Fort Lauderdale Breach of Contract Attorney

A breach of contract dispute in Broward County can land in one of several places: a county civil court for claims at the lower end, a circuit court for larger ones, or the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit’s complex business division when the dispute involves an operating agreement, a construction project, or a failed commercial deal. Where a case is filed, and how fast it is filed, shapes everything that follows. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for clients in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and Palm Beach County, and a Fort Lauderdale breach of contract attorney from our firm can tell you which forum fits your dispute and which deadline is already running.

Most contract fights are won or lost on two things: the exact words of the agreement and the record of how the parties behaved afterward. A purchase agreement with a vague closing condition, a commercial lease with a poorly drafted default clause, or an operating agreement that says nothing about a departing member each produce different arguments and different remedies. Before filing anything, the first job is to work out what the contract actually required, what was actually done, and what the other side’s best defense will be.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida business and real estate disputes, serving Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and communities throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Schwartz’s work through 37 years in litigation. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989, and has practiced litigation in Florida since admission.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, works alongside him with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That matters in Fort Lauderdale, where a contract dispute may belong in Broward circuit court or, depending on the parties and the claims, in federal court. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on your matter knows the file, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when an attorney is in court.

Contract results are the best evidence of how a firm handles these cases. After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the firm’s client received a 32-page final judgment awarding specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Winning an order that forces the other side to actually perform, rather than just pay damages, takes careful proof of the agreement, the client’s own readiness to perform, and the other side’s refusal. Our attorneys are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and we look for the resolution that serves your goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake. Many of our matters come from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have disputes in Florida, and we handle local court appearances for clients who live elsewhere.

Contract Disputes We Handle for Fort Lauderdale Businesses and Owners

• Purchase and Sale Agreement Disputes: Failed closings on commercial or residential property, disputes over deposits, financing and inspection contingencies, and buyers or sellers who refuse to close. Where money alone will not fix the problem, specific performance may be the right remedy.
• Operating Agreement and Shareholder Agreement Breaches: Members or shareholders who ignore buyout terms, voting requirements, distribution rules, or restrictions on competing activity. These cases often overlap with fiduciary duty and dissolution claims.
• Commercial Lease Defaults: Landlord and tenant disputes over rent, build-out obligations, personal guaranties, early termination, and common area charges, which often turn on notice and default language.
• Construction and Contractor Contracts: Unfinished work, defective performance, payment disputes, and change-order fights on projects across Broward County. The Seventeenth Circuit’s complex business division handles large construction litigation.
• Loan and Financing Agreements: Disputes over promissory notes, personal guaranties, default interest, and lender or borrower conduct under loan documents.
• Missing Funds and Unpaid Distributions: A partner or manager who diverts company money, commingles accounts, or cannot explain where profits went. Claims can include breach of contract, an accounting, and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Business Sale and Buy-Sell Agreements: Disputes over purchase price adjustments, representations and warranties, earn-outs, and non-compete covenants after a company changes hands.
• Family and Close-Held Business Agreements: Contract disputes among siblings, parents and children, or longtime friends who co-own a company, handled with discretion alongside the financial claims.

Deadlines and Early Moves When a Contract Has Been Broken

Start with the clock. A claim on a written contract has a five-year limitations period in Florida, while a claim on an oral or implied contract has four. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer cap of twelve years. A specific performance action has a shorter one-year period. Professional malpractice claims, even when framed as contract claims, run two years from when the claim was or should have been discovered. Recent changes to Florida’s limitations statutes cut the negligence period to two years but left the written-contract period alone. Because several of these periods can apply to one dispute, counting from the wrong date is a costly mistake, and the one-year specific performance window is the one most often overlooked.

Next, gather the paper. Collect the signed agreement and every amendment, the emails and texts around the breach, invoices, bank records, proof of what you performed, and any written notice you sent or received. Many contracts require a formal notice and a chance to cure before suit, and skipping that step can hand the other side a defense. Do not sign a new agreement, release, or settlement proposal until someone has read it against the original terms, and do not stop performing your own obligations on a hunch that the other side has already defaulted; a wrongful stop can turn you into the breaching party.

Where the case is filed depends on the size and nature of the claim. Broward County Circuit Court sits in Fort Lauderdale at the Central Judicial Complex, with regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. County civil court hears claims up to a threshold that is adjusted periodically, with small claims below that, and circuit court takes larger disputes. The Seventeenth Judicial Circuit also runs a complex business division for matters such as business entity dissolutions and large business and construction litigation, which a case may enter through the procedure set out in the circuit’s administrative order. Palm Beach County disputes proceed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach. Cases between parties from different states, or with federal claims, may belong in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Some disputes cannot wait for a judgment. If a partner is moving money out of the company or a counterparty is about to transfer a property you have a contract right to buy, we pursue temporary and emergency injunctive relief to hold the assets in place while the case proceeds.

