Cyclist injured on public road and I am getting sued because it happened in front of my house

First thing to do is notify your homeowner's insurance company, and any other insurer  you  think might cover the event (for example, if you have an umbrella policy) even if you don't thinki you're covered.  You only have a limited time to assert coverage before you are in danger of waiving your rights under the policy.  If you are covered, the insurance company will provide you with an attorney to defend you. Assuming that your policy does not cover this, you should defend the suit.  It is up to you whether to hire an attorney or not, but i would recommend it.  If you decide to handle it yourself, I hope the following  helps. It sounds like the "paper" to which you refer is a complaint, which you must respond to within a relatively short period of time (which should be set forth in the papers).  You have to file an answer in which you deny the allegation that it was yoiur dog, along with denying any other allegation you know to be false, and stating that you do not have sufficient knowledge to know whether an allegation is true whenever something is alleged which is outside of your personal knowledge (for example, if the complaint alleges that the plaintiff continues to suffer pain due to his/her injuries, you would deny knowledge or informaiton sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of that allegation, because  you have no personal knowledge of whether that is true or not) and asserting any affirmative defenses you may have (affirmative defenses are defenses for which the defendant bears the burden of proof, that is, defenses which absolve the defendant of liability even if the plaintiff is able to prove everything alleged in the complaint, like statute of limitations, or that the claim had been released, etc.)  If the plaintiff  has no evidence that the dog was yours, or if you have incontrovertible proof, or discover such proof during the discovery process, that the dog wasn't yours, you may be able to move for summary judgment.