When is a dog owner liable for a bite in Georgia?

In Georgia, a dog’s owner is liable for a bite if the owner knew the dog was dangerous, or if a local leash law applied and the dog was off leash when it bit you, and the owner’s careless management let it happen. That is O.C.G.A. § 51-2-7. The leash law shortcut matters because most Georgia cities have one.

What does O.C.G.A. § 51-2-7 say?

The published heading is “Liability of owner or keeper of vicious or dangerous animal for injuries caused by animal.” The operative text:

A person who owns or keeps a vicious or dangerous animal of any kind and who, by careless management or by allowing the animal to go at liberty, causes injury to another person who does not provoke the injury by his own act may be liable in damages to the person so injured. In proving vicious propensity, it shall be sufficient to show that the animal was required to be at heel or on a leash by an ordinance of a city, county, or consolidated government, and the said animal was at the time of the occurrence not at heel or on a leash.

The section goes on to exclude domesticated fowl and livestock from the leash law shortcut. Last amended in 1985 (Ga. L. 1985, p. 1033).

What does it mean for you?

Georgia is not a strict liability state for dog bites. The owner is not automatically responsible because their dog bit you. You have to show three things: the animal was vicious or dangerous, the owner managed it carelessly or let it run loose, and you did not provoke it. The first element used to be the hard one, because courts required proof the dog had shown a tendency to bite before. That was the old “first bite free” rule.

The leash law sentence changed that. If the city or county where you were bitten has an ordinance requiring dogs to be leashed or at heel, and the dog was loose when it bit you, the law treats the dangerous animal element as proven. You do not need a prior bite. Nearly every Georgia city and most counties have such an ordinance, which is why the first question we ask in a dog bite case is where it happened.

“Careless management” covers more than a loose dog. A gate left open, a dog known to lunge at the fence, a dog left with a child, a dog brought into a crowded place: all of these can qualify. And “provocation” is narrower than owners hope. Walking past a yard, reaching to pet a dog that seemed friendly, or being a child who screamed is not provocation.

Most dog bite claims are paid by the owner’s homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, which many bite victims never consider because they do not want to sue a neighbor. The claim is against the policy, not the neighbor’s savings, and the policy exists for exactly this.

Related Georgia laws

• O.C.G.A. § 51-3-1: a property owner’s duty of ordinary care, which can also apply to a bite on their premises
• O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33: how the provocation argument plays out as shared fault
• O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33: the two year deadline to file an injury lawsuit

Sources

• Official Code of Georgia Annotated on legis.ga.gov (official text)
• O.C.G.A. § 51-2-7 on Justia (2025 Georgia Code)
• Text verified against the published code on 2026-10-16. Statute text is public record. Nothing on this page is legal advice about your specific case.

What should you do next?

If a dog bit you or your child, tell us where it happened and whether the dog was on a leash. Those two facts usually decide the case, and the owner’s insurance is there to pay it.

Call Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. at 770-820-0711, any hour, any day. The call is free, the case review is free, and there is zero fee unless we win. Nine offices across Georgia, and we come to you if you cannot come to us.

One more thing. Don’t sign anything from an insurance company before you talk to a lawyer. A signature on the wrong form can give away rights you did not know you had.