{{short description|Legal term - Latin for "the thing speaks for itself"}}
{{italic title}}{{Tort law}}
In the [[common law]] of [[tort]]s, '''''resRes ipsa loquitur''''' (Latin for: "the thing speaks for itself") is a doctrine in the [[Common law|Anglo-American common law]] for [[tort law|torts]] that inferssays that a court can infer negligence from the very nature of an accident or injury in the absence of direct evidence on how any [[defendant]] behaved. Although modern formulations differ by jurisdiction, [[common law]] originally stated that the accident must satisfy the necessary [[Element (criminal law)|elements]] of [[negligence]]: duty, breach of duty, causation, and injury. In ''res ipsa loquitur'', the elements of [[duty of care]], [[breach of contract|breach]], and causation are inferred from an injury that does not ordinarily occur without negligence.
