Starting and maintaining a business takes a lot of hard work. In many cases, business owners find it easier to work with a team to ensure that the necessary business obligations are met. You may have felt the same way, and as a result, you chose to create a partnership to help distribute the workload.

Though you may have given your business partner candidates a great deal of consideration before making the choice to partner up, issues can still arise down the road. Though some partnership problems could be relatively minor or at least easily resolved, others may need legal action to address.

A serious issue

One serious issue that could push your partnership to the point of no return is if your business partner is stealing company funds. At first, you may have understandably wanted to give your partner the benefit of the doubt. After all, bookkeeping mistakes can happen, and sometimes another review of information could point to funds that appear missing.

Unfortunately, this type of review could also point to your partner having taken the funds. It is common for business partners to both have access to business-related accounts, but if your partner appears to have taken funds for personal use or to carry out unauthorized business transactions, you have a serious problem on your hands.

Breach of fiduciary duty

When you and your partner started the company, you both took on a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the company. If your partner begins taking money from company accounts for reasons that do not benefit the company, that action is not in the best interests of the business. As a result, your partner has likely breached his or her fiduciary duty. If you believe this to be the case, you may have reason to file a legal claim against your partner to sue for damages.

You likely never anticipated having to take legal action against your business partner. After all, you undoubtedly chose this person due to the trust and responsibility you saw in him or her. Now, you must act to protect your company from further harm. In this type of situation, it is wise to consult with a Florida attorney about your business litigation options. Discussing your concerns could allow you to discern whether you have reason to move forward with a claim.