Plantation Breach of Fiduciary Duty Attorney

A fiduciary duty claim is not really about a broken promise; it is about a broken trust, and the law treats the two differently. When a business partner, LLC manager, corporate officer, or majority owner holds authority over money or decisions that affect you, Florida law expects loyalty and care, not just compliance with a contract. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles Plantation breach of fiduciary duty attorney matters for business owners, investors, and families in Plantation, throughout Broward County, and across South Florida.

These disputes tend to surface the same way: distributions stop arriving, a partner will not produce books and records, company funds show up in accounts that have nothing to do with the business, or a controlling owner quietly steers a deal to an entity he or she owns. By the time a minority owner notices, money has often moved. That is why the first decisions in a fiduciary case, what to demand, what to preserve, and whether to ask a court for emergency relief, matter as much as the eventual trial.

Plantation sits in the middle of Broward’s business corridor, with closely held companies, family-run operations, professional practices, and real estate ventures that are often owned by two, three, or four people with a handshake history and an operating agreement nobody has read in years. When those relationships fail, fiduciary claims are usually the center of the case.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Fiduciary Duty Disputes

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents partners, LLC members, shareholders, and minority owners in South Florida business and real estate disputes, serving clients in Plantation, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and throughout Broward County and Palm Beach County. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He holds an undergraduate degree from Emory University (1986) and a law degree from the University of Miami (1989). His career has centered on contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders, which is exactly the terrain where fiduciary claims arise.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, brings years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. That matters here because fiduciary disputes sometimes carry claims that belong in different forums, and the firm can evaluate where a case is best filed.

The firm practices as a true legal team, so everyone working on a matter knows the file, and a strict 24 hour return call policy applies when an attorney is in court. Clients are also told plainly that the goal is a cost-effective result, not a fight for its own sake. The firm 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.

On the trial side, the firm recently obtained a 32-page final judgment from a Broward County circuit court after a 5-day bench trial, awarding its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That result reflects the kind of detailed, document-driven preparation that fiduciary cases demand, where the outcome often turns on what an agreement says and how the parties actually behaved.

Fiduciary Breach Situations Business Owners Bring to Us

• Diverted or Missing Company Funds: A partner or manager moves money to personal accounts, pays personal expenses from the business, or cannot explain where distributions went. Claims often include breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, and recovery of the funds.
• Self-Dealing and Competing Ventures: A controlling owner awards company contracts to a related entity, takes a business opportunity for himself or herself, or quietly builds a competing company using the firm’s customers and information.
• Freeze-Outs of Minority Owners: Majority members cut a minority owner out of decisions, stop distributions while paying themselves salaries, or refuse access to books and records, leaving the minority owner with an investment and no voice.
• Commingled Accounts: Business and personal funds are mixed so thoroughly that no one can say what belongs to whom. Commingling is often both evidence of a breach and the reason an accounting is needed.
• Disputed Capital Contributions and Unpaid Distributions: Owners disagree about who put money in, who was repaid, and who is owed profit. These disputes frequently reveal an agreement that was never followed or never written down.
• Family Business Betrayals: Siblings, parents and children, or in-laws who share ownership face fiduciary issues layered over personal relationships. These cases call for discretion alongside firm protection of the client’s financial interests.
• Real Estate Partnership Misconduct: Co-investors in a Broward property venture find that a managing partner refinanced, sold, or encumbered the asset without proper authority or disclosure.
• Deadlock Combined With Misconduct: Owners who cannot agree on management also suspect one side is draining or wasting assets, which can support both damages claims and a request for judicial dissolution.

What to Do if You Suspect a Partner Is Breaching Their Duty

Start with documents, and do it quietly. Pull your operating agreement, shareholder agreement, or partnership agreement, along with tax returns, K-1s, bank statements you are entitled to see, financial statements, and any emails or texts in which money, authority, or ownership are discussed. Back them up somewhere your partner cannot reach. Do not log into company systems you are not authorized to use, and do not remove originals; the goal is to preserve evidence, not to create a problem for yourself.

Next, look at what your agreement and Florida law give you. Members and shareholders generally have rights to company records, and a refusal to produce them is itself telling. A written demand for books, records, and an accounting often forces the issue, and the response, or the silence, shapes the case. Before sending anything, talk with counsel, because a poorly worded demand can tip off a partner who is moving assets.

Watch the clock. Florida’s limitations periods depend on how the claim is characterized. A claim founded on a written instrument carries five years, a claim on an oral or implied contract carries four, and fraud runs four years from discovery, subject to an outer limit of 12 years. Claims founded on negligence now carry two years for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023, and professional malpractice claims also run two years from discovery. Fiduciary claims can be pleaded in several ways, so which deadline applies is a question to settle early, not after the fact.

Where money is actively leaving, speed matters more than anything. A court can issue temporary injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent, and in an LLC or corporate dissolution proceeding it can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. These remedies are not automatic; they require a showing, which is why the evidence you gathered in the first days becomes so important.

For Plantation clients, the most likely forum is the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County. Circuit court hears disputes above the county court limit, and the circuit’s complex business division handles large business litigation and certain entity dissolution cases. The West Regional Courthouse is in Plantation, and the Central Judicial Complex is in Fort Lauderdale. Federal court is also possible where jurisdiction exists; the Southern District of Florida holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The most common mistakes are waiting while the money disappears, confronting the partner before evidence is secured, and signing a “clarifying” amendment or release without understanding what it gives up.

