Subrogating Dog Bite Cases

One insurance company -- State Farm -- has referred to dog bites as a ‘serious public health problem.’ In 2018 alone, one carrier paid $90 million in claims on roughly 3,500 dog bite incidents.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, dog bites and other dog-related injuries accounted for an astonishing one-third (1/3) of all homeowner’s liability claim dollars paid out in 2017, costing almost $700 million.

This isn’t chump change any more, and subrogation professionals need to take a serious look at pursuing subrogation in even some of the smaller dog bite cases -- although most dog bite cases aren’t all that small, as it turns out.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per claim nationally has risen more than 90 percent from 2003 to 2017, due to increased medical costs as well as the size of settlements, judgments and jury awards given to plaintiffs.