Over the last weekend I tried to keep up with various websites. While Visiting Universal in Orlando with my family I say a posting by Michale with The Ohio Trust & Estate Blog and thought you might enjoy it also.
This is the third part to a series on Protecting the Company's Privilege and the dangers of Email. Click here if you missed Part 1 and Part 2. Many Jacksonville Business Lawyers tell their clients that email can be very dangerous in the event of litigation. One should always be careful before pressing the send button.
Some of the things you should implement in regards to email are:
1) Provide training to employees teach them what the proper steps are to prevent inadvertent disclosures, spoliation, and other risks from occurring.If you have question on your Document retention policy or how your firm is using email on an internal and external basis, be sure to have a Florida Business Lawyer or Attorney review and audit your procedures.2) Always separate business advise from legal advise, use lead ins to make it clear that what is being provided is legal advise.
3) Indicate in the communications when the communication is for legal purposes or in anticipation of litigation.
4) Limit the distribution of any disclosure to avoid waiver of privileges.
5) Teach and train that any disclosure, even an unintended one, can be a waiver of the privilege.
6) Create, implement, and audit your firms document retention policy.
As a Jacksonville Business Lawyer, I often run up against cases which involve a Breach of a Fiduciary Duty. These disputes can be between employees and employers, companies and their suppliers, Personal representatives and beneficiaries, guardians and wards, Trustees and beneficiaries, or officers, directors, managers and the company they work for.
Definition: a fiduciary relationship is where one person places complete confidence in another in regard to a particular transaction or one's general affairs or business. The relationship is not necessarily formally or legally established as in a declaration of trust, but can be one of moral or personal responsibility, due to the superior knowledge and training of the fiduciary as compared to the one whose affairs the fiduciary is handling.
Elements Cause of Action - Florida Supreme Court
The elements of a claim for breach of fiduciary duty are: the existence of a fiduciary duty, and the breach of that duty such that it is the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s damages
If you feel that you are dealing with a breach of fiduciary duty and have suffered damages as a result, you should discuss the facts and circumstances with a Florida Business Lawyer.
As a Jacksonville Business Lawyer, I often run up against cases which involve Contract disputes. These disputes can be between employees and employers, companies and their suppliers, or individuals and contractors.
Definition: failing to perform any term of a contract, written or oral, without a legitimate legal excuse. This may include not completing a job, not paying in full or on time, failure to deliver all the goods, substituting inferior or significantly different goods, not providing a bond when required, being late without excuse, or any act which shows the party will not complete the work ("anticipatory breach"). Breach of contract is one of the most common causes of law suits for damages and/or court-ordered "specific performance" of the contract.
Elements Cause of Action - 1st DCA
It is elementary that in order to recover on a claim for breach of contract the burden is upon the claimant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence the existence of a contract, a breach thereof and damages flowing from the breach.
To have a valid contract there must be an offer, acceptance, and consideration.
If you feel that you are dealing with a breach of contract and have suffered damages as a result, you should discuss the facts and circumstances with a Florida Business Lawyer.
As a Jacksonville Business Lawyer, I often run up against cases which involved Tortious Interference with a Contractual Right along with Claims for Beach of a Florida non-compete agreement. The elements of this cause of action are
1) The existence of contract to which plaintiff is a party;Tortious interference with a contract is virtually identical to the elements of a claim for tortious interference with a business relationship.
2) Defendant's knowledge of the contract;
3) Defendant's intentional procurement of the contract's breach;
4) The absence of justification or privilege; and
5) Plaintiff suffered damages resulting from the breach.
There are many defenses to Tortious Interference with a Contractual Right. They include
1) Affirmative defensesIf you feel that an employee has breached their Florida Non-Compete Agreement or has interfered with a contract between you and a client, you should discuss the facts and circumstances with a Florida Business Lawyer.
2) Statute of limitations - four years
3) Defendant is not liable where she did not "intentionally" interfere with plaintiff's business relationship.
4) Acts occurring during a judicial proceeding are absolutely privileged and cannot give rise to tortious interference claims.
5) When the contract provision expressly reserves the right of interference.
6) Agent that gives, on request by his or her principal "honest advise" in his or her principal's best interest.
7) Plaintiff cant bring action against party of the contract at issue.
8 )Privileged or justified conduct does not give rise to Tortious interference claim.
9) Defendant acting to protect her own economic or financial interest is not liavle for tortious interference.
10) Plaintiff cannot premise claim on alleged interference with a contract that is terminable at will provided that interference is lawful competition.
11) Defendant's settlement of a lawsuit that adversely affects plaintiff's business interest does not give rise to Tortious interference claim.
Often we find articles on other blogs that may be of great interest to our readers. Flprobatelitigation.com has recently written a great review of a recent Florida probate Case. This case should be of particular interest to Florida estate planning lawyers, Florida probate lawyers, and even Florida Business lawyers.
This case could have broad implications on the statute of limitation dealing with Florida business law, Florida estate planning, and Florida probate, as there are often fiduciary duties that are created.
Although the set of facts in this case dealt with Probate, its not unreasonable to see courts considering this line of thinking in other areas were there is a breach of a fiduciary duty.
In Kravitz v. Levy Fla 2007 WL 2480538 (Fla. 4th DCA Sep 05, 2007)
The court found that even after 41 years, the Continuing torts doctrine allowed a family the opportunity to recover from a PR when they discovered the PR had breached his fiduciary duty to the family. The court reasoned that the statute of limitations did not begin to run until the PR died, which was when the issues were discovered.
