Lantana Family Business Dispute Attorney

A family business dispute is rarely about the business alone. The fight over a distribution check is also a fight about who got the bigger share at Thanksgiving, who was promised the company, and who stayed behind to run it. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents family business owners, siblings, parents, children, spouses, and in-laws in Lantana and across Palm Beach County and Broward County, handling the contract, ownership, and real estate conflicts that tear co-owners apart. If you need a Lantana family business dispute attorney, you need someone who can read an operating agreement and also understand why the people on the other side of it are your relatives.

These companies often run on handshakes and old verbal understandings. When the founder retires, becomes ill, or passes away, the informal arrangements that kept everyone aligned stop working.

The real consequences are concrete. Operations stall when owners deadlock. Money disappears into accounts no one can explain. A sibling locks the others out of the books. A property that anchors the family’s wealth cannot be sold because one co-owner refuses. These disputes call for litigation judgment and, just as often, for restraint.

What Family Business Disputes Look Like in Practice

• Sibling Ownership Splits After a Parent’s Death: Children inherit equal shares of a company that only one or two of them actually run. The working siblings want salaries recognized; the passive ones want distributions. Disagreements over valuation, compensation, and control follow quickly.
• Parent and Child Succession Conflicts: A founder who will not step back, or a child who assumed ownership was promised, can freeze decision-making. Claims often turn on what the written documents say versus what was said at the kitchen table.
• Spouses and In-Laws as Co-Owners: A marriage ends or a family relationship sours, and the business is caught in the middle. Questions of who holds membership interests, who has management authority, and how interests are bought out become urgent.
• Diverted or Unexplained Company Funds: A relative running the books pays personal expenses from company accounts, commingles funds, or cannot account for money. Remedies can include an accounting, a breach of fiduciary duty claim, and recovery of funds.
• Deadlocked Management: Two equal owners, or two family factions, cannot agree on anything. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a court may consider dissolution when members are deadlocked, cannot break the impasse, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring.
• Minority Owner Freeze-Outs: A family member with a smaller stake is shut out of information, meetings, and distributions. Claims may involve breach of the operating or shareholder agreement and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Shared Real Estate Held by the Business or Family: Family-owned buildings, rental units, and land often sit in a company or in co-ownership among relatives. When owners disagree, a partition action or a quiet title case may be the path to resolution.
• Disputes Over Oral Promises and Informal Deals: Many family arrangements were never written down. Those claims can still be pursued, but different limitations periods apply, which makes timing critical.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida’s difficult business and real estate disputes, serving Lantana and the rest of Palm Beach County and Broward County from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale. Its founder, Andrew M. Schwartz, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, has spent 37 years in litigation, and built his career around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. 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 state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team: everyone on a matter knows the file, so when you call, the person who answers can actually speak to your case. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy if the team is in court. That matters in a family dispute, where one unanswered question can feed suspicion at an already tense moment.

The firm’s results include a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court that ended in a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That kind of outcome reflects the preparation these cases demand, particularly when they hinge on precise contract language and the history of the parties’ dealings.

The firm’s approach to family disputes is shaped by a practical belief: clients often think they want the most aggressive lawyer available, but what they usually want is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do. The team handles family business cases with discretion while protecting each client’s financial interests, and it looks for resolutions that fit the client’s goals and budget. Attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, which often lets relatives separate without a public trial. The firm also accepts referrals from other attorneys, including out of state counsel whose clients have Florida disputes.

Acting Before a Family Dispute Hardens: Deadlines, Evidence, and Where Cases Are Heard

Start with the documents. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, articles, annual reports, tax returns, bank statements, loan documents, leases, deeds, and any emails or texts in which ownership, pay, or promises were discussed. Informal family deals leave their trail in messages, so preserve them and do not delete anything, even if it seems unflattering.

Timing is the next concern. A claim on a written contract has a five-year limitations period under Florida law, while a contract claim not founded on a written instrument, such as an oral agreement, has four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to a 12-year outer limit. An action seeking specific performance carries a one-year period. Because family arrangements often mix written and oral terms, which period applies can decide whether a claim survives, so do not wait on the hope that relatives will come around.

Be careful about self-help. Do not move money, change locks, cut off access to books, or transfer property to get ahead of the other side. Those moves can become evidence against you. If assets are at risk, a court can issue temporary injunctive relief to stop funds or property from being moved or spent while the case is pending, and that is the proper route.

For cases arising in Lantana, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit hears disputes in and for Palm Beach County, with the main courthouse in West Palm Beach and a South County courthouse in Delray Beach. Circuit court hears claims above the county court threshold, which is adjusted periodically. If the business or property is tied to Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit applies, and it has complex business divisions that handle matters such as the dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation. Cases with federal grounds can be heard in the Southern District of Florida, which sits in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Finally, talk to a lawyer before you confront a relative or send a demand. What you say first often shapes the dispute, and early counsel can sometimes preserve the relationship or at least the company.

