(04/20) HOTL Marginal Legal Replay Hour 1

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now the concept of illegal which usedto be called illegal alias, can't do
that anymore. Undocumented migrants, how'sthat that come across the border, And
of course it's a huge issue goingon right now as we know. And
you'll see people at the border,which I saw the news yesterday when they

(00:21):
actually a group of them rush theborder and overran the border patrol. And
so in the United States, theygo immediately asked to be arrested, turn
themselves into the border patrol, andgo through the immigration system where they're allowed
to have matter of fact, perlaw, they're mandated to have a hearing

(00:42):
to determine whether they're claim for asylumis going to be heard, which it
will eventually at some point in life, and then they're either allowed or not
allowed to stay in the United States. If asylum is granted, they're allowed
to stay, and they're at thatport that point it becomes the road to
staying in the United States permanently.The vast majority claiming a silent get tossed.

(01:03):
It doesn't work well. One ofthe ways that people who are here
illegally can be able to stay andapply for a green card is marrying an
American. Just marry an American citizen. And with that, there's a case
here in Los Angeles for Philippine nationalsliving in LA sentenced for their roles in

(01:23):
an eight million dollar scheme that arrangemore than six hundred fake marriages for green
cards, claiming that these undocumented clientswere abused by the American spouses. That
is the basis, and that canbe the basis of granting asylum. Certain

(01:44):
things. Persecution in your home countrywhere your life is in danger, for
religious persecution, spousal abuse, Imean it goes on and on. Not
economic, not to your economic detriment. That doesn't you're starving to death too
bad, you know, you crawlacross the border with no food for five

(02:05):
days. Sorry, you can't doit. However, spousal abuse that flies.
Okay, So these four Filipino nationalswho were here legally, I don't
know if they're American citizens, arenot set up. This agency had an
office in LA and what they didis arranged marriages, submitting fake marriage and

(02:29):
immigration documents for clients. And fakeweddings were performed at chapels, parks,
other locations. Because you have toprove you're married and you go in front
of an immigration official by the wayto get a green card, and you
have an interview and you got toprove that you're an American. That's a
legitimate marriage. Okay, here's somepictures. Here's where we got married.

(02:53):
Here's the Elphis impersonator who was theefficient and Las Vegas. They took fake
pictures in front of prop wedding decorations. And they also had a whole team
that recruited people to get married,to marry these undocumented It goes between twenty

(03:15):
and thirty five thousand dollars in cashto do this. Well, they got
popped, as you would think.They even had practice interviews with their clients
and the immigration what they do.I mean, they're not stupid, the
immigration people. So you come in. If there's any hint, they separate
out the two. What kind oftoothpaste do you guys use? What is

(03:38):
kind of toilet? Is it oneof those high ones? Low ones?
How big is showerstall in your house? What's your spouse's favorite food? Where's
the fast food place you go to? I mean, they can get very
specific, and you got to eitherbe really good or you have to be
legitimate. And if you're not,boom you're gone deportation and criminal action.

(04:04):
In this case, the people thatset up were criminally liable, so I
wouldn't do that fair enough, allright, Deborah, let's start with you.
Hello, Deborah, welcome, goodmorning. Yeah, about a fifty
about a fifty thousand dollars policy backin the eighties. My husband passed away

(04:26):
last year. I know they couldn'tdiscuss things with me. I sent them,
They sent me people. I sentthem back what they needed? Who
is they? And who is they? Who is that? Their life insurance
company? Oh, his life insurancepolicy. So we had a fifty thousand
dollars life insurance policy he took outin the fifties. Okay, And so

(04:47):
the company that issued it, uh, And why couldn't you talk to them
about anything? You have a deadhusband, you're the beneficiary. And that's
what I said to myself too,But they wouldn't release any information to me.
Now, that's crazy, that doesn'tmake any sense. Who they going
to talk to your dead husband?That's difficulture. Okay. So what happened?
So I was a ten thousand dollarsrider on that policy. So when

(05:11):
he passed, I was told thatthe whole policy was going to be shut
down, No problem. Why so, last did he tell you why to
pick to pay off the proceeds proceedsof what of the policy that I purchased?
Okay, and you purchase it andyou get ten thousand of it or
fifty thousand? How much you getout of that policy? Wha wha.

