North Palm Beach Business Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in North Palm Beach who are caught in disputes with the people they own companies and property with, and we handle business and real estate litigation across Palm Beach County and Broward County. A North Palm Beach business attorney is usually called when something has already gone wrong: a partner stops answering questions about the books, an LLC member locks the others out of decisions, or co-owners of a waterfront property cannot agree on whether to keep it or sell it.

These disputes tend to turn on documents and money. The operating agreement, shareholder agreement, or purchase contract controls far more than most owners expect, and the way a company’s funds have moved through its accounts often decides the outcome. Because the rules differ depending on whether the company is an LLC or a corporation, the first question is almost always what kind of entity you are in and what your agreement already says about buyouts, deadlock, and exit.

What Happens When Owners Cannot Agree: Deadlock, Dissolution, and Buyouts

Florida gives co-owners more structured remedies than many people realize. For LLCs, a member or manager can ask a circuit court to dissolve the company on specific statutory grounds. These include a situation where it is no longer reasonably practicable to run the company under its articles and operating agreement, where controlling members are acting or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, where company assets are being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury, and where managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. If a proceeding of this kind has enough merit behind it, the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or order the company or other members to buy out the petitioning member.

One detail catches people off guard: if your operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision, such as a buy-sell or shotgun clause, and someone triggers it before the court finds that deadlock grounds exist, that contractual mechanism can take the place of a dissolution order. Whether to trigger such a clause, or to head off someone else who is about to, is a strategic decision that should be made with counsel before anything is filed.

Corporations follow a parallel track under a different chapter. A shareholder can petition a circuit court for dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation, or if it does not act, one or more other shareholders, can elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value to avoid dissolution. The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days after such a proceeding begins that they may avoid dissolution by electing to purchase. If the parties agree on fair value and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, 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. While the case is pending, the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve corporate assets.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for North Palm Beach Business Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business litigation and real estate firm serving North Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and communities throughout Palm Beach County and Broward County. Founder Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, and has practiced litigation in Florida since that year. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989. His career has centered on complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is the work that most North Palm Beach owner disputes require.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That matters here because South Florida business disputes sometimes belong in federal court, and the team is prepared to handle either forum. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on your matter knows the file and can answer when you call. A strict 24 hour return call policy applies when we are in court or otherwise unavailable.

Recent trial work reflects the kind of case we take on. After a 5-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Our attorneys are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and we look for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a fight for its own sake. Many North Palm Beach owners also live part of the year in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut; we regularly represent those clients and handle the local court appearances so they do not need to travel for every hearing.

Disputes Our North Palm Beach Business Litigation Clients Bring Us

• Business Divorce: Partners, LLC members, and shareholders who can no longer work together and need a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution, including valuation fights over what a departing owner’s interest is worth.
• Breach of Operating or Shareholder Agreements: Disputes over management rights, distributions, transfer restrictions, and exit provisions, where the exact wording of the agreement and the parties’ course of dealing decide the case.
• Missing or Diverted Company Funds: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and managers who cannot account for money, pursued through claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of funds.
• Family Business Conflicts: Siblings who inherited a company together, parents and children with different plans for it, and in-laws holding ownership stakes, handled with discretion while protecting each client’s financial position.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and other significant arrangements where performance has broken down.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Co-owned residential or investment property that one owner wants to sell and another wants to keep, along with quiet title actions to clear competing ownership claims.
• Commercial Real Estate Contract Disputes: Failed closings and purchase and sale disagreements, including actions seeking specific performance of the contract.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent and to preserve business interests and real property while a case proceeds.

Deadlines, Documents, and First Moves for a North Palm Beach Owner Dispute

Start by gathering what governs the relationship: the articles of organization or incorporation, the operating or shareholder agreement and every amendment, buy-sell agreements, tax returns, bank statements, and any correspondence in which the dispute began to take shape. Pull records showing capital contributions and distributions. If you suspect money is leaving the company improperly, avoid confronting the other owner before you have copies of the records you are entitled to see, because access can narrow quickly once a relationship turns hostile.

Deadlines drive more decisions than people expect. A claim on a written contract generally must be filed within five years, while an oral or implied contract claim has four. A fraud claim has four years from discovery, capped at 12 years overall, and an action to rescind a contract has four years. A suit seeking specific performance carries a one-year period, which is short enough that waiting to see whether a deal will close on its own can forfeit the remedy. Negligence claims are now limited to two years, and professional malpractice claims run two years from when the claim was or should have been discovered. Reading your claim against the right period early is part of preserving it.