Separating Family Co-Owners: Dissolution, Buyouts, and Partition

When owners cannot continue together, Florida law provides structured exits. For an LLC, a court may order dissolution in a proceeding brought by a manager or member on specific grounds: activities are being conducted unlawfully; it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the articles and operating agreement; those in control have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently; assets are being misappropriated or wasted; or the owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. In such a proceeding, the court may appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

Corporations have a parallel track. A shareholder may seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or the other shareholders can elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value, which often ends the dissolution case. 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. A buyout election is generally irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. Courts in these cases can also issue injunctions and appoint a custodian to preserve company assets while the case proceeds.

Always check the agreement first. Many operating and shareholder agreements contain deadlock sale or buy-sell provisions, and if one is properly initiated, it can take priority over a court-ordered remedy. Whether to invoke it, and when, is a strategic decision worth making with counsel.

Real estate adds its own layer. When relatives co-own property and cannot agree, a partition action asks the court to divide the land or order it sold and the proceeds shared. If the court finds that division cannot be done without prejudice to the owners, it may order a public sale, with proceeds distributed according to each owner’s interest. Property passed down through a family can fall under Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which adds protections, including a preference for partition in kind where it would not prejudice the cotenants as a group. When ownership itself is contested, a quiet title action can cancel a competing claim and clear the cloud from title.

Questions Lantana Families Ask About Business Disputes

What counts as a family business dispute?

Any conflict over ownership, control, money, or property in a company or asset shared by relatives. That includes sibling disagreements after an inheritance, parent and child succession fights, spousal or in-law ownership conflicts, and claims that a relative is mismanaging or taking company funds.

Can I sue a family member who is taking money from the business?

Often, yes. Depending on the facts, claims can include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. If money is being moved out right now, the court can be asked for emergency injunctive relief to stop it.

How long do I have to bring a claim?

It depends on the claim. A written contract claim has five years in Florida, an oral contract claim four years, and a fraud claim four years from discovery with a 12-year cap. A specific performance action has one year. Because dates can be hard to pin down in family situations, get advice early.

What if we never put our agreement in writing?

Oral agreements can be enforced, but they are harder to prove and carry a shorter limitations period than written ones. Texts, emails, tax filings, bank records, and witness accounts all become important evidence of what was agreed.

Can a court force a family business to dissolve?

In certain circumstances. For an LLC, grounds include unlawful conduct, impracticability under the governing documents, fraud or illegality by those in control, misappropriation or waste of assets, and deadlock causing irreparable injury. Corporations have their own statutory grounds, and a buyout is often available as an alternative.

Is there a way to resolve this without a public trial?

Yes. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration resolve many family disputes, and the firm’s attorneys are experienced in each. A negotiated buyout, a structured wind-down, or a restructured management arrangement can protect both the company and the family relationships.

My sibling and I inherited a building together, and I want out. What are my options?

You can negotiate a buyout or sale, or ask the court for partition, which divides the property or orders it sold and splits the proceeds. If the property qualifies as heirs property, additional statutory protections apply before a forced sale.

Can a minority owner in a family company do anything if they are being shut out?

Yes. Minority owners may have claims for breach of the operating or shareholder agreement and breach of fiduciary duty, and may seek an accounting or access to records. In serious cases, dissolution or a court-ordered buyout of their interest can be pursued.

Which court would hear my case if the business is in Lantana?

Larger disputes are typically heard in circuit court in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County. Smaller claims may fall to county court, based on a dollar threshold that is adjusted periodically. If the company or property is in Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit applies.

I live out of state but co-own a business or property in South Florida with relatives. Can you handle that?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with South Florida interests, handling local court appearances and keeping clients informed so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

Will a lawsuit destroy the business?

Not necessarily. Courts can issue injunctions and appoint a custodian to preserve company assets while a case is pending, and many disputes settle once the parties see the real numbers. Careful early steps often keep operations running while the ownership question is sorted out.

Serving Family Business Owners Throughout Lantana and South Florida

Our work for Lantana families begins close to home and extends across Palm Beach County. We represent business owners and relatives in Lantana, Lake Worth Beach, Hypoluma, Atlantis, Palm Springs, and Manalapan, and we regularly work with clients in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, and Highland Beach. Further north we serve West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens.

Our reach continues into Broward County, where we handle family business and real estate disputes in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Hollywood, and the surrounding communities. We also work with clients across South Florida who live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut but hold business or real estate interests here. Whether the dispute involves a family restaurant, a marine business, a rental building, or a shared investment property, the same team handles it from first call through resolution.

Talk With a Lantana Family Business Dispute Lawyer Before the Dispute Sets

If a relative is blocking decisions, withholding money, or claiming ownership that you believe is yours, the sooner you speak with a Lantana family business dispute lawyer, the more options you will have. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team will review your agreements, explain where you stand, and recommend the path, negotiated, mediated, or litigated, that fits your goals and budget. Call to schedule a consultation and get a clear read on your situation before positions harden.