Palm Beach Gardens Business Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in Palm Beach Gardens who are caught in disputes with partners, co-owners, tenants, buyers, and sellers, and the firm handles those cases in the courts of Palm Beach County and Broward County. A Palm Beach Gardens business litigation attorney is usually called when an agreement has stopped working, when a co-owner has stopped cooperating, or when money has gone somewhere it should not have.

The disputes that reach us from the PGA Boulevard corridor and the surrounding commercial districts tend to fall into a few patterns: a company stalled by two owners who cannot agree, a purchase contract that one side will not close on, a partner who cannot explain where distributions went, or a property owned jointly by people who no longer want to be tied together. Each of these has its own clock, its own court procedure, and its own set of remedies, and the choices made in the first few weeks often shape everything that follows.

Timing matters more than most clients expect. A claim on a written contract carries a five-year limitations period in Florida, while an oral or implied agreement carries four years, and a suit seeking specific performance of a contract must be filed within one year. Those differences can decide whether a strong claim survives or is lost before anyone picks up the phone.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Palm Beach County, Broward County, and South Florida, including clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests here. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University and a law degree from the University of Miami, and his practice has centered on complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

He is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That matters in South Florida, where a dispute can end up in circuit court or in the federal Southern District of Florida depending on the parties and the claims. The firm works as a true team, so everyone on a file knows it, and clients are promised a return call within 24 hours when the attorneys are in court or otherwise unavailable.

The firm’s results reflect the kind of work it does. After a five-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, the court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. Getting a court to compel a sale to go forward, rather than just award damages, takes careful preparation of the contract record and the parties’ course of dealing. The attorneys are equally comfortable in mediation and arbitration, and the firm looks for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than prolonging a case for its own sake. Many matters also come to the firm through referrals from other attorneys, both in Florida and out of state.

Business Disputes We Handle for Palm Beach Gardens Owners and Investors

• Business Divorce and Partnership Disputes: Deadlocked management, valuation fights, buyouts, breaches of operating or shareholder agreements, and claims that one owner is acting in his or her own interest. These can end in a negotiated buyout, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution.
• Judicial Dissolution of LLCs and Corporations: Florida’s LLC statute lets a member or manager seek dissolution when owners are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened, when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, or when operating under the agreement is no longer reasonably practicable. Corporate shareholders have a parallel statute, with a buyout election available to the other side.
• Family and Friend-Owned Businesses: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children who disagree about its future, and in-laws who share ownership. These cases call for discretion while still protecting each client’s financial position.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, operating agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, and construction contracts, where the outcome often turns on exact wording and how the parties actually behaved.
• Missing Funds and Unpaid Distributions: Diverted company money, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and managers who cannot account for funds, pursued through accounting, fiduciary duty, and recovery claims.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Co-owners who cannot agree on a shared property can ask the court to divide it or order a sale, and owners with clouded or competing claims can bring a quiet title action.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to preserve property, while the case proceeds.
• Commercial Real Estate Contract Disputes: Failed closings, purchase and sale disagreements, and landlord and tenant conflicts, including cases seeking specific performance.

What to Do in the First Weeks of a Business Dispute

Start by gathering the documents that define the relationship: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, the articles of organization or incorporation, any buy-sell terms, and the contracts at the center of the fight. Then collect the financial trail, meaning bank statements, tax returns, ledgers, and records of distributions and capital contributions. If you suspect money is leaving the company, preserve emails and texts and avoid confronting the other owner before you understand what the records show, because a warned partner can move funds quickly.

Read the agreement for provisions that change your options before any lawsuit is filed. Some operating agreements contain deadlock sale mechanisms, and Florida law gives a deadlock sale provision priority over a judicial dissolution order if it has been initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds. Others set out buyout formulas, notice requirements, or arbitration clauses that decide where and how the dispute is heard.

On forum, a case with a value above the county court ceiling belongs in circuit court. Palm Beach Gardens sits in Palm Beach County, which is served by the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, with the North County Courthouse located in Palm Beach Gardens and the main courthouse in West Palm Beach. If the other party or the property is in Broward County, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit applies, and it has complex business divisions that handle large commercial disputes and certain business dissolutions. Cases with federal claims or diverse parties can land in the Southern District of Florida, which sits in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. The right choice depends on where the parties and property are and what relief you need, which is a decision worth making with counsel before filing.

