The file is thinner than the balance. A customer has stopped paying, the amount is serious, and when the owner looks for the contract there is none: a proposal sent by email, a reply that said go ahead, months of orders and deliveries, and a stack of invoices the customer never questioned until the day it stopped paying. Many owners assume a missing signature means a missing case, and quietly write the balance off.
Florida law disagrees. Unpaid invoices are among the most routinely enforced obligations in the state's courts, and a signature is rarely what decides them. Three questions decide most of these matters: proving the debt without a signed agreement, whether suing makes economic sense, and how far your reach extends when the customer sits in another state.
Can you sue without a signed contract?
Yes. A contract in Florida is formed by offer, acceptance, and consideration, and none of those requires a signature. A proposal accepted by email, a purchase order, a course of dealing over dozens of orders, or a phone order filled without objection forms an enforceable agreement, and the invoices, delivery records, and messages prove its terms. Florida's statute of frauds rarely blocks an invoice claim: services contracts that could be performed within a year fall outside it, and goods delivered and accepted are enforceable regardless. Where the paper trail is thin, the law supplies fallback theories. Quantum meruit allows recovery of the reasonable value of work the customer knowingly accepted, and unjust enrichment reaches a benefit the customer kept without paying for it. A well drafted complaint pleads the contract claim first and these alternatives behind it.
What is an account stated, and why does silence matter?
Florida recognizes a claim that exists precisely for businesses without formal contracts. An account stated arises when one party sends a statement of the balance owed and the other party either agrees to it or keeps it without objecting within a reasonable time. Once that happens, the balance is presumed correct, and the customer, not the business, carries the burden of proving otherwise. This is why sending monthly statements matters more than most owners realize: each one that goes unanswered strengthens the claim. A related theory, the open account, covers a running series of transactions where the balance was never formally settled. Between the two, a business that kept ordinary books can usually prove its debt from its own records.
What if the customer says the work was bad?
Expect it. The first response to a collection demand is almost always a complaint about quality, timing, or scope, raised only after the bill arrived. Florida law allows a customer to set off real deficiencies against the amount owed, but the timing of the complaint is evidence in itself. Approvals, sign-offs, change orders, delivery confirmations, and months of silence after receipt all undercut a late-arriving defense. Partial payments help too, because paying part of an invoice is hard to square with the claim that the whole job was worthless. The business that documented acceptance as it went rarely has trouble with this defense; the one that relied on relationships sometimes does.
When does a fee clause change the math?
Florida follows the rule that each side pays its own attorneys unless a contract or statute shifts fees, and this is the pivot point for mid-sized invoices. A fee provision in a credit application, a proposal, a master services agreement, or the terms printed on every invoice can make a claim worth pursuing that would otherwise cost more than it recovers. Florida law reads one-sided fee clauses as reciprocal, so a clause the customer's lawyer drafted works for the business too. Whether invoice terms became part of the deal depends on the course of dealing, another reason those documents matter. Prejudgment interest runs from the date each invoice came due at the rate Florida sets, and a formal proposal for settlement can shift fees in the right case even without a clause. Adding these up is the first task in evaluating a receivable; together they turn a marginal claim into a sound one.
Can you reach a customer in another state?
Often, yes. Florida's long-arm statute reaches a defendant who breached a contract by failing to perform an act the contract required to be performed in Florida, and payment due to a Florida business can qualify, though the answer depends on the facts and the customer's other contacts with the state. Terms naming Florida as the forum strengthen the position considerably. If the customer must be sued where it lives, Florida counsel can coordinate that, and a Florida judgment can be domesticated in the customer's home state under procedures nearly every state has adopted. Distance is an obstacle, not a shield.
Which deadline applies to each invoice?
Florida allows five years to sue on a written contract and four years on an oral agreement, an open account, or an account stated, counted from when each invoice went unpaid. Each invoice carries its own clock, so the oldest items in a long-running account can expire while the owner waits for a promised payment plan. The demand letter that precedes suit should go out with that calendar in mind, and a payment plan worth accepting is written and acknowledges the full balance.
What can a judgment actually reach?
A judgment is a tool, not a check. Florida allows garnishment of bank accounts and of money others owe the debtor, liens on real property by recording the judgment, and levies on business assets. Personal guaranties signed on credit applications reach the owners behind a corporate customer, which is why they belong at the start of every relationship. Where the customer is an individual rather than a business, Florida's consumer collection statute restricts how and when a creditor may communicate, and it binds a business collecting its own debts. With that structure in place, most invoice disputes resolve before trial, once the customer's lawyer sees the paper and the fee exposure.
Salomon Smith PLLC represents South Florida businesses in collection and contract disputes, from single large invoices to accounts that have gone quiet for months. If a customer owes you and has stopped responding, call (305) 297-1018 for a free consultation, or learn more about our business litigation practice.
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice.