Your lawyer had it ass backwards. You probably signed the
contractor's contract, right? Did you have your lawyer review it? I
don't know if that would have made a difference with what you're
saying about your lawyers attitude, but if your lawyer had written up
the contract and protected your ass-ets, you'd have been able to fire
the guy for breach of contract, would have had the contractor sign
lien waivers as the work progressed, and would have had all of the
court costs, legal fees and lien indemnification included in the
contract.

You are right about that also. I didn't go to a lawyer until things started
to ball up; my architect said the contract was reasonably standard and
reasonable.
I thought the fact that he violated his own contract would be important, but
it didn't matter to the judge.

I don't know (or want to know, at this point) the fine points of contractor
law, but my lawyer was a partner at a major firm and I followed his advice.
Of course, it is only the judge's opinion that matters.