September 22, 2026 | News & Blog
If you have been bitten or attacked by a dog in Texas, you generally do not have unlimited time to pursue a personal injury lawsuit. Texas law imposes a deadline known as the statute of limitations, and missing that deadline can prevent an injured person from recovering compensation even when the underlying case is otherwise strong.
For most Texas personal injury claims, including claims arising from dog attacks, the general limitations period is two years from the date the cause of action accrues. In a typical dog-bite case, that will ordinarily mean two years from the date of the attack.
However, the two-year deadline is not the only reason to act promptly. Evidence that may prove what happened—or establish that the dog’s owner knew about previous aggressive behavior—can disappear long before the statute of limitations expires.
Texas does not have a separate civil statute of limitations specifically for dog bites. Instead, dog-bite injury claims generally fall under Texas’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases.
Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.003 generally requires a lawsuit for personal injury to be filed no later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues.
For example, if an adult is attacked by a dog on October 1, 2026, the general rule would ordinarily require a personal injury lawsuit arising from that attack to be filed no later than October 1, 2028.
That example illustrates the general rule only. Exceptions can apply, and calculating a limitations deadline can involve legal issues that are not apparent from simply looking at the date of the attack.
If an important deadline is approaching, you should have the particular circumstances evaluated by a Texas attorney rather than relying on an online deadline calculator.
No.
The statute of limitations generally establishes a deadline for filing a lawsuit, not a recommended waiting period for investigating a claim.
There can be an enormous practical difference between investigating a dog attack a few weeks after it happens and trying to reconstruct the same event nearly two years later. Witnesses can disappear, video can be erased, property conditions can change, and evidence concerning the dog’s history may become more difficult to locate.
A person with a serious injury therefore should not think:
“I have two years, so there is no reason to do anything now.”
You may have substantially less time to preserve some of the evidence that could ultimately determine whether the claim succeeds.
Dog-bite cases often depend heavily on facts that existed before and at the time of the attack.
Texas does not simply impose automatic civil liability on every dog owner whenever a dog bites someone. Depending on the legal theory, important questions may include whether the owner knew or should have known about the dog’s dangerous tendencies or whether the owner negligently failed to control or restrain the animal.
That makes evidence especially important.
Suppose a dog escapes through a broken gate and attacks someone walking through a San Antonio neighborhood. Immediately after the attack, it may be possible to photograph the damaged gate, speak with neighbors who have seen the dog escape before, obtain doorbell-camera footage, and locate previous complaints concerning the dog.
Eighteen months later, the gate may have been replaced. The neighbors may have moved. The video may be gone. Memories may have faded.
The statute of limitations may still be running, but the quality of the evidence may already have deteriorated substantially.
Some evidence is particularly time-sensitive.
An attack may be recorded by a home security system, apartment complex, nearby business or doorbell camera. Those recordings may be automatically overwritten after a relatively short period.
If video exists, identifying it quickly can be extremely important.
Neighbors, delivery drivers, pedestrians and other witnesses may have information about both the attack and the dog’s previous behavior.
Over time, witnesses can become harder to locate and their memories can become less precise.
A damaged fence, unsecured gate or other condition may help explain how a dog escaped. The owner may repair the condition shortly after the attack.
Photographs taken immediately after the incident can therefore be valuable.
Dog-bite wounds change as they heal. Photographs taken throughout the recovery can document an injury in a way that a photograph taken months later cannot.
This is particularly important when an attack causes permanent scarring or disfigurement.
Texts, emails, neighborhood messages and social-media posts may contain evidence concerning previous problems with a dog. Those records can be deleted or become more difficult to obtain over time.
For a dog attack occurring within San Antonio city limits, Animal Care Services records can become an important part of the investigation.
San Antonio Animal Care Services is the city’s local rabies-control authority. Animal bites or scratches that break the skin must be reported, and the city instructs a person who has been bitten to report the incident through 311. In fact, a Husky in San Antonio recently tested positive for rabies.
An official report may help document the identity of the dog, its owner, the circumstances of the incident and the government’s response.
Prior records can sometimes be even more important.
If the same dog was previously reported for aggressive behavior, roaming, biting or another incident, those records may be relevant to determining what the owner knew before the attack.
This is one reason you should report a serious dog attack even when the owner asks you not to.
Dog attacks are not merely a theoretical issue in San Antonio.
