Greenville Dog Bite Lawyer
South Carolina's dog bite statute is one of the strongest in the country for victims — strict liability, no free first bite. If a dog hurt you or your child in Greenville, I'll explain exactly where you stand, at your kitchen table if that's easier.
- No fee unless we win
- House calls across the Upstate
- You get Tom's cell — not a case manager
- BBB Accredited, A+
- 20+ five-star Google reviews
- Ελληνικά — Greek spoken
Greenville Dog Bite Attorney
Dog bite cases are unlike any other injury case I handle, for one human reason: the dog usually belongs to someone the victim knows. A neighbor. A friend. A relative. People sit on real claims — with real medical bills — because they do not want to hurt someone they like. If that is you, the most important sentence on this page is this one: in most dog bite cases, the money comes from an insurance policy, not from your neighbor's pocket.
I am Tom Conits, and I handle dog bite cases across Greenville County and the Upstate. Two things define how I do it. First, the law: South Carolina gives bite victims a strict-liability statute, which means these cases turn on a few clean questions rather than a fight over what the owner knew. Second, the practice: I come to you. When a child has been bitten, no parent wants to load a bandaged, frightened kid into a car for a meeting downtown — so the meeting happens at your kitchen table instead.
Photo slot: dog-tom-portrait
Your child was just bitten. The meeting comes to your kitchen table.
I personally drive to clients' homes across Greenville and the surrounding counties — hospital rooms and kitchen tables included. You were just hurt; the last thing you need is a trip to a law office.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
South Carolina's Strict-Liability Dog Bite Law
The controlling statute is S.C. Code § 47-3-110, and it does three things most people don't expect:
- It imposes strict liability. If a dog bites or otherwise attacks you while you are in a public place or lawfully in a private place — including the dog owner's own property — the owner is liable for the damages. You do not have to prove the owner was careless, and you do not have to prove the dog had ever shown aggression before. There is no "one free bite" in South Carolina.
- It reaches beyond the owner. The statute applies to the owner or the person having the dog in his care or keeping — which can matter when the dog was with a sitter, a relative, or someone else at the time of the attack.
- It covers more than bites. "Bitten or otherwise attacked" includes being knocked down, chased into traffic, or injured trying to escape a charging dog — injuries that can be as serious as any puncture wound.
What does "lawfully in a private place" mean? The statute spells it out: you are lawfully on private property, including the owner's, when you are there performing a duty imposed by law — a mail carrier, a meter reader, a delivery driver — or when you are there on the owner's express or implied invitation. A guest at a cookout, a child invited to play in the backyard, a neighbor asked to drop something off: all lawfully present, all protected by the statute.
What to Do After a Dog Bite in Greenville
- Get medical care first. Dog bites are puncture wounds driven deep by pressure — they infect easily, and facial wounds in particular deserve immediate, skilled treatment. Everything else on this list comes second.
- Identify the dog and its owner. Name, address, phone number — and if anyone knows the dog's vaccination status, get that too. If the dog was in someone else's care at the time, note that person as well; under § 47-3-110 it can matter.
- Report the bite. In Greenville County, if a bite breaks the skin, report it to Greenville County Animal Control at (864) 467-7595, and report the bite to the state's rabies prevention line for the region at (864) 372-3270. The report protects you medically — rabies status gets confirmed through official channels, not the owner's assurances — and it creates the official record your claim will later rest on.
- Photograph everything, then keep photographing. The wounds on day one, the bruising on day three, the stitches, the scabbing, the scar at three months. Claims are often evaluated a year or more after the attack, when the emergency-room photographs are the only honest witness to how bad it was.
- Write down what happened while it's fresh. Where you were, what the dog did, who saw it, what the owner said. The owner's first words — an apology, an admission that the dog "gets like this" — have a way of changing months later.
- Talk to a lawyer before the insurance adjuster. If a homeowners insurer calls asking for a recorded statement, you are allowed to say "not yet." The consultation with me is free, and it will not commit you to anything.
