Long Beach Dog Bite Lawyer
Dog Bite Attorney Long Beach
A dog got through a gate, pulled free of a leash, or came at your child at a park, and now there are stitches, a tetanus shot, and a question about rabies. People searching for a dog bite attorney in Long Beach are usually in that first hard week. We can help you with what comes next.
California law is on your side: the owner is responsible even for a first bite. What remains is the work of identifying the owner, finding the insurance, getting the city’s bite record, and checking whether a shorter deadline applies.
Our office is on San Vicente Boulevard in Los Angeles. We represent Long Beach clients from there, by phone or video. Call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. No fee unless we win.
Long Beach Dog Bite Lawyer: Where Bites Happen and Who Takes the Report
Dogs and people share a lot of space in Long Beach:
- Rosie’s Dog Beach, the off-leash stretch of sand along Ocean Boulevard between Granada Avenue and Roycroft Avenue. It covers 4.1 acres and is open daily from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- City dog parks, including the El Dorado Park, Recreation, K9 Corner, Lincoln Park, Pike Park, Coolidge, Jackson, and Wrigley Heights dog parks.
- Sidewalks, front yards, and apartment courtyards, where a dog slips a gate or a leash.
- Porches, where mail carriers and delivery drivers are bitten at work.
Who takes the report. Long Beach does not use the county’s animal control agency. Long Beach Animal Care Services, at 7700 East Spring Street, serves Long Beach, Signal Hill, and Cerritos. The City asks anyone bitten by an animal to contact Animal Care Services right away at (562) 570-7387 or through its online Animal Bite Report Form. The City’s health department also treats animal bites as reportable.
Quarantine. A dog that bites a person in Long Beach is quarantined for at least 10 days, at a shelter or at the owner’s home if it can be kept securely there.
The Animal Care Services file is often the strongest early evidence in a bite case. It names the owner, records vaccination status, and can show earlier complaints about the same dog.
Strict Liability and the Long Beach Leash Law
Under Civil Code 3342, a dog’s owner is liable when the dog bites a person who is in a public place or lawfully in a private place, including the owner’s own property. You do not have to prove the owner was careless or that the dog had a history.
The Long Beach Municipal Code adds a second basis. Section 6.16.100 requires a dog in public to be on a leash no more than six feet long, held continuously by a responsible person, unless the dog is in a designated off-leash area or confined in a vehicle. That matters most when a large dog knocks someone down or chases a cyclist into a fall without biting. Those cases are brought in negligence, and a leash violation is strong evidence of it.
| What happened | Legal basis | What we look for |
|---|---|---|
| Bite on a sidewalk, in a park, or at your door | Strict liability, Civil Code 3342 | Owner identity, insurance, the Animal Care Services report |
| Bite at Rosie’s Dog Beach or a city dog park | Strict liability still applies off leash | Witnesses, the owner’s control of the dog, any provocation defense |
| Knockdown or chase by a loose dog | Negligence, supported by the six-foot leash rule | Leash violation, prior complaints |
| Bite by a police dog | Limited by Civil Code 3342(b) and (c); bystanders may still have a claim | Agency K-9 policy, your role in the incident |
Off-leash areas. The City’s dog park rules state that the people responsible for dogs are legally responsible for any injury their dogs cause and must keep them under visual and voice control. Under those rules, the person who brings a dog into an off-leash area waives claims against the City and agrees to cover injuries the dog causes. So a bite at the dog beach or a dog park is a claim against the dog’s owner, usually paid by homeowners or renters insurance.
Defenses. Expect the insurer to argue trespass, provocation, or shared fault, which reduces a recovery by your percentage and does not erase it. For the full law, including the exceptions courts have recognized for veterinary and kennel workers, see our main dog bite page and our guide to who is liable for injuries caused by dog bites.
When a Public Agency Is Involved in a Long Beach Dog Bite
Most bites are claims against a private owner. A few involve a public entity, and those carry a six-month deadline.
- A police dog. The Long Beach Police Department runs a K-9 unit whose dogs search for and apprehend hidden suspects. Civil Code 3342(b) and (c) remove strict liability when a police dog bites during defined police work, but only if the agency has a written policy on the use of its dogs, and not when the person bitten was not a party to or suspected of the conduct that prompted the dog’s use. If you were a bystander, you may have a claim against the City of Long Beach.
