Fort Lauderdale Business Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in Fort Lauderdale and across Broward County who find themselves in a dispute with a partner, a co-owner, a lender, or a counterparty. The firm handles business litigation, partnership and member disputes, real estate litigation, partition actions, injunctions, and outside general counsel work for companies that want a lawyer involved before a problem turns into a lawsuit.

A Fort Lauderdale business attorney earns the title in the moments when something has already gone wrong: a partner has stopped answering questions about the books, an LLC member is voting against everything, a purchase contract has collapsed days before closing, or money has left a company account with no explanation. In those moments, the first decisions matter more than anything that comes later. Which claims to bring, which deadline controls, whether to ask a court for emergency relief, and whether to negotiate or file are choices with real consequences, and they tend to come all at once.

Broward County also has a feature that matters to anyone with a serious commercial dispute: the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit maintains a complex business division for large business disputes, entity dissolutions, and significant construction litigation. Knowing when a case belongs there, and how to get it there, is part of the work.

What a Fort Lauderdale Business Dispute Usually Turns On

Most business disagreements that reach a lawyer fall into a handful of patterns. The facts differ, but the underlying question is almost always who controls the company, who owes what to whom, and where the money went.

Co-owner conflicts are the most common. When members of an LLC or shareholders of a corporation cannot agree on direction, compensation, or capital, the company can stall. Florida gives owners real remedies for this, but which remedy fits depends on the entity type, the written agreements, and the conduct at issue. Contract disputes are the second pattern. These cases tend to be won or lost on the exact wording of the document and the way the parties actually behaved under it. The third pattern involves money: distributions that were never paid, funds diverted to a partner’s other ventures, capital contributions that one side says were made and the other denies.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Fort Lauderdale Business Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving clients in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County. The firm’s clients include business owners, investors, and families, along with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests in South Florida.

Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989, and has built his career around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That matters in South Florida, where a dispute can end up in a Broward or Palm Beach circuit court or in the Southern District of Florida depending on the parties and the claims.

The firm practices as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on a matter knows the file and can answer when a client calls. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. Andrew Schwartz’s own view is that clients who think they want a hyper-aggressive lawyer usually want something more useful: a lawyer who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do, with fees that make sense next to what is at stake. The firm is experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation.

Results matter more than adjectives. After a 5-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge issued a 32-page final judgment in May 2024 awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Specific performance, the order that forces a party to actually complete a deal rather than pay damages, is one of the harder remedies to win, and it is the kind of outcome that comes from careful preparation around contract language and the parties’ history.

Business Matters Our Fort Lauderdale Clients Bring Us

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who cannot continue together need a way out that does not destroy the company’s value. Outcomes include a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution when talks fail.
• LLC and Shareholder Disputes: Claims for breach of an operating agreement or shareholder agreement, deadlocked management, minority owners who have been shut out, and fiduciary duty claims against those who control the company.
• Judicial Dissolution: Florida’s LLC statute lists grounds such as deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control, and situations where operating under the governing documents is no longer reasonably practicable. Corporate dissolution and fair-value buyout rules for shareholders run on a separate track.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, operating agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, and construction contracts, where the case often turns on precise wording and course of dealing.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, diverted company money, and managers who cannot account for what they spent, with claims for an accounting and recovery of funds.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Co-owners of real estate who cannot agree, including former business partners, siblings, unmarried couples, and investors, along with quiet title actions to clear competing ownership claims.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent and to protect company property while the case proceeds.
• Family Business Disputes: Siblings, parents and children, and in-laws who share ownership, where family relationships are at stake alongside the company.

Decisions to Make in the First Weeks of a Business Dispute

The first decision is whether anything needs to happen before a final judgment. If money or property is moving out of the company, waiting for a trial date is not an option. Florida courts can issue temporary injunctions and, in dissolution proceedings, can appoint a receiver or custodian and take steps to preserve assets. Before a court appoints a receiver or custodian for an LLC, it must hold a hearing after notifying the parties. Raising these issues early, with documentation, is what separates a request that is taken seriously from one that is not.

The second decision is what to gather. Pull the operating agreement or shareholder agreement and every amendment, the articles of organization or incorporation, bank and credit card statements, tax returns, the general ledger, and the email and text history around the key events. Do not alter or delete anything, and do not start moving files off company systems in ways that could look improper later. Preserve everything as it is.

The third decision is whether your agreement already contains an exit mechanism. Many operating and shareholder agreements include buyout formulas, deadlock sale provisions, or dispute resolution clauses requiring mediation or arbitration. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a deadlock sale provision that has been initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds applies in place of a dissolution order. Triggering or ignoring such a clause can change the whole case, so read it with a lawyer before you act.

The fourth decision is timing, because the deadlines are different depending on the claim. A claim founded on a written contract has five years under Florida law. A claim on an oral or implied contract has four. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, with an outer cap of 12 years. A claim for specific performance has only one year, which catches people off guard. Professional malpractice claims have two years from discovery. Negligence claims were cut from four years to two for causes of action arising after March 24, 2023, though the five-year written-contract period did not change. Because several claims can arise from one set of facts, the shortest clock usually controls your planning.

The fifth decision is forum. Broward County cases are filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and circuit court generally hears disputes above the county court ceiling, which is set by statute and adjusted periodically. Fort Lauderdale is also a seat of the Southern District of Florida, which hears federal claims and certain diverse-party disputes. For a large commercial or entity dissolution case, a direct filing into the Seventeenth Circuit’s complex business division is available through its administrative order, with the filer completing the required form at filing and the clerk randomly assigning the case. Whether that route helps or hurts depends on the case. Cases involving property in Palm Beach County are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit instead.

