Cooper City Contract Litigation Attorney

A contract dispute usually ends one of three ways: the other side performs what they promised, you recover the money the breach cost you, or a court compels the deal to close. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Cooper City and the rest of Broward County, along with Palm Beach County and greater South Florida, and it pursues those outcomes for business owners, investors, and families whose agreements have been broken. Hiring a Cooper City contract litigation attorney makes the most difference when the written terms are clear on paper but the other party is acting as if they are not.

Most contract fights that reach a lawyer’s office have a recognizable shape. A buyer walks away from a closing, a partner stops honoring an operating agreement, a lender or landlord reads a clause in a way that was never discussed, or a contractor abandons a job after being paid. The money at stake can be a deposit, a stream of distributions, the value of a company, or a piece of commercial property that cannot be replaced by a damages check.

Florida sets firm filing windows for these claims, and some of them are much shorter than people expect. A claim that depends on a written agreement and a claim that depends on a handshake are treated differently, and a request to force someone to perform is on a clock of its own. Reading the agreement, the correspondence, and the payment history early is what lets a case be built around the strongest remedy rather than the most obvious one.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Contract Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida’s difficult business and real estate disputes, with clients in Cooper City, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Complex contract litigation has been at the center of founder Andrew M. Schwartz’s work across 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. Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of business and real estate experience in 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 when the attorneys are in court. Andrew Schwartz’s stated view is that clients often start out wanting the most aggressive lawyer available, but what they usually want is someone who acts as the situation requires, uses finesse when finesse will do, and keeps legal fees proportionate to what is at stake. The firm is experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and it looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget.

After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That outcome required proving the contract terms, the other side’s refusal to perform, and the client’s own readiness to close, which is the work contract litigation demands.

Contract Disputes We Handle for Cooper City Businesses and Property Owners

• Purchase and Sale Agreements: Failed closings, disputed deposits, financing and inspection contingency fights, and sellers who try to back out after a better offer arrives. When the property is unique, the remedy may be an order compelling the sale rather than money damages.
• Operating and Shareholder Agreements: Breaches of buyout provisions, transfer restrictions, management rights, and profit allocation among LLC members and shareholders, often tied to a broader business divorce.
• Commercial Leases: Rent and common-area charge disputes, personal guaranty exposure, improper termination, and tenant improvement obligations between landlords and business tenants.
• Loan and Financing Documents: Default and acceleration disputes, guaranty enforcement, and disagreements over how payments were applied or what a lender was entitled to demand.
• Construction and Renovation Contracts: Abandoned projects, defective work, change-order disputes, and nonpayment between owners, contractors, and subcontractors on commercial and residential jobs.
• Unpaid Distributions and Diverted Funds: Contract claims that overlap with breach of fiduciary duty, accounting demands, and recovery of company money that was commingled or moved without authority.
• Covenants and Restrictive Terms: Disputes over non-competition, confidentiality, and exclusivity provisions, where early injunctive relief can matter more than a later damages award.
• Oral and Course-of-Dealing Agreements: Business arrangements built on emails, texts, and years of performance rather than a single signed document, where proving the terms is the central fight.

What to Do When the Other Side Breaches Your Agreement

Start by assembling the full paper trail before you send a single angry message. That means the signed agreement and every amendment, the emails and texts that discuss performance, invoices, payment records, bank statements, and any notice of default already exchanged. Contract cases are won on documents, and a careless message sent in frustration can later be read as a waiver or an admission. Many agreements also require written notice and a cure period before a breach can be asserted, so a contract lawyer in Cooper City should read the notice provisions before you declare anyone in default.

Know your deadlines. Florida gives five years to sue on a contract founded on a written instrument and four years for an oral or implied contract. A suit to rescind a contract also has a four-year window. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, with an outer cap of twelve years. A suit asking a court to compel performance carries a one-year period, which is the one people most often miss when they spend months negotiating. Claims against professionals, such as a malpractice theory founded on contract, run two years from when the claim was or should have been discovered.

If money or property is at risk of disappearing, say so immediately. Florida courts can issue temporary and permanent injunctions, and when assets are being moved or spent while a dispute is pending, early emergency relief is often the most valuable step in the case. Waiting for a demand letter to be answered can cost the very asset you are trying to protect.

Where the case is filed depends on the amount and the parties. County court hears civil claims up to a jurisdictional ceiling that is adjusted periodically, and the circuit court hears everything above it. Cooper City sits in Broward County, so circuit cases are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. That circuit has a complex business division that handles large business and construction disputes, and a case can be filed directly into it under the circuit’s administrative order. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, may be an option when the parties are from different states and the amount in controversy qualifies, which comes up with out-of-state owners and investors.

The most common mistakes are missing the notice-and-cure steps, continuing to perform on terms the other side has already repudiated without reserving rights, letting a short deadline run during settlement talks, and deleting messages that later turn out to prove the deal. A Cooper City business contract attorney can sort out which of these risks apply before positions harden.

