Our Practice Areas

Business Torts

Protecting Your Company’s Bottom Line

Cases We Handle

Whistleblower Cases

Class Action Lawsuits

Read More: 11 Famous Whistleblower Cases in the U.S.

Experience You Can Trust

You’ve invested years building your business—your reputation, your customer and client relationships, your competitive position in the market. When another party’s wrongful or deceptive conduct puts all of that at risk, the damage can be swift and severe. Lost contracts. Stolen trade secrets. A reputation that took decades to nurture, undermined by false and malicious statements.

At Caddell Reynolds Law Firm, our Arkansas business torts attorneys stand up for businesses of all sizes across Arkansas, southern Missouri, and eastern Oklahoma, taking on the powerful corporations, competitors, and individuals whose wrongful conduct has caused them real and lasting harm. With 100 years of combined legal experience behind us, we understand what’s at stake—not just in dollars, but for the legacy you’ve worked so hard to build. We’re unwavering in our commitment to hold defendants accountable and recover the full measure of damages your business deserves.

Don’t risk all that you’ve built. If your business incurred economic losses due to another party’s negligent, wrongful, or reckless conduct, or their intentional acts or omissions, contact us for a free case evaluation with an experienced, dedicated Arkansas business torts lawyer to learn what it will take to win your case.

Business Torts vs. Breach of Contract: Understanding the Difference

Many business disputes involve elements of both contract law and tort law, and the distinction between the two isn’t always obvious. It matters enormously, however, because the remedies available in a tort case are significantly broader than those available in a pure contract dispute.

A breach of contract claim addresses what one party was supposed to do under an agreement and failed to do. Recovery is generally limited to putting the injured party in the position they would have been in had the contract been performed. Punitive damages, reputational harm, and losses beyond the contract itself are typically not available.

A business tort claim, by contrast, addresses wrongful conduct — deception, intentional interference, misappropriation, betrayal of trust. When that conduct caused your business harm, tort law may allow you to recover far more than a contract claim alone would permit.

Often, it’s in a client’s best interests to pursue both types of claims simultaneously. Once you hire our Arkansas business torts attorneys, our team will work diligently to identify every viable theory of recovery and build the most comprehensive case possible on your behalf.

Understanding Business Liability Insurance

When another party’s wrongful conduct harms your business, their general liability insurance is often one of the first places we look to for recovery. Depending on the specific policy, this type of insurance typically covers a range of damages, including:

Bodily injury and premises liability
Advertising injury
Copyright infringement
Reputational damage
Professional liability

Some businesses carry additional protection under a commercial umbrella policy, which provides a safety net when underlying coverage limits are exhausted.

Navigating that coverage on your behalf — whether it means pressing the other party’s insurer to honor a legitimate claim or countering their attempts to minimize what they pay — is something our Arkansas business torts attorneys do routinely. Insurance companies have their own legal teams, and they are skilled at finding reasons to dispute, delay, or limit what they owe. We are equally skilled at making sure they don’t get away with it.

On the other side of the equation, if your business is facing a claim, understanding the full scope of your own coverage is equally important. Not all policies are structured the same way, and gaps in coverage that seemed insignificant at renewal can become an issue in the event of litigation. Whether you are seeking to recover from another party’s insurer or trying to understand what your own policy actually covers, our team can analyze the coverage situation on either side of a dispute and ensure you know exactly where you stand.

Local Counsel for Out-of-State Law Firms

Business disputes don’t respect state lines. When litigation arises in Arkansas — whether involving a local subsidiary, a regional transaction, a supply chain dispute, or a large corporation based in the state — law firms headquartered elsewhere need experienced Arkansas counsel on their teams.

Caddell Reynolds serves as local counsel to law firms across the country seeking a trusted, capable partner for Arkansas business tort litigation. We bring deep knowledge of Arkansas courts and procedures, established relationships throughout the state’s legal community, and the same tenacious approach to advocacy that has long defined our firm. We work collaboratively and efficiently with outside counsel, handling local filings, appearances, and procedural matters, while keeping lead counsel fully informed and in control of strategy.

If your firm is involved in an Arkansas business tort and needs experienced local counsel, we’d welcome the conversation.

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The best customer service and they explained everything.

Danietta, Little Rock

Our Approach

Types of Torts

A business tort — sometimes called an economic tort — is a wrongful act committed against a business that causes measurable financial harm. Among the most complex cases in commercial litigation, these involve sophisticated opposing parties, voluminous financial records, expert witnesses, and hard-fought battles over causation and damages. It’s the kind of litigation that demands experience, preparation, and a legal team that won’t be intimidated by well-funded opposition.

Our Arkansas business torts attorneys represent commercial clients across a wide range of tortious and liability matters. If your company has been harmed by any of the following, we want to hear from you.

Tortious Interference

When a competitor, former partner, or third party deliberately interferes with your existing contracts or business relationships — causing another party to breach an agreement, walk away from a deal, or stop doing business with you — you may have a claim for tortious interference. To win a tortious interference case, you must prove that the interfering party knew about your relationship and acted deliberately to disrupt it.

Theft of Trade Secrets

Your proprietary formulas, customer lists, pricing strategies, manufacturing processes, and other confidential business information represent real competitive value. When that information is stolen — by a departing employee, a corporate spy, or a bad-faith business partner — the damage to your competitive position can be immediate and lasting. State and federal statutes provide remedies for trade secret misappropriation, including injunctive relief to stop further disclosure and damages for the harm already caused.

Fraudulent Misrepresentation

When another party makes false statements — intentionally or recklessly — to induce you into a contract or business transaction, and you suffer harm, you may have a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation. This goes well beyond an honest mistake or a deal that didn't work out as planned. It involves fundamentally deceptive conduct: fabricated financials, false representations about a company's assets or liabilities, or misleading statements about a product or service's capabilities.

Defamation, Trade Libel, and Reputational Damage

False statements about your company, its products, or its services can drive away customers, damage vendor relationships, and undermine years of goodwill. Whether the harm comes from a malicious online campaign or deliberate statements made to your clients or partners, we can help you assess whether you have grounds for a defamation or trade libel claim and pursue the damages you're owed.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Certain relationships — between business partners, corporate officers and shareholders, majority and minority owners — carry legal duties of loyalty, care, and good faith. When someone entrusted with those responsibilities acts in their own interest at your company's expense — by self-dealing, diverting business opportunities, or concealing information — it could constitute a breach of fiduciary duty. Untangling exactly what happened — and proving the full financial impact — often requires forensic accounting, thorough review of internal records, and close examination of transactions that were deliberately obscured.

Unfair Competition and Restraint of Trade

Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma prohibit a range of anticompetitive conduct, from illegal price-fixing and market allocation schemes to deceptive business practices designed to gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace. If a competitor's unlawful conduct has cost your business customers, market share, or revenue, you may have a claim under state competition law or federal antitrust statutes.

Commercial Disparagement

Commercial disparagement involves false statements made specifically about your business's products or services — as distinct from defamation, which attacks the business itself. If a competitor has made false claims about the quality, safety, or reliability of what you sell, and those statements have caused customers to take their business elsewhere, you may be entitled to recover the economic damages that resulted.

Whistleblower Claims and Retaliation

Employees who report illegal activity — fraud, regulatory violations, workplace safety failures, financial misconduct — are protected under both state and federal law. When an employer retaliates against a whistleblower through termination, demotion, harassment, or intimidation, that retaliation is itself a legal wrong that also gives rise to a claim. If you have uncovered illegal activity and are concerned about the consequences of coming forward, our attorneys can advise you of your rights and the protections available to you before you act.

Why Caddell Reynolds

What's My Case Worth?

Business tort damages are primarily economic — but that doesn’t make them any less significant or far-reaching. Depending on the nature of your claim and the conduct involved, you may be able to recover compensation for:

Lost Profits

The most direct measure of harm in most business tort cases. If another party's wrongful conduct costs you contracts, customers, or revenue, you are entitled to seek compensation for the resulting lost profits.

Lost Business Opportunities

Beyond profits already lost, your business may have suffered harm in the form of opportunities that never materialized — deals that fell through, partnerships that didn't form, expansion plans that had to be abandoned.

Damage to Goodwill and Reputation

When wrongful conduct damages your company's standing in the marketplace, the harm can extend well beyond your financial statement. Courts recognize that a business's reputation has real economic value and that reputational damage can be compensated.

Punitive Damages

In cases involving intentional, malicious, or particularly egregious conduct, Arkansas courts may award punitive damages to punish the wrongdoer and send a clear message that such conduct will not be tolerated.

Injunctive Relief

In some cases — particularly those involving ongoing trade secret misappropriation or tortious interference — the most urgent need is not damages but a court order stopping the harmful conduct immediately.

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Ended up getting money that was taken from me. Very thankful.

Barbara, Jonesboro

Protect What You've Built

Your business is more than a bottom line. It’s your livelihood, your legacy, and in many cases, the financial security of everyone who depends on you. When another party’s wrongful conduct threatens all that, our Arkansas business torts lawyers are ready to stand up for you and your business.