Dirk Derrick (00:00):
Welcome to The Legal Truth, the podcast created to provide you general legal information about South Carolina law, lawyers, and the legal process. And hopefully, prevent you from being surprised by the unexpected. We will answer many of the questions I've been asked during the past 35 years about South Carolina personal injury claims, and workers' compensation claims. We will also discuss existing laws and proposed changes in the law and how they affect you. My name is Dirk Derrick. I'm the founder of the Derrick Law Firm, and I'm your host.
Voiceover (00:35):
Please see required ethics disclaimers in show notes.
Pearl Carey (00:41):
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Legal Truth podcast. Today, we're here to discuss the truth about South Carolina dog bite cases and domestic animal liability. I'm Pearl Carey, and I'm here with my co-host, Dirk Derrick. Thanks so much for being here, Dirk.
Dirk Derrick (00:54):
Absolutely.
Pearl Carey (00:56):
My first question for you is, what makes South Carolina different than other states in terms of dog bite liability?
Dirk Derrick (01:02):
The biggest difference is South Carolina is a strict liability state. If your dog bites someone or attacks someone, knocks someone down, you're strictly liable. That means that you're responsible for the damages, even if you did nothing negligent. A lot of states have the negligence standard where they have to prove you did something unreasonable to allow your dog to bite someone. Other states have the one-bite exception, where the first bite puts you on notice you have a dangerous dog. And if your dog bites a second person, you can have liability. In South Carolina, you have strict liability, whether your dog has shown any kind of indication of being vicious or not. That's a big difference than other states, and a lot of people don't know that.
(01:48):
The number of people that we talk to that say, "Hey, is there a one-bite rule?" And I said, "No. In South Carolina, you're strictly liable." And strict liability is very rare in South Carolina. Most civil cases, you have to prove negligence, but in dog bite cases, you don't.
Pearl Carey (02:02):
Interesting, okay. And so when is an owner legally responsible if their dog bites someone?
Dirk Derrick (02:08):
An owner is liable when their dog either bites someone or attacks somebody. It doesn't have to be a bite. It can be your dog jumps on somebody, your dog chases someone and they fall. If your dog causes an injury, then the owner is liable.
Pearl Carey (02:23):
So does that legal responsibility befall not just the dog owner? Would it go for anybody that's watching over the dog?
Dirk Derrick (02:29):
Yeah, the statute actually makes liable the owner, the keeper, or the harborer; the person who's harboring the dog. Basically, what it means is, anyone who has control over the dog at the time, in addition to the owner, can be liable. Say you're dog sitting, you can have liability. Or if the dog is staying at your home, let's say somebody goes out of town and the dog's at your home and the dog gets out. In the statute, you could have liability also.
Pearl Carey (02:56):
Got it. And so what are some common defenses that South Carolina dog owners raise?
Dirk Derrick (03:01):
There's only two main defenses for dog bites and dog attacks because it's not a negligent standard, so it's strict liability. So you have the provocation, you have a dog, and I'm slapping the dog upside the head and I'm provoking the dog and the dog bites me, then you can raise that as a defense, as you should be able to.
(03:20):
And the second is trespassing. Part of the statute that puts strict liability on the owner says if the person is not provoking your dog and if the person has a legal right to be where the person is at the time the dog attacks. So if someone is trespassing and breaks into your house and your dog bites them, there's no liability. So if a person is trespassing, that's a defense you can raise. Now, that's not a defense if somebody walks up to your door and knocks on your door, even though you have not invited that person, if they're not legally trespassing, then you're still responsible in that circumstance.
Pearl Carey (03:59):
Got it. And so what should victims do immediately following a dog bite incident in order to protect their health and their legal rights?
Dirk Derrick (04:07):
Same thing as any injury case, get checked out medically. You usually don't have to tell people who've been bit by dogs to go get checked out, because they're in pain. It's a bad situation. People don't like getting attacked by a dog. And some of the bad dogs can cause death and significant injury. So they go get medical treatment, then they can report it to the state agency responsible for dog bites, and maintain. And a lot of times the dogs will be tested to make sure they don't have any kind of rabies or have something that could be more serious.
(04:37):
And then preserve evidence. If you have evidence that it occurred, preserve that evidence. When I say preserve evidence, if you have clothing that's torn, you'd keep that. If there's eyewitnesses around, try to identify who those people are. If you have someone investigate the case fast enough, a lot of times we can get surveillance cameras, Ring cameras in the neighborhood. Those write over themselves after a period of time so they can get lost if it's a long time before you hire an attorney or hire somebody to investigate it. But you want to try to preserve any video of the event if it's available.
Pearl Carey (05:13):
Got it. So it's like any other personal injury case, it's important to get that information and that evidence as soon as possible.
Dirk Derrick (05:19):
Absolutely. The best evidence in every case usually is a video that shows exactly what happens because now it's not a swearing match. People can't say, "Well, this happened or this happened." If somebody provokes your dog and gets bit, if you have a video, you have a defense. Same thing for the person who's injured. If you get injured by a dog without provoking that dog, without trespassing, finding video evidence of that is very important.
