The Power of Justice
Steps to Take Immediately After a Dog Bite
A dog bite can turn an ordinary moment into a medical emergency in seconds. The first concerns are safety and treatment, but what happens in the minutes, hours, and days that follow can also affect whether the incident is properly documented and whether an injured person can pursue a claim under Colorado law. At Cook, Bradford & Levy, we represent people throughout Boulder County and across Colorado after serious dog bites and animal attacks. Please call us at 303-543-1000 to speak with either Brian Bradford or Jason Levy.
Our firm is led by trial lawyers Brian Bradford and Jason Levy, both of whom have substantial experience representing injured people in serious personal injury claims. Brian is a Colorado native who previously served as a public defender and has recovered tens of millions of dollars for injured clients while handling jury trials throughout Colorado. Jason has spent years litigating personal injury cases and has tried cases in state and federal courts, as well as handled mediations and arbitrations. Together, Brian and Jason bring significant courtroom and insurance-claim experience to cases involving serious injuries, including dog bites. That experience can be particularly important when liability is disputed, an insurer minimizes an injury, or a claim requires us to evaluate both Colorado’s strict liability statute and separate negligence theories.
Medical needs always come first. Evidence, reporting, and insurance issues matter too, but none should delay necessary treatment.
What Should You Do Immediately After a Dog Bite in Colorado?
The hours after an attack can be confusing, particularly when the victim is a child or the injuries are severe. While every situation is different, we generally recommend focusing on the following steps:
- Get to a safe location. Move away from the dog and avoid approaching or attempting to restrain an unfamiliar animal.
- Clean the wound and seek appropriate medical care. Wash the area thoroughly with soap and water if you can do so safely, and obtain professional medical attention when appropriate.
- Identify the dog and its owner or handler. Obtain names, contact information, vaccination information, and any available insurance information.
- Report the bite to the appropriate animal-control or public-health authority. A formal report can help document the event and address possible rabies concerns.
- Photograph the injuries and the scene. Take photographs of wounds, torn clothing, the location of the attack, fencing, gates, leashes, or other relevant conditions.
- Get contact information from witnesses. Independent witnesses may later be important if the dog owner or insurance company disputes what happened.
- Preserve medical records and other evidence. Keep treatment instructions, bills, photographs, damaged clothing, receipts, and any communications concerning the attack.
- Be cautious when speaking with insurance companies. Avoid guessing about facts, signing broad medical authorizations, or accepting a settlement before the extent of the injury is understood.
These steps can help protect both your health and the evidence that may later be necessary to establish what happened.
First, Get Away From the Dog and Address the Injury
Immediately after a bite, the goal is to prevent a second attack. Move to a secure location if you can do so safely. Do not try to capture, corner, or physically restrain an unfamiliar dog yourself. If a child has been bitten, get the child away from the animal and check for injuries that may be hidden by clothing or hair.
Once you are safe, attend to the wound. For a point of reference, Boulder County Public Health advises people who may have been bitten by an animal to thoroughly cleanse the wound with soap and water and seek medical attention. Colorado public-health guidance also emphasizes that rabies is preventable with timely treatment after exposure but is nearly always fatal once symptoms develop.
That does not mean every dog bite requires rabies shots. The dog’s vaccination history, whether the dog can be located and observed, and the circumstances surrounding the bite can all affect the medical response.
Do Not Judge a Dog Bite Only by How Much It Bleeds
Dog bites can produce punctures, lacerations, crush injuries, tendon damage, nerve injuries, fractures, infections, and permanent scarring. A wound may appear relatively small on the surface while causing deeper damage underneath.
A medical provider can clean and evaluate the wound, determine whether imaging or stitches are appropriate, assess infection risk, review tetanus vaccination status, and determine whether consultation concerning rabies exposure is necessary.
Severe bleeding, substantial tissue damage, loss of sensation, impaired movement, facial wounds, and other serious injuries may require emergency treatment.
Identify the Dog and the People Responsible for It
If the situation is safe, try to learn who owns or was caring for the dog.
Colorado’s dog-bite statute defines a “dog owner” broadly. Under C.R.S. § 13-21-124(1)(c), the term can include a person, firm, corporation, or organization that owns, possesses, harbors, keeps, has a financial or property interest in, or has control or custody of the dog.
This definition can become important when someone other than the legal owner was supervising or controlling the animal at the time of the attack.
Get the owner’s name and contact information. If another person was walking, boarding, watching, or otherwise controlling the dog, get that person’s information as well. Ask for the dog’s name, rabies vaccination information, and veterinarian if those details are available.
If the owner provides homeowners, renters, or other liability insurance information, preserve it. Many dog-bite claims are ultimately handled through liability insurance.
What If the Dog Owner Leaves?
Do not put yourself in danger by chasing the dog or its handler.
Instead, write down whatever you can remember, including the dog’s appearance, the handler’s description, any vehicle involved, a license plate if visible, and the direction the person traveled.
