Wisconsin Dog Bite Settlement Calculator
Estimate a dog bite settlement under Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin 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.
Wisconsin bars recovery if plaintiff is 51% or more at fault.
Wis. Stat. § 895.045·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Wis. Stat. § 895.043(6)·Last reviewed 2026-07-30
The owner is liable for the full amount of damages when the dog injures a person, and for twice that amount for a bite that breaks the skin and scars, where the owner was notified or knew the dog had bitten that way before, without provocation. Wis. Stat. § 174.02(1)(a), (b) reads: “the owner of a dog is liable for the full amount of damages caused by the dog injuring or causing injury to a person, domestic animal or property.” and “the owner of a dog is liable for 2 times the full amount of damages caused by the dog biting a person with sufficient force to break the skin and cause permanent physical scarring or disfigurement if the owner was notified or knew that the dog had previously, without provocation, bitten a person with sufficient force to break the skin and cause permanent physical scarring or disfigurement.” We read this statute only, so it is not a complete account of Wisconsin law on dog bites, and how courts have applied it is not stated here.
Wis. Stat. § 174.02(1)(a), (b)·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 Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin deadline we hold
A claim can be more than one kind of case, and the clock is different for each. These are the Wisconsin 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.
Wis. Stat. § 893.54·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the personal injury calculatorWis. Stat. § 893.55(1m)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the medical malpractice calculatorWis. Stat. § 893.54(1m) reads “(1m) Except as provided in sub. (2m), the following actions shall be commenced within 3 years or be barred:” and § 893.54(1m)(b) reads “(b) An action brought to recover damages for death caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of another.” Wis. Stat. § 893.54(2m) reads “(2m) An action brought to recover damages for death caused by the wrongful act, neglect, or default of another and arising from an accident involving a motor vehicle shall be commenced within 2 years after the cause of action accrues or be barred.” This field holds a single number, so we publish the 2-year period: it is the one that governs motor-vehicle deaths, and telling a claimant 3 years when the real deadline is 2 is the error that costs a claim. If the death did not involve a motor vehicle, you may have the full 3 years. Confirm which period applies with a Wisconsin attorney.
Wis. Stat. § 893.54(2m)·Last reviewed 2026-07-29
Open the wrongful death calculatorWis. Stat. § 102.17(4)·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the workers compensation calculatorWis. Stat. § 893.54·Source retrieved 2026-07-27
Open the slip and fall calculatorWisconsin 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.
- 24 of the 51 jurisdictions we track apply modified comparative negligence with a 51% bar, and Wisconsin is one of them.
- Its 3 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. Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin 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
Wisconsin calculators
Wisconsin 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.