(04/13) HOTL Marginal Legal Replay Hour 2

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Okay, here's a This is politicsas well as a legal case. But
this is my wee wheelhouse because Ireally enjoy both the law and politics and
history. You roll on into oneand you've got a topic I love to
talk about. All right, Asyou know that there has been a very
concerned effort to go after Donald Trumpand the Maga Wright for interference with the

(00:25):
election. There are supporters of DonaldTrump, not least among them in Congress
who have very high positions, whoare election deniers. And as soon as
the impeachment hit Donald Trump, Iremember, he's impeached twice, Joe Biden
had to be impeached. As amatter of fact, one of the crazier,

(00:45):
if not the crazies, congress personin Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green,
filed the letters or filed the articlesof impeachment, which is how they started
impeachment two minutes after Joe Biden wassworn in. That was the first article
of impeachment file by her. She'snuts. Okay, So with that in

(01:07):
mind, they Arewright, the MagaRepublicans, among them Comer and Jordan,
who each are in charge of acommittee that deals with this. So there's
two committees. Going simultaneously, Congressionalcommittees started the inquiry of Joe Biden for
criminal activity involved with his son,who was on the board of the Ukrainian

(01:30):
energy company Boudisma. And I meanJoe Biden's up to his eyeballs in this.
There's no question about that. Nowis his dad? Does he have
any connection? Well, these twocongress people, as well as many election
deniers in Congress said yes, it'sall over the place. Joe Biden got
five million dollars. Comer, JamesComer, there's who I think is.

(01:56):
James Comer is his first name.Said we have proof, and the entire
proof relied on one guy who said, I heard on the phone Joe Biden
talking about and receiving five million dollars, even though we don't have a check,
even though we don't have any money, actual proof, we know it
happened because this guy said it happened. Well, this guy turned out to

(02:20):
have worked for the Russians. Hewas a double agent FBI informant quote with
credentials. Jordan said, he isan important important with an informan who is
high credentialed and has a lot ofcredibility. It turns out the guy who's
a Russian spy. Okay, Sowith that being said, the case would

(02:43):
fall apart because there's no proof ofany kind, I mean none, not
a shred they had this. Sowhat do they do. They're still going
forward with the impeachment still going forward. We have other proof? What other
proof? We'll tell you at theappropriate of time, having hearings going on,
and we'll find that out. Whatother proof, And it's going to

(03:06):
disappear, much like the election denierswho said we have proof that the election
was stolen. We have proof.Here it is, and judge after judge
after judge, sixty three of themsaid, okay, fine, I'll look
at it. Show me the proof. None zero fifty secretaries of state and

(03:29):
election official state election officials certify thevote with Joe Biden. We have proof
they have all been part of theelection rigging, or at least in the
battleground state. So here we goagain. It's all about politics, all
about politics, and the impeachment inquiryis going to continue. Will there be
anything there? Nope? If JoeBiden gets re elected, will the inquiry

(03:53):
continue? You bet? The impeachmentinquiry will be there with these two,
these two committees going to the dayhe has finished his presidency. Whether it's
now in November coming up, orit's four years from November, it doesn't
stop. Can Congress keep on going? Of course they can can. Congress

(04:14):
vote. You know, Mayorkas,who is a Secretary of Homeland Security.
First time to impeach him failed thesecond time, and this is what a
few people know. The second voteactually got him impeached. Impeached means that
House has voted, and now it'sturned over to the Senate for the actual
trial, which of course it's impossible. President Trump was impeached twice. I

(04:41):
don't even know why, because there'sno chance that he would have lost in
the Senate trial. As Bill Clinton, who was impeached for and rightly so,
committee perjury. I mean, theguy did wrong and should he be
resigned? Who the hell knows.But he went to trial. Of course
he lost. They lost miserably.He can't impeach a president. It's just
impossible. And so let me tellyou about what my orcist vote was for

(05:06):
impeachment. Maorcist was impeached, andnow it's turned over to the Senate.
They never turned it over to theSenate. They have yet to turn over
the impeachment documents to the Senate fora trial. So those are the rules,
and that's the law regarding impeachment.Isn't that fun? Okay, let's

(05:30):
do it. Marie, welcome tohandle on the law. Thank you.
I'm currently regarding statute of limitations andfor someone who's passed because there was a
pet. My grandfather had two.He had a will in nineteen seventy six.

