Fort Lauderdale Contract Litigation Attorney

A contract dispute is rarely decided by who feels more wronged. It is decided by the words on the page, the emails exchanged before signing, and how the parties behaved afterward. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles Fort Lauderdale contract litigation attorney matters for business owners, investors, and families, including disputes over purchase agreements, operating agreements, shareholder agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, and construction contracts, and serves clients throughout Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the rest of South Florida.

Fort Lauderdale cases tend to carry real money and real deadlines. A commercial closing falls apart, a partner stops honoring an operating agreement, a lender and borrower disagree about a default, or a contractor and owner argue over who breached first. In each situation, the first questions are the same: what exactly does the contract say, what did each side do, and how much time is left to file?

That last question gets missed more than any other. Florida’s deadlines for contract claims vary depending on the type of agreement, and some remedies expire far faster than people expect. The sections below explain how those clocks work, which courts hear these disputes, and what to gather before you talk to a lawyer.

Deadlines That Decide Whether a Contract Claim Survives

Florida gives you five years to sue on a contract founded on a written instrument. A claim based on an oral or implied agreement gets four years. Those are the headline numbers, but the differences between claim types matter just as much.

A suit to rescind a contract carries a four-year period. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, with an outer limit of twelve years. A claim for specific performance, where you ask the court to force the other side to complete the deal rather than pay damages, has a one-year period. That one-year window catches people off guard, especially in commercial real estate disputes where a buyer or seller keeps negotiating after a failed closing and assumes there is plenty of time.

Professional malpractice claims, even when framed as a breach of contract against an accountant or another professional, carry a two-year period that starts when the claim is discovered or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence. Negligence claims were cut from four years to two for causes of action arising after March 24, 2023. The recent change did not touch the five-year period for written contracts.

If a court has already entered a judgment in your favor, you generally have twenty years to bring an action on it. Winning is sometimes only half the job; collecting is the other half.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving clients in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Contract enforcement and interpretation have been at the center of Andrew Schwartz’s practice for his entire career. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989.

Andrew is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That federal experience matters in this market, since Fort Lauderdale sits within the Southern District of Florida and some contract disputes belong there.

The firm works as a true legal team, meaning everyone on your matter knows the file and can respond when you call. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy if the attorneys are in court. The firm also has a record at trial. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. A judgment like that reflects the kind of preparation these cases require: close reading of the agreement and a careful reconstruction of how the parties dealt with each other.

Clients often assume they want the most combative lawyer available. The firm’s experience is that clients want a lawyer who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do, while keeping fees in proportion to what is at stake. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they look for the resolution that serves the client’s goals and budget. Referrals from other attorneys, including out of state counsel, make up a significant part of the practice.

Types of Contract Disputes We Litigate

• Operating and Shareholder Agreement Breaches: Disputes among LLC members and shareholders over distributions, management authority, transfer restrictions, and buyout terms. Florida’s LLC statute also lists grounds for judicial dissolution, including deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriated assets, and situations where carrying on the business under the operating agreement is no longer reasonably practicable.
• Commercial Real Estate Purchase and Sale Contracts: Failed closings, disputed deposits, financing contingencies, and inspection-period fights. Specific performance is often the remedy a buyer or seller wants, and its one-year filing period makes early action important.
• Commercial Lease Disputes: Defaults, abandonment, personal guarantees, build-out obligations, and renewal options between landlords and business tenants across Broward County.
• Loan and Financing Documents: Defaults, guaranty claims, payoff disputes, and disagreements over what a promissory note or loan agreement actually requires of each side.
• Construction Contracts: Payment disputes, change-order disagreements, delay claims, and defective work allegations between owners, general contractors, and subcontractors. Large construction disputes can land in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit’s complex business division.
• Business Purchase and Sale Agreements: Claims that a seller misrepresented financials, breached warranties, or violated a non-compete, or that a buyer failed to pay what was promised at or after closing.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, diverted company money, disputed capital contributions, and managers who cannot account for company funds. These often pair a contract claim with breach of fiduciary duty and a request for an accounting.
• Emergency Relief Tied to a Contract: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to preserve the status quo while the dispute is pending.

What to Do When a Contract Is Breached

Start by pulling together the full paper trail. That means the signed agreement and every amendment, side letter, or addendum, plus emails, texts, invoices, bank records, and anything showing performance by either side. Contract cases often turn on the course of dealing between the parties, so informal communications can matter as much as the formal document. Do not delete anything, even messages that seem unhelpful.

Next, read the dispute resolution terms before you do anything else. Many agreements require notice and a cure period, pre-suit mediation, binding arbitration, or filing in a particular venue. Skipping a required notice step can hand the other side an early argument. Check for a prevailing-party attorney’s fee provision as well, which changes the economics of both pursuing and defending a claim.

Calendar your deadlines now. If the contract is written, you have five years in most cases; if it is oral, four. If what you want is to force a completion of the deal, one year is the number to protect. When a partner or manager may be moving money or property, waiting is risky, because emergency injunctive relief only helps if assets are still there to protect.

