Hagood & HagoodPLLC · Orlando, FloridaLimited liability companies, corporations and partnerships. Control of the company, access to its records, and the value of an ownership interest.
Call us today for a better understanding of where you stand and how to proceed.
Consult with a Florida business litigation attorney.
Hagood & Hagood’s Business Litigation Practice Group offers a team of trial and litigation experts deeply committed to excellent results. Each and every one of our attorneys is driven by the desire to produce excellent legal product and achieve results. To us, that means a tireless focus on real world outcomes and the business interests of our clients. Our team excels in any nature of dispute resolution, including: arbitration, mediation, state and federal court litigation, and, perhaps most importantly, trial.
Our business litigation practice group provides decades of trial and litigation experience without the typical constraints and excess of large commercial litigation firms.
We believe adding value for our clients and delivering efficient and effective service is our paramount duty as lawyers. If you find yourself in an escalating contractual or financial dispute and are uncertain of your options, please feel free to contact our office today and ask how our dynamic approach can help you, your family, or your business in your time of need.
Hagood & Hagood
Multi-party commercial cases in state and federal court.
Owner-versus-owner conflict, buyouts, and separations.
Defect, delay, and payment claims across the project chain.
Supply, service, and distribution agreements.
Claims against and on behalf of licensed professionals.
Emergency and temporary relief on compressed timelines.
Officer, manager, and registered agent changes filed without authority.
Voting, distributions, transfer and management terms enforced as written.
Freeze-outs, withheld distributions, and conduct that harms the value of a minority owner's interest.
Most people who call us haven't told anyone about the steadily growing concern pulling them away from their normal business. Not their spouse, not their accountant, not the employee who's started asking why the co‑owner stopped coming in. There's usually a stretch of weeks before that first call spent mostly deciding whether you're overreacting. You go back through old emails. You look at the bank activity more carefully than you used to. In particularly unfortunate cases, you feel a moment of panic when you realize you have lost access to company banking services or other accounts critical to your operations.
In our experience, owners call late rather than early, and what waiting costs is rarely emotional. It's documents that are no longer available, deadlines that run without notice, and money that moves while you're still deciding whether picking up the phone makes it real.
Calling doesn't commit you to anything. The conversation is privileged whether or not you choose to hire us. We won't contact your co‑owner, and nothing happens on your matter that you haven't authorized.
People
Managing Partner
Complex civil litigation, focused on owner disputes. University of Central Florida, then the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Clerked for the Ninth Circuit's Chief Judge and for the Judge of its Complex Business Litigation Division.
HH@HagoodHagood.com
Of Counsel
More than three decades of civil litigation, negotiated settlement, dispute resolution and trial. Cumberland School of Law, where he edited the Cumberland Law Review. AV Preeminent, Martindale-Hubbell.
Intake@HagoodHagood.com
Of Counsel
Two decades at large national firms representing Fortune 500 companies. Admitted in Florida, the District of Columbia, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Of Counsel
Board Certified in Workers' Compensation by the Florida Bar, Mr. Romanik is Volusia County's longest continuously board-certified workers' compensation attorney and has practiced law based in the county since his admission to the Florida Bar in 1995.
Practice
How the entity was formed decides the governing law (whether Chapter 605, 607, or 620 of the Florida Statutes, or numerous other authorities), and with it the duties owed and the remedies available. From there, buyout and partnership disputes generally follow a familiar sequence.
In these matters, the first step is often a statutory records demand. In addition to the records, the demand and response themselves may become evidence: a company that complies with the relevant statute stands in one posture, a company that stalls (and inadvertently breaches it) in another.
§ 605.0410, Fla. Stat.; § 607.1602, Fla. Stat.The company's books and records, typically produced through the statutory records demand described above, form the basis for valuing the company and its assets and, from there, the ownership interest, after adjustments for industry and for the marketability of the interest.
§ 605.0703, Fla. Stat.; § 607.1436, Fla. Stat.When owners cannot agree to buyout terms or otherwise resolve the governance dispute, it may be necessary to file a lawsuit seeking monetary damages or injunctive relief. Money damages typically remedy fixed sums, such as failures to pay distributions. Injunctive relief, the appointment of a receiver to handle the company's affairs, expulsion of a member, and dissolution of the company may be the proper remedy, particularly where the harm is irreversible or impossible to calculate. Measured in days, and not a way to gain position.
Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.610Most matters end in a negotiated resolution: a purchase and sale of ownership interests, the payment of disputed distributions in exchange for a release of claims, or an amended operating agreement addressing the governance issues in dispute. These disputes are easiest resolved early. As a matter runs, options close: revenue suffers, distributions go unpaid, tax questions surface, and the two sides move further apart on what the company is worth. The dispute becomes baked in.
§ 605.0702, Fla. Stat.; § 607.1430, Fla. Stat.Clients
★★★★★Incredible work by Hunter and his team. Resolved my case efficiently, favorably, and with incredible transparency and communication. Would be my first recommendation to anyone in need of a business litigation attorney.
Buck Porter · Google review
★★★★★…worked diligently to get the motions granted, were very responsive and communicative, and were extremely understanding of my situation. I would highly recommend retaining anyone in this firm…
Ray Lebron · Google review
★★★★★…always prompt and timely in responding to emails or calls. Would most definitely recommend if you are looking for the best business attorneys.
Jason O'Rear · Google review
Engagement
Set out in writing before any work begins.