(04/13) HOTL Marginal Legal Advice Hour 3

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
So California. And actually I usuallytalk about strange ass California laws in cases
because California is an outlier. Onthe one hand, California generally leads the
nation, if you want to callit leading. That's in quotes, depending
on which side of the coin youare on that one. In social issues,
you know, like abortion, Californiais one, I think maybe the

(00:22):
only state that has put abortion intoits constitution, the right to abortion,
you know what the other states arecriminalizing in many cases, and just social
efforts, social events, entitlement programs, that sort of thing, California tofu
Turkey, all that. And sometimesthey're sort of in the middle and pass
bills or looking at bills that actuallymake sense, and this one that I

(00:45):
think does. And so a billhas just been introduced Senate Bill fourteen thirteen
by a Republican and it could putan end to daylight savings time in California,
even though the voters approved similar measurein twenty eighteen. Although I'll tell
you about that, well, i'lltell you now, it's a measure that

(01:06):
allowed the legislature to make that move. It didn't make the move per se.
So there was that measure in twentyeighteen that said the legislature may change
daylight saving time into or eliminate daylightsaving time completely. Okay. The American
Medical Association says the US should getrid of the seasonal time changes in favor

(01:26):
of a standard year round time nostalelight saving time. The Journal of Clinical
Sleep Medicine article says the US shouldeliminate seasonal team time changes in favor of
a national fixed year round time.And it has to do what the researchers

(01:47):
wrote, current evidence best supports theadoption of a year round standard time which
aligns best with the humans circadian biologyand provides clinical evidence of public health and
safety, saying, we've got thescience that says you don't want to go
with daylight saving time and then astandard time. And so in twenty eighteen,

(02:10):
the voters approved Prop seven, allowingthe legislature amend the practice if Congress
approved it. So it has tobe two hits here. Congress has to
approve a national national standard time,which it has not, and the state
could, which it has not.So this forces California to adopt a standard

(02:34):
time. And then the other side, daylight saving could be beneficial since the
extra hours of sunlight reduced crime,any proof, no encourage outdoor activities.
Well yeah, okay, if youhave an extra hour of daylight, you're
out there more, all right,fair enough and positively positively impact mood and

(02:54):
overall health. Now I'm going toget personal here for a moment, because
I like daylight saving time because allof a sudden you get an extra hour
of daylight. I like daylight.I'm okay with nighttime. I just hate
that dusk business, you know,between night and day. I hate dusk

(03:14):
and when we switch over to standardtime and we lose an hour of daylight
and it gets darker quicker, inevitably, I want to take a swan dive
off a parking structure. That happensto me every single year, which is
why I stay away from parking structureswhen the standard time kicks in. And

(03:36):
I know, people, you havea real rough time with it, and
the older you get, the roughera time you have with it. So
yeah, I'm fine with daylight savingtime and it'll save me from committing suicide.
So that's the latest. It's thelatest law news from the state of
California. All right, let's takea call or two here, We go.

(03:58):
Let's start with you, Tommy.Let me get my Oh where's my
icon here? Okay, Tommy,there, you are welcome to handle on
the law. I have a housein Texas. I live in San Diego.
Last February, they bounced a checkfor twenty three hundred. They didn't
pay rent from June to November.So I victed him. I won the

(04:19):
viction and it said for ninety fivehundred dollars in victioned court. They kicked
them out. I sold the house. Do I have anything recourse on Yeah,
you still have the judgment, Tommy, you still have ninety five hundred
dollars that's owed you, and it'sa legal document, it's enforceable. There's
your judgment, and now you gotto track it down. You got to

(04:39):
track them down and see how youget the money. And they live in
Texas, so I don't know whatthe rules of collecting in Texas are.
I'm willing to bet that the rulesin Texas make it easier for you to
collect than in California. And thenyou have a federal law that controls but
you go after them, you knowthey're easy. There. I put threely
noticed in order, a quatre andthey're gone. Okay, so you don't

(05:02):
have an eviction. You don't havean eviction anymore. What you have as
a money judgment. Yeah, yeah, that's it, and you track it
down, you figure out how toget the money. Uh. You garnish
wages if you can find where theywork, you grab property, and in
Texas is probably a whole lot easier. Chris, Hello, Chris, welcome.

