South Florida Partnership Dispute Attorney

When the person you built a company with stops returning your calls, locks you out of the books, or starts treating shared revenue like personal income, the problem is no longer just a disagreement. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for owners, investors, and families across Palm Beach County, Broward County, and the rest of South Florida, and a South Florida partnership dispute attorney is often the first call a co-owner makes once talking stops working.

A partnership fight rarely stays contained. Payroll still has to be met, vendors still want payment, and a deadlocked ownership group cannot sign a lease, approve a loan, or sell an asset. Some disputes are about a single bad decision. Others involve missing money, a partner who has moved customers to a competing venture, or an operating agreement that nobody read carefully until the day it mattered.

What follows covers the situations that most often bring owners into a lawyer’s office, the Florida rules that govern how these disputes end, and the practical steps worth taking before positions harden.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Partnership and Member Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents partners, LLC members, shareholders, and minority owners throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County, including Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. The firm’s work centers on business divorce, complex contract litigation, disputes over missing company money, partition actions, and the injunctions that protect assets while a case is pending. Clients include business owners, investors, and families, along with owners from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose partners or co-owners are here in South Florida.

Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has spent 37 years in litigation, with a career built around contract disputes and conflicts between partners, LLC members, and shareholders. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. 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 federal experience matters in South Florida, where a partnership dispute with out-of-state owners can raise questions about which court should hear the case.

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 the attorneys are in court. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and the firm looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake. Recent proof of trial work: after a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the firm obtained a 32-page final judgment awarding its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. A significant part of the practice also comes from other lawyers who refer clients with Florida business disputes.

Common Partnership Conflicts We Handle in South Florida

• Deadlocked Management: Two 50/50 owners disagree on a major decision and neither can outvote the other. Florida’s LLC statute lists unbreakable deadlock that threatens irreparable injury to the company as a ground for judicial dissolution, and some operating agreements contain their own deadlock sale mechanism that can take priority if it is started in time.
• Money Taken or Unaccounted For: Unpaid distributions, personal expenses run through the company, commingled accounts, and a manager who cannot explain where receipts went. Claims include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of funds, sometimes paired with emergency relief to freeze assets.
• Minority Owner Squeeze-Outs: A majority holder cuts a minority partner out of decisions, stops distributions, or pays themselves excessive compensation. Remedies can include a court-ordered buyout of the minority interest or dissolution.
• Breach of Operating or Shareholder Agreements: Disputes over capital contributions, transfer restrictions, buy-sell triggers, non-competition terms, and who has authority to bind the company. These cases often turn on the exact wording of the document and the parties’ history of dealing.
• Valuation Disputes in a Buyout: When one owner is leaving, the argument is usually about price. Whether the agreement sets a formula or Florida’s fair value standard for a corporate buyout applies, the number can be the entire case.
• Family and Friend Partnerships: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children with different visions, or spouses and in-laws who share ownership. These cases call for discretion while still protecting the client’s financial position.
• Partners Who Co-Own Real Estate: A business relationship ends but the building or investment property remains jointly owned. Florida partition law, covered below, offers a way out when owners cannot agree.
• Competing Ventures and Diverted Business: A partner moves customers, contracts, or employees to a new company. Injunctive relief is often the most time-sensitive part of these disputes.

What to Do in the First Weeks of a Partnership Dispute

Start with the documents. Pull the operating agreement, partnership agreement, or shareholder agreement and any amendments, plus formation papers, tax returns, bank statements, loan guarantees, and the last few years of financial statements. If you still have access to accounting software or the company’s bank portal, preserve copies now. Access has a way of disappearing once a dispute becomes open. Do not take files you have no right to take, and do not delete anything, since both mistakes can be used against you later.

Read the agreement for dispute provisions before anything else. Many contain mandatory mediation or arbitration clauses, buyout formulas, deadlock sale procedures, notice requirements, and attorney fee clauses. Whether a dispute belongs in court or in arbitration can be settled by a single paragraph, and a deadlock sale provision that is started before a court finds grounds for dissolution can displace the court’s remedies.

Watch the clock. Florida gives five years to sue on a written contract and four years on an oral or implied one. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outside limit of 12 years. A specific performance claim has just one year. Because partnership disputes often involve both written agreements and informal understandings, the deadline can differ from claim to claim within the same case, and waiting to see whether the relationship recovers can cost a claim.

Be careful about what you put in writing. Texts and emails to your partner become exhibits. Avoid threats, avoid admissions about money you cannot yet document, and avoid moving funds out of company accounts on your own; a court sees that as the same misconduct you may be accusing the other side of. If money is actively leaving the business, say so promptly to counsel, because courts can issue temporary relief to preserve assets, and a judge must hold a hearing with notice to the parties before appointing a receiver or custodian over an LLC.

On the court side, disputes among owners of a Palm Beach County business are generally filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, whose circuit court sits in West Palm Beach, with branch courthouses elsewhere in the county. Broward County cases go to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Fort Lauderdale. The Seventeenth Circuit also operates complex business divisions that handle business entity dissolution and large business litigation, and a qualifying case can be filed directly into that division under the circuit’s administrative order. Cases in federal court go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach among other locations. Claims above the county court limit belong in circuit court, which is where most serious partnership disputes land.