(05:51):
In twenty eighteen, my step grandmothersecretly went with her family members and
bad influencers and changed his will.Well, wait a minute, how did
they change his whoa wha whoa whoawhoa. He had a will made nineteen
seventy six. When did he die? He died in nineteen twenty, I

(06:12):
mean yeah, twenty twenty. Sorry, all right, died in twenty twenty.
And somehow his wife goes in andchanges the will. Was the will
ever probated? No, That's whatI was calling for, the statute of
limitations because I have a video ofmy grandfather, okay, and then I
have the We actually have the will, the nineteen seventy six will, and

(06:34):
we have the twenty eighteen that shealtered. Okay, how do you know
if he dies in twenty twenty,she altered it in twenty eighteen, what
proof do you have that she alteredit? Because now the will, the
will has only stated her grandson becauseboth she has. Okay, by the

(06:56):
way, he just okay, sohe disinherited people and at people. You
know, he can do that.It's his money, he can do that.
So how was the undue influence,the coercion, the duress done,
or he didn't have the cognitive abilitiesmake his mind. How do you prove
that when you attack it? Well, my sisters had taken him after that

(07:17):
once we found out that there wasa will, because taking him where taken
him to the doctors to say thatto figure out if he had dementia okay,
and the doctor said he did,And the doctor said he did.
Yes, And you have the doctor'sreports in front of you. Yes,
you said he has full dementia.I believe so, yeah, I have

(07:40):
the no no, no, no, no, that is so critical,
my dear. The doctors have todiagnose that he has dementia and he's incapable
of making his own decisions. That'sa medical issue. Actually it's a legal
issue. But predicate on a medicalissue, it has to be pretty specific
because he is allowed me. I'mallowed to secretly take my mother and try

(08:03):
to convince her to meet to leaveme in the will and not for the
rest of the family. I'm allowedto do that. I mean, there's
nothing illegal about that. Am Iallowed to coerce her? I am not.
Am I allowed to use duress?I am not. Am I allowed
to take advantage of her dementia?I am not. But if I try
to convince her saying, hey,screw the rest of my family and leave
it all to me, and there'sno dementia, that flies right. And

(08:28):
the reason we know it's course becauseboth grandsons, because that's how she altered
it is where she has it splitbetween both grandsons and her great granddaughter on
her side. And that doesn't provecoercion. That doesn't prove that she's been
coerced. She used it because that'sthe son's name, so she made him

(08:50):
to believe she was leaving it toher. So how do you know that?
What kind of proof can you bringto the table on that one?
Do you have a recording? Doyou have witnesses that will testify that that's
what happened. That's the only wayhe would find it. That doesn't matter.

(09:11):
No, no, no, no, it's not. That's the only
way he would There has to whenyou attack a will, which, by
the way, if you have proof, I mean, that's enough for a
court to hear it, if youbring in enough proof. What you're telling
me, is there zero proof atthis point other than he would never do
that. He told us that ina will that was written twelve years before

(09:31):
that we were going to get itall. None of that flies. No,
it wasn't all of us. Itdoesn't matter. It doesn't matter who
it was. It doesn't matter allof you, one of you, none
of you, half of you,It doesn't matter. The point is you
have to prove coercion. You haveto have some evidence. You can't just
say he would not have ever donethat, which, by the way,

