When you first started your Florida business, you wanted it to become a success. You knew that you would have to gain the trust of investors, employees, clients and customers in order to reach that success. Fortunately, over the years, you have been able to ensure that your company has a standup reputation and an image that people can trust.

Because a company's reputation can make or break it, you do what you can to make sure that nothing unseemly takes place within your company and that you handle any issues promptly and effectively. However, the competition can sometimes be unscrupulous, and another company may have attempted to tarnish your company's good reputation.

Defamation

In some cases, competing companies or other parties will do whatever it takes to knock the wind out of a successful business. That could mean even making false statements to make that business look bad. If this has happened to your company, you may lose business, lose vendors or suffer other hardships because people are now questioning your business's reputation.

Of course, you know the statements made are false and believe that the competition has committed defamation. In this type of situation, you may have options for taking legal action against the party carrying out such actions. However, the burden of proof lies with you, and you need to prove the following elements:

• A published statement harmed your company's reputation.
• You can objectively prove the falsehood of the damaging statement.
• You must know the identity of the person who published the statement, which can prove difficult and time consuming.

Unfortunately, defamation can cause a considerable number of problems for a company, and it is not always easy to prove. Still, you can do your part to protect your company's reputation and ensure that the offending party is held accountable.

Legal action

Because this and other types of business torts are complicated matters, you will certainly want to ensure that you have the right help on your side. A legal advocate experienced in handling this type of business litigation could assist you in defending your company's reputation and pursuing compensation for the resulting damage.

You worked hard to reach your current point of success and do not want anything to stand in the way, especially falsehood. Though it may be a difficult process, protecting your company's best interests is undoubtedly a priority to you.