Hollywood Breach of Contract Attorney

Hollywood business owners, landlords, investors, and contractors rarely decide to sue over a broken agreement lightly, but the clock and the leverage both start moving the moment the other side stops performing. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for clients in Hollywood and across Broward County and Palm Beach County, and a Hollywood breach of contract attorney at the firm can tell you quickly whether you have a claim worth pursuing and what it should be aimed at.

Breach cases tend to turn on a handful of questions. What does the written agreement actually say? Who failed to do what, and when? What did the breach cost, and can that loss be proven? Did the parties’ later conduct change the deal? Answers to these questions shape whether a dispute settles in a few weeks or heads to trial in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit.

Speed matters on the front end, because your options narrow with every month of delay, and because some breaches call for emergency court action rather than a demand letter.

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

The Andrew M. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. Contract enforcement and interpretation have been at the center of his practice throughout his career, and the firm serves clients in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward and Palm Beach Counties.

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 for contract work, where the right forum is sometimes the Southern District of Florida rather than state court.

The firm practices as a true legal team: everyone working on your matter knows the file, so a call is answered by someone who can actually discuss your case. A strict 24 hour return call policy applies when the attorneys are in court. Andrew Schwartz’s own view is that clients often think they want the most aggressive lawyer available, when what they really want is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do, at a cost that makes sense against the amount in dispute.

The results reflect that approach. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County Circuit Court judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Getting a court to order a party to actually perform a contract, rather than just pay damages, takes careful proof of the agreement and the other side’s default, which is the kind of detail work contract cases demand.

Kinds of Contract Disputes We Handle in Hollywood

• Operating and Shareholder Agreement Breaches: A co-owner who ignores buyout terms, voting rules, or distribution provisions is breaching the document that governs the company. These claims often arrive alongside fiduciary duty and dissolution claims.
• Purchase and Sale Agreements: Failed closings on commercial or residential property in Hollywood, from a buyer who walks away to a seller who accepts a better offer. Remedies can include damages or, where the facts support it, specific performance.
• Commercial Lease Disputes: Unpaid rent, abandoned premises, improper terminations, and disagreements over repair or use obligations between landlords and business tenants.
• Loan and Financing Documents: Defaults, guaranty disputes, and conflicts over repayment terms between private lenders, borrowers, and guarantors.
• Construction Contracts: Incomplete work, change-order fights, nonpayment of contractors, and defective performance on projects around Hollywood and the surrounding Broward communities.
• Business Sale Agreements: Disputes after a company changes hands, including misrepresentations in the deal, unpaid purchase price, and breached non-competition or transition terms.
• Missing or Diverted Funds: Unpaid distributions, disputed capital contributions, and partners who cannot account for company money, where the contract claim sits beside claims for an accounting and recovery of funds.
• Family and Partner Agreements: Breaches between siblings, relatives, or longtime friends who co-own a business, handled with discretion while protecting your financial position.

What to Do When the Other Side Stops Performing

Start by collecting the paper. Gather the signed agreement and every amendment, plus emails, texts, invoices, bank records, and any notices already sent. Contract disputes are won on documents, and the history of how the parties actually dealt with each other can matter as much as the written terms.

Read the contract for its own rules before you act. Many agreements require written notice of default, a cure period, mediation or arbitration, or a particular venue before anyone can sue. Skipping a required step can hand the other side a defense. Do not send angry messages or take self-help steps like withholding payment without knowing what the agreement allows, because your own conduct can turn a strong claim into a mutual-breach fight.

Pay attention to deadlines. A claim founded on a written agreement generally must be filed within five years, while an oral or implied contract claim has four years. A suit to rescind a contract has four years, and a specific performance action has just one year. That last deadline catches people off guard, so a failed closing should be evaluated promptly.

Where the case is filed depends on the amount at stake. Claims above the county court ceiling belong in circuit court. Hollywood sits in Broward County, so circuit cases proceed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, and the South Regional Courthouse in Hollywood is one of the county’s courthouses. Business disputes of substantial size, including certain business entity dissolutions and large business or construction cases, may qualify for Broward’s complex business division. Cases with diversity between parties or federal claims can land in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Finally, ask early whether the situation needs emergency relief. If assets are being moved, a property is about to be sold out from under you, or a partner is shutting you out, a court can issue injunctive relief while the case is pending. Waiting for a final judgment may mean there is nothing left to collect.

How a Breach Case Typically Unfolds

Most disputes begin with a demand letter that lays out the breach, the contract provisions at issue, and what you want. Many resolve there, or in negotiation, because the other side sees the exposure. When they do not, the next step is a complaint in the appropriate court, followed by the defendant’s answer and often counterclaims. Expect the other side to argue that you breached first, that the terms were ambiguous, or that your damages are speculative.

