Delray Beach Family Business Dispute Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents family business owners, co-owners who are relatives, and heirs who share a company or property in Delray Beach and throughout Palm Beach County, along with clients in Broward County and across South Florida. A Delray Beach family business dispute attorney is often called in when siblings who inherited a company cannot agree on who runs it, when a parent and a grown child disagree about succession, or when one relative suspects another of drawing money out of the business without accounting for it.

These disputes rarely stay contained to the business. A fight over compensation becomes a fight over a parent’s estate; a disagreement about selling the company becomes a question of who gets to stay at Thanksgiving. The legal tools are the same ones used in any ownership dispute, such as claims under an operating or shareholder agreement, fiduciary duty claims, accountings, buyouts, and judicial dissolution, but the way they are used differs when the people across the table are family. The goal is usually a result that stops the damage to the company and to the family’s finances, and that is reached without turning every relative into a witness.

Where Family Ownership Disputes Actually Break Down

Most family business conflicts trace back to something that was never written down, or was written down once and then ignored. A company is started on a handshake, ownership percentages shift as relatives come and go, and no one revisits the operating agreement or shareholder agreement until a crisis forces the issue. At that point the documents, and the history of how the family actually behaved, decide what each person is entitled to.

Florida’s limitations periods matter here because family disputes tend to simmer for years. A claim founded on a written instrument, such as an operating agreement or a signed buyout note, generally carries a five-year period. A claim on an oral or implied agreement carries four years, which is a real problem in the many family businesses that run on understandings rather than paper. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, with an outer cap of twelve years. A suit seeking specific performance of a contract has just one year. Waiting to see whether a relative will make things right can quietly consume the time available to act.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Palm Beach County, Broward County, and South Florida, including Delray Beach, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. The firm represents business owners, investors, and families in partnership disputes, business divorces, complex contract litigation, partition actions, and real estate disputes, and it also represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests here. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, 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, and his work has centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases 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, and it keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy. Our attorneys handle mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, which matters in family cases because a negotiated resolution is often the only outcome that leaves the relationship, or at least the business, intact.

On the litigation side, the firm’s record includes a Broward County Circuit Court final judgment, issued in May 2024 after a five-day bench trial, awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That result reflects the kind of document-driven, trial-ready preparation that family disputes also demand, since they often turn on the exact wording of an agreement and the parties’ course of dealing. The firm also serves as outside general counsel and registered agent for business clients, which means a family company can have its agreements and governance reviewed before a disagreement hardens into a lawsuit.

Types of Family Business Conflicts We Handle

• Sibling Co-Owners Who Inherited a Company: Heirs often receive equal shares without equal involvement, producing fights over salaries, distributions, and whether the working sibling is owed more than the passive one.
• Parent and Child Succession Conflicts: A founder who will not step back, or a child who assumed control was promised, can leave management deadlocked and the company’s direction unresolved.
• Spouses and In-Laws as Owners: Divorce, death, or estrangement can put a former spouse or a son-in-law in the position of co-owner with relatives who never wanted them there.
• Missing or Diverted Company Funds: Unpaid distributions, personal expenses run through the business, commingled accounts, and relatives who cannot account for money support claims for an accounting and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Buyouts and Valuation Disputes: When one relative wants out, the price is rarely agreed on; the shareholder or operating agreement and the statutory buyout mechanisms shape how fair value gets set.
• Judicial Dissolution of an LLC or Corporation: When the business cannot function, Florida law allows a court to dissolve it on defined grounds, including deadlock, misappropriation of assets, and impracticability under the operating agreement.
• Family-Owned Real Estate: Rental properties, commercial buildings, and inherited homes held by relatives can end up in a partition action or title dispute when owners disagree about selling or managing them.
• Emergency Injunctions: When assets are being moved or spent, or a relative is locking others out of the company, temporary injunctive relief can freeze the situation while the case proceeds.

What to Do When a Relative Is Your Business Problem

Start by collecting the documents that define who owns what: the articles of organization or incorporation, the operating or shareholder agreement and every amendment, buyout or promissory notes, capital contribution records, tax returns, and the company’s bank and accounting records. Many family businesses never formalized much, so also preserve emails, texts, and anything showing how the owners actually split profits and responsibilities. Those records often carry as much weight as the paper agreement. Avoid the temptation to confront the relative first or to move money to protect yourself; actions that look like self-dealing can undercut your own claims later.

Next, look at the deadlines. Because the periods run from four years for oral agreements to five for written ones, and just one year for specific performance, an attorney should review the timeline early. If funds are being diverted or a property is about to be sold or encumbered, the question is not only whether you have a claim but whether you need emergency relief now. Florida courts can issue injunctions and, in dissolution proceedings, can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing in which the parties are notified, and can order a buyout of a petitioning member’s interest.

These cases in Palm Beach County are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County; disputes above the county court ceiling go to circuit court, which is where most business and ownership disputes land. Delray Beach has a South County Courthouse in the city, though many matters are assigned elsewhere in the circuit, and the main courthouse is in West Palm Beach. If the company or property is in Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit handles the case, and it maintains a complex business division that takes dissolutions of certain business entities and larger business litigation. Federal claims or diversity cases involving out-of-state owners may belong in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, among other locations.