(05:23):
Hey, I have a question.I am the beneficiary of my parents'
house. My brother is the trustee. It's a two story house. I
live in the house, and Irented the upstairs unit to a girl friend
of mind for a really low rate. She recently caused property damage to the
house. I would like to evicther, but she's gonna argue I'm not

(05:45):
the trustee and the rental agreement thatI engage with her stays. I don't
know. I mean, do Ihave grounds to evictor No? You don't.
No, you don't the trustee.Your brother has to evict her because
the trust owns the price and he'sthe trustee. So so he a vixer.
But what difference to make whether you'rea victor or she a vixer?
And she can make all the argumentsshe wants. Okay, so if I

(06:11):
if I follow through with my nameon the eviction notice, she could say,
that's in Dallas. Correct, that'scorrect. I'm just I'm just correct.
You're the beneficiary of a trust,which means you do not own the
property. Only the representative of theproperty can sue, and you still have
to do it on behalf. Whydoesn't your brother sue for eviction? He's
the trustee. What's the problem here? I'm missing because I'm taking him to

(06:34):
court because I'm taking him to courtto ever removed his trustee for being a
lazy SLB. All right, butdoes that mean hold on? Does that
mean he is prepared, he isprepared to not a victor, just to
screw with you. I don't know. Well, if that's the case,
uh, then that's two different issues. One, you take her to small

(06:59):
small escort. You do it unlessyou have an agreement, Unless you have
an agreement. He's got to doit. He's got to do it.
He's got to do it. Andnow you can argue with him. Hey,
say you're screwing me and you arein violation of your relationship as a

(07:20):
trustee. That you can argue andas a matter of fact, that's one
of the arguments you make to havehim remove this trustee, because I'm assuming
it's not just this issue. There'sa lot more to it, right,
There are a bunch of other issuesinvolved. You're not removing him with a
trustee just for this. So howdo I recoup my money from an upstairs
tenant? You don't What do youmean recoup your money? The money that's

(07:44):
owed to you. Yeah, shedoesn't owe it to you, Chris,
She doesn't owe it to you.She owns it. She owes it to
the trust. You don't own theproperty. You don't own it. Can
I take her to small claims court? And the plaintiff would be the trust
of I don't think you can.I don't think you're because you're only a

(08:07):
beneficiary. You don't have any connectionto the trust until someone dies. Yeah,
it's you know, it's tough,all right, But I want to
do it. Of course you wantto do it, I understand. Or
even if someone did die and thetrust is still in effect, you have
to follow the rules pursuant to theterms of the trust. And unless the
terms of the trust say you ownthe property, which clearly is not the

(08:30):
case. Well, no, she'sa beneficiary. That means someone is still
around. Yeah, go figure.Brian, Hello, Brian, hi Bill.
I run my car through a carwash at a gas station and the
machines broke my side view mirror apassenger side. The manager there, she
took some kind of report and saidshe's going to report it. Idiate number

(08:52):
to call. I called left aboutten messages, no response. I finally
went back to the gas station.The lady said, or you do what
you have to do. Okay,that's it, all right? And are
you asking what do you have todo? Okay? All right, got
it all right, So let's startgoing through it. There's probably a sign

(09:15):
there it says bring your mirrors in. Okay. Every car wash I've ever
been to says make sure your mirrorsare tucked in. And that's one defense.
They have counter that saying, hey, you're the ones that saw the
car going in. If the mirrorsaren't in, you should have said something
to me because you're the ones thatare washing the car. So that one

(09:35):
is yes, no. The otherside is yeah, they should be responsible,
And the answer is you take thema small claims court. That's all
you take pictures of it. Youfind out what it costs to repair the
sideview mirror, and you sue them. It's a few hundred bucks, except
in my BMW is probably eighteen thousanddollars for a side mirror. I have

(09:56):
no idea, but the they canget pretty pricey. If it's one of
those automatic uh where you control itkind of thing, they can you know,
they can run some money, butthat's it. It's small claims court
and to see if they try towho the gas station or their like their
corporate office. You uh, well, you find out who owns it.

(10:16):
That's easy. Uh, you knowwhoever owns it, and you can sue.
Generally, it's uh the corporate officesof gas stations most of the time
are owned by franchisees. Most ofthe time there's corporate and there's franchisees.
You sue corporate and you're going toget the money. They're not going to
deal with it. They're going tojust write you a check. Uh.

(10:37):
If you're talking to uh, youknow a guy or a small group of
guys, maybe they own two,three, five of these stations. Is
it a specific it's not a carwash. It is a one of those
automatic car washes that you go throughthose quickie ones. Yes, yeah,
that is more problematic for you.And I'll tell you why. Because there's

(11:00):
nobody there. So your argument,hey, you should have known. Well,
there's nobody there. And so there'sthe sign that says, make sure
your side mirrors are in fact,I don't know what the word they use.
You know, you are brought in, whatever the language they use,

(11:22):
and it says they're right there onthe sign make sure they're brought in.
Don't leave them out, and youleft them out. That's a defense to
me. Give it a shine.You got nothing to lose. Hey,
well you do have something to lose. You got about one hundred dollars to
lose. Is it worth it?I don't know. Maybe yeah, maybe
you run in front of a smallclaims judge you had exactly the same problem,