Pearl Carey (05:43):
Got it. And so after a plaintiff secures that evidence and makes sure that they've gotten to the doctor and things like that, how do insurance policies then come into play in one of these cases?
Dirk Derrick (05:53):
Insurance is huge. I mean, 99% of the time we're going after insurance. And that is the most important factor in dog bite cases. Is there coverage to cover it? If you get bit by a dog by someone who does not have any insurance and no assets that can be obtained, that case has little or no value because there's just no way to collect the damages. Dog bite cases are a little different, because there's strict liability, that part is usually easy if there's been no provocation. But homeowner's insurance, renter's insurance, business insurance, if it occurs at a business, we investigate all possible insurance coverage to cover the dog attack or the dog bite.
(06:41):
Now, there's some insurance companies that exclude dogs and exclude dog bites. If you're a dog owner, my advice would be, go look at your homeowner's policy or your renter's policy to make sure they hadn't excluded that. Because if they have excluded that, and if your dog was to bite someone, with strict liability, you could have a major judgment against you that can really hinder your ability to buy a house, borrow money, or do anything in the future. Even if they couldn't collect the money because you had nothing to pay, they could put a judgment against you that really would hinder your ability to do stuff that you may want to do in the future.
(07:23):
So you need to look at your insurance policy to make sure it's not excluded. Some policies exclude dog bites altogether. Some policies will exclude any dog bites after the first dog bite. They kind of give you one dog bite, but then anything after the first one, they're excluded. Others exclude coverage for specific kinds of dogs. So the more dangerous they believe the dogs are, and the more research they have as far as what types of dogs bite, some of those dogs are excluded under the policy. So if you're a dog owner, it would be well worth your time to look at your policy that covers your house or your apartment to see if you have coverage. And if you don't, try to find a policy that would give you coverage.
Pearl Carey (08:05):
So let's say I'm a dog owner and I realize that my policy does exclude dog bite situations. What should I do from there?
Dirk Derrick (08:12):
Shop around. There's some companies that will write it. So I would shop around, use ChatGPT to find out what insurance policies in your state provide coverage for dog bites and dog attacks, and then check the price out. I don't have a dog at this time, don't want a dog right now, but if I had a dog, I would absolutely make sure that I had coverage because the liability part, because it's strict liability, is so easy to win, I'd make sure I had coverage. Dog bites have high value a lot of times. When juries and people start evaluating the pain and suffering and the mental stress going through a dog bite, they can put value on that way above the medical bills because people do not like being attacked by dogs.
Pearl Carey (09:03):
Yeah, it's traumatic.
Dirk Derrick (09:04):
So it can have some high value. I would make sure I had coverage.
Pearl Carey (09:09):
So now that we've discussed what type of insurance is needed if you're a dog owner and one of these incidents occurs, but what should somebody do if perhaps they have a cow or a horse or they own a large farm? What kind of insurance would come into play in that type of situation?
Dirk Derrick (09:22):
Well, if you have a cow in your apartment, you need to tie down your furniture. If you have a cow out in the pasture, you need to have some rancher liability, farm liability coverage to cover them. They're very dangerous. We grew up with horses, when horses get out on the road, they can do bad damage. If somebody hits a horse in a car, that can be devastating. The liability for that situation, if your cow or your horse gets out in the road, it's not strict liability, it's negligence. So the person who's injured, you've got to show that you did something negligent in allowing them to escape. But bad fencing, old fencing, you have a horse that kicks fence down a lot and you don't maintain it, you don't keep an eye on it, can lead to liability there. But if you have horses at home, you need to make sure you got coverage. My wife has horses, we have coverage, because it's very dangerous if they get out on the road.
Pearl Carey (10:16):
So what damages can an injured person recover then in South Carolina?
Dirk Derrick (10:20):
Same as any personal injury. It's medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, future medicals, if you can prove that those medical bills, or those impairments, are more likely than not going to occur based upon a reasonable degree of medical certainty. So same standards as a typical personal injury case. The damages will be the same as if you're in a wreck or premise liability case. Same damages apply in a dog case.
Pearl Carey (10:45):
So how does liability work if this animal has never shown aggression before?
Dirk Derrick (10:49):
Well, for dogs, it doesn't take a show in aggression. That's kind of the same thing as the getting one bite for free, it doesn't have to show aggression. In South Carolina, if the dog attacks or bites somebody without provocation, the owner is strictly liable for the damages. Domestic animals, horses, cows, all that stuff, aggression doesn't matter, it's a negligent standard. It could apply to a case where, let's say, you let a visitor ride a horse that has shown aggression, has thrown people off, and you put somebody on that horse, that's pretty good evidence of negligence. Now, that's not a strict liability case, but that's good evidence of negligence if you know that horse is dangerous. In a dog case, it doesn't matter because it's strict liability. In a domestic animal case, if you knew they were dangerous and then let them be around people, that's strong evidence of negligence.
Pearl Carey (11:46):
So what kind of responsibilities do dog owners have to ensure that their dog isn't biting people and what are some common mistakes that they might make?
