Tennessee Dog Bite Settlement Calculator
Estimate a dog bite settlement under Tennessee law. The calculator applies this jurisdiction's own comparative fault rule and damages ceilings, and every figure below is the one our verified data holds, with the statute behind it and the date we checked it.
What Tennessee law does to your claim
Four things in state law shape a dog bite claim: how long you have to file, what the state's dog bite statute makes an owner liable for, what happens if you were partly at fault, and whether the state puts a ceiling on what a jury can award. Here is what we hold for this one.
The 1 year shown is the earliest a Tennessee deadline for this claim can fall, not the deadline itself, because the same statute gives two years where the conditions it sets out, which turn on a criminal prosecution, are met. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(2) reads: "A cause of action listed in subdivision (a)(1) shall be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrued, if: (A) Criminal charges are brought against any person alleged to have caused or contributed to the injury; (B) The conduct, transaction, or occurrence that gives rise to the cause of action for civil damages is the subject of a criminal prosecution commenced within one (1) year by: (i) A law enforcement officer; (ii) A district attorney general; or (iii) A grand jury; and (C) The cause of action is brought by the person injured by the criminal conduct against the party prosecuted for such conduct." Subsection (a)(3) adds: "This subsection (a) shall be strictly construed." Which charges meet those conditions is not established here. Work inside the one year, and ask a licensed Tennessee attorney whether the two-year period applies to your claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A)·Last reviewed 2026-09-24
Tennessee bars recovery if plaintiff is 50% or more at fault.
McIntyre v. Balentine, 833 S.W.2d 52 (Tenn. 1992)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-102·Last reviewed 2026-07-30
Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-39-104·Last reviewed 2026-07-30
The owner of a dog must keep it under reasonable control at all times and keep it from running at large. An owner who breaches that duty is liable for damages suffered by a person the dog injures in a public place or while lawfully on another's private property, whether or not the dog had shown dangerous propensities or the owner knew or should have known of them. The section does not apply in the cases it lists, among them an injured person provoking the dog. Where the injury happens on residential, farm or other noncommercial property that the dog's owner owns, or is on with the owner's permission or as a tenant, the claimant must also show the owner knew or should have known of the dog's dangerous propensities. Tenn. Code Ann. § 44-8-413(a), (b), (c)(1) reads: “(1) The owner of a dog has a duty to keep that dog under reasonable control at all times, and to keep that dog from running at large. A person who breaches that duty is subject to civil liability for any damages suffered by a person who is injured by the dog while in a public place or lawfully in or on the private property of another.” and “(2) The owner may be held liable regardless of whether the dog has shown any dangerous propensities or whether the dog's owner knew or should have known of the dog's dangerous propensities.” and “(b) Subsection (a) shall not be construed to impose liability upon the owner of the dog if:” and “(5) The injury occurred as a result of the injured person enticing, disturbing, alarming, harassing, or otherwise provoking the dog.” and “(1) If a dog causes damage to a person while the person is on residential, farm or other noncommercial property, and the dog's owner is the owner of the property, or is on the property by permission of the owner or as a lawful tenant or lessee, in any civil action based upon such damages brought against the owner of the dog, the claimant shall be required to establish that the dog's owner knew or should have known of the dog's dangerous propensities.” We read this statute only, so it is not a complete account of Tennessee law on dog bites, and how courts have applied it is not stated here. The page states it is current through the 2026 Regular Session and the 2026 2nd Extraordinary Session.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 44-8-413(a), (b), (c)(1)·Last reviewed 2026-10-19
What partial fault costs you in Tennessee
The same claim, fracture with surgery, several months of recovery, run through the calculator above four times, with nothing changed but the share of fault assigned to the claimant. The numbers are the engine's output, not an editorial claim about what these cases are worth.
One case, run through the calculator above four times with only the claimant's share of fault changed, under Tennessee law. No coverage ceiling is applied, because we would be inventing the at-fault party's policy. These shares illustrate the rule; they are not an estimate of your own fault.
Every Tennessee deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Tennessee periods in our verified data, with the statute behind each one. A deadline is the outside limit, never a target, and other rules can shorten it.
