Pembroke Pines Business Litigation Attorney

Most business disputes end the same way: with a signed buyout, a court order, or a sale, and a company or property that is no longer tied up in a fight. Getting to that ending on workable terms is the whole job. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate litigation for owners, investors, and families in Pembroke Pines and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County, and our approach starts with working out which ending is realistic before a single pleading is filed.

If you are looking for a Pembroke Pines business litigation attorney, you are probably dealing with a co-owner who has stopped cooperating, a contract that one side is refusing to honor, or money that has gone missing from a company account. Those problems rarely resolve themselves, and they get harder to fix the longer an operating agreement, a lease, or a purchase contract sits unenforced. Some of them also run against hard statutory clocks, which we cover below.

Pembroke Pines sits in southwest Broward County, so most civil cases arising here belong to the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, the Circuit Court sitting in and for Broward County. Federal claims and certain diversity cases go to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale. Knowing which forum fits your dispute is one of the first decisions we make with a client.

How Business Disputes in Broward County Typically Unfold

A dispute usually begins long before anyone calls a lawyer. A partner stops sharing financial records. Distributions slow down. A manager makes a major decision without the vote the operating agreement requires. By the time the owners are no longer speaking directly, there is often a paper trail that matters a great deal: emails, bank statements, tax filings, and the governing documents themselves.

The first phase of a case is typically about reading those documents closely and deciding what the client actually wants. Some clients want out and want fair value. Some want the other owner out. Some simply want the money back. Those goals lead to different claims, and sometimes to a demand letter or mediation rather than a lawsuit. When a complaint is filed, the case moves into discovery, where each side exchanges documents and testimony, followed by motion practice, mediation, and, if nothing settles, trial.

Broward’s Seventeenth Circuit also has a complex business division, created to handle larger commercial matters such as dissolution of certain business entities and big business and construction cases. A case may be filed directly into that division only by following the circuit’s administrative order, which involves completing a specific form at the time of filing, and the clerk then assigns the case at random to one of the complex divisions. Whether a given dispute belongs there is a judgment call we make case by case.

Why Pembroke Pines Owners Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida’s most difficult business and real estate disputes, serving Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and the rest of Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Our work centers on business divorce, partnership and member disputes, complex contract litigation, partition actions, and real estate litigation. We also serve clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests here.

Andrew M. Schwartz, our Founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989, and his career has been built around contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, adds years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts.

The firm works as a true legal team, meaning everyone on a matter knows the file and can answer when you call. We keep a strict 24 hour return call policy when we are in court, and we schedule conference calls at times that work for everyone involved. Our attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and we look for the outcome that serves a client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

On the results side, after a 5-day bench trial, the Broward County Circuit Court issued a 32-page final judgment awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That outcome reflects the kind of detailed, document-driven preparation these cases demand. A significant share of our practice also comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes.

Business and Real Estate Disputes We Handle for Pembroke Pines Clients

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together may need a negotiated buyout, a sale, a structured wind-down, or court-ordered dissolution. Florida’s LLC statute lists grounds for judicial dissolution, including deadlock with irreparable injury to the company, misappropriated or wasted assets, and conduct that makes it not reasonably practicable to operate under the operating agreement.
• Shareholder and Member Disputes: Minority owners who are frozen out, denied information, or diluted often have claims for breach of the operating or shareholder agreement and breach of fiduciary duty. In corporate dissolution cases, Florida law lets the corporation or the other shareholders elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value instead of dissolving.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements frequently turn on exact wording and the parties’ course of dealing, so the document history gets as much attention as the legal theory.
• Missing Funds and Accountings: Unpaid distributions, diverted company money, commingled accounts, and disputed capital contributions can support claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, and recovery of the funds.
• Partition Actions: Florida’s partition statute lets co-owners ask the court to divide property or, if division would prejudice the owners, to order a sale and split the proceeds. Inherited property may fall under special heirs property rules that change how these cases are handled.
• Quiet Title and Title Disputes: A quiet title action can clear competing ownership claims or remove a cloud on title, and the plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions can stop assets from being moved or spent, or protect a business or property while the case is pending.
• Family Business Conflicts: Siblings, parents and children, and in-laws who share ownership face disputes about control and compensation that carry personal weight alongside the financial stakes.

What to Do When a Business Dispute Reaches a Breaking Point

Start by gathering the documents that define the relationship: the operating agreement, shareholder agreement, or partnership agreement, any amendments, the contract at issue, and the correspondence around it. Pull financial records too, including bank statements, general ledgers, tax returns, and distribution histories. If you suspect funds are being diverted, preserve what you can reach lawfully and avoid deleting anything, since records you discard can hurt you later.

Pay attention to deadlines. Florida gives you five years to sue on a written contract and four years on an oral or implied one. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of twelve years, and a suit to rescind a contract has four years. A specific performance action has a one-year period, which surprises people who assume they have as long as they would for a damages claim. A negligence-based claim generally must be brought within two years for causes of action arising after the 2023 amendments, and non-medical professional malpractice also carries a two-year period running from discovery. Because the right period depends on how a claim is characterized, an early review matters.