(11:43):
and it wants to nail them.I have no idea. But there's
a defense right there. We don'thave anybody there. It's automatic. We
tell them make sure that that sidemirror is disengaged, brought in. And
you know, if you what haveif you leave your windows open, for
example, and the car gets soaked, Wow, look at the damage you

(12:05):
did to my upholstery. Hey,there's the even the sign says you make
sure your windows are fully up andmake sure if you have a moon roof
or a sowne roof of any kind, make sure that that is closed.
Hey, yeah, I have tois listen to it? Morris, Hi,

(12:26):
Morris welcome. Oh this is bad? Yeah, Morris, what can
I do for you? Yes,I have old Travelers checks that I was
going through my boxes from the seventies. Huh, And I don't know before
I deposit them are they any goodstill? Or I don't know even I
mean it doesn't hurt to deposit them. Matter of fact, when you go

(12:48):
to the bank, I'd go tothe bank itself. I'd physically go into
a bank and go to the tellerand go, hey are these still good?
And they'll ask the manager and ifit's uh uh what Traveler checks from
where American Express? No, Thomas, Trams, Travelers Checks, it's what

(13:09):
Samas Samas? Is that a bank? No, they're on the Travelers check,
Thomas. It could be a bank. I mean, if the company's
not around anymore, you're out ofluck. But it could be a bank
that was bought by a bank thatwas bought by a bank. I mean
I've been to banks where by thetime I left that bank, the bank
had changed three times. I waswith san Ua Bank and it then became

(13:33):
Bank of the West and then uh. I mean I've done a bunch of
those over the years. Uh.And so those checks are still good.
But going back to the seventies,yes, I don't know. I mean,
you're talking about what fifty years ago, fifty something years ago, but
I think it's I don't know ifthere's a statute or not, but you
give it a shot. Just andyou know, call me back and tell

(13:54):
me what the hell of Thomas Travelercheck is about. Just ask the bank.
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Go to NetSuite dot com slash handlenet suite as an office suite NetSuite dot
com slash handle Rocky High Rocky,I had a question regarding tenancy. I

(15:07):
have a tenant but not paid rent. Want to know if five sir to
hire a lawyer use one of theonline services. Yeah, you can use
an online service Rocky. You don'tneed a lawyer for that. It's real
simple. It's a three day noticeto pay per quit that you mail to
him. You can even stamp it, you know, tack it to the
door. That works a three daynotice. You can have them to serve

(15:28):
which is probably the best, andjust follow the rules. What it has
to do is be exact. Imean you have to follow the rules.
Dates have to be specific, youhave to show the original lease a copy
of it. You have to makea demand and it's a formal three day
notice. If he pays within threedays, you're out of luck. Then
he's made the rent and it's thenthere'll be non payment because there won't be.

(15:50):
And then you file lawsuit. Youfile lawsuit for unlawful detainer, which
does two things. Evicts the tenantand two gives you a money judgment on
top of that. If the tenantleaves before the lawsuit is hurt, then
all you have is the money judgmentpart because the eviction part is done.
I mean, he's out, soit's yeah, you can do it yourself.

(16:11):
Just be very careful about it.And there's really no defense to it.
And if I mean the only quotedefense, what they can do is
delay it, and that is bycoming up there answering the complaint, and
then it becomes some kind of affirmativedefense. I don't know, habitability,
it's rat infested, it's whatever,and you go, no, it's not.
You've never complained before. There's nothingin writing that says all of a

(16:33):
sudden, it's rat infested. Orsome people claim that there's rat vermin infestation
or cockroaches after they have been suedfor eviction, and that doesn't usually fly
with the court. And then yougo to court, you'll get you'll get
here's what's going to happen. You'regonna get a default judgment. If the
person stays there, then the judgmentgoes to the marshals and the marshall.

(16:56):
You go walk with a marshall witha walksmith and you literally change the locks
and you could put the furniture outon the sidewalk. So and the reason
you want to go with the marshallis, first of all, they're effectuating
the removal of the tenant. Andalso, man, when tenants see there's
stuff being thrown out on the street, they get a little upset. And

(17:18):
we have a country that lots andlots of guns, and it's yeah,
you've heard people are repossessed until youthrow them out of the house. What
go do? The online company?Yeah you can do that. Yeah,
yeah, you can do that.Sure, sure got it. Hi a

(17:38):
doctor performed a spinal fusion one yearafter an unsuccessful spinal surgery. They nicked
my aortic artery and I bled out, had a massive blood transfusion three aortic
extents. I went into cardiac arrest, life support for three days, temporary
brain damage, and I was inthe ICU for seventeen days. I was

(17:59):
wondering if I can hold the hospitalor the doctor liable. Oh yeah,
nicking and a ortic artery. Yeahyeah, and the damages are the damagers
are pretty severe. I mean legally, I'd feel better if you had permanent
brain damage. To be honest withyou, it would be a much better
case if I'm representing you. ButI'll take it. I'll take it.

