What the insurance company does not want you to know is that "provocation" is one of the fastest ways they try to shift blame onto the person who got bitten. They may say you startled the dog, reached toward its food, got too close to a fence, tried to pet it without permission, or ignored a warning. Defense lawyers use that label to make a clear attack sound like your fault. What it really means is conduct that provoked the animal in a real, fact-based way - not just being nearby, walking past a yard, delivering a package, or acting like a normal person.

In a Maine dog-bite claim, that argument matters because Maine generally allows recovery when a dog injures someone, but the owner's insurer may still argue comparative fault. Maine uses a modified comparative fault rule with a 50% bar. If they can push your share of fault to 50% or more, you can be blocked from recovering anything. If they claim less than 50%, they still try to cut the payout.

What to do: get the animal control report, photograph the scene, save torn clothing, and write down exactly what happened before the attack while it is fresh. If there were witnesses, get names fast. Do not let an adjuster put words in your mouth like "I must have scared the dog." In Maine, you generally have 6 years to file a personal injury lawsuit, but waiting makes provocation claims easier for the other side.