Liability Depends if There Is Any Provocation
Video Transcribed: Dog owners in Oklahoma are strictly liable for the damages caused by bites and damages to property caused by their dogs. I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth and that is the issue that we’re dealing with.
Does strict liability apply to dogs in Oklahoma and dog bites? And the answer is yes. It’s actually statutory. It’s Oklahoma Statute Title Four, Section 42.1. It provides as follows, “The owner or owners of a dog shall be liable for damages to the full amount of any damages sustained when their dog without provocation bites or injures any person while such person is in or on a place where they have the lawful right to be.”
So there is strict liability for damages caused by dogs biting. The exceptions to that, look at the elements of it. It’s got to be without provocation. If somebody provokes a dog and the dog bites, then the dog owner’s not necessarily responsible for the damages from that and the injuries sustained due to that.
The other thing is the person who has been injured has to be in a place they have the lawful right to be. They can’t be trespassing. So as long as the person bit is not trespassing and they did not provoke the dog, the owner of the dog is going to be strictly liable for the medical damages caused by a dog bite. That is the law in the state of Oklahoma.
If you’re dealing with that circumstance or have a question related to another area of law in the state of Oklahoma, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney about that privately and confidentially to get legal advice. To get that with an Oklahoma dog bite lawyer at my office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com.
