Riviera Beach Family Business Dispute Attorney

If you own a company, a building, or a piece of one with a parent, sibling, spouse, or in-law in Riviera Beach, and the two of you can no longer agree on who controls what, you are making a decision that will shape both the business and the family for years. The Riviera Beach family business dispute attorney you choose should understand that a lawsuit between relatives is not an ordinary commercial case, and that the best outcome is sometimes a quiet buyout rather than a courtroom fight. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business and real estate disputes for owners in Riviera Beach, Palm Beach County, and across South Florida, including the disputes that arise when the people on the other side of the table are also the people at the holiday table.

Family businesses in a port-and-marine community like Riviera Beach tend to be hands-on and asset-heavy: marine services, contracting and trades, restaurants, small commercial buildings, rental property held for decades. Ownership is often informal. A father brings in two children with a handshake, an LLC is formed years later without a serious operating agreement, or a parent dies and three heirs suddenly share control of an enterprise none of them planned to run together. Those gaps are where disputes grow, and Florida law supplies specific remedies once the relationship has broken down.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for a Family Business Fight

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm serving Riviera Beach and the rest of Palm Beach County, along with Broward County and clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or property interests in South Florida. Schwartz, the firm’s founder, has spent 37 years in litigation. He was admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989, earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1986 and his law degree from the University of Miami in 1989, and has built his career around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator, works alongside him with years of experience in business and real estate cases in both state and federal courts. The firm practices as a true team, which matters in a family dispute because these cases are emotional, move quickly, and generate calls at inconvenient hours. Everyone working on your matter knows the file, and the firm keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court or otherwise unavailable.

The firm also has recent trial proof. After a five-day bench trial, a Broward County Circuit Court judge issued a 32-page final judgment awarding the firm’s client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That result reflects the kind of detailed preparation these cases demand, where outcomes often turn on exact contract wording and the history of how the parties actually dealt with one another. Andrew Schwartz is candid that clients often arrive wanting the most aggressive lawyer available, when what they really want is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do. In a family business, that judgment is often what preserves both the company and what is left of the relationship. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as litigation, and they look for the resolution that fits your goals and budget.

Types of Disputes Between Relatives Who Own a Business Together

• Deadlocked Management: Two siblings each hold half of an LLC and cannot agree on a major decision, so contracts go unsigned and employees do not know whom to follow. Florida’s LLC statute lets a court dissolve a company when managers or members are deadlocked, cannot break the deadlock, and irreparable injury to the company is threatened or occurring.
• Inheritance Disputes Over a Shared Company: When a founding parent dies, children may inherit equal shares with very different levels of involvement and very different ideas about selling, keeping, or reinvesting. Disagreements about control and compensation follow quickly.
• Buyouts and Valuation Fights: One relative wants out, another wants to stay, and nobody agrees on what the company is worth. In shareholder disputes, Florida law lets the corporation or the remaining shareholders elect to buy out the petitioning owner at fair value, with a court order entered if the parties agree on value and terms within 60 days of the first election.
• Missing or Diverted Funds: A family member running the books cannot explain distributions, personal expenses appear on company accounts, or money has moved without approval. Florida allows dissolution where company assets are being misappropriated or wasted to the company’s injury, and these facts also support claims for an accounting and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty and Self-Dealing: A controlling relative steers business to a side company, pays himself or herself unilaterally, or freezes out a minority family owner. Minority owners often discover these problems only after years of trust.
• Jointly Owned Real Estate: Siblings who hold a commercial building or rental property as co-owners may need a partition action. Florida courts handle partition in equity, can divide the land physically, or can order a sale at public auction with proceeds split by ownership share.
• Heirs Property: Land passed down through relatives without a clear agreement among co-owners gets special treatment under Florida’s Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, which adds protections before a court will force a sale.
• Title Clouds and Competing Ownership Claims: A relative claims an interest in property you believe is yours, or a recorded instrument muddies title. A quiet title action asks the court to settle ownership and remove the cloud.

What to Do Now If a Family Business Relationship Is Breaking Down

The first step is to get the documents in order before the temperature rises further. Gather the articles of organization or incorporation, the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any buy-sell or deadlock provision, recent tax returns, bank and credit card statements for the company, and anything in writing about who agreed to contribute or receive what. Many family businesses have no meaningful operating agreement, which is itself important information, because the statutory defaults then fill the gaps. Do not remove records or cut off a relative’s access to accounts on your own; actions like that tend to become the centerpiece of the other side’s case.

Pay attention to any deadlock sale or buy-sell clause in your governing documents. Under Florida’s LLC and corporate statutes, a deadlock sale provision that is properly initiated can displace a judicial dissolution order, so the order in which things happen can matter. Before anyone files, it is worth having an attorney review whether such a clause exists and whether invoking it helps or hurts you.

Deadlines are real. A claim on a written agreement generally must be brought within five years, while an oral or implied agreement carries four years. Fraud claims run four years from discovery with an outer limit of twelve. A claim seeking specific performance of a contract has only a one-year period, which is why waiting to see whether tempers cool can quietly cost a client a remedy. Negligence-based claims now carry a two-year period for causes of action that accrued after March 2023, and professional malpractice claims, such as against an accountant who mishandled the books, also run two years from when the problem was or should have been discovered.

Where money is actively leaving the company or property is about to be sold or encumbered, speed matters more than anything. Florida courts can issue temporary injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, and take other steps to preserve company assets while a dissolution case proceeds. Disputes in Riviera Beach are generally filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Palm Beach County, because most business and real estate disputes of this kind exceed the dollar limit for county court. Where a related property or a party is in Broward County, the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit sits in and for Broward County and operates a complex business division for matters including business entity dissolutions. Federal court in West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale may come into play in cases with out-of-state parties and qualifying claims.

Finally, resist the urge to settle the dispute by text message, confront a relative in front of employees, or sign a new agreement you have not had reviewed. Informal concessions between family members have a way of becoming binding terms.

How Florida Law Separates Owners Who Share a Last Name

Florida does not treat family owners differently from any other co-owners. What changes is how the case should be handled. For an LLC, the court’s power to dissolve rests on defined grounds: unlawful conduct of the company’s affairs, impracticability of operating under the agreement, illegal or fraudulent conduct by those in control, misappropriation or waste of assets, or an unbreakable deadlock that threatens irreparable injury. A court that finds sufficient merit can appoint a receiver or custodian or order that a petitioning member’s interest be purchased rather than dissolving the company outright.

For a corporation, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution on parallel grounds, and the statute builds in an off-ramp: within 30 days after such a proceeding begins, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they can avoid dissolution by electing to buy the petitioner’s shares at fair value. That election is generally irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside. For a family where one child wants to continue the business and another wants out, this mechanism often leads to a negotiated buyout that is far better than liquidation.

Real property held among relatives follows a separate track. A partition case begins with a complaint describing the land, naming the owners and their residences, and stating each owner’s share. If the court orders partition, it appoints three commissioners to evaluate whether the land can be fairly divided. If division would prejudice the owners, the court may order a public sale and distribute the proceeds by ownership share, though a sale on credit requires at least one-third of the price down unless everyone consents otherwise. For heirs property, Part II of Chapter 64 requires additional steps and protections before a forced sale. Quiet title cases are filed in the county where the land sits, and plaintiffs generally must trace title back at least seven years.

The practical point is that litigation is a tool, not the goal. The most durable outcomes in family disputes are often negotiated buyouts, structured wind-downs, or mediated agreements backed by the credible ability to go to court if talks fail.

Questions Riviera Beach Families Ask About Business Disputes

What counts as a family business dispute?

It is any ownership, management, or money disagreement among relatives who co-own a company or property. That includes siblings who inherited a business, parents and children with different visions, spouses or in-laws who share ownership, and close friends who run a company like family.

Can I force a relative out of our LLC?

It depends on your operating agreement and the conduct involved. Many agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law gives remedies when a member has engaged in serious misconduct or the company can no longer function. An attorney needs to read the agreement before you act.

What if we never signed an operating agreement?

Then Florida’s default statutory rules govern, which can produce results neither owner expected. The absence of an agreement does not prevent you from seeking dissolution, a buyout, or an accounting, but it makes the case more dependent on the history of how the owners actually behaved.

My sibling is taking money from the company. What can I do?

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of funds. In urgent situations a court can issue injunctive relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending.

How does a partition action work for property we inherited together?

One co-owner asks the court to divide the property or, if division is impractical, to order it sold and split the proceeds. If the property qualifies as heirs property, Florida’s special statute adds steps designed to give other family members a fair chance to keep it.

Does every family business dispute have to go to court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and a well-timed negotiation often preserves more value than a trial. The firm’s attorneys are experienced in alternative dispute resolution as well as courtroom litigation.

How long do I have to bring a claim against a family member?

It varies by claim. Written contract claims generally have five years, oral contract claims four, fraud four years from discovery, and specific performance only one. Because the clock can differ for each theory, an early review protects options you might otherwise lose.

Is it worth hiring a lawyer if the business is small?

Often yes, because small family companies commonly hold the owners’ entire net worth, and an informal arrangement can become a formal dispute quickly. An early consultation can clarify rights and sometimes resolve the problem with a single well-drafted letter or agreement.

Will a lawsuit destroy the business?

Not necessarily. Courts can appoint a custodian or issue injunctions to keep the company running during a case, and Florida’s buyout procedures are designed to let one side continue the business while the other exits. Careful strategy aims at preserving value, not burning it.

Can a family member’s spouse or ex-spouse claim part of the business?

Ownership claims arising from a marriage or divorce can complicate who actually holds an interest. Those questions turn on how the interest was acquired and documented, and they are worth raising with counsel early.

I live in New York or New Jersey but the business is here. Can you still help?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut with South Florida interests, handles the local court appearances, and keeps clients informed so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

Do you work with other attorneys on these cases?

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

Serving Family Business Owners From Riviera Beach Across South Florida

The firm represents family business owners in Riviera Beach and the neighboring Palm Beach County communities of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Lake Park, North Palm Beach, Juno Beach, and Jupiter to the north. To the south and west it serves clients in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Lake Worth Beach, Greenacres, and Belle Glade. Across the county line in Broward County, the team also handles disputes for owners in Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coral Springs, Plantation, Hollywood, and surrounding communities. Whether the company is a marine business near the waterfront, a contracting firm, a restaurant, or a family-held commercial building, the team brings the same attention to the file and the same focus on practical resolution. Out of state owners with a stake in a South Florida business or property are welcome as well.

Talk to a Riviera Beach Family Business Dispute Lawyer

When a business is also a family, the right Riviera Beach family business dispute lawyer protects your financial interests while still treating the relationships involved with discretion. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can review your agreements, explain the remedies Florida law makes available, and recommend the path most likely to reach your goals without letting fees outgrow the stakes. Call the firm to arrange a consultation and a plan for what to do next.