Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Your lien would be timely, but your 20-day notice is not. The 20-day notice limits the work you can lien for to work done after the notice and 20-days before. Having been off the site for three weeks, you haven't done any work in 21 days. You need to get in the habit of giving your 20-day notices before you even start work, and definitely within the first 20-days on each job. You still have the right to sue the contractor, and you may have some provisional remedies available, but the mechanics lien option is lost unless you fit some exception to the 20-day notice rule. Generally, though, the courts and the legislature have been doing away with those exceptions anyway. Few are left.