When a Dog Bites
ORC 955.28 — strict liability, and the three ways out of it
Ohio does not have a one free bite rule. The section imposes liability on the owner, the keeper or the harborer of a dog for injury, death or loss the dog causes, without any need to show the dog had done it before or that anybody should have seen it coming.
Who handles this in Ohio: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Three people can be liable, and only one of them owns the dog. An owner is who the dog belongs to. A keeper is whoever has physical charge or care of it, which reaches the person watching it for a weekend. A harborer is somebody who shelters, protects or exercises control over it, which is how a claim reaches beyond the household the dog lives in. All three are named in the same sentence of the section.
The liability is not limited to bites. The section covers injury, death or loss caused by the dog, which takes in a dog that knocks somebody down or runs into the road and causes a crash.
The exceptions are narrow, and being uninvited is not one of them. Liability does not attach where the person injured was at the time committing or attempting criminal trespass or another criminal offense other than a minor misdemeanor on that property, or committing or attempting such an offense against any person, or was teasing, tormenting or abusing the dog on the owner's, keeper's or harborer's property. Each of those is a crime or a provocation. Somebody delivering a parcel, reading a meter or knocking on a door is doing none of them.
| The situation | Where it sits |
|---|---|
| The situationA first bite, no history at all | Where it sitsLiability attaches. There is no free one |
| The situationA delivery driver or postal worker on the path | Where it sitsLawful presence. The exceptions do not reach them |
| The situationSomeone committing a criminal offense above a minor misdemeanor | Where it sitsAn exception |
| The situationSomeone teasing or tormenting the dog on that property | Where it sitsAn exception |
| The situationA dog that knocks somebody over rather than biting | Where it sitsStill injury caused by the dog |
“Who had charge of the dog, and whose property was it on.”
A separate common law route exists alongside this section with a different standard and different damages available, and choosing between them is a decision with consequences. Whether a landlord or anybody else was a harborer has been narrowed by the courts and is fact specific. Dangerous and vicious dog designations, quarantine after a bite, and the criminal provisions elsewhere in the chapter are not on this page. Whether a claim exists, against whom, and on which route are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and these cases are commonly taken on a contingency.
Sources for this section (1)
- ORC 955.28 — Liability of an owner, keeper or harborer for injury caused by a dog
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.