(18:22):
Temporary brain damage, ICU hospital,the stent where the stents put in as
a result of the bleed. Yeah, okay, all right, so all
that resulted in the Yeah that's thecase. Yeah, yep, that's the
case. You need a medical malpracticeattorney on this one, because this is
going to be a fight. Thisis going to be a fight. I
mean, I wish you had lostyour leg or you know, you ended

(18:45):
up in a wheelchair or as Isaid, permanently you know, mentally disabled.
But you know what, you onlyget handed the cards that you're dealt.
You only all lost my leg.I had a massive blood clot in
my leg. They had to reconstructmy left the moral artery. Oh I
don't almost not good enough you know, almost only close in uh it works

(19:07):
in horseshoes and it works in atomicbombs, but it doesn't. Almost is
a little bit tough. But yougot a case there, I'm telling you
right now, Kevin, you've gota case. You want to talk to
medical malpractice attorney. You can goto handle on the law dot com.
We have them, check around,have checked, you know, make a
few phone calls because this is thecase that will that it'll take and by
the way, go to someone whohas had experience with med mel. This

(19:33):
is not one of those attorneys thatare sole practitioner or law firms that only
specialize in personal injury. It's notto say they don't do a good job,
but this is complicated, highly endcomplex medical malpractice. This one is
no joke and it's going to causeit's going to cost the law firm a
lot of money to invest in this. You're not going to pay any money,

(19:55):
so don't worry about that. Butthis is this is this is big
stuff, right oh, all right, now go to the website. Wow,
I always ask damages always, always, always, always, because that
sort of that that overrides everything.Okay, So, as I was joking
about I'd rather have him fully uh, you know, non cognizant and have

(20:17):
severe mental damage. Of course Iwas kidding, No, I wasn't,
and because legally that would help hima lot. But at the same time,
you know, look at those damages, I mean, pretty severe to
say the least. Ah, Right, Lisa Hi, Lisa Hi. I
have a niece who is at UCLAin student housing and doing our master's program.

(20:41):
And the other day the ceiling cavedin. And yeah, and there's
three roommates and they all had tomove out, and all four of them,
including your niece. Right, she'snot staying there, right, Well,
there's three room, there's three roommatestotal, so they all okay,

(21:04):
it doesn't matter. But okay,she had to move out and there were
all three roommates. Okay, notthat that matters, but okay, so
go ahead. So they're move out. Cave roof, cave's in. Now
what Well the maintenance man came inand removed this ceiling up above the bathroom
and said it would take about fouror five days to fix it. And

(21:29):
now she has to meet with theLA Environmental inspector. Why does she have
to meet with the inspector? Idon't know. Yeah, it doesn't make
any sense because she has nothing todo with the repair. You know,
it either it either is in complianceor it's not in compliance. What the
hell does she have to do withit? You know, it's uh,

(21:51):
you can't move in now, andthen she's going to move back in when
it's fixed. So okay, thatone I don't understand. But all right,
go on with this. Well,they're in the middle of their exams.
Yeah, and this is a bigdistraction. Yeah, of course it
is. Of course it is.They haven't offered them any compensation. Yeah,

(22:15):
all right, well compense you're talkingabout money, compensation or helping them
with a test? No, helpingthem with Yeah, no, I understand.
So you want to give that theyshould give you your niece a break
in terms of the testing process,give a few points up because of what

(22:36):
she's gone through. Right, Norental reduction, Yeah, I think she's
Yeah, I think a rental reductionfor a few days. Yeah, that
works. And whatever it costs forher to live someplace else, sure,
and have it for her to haveto meet with the with the that.

(22:57):
I don't understand that. I don'tget at all. I don't Lisa I
don't understand that one at all.And what happens if she doesn't meet with
the environmentalist? Do the environmental policeshow up and arrest her and put handcuffs
on her while the environmental inspecter comesdown. None of that makes sense her

(23:18):
having to meet with whatever environmental specialistor inspector comes out. But as far
as her being reimbursed for the paymentof the rent, yeah, except they'll
just put her up someplace and theyshould pay for that. Okay, it's
one or the two, and theyusually put people up on that. And
then as far as giving her abreak because of the distraction and what happened,

(23:42):
they ain't gonna happen. Ain't gonnahappen there I didn't. Yeah,
no, and that's not But yeah, it's basically a landlord tenant situation.
It's the same thing that happens asas any landlord tenant. Just because it
happens to the UCLA doesn't really matter. Bad breath hmm man, that is,

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