(09:52):
it probably happened. I'm not arguinghe didn't happen the way you describe it,
because that happens all the time.It's a question of proof. Hi,
Terry, Yes, Sam, Iwas riding my bike in Florida on
the sidewalk. I was going againsttraffic and I crossed a driveway for a

(10:13):
condo building and a guy apparently hada light change that I could not see,
and he came out and blasted meand knocked me into the street over.
Okay, hang on, there wasa a I don't understand it was
a driveway, but there was alight there. There was a stop light
at the driveway light. Yeah,I couldn't see the light. It's you

(10:33):
know, like a dead end thatit's a kind of busy street. So
I was only going half mile upthe street, okay. And you were
on the sidewalk correct, okay,and he hit you, okay, knocked
you over, and so first ofall, we start with how badly were
you injured? That's for starters.Well I could get up and walk because

(10:56):
the minute I got up, hetook off. Okay, So do you
even know who he is? Igot you. I passed a walker by
on the sidewalks. I was ridingslow. She took I asked her could
you please take a picture of licenseplate? And she did that. Oh
good, And she told me Ineeded to make out a police report.

(11:18):
And he was there maybe a minuteas soon as okay, but let me
go back to Okay, so youknow who he is, you can track
him down because at least you havehis license plate number. Okay, that's
easy. Back to back to howbadly were you in jured, Terry?
Uh, my ankle is still swollen. I don't get any breaks, any
breaks? No, Okay, haveyou been to the and you've been to

(11:39):
the doctor. I did go tourgent care. And what urgent care say?
They just said they didn't see anybreaks. They just X rayed.
I told them what happened. Okay, so you walked around how long ago
this happened, uh, February twentyokay? So uh? And how many
times were at the doctor? Justonce? Uh? Huh? Okay?

(12:03):
And what would you like? Well? I just don't know. I sort
of just want to send him aletter. I guess it's a letter.
You have a driver's like, youhave his uh license plate? Track him
down and send him a letter?What is that? It is that?
All you want is? Can Ilegally send him a letter? Bill?
Yes, you can legally send thema letter. Do you want more than
that? Well, the cops thatcame to make the report that I might

(12:28):
as well forget about doing a case. He was kind of a redneck,
and he said it doesn't matter,It doesn't matter what the cop says.
Cops not willing is not allowed togive you legal advice. Yeah, he
said. Okay, so they ignorethat, Ignore that, Ignore what the
cops said. It's he didn't sayanything, because you shouldn't listen to anything
a cops says. Legally, it'snot a license. Attorney, What do

(12:48):
you want, Terry attorney in Florida. No one will touch it. You
are both swollen ankle. What doyou think an attorney is going to do
with a swollen ankle? File lawsuit? Okay, that's right. Well,
yeah, if anything from hitting peopleand taking the Yeah, write them a

(13:11):
letter. Yeah, write the drivera letter and say you shouldn't run over
people. Bad boy, bad boy. Julie, Hi, Julie, welcome.
Hi. Yes, So I've beendoing a ten thirty one exchange.
I sold an industrial property and Iam at buying another building. And my

(13:39):
property manager is also a broker,and he and his brother are handling both
the sale and the acquisition, sothey're getting commissioned on both ends, and
they are tacking on. They aretacking on a one percent acquisition. No,
it doesn't work that way, Julie, doesn't work that way unless it
is in writing that they get anacquisition fee either in the management agreement.

(14:05):
Actually, even if it's in themanagement agreement, I don't think so.
It has to be in the salesdocuments, the listing documents. They can't
just arbitrarily say we're going to tackon one percent. Can't do that.
They can't and you let them knowthat if they go ahead. It has
to be in the sales I thinkso. But does it say in the

(14:28):
management agreement they get one percent ifthey take both sides, or there's an
acquisition fee. I don't know.I have to revisit it. Yeah,
you have to revisit, but Idon't think they can do that. I
think it has to be in thesales agreement. They just can't say and
we're getting a one percent acquisition feejust because no, it doesn't work that
way. So you have to reallylook at the documents. And I would

