Fiduciary Duty

The defendant was acting as a fiduciary of the plaintiff; The defendant breached a fiduciary duty to the plaintiff; The plaintiff suffered damages as a result of the breach; and. The defendant's breach of fiduciary duty caused the plaintiff's damages.

If you can prove a fiduciary relationship existed, you must prove that a breach occurred and that the defendant acted on his or her own behalf instead of acting in the best interests of the principal. Finally, you must prove that the breach caused harm for which compensation is available.

Consequences of a Fiduciary Breach A client can end a professional relationship because they do not trust in a professional's care of the required fiduciary duty.A successful breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit can result in monetary penalties for direct damages, indirect damages, and legal costs.

It is legally permitted for the wronged individual to sue for and receive damages as well as any profits made by the fiduciary in breach of their fiduciary duty. Breaches of fiduciary duty can have significant consequences not only for the fiduciary's finances, but also on their reputation.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Penalties The civil penalties include fines, restitution, and courts can order relief that restores the beneficiaries to the place they would have been. Beneficiaries can demand repayment of missing funds, restoration of mismanaged assets, and resignation from the trustee's role.

Preventing Breaches of Fiduciary Duty The best way to prevent a breach of fiduciary duty is for the company to have a policy forbidding self-dealing," he says. "The best advice is to 'trust, but verify' the company's relationships with anyone suspected of not acting in the company, client or member's best interest."

The most common penalties for a breach of fiduciary duty are compensatory damages, punitive damages, double or treble damages, fees, costs, and removal of the fiduciary.

Breach of fiduciary duty offers a wonderful panoply of remedies: legal remedies, equitable remedies, a right to an accounting, an award of money damages, disgorgement of self-dealt profits, and finally, if pled derivatively, the potential to recover attorneys' fees.

Consequences of a Breach of Fiduciary Duty A breach of fiduciary duty is not a criminal act but can be tied to one.This means that on top of damages, the fiduciary would also have to deal with the consequences of a criminal act, and potentially jail time.