Strolling through Kingston City Park should be something done without worries, but many people know that loose dogs can be unpredictable. No matter the size of the animal, even the smallest bite can have nasty repercussions, not to mention those of bigger breeds. Luckily, Tennessee law gives you the tools to seek compensation for the injuries you suffer.
When a dog attacks, state law focuses on the dog owner's responsibility, and the rules that apply depend on where the attack happened and what the owner knew. Tennessee has a specific dog-bite statute, so understanding which rules govern and proving the owner's responsibility under it is the heart of a dog-bite case.
At Fox & Farmer, we have represented people bitten by dogs across Kingston and Roane County for decades. If you were bitten by someone else’s dog and wonder whether you are owed compensation, contact us.
The legal foundation of a dog-bite case in Tennessee is the dog-bite statute known as the Dianna Acklen Act, codified at Tennessee Code section 44-8-413. Under this law, a dog owner has a duty to keep the dog under reasonable control and to prevent it from running at large, and an owner who fails in that duty can be held strictly liable when the dog causes injury.
Strict liability is central to dog-bite cases: where it applies, the injured person does not have to prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous, only that the owner failed to control it or allowed it to run at large in a public place or lawfully on another's property.
The Dianna Acklen Act reflects a legislative judgment that owners, not victims, should bear the consequences when a dog is not properly controlled in public. That allocation of responsibility is what makes an attack at a public place provable without the difficult task of reconstructing a dog's prior history.
This is the rule that governs the typical dog-attack case, be that an animal that gets loose and attacks someone walking down the street, a dog off its leash in a park, or a dog that escapes its yard.
In those situations, where the victim was in a public place or lawfully present somewhere other than the dog owner's residential property, the owner's failure to control the animal establishes responsibility without any need to show the dog had bitten before.
This is a meaningful protection for victims, since it removes the hurdle that used to defeat many older dog-bite claims: the requirement to prove the owner already knew the dog was dangerous. A person walking on a public sidewalk or in a park who is attacked by a loose dog does not have to track down the animal's bite history; the owner's duty to control the dog, and the failure to do it, is enough.
The CDC's data on fatal dog attacks recorded 468 deaths from dog bites and attacks from 2011 to 2021, a sobering reminder that an attack, especially on a child or an older adult, can be far more serious than a simple wound. Tennessee's statute is designed to hold owners accountable for failing to control animals capable of causing that harm.
Tennessee's dog-bite law contains an important exception that changes what an injured person must prove when the attack happens on the dog owner's own property.
Under section 44-8-413(c), when a bite occurs on the owner's residential, farm, or other noncommercial property, the strict-liability rule does not apply, and the injured person must instead show that the owner knew or should have known of the dog's dangerous propensities.
This is often called the one-bite rule, because evidence that the dog had bitten or behaved dangerously before is the most direct way to prove the owner's knowledge.
Tennessee takes an unusual two-track approach: strict liability when a dog is at large in public, but a one-bite rule when the bite happens on the owner’s own residential property. For that reason, identifying where the attack happened is the first and most important step in a Tennessee dog-bite case.
Where the residential exception applies, the case turns on proving the owner's knowledge of the danger, through prior incidents, complaints, the dog's history, warnings the owner gave, or the way the dog was kept, such as with a beware-of-dog sign or a heavy restraint that suggests the owner knew the animal was dangerous.
The proof of knowledge can come from many sources: neighbors who witnessed earlier aggressive behavior, animal-control records of prior complaints, veterinary or training records, or the owner's own statements and precautions. Even how the dog was housed can be telling, since an owner who kept a dog chained, muzzled, or behind warning signs has shown an awareness of its danger that the law treats as relevant.
The distinction does not mean a residential-property bite has no remedy; it means the proof is different, focused on what the owner knew rather than simply on the failure to control, and building that proof of knowledge is the core of the case.
Yes, depending on where the attack occurred. Tennessee imposes strict liability when a dog injures someone in a public place or while lawfully visiting private property, so the victim need not prove the owner knew the dog was dangerous. An important exception applies to the owner's own residential property.
