Wilton Manors Breach of Fiduciary Duty Attorney

If you own part of a business in Wilton Manors, whether it is a restaurant on Wilton Drive, a small professional practice, or a real estate holding company, and you suspect a partner, manager, or fellow owner has been putting their own interests ahead of the company’s, you are probably weighing whether to confront them, quietly investigate, or file suit. The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team is a business and real estate litigation firm that handles Wilton Manors breach of fiduciary duty disputes for owners, investors, and families throughout Broward County and neighboring Palm Beach County.

The pressure in these cases usually comes from timing. Money may be leaving the company right now, records may be altered or withheld, and a partner who controls the bank accounts can create facts on the ground faster than a lawsuit moves. The first conversation with a lawyer is often less about whether you have a claim and more about what can be preserved, frozen, or documented before the situation hardens.

Fiduciary claims also sit at an awkward intersection. They are part contract dispute, part accounting problem, and part business divorce. How you frame the case, and which court and remedies you pursue, can shape the outcome as much as the underlying facts.

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

The Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team represents business owners, investors, and families in South Florida’s difficult business and real estate disputes, serving Wilton Manors, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and the rest of Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who hold business or real estate interests here also rely on the firm, which handles the local court appearances so they do not have to travel for every hearing.

Andrew M. Schwartz has spent 37 years in litigation and has practiced in Florida since being admitted to The Florida Bar in 1989. He earned his undergraduate degree at Emory University in 1986 and his law degree at the University of Miami in 1989. His career has centered on complex 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.

The firm practices as a true legal team, meaning everyone working on your matter knows the file and can answer when you call. There is a strict 24 hour return call policy when the attorneys are in court. The attorneys are experienced in mediation and arbitration as well as courtroom litigation, and they look for the resolution that fits the client’s goals and budget rather than stretching a case out for its own sake.

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 its client specific performance of a commercial real estate contract. That kind of record-heavy, document-driven trial work is what a fiduciary case demands, because these disputes are won on bank statements, agreements, and the history of how the parties actually dealt with each other.

Situations That Give Rise to Fiduciary Duty Claims Among Owners

• Diverted or Missing Company Funds: A managing member pays personal expenses from company accounts, routes revenue to a side entity, or cannot explain where distributions went. These cases often include claims for an accounting and recovery of the funds.
• Self-Dealing Transactions: A manager leases company property to himself, hires a relative at an inflated rate, or sells assets to an affiliate below value without disclosure to the other owners.
• Freeze-Outs of Minority Owners: Majority owners cut a minority member out of information, decisions, and distributions, sometimes while paying themselves generous salaries.
• Usurped Business Opportunities: A partner diverts a deal, client, or property purchase that belonged to the company and takes it for a personal venture.
• Commingled Accounts: Company and personal funds are mixed so thoroughly that no one can say what belongs to whom, which is frequently the first sign of larger problems.
• Family Business Betrayals: Siblings who inherited a company together, or parents and adult children sharing ownership, face fiduciary issues layered on top of family relationships, and these cases call for discretion alongside firm financial protection.
• Real Estate Venture Disputes: A co-investor who manages a jointly owned property collects rents, controls refinancing, or sells without proper accounting to the others.
• Waste and Mismanagement: Managers who let assets be wasted or misappropriated, which can also support judicial dissolution of an LLC when the injury to the company is serious.

What to Do Right Now if You Suspect a Partner Is Breaching Their Duties

Start with documents, and do it quietly. Pull the operating agreement or shareholder agreement, the company’s tax returns, bank and credit card statements you have lawful access to, and any emails or texts discussing money, authority, or major decisions. Do not take records you are not entitled to see, and do not log into accounts you have lost authorization to use. Owners generally have statutory and contractual rights to inspect company books, and a lawyer can often demand those records formally, which is cleaner than self-help.

Next, think about whether anything needs to be stopped immediately. If assets are being moved, spent, or hidden, the case may call for emergency injunctive relief rather than a slow, conventional lawsuit. Courts can restrain a defendant from dissipating company funds while the case is pending, and in an LLC dissolution proceeding a court can appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing. The sooner a lawyer sees the facts, the more realistic those options are.

Mind the deadlines. A claim founded on a written instrument, such as an operating agreement, carries a five-year limitations period in Florida, while a claim not founded on a written instrument carries four years. A fraud claim runs four years from discovery, subject to a 12-year outer limit. A negligence-type theory is shorter, at two years for causes of action accruing after March 24, 2023. Which period governs your case depends on how the claim is pleaded, which is one more reason not to wait.

Where the case is filed matters too. Most fiduciary disputes involving real money belong in circuit court, which hears claims above the county court ceiling. For a Wilton Manors business, that usually means the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, whose circuit civil division sits in Fort Lauderdale. If the company or the other parties are in Palm Beach County, the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, seated in West Palm Beach, may be the venue. Broward also operates a complex business division that handles dissolution of certain business entities and large business litigation, and a case can be directed there through the court’s filing procedure. Federal court in the Southern District of Florida, which holds court in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, is an option only when federal jurisdiction exists.

A few mistakes come up repeatedly. Owners confront the partner before they have secured the evidence, tipping them off. They keep funding the company while the problem continues. They sign amendments, releases, or “clarifying” documents the other side puts in front of them. And they wait for certainty before calling a lawyer, when the better course is to get advice while the facts are still being gathered.

