Palm Beach Business Attorney

The goal in most business disputes is simple to state and hard to reach: keep the company, the money, or the property from being lost while owners, partners, or counterparties fight over it. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a Palm Beach business attorney firm that handles business and real estate litigation, partnership and LLC member disputes, complex contract cases, injunctions, and outside general counsel work for clients in Palm Beach County, Broward County, and across South Florida.

Disputes between business owners tend to follow a pattern. A relationship that worked for years stops working, money stops reconciling, or one owner starts making decisions the other never agreed to. By the time a lawyer is called, the company is often deadlocked, an account is short, or a deal that was supposed to close has not.

What matters next is speed and sequence. Some problems call for a negotiated exit. Others need a court order before assets move. Knowing which is which, and what the clock allows, is most of the job.

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

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 Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, and Broward County. Its lead attorney, Andrew M. Schwartz, has spent 37 years in litigation, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, and holds a law degree from the University of Miami and an undergraduate degree from Emory University. His work centers on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

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 in South Florida, where a dispute may be filed in state circuit court or in federal court, and where partners often live in different states.

The firm works as a true legal team: everyone on a matter knows the file, so a client calling mid-case reaches someone who can answer. The firm keeps a strict 24-hour return call policy when attorneys are in court. It 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 rather than stretching a case out.

Results at trial are part of the record. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County circuit judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. A significant share of the firm’s work also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out-of-state lawyers whose clients have disputes in Florida.

Business Disputes We Handle for Palm Beach Owners and Investors

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together face deadlocked management, buyouts, valuation fights, and judicial dissolution. The firm represents partners, LLC members, shareholders, and minority owners on either side of the separation.
• Breach of Operating or Shareholder Agreements: These cases usually turn on exact wording and on how the parties actually behaved. Buyout triggers, transfer restrictions, voting thresholds, and deadlock provisions all matter.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Managers, controlling members, and partners owe duties to the company and to co-owners. Self-dealing, undisclosed side deals, and freezing out a minority owner are common claims.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, diverted company money, commingled accounts, and disputed capital contributions lead to claims for an accounting and recovery of funds.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and other significant business arrangements, where one party says the other did not perform.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Former business partners, siblings who inherited property, and investors who want out of shared real estate can ask the court to divide or sell the property. Quiet title actions clear competing ownership claims.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to protect property, while the case is pending.
• Family Business Disputes: Siblings, parents and children, and in-laws who share ownership face questions of control and compensation that carry personal weight alongside the financial stakes.

Deadlines and First Moves When a Palm Beach Business Dispute Starts

Start with the documents. Pull the operating agreement, shareholder agreement, partnership agreement, any buy-sell terms, the contract in dispute, bank statements, tax returns, and the email or text history that shows what the parties actually did. Do not delete anything, and do not confront a partner about missing money before you understand the numbers. A warning tends to speed up the movement of funds.

Check the deadlines early. Florida gives five years to sue on a written contract and four years on an oral or implied one. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer cap of twelve years. A claim to rescind a contract has four years. Specific performance is much shorter: one year. Negligence-based claims and non-medical professional malpractice claims have two years. The 2023 changes to the negligence period apply to claims that arose after March 24, 2023, and did not touch the written-contract period.

If money is actively leaving the company, the question is whether to ask a court for emergency relief. In a judicial dissolution case a court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve assets, but a receiver is not appointed without notice and a hearing. The firm evaluates early whether an injunction is realistic, and how to present the evidence.

Then look at your agreement for a deadlock or buyout mechanism. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a deadlock sale provision in an operating agreement that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds can displace judicial dissolution. Under the corporate statute, starting a dissolution case on certain grounds does not cut off a shareholder’s right to use a compliant deadlock sale provision. Reading those clauses before anyone files can change the whole path of the case.

On venue, cases with more than $50,000 in controversy belong in circuit court, which in Palm Beach County is the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, sitting in West Palm Beach and with other courthouses in the county. Broward County matters go to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which has complex business divisions for dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation. Federal cases go to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Smaller claims between $8,000.01 and $50,000 go to county civil court; amounts up to $8,000 are small claims.

