anyone before does not matter to that claim, and neither does whether the owner was careless.
The dog knocked me over but did not bite me. Do I still have a claim?
Yes, but under a different rule. Section 3342 covers bites specifically, so a knock-down, a scratch or a chase runs as an ordinary negligence claim under Civil Code 1714, where you show the owner failed to control the animal.
Does the breed of dog affect my claim?
No. California liability under Civil Code 3342 is strict regardless of breed and regardless of the individual dog’s history. Any page that leads on which breeds are most dangerous is answering a different question from the one that decides your case.
I do not want to take money from a neighbor. Is there another way this works?
Most dog bite claims are paid by a homeowner or renter insurance policy rather than by the owner personally. That is what the cover exists for, and it is worth establishing before deciding not to pursue a claim.
I am undocumented. Can I bring a claim without putting myself at risk?
Yes, and the protection is stronger than most people expect. Under Evidence Code 351.2, added by AB 2159, evidence of a person’s immigration status is not admissible in a civil action for personal injury or wrongful death, and discovery into it is not permitted either.
Who do I report the bite to in Bakersfield?
Inside the city, Animal Control, which is a unit of the Bakersfield Police Department. Its office is at 201 S Mount Vernon Avenue on (661) 326-3436, open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed Mondays, while field officers work every day. Reporting creates a record of the animal, the owner and the rabies status close to the date of the bite. That record is the single most useful document in these cases, and it is not something you are giving up by making it.
How long does a dog bite claim take to settle?
Longer than people expect, and usually for a medical reason rather than a legal one. A bite that will scar is not worth valuing until the scarring has settled, because the figure turns on the permanent result rather than the original wound. Bites needing revision surgery take longer again. The two-year deadline is generous enough to accommodate that in most cases, and where a public entity is involved the six-month claim still has to be presented early regardless of how the healing is going.
Contact a Culver Legal Bakersfield Dog Bite Lawyer
The license and vaccination records that identify a dog and its owner exist from the day of the bite, and they are easier to obtain early than late. If you or your child was bitten anywhere in Bakersfield or Kern County, reach us at (310) 600-7881, at any hour. The review costs nothing.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Culver Legal, LLP is a California law firm. The information on this page is for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal advice.
