Tortious Interference

One of the may legal claims our firm handles are ones involving tortious interference. Tortious interference occurs when someone harms you by unfairly interfering with either your contract with someone else, or a potential economic relationship or benefit from someone else. These claims are, respectively, known as tortious interference with contract and tortious interference with prospective economic benefit.

Our New Jersey employment lawyers handle tortious interference claims that impact or relate to someone's current employment or business relationship, or their potential employment relationship or business opportunity. In other words, we represent employees and job candidates who have been the victims of tortious interference.

To establish a tortious interference claim, you need to prove:

1. You were in a contractual relations, or you were in pursuit of doing business;
2. Someone interfered with your contract or the business you were pursuing;
3. The interference was done with malice. In this context, malice means the action was taken intentionally and without justification or excuse; and
4. The interference caused your economic damage.

You can assert a tortious interference claim only against a third party.  In other words, you cannot bring this claim against the other party to your own contract. Instead, you would have to bring another claim, such as breach of contract, against the other party to your own contract.

There are many ways in which someone can commit tortious interference that would harm your current employment or business relationship.  For example, a customer, client, jilted ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, or another third party could lie, exaggerate, or otherwise malign you in a way that could cause your employer to fire you, discipline you or pass you up for a promotion, or cause a customer not to want to do business with you.

Similarly, a tortious interference claim can arise in the context of potential future employment. For instance, a former employer can do so by giving you a bad job reference that causes you to lose your job or business opportunity.  A bad job reference could be legally actionable if there was no justification for the negative statements about you.

Cease and Desist Letters

Sometimes, a tortious interference claim can be avoided before the harm has been done, or at least cut off before you experience more serious damage. For example, a cease and desist letter from a lawyer, warning the other party that they are violating (or about to violate) your legal rights, might be all that is necessary to protect your interests and prevent things from getting out of hand.

For more information, please feel free to call us at (201) 777-2250.

In the event litigation becomes necessary, you should be aware that under New Jersey law, the statute of limitations for a tortious interference claim is six years. In other words, you must bring this claim within six years after the wrongful conduct occurred.

The New Jersey employment lawyers at Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C. have experience handling claims of both tortious interference with contract and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage that impacted a work or business relationship.

If you believe you have been the victim of this tort, or would like us to help you void a situation from getting to that point, then please feel free to contact us to schedule an initial consultation with one of our attorneys. Our telephone number is (201) 777-2250. We offer consultations in person, over the telephone and by Zoom.

Often, individuals who have tortious interference claims also have other legal claims, such as claims for defamation or false light.  Information about those claims is available on our defamation and false light page.

In addition, you might be interested in learning about other intentional workplace injury claims that our New Jersey employment law attorneys handle, such as fraud and misrepresentation, and workplace privacy rights.