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Where Law Meets Equity: Evidentiary Hearings Under California Business And Professions Code Section 7031, Eric R. Reed

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

California’ s contractor licensing statutes severely penalize unlicensed contractors. Even a brief license disruption may result in a contractor being unable to collect unpaid invoices or having to disgorge money received for past work. Courts began developing a “substantial compliance” exception to these statutes shortly after the legislature enacted them. This institutional tug-of-war prompted the legislature to codify the exception in section 7031(e) of the California Business and Professions Code, and, later, to create a unique stand-alone procedure for adjudicating substantial compliance. Section 7031(e) refers to this procedure as an “evidentiary hearing” but gives little guidance about how to conduct …