West Palm Beach Business Divorce Attorney

Most business divorces in Palm Beach County end up before the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in West Palm Beach and hears the disputes that follow when co-owners can no longer run a company together. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team handles business litigation and real estate disputes for owners, investors, and families across West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Broward County, and the rest of South Florida, and a West Palm Beach business divorce attorney from our firm can tell you early which route out of a broken partnership fits your facts.

A business divorce is the separation of co-owners, whether they are LLC members, shareholders, or general partners. Unlike a marriage, there is no single statute that tells you how it ends. The outcome depends on what the operating agreement or shareholder agreement says, what Florida’s LLC and corporate statutes allow, and how much leverage each side holds. Some owners want out and want a fair price. Others want the partner gone. Some just need someone to account for money that disappeared. The right first move is different in each case.

The questions people usually type into a search bar are practical ones. Can I be forced out? Can I force someone else out? What is my stake worth? Can I stop this person from draining the accounts while we fight? The sections below answer those directly.

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

The Andrew M. Andrew M. Schwartz, the firm’s 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. His career has been built around complex contract disputes, business divorces, and conflicts among partners, LLC members, and shareholders. 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.

The firm practices as a true legal team, which matters in a dispute that can run for months. Everyone working on your file knows it, so when you call, you reach someone who can answer. The firm keeps a strict 24 hour return call policy when attorneys are in court, and conference calls are scheduled at times that work for everyone involved. Andrew’s own view, stated plainly, is that clients often think they want a hyper-aggressive lawyer, when what they usually need is someone who acts as the situation requires and uses finesse when finesse will do, at a cost that makes sense against what is at stake.

On the trial side, the firm recently obtained a 32-page final judgment after a 5-day bench trial in Broward County Circuit Court, awarding the client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That is the kind of detail-driven contract work that business divorces often come down to, because the fight is frequently about what an agreement actually says and how the parties behaved under it. The firm is also experienced in mediation and arbitration, and many clients are better served by a negotiated buyout than a verdict. Attorneys at the firm look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

Types of Ownership Disputes We Handle in Palm Beach County

• Deadlocked Management: Two 50-percent owners disagree and nothing can be decided. Florida’s LLC statute lists deadlock, with irreparable injury to the company threatened or occurring, as a ground for a court to dissolve the company. Some operating agreements contain a deadlock sale provision that takes priority if it is started before the court finds deadlock.
• Buyouts and Valuation Disputes: One owner wants out, or the others want to buy out a petitioner. In corporate dissolution cases, Florida allows the company or other shareholders to elect to purchase the petitioner’s shares at fair value, and the dispute usually becomes a fight over what fair value is.
• Breach of Operating or Shareholder Agreements: Capital calls ignored, distributions withheld, transfer restrictions violated, or buy-sell provisions triggered improperly. These cases turn on the exact wording of the agreement.
• Breach of Fiduciary Duty: A managing member or controlling shareholder who self-deals, diverts opportunities, or freezes out a minority owner. Claims for an accounting often accompany these cases.
• Missing or Misused Company Funds: Unpaid distributions, commingled accounts, diverted receipts, and managers who cannot account for the money. Misappropriation or waste of assets that causes injury is itself a statutory ground for LLC dissolution.
• Minority Owner Freeze-Outs: A majority group cuts a minority member out of information, compensation, or decisions. Remedies range from court-ordered buyouts to dissolution, depending on the conduct.
• Family and Friend-Run Businesses: Siblings who inherited a company, parents and children with different visions, or spouses and in-laws sharing ownership. These cases need discretion alongside firm protection of the client’s financial interests.
• Jointly Owned Real Estate: When the business owns property, or the owners hold it together, the divorce may include a partition action or a title dispute alongside the company claims.

What to Do in the First Weeks of a Partner Dispute

Start by getting your hands on the governing documents: the operating agreement, shareholder agreement, any amendments, and the articles filed with the state. These control more than most owners expect. They may set a buyout formula, require mediation or arbitration before suit, restrict who can bring claims, or contain a deadlock sale provision. Read the dispute resolution and transfer clauses before you send a single angry email.

Next, preserve financial records. Bank statements, tax returns, ledgers, distribution records, and communications about money are the backbone of any claim for missing funds or an accounting. If you still have access, copy what you are entitled to see as an owner. Do not remove anything you have no right to take, and do not delete anything. Courts treat both badly.

Keep the business running if you can. Judges are far more receptive to an owner who kept paying vendors and payroll than to one who walked away or sabotaged operations. At the same time, avoid unilateral moves that look like self-dealing, such as paying yourself unusual sums or shifting customers to a new entity. If you believe assets are being moved or spent, raise that with counsel quickly. A court can issue injunctions in a dissolution case, appoint a receiver or custodian, and take steps to preserve company assets, but a receiver or custodian is appointed only after a hearing with notice to the parties.

Mind the deadlines. A claim founded on a written instrument, such as an operating agreement, generally must be filed within five years. Contract claims that are not based on a written instrument have four years. Fraud claims carry four years from discovery, with an outer limit of 12 years. A request for specific performance has a one-year period. Because several theories often overlap in a business divorce, the earliest deadline is the one that matters, and waiting rarely helps.

As for where cases are heard, disputes in this market over $50,000 belong in circuit court, and in Palm Beach County that is the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach. Cases involving diversity of citizenship or federal claims can land in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in West Palm Beach. If the company, property, or defendant is in Broward County, the case may belong in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, which has a complex business division for larger business disputes and certain entity dissolutions. Choosing the right forum is one of the first strategic calls, and it is worth making with counsel before filing.

