Business Tort Attorney Lawyer Orlando Florida
OVERVIEW
Torts are civil wrongs that result in an injury or harm and by law are grounds for a lawsuit. In a business setting, torts can include breaches of fiduciary duty, fraud, unfair trade practices, tortious interference and violations of trademarks or trade secrets.
CASE SUMMARIES
- An Apopka grower retained a Miami law firm to sue for damages caused by its commercial use of the fungicide Benlate. It was one of about 20 clients represented by the firm for similar Benlate claims. The law firm reached an agreement with Benlate maker E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co., allegedly to settle claims with all of its Benlate clients. However, the Apopka grower was never told about the settlement offer nor included in the settlement agreement. In fact, they never heard from their law firm again. The firm also accepted a secret $6.4 million payment from DuPont for agreeing not to take on any more Benlate-related cases. It was conditioned on withholding a percentage of their clients' settlement for two years to ensure that each client kept their settlement confidential not only from those uninvolved in the action, but also from each other. As a result, the Apopka grower never learned of the settlement. Represented by William Ruffier, the grower received 1/15th of $4 million paid to the law firm for health effects settlements, an amount shared by 14 other health effects clients who were left out of the settlement.
- This DWKM&R client sued its insurance agency for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and punitive damages, resulting in a judgment of nearly $80,000. The agency insurance ignored our client's ability to continue receiving coverage from its existing worker's compensation carrier. Instead, the agency marketed our client to another carrier whose plan was four times more expensive. The cost increase nearly drove our client out of business, forcing the company to market its worker's compensation insurance directly. Doing so not only revealed the insurance agency's breach of fiduciary duty, but more importantly, worker's compensation coverage a much more reasonable rate, thus saving the business.
