Pembroke Pines Business Attorney

A business dispute in Pembroke Pines rarely stays a business dispute. It spills into a family’s finances, a shared property, a lease, or a friendship that predated the company. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team works as a Pembroke Pines business attorney for owners, investors, and families who are caught in partnership breakups, contract fights, missing-money disputes, and real estate conflicts, and the firm serves Pembroke Pines, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the rest of South Florida.

The work divides into two kinds of calls. Some come from owners who are still running a company and want a contract, a lease, or an ownership structure handled correctly before it becomes a problem. Others come from owners who have already reached the point where a co-owner has stopped cooperating, a buyout has stalled, or money cannot be accounted for. The second kind is where litigation experience counts, and it is the heart of what this firm does.

Pembroke Pines has a deep base of small and mid-sized companies: family-run professional practices, retail and restaurant ventures, property investors with a handful of units, and entrepreneurs who partnered with a relative or a longtime friend on a handshake and a short operating agreement. Those are the structures that tend to fail loudly, because the paperwork never anticipated the disagreement.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm representing clients in Broward County, Palm Beach County, and throughout South Florida, along with clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests here. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, has spent 37 years in litigation, and built his career around complex contract disputes, business divorces, 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 both state and federal courts. That matters in South Florida, where a dispute between co-owners can end up in a Broward or Palm Beach circuit court or, depending on the parties and claims, the Southern District of Florida.

The firm practices as a true legal team: everyone working on a matter knows the file, so a client who calls does not start from scratch with whoever picks up. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court. The attorneys are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and they look for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget instead of stretching a case out for its own sake.

On the results side, a recent example involved a commercial real estate contract in Broward County. After a 5-day bench trial, the Broward County Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of that contract. Winning an order that forces a deal to close, rather than merely collecting damages for a deal that failed, is the kind of outcome that comes from preparing a contract case down to the wording and the history between the parties. No attorney can promise a result, but that is the level of preparation the firm brings to every file.

Business and Property Disputes We Handle for Pembroke Pines Owners

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together may need a negotiated buyout, a sale of the company, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution. Deadlocked management and valuation fights are the usual sticking points.
• LLC Member and Shareholder Disputes: Breaches of operating and shareholder agreements, minority owners being squeezed out, and claims that a manager is acting in his or her own interest instead of the company’s.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and shareholder agreements, where the outcome often turns on exact wording and how the parties actually behaved.
• Missing Funds and Accounting Claims: Unpaid distributions, diverted company money, commingled accounts, and disputed capital contributions, with claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of funds.
• Partition Actions: Former partners, siblings who inherited property, unmarried couples, and investors can ask a court to divide jointly owned real estate or order it sold and the proceeds split.
• Title Disputes and Quiet Title: Competing ownership claims, clouds on title, and owners who need to separate themselves from title to a shared property.
• Family Business Conflicts: Siblings, parents and children, spouses, and in-laws who share ownership and disagree about control, pay, and the company’s future.
• Injunctions: Temporary and permanent injunctions, including emergency relief, to freeze assets or protect a business or property while a case is pending.

What to Do When a Co-Owner Dispute Reaches the Breaking Point

Start by pulling together the documents that define the relationship: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, articles of organization or incorporation, any buy-sell terms, loan paperwork, leases, and the financial statements and bank records for the period in question. If money is the issue, collect distribution records, capital contribution history, and account statements before anyone has a reason to alter or restrict access. Keep communications in writing where you can, and avoid sending angry messages that a court may later read.

Check whether your agreement already contains a way out. Many operating agreements include buyout, expulsion, or deadlock sale provisions. Florida law treats these seriously: if a deadlock sale provision is initiated before a court finds grounds for dissolution, it can take the place of a judicial dissolution order. Using or ignoring a contractual exit mechanism can change the entire shape of a case, so have it reviewed before you file anything or send a demand.

Mind the clock. A claim on a written contract generally must be brought within five years, while oral or implied contract claims carry four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery with an outer limit of 12 years, and a suit seeking specific performance carries a one-year period. Those differences are why waiting to see if a partner comes around can quietly cost a client a claim.

If assets are at risk of moving, say so immediately. A court can issue injunctive relief to stop funds from being spent or transferred while the dispute is pending, and in dissolution cases it can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing with notice to the parties. Do not pull money out yourself in retaliation; that can hand the other side a counterclaim.

As for where the case lands, Pembroke Pines is in Broward County, which is part of Florida’s Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Disputes above the county court ceiling are heard in circuit court, and Broward’s complex business division handles matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation. A case can be filed directly into that division using the process set by the circuit’s administrative order. If the dispute involves property or partners in Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit would hear it instead. Federal claims or diversity cases go to the Southern District of Florida, which sits in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach among other locations.

