Sunrise Business Litigation Attorney

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in Sunrise and across Broward County who are caught in disputes over a company, a contract, or a piece of real estate they own with someone else. Our work covers business divorce, partnership and LLC member disputes, complex contract litigation, missing-money claims, partition actions, title disputes, and injunctions, for clients in Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and throughout South Florida. If you are searching for a Sunrise business litigation attorney, you are probably at a point where a conversation with a co-owner, a landlord, a buyer, or a lender has stopped being a conversation.

Disputes in this part of Broward County tend to share a pattern. A business that worked while everyone agreed starts to fail the moment two owners disagree about money, control, or direction, and the paper that governs the situation, whether an operating agreement, a shareholder agreement, a lease, or a purchase contract, suddenly matters more than the handshake that preceded it. Most of what we do is read that paper closely, compare it with how the parties actually behaved, and decide whether the right move is a negotiated exit, a mediation, or a filing in court.

What Kinds of Business Disputes We Handle for Sunrise Clients

• Business Divorce: Co-owners who can no longer work together need a way out. That can mean a negotiated buyout, a sale of the company, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution when talks fail. Valuation is usually the hardest fight, and deadlocked management often keeps the company from making any decisions at all.
• LLC Member and Shareholder Disputes: Breaches of an operating agreement or shareholder agreement, minority owners who are frozen out, and managers who act in their own interest. Florida’s LLC statute lists grounds for judicial dissolution, including deadlock with irreparable injury, misappropriated or wasted assets, and situations where the company cannot reasonably carry on under its operating agreement.
• Complex Contract Litigation: Purchase agreements, commercial leases, loan documents, construction contracts, and operating agreements. These cases usually turn on exact wording and the history of how the parties dealt with each other.
• Missing Funds and Diverted Money: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, disputed capital contributions, and partners or managers who cannot account for company money. Remedies include an accounting, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and recovery of the funds.
• Family Business Disputes: Siblings who inherited a company together, parents and children with different visions, and spouses or in-laws who share ownership. These cases require discretion, and the financial interests still have to be protected at every step.
• Partition and Title Disputes: Co-owners of real estate who cannot agree on what to do with it, whether former business partners, heirs, unmarried couples, or investors. We also handle quiet title actions and competing ownership claims.
• Injunctions and Emergency Relief: Temporary and permanent injunctions to stop assets from being moved or spent, or to protect property and business interests while the case is pending.
• Real Estate Contract and Landlord-Tenant Disputes: Failed closings, purchase and sale contract fights, and commercial and residential landlord-tenant matters.

Why Choose the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team for Business Litigation Near Sunrise

Andrew M. Schwartz 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 between partners, LLC members, and shareholders.

Mr. Schwartz is joined by Senior Counsel Sundeep Nath, a Northwestern-trained litigator with years of experience in business and real estate cases in 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 for the times we are in court, and we schedule conference calls at times that work for everyone involved.

On the results side, after a five-day bench trial, a Broward County Circuit Court judge issued a 32-page final judgment in May 2024 awarding our client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. We mention it because contract cases are won on detail and preparation, and that is how we approach every one. We are also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and we look for the resolution that fits a client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake. As Mr. Schwartz often puts it, clients usually think they want a hyper-aggressive lawyer when what they really want is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do.

Many of our matters arrive through referrals from other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have a Florida dispute and Florida attorneys who do not handle business litigation. We keep referring counsel informed and respect their relationship with the client. For businesses that want a lawyer before trouble starts, our outside general counsel program includes serving as the company’s registered agent and helping with contract, compliance, and operational questions.

What to Do and Where Your Case Will Be Heard

Start by gathering the documents that govern the relationship: the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, any buy-sell terms, the contract at issue, bank and accounting records, and the emails or texts that show how the parties actually behaved. Do not confront a co-owner by moving money, changing locks, or cutting off access. Those moves often create counterclaims and hand the other side a narrative. If you suspect funds are being diverted, tell your lawyer early, because a court can order emergency relief to stop assets from being moved or spent while the case is pending, and that relief depends on acting before the money is gone.

Watch the clock. Florida gives five years to sue on a written contract and four years for an oral or implied contract. Fraud claims run four years from discovery, with an outer limit of 12 years. A suit seeking specific performance of a contract carries only a one-year period, which is why a failed closing cannot sit. A negligence claim, which can overlap with professional-advice disputes, now has a two-year period for causes of action that arose after March 24, 2023, and professional malpractice claims also run two years from when the claim was or should have been discovered. If any of these may apply to you, do not assume you have time.

Where the case lands depends on the amount. Disputes above the county court ceiling, which is adjusted periodically, are heard in circuit court. For Sunrise, that means the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in and for Broward County, with the Central Judicial Complex in Fort Lauderdale and regional courthouses in Deerfield Beach, Hollywood, and Plantation. The Seventeenth Circuit also has complex business divisions that handle dissolution of certain business entities and large business and construction litigation, and a case can be filed directly into one of them using the form and procedure the circuit prescribes. Federal cases fall to the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. If your dispute involves property or a partner in Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach may be the proper forum, and a lawsuit about land can be filed in any county where part of the land sits.

