Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Fraud is both a civil and criminal act of misconduct. The D.A.'s Office may have a divison or attorney who deals with real property fraud. Contact the local D.A. and see. In all likelihood, they will tell you that they have too many cases to handle or you matter is not serious enough for them to do anything about. If you try to use the threat of reporting them to the DA unless they agree to mediation, that could be considered balckmail/extortion. You can also report the broker to the California Depart. of Real Estate but the same problems exist there as with the DA and the only thing they can do is remove the broker's real estate license.

I believe you must file a formal suit within one year of discovering the fraud or when a reasonable person would have discovered it. The sale's agreement probably has an arbitration clause in it. In mediation, neither side is forced to do anything and only if the parties make an agreement both sides accept is anything binding. If they are crooks what makes you think they will act honorably in mediation? Arbitartion, on the other hand, is binding [an enforceable agreement is made] if the parties agree; it is a mini-trial of the case but, as with mediation, the hearer of the matter will charge an hourly fee, probably on the order of $300-400 and a decision issues. Your purchase contract probably makes it a binding arbitration. I do not know if any attorneys would tqake such a matter on a contigency basis; the better your case the more likely an attorney would take it on a non-hourly basis, but also the more likely an hourly rate will result in a greater net recovery to you.