Press & Media

We keep a small amount of Florida dog bite material current because almost nobody else does. If you are writing about it, the following is free to use and free to quote.

Two things Florida coverage still gets wrong

Miami-Dade’s pit bull ban ended on 1 October 2023. House Bill 941 deleted the grandfather clause that had let pre-1990 breed ordinances survive — the only basis for Miami-Dade’s ban and the City of Sunrise’s 1989 penning ordinance. Three years on, local reporting still routinely describes the ban as in force, landlords still cite it, and residents still rehome dogs over it. The gap between what people believe and what the law says is itself the story.

Florida rewrote its dangerous dog statute in 2025 and it went almost unreported. Chapter 2025-61 tied mandatory confiscation to a bite severity score of 5 or higher on the Dunbar scale, required a sworn affidavit to open a classification case, and added microchipping, sterilisation and a $100,000 liability insurance requirement for any dog classified as dangerous. Most Florida dog owners have no idea the insurance requirement exists.

Both are documented, with statutory text and effective dates, on What has changed in Florida dog bite law.

What we maintain

• Florida dog bite law changes, 2023–2026 — a dated record of every amendment, what it replaced, and when it took effect. Reviewed quarterly.
• Florida dog bite claim data — Insurance Information Institute and State Farm figures, labelled by year. Florida ranked 2nd nationally in 2025: 2,347 claims, $146 million paid.
• The “Bad Dog” sign checker — an interactive walkthrough of a provision unique to Florida. Free to embed, no permission needed; the embed code is on that page.

Every page carries the statute verbatim and names its sources. If something is out of date or wrong, tell us and we will correct it — that is more useful to us than being quoted.

What we can speak to on the record

• How Florida’s strict liability statute actually works, and the two defences written into the same sentence
• The 2023 change to filing deadlines, and the unresolved question about which limitation period applies to a statutory dog bite claim
• Breed-specific legislation, why Florida preempted it, and why insurers are not bound by that preemption
• The 2025 dangerous dog amendments and what they require of owners
• What the claim data does and does not show

What we will not do: discuss a pending matter, comment on someone else’s case, predict an outcome, or supply a client for interview. If you need a victim’s perspective we are not the route to it.

Using our material

Quote it, link it, embed the tool. No permission required and no attribution fee. A link back is appreciated and is the only thing we ask.

If you need something we have not written — a figure, a statutory question, a plain-English explanation on deadline — ask. We would rather spend twenty minutes getting it right in your piece than read it wrong later.

Contact

Through the contact page, marked for press. Tell us your deadline in the first line and we will work to it.