STAY AWAY. L.A. Stevens will misrepresent himself, and his costs, and charge you until you are homeless.
Okay, the last part is an exaggeration but the rest isn't.
I contracted this firm to produce a survey of a single lot line between my neighbor's driveway and the western border of my lot. He stated that since he had completed multiple projects in the neighborhood, he could do this work for thousands less and much faster than anyone else. The total would be $3,500 or less. That couldn't have been further from the truth.
After taking my retainer, it took months for him to say he was completely wrong about having any landmarks in the neighborhood already completed and would have to charge me thousands more than originally quoted. Shouldn't you have confirmed that before bidding on the work? Regardless, I sent him an additional $3,000.
Months later he sent us another note saying he would need $5,800 MORE to do the work and magically he had to do a "record of survey" that we had to pay for - whether we wanted him to do the work or not.
At this point, I decided to take him to court. The judge put an end to his extortion and said I would not have to pay for anything more since I had yet to get anything from this crook in over a year and he misrepresented his costs.
I would have written this review sooner, but it has taken almost 2 years now and the case is finally over.
Good riddance, enjoy my money for nothing Mr. Stevens (karma sucks), and RUN AWAY if you are thinking about working with him.
L.A. Stevens performed a survey of my property in Novato. They were very professional, efficient, accurate, and a pleasure to work with. I highly recommend their services.
My wife and I engaged Larry Stevens to perform expert witness work for a land dispute trial since our original surveyor, Michael Ford, retired and closed his business. We signed an agreement on Thursday March 16, 2023, and by Tuesday, March 21, 2023 the direction of our lawsuit changed and we no longer needed the expert witness services for deposition or trial.
I was shocked and appalled, and felt defrauded to see that Larry charged us 14.3 hours of "expert witness preparation" at $500 per hour, plus 7.75 hours of support from an assistant surveyor at $165 per hour, plus .7 hours of clerical support at $95 per hour for a total of $8,495 (OVER A WEEKEND!!!) He produced literally no tangible work product other than this alleged bill. He required a $5,000 retainer of which he gobbled up on day one, and now he is charging me interest charges for refusing to pay this ridiculous fraudulent scam. We are out the $5,000 for his fradulent services and he is trying to get us to pay an additional $3,495 for literally no tangible work product.
I would stay away from Larry Stevens at all costs. The land surveyor who referred me to Larry did warn me "Larry has been known to run off with exorbitant bills". For comparison, I hired 4 other expert witnesses who performed work for me at $500/hr during deposition testimony and at trial, and the total hours was less than 4 for each and every one of them. This firm runs a dishonest and unethical billing practice and should be avoided at all costs!
Initially I rated them as a "1" due to their poor communication and not showing up when they said they would. However, Larry contacted me to apologize and even sent a check in consideration of the challenges that I encountered. Whenever someone acknowledges that the service did not meet their expectations and then corrected things quickly - as well as credited me for the situation - I think that deserves a re-rating as I appreciate that honesty.