Lameness is a serious welfare issue facing the dairy industry. To date, the majority of studies have focused on its effect on health and behavior at the herd-level. The aim of this study was to identify cow-level changes in lying behavior associated with lameness. A total of 201 dairy cows from 6 pasture-based farms in southern Brazil were gait scored weekly to assess lameness using a 5-point scale (≥3 as lame) for 4 consecutive weeks. During this time, lying behavior (daily lying time, lying bouts, and mean lying bout duration) was recorded continuously using leg-mounted accelerometers. Lying data from the 3 d following each gait score were averaged. Cow-level variables included days in milk (DIM), parity, and BCS. Regional precipitation was recorded daily and categorized as positive if rainfall was recorded on at least 2 of these 3 d. DIM was categorized as early (DIM <100d), mid (100d ≤ DIM ≤200d), and late lactation (DIM >200d). Linear mixed models (cow nested within farm as random effect) were used to test the effect of lameness on lying behavior, accounting for precipitation and DIM. The incidence and recovery rate were 15% and 10% respectively. When lame, cows increased the duration of each lying bout by 6 min (95% CI: 0 to 10; P = 0.03) compared with when non-lame. We also found an interaction between lameness and precipitation on lying time; during periods of rainfall, cows that were lame spent an extra 44 min/d (95% CI: 6 to 83; P = 0.02) lying compared with when they were not lame, but without rainfall cows showed no difference in lying time between lame and non-lame status (−7 min/d; 95% CI: −34 to 21; P = 0.64). Rainfall decreased the number of lying bouts by 0.9 bouts/d (95% CI: 0.8 to 0.9; P < 0.01), but increased the average duration of bouts by 6 min/bout (95% CI: 1 to 11; P = 0.02). Late lactation cows spent an extra 17 min/bout (95% CI: 7 to 27: P < 0.01) and an extra 57 min/d (95% CI: 7 to 105; P = 0.03) lying compared with early lactation cows. Cows alter their lying behavior in response to changes in lameness status and rainfall. The results of this work may be used to better identify cows that are developing or recovering from lameness in pasture-based systems.