Margate Business Attorney

A partner stops answering calls, the books stop adding up, and the company you built in Margate is suddenly stuck between two owners who cannot agree on anything. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business litigation, partnership disputes, contract fights, and real estate disputes for owners and investors in Margate and across Broward County and Palm Beach County.

If you are searching for a Margate business attorney, you are probably in one of two positions: a dispute has already started, or you can see one coming and want to know where you stand before it does. Either way, the first questions are usually practical. Do you have a claim, how long do you have to file it, which court will hear it, and can the company keep operating while the fight plays out?

Margate sits in Broward County, so most civil lawsuits that start here are heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. The answers below are written with that in mind.

Why Clients Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Business Disputes Near Margate

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in some of South Florida’s most contested business and real estate disputes, serving clients in Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the communities around Margate, including Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. His career has centered on complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, adds years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on your matter knows the file. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court, and scheduled conference calls are set at times that work for everyone.

Results matter more than adjectives. After a 5-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. Cases like that are won on the wording of the agreement and the history between the parties, which is how the firm prepares every file.

The firm’s approach is practical. Clients often arrive wanting the most aggressive lawyer available. In Andrew Schwartz’s experience, they really want someone who acts as the situation requires, uses finesse when finesse will do, and keeps legal fees in proportion to what is at stake. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation.

Business Problems That Bring Margate Owners to a Litigation Firm

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together may resolve things through a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution. Deadlock, valuation fights, and exclusion from management are the usual triggers.
• Partner and Member Disputes: Breaches of operating agreements and shareholder agreements, disagreements over who contributed what, and claims that an owner is acting for personal benefit instead of the company’s.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Managers, majority owners, and controlling partners owe duties to the company and, in many situations, to minority owners. Self-dealing and secret competition are common claims.
• Missing or Diverted Funds: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and partners who cannot explain where company money went. Remedies include an accounting, recovery of funds, and emergency relief to freeze assets.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements. These cases often turn on exact contract language.
• Family Business Disputes: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children with different plans, or spouses and in-laws sharing ownership. These matters call for discretion alongside firm protection of financial interests.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Co-owners of real estate who cannot agree on its future, and owners who need to clear competing ownership claims through a quiet title action.
• Injunctions: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to protect property and business interests while the case is pending.

What to Do When a Business Dispute Is Already Underway

Start by gathering paper. Pull the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, the articles, any buy-sell terms, bank and accounting records you are entitled to see, and the emails or texts that show how the parties actually behaved. Disputes are often decided by the agreement’s wording plus the course of dealing, so what you can document matters.

Do not wait on deadlines. A claim founded on a written contract generally must be filed within five years. Oral or implied contract claims get four. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer cap of 12 years. A claim for specific performance has just one year, which surprises people who assume they have the full contract period. Professional malpractice claims carry two years from when the problem was or should have been discovered. Because the clocks differ by claim type, getting the claim categorized early is one of the first things a lawyer does.

If money or property is moving, speed matters more than anything else. A court can issue injunctive relief, and in dissolution cases it can appoint a receiver or custodian, but only after a hearing with notice to the parties. The sooner you can show what is leaving and who is controlling it, the better the position to ask.

Know where the case will land. As a Broward County matter, a Margate dispute worth more than the county court ceiling is filed in Circuit Court in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Smaller disputes belong in county court, and the very smallest in small claims. Broward also has a complex business division that handles things like dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation, and cases can be filed directly into it under a specific administrative order. If the other side sits in Palm Beach County, that dispute may belong in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida is an option when federal jurisdiction exists, with sessions in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

Avoid the usual mistakes: confronting a partner by text, moving money to “protect” it, locking someone out of systems without checking the agreement, or signing a buyout proposal you have not had reviewed. Each can hand the other side a claim against you.

How Florida Law Handles Dissolution, Buyouts, and Partition

When an LLC cannot function, Florida’s LLC statute lets a member or manager ask a circuit court for dissolution on specific grounds. These include conduct of the business unlawfully, a situation where it is not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement, illegal or fraudulent conduct by controlling members, misappropriation or waste of assets that injures the company, and deadlock among managers or members where irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. The court can also appoint a receiver or custodian, or order the company or other members to buy out the petitioner. One wrinkle: if your operating agreement contains a deadlock sale mechanism and it is started before the court finds deadlock, that contract provision governs instead of a judicial dissolution order.

