Utah Dog Bite Settlement Calculator
Estimate a dog bite settlement under Utah 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 Utah 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.
Utah bars recovery if plaintiff is 50% or more at fault.
Utah Code §§ 78B-5-817 to -818·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Except as the section provides, a person who owns or keeps a dog is liable for an injury it causes, whether or not the dog is vicious or the owner knows it. Utah Code § 18-1-1(1)(a) reads: “Except as provided in Subsections (2) and (3), an individual who owns or keeps a dog is liable for an injury caused by the dog, regardless of whether: (i) the dog is vicious or mischievous; or (ii) the owner knows the dog is vicious or mischievous.” We read this statute only, so it is not a complete account of Utah law on dog bites, and how courts have applied it is not stated here.
Utah Code § 18-1-1(1)(a)·Last reviewed 2026-10-16
None on record means our verified data holds no figure of this kind for this state. It is not a finding that no limit could apply to your claim.
What partial fault costs you in Utah
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 Utah 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 Utah deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Utah 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.
Utah's four years comes from Utah Code § 78B-2-307, which opens “An action may be brought within four years:” and lists, at subsection (4), “(4) for relief not otherwise provided for by law.” The one court statement read for this page on which period governs an injury claim is from the Utah Court of Appeals. Penrose v. Ross, 2003 UT App 157, was about whether an amended complaint that named a different defendant related back to the original complaint, and in setting out its premise the court wrote: “The traffic accident from which this suit arose occurred on November 21, 1996. Thus, the statute of limitations for Penrose's claim of negligence expired on November 21, 2000. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-12-25(3) (2002) ("An action may be brought within four years: . . . for relief not otherwise provided for by law.");” It cited the provision under its earlier number, § 78-12-25(3), in the words subsection (4) prints today. That was the premise of a case about something else, not the question the court decided, and no Utah Supreme Court opinion on the period was read for this page. Ask a licensed Utah attorney which period applies to your claim.
Utah Code § 78B-2-307(4)·Last reviewed 2026-09-28
Open the personal injury calculatorUtah Code § 78B-3-404·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorUtah Code § 78B-2-304(2)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the wrongful death calculatorOne year is the earliest a Utah workers' compensation time limit can fall, and it is the limit for medical expenses, not for a claim for disability benefits. Utah Code § 34A-2-417(1)(a) entitles an employee to be compensated for a medical expense only where the employee submits it to the employer or insurance carrier "within one year from the later of: (I) the day on which the medical expense is incurred; or (II) the day on which the employee knows or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known that the medical expense is related to the industrial accident." A claim for temporary total, temporary partial, permanent partial or permanent total disability benefits is barred unless the employee "files an application for hearing with the Division of Adjudication no later than six years from the date of the accident", and the employee must be able to meet the burden of proof "by no later than 12 years from the date of the accident" (§ 34A-2-417(2)). For death benefits, "A claim for death benefits is barred unless an application for hearing is filed within one year of the date of death of the employee." (§ 34A-2-417(3)). Ask a licensed Utah attorney which limit applies to your claim.
Utah Code § 34A-2-417(1)(a)(ii)(B)·Last reviewed 2026-10-04
Open the workers compensation calculatorUtah Code § 78B-2-307(4)·Last reviewed 2026-09-28
Open the slip and fall calculatorUtah 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 Utah is one of them.
- Its 4 years to file is longer than the 2 years that 23 jurisdictions use. Across the 51 jurisdictions the deadline for this case type runs from 1 year to 6 years.
- We have read the official text of 27 jurisdictions' dog bite statutes. 9 make the owner liable for a bite as such, 11 for injury or damage the dog causes more broadly, and the other 7 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, or medical costs. Utah's is one of the 11 about injury or damage more broadly.
- 7 of the 51 jurisdictions limit non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in our data and Utah is not among them, so an estimate here is not held down by a ceiling we hold.
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
Utah calculators
Utah 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.