If you have been injured in an accident, you will want to file a personal injury claim and use legal representation to guide you through it. In many personal injury cases, negligence is the basic reason and the plaintiff will need to provide the proof that the injury was caused by the defendant in order to receive some type of compensation.
The plaintiff will be responsible for convincing the judge and jury that the defendant owed to him/her a reasonable duty of care prior to the accident. When the accident happened, it was like a breach of duty of care.
When negligence per se applies in a case involving a personal injury, the actions of the defendant will be the determining factor that determines their guilt and to what extent.
“Negligence Per Se” Defined
An individual would use negligence per se when there is negligence and doesn’t need to be measured to any extent again the standard of care within reason. It is also not compared to what is considered a reasonable person and how that reasonable person would handle a situation in any event.
In order for your Personal Injury Lawyer in Halifax to establish negligence per se, the party that received the injury would be required to show that the defendant violated their rights and that the statute provides for penalty of some degree because it was a wrongful act that caused the injury or harm to the individual and it was intentional or it could have been prevented.
Examples of Negligence Per Se
If there was an automobile accident, and the driver ends up running a red light and ends up striking the vehicle that the plaintiff was in, and it caused extensive damage to the plaintiff’s vehicle as well as injuries to the plaintiff, then any time anyone runs a red light, it is certainly a violation of the driving code and it is punishable by both a fine and in some cases, imprisonment.
In this case, all elements of negligence per se are present and this lawsuit can most definitely go in the favor of the plaintiff because it would be fairly easy to prove that the individual ran the red light which led to the accident occurring.
Let’s say that you were in a building or near a building that a wall collapsed. If the contractor was in violation of a building code when the wall collapsed, then the injury of those occupying the building could be blamed on the contractor. When a code is not followed for buildings, then the contractor is liable for paying a fine as well as other penalties. The only exception to this rule is if the person who received the injury was trespassing on to a property that he/she did not have permission to be on.
The final example is a motorcycle accident. If the motorcycle operator was riding without a helmet on when an accident occurred, he/she is in violation of the mandatory helmet law that is forced in each state. If he was to strike a pedestrian while trying to prevent making contact with a vehicle, and causing injury to one or more individuals, he will most likely be charged a fine, lose his license, and may even serve time.