In legal terminology, how is "negligence per se" defined?

"Negligence per se" is defined as a legal doctrine that establishes negligence when a person violates a statute or regulation designed to protect public safety. In this context, if an individual fails to follow a law that was enacted to prevent a particular type of harm, this failure is automatically considered a breach of duty, thereby making the individual legally negligent without needing to prove the traditional elements of negligence.

For instance, if a statute requires a driver to stop at a red light and they fail to do so, resulting in an accident, the driver can be found negligent per se because they violated a specific law intended to ensure road safety. This kind of negligence relies on the assumption that the violation itself constitutes a failure in care, thereby streamlining plaintiffs’ cases when the violation of a law directly correlates to the harm caused. This principle is closely tied to the intention of laws to protect specific groups of people or the general public, reinforcing the notion that adherence to legal standards is a critical component of safe behavior in society.