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What is Strict Liability and What Does It Mean?

Strict Liability is a legal doctrine referring to absolute legal responsibility for an injury that can be imposed on the “wrongdoer” without proof of carelessness or fault.

As a Gainesville Dog Bite Attorney, what is unique about Strict Liability is that a person does not have to be found careless, or at-fault, or negligent for something that happened that caused harm to another.

In short it means that in certain types of cases, you can be held liable or responsible for something even if you did nothing wrong, there does not need to be proof of negligence when strict liability is applied in the case.

The bottom line is that in most cases there are defenses available to the claim of negligence as in accident or slip and fall cases. However, where there is strict liability, there are no defenses.

Strict Liability is most commonly seen in dog bite cases, and product liability lawsuits for defectively manufactured products.

In dog bites the owner of the dog is responsible or liable even if it was the first bite and the bite was provoked by the bitten person and the dog is restrained in a yard or home.

With defective products, the injured person has to prove that the product caused the injury, but does not have to prove how the manufacturer was careless.

I am local accident attorney Jeffrey Meldon and I strongly believe that public education is the first step in the prevention of and/or recovery from a serious accident. My office and I take pride in our work, and the results we get for our clients.

Meldon Law is a regional law firm that is located in Gainesville, Florida. We are personal injury attorneys, litigators and trial attorneys that have been working to get accident victims the justice they deserve for over 40 years throughout North Florida and all over Florida. Accidents involving a car crash, truck wreck, motorcycle, ATVs, bicycle, pedestrian accidents, and dog bites, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and criminal defense are all included in our practice.

For more information on how we can help you, or with any other question you may have, feel free to contact our office at 800-373-8000.

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