Corporations follow a parallel track. A shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or the other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value, which often becomes the real settlement path. 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. The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days of the filing that they can avoid dissolution by electing to purchase. An election to buy is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set aside or modify it, so it should not be made casually.

Real estate shared among former partners, siblings, or investors raises its own remedy. Partition actions are brought in the court’s equity jurisdiction. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners to evaluate. Where dividing the land would prejudice the owners, the court can order a public sale and divide the proceeds by interest, and any credit terms generally require at least one-third paid down unless everyone consents. Inherited property between relatives may fall under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which adds protections before a forced sale.

Title clouds are handled through quiet title actions, which can be filed in any county where part of the land sits, and plaintiffs generally must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise.

Questions Margate Business Owners Ask About Disputes

What is a business divorce?

It is the separation of co-owners of a company, whether they are partners, LLC members, or shareholders. It can end in a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution when owners cannot agree.

Can I force a partner out of my Florida LLC?

It depends on your operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation terms, and Florida law offers remedies for serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function. Review of the agreement comes first.

What can I do if a partner is taking money from the business?

Possible claims include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court can issue injunctive relief while the dispute is pending.

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

Five years for a claim founded on a written instrument. Oral or implied contracts get four years. Specific performance is much shorter at one year, so the type of relief you seek affects the deadline.

Does every business dispute end up in court?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and the firm’s attorneys are experienced in all three. Court is sometimes necessary, especially when assets are at risk, but it is not the default outcome.

Which court would hear my dispute if the business is in Margate?

Margate is in Broward County, so larger civil cases go to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Smaller amounts go to county court or small claims. Some large business matters can be filed into the circuit’s complex business division.

Can the court appoint someone to run the company during the case?

In an LLC dissolution proceeding, a court can appoint a receiver or custodian once the petitioner shows sufficient merit, but only after a hearing with notice to the parties. In corporate dissolution cases, courts can also issue injunctions and take steps to preserve assets.

My operating agreement has a deadlock buy-sell clause. Does that help or hurt?

It can do either. If the clause is initiated before a court finds deadlock, it generally controls instead of a judicial dissolution order, so timing and who triggers it can shape the whole outcome. The specific wording matters a great deal.

I inherited a building with my brothers and we cannot agree on selling it. What are my options?

Beyond negotiation or buying out the others, a co-owner can file a partition action. Where the property qualifies as heirs property, a separate statute adds steps designed to protect family cotenants before the court orders a sale.

I live out of state but my partner and our property are in South Florida. Can you handle it?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with business or real estate interests in South Florida, handles local court appearances, and keeps you informed at every stage so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer before the dispute becomes a lawsuit?

Often, yes. Reviewing an operating agreement, sending the right demand, or negotiating a buyout early can prevent a lawsuit altogether. The firm also offers outside general counsel services, including acting as a company’s registered agent and helping with contract and compliance questions.

Serving Margate Business and Real Estate Clients Across Broward and Palm Beach Counties

The firm starts with Margate and the surrounding Broward County communities: Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Tamarac, Pompano Beach, Parkland, Deerfield Beach, Sunrise, Plantation, and Fort Lauderdale. From there, our attorneys represent owners and investors throughout Broward County and into neighboring Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and West Palm Beach.

Many clients live elsewhere but hold a business interest or a piece of real estate here. We regularly work with owners from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose partners or co-owners are in South Florida, and with other attorneys who refer matters that need a Florida litigator.

Talk to a Margate Business Litigation Attorney

When a partnership is coming apart, money is missing, or a contract is not being honored, the next move should be a considered one. Speaking with a Margate business litigation attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team gives you a clear read on your agreement, your deadlines, and your realistic options before anything is filed.

Call to schedule a consultation. The team will review your situation, explain which paths make sense, and tell you plainly what they would do next.