Identify the requirements to establish liability.

• A. The defendant owed him a duty; that the defendant breached that duty; that the breach directly caused harm; and the plaintiff must prove damages.
• B. The defendant owed a duty but need not have caused any harm.
• C. The plaintiff must prove damages only.
• D. Duty, breach, causation, proximate cause, and damages must be proven.

Answer: (D)

In civil liability, you must prove five elements: the defendant owed a duty to the plaintiff, the duty was breached, the breach caused the plaintiff’s injury (causation), there is a legally recognized connection between the breach and the harm (proximate cause), and there are actual damages. All pieces must be shown for liability to attach. This is why the correct choice is the one that lists duty, breach, causation, proximate cause, and damages—the full set. The other options miss at least one essential element: some omit proximate cause, or ignore the need to prove causation and damages together, or reduce the claim to damages alone or to a duty alone.