Dog Bite Severity Levels and Injury Claims in New Jersey

New Jersey law recognizes no degrees of dog bites for civil liability. An owner answers for a bite whether it leaves two shallow punctures or sends someone into reconstructive surgery. Severity still matters enormously, but only in two other places: what the claim is worth and what a municipal court decides about the dog in a dangerous dog case.

How Do Clinical Bite Levels Translate Into Claim Value?

The six-level Dunbar scale gives veterinary and forensic professionals a way to classify dog bites. Medical providers and insurance adjusters may also use these categories to describe injury severity and help assess a claim:

• Levels one and two: Snaps and superficial contact, handled with a tetanus booster and a rabies risk assessment. Bills stay small, and the claim rests on scarring and fear.
• Levels three and four: Puncture wounds and torn tissue can become infected with Pasteurella or Capnocytophaga bacteria and may involve nerve damage and permanent, visible scarring.
• Levels five and six: Multiple crushing bites, surgical debridement, or death, which include reconstructive surgery costs, post-traumatic stress and dog phobia damages, and wrongful death claims.

Arguing different degrees of dog bites only helps when the medical chart uses the same language, so ask the treating provider to record depth, tissue loss, and repair method instead of writing “dog bite” and moving on.

Do Municipal Vicious Dog Hearings Depend On Severity?

The harm caused helps determine the dog’s classification. Under New Jersey’s potentially dangerous dog standard, N.J.S.A. 4:19.23, an unprovoked attack causing bodily injury may support a potentially dangerous finding if the dog also presents a serious threat. Restrictions can include:

• Registration
• Secure confinement
• Public muzzling
• Court-ordered liability insurance

A fatal attack or serious bodily injury may support a vicious classification.

The municipality must prove its case by clear and convincing evidence, including that the dog was not provoked. That burden is higher than the more-likely-than-not standard used in a civil injury claim.

This proceeding is separate from the damages claim. Either side may appeal to the Superior Court, Law Division, for a new hearing.

Why Do Adjusters Argue “It Was Only a Nip”?

Carriers concede the bite and attack the damage, usually along predictable lines. They may question the need for treatment, the extent of scarring, or whether the incident caused lasting distress:

• Only a nip: A shallow puncture on a child’s face still produces visible scarring and lasting fear of dogs.
• Unrelated infection: Wound infections surfacing days later trace back to bacteria carried in the dog’s mouth.
• Pre-existing scars: Older marks near the wound are offered as the true source of disfigurement.
• Keloid tendency: Raised scarring gets blamed on skin type rather than the tearing that caused it.

Photograph the injury when it occurs, before the wound is closed, and regularly as it heals. A dated photo record preserves details of wound depth and tissue damage that may be hard to recall a year later.

Match The Claim To The Actual Damage

The extent of the injury influences your claim’s value and the insurer’s opening offer. DiBartolo Law examines wound photographs, surgical notes, and municipal records to document the full harm.

For an honest assessment of your claim, call or contact us online. You pay no fee unless you recover compensation.