They say, “Every dog has it’s day.” Increasingly, those dogs are winding up in court – or at least, their owners are. The Insurance Information Institute (III<\/a>) reports dog bites and other dog-related injuries accounted for more than a third of all homeowner insurance liability claim dollars paid out last year, amounting to more than $570 million. The average cost per claim reportedly spiked 16 percent that year, up to an average of $37,200.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising considering that nearly 80 million American households have pets and, at the end of the day, dogs are animals. Even those that are well-trained and relatively predictable can have moments of behaving in a way that is unexpected or aggressive. Here in Florida, F.S. 767.04<\/em><\/a> says that victims of dog bites or other dog-related injuries don’t have to prove the dog was previously vicious or that the owner knew of this viciousness\u00a0in (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They say, “Every dog has it’s day.” Increasingly, those dogs are winding up in court – or at least, their owners are. The Insurance Information Institute (III) reports dog bites and other dog-related injuries accounted for more than a third…<\/span><\/p>\n