A lawsuit against various parties, including a dog, has been tossed out by a Michigan judge. Inez Starks sued the city of Warren, several police officers and Liberty, a police dog, after being bitten during some sort of confrontation in 2007. I don’t have any details about the bite, but "unprovoked attack" and "police dog" don’t tend to go together. Police dogs can and will bite in certain situations, but these are extremely well-trained and well-handled dogs.  Most people that are bitten by a police dog probably have themselves to blame more than anyone else. Inadvertent bites could potentially result from being an innocent party in the middle of a confrontation, I guess, but there is no indication this person was merely an innocent bystander.

Anyway, the suit was tossed out by the judge. As a good example of sanity in the legal system, the judge fined Starks’ lawyer for naming the dog in the suit.

Dog bites are a big deal and the cause of many lawsuits. Dog owners need to take their responsibilities seriously to reduce the risk of bites (and consequently being sued). At the same time, people need to take responsibility for themselves to reduce the likelihood of being bitten when confronted by a dog. Usually, that’s focused on "be a tree" training in kids, but not upsetting police dogs is probably another good rule of thumb.