Florida Dog Bite Statute of Limitations: How Long You Have to File a Claim

A dog bite claim in Florida can expire long before most victims realize it. Under the Florida dog bite statute of limitations, you generally have just two years from the date of the attack to file a lawsuit — half the time the law allowed before 2023. Miss that window, and even a clear-cut case with obvious injuries and an identifiable owner gets thrown out of court.

Florida is also one of the few states that holds dog owners strictly liable for a bite the moment it happens, which makes the filing deadline even more important to understand correctly. Below, you will find exactly when your clock starts, what can pause it, how the rules shift for children, and what to do before time runs out.

Important Note: This article explains general Florida law for informational purposes and is not a substitute for advice from a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation.

How Long Do You Have to File a Dog Bite Lawsuit in Florida

Florida’s dog bite laws hold owners strictly liable through Florida Statute 767.04. The owner of any dog that bites any person while such person is on or in a public place, or lawfully on or in a private place, including the property of the owner of the dog, is liable for damages suffered by persons bitten, regardless of the former viciousness of the dog or the owners’ knowledge of such viciousness. That is a meaningful difference from states that follow the older one-bite rule, where a victim must show the owner already knew the animal was dangerous.

Strict liability under 767.04 does not come with its own separate filing deadline, however. Dog bite lawsuits are filed under Florida’s general personal injury statute of limitations, and that timeline changed dramatically in 2023. On March 24, 2023, Florida reformed the injury statute of limitations, via HB 837, cutting the time limit for filing negligence-based claims in half. If your injury happened on or after March 24, 2023, you must file your lawsuit within two years. If your injury happened before March 24, 2023, the previous four-year deadline still applies.

When the Bite Happened	Filing Deadline	Governing Statute
On or after March 24, 2023	2 years from the date of the bite	Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a), as amended by HB 837
Before March 24, 2023	4 years from the date of the bite	Fla. Stat. § 95.11(3), pre-HB 837

Under Florida Statute § 95.11, your two-year deadline to file a lawsuit starts on the date of the bite. If you were bitten on June 1, 2026, your deadline is June 1, 2028. That two-year window applies whether the dog attacked you on a sidewalk, in a neighbor’s yard, or in a public park — the strict liability standard under 767.04 does not shrink or grow the deadline itself.

Pro Tip: If more than one party could share fault — the owner, a landlord, a pet-sitting service — each defendant has their own two-year deadline starting from the date of the bite, and settling with one defendant doesn’t pause or extend the deadline for another. Track each potential defendant’s deadline separately.

When the Statute of Limitations Clock Starts in Florida

Florida law is specific about when a personal injury claim legally begins. Under Florida Statutes, a claim accrues when the last element constituting the cause of action occurs, and in a negligence-type claim, that happens “upon the happening of an accident and the attendant injuries.” For a dog bite, that almost always means the clock starts ticking on the exact day the dog bit you — not the day you filed a police report, not the day you finished medical treatment, and not the day an insurance adjuster called you back.

Many injury victims assume Florida uses a “discovery rule” that delays the clock until they realize the full extent of their harm. That assumption is usually wrong for a straightforward dog bite. While Florida doesn’t apply a general discovery rule to ordinary negligence, specific situations may extend filing deadlines. A hidden complication — such as a nerve injury that only becomes apparent months later — will not typically reset a two-year clock that already started the day of the attack.

One narrow exception involves deception by the defendant. Fraudulent concealment occurs when defendants actively hide their wrongdoing, and courts may extend limitation periods when defendants prevent plaintiffs from discovering claims through deliberate deception. This might apply if a dog owner actively lied about who owned the animal to prevent you from identifying the correct defendant in time.

Exceptions That Can Pause or Extend the Deadline in Florida

Florida allows the statute of limitations to be “tolled,” or temporarily paused, only in a handful of specific circumstances spelled out by statute. Florida Statute § 95.051 lists the few situations that qualify. These exceptions are narrow by design, so do not assume your circumstances qualify without confirming with an attorney.

• Defendant leaves the state: The deadline is paused during any period the dog owner is out of Florida, since you can’t serve someone with a lawsuit if they’re not in the state.
• Pre-existing incapacity: Tolling applies if the victim was declared incapacitated by a court before the bite occurred, and the seven-year cap under § 95.051(2) still applies. Incapacity that develops after the bite doesn’t qualify.
• Minors without an available guardian: covered in detail in the next section.
• Fraudulent concealment: when a defendant actively hides facts needed to identify or locate them.

Even when one of these exceptions applies, Florida caps how long a pause can last. Florida law also caps any tolling at seven years from the date of the bite under § 95.051(2). That cap prevents a claim from staying open indefinitely, even in genuinely difficult circumstances.

Special Rules for Minors in Florida

Dog bites disproportionately affect young children. Children are disproportionately affected by dog bite injuries, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children between the ages of 5 and 9 have the highest rate of dog bite-related emergency department visits. A separate 2023 review of Florida Department of Health data found a similar pattern, noting that children between the ages of one and nine years are at the highest risk for dog bites.