The most common mistake is waiting. The second most common is confronting a partner by email in anger, creating a record that gets quoted back later. The third is paying legal fees to fight over something a negotiated buyout could have resolved. A lawyer who talks you toward settlement when settlement serves you is worth having.

Real Estate Disputes That Run Alongside the Business

In Fort Lauderdale, business disputes and real estate disputes are frequently the same dispute. A partnership owns a building, a family company holds rental property, or two investors bought a parcel together and now disagree about selling it.

Florida’s partition statute lets a co-owner ask the court to divide jointly held land or, if division would prejudice the owners, to order a public sale with proceeds split according to each owner’s interest. A partition complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and their residences, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the parties if they agree. Where co-owners inherited property from relatives, a separate statute, the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, may apply, and it adds protections that make a forced sale harder, including requirements about how the court weighs partition in kind.

Quiet title actions address the opposite problem: someone else claims an interest in your property, or you need a recorded cloud removed. Florida courts can determine competing claims and cancel instruments that wrongly cloud title. A plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years before filing, and the action may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Adverse possession claims, where someone asserts ownership through long occupancy, involve a seven-year possession period and specific filing requirements.

The firm also handles failed closings, purchase and sale contract disputes, and landlord and tenant matters. Commercial landlords and tenants are governed largely by their lease terms. For residential tenancies, Florida’s statute sets short notice periods, including a three-day demand for unpaid rent that excludes weekends and court-observed holidays, and seven days to cure or vacate for most other violations. Accepting partial rent after serving a notice has procedural consequences, so landlords should be careful about how they handle it.

Questions Fort Lauderdale Business Owners Ask

What is a business divorce?

It is the separation of co-owners of a company, whether partners, LLC members, or shareholders. It can end through a negotiated buyout, a sale of the business, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution when the owners cannot agree.

Can I force a business partner out of an LLC in Florida?

It depends on your operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides court remedies when a member’s conduct is seriously harmful or when the company can no longer function. An attorney needs to read the agreement before telling you which options are real.

What can I do if a partner is taking money from the company?

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court can issue injunctive relief while the case is pending.

What are the grounds for dissolving an LLC through the court?

A member or manager can petition when the company’s affairs are conducted unlawfully, when it is not reasonably practicable to operate under the articles and operating agreement, when those in control have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when owners are deadlocked and the company faces irreparable injury. Courts can appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a buyout of the petitioner’s interest, in appropriate cases.

Do shareholders of a corporation have a buyout option instead of dissolution?

Yes. When a shareholder petitions for dissolution on certain grounds, the corporation or the other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order on those terms. The election is generally irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it.

How long do I have to sue for breach of a written contract in Florida?

Five years. An oral or implied contract claim has four years, and a claim seeking specific performance has one year. Because the periods differ, a single deal gone wrong can involve several clocks.

Does every business dispute end up in court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and some agreements require it. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in alternative dispute resolution and pursue the route most likely to meet your goals efficiently.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Can you handle my South Florida dispute?

Yes. The firm regularly represents out of state clients whose partners or co-owners are in South Florida, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

Will my case be heard in Broward County or in federal court?

Most business disputes between Florida parties are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit for Broward County. Federal court in Fort Lauderdale may be available when federal claims are involved or the parties are from different states and the amount in controversy qualifies. Where the defendants are located and where the property sits also affect the choice.

Do you work with other lawyers who have clients with Florida disputes?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state counsel and Florida lawyers who do not handle business litigation. The firm communicates with referring counsel throughout the matter and respects the referring attorney’s relationship with the client.

What does outside general counsel service involve?

Through the firm’s general counsel program, the firm serves as the company’s registered agent and helps with the contract, compliance, and operational questions that come up in running a business. Having a litigator involved before a dispute begins often keeps a disagreement from becoming a lawsuit.

Can I get emergency relief if my partner is about to sell company assets?

Possibly. Florida courts can issue temporary injunctions to preserve assets and the status quo while a case proceeds, and in dissolution cases can appoint a custodian or receiver. These requests are fact-intensive and need solid documentation, which is why early preservation of records matters.

Serving Business Clients Across Fort Lauderdale and Broward County

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners and property investors throughout Fort Lauderdale and Broward County. That includes downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Las Olas corridor, Victoria Park, Rio Vista, Coral Ridge, Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Deerfield Beach, and Hillsboro Beach. Further south and west the firm serves clients in Dania Beach, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Davie, Plantation, Sunrise, Tamarac, Lauderhill, Coral Springs, Parkland, Weston, Pembroke Pines, and Miramar.

Because many South Florida businesses and investment properties cross county lines, the firm also represents clients with disputes in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, and elsewhere in Palm Beach County, as well as clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold interests here. Whether the case belongs in a Broward courtroom, a Palm Beach courtroom, or the Southern District of Florida, the team handles the proceedings locally.

Talk With a Fort Lauderdale Business Litigation Attorney

When a partner, a contract, or a piece of property puts your company or investment at risk, the earlier you speak with a Fort Lauderdale business litigation attorney, the more options you keep. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team will review your agreements, explain the claims and deadlines that apply, and tell you plainly whether the right path is a negotiated exit, mediation, or a courtroom. Call to schedule a consultation.