Boynton Beach Family Business Dispute Attorney

The hardest part of a family business dispute is rarely the money; it is that the person on the other side of the table is also the person who taught you the trade, covered for you at Thanksgiving, or co-signed your first loan. The Boynton Beach family business dispute attorney team at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles disagreements among relatives and close friends who co-own companies, representing owners, investors, and families in Palm Beach County, Broward County, and across South Florida.

Those disputes tend to follow a recognizable arc. A parent steps back and a sibling takes over, or an inheritance leaves two brothers with equal shares and opposite plans. Salaries drift out of proportion to work performed, a relative’s spouse gets a vehicle on the company account, or one owner discovers that distributions stopped and nobody will explain why. Because the paperwork was often informal or never updated, the outcome frequently turns on what the written agreements actually say, how the family really operated, and what a Florida circuit court is empowered to do about it.

What follows is a practical look at how these disputes work under Florida law, what remedies are realistically available, and what to do in the first weeks after the relationship breaks down.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for a Family Business Dispute

The Andrew M. Its lead attorney, Andrew M. Schwartz, has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University and a law degree from the University of Miami. His career has been built around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is precisely the terrain a family company dispute occupies once the family relationship is stripped away and the ownership questions remain.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, adds years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on a matter knows the file, and it keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. For a family owner who is already dreading every conversation, being able to reach someone who actually knows the facts matters.

The firm also tries cases. After a 5-day bench trial, the Broward County Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That kind of record matters in family disputes, where the opposing side’s willingness to settle often depends on whether they believe your lawyer will actually walk into a courtroom. The firm is equally experienced in mediation and arbitration, and it looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. Discretion is part of the work: these cases carry emotional weight that ordinary commercial disputes do not, and the firm handles them accordingly while protecting the client’s financial position at every step.

Common Family Business Disputes We Handle in Boynton Beach

• Sibling Co-Owners Who Inherited a Company: When a founder dies and leaves equal shares to children with different visions, deadlock over management, salaries, and reinvestment is common. Florida law allows court-supervised remedies, including a buyout or dissolution, when owners cannot break the impasse.
• Parent and Child Control Conflicts: A founder who will not relinquish authority, or a successor who sidelines the founder, can trigger claims over management rights, compensation, and breach of the operating or shareholder agreement.
• Diverted or Unexplained Company Funds: Relatives who run the books sometimes mix personal and company spending. Claims can include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of funds, with emergency injunctive relief available when assets are being moved or spent.
• Minority Owner Freeze-Outs: A family member who holds a smaller stake may be cut off from distributions, information, or employment. Florida’s LLC and corporate statutes give minority owners specific tools to challenge oppressive or wasteful conduct.
• Spouses and In-Laws Holding Ownership: Divorce, remarriage, or a falling-out with an in-law can leave a non-family member holding company equity, raising valuation, buyout, and control questions the family never planned for.
• Family-Owned Real Estate Held Through an Entity or Jointly: Rental properties, commercial buildings, and investment parcels often sit in an LLC or in co-ownership. Disputes can lead to partition actions, quiet title claims, or landlord and tenant conflicts among relatives.
• Disputes Over Informal or Oral Arrangements: Many family businesses run on handshake deals. Whether a promise of equity or a buyout can be enforced depends on proof of the arrangement and on the applicable limitations period.
• Succession and Buyout Valuation Fights: When one relative wants out, the central question is often what the interest is worth and who decides, particularly where the agreement is silent or ambiguous.

What to Do in the First Weeks of a Family Ownership Conflict

Start by securing the paper. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, articles of organization or incorporation, any buy-sell terms, tax returns, bank statements, loan documents, and anything showing how profits and salaries were actually handled. In a family company the written agreement is sometimes thin or outdated, so correspondence, texts, and emails that show what the owners understood become unusually important. Preserve them, and resist the urge to confront a relative with accusations before you know what the records show.

Next, pay attention to time. Florida sets different deadlines depending on the claim. A claim on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, while a claim on an oral or implied agreement has four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to an outer cap of twelve years, and professional malpractice claims, including against an accountant or lawyer who handled company matters, carry a two-year period measured from when the problem was or should have been discovered. A request for specific performance has a one-year period. If a family member has been quietly treating real property as their own, there are separate rules about possession that can matter, so waiting out of loyalty can cost you rights.

Where company assets are at risk, speed matters more than politeness. Florida circuit courts can issue temporary injunctions and, in dissolution proceedings, appoint a receiver or custodian after notice to the parties and a hearing. These are tools for stopping money from leaving or property from being transferred while the case proceeds. If your dispute involves a Palm Beach County entity, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County, is the court that hears most circuit-level business matters; if the company or property is in Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit is the court, and it has a complex business division for larger business cases. Claims above the county court threshold belong in circuit court, and some disputes with diverse parties can reach the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Finally, be careful about what you do in the meantime. Do not lock a relative out of accounts, remove records, or move funds on your own without advice, because actions taken in anger can be characterized as the very misconduct you are complaining about. It is also worth thinking early about whether the goal is to keep the business alive, get bought out, or end it, because the right strategy differs for each, and an early consultation often clarifies which route is realistic.

How Florida Law Separates Owners Who Cannot Work Together

For an LLC, Florida’s statute gives a member or manager the right to ask the circuit court for dissolution on specific grounds. These include conducting all or substantially all of the company’s affairs unlawfully, a situation where it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business in line with the articles and operating agreement, controlling managers or members acting or being expected to act illegally or fraudulently, misappropriation or waste of assets that causes injury, and deadlock among managers or members that cannot be broken while irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. In such a proceeding, the court may appoint a receiver or custodian or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving the company. If the operating agreement contains a deadlock sale mechanism that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds exist, that mechanism generally takes the place of a dissolution order or a court-ordered purchase, so the exact wording of your agreement can decide the path.