How Partition, Quiet Title, and Dissolution Actually Work in Florida

Co-owner disputes over real estate are governed by Chapter 64 of the Florida Statutes, and all partition actions are heard in equity. The complaint must describe the land, identify the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners, chosen by the court unless the parties agree. When the commissioners report that the land cannot be divided without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction and divide the proceeds by ownership interest. A court allowing credit terms on a sale must still require at least one-third of the price paid down unless everyone consents otherwise.

Inherited property gets special treatment. Under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which applies to actions filed after mid-2020, certain tenancies in common acquired from relatives are partitioned under a separate framework that favors in-kind division unless the cotenants as a group would be prejudiced, and gives cotenants chances to buy out a petitioner. This matters for siblings who inherited a Palm Beach Gardens property and disagree about keeping it.

Quiet title actions, under Chapter 65, let a person claiming legal or equitable title ask the court to cancel a conveyance or remove a cloud on title. The plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise, and the case may be filed in any county where part of the land lies. Adverse possession claims, by contrast, require seven years of continuous possession, and a claim under color of title requires the underlying instrument to be recorded in the county where the land sits.

On the entity side, a member or manager may seek judicial dissolution of an LLC when the statutory grounds are met, and the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, or order a buyout of the petitioning member. For corporations, a shareholder dissolution case allows the corporation or other shareholders to elect to buy 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, and the election is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. Courts may also issue injunctions and preserve assets while the case is pending.

Palm Beach Gardens Business Litigation Questions, Answered

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 court-ordered dissolution when the owners cannot agree.

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

That depends on your operating agreement and the partner’s conduct. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides remedies when a member has engaged in serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function. An attorney should review the agreement before you act.

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 dispute is pending.

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

Five years for a contract founded on a written instrument, and four years for oral or implied contracts. Rescission claims have four years, and fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of 12 years.

What is the deadline for seeking specific performance?

One year. That is much shorter than the written-contract period, so a buyer trying to compel a closing should not assume five years applies.

Did the 2023 change to Florida’s negligence deadline affect business contract claims?

The negligence period dropped from four years to two for claims accruing after March 24, 2023, but the five-year written-contract period and the four-year period for intentional torts were not changed. Professional malpractice claims also carry a two-year period measured from discovery.

Which court hears a Palm Beach Gardens business case?

Larger disputes are filed in the circuit court for Palm Beach County, part of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit. County court handles claims in a lower dollar range, and small claims handle the smallest. If the dispute involves Broward County parties or property, the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit may be the proper forum, and some cases belong in federal court.

Can a court appoint a receiver for my company?

In a dissolution proceeding, a court may appoint a receiver or custodian once a showing of sufficient merit is made, but only after notice to the parties and a hearing. A receiver is generally reserved for situations where assets are at real risk.

I live in New York or New Jersey. Can you handle my South Florida dispute?

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

Does every business dispute have to go to court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and a contract may require one of those paths before any lawsuit. The attorneys have experience in all of them and pursue the route most likely to meet your goals efficiently.

What happens if my co-owner and I inherited property and cannot agree on selling it?

Either of you may ask the court for partition. If the property qualifies as heirs property, the court must follow the heirs property procedures, which give the other cotenants a chance to buy out the petitioner and favor division in kind over a forced sale.

Do you work with other lawyers on referred matters?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from referrals, including out-of-state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes, and the firm communicates with referring counsel throughout.

Serving Business Litigation Clients Across Palm Beach Gardens and South Florida

The firm represents clients from Palm Beach Gardens and the commercial areas along PGA Boulevard, as well as neighboring communities across northern Palm Beach County, including Juno Beach, Jupiter, Tequesta, North Palm Beach, Lake Park, Riviera Beach, and Palm Beach Shores. Moving south through Palm Beach County, we serve West Palm Beach, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Greenacres, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton.

Disputes in Broward County are part of the same practice, and the firm serves clients in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, Hollywood, and the surrounding communities.

Speak With a Palm Beach Gardens Business Litigation Lawyer

When a partner, co-owner, buyer, or seller puts your company, your investment, or your property at risk, early decisions carry weight. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team has handled business and real estate disputes across South Florida for decades, and our attorneys will review your agreements, explain your options, and recommend a path that fits your goals and budget. Call to speak with a Palm Beach Gardens business litigation lawyer about your situation.