South Florida Business Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families across Palm Beach County and Broward County, and handles the disputes that come up when co-owners stop agreeing, money goes missing, or a contract is not honored. A South Florida business attorney is often hired at the moment a relationship breaks down, and the choices made in the first few weeks, such as what gets filed, what gets frozen, and what gets said in writing, tend to shape everything that follows.

South Florida’s business disputes have a particular character. Companies here are frequently held by out-of-state investors, by relatives who inherited a stake, or by partners who built a company together and now want different outcomes. The firm serves clients in Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, and in Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, and it also works with clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests in the region.

Whether the right answer is a negotiated exit, an emergency injunction, a partition of shared real estate, or a trial, the first question is the same: what do the governing documents say, and what does Florida law add when they say nothing? The sections below walk through how those questions get answered.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team as Your South Florida Business Litigation Counsel

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in business and real estate disputes throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County. The firm’s work centers on business divorce, partnership and member disputes, complex contract litigation, disputes over money and missing funds, partition actions, quiet title actions, injunctions, and real estate litigation, along with outside general counsel services for companies that want a litigator available before a dispute starts. Clients are served from Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and the communities around them.

Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. His career has been built around contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts between partners, LLC members, and shareholders. Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

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 for times when the attorneys are in court. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case. A significant portion of the practice comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out-of-state lawyers whose clients have Florida disputes.

The firm’s trial record includes a recent result in Broward County: after a five-day bench trial, the Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That kind of outcome depends on careful preparation around contract language and the parties’ course of dealing, which is the same discipline applied to every dispute the firm takes on.

Business Disputes a South Florida Business Attorney Handles

• Business Divorce: Partners, LLC members, and shareholders who can no longer work together face deadlocked management, valuation fights, and buyout negotiations. Outcomes include a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution.
• Breach of Operating and Shareholder Agreements: Many disputes turn on whether an owner followed the governing document on voting, transfers, distributions, or competition. The wording of the agreement, and how the parties actually behaved under it, usually decides the case.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Managers and controlling owners owe duties to the company and, in some settings, to other owners. Claims arise when someone self-deals, diverts opportunities, or freezes out a minority owner.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and partners who cannot explain where company money went all support claims for an accounting and recovery of funds.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements are enforced and interpreted in court, often with significant money at stake.
• Family Business Disputes: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children with different visions, and in-laws who share ownership face questions of control and compensation alongside the emotional weight of the relationship.
• Partition and Quiet Title: Co-owners of real estate who cannot agree can seek division or sale of the property, and owners with competing ownership claims can ask a court to settle title.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions can stop assets from being moved or spent and protect property and business interests while the dispute is pending.

What to Do When a Business Relationship Breaks Down in South Florida

Start by collecting the documents that define the relationship: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, articles of organization or incorporation, any amendments, capital contribution records, tax returns, bank statements, and key correspondence. These documents determine what remedies exist. Many agreements contain buyout formulas, deadlock sale provisions, or dispute resolution clauses that require mediation or arbitration before anyone files suit, and ignoring them can cost leverage. Florida’s LLC and corporation statutes also address situations where an operating agreement is silent, so reviewing both together matters.

Deadlines deserve attention early. A claim founded on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, while oral or implied contract claims have four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of 12 years. A suit seeking specific performance carries a one-year period, which surprises people who assume contract claims all share the longer deadline. Negligence claims are now limited to two years for causes of action arising after the March 2023 amendments, and professional malpractice claims, such as against an accountant or other advisor, also carry a two-year period measured from when the claim was or should have been discovered. Which clock applies depends on how the claim is framed, so identifying the right one is part of the first conversation with counsel.

If money or assets are at risk, say so immediately. When funds are being diverted or property is being moved, a court can be asked for emergency injunctive relief, and in dissolution cases it can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. Do not retaliate informally by locking a partner out of accounts or systems, deleting records, or moving money yourself; self-help of that kind tends to hand the other side a claim and a narrative. Preserve everything, including emails and text messages, and avoid discussing strategy in writing with the co-owner you are in conflict with.

Where the case is filed depends on geography. Palm Beach County disputes are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, with the main courthouse in West Palm Beach and a South County courthouse in Delray Beach. Broward County disputes are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which operates courthouses in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. Broward also maintains complex business divisions that handle matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation. Cases involving federal claims or diverse parties can go to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Civil cases above the county court ceiling belong in circuit court, which is where most serious business disputes are heard.

Judicial Dissolution, Buyouts, and Deadlock Under Florida Law

When co-owners cannot resolve a standoff, Florida’s statutes provide a route out. For LLCs, a member or manager can ask the circuit court to dissolve the company on several grounds, including that it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the articles and operating agreement, that those in control are acting or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, that assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or that managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. In these proceedings the court can appoint a receiver or custodian, or order that the petitioning member’s interest be purchased, after a showing of sufficient merit. If the operating agreement contains a deadlock sale mechanism that is started before the court finds deadlock, that contractual mechanism can take the place of a dissolution order, which is one reason the agreement itself matters so much.

