Enforcing the Mechanic's Lien - Going to Court

The lawsuit is filed. Both sides prepare. Then comes your day or days in court depending on size and complexity of case. All of the issues are “tried,” i.e. presented and rebutted by both sides. If you prevail the court will grant you a decree of foreclosure of your mechanic’s lien and order the liened property sold. If the lien is determined to be defective or incomplete in some way, the court may grant you relief by some other remedy such as on contract theory, recovery under a payment bond, or perhaps failure to obtain a bond if the facts of your case support such judgments.

The mechanic’s lien is the preferred method of recovery because it provides such good leverage to encourage payment or if that fails, the lien enables you to collect from the forced sale of the property. The party attempting to enforce a mechanic’s lien has the burden of proof to establish that the materials or labor supplied were actually supplied in that project. In other words, the mechanic’s lien claimant must prove that he supplied materials or labor by a preponderance of the evidence (that is, there is more evidence that the material or work was provided at that site than there is evidence that the material or work was not provided at the site). It is simply a matter of convincing the judge or jury that you have the better case.