$475KDog bite causing facial scarring requiring reconstructive surgery

Our client, a 9-year-old, was bitten on the face by a neighbour’s dog while playing in a shared courtyard of a rental complex. The bite required emergency repair and two subsequent reconstructive procedures, and has left visible scarring from the left cheek to the jawline.

The dog’s owner carried a renters policy with a limit well below the cost of the anticipated surgical course.

We brought the claim against the property owner as well as the dog’s owner. Complex records showed two prior written complaints about the same animal and a lease clause prohibiting the breed, which management had documented but never enforced.

Because the client is a minor with growth-dependent scar revision ahead of him, we retained a plastic surgeon to project the procedures required through skeletal maturity rather than settling on the cost of surgery to date.

The two carriers contributed $475K in total. The recovery was placed in a court-approved minor’s settlement structured to release funds for the revision procedures as they are needed.

He is doing well. The final revisions are expected in his late teens.