What Is Negligence Per Se in a Personal Injury Case?

Dec 16

Negligence per se is a legal doctrine in personal injury law that can make proving a case significantly easier for a plaintiff.

How Negligence Per Se Works

In a standard negligence case, the plaintiff must prove four elements:

Duty – the defendant owed a legal duty to act reasonably
Breach – the defendant failed to meet that duty
Causation – the defendant’s breach caused the accident
Damages – the plaintiff suffered injuries or losses

Negligence per se allows a plaintiff to skip the first two elements (duty and breach) because the law imposes them automatically.

Certain statutes, typically safety laws or regulations, define a minimum standard of care.
If a person violates that statute without a valid excuse, the law considers them automatically negligent.
The only remaining questions are:
- Did their violation actually cause the accident (proximate cause)?
- What damages resulted from the accident?

Legal Requirements for Negligence Per Se

A plaintiff can invoke negligence per se if:

The defendant violated a statute designed to prevent the type of accident that occurred.
The plaintiff is within the class of people the statute was intended to protect.

If these requirements are met, the statutory violation becomes the legal standard of care, and the defendant is presumed negligent as a matter of law.

Examples of Negligence Per Se in Texas

Common examples involve violations of the Texas Transportation Code, such as:

Speeding
Running a red light or stop sign
Making an unsafe turn

Not every law qualifies for negligence per se — generally, criminal laws or statutes not aimed at accident prevention are less likely to be applicable.

Why It Matters in Personal Injury Cases

Negligence per se is a powerful tool for plaintiffs because it simplifies proving liability. Instead of debating whether the defendant owed a duty and breached it, the court presumes negligence. The focus then shifts to: