Civil RICO Claims Between Florida Businesses: How Companies Defend Them

Civil RICO claims turn a business dispute into a racketeering lawsuit, with treble damages and attorney’s fees on the table. When another Florida company sues you under Florida’s Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act, the federal RICO statute, or both, the defense starts with the complaint. Which crimes does it allege, how many, and do they add up to a legal pattern?

What Are Civil RICO Claims, and Why Do Plaintiffs Plead Them?

Civil RICO claims let a business that says a pattern of criminal conduct injured it sue for three times its damages, plus fees. Plaintiffs plead them for the multiplier, the fee award, and the pressure of a racketeering label. A plain breach of contract claim offers none of those.

Two statutes matter:

• Florida: The Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act allows threefold actual damages, a $200 minimum, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, but only if the plaintiff proves by clear and convincing evidence that the violation injured it. Punitive damages are barred.
• Federal: Under 18 U.S.C. 1964(c), a person injured in its business or property recovers threefold damages and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.

Served with a racketeering count by another company? Talk with a Jimerson Birr business litigation attorney before your response deadline runs.

The firm’s civil RICO page, part of its business litigation practice, links to the profile of attorney Charles Jimerson.

What Must a Plaintiff Plead for Civil RICO Claims to Survive?

A Florida plaintiff has to plead a pattern of criminal activity and an enterprise, then tie your company to both. Each element is a separate target. The statute defines its terms this way:

• Criminal activity: crimes from a closed list, including theft, fraud, and securities offenses, plus certain offenses listed in the federal RICO statute.
• Pattern: at least two incidents with the same or similar intents, results, accomplices, victims, or methods, or that are otherwise interrelated and not isolated, with the last one within five years after a prior incident.
• Enterprise: any company, partnership, or other legal entity, or a group of individuals associated in fact.

The plaintiff must also prove that it was injured by reason of the violation, which makes causation part of its case.

Plaintiffs often add a conspiracy theory beside these. Our guide to defending civil conspiracy claims covers the common-law version that tends to show up in the same complaint.

How Can a Company Attack the Predicate Acts?

Start with the list. A breach of contract, a late payment, or a business decision that went badly is not a listed crime. The plaintiff has to recast the dispute as theft, fraud, or another listed offense, and that recasting is the first place to press.

Fraud-based predicates also have to be pleaded with particularity in state and federal court: who said what, to whom, when, and why it was false. The Eleventh Circuit, which covers Florida, has held that RICO claims built on mail and wire fraud must meet the federal particularity standard. A complaint that alleges only a general scheme to defraud invites a motion to dismiss.

Our guides to defending fraud claims and the real cost of a fraud count cover pleading rules, insurance, and settlement strategy. Plaintiffs also plead civil theft as a predicate or a companion count, and it carries its own presuit demand requirement. For the underlying wrong, see the firm’s page on fraud and fraud in the inducement.

Why Does the Single-Transaction Rule Matter in Business Disputes?

Florida’s definition of a pattern excludes two or more incidents of fraudulent conduct arising out of “a single contract or transaction” against related persons, according to section 772.102. Many business disputes grow from one deal, such as a supply agreement or an acquisition. If the only alleged incidents are fraud arising from one contract or transaction against related persons, the statute says those incidents do not make a pattern.

For entities, related persons are those substantially under the same direction, ownership, or control. The carve-out covers fraudulent conduct only. A complaint that pleads theft or other listed crimes is analyzed differently, so read which incidents the plaintiff actually alleges.

Federal law sets its own test: at least two racketeering acts within ten years of each other, plus the relationship and continuity the U.S. Supreme Court requires. The federal count uses that test instead, so two counts in one complaint can rise or fall on different arguments.

Does the Plaintiff Have an Injury Caused by the Alleged Crimes?

Both statutes require injury by reason of the violation, and the U.S. Supreme Court demands a direct connection under the federal statute. In Anza v. Ideal Steel Supply Corp., a steel supplier sued a rival and its owners for allegedly filing false sales tax returns to undercut its prices, and the Court held the supplier’s claim under section 1962(c) failed for lack of proximate cause. The direct victim of the alleged fraud was the State, and the supplier’s lost sales could have resulted from other factors.

Competitor suits can follow the same pattern: the plaintiff says your lower prices, new hires, or customer wins flowed from misconduct. If the loss comes from ordinary competition, causation is the argument to press. Florida’s statute also requires injury “by reason of” the violation, so expect the argument in state court too.

Treble damages multiply whatever number the plaintiff starts with. Our guides to strategically inflated tort claims and lawsuits filed to slow down competition cover how defendants test the starting figure.

What Other Burdens and Defenses Can Narrow the Case?

Several rules cut in the defendant’s favor, and they differ between the two statutes:

• Burden of proof: Florida requires the plaintiff to prove by clear and convincing evidence that it was injured by a violation. The federal statute’s text sets no heightened standard.
• Limitations: Florida allows five years after the conduct ends or the cause accrues, with tolling while the state or the United States pursues a prosecution or other proceeding on the same conduct, and for two years afterward. Federal civil RICO claims carry a four-year period.
• Fee shifting: Florida lets a defendant recover reasonable fees and costs on a finding that the claimant raised a claim without substantial fact or legal support, and the court may not consider ability to pay. The federal statute’s own fee language runs only to the injured person. Our guide to plaintiffs who cross the line into bad-faith litigation covers other fee tools.
• Securities fraud: If the alleged fraud was in the purchase or sale of securities, the federal statute bars using it to establish a RICO violation, with a narrow exception for defendants criminally convicted of that fraud.
• Parallel criminal cases: A final judgment for the state in a criminal case on the same conduct estops the defendant in a Chapter 772 action on the matters that judgment decided, so a government investigation changes the defense plan.

RICO counts can arrive alongside other claims. For a complaint that stacks several counts, see our guide to defending lawsuits involving multiple claims and the firm’s complex commercial litigation page. If you were just served, start with our checklist for the first 72 hours after service.

What Should You Check Before You Respond?

The right defense depends on facts a complaint summary will not show:

• Service date and court: Florida state court generally gives you 20 days after service to respond, and federal court generally gives you 21.* Number of deals: How many contracts or transactions the complaint ties together, and the date of each alleged incident.
• The alleged crimes: Which offenses are pleaded as predicates, and whether the complaint says who said what, to whom, and when.
• The enterprise: Who the plaintiff names as the enterprise and what role it assigns your company.
• The claimed loss: The amount before trebling, and whether it flows directly from the alleged crimes or from ordinary competition.

These facts decide which defenses are available, and an attorney needs to review them against the complaint and your records before you respond. No article can tell you how your case will come out.

Did a competitor, vendor, or customer name your company in a racketeering count? Request a free consultation with Jimerson Birr so an attorney can review the complaint with you.

How Can Jimerson Birr Help With Civil RICO Claims Between Florida Businesses?

Defending civil RICO claims between Florida businesses is lawsuit defense work on a short clock. Jimerson Birr’s lawsuit defense attorneys review the complaint, look for procedural defects, and preserve evidence before it disappears. Call (904) 389-0050 or request a free consultation now. Your response is generally due 20 days after service in Florida state court and 21 days in federal court, and a missed deadline can lead to a default judgment.