What If I Waited a Week to Report — Is It Too Late?

Many Michigan dog bite victims realize days or weeks after the bite that they should have reported it. Here’s whether it’s too late — and what you can still do.

The Short Answer

It’s almost never too late. Michigan animal control will accept bite reports days or weeks after the incident, and Michigan’s strict liability statute (MCL 287.351) gives you THREE YEARS to file a civil lawsuit. Delayed reporting does hurt your case — evidence fades, witnesses move, insurance companies push back harder — but it does not bar recovery. The single most important thing is to file the report now and get a medical evaluation today.

Video coming soon — Solomon Radner answers this question

The Detailed Answer

The decision tree after a dog bite is more complicated than people realize, and it’s very common for victims to think “I’ll deal with this later” — then watch a week, a month, or longer go by. The good news: it’s almost always not too late.

Civil claim deadline: 3 years

Under Michigan’s statute of limitations for personal injury (MCL 600.5805), you have three years from the date of the bite to file a civil lawsuit. This is one of the longer deadlines in U.S. dog bite law. See our full guide on Michigan’s dog bite statute of limitations.

Three years sounds like a long time. It isn’t. Once you start the process, the case typically takes 6-18 months to resolve. The right time to start is now — not because the deadline is close, but because evidence gets harder to recover the longer you wait.

Animal control reports: no formal deadline

Michigan animal control agencies accept delayed bite reports. Most county and city agencies don’t impose formal time limits on when bite reports can be filed. However:

• Rabies follow-up may be limited — the standard 10-day quarantine works best when started within a few days
• The dog may not be findable — owners may have moved, or the dog may no longer be alive
• Investigation is harder — owner’s memory of the incident fades, neighbors no longer recall details

File the report anyway. Even a delayed report creates an official record, and animal control may identify prior bite history at the address that the dog owner concealed.

What gets harder with delay

Honest assessment of the costs of delayed reporting:

• Photographic evidence of the injury — wound healing changes what your injury looked like
• Witness memory — neighbors who saw the attack will be less certain on details
• Medical causation — connecting infection or psychological symptoms to the bite is harder when no medical record exists from the bite date
• Insurance company arguments — the longer you waited, the more the adjuster will argue “it couldn’t have been that bad if you didn’t report it”
• The dog owner’s preparation — they have had time to prepare their version of events