Home>Levelset Community>Legal Help>out of money need help to get paid spent all i had with your company hoping to get results / how can i hire an attorney when in debt
out of money need help to get paid spent all i had with your company hoping to get results / how can i hire an attorney when in debt
used your company step by step and still nothing have not been paid from construction job
1 reply
Feb 21, 2019
I'm very sorry to hear that you haven't been able to compel payment. Often, sending a Notice of Intent to Lien as a warning that a lien might be filed will compel payment. When that doesn't work, actually going through with a mechanics lien filing will often do the trick. In Colorado, once a lien has been filed, a Colorado claimant will have some time to try and compel payment before further action (like an enforcement suit) is needed on a lien. In Colorado, the deadline to enforce a filed mechanics lien is 6 months from the date the project was completed, or when labor or materials were last furnished to the project. Before this enforcement deadline comes up, claimants can work to negotiate with a property owner or their contractor (if the claimant is a sub or supplier) in order to try and compel payment without the need for a lawsuit - neither a claimant nor the owner will want to deal with taking an issue to the courts, typically. While talking out the issue is almost always the best option once a lien has been filed, sometimes an extra kick in the rear is needed - for that, many claimants utilize what's called a "Notice of Intent to Foreclose". That document essentially warns an owner that if payment isn't made and made soon a lawsuit will be filed to enforce the lien, and the owner's property may be foreclosed. A lien filing and a Notice of Intent to Lien won't always work, though. In those situations, a claimant may need to try and take another route - like sending the debt to collections, or to hire an attorney to proceed with claims (including, likely, the enforcement of the filed mechanics lien). It's generally a good idea for an unpaid claimant to consult an attorney a reasonable amount of time before the deadline to enforce a filed lien claim, that way the attorney will be able to potentially utilize the lien enforcement action (either to try and force a settlement or to proceed with the claim in court). Of course, this can be hard when there isn't much funding left in the tank to secure a lawyer. But, where a lien claimant has a valid and enforceable lien claim on the table, it could certainly be possible to get an attorney to take the case on contingency (meaning, with little or no payment up front, but where the attorney will be awarded a portion of any damages won). One Colorado firm who appears to take business cases on contingency is 5280 Attorney, but it also might be possible to find representation on a site that connects Colorado attorneys to potential clients (such as Avvo and Lawyers.com - and often, attorneys will give an initial consultation and review for free or at a discount). Further, taking to Colorado small claims court could be a less expensive option for taking a legal claim against the owner - though, lien enforcement through small claims court will likely not be possible, and Colorado limits small claims court claims to $7,500 or less (so, a claimant who's owed more than that might only be able to recover up to $7,500).