Palm Beach Business Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families whose companies and real estate have turned into disputes, and the firm works for clients in Palm Beach County, Broward County, and across South Florida. A Palm Beach business litigation attorney is usually called when a relationship that once ran on a handshake and a spreadsheet stops working: co-owners who cannot agree on anything, a manager who cannot explain where the money went, or a contract that one side now reads very differently than the other.

Palm Beach County cases are filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for the county and handles most disputes worth more than the county court ceiling. That court operates a differentiated case management system that sorts each civil case onto one of three tracks, so the early months of a lawsuit are as much about scheduling and positioning as they are about the merits. Disputes that involve diversity of citizenship or federal claims can land in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Timing is the first practical question in nearly every business dispute. Florida gives five years to sue on a written contract and four years for an oral or implied one. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of twelve years. A claim for specific performance of a contract has only one year. Those clocks run side by side, and a case that looks like a simple contract dispute can contain claims with very different deadlines.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Palm Beach County, Broward County, and the wider South Florida region, including clients in Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. Many clients live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut and own a business or property here; the firm handles the Florida court appearances so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

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 contract disputes 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. Sundeep Nath, Senior Counsel, is a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in state and federal courts.

The firm’s record includes a Broward County commercial real estate case that went to a five-day bench trial and ended in a 32-page final judgment granting the client specific performance of the contract. Because specific performance carries that one-year filing window, the result illustrates why early assessment matters. The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on a file knows it, calls are answered, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when the lawyers are in court. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they aim for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case. A significant share of the firm’s work also comes from referrals by other attorneys, including out of state counsel whose clients have Florida disputes.

Business Disputes We Handle for Palm Beach County Clients

• Business Divorce and Deadlocked Ownership: Two 50 percent owners who cannot make decisions can paralyze a company. Remedies range from a negotiated buyout or a sale to judicial dissolution, and an operating or shareholder agreement may contain its own deadlock-sale mechanism that controls before a court gets involved.
• LLC Member and Shareholder Disputes: Breaches of operating and shareholder agreements, minority owners frozen out of decisions, and claims of self-dealing by those in control. Florida’s LLC statute lists specific grounds a member or manager can invoke to ask a court to dissolve the company.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: Managers, majority owners, and partners owe duties to the company and co-owners, and claims arise when they favor themselves, compete with the business, or hide information.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, diverted company money, and disputed capital contributions. Remedies include an accounting, recovery of funds, and emergency relief to stop assets from being moved.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, and construction contracts, where the outcome often turns on exact wording and the parties’ course of dealing.
• Partition Actions and Title Disputes: Co-owners of real estate who cannot agree can ask the court to divide the property or order a sale. Quiet title actions clear competing ownership claims and remove clouds on title.
• Commercial Real Estate Contract Disputes: Failed closings, buyers or sellers who walk away, and demands for specific performance of a purchase and sale agreement.
• Temporary and Permanent Injunctions: Court orders that protect assets, property, or business interests while the dispute is decided, including early and emergency relief.

How a Palm Beach Business Case Typically Unfolds

Most business disputes begin well before anyone files suit. The first phase is document work: the operating or shareholder agreement, amendments, bank and ledger records, emails, and anything showing what each owner contributed and received. That review usually decides whether the strongest path is a negotiated exit, a demand for books and records, or an immediate filing. In disputes where assets are at risk, the firm may seek emergency injunctive relief at the outset, because a judgment is of little use if the money or property is gone by the time it arrives.

Once a complaint is filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, the case is assigned to a track under the circuit’s case management order, and the early schedule is set. Written discovery, document production, and depositions follow, and these are where partnership cases are often won or lost, since the facts about who did what and who took what live in records and testimony. Many cases resolve in mediation after discovery has clarified each side’s exposure, and the firm’s attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration for that reason. Cases that do not settle go to trial, and business disputes frequently turn on equitable claims such as accounting, dissolution, or specific performance, which a judge decides in a bench trial.

Court selection matters too. Florida’s civil courts divide by amount: county court handles the lower tier of claims, and circuit court hears larger ones. That limit is adjusted periodically, so the amount in controversy should be checked at filing. Disputes that span the county line can also involve Broward’s Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which maintains a complex business division handling matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation.

What to Do When a Business Relationship Starts to Break Down

Start by securing the paper. Gather the operating agreement or shareholder agreement and every amendment, formation documents, tax returns, bank statements, loan documents, and the financial records you have lawful access to. If you are a member or shareholder, you generally have rights to inspect company records, and requesting them in writing creates a useful record. Do not copy or remove material you are not entitled to take, and do not delete anything; both can damage your position later.

Next, read the agreement for exit mechanics before anything else. Operating agreements often contain buyout formulas, valuation methods, notice requirements, mandatory mediation or arbitration clauses, and deadlock-sale provisions. Under Florida’s corporate statute, if a shareholder petitions for dissolution on certain grounds, the corporation or the other shareholders can elect to buy the petitioner out at fair value, and if the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms. A deadlock-sale clause that has been properly triggered can displace a judicial dissolution altogether. Knowing which of these applies shapes everything that follows.

Watch the deadlines. A written-contract claim has five years, oral or implied contracts four, fraud four years from discovery, and specific performance only one. Rescission is four years. Professional malpractice and negligence claims run two years under current law. If you believe funds are being diverted, speak with counsel quickly, because the remedy that matters most may be an emergency order rather than an eventual judgment.

