Walk It Through: The Neighbor's Dog And Tree
A bite at the fence, the pound, a tree cut on the wrong side, and a gate left open.
The neighbor's dog, unprovoked, bites a child reaching over the fence, leaving a bruise.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One street. A dangerous dog hearing, a bite claim for medical costs, boundary surveys and a fence on the line are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Civil trespassEntering or remaining on another person's real property without permission. The trespasser owes the greater of $500 or actual damages, and treble damages where they had reason to know and caused more than $1,000 in damage.
- Orange paintBright orange or fluorescent paint at the corners of unfenced, uncultivated land and where roads, streams and gates enter it, which with conspicuous signs gives reason to know presence is not permitted.
- At-risk dogA dog that bites a person without justified provocation but without causing serious injury. A dangerous dog is one that inflicts serious injury, or an at-risk dog that bites or attacks again.
- Justified provocationAn act a reasonable person who knows dogs would expect to bring on a bite by an ordinary dog. No dog is dangerous or at risk where the cause was justified provocation.
- VictimA person against whom a crime or juvenile offense was committed, with rights to fairness, notice, presence and to be heard, exercised by a written request filed with the court clerk.
- At largeA dog off its owner's premises without a responsible attendant. Where a county has adopted the license measure, a dog at large without its tag is an infraction.
- Treble damagesDamages entered at three times the amount assessed, which the landlord and tenant chapter allows in an action under the tenant's section.