What is the Illinois Dangerous Dog Law?

What is the Illinois Dangerous Dog Law?

Illinois dangerous dog lawIllinois Dog Bite Law

Dogs can be loyal companions, but at the end of the day, they are animals that can attack without warning, as your Grayslake dog bite attorney will tell you. According to the Illinois’s Animal Control Act, there are two ways a dog can be considered to be ‘dangerous:’

  • The dog bites a person completely unprovoked without causing serious physical injuries.
  • The dog is unmuzzled, unleashed, or not under the control of the owner and it behaves in a manner that can lead to a serious threat of injury or cause another person’s or animal’s death.

If you have been bitten by a dog in Illinois, the owner of the dog is liable for the injuries that are caused by the said bite. However, the dog does not have to meet the aforementioned requirements for the owner to be liable. The strict liability law focuses only on the fact that the bite happened. Once the incident takes place and it leads to an injury, the owner of the dog is automatically liable in the eyes of the law.

In this case, it does not matter whether the dog in question showed signs of aggression before. The law protects injured victims to ensure they can get the compensation they deserve from the owners.

This includes the costs of medical treatment for the dog bite injury and even the emotional trauma it caused. In fact, it doesn’t even matter if the dog is the property of the owner or not. If it was under someone else’s care during the incident, that person can be held responsible.

Dog Bite Liability Statute

Your Grayslake dog bite attorney will tell you that under the liability statute if you have been injured by a dog in Illinois, you can get compensation from the owner or the animal’s custodian if you can prove that:

  • The dog caused the injury.
  • You did not provoke the animal into attacking you.
  • The defendant owns the dog.
  • You were in a place where you had every legal right to be when you were attacked.

You do not need to prove negligence to hold the owner of the dog liable for damages. Your Grayslake dog bite attorney just has to prove that he/she was negligent at the time the injury took place. You also have to establish that the dog was bite prone and the owner was aware of the fact.

Contact An Illinois Dog Bite Lawyer

If you or someone you know has been injured because of a dog attack in Illinois, get in touch with our Grayslake dog bite attorney at the Law Offices of Robert T. Edens. The laws pertaining to this type of injury can be quite complex especially when proving liability becomes tricky.

Personal Injury Attorney

We have years of experience aggressively representing dog bite victims so we know all of the excuses the owner can throw at us. Get in touch with us for a consultation today and ensure you can recover maximum damages. We have recovered millions of dollars for our clients in the last two decades.

Call today for a free consultation

(847) 395-2200