If you live out of state, you do not have to fly in for every hearing. We handle the local court appearances and proceedings and keep you informed at each stage.

Dissolution, Buyouts, and Partition: How Florida Courts Actually Resolve Ownership Fights

When owners cannot agree, Florida’s statutes give the court real tools, and an agreement may give the parties even more. For an LLC, a member or manager can seek judicial dissolution on grounds such as unlawful conduct, controlling members acting illegally or fraudulently, wasted or misappropriated assets that cause injury, or a deadlock that cannot be broken and threatens irreparable injury. In a dissolution case the court can appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing with notice to the parties, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest. If your operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision and it is initiated before the court finds deadlock grounds, that provision generally controls instead of a dissolution order, so the exact wording of your agreement can change the entire course of the case.

Corporations work somewhat differently. A shareholder can petition for dissolution on specified grounds, and once such a proceeding starts, 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 fair 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 buy is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to modify it. While the case is pending, the court may issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take other steps to preserve corporate assets. Filing for dissolution does not cut off a shareholder’s right to use a deadlock sale provision in a compliant shareholder agreement.

Co-owned real estate follows a separate path. Partition actions are brought in the court’s equity side. The complaint must describe the land, name the owners and where they live, and state each owner’s share. After a judgment of partition, the court appoints three commissioners to divide the property. If they report that division would prejudice the owners, the court can order a public sale and distribute the proceeds in proportion to each owner’s interest. A sale on credit is possible for good cause, but at least one-third of the purchase money must be paid down unless everyone consents otherwise. When property passed down through relatives and is held in common, a separate set of rules for heirs property can apply and generally requires a different process before a forced sale. Quiet title actions are the tool for clearing a cloud on title, and a plaintiff generally must trace title back at least seven years unless the court orders otherwise.

Questions Sunrise Business Owners Ask Before Hiring a Litigator

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, a structured wind-down, or a court-ordered dissolution when the owners cannot agree.

Can I force a partner out of my Florida LLC?

That depends on your operating agreement and your partner’s conduct. Many agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation terms, and Florida law offers remedies for serious misconduct or when the company cannot function. A lawyer should read the agreement before you take any step.

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

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When the situation is urgent, a court can order 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 when the contract is in writing, four years when it is oral or implied. A claim to rescind a contract has four years, and a specific performance action has one year. Those periods are not extended just because negotiations are ongoing.

Does every business dispute end up in court?

No. Many are resolved through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration. We pursue whichever path is most likely to reach your goals efficiently, and we are prepared to litigate when it is not.

How does a partition action work in Florida?

A co-owner asks the court to divide the property or, if dividing is not practical, to order a sale and split the proceeds. Commissioners are appointed after a partition judgment, and a sale at public auction follows only if they find division would prejudice the owners.

Can a court appoint someone to run my company during a dispute?

In dissolution cases, yes. After notice and a hearing, a court can appoint a receiver or custodian, and in corporate dissolution cases it can issue injunctions and take other steps to preserve assets and keep the business operating until a full hearing.

My operating agreement has a deadlock buyout clause. Does that replace a lawsuit?

Often it shapes the lawsuit. If a deadlock sale provision is initiated before the court finds the deadlock grounds, the provision generally applies instead of a dissolution order, so timing and the precise wording of the clause matter a great deal.

Is it worth hiring a litigator for a dispute that may settle?

Often, yes. Early advice on what the agreement actually says, what evidence to preserve, and whether emergency relief is needed tends to improve settlement terms. A litigator involved before a lawsuit sometimes keeps a disagreement from becoming one.

I live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut and my partner is in Broward County. Can you help?

Yes. We regularly represent clients from those states with Florida business or real estate interests. We handle the Florida proceedings and local appearances and keep you updated throughout.

What happens when a landlord and a commercial tenant dispute rent?

Florida’s landlord-tenant statute sets notice requirements. For unpaid rent, the landlord generally delivers a written demand and the tenant has three days, excluding weekends and court-observed holidays, to pay or vacate. If a landlord accepts partial rent after posting the notice, there are specific steps required before filing for possession. Commercial leases often add their own terms, so the lease itself matters.

Do you work with other lawyers on referred cases?

Yes. A significant part of our practice comes from other attorneys, and we communicate with referring counsel throughout the matter.

Serving Sunrise Business and Real Estate Litigation Clients Across South Florida

We represent clients in Sunrise and the surrounding Broward County communities, including Plantation, Weston, Davie, Tamarac, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Coral Springs, Pembroke Pines, Cooper City, Fort Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, Pompano Beach, Coconut Creek, Margate, Hollywood, and Parkland. Our work extends north into Palm Beach County, where we serve clients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens. We also represent owners from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose business partners or co-owned property are here in South Florida.

Talk With a Sunrise Business Litigation Lawyer About Your Dispute

When a co-owner, a contract, or a piece of property puts your company or your investment at risk, a conversation with a Sunrise business litigation lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can clarify your position before the next move is made. Call us to schedule a consultation. We will review the documents, tell you what your options look like, and recommend the path that fits your goals and your budget.