Tulsa Personal Injury Lawyer: Oklahoma Injury Law:  What Is the Law behind Dog Bites in Oklahoma?

One thing about us Tulsans, and we Oklahomans in general, we love dogs. We all love dogs. Nowadays, you see therapy dogs everywhere, wagging their little tails, and keeping people happy and well-adjusted. But sometimes, dogs just aren’t that lovable. Every so often, you may get what we call a dog bite case. It happens. I’ve actually tried a couple of them. So today, we’re going to talk about dog bites.

Now the Oklahoma Uniform Jury instructions, or what we call OUIJIs, are available online at OSCN net. They’re free to anyone. You can access it. You don’t have to be a lawyer, have a bar number, or anything like that. So today, we’re going to discuss OUIJI instruction 13.4. This is what the Supreme Court defines as a dog bite case. This is the jury instruction that would go to 12 individuals deciding the case and damages, a jury.

13.4. “Plaintiff is entitled to recover damages from the defendant for his or her injuries if he/she has proved the following elements by the weight of the evidence.” Now, these are the elements of the offense of negligence by a dog bite. Think of it as a cooking recipe. You can’t make a cake without eggs. Well, if any single element here is missing, we don’t have a cake.

Here they are. Number one, “The dog bit or injured the plaintiff.” Two, “The dog acted without provocation.” That’s very important. Three, “At the time the dog bit or injured him/her, the plaintiff was in or on a place where he/she had a lawful right to be, and the defendant was the owner of the dog. A person has a lawful right to be on private property if he/she has the express or implied permission of the owner or lessee of the property, or is performing a governmental duty, or working for a utility they’re on,”, or they’re in.

So, the plaintiff has to be in a place they have a right to be. It could be the front yard, it could be walking down the street for their casual evening walk after dinner. You’re in a shopping mall. You’re in a public park. So that’s a place where you have a right to be. Or if you’re a utility man, and you’re working on the pole out back, you have a right to be there as a utility employee.

Now, “The dog acted without provocation.” What does that mean? Well, if you go over and go, “Nice doggie. Nice doggie.”, and you stick your hand suddenly in the dog’s face, one could argue, that was provoking the dog. The dog doesn’t know. You make a sudden movement, and the dog is protecting its owner or whoever. Now, if the dog’s running free and at large, that’s going to be different. There’s another law that applies to dogs running at large, and there’s another law that applies to animals that are considered inherently dangerous. For years, for example, the example people would use would be a Rottweiler. People just assume that Rottweilers are going to be unduly vicious, moody, destructive, and things of that type.

If you have a situation of a dog bite, or you know someone that’s been bitten by a dog, or if you have any legal questions at all, whether it’s about a motor vehicle accident, wills, divorce, whatever, we have a bunch of pros, and they’re very good at what they do. So give us a call. It’s worth a phone call. You’re worth a phone call. Wirth law firm. Or come to me, a dog bites attorney in Oklahoma, at Tulsapersonalinjurylawyer.pro. Even if it’s not a personal injury case, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I can get you to the right place here in the firm.

Also, go to makelaweasy.com, because that’s our motto here. We want to make the law easy for everyone, including you.