(14:52):
call a real estate attorney just tofind out if it turns out that it
is in the management content track thatif they sell the house they get a
one percent on top of anything else, even if it doesn't matter who listed,
they get a one percent. ButI don't think so. Let me
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(16:07):
com slash handle Mortin Yo, Ihad an accident where a red light camera
flashed and it caused me to losemy eyesight and I sideswiped a couple of
part cars in the process of thathappening. I have a condition where my
eyes are constantly dilated. Now,when you said you lost your eyesight,

(16:30):
you didn't go blind. You justwent temporarily blind, right, right,
I have a condition where my eyesare always dilated. Okay. So yeah,
if you're always dilated, than anyflashing light or whatever red bright light
is going to really affect your vision. Right, That's correct? Okay,

(16:51):
fair enough? Now is there anyI wasn't hurt, but I damaged a
couple of cars? Covered that,but my car wasn't covered. Is there
anybody I can go after to reimbursmentfor the damage to my car because it
wasn't I mean, I don't knowit was. Okay, you're the one,
Okay, you're the one that hasthe dilation issue. Correct? Correct?

(17:14):
All right, So you are atfault because are you trying to say
that in your case that red lightcamera should not go on it should know
that you have a dilation issue.No, I'm not saying that. Okay,
So who are you going to goafter? Who are you going to
go after for you car? Whoare gonna go after for you losing control

(17:36):
and crashing into cars? Well?I don't know, ye, I do
I know exactly Who are you gonnago after? Nobody, and let me
get it even, let me makeit really miserable for you. You are
violating the law by even driving Martin. And as soon as the insurance company
knows you have that problem, uh, and any doctor knows you have that

(17:57):
problem, you're gonna your license.Well, the DMV gave me a driver's
license and they knew that I hadthe problem. Wow, okay, Well,
then you're lucky you got through it. Yeah, but you'res well.
Okay, if the GMV knew aboutthis problem and gave you would a driver's
license anyway, Wow, that's impressive. But you're the one that knows their

(18:22):
red light cameras out there. Youknow they're there, and you know that
they do this to you. Howis it someone else at fault? Well,
I guess that you just you justmade it clear to me that I'm
at fault. Yeah, of courseyou're at fault. Even more, I
wouldn't even worry about that fault business. I'd worry about keeping your driver's license

(18:45):
because I don't know how the DMVknows that if a red light flashes,
and by the way, toll lightsflash red lights, they had the red
light camera, or you see aflash and they're all over the place and
you go blind and the DMV stilllets you drive, and they know about
it. I don't know. Imean, it's uh, you know,

(19:07):
it's a little tough. Joe,Hello, Joe, welcome. Good morning,
Yes sir, good good morning.Bill. Now go ahead, turn
okay. I deposit, saying,uh, the outside deuilt one thousand dollars

(19:30):
of cash and it stopped midway throughit and then opened it up and it
was two hundred left. So Ideposited that into the regular into the pay
I walked into the bank, sothey kept it, got locked in eight
hundred dollars of my cash, andthey said it could take from ten days

(19:55):
to forty five days. And Isaid, this is insane. You know
what you're you're and I need money, right of course. Okay, all
right, So what's your question?My question is can I sue the bastards
for what? For taking my money? And they're saying there was some kind

(20:18):
of a glitchen machine. Uh,it turns out that we have to review
it and it may take from tento forty five days. What's unreasonable about
that? Yes? What do youwant to sue them for? Very unreasonable?
You think okay, all right,fair enough, all right, all
right. So you think it's unreasonable, they're gonna argue it's reasonable, and
you're gonna go to court. You'resuing, you're suing a hold on because

(20:41):
a judge may say it's reasonable.That's why. Why be reasonable? Because
a judge may say that's reasonable,and then you scream at the judge as
the bailiff drags you out, whichis fine. But ten to forty five
days for a machine that took cashand you did it twice and it didn't

