Written by Travis S. Kelley

Dog bite cases rarely fit a clean narrative. The dog didn’t come out of nowhere in a vacuum — you may have been petting it, walking past its yard, or even visiting the owner’s home when the attack happened. That history can make people hesitant to come forward, worried they’ll be blamed and walk away with nothing.

I’ve handled enough of these cases at Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers to know that the circumstances are almost always messier than the initial police or animal control report suggests. The questions I get most often aren’t “was it the owner’s fault?” — they’re “does my share of the fault kill my case?” The answer, in most situations, is no. Here’s what Texas law actually says, and how each specific scenario plays out.

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Can I Still Recover Compensation if I Was Partially at Fault for the Dog Attack in Austin?

Yes, you can still recover compensation even if you were partly at fault — as long as your share of the fault doesn’t exceed 50%. Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule under Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §33.001, which bars recovery only when a plaintiff is more than 50% responsible. Below that threshold, your damages are reduced in proportion to your fault percentage, not eliminated.

Here’s how this plays out in practice. Say a jury finds that a dog owner in Austin was 70% at fault for keeping a known aggressive dog off-leash in a shared apartment courtyard, and you were 30% at fault for reaching toward the dog after the owner told you not to. If your total damages are $100,000, you recover $70,000. Your fault reduces the award, but it doesn’t wipe it out.

What raises your fault percentage in these cases? Ignoring posted warnings, trespassing, provoking the dog, or reaching over a fence into the dog’s space are the arguments insurers push hardest. What lowers it? A prior bite history the owner knew about, a leash law violation under Austin’s City Code Chapter 3-5, or an owner who failed to warn visitors about the dog’s temperament. I’ve seen cases where an adjuster initially assigned 40% fault to my client, and after we gathered the owner’s veterinary records and prior animal control complaints, that number dropped significantly.

The practical takeaway: don’t assume a role you played in the incident ends your claim. Get the facts in front of an attorney before you accept that assumption from an insurance company.

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Can I Recover Compensation if the Dog Bite Happened Years Ago but My Injury Got Worse?

Texas has a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including dog bites, under Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code §16.003. So if you were bitten three years ago and never filed, you’ve almost certainly lost the right to sue for that original bite. But the “my injury got worse” scenario is more nuanced than most people realize.

If you filed a claim or lawsuit within two years of the original bite and you’re now experiencing worsening symptoms — nerve damage that progressed, scarring that required additional surgeries, or chronic infection complications — those worsening conditions are part of your existing claim. You don’t file a new lawsuit for each development. Your damages calculation should account for future medical expenses and ongoing pain and suffering, and an experienced attorney will push for that.

Where I see people lose money is when they settle too quickly. An insurance company will offer a lump sum early, often before the full extent of the injury is clear. Once you sign a release, you typically cannot come back for more, regardless of how much worse things get. The Mayo Clinic notes that dog bite wounds — particularly deep puncture injuries — can cause long-term nerve damage and scar tissue complications that don’t fully manifest for months. Settling before your treating physician can give a clear prognosis on maximum medical improvement is a mistake I’ve seen too many people make.

If the bite is recent and you’re already noticing deterioration, document everything: emergency room records, follow-up appointments, physical therapy notes, and any out-of-pocket expenses. That paper trail becomes the foundation for a damages figure that accounts for where your health is headed, not just where it is right now.

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Can I Recover Compensation for Disfigurement and Loss of Enjoyment of Life After a Dog Attack?

Yes, and these are often the largest components of a dog bite claim — larger, sometimes, than the medical bills. Texas law allows recovery for non-economic damages, which include physical disfigurement, physical impairment, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life. These are distinct categories, and a good attorney will argue each one separately rather than lumping them together.

Disfigurement refers to permanent scarring, altered appearance, or visible physical changes. Loss of enjoyment of life is different — it covers the activities, relationships, and experiences you can no longer fully participate in because of your injury. A runner who develops a deep scar on their leg and can no longer compete has both a disfigurement claim and a loss-of-enjoyment claim. Someone with facial scarring who avoids social situations, withdraws from work, or develops anxiety around public spaces may have significant mental anguish damages on top of both.

In my experience, insurance adjusters routinely lowball or ignore these categories entirely in early settlement offers. They focus on the medical bills because those are easy to quantify. Non-economic damages require work — photographs documenting the progression of scarring, testimony from family members or coworkers, and sometimes expert witnesses like vocational rehabilitation specialists or psychologists.

The CDC has documented that dog bites account for a significant share of emergency room visits annually, and a meaningful portion of those involve facial or visible-area injuries that carry long-term psychological impact. Texas courts have upheld substantial non-economic damage awards in dog bite cases where the evidence of life disruption was clearly presented. The key is building that evidence from the start, not trying to reconstruct it later.

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Can I Recover Compensation if a Dog Bit Me on the Face and Caused Permanent Scarring?

Facial dog bite injuries are among the most significant personal injury cases I handle, and yes, you can absolutely recover compensation — including damages that go well beyond what it costs to treat the wound initially.

Permanent facial scarring triggers multiple damage categories simultaneously: medical expenses for the initial treatment and any reconstructive procedures, disfigurement damages, mental anguish, and in some cases loss of earning capacity if your profession involves client-facing work or physical appearance. A chef, a news anchor, a real estate agent, or a teacher all have legitimate arguments that visible facial scarring affects their professional life. Those damages are recoverable.