How Florida Law Handles Dissolution, Buyouts, and Partition

For LLCs, Florida’s statute lists the grounds on which a member or manager can ask a circuit court to dissolve the company. They include conduct of the company’s affairs unlawfully, a situation where it is not reasonably practicable to carry on activities consistent with the articles and operating agreement, illegal or fraudulent conduct by controlling owners, misappropriation or waste of assets that injures the company, and a deadlock that cannot be broken while irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. Instead of dissolving, a court may appoint a receiver or custodian or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

Corporations follow a parallel path. A shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation, or if it fails to elect, one or more shareholders, may choose to buy out the petitioner 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 on those terms, and an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. The corporation must also notify the other shareholders, within 30 days of the proceeding’s commencement, that they can avoid dissolution by buying the petitioner’s shares. In the meantime, the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve assets.

Partition is a separate track with its own rules. All partition actions are heard in chancery under Chapter 64. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and their residences, and state each owner’s share. After a judgment of partition, the court appoints three commissioners, selected by the court unless the parties agree. If they report that division cannot be made without prejudice to the owners, the court may order a sale at public auction, with proceeds divided in proportion to ownership. A sale on credit requires good cause and at least one-third of the purchase money paid down unless everyone consents otherwise.

One wrinkle is worth knowing for family property. Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act applies to actions filed on or after July 1, 2020, and covers tenancy-in-common property where title came from a relative and a further condition is met, such as relatives holding twenty percent or more of the interests. In that setting, partition in kind is favored over a forced sale unless the commissioners find it would prejudice the cotenants as a group.

Quiet title actions are governed by Chapter 65. A plaintiff generally must deraign title for at least seven years before filing, and a quiet title suit may be filed in any county where part of the land sits. A complaint can be used to cancel a conveyance or other evidence of title and remove a cloud held by someone who is not the rightful owner. Closely related is adverse possession, which requires seven years of continuous possession and, absent color of title, a claim of title that does not rest on a written instrument.

Questions Pembroke Pines Business Owners Ask

What is a business divorce?

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

Can I force a partner out of my LLC?

It depends on the operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides court remedies when a member has engaged in serious misconduct or the company can no longer function. The agreement is the first document to review.

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

Potential claims include 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 a written contract. Oral or implied contract claims have four years, and a suit for specific performance has one year. Because the periods differ by claim type, the safest assumption is that a deadline may be closer than you think.

Does every business dispute end up in court?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in all of them and pursue whichever route is most likely to meet the client’s goals efficiently.

How does a partition action work?

A co-owner asks the court to divide the property or, when division is impractical, order a sale and split the proceeds by ownership share. Commissioners appointed by the court evaluate whether the land can be divided fairly.

Can my co-owner block a dissolution by buying me out?

In a corporate dissolution case, the corporation or other shareholders can elect to purchase the petitioner’s shares at fair value, which can head off dissolution. In an LLC case, the court itself may order a purchase of a petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving the company.

My operating agreement has a deadlock sale clause. Does that change my options?

It can. If that clause is initiated before a court finds deadlock grounds, it generally governs in place of a judicial dissolution order, provided it is then carried out. Timing and procedure under the clause matter.

Which court would hear a business dispute involving a Pembroke Pines company?

Typically the circuit court for Broward County, which is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, once the amount in controversy exceeds the county court limit. Claims involving Palm Beach County property or parties may belong in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and certain disputes proceed in federal court.

I live in New York or New Jersey but own a stake in a Florida company. Do I have to travel for every hearing?

No. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, handles the local court appearances, and keeps out-of-state clients informed at each stage.

Will a lawyer help with a family business conflict without blowing up the family?

The firm handles these cases with discretion, and when a relationship can be saved it works toward a resolution that keeps the company running. When it cannot, the goal becomes a fair separation, protecting the client’s financial interests throughout.

Can the firm act as an outside general counsel before a dispute starts?

Yes. Through its general counsel program the firm serves as a company’s registered agent and assists with contract, compliance, and operational questions. Having a litigator involved early often prevents a disagreement from becoming a lawsuit.

Serving Pembroke Pines Business Clients Across South Florida

The firm’s work for Pembroke Pines owners extends throughout Broward County, with clients from neighboring Miramar, Hollywood, Davie, Cooper City, Weston, Southwest Ranches, Plantation, Sunrise, and Coral Springs. It reaches north through Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coconut Creek, and Parkland. Into Palm Beach County, the firm represents clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, and West Palm Beach. Whether a dispute centers on a company, a partnership, or a jointly owned piece of real estate in any of those communities, the same team handles it, and clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with South Florida interests are served the same way.

Talk With a Pembroke Pines Business Lawyer About Your Dispute

When a partnership is coming apart, money is missing, or a property is stuck between co-owners, the sooner someone reads your agreements and tells you where you stand, the more options you keep. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your situation and explain whether negotiation, mediation, or court is the better path. Call today to speak with a Pembroke Pines business lawyer from the team and schedule a consultation.