If a dog injured you in Massachusetts, its owner or keeper is responsible for the harm, even if the dog had never bitten anyone before, and the claim is almost always paid by their homeowner's or renter's insurance. The rest of this page explains how that works.
Dog attacks happen close to home - a neighbor's yard, a relative's kitchen, a sidewalk in Forest Park or a trail in Stanley Park. That closeness is exactly what makes people hesitate to make a claim, and exactly why Massachusetts law and ordinary homeowner's insurance are built the way they are.
We represent bite and attack victims across Western Massachusetts from our offices in Springfield and Westfield. A new injury intake reaches a real person 24 hours a day at (413) 426-8657; the first conversation is free.
Strict liability: what it means in plain terms
Massachusetts law makes a dog's owner or keeper responsible for the damage the dog does. You do not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous, and you do not have to prove carelessness. The gentle dog that had never growled at anyone answers to the same rule as the one with a bite history.
The narrow exceptions: the law does not protect someone who was trespassing, committing another wrong, or teasing, tormenting, or abusing the dog. And when the victim is a child under seven, the law presumes none of those apply - if the owner wants an exception, the owner has to prove it.
The duty sits with the dog's owner or keeper. A keeper is someone other than the owner who has the dog in their care: a relative the dog lives with, or a friend looking after it for the week. That matters when the person whose name is on the dog license was not the person in charge of the dog that day.
Strict liability is not limited to bites. A large dog that jumps on an elderly visitor, chases a cyclist into traffic, or knocks a child off a porch step creates the same responsibility.
The claim is against insurance
Homeowner's and renter's policies cover dog injuries, and that coverage is what a claim pursues. People suffer serious, scarring injuries and never make a claim because the dog belongs to a brother-in-law or a neighbor of twenty years. What they are declining is the insurance coverage that household has paid for all along.
We take on these claims with that reality in view - professionally, against the carrier, with the personal relationship left as intact as the situation allows.
What a serious bite costs
Dog attacks produce a distinctive set of harms: puncture and crush wounds that need repair, infection risk that extends treatment, scarring - often facial, often on children - that may need revision surgery years later, and a fear of dogs that changes how a kid walks to school. Emergency treatment is the smallest line on the list.
Valuing a scar on a growing child is its own discipline; sometimes the right move is to document, treat, and let the scar mature before the claim is priced, and Massachusetts's three-year filing deadline - which runs differently for minors - usually allows that patience. We will tell you honestly what the right timing looks like for your family.
What to do after a bite
Get medical care the same day; puncture wounds are infection-prone even when they look small. Photograph the injuries as they heal - the record of the worst days matters later. Report the bite to the local animal control officer; the report both documents the attack and protects the next person. Identify the dog and its owner, and confirm rabies vaccination. Then talk to us before an insurance adjuster calls you, because they will call, and their first offer is priced for a claim without a lawyer.
The first conversation is free. If the claim is small enough to resolve yourself, we will tell you exactly that.