If you have established a business relationship or are in the negotiation stage of a contract and someone deliberately interfered with your business relationship or contract, then you may have a cause of action against that someone, even if the defenses are limited. You do not necessarily have to have a contract to file a claim for tortious interference. Because the law recognizes the economic value and significance that business relationships have in the success your company, legal safeguards exist to protect business opportunities before they even occur. This means that even without a contract, if the interfering person knew of the business relationship at the time that they interfered with it, you may have a valid claim.
Tortious Interference with a Business Relationship Claims
In Florida, to establish a claim for tortious interference with a business relationship, a plaintiff must be able to demonstrate all of the following things are true:
- the plaintiff had a business relationship with another person or business,
- the defendant knew about the relationship,
- the defendant deliberately acted in a way that would cause the relationship to go bad or to end,
- the relationship went bad or ended, and
- the plaintiff suffered damages as a result.
Some of the tortious interference cases our experienced business litigation attorneys handle include:
- Unfair competition & deceptive trade practices
- Business defamation
- Unethical conduct
- Malicious prosecution (unfounded litigation or litigation initiated for the wrong reasons)
- Misappropriation of trade secrets
- Economic coercion, etc.