Ask a Maritime Attorney: The boat I was contracted to do work on is being foreclosed on but I haven’t been paid yet, what do I do?

Question: I am a boat mechanic and I have been working on a project to re-power a 70-foot motor yacht.  The job is almost complete, but I just received notice that Federal Marshals have seized the boat on behalf of a bank to foreclose on a preferred ship mortgage. The owner of the boat still owes me a lot of money, but he won’t return my phone calls. I spoke with the bank’s attorney, and he advised that I should hire an attorney to file my own claim in the bank’s Federal lawsuit. Then I received notice that the owner filed for “Chapter 7″ bankruptcy protection and all legal proceedings are frozen while the Bankruptcy Court sorts through all the claims. I believe that this project should qualify for a maritime lien, but I never recorded a lien with the Coast Guard. At this point I am completely lost. Can he walk away from my claim? Should I hire a bankruptcy attorney or a maritime attorney? Or both? Please help.   Answer Bankruptcy law and maritime law don’t intersect very often, but when they do, things get very complicated in a hurry. The short answer for our reader is similar to the advice that...