A 51-year-old woman was trespassing in a Portsmouth, Virginia, neighborhood residence when she was attacked, mauled, and severely injured by the owner’s three pit bulls. After being transported to the hospital, she died of her injuries. Authorities took the three dogs into custody.
Under Virginia’s one-bite rule, dog owners can be held strictly liable for a victim’s injuries if they knew or should have known about their dog’s aggressive tendencies or if the dog had bitten someone before. In this case, police officers later learned that officers had responded to the location three times over the previous year, once for a bite injury.
However, the owner might not be held liable if it is determined that the victim was trespassing at the time of the incident or committing some other type of crime on the owner’s property.
If you or a loved one suffered a serious dog bite injury, our Virginia Beach dog bite lawyers can help. We understand how traumatic these injuries can be and will carefully examine the evidence in your case to determine the best course of action.
Dogs That Killed Victim Humanely Euthanized
According to DogsBite.org, nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens require emergency care for serious dog bite injuries every day. Annually, over 12,000 are hospitalized. A Forbes report noted that pit bulls are involved in more dog attacks than any other breed, responsible for 22.5 percent (over one-fifth) of bites across all studies. Pit bulls are also more likely to cause serious injury and death.
When the news media spoke to neighbors in the above dog-bite incident, they suggested the dogs had been involved in at least three prior acts of aggression, including biting a person and aggressively chasing children on bicycles.
The Portsmouth police chief later confirmed the previous attacks but also suggested the victim was trespassing at the time of the incident. An eyewitness stated that the victim walked into the home, moved the barricade meant to keep the dogs in the back room, and went into that room, allegedly to visit a man who was said to live there.
According to a WTKR news report published a few weeks after the incident, the three pit bulls were humanely euthanized on the day of the incident. At the time of the report, Portsmouth police were still unsure about what the victim was doing at the residence but said that the dogs were secure when the attack happened.
If the Dog-Bite Victim Was Trespassing, the Owner Faces Less Legal Risk
If the victim was trespassing at the time of the dog bite injury, dog owners typically face less legal risk. Virginia law does not allow victims to claim for injuries, including dog bites if they were trespassing at the time of the injury.
According to the law, if the victim was doing any of the following at the time of the incident, the court will not find the animal to be a dangerous dog:
- Committing a crime upon the premises occupied by the animal’s owner
- Willfully trespassing upon the premises occupied by the animal’s owner
- Provoking, tormenting, or physically abusing the animal
There are some exceptions, however. If a young child, for example, wandered unknowingly onto the property and the owner’s dog attacked, that child’s family may be able to bring a claim against the dog owner.
When to Hire a Virginia Beach Dog-Bite Lawyer
If you were injured by a dog, our Virginia Beach dog-bite lawyers can help you bring a claim against the appropriate insurance company. We know how to effectively negotiate with them and are familiar with common tactics such as denying liability, questioning the severity of your injuries, and dragging out the process.
When negotiations fail, we also have extensive trial experience and can take your case to court if needed, as we did for this North Carolina family who retained us to fight for them in a wrongful death case. We helped negotiate a $2.5 million settlement with the insurance company.
In addition to Virginia Beach, we also serve the Outer Banks, North Carolina area, as well as the Portsmouth and Norfolk areas.
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An experienced personal injury attorney with dual licensure in Virginia and North Carolina, Eric Washburn received a B.B.A. in Finance from James Madison University—initially worked in the information technology field before obtaining his law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Once an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Danville, Va., Eric has been recognized by Super Lawyers Magazine as a “Rising Star” Super Lawyer in Virginia since 2014.