Filings for Palm Beach County disputes go through the Clerk of the Circuit Court for the county, with circuit civil matters heard at the main courthouse in West Palm Beach. Federal filings go to the Southern District of Florida, with court held in West Palm Beach. Finally, avoid the common mistakes: confronting a partner in writing with accusations you cannot support, locking people out of accounts or premises without checking what the agreement allows, or continuing to operate as though nothing is wrong while evidence disappears.

Partition, Title, and Real Estate Questions Between Co-Owners

Real estate held by more than one owner is a frequent source of litigation. Florida’s partition statute allows a co-owner to ask the court to divide the property or, when division would prejudice the owners, to sell it and split the proceeds in proportion to their interests. The complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and their residences, and state each owner’s share. After a judgment of partition, the court appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree, and they report on whether the land can be divided fairly. If it cannot, the court may order a sale at public auction. A credit sale is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the price must be paid down unless everyone consents otherwise.

Inherited property carries an additional layer. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to qualifying tenancy-in-common property acquired from relatives, and when it applies, the court must follow its procedures, which favor buyouts among cotenants over forced sales. Whether property qualifies depends on facts such as how title was acquired and the share held by relatives, so the classification should be settled early.

Quiet title actions serve a different goal: resolving who owns what. A plaintiff claiming title can ask the circuit court to cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title that clouds ownership, and the suit may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. The statute generally expects the plaintiff to trace title back at least seven years. Adverse possession claims, which Florida limits by a seven-year possession requirement and specific filing and recording rules, sometimes surface in these cases, particularly among neighbors and former co-owners.

Palm Beach Business Litigation Questions, Answered

What is the deadline to sue for breach of a contract in Florida?

A claim founded on a written contract has five years. A claim based on an oral or implied agreement has four. These periods were not changed by the 2023 reform that shortened the negligence deadline, but a single dispute may contain several claims with different deadlines, so each should be evaluated separately.

Can I get a court to dissolve my LLC if my partner and I are deadlocked?

Possibly. A manager or member can ask a circuit court to dissolve an LLC on several grounds, including that managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring. Other grounds include misappropriation or waste of assets and conduct that makes it not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement. The court may also appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member’s interest.

What happens if my operating agreement has a deadlock sale clause?

If that provision is properly initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds, it generally applies in place of a judicial dissolution order or a court-ordered purchase, provided it is then carried out. That makes it important to read the clause and its timing requirements before filing anything.

Can the other shareholders buy me out instead of dissolving the corporation?

In a shareholder petition under Florida’s corporate dissolution statute, the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. The corporation must notify the other shareholders of that option within 30 days of the proceeding starting. If the sides agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election, the court enters an order on those terms, and an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it.

What can I do if a partner is moving money out of the business?

Claims may include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. Where assets are actively being moved or spent, the court can issue an injunction and, in dissolution cases, appoint a receiver or take other steps to preserve assets while the case proceeds.

How long does a business lawsuit take in Palm Beach County?

There is no standard length. The track assigned under the circuit’s case management system, the volume of discovery, and whether the case is resolved at mediation all matter. Emergency injunction proceedings move in days or weeks, while a fully tried contested dispute takes substantially longer. The firm looks for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget.

Do I need to be in Florida for the case?

No. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who own a business or real estate here, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed through scheduled calls so they need not travel for every hearing.

My business partner and I are family. Does that change anything?

The law applies the same way, but the approach often does not. Family business disputes among siblings, parents and children, or in-laws involve control, compensation, and succession alongside the legal claims, and they call for discretion. Negotiated structures such as a buyout or phased wind-down are often more workable than a public fight.

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

Often yes. The firm’s outside general counsel program helps companies with contract, compliance, and operational questions, and the firm can serve as the company’s registered agent. Having a litigator review agreements and exit terms early frequently prevents a disagreement from turning into litigation.

Can a dispute be resolved without going to court?

Many are. Negotiation, mediation, and arbitration resolve a substantial portion of business disputes, and many agreements require them. The attorneys have experience in each, and the decision to litigate or settle should follow from what the agreement requires and what the client is trying to achieve.

Can the firm handle a case referred by another attorney?

Yes. A significant part of the practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys and Florida attorneys who do not handle business litigation. The firm communicates with referring counsel throughout and respects that lawyer’s relationship with the client.

Serving Business and Real Estate Clients Across Palm Beach County and South Florida

The firm’s work for Palm Beach County clients begins in West Palm Beach, where the main courthouse sits, and reaches north through Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Juno Beach, and Tequesta, and along the coast through Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton. Inland, the firm serves owners in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee, and Greenacres, and reaches west to Belle Glade and the communities around Lake Okeechobee. Business owners in Palm Springs, Riviera Beach, North Palm Beach, and Palm Beach itself are also among the clients, as are investors with property interests anywhere in the county.

The firm also serves Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, and Hollywood, where disputes may be heard in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Throughout South Florida, the firm represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests here.

Talk With a Palm Beach Business Litigation Lawyer

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty has put your company, your investment, or your property at risk, a conversation with a Palm Beach business litigation lawyer early on can clarify which deadlines apply and whether emergency relief is warranted. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team answers the phone, returns calls within 24 hours when the attorneys are in court, and will schedule conference calls at times that suit everyone involved. Call the firm to discuss your dispute and the options available to you.