Georgia Business Torts Attorneys
Business Torts Lawyers in Georgia Who Won’t Back Down
It takes a lot of hard work to create a successful business. To remain prosperous, business owners must remain vigilant, constantly paying attention to changes in the marketplace and new forms of competition.
Even when you work hard and play by the rules to get ahead, your success may be jeopardized by someone who isn’t as scrupulous as you are. If someone uses illegal means to harm your business, damage your reputation, or reduce your bottom line, you have the right to take legal action to protect what’s yours.
A successful business tort may provide compensation for your losses, force the defendant to cease their unlawful actions, and provide other forms of redress, such as a retraction of defamatory statements or a formal apology.
Proving and calculating damages in a business tort can be difficult. You’ll want the best lawyers standing by your side, and you won’t find a better law firm than Butler Prather anywhere in the nation. For over 35 years, our attorneys have been winning landmark cases that redefine the damages available to people in Georgia and across the country who have been wronged by others.
Butler Prather LLP has won hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for clients in over 30 states. We’ve won nine verdicts exceeding $100 million and over 60 verdicts and settlements of over $10 million.
Call (706) 322-1990 to learn more today.
What Is a Business Tort?
A tort is a civil action that provides relief if you have been harmed by a wrongful act that infringes on your rights or harms your property. In a successful tort, the person who harmed you will be required to pay damages, which is a monetary award to compensate for your losses.
A business tort seeks damages to redress an activity that harms a business. To win a business tort, the plaintiff must demonstrate that a person or an organization committed an act that caused the plaintiff to lose something of value, including:
- Lost profits
- Harm to your reputation
- Loss of opportunity costs
- Loss of market share
- Loss of clients
- Loss of a business opportunity
- Damage to a business relationship
- Interfering with your ability to do business
Examples of Business Torts in Georgia
Although the defendant in a civil tort may be held accountable for criminal actions by the government at some point, a business tort is a civil action. It is not necessary to prove intent if you can prove that your business was harmed by the party’s careless, negligent, or reckless behavior.
Examples of detrimental actions that may be the subject of a civil tort include:
- Defamation. In today’s business climate, social media, the internet, and other forms of information technology allow bad actors to quickly spread false information about their competitors, causing substantial harm. These technologies also make it more difficult to locate the source of malicious misinformation.
- Fraud is the intentional misrepresentation of facts that are knowingly spread for the purpose of acquiring profit or personal gain, such as phishing, phone scams, embezzlement, and payroll theft.
- Theft of trade secrets. In many industries, such as high-end manufacturing, a company’s competitive edge is based on intellectual property and proprietary practices that are protected by confidentiality agreements.
- Fraudulent conversion occurs when a person takes possession or control of someone else’s tangible assets for personal gain. Examples include collecting interest on someone’s assets or using a company’s resources to benefit a personal venture.
- Restraint of trade is the violation of an employment contract which stipulates that the employee is not permitted to take up similar work with another company for a specified period of time.
- Breach of contract is the violation of the agreed-upon terms and conditions of a binding contract. For example, when a company fails to deliver merchandise on a specified date or provides substandard goods or services.
- Unfair competition results when a market participant gains an unfair advantage through deceptive or illegal practices, such as misrepresenting the source of a product, fixing prices, or coercing someone to do business.
- Trademark violation is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark that’s used to promote goods or services, causing deception or confusion.
- Trade libel is the publication of false statements that disparage the quality of a company’s goods or services, such as erroneously stating that a restaurant is using inferior ingredients or falsely stating that a product or service has received a poor review from a rating agency.
Georgia is home to a diverse economy, and it’s a leader in many sectors, including healthcare, construction, transportation, tourism, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and information technology. Businesses must protect themselves from unfair practices to thrive in this competitive environment.
Your Business Tort Attorney Will Use the Law to Protect You
If you suspect that someone is using fraud, deception, or illegal means to harm your business, steal your resources, or deprive you of financial gain, you’ll want to speak with a Georgia business tort lawyer right away.
Your attorney can help you start collecting evidence without tipping off the party that’s harming you. For example, if a current employee is stealing information or embezzling, you will want to follow the correct procedures for questioning them and preventing the employee from doing additional harm.
The experienced litigators at Butler Prather LLP will sit down with you and go over your options. Your attorneys may recommend immediate action to stop harmful behavior, such as filing a restraining order or sending a cease and desist letter. Your lawyer can also file a lawsuit seeking the following:
- Financial compensation for your losses
- A retraction of false information
- A formal apology
- Immediate termination of detrimental and improper actions
- Punitive damages for gross negligence and intent to harm
We’ve Won Over a Billion Dollars for Our Clients
At Butler Prather LLP, we understand how important your business is to you and your family. Nobody has the right to damage what you have been building for years.
Call us at (706) 322-1990 to schedule a complimentary business tort consultation today.