How Fiduciary Claims Are Built and What the Remedies Look Like

A fiduciary duty claim generally requires showing that the defendant owed you a duty, that the duty was breached, and that the breach caused damage. Whether a duty exists often turns on the entity type, the role the defendant played, and what the governing agreement says. Managers of an LLC, officers and directors of a corporation, and partners in a partnership typically owe duties of loyalty and care, but the operating agreement can shape and sometimes narrow those duties, so reading the document closely is the first real step of any case.

The remedies are broader than many owners expect. Depending on the facts, they can include money damages, an accounting that forces the defendant to explain where funds went, recovery of diverted assets, and injunctive relief to freeze accounts or stop a transaction. In some cases the better answer is structural. An LLC may be dissolved by a court when assets are being misappropriated or wasted, when controlling members are acting illegally or fraudulently, or when deadlocked owners are causing irreparable injury to the company. For corporations, shareholders have a parallel route, and the statute lets the corporation or other shareholders avoid dissolution by electing to buy out the petitioner at fair value. If the parties agree on the price and terms within 60 days after the first election is filed, the court enters an order directing the purchase.

That buyout mechanism is worth understanding because many fiduciary disputes end there. The goal is rarely a trial for its own sake. It is a separation on defensible terms, whether through a negotiated buyout, a structured wind-down, or a court-supervised exit, with the misconduct priced into the number.

Evidence usually decides these cases. Forensic review of bank records, comparison of reported income to actual deposits, and testimony about who authorized what are the building blocks. An attorney who has tried contract and business cases to judgment knows how to organize that material so a judge can follow the money without a forensic accountant’s vocabulary.

Wilton Manors Fiduciary Duty Questions Owners Ask

What exactly is a breach of fiduciary duty in a business?

It is a violation of the loyalty or care that someone in a position of trust owes the company or its owners. Typical examples include self-dealing, diverting company money, hiding material information, and taking opportunities that belonged to the business.

Who owes fiduciary duties in a Florida company?

Managers and managing members of LLCs, officers and directors of corporations, and partners in a partnership commonly owe them. The scope can depend on the entity type and the language of the governing agreement, so the documents matter.

How long do I have to file a fiduciary duty lawsuit?

It depends on how the claim is framed. A claim founded on a written instrument has five years, an oral or implied contract theory has four, fraud has four years from discovery with a 12-year cap, and negligence-based theories accruing after March 24, 2023 have two. Because the label affects the deadline, get a lawyer to look at the facts early.

Can I get company records if my partner is stonewalling me?

Owners generally have inspection rights under Florida law and under many operating agreements. A formal written demand through counsel often produces documents, and if it does not, a court can be asked to compel production.

Can a court stop a partner from spending or moving company money?

Yes. Temporary and permanent injunctions exist for this purpose, and emergency relief can be sought when delay would let assets disappear. The firm handles injunction work as a regular part of its practice.

Is a breach of fiduciary duty claim the same as a breach of contract claim?

No, though they often appear together. A contract claim rests on the terms of an agreement, while a fiduciary claim rests on a duty of loyalty or care imposed by the relationship. A single set of facts can support both, and the choice affects limitations periods and remedies.

Can I be forced out of my own LLC by a majority owner?

It depends on the operating agreement and the conduct involved. Some agreements allow expulsion or buyouts under defined conditions, and Florida law gives minority members remedies, including judicial dissolution, when assets are being misappropriated or the company cannot function.

My business partner is also my relative. Does that change anything?

The legal duties are the same, but the strategy often differs. Family disputes call for discretion and sometimes mediation, while still protecting your financial position at each step.

What happens to the company while the lawsuit is pending?

Usually it keeps operating. In more serious cases a court may appoint a receiver or custodian after notice and a hearing, or issue injunctions to preserve assets, so the business is not drained before a ruling.

I live in New York or New Jersey but my business is in Broward County. Can you still represent me?

Yes. The firm regularly represents clients from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut who have South Florida business or real estate interests, handling local court appearances and keeping you informed at every stage.

Do these disputes always end in a trial?

No. Many resolve through negotiation, mediation, or arbitration, often in the form of a buyout. The firm pursues whichever path is most likely to meet your goals efficiently, and prepares for trial either way.

Does the firm work with other attorneys on these cases?

Yes. A significant part of the practice comes from referrals by other lawyers, including out of state attorneys whose clients have Florida disputes, and the firm keeps referring counsel informed throughout.

Serving Fiduciary Duty Clients From Wilton Manors Across South Florida

The firm’s work starts in Wilton Manors and extends across Broward County, from Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Deerfield Beach, Coral Springs, Parkland, Plantation, Sunrise, Davie, Hollywood, Dania Beach, and Hallandale Beach. Business owners in the Wilton Drive corridor, the Fort Lauderdale downtown and Las Olas districts, and the commercial areas around Oakland Park Boulevard bring the same kinds of disputes as owners elsewhere in the county: partners who stopped sharing information, managers who cannot account for funds, and co-investors who no longer agree on a property.

Our reach continues north into Palm Beach County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, Lake Worth, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, and Jupiter, and the firm represents clients with business and real estate interests throughout South Florida. Out of state owners from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut whose partners or co-owners are here can work with the team without traveling for each hearing.

Talk With a Wilton Manors Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyer

If you believe a partner, manager, or co-owner has breached their duties to you or your company, speak with a Wilton Manors breach of fiduciary duty lawyer at the Andrew M. Schwartz Legal Team before the evidence changes or the money is gone. The attorneys will review your agreement, assess your claims, and explain whether the right move is a demand, an emergency motion, a negotiated exit, or a lawsuit. Call to schedule a consultation.