Perhaps you hired someone to handle your business interests. Maybe you have a trustee who handles a trust or estate for you. If this person does something that harms your financial and legal interests, our team can help you sue them.
Plaintiffs often must chase defendants across complex paper trails before they have the evidence needed to prove there was a violation of fiduciary duty. This might include contracts, business records, banking records, and details about your relationship with the fiduciary. Damages might be substantial depending on how the defendant’s actions harmed your interests. You might claim economic losses related to lost money, lost profits, or the value of assets that were stolen or misappropriated. If your case is related to your business, you might see your professional reputation tarnished, and you should be compensated. The person responsible for the breach is known as the fiduciary. They might be a trustee, business partner, employee, or guardian.
Contact our lawyers for a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit for an initial case review by calling Howe & Associates at (678) 680-6983.
How to Prove Claims of a Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Atlanta
Proving your claims requires a lot of evidence about your assets or accounts that were managed or otherwise under the defendant’s control. The evidence you need will depend on your relationship with the fiduciary, the affected assets or accounts, and exactly how you believe the fiduciary breached their duty.
We should also review all your business records. A fiduciary might record false or misleading information in your business records to throw you off their trail. This is not uncommon when a fiduciary must record information about profits. For example, they might record fewer profits than are actually earned while pocketing the difference. Often, the fiduciary trips up and fails to cover up their misdeeds. As such, we should thoroughly review all your business records to search for these telling mistakes.
We should also review records of assets and funds maintained by financial institutions. For example, suppose you believe the defendant has been skimming money from your investment account. In that case, our attorneys for a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit can check the records of the bank or institution that maintains the investment account. There is a good chance we will find out where the money has been going and who is behind it.
Damages You Might Recover in a Lawsuit for Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Atlanta
Many damages a plaintiff may claim in a lawsuit for a fiduciary breach center on economic losses. For example, if the defendant mismanaged your assets and lost a lot of money, you can sue for the value of those assets. If the defendant was a business partner or certain employees, we can help you claim the value of those lost profits.
You should also consider any out-of-pocket expenses you incurred because of the fiduciary’s breach. For example, you might have paid certain legal penalties because the defendant acted outside the law when handling your assets or accounts. Talk to your lawyer about any money you spent because of the defendant’s actions.
We should also think about the impact of the defendant’s actions on your professional reputation. For example, if the defendant is a business partner, the reputation of your business might be tarnished, and the future of your business might be in jeopardy. We can help you sue for damages related to any damage to your professional reputation.
How to Tell if a Breach of Fiduciary Duty Has Occurred in Atlanta
Many plaintiffs do not become aware of a violation or breach for quite some time. Sometimes, years go by before the plaintiffs realize something is wrong. This is often because defendants are careful about their actions and make sure their behavior is hard to track. For example, a corporate officer might secretly inflate profit reports over time to make the business seem more profitable than it really is. This helps them deceive investors and shareholders while flying under the radar, as the misleading reports might not be discovered for some time.
You should discuss certain questions with your lawyer if you believe something is wrong. First, is money missing? Missing finances is a big red flag and might indicate a violation of fiduciary duty. However, this fact alone does not prove anything with certainty. The missing money might be something as simple as an accounting error, not a breach of duty.
Is the fiduciary keeping secrets? Part of the fiduciary duty is to act with candor, honesty, and transparency. If a fiduciary makes decisions behind your back or makes secret business arrangements, they might be in violation of their duty.
Have you uncovered information suggesting a corporate officer or manager has a conflict of interest? Sometimes, corporate officers have financial investments or interests in competing business entities. Even if you are unsure whether the corporate officer or employee has done anything to harm your financial interests, the conflict of interest alone may be a considered a breach of fiduciary duty.
Who is Responsible for a Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Atlanta?
In any lawsuit for a breach of fiduciary duty in Atlanta, the fiduciary is often the defendant. What exactly is a fiduciary? As explained above, a fiduciary is someone entrusted to act in someone else’s best interests, usually in some economic and legal capacity. There might be numerous positions where someone is considered a fiduciary.
A fiduciary might be your agents and employees. If you own a business and hire a business manager to help you run things, the manager would owe you a fiduciary duty to act in the business’s best interests. If your manager did something to harm the business intentionally, they might be in violation of their fiduciary duty.
Business partners also owe you a fiduciary duty. This duty revolves around the betterment of the business. If your partner harms the business, they might be in breach.
A board of directors owes a fiduciary duty to shareholders. They must act in the interests of shareholders. If the Board does something that harms shareholders’ interests, the board members might be in trouble.
Contact Our Atlanta Breach of Contract Lawyers for Assistance Today
Contact our lawyers for a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit for an initial case review by calling Howe & Associates at (678) 680-6983.