Reconstruction is rarely a one-time event. Scar revision surgery, dermabrasion, laser treatments, and psychological counseling can extend over years. Any settlement should account for all of that — past and future. Johns Hopkins Medicine describes the complexity of facial wound repair and the frequent need for staged procedures, which is exactly the kind of medical documentation that supports a forward-looking damages calculation.

One thing I tell clients specifically: photograph the injury at every stage. The day after the attack. After the stitches come out. Six months later. A year later. Juries and adjusters respond to visual evidence of how a scar has affected someone’s daily life, and those photographs tell a story that medical records alone can’t fully convey.

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Can I Recover Compensation if the Dog Bite Left Me With MRSA or Sepsis?

Dog bite infections are more dangerous than most people expect, and they can be the basis for very serious claims. Dog mouths carry bacteria that can cause Pasteurella, Capnocytophaga, and Staphylococcus infections, and MRSA — methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — is a documented complication of animal bite wounds. Sepsis, which occurs when an infection spreads to the bloodstream, is life-threatening and can result in organ damage, amputations, or death.

If a dog bite caused your MRSA or sepsis, the dog’s owner can be held liable for all of it — not just the wound itself but the full chain of medical consequences that followed. This is called the “eggshell plaintiff” rule: the defendant takes the victim as they find them. If your immune system was compromised, if you developed a serious secondary infection, or if hospitalization lasted weeks, those damages are all recoverable.

What I’ve seen complicate these cases is gaps in treatment. If a person was bitten, didn’t seek immediate medical care, and then developed a severe infection, the defense will argue that the delay broke the chain of causation or constituted contributory negligence. There’s some validity to that argument if the gap is long. My strong advice: get medical treatment the same day you are bitten, follow every instruction, and keep all follow-up appointments. That documentation chain makes it far harder for a defense attorney to argue your own choices caused the infection.

Medical records showing the wound culture, the antibiotic regimen, hospital admission records for sepsis treatment, and any long-term care needs all become critical evidence. These cases can involve damages in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when the medical bills alone are catastrophic.

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Can I Recover Compensation if a Dog Bit My Service Animal or Emotional Support Animal in Austin?

This is a question I get more often now, and the honest answer is: yes, but the legal framework is less straightforward than if you were the one bitten.

Under Texas law, an animal is legally classified as personal property. So if another dog attacks and injures or kills your service animal or emotional support animal, the owner of the attacking dog can be liable for the fair market value of the animal and any veterinary expenses. That’s the baseline. But courts in Texas — and increasingly across the country — have recognized that the strict “property” categorization doesn’t fully capture the relationship between a person and a trained working animal.

For service animals specifically, the argument for damages beyond fair market value is stronger. A fully trained service dog — for mobility assistance, diabetes alert, PTSD support, or seizure detection — can cost between $15,000 and $50,000 to replace, and the replacement process can take years. During that period, the owner may require alternative care, lose independence, or face direct medical consequences. Those losses are arguable. An Austin attorney experienced with animal-related claims can help structure that argument properly.

Emotional support animals occupy a different legal category than trained service animals under the ADA, but under Texas civil law, the owner can still recover the animal’s value and vet bills. Where I’d focus the claim is on any physical injury to you in the process — if you were knocked down, bitten yourself, or sustained injury while trying to protect your animal, those personal injury damages apply to you directly and are often worth more than the claim for the animal itself.

Document the attack with animal control reports, witness statements, and full veterinary records. If your service animal is out of commission during treatment or recovery, document every way that disruption has affected your daily functioning. That record supports a damages argument that goes beyond a simple property replacement calculation.

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What to Do After a Dog Bite Attack in Austin?

Regardless of which scenario brought you to this post, a few steps apply across all of them.

Report the attack to Austin Animal Center or Austin 311. Get the dog owner’s name, address, and insurance information. Seek medical treatment the same day — even if the wound looks minor, infections develop fast. Photograph the wound, the location, and the dog if you can do so safely. Get names and contact information from any witnesses.

Then call an attorney before you speak to the dog owner’s insurance company. Adjusters are trained to gather statements that can be used to inflate your comparative fault percentage or minimize your claimed damages. A recorded statement given too early, before you know the full scope of your injuries, can hurt your case significantly.

If you’re unsure whether you have a viable claim, reach out to our team for a straightforward assessment. We represent clients with dog bite injuries throughout Texas, and we handle personal injury matters beyond dog bites — including Austin pedestrian accident cases and Austin slip and fall claims — so if your dog bite happened in a context that involved another type of injury, we can evaluate the full picture.

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Talk to an Austin Dog Bite Attorney

Every dog bite case I handle is different. The facts, the owner’s insurance coverage, the severity of the injury, and the specific damages involved all shape the outcome. What doesn’t change is the process: gather evidence early, get proper medical treatment, and don’t let an insurer tell you your case has no value before you’ve had a lawyer review it.

Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers offers free consultations for dog bite injury cases. There are no upfront fees — we work on contingency, meaning we only get paid if you recover.

Call us today at (512)-470-6068 or contact us online to schedule your consultation. You can also visit our Austin office at 17800 Hamilton Pool Rd Ste. 203, Austin, TX 78738, United States.

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Travis S. Kelley is a personal injury attorney at Kelley Wolff Injury Attorneys | Austin Accident Lawyers. Read more about Travis S. Kelley.