Need HELP from a Los Angeles Attorney on Contingency basis in filing a Lien ASAP and fighting litigating getting my claim. Aug 17, 2016 Land Escrow closed in Santa Monica Aug 18, 2016 - Present - Pre Construction Activities. Search and selection of Architects and all other required Engineers, plans submission and city of Santa Monica Approval Dec 18, 2018 - Wrongful Contract termination Dec 18, 2018 - Fasle Accusation of taking money under the table has been proved asle and wrongful. Presently Settlement Negotiation going on The Lien Law permits a contractor “who performs labor … for the improvement of real property…at the request of the owner” to file a mechanic's lien. Even though the Lien Law is to be “constructed liberally,” does it cover pre-construction services which are performed well before any “improvement” has begun? Yes.https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/construction-lien.asp A lien may be filed at any point while construction work is underway or up to eight months after the completion of the project. A copy of the lien must be sent to the owner of the property in question. This copy must be sent up to five days before the notice of lien is filed or up to 30 days afterwards.Mar 2, 2020. https://www.gdblaw.com/liening-for-preconstruction-services. from 2016 - 2019 when I worked on above project, I was not licensed but now I am Licensed as a General Contractor in State of California.
If you only need to file a lien, you do not necesarily need an attorney yet, but you might retain one to ensure all your ducks are in a row.
In California, you have 90 days from project completion to record a mechanic's lien or if a notice of completion or notice of cessation is filed, 60 days from that notice for direct contractors and 30 days from that notice for subcontractors/material suppliers/etc. A lien may include the value of labor, services, materials and equipment furnished to a work of improvement. This could include preconstruction services such as design. But won't include work offsite that is not ultimately incorporated into the project or material not actually used on the project. If the project is not started yet, design professionals may have a separate design professional lien. But when the project commences they have rights to a mechanic's lien instead.
If you were not licensed on the project in question and a license was required for the work that you performed, Business & Professions Code § 7031 will likely prevent you from pursuing any amounts that you are owed in court and further, your customer may be entitled to disgorgement of any amounts already paid to you. You should tread carefully.
Generally, attorneys limit contingency cases to disputes where liability is very clear and/or the party to be sued has deep pockets. (i.e. an insurance company).
Unfortunately, my firm would not be able to take this sort of case on contingency.
If you would consider a non-contingency arrangement, email me at ryan@huntortmann.com to schedule a free consultation.