- A dangerous condition of city property, such as broken fencing at a city dog park that the City knew about, under Government Code 835.
A claim against the City must be presented within six months of the bite under Government Code 911.2. It is filed with the City Clerk at 411 West Ocean Boulevard, online, by mail, or in person. One limit: under Government Code 818.2, an agency is generally not liable for failing to enforce a law, so a failure to impound a reported dog is usually not, by itself, a claim against the City. Our government claims page explains the process.
What Your Dog Bite Claim Can Recover
Bite injuries are visible, and they change as you heal. Your claim can include:
- Medical costs: emergency care, wound cleaning, antibiotics, rabies treatment where the dog’s vaccination status is unknown, surgery, and scar revision.
- Future care: staged reconstructive surgery, especially for a child whose scars change with growth.
- Lost income and earning capacity, particularly after tendon or nerve damage to a hand.
- Non-economic damages: pain, permanent scarring, and the fear of dogs that often follows an attack. Counseling is part of the claim.
If you were bitten while working a delivery or mail route, you usually have a workers’ compensation claim and a separate claim against the dog’s owner. If the injured person is your child, see our guide to dog bite injuries to children.
Deadlines for a Long Beach Dog Bite Claim
| Claim | Deadline | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Bite or knockdown, private owner or landlord | Generally 2 years from the injury | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
| Claim against the City of Long Beach (police dog, city property) | Written claim within 6 months | Government Code 911.2 |
| Injured child, private owner | Generally tolled until age 18 | Code of Civil Procedure 352 |
| Injured child, public entity | The 6-month claim is not paused. Late-claim relief may be available on an application made within 1 year | Government Code 911.4, 911.6 |
Witnesses at a dog beach are strangers who go home, so do not wait on the two-year date. More on timing is in our guide to when you can file a case after a dog bite.
How We Handle a Dog Bite Case for Clients in Long Beach
- Owner and dog. We confirm who owned and who was handling the dog, and we obtain the Animal Care Services bite report and any earlier complaints.
- Insurance. We get the homeowners, renters, or landlord policy itself and check for breed or dog bite exclusions.
- Government claim, where one applies. We present it to the City Clerk inside six months.
- Medical proof. We document the wound as it heals and work with your treating doctors on future surgery and scarring.
- Negotiation and litigation. Most claims resolve by settlement. If a lawsuit is needed, we file it in Los Angeles County Superior Court, whose Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse at 275 Magnolia Avenue serves Long Beach.
Our results include a $101,000 recovery in a dog bite case. This is a firm result from across our practice, not a result from a Long Beach case.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
For other claims, see our Long Beach personal injury page.
Speak With a Long Beach Dog Bite Attorney Today
If you or your child was seriously hurt by a dog in Long Beach, the first days matter: the owner’s identity, the bite report, and photographs of the wound before it heals. If a police dog or city property was involved, the six-month claim period started on the day of the bite. As your Long Beach dog bite attorney, we can start on all of it today.
Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. No upfront cost, and no fee unless we win. For other injuries, see our Long Beach pages on car accidents, truck accidents, Uber and Lyft accidents, and slip and falls. You can also see all of our locations.
6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
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Long Beach Personal Injury Attorney
A serious injury changes everything in a moment. The bills start, the work stops, and an insurance company is already looking for reasons to pay you less. If you need a Long Beach personal injury lawyer, Ravan Law represents people seriously hurt on Long Beach freeways, port roads, city streets, and public property. This page covers the roads where serious crashes happen, the agencies your claim may go to, the deadlines, and how compensation is valued.
We represent clients in Long Beach from our Los Angeles office, and consultations are available by phone or video. If you are looking for a personal injury lawyer in Long Beach, call (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. You work with us directly, and we answer your questions at every stage. Information is available in Spanish.
Why a Long Beach Personal Injury Lawyer Starts With the Deadline
Many Long Beach injuries involve a public entity. A Long Beach Transit bus, a Port of Long Beach vehicle, a broken city sidewalk, a Caltrans freeway: each one puts a six-month government claim deadline on your case before any lawsuit can be filed. As your Long Beach personal injury lawyer, we ask about that deadline in our first conversation with you, because it is the one most often missed.
These cases are personal to us. Ted H. Ravan went into injury law after his grandfather was in a near-fatal incident involving a city-operated bus. That is why our firm takes on public-agency claims, and why they have been central to our work ever since.
- Contingency fee. No fee unless we win, and the free consultation costs you nothing.
- Direct contact. You work with us directly, and we keep you updated from the first call to the final result.
- First-year record. In his first year of practice, attorney Ted H. Ravan obtained more than $1 million for his clients. Read more about attorney Ted H. Ravan.
Where Serious Crashes Happen: What a Long Beach Accident Attorney Should Know
Serious crashes in Long Beach cluster on a few roads:
- I-710 (the Long Beach Freeway), the main truck route north out of the port.
- I-405 (the San Diego Freeway) across the city, mixing commuters and freight.
- SR-91 (the Artesia Freeway) through north Long Beach.
- SR-1, Pacific Coast Highway, a state highway through the middle of the city with heavy pedestrian and cyclist traffic.
- Ocean Boulevard, the downtown and waterfront arterial that connects to the Long Beach International Gateway bridge, which opened in October 2020 and links Terminal Island to downtown.
- The Metro A Line, running between Long Beach and Pomona, with a downtown Long Beach loop.
The freeways, the bridge approach, and PCH are state highways under Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Local streets belong to the City of Long Beach. Where you were hurt decides who we hold responsible.
The City of Long Beach’s Safe Streets Long Beach data for 2013 to 2017 found that pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists were involved in 14 percent of collisions but made up 65 percent of people killed or seriously injured.
Long Beach Personal Injury Cases We Handle
Each case type below has its own rules. As your Long Beach personal injury lawyer, we sort your case into the right track first, so nothing is filed late or with the wrong party. See every claim type the firm handles.
Truck Accidents: Why a Long Beach Truck Accident Lawyer Starts at the Port
The Port of Long Beach is one of the nation’s busiest container ports, and the trucks that serve it share the I-710, Ocean Boulevard, and the city’s truck routes with ordinary traffic. When we act as your Long Beach commercial truck accident lawyer after a big-rig crash, we are dealing with a different kind of case than a car collision.
More than one company may be liable. Port trucking is drayage: short-haul moves of containers between terminals, rail yards, and warehouses. The driver may work for a small motor carrier, haul a container booked through a broker, and pull a chassis supplied by an intermodal equipment provider. Each may carry its own insurance and its own share of fault, so one settlement can involve several insurers. Under Proposition 51 (Civil Code 1431.2), each defendant pays non-economic damages only in proportion to its own fault, so we go after every responsible company.
The federal rules create evidence. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations govern hours of service, electronic logging device (ELD) data, driver qualification files, drug and alcohol testing, and inspection and maintenance records. As your Long Beach truck accident lawyer, we send preservation letters in the first days, because ELD and onboard data can be overwritten.
The insurance is larger. For-hire interstate carriers hauling general freight must carry at least $750,000 in liability coverage under federal rules. That matters when your injury is catastrophic and the compensation has to cover a lifetime of care.
Some port crashes are government claims. The Port of Long Beach is the City of Long Beach’s Harbor Department, managed under the Board of Harbor Commissioners. A crash with a Port-owned vehicle, or an injury caused by a dangerous condition on Port property, is a claim against the City of Long Beach, and the six-month deadline applies. A truck crash caused by a defect on the I-710 or the bridge points to the State of California, whose highways Caltrans maintains.
Read more about truck accident claims, why trucking cases often involve higher damages in California, and how driver fatigue shapes a truck case. See our Long Beach truck accident lawyer page.
Car Accidents: What a Long Beach Accident Lawyer Looks For
Rear-end crashes on the I-405 and T-bone and left-turn collisions on PCH and Long Beach Boulevard are common. California’s pure comparative fault rule lets you recover even when you were partly at fault, reduced by that share: 20 percent at fault on a $200,000 claim recovers $160,000. As your Long Beach car accident attorney, we secure the collision report and video before the insurer makes a settlement offer. LBPD investigates crashes on city streets; the California Highway Patrol (CHP) handles the freeways.
SB 1107 raised California’s minimum liability limits to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident, effective January 1, 2025. Your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage often fills the gap in compensation, and we check every policy that may apply.
Long Beach car accident lawyer: read more about car accident claims, our main Los Angeles car accident page, and who is at fault in a car accident.
Uber and Lyft Accidents
Long Beach Airport and the downtown hotels generate steady rideshare traffic. In a rideshare case, we first identify which coverage phase applied. Under Public Utilities Code 5433, coverage depends on the driver’s app status. SB 371, effective January 1, 2026, cut passenger UM/UIM coverage to $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident:
Driver status | Coverage |
App off | The driver’s personal auto insurance only |
App on, no ride accepted | $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident for bodily injury, $30,000 property damage, plus a $200,000 excess policy |
Ride accepted | $1,000,000 third-party liability when the rideshare driver is at fault |
Passenger in the vehicle | Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage of $60,000 per person and $300,000 per incident |
That UM/UIM figure applies from the moment a passenger enters the vehicle until they exit, and it can cap the compensation available when an uninsured driver hits the rideshare car. Read more about Uber and Lyft claims. See our Long Beach Uber accident attorney page.
Dog Bites
Civil Code 3342 makes an owner strictly liable for a bite in a public place or while the victim is lawfully on private property. The rule has limits: it does not cover trespassers, Civil Code 3342(b) and (c) exempt police and military dogs in defined situations, and courts generally treat veterinary professionals as having assumed the risk. A bite by a police K-9 outside that exemption can be a claim against the public entity, with a six-month deadline. Otherwise, the settlement is usually paid by the owner’s homeowners or renters insurance. When we value a bite claim, we include the scar treatment a child may need years later. Read more about dog bite claims. See our Long Beach dog bite attorney page.
Slip and Fall and Premises Liability
Premises cases turn on notice, and it is the first thing we set out to prove: whether the owner knew of the hazard or would have found it through reasonable inspection. Store, hotel, and apartment video is often overwritten within days, which weakens any settlement demand, so we move to preserve it quickly. A fall on a broken public sidewalk, in a city park, or on another city property falls under Government Code 835, and responsibility for a sidewalk can rest with the City, the adjacent owner, or both. Read more about slip and fall claims. See our Long Beach slip and fall lawyer page and our Long Beach sidewalk accident lawyer page.
Claims Against the City of Long Beach, Long Beach Transit, and Other Agencies: The Six-Month Rule
The City of Long Beach is its own public entity, with its own claim process, separate from the City of Los Angeles. A claim filed with the wrong city does not stop the clock. These claims have strict rules and a six-month deadline, and we take them on.
The six-month claim. Before suing a public entity, a written claim must be presented to that entity within six months of the injury, under Government Code 911.2. This is separate from the two-year statute of limitations (Code of Civil Procedure 335.1), and the two-year deadline does not extend it. Missing it can permanently bar compensation from that agency.
What happens next. The agency generally has 45 days to act (Government Code 912.4). If it sends a written rejection, the lawsuit generally must be filed within six months of that notice (Government Code 945.6). If no written notice is sent, the deadline is generally two years from the injury. If the six months has already passed, Government Code 911.4 allows an application to present a late claim within a reasonable time, not to exceed one year from the injury; relief is not automatic.
Which agency. As your Long Beach injury attorney for these claims, we identify the right entity and the form it requires:
- City of Long Beach: city vehicles, LBPD, city streets, sidewalks, and parks, and the Port of Long Beach (the City’s Harbor Department).
- Long Beach Transit: the city’s bus system, a separately incorporated agency. Confirm the claim recipient early and treat the six-month deadline as running.
- LA Metro: the A Line and Metro buses.
- Los Angeles County: county vehicles and county property.
- Long Beach Unified School District: school buses and campuses.
- State of California (Caltrans): the I-710, I-405, SR-91, PCH, and the Gateway bridge.
Punitive damages are not available against a public entity (Government Code 818). A minor’s statute of limitations is generally tolled until age 18 under Code of Civil Procedure 352, but that tolling does not pause the six-month claim. A child hurt by a school bus still needs a claim within six months. A late-claim application may be available for a child under Government Code 911.4 and 911.6, but it has its own one-year limit.