How Florida Law Ends a Partnership: Dissolution and Buyouts

For LLCs, Florida’s statute allows a member or manager to ask the circuit court for dissolution on specific grounds: activities conducted unlawfully; it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the articles and operating agreement; controlling members or managers acting illegally or fraudulently; assets being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury; or a deadlock that cannot be broken and threatens irreparable harm. A court that finds enough merit can appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving the company.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, including where the corporation has abandoned its business and failed to wind up within a reasonable time. The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days of a qualifying dissolution filing that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election, the court enters an order directing the purchase. An election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside. During the case the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve company assets.

Most disputes never reach a dissolution judgment. The realistic outcomes are a negotiated buyout, a sale of the business to a third party, a structured wind-down, or a trial that ends in one of those results by order. A partner who files for dissolution is often really asking for a buyout at a fair price, and the statutory buyout election gives the other side a way to keep the company. Choosing the right route early is much of the work.

Partition and Title Disputes Between Former Partners

Co-owned real estate complicates every business breakup. Under Florida’s partition statute, an owner can ask the circuit court to divide the land or, when division is not practical, order it sold with proceeds shared according to ownership interests. The complaint must describe the property, identify the owners and their residences, and state each owner’s share. When the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree. If the commissioners report that division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a public sale. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid at the outset unless everyone consents.

Property inherited by relatives can fall under a separate statute, Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which applies to qualifying tenancy-in-common property and changes how the case proceeds, including a preference against forced sale. Whether a property qualifies is a threshold question worth settling early.

Title problems often surface in the same fights. A quiet title action lets an owner ask the court to cancel a conveyance or remove a cloud on title, and the plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years. The case may be filed in any county where part of the land sits. Where a former partner recorded a deed or lien without authority, quiet title can clear the record.

Frequently Asked Questions About Partnership Disputes

What is the difference between a partnership dispute and a business divorce?

A partnership dispute is any conflict among co-owners. A business divorce is what happens when the conflict cannot be repaired and the owners must separate, through a buyout, a sale, a wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution.

Can I sue my business partner for taking company money?

Yes, if the facts support it. Typical claims include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. Where assets are being moved or spent, a court can issue emergency injunctive relief while the case continues.

Can a court force the sale or dissolution of my LLC?

A circuit court can dissolve an LLC on statutory grounds such as unbreakable deadlock with irreparable harm, misappropriation of assets, or illegal conduct by those in control. A court may also order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest as an alternative.

How long do I have to file a lawsuit against a partner in Florida?

It depends on the claim. A written contract claim has five years, an oral or implied contract claim has four, and fraud has four years from discovery with a 12-year outer limit. A specific performance claim has one year. Different claims in the same dispute can carry different deadlines.

My operating agreement says disputes go to arbitration. Does that end the court option?

Often it moves the main dispute out of court, though some relief, such as emergency injunctions or certain title questions, may still involve a court. The exact clause language decides, so have it reviewed before filing anything.

What if my partner and I each own 50 percent and cannot agree?

Check the agreement for a deadlock or buy-sell provision first. If there is none, judicial dissolution on deadlock grounds may be available when the deadlock cannot be broken and the company faces irreparable injury. Many of these cases settle through a negotiated buyout.

Can I be bought out at a fair price if I am a minority shareholder?

In a corporate dissolution proceeding, the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value, with a 60-day window to agree on value and terms before the court steps in. The agreement itself may also set the price or a formula.

How are family business disputes different from other partnership disputes?

The legal claims are the same, but the relationships are more entangled. Compensation, succession, and inheritance questions are mixed with ownership rights, and discretion often matters as much as the legal strategy.

Can an out-of-state owner handle a South Florida dispute without moving here?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed so they do not need to travel for each hearing.

Does a partnership dispute always mean a long trial?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. A trial is sometimes the right choice, but the better question is which path gets you to an acceptable result at a cost that makes sense.

If my partner and I co-own the building, can I force a sale?

A co-owner can file a partition action asking the court to divide the property or order a sale and split the proceeds. Heirs property and agreements among the owners can change how the case proceeds.

Can I recover legal fees from my partner?

Only if a contract or statute allows it. Many operating agreements include fee-shifting provisions, so check the document, because a fee clause can change settlement leverage significantly.

Serving Partnership Dispute Clients Across Palm Beach and Broward Counties

Starting in Palm Beach County, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents owners in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, Greenacres, and Belle Glade. Those communities generate a steady stream of closely held companies, from professional practices and construction firms to restaurants, development partnerships, and investment property holdings.

In Broward County, the firm’s clients come from Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, and Weston. Clients who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut but co-own a South Florida business or property are served the same way, with local appearances covered so they do not have to travel.

Speak With a South Florida Partnership Dispute Lawyer Before the Dispute Hardens

The early weeks of a partnership breakdown shape everything that follows: what evidence survives, which claims remain timely, and whether a buyout stays on the table. If you are looking for a partnership dispute lawyer who will read the agreement, assess the money, and tell you plainly whether your best path is negotiation, arbitration, or court, call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to discuss your situation. The attorneys will review your documents, explain your options under Florida law, and respond promptly.