Buyouts, Dissolution, and Partition: How Courts Separate Family Owners

When relatives can no longer co-own a company, Florida law offers several exits, and the agreement itself comes first. If an operating agreement contains a deadlock sale provision that is properly initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds, that provision controls over a judicial dissolution order. Absent such a clause, a member of an LLC may petition for dissolution on specific grounds, including that the company’s activities cannot reasonably be carried on under the operating agreement, that controlling members are acting illegally or fraudulently, that assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or that managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek dissolution under similar principles, and the statute gives the other shareholders or the corporation a chance to avoid dissolution by electing to buy out the petitioner at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms, and an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. The corporation must notify the other shareholders of that buyout option within 30 days of the proceeding being filed. During the case, the court may issue injunctions and appoint a receiver or custodian to preserve assets and keep the business operating.

Real estate held by relatives follows a different path. Partition actions are brought in chancery under Chapter 64, and the complaint must describe the land, name the owners, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners to evaluate it; if the land cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction and divide the proceeds by ownership interest. Where family members inherited property together, Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can apply, and it adds protections, including a requirement that commissioners weigh specified factors before partition in kind is entered. Competing claims of title are resolved in a separate quiet title action, and a plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years.

Questions Families Ask About Business Disputes

Can I force a family member out of our LLC?

It depends first on the operating agreement, which may include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions. Florida law also provides judicial remedies for serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function, but a family tie does not by itself give anyone the right to push out a co-owner.

What if there is no written operating or shareholder agreement?

Then Florida’s default statutory rules and the owners’ actual conduct fill the gap. A claim based on an oral or implied agreement carries a four-year limitations period rather than five, so documenting the history and acting promptly matters even more.

My sibling is taking money from the company. What can I do?

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of funds. If assets are being moved or spent, a court can issue emergency injunctive relief to preserve them while the case is pending.

Does every family dispute have to end up in court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and the firm’s attorneys have experience in all three. A negotiated buyout or structured wind-down often costs less and preserves more of the relationship than a trial.

How does judicial dissolution of a family LLC work?

A member can petition the circuit court on statutory grounds such as deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriation of assets, or that the business cannot practicably operate under its agreement. The court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioner’s interest instead of dissolving.

What happens if the shareholders want to buy me out instead of dissolving?

In a corporate dissolution proceeding, the corporation or other shareholders may elect to purchase 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 that purchase.

Can a deadlock clause in our agreement override a lawsuit?

Yes, in many cases. If the agreement contains a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court determines that deadlock grounds exist, that provision applies in place of a dissolution order, provided it is then carried out.

We inherited a rental property with our cousins. Can one of us force a sale?

A co-owner can bring a partition action, and a court may divide the property or order it sold with proceeds split by ownership share. If the property qualifies as heirs property, the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act adds procedural protections, and the court cannot enter a partition in kind unless commissioners found it would prejudice the owners as a group.

I live in New Jersey and my brother runs our Palm Beach County company. Can you handle 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 proceedings, and keeps clients informed without requiring travel for every hearing.

Which court will hear a family business case if the company is in Palm Beach County?

Most business ownership disputes above the county court ceiling are filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, in and for Palm Beach County. Small claims and lower-value county court cases are handled separately, and some cases with out-of-state parties can be brought in federal court.

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

Often yes, because small family companies tend to have the least documentation and the most blurred lines between personal and company money. An early review can clarify what you own, what claims are time-limited, and whether a negotiated buyout is realistic before positions harden.

Can a lawsuit against a relative be handled discreetly?

The firm approaches family disputes with discretion while still protecting the client’s financial interests, and many are resolved through mediation or direct negotiation rather than public trial. Court filings are generally public, so the strategy for a given case should weigh that early.

Serving Delray Beach and Family Business Clients Across South Florida

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents family business owners in Delray Beach and throughout Palm Beach County, from Boynton Beach, Highland Beach, and Boca Raton to Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Greenacres, and Wellington. We also work with clients in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Royal Palm Beach, and Belle Glade, as well as businesses and families in Broward County communities such as Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Hollywood, and Coral Springs.

Many of our clients live outside Florida, including in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but own a business, an investment property, or a share of real estate in South Florida with relatives or partners who are local. Whether the company sits in a Delray Beach storefront, a Boca Raton office, or a commercial building in Fort Lauderdale, the firm handles the Florida filings and hearings and keeps out-of-state owners informed at each stage.

Speak With a Delray Beach Family Business Attorney

If a relative who co-owns your company is withholding information, diverting funds, or refusing to negotiate an exit, the choices you make in the next few weeks can shape what you recover. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreements, explain which deadlines apply, and tell you candidly whether the better path is a buyout, mediation, or a court filing. Call to schedule a consultation with a Delray Beach family business attorney who treats the family as seriously as the balance sheet.