(21:04):
record, and did they go,we have to look at it, and
it's gonna take us ten days,and by the way, it may be
totally unreasonable. Incidentally, it mightbe unreasonable. Well, if I'm a
judge, I'm gonna look at it, you know, I go, I
can see ten days? Okay,bank, where's the forty five days?
Here? Give me an answer.I don't know, Joe, I don't

(21:29):
know. Hey, do I looklike the bank the bank machine? Maven?
Here? How many of those youthink? I fix? I met
you before and you look brilliant.Oh well, I thank you for that.
And that wasn't real smart on yourpart. Yeah, I mean,
it's uh banks and bureaucracy's take foreverto do virtually anything. Uh, it's

(21:56):
you know, how about this?You bring in a cashiers check and transfer
to your bank, or I dothis all the time on a business bank
and I wire the money. Allright, So I wired it at one
o'cock one oh two. It clears, and the bank said we're going to
take three days to recognize that,which means they get three days of interest.

(22:19):
Is that reasonable? No? No, But does that mean that they're
not going to do it? No? No? Fred? Hello Fred,
welcome to handle on the law.Yeah. So spouses one passes away.

(22:40):
The only common property between the twois the house. The seast has a
has a personal debt. Again,the loan company go after the house on
that. No, not really.I mean theoretically if there's an estate,
But if it turns out that it'sa tenant and it goes to the other
side, how big is the debt? Thirty thou well? I mean,

(23:07):
can they they can do anything?Do they? Probably not? Because whoever
is going to write a letter?You know, hey, the decease has
no property because if it was jointtenancy, the deceased has no property.
The other the spouse, the otherspouse, the survive surviving spouse owns all
the property. So you know,I don't think they would do it.

(23:30):
I really don't. I mean,that's a practical issue. Can they.
I don't know short of a statutethat I'm not aware of. Margo,
Hi, Margo, welcome. IfI have a vehicle and I sign it
over to a family member, thenfill out the proper paperwork and send it

(23:51):
to the DMV. At what pointdoes my liability for that vehicle end?
When's the day that it's transferred overto the other party. That moment,
when it's transferred over to the otherparty, you're done. It becomes the
other party's responsibility and you have nothingto do with it. Okay. If

(24:15):
the other party is in another statematter, and they don't register, Ah,
that becomes problematic. Then you betterhave that sale. You better have
a proof of sale. Proof ofsale. Oh yeah, it had better
be in writing, and it hadbetter be dated, and it had better
be a check going back and forthso you can prove there was a sale

(24:40):
or yeah, because then you're stillthe registered owner if it isn't over there,
which is why if someone sells aused car, the seller goes with
the buyer to the DMV or doesn'tturn over the car until it's until it
is registered. Okay, Okay,there you go. We're not going to

(25:02):
go through anymore because we go Ohhow about this? How about that?
How about this? Mike? Ohyou know, Mike, let me put
you on hold a minute. Igot to take a break, and I
don't want to. I'd love tocut you off, but I'm not going
to, or maybe I will.Okay, Mike, you've been there for
a bit. Welcome to handle onthe law. A long time listener,

(25:23):
first time caller. I haven't heardthat one in a while. Excellent,
go ahead, It's true. Ido listen to you. This is a
contractor billing dispute without a contract.I hired a reliable electrical contractor that I've
been using and recommending for many years, probably upwards of ten jobs over the

(25:44):
years, both commercial and residential.The job in question was to hook up
a machine they previously hooked up forme at a different location. I got
the bill, and I promptly paidthe labor and about half the requested materials
amount. Why only half the materialsamount? Well, it seemed excessive to
me. Even reusing materials from theprevious location. So I figured they made