Representing Children Bitten by Dogs
Children are the most frequent serious dog bite victims, and the injuries follow a painful logic: a small child's face, scalp, and hands sit exactly at the height of a dog's mouth. The wounds that result — and the scars they leave — are different in kind from an adult's forearm bite, and a child's case has to be handled with that difference in view.
Handled well, a child's claim accounts for more than the first hospital visit. It considers the scar revision procedures a surgeon may recommend only after your child has grown; the counseling some children need when nightmares and a fear of dogs follow them home; and the plain human weight of growing up with a visible scar. South Carolina courts review settlements made on behalf of minors, a safeguard I welcome — it means a child's recovery is approved with the child's interests, not the insurer's timetable, in mind.
To the parents reading this: you do not have to have decided anything to talk to me. Bring your questions, and I will bring honest answers — at your kitchen table, without your child needing to relive it in a law office.
Dog Bite Injuries: Beyond the Physical Scars
A serious dog attack is rarely just a wound. The medical file typically grows in layers: deep punctures and tearing that need surgical cleaning and closure; infection risk that means antibiotics, monitoring, and sometimes readmission; nerve and tendon damage in hands and forearms — the parts we use to shield ourselves — that can require specialist repair and months of therapy; and scarring, which for facial injuries may mean staged plastic surgery over years.
Then there is the layer no imaging shows. Many bite victims, children and adults alike, carry the attack with them — flinching at barking, avoiding sidewalks with fenced dogs, sleeping badly. The law calls this pain and suffering and emotional distress; anyone who has lived it calls it Tuesday. A claim that prices only the stitches has missed most of the injury, and I do not build claims that way.
Who Pays? Homeowner's Insurance and Landlord Liability
Start with the fact that unlocks most of these cases: dog bite liability is a standard component of homeowners and renters insurance. When a claim is brought, the owner's insurer steps in, assigns an adjuster and, if it comes to it, a lawyer — and pays any settlement or judgment up to the policy limits. This is why "I don't want to sue my neighbor" usually rests on a misunderstanding. The claim is, in every practical sense, against a policy the owner has been paying for all along, and most claims resolve without a lawsuit being filed.
Some cases have more than one responsible party. Under § 47-3-110, a person who had the dog in their care or keeping can be liable alongside the owner. And in certain circumstances — which depend heavily on the facts — questions arise about a landlord who knew a dangerous dog was kept on the property. Identifying every liable party and every applicable policy is one of the quiet, decisive pieces of work in a dog bite case, especially when injuries are severe and one policy is not enough.
The Only Defenses: Provocation and Unlawful Presence
Because § 47-3-110 imposes strict liability, the defense playbook is short. The statute itself provides the main defense: the owner is not liable if the person attacked provoked or harassed the dog, and that provocation was the proximate cause of the attack. Expect it to be raised — including, distastefully, against children. The answers are factual: what actually happened in the seconds before the attack, what witnesses saw, and what counts as provocation for a toddler as opposed to an adult.
The second limit is lawful presence: the statute protects people in public places and those lawfully in private ones. Someone trespassing when bitten falls outside its protection. And the statute contains one narrow exception — dogs working in a law enforcement capacity, under strictly defined conditions, are treated differently.
That is the whole list. No "he never bit anyone before." No "she seemed friendly." If you were lawfully where you stood and did not provoke the dog, South Carolina law is on your side — plainly and by design.
Compensation for a Dog Bite in South Carolina
A dog bite claim can address every layer of the injury described above: emergency and follow-up treatment, surgical and scar revision costs — including procedures planned years out — therapy for damaged hands and arms, counseling, wages lost during recovery, and the pain, disfigurement, and emotional harm that carry no receipts but define the experience. Where the victim is a child, the claim is built around a lifetime, not a billing cycle.
I will not print settlement ranges here, because they would be guesses dressed as information. The honest answer to "what is my case worth?" starts with your medical records and photographs, and I give it in person — for free. My fee is contingent: no fee unless we win.
