North Palm Beach Business Litigation Attorney

Most business owners who end up in a courtroom want one of a few things: their money back, their company back, their property back, or a clean exit from a partner they can no longer work with. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in disputes over exactly those outcomes, serving clients in North Palm Beach, throughout Palm Beach County, and across Broward County. If you are looking for a North Palm Beach business litigation attorney, the first question is rarely “should I sue?” It is “what do I need to hold onto, and how fast is it slipping away?”

Some disputes can be settled across a conference table. Others involve a partner moving company funds, a co-owner refusing to sell a shared property, or a contract counterparty walking away from a deal. Those cases come with deadlines, and a few of them are short. Waiting to see how things shake out can cost a client a claim outright.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for owners, investors, and families in Palm Beach County and Broward County, as well as clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests in South Florida. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989 and has spent 37 years in litigation, with a career built 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.

He is joined by Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That federal experience matters in this region, because some disputes between South Florida businesses and out-of-state owners end up in the Southern District of Florida rather than state court.

The firm practices as a true legal team: everyone working on a matter knows the file, so a client who calls with a question gets an answer from someone who is current on the case. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and the firm aims for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

Results back that up. In May 2024, after a five-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. A win like that reflects the kind of preparation these disputes demand, where the outcome turns on contract language and the history between the parties.

Business Disputes We Handle for North Palm Beach Owners and Investors

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer run a company together may need a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution. Deadlocked management, valuation fights, and disputes over who is entitled to what are the usual triggers.
• Partnership and LLC Member Disputes: Breaches of operating agreements and shareholder agreements, minority owner oppression, and disagreements over profit splits and contributions all fall here. Florida’s LLC statute allows judicial dissolution on several grounds, including deadlock that threatens irreparable injury and misappropriation or waste of company assets.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements. These cases often come down to the exact wording and how the parties actually behaved.
• Missing Funds and Diverted Money: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and managers who cannot account for company money. Remedies include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and recovery of funds.
• Partition Actions: When co-owners of real estate cannot agree, a Florida court can divide the property or order it sold and split the proceeds. Common among former business partners, siblings who inherited property, and unmarried couples.
• Title Disputes and Quiet Title: Competing ownership claims and clouds on title can be resolved by a quiet title action, which Florida allows a person claiming legal or equitable title to bring in order to cancel a conveyance or remove a claim.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to protect real property, while the dispute is pending.
• Family Business Conflicts: Siblings, parents and children, and in-laws who share ownership face questions of control, compensation, and succession that need discretion as well as sound legal judgment.

What to Do Now If a Business Dispute Is Heating Up

Start by getting the documents in one place: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any buy-sell terms, the contract at the center of the dispute, bank and accounting records, and the emails and texts that show what each side promised. If a partner is handling the books, copy what you are lawfully entitled to see before access gets restricted. Do not alter or delete anything, even if it looks unflattering to you.

Then look at the clock. Florida sets different filing periods for different claims. A legal or equitable action on a written contract has five years. A claim on an oral or implied contract has four years, as does an action to rescind a contract. A fraud claim has four years from discovery, capped at 12 years. Specific performance, which is what a buyer seeks when a seller will not close, has only one year. That last deadline catches people off guard, because it is much shorter than the contract deadline. Negligence claims were cut to two years for causes of action that accrued after March 24, 2023, and professional malpractice claims outside the medical field carry two years from discovery. The written-contract period was not changed by that reform.

If money is actively leaving the company, the question is not just whether you have a claim but whether there will be anything left to collect. That is when a lawyer moves for emergency injunctive relief. Before a court appoints a receiver or custodian for an LLC, it must hold a hearing after notice to the parties, so build your record early.

Where the case lands depends on the amount at stake. Palm Beach County’s circuit court, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, hears claims above the county court ceiling, and the county court hears the mid-sized ones below it. Many of our Palm Beach County matters are heard at the main courthouse in West Palm Beach, and the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens serves the northern part of the county. If the dispute involves a Broward defendant or Broward property, it goes to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which maintains complex business divisions for large commercial and entity dissolution cases. Federal court in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale comes into play when the parties or claims support federal jurisdiction.

The most common mistake is negotiating alone for months while the other side quietly improves its position. The second is accepting a partial payment or an informal handshake that undercuts a claim. Talk to counsel before you sign anything or confront a partner in writing.

How Florida Law Treats Ownership Splits and Forced Exits

Owners often ask whether they can simply be bought out or pushed out. The answer starts with the agreement. If an operating agreement contains a deadlock sale provision that is triggered before a court finds deadlock, that provision generally governs instead of a judicial dissolution order. Without one, a member or manager can petition for dissolution on the statutory grounds, and the court can appoint a custodian or receiver, or order a purchase of the petitioner’s interest.

