The Claim Kit · $97
The bite that's too small for a lawyer and too expensive to eat.
If a dog put you in urgent care, cost you a few thousand dollars and a week of work, and healed clean — most personal injury firms will not take your case.
Not because you do not have one. Because a third of a small claim does not cover what it costs them to open the file. So most people in that position do nothing: they pay the deductible, absorb the missed work, and decide it is not worth making trouble with a neighbour. Meanwhile the homeowners policy that exists for exactly this sits untouched.
What's in it
- The three conditions that decide whether you have a claim at all, before you spend a minute on anything else.
- How homeowners and renters liability coverage responds to a bite, including the breed and prior-history exclusions that quietly defeat otherwise good claims.
- How to find out whether there is coverage without accusing anyone of anything. Includes the conversation script.
- How to request the animal control report, and why a report filed near the time is worth more than anything written later.
- Medical records and billing request letters, plus a HIPAA authorization template.
- The photo protocol, week by week, and how to document lost wages and out-of-pocket costs.
- The demand letter template, with two fully worked examples on different fact patterns.
- The method adjusters use to put a number on a claim like yours. A method, not a valuation of your claim.
- Adjuster communication: what a recorded statement is, what a reservation of rights letter means, realistic timelines, and what not to volunteer.
- Negotiating: the sequence, sample counters, and why you do not settle before you are medically finished.
- The release — what you are permanently signing away, and the questions to ask first.
- Chapter 12: stop and call a lawyer if any of these are true.
- State appendix: the liability standard where you live, with the statute cited, and where to request the animal control report.
Written by someone who ran a personal injury practice and handled these files from the other side of the desk. Delivered as a PDF with editable templates.
What this is not
It is not legal advice and I am not your lawyer. It is not a way to get more money than a lawyer would get you — for a serious injury it almost certainly is not, and the research on that is not close. Insurance-industry research has consistently found that represented claimants recover several times what unrepresented claimants recover, even after the contingency fee.
This is for the claim that would otherwise never be filed at all.
Close this page and talk to a lawyer if
A child was bitten. There is scarring anywhere visible. You needed surgery or a specialist. There is nerve damage or you have lost function. You are still in treatment. The insurer is denying coverage. The owner says you provoked the dog.
Those cases are worth real money and a firm will take them on contingency, which costs you nothing up front. Chapter 12 of the kit says the same thing. Request a free case review instead →
Get the kit
$97. One price, no subscription. Thirty-day refund, no questions asked.
ClaimYourBite is not a law firm and this kit is general information, not legal advice. It does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you later request a case review, participating law firms pay us a flat advertising fee.
Last reviewed August 2026