I would reach out to your local REIA or REI meetup group. You'll get the best recommendations from other investors. They can probably also advise you on taking legal action against your former contractor.
@Ruben Morgan are notarized partial lien releases common, or where’d you learn that? I’ve never experienced those, but I stay in my niche. It just sounds like a tense relationship from the beginning if you felt you needed those, but I may be ignorant on how common those are in some areas. I also don’t know your scope of work, so it could be a significant amount of work and $.
@Ruben Morgan are notarized partial lien releases common, or where’d you learn that? I’ve never experienced those, but I stay in my niche. It just sounds like a tense relationship from the beginning if you felt you needed those, but I may be ignorant on how common those are in some areas. I also don’t know your scope of work, so it could be a significant amount of work and $.
I've never had an issue with a contractor when I've asked for partial lien releases. I just feel it protects me that I have documentation both from my HML and my Contractor that work was done and paid for and that if anything happens it limits my potential liability.