Look around for possible cameras. Homes, apartment buildings, parking areas, businesses, doorbell systems, and other properties may have recorded the attack or the events immediately before and afterward.
Video evidence can be especially useful when there is disagreement about whether the dog was restrained, how the attack began, or what the victim was doing before being bitten.
Report the Dog Bite
In Boulder County, and in most Colorado jurisdictions,, animal bites should be reported to the appropriate animal-protection authorities. Colorado health regulations require reporting in certain circumstances, and an official report can serve several purposes.
Most importantly, authorities can help identify the animal and evaluate potential rabies exposure. Dogs, cats, and ferrets involved in biting incidents may be subject to a ten-day observation period under applicable public-health procedures.
A report can also create an independent record of the attack. It may document the dog’s ownership, vaccination status, location, and other facts that become important later.
If the attack occurred outside Boulder County, the responsible agency may be a different animal-control department, sheriff’s office, police department, or local public-health authority.
Photograph the Injury Before It Changes
Dog-bite wounds can look dramatically different from one day to the next.
Swelling may increase. Bruising can spread. Stitches may alter the appearance of the wound. Scabs form. Infection may develop. Eventually, the injury may heal into a scar that looks very different from the original trauma.
Photograph the injury as soon as reasonably possible without delaying medical treatment.
Continue taking photographs periodically throughout the healing process. Include close-up photographs of the wounds and wider photographs showing where they are located on the body.
If scarring remains after the wound heals, continue documenting it.
Photograph Relevant Conditions at the Scene
If it is safe, photograph the area where the attack happened.
Depending on the circumstances, that could include a broken fence, open gate, damaged leash, yard, sidewalk, apartment hallway, trail, dog park, warning sign, or other physical condition associated with the attack.
Do not discard torn or bloodstained clothing merely because it is damaged. The clothing itself may help demonstrate the nature and severity of the attack.
Write Down What Happened While You Still Remember It Clearly
Memories change over time. Details that seem impossible to forget immediately after an attack may become difficult to recall months later.
Write down where the dog came from, whether it was leashed, whether anyone was holding it, what the owner was doing, whether the dog barked or charged beforehand, whether anyone said anything about the dog’s behavior, and what happened immediately before the bite.
Keep the account factual.
If the dog owner made a statement such as “he has done this before” or “the gate keeps coming open,” record the wording as accurately as you remember it. Statements like these may later become important when determining what the owner knew.
Get the Names of Witnesses
Witnesses can become extremely important in dog-bite cases.
An independent witness may have seen whether the animal was loose, whether the owner lost control of the leash, whether a gate was open, or how the victim interacted with the dog before the attack.
Witness testimony can also become important because Colorado’s dog-bite statute contains several exceptions.
Under C.R.S. § 13-21-124(5), Colorado’s statutory strict-liability provision does not apply in certain circumstances. These include situations involving unlawful presence on property, certain warning signs, knowing provocation of the dog, specified professionals performing duties involving the animal, dogs used by law enforcement or the military, and certain working dogs.
Victims do not need to argue about those issues immediately after an attack. The more useful step is to identify witnesses and preserve what they saw.
Continue Following the Medical Plan
A dog’s teeth can damage tissue below the surface, and the full extent of an injury may not be obvious during the first medical visit.
Follow-up treatment may reveal infection, nerve symptoms, limited movement, weakness, delayed wound healing, or other complications.
Keep medical records, prescriptions, discharge instructions, bills, referrals, and appointment information. If a provider recommends additional treatment, document that recommendation.
This can be particularly important when a dog bites a person’s face or hands or when the victim is a child.
Facial scars, for example, cannot necessarily be evaluated accurately during the first few days after an attack. Doctors may need time to determine how a wound will heal before assessing whether future scar revision or other treatment may be appropriate.
Understand Colorado’s Dog-Bite Liability Law
Colorado law does not treat every dog-bite case exactly the same way.
C.R.S. § 13-21-124(2) establishes a form of strict liability when a person suffers serious bodily injury or death after being bitten by a dog while lawfully on public or private property.
Under that provision, an injured person does not necessarily have to prove that the dog had previously bitten someone or that the owner knew the animal was dangerous.
This is one reason Colorado is sometimes described as having a strict-liability dog-bite law.
The description is accurate only up to a point.
Colorado’s Strict Liability Statute Has Important Limits
The statutory claim applies when a bite causes serious bodily injury or death, subject to the statute’s requirements and exceptions.
C.R.S. § 13-21-124 defines serious bodily injury by reference to Colorado’s criminal-code definition. Depending on the circumstances, that can include injuries involving a substantial risk of death, serious permanent disfigurement, substantial risk of prolonged impairment of health, or loss or impairment of the function of an organ or body part.
The strict-liability provision specifically addresses economic damages only, and not pain and suffering or physical impairment, conditions which frequently accompany a dog bite
That distinction matters because not every dog bite reaches the statutory serious-injury threshold, and damages from a serious attack can extend beyond medical bills.
