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How Does Negligence Per Se Work in a Personal Injury Claim?

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When building up your personal injury claim, you will want to use every legal argument at your disposal so that you may be awarded financial compensation. One argument that may be applicable is “negligence per se.” Continue reading to learn how the negligence per se doctrine will work for your claim and how an experienced Hillsborough County personal injury lawyer at Merricks Law Group, P.A. can help you support this.

How does negligence per se apply to my personal injury claim?

Luckily for you, the state of Florida recognizes the negligence per se doctrine. This doctrine is a form of strict liability against the at-fault party. And for this doctrine to apply to your personal injury claim, you must be able to support the following:
  1. You know that the at-fault party violated a federal or state law or regulation that has been established for safety reasons. 
  2. You belong to a class that this federal or state law or regulation is intended to guard.
  3. You suffered from harm that was directly caused by the at-fault party’s violation of this federal or state law or regulation.
With this, if the at-fault party violated a statute, the Florida court will assume that they fell below the standard of care and did not act like a reasonable individual would have in a similar scenario. Overall, this doctrine may make it easier for you to receive the financial compensation that you require to heal.

What is an example of negligence per se?

To put this in perspective, say, for instance, you were involved in a workplace accident. More specifically, say that you were involved in a construction site accident. Now, there are certain regulations and laws in place specifically to prevent an accident from occurring. So if these certain regulations and laws were violated, you may have been involved in this specific type of accident that was supposed to be avoided. And then, you may have incurred injuries and damages as a direct result of this accident. In a case like this, you may be able to use the negligence per se doctrine to your advantage when filing your personal injury claim. However, there are some exceptions when it comes to this doctrine. Going back to the aforementioned example, say that you were simply a passerby at a construction site, or even a trespasser. Then, you may not be able to claim negligence per se, as you do not belong to a class that such safety regulations and laws are intended to protect. That is, they may only protect construction site employers and employees. As you can see, a negligence per se claim is not so straightforward. So when it comes to building your personal injury case, you must not do so without a skilled Hillsborough County personal injury lawyer. Call us today.