Few firms can boast of the amount of experience and success Sheftall & Torres have had in representing individuals and businesses who have suffered reputational harm and economic losses due to the publication of false and defamatory statements. With over forty years of combined experience in this area of practice, Scott Sheftall and Brian Torres have won for their clients major victories and significant settlements against individuals, public officials, competing businesses, newspapers, and media chains. As most lawyers recognize, this specialized area of practice requires of its practitioners a high degree of academic excellence balanced by the dogged determination of an experienced and zealous trial advocate.

SETTLEMENT: Rival Business Libels Competitor. Scott Sheftall secured one of the largest reported settlements in a libel case in Florida ($525,000). Mr. Sheftall proved that a south Florida cemetery company circulated a memo to several potential customers which falsely asserted that a competitor, Mr. Sheftall's client, was burying gentiles in plots within the exclusive and sacred property reserved for people of the Jewish faith.

SETTLEMENT: Public Official Called a "Hooker." Scott Sheftall proved that rival public officials and their allies in private business wrote and circulated a poem which accused a female Florida port commissioner of being a "hooker." Mr. Sheftall argued that the libel was done with a specific intent to harm his client's good name and reputation. Defendants asserted that the poem was a satire or parody which no reasonable person could have read as implying factual information about the plaintiff commissioner. However, the appellate court agreed with Mr. Sheftall's argument, holding that the evidence presented a factual question whether the word was reasonably understood to describe an actual fact or whether the poem could only be read as complete fantasy and hyperbole. On the strength of his appellate victory and with the threat of trial looming over the defendants, Mr. Sheftall negotiated a confidential settlement of $300,000 for his client.

SETTLEMENT: Sportswriter Falsifies "Exclusive" Interview. Scott Sheftall and Brian Torres successfully represented former U.S. Open and Master's champion golfer Fuzzy Zoeller against a sportswriter and newspaper in an Orlando federal court. We alleged that the defendant sportswriter had written a front-page sports article which falsely portrayed that he had conducted an exclusive interview with Mr. Zoeller at the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. In the article, the defendants had published racially offensive quotations and other statements as though they had in fact been uttered by Mr. Zoeller. Sheftall & Torres alleged that these fabricated quotations placed Mr. Zoeller in a false light by representing him to be racially biased, which he is not. Zoeller had not granted an interview to the defendant, nor had he ever uttered the offensive remarks. Sheftall & Torres secured a substantial confidential settlement for Mr. Zoeller, as well as a printed retraction and apology.

MAJOR LEGAL PRECEDENT: Absolute Privilege for Bar Grievance Complaints. In 1977, in the months preceding his own admission to the Florida Bar, Scott Sheftall conceived and wrote the appellate brief which led to the establishment of a new rule of law in Florida. To this day, cloaking bar grievance complaints with an absolute privilege against attorney countersuits contributes to the maintenance of high standards of practice among attorneys in the Bar. In Stone v. Rosen, 348 So. 2d 387 (3d DCA 1977), the trial court had granted summary judgment dismissing an attorney's claim of malicious prosecution against his former client on the basis of a qualified privilege in filing an unsuccessful letter of complaint with the Florida and Dade County Bar Associations. Mr. Sheftall was called in by Bill Frates, a prominent lawyer and founding member of Mr. Sheftall's first law firm, to write the appeal. In his brief, Mr. Sheftall recommended to the appellate courts that the privilege should not merely be a qualified one which could be overcome by actual or implied malice. Rather, he argued that the privilege should be absolute, thus affording all citizens of Florida the right to file a complaint within the confidential grievance process without fear that an unsuccessful complaint could lead to a suit against them by the attorney for malicious prosecution or defamation. The Third District Court of Appeal agreed, adopting Mr. Sheftall's argument that:

"Members of the legal profession are accorded rights and privileges not enjoyed by the public at large; the acceptance of these carries with it certain responsibilities and obligations to the general public. For the sake of maintaining the high standards of the profession and disciplining those who violate the Canons of Legal Ethics, one who elects to enjoy the status and benefits as a member of the legal profession must give up certain rights or causes of action which, in this instance, is the right to file an action against a complainant who lodges an unsuccessful complaint with the Grievance Committee of the Florida Bar."

SETTLEMENT: Columnist Alleged to Have Defamed Law Professor. Brian Torres represented a law professor who alleged he had been defamed by a newspaper columnist writing for a newspaper in St. Petersburg, Florida, and by the mother of his child. The columnist had written a piece critical of a Florida judge's decision to award primary custody of the professor's daughter to him as opposed to her mother during child custody proceedings. The complaint alleged that both the column and statements attributed to the mother in the column were false and defamatory in essentially charging the professor with extortion and other illegal and unethical conduct during the course of the proceedings. The case was settled before trial for $55,000.

SETTLEMENT: TV Station Alleged to Have Portrayed Dentist in False Light. Brian Torres represented a dentist against a Florida television station. The lawsuit alleged that the broadcaster had falsely portrayed the dentist as having been ensnared in a state Medicaid fraud sting. The dentist worked at a dental office whose owner (another dentist) had in fact been arrested for Medicaid fraud. The arrested dentist operated two other dental offices at which Mr. Torres's client did not work, and where the arrested dentist's fraudulent activities were believed to have occurred. Mr. Torres's client had not been arrested and was not a target of the investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The TV station's news reports, however, featured video in several news reports of signage that clearly depicted his name along with the arrested dentist's name. Mr. Torres was successful in reaching a confidential settlement of his client's claim with the broadcaster at a mediation two months prior to the trial date.

SETTLEMENTS: Sheftall & Torres, P.A. have secured other confidential settlements in the libel and invasion of privacy practice area with a total aggregate value of over $1 million. The terms of those settlements do not permit any public description of the cases or parties involved.