Tennessee's dog-bite statute also sets out specific situations in which an owner is not liable, and understanding these defenses is part of evaluating a case. The table below sets out the main statutory defenses under section 44-8-413(b).
| Defense | When it may apply |
|---|---|
| Trespassing | The injured person was unlawfully on private property |
| Provocation | The injured person provoked the dog |
| Protecting from attack | The dog was protecting a person from an attack |
| Securely confined | The dog was confined in a kennel, crate, or enclosure |
| Police or military dog | The dog was a working police or military animal performing its duties |
Under the statute, an owner generally is not liable where the injured person was trespassing, where the person provoked the dog, where the dog was protecting someone from an attack, where the dog was securely confined at the time, or where it was a police or military dog performing its duties.
These defenses do not automatically defeat a claim; the facts determine whether they apply, but they shape how a case is investigated and presented, because an insurer will look for any of them to avoid responsibility.
Provocation, in particular, is one an insurer could raise, claiming the victim teased or startled the dog, and it is viewed differently for a young child, who may not understand how to behave around an animal, than for an adult. Establishing what actually happened answers these defenses with facts rather than letting the insurer's version stand.
Establishing that none of the defenses fits the facts (that the injured person was lawfully present, did not provoke the animal, and was attacked by a dog that was not confined) is part of building the case, much as proving the responsible party's failure matters in any Kingston premises liability claim or broader Kingston personal injury claim.
Provocation is a common defense, but it is often disputed, especially involving children. What the owner calls provocation may not legally qualify. To counter an exaggerated provocation claim, it is key to document what actually happened.
Compensation in a serious dog-bite case must capture the full extent of the harm, which can be severe, especially for children, who are the most frequent victims of serious dog attacks.
Tennessee law allows recovery for mainly two types of damages:
However, if the conduct was especially reckless or malicious, punitive damages might also apply, which carry their own caps.
Dog attacks often cause not only physical wounds but lasting emotional trauma, particularly for young children, and both are compensable. A child mauled by a dog may carry the psychological effects (fear of dogs, anxiety, nightmares) long after the physical wounds heal, and Tennessee law recognizes that emotional harm as a real and compensable part of the injury.
For a serious facial or disfiguring injury, the emotional weight of permanent scarring, especially as a child grows and becomes aware of it, can be as significant as the physical harm itself.
The economic damages include past and future medical care, the income lost by a caregiving parent or by the injured person, and the lost earning capacity where an injury causes lasting impairment.
Dog-bite injuries frequently require emergency treatment, wound care, surgery, and reconstructive or plastic surgery for scarring, and the future cost of that care, including revision surgeries for a growing child, is often the largest part of the claim.
Serious bites can cause nerve and tissue damage, infection, and deep wounds that need surgical repair, and facial bites in particular often call for the work of a plastic surgeon over multiple procedures. For a child, the reconstructive work may have to be repeated as they grow, so a claim that captures only the first surgery can fall far short of the lifetime of care a disfiguring bite requires.
The non-economic damages account for the pain and suffering, the permanent scarring or disfigurement, and the psychological harm, including the fear and anxiety that can follow an attack.
Under Tennessee Code section 29-39-102, state law caps non-economic damages (pain and suffering, scarring, and emotional harm) at $750,000 in the aggregate, rising to $1,000,000 for injuries the statute defines as catastrophic.
In Kingston, a seriously injured person is typically taken to the nearest emergency room at Roane Medical Center, the Covenant Health hospital in Harriman about ten miles to the northeast.
The most serious injuries, such as a severe attack on a small child, are stabilized and transferred to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, the region’s Level I trauma center, about forty miles to the east, where specialized surgical care is available.
In the rare case an attack proves fatal, which happens most often with small children, the family's Kingston wrongful death case pursues the responsible owner while measuring a far heavier loss. It must be filed within one year from the day of the attack.
After a dog bites you in Chattanooga, you can recover for both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover medical bills, future care, and lost wages. Non-economic damages compensate for pain and suffering, permanent scarring, disfigurement, and psychological trauma.
Get medical care promptly, both for your health and because dog bites carry a real risk of infection and the medical record documents the injury and ties it to the attack. Even a wound that looks minor can become infected or leave scarring, so prompt evaluation protects both your health and your claim, and following the recommended treatment, including any wound care or vaccination, matters.
Dog bites carry a particular infection risk because of the bacteria in an animal's mouth, and a deep puncture that seems small can introduce infection below the surface, so medical follow-through is important even when the visible wound looks modest.
The medical record created through that care also documents the injury and its treatment for the claim. For a bitten child, prompt care and a calm response come first.
If you are able, identify the dog and its owner, and gather their contact and any licensing or vaccination information, which is important both for medical reasons and for the claim.
Photograph the injuries, ideally over time as they heal and scar, and the location where the attack happened, noting carefully whether it was a public place or the dog owner's own residential property, since that single fact determines which legal rule applies to the case.
Report the bite to local animal control as soon as possible, which creates an official record and may reveal whether the dog had a history of prior incidents. That report serves two purposes: it protects public safety by alerting authorities to a dangerous animal, and it creates a contemporaneous record of the attack and the dog involved that can be important to the claim.
Animal-control records can also surface prior complaints about the same dog, which can be decisive where the residential exception requires proof of the owner's knowledge. Gather the names and contact information of any witnesses to the attack, whose accounts can help establish how it happened.
Be cautious with the owner's insurer, typically a homeowner's or renter's insurer: do not give a recorded statement or accept an early settlement before you have advice. Then reach out to a lawyer promptly, because the evidence of the dog's history and the circumstances is best secured early, and Tennessee's one-year deadline can arrive faster than expected.
Usually, the dog owner's homeowner or renter insurance, which typically includes liability coverage for a dog bite. By identifying the applicable policy, a dog bite lawyer in Kingston can pursue the claim, since it is often the practical source of recovery.
One year from the bite under Tennessee Code section 28-3-104(a)(1). If criminal charges are brought against the dog’s owner over the same attack, and the other conditions in section 28-3-104(a)(2) are met, the deadline can be two years.
Both. Under the Dianna Acklen Act, an owner is strictly liable when a dog runs at large or is not kept under reasonable control and bites someone in a public place or where they are lawfully present. When the bite happens on the owner's own residential property, the one-bite rule applies: the victim must show the owner knew or should have known the dog was dangerous.
Often yes. If the attack happened in a public place or where you were lawfully present off the owner's residential property, strict liability applies, and no prior bite is required, only that the owner failed to control the dog. The prior-bite question matters mainly when the attack occurred on the owner's own residential property.
Yes, significantly. Tennessee applies strict liability for attacks in public or where you were lawfully present, but a knowledge-based rule for attacks on the owner's residential property. Identifying exactly where the bite occurred is the first step, because it determines what you must prove.
The statute allows defenses including that the injured person was trespassing, provoked the dog, was protected from an attack by the dog, that the dog was securely confined, or that it was a police or military dog on duty. Whether any applies depends on the facts, and establishing that none fits is part of the case.
Children are the most common victims of serious dog attacks, and their injuries, physical and emotional, can be lasting. The same rules apply, and provocation defenses are viewed in light of a child's age and understanding. Because a child may need care and revision surgeries for years, valuing the full future cost is especially important.
It depends on the severity of the injury, the medical and future reconstructive costs, any permanent scarring or disfigurement, the psychological harm, and the lost income. A serious attack with lasting scarring or trauma is worth far more than the early bills alone, particularly if a child faces years of reconstructive care.
It depends on the lawyer, but Fox & Farmer works on a contingency fee, so you pay no attorney fee unless you recover. The first consultation is free.
Kingston is the seat of Roane County, so a serious dog-bite suit is generally brought right here in the Roane County court, where the circuit court sits at the courthouse on East Race Street.
Yes. Reporting creates an official record, ensures rabies risk is assessed, and may document a dog's history of prior incidents that matters to your claim and to public safety.
From years of experience across Roane County and the wider Knoxville area, our attorneys know how Tennessee's dog-bite statute works, how the residential exception changes the proof required, and the workings of the Roane County courts where a case is filed. Because Kingston is the county seat, a serious dog-bite suit is brought right here in the Roane County court, at the courthouse on East Race Street, in the Ninth Judicial District.
A dog-bite case is won by identifying which rule applies, proving the owner's responsibility under it, answering the statutory defenses, and documenting the full extent of the harm, and at Fox & Farmer we build each case to do all of these, securing the dog's history and the circumstances of the attack early. The goal is a recovery that reflects the true cost of the injury, including the lasting physical and emotional harm a serious attack leaves behind.
Because the evidence of the dog's history and the circumstances is best secured early, the sooner you reach out, the more we are able to do. Your consultation is free, and you owe no fee unless we recover. Contact our team to tell us what happened.
Last reviewed: June 2026
This page was reviewed by Steve Fox, licensed in Tennessee since 1992.