Other Legal Claims May Still Be Available
Colorado’s dog-bite statute does not eliminate other potential legal theories.
C.R.S. § 13-21-124(6)(a) expressly provides that the statute does not affect other causes of action based on negligence, intentional tort, outrageous conduct, or other legal theories.
A negligence case may involve different relevant evidence, and it is the most common way our lawyers pursue dog-bite claims for our clients.
We may investigate whether the dog was properly restrained, whether there were previous attacks or aggressive incidents, whether an owner ignored warnings about the dog’s behavior, whether fencing was inadequate, or whether applicable leash or animal-control laws were violated.
In the City of Boulder, for example, local ordinances generally impose requirements concerning dogs running at large, with exceptions and specific provisions for qualifying voice-and-sight control.
Colorado also has a separate dangerous-dog statute, C.R.S. § 18-9-204.5. A proceeding under that law is different from a personal injury lawsuit, but records generated during an investigation may become relevant to a civil claim.
Be Careful When an Insurance Adjuster Contacts You
An insurance company may contact a dog-bite victim very quickly.
An adjuster might ask for a statement, photographs, medical information, or authorization to obtain records. In some cases, an insurer may discuss settlement before the injury has fully healed.
There is nothing unusual about an insurer investigating a claim. The important thing is to remember that the insurance company’s job is to evaluate its insured’s potential financial responsibility.
Answer factual questions accurately, but do not speculate.
Be particularly careful about signing broad medical authorizations. An authorization may permit an insurer to request records well beyond the treatment directly related to the dog bite.
A person should also understand the consequences before signing a settlement release. Once a claim is fully settled and released, it can be extremely difficult or impossible to reopen simply because the injury later turns out to be more serious than expected.
Do Not Rush to Evaluate a Permanent Scar
Scarring is one of the most significant consequences of many dog attacks.
A scar on the face, neck, arms, hands, or legs may remain visible long after the wound closes. Children can present additional considerations because their bodies continue to grow and the long-term appearance of a scar may take time to determine.
Before evaluating a dog-bite claim involving substantial scarring, it may be necessary to understand whether physicians expect the scar to improve naturally, whether future treatment is recommended, and whether revision surgery or other care may be appropriate.
Settling too early can make those future consequences difficult to account for, and theoretically, future medical treatment is something a victim can recover for
Keep Track of the Financial Impact
Medical expenses are only one type of economic loss that may result from a serious dog bite.
A victim may miss work, require transportation to appointments, need medications, undergo therapy, or incur future medical expenses.
Keep records rather than relying on memory months later.
Pay stubs, employer communications, receipts, medical bills, insurance explanations of benefits, mileage records, and other documents may help demonstrate how the injury affected the victim financially.
Be Careful About Social Media
After an upsetting incident, it can be natural to post about what happened.
There are good reasons to exercise caution while an insurance claim is unresolved.
Photographs, comments, activity posts, and other social-media content can sometimes be interpreted without context. An insurer may compare online activity with statements concerning pain, physical limitations, or emotional consequences.
There is usually little benefit in publicly debating the incident with the dog’s owner or posting detailed descriptions of the ongoing claim.
Do Not Wait Too Long to Investigate a Colorado Dog-Bite Claim
Colorado generally provides a two-year statute of limitations for many tort claims under C.R.S. § 13-80-102, and negligence, although the precise deadline can depend on the circumstances and legal theories involved.
Certain defendants may also trigger different procedural requirements. Claims involving Colorado governmental entities or public employees, for example, can involve separate notice requirements.
A filing deadline is not the only reason to act promptly.
Security recordings can be overwritten. Witnesses can become difficult to find. People move. Dogs may be relocated. Physical conditions at the scene can change. Memories fade.
For that reason, early investigation can matter even when a lawsuit is not immediately necessary.
How Cook, Bradford & Levy Can Help After a Colorado Dog Bite
When we investigate a dog-bite case, we do not stop at asking whether the dog bit someone.
We examine where the attack occurred, who owned or controlled the dog, whether the victim was lawfully present, whether the dog had a documented history, whether there were prior complaints, how the animal was being restrained, what witnesses observed, and what animal-control authorities recorded.
We also investigate insurance coverage and the complete medical consequences of the attack.
Depending on the facts, damages can involve medical bills, lost income, future treatment, reduced physical function, permanent scarring, disfigurement, and other consequences. Colorado’s strict-liability dog-bite statute may provide one route to recovery, while negligence or another legal theory may provide an additional or alternative basis for a claim.
At Cook, Bradford & Levy, our goal is to preserve the evidence, identify the Colorado laws that apply, deal with the insurance issues, and prepare the case carefully when liability or damages are disputed. If you or your child has been bitten by a dog in Boulder County or elsewhere in Colorado, contact Cook, Bradford & Levy today at 303-543-1000 to discuss what happened and the steps you can take to protect your health and your legal rights.