Getting Out of a Deadlocked LLC or Corporation

When owners cannot agree and cannot sell, Florida law offers a court route. A member or manager can seek judicial dissolution of an LLC on grounds that include deadlock with threatened irreparable injury, misappropriation or waste of assets, illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control, or that it is no longer reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. A court may also appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving.

For corporations, a shareholder can petition for dissolution on statutory grounds, including that the corporation has abandoned its business and failed to wind down within a reasonable time. Within 30 days of filing, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they can avoid dissolution by buying 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. Once made, an election to buy is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it.

That buyout path is why valuation becomes the real fight in many dissolution cases. Whether the goal is to stay and buy or to leave with fair value, the choice of strategy shapes everything that follows.

Partition and Quiet Title for Shared Property

When co-owners cannot agree on shared real estate, Florida’s partition statute lets any owner ask the circuit court to divide the property or sell it. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners to evaluate it. If they 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 by ownership share.

Inherited property has extra protections. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies when the property is held as tenants in common, a cotenant got title from a relative, and further conditions are met, such as 20 percent or more of the interests being held by relatives. In those cases the court must follow the heirs property procedures, and partition in kind is favored unless it would prejudice the cotenants as a group.

Quiet title actions work differently. They resolve who owns land by canceling a conveyance or other evidence of title that clouds ownership. The plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years, and the suit can be filed in any county where part of the land sits.

Palm Beach Business Litigation FAQs

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 of the business, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution if the owners cannot agree.

Can I force a partner out of my Florida LLC?

It depends on the 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 cannot function. A lawyer should read the agreement first.

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 situations a court can issue 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 contract in Florida?

Five years for a written contract and four years for an oral or implied one. Other claims, such as specific performance, run on shorter clocks, so identify every possible claim early.

How does a partition action work?

You ask the circuit court to divide jointly owned property or, if division is not practical, to order it sold and the proceeds shared. Commissioners are appointed to evaluate the property before a sale is ordered.

Does every business dispute have to go to court?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and the firm is experienced in all three. Some cases still need a court filing to create leverage or stop harm.

My operating agreement says disputes go to arbitration. Does that change anything?

It can. An arbitration clause may send some or all claims out of court. Emergency relief, enforcement, and which claims are covered are all questions the clause’s wording will answer.

Can a court order a sale of my LLC if the members are deadlocked?

A court can dissolve the LLC if deadlock threatens irreparable injury and cannot be broken, or can order a purchase of the petitioner’s interest. A deadlock sale clause in the operating agreement, if initiated in time, may control instead.

I live in New York and my partner is in Palm Beach County. Can you handle the case?

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

Is it worth hiring a lawyer for a smaller business dispute?

Often, because the cost of waiting can exceed the amount in dispute. A short review of the agreement can show whether a demand letter, mediation, or filing makes sense, and the firm looks for solutions that fit the budget.

Can family members who co-own a business be forced to sell?

Not automatically. The answer depends on the governing agreement and the entity type. Courts can order dissolution or a buyout in the right circumstances, and the firm handles these cases with discretion.

What does outside general counsel service include?

The firm serves as the company’s registered agent and helps with contract, compliance, and operational questions as they arise. Having a litigator involved before a dispute starts often keeps disagreements from becoming lawsuits.

Serving Business Clients Across Palm Beach County and Beyond

The firm’s business litigation work covers Palm Beach County from West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens in the north to Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, and Boca Raton in the south, including Lake Worth Beach, Jupiter, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Greenacres, Riviera Beach, and Belle Glade in the western part of the county. Many of these communities have a high concentration of owner-operated companies, professional practices, and investment properties that generate co-ownership disputes.

The firm also serves Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, Hollywood, and neighboring communities. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own businesses or real estate in South Florida are served throughout the matter, with the firm handling local proceedings.

Talk With a Palm Beach Business Litigation Attorney

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty has put your company, investment, or property at risk, speak with a Palm Beach business litigation attorney before deadlines or assets slip away. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreements, explain what a court can and cannot do for you, and recommend the most efficient route to the outcome you need. Call to schedule a consultation.