Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer

Negligence Per Se

Often times, a negligence claim can be considered valid on the basis of negligence per se, the doctrine that states that an act is negligent because it violates a law that has been designed to protect people from negligence. In order to prove negligence per se, a certain set of criteria must be met.

• A law must be violated. There must be a law on the books that was broken. If a law does not exist, a negligence claim may still be valid, however it cannot be considered negligence per se.
• The law is one related to safety. If the law does not directly relate to safety, it does not constitute negligence per se. For example, red light laws could be considered safety laws, and being injured as a result of someone running a red light could be considered negligence per se.
• The action breaking the law caused harm that the law attempted to prevent. Simply being a law related to safety is not enough. If a defendant ran through a red light, and while he was in the intersection, his tire blew out and you were injured, you would not have a valid negligence per se claim, because red light laws are not designed to protect you from flying tires.
• You must be in the class of people the law is designed to protect. This is typically the easiest criteria to prove, as most laws are typically designed to protect the "general public", although there can be some exceptions.

If you have any questions related to an injury caused by someone else's negligence, contact the Las Vegas personal injury lawyers, William Palmer & Associates, P.C. at 702-888-2222.