Real Estate Litigation Attorneys

What we litigate

Real estate litigation covers the disputes escrow and a title company cannot resolve. Two people claim the same ownership. A contract was not performed. A seller did not disclose what they knew. Co-owners have reached an impasse. A neighbor's use of the land has hardened into a claim. A lender is proceeding on a debt the borrower disputes.

We act for buyers, sellers, owners, co-owners, beneficiaries and lenders. Most of our matters concern residential and small commercial property in Southern California.

Some of these are about money and some are about the land itself. The distinction matters more than it sounds, because a claim that affects title opens routes, including recording a notice of pendency of action, that a pure damages claim does not.

Where your case gets filed, and why it decides which office you deal with

California venue for real property actions is not a matter of convenience. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 392, an action to recover real property or to determine an interest in it belongs in the superior court of the county where the property sits. If a parcel crosses a county line, either county will take it.

A property in Rancho Cucamonga is a San Bernardino County filing whether the owner lives in Los Angeles or in another state.

Code of Civil Procedure section 392 generally determines the county for an action to recover real property or determine an interest in it. The superior court then assigns the courthouse and department under its current rules. The correct assignment should be confirmed before filing.

We keep offices in Los Angeles, Ontario, San Diego and Carlsbad because that is how the venue rule distributes this work.

Recording a lis pendens

Where a lawsuit affects title, a notice of pendency of action can be recorded against the property so anyone dealing with it takes with notice of the dispute. In practice it means the property cannot readily be sold or refinanced while the case runs.

It is a powerful tool and a defendant can move to expunge it. If the court finds the claim does not affect title, or that the claimant cannot show probable validity, the notice comes off and costs can follow.

So it is a decision made on the claims actually pleaded, not on the desire for leverage.

What it costs, and the question worth asking first

The honest first question in most property disputes is whether the amount at stake justifies the cost of pursuing it. On a neighbor dispute over a strip of land, frequently it does not, and we would rather say that at the start.

Where it does, the predictable costs are the title work, any survey, and the filing. The variable is the other side. A matter that settles after the survey comes back is a fraction of one that runs through discovery to trial.

Most California residential purchase agreements also require mediation before litigation, and the right to recover attorney fees is frequently conditioned on having attempted it. Filing first can quietly cost the winning party its fees, which on a moderate claim reverses the economics entirely.

How we work a matter

We start with the documents rather than the narrative: the deed, the title report, the purchase agreement, the recorded chain, and any correspondence between the parties. In a large share of matters those establish the answer before anyone is interviewed at length.

Then the physical facts where they are in issue, which for anything involving a line or a route means a licensed survey.

Then the realistic outcomes and what each costs. Filing is a tool rather than the goal. What filing does is impose a schedule the other side cannot ignore, and that alone resolves a meaningful number of these.