Discovery follows: document exchange, written questions, and depositions. This is where the contract’s language meets the real-world record, and where cases often settle once each side sees the evidence. Mediation is common and sometimes required. Our attorneys have experience in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and we look for the resolution that serves your goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

If the case does not settle, it proceeds to a bench or jury trial. The remedy depends on the claim. Damages put you where performance would have left you. Specific performance forces the other party to complete the deal, which can make sense with unique property such as a particular parcel. Rescission unwinds the contract. Where the contract has an attorney’s fee provision, who pays the legal bill can change the whole economic picture, so that language deserves attention before filing.

Contract Disputes Between Business Co-Owners

Some of the hardest breach cases happen inside a company. When an LLC member violates the operating agreement, the contract claim is often only part of the picture. Florida law lets a member seek judicial dissolution on specific grounds, including deadlock that threatens irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of company assets, and circumstances where it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the operating agreement. A court may also appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest.

Corporations have a parallel framework. In a shareholder-initiated dissolution case, the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value, and if the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms. Operating and shareholder agreements may also contain their own deadlock sale provisions, which can displace the court-ordered route if properly initiated. Reading those provisions closely is often the first strategic task.

Questions About Breach of Contract Claims in Hollywood

What counts as a breach of contract in Florida?

A breach occurs when a party fails to do what the agreement requires without a legal excuse. It can be a complete failure to perform, late or defective performance, or a repudiation before performance is due. A valid contract, a breach, and resulting damages are the core elements.

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

For a contract founded on a written instrument, the limitations period is five years. Oral and implied contract claims have four years. Related claims carry their own periods, including four years for rescission and one year for specific performance.

Does my contract have to be in writing to sue?

Not always. Oral and implied agreements can be enforced, but they are harder to prove, and some categories of agreements must be in writing to be enforceable. Emails, texts, and course of dealing can help establish the terms.

What damages can I recover?

Typically the losses that flow from the breach and that you can prove with reasonable certainty, meaning what performance would have given you. Some contracts also set agreed damages or provide for attorney’s fees to the winning party. Whether a fee clause exists is worth checking before filing.

Can a court force the other side to complete the deal?

Yes, in appropriate cases. Specific performance is an equitable remedy most often used with real estate and other unique assets where money would not make you whole. The firm obtained that remedy for a client after a five-day bench trial involving a commercial real estate contract in Broward County.

Is it worth suing over a smaller contract dispute?

It depends on the amount, the strength of your documents, whether the contract awards attorney’s fees, and whether the other side can pay a judgment. Smaller claims may belong in county court rather than circuit court. A candid early assessment helps you decide whether litigation, a demand letter, or a negotiated exit makes the most sense.

What if my contract requires arbitration or mediation first?

Courts generally enforce those clauses. Filing suit in violation of one can get your case stayed or sent to arbitration. We review the dispute resolution language before choosing a path, and we handle arbitration as comfortably as court.

What if both of us breached?

Mutual breach is a common defense. The question becomes who breached first and whether the breach was material enough to excuse the other side’s performance. Careful chronology and documents decide these cases.

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

Often, yes. A court can issue temporary injunctive relief on an emergency basis to freeze or protect assets. That relief depends on showing urgency and a likelihood of success, so the evidence needs to be organized quickly.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Can you handle my Hollywood dispute?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from the tri-state area who have business partners or property in South Florida. We handle the local court appearances and keep you informed so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

How long does a breach case take in Broward County?

It varies with the complexity of the claims, the amount of discovery, and the court’s calendar. Some disputes resolve within months through negotiation or mediation, while contested cases that go to trial take considerably longer. Emergency relief moves much faster than the main case.

Do you work with other attorneys on these cases?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state counsel whose clients have Florida disputes. We communicate with referring counsel throughout the matter and respect their relationship with the client.

Serving Contract Dispute Clients Across Hollywood and South Florida

We represent clients throughout Hollywood and the neighboring Broward County communities of Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Sunrise, Pembroke Park, and West Park. Business owners in Coral Springs, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Lauderhill, Tamarac, Weston, and Cooper City also rely on the firm when an agreement breaks down.

The firm’s reach extends north into Palm Beach County, serving clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, and the surrounding communities, as well as clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida. Whether the dispute involves a Hollywood storefront lease, a shared investment property, or a business partnership spanning two counties, the same attorneys follow the file from start to finish.

Speak With a Hollywood Breach of Contract Lawyer

If someone has broken an agreement and your business, investment, or property is at risk, talk with a Hollywood breach of contract lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team before limitations periods, cure deadlines, or asset movements work against you. Call to schedule a consultation, bring the contract and your records, and we will give you a clear read on your claim, your options, and the most efficient path to the result you need.