Causation consists of only two of the five elements required to prove negligence: cause-in-fact and proximate cause. The other three elements that must also be present in personal injury claims and lawsuits include:
A duty of care. A duty of care is a legal concept applied to personal injury cases. It asks whether the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff.
A breach of a duty of care. The next element is evaluating whether a breach of a duty of care took place by comparing whether a reasonable person would have acted in a similar manner as the defendant if they knew everything the defendant knew at the time of the accident and if they would have acted differently to provide a duty of care to the plaintiff.
Actual physical damage. The plaintiff must experience a loss that can include physical injuries and property damage.