What are the elements of a legal claim?
Well most legal claims, whether they're civil claims or criminal charges are made up of elements, and if you are a plaintiff you have to know what those elements are. For example, in a breech of contract, you have to prove that there was an offer; you have to prove that there was an acceptance, you have to prove that there was a breech, and you have to prove that you were damaged. These are the elements and you have to be able to prove each of these elements in a civil case by a preponderance of the evidence in order to succeed. A lot of times people use the terms loosely, but for example, in a criminal contest, lets say somebody comes home to find that their television set has been stolen, and someone broke into the house while they were away and stole their TV. Well they may say, well I was robbed. Well, robbery is a criminal charge but an element of robbery is that whatever was taken by means of force or fear. Well the people weren't home at the time it was taken, so while they may use the term robbery, they really weren't the victims of a robbery because an element, taken by force or fear, does not exist. The elements are all the subsets of the various claims and charges that people have to be aware of before they go to court.
