Also known as: mislead · misled · misleads · misleading conduct · misleading statement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A communication or representation that tends to deceive or create a false impression through a material misstatement of fact or law or through the omission of a fact necessary to prevent the statement as a whole from being materially misleading.
Miles Montgomery placed an online ad stating that his firm obtained full compensation for injured clients in every case. The ad failed to disclose that the firm had never handled a trial and routinely settled for far less than policy limits. A prospective client who relied on the ad later discovered the omission after retaining the firm.
Metro Bank offered only the first page of an internal email showing an employee admitting to an error. The second page, sent seconds later, clarified that the error had been corrected under company policy. The court considered whether admitting the excerpt alone would mislead the jury about the employee's conduct.
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Maria Morales told a buyer that a commercial property generated steady rental income. She knew the largest tenant's lease would expire in sixty days and that renewal negotiations had already failed. The buyer later discovered the impending vacancy and sued for fraudulent misrepresentation.
Monarch Pharmaceuticals supplied the prescribing doctor with a detailed warning about a medication's risk of liver damage. The doctor independently decided the benefits outweighed the risk for Michelle Murphy and prescribed the drug. Murphy later suffered liver damage and sued the manufacturer for failure to warn.
Mustafa Mahmoud told a potential investor that a startup's revenue had doubled in the prior quarter. He knew the increase resulted from a one-time government contract that would not recur. The investor later claimed the partial statement was misleading under the duty to disclose qualifying facts.
Mosaic Retail ran a newspaper ad truthfully listing its practice areas as personal injury and real estate and noting its admission in two states. State regulators sought to prohibit the ad under rules requiring more detailed disclosures. The firm challenged the restriction as an unconstitutional limit on non-misleading commercial speech.
An omission renders a statement misleading when the speaker knows or believes the omitted fact is necessary to prevent the statement as a whole from creating a materially false impression. The Restatement treats such a partial truth as a fraudulent misrepresentation.
Rule 403 permits exclusion when the probative value of relevant evidence is substantially outweighed by the danger that it will mislead the jury. Courts weigh this risk against the evidence's usefulness in proving a fact of consequence.
Rule 7.1 prohibits communications containing a material misrepresentation of fact or law or omitting a fact necessary to keep the statement as a whole from being materially misleading. States may regulate actually or inherently misleading content but may not ban truthful, non-misleading speech.
The doctrine shields the manufacturer only when the warning to the physician is adequate and not misleading. If the warning fails to convey material risks, the physician's independent judgment does not break the causal chain to the patient.
…scientific expert testimony carries special dangers to the fact-finding process because it " 'can be both powerful and quite misleading because of the difficulty in evaluating it.' " Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 2798 (quoting Weinstein, Rule 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence Is Sound; It Should Not Be Amended, 138 F.R.D.…