Is your homeowner's insurance covering your dog?

While making reminder to everyone about adjusting their clocks, we would also like to remind everyone to check their homeowner's insurance to make sure that they are covered if their dog bites someone else.

The numbers on dog bite claims are staggering, both in terms of the sheer numbers as well as the costs per claim.  To limit their losses for dog bite claims, many carriers that write homeowner's insurance are including policy exclusions for dog bite claims caused by certain breeds of dogs (pit bulls in particular) that are considered to be more aggressive than others.  Unfortunately, these exclusions are valid and often buried in fine print.  This leaves the dog owbers exposed to personal liability for dog bite injuries.

As experienced Chicago personal injury lawyers, if you are a dog owner, we encourage you to disclose to your agent the fact that you own a dog and to review with him whether your dog is covered in the event of a dog bite.  Dog bite accidents are hard to prevent, so the best course of action is to make sure that you have good coverage if one happens.