How Florida Law Lets Owners Exit: Buyouts, Dissolution, and Receivers

The route out depends on the entity. For LLCs, Florida’s statute allows a manager or member to ask a circuit court for judicial dissolution on several grounds: the company’s affairs are conducted unlawfully; it is not reasonably practicable to carry on the business under the articles and operating agreement; controlling managers or members have acted, are acting, or are reasonably expected to act illegally or fraudulently; assets are being misappropriated or wasted; or managers or members are deadlocked and irreparable injury is threatened or occurring. Once a dissolution case has enough merit, the court can appoint a receiver or custodian, or order a purchase of the petitioning member’s interest instead of dissolving.

For corporations, a shareholder can seek judicial dissolution or another statutory remedy, including where the corporation has abandoned its business and failed to wind up within a reasonable time. The corporate statute also builds in a way to avoid dissolution: within 30 days after a dissolution case begins on the relevant grounds, the corporation must notify the other shareholders that they may elect to buy the petitioner’s shares 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. An election to purchase is irrevocable unless the court finds it equitable to set it aside or modify it. Importantly, filing for dissolution does not cancel a shareholder’s right to start a deadlock sale provision in a compliant shareholder agreement.

In practice, most business divorces settle somewhere along these paths. The threat of dissolution or a receiver gives a minority owner real leverage, and the fair-value mechanism gives the majority a way to keep the company. The outcome often depends less on the statute than on the evidence: financial records, communications, and the agreement itself.

When the business and the real estate are tangled together, the property question may need its own track. Co-owners can seek partition under Chapter 64, which the court handles in equity. If the land cannot be fairly divided, the court can order it sold and the proceeds shared in proportion to ownership. Where family-inherited property is involved, Florida’s heirs property provisions can change how a partition proceeds.

Questions About Business Divorce in West Palm Beach

What is a business divorce?

It is the separation of co-owners of a company, whether they are partners, LLC members, or shareholders. It can end through 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?

It depends on your operating agreement and the partner’s conduct. Many agreements contain buyout, expulsion, or dissociation provisions, and Florida law provides court remedies for serious misconduct or when the company can no longer function. An attorney needs to read your agreement before anyone sends a demand.

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

You may have claims for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, conversion, and recovery of the funds. When assets are at risk of being moved or spent, a court can issue injunctive relief while the case is pending. Misappropriation or waste of assets is also a statutory ground for dissolving an LLC.

Do I have to go to court to end a business partnership?

No. Many disputes resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, and some agreements require those steps before a lawsuit. Our attorneys are experienced in alternative dispute resolution and in courtroom litigation, and we pursue the path most likely to reach your goals efficiently.

What happens to the business while the dispute is pending?

Usually it keeps operating. In a dissolution case, a court can issue injunctions, appoint a receiver or custodian after a hearing, and take other steps to preserve assets, but those are tools for specific problems, not the default.

How is a minority owner’s stake valued?

In corporate dissolution cases, the buyout is at fair value. Valuation is often the most contested issue, and the numbers depend on financial records, the company’s earnings and assets, and expert analysis. Agreements sometimes set a formula that controls instead.

What if our operating agreement has a deadlock sale provision?

Florida’s LLC statute gives effect to such a provision if it is started before the court determines that deadlock grounds exist and is then carried through. In that case it applies instead of a dissolution order or court-ordered purchase.

How long do I have to sue my partner?

For claims based on a written instrument, such as an operating or shareholder agreement, the period is five years. Oral or implied contract claims have four years, fraud has four years from discovery with a 12-year cap, and a specific performance action has one year. Because different claims run on different clocks, do not assume the longest one applies.

Can I sue in West Palm Beach if my partner lives elsewhere or the company is registered somewhere else?

Possibly. Venue and jurisdiction depend on where the company operates, where the property sits, where the defendant lives or does business, and what the governing documents say about forum. We regularly represent clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose co-owners or assets are in South Florida, and we handle the local court appearances so you do not have to travel for every hearing.

My business partner is also a family member. Does that change anything?

The law is the same, but the strategy differs. These cases carry emotional weight, and the family relationship often makes a confidential, negotiated resolution more valuable than a public fight. We handle them with discretion while still protecting your financial position.

Do you work with other attorneys on business divorce cases?

Yes. A significant part of our practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have disputes in Florida and Florida attorneys who do not handle business litigation. We keep referring counsel informed and respect their relationship with the client.

Serving Business Owners Across West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County

Our business divorce work starts in West Palm Beach and extends throughout Palm Beach County. We represent owners in downtown West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, Riviera Beach, North Palm Beach, and Belle Glade, along with the surrounding unincorporated communities.

We also serve clients in neighboring Broward County, including Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, and the surrounding communities, as well as clients elsewhere in South Florida. Many of our clients live in New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut but own a company, an investment property, or a share of real estate in Palm Beach or Broward County, and we handle the Florida proceedings on their behalf.

Talk With a West Palm Beach Business Divorce Lawyer

If a partner, LLC member, or fellow shareholder has made it impossible to keep running the business together, a conversation with a West Palm Beach business divorce lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team can tell you where you stand and what the realistic options are. Bring your operating or shareholder agreement and whatever financial records you have. Call our firm to schedule a consultation.