Florida Business Lawyers Blog

In the course of your commercial litigation action, you may reach a point at which your interests dictate getting a court order that prevents your opponent from taking certain actions. If you decide to seek an order of injunctive relief, there are certain specific things that you’ll have to demonstrate to the court in order to succeed. Whether you are seeking to use an injunction or some other legal tool to advance your interests in your commercial dispute, it pays to make sure that you have a skilled Florida commercial litigation attorney on your side.

One recent commercial contract case from Miami provided an example of what it takes to get a valid injunction. The basis for the underlying case was a commercial services agreement that called for one entity to provide services and to advance funds to the other entity. In exchange for the provision of services and advance of funds, the service provider was to receive a 20% interest in the profits of the other entity, an investment company.

There are certain circumstances under which a business agreement and compensation provision like the one outlined above might be easily workable. There are other situations, though, in which it can become complicated. A circumstance in which the business arrangement sours and in which the recipient of services owns exactly one asset, which it is poised to sell, is an example of the latter. That was the situation facing this service provider. It had not received the compensation to which it thought it was entitled, and the entity that owed payment to it was allegedly on the verge of selling its only asset and distributing those proceeds.

In some cases, completing your trial and getting a favorable verdict and an award of damages is the end of the line. In other cases, securing a judgment is just one step among many in obtaining the final outcome you need. Your situation may dictate that you have to take one or even multiple legal actions in order to get the money that the trial court said you were owed. These situations illustrate the importance of having experienced Florida commercial litigation counsel who can help you at every step required to get the compensation owed to you.

A recent case from South Florida is an example of a scenario in which the award of damages was not the “end of the road.” The owner of a fast-foot restaurant chain and an ice cream brand had sued a Panamanian corporation in Panama and won, with the court awarding damages to the plaintiff. In seeking to collect on its judgment, the plaintiff engaged in further investigation and discovered that a third party held, in a bank account in Miami, more than $13 million in funds. The significance of this entity and its bank account was that, allegedly, that third party owed the defendant $13 million.

Since the money allegedly was owed to the defendant, and the defendant owed the plaintiff payment of the damages award, the plaintiff served a writ of garnishment on the bank. The writ of garnishment is the tool that allows you, as the creditor, to seize money owed to you by a defendant, even though that money is held by a third party. Sometimes, these writs can be used to seize from an employer the wages of an employee who owes a court-ordered obligation or payment. Other times, it can be used in situations like this.

In your commercial litigation case, there are several things that are necessary parts of achieving the beneficial result your business needs. One of these is understanding the rules of court procedure and using them accordingly. The proper use of the rules can aid your case, while failing to follow the rules can possibly be fatal to your case. This is just one of many areas in which it helps to have representation from an experienced Florida commercial litigation attorney.

One case in which the rules of procedure played a key role was a commercial lease dispute from Miami-Dade County. The plaintiff in the case, which was recently decided by the Third District Court of Appeal, actually sued three entities.

When you file a lawsuit in civil court, you have certain procedural rights. For one thing, the rules say that you may amend your complaint one time “as a matter of right.” In this case, the plaintiff availed itself of that right and filed an amended complaint. The filing of this amended complaint happened before any of the defendants had filed anything in the case. The trial court gave the plaintiff “assurances that the plaintiff would have an opportunity to amend.”

Many times, winning your commercial litigation action may come down to the factual evidence you have. In other situations, achieving a fully successful result also requires a detailed knowledge of the rules of court procedure, as one case originally from Palm Beach County recently demonstrated. The rule that the plaintiff cited in its court papers made all of the difference in allowing that party to sue all of the defendants it desired to include in its contract dispute case. This example demonstrates how the knowledge and skill of experienced Florida contract litigation counsel can help you achieve favorable results.

The origins of the case began with a commercial contract between a precious metals and rare coins company and a marketing entity. The marketing entity agreed to promote the coin company’s publications for 15 years. In exchange, the coin company agreed to pay the marketing firm a percentage of net revenues.

Eventually, the relationship soured. The coin company sued the marketing firm in federal court, alleging violations of federal intellectual property law, as well as asserting state law claims. The federal court decided to dismiss the state law claims from the federal action, and those went forward in a separate state law case.

Sometimes, in Florida. when landlords and tenants become embroiled in a dispute and in subsequent litigation, it becomes necessary for the court to handle and hold the rent payments that are owed under the terms of the commercial lease. Once those payments are made into the court’s registry, who has the right to obtain those funds if your case involves multiple parties like a landlord, a tenant, and a subtenant? For answers to questions like these and effective representation in your commercial leasing litigation, retain the services of an experienced Florida commercial landlord-tenant attorney.

One recent case from South Florida involved this mix of a landlord, a tenant, a subtenant, and the court registry. The Broward County building owner had leased a space to a pilates business. That tenant eventually subleased part of the space to a plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine office. For the subtenant, the arrangement made good business sense, since the subtenant counted on the traffic from the pilates studio to funnel some additional business to its plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine business. Additionally, the sublease agreement called for the tenant to provide marketing services for the subtenant’s office.

Before the lease ended, though, the tenant left the premises. The subtenant then stopped paying rent. It contended that its business required the traffic provided by the pilates business and that it was no longer getting the benefit of the marketing services promised to it in the sublease agreement. That spawned litigation, with the tenant seeking an order of eviction and money damages for breach of the lease, while the subtenant sought money damages for unjust enrichment. Once the case entered litigation, the subtenant paid its rent but paid it into the court registry, as required by Florida law.