Dog Bite

Published on: September 30, 2024

U.S. Postal Service Ranks Florida by Dog Attacks. Where Does Your City Fall on the List?

It’s a tale as old as time in cartoons, commercials and movies – Dog meets Postal Carrier. Dog chases Postal Carrier. Postal Carrier requests a neighborhood transfer.

As comedic as the bitter feud between man’s best friend and postal carriers might be in theory, for many mail carriers across the nation, it is a very real threat. Data from the U.S. Postal Service shows there were approximately 193 attacks on these employees from pets in 2023 alone.

In 2022, 61-year-old Pamela Jane Rock, a Florida mail carrier, was mauled to death by five dogs while on the job. The incident happened on Aug. 21, 2022, in Putnam County in northern Florida. Rock’s vehicle had broken down and she was delivering mail on foot when she was descended upon by five dogs.

Published on: September 17, 2021

$1.5 million recovered in dog bite cases with no or disputed insurance coverage

By Leesfield & Partners

Everyday 1,000 people go to emergency rooms across the country to treat for dog bite injuries, and approximately 15,000 people need to be hospitalized with life-threatening injuries every year. Florida has a 40% dog ownership rate, and many owners have more than one dog. Consequently, it is not uncommon for guests, bystanders, neighbors and relatives to be bitten while visiting the home of a dog owner. When injured, where can the victim turn to? What about insurance exclusions?

Below are five different scenarios – five cases handled by Leesfield & Partners – which resulted in the victims receiving compensation despite low odds of recovery.

Florida Law

Published on: August 13, 2014

4-year-old child killed by dog in Miami

By Leesfield & Partners

Dog bite cases are among the saddest and most tragic cases when representing victims and families in personal injury cases. Today in Miami, a four year-old was apparently mauled to death by a dog at 12301 SW 230th Street. The details of this horrific incident have yet to be known or released by Miami-Dade responding police officers. It seems that the identities of the dog or the dog owner are unknown at this time. A still photograph taken by a helicopter shows a teddy bear laying on the grass, and a small size sheet draped over the child’s tiny body.

The dog laws in Florida favor all victims of dog bites, making the dog owner strictly liable for the injuries the dog inflicted upon the victim. In cases involving a child younger than 6-years-old, Florida Law disposes that the child cannot be held responsible for any comparative fault. There is a standing comparative negligence question regarding the parents and the potential lack of supervision of the child which may or may not have contributed to the child falling a victim of the animal.

The tragedy of losing a child under such ignominious circumstances is even worse knowing that, so far, the dog owner and the dog are unidentified. Even if the police recovered their identity, the parents of the small child will be in an extremely difficult position to recover for their unspeakable loss.