Our reputations, and the reputations of our businesses, are valuable assets. We must protect and preserve them just as we do any other valuable asset, and Florida law recognizes damage to reputation as a a form of consequential injury sustained by a plaintiff.
In some cases, showing damage to your reputation is presumed. For example, in some forms of libel and slander, you do not even need to prove your reputation was actually injured because the law assumes it as a matter of law, though this may only entitled you to "nominal" damages such as $1.00. In other cases, however, you must prove your reputation has actually been damaged. This can be difficult and, in some cases, costly.
Ultimately, to recover a plaintiff usually needs to prove three things: (1) a non-privileged false statement; (2) that was reasonably believed by others; (3) that directly resulted in provable damages to the plaintiff. It takes a very special case to prove loss of reputation (misuse of a trade name and defamation. If you believe you have sustained provable damage to your reputation, contact Marlowe Law at (813) 444-2888 or (727) 999-2888 for a free consultation to discuss whether your case might be one where damage to reputation is recoverable.