Coral Springs Family Business Dispute Attorney

Coral Springs families who built a company together often reach a point where the next move is no longer obvious: stay in the business and fight over control, negotiate an exit, or ask a court to step in. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles each of those paths, representing business owners, investors, and families in partnership, LLC, and shareholder disputes across Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the rest of South Florida.

A Coral Springs family business dispute attorney is usually brought in when the relationship problem and the legal problem have become the same problem. Siblings who inherited a company cannot agree on salaries. A parent and an adult child want opposite futures for the business. A spouse or in-law holds a membership interest and a vote. Each situation calls for decisions that are hard to reverse: whether to demand an accounting, whether to seek a buyout, whether to ask for a receiver, whether to wait.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Coral Springs and the surrounding communities of Broward County and Palm Beach County, along with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests in South Florida. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation, with a career built around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has litigated in Florida since then. 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 matters in a family dispute because the same conflict can touch a corporate governance fight, a real estate title question, and a contract claim at once, and sometimes the right forum is federal rather than state.

The firm practices as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on a matter knows the file and can answer when you call. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. The firm also uses mediation and arbitration where they fit, and its stated approach is to find the resolution that serves the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake. In a family dispute, where the parties may still need to sit at the same holiday table, that restraint is often worth as much as courtroom skill.

On the litigation side, the firm’s recent record includes a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court that produced a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Referrals from other attorneys are also a significant part of the practice, which tends to reflect how other lawyers view the work.

Disputes That Commonly Split Family-Owned Companies

• Deadlock Between Co-Owners: Two siblings each hold half and cannot agree on a major decision. Florida’s LLC statute lists deadlock as a ground for judicial dissolution when the owners cannot break it and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or already happening.
• Missing or Diverted Funds: A family member managing the books cannot explain where money went, or distributions stop reaching some owners. Remedies include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and recovery of the funds.
• Minority Owners Frozen Out: A child or in-law with a small stake is cut off from information, meetings, or distributions. Operating agreements, shareholder agreements, and fiduciary duties determine what the controlling owners may do.
• Inherited Ownership: Siblings receive shares or membership interests at a parent’s death with no agreement on management, compensation, or exit. These are among the hardest cases because there is often no governing document that anticipated the conflict.
• Succession Fights: Parents and adult children disagree on who runs the company and what a fair price for a transfer looks like. Valuation disputes tend to dominate.
• Jointly Owned Real Estate: Family members co-own a building or investment property and one wants out. Partition under Chapter 64 and quiet title actions are the court-based tools, and heirs property rules can apply when relatives took title from a family member.
• Breach of Operating or Shareholder Agreements: Buy-sell clauses, transfer restrictions, and deadlock provisions are enforced by their wording, so these cases turn on close reading of the document and the family’s history of dealing under it.
• Emergency Asset Protection: When property or money is about to be moved or spent, temporary and permanent injunctions can freeze the situation while the case proceeds.

The Decisions You Face First, and What Each One Costs

The first decision is whether you want to keep the business, leave it, or sell it. That sounds obvious, but many family owners open a dispute without answering it, and the answer shapes everything else. A client who wants to stay in needs a strategy built around governance, access to records, and protecting value. A client who wants out needs a path to a buyout or dissolution. Pursuing the wrong goal wastes money and can damage a position that was strong.

The second decision is whether to look for a negotiated outcome before filing. In a family company, a buyout negotiated through counsel or a mediator often preserves more value than a contested trial, and it avoids putting private family finances into a public court file. But negotiation works best when you hold real leverage, which usually means knowing what the books show and what your agreement permits. Rushing into talks without that information tends to produce a poor price.

The third decision is whether to ask for emergency relief. If a family member is moving money or encumbering property, waiting for a final judgment may mean there is nothing left to recover. Florida courts can issue injunctions and, in dissolution proceedings, appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. These are serious steps with a real cost in family relations, so the question is whether the risk of waiting outweighs that cost.

The fourth decision is how to treat an existing buyout or deadlock provision. Florida’s LLC statute gives effect to a deadlock sale provision in an operating agreement if it is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds exist, in place of a judicial dissolution order. For corporations, filing a dissolution action on certain grounds does not take away a shareholder’s right to use a compliant deadlock sale provision in a shareholder agreement. Sequencing matters, which is why the agreement should be read before anything is filed.

What to Do Now if a Family Business Dispute Is Underway

Start by collecting the documents that define the relationship: the articles of organization or incorporation, the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any buy-sell agreement, tax returns, bank statements, financial statements, and any written communications about compensation, distributions, or control. If you are a member or shareholder, you may have statutory and contractual rights to inspect company records, and a request made early often reveals more than a lawsuit would.

Do not move company money, change account access, or lock a relative out of the premises on your own. Those steps can be characterized as the very misconduct you may later complain about, and they hand the other side a counterclaim. Likewise, avoid long text and email arguments with family members about the dispute; they become evidence.

Pay attention to time limits, because they differ by claim type. A claim founded on a written contract, such as an operating agreement, generally must be brought within five years. A contract claim not founded on a written instrument has four years. A fraud claim has four years from discovery, with an outer limit of twelve years. An action for specific performance carries a one-year period. Professional malpractice claims, including against an accountant or lawyer who advised the company, are two years from when the claim was or should have been discovered. Family members often wait years hoping the problem resolves, and that waiting can quietly consume a claim.