On venue, the amount in controversy sets the starting point. Disputes above the county court limit are heard in circuit court, and for Fort Lauderdale that means the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Cases arising from Palm Beach County property or parties go to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit instead. Broward’s circuit civil division sits in the Central Courthouse in downtown Fort Lauderdale, with regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. The Seventeenth Circuit also runs complex business divisions that handle large business and construction litigation, among other matters, and a qualifying case can be filed directly into one of them. Where diversity of citizenship or a federal question is present, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The most common mistake is sending an angry written response before a lawyer has read the contract. Statements made in the heat of a dispute can be used later to argue waiver, modification, or your own breach. A short consultation before you reply, withhold payment, or terminate the agreement is usually worth the time.

How Contract Cases Actually Resolve

Most contract disputes do not end with a verdict. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration once both sides understand the strength of the written record. That is not a sign of weakness; it is often the efficient result. But settlement leverage comes from being visibly ready to try the case, which means doing the document work early.

When a case does go to trial, the remedy depends on what you need. Money damages cover the loss from the breach. Specific performance compels completion of a unique transaction such as a real estate sale. Rescission unwinds the deal. An injunction can freeze conduct while the case is pending. Choosing the right remedy at the start shapes the pleadings, the evidence, and the timeline.

For business owners, a contract dispute often sits on top of a relationship problem. When the dispute is between co-owners, the contract claim may be one piece of a larger business divorce involving buyouts, valuation, or dissolution. We look at both layers together so that winning the contract argument does not leave you with an unworkable company.

Contract Litigation Questions Fort Lauderdale Clients Ask

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

Five years for a contract founded on a written instrument. The clock generally runs from the breach, not from the date you signed. Other claims tied to the same facts, such as fraud or rescission, have their own periods, so the shortest applicable deadline controls your planning.

What if the agreement was verbal or only partly in writing?

A claim on an oral or implied contract has a four-year period. Proof is harder because there is no single document to point to, so emails, texts, payment history, and witnesses become central. Whether a particular agreement had to be in writing to be enforceable is a separate question worth reviewing early.

Can a court force the other side to complete a deal instead of just paying damages?

Yes. Specific performance is available in appropriate cases, most often involving real estate or other unique property. The filing period for that remedy is one year, much shorter than the period for money damages, so do not assume the five-year written-contract deadline protects it.

Should I file in state court or federal court?

Most contract disputes belong in Florida state court. Federal court in the Southern District is available when the parties are citizens of different states and the amount in controversy meets the federal threshold, or when a federal question is involved. Those jurisdictional rules are strict, and filing in the wrong forum wastes time.

What is the complex business division in Broward County?

The Seventeenth Judicial Circuit created complex business and tort divisions to handle matters such as large business and construction litigation, certain business entity dissolutions, and assignments for the benefit of creditors. A case qualifies only if it meets the circuit’s administrative order requirements, and the filer submits a designated form at the time of filing.

Does my contract’s arbitration clause mean I cannot go to court?

Often it does, at least initially. Florida courts generally enforce arbitration clauses, though disputes arise over scope, whether the clause was validly formed, and whether a party waived arbitration by litigating. Review the clause before filing anything, because filing in the wrong forum can complicate your position.

My business partner is not following the operating agreement. Is that a contract case or a dissolution case?

It can be both. A breach of the operating agreement supports a contract claim, and if the breach involves deadlock, misappropriated assets, or illegal conduct, Florida’s LLC statute provides grounds for judicial dissolution. Courts can also appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest. If your agreement has a deadlock sale provision that is triggered before the court finds deadlock, that provision generally takes priority.

Can I recover my attorney’s fees if I win?

Only if the contract or a statute provides for it. Many commercial agreements include a prevailing-party fee clause, which can cut both ways. Read that provision before deciding whether to sue or settle, because it affects your risk as much as your potential recovery.

Is it worth litigating a contract dispute if the amount is modest?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Claims up to the county court limit are heard in county court, and claims at or below the small claims ceiling follow a simpler process. For smaller amounts, the practical question is whether the cost of pursuing the claim, offset by any fee-shifting clause, makes sense. A short consultation can usually answer that.

I live in New York or New Jersey but my contract partner is in South Florida. Do I have to travel for hearings?

No. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handles the local court appearances, and keeps you informed at each stage. Scheduled conference calls can be arranged at times that work for everyone.

What happens if I win a judgment and the other side will not pay?

A Florida judgment can be enforced for twenty years under the statute governing actions on judgments. Collection tools exist, but they work best when pursued promptly. Where money has been diverted, early injunctive relief during the case can keep assets in place until judgment.

Fort Lauderdale Contract Litigation Representation Across Broward and Palm Beach Counties

From downtown Fort Lauderdale and Las Olas through Victoria Park, Rio Vista, and the Port Everglades area, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners and investors with contract disputes. We also serve clients in Wilton Manors, Oakland Park, Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, Margate, Tamarac, Lauderhill, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Weston, Hollywood, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, and Pembroke Pines.

Our work extends north into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, and Wellington. Whether the contract was signed in a Broward office, a Palm Beach County closing room, or between a South Florida company and a partner in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut, we handle the Florida proceedings and keep you in the loop.

Speak With a Fort Lauderdale Contract Litigation Lawyer

If a contract has been breached, or someone is claiming you breached one, the sooner the agreement and the record are reviewed, the more options you keep. A Fort Lauderdale contract litigation lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can read the document, identify which deadlines apply, and tell you plainly whether negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or a lawsuit makes the most sense for your goals and budget.

Call the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to schedule a consultation. We answer the phone, and if we are in court, you will hear back within 24 hours.