The 1 year shown is the earliest a Tennessee deadline for this claim can fall, not the deadline itself, because the same statute gives two years where the conditions it sets out, which turn on a criminal prosecution, are met. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(2) reads: "A cause of action listed in subdivision (a)(1) shall be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrued, if: (A) Criminal charges are brought against any person alleged to have caused or contributed to the injury; (B) The conduct, transaction, or occurrence that gives rise to the cause of action for civil damages is the subject of a criminal prosecution commenced within one (1) year by: (i) A law enforcement officer; (ii) A district attorney general; or (iii) A grand jury; and (C) The cause of action is brought by the person injured by the criminal conduct against the party prosecuted for such conduct." Subsection (a)(3) adds: "This subsection (a) shall be strictly construed." Which charges meet those conditions is not established here. Work inside the one year, and ask a licensed Tennessee attorney whether the two-year period applies to your claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A)·Last reviewed 2026-09-24
Open the personal injury calculatorTenn. Code Ann. § 29-26-116·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorThe 1 year shown is Tennessee's published wrongful-death period, and whether a two-year period in the same section can reach a wrongful-death claim is not established here. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(2) begins: "A cause of action listed in subdivision (a)(1) shall be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrued, if:" Its last condition, (a)(2)(C), reads: "The cause of action is brought by the person injured by the criminal conduct against the party prosecuted for such conduct." A wrongful-death claim arises from a person's death, and nothing we have read says whether (a)(2) reaches one. Work inside the one year, and ask a licensed Tennessee attorney whether the two-year period can apply to your claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the wrongful death calculatorTenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-203·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the workers compensation calculatorThe 1 year shown is the earliest a Tennessee deadline for this claim can fall, not the deadline itself, because the same statute gives two years where the conditions it sets out, which turn on a criminal prosecution, are met. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(2) reads: "A cause of action listed in subdivision (a)(1) shall be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrued, if: (A) Criminal charges are brought against any person alleged to have caused or contributed to the injury; (B) The conduct, transaction, or occurrence that gives rise to the cause of action for civil damages is the subject of a criminal prosecution commenced within one (1) year by: (i) A law enforcement officer; (ii) A district attorney general; or (iii) A grand jury; and (C) The cause of action is brought by the person injured by the criminal conduct against the party prosecuted for such conduct." Subsection (a)(3) adds: "This subsection (a) shall be strictly construed." Which charges meet those conditions is not established here. Work inside the one year, and ask a licensed Tennessee attorney whether the two-year period applies to your claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A)·Last reviewed 2026-09-24
Open the slip and fall calculatorThe 1 year shown is the earliest a Tennessee deadline for this claim can fall, not the deadline itself, because the same statute gives two years where the conditions it sets out, which turn on a criminal prosecution, are met. Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(2) reads: "A cause of action listed in subdivision (a)(1) shall be commenced within two (2) years after the cause of action accrued, if: (A) Criminal charges are brought against any person alleged to have caused or contributed to the injury; (B) The conduct, transaction, or occurrence that gives rise to the cause of action for civil damages is the subject of a criminal prosecution commenced within one (1) year by: (i) A law enforcement officer; (ii) A district attorney general; or (iii) A grand jury; and (C) The cause of action is brought by the person injured by the criminal conduct against the party prosecuted for such conduct." Subsection (a)(3) adds: "This subsection (a) shall be strictly construed." Which charges meet those conditions is not established here. Work inside the one year, and ask a licensed Tennessee attorney whether the two-year period applies to your claim.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 28-3-104(a)(1)(A)·Last reviewed 2026-09-24
Open the dog bite calculatorTennessee against the rest of the country
Every count below is read from our state-law data across all 51 jurisdictions, so it moves when the data does. What you will not find here is an average settlement figure: the only one we could compute is a model, and a model presented as a measurement is not a fact.
- 10 of the 51 jurisdictions we track apply modified comparative negligence with a 50% bar, and Tennessee is one of them.
- Tennessee allows at least 1 year to file, and that is the earliest its deadline can fall rather than a fixed limit, because the governing statute gives a longer period where conditions it sets out are met. This page does not set that against the 2 years that 23 jurisdictions publish, because for those we hold a period and no condition that lengthens it, which is a different claim. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 6 years.
- We have read the official text of 31 jurisdictions' dog bite statutes. 9 make the owner liable for a bite as such, 13 for injury or damage the dog causes more broadly, and the other 9 turn on something more specific: a presumption about what the owner knew, a dog found dangerous, a dog off its owner's premises or running at large, a bite causing serious bodily injury or death, or medical costs. Tennessee's is one of the other 9.
- 7 of the 51 jurisdictions limit non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in our data, and Tennessee is one of them at $750,000, so a large non-economic award can be reduced to it.
Comparisons are drawn from the legal levers that actually move a case value, not from closed-case data, which we do not hold. See the full methodology
Tennessee calculators
Tennessee Dog Bite questions
Every document behind our state injury law figures, each linked with the date we last read it, is listed on our State Injury Law research sources page.