Originally published in the San Francisco Daily Journal - December 26, 2012.

If the sudden 2008 credit crunch can be likened to an earthquake, then the following flood of mechanics lien and stop payment notice litigation was its aftershock. Developers finding themselves insolvent and in loan default could not pay their contractors. Unable to collect from developers, contractors turned to filing mechanics lien and stop payment notice lawsuites.

Just when attorneys and judges were growing familiar with the statutes governing mechanics liens and stop payment notices (commonly called the Mechanics Lien Law), the Legislature changed the ground rules. In 2007, the Law Revision Commission issued a report detailing proposed changes to the Mechanics Lien Law. In 2010, the Legislature passed SB 189 adopting many of the Commission's proposed changes...