You just got a letter that says the other driver was "negligent per se" because they violated a safety law. That phrase means a person's conduct is treated as legally negligent because they broke a statute or regulation designed to prevent the kind of harm that happened. In its usual form, the injured person must still show four things: the rule set a clear standard of conduct, the defendant violated it, the injury was the kind the rule was meant to prevent, and the injured person was within the class the rule was meant to protect.

In practice, the argument often comes up after a crash involving speeding, running a red light, or driving without required equipment. It matters because proving a statutory violation can make the breach of duty part of a personal injury claim easier to establish than proving careless conduct from scratch. It does not automatically prove causation, damages, or defeat a comparative fault defense.

Arkansas applies a narrower rule than many states. Under Arkansas law, a statutory violation is generally evidence of negligence, not negligence per se. Arkansas courts and Arkansas Model Jury Instruction Civil 903 follow that approach. In an Arkansas injury claim, even if a driver violated a traffic statute or the state's mandatory 25/50/25 liability insurance requirement under Ark. Code Ann. § 27-22-104, liability is not automatic. Fault is still weighed under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-64-122, Arkansas's modified comparative fault statute.