Florida Business Litigation Lawyer Blog

Most contractual disputes involve parties that dispute the meaning of particular contract terms. Whether a party will prevail in a breach of contract case will often depend on the interpretation of terms or phrases within the contract. Peter Mavrick is a Miami business litigation lawyer, and also represents clients in business litigation in Fort Lauderdale,…

Congress enacted the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) to supplement the state law trade secret protection available to aggrieved businesses. While the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA) and DTSA cover essentially identical conduct, the DTSA provides unique opportunities for plaintiffs to pursue their case in a federal forum and allows plaintiffs to seek an…

Former employees who quit their jobs will sometimes sue their former employers for retaliation based on the theory that they were “constructively” terminated. Under federal employment law, a “constructive” termination occurs when an employee’s resignation is caused by involuntary working conditions, duress, or an employer’s misrepresentation. However, the threshold of conduct which qualifies as a…

Section 542.335 of the Florida Statutes permits non-compete agreements arising from: a) the sale of a business, b) an employment, agency, or independent contractor relationship, c) a licensing relationship, or d) a partnership. Contracts that restrain one from exercising a lawful profession, trade, or business, and that do not fall within the exceptions of the…

Companies in business litigation often want to sue persons who make slanderous statements or outright lies about them during legal proceedings. Under Florida’s absolute litigation privilege, a defendant may slander and lie and still be absolutely immune from a later lawsuit for defamation, tortious interference with a business relationship, and some other causes of action,…

Discovery is a powerful tool in litigation which can be used to acquire information necessary to resolve the case. However, the discovery process is susceptible to abuse. Parties can request material that is not necessary, simply to increase the costs for their adversary or expose private or embarrassing information. Whether financial discovery should be ordered…

A person or company must have standing (the legal right to assert a claim) to file a lawsuit at the commencement of the case. In other words, a party cannot file a lawsuit based on a contract until it has been assigned those contractual rights. Businesses often have multiple corporate entities that act interchangeably, however,…

Employees sometimes raid their employer’s trade secrets prior to quitting so that they may have an advantage starting up their own business or in their employment with a competitor. An aggrieved employer may sue under the Florida Uniform Trade Secrets Act (FUTSA) to recover those trade secrets and for any damages arising from the theft…

Florida companies should always consider the risk that a business litigation defendant will attempt to avoid paying an adverse money judgment through bankruptcy proceedings. While bankruptcy protection is usually invoked by people and companies that are genuinely insolvent, bankruptcy protection can also be abused by cunning defendants to avoid paying adverse judgments. Claims which are…

Businesses often include provisions in their contracts which require any disputes to be resolved in arbitration. Under Florida law, there are very narrow circumstances where a court may interfere with the arbitrator’s decision. Common arbitration errors that occur in business litigation include due process errors, errors in application of a legal standard, fraud, partiality of…