Feb. 07 Blog The Basics

In the broadest sense, fraud is legally defined as any type of deliberate subterfuge regarding a significant fact that one individual makes to another while cognizant of the fact that one is trying to make the other person do something that will make them suffer loss or damage that directly work to the advantage of the person who is committing the act of fraud. Fraud can also mean the intentional exclusion of material facts which would impact someone’s ability to effectively understand the stakes of the situation at hand.

To show that a fraudulent act has been committed, the deception in question must be connected to “existing fact” and not a case of broken or unfulfilled promises, unless you can show that the person accused of fraud made a promise to do something they knowingly never intended to carry out. Making a promise to do something in the future or simply offering one’s personal or professional opinion does not satisfy the legal requirements for a claim of fraud unless one can show that the opinion in question expressed access to privileged or otherwise extraordinary information that would not be available to a similar party. To be considered fraudulent, an act of omission or misrepresentation must be “material,” which is to say that the deception noticeably altered the plaintiff’s ability to make a properly informed decision.

There are a great number of federal and state laws that are intended to cover fraud in a several areas. Some of the most common include consumer fraud, corporate fraud, and insurance fraud. Mueller Hillin specializes in Fraud Law in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and Austin.