Before you act, read the agreement for a buyout formula, a deadlock sale provision, a notice requirement, or an arbitration or mediation clause. These can control how and where the dispute must proceed. In LLC dissolution cases, for example, a deadlock sale provision that has been properly initiated before the court finds grounds for dissolution can take priority over a judicial dissolution order.

Avoid the common mistakes: confronting a partner in writing without thinking through how it will read in court, moving money out of a company account in a way that could look like the very misconduct you are alleging, or letting a lease or contract default sit unaddressed. For commercial and residential landlord-tenant problems, Florida’s notice rules are strict, with a three-day demand for unpaid rent that excludes weekends and court-observed holidays and a seven-day period for many curable lease violations. A defective notice can derail a case.

Where the case is filed depends on the amount and the claim. County court hears civil disputes up to the county jurisdictional limit, small claims sit below that, and larger disputes belong to circuit court. Broward cases are heard in the Seventeenth Circuit, including at courthouses in Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Plantation, and Deerfield Beach, while Palm Beach County cases belong to the Fifteenth Circuit. For Pembroke Pines clients, the South Regional Courthouse in Hollywood and the West Regional Courthouse in Plantation are among the Broward locations that hear civil matters.

Partition, Title, and Co-Ownership Fights Over Real Property

Real estate disputes in Pembroke Pines often grow out of shared ownership: siblings who inherited a home, former partners who bought an investment property together, or unmarried couples who hold title jointly. When one owner wants out and the others do not, partition is the usual remedy. All partition actions are heard in equity, and 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 to evaluate whether the land can be divided fairly. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a public sale and divide the proceeds by ownership share. A court-ordered sale on credit requires at least one-third of the price up front unless everyone agrees otherwise. When property passed down through family qualifies as heirs property, a separate statutory framework applies, and it adds protections that make a forced sale harder to obtain.

Quiet title cases solve a different problem. They resolve conflicting ownership claims or remove a recorded cloud, and they can be filed in any county where part of the land sits. Adverse possession claims, which require seven years of continuous possession under the statute’s conditions, sometimes sit behind these disputes. We also handle failed closings and purchase and sale contract disputes, including cases where the right remedy is not money damages but an order forcing the sale to go through.

Pembroke Pines Business Litigation: Common Questions

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 my Florida LLC?

That depends on your operating agreement and the partner’s conduct. Many agreements include buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides remedies for serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function. We review the agreement first to see which options exist.

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

You may have claims for an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court can issue injunctive relief and, in some cases, appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing.

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 an oral or implied contract. Other claims tied to the same dispute, such as fraud or rescission, may run on different clocks.

Is there a different deadline if I want a court to force a sale under a contract?

Yes. An action for specific performance has its own one-year period, which is much shorter than the damages deadline. Waiting on a contract you want enforced can cost you that remedy.

How does a partition action work?

One co-owner asks the court to divide the property or, when division is not practical, to order it sold and the proceeds distributed. The court appoints commissioners to assess whether the land can be divided without prejudice to the owners.

What happens to a corporation when a shareholder petitions for judicial dissolution?

The corporation must notify the other shareholders within 30 days that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days after the first election, the court enters an order directing the purchase, and that election is generally irrevocable.

My operating agreement has a deadlock sale clause. Does that change how the dispute proceeds?

It can. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a deadlock sale provision that is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds applies in place of judicial dissolution or a court-ordered purchase, provided it is then carried out. The timing of who triggers what matters.

Do I have to go to court to resolve a business dispute?

No. Many disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and some agreements require it. We pursue whichever path is most likely to reach your goals efficiently.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut. Can you handle my Pembroke Pines dispute?

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

Is a family business dispute handled differently from other business cases?

The legal claims are the same, but the approach is not. Relationships are at stake along with money, so we weigh discretion and settlement options carefully while still protecting your financial position.

Will a court appoint someone to run the company while the case is pending?

Sometimes. In dissolution proceedings, courts can appoint a receiver or custodian to preserve assets or manage the business, but only after notice to the parties and a hearing, and only on a sufficient showing.

Business Litigation Representation Across Broward and Palm Beach Counties

We represent clients throughout Pembroke Pines, from the neighborhoods near the city’s commercial corridors to its residential communities in the western part of the city. Our work extends to neighboring Broward communities including Miramar, Hollywood, Davie, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches, Weston, Plantation, Sunrise, Coral Springs, Parkland, and Hallandale Beach, as well as Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, and Coconut Creek.

In Palm Beach County we serve owners and investors in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, Wellington, and surrounding communities. Many of our clients live elsewhere, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, but hold a business or real estate interest here, and we handle the local proceedings on their behalf.

Talk to a Pembroke Pines Business Litigation Attorney

If a partner, co-owner, or counterparty has put your company, your investment, or your property at risk, the sooner the documents are reviewed, the more options you tend to have. Contact the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team to speak with a Pembroke Pines business litigation lawyer about your situation. Call us to schedule a consultation, and we will tell you plainly what the facts support and what the realistic paths forward look like.