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Since it's inception, BICA has been involved in California's legislative process whenever mechanic's lien law legislation is considered. The mechanic's lien law is a highly technical area of the law and amendments to it which diminish creditor rights could have serious negative effects on material suppliers and contractors at all levels in the building industry. To remain effective in this area BICA has knowledgeable staff, attorneys and Sacramento based legislative advocates monitoring legislation introduced in this area.

On a number of occasions BICA has introduced legislation in attempt to bring about improvements in the law. In December of each year BICA and our legislative advocate, Politico, put together a legislative report which is sent to the membership. The report not only covers the mechanic's lien law but topics such as Codes and Standards, Contractor's License Law, General Industry and Public Works.

In 1999 the state Assembly Judiciary Committee assigned the task of performing a comprehensive review of the mechanic's lien law to the California Law Revision Commission. For a number of years BICA's attorney Gordon Hunt of Hunt, Ortmann, Palffy, Nieves, Lubka, Darling & Mah, Inc of Pasadena acted as a consultant to the commission and for the last several years members of BICA staff and its Board of Directors have attended and participated in commission hearings. Revisions to the California Mechanics' Lien Law have been adopted by the legislature and changes to the Lien Law will go into effect July of 2012. For further information on those changes, please contact BICA.