When a Child Is Bitten by a Dog in New York: Injuries, Scarring and Deadlines
Two things matter first. Get the wound looked at by someone who treats bites — not only closed, but assessed, because a bite on a child's face or hand is a different problem from a cut. And the clock is not what you think: your child's own claim runs until three years after their eighteenth birthday under CPLR 208(a), while your claim as the parent for the medical bills is not extended at all. That one runs out three years from the day of the bite.
Why a bite injures a child differently
The reason is height. An adult is bitten on the hand, forearm or calf. A small child stands at roughly the level of a dog's head, so the wounds land on the face, scalp, neck and ears. Hands are the other common site, because a child reaches toward the dog rather than away.
That changes what the injury is. A facial bite is rarely a single clean laceration; it is puncture and tearing in tissue no clothing will hide, and repair is often only the first step. Scars on a growing face do not stay as they were left — they migrate, tighten and widen as the face changes shape, which is why pediatric plastic surgeons often plan revision in stages across years.
The psychological injury is real, and it is under-documented
For many children the lasting part is not the scar. It is sleeping badly, refusing the block where it happened, panic at any dog on the sidewalk, a clinginess that was not there before. That is an injury, and New York treats it as one. It is also what most often goes unrecorded: parents concentrate on the wound, and nobody writes down what the child is like at 2 a.m.
Have it evaluated by a pediatrician or a child mental health clinician, and let the record reflect it: what the child avoids, what school notices, what changed at home. A note made at the time is worth far more than a description offered years later — the principle that governs how non-economic damages are valued.
The deadlines — and the trap that catches parents
Worth reading twice. One bite creates two claims, with different lives.
| Whose claim | Deadline | Statute | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| The child's own claim — pain and suffering, scarring, future surgery, psychological injury | Three years after the disability ceases — three years past the 18th birthday | CPLR 208(a), tolling CPLR 214(5) | The ten-year outer limit in CPLR 208 applies to medical, dental and podiatric malpractice — not to a child's ordinary injury claim. |
| The parent's own derivative claim — medical expenses paid, loss of the child's services | Three years from the date of the bite. No extension. | CPLR 214(5) | It is the parent's claim, not the child's, so infancy does not toll it. Families lose it believing the whole case is safe until eighteen. |
| Any claim involving a public entity — NYCHA, a City agency, a public school, a police K-9 | Notice of Claim within 90 days of the incident | General Municipal Law § 50-e | The infancy toll does not rescue a missed Notice of Claim. Late notice requires the court's permission, which is never guaranteed. |
Why waiting is still the wrong instinct.
The long deadline is a protection, not a plan. The neighbor who was warned, the earlier incident, the gate nobody fixed — that evidence is gone long before a child turns eighteen. See our overview of New York filing deadlines.
What has to be proven, and how a child's conduct is judged
For medical costs, Agriculture & Markets Law § 123(10) imposes strict liability where the dog had already been adjudicated a dangerous dog. For everything else, a bite victim may now plead either or both of two routes: strict liability where the owner knew or should have known of the dog's vicious propensities, or ordinary negligence — a failure to use reasonable care under the circumstances to prevent foreseeable harm. That second route is new: Flanders v. Goodfellow (N.Y. 2025) overruled the precedent barring negligence claims against the owner of a domestic animal. Our guide to what New York dog bite law requires you to prove sets out both.
That matters here more than almost anywhere. Many children are bitten by a family or neighbor's dog with no history at all, and before April 2025 that often ended the claim. It no longer necessarily does: an unlatched gate, a dog left loose around a small child, or a dog tied where children pass can support a negligence claim with no prior bite behind it.
Owners often respond by saying the child provoked the dog. Take it calmly: the law does not measure a child against an adult. A child's conduct is judged by what is reasonable for a child of that age, intelligence and experience, and children below a certain point in early childhood are generally treated as incapable of negligence at all. Fault is also comparative: under CPLR 1411 it reduces a recovery proportionally and never bars it. "He pulled the dog's tail" is an argument about percentages, not a defense that ends the case.
A child's settlement has to be approved by a court
Parents are rarely told this. A settlement of an injured child's claim is an infant's compromise: a parent cannot accept an insurer's offer and sign. It goes to the court with the medical records, the proposed distribution and the fee, and a judge decides whether it is fair to the child. If approved, the net funds are ordinarily held for the child until majority, commonly in a restricted account. An insurer cannot quietly close a child's scarring claim for a small figure early on.