The city continues to deal with serious incidents involving loose and aggressive dogs. San Antonio Animal Care Services maintains procedures for investigating dangerous and aggressive dogs, including a public registry of designated animals.
Under the city’s current guidance, a dog can qualify as dangerous after an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury outside an enclosure reasonably certain to prevent the dog from escaping. Certain unprovoked threatening acts can also satisfy the applicable dangerous-dog criteria.
San Antonio also prohibits dogs from roaming away from their owners’ property.
These local rules do not mean that every violation automatically establishes a successful civil lawsuit. However, animal-control records, previous reports and evidence about how a dog was restrained can be important when investigating liability.
Prior incidents can be extremely important in a Texas dog-bite case.
Texas is commonly described as following a one-bite rule, although that phrase can be misleading. A dog does not necessarily receive one consequence-free bite before its owner can ever be held responsible.
Evidence that a dog previously bit, lunged at, chased or acted aggressively toward someone may become relevant to whether the owner knew or should have known about the animal’s dangerous tendencies.
Prior evidence might come from:
For a more detailed explanation, see our guide to the Texas one-bite rule.
The important point for limitations purposes is that this evidence may become harder to find as time passes.
You may still have a claim.
Texas dog-bite liability is not limited to cases in which a dog has previously bitten another person. Depending on the facts, an injured person may potentially pursue a negligence theory based on an owner’s failure to exercise reasonable care in controlling the dog.
For example, suppose an owner knows that a backyard gate does not latch properly and that the dog repeatedly escapes. The owner nevertheless leaves the dog unattended in the yard, and it escapes and attacks someone.
Whether the dog had previously bitten another person is not necessarily the only important question.
A lawyer investigating the case may examine the owner’s conduct, applicable animal-control rules, previous escapes and other evidence surrounding the attack.
No. You should not assume that it does.
Reporting an attack to San Antonio Animal Care Services, law enforcement, an insurance company or another entity is not the same thing as filing a civil lawsuit.
Likewise, negotiating with an insurance adjuster should not be treated as a substitute for determining the applicable lawsuit deadline.
An insurance company may continue communicating with an injured person while a limitations deadline approaches. The existence of settlement discussions does not mean that you should assume your legal deadline has changed.
If limitations may be an issue, obtain legal advice about the specific deadline.
No. Do not assume that filing an insurance claim stops the limitations clock.
A dog-bite victim may spend months communicating with a homeowners or renters insurance company. That process can create a false sense that the claim is safely proceeding.
But an insurance claim and a lawsuit are different things.
If a lawsuit needs to be filed to preserve a claim, waiting for an insurance company to finish evaluating the matter can create serious problems when the limitations deadline is approaching.
For more information about potential coverage, see Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Dog Bites in Texas?
Settlement negotiations can continue for a significant period, particularly when medical treatment is ongoing or the parties disagree about the value of a claim.
You should not assume that an insurance company’s willingness to negotiate means the statute of limitations no longer matters.
If the deadline expires before the necessary legal action is taken, the defendant may assert limitations as a defense.
This is one reason a serious injury claim should be evaluated well before the two-year anniversary of the attack.
Yes. Texas law recognizes circumstances in which the ordinary limitations calculation may be affected.
One important example involves a person who is under a legal disability when the cause of action accrues. Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code §16.001 identifies a person younger than 18 years old and a person of unsound mind as being under a legal disability for purposes of the applicable limitations provisions. When the legal disability exists at the time the claim accrues, the period of disability generally is not included in the limitations period. For example, someone who is under 18 years old when they suffer a dog bite attack generally has until they turn 20 years old to file a lawsuit. However, as stated above, it is not advisable to wait this long due to the risk of losing evidence, witnesses, etc.
Other legal doctrines or circumstances may potentially affect limitations in particular cases.
However, exceptions should never be assumed. Statutes of limitations can involve complicated legal questions, and the consequences of calculating a deadline incorrectly can be severe.
Claims involving children require special attention.
Texas law provides that a person younger than 18 is under a legal disability for purposes of the applicable limitations provisions. If that disability exists when the cause of action accrues, the period of disability generally is not included when calculating the limitations period.
That can affect the deadline applicable to a child’s own personal-injury claim.
However, a dog attack involving a child can potentially raise more than one type of claim or legal issue, and different rights may belong to different people. Parents should therefore not assume that every claim associated with a child’s injury can safely wait until the child becomes an adult.
