Pembroke Pines Family Business Dispute Attorney

A family business dispute is rarely about the business alone. The same siblings arguing over a distribution check may be sitting across from each other at holiday dinners, and the same parent who built the company may be the person a son or daughter is now accusing of mismanaging it. If you need a Pembroke Pines family business dispute attorney, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for owners, investors, and families in Broward County and Palm Beach County, including conflicts among relatives who share ownership of a company or a piece of property.

These cases tend to share a pattern. Nobody wrote down who was in charge, or the operating agreement says one thing while the family has done another for fifteen years. Compensation is informal. Money moves between personal and company accounts. When one owner finally asks for an accounting, the question stops being about numbers and becomes about trust. How you respond in the first few weeks, before positions harden, often shapes whether the company survives intact or ends up in a courtroom fight over its future.

Pembroke Pines is a city of long-established households, many of them with small companies, rental properties, medical and professional practices, and restaurants held among relatives. That makes it fertile ground for the disputes described below, and for the decisions that come with them: negotiate, buy out, sell, or sue.

The Decisions That Shape a Family Business Dispute

Before anything is filed, you are making choices, whether or not you realize it. The first is whether your goal is to keep the business, leave it with fair value, or stop someone from damaging it. Those goals lead to different strategies. An owner who wants out needs a valuation and a buyout path. An owner who wants to stay needs to address whatever the other side is doing wrong without destroying the enterprise.

The second decision is how much leverage you actually have, and that usually depends on paper. Your operating agreement, shareholder agreement, or partnership agreement may contain buyout formulas, dispute resolution clauses, or deadlock provisions that control what happens next. Under Florida’s LLC statute, if an operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before a court finds deadlock grounds exist, that provision can take the place of a judicial dissolution order. In other words, a clause you signed years ago can decide the outcome, so it should be read before you act.

The third decision is timing. Some remedies, such as an injunction to stop funds from being moved, are only useful if sought quickly. Others, such as a negotiated buyout, work best when the relationship has not been poisoned by a filed complaint. A lawyer who has handled these matters can tell you which clock matters most in your situation.

Why Family Business Owners Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a South Florida business and real estate litigation firm that represents clients in Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Its work centers on business divorce, partnership and member disputes, complex contract litigation, disputes over missing funds, partition actions, and real estate litigation, and it counts family-owned companies and businesses started by close friends among the clients it serves.

Andrew M. Schwartz, 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 received his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. His career has been built around contract disputes 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 state and federal courts.

The firm practices as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on a matter knows the file and can respond when you call. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court. Andrew’s own description of what clients want is useful here: often they arrive wanting a hyper-aggressive lawyer, but what serves them is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do. In a family dispute, that restraint matters. The firm also has experience in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and it looks for the outcome that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake.

On the trial side, the firm obtained a 32-page final judgment from the Broward County Circuit Court after a 5-day bench trial, awarding its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That result reflects the kind of detailed, document-driven preparation that family disputes also demand, because they usually turn on what was agreed, what was written, and how the parties actually behaved.

Common Family Business Disputes We Handle

• Sibling Co-Owners and Inherited Companies: Brothers and sisters who inherit a business often have different expectations about roles, pay, and whether to sell. Disputes arise over who controls management, how profits are shared, and whether one heir is being squeezed out.
• Parent and Child Succession Conflicts: A founder who will not step back, or a next generation that wants to change direction, can freeze decisions. These cases often involve buyouts, minority-owner protections, and claims that someone acted outside their authority.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Managers and controlling owners owe duties to the company and, in many settings, to the other owners. Self-dealing, favoring a relative’s interests, or running the company for personal benefit can support claims in court.
• Missing or Diverted Funds: Unpaid distributions, personal expenses charged to the company, commingled accounts, and disputed capital contributions are common. Remedies can include an accounting, recovery of funds, and emergency relief to stop assets from being moved.
• Deadlocked Management: Two equal owners who cannot agree can stall payroll, vendor payments, and contracts. Florida law recognizes deadlock with threatened irreparable injury as a ground for judicial dissolution of an LLC.
• Buyouts and Valuation Fights: Even when everyone agrees someone should leave, the price is the battleground. Valuation methods, discounts, and the date of valuation are frequent sticking points.
• Jointly Owned Real Estate: Relatives who co-own a rental, commercial building, or family home may need a partition action, a negotiated sale, or a quiet title action to resolve competing ownership claims.
• Spouses and In-Laws as Owners: Ownership that passes through marriage, or is shared with in-laws, raises questions about control, compensation, and what happens when the family relationship ends.

What to Do When a Family Co-Owner Becomes an Adversary

Start by gathering documents before tension spreads, because access can disappear quickly. Collect the operating agreement or shareholder agreement and any amendments, the articles of organization or incorporation, tax returns, bank and credit card statements, financial statements, capital contribution records, loan documents, leases, and emails or texts that show what was agreed. If you are a member or shareholder, you may have inspection rights, and a lawyer can help you use them properly.

Do not move money, change locks, or cut off a relative’s access on your own. Self-help is the most common mistake in family disputes, and it tends to hand the other side a claim and a sympathetic story. Likewise, avoid long, angry written exchanges. Messages sent in frustration become exhibits.

Pay attention to deadlines. A claim on a written agreement generally must be filed within five years, while claims not founded on a written instrument have four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer limit of 12 years. A claim for specific performance has only one year. These periods apply to different theories, and a single dispute can involve several, so do not assume you have the longest one.

