What are the elements of fraud?
The elements of fraud are it’s a false statement of material fact that you rely on to your detriment when the person making that statement knows in fact that the statement is false. This means generally, if you were to buy a car, let’s say, and they were to tell you this car has new brakes, you were to buy the car and get into a wreck because the brakes weren’t new, they would have committed fraud in telling you that. However, if they said this is the best car ever, that would be just a statement of opinion. And even if it wasn’t the best car ever, it wouldn’t be fraud. So the question is did they tell you a fact? Did you rely on that fact? And did you get damaged because of that fact?
