North Palm Beach Breach of Fiduciary Duty Attorney

Most fiduciary disputes in northern Palm Beach County start the same quiet way: a co-owner stops sharing the books, distributions dry up, and a manager who once handled everything cannot say where the company’s money went. By the time the owner who was left out understands what happened, accounts may have been drained or assets moved. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, LLC members, shareholders, investors, and families in disputes like these, serving North Palm Beach, the rest of Palm Beach County, and Broward County.

A North Palm Beach breach of fiduciary duty attorney is usually called in when someone who owed loyalty and honest dealing to a company or its co-owners put their own interests first. That might be a managing member, a majority shareholder, a general partner, or a trusted insider who controlled the checkbook. These claims often arrive bundled with other problems: a demand for an accounting, a fight over a buyout, a request to dissolve the company, or an urgent need to stop assets from leaving.

The claims are rarely clean. Each one depends on what role the person held, what the operating or shareholder agreement says, and what the paper trail shows. Strong cases are built from bank records, capital account histories, and the way the parties actually dealt with each other over the years.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Fiduciary Duty Claims

The Andrew M. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and was 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, which is the ground where fiduciary claims live. 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. That matters when a fiduciary dispute has a federal angle or when the same facts support claims in more than one forum. The firm works as a true legal team, so everyone on a matter knows the file, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when the attorneys are in court.

On the results side, the firm recently won a final judgment after a 5-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court. The 32-page judgment awarded the client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. It reflects the kind of detail-heavy, record-driven trial work that fiduciary cases also demand.

The firm’s approach to fees and strategy is practical. Many clients arrive wanting the most aggressive lawyer available. Andrew’s view is that clients are better served by a lawyer who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do, with an eye on cost. The firm is experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and it looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget.

Situations That Give Rise to Fiduciary Duty Claims

• Diverted or Misused Company Funds: A manager pays personal expenses from the company account, moves money to a side entity, or cannot account for cash. These cases often include claims for an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds.
• Self-Dealing Transactions: A controlling owner causes the company to contract with a business they own, lease property from themselves at inflated rates, or sell assets to insiders below value.
• Squeeze-Outs of Minority Owners: Majority members or shareholders cut off distributions, strip a minority owner of information and a voice, or dilute their interest to push them out.
• Unpaid Distributions and Disputed Capital Contributions: One owner claims credit for money put in while another disputes it, or profits are withheld without a good-faith business reason.
• Family Business Betrayals: Siblings who inherited a company together, or parents and children running a business with different visions, sometimes end up with one relative controlling the finances. These matters call for discretion alongside firm protection of financial interests.
• Commingled Accounts: Business and personal funds are mixed so thoroughly that no one can say what belongs to the company, a red flag that often points to a deeper accounting problem.
• Real Estate Co-Investment Disputes: Partners in a shared property investment find that one of them has sold, encumbered, or collected rent on the property without telling the others.
• Corporate Opportunity Diversion: An insider takes a deal, client, or property that belonged to the company and runs it through a personal vehicle.

What to Do Once You Suspect a Partner or Manager Has Breached Their Duty

Start by securing records, because the case is made of them. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, tax returns, financial statements, bank statements, capital account records, and any emails or texts about money and decision-making. If you still have access to company accounts or bookkeeping software, preserve what you can see without altering anything. Do not log into accounts you have no right to use, and do not take documents you are not entitled to; that can hand the other side a counterclaim.

Next, pay attention to timing. Florida sets different limitations periods for different claims, and a single dispute can involve several. A claim founded on a written instrument carries five years, a contract claim not founded on a written instrument carries four years, and a fraud action carries four years from discovery, capped at 12 years. Because a fiduciary dispute can touch contract, fraud, and other theories at once, the safest course is to have the facts reviewed early rather than assume a long runway.

If money is actively leaving, speak with a Palm Beach County breach of fiduciary duty lawyer right away about emergency relief. Courts can issue injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent while a case is pending, and where a company is being looted, a court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. These requests turn on how quickly and clearly you can document the problem, which is why the records matter so much.

Cases in this market are filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County. Disputes above the county court limit belong in circuit court, which hears the larger business cases, and the circuit has a North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens in addition to the main courthouse in West Palm Beach. If the opposing party or key assets are in Broward County, the case may proceed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit instead, which has a complex business division for large business disputes. Federal claims can go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Finally, avoid the common mistakes: confronting the partner before you understand the numbers, signing a release or buyout without a forensic look at the books, and waiting while distributions stop and records disappear. A short, early conversation with counsel is cheaper than unwinding those decisions later.