(05:33):
I was up in the assumption thatI would have gotten forty nine thousand,
but they sent me a check forthirty nine thousand and change. Why would
you only get forty nine thousand outof a fifty thousand dollars policy? I
don't understand that, bah, becausebecause back in the eighties we bought up
we took one thousand dollars you knowhow the policy? Okay, you took

(05:54):
out one thousand dollars as loan fromit? Okay, right, but they
told us we didn't we didn't haveto pay it. Facts okay, Okay,
all right? So now what theygave you thirty nine thousand and change,
they took eleven thousand dollars correct,Okay, So what's your question?
But my question to being is nowthey told me I was a writer,

(06:15):
so they're going to send me paperworkout to what I mean? They told
you you were right. Okay,I'm getting the terms confused here. They
told you you were a writer.I don't understand. I am a writer.
Okay. So I bought pursus offifty thousand and on. That is
a family policy which they don't sailno longer. There was a family policy
where fifty five if something happened tome ten thousand, my husband put me

(06:39):
away, and they have ten thousanddollars to put me away. That leads
a positive policy at forty thousand dollars. Okay, you got me on this,
Yeah, all right, So what'syour question? Okay, My question
is instead of sending me the wholeforty nine thousand and chain, they only

(07:00):
sent me thirty nine thousand instated theywere going to send me. But let
me ask you this. They loanedyou one thousand dollars out of the policy
in the eighties. In the eighties, that's forty something years ago. There's
interest that builds on that. Absolutely, yeah, So why would you get
why would you get forty nine thousandout of fifty thousand that you borrowed with

(07:24):
interest for forty years and not thinkit's going to go down? Absolutely,
and best wop caong. Its justsomething that's not right. No, it
sounds right to me. Okay,because you're making absolutely no sense, Deborah.
But thanks for calling, you know, nice way to start the show.
I appreciate it. Sheila, Hello, Sheila, Welcome, good morning

(07:47):
Bell. Yes, great, Ihave I contracted with a one of those
online teeth straightening companies. I'm sorry, I want straightening companies. It's a
teeth company straightening. You know,you go direct as supposed to go to
a dentist. You go online andthey just take a mold and they send
you Okay, I'm sorry, teethstraightening. Okay, got it. I

(08:09):
didn't hear that, all right,all right, so you go online with
the teeth okay. And so nowwhat Okay, the teeth straightening company financed
through a health uh, a healthfinancing company. That's how I did.
It. Went on monthly payments todo this health financing company that they are
in junction with the company itself wentout of business a BK. Which company?

(08:33):
So it is smile Direct. Okay, No, the teeth straightening company
went out of business. Okay,yes, the teeth confused. Which are
the two companies? Okay? Sothey go out of business, and and
then and then they send us anotice that they say you can no longer
get a service to us. Buthere's the list of dentists that you can
now go to to continue your service. Yeah. I don't want to go

(08:56):
to those services. I don't knowthose dentistis my My question is what is
my obligation to that? How financingcompany doesn't what They just loaned you the
money. They say, here's yourmoney, so you got to pay it
back. I do so, regardlessof whether I get the service or not.

(09:20):
Well, that's another thing. Itdepends on It depends on the contract.
Have they paid for it in fullor they paid for it in installments?
How does your contract work? It'sinstallments. It's a monthly payment.
Okay, then what you do isyou stop the monthly payments. They can
go after you. They can.I mean, you owe the money.
However, you're going to say,it's a monthly installment, and therefore I

(09:45):
want to stop the monthly payments becauseI'm not getting the service. The teeth
straightening company went bankrupt. Here's theproblem. If you read that contract,
what it will say is you owex number of dollars over x number of
months and if you miss a payment, the entire amount becomes due and payable.