Corporations work differently. In a shareholder-initiated dissolution case, the corporation or the other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioning shareholder’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 directing the purchase. Within 30 days of the start of such a case, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they may avoid dissolution by electing to buy. The election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. During the case, the court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve assets.

Shared Real Estate: Partition and Quiet Title in Palm Beach County

Co-ownership of real property is a frequent source of litigation here, particularly with investment property, inherited homes, and parcels held by former business partners. Florida partition actions are brought in equity. 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, who report on whether the land can be divided fairly. If it cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a public sale and divide the proceeds by ownership interest. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid at the outset unless everyone consents otherwise.

Inherited property gets special treatment. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to partition actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, to property held in tenancy in common with no binding agreement on partition, where a cotenant got title from a relative and a further condition is met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. When a court finds the property is heirs property, it must follow that framework unless all cotenants agree otherwise, and a partition in kind cannot be ordered unless the court is satisfied the commissioners weighed the statutory factors and found a division would prejudice the cotenants as a group.

Quiet title cases serve a different purpose: resolving who owns what. A quiet title complaint can be filed in any county where part of the land lies, and the plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise. Possession-based claims have their own rules. A claim of adverse possession without color of title requires seven years of continuous possession under a claim of title, and adverse possession under color of title requires the instrument to be recorded in the county where the property sits.

North Palm Beach Business Litigation: Questions We Hear

What is a business divorce?

It is the separation of co-owners of a company, whether partners, LLC members, or shareholders. It may end in a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution if 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 gives remedies when a member has engaged in serious misconduct or the company cannot function. An attorney needs to read your agreement before advising on options.

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 order injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending.

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 or implied contract claims have four years. The five-year written-contract period was untouched by the 2023 changes to Florida’s limitations statute.

If a seller refuses to close on a commercial property, how fast do I have to act?

An action for specific performance has a one-year period, which is far shorter than the general contract deadline. Anyone holding a signed purchase contract that the other side is not honoring should have it reviewed promptly.

How does a partition action work in Florida?

The court is asked to divide jointly owned property or, when division is not practical, to order a sale and distribute the proceeds. These cases arise among former business partners, heirs, and unmarried co-owners.

Can a partnership dispute be resolved without a trial?

Often, yes. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration resolve many of these cases, and our attorneys are experienced in each. The right path depends on how much trust remains between the owners and how much is at risk while the dispute continues.

My co-owner and I are family. Does that change how the case is handled?

The law applies the same way, but the approach changes. Family business disputes tend to involve inheritance, succession, and compensation questions layered on top of the ownership dispute, and discretion matters. The goal is to protect your financial interests without needlessly burning relationships that may outlast the case.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and my business partner is in Palm Beach County. Can you handle this?

Yes. We regularly represent out-of-state clients with South Florida business or real estate interests. We handle the local court appearances and keep you informed so you do not need to travel for every hearing.

Does the firm take referrals from other lawyers?

Yes. A significant part of our practice comes from other attorneys, including out-of-state lawyers whose clients have Florida disputes and Florida lawyers who do not handle business litigation. We keep referring counsel informed and respect their relationship with the client.

Which court would hear my case if the amount in dispute is modest?

Florida’s county courts hear civil claims up to a set ceiling, and circuit courts hear everything above it. Small claims is a separate, lower tier. The ceilings are adjusted periodically, so confirm the current figure when you assess where a claim belongs.

Can I keep my business running while a dispute with my partner is pending?

Frequently, yes. When both sides want the company to survive, an interim arrangement can keep operations going. When they do not, a court can appoint a custodian or receiver, and in corporate cases it can carry on the business until a full hearing.

Serving North Palm Beach and Surrounding Business Communities

Our representation starts in North Palm Beach and runs through the northern Palm Beach County communities where so many owners and investors live and hold property, including Juno Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Lake Park, Riviera Beach, and Tequesta, alongside West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. We also represent clients across Broward County, from Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, and Coral Springs to Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Hollywood, and the neighboring communities in between. Clients with interests here who live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut work with us as well, and we handle the proceedings on the ground.

Talk With a North Palm Beach Business Litigation Lawyer

If a partner, co-owner, or contract counterparty has put your company, investment, or property at risk, a conversation with a North Palm Beach business litigation lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can sort out what you can do, what it will take, and how quickly you need to move. Call to schedule a consultation. We return calls within 24 hours, and we will tell you plainly whether the best route is negotiation, mediation, or the courtroom.