Where you file depends on the amount in controversy. County court hears civil claims from just over $8,000 up to $50,000, and circuit court handles larger claims, which includes most partnership and LLC disputes along with anything seeking dissolution or injunctive relief. Palm Beach County cases are heard in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in West Palm Beach with a branch courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens, close to North Palm Beach. Broward County cases fall under the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which has a complex business division that handles dissolutions of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation. Federal disputes go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale among other locations. If assets are at risk of being moved, raise it with counsel immediately, because emergency injunctive relief only helps when it arrives before the funds are gone.

Co-Owned Property: Partition and Quiet Title in Palm Beach County

North Palm Beach and the surrounding area are full of property held by more than one owner: homes inherited by siblings, investment parcels bought by former business partners, and residences owned by unmarried couples. When owners disagree, partition is the court-supervised exit. All partition actions are heard in chancery. 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, chosen by the parties if they agree and by the court if not. When the commissioners report that the land cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order it sold at public auction and divide the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid down unless everyone consents.

Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act adds protections for inherited property. Property qualifies when it is held as tenants in common with no binding agreement among the cotenants about partition, at least one cotenant took title from a relative, and further conditions are met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. If the court finds the property is heirs property, it must follow the Act’s procedures unless all cotenants agree otherwise, and a partition in kind cannot be ordered without commissioners having weighed the statutory factors and found that dividing the land would prejudice the cotenants as a group.

Quiet title actions address a different problem: a cloud on ownership. A plaintiff may seek to cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title held by someone who is not the rightful owner, and the action may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Plaintiffs generally must trace title back at least seven years before filing unless the court orders otherwise. Related timing rules matter as well: Florida bars an action to recover real property unless the plaintiff or a predecessor possessed it within seven years before suit, and adverse possession claims require seven years of continuous possession with additional filing requirements.

Questions North Palm Beach Business Owners Ask Before Hiring Counsel

What is a business divorce?

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

Can I force a business partner out of an LLC in Florida?

It depends on your operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides court remedies when serious misconduct occurs or the company can no longer function. Reviewing the agreement is the first step.

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

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. In urgent cases a court can issue injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the dispute is pending.

What grounds allow a court to dissolve an LLC?

A member or manager can petition when the company’s affairs are conducted unlawfully, when it is not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement, when controlling members act illegally or fraudulently, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when a deadlock cannot be broken and irreparable injury is threatened or occurring.

Does filing for dissolution mean the business will actually be shut down?

Not necessarily. A court can appoint a receiver or custodian, and in corporate cases the other shareholders or the corporation can elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value instead. Many dissolution cases end in a buyout.

Does every business dispute have to go to court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. Our attorneys have extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution and pursue whichever path is most likely to meet your goals efficiently.

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

Five years for a claim founded on a written instrument, and four years for an oral or implied contract. A specific performance action has a much shorter one-year period, so those claims should be evaluated quickly.

My operating agreement has a buy-sell clause. Does it override a court case?

Often it can. If a deadlock sale provision is initiated before the court determines that deadlock grounds exist, it can apply in place of a judicial dissolution order, as long as it is carried through. Timing and who triggers it first can shape the outcome.

Can one co-owner force the sale of a property we inherited together?

Generally an owner can ask the court for partition. If the property qualifies as heirs property, additional statutory steps apply, including an appraisal-based process and consideration of factors that can favor keeping the land in the family rather than forcing an auction.

I live in New York or New Jersey but own a business or property here. Can you handle it from afar?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with South Florida interests, handle the local court appearances, and keep you informed at each stage so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

Do you work with other attorneys on referrals?

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

Is it worth hiring a lawyer before a dispute turns into a lawsuit?

Often, yes. Through our outside general counsel program, we serve as a company’s registered agent and assist with contract, compliance, and operational questions. Having a litigator review agreements early can keep a disagreement from becoming a case.

Serving North Palm Beach and Surrounding South Florida Business Clients

We represent owners and investors in North Palm Beach and throughout Palm Beach County, including Juno Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Park, Riviera Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. Our work extends south into Broward County, where we serve clients in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, and Hollywood.

Business divorces, partition cases, and contract disputes arise across all of these communities, whether the dispute involves a marina-area commercial lease, a family company, or a shared investment property. We also serve clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose partners or co-owners are here in South Florida.

Speak With a North Palm Beach Business Litigation Attorney

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty is putting your company, investment, or property at risk, a conversation with a North Palm Beach business litigation attorney at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can clarify your options before deadlines and leverage slip away. We return calls within 24 hours and can arrange conference calls at times that work for you. Call us to discuss your situation and what the right path looks like for your business.