How Fiduciary Duty Fits With Dissolution, Buyouts, and Accountings

A fiduciary breach is seldom the only issue. It frequently sits alongside the question of what to do with the company itself. For an LLC, Florida law allows a member or manager to ask a court to dissolve the company on several grounds, including that assets are being misappropriated or wasted and causing injury, that controlling members have acted or are reasonably expected to act illegally or fraudulently, or that owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or being suffered. In that kind of proceeding, the court can appoint a receiver or custodian or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

Corporations have a parallel framework. A shareholder may petition for judicial dissolution on specified grounds, and the corporation or the other shareholders can respond by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order directing the purchase on those terms. An election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. During these proceedings the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve corporate assets.

Your own agreement matters just as much as the statutes. Some operating and shareholder agreements contain deadlock sale provisions, buy-sell formulas, or expulsion terms that change the available path. The firm reads those documents closely, because the exact wording and the parties’ history of dealing often decide the outcome.

The remedies themselves vary: an accounting to find out what happened, recovery of diverted funds, a negotiated buyout on fair terms, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution when the relationship cannot be repaired. Where the business can still function, the goal may be to resolve the dispute in a way that keeps it running.

Questions About Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims in North Palm Beach

What is a breach of fiduciary duty?

It occurs when someone who owes duties of loyalty and care to a company or co-owners puts personal interests ahead of those duties. Managers, controlling members, majority shareholders, and partners can all owe such duties depending on their role and the governing documents.

Who can owe me a fiduciary duty in a business?

It depends on the entity and the person’s role. Managers and controlling owners commonly owe duties to the company and sometimes to other owners. The operating or shareholder agreement can shape the scope of those duties, so the document needs to be read alongside the facts.

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

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. If assets are moving now, a court can be asked for injunctive relief to stop them from being moved or spent while the dispute is pending.

How long do I have to file a fiduciary duty claim in Florida?

There is no single answer, because the period depends on how the claim is framed. Claims founded on a written instrument carry five years, contract claims not founded on a written instrument carry four years, and fraud carries four years from discovery with a 12-year cap. Because the same facts can support multiple theories, have the timeline reviewed promptly.

Can a court dissolve my LLC because of misconduct?

Yes, in appropriate cases. A member or manager can petition when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, when controlling members act illegally or fraudulently, or when a deadlock threatens irreparable injury, among other grounds. The court can also order a buyout or appoint a receiver or custodian instead.

What is an accounting, and do I need one?

An accounting is a court-supervised reckoning of where company money came from and went. It is often the first step when records are incomplete, accounts are commingled, or a manager cannot explain missing funds, because it establishes the numbers a damages claim depends on.

Can I recover money if the person I’m suing has already spent it?

Possibly. Remedies can include a money judgment, tracing funds into other accounts or assets, and relief aimed at preventing further transfers. How much is realistically collectible depends on what assets exist, which is one reason speed matters when you suspect diversion.

Does a fiduciary dispute with a family member have to end in a lawsuit?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and the firm has experience in each. When relatives share ownership, a private resolution often protects both the business and the relationship better than a public trial, though litigation remains available if talks fail.

I live out of state but own a share of a North Palm Beach business. Can you help?

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

Will my partner see my claim coming if I hire a lawyer?

Not necessarily. Counsel can review documents and plan strategy before anything is filed or sent. The timing of a demand letter, a lawsuit, or an emergency motion is a strategic decision, particularly where you worry about assets being moved once the other side is alerted.

Do you work with other attorneys on fiduciary cases?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out-of-state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes. The firm communicates with referring counsel throughout and respects the referring attorney’s relationship with the client.

Serving North Palm Beach Fiduciary Duty Clients Across the Region

The firm represents clients from North Palm Beach and the surrounding northern communities of Palm Beach County, including Juno Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Lake Park, Riviera Beach, Tequesta, and Singer Island. Moving south through the county, it also serves West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton.

Across the county line, the team handles disputes for owners in Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, and the rest of Broward County. Many of its clients live elsewhere, including in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but hold business interests or investment property throughout South Florida.

Speak With a North Palm Beach Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyer

When an owner, manager, or partner has used a position of trust against you, the evidence and the options narrow with time. A North Palm Beach breach of fiduciary duty lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreements and records, explain which claims and remedies fit, and move quickly if assets are at risk. Call the firm to arrange a consultation and talk through where your dispute stands.