We all know lien law can be incredibly confusing. All 50 states have different rules and requirements for preliminary notices, notices of intent, mechanics liens, lien waivers, lien releases and more. These requirements are outlined by each state’s mechanics lien statute, but reading and understanding these statutes is no easy task, even for trained attorneys.
Slogging through that complex legal jargon is tedious, and it’s easy to misinterpret what’s there. To make it even more troublesome, many states’ lien statutes contain tens of thousands of words! No wonder lien law is so complicated.
I looked at the lien statutes for private projects in all 50 states (and Washington, DC), and here is what I found. Please note that “pages” refers to single-spaced pages with size 12, Times New Roman font.
Total Page Count of All Lien Statutes: 1,171 pages
That is a heck of a lot of pages to trudge through! Long lien statutes are a particular challenge to construction companies and individuals that work across state lines since every state has a separate, specific statute.
Average Lien Statute Page Count: 23 pages
Think about it – if 23 pages is the average, some of those statutes must be really long.
5 States with the Longest Lien Statutes:
- Florida: 65 pages
- Utah: 57 pages
- New York: 52 pages
- Ohio: 45 pages
- New Jersey: 44 pages
Even if you just read the statutes for these top 5 states, that would be 263 pages: the length of a substantial book! And when you factor in the complexity of the statutes’ legal writing style, you should probably factor in a few extra minutes for each page.
5 States with the Shortest Lien Statutes:
- Alabama: 3 pages
- Vermont: 3 pages
- New Hampshire: 6 pages
- New Mexico: 7 pages
- North Dakota: 9 pages
Some of these don’t sound so bad – 3 pages? That seems reasonable. But remember, this isn’t 3 pages of an exciting novel or news story; this is 3 pages of single-spaced, dense legal lingo. And only 2 of 50 states (51 including DC) have statutes that short! Remember – the average is 23 pages.
But Don’t Despair – There’s Good News!
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There you have it – the states with the most challenging lien law. Your state isn’t one of the top 5? Find the definitive word count rankings for all 50 states in the chart below.
| State | Lien Statute Word Count |
| Florida | 25,810 |
| Utah | 22,391 |
| New York | 20,676 |
| Ohio | 19,292 |
| New Jersey | 17,395 |
| California | 17,352 |
| Nevada | 17,181 |
| Texas | 15,856 |
| Michigan | 15,679 |
| Illinois | 15,286 |
| Washington | 11,774 |
| Tennessee | 11,719 |
| Missouri | 11,697 |
| Arizona | 10,796 |
| Wisconsin | 10,605 |
| Massachusetts | 10,384 |
| Colorado | 10,213 |
| Louisiana | 10,029 |
| Nebraska | 9,839 |
| Connecticut | 9,517 |
| Oregon | 9,378 |
| Rhode Island | 9,040 |
| North Carolina | 8,892 |
| Virginia | 8,494 |
| Wyoming | 8,368 |
| West Virginia | 8,350 |
| Georgia | 8,259 |
| Arkansas | 7,007 |
| South Carolina | 6,973 |
| Indiana | 6,424 |
| Alaska | 6,207 |
| Mississippi | 6,136 |
| Kentucky | 5,975 |
| Oklahoma | 5,975 |
| Delaware | 5,973 |
| Minnesota | 5,925 |
| Pennsylvania | 5,817 |
| South Dakota | 5,649 |
| Montana | 5,146 |
| Idaho | 4,911 |
| Iowa | 4,758 |
| Maine | 3,967 |
| Kansas | 3,902 |
| Washington DC | 3,803 |
| Hawaii | 3,528 |
| Maryland | 3,349 |
| New Dakota | 3,265 |
| New Mexico | 2,683 |
| New Hampshire | 2,323 |
| Vermont | 1191 |
| Alabama | 903 |