Reporting a Bite: Greenville County Animal Care
Greenville County's animal services operate from the Greenville County Animal Care facility at 328 Furman Hall Road. For bite victims, the numbers that matter are these: Greenville County Animal Control at (864) 467-7595 for bites that break the skin, and the region's rabies prevention reporting line at (864) 372-3270.
Reporting is not tattling, and it is not optional bureaucracy — it is how the dog's rabies status gets verified through official channels, how a dangerous animal's history gets documented so the next family has warning, and how your claim gains an official, dated record made when memories were fresh. The animal control file — the report, the officer's notes, any prior complaints about the same dog — is often among the first evidence I request in a Greenville dog bite case. If you have not reported yet, it is rarely too late; call the numbers above, and then call me at (864) 777-1000 if you want help with what comes next.
I Come to Your Kitchen Table
Parents shouldn't have to drag an injured child downtown, and bite victims with a mangled hand shouldn't have to drive. So the first meeting happens where you are — your kitchen table, a hospital room, a parent's porch — anywhere in Greenville or the surrounding counties. I bring the paperwork and the patience; you bring your questions and, if you have them, the photographs.
It is how I practice everywhere, for every kind of case — you can read more on the I Come To You page — but dog bite cases are where families tell me it mattered most. If your injury came from a hazard on someone's property rather than their dog, my premises liability page covers that ground; for everything else, one call reaches me: (864) 777-1000.
"Every client gets my personal cell number. Call or text me directly — you'll never chase a case manager."
Clients hear back from me the same day — and for emergencies, anytime.
— Thomas Spiro Conits
Dog Bite FAQs
Does South Carolina have a one-bite rule?
No. Some states excuse a dog's first bite if the owner had no warning the dog was dangerous. South Carolina rejected that approach by statute. Under S.C. Code Section 47-3-110, the owner — or whoever had the dog in their care or keeping — is liable for a bite or attack if you were in a public place or lawfully in a private place, without any requirement that you prove the owner knew the dog was aggressive or that the dog had bitten before. A clean history does not protect the owner, and it does not weaken your claim.
Will the dog be put down if I make a claim?
Making an insurance claim does not decide the dog's fate. What happens to the dog is handled by animal control and public health authorities under their own rules, based on the circumstances of the attack and the dog's history — not on whether you seek compensation for your medical bills. In most cases I have seen, the concern that a claim automatically means euthanasia is unfounded. If that worry is holding you back, tell me about it during the consultation and I will explain what the process actually looks like for your situation.
The dog belongs to a friend or neighbor. I don't want to ruin them — do I sue them personally?
This worry stops more legitimate dog bite claims than any legal defense, so here is the practical reality: in most cases, the compensation comes from a homeowners or renters insurance policy — coverage your friend or neighbor has been paying premiums on for exactly this situation. The claim is presented to the insurance company, negotiated with the insurance company, and paid by the insurance company. Most claims resolve without a lawsuit ever being filed, and pursuing one is not the same thing as taking your neighbor's house.
My child was bitten and will have scars. How does that affect the claim?
Scarring matters greatly in a child's case, and the law recognizes it. A claim can account for the cost of future scar revision procedures once your child is old enough for them, for counseling if fear and nightmares follow the attack, and for the lifelong reality of carrying a visible scar — which the law treats as a real harm, not a cosmetic footnote. Settlements for minors also receive court review for the child's protection, and resolving a claim before the full scope of scarring is understood is usually a mistake. These cases deserve patience, and I give them it.
How long do I have to file a dog bite claim in South Carolina?
Generally three years from the date of the attack under S.C. Code Section 15-3-530, and different rules can apply in some situations — including claims involving children, where deadlines are often extended but should never be assumed. The practical timeline is shorter than the legal one: wounds should be photographed as they heal, witnesses move, and the animal control file is easiest to obtain while the incident is fresh. Starting early costs nothing; the consultation is free either way.
Talk to Tom about a dog bite — free, at your kitchen table
Free consultation. No fee unless we win. If getting to an office is hard right now, Tom will come to you.
Office: 100 Williams St, Greenville, SC 29601 · (864) 777-1000