Lighthouse Point Contract Litigation Attorney

The deadline to sue over a broken contract is shorter than most business owners assume, and the wrong guess about which deadline applies can end a strong claim before it starts. If you are searching for a Lighthouse Point contract litigation attorney, the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles contract disputes, partnership and member conflicts, and real estate litigation for owners and investors in Lighthouse Point, throughout Broward County, and across Palm Beach County.

Lighthouse Point sits in Broward County, so most civil lawsuits that arise here belong in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. That court has a complex business division for larger commercial cases, which matters when the agreement at issue is an operating agreement, a construction contract, or a multi-party purchase deal.

Contract cases tend to be won or lost on two things: what the document actually says, and what the parties did afterward. Both can be preserved or lost in the first weeks of a dispute.

What Contract Disputes Look Like for Lighthouse Point Owners and Investors

Lighthouse Point is a small waterfront city, but the contracts its residents and business owners sign reach well beyond it. Boat and marine-related businesses, professional practices, restaurants along the Federal Highway corridor, and real estate investors all generate agreements that can go wrong. The disputes that reach a litigator usually involve real money, a co-owner, or a piece of property.

The common thread is that someone relied on a promise, and the other side stopped performing. Sometimes the breach is obvious, such as a buyer who refuses to close. Sometimes it is quieter: a partner who stops contributing, a manager who reinterprets a profit split, or a tenant who stops paying under a lease with unclear default terms.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in some of South Florida’s hardest business and real estate disputes, serving clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and throughout Palm Beach and Broward Counties. Complex contract litigation is the center of Andrew Schwartz’s practice.

Andrew earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. He is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience handling business and real estate cases in state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on your matter knows the file, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when the lawyers are in court.

The results reflect that focus. After a 5-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the firm obtained a 32-page final judgment awarding its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Specific performance, an order forcing a party to carry out the deal, is a demanding remedy, and it depends on exactly the kind of document-level preparation these cases require.

The firm is also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and it looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. A significant part of the practice comes from referrals by other attorneys, and the firm regularly handles local court appearances for clients who live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

Types of Contract Disputes We Handle

• Operating and Shareholder Agreement Breaches: Co-owners disagree over distributions, authority, capital contributions, or buyout terms, and the governing agreement either answers the question or creates the fight.
• Purchase and Sale Agreement Disputes: Failed closings, disputed deposits, and buyers or sellers who walk away from commercial or residential real estate deals, sometimes calling for a suit to compel performance.
• Commercial Lease Disputes: Defaults, personal guaranties, repair obligations, and early terminations between landlords and business tenants.
• Construction Contract Claims: Unpaid draws, defective work, change-order disagreements, and delay claims involving contractors, owners, and subcontractors.
• Loan and Financing Documents: Defaults, disputed payoff amounts, and claims between private lenders and borrowers or investors.
• Unpaid Distributions and Missing Funds: Partners or managers who divert company money, commingle accounts, or cannot account for what happened to it, often paired with claims for an accounting and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Business Divorce Contracts: Buy-sell provisions, deadlock mechanisms, and valuation clauses that decide how co-owners separate.
• Injunction-Driven Disputes: Situations where waiting for a final judgment would let assets be moved, spent, or lost, requiring emergency or temporary injunctive relief.

The First Steps After a Contract Is Breached

Start by pulling together the signed agreement and every amendment, side letter, and email or text that touches performance. Courts read contracts by their words, but the parties’ course of dealing often decides ambiguous terms. Do not delete messages, and do not rewrite your own account of events in a way you cannot support with documents.

Next, read the contract for its own rules before you do anything else. Many agreements require written notice of default, a cure period, mediation, or arbitration before a lawsuit. Skipping a required step can hand the other side an easy defense. If the contract has a fee-shifting clause, a venue clause, or a choice of law clause, those will shape strategy from day one.

Then watch the clock. In Florida, an action on a written contract generally must be filed within five years. A claim on an oral or implied contract has four years. A fraud claim has four years from discovery, capped at 12 years. A suit seeking specific performance is subject to a one-year period, which catches people off guard. Because different theories carry different deadlines, one dispute can involve several clocks at once.

Where the dollar amount is modest, county court may hear the case; larger claims go to circuit court. For Lighthouse Point residents, that means the Broward County courts, with the Fort Lauderdale federal courthouse relevant if a case involves federal jurisdiction. If the other side is moving money or property, tell your lawyer immediately, because emergency relief is time-sensitive in a way ordinary litigation is not.