Many parents assume a child’s claim automatically pauses until the child turns 18. In Florida, that is not correct in most cases. If your child was bitten, the case generally needs to be filed within two years, and your deadline does not automatically extend until your child turns 18 if a parent or guardian is available to act on their behalf.

Tolling for a minor’s claim only kicks in under specific conditions. Florida Statute § 95.051(1)(i) sets specific conditions for tolling that apply only when no parent, guardian, or guardian ad litem is available to sue on the child’s behalf, an available parent or guardian’s interest conflicts with the child’s, or a parent or guardian has been declared incapacitated by a court. If a parent or guardian is willing and able to bring the case, the standard two-year deadline runs from the date of the bite, just as it would for an adult.

Common Mistake: Assuming a child’s injury claim “waits” for them. Unless one of the three narrow exceptions above applies, waiting until your child is older to file can permanently forfeit their right to compensation.

Filing Against a Government-Owned or Stray Dog in Florida

Claims involving a government-owned dog — a K-9 unit, an animal-control facility dog, or an animal housed at a county-run petting zoo or public animal exhibit — follow a different and stricter procedural path than a claim against a private owner. Florida generally protects government agencies from lawsuits through sovereign immunity, which is only waived when you follow specific pre-suit steps.

Under Florida Statute § 768.28(6), written notice has to be sent to the appropriate agency within three years of the bite, and for state agencies, a copy of the notice also goes to the Florida Department of Financial Services. Sending this notice is not optional, and it does not replace your lawsuit — it is a prerequisite to filing one.

This is where many claimants make a costly error. You must satisfy both the § 768.28(6) notice requirement and the underlying statute of limitations, since notice does not extend the statute of limitations. In practice, that means you still need to file suit within the standard two-year window (or four years, for pre-2023 incidents) even while the agency reviews your notice. Courts take strict compliance with the notice rule seriously. In one recent case, a Florida appellate court reversed a decision denying summary judgment to a sheriff’s office after the injured party failed to meet the pre-suit notice conditions required under section 768.28(6), and the court determined that sovereign immunity had not been waived.

Recoveries against government entities are also capped by statute. A judgment against a state agency or subdivision is generally limited to $200,000 per person or $300,000 per incident, absent a special legislative claims bill.

Stray or unowned dogs present a different problem entirely: Florida’s strict liability statute applies to an identifiable “owner,” so a bite from a genuinely ownerless animal usually cannot be pursued under 767.04. In that situation, victims typically need to look at premises liability against a property owner who allowed the animal to roam, or a negligence claim against a county if animal control failed to respond to a known dangerous-animal complaint — which brings the sovereign immunity notice rules above back into play. Reporting the incident to local animal control immediately creates the paper trail this kind of claim depends on.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline in Florida

There is no gray area once the statute of limitations expires. If you miss the two-year deadline, you’ve lost your right to sue — a late lawsuit gets dismissed once the statute of limitations is raised as a defense, and you can’t refile. Florida courts apply this rule consistently. If you try to file your lawsuit after the relevant deadline has passed, the court will almost certainly dismiss it, unless the circumstances call for a rare extension of the filing deadline.

The consequences are financial as much as legal. Every year, dog bite injuries send a significant number of Floridians to the hospital — according to the Florida Department of Health, more than 600 Floridians are hospitalized due to injuries from dog bites every year. A serious injury with real medical bills and lost wages provides no leverage once the deadline passes, because the insurance company no longer has any legal incentive to negotiate in good faith.

Pro Tip: Don’t let ongoing settlement talks with an insurance adjuster lull you into inaction. Adjusters have no obligation to warn you that your filing deadline is approaching, and negotiations can drag on well past the point where you still had time to sue.

What to Do Before the Deadline Approaches in Florida

Acting early protects both your health and your legal options. If you were bitten, follow these steps well before your deadline gets close:

1. Get medical treatment immediately and keep every record — bite wounds can carry infection risk, and documented treatment dates anchor your timeline.
2. Report the bite to local animal control or county health authorities, which creates an official record of the date, location, and animal involved.
3. Identify every potential defendant — the dog’s owner, a landlord, a property manager, or a government agency — since each may carry a separate deadline.
4. Photograph injuries and the scene and collect contact information for any witnesses before memories fade.
5. Confirm your exact filing date based on whether the bite happened before or after March 24, 2023.
6. Send any required pre-suit notice right away if a government entity may be involved, since the three-year notice window and the underlying lawsuit deadline run on separate, overlapping clocks.
7. Consult a Florida personal injury attorney well before your deadline, not in the final weeks, so there is time to investigate, negotiate, or file suit if needed.

Understanding what typically happens after a bite — from insurance claims to potential settlement talks — can also help you avoid mistakes that cost time. Our guide on what happens if a dog bites someone in Florida walks through those next steps in more detail. And if you’re researching how Florida’s strict liability approach compares to other animal-injury situations, our guides covering venomous snakes in Florida, snakebite envenoming, and insects that bite outline how liability and documentation needs shift when a different animal is involved.

The two-year window feels long the day after a bite and painfully short two years later. Documenting the incident immediately, identifying every responsible party, and talking to an attorney early gives you the best chance of protecting a claim before Florida’s statute of limitations closes the door for good.