Did Your Business Partner Breach Their Fiduciary Duty?
Coming together in a joint business venture requires putting a lot of faith in your partner. Unfortunately, not all business partners live up to their end of the bargain. When forming a business, partners establish a legal relationship. You and your business partner have a fiduciary duty to one and other. This fiduciary duty obligates business partners to act in the best interest of the business relationship. If you believe that your business partner has violated their fiduciary duty, please contact an experienced West Palm Beach business litigation lawyer for immediate legal assistance.
Florida Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Common Examples
In Florida, a business partner’s breach of fiduciary duty can come in several forms, including:
- Lack of good faith: Business partners owe each other a basic level of honesty and fairness. From the first time partners begin negotiating in an effort to form a business, all the way through to when a business dissolves, partners are required to act in good faith. All negotiations and business dealings are held to the highest standard.
- Disloyalty: Business partners also have a duty of loyalty to each other. This means that the interests of the business must be placed above personal interests. A dispute of disloyalty might arise in several ways. A common example is when one business partner has a conflict of interest between the business partnership’s interests and their own personal interests. Some conflicts of interests are inevitable, you will never go through a long business partnership without them. But, when one arises a partner has a legal obligation to inform their business partners of the issue. Further, the partner must obtain the active consent of their partners to move forward in areas of personal conflict. If consent is not given, the interests of the business partnership overrides any personal interests.
- Failure to disclose: Partners have a legal responsibility to disclose reasonably relevant information. When a partner learns of some information that might affect the business, that information always needs to be disclosed. For example, one partner might learn of a new major opportunity for the business. But, that partner might believe that the new opportunity is actually a bad idea. In this case, they may just decide to bury the information because they do not want to deal with their business partner who might disagree. That is a breach of fiduciary duty. That information must be disclosed to the other partners of the business.
- Negligence: Finally, business partners also owe each other care when handling their business responsibilities. Negligent behavior is a breach of fiduciary duty. If a partner damages the business by acting recklessly or by ignoring their agreed upon business responsibilities, then that negligent behavior is likely a breach of their fiduciary duty.
Contact An Experienced West Palm Beach Business Litigation Lawyer
At Pike & Lustig, LLP our business litigation lawyers are experienced in handling breach of fiduciary duty cases. When a partner breaches their fiduciary duty, it can cause you considerable damage. You deserve full and fair compensation for any losses. We will help. Please do not hesitate to contact our office West Palm Beach office at (561) 855-7575. We serve business clients throughout South Florida and initial legal consultations are free.