How Fiduciary Claims Connect to Dissolution and Buyouts

A fiduciary breach rarely ends with a damages check. Often the real question is whether the business can continue with the people who are left. Under Florida’s LLC statute, a member or manager can petition a circuit court for dissolution on several grounds, including that assets are being misappropriated or wasted to the injury of the company, that controlling members have acted or are expected to act illegally or fraudulently, or that managers are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened. In that proceeding, the court may appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest.

Corporations follow a parallel track. A shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on statutory grounds, and the corporation or other shareholders may elect to buy out the petitioner at fair value. If the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election, the court enters an order on those terms; an election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. Within 30 days of the proceeding starting, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they can avoid dissolution by buying the petitioner’s shares.

Your own agreement matters here. A deadlock sale provision, if properly initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds, can displace a judicial dissolution order. That is one reason we read the governing documents before choosing a strategy.

Real property adds another layer. When a fiduciary dispute involves co-owned real estate, a partition action may follow, in which the court divides the property or orders it sold and splits the proceeds. Title problems may call for a quiet title action. The firm handles both alongside the fiduciary claims.

Plantation Fiduciary Duty Questions, Answered

What is a fiduciary duty in a business setting?

It is a legal obligation to act with loyalty and care toward the company and, in many relationships, toward co-owners. Partners, LLC managers, corporate officers and directors, and controlling owners commonly owe these duties, though the exact scope depends on the entity type and the governing agreement.

What does a breach of fiduciary duty claim actually require?

Generally you must show that a fiduciary relationship existed, that the person breached the duty, and that the breach caused you harm. Documents carry most of this weight: bank records, agreements, financial statements, and communications showing what the fiduciary knew and did.

What can I recover?

Remedies can include compensatory damages, an accounting, return of diverted funds or improper profits, and in appropriate cases injunctive relief. The right mix depends on the facts and on how the claims are pleaded.

What is an accounting, and when do I need one?

An accounting is a court-ordered reconstruction of where company money came from and where it went. It is useful when records are incomplete, funds are commingled, or a partner controls the books and cannot or will not explain the numbers.

How long do I have to file in Florida?

It depends on the theory. Claims on a written instrument have five years, oral or implied contract claims have four, fraud has four years from discovery with a 12 year cap, and negligence-based claims have two years if they accrued after March 24, 2023. Because fiduciary claims overlap with several of these, do not assume you have the longest period.

Can a court stop my partner from moving company money while the case is pending?

Yes, in appropriate cases. Courts can issue temporary and permanent injunctions, and in dissolution proceedings can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing with notice to the parties. You need evidence showing the risk, so early preservation of records is critical.

Does my operating agreement limit fiduciary duties?

It can shape them. Some agreements define, narrow, or expand what managers and members owe each other, though they cannot erase every obligation. Whether a particular clause protects the other side is something we analyze document by document.

I am a minority owner with no management role. Do I have any leverage?

Often yes. Minority owners can demand records, bring fiduciary and accounting claims, and in some situations petition for dissolution or a court-supervised buyout. The strength of your position depends on the agreement and on what the controlling owners have done.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer if the amount in dispute is modest?

It depends on the amount and the cost of pursuing it. County court hears claims up to a statutory limit, and circuit court hears larger ones. A frank early conversation about expected cost against likely recovery helps decide whether to demand, mediate, or file. Our approach is to match the strategy to the budget.

I live out of state but own part of a Broward business. Can you handle this?

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 have to travel for every hearing.

Will this have to go to trial?

Not necessarily. Many fiduciary disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, sometimes after a well-supported demand or a filed complaint changes the other side’s calculus. We prepare every case as if it may be tried, but we pursue the path that serves the client’s goals most efficiently.

Can you work with my current attorney?

Yes. A significant part of the firm’s practice comes from other attorneys, including out of state lawyers whose clients have Florida disputes and Florida lawyers who do not handle business litigation. We communicate with referring counsel throughout and respect the attorney-client relationship.

Serving Fiduciary Duty Clients Across Plantation and South Florida

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents clients in Plantation and the surrounding Broward County communities, including Sunrise, Davie, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Tamarac, Weston, Pembroke Pines, Miramar, Hollywood, Coral Springs, Parkland, Coconut Creek, Margate, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, and Fort Lauderdale. Business owners from neighborhoods and commercial areas throughout the county turn to the firm when a partner or co-owner crosses the line.

The firm also serves clients across Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Wellington, West Palm Beach, and neighboring communities. Many of these disputes involve owners who live elsewhere, so the firm also works with clients in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who have business or real estate interests in South Florida.

Talk With a Plantation Fiduciary Duty Lawyer Before the Money Moves Again

If you believe a partner, manager, or controlling owner has breached a duty to you, a conversation with a Plantation fiduciary duty lawyer early in the process can change what is possible, from preserving evidence to seeking emergency relief to negotiating an exit on fair terms. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team will review your agreements, tell you plainly what your options are, and recommend a path that fits your goals and your budget. Call to schedule a consultation.