(26:08):
a billing mistake, and I contactedthem and asked that they had a look
and if they charged retail for materials, and the lady said, yeah,
they charged retail. And they sentme over an itemized parts list with about
thirty line items, but without anyamounts, just a total. And as
an electrical engineer, it just didn'tfeel right. I've got knowledge of these

(26:30):
materials. So I set out tocalculate. All right, so the charge
for stuff you either shouldn't have orexcessively Okay, got that, so it
seems excessive, right, all right? Okay, and off to collection we
went. They couldn't find any issuewith their calculation, so they sent us

(26:51):
to collection. We tried to negotiate, and we didn't get anywhere. I
actually took my retail number and addedtwenty percent to it and couldn't get them
to bite. Okay, Okay,it doesn't matter. She is now going
to court. Okay. The questionis they're now going to court. They're
taking you to small claims court.Correct, Well, it's not small claims,

(27:11):
it's it's big boys court. Okay, all right, Well with big
boys court. Okay, all right, here's what you get to do with
big boys court. First of all, you that's your defense that you use
that number one, they didn't giveyou an itemized list with prices on it.
But number two, and I'm youhave to look this statute up,
and that is anything over five hundreddollars there has to be a written statue,

(27:34):
a written document, a contract.If there is no written contract,
the contractor is precluded from suing.Done finished, that's it, awesome.
Okay, however are there exceptions?And I'm going and I don't know the
answer to this, and you getto look this one up. Okay.

(27:56):
The fact that you take a differentis that a state rule? Yeah,
hundred bucks? Yeah, it's statecontractor well yeah it's a state state.
Yeah, you look it up forthe other state. But I wouldn't be
surprised if that wasn't the case.Some states allow a verbal contract between a
client and a contractor. At Californiadoes not. You have to have it

(28:18):
written. I'm assuming he's license thatis important, doesn't have to be bonded,
just has to be licensed. Andthe fact that you paid him,
does that waive your position that hedidn't have a written contract. I don't
know about that, but based onwhat you said, you bring it up,
you've got a good defense. Andif the law holds like it does

(28:40):
here and there are no exceptions likeI just mentioned, you simply you put
him on the stand, you tellyour story. Of course, you go
through all here's the listing, here'sthe money he didn't pay, here's everything
I did. And although he can'tuse negotiations to do a case, that's
an the rule that previous negotiations reallydon't matter. And then you simply asked,

(29:04):
is there a written contract? Andif there isn't, your honor,
he's precluded from going forward. Andwe do like I owe him money?
Well, yes, up to you, it's up to you. Wait,
hang on a minute. We're justtalking about the legal part here, Mike.
It's up to you whether you wantto pay or not. I'm just
telling you the way I understand thelaw. Without a written contract, he's

(29:27):
done. He's done, all right, Karen, Hi, Karen, welcome
to handle on the law. Goodmorning. Yes, I had my husband
and I had a paralegal do ourend of life paperwork, and she asked
if we had our name on anyother properties which my husband's name is the

(29:49):
same as his father's is, andthe house was purchased in nineteen seventy seven
for a handicap. It's my husband'ssister. And when the paralegal asked,
what if we had our name onany other property, we told her yes,
and she said, well, let'schange it and put it's in three

(30:11):
family members' names. She said,let's put your portion in a trust.
And I'm like, okay, Sowe did that and she spelled the name
wrong, which I already talked toher about that. But what it did
was when she put my husband's andmy name on as a as trustees for

(30:32):
the family trust. It it causedthe property taxes to change. Okay,
here you have to do. It'seasy, done done. I'm giving you
the answer. You go to theassessor's office and you make a claim that
the property should the value should nothave changed based on the error and based
on what happened, and based thatit's really the same people, and that

(30:55):
that should do it. That shoulddo it. Okay if people don't know,
oh, but you actually can makean argument in front of the assessor
and they're not bastards about it.If there is a legitimate reason to go
ahead and reassess they will. SoI think you're gonna be okay with that
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(31:17):
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