What Happens If My Dog Bites Someone Who Physically Attacks Me?

It is one of the few dog bite situations where the person bitten is the one who started it. Someone attacks you, your dog reacts the way dogs react, and now you are wondering whether you are about to be sued by the person who assaulted you. Colorado law does account for this, though not in a single tidy sentence, and the answer depends on what your attacker was doing and how badly they were hurt. Our dog bite attorneys at Boesen Law handle these claims from both directions and can tell you where you stand.

Colorado’s Dog Bite Statute Is Strict, But It Has Exceptions

Colorado is a strict liability state for serious dog bite injuries. Under C.R.S. § 13-21-124, a person who suffers serious bodily injury or death from a dog bite can recover economic damages from the dog’s owner without having to prove the owner was careless or knew the dog was dangerous. There is no free first bite for that category of injury.

Serious bodily injury is the threshold, and dog attacks clear it more often than people expect: puncture wounds that reach bone, crush injuries to a hand, and broken bones from a fall during the attack all qualify.

Two limits on that rule matter here. First, the strict liability provision reaches economic damages, meaning medical bills and lost wages, rather than the full range of damages available in an ordinary negligence case. Second, and more importantly for your situation, the statute contains a list of circumstances in which the owner is not held strictly liable at all. Those exceptions include a person who was unlawfully on private property, a person on property posted with a warning sign, working police and military dogs, professionals like veterinarians and groomers who were handling the dog, dogs working in herding or predator control, and, directly on point, a person who knowingly provoked the dog.

For answers to your questions, call:
(303) 999-9999

Provocation, Trespass, and the Person Who Attacked You

If someone attacks you and your dog bites them, several legal factors may apply at the same time. Each one tends to make a strict-liability claim harder for the attacker to win.

• Provocation: An attacker is almost certainly provoking the dog, and Colorado’s strict-liability statute excludes people who knowingly provoked the dog.
• Trespass (if it happened on your property): If the person was unlawfully on private property, that can also take them out of the strict-liability statute’s protections.
• Unlawful conduct / criminal context: If the bite occurred while the person was committing a crime (like an assault), that context strengthens the argument that the attacker caused the situation.

Even if strict liability doesn’t apply, the attacker can attempt an ordinary negligence case and must prove the usual elements of a negligence claim (duty, breach, causation, damages). If the evidence shows the person was mid-assault or otherwise caused the confrontation, Colorado’s comparative fault rules can significantly reduce damages, or wipe them out entirely.

Criminal Exposure Is a Separate Question

Civil liability and criminal liability run on separate tracks, and a dog owner can face questions in both. Colorado’s dangerous dog law creates criminal penalties when a dog causes serious injury, and it likewise recognizes exemptions where the dog was provoked, teased, or reacting to someone committing an unlawful act.

The two tracks also use different standards of proof. A criminal charge must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, while a civil claim runs on the lower burden of proof in civil cases, which is why the outcomes can diverge. A civil suit arising from an incident in Denver would be filed in the Denver District Court.

What to Do in the First Hours

The steps that protect you are the same ones that protect any injured person, and most of them are about documentation.

1. Get medical attention for your own injuries. Being assaulted is the underlying event here, and an untreated injury is one that an insurer and a jury will later discount. Blows to the head deserve particular attention, since a catastrophic injury can present mildly on the day it happens.
2. Call the police and make a report. A criminal report documenting the assault is the single most valuable piece of evidence in any later civil dispute.
3. Photograph everything. Your injuries, the location, any posted signage, damaged property, and the scene as it looked before anything was cleaned up.
4. Identify witnesses immediately. Names and phone numbers, before anyone leaves. Independent accounts of who moved first are decisive.
5. Preserve any video. Doorbell cameras, business cameras, and phone footage get overwritten quickly.
6. Notify your homeowner’s or renter’s insurer. Most policies cover dog bite liability and provide a defense, and most also require prompt notice.
7. Say nothing about fault to anyone but your lawyer. Statements made in the first hour tend to reappear months later.

If You Were Attacked, You May Have Your Own Claim in Colorado

This is the part dog owners in this situation usually overlook. Being assaulted is a personal injury, and a civil claim for assault and battery exists independently of anything involving your dog. Depending on the circumstances, a homeowner’s policy, a business’s premises coverage, or the attacker’s own assets may be reachable, and any injuries you suffered belong in that analysis.

Colorado gives most injury claims a limited window. A civil action for an assault-related injury generally falls under the two-year deadline in C.R.S. § 13-80-102, and Colorado’s personal injury time limits are applied strictly once they run.

Boesen Law has recovered substantial results in animal attack cases, including a $500,000 recovery for a cyclist attacked by a dog who suffered ankle injuries and permanent scarring.

Contact a Colorado Dog Bite Lawyer at Boesen Law

A bite that happens during an assault is a genuinely unusual case, and it deserves more than a general answer pulled off the internet. Whether you are the dog’s owner worried about a claim, or the person who was attacked and is now dealing with injuries of your own, the facts of those few seconds decide everything that follows.

Boesen Law brings decades of experience helping the injured across Colorado, and someone from our team answers the phone around the clock. Our full case results show what a thoroughly documented claim can produce. Contact Boesen Law for a free, in-person consultation, and there is no attorney fee unless we recover compensation for you.

FAQs About Dog Bites and Provocation in Colorado

Can someone sue me if my dog bit them while they were attacking me?

They can file a claim, since anyone can file, but their path is difficult. This matters most where the bite caused lasting harm, such as facial scarring or a traumatic brain injury from a fall during the encounter, because those are the claims worth the fight. Colorado’s strict liability statute for serious dog bite injuries specifically excludes people who knowingly provoked the dog and people who were unlawfully on the property, and an assault generally satisfies both. That leaves them attempting an ordinary negligence claim, where their own conduct becomes central and Colorado’s comparative fault rules can cut the recovery down or eliminate it. Your documentation of the assault is what makes that outcome likely rather than uncertain.

Does it matter whether the attack happened on my property?

It matters a great deal. A person who was unlawfully on private property is excluded from the strict liability provision, and warning signage strengthens that position further. An incident in a public place, such as a park or a sidewalk, removes the trespass element and leaves provocation as the primary exception. The location also affects the criminal analysis and any animal control review.

Will my homeowner’s insurance cover a dog bite claim in Colorado?

Usually, though with conditions. Most homeowner’s and renter’s policies include liability coverage for dog bites and, just as importantly, a duty to defend you against a claim. Some policies exclude specific breeds or exclude any dog with a prior bite history, and coverage limits vary. Notify your carrier promptly even if you believe the claim is meritless, since late notice can itself become a reason for denial.

Could my dog be declared dangerous or euthanized?

That is decided under Colorado’s dangerous dog provisions and by local animal control, separately from any civil claim. In the rare case where an attack causes a death, the question of who may file a wrongful death lawsuit is governed by a separate Colorado statute with its own order of priority. The law recognizes exemptions where a dog was provoked, teased, or responding to a person committing an unlawful act, so the circumstances of the assault matter here too. Respond to any animal control proceeding promptly and with evidence rather than ignoring it, because these determinations carry lasting consequences for both you and the animal.

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