Remedies a Court Can Order in a Contract Case

Money damages are the default remedy, covering the losses that flow from the breach, and many agreements add a clause shifting attorney fees to the winning side. Damages fall short when the thing contracted for cannot be replaced. For land and for a closely held business interest, a court sitting in equity can order specific performance, which forces the breaching party to do what the contract required. The firm’s trial win in Broward County Circuit Court on a commercial real estate contract is an example of exactly that remedy.

Other remedies include rescission, which unwinds a deal when it was procured by fraud or fundamentally defeated, an accounting when money has been handled by the party who owed you a duty, and injunctions that freeze a transaction or stop prohibited conduct while the case proceeds. When the underlying agreement governs a company, a contract breach can also support a request for judicial dissolution or a buyout. For an LLC, Florida allows dissolution when owners are deadlocked and the company faces irreparable injury, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when it is not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. The court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order one side to purchase the other’s interest. An operating agreement with a deadlock sale provision that is properly initiated can displace the court-ordered route, so the wording of that clause matters a great deal.

When a Contract Dispute Involves Real Property

Contract fights frequently end up as property fights. A buyer’s claim to a parcel can collide with a competing claim of ownership, and Florida’s quiet title statute lets a court cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title that clouds ownership. The plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise, and the case may be filed in any county where part of the land sits. When co-owners cannot agree on what to do with shared property, partition is the remedy: the court may divide the land or, if division would prejudice the owners, order a sale at public auction and split the proceeds in proportion to their interests. Properties passed down among relatives can fall under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which adds protections for family cotenants.

Cooper City Contract Litigation Questions, Answered

How long do I have to file a breach of contract lawsuit in Florida?

Five years for a claim founded on a written contract and four years for an oral or implied one. Other theories that often accompany a contract case have different clocks, so each claim should be checked separately.

What is the deadline to ask a court to force someone to perform a contract?

An action for specific performance carries a one-year limitations period in Florida. Because it is so much shorter than the contract period, it should be evaluated first, especially in real estate deals.

Can I recover my attorney fees in a contract case?

Only if the contract or a statute provides for fees. Many commercial agreements contain a prevailing-party clause, and a lawyer should review yours before you decide whether suing makes economic sense.

What is the difference between damages and specific performance?

Damages pay you for the loss caused by the breach. Specific performance orders the other side to do what they promised, which courts reserve mainly for situations like land sales where money cannot substitute for the thing bargained for.

Which court will hear my case?

Smaller claims go to county court, and claims above the county court ceiling go to the circuit court. For Cooper City, that means the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County. Large business disputes can be directed to its complex business division, and some cases qualify for federal court.

Does every contract dispute end up in a trial?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and some contracts require arbitration before any lawsuit can be filed. The firm handles both the alternative dispute resolution track and courtroom litigation.

My partner and I only had an oral agreement. Is it enforceable?

Often yes, though certain categories of agreements must be in writing to be enforced. The practical difficulty is proof, which usually comes from texts, emails, payment patterns, and witnesses.

The other party lives out of state. Can I still sue in Broward County?

It depends on where the contract was made or performed, the forum clause in the agreement, and whether the defendant has enough connection to Florida. A forum selection or governing law clause can settle the question quickly, so check it first.

What if I already breached part of the contract myself?

That does not necessarily end your claim. A court looks at whether your breach was material and whether the other side’s breach came first. Raising it with your attorney early is far better than having it surface in the other side’s answer.

Can a contract breach lead to dissolving a company?

It can, when the breach is part of deadlock, misappropriated assets, or conduct that makes it impractical to operate under the governing agreement. Florida’s dissolution statutes for LLCs and corporations also allow a buyout to be ordered as an alternative to dissolution.

What happens if I win a judgment but the defendant will not pay?

A Florida judgment can be enforced for twenty years. Collection tools include liens and post-judgment discovery into the debtor’s assets, which is why tracing and preserving assets early in the case matters.

I have an agreement with a Florida company but live in New York or New Jersey. Do I have to travel?

Not for every hearing. The firm represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed at every stage.

Serving Contract Litigation Clients Across Cooper City and South Florida

The firm represents clients in Cooper City and the neighboring Broward County communities of Davie, Pembroke Pines, Hollywood, Southwest Ranches, Weston, Miramar, Plantation, Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, and Pembroke Park. Moving north, we serve business owners and property investors in Coral Springs, Parkland, Coconut Creek, Margate, Pompano Beach, and Deerfield Beach, and in Palm Beach County we represent clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, and West Palm Beach.

Contract disputes in these communities involve everything from retail and medical office leases to development agreements, closely held family companies, and investment property owned by people who live in the Northeast.

Speak With a Cooper City Contract Litigation Attorney

When a contract has been breached and the clock is running, the first conversation should happen before positions harden and before a deadline passes. A Cooper City contract litigation attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreement, tell you which remedies fit the facts, and explain what the case is likely to cost relative to what is at stake. Call the firm to schedule a consultation about your dispute.