Legal Question in Construction Law in California

Re: is it worth suing

Anything is "plausible" and you do have a good case, especially if the company at issue can be readily located, collected against and in jurisdiction. Our Law Firm may be able to give you prompt, affordable legal assistance in this most unfortunate matter. Contact us today for a free phone consultation.

Re: is it worth suing

If there are presently 3 claims against the license bond, you've likely located a deadbeat contractor. My experience is that these contractors live hand to mouth and once the license bond is exhausted, there's very little to collect from. They get jobs by sending out a low bid, collecting as much as possible up front and then abandoning the job while they still have most of the money in their pocket.

Finding a lawyer to do contingency work on a breach of contract action is pretty tough. It should be well nigh impossible if there's no obvious source of funds with which to collect. Unfortunately, contingency cases are largely restricted to personal injury lawyers where there's an insurance carrier to fund the win and the upside to winning can be enormous. I've seen inexperienced lawyers take contract cases on contingency in the hope of getting established, but that's about it. A few lawyers will work on a flat fee. For example, many of my colleagues doing criminal defense work will perform certain tasks for a set fee. The rest of the lawyers in the country (and this is the vast majority) work by the hour.

What you might want to do is bring an action in small claims court after you get your payment from the license bond. The jurisdictional amount went up to $7500 this past year. The paperwork is very easy and the judges tend to be very sympathetic to homeowners. Look up nolo.com for a very well written book on how to win in small claims court. Of course, you will still have the problem of how to collect from the guy once you get your judgment. Nolo has a book on this, too, but don't get your hopes up.

Re: is it worth suing

Sorry, but you're dreaming. An attorney with an office and overhead to pay for will look first to see if the debtor has reachable assets before taking such case at all, and then probably would do so only on hourly basis. The contractor ripped you off, along with others, and will likely disappear to start under a new name. Even if you traced him down, he won't have anything to pay you or your attorney with. At best, go after him in small claims, or contact a local law school to see if students will help you as part of a 'clinic' or legal aid office.