For a corporation, the picture is similar but has its own features. A circuit court may dissolve a corporation or order another remedy, and a shareholder may bring a proceeding on statutory grounds, including where the business has been abandoned and the company has failed to liquidate and wind up within a reasonable time. Once a shareholder files on certain grounds, the corporation must give the other shareholders notice within 30 days 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 is filed, the court enters an order directing the purchase on those terms, and an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. During the case, the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve corporate assets. A shareholder agreement with a compliant deadlock sale provision remains available even after filing on certain grounds.

This buyout structure is why many family disputes resolve without a full dissolution. Dissolving a family company is a blunt instrument that destroys value for everyone, and Florida’s framework deliberately gives owners an alternative. The practical questions then become valuation, timing, and terms, and those are negotiated in the shadow of what a court would likely do.

When the Family Fight Reaches Real Estate

Family businesses in Boynton Beach and the surrounding area frequently hold property, whether a commercial building, rental units, or land passed down to several relatives. When co-owners cannot agree on whether to sell, rent, or keep a property, Florida law allows an owner to ask the court for partition. Partition actions are heard in the court’s equity side, and the complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. If the court finds division cannot be done fairly, it may order the property sold at public auction and the proceeds divided in proportion to ownership.

Inherited property gets special treatment. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, where the property is held as tenants in common, there is no binding agreement among all cotenants governing partition, some cotenants acquired title from a relative, and further conditions are met, including that twenty percent or more of the interests are held by relatives. When property qualifies, it must be handled under that Act’s procedures unless every cotenant agrees otherwise, and a court will not order partition in kind unless it finds that doing so would not unfairly prejudice the cotenants as a group. These protections can change how a sale proceeds and give relatives who want to keep the property a path to do so.

Title can also be the dispute. If a relative holds a deed, conveyance, or recorded instrument that clouds your ownership, a quiet title action asks the court to determine ownership and remove the cloud. Plaintiffs must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise, and a quiet title case can be filed in any county where part of the land lies. These cases often arise when property was moved between family members or entities without clear documentation.

Questions About Family Business Disputes in Boynton Beach

Can a family member be forced out of a family-owned LLC?

It depends on the operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides remedies for serious misconduct or when a company can no longer function. Family ties do not change those rules, but an attorney needs to read your specific agreement before advising on what is realistic.

What if there is no written operating or shareholder agreement?

Florida’s default statutory rules then fill the gaps, and the case often depends on how the owners actually behaved, along with emails, texts, tax filings, and bank records. A missing agreement makes proof more important, and it can also affect which limitations period applies, since written and oral contract claims have different deadlines.

How long do I have to file a lawsuit over a family business dispute?

A claim on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, and a claim on an oral or implied agreement within four. Fraud claims run four years from discovery with a twelve-year outer limit, and claims for specific performance have only one year. Because the right period depends on the claim, you should have your facts reviewed promptly rather than assume you have time.

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

Possible claims include 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 order injunctive relief while the case is pending, and in a dissolution proceeding it may appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing.

Do we have to go to court, or can we mediate?

Many family disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, particularly when owners want to preserve the business or the relationship. The firm is experienced in alternative dispute resolution as well as litigation, and it pursues the route most likely to meet your goals efficiently.

Can the company be dissolved if my siblings and I are deadlocked?

For an LLC, Florida allows a court to dissolve it when managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. The court may instead appoint a receiver or order a buyout, and a deadlock sale provision in your operating agreement can take priority if it was initiated in time.

How is a family member’s ownership interest valued in a buyout?

Under Florida’s corporate statute, a buyout election in a dissolution proceeding is at fair value, and 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. Where they do not agree, valuation becomes a contested issue that commonly involves financial experts, and the agreement itself may specify a method.

What happens if a relative and I co-own the building the business operates from?

Co-owners who cannot agree can ask the court for partition, which may divide the property or order a sale with proceeds shared by ownership interest. If the property was inherited and meets the statutory definition of heirs property, additional procedural protections apply before a forced sale.

I live in New York or New Jersey but own part of a family company here. Can you help?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who have business or real estate interests in South Florida. The firm handles the local court appearances and keeps you informed, so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer if the family business is small?

Often yes, because small family companies tend to have the loosest paperwork and the most room for misunderstanding, and early advice can prevent a dispute from hardening into litigation. Cost-effectiveness matters to the firm; the goal is a solution that makes financial sense rather than fees that outweigh the amount at stake.

Can another attorney refer a family business matter to your firm?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes. The firm communicates with referring counsel throughout and respects that attorney’s relationship with the client.

Serving Family Business Dispute Clients Across Palm Beach and Broward Counties

From Boynton Beach, our team represents family business owners throughout Palm Beach County, including Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Lantana, Lake Worth Beach, Greenacres, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and Riviera Beach. We also work with clients in Highland Beach, Ocean Ridge, Manalapan, Palm Springs, and the surrounding communities that make up the southern and central parts of the county.

Our reach continues south into Broward County, where we serve owners in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Hollywood, and neighboring communities. Whether the company, the property, or the relatives involved are in Palm Beach or Broward, and whether the owner lives locally or in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, we handle the court proceedings and keep clients informed from first consultation to resolution.

Speak With a Boynton Beach Family Business Attorney Today

If a relative or longtime friend has become an adversary in your company, the sooner your facts are reviewed, the more options you tend to have, from a negotiated buyout to emergency court relief. A Boynton Beach family business attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can read your agreements, assess the deadlines that apply, and explain what a realistic outcome looks like. Call to schedule a consultation and talk through where things stand.