Tortious Interference With Contract Or Business Advantage

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mericans love free and fair competition.   Competition requires teamwork and the creation of agreements between people to provide goods and services to individuals and other businesses for profit.    Since the founding of our nation, we have had laws that prohibit unlawful competition in the form of anti-trust laws, trademark, copyright and laws which prevent the formation of a monopoly.    The wisdom behind laws prohibiting unlawful and illegal greed, illicit short cuts, strong-arming and bullying in the marketplace of ideas is that unfettered and free competition is the secret ingredient to American success.   Greed in action usually breeds fraud, deceit and a ruthless obsession to cheat and steal.

Along with federal and state statutes which protect competition, the law also provides for causes of action when one party interferes with the contract between others and where a party’s conduct causes harm to a business advantage.   When one party has knowledge of an existing contract and causes a breach of that contract, they may be liable for damages.   The same is true for most contracts between individuals and businesses.   A claim for tortious interference with contracts can also exist when a director or partner of a corporation causes the business to break a deal with a third party, thereby breaking the contract.

There is an epidemic of taking short cuts to profit in today’s business culture.   It is seemingly easier to steal someone else’s ideas and good fortune for some who aren’t willing to play within the rules.   There are those too who live their life believing the world owes them something and they bully their way into profit and recognition.   Here’s an unfortunate reality – bullying and stealing temporarily works.  Unquestionably, when someone “cooks the books,” makes false statements to procure money or property, artificially inflates stock value, pumps and dumps a stock, steals commissions by hiding profits, or interferes with a contract between two other people so that business flows their way, it works in the short term.   It sounds unsettling, but unless the victim of tortious interference with contract or a business advantage stands up for themselves, such illegal conduct works indefinitely.

Bullies and fraudsters hone their skills over time.   Manipulation is an artform and, again, it works until someone is caught and brought to justice.   In our practice, we have seen firsthand how some businesses and business owners make a cost-benefit choice to cheat employees, steal trade secrets and purposely interfere with other people’s money and business.   Yes, the reality is that cheating works to put money in the pocket of greedy individuals and only one or two in a hundred victims will ever bring a claim to court.

Speaking from our experience, the perpetrators of tortious interference rarely act alone, and their conduct leaves a trail of patterns throughout time. Here again, information gathered from our signature investigations is key to obtaining relief, getting your money back and, most importantly, healing from the trauma caused by greedy individuals seeking to line their own pockets through tortious interference with contract or business advantage.

At the end of the day, people make investments in life trusting people running corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies.  Yet, no matter how big the corporation may be, ultimately, some people believe they can make money by breaching trust and providing knowingly false information to obtain money or property.  In some cases, bullies and fraudsters use companies as a front to hide their reputation with the intent to steal and deceive or represent that they are licensed to perform construction work, or manipulate corporate documents to skim profits and employee commissions.   In each case, the individuals running the scheme are betting that victims just go away or that they can talk their way out of liability.  Worse still are situations where the business bully makes a victim believe its “their fault” for things not working out.

There are a thousand reasons for a claim for a tortious interference with contract or business advantage.  For each reason, there are laws to protect an individual, partner, shareholder or investor from losing the benefit of their contract or unique business advantage. Each situation is unique and requires careful analysis and application of different legal tools.

By the time you are looking for a lawyer to consult to handle this type of dispute, you are usually past the point of trying to amicably work things out and there is substantial money or property missing.   In this case, we believe it is time to stand up for yourself and we are here to support you.   We are heavy-handed in our pre-suit reconnaissance and believe information is the key to gaining the upper hand in any business dispute.   Our unorthodox approach to investigations is directed at making a meaningful attempt to resolve the case before it even gets filed and becomes a matter of public record.   In many instances, business bullies do not want to be exposed for fraud and become willing to resolve matters when presented with evidence of wrongdoing in a business dispute.