Corporations follow a parallel framework. A shareholder can petition for judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, including a corporation that has abandoned its business and failed to wind up within a reasonable time. Once a shareholder-initiated dissolution case is filed, the corporation has 30 days to notify the other shareholders that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on fair value and terms within 60 days after the first election, the court enters an order directing the purchase on those terms, and an election to buy generally cannot be withdrawn unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside. While the case is pending, the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve corporate assets.

The practical takeaway is that dissolution is often leverage as much as destination. A credible petition can bring a reluctant co-owner to the table on valuation, while a well-drafted agreement can make the process faster and cheaper. Minority owners in particular should understand that the buyout and valuation fight, not the dissolution itself, is frequently where the real money is decided.

Partition and Quiet Title: When Co-Owners of Real Estate Disagree

Real estate shared among former partners, siblings, or investors creates its own category of disputes. Florida treats partition as a matter for the court’s equitable power. The complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. After a judgment of partition, the court appoints three commissioners to evaluate whether the property can be divided fairly. If division would prejudice the owners, the court can order a sale at public auction and divide the proceeds in proportion to ownership. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase price must be paid at the outset unless all parties agree otherwise.

Inherited property gets special treatment. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partitions filed from July 1, 2020 forward, and it covers property held as tenants in common where at least one cotenant acquired title from a relative and further conditions are met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. If the court finds the property is heirs property, the Act’s procedures apply unless all cotenants agree otherwise, and partition in kind is favored unless the court determines it would prejudice the cotenants as a group. Families holding a house or parcel together should know these protections exist before assuming a forced sale is the only outcome.

Quiet title actions address a different problem: competing or clouded claims of ownership. Florida courts can determine title where someone claims legal or equitable title to land, and a complaint can seek to cancel a conveyance or other record evidence held by someone who is not the rightful owner. The action can be filed in any county where part of the land lies, and plaintiffs are generally expected to trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise. Adverse possession claims, which require seven years of continuous possession under the statutory requirements, sometimes surface in these cases, and a claimant must meet detailed filing and legal description requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Disputes in South Florida

What is a business divorce?

It is the separation of co-owners of a company, whether they are partners, LLC members, or shareholders. It can end in a negotiated buyout, a sale of the business, a structured wind-down, or 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 contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida’s LLC statute provides court remedies when a member has engaged in serious misconduct or the company can no longer function. An attorney can review the agreement and explain which options exist.

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

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When assets are being moved or spent, a court can order injunctive relief to stop it while the case proceeds.

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

Florida generally allows five years for an action founded on a written instrument. Oral or implied contract claims have four years. A claim seeking specific performance has a one-year period, so the type of relief you want can change your deadline.

Does every business dispute have to go to court?

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

How does a partition action work in Florida?

A co-owner asks the court to divide the property or, if division is impractical, to order it sold and the proceeds shared according to ownership. The court appoints commissioners to evaluate whether a fair division is possible before any sale is ordered.

If my operating agreement has a deadlock provision, can I still ask a court to dissolve the LLC?

If the deadlock sale mechanism is initiated before the court finds that deadlock grounds exist, that contractual process generally applies instead of a dissolution order. If it has not been triggered, judicial dissolution may still be available. Timing and the exact wording of the provision matter.

What happens to my shares if the other shareholders elect to buy me out during a dissolution case?

The corporation or other shareholders can elect to purchase all of 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 orders the purchase on those terms. Otherwise the court determines fair value.

Can I inherit property with siblings and still be forced to sell it?

Florida’s heirs property law gives co-owners who inherited property additional protections before a court orders a sale, including a process designed to favor dividing the land where possible. Whether your property qualifies depends on how title is held and who the cotenants are.

I live in New York or New Jersey. Can your firm handle my South Florida business dispute?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida, handling local court appearances and keeping clients informed so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

Do you accept referrals from other attorneys?

Yes. A significant part of the practice comes from referrals, including from out-of-state lawyers whose clients have Florida disputes and Florida lawyers who do not handle business litigation. The firm communicates with referring counsel throughout and respects that relationship with the client.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer before a dispute turns into a lawsuit?

Often, yes. Reviewing an operating agreement, negotiating a buyout, or sending a properly framed demand early can resolve a disagreement before litigation costs build. The firm’s outside general counsel program is designed for companies that want that access on an ongoing basis.

Serving Business Owners and Investors Across Palm Beach and Broward Counties

The firm represents clients throughout South Florida, beginning in Palm Beach County and extending south through Broward County. In Palm Beach County, that includes Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, and Belle Glade, along with the surrounding communities. In Broward County, the firm serves Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Davie, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Sunrise, and Weston.

Business disputes here involve everything from professional practices and restaurant groups to investment properties and family-held companies, and many of the owners involved live elsewhere. The firm also represents clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose partners or co-owners are in South Florida, appearing in the local courts so those clients can protect their interests without relocating their lives.

Speak With a South Florida Business Lawyer About Your Dispute

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty has put your company, your investment, or your property at risk, a conversation with a South Florida business lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can clarify what the documents say, which deadlines apply, and whether emergency relief is warranted. Call the firm to schedule a consultation and talk through your situation with attorneys who know your file and return calls within 24 hours.