How does attenuation affect evidence in a civil case?

The issue of attenuation does not arise except as a defense to "the premise that the challenged evidence is in some sense the product of illegal governmental activity." (United States v. Crews, supra, 445 U.S. at p. 471, 100 S.Ct. at p. 1250, 63 L.Ed.2d at p. 545.)

The nexus between the illegal conduct and its claimed product is but a single subject of inquiry, " 'whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.' (Citation.)" (Wong Sun v. United States, supra, 371 U.S. at pp. 487-488, 83 S.Ct. at p. 417.) It must be determined in a single proceeding at which the competing claims of causation are examined.