Bayside: front gates, fenced yards and dogs tied outside on Bell Boulevard
Bayside is a low-rise neighborhood of one- and two-family houses on tree-lined blocks, and its dog bites look nothing like the lobby-and-elevator bites of denser Queens. The recurring one here is the fenced front yard. Chain link, a picket fence, a front gate at the top of a short path — a dog behind it, technically confined, at exactly the height where a passing child can put a hand through. Bayside Hills and Oakland Gardens are laid out the same way. Whether the dog was "contained" now has two answers: what the owner knew, and whether that gate and fence were reasonable care.
The second is Bell Boulevard. Along the shops and outdoor cafes, people run errands with the dog and tie the leash to a rail while they step inside. An unattended dog on a short lead, on a busy sidewalk, at a small child's eye level, is a predictable problem, and the owner is not there to intervene. The same happens around the LIRR stops at Bayside and Auburndale.
Crocheron Park and the open ground at Fort Totten are family and dog-walking territory in the same hours, with Alley Pond Park just south. Off-leash use in City parks is limited to designated areas and hours, and a leash violation is evidence, not liability by itself. For emergency care, families here use NewYork-Presbyterian Queens or the pediatric ER at Long Island Jewish in New Hyde Park.
The first week
- Photograph the wounds, then keep photographing them — before repair if you can, then weekly as they heal, in similar light.
- Report the bite within 24 hours. New York City requires an animal bite to be reported to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that quickly. It starts rabies observation, confirms vaccination status — often sparing your child post-exposure treatment — and creates a dated record.
- Get the dog's history. Owner's name and address, license and vaccination status, and any earlier incident. In Bayside, someone on the block usually knows the dog.
- Keep the clothing unwashed, in a paper bag. It corroborates an account that will otherwise be disputed.
- Ask for a pediatric plastic surgery consult for any bite to the face, head or hand, rather than relying on the ER note alone.
It is usually someone you know
Most parents who call us are not angry. They are stuck. The dog belongs to a neighbor two doors down, a cousin, a friend whose kitchen the party was in — and rather than make an enemy, they wait, and nothing gets documented.
So be clear about what a claim is. Nearly all of these are paid by the owner's homeowner's or renter's liability insurance — coverage that exists precisely for this and does not come out of their pocket. Making the claim is not an accusation; reporting the bite is a health step, not an attack. A firm that handles dog bite claims deals with the insurer directly, including when the dog belongs to a friend or relative, so the conversation is not between you and the neighbor. And the owner's real fear — what happens to the dog — is separate from whether your child's care is paid for.
Common questions
How long does a child have to file a dog bite claim in New York?
Longer than most parents assume. The ordinary period is three years under CPLR 214(5), but CPLR 208(a) tolls it during infancy, allowing three years after the disability ceases — three years past the eighteenth birthday. The ten-year outer limit in CPLR 208 applies to medical, dental and podiatric malpractice, not a child's ordinary injury claim.
Does a parent's claim for the child's medical bills have the same deadline?
No, and this is the trap. The parent's derivative claim for medical expenses and loss of services belongs to the parent, so infancy does not toll it. It runs three years from the date of the bite under CPLR 214(5). Families lose it assuming the case is safe until eighteen.
Can a dog owner blame my child for provoking the dog?
They can raise it, but a child is not held to an adult standard. New York judges a child by what is reasonable for a child of that age, intelligence and experience, and very young children are generally held incapable of negligence. Comparative fault under CPLR 1411 reduces recovery proportionally; it never bars it.
Does a settlement for a child have to be approved by a court in New York?
Yes. It is an infant's compromise: the settlement goes to the court with the medical records, the proposed distribution and the fee, and a judge decides whether it is fair to the child. The net funds are typically held for the child until majority.
Should my child see a plastic surgeon even if the emergency room closed the wound?
For a bite on the face, head or hand, yes. An emergency room note records that a laceration was repaired. It does not assess how the scar will behave as the child grows, whether revision will be needed, or over how many stages.
This page is general information about New York law. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Davidov & Cohen Law. To talk about your own situation, tell us what happened.
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