Read more about government claims, claims against LA Metro, and claims against Caltrans after a highway crash.
Long Beach Personal Injury Attorney for Catastrophic Injury Cases
A loaded truck on the I-710 or a car striking a pedestrian on PCH often causes injuries that last a lifetime: traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury with paralysis, multiple fractures, amputation, or internal organ damage. A concussion is a mild TBI, and its effects can appear days after a normal first scan.
These cases are valued differently from a typical personal injury claim: on the full lifetime cost, not the bills already paid. As your Long Beach injury lawyer, we build them on:
- A life-care plan projecting future surgery, therapy, equipment, and in-home help over the person’s life expectancy.
- Lost earning capacity, measured over a working life rather than a few missed paychecks.
- Treating specialists who can explain the prognosis to a jury.
A settlement offered before the long-term prognosis is known rarely accounts for any of this. Your compensation has to cover decades of care, not months, and that is the case we build.
Long Beach Personal Injury Attorney: Damages and What a Case Is Worth
Compensation in a California personal injury claim falls into two categories of compensatory damages:
- Economic damages: past and future medical care, rehabilitation, in-home care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage.
- Non-economic damages: pain, emotional distress, disfigurement, and the loss of the life you had before the injury.
Punitive damages are separate. They are not compensation for a loss. Under Civil Code 3294 they require clear and convincing evidence of malice, oppression, or fraud, and they are not available against a public entity.
As your Long Beach personal injury attorney, we value your case on the severity and permanence of the injury, future care, earning capacity, clarity of fault, and the insurance available. We will not quote you a settlement figure on the first call, and no honest lawyer would. Many cases resolve by settlement once the insurer has the records, wage loss, and future care projections; others go to mediation or trial.
Firm Results
These are settlements and verdicts obtained for Ravan Law clients. They are firm results, not results from Long Beach cases.
Recovery | Case type |
$3,500,000 | Motor vehicle accident with a county vehicle |
$500,000 | Motor vehicle accident |
$275,000 | Bus accident |
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
California Deadlines for a Long Beach Injury Claim
Claim | Deadline | Authority |
Personal injury lawsuit | Generally 2 years from the injury | Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 |
Claim against a public entity | 6 months from the injury | Government Code 911.2 |
Lawsuit after written claim rejection | 6 months from the notice | Government Code 945.6 |
Late-claim application | Within a reasonable time, not to exceed 1 year from the injury | Government Code 911.4 |
Injured minor | Tolled until 18; does not pause the 6-month claim | Code of Civil Procedure 352 |
If a lawsuit is needed, we file it in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The court’s Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse in downtown Long Beach serves its South District and hears civil cases, and the court assigns each personal injury case to a courthouse. If you hire a personal injury attorney in Long Beach or Los Angeles, ask how venue will be handled. See the full guide to California personal injury time limits.
Choosing a Long Beach Personal Injury Law Firm
Many people look first for a Long Beach personal injury law firm with a storefront nearby. The question that matters more is how your case will be handled. Ask any personal injury lawyer in Long Beach you are considering: who will keep me updated? What is my six-month deadline? How will you value future care? We answer all three in your first conversation with us, and we keep answering your questions until your case is resolved. Return to the Ravan Law homepage.
Talk to a Long Beach Personal Injury Lawyer Today
If you or someone in your family was seriously hurt in Long Beach, the clock is already running. If a city vehicle, a Long Beach Transit bus, a Port vehicle, or a state highway was involved, the six-month claim under Government Code 911.2 started on the day of the injury. Truck data and store video can be gone in days.
Call Ravan Law at (424) 465-2500 for a free consultation. We will listen, explain your deadlines, and tell you how we can help. No fee unless we win.
6310 San Vicente Blvd., Suite 401, Los Angeles, CA 90048
Attorney Advertising. Ted H. Ravan, Esq., Ravan Law, Los Angeles, CA. This content is general information, not legal advice. Every case depends on its specific facts.
Every result depended on the facts of that case, and results will differ based on different facts. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of your matter.
