Core Practice
A large part of our practice is litigation — representing clients in complex business disputes and other contested matters in Florida's state courts and in the federal courts. When a disagreement can't be resolved at the table, you want an attorney who is comfortable in the courtroom and prepared to try your case.
From the first demand letter through discovery, motions, trial, and appeal, we build a strategy around your goals and pursue it with diligence, preparation, and candor about the road ahead.
Service
Beyond business litigation, the firm handles a broad range of civil and criminal matters. Clients throughout Florida turn to Zapalski Law when they need an experienced attorney to protect their interests, whether the matter involves a civil dispute, a criminal charge, or the everyday legal questions that come with life and business.
Whatever your situation, you'll get straightforward advice and dedicated representation from an attorney who has practiced since 2002.
Service
When the IRS or the Florida Department of Revenue comes calling, you want more than a preparer — you want an attorney. As a licensed Florida lawyer with an advanced law degree (LL.M.), Christopher R. Zapalski represents clients directly and protects sensitive matters with attorney-client privilege.
We meet the taxing authorities on your behalf, negotiate realistic resolutions, and work to reduce what you owe wherever the law allows.
Service
Accurate, thorough preparation is only half the job. We look ahead — structuring income, deductions, and timing so your next return is as favorable as the law permits. From straightforward individual returns to complex business filings, your taxes are handled with attention and care.
Service
Good decisions start with good records. We keep your books clean, current, and audit-ready — giving you a clear, honest view of your financial position all year long, not just at tax time.
Ideal for small businesses and self-employed professionals who would rather focus on their work than wrestle with the ledger.
Service
Starting or growing a business raises legal, tax, and financial questions all at once. Having those answered by one advisor who understands all three keeps you from making an expensive decision in one area that creates a problem in another.
We help you choose the right structure, set things up correctly from the start, and stay compliant as you grow.
Tax preparation, accounting, and bookkeeping are handled by our dedicated division — Zapalski Tax and Accounting.
Service
Your brand and your creative work are assets worth protecting. We help businesses secure, enforce, and license their trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets — and we understand the marketplace where much of that protection matters most today: Amazon.
From Amazon Brand Registry enrollment to counterfeit takedowns and seller account IP disputes, we help e-commerce businesses defend their listings and their reputation.
Service
Overwhelming debt has legal solutions. We guide individuals and businesses through bankruptcy with honesty about the options — and because the firm pairs legal counsel with tax and accounting expertise, you get a complete picture of what each path means for your finances, your taxes, and your future.
Often the first conversation reveals alternatives short of bankruptcy. Either way, you'll know where you stand.
Service
Immigration decisions shape families, careers, and businesses. We represent clients in immigration matters with the same care and discretion that define the rest of the practice — and for entrepreneurs and investors, our immigration work connects directly with the firm's business formation, tax, and international services.
Service
A good estate plan protects the people you love and the wealth you've built. We draft the documents — wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives — and go further, structuring your affairs so wealth passes efficiently and tax-intelligently to the next generation.
With legal, tax, and accounting expertise in one office, your estate plan, your tax picture, and your business succession are designed to work together.
Wealth management guidance is led by a Chartered Wealth Manager (CWM) — a designation issued by the Global Academy of Finance & Management (GAFM) and recognized in FINRA's professional designations directory.
Service
Getting a business off the ground takes capital — and raising it legally takes documentation done right. The firm prepares complete private offering packages under SEC Regulation D, from the Private Placement Memorandum through the subscription agreement and Form D filing, so founders can approach investors with confidence.
Whether you're raising a friends-and-family round, courting angel investors, or preparing for venture capital, we structure the offering, paper it properly, and keep it compliant with federal and state securities law. The firm also handles fund formation — from private investment funds to SEC-registered funds — structuring the vehicle, its governing documents, and its regulatory filings.
Service
Selling the business you built is one of the biggest financial events of your life. The firm serves as your business broker — helping small and mid-sized companies find buyers, establish a defensible market valuation, and manage the paperwork from letter of intent to closing.
For larger corporate transactions, we act as M&A advisors, guiding mergers, acquisitions, and major financial restructurings. And because we combine legal, tax, and accounting expertise, the deal's structure, valuation, and tax consequences are all planned together — whether your company serves consumers or operates business-to-business (B2B).
Service
Aircraft ownership and operation sit at the intersection of federal regulation, contract law, and significant assets — exactly where this firm works best. We guide owners, operators, and aviation businesses through the full life cycle of an aircraft: licensing, registration, purchase and sale closings, insurance, and the FAA matters that come with flying.
When the FAA opens an enforcement action — against a certificate, an operation, or an aircraft — we defend it.
Service
The firearms industry is among the most heavily regulated in the country, and licensees carry compliance obligations that can end a business overnight if mishandled. We represent dealers, manufacturers, collectors, and buyers in licensing, registration, closings, and insurance — and when a compliance inspection or enforcement action threatens an FFL, we defend it.
From your first license application to NFA transfers and gun trusts, the firm keeps your operation lawful and your records defensible.
Service
A code enforcement citation can stall a project, drain a budget, and threaten a contractor's license. We represent contractors and construction businesses before local code enforcement boards and magistrates — challenging citations, negotiating compliance schedules, and protecting the licenses your livelihood depends on.
Service
Community associations juggle governing documents, statutes, vendors, and — inevitably — disagreements. We serve as counsel to homeowners' and condominium associations across Florida: drafting and enforcing governing documents, collecting assessments, advising boards on their duties, and litigating when it can't be avoided.
Association accounting and tax filings are handled by our dedicated division — Zapalski Tax and Accounting — so your association's legal and financial needs stay under one roof.
Service
You paid the premiums; the insurer should pay the claim. When carriers deny, delay, or underpay, we step in — for homeowners after a storm, businesses after a loss, and policyholders of every kind. We read the policy the way a trial lawyer does, demand what it promises, and litigate when the carrier won't honor it.
Service
Disability and benefit claims are governed by unforgiving procedures — miss a deadline or an administrative step and the claim may be lost for good. We represent claimants through Social Security disability applications, appeals, and hearings, and through the ERISA administrative process that controls most employer-provided disability, pension, and benefit plans.
When the administrative record is built and the denial stands, we take the fight to federal court.
Service
The workplace is governed by a web of federal and state protections — and claims under them rise and fall on procedure, evidence, and timing. We represent employees and employers in claims and litigation under the major federal statutes: Title VII discrimination and harassment claims before the EEOC, disability accommodation disputes under the ADA, leave violations under the FMLA, age discrimination under the ADEA, wage and hour claims under the FLSA, and their Florida counterparts, including claims before the Florida Commission on Human Relations.
From the first agency charge through trial, we guide the claim — or the defense — with an eye on both the law and the economics of the dispute.
Service
Liens and foreclosures are where property rights meet debt — and where both sides need counsel who knows the statutes cold. We prosecute and defend mortgage foreclosures, enforce and contest construction liens, foreclose association assessment liens, and resolve the priority fights that decide who gets paid.
Whether you hold the lien or the property, we protect your position from recording through final judgment.
Service
Schools operate under legal pressures most organizations never face — student safety, constitutional constraints, confidentiality rules, and tight budgets, all at once. We represent private schools, charter schools, homeschool groups, and education-focused nonprofits with practical counsel designed to prevent problems and reduce litigation exposure before it arises.
That includes the employment side of running a school — personnel policies, employment contracts, harassment policies, and mandatory reporting requirements for faculty and staff — and, when disputes come anyway, defense of discrimination claims and civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. School nonprofit formation and tax-exempt status are handled with Zapalski Tax and Accounting, keeping the whole organization under one roof.
Service
A case doesn't always end at the verdict. Appeals are a different discipline from trial work — won on the record, the standard of review, and the written word. We prosecute and defend appeals in Florida's district courts of appeal and the federal appellate courts, whether we tried the case below or are brought in solely for our appellate work.
Because appeals are won or lost long before the notice is filed, we also partner with trial counsel during litigation — preserving error, framing issues, and building the record the appeal will need. And because so few cases are appealed well, having counsel who handles both the trial and the appeal keeps your strategy seamless from opening statement to final mandate.
Service
Getting a trucking company on the road legally takes more than a truck. We take carriers from formation to first load — forming the company, obtaining operating authority (MC number) and USDOT registration, completing SAFER and FMCSA filings, and putting the insurance, process-agent, and compliance pieces in place so the authority actually activates.
And once you're rolling, we stay on board: biennial updates, UCR renewals, IFTA and IRP guidance, driver qualification files, and the tax and accounting discipline a carrier needs to stay profitable — bookkeeping, payroll, and per-mile economics through Zapalski Tax and Accounting. One team to form it, authorize it, and help you run it.
Service
Family matters are the most personal cases a lawyer handles, and often the most consequential. We represent clients through dissolution of marriage, parenting and time-sharing disputes, support determinations, and the agreements that protect families before and during marriage — with candor about what the law allows and steady advocacy when agreement isn't possible.
Because the firm also handles tax, accounting, and business valuation, we bring an uncommon advantage to cases involving closely held businesses, complex assets, retirement accounts, and the tax consequences of a settlement — the financial issues that decide how a divorce actually turns out.
Tell us what you're facing. We'll point you in the right direction — even if that turns out to be a simple answer over the phone.
Request a Consultation Call (863) 949-0560