Pembroke Pines sits in Broward County, which falls under the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Business disputes above the county court limit are filed in circuit court. Broward also has a complex business division that handles matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation, and the court’s rules govern how a case can be filed directly into that division. Federal cases involving Broward County are heard by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale. Because your dispute may also touch property or companies in Palm Beach County, which is in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, the right forum depends on where the property sits, where the parties are, and what the agreements say.

Finally, call a lawyer early. Not to start a fight, but to learn what remedies exist and which one fits your goal. Many family disputes resolve through negotiation or mediation once each side understands the realistic range of outcomes.

How Florida Law Treats Dissolution, Buyouts, and Court-Supervised Relief

When owners cannot continue together, Florida law offers several routes. For an LLC, a court can dissolve the company in a proceeding brought by a manager or member on grounds that include: the company cannot reasonably carry on its activities in line with its articles and operating agreement; controlling managers or members have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently; company assets are being misappropriated or wasted, causing injury; or managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. Before a court appoints a receiver or custodian, it must hold a hearing after notice to the parties. In these proceedings the court may also order the purchase of a petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving the company.

For a corporation, shareholders can seek judicial dissolution or other remedies, including where the corporation has abandoned its business and failed within a reasonable time to liquidate, distribute assets, and dissolve. Florida’s corporate statute includes an important off-ramp: the corporation, or if it does not act, one or more shareholders, may elect to purchase the petitioning shareholder’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 directing the purchase on those terms. That election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. The corporation must also notify the other shareholders, within 30 days of the proceeding’s start, that they can avoid dissolution by electing to purchase. During a dissolution case the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve corporate assets.

Where the dispute involves real estate held by relatives, partition is the usual tool. All partition actions in Florida are brought in chancery. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, and if the property cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order it sold at public auction with proceeds divided according to ownership interests. Florida also has a separate framework for heirs property, which applies when land is held as tenants in common, a cotenant acquired title from a relative, and further statutory conditions are met, such as relatives holding at least twenty percent of the interests. For heirs property, the court must follow that framework unless all cotenants agree otherwise, and a partition in kind requires a finding that division would prejudice the cotenants as a group.

Questions Families Ask About Business Disputes

Can I force a relative out of the family company?

It depends on your governing documents and the conduct involved. Many operating and shareholder agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or withdrawal provisions. Where they do not, Florida law offers remedies for serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function. A review of your agreement is the starting point.

What if there is no written operating agreement?

Florida’s default statutory rules fill the gaps, and the parties’ course of dealing may matter. Disputes without a written agreement are harder because each side recalls the arrangement differently. A claim not based on a written instrument has a four-year limitations period, shorter than the five years for written contracts.

My brother is paying himself and charging personal expenses to the company. What can I do?

Potential claims include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of funds. If assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court may grant injunctive relief while the case is pending. Preserve statements and records now.

Can a court dissolve a family LLC?

Yes, on statutory grounds such as deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, or illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control. Courts also have alternatives, including appointing a custodian or ordering a buyout of the petitioner’s interest.

What does a buyout actually involve?

Typically a valuation, agreement on price and payment terms, and documents transferring the interest and releasing claims. Disagreements usually concern the valuation method and whether minority or marketability discounts apply. In corporate dissolution cases, Florida law gives the parties 60 days after the first buyout election to agree on fair value and terms.

Do these disputes have to end up in court?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, especially when the owners want to preserve the business or the family relationship. Our attorneys have experience in alternative dispute resolution as well as litigation.

Can a family dispute be kept private?

Court filings are generally public, which is one reason many families prefer mediation or arbitration. We handle these cases with discretion and weigh the privacy benefits of settlement against the strategic need for court orders when someone is dissipating assets.

My mother and I co-own a rental property and disagree about selling. What are my options?

You can negotiate a sale or buyout, or one co-owner can seek partition through the court. Because relatives are involved, the heirs property rules may apply, which can give co-owners protections such as the opportunity to buy out the seller before the property is forced to sale.

How long does a family business case take in Broward County?

It varies widely. A negotiated buyout can wrap up in weeks or months, while a contested dissolution or fiduciary duty case can take considerably longer, particularly if it goes to a bench or jury trial. Early motions for injunctive relief can move quickly. Complex business matters in Broward may be assigned to a specialized division.

I live out of state but own part of a Pembroke Pines company. Can you still help?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who have business or real estate interests in South Florida. We handle the Florida court appearances and keep you informed so you do not have to travel for every proceeding.

Is a family business dispute covered by the same statute of limitations as other contract claims?

Not necessarily. Written contract claims have five years, oral or implied contract claims have four, rescission has four, fraud has four years from discovery up to 12 years, and specific performance has one year. Negligence-based claims now have two years. Because a single dispute can involve several theories, each deadline should be checked.

Serving Family Business Clients From Pembroke Pines Across South Florida

From Pembroke Pines, our team represents business owners and families across southwestern Broward County, including Miramar, Davie, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches, Weston, and Hollywood. We also serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Parkland, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, and Coconut Creek.

Our work extends north into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens. Whether the company is headquartered here, the property is held across a county line, or the co-owners live in different states, we handle family business disputes, business divorce matters, partition actions, and related real estate litigation throughout South Florida.

Talk With a Pembroke Pines Family Business Attorney

When relatives who own a company together stop agreeing, the longer the problem sits, the harder it is to solve on reasonable terms. If you are looking for a family business attorney in Pembroke Pines, call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to discuss what is happening, what your agreements say, and which path makes sense for you and the business.

We return calls within 24 hours and can arrange conference calls at times that suit everyone involved. Reach out to schedule a consultation and learn where you stand.