On venue, a Coral Springs dispute is generally heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Claims above the county court ceiling are filed in circuit court. Broward also has complex business divisions within its circuit civil system that handle matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation, and a case can be directed there under the circuit’s administrative order. If the property or the parties span county lines, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County may be involved, and the federal Southern District of Florida holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach when a federal basis exists. A quiet title complaint may be filed in any county where part of the land sits.

Judicial Dissolution, Buyouts, and Court-Ordered Remedies in Florida

When owners cannot resolve a dispute, Florida’s statutes give the court several tools. For an LLC, a member or manager can seek dissolution on specific grounds: activities are being conducted unlawfully; it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the articles and operating agreement; controlling managers or members have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently; assets are being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury; or owners are deadlocked with irreparable injury threatened or suffered. Within that proceeding, a court can appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

For a corporation, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation, or if it does not act, one or more shareholders, may elect to buy 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 enters an order directing the purchase on those terms. An election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. Within 30 days after a dissolution proceeding begins, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they may avoid dissolution by electing to buy. During the case, the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and act to preserve corporate assets.

Real estate held by family members raises its own track. A partition action in chancery asks the court to divide the property or, if division would prejudice the owners, order a sale with proceeds shared by interest. A complaint must describe the land, name the owners, and state each owner’s share. The court appoints three commissioners to evaluate whether division is workable. If the property qualifies as heirs property, meaning cotenants hold it in a tenancy in common, at least one acquired title from a relative, and a further statutory condition applies such as twenty percent or more of the interests being held by relatives, the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies, and the court must follow its process, which favors protecting family owners from a forced auction. Partition in kind requires findings by the commissioners about prejudice to the cotenants as a group.

Questions Coral Springs Families Ask About Business Disputes

What is a family business dispute, legally?

There is no separate category in Florida law. It is a business divorce, partnership dispute, or LLC or shareholder conflict in which the owners happen to be related. The legal claims are the same as in any other ownership fight, including breach of an operating or shareholder agreement, breach of fiduciary duty, accounting, and dissolution, but the handling is usually more sensitive.

Can a court force the sale or breakup of a family company?

In some circumstances, yes. A court can order judicial dissolution of an LLC or corporation on statutory grounds such as deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation of assets, or illegal conduct by those in control. A buyout election can let one side keep the company by purchasing the other’s interest at fair value instead.

My brother runs the company and will not show me the books. What can I do?

Depending on your role and the entity, you may have statutory and contractual rights to inspect records. If a request is refused, you may have grounds for a court action seeking access or an accounting. Which rights apply depends on your agreement and your status as a member, manager, or shareholder.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

It depends on the claim. A claim on a written contract generally has five years, an oral or implied contract claim has four, fraud has four years from discovery with a twelve year cap, and professional malpractice has two years from discovery. Specific performance has a one-year period. Because these are different, a single dispute can involve several clocks at once.

Can I stop a relative from moving company money while the case is pending?

Possibly. Florida courts can issue temporary injunctions to prevent assets from being moved or spent, and in dissolution proceedings they can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing with notice to the parties. Whether a court will grant relief depends on the evidence.

What if our operating agreement has a deadlock or buy-sell clause?

Those clauses can control the outcome. A deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds exist may apply in place of a dissolution order. The wording, the notice requirements, and the valuation mechanics all matter, so have the document reviewed before taking any step.

Do we have to go to court?

No. Many disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and the firm has experience in each. Court becomes necessary when there is no agreement, when emergency relief is needed, or when the other side will not engage.

We co-own a building as relatives and one of us wants out. Can that be forced?

Often, yes, through partition. A co-owner generally has a right to ask the court to divide the property or order its sale. If the property is heirs property, additional protections and a different process apply, including factors the court must consider before a sale.

Which court would hear my case?

For a Coral Springs company, most disputes above the county court ceiling go to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Broward’s complex business divisions can handle large business disputes and certain entity dissolutions. Cases touching Palm Beach County property may go to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and federal court is available only when there is a federal basis for jurisdiction.

I live in New York or New Jersey but own part of a Florida family company. Can I still pursue this?

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

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a smaller company?

Often the earlier a lawyer reads the governing documents, the more options you keep. In a small family company the cost of a prolonged fight can exceed the value at stake, which is why the firm looks for resolutions that match the client’s goals and budget rather than escalating by default.

Serving Family Business Owners Across Coral Springs and South Florida

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents family business owners in Coral Springs and the neighboring Broward County communities of Parkland, Margate, Tamarac, Coconut Creek, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Plantation, Sunrise, Weston, Davie, Hollywood, and Fort Lauderdale. Broward courts are the usual forum for these disputes, and the firm handles matters throughout Broward County.

The firm also serves clients across Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and West Palm Beach, where family companies and jointly held real estate frequently cross county lines. Clients who live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut but own business or property interests here are served as well, with the firm handling the Florida proceedings on their behalf. Whether the dispute is a deadlocked LLC, a siblings’ fight over an inherited company, a missing funds claim, or a partition of a family-owned property, the work is the same: resolve it on terms that protect what the client built.

Talk With a Coral Springs Family Business Attorney Before the Dispute Hardens

If a family company in Coral Springs is stuck in a standoff over control, money, or exit, the choices you make in the first few weeks often set the course of everything that follows. A Coral Springs family business attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your governing documents, explain which Florida remedies fit your facts, and lay out a path that fits your goals and your budget. Call to schedule a consultation.