Triumph Legal

12/02/2025

We continue with Mechanic's Liens - some important deadlines: The Project start date and Preliminary 20 (TWENTY) day notice, Notice of COMPLETION. It is important to note, it is better to be a bit early, than a minute late with these notices, they are tricky, and full of landmines.
PROJECT START DATE: FIRST DAY IS DAY ZERO: The project starts the day you start providing "services." It is recommended that a project log be kept. This date controls the days between start and DATE of completion.
Preliminary 20-Day Notice (Preliminary Notice); Provided to the owner, General Contractor, project lender by CERTIFIED MAIL, REGISTERED MAIL OR EXPRESS MAIL, or the construction contract says.
Who gives it? For simplicity and brevity, anybody who provides labor, service, materials with in 20 days of START date, or if provided late, for the past 20 days of when it was served. The "GC" may be excused, since the project owner is in contract with the GC, but not if the contract says otherwise.

This article is certainly NOT meant to be legal advise, but to educate on the importance of the Calif Mechanics Lien Deadlines. Or, a lot of rights and payment can be at risk!
Notice of completion on the next post

06/11/2024

Mechanics Lien continued:
This is a tricky procedure with notices, releases, non-responsibility notices and attached deadlines that are STRICTLY enforced by the court and more importantly by anyone opposing the lien and the right to get paid.
We will only address private construction and not Public Works Project.

First, who has right to a Construction Lien in California-Construction and Mechanics Lien are generally interchangeable terms. Pretty much any person or entity that provides labor, material or a service on a project. These may include:
Laborers, sub-contractors, material suppliers, equipment providers, direct contractors (having a direct contract with the owner of the project, and Architects and Engineers)

Note: An unlicensed person or entity may NOT file a Mechanics Lien, nor can they seek ANY kind of remedy for anything on an unpaid project in California.

Next post - we cover some important deadlines, that must be met for protecting payment rights.

01/10/2024

Getting paid on your construction project - the powerful, yet confusing Mechanic's Lien.
The right to a construction mechanic's lien is a California Constitutional right and further clarified or not, in the Civil Code. Of course, the contractor MUST be licensed in California under the State Contractor's Law.
A lien is technically intricate and in the next post I'' provide an example of the double negative and timing issues to even make a lien valid.

04/22/2023

Missing or inadequate Deadlock Provisions in Corporate entity governing documents can sink a company.

First, when people managing or leading a company are in a strong disagreement conflicts arise. Operations are very likely to abruptly stop. Or more commonly lawyers are hired to untie the conflicting knot.
It an expensive, but not a pretty picture. But a well drafted deadlock provision(s) are crucial to any business's operating agreement or bylaws, as it establishes a framework for resolving disputes between stakeholders. And it may just untie the conflicting logger head between stakeholders, or not.
A well-drafted deadlock provision can help avoid prolonged disputes, preserve the interests of stakeholders, and ensure the continuity of the business's operations.
The next post will briefly discuss several legal avenues to resolve the dispute, formally. Later, I will discuss various provisions.

01/11/2023

Remember that when it comes to providing exceptional client services, you need to engage clients regularly, obtain their feedback willingly, and focus on marketing insights that can drive your firm forward. The more available you are to your clients, the more likely they are to have a positive experience working with you during a difficult time in their lives. Partial quote from Attorney's at Work top 20 articles of 2022.
That the challenge, or as some say the way!

06/10/2022

This is worth attending for interested folks!

Reserve my spot!

01/12/2021

BUSINESS ORGANIZATION DOCUMENTS TO REDUCE POTENTIAL OWNER CONFLICTS:
The best drafted business agreement can't prevent all owner disputes. But, founders in start ups that undertake the effort to consider potential future conflicts and issues in a thoughtful way will likely reduce the severity of those disputes that are likely to arise. Experience shows that working with business counsel reduces that risk for several reasons, come back for those reasons in the next post.

01/06/2021

For all service providers, and specifically for us Lawyers; there is Deferred Demand for our services. Most of that demand, if not all of it, is still out there. It is simply deferred until clients are ready to engage our services.
How are you engaging those potential clients that need help?
More to come!
From a continuing education class I took.

10/23/2020

While hunting online I discovered the picture below and it clearly and simply lays out a superb overview of Business Entities.

10/07/2020

BIG LAW firm publishes “The Helping Handbook” to assist those affected by our burning state wildfires. The Morrison & Foster firm published a handbook to help those affected by the wildfires. According to the Bar Association of San Francisco, the handbook helps wildfire survivors find available help to manage the ordeal of the many, many issues that will be faced. These include information to help people, families and small business on “subject including housing, government benefits, replacement of lost documents and fraud prevention. The handbook contains a plethora of information and is online at https://w2020-www.mofo.com/2020-wildfires.

10/03/2020

So, what’s next for your business owners in 2020?

With so much business disruption, you want to assure you are keeping up with compliance requirements such as filing your taxes, licenses and annual filings with the state.

As a reminder to help stay track, remain in in compliance for the upcoming year, consider this mini-check list:
• Are you up to date with all of your compliance filings for the 2020 year?
• Have you modified anything with your business (e.g. Name, business address, shareholders, members and directors) this year?
• Have you drafted your annual meeting minutes for your corporation for 2020?
• Are you operating in another state and will you need to register your business there?
• Does your business have a presence (e.g., office space or employees) in another state?
• Does your business now have employees and need to register for payroll?
• Is your business charging a sales tax within any state?

09/17/2020

Caveat emptor in choosing your attorney. The following is from the ABA June Journal by Attorney Lyle Moran. Lucy Davis of the real Davis Law Group is not eligible to sit for the Bar, since she is a poodle. Yet with Lucy's Juris DOGTOR she was awarded a lawyer of distinction Award naming her as among the top 10% lawyers in the US - after paying for her membership. One wonders how she filled out her application! You can see her plaque and cute picture here:

That’s because she’s a poodle. Nevertheless, that didn’t prevent her from being honored as a Lawyer of Distinction in the personal injury field in 2017.