Does It Help My Case If The Dog Who Bit Me Had Bitten Before?

In Buffalo dog bite lawsuits, not only is it helpful to the injured party that the dog had bitten before, it may actually be essential to the recovery of any damages.  That is because New York State continues to use an archaic standard – rejected in most other states – requiring that the owner was aware of the dog’s “vicious propensities” for the injured person to successfully pursue a personal injury lawsuit.

Proving that the animal had vicious propensities does not necessarily require that it have bitten someone before, but it certainly helps.  While lesser signs of aggression, such as growling, jumping up on people or territorial behavior, may establish vicious propensities, this is a much more difficult approach.  Judges and jurors can have widely different opinions regarding whether such behavior actually provided adequate warning that the dog would later bite someone.

Unfortunately, under New York State law, even if can be established that the dog has demonstrated prior vicious propensities, it still must be proven that the owner knew about these propensities.  This can be extremely difficult in that it easy for the owner to simply deny any knowledge, while the injured person must usually produce a witness who had previously seen the behavior in the owner’s presence or had informed the owner of the behavior to successfully sue for damages.