Negligence Per Se

Often times, a personal injury case can be settled on the basis of negligence per se, which is the legal doctrine that finds an action negligent on the basis that it violated a law designed to protect people from negligence. The fact that the law was broken serves as proof that an act was negligent.

To prove a claim of negligence per se, typically the following criteria must be met:

• A law must be broken. The basis of the negligence per se claim is that a law has been broken; if this has not occurred, although there may be a standard negligence claim, there can be no negligence per se claim.
• The law must be a safety law. The law must specifically relate to safety. If, for example, you were injured when a thief broke into your property, the fact that he was breaking and entering does not create a valid negligence per se claim, because it is a law designed to protect property rather than people.
• The law must be designed to prevent the type of injury that occurred. If injury was suffered due to a cause incidental to the law being broken, the claim of negligence per se is not valid. If a driver runs a red light and his tire simultaneously exploded, causing an injury, a negligence per se claim would not be valid as red light laws are not designed to protect people from flying tires.
• The victim must be in the class of people the law intended to protect. Typically, this is the easiest criterion to prove, as most laws are designed to protect “the general public”.

Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer

Contact the Appleton personal injury lawyers of Habush Habush & Rottier, S.C. today at 1-800-242-2874, and we will evaluate your case.