Dirk Derrick (11:54):
Their responsibility is they got to prevent all bites and all attacks. Some of it's tough. You have an indoor dog who's never shown aggression, unless you lock them up when somebody comes over and that kind of stuff, it's hard on those people because the liability is tough. The most common things are, you have a dog that you know shouldn't be around people and you open the door and they run out and bite somebody. You leave a dog out in the yard, they attack a mailman or attack somebody who walks up to your house. Those are the typical things that happen. Or having your dog around the public when they shouldn't be around the public if they're not on the leash or you don't control them as much as you need to. Or not warning people. There's situations where people go to pet a dog and the owner probably says, "Don't pet the dog. We don't know how the dog would deal around people." You got to be careful.
(12:43):
We had a bulldog in our family and I played rough with the bulldog, and he'd kind of halfway bite at me and stuff, but I made him, but I was scared to have them around anybody because I was scared he may think they're playing with him. So you just got to be very careful with dogs.
So what about the responsibilities of someone, let's say, that owns a horse or a cow or something like that?
Dirk Derrick (13:03):
It's maintenance of the fence and making sure they're not around people that you don't want them around. Most of those cases arise out of negligence and keeping them in a fence or in a barn or allowing people to come around them and get close enough where they shouldn't be. We got our first horse when I was 10 years old. And to date, I still haven't walked behind a horse's butt on the backside where they can kick me. Some people trust them. My wife trusts her horses now. I don't trust horses. I'm not going into their head and figure out... But to allow a guest to walk close to the hind parts of a horse, to me, is negligent. I mean, whether that horse has ever kicked anybody or not, it doesn't take but one kick to kill somebody or cause significant injury.
(13:55):
So my advice would be keep people away from your farm animals, keep people away from your horses. And even if you have a horse that is rideable and you're going to let people ride, don't let them get around where they shouldn't be, where they may scare the horse and something unusual for the horse.
Pearl Carey (14:14):
So what would the liability be in a situation where, let's say, somebody goes over to a farm, they see a fence with some animals behind it, they pet your animal, et cetera, and an incident occurs. Who would be held liable on that incident?
Dirk Derrick (14:27):
Every case is different. It really comes to the knowledge of the owner of that animal at the time. So does the owner know that this person's doing that? And what does the owner know about the particular animal? If I know somebody's petting my horses or cows or bulls over a fence, I would probably put a sign up that says, "No trespassing. Don't pet the animals." Just [inaudible 00:14:53], to be the ultimate defense to any case if they were to get their hand bitten off. But if you have no knowledge of the cow's going to reach around and bite somebody or if somebody's going to stick their hand into the fence, that's a tough case on the plaintiff too. Your animal is in the fence and they come up and put their hand within that fence.
(15:15):
But to be completely safe, I'd put up signs if I knew somebody was doing that. If you don't know somebody who's doing that, it'd be a hard case for them to then sue you and you were unaware that they were basically trespassing into your fence with their body parts, or calling your animals across the fence to pet them. Safest route, signs. But a lack of knowledge of the dangerousness of the horse or the cow, plus a lack of knowledge of them doing it. If they got hurt the first time, you'd have some pretty strong defenses.
Pearl Carey (15:45):
Absolutely. That makes sense.
Dirk Derrick (15:47):
If you have a dog, make sure you have insurance coverage. Go shopping for insurance coverage if you don't have it on your policy. And be very careful, and know that if your dog bites somebody, you don't get a one bite exception, it's going to be strict liability. If you have farm animals or other animals, you just got to be reasonable in keeping them away from the public. The more knowledge you have about their dangerousness or how dangerous they can be, the more responsibility you have to prevent them from being around people. And in that situation, make sure you got insurance coverage on that too. You don't want anyone to get hurt from your animal. You need to make sure you have insurance coverage so that if somebody does get hurt, you don't have a judgment against you. They can get paid out from the insurance coverage and you're protected, and your family's protected.
Pearl Carey (16:33):
Well, thank you so much to all of our listeners for tuning into this episode of The Legal Truth podcast. And for more information and to view more episodes, you can visit derricklawfirm.com/legaltruthpodcast. Thank you so much to my co-host, Dirk, and we will see you in the next one.
Dirk Derrick (16:47):
Thank you.
Voiceover (16:54):
Thank you for joining us on The Legal Truth podcast. If you have questions that you would like answered on a future episode, please send them to thelegaltruth@derricklawfirm.com. If you would like to speak to us directly, call us at 843-248-7486. If you find the podcast valuable, please leave us a five-star review and share The Legal Truth with your neighbor, friend, or family member who is seeking reliable information about a South Carolina personal injury or workers' compensation claim. Dirk J. Derrick of the Derrick Law Firm Injury Lawyers is responsible for the production of this podcast, located at 901 North Main Street, Conway, South Carolina.
(17:35):
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This podcast could contain inaccuracies. The information contained in this podcast does not constitute legal advice and is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or up-to-date, as laws continue to change. In this podcast, you'll hear information about focus groups. Please note that not all of the firm's cases are presented to a focus group. Additionally, when speaking about juries or jurors in relation to a focus group, we are speaking of focus group participants and not actual trial juries or jurors.