Boca Raton Business Litigation Attorney

When a co-owner stops answering your calls, a partner’s spending stops adding up, or a signed contract is suddenly being read in a way you never agreed to, the decision in front of you is not whether to be upset. It is whether to negotiate, file, or move for emergency relief, and in what order. People in Boca Raton and across Palm Beach County and Broward County make that call under pressure, usually with money, property, or a company’s operations at stake. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles Boca Raton business litigation matters for business owners, investors, and families, including business divorce, partnership and member disputes, complex contract litigation, partition actions, title disputes, and injunctions, and serves clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and throughout South Florida.

Business disputes in this market follow patterns. Many involve closely held companies, family-run enterprises, or real estate held jointly by investors, and many involve owners who live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut while their business partner or property sits here. Some turn on the exact wording of an operating agreement; others turn on where money went and who can prove it. The sections below walk through how these cases usually develop, which deadlines and court rules matter, and what you can reasonably expect at each stage.

How Business Disputes in Palm Beach and Broward Counties Typically Unfold

Most disputes do not begin with a lawsuit. They begin with a breakdown: a missed distribution, a refusal to produce books and records, a unilateral decision that the operating agreement reserved for a vote. The first phase is usually document-driven. Before anyone files anything, the questions are what the governing agreement says about management, transfers, buyouts, and dispute resolution, and whether it requires mediation or arbitration before suit. An agreement with a mandatory arbitration clause sends the case to a private forum; one without it sends the case to circuit court.

Venue follows geography. A dispute centered in Palm Beach County is heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and one centered in Broward County is heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Disputes above the county court ceiling belong in circuit court, and a business case of any real size will land there. The Seventeenth Circuit also maintains complex business divisions that handle, among other things, the dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation, and a case can be filed directly into one of those divisions by following the circuit’s administrative order and submitting the required form at filing. Federal court is a possibility when the parties are from different states and the claim is large enough, and the Southern District of Florida sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach for cases that belong there.

After filing, expect a pleading phase, a motion practice phase that often includes challenges to the complaint or to the enforceability of an agreement’s terms, discovery centered on financial records and communications, then mediation. Many cases resolve at or after mediation, once each side has seen the other’s documents and the cost of trial becomes concrete. Cases that do not settle go to a bench or jury trial. The firm has taken matters through that full arc: after a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the court entered a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Business Litigation in Boca Raton

The Andrew M. 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, business divorces, and conflicts among 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. The firm serves clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and across Palm Beach and Broward Counties, as well as clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose business partners or co-owners are in South Florida.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, works alongside Mr. Schwartz and brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. The firm practices as a true legal team: everyone working on a matter knows the file, so a client who calls with a question reaches someone who can answer it. The firm keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court, handles local appearances for out of state clients so they do not need to travel for each hearing, and regularly receives referrals from other attorneys, including out of state counsel whose clients have Florida disputes. 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 for its own sake.

Types of Business and Real Estate Disputes We Handle

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together may face deadlocked management, valuation disputes, and competing buyout proposals. Resolution may come through a negotiated buyout, a sale, a wind-down, or a court-ordered remedy.
• Partnership, LLC Member, and Shareholder Disputes: Claims include breach of an operating or shareholder agreement, breach of fiduciary duty, and oppression of minority owners, often hinging on what the governing documents say about voting, transfers, and information rights.
• Family Business Conflicts: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children with different visions for it, and spouses or in-laws who share ownership face questions of control and compensation that carry personal weight alongside financial stakes.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements are enforced or defended based on precise language and the parties’ course of dealing.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, diverted company money, commingled accounts, and managers who cannot account for funds can support claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of the money.
• Partition Actions and Title Disputes: Co-owners of real estate, including former business partners, heirs, unmarried couples, and investors, may ask the court to divide or sell the property, and quiet title actions clear competing ownership claims.
• Failed Closings and Real Estate Contract Disputes: Purchase and sale disputes can result in claims for damages or for specific performance, which compels the sale to go forward.
• Temporary and Permanent Injunctions: Emergency relief can freeze assets, stop the removal of company funds, or protect real property while the case is pending.

Deadlines and Court Rules That Shape a Florida Business Case

Limitations periods decide whether a claim exists at all, so they deserve attention early. A lawsuit on a contract or obligation founded on a written instrument must be filed within five years. A claim on an oral or implied contract has four years. An action to rescind a contract also carries four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer limit of twelve years. A professional malpractice claim, whether framed in contract or tort, has a two-year period that runs from when the claim was or should have been discovered with due diligence, and negligence claims for causes of action accruing after the March 2023 amendments carry a two-year period rather than the former four. The 2023 changes did not alter the five-year written-contract period.

Specific performance of a real estate contract is on a much shorter clock: one year. A buyer or seller who believes a counterparty wrongfully walked away from a closing cannot wait the way a damages claimant can. Real property claims carry their own timing rules as well; Florida generally bars an action to recover land unless the plaintiff or a predecessor was in possession within seven years before suit, and adverse possession claims, with or without color of title, rest on seven years of continuous possession with additional recording and filing requirements.

For LLC disputes, Florida’s Revised LLC Act allows a member or manager to seek judicial dissolution on enumerated grounds: unlawful conduct of the company’s affairs, impracticability of carrying on activities under the articles and operating agreement, illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control, misappropriation or waste of assets causing injury, or a management deadlock that cannot be broken and threatens irreparable injury. The court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing with notice to the parties, or order a purchase of the petitioner’s interest instead of dissolving. An operating agreement with a deadlock sale mechanism that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds can displace judicial dissolution, which is one reason the written terms matter so much.

Corporations have a parallel framework. A shareholder petition for dissolution can be met by an election to purchase the petitioner’s shares at fair value, either by the corporation or by other shareholders. 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 corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days of the start of a proceeding that they may avoid dissolution by electing to buy, and an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. During these proceedings the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve assets.

What to Do Right Now When a Business Relationship Breaks Down

Start by collecting the documents that define the relationship: the operating agreement, shareholder agreement, partnership agreement, buy-sell terms, any amendments, and the formation filings. Then gather financial records you are entitled to access: bank statements, tax returns, ledgers, capital contribution records, and distribution histories. If you are locked out of company systems, do not guess at passwords or take records you have no right to take; an attorney can pursue them through proper channels and, where warranted, through a court order. Preserve emails, texts, and messages that show who agreed to what and when.

Do not assume that continuing to do business as usual is harmless. If funds are leaving the company or property is being encumbered, waiting can make recovery harder, and courts can grant emergency injunctive relief only when it is requested promptly and supported with evidence. At the same time, avoid retaliatory self-help: withholding your own contributions, moving accounts, or locking out a partner can create counterclaims. Check whether your agreement requires notice, mediation, or arbitration before suit, because filing in the wrong forum or skipping a required step costs time.

Consider where the case will be filed. A dispute tied to Palm Beach County is heard in circuit court in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, whose main courthouse is in West Palm Beach, with other courthouses serving the county, including a southern location in Delray Beach. A Broward County dispute goes to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, centered at the Central Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale, with regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. Real property cases are filed where the land sits, and a quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Mixed disputes involving both counties sometimes require a deliberate decision about venue, and an early consultation can settle that question before a filing locks it in.

A common mistake is treating a partition or quiet title action as a quick tool. Partition, for example, proceeds in chancery, requires a complaint describing the land and identifying the owners and their interests, and can involve court-appointed commissioners who report whether the property can be divided fairly. If division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction with proceeds divided in proportion to ownership. Where co-owned land passed down through family, Florida’s heirs property provisions can change how the case is handled, including requiring consideration of whether division in kind would prejudice the owners as a group.

Frequently Asked Questions About Business Litigation in Boca Raton

What does a business litigation attorney actually do?

A business litigation attorney represents owners, investors, and companies in disputes: reviewing agreements, advising on claims and defenses, negotiating, handling mediation or arbitration, seeking emergency relief, and trying cases in state or federal court when settlement is not possible.

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.

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

The period is five years for an action founded on a written instrument. Oral and implied contract claims are shorter, at four years, and a request for specific performance of a real estate contract must be brought within one year.

Can a court dissolve my LLC if my partner and I are deadlocked?

It can, when managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. The court may also appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a buyout of the petitioning member instead of dissolving, and a deadlock sale provision in your operating agreement may control if it is triggered first.

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 funds. If assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court can be asked for injunctive relief while the case proceeds.

Which court will hear my case, Palm Beach County or Broward County?

Generally the court where the defendant resides, where the contract was to be performed, or where the property sits. Palm Beach County cases go to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit and Broward County cases to the Seventeenth. Some larger business disputes in Broward may be eligible for the complex business division.

Do I have to litigate if my agreement has an arbitration clause?

If the clause covers your dispute and is enforceable, arbitration generally replaces a court trial. Whether a particular clause reaches your claims, and whether any steps such as mediation must come first, depends on the exact wording.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Do I need to come to Florida for every hearing?

No. The firm handles the local court appearances and proceedings for out of state clients and keeps them informed throughout, so travel is generally limited to events where your personal attendance is actually required.

How does a partition action differ from a quiet title action?

Partition divides jointly owned property or orders its sale so co-owners can separate. A quiet title action resolves competing ownership claims and removes clouds on title. They sometimes arise together, such as when heirs disagree about who owns what and what to do with the property.

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

Often yes. Early review of your agreement can reveal buyout rights, notice requirements, or deadlock provisions that determine your options, and an outside general counsel relationship can resolve questions before they become disputes.

Can a business dispute be resolved without a trial?

Many are. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration resolve a large share of business disputes, and the firm pursues the path most likely to reach your goals efficiently, while preparing every case as though it may be tried.

What if my claim involves a landlord or tenant issue in a commercial or residential lease?

Lease disputes follow their own notice rules. For residential tenancies, for example, nonpayment of rent allows termination after a three-day written demand, excluding weekends and court-observed holidays, while curable lease violations typically require a seven-day notice. Commercial leases are governed largely by their own terms, so the lease language drives the analysis.

Serving Boca Raton and South Florida Business Litigation Clients

The firm represents clients throughout Boca Raton, from the neighborhoods near the city center and the communities along Glades Road and Federal Highway to the residential areas west of the Turnpike. We also serve business owners and investors in nearby Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Highland Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coconut Creek, Parkland, and Coral Springs, as well as West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Wellington, and Lake Worth Beach across Palm Beach County. In Broward County, our work extends to Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Plantation, Sunrise, Hollywood, and Davie.

Many clients come from outside the region altogether. We regularly represent owners from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose companies, partners, or real estate interests are in South Florida, and we work with referring attorneys whose clients have disputes here. Whether the dispute involves a Palm Beach County commercial property, a Broward County operating company, or a co-owned investment that spans both, the same team follows the matter from the first review of documents through resolution.

Speak With a Boca Raton Business Litigation Lawyer

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty has put your company, your investment, or your property at risk, the choices you make in the first weeks often shape the rest of the case. A Boca Raton business litigation lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreements, explain which deadlines apply to your claims, and tell you plainly whether negotiation, mediation, or a court filing makes the most sense.

Call the firm to schedule a consultation. We answer the phone, and we return calls within 24 hours when we are in court.