Remedies: Damages, Specific Performance, and Other Relief

The right remedy is chosen before the complaint is drafted. Compensatory damages aim to put the injured party where full performance would have left them, and proving them requires financial records, not just a narrative. Real estate and unique-asset contracts are different: because no two properties are the same, a court may order the breaching party to complete the deal, which is the relief our firm won after the Broward bench trial described above. Rescission, which unwinds the contract, carries its own four-year period. A claim of fraud in the inducement may support both a rescission and a damages theory, but it must be pleaded with specifics.

Contracts often shift the cost of litigation. Many agreements include attorney fee provisions, and in Florida those clauses can be enforced for the winning side, which changes settlement math for both parties. We read for fee-shifting, jury waivers, arbitration clauses, venue selection, and choice-of-law language before advising on strategy, because these provisions can decide where and how the case is tried. When a breach involves co-owners of an LLC or corporation, contract claims are often paired with statutory dissolution remedies, including court-ordered buyouts and, where grounds exist, receivership.

Fort Lauderdale Breach of Contract Questions Answered

What counts as a breach of contract in Florida?

A breach occurs when a party fails to perform something the contract required, performs it badly, or repeatedly refuses to perform. To recover, you generally must show a valid contract, a material breach, and damages caused by it. Minor deviations may support a smaller claim or none at all, while a failure going to the core of the bargain can excuse your own further performance.

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

Five years under Florida law for an action founded on a written instrument. Oral and implied contracts get four. These periods generally start when the breach occurs, not when you discover the financial consequences, so waiting to see how bad it gets can use up time you cannot recover.

Is a text message or email exchange a binding contract?

It can be. Florida courts look at whether the parties agreed on the essential terms and intended to be bound, and written exchanges sometimes satisfy that test. Whether such a claim falls under the written-contract period or the oral-contract period can itself be contested, so preserve every message.

Should I send a demand letter before filing suit?

Often yes, and sometimes the contract requires it. A precise demand letter documents the breach, triggers any cure period, and can lead to settlement without a filing. A sloppy one can admit facts or misstate the contract, so it should be drafted with the litigation in mind.

What is the difference between damages and specific performance?

Damages pay you money for the loss. Specific performance is a court order requiring the other party to do what the contract promised, most often in sales of real property. Because the limitation period for a specific performance action is one year, the choice has to be made quickly.

Which court will hear my case in Fort Lauderdale?

Smaller claims go to the county civil court and larger ones to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit’s circuit court in Broward County. Complex business and construction disputes may qualify for the circuit’s complex business division. Cases with parties from different states or federal claims may be heard in the federal district court that sits in Fort Lauderdale.

Can the other side countersue me?

Yes, and counterclaims are common. A defendant may argue you breached first, failed to meet a condition, or caused the damages yourself. Reviewing your own performance honestly at the start prevents surprises later.

Can I recover my attorney fees?

Only if the contract or a statute provides for them. Many commercial agreements contain a prevailing-party fee clause, and in Florida such clauses are generally enforceable and apply to both sides. Check yours before deciding whether a dispute is worth pursuing, since the clause may expose you to the other side’s fees as well.

My business partner breached our operating agreement. Is that a contract case or a dissolution case?

Often both. Breach of the agreement may support damages and enforcement of its buyout or distribution terms, while Florida’s LLC and corporate statutes separately allow dissolution, court-ordered buyouts, and receiverships on grounds such as deadlock, misappropriated assets, or illegal conduct by controlling owners. If the agreement has a deadlock sale mechanism, it may control how the separation happens.

I live out of state but my contract dispute is in Broward County. Do I have to come to Florida?

Not for every proceeding. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida, handle local court appearances, and keep clients informed through scheduled conference calls at convenient times.

Does every contract dispute end up in a courtroom?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and some contracts require arbitration or mediation before suit. We prepare every case as if it will be tried, because that preparation is what makes a favorable settlement possible.

Serving Contract Dispute Clients Across Broward and Palm Beach Counties

Our Fort Lauderdale contract work extends across Broward County, including Las Olas, downtown, Victoria Park, Coral Ridge, Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coconut Creek, Margate, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Weston, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, and Dania Beach. Many of those clients operate businesses, hold investment property, or co-own real estate near those communities and across the county line.

We also serve Palm Beach County, from Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and Lake Worth through West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and Wellington. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own businesses or property here round out the people we represent throughout South Florida.

Speak With a Fort Lauderdale Breach of Contract Lawyer

If a contract has been broken, the deadline that governs your claim is already counting down, and the evidence you need is easiest to secure early. A Fort Lauderdale breach of contract lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreement, the history of the dispute, and the remedies available, then give you a straight assessment of the options. Call our team to schedule a consultation.