The most common mistakes are continuing to perform without a written reservation of rights, accepting partial payment without documenting what it covers, and making accusatory statements in writing that later get quoted back. Before you send a demand letter or confront the other party, talk to a lawyer about what to say and what to leave out.

How Florida Courts Decide Contract Cases

A breach of contract claim generally requires a valid agreement, a material breach, and resulting damages. Most of the fight is usually over the middle element: whether the failure was serious enough to excuse the other side’s performance, and whether the breaching party had a defense such as waiver, prior breach, or impossibility.

Remedies depend on the situation. Money damages are the default, but a court sitting in equity can order specific performance when money cannot make the injured party whole, as is often the case with unique real property. A court can also rescind a deal, with a four-year period for rescission claims. When a dispute involves a jointly owned company, remedies can extend to an accounting, a court-ordered buyout, or judicial dissolution.

For LLCs, Florida law lets a member or manager seek dissolution on grounds that include deadlock that threatens irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, or illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control. The court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest. For corporations, shareholders have a parallel path, and the corporation or other shareholders can often avoid dissolution by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order on those terms.

Operating and shareholder agreements can include their own deadlock sale provisions, and when one is properly triggered, it may displace a judicial dissolution order. That is one reason we read the entire agreement before choosing a strategy.

Questions About Contract Litigation in Lighthouse Point

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

Five years for an action founded on a written instrument. Oral and implied contract claims have four years. The recent change to the negligence deadline did not alter the written-contract period.

Which court would hear my case if I live in Lighthouse Point?

Lighthouse Point is in Broward County, so state court cases are generally heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit’s courts for Broward County. County court handles claims up to a statutory ceiling; larger claims go to circuit court. Some cases can be filed in federal court in the Southern District of Florida if jurisdictional requirements are met.

What is specific performance, and when is it available?

It is a court order requiring a party to carry out the contract rather than pay damages. It is most often sought in real estate deals because each property is unique. The deadline to bring that action is one year, so these cases should not wait.

Can I sue if the contract was only verbal?

Often yes, with a four-year deadline, but proof is harder and some agreements must be in writing to be enforceable. Emails, texts, payment records, and witnesses become critical evidence.

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

Depending on the facts, you may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, and recovery of the funds. If assets are being moved or spent, a court can be asked for injunctive relief while the case proceeds.

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

Usually it means the dispute must go to arbitration if the clause covers it. Whether it does depends on the clause’s wording, and arguments about scope and enforceability are common. Our attorneys handle both arbitration and courtroom litigation.

Can a fraud claim extend my time to sue?

Fraud claims have four years from discovery, capped at 12 years overall. That can help when deception hid the breach, but courts expect diligence, so waiting is risky.

Is it worth litigating a smaller contract dispute?

Sometimes, but cost matters. We look at the amount at stake, the strength of the documents, whether the contract shifts attorney fees, and whether mediation or a demand letter can resolve the matter before a full lawsuit.

I live out of state but own a business or property near Lighthouse Point. Can you handle my case?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. We handle the local filings and court appearances and keep you informed so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

Can my co-owner and I get out of a failing business without a trial?

Often. Negotiated buyouts, structured wind-downs, mediation, and contractual buy-sell or deadlock provisions all resolve disputes without a trial. When negotiation fails, judicial dissolution or a court-supervised buyout is available.

What if the other side stopped paying rent under a commercial lease?

Your lease controls notice and default procedures. Residential tenancies follow statutory notice rules, including a three-day demand for unpaid rent excluding weekends and court holidays, but commercial leases are governed mainly by their own terms.

Serving Contract Litigation Clients Across Lighthouse Point and Broward County

Our contract litigation work starts in Lighthouse Point and extends through the surrounding Broward County communities, including Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Hillsboro Beach, Coconut Creek, Margate, Coral Springs, Parkland, Fort Lauderdale, Oakland Park, Wilton Manors, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, and Hollywood. Many of these clients are served in the Broward County courts, including the complex business division when a case warrants it.

We also represent clients across Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens. We serve out-of-state owners and investors from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests anywhere in this region, and we accept referrals from other attorneys whose clients need a South Florida litigator.

Talk to a Lighthouse Point Contract Litigation Attorney

If a contract has been breached, a partner is holding back money, or a deal you counted on is falling apart, a conversation with a Lighthouse Point contract litigation attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can tell you which deadlines apply, what the document supports, and whether litigation, negotiation, or emergency relief fits your situation. Call to schedule a consultation. We answer the phone, and we return calls within 24 hours.