A dog bite to the face needing trauma care

Attorney Answer

Alabama has a dog-bite statute, and it covers much less than its opening line suggests. Where the bite happened decides whether it reaches your case at all.

Ala. Code § 3-6-1 reads:

If any dog shall, without provocation, bite or injure any person who is at the time at a place where he or she has a legal right to be, the owner of such dog shall be liable in damages to the person so bitten or injured, but such liability shall arise only when the person so bitten or injured is upon property owned or controlled by the owner of such dog at the time such bite or injury occurs or when such person has been immediately prior to such time on such property and has been pursued therefrom by such dog.

The clause after "but" is the whole section. Read to the comma and it looks like broad strict liability. Read to the end and it applies only where you were on property the dog's owner owns or controls, or were on that property immediately before and the dog chased you off it. A bite in a park, on a sidewalk, in the street or in someone else's yard falls outside § 3-6-1 entirely.

That does not mean there is no claim — it means it is a different claim. A bite outside the statute is brought as ordinary negligence: that the owner failed to use reasonable care with the animal, which commonly turns on whether the dog was restrained, whether a leash requirement applied, and whether the owner already knew the dog was liable to do this. It is a harder case to prove than the statute, and it carries a complication the statutory route does not.

Alabama still applies contributory negligence. If the claimant's own negligence helped cause the injury they recover nothing at all — not a reduced share. It is an affirmative defense the other side must prove, it needs more than simple heedlessness, and it is no defense to wanton conduct.

Two other things are worth knowing about a facial injury specifically. The statute covers a dog that bites or injures, so a dog that knocks someone down is within it as much as one that bites. And the extent of a facial injury is not fixed at the time it happens — scarring is assessed on how it finally settles, which can be many months later, and that is a separate head of damages from the medical bills.

What you can do

1. Write down the address where it happened and the dog owner's name and address. The location is the single fact that decides which of the two claims above you have. 2. Ask for proof of the dog's rabies vaccination, and get the animal-control or police report number if a report was made. 3. Photograph the injury now and keep photographing it as it heals. A facial scar is valued on how it settles, and there is no way to reconstruct that record later. 4. Keep every medical record from the trauma care, including anything about follow-up or revision surgery. 5. Find out whether the owner has homeowner's or renter's insurance — that is usually what pays a dog-bite claim, not the owner personally. 6. Talk to a local Alabama attorney before you give any insurer a recorded statement, and ask specifically whether § 3-6-1 reaches your facts or whether this is a negligence case.

⏱ Time limits apply. Ala. Code § 6-2-38(l) gives two years: “all actions for any injury to the person or rights of another not arising from contract and not specifically enumerated in this section must be brought within two years.” Evidence goes sooner — footage is overwritten and memories fade — so the practical deadline is usually much earlier than the legal one.

An Alabama attorney can tell you quickly how the facts here line up, and most will look at a matter like this at no cost.