There is also a practical reason to act much sooner: evidence does not wait for a child to turn 18.
If your child suffered a serious dog attack—particularly one involving facial injuries, surgery or permanent scarring—it is sensible to have the claim evaluated promptly.
Texas law also imposes a two-year limitations period on actions for injury resulting in death, with the statute providing that the cause of action accrues on the death of the injured person.
Wrongful-death and survival claims can involve issues beyond the scope of an ordinary dog-bite injury case. Potential claimants, damages and deadlines should be evaluated carefully.
Families dealing with a fatal dog attack should obtain individualized legal advice rather than relying on a general discussion of personal-injury limitations.
An unidentified owner can make a claim much more difficult to investigate, but you should not simply wait and hope that the identity becomes obvious.
Report the attack and provide as much information as possible about:
A neighborhood doorbell camera may show where the dog came from. A witness may recognize it. Animal-control authorities may have previous records involving the same animal.
Again, speed can matter because video and witnesses may become unavailable.
A delay in reporting does not necessarily mean that you have no legal claim.
However, it can make proving what happened more difficult.
An official report created shortly after an attack can help document the event. Delayed reporting may also make it more difficult to locate the dog, determine its history or obtain time-sensitive evidence.
If you have not yet reported a recent bite within San Antonio, Animal Care Services instructs residents to report bites that break the skin through 311.
For a more complete checklist, see What to Do After a Dog Bite in Texas.
Not necessarily.
It can be important to understand the full extent of an injury before resolving a claim. A serious dog bite may require future treatment, scar revision, surgery, therapy or other care.
But waiting for treatment to finish is different from waiting to investigate the claim.
You can preserve evidence and determine applicable legal deadlines while medical treatment continues.
In a serious case, those two processes often need to happen at the same time.
There is no standard amount of time.
A relatively straightforward claim may resolve without a lawsuit, while a disputed case involving severe injuries can take considerably longer.
Factors affecting the timeline may include:
The important point is that the pace of insurance negotiations does not necessarily control the statute of limitations.
There is no standard settlement amount.
The potential value of a dog-bite claim can depend on the severity and permanence of the injuries, medical treatment, lost income, disfigurement, impairment, liability evidence and available insurance coverage.
A small puncture wound that heals without complications is very different from an attack causing permanent facial scarring, nerve damage or surgery.
For a more detailed discussion, read How Much Is a Dog Bite Case Worth in Texas?
If you suffered a significant dog-bite injury and believe the limitations deadline may be approaching, do not rely on an online article to calculate the exact date.
Gather the information you have about the attack, including:
Then speak with a Texas dog bite lawyer promptly.
The attorney can evaluate the particular facts, determine which claims may exist and analyze the applicable deadlines.
Not every minor dog bite requires legal representation.
However, speaking with a Texas dog bite lawyer may be worthwhile when an attack causes:
Legal advice can also be particularly important when liability is disputed, the owner claims the victim provoked the dog, insurance coverage is uncertain, or a limitations deadline may be approaching.
Texas’s general two-year statute of limitations is important, but it should not become a reason to delay.
The strongest evidence in a dog-bite case may exist immediately after the attack.
A security camera may contain the entire incident today and contain nothing six months from now. A neighbor may remember previous aggressive behavior clearly today but struggle to remember details two years later. A broken gate may demonstrate how the dog escaped today but be repaired tomorrow.
The legal deadline and the practical deadline for preserving evidence are therefore two different things.
If you have suffered a serious dog-bite injury, the safest approach is to investigate the claim well before the statute of limitations becomes an issue.
If you or your child has been seriously injured by a dog in San Antonio or elsewhere in Texas, you may have a limited amount of time to protect your legal rights.
Texas generally applies a two-year statute of limitations to personal-injury lawsuits, but exceptions and special circumstances can affect how a deadline is calculated. At the same time, important evidence can disappear long before the statutory deadline arrives.
Our office can review the circumstances of the attack, investigate available evidence and insurance coverage, and help you understand the deadlines that may apply to your claim.
Contact us for a free and confidential consultation about your dog-bite injury.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Statutes of limitations and tolling rules are highly fact-specific, and exceptions may apply. Do not rely on this article to calculate the deadline for a particular claim. Reading this article or contacting our office does not create an attorney-client relationship. An attorney-client relationship is established only through an appropriate agreement.