(10:05):
So under the contract, you oweall the money. Now you want
to call up and negotiate, butyou're not standing on very serious grounds or
standing on a situation where you havea lot of stability there because you don't
they paid. They went ahead loanthe money. And your argument is,

(10:26):
but you haven't spent all the money. Okay, now you have an argument,
but you borrowed the money and theyhave nothing to do with the teeth
straightening people. So I call them, I negotiate, I mean, could
they You can argue, hey,this is monthly installments. I can pay
you. But here is what probablyhappened. They paid all the money to
the dentist and you are paying themback with interest. That's where they make

(10:54):
the money. Okay, yeah,you're pretty screwed. Yeah they are you.
And by the way, just goto one other dentists. Go to
another dentists. You want your frontteeth sticking out, you want to look
like a horse con you got it? Okay, yeah, just do it.
I mean okay, I'd rather havemy teeth sticking out of my gums

(11:15):
through the front than go to anotherdentist that I don't know. All right,
fine, whatever way you want.Hey, I want to talk to
you about living in pain. It'stough. I know somebody I live with
someone who is suffering from chronic pain, and man, it is really heartbreaking

(11:35):
to see that suffering because it's debilitating. Chronic means it's always there. And
I'm going to suggest you listen toa podcast, a podcast that's about living
with dealing with studying what chronic painis and the trauma that usually causes that
pain. It's funny, it's encouraging, it's inspirational, educational, and it

(12:01):
really is helpful, whether it's you, whether it's someone you know, whether
it's someone you work with, familymember, it's the podcast is the Pain
Game, podcasts experts in the field, lawyers who are involved, stay at
home mom's, virtually everybody involved.And there are chat rooms. I mean,

(12:22):
there's a world to chronic pain,and if you happen to be in
that world, please join. LindseySoprano who is the host and has been
for many years and deals with herpain. It helps people, and it's
twenty four to seven. A newepisode drops every single Tuesday morning. Listen
on any place where you get yourapps or your podcasts, The Pain Game

(12:46):
Podcast, The Pain Game Podcast,Pamela, there's a name. I'm not
going to forget my daughter's name.What can I do for you? Yes,
Hi there, Bill. Thanks.This is a situation. I had
a water Peter Lika at a rentalproperty and I called the renter and I
asked him to please turn off theshut off valve to the water heater and

(13:09):
they said okay. I was ledto believe they would do that. Well,
they decided not to turn off theshut off valve. The plumber arrived
six hours later, the water continuedto flow into the house, causing more
damage. I did speak with therenter later and they told me they decided
they did not want to shut offthe valve because the husband did not want

(13:31):
to get wet walking out to thegarage where the water was coming out.
Okay, all right, so youdidn't want to be responsible. Well,
I understand. Okay, so whatyou did is perfectly reasonable. Saying hey,
the place is leaking. You gotto shut off the water valve,
and he says, yep, I'llbe more than happy to do it.

(13:52):
Plumber shows up in six hours,which is totally reasonable. By the way,
a plumber show showing up in sixhours on an urgency call is not
unreasonable at all. So now I'lltell you what the big big issue.
Well, let me start with thisone. How much is it going to
cost you to fix the place?If? Yeah, just to you fix

(14:13):
it? How much damage was there? Well, it was extensive and went
into the living room, the kitchen. You have no idea? You haven't
You have an idea what it's goingto cost? Do you have an estimated
costs? I've already had it estimated? How much about twenty three thousand,
twenty three dollars? Okay? Youhave insurance? Yes, okay, call
your insurance company, your home policyand ask about that. Do they have

(14:39):
renter's insurance yes? Okay, Sothat's a second insurance company you go to,
because that's where you want to gobecause if you go after them.
First of all, no renter astwenty three thousand dollars, that's for starters.
Second of all, everything that yousaid and you called and they didn't
want to do it, and theysaid that do it and failed to do

(15:01):
it, that was all verbal,right. None of this was emails,
None of this was text it wasjust conversations you had, right, yeah,
which is legitimate. By the way, I'm not holding you responsible for
that. I mean sometimes I hopepeople responsible because they're morons. You're not.
What you did is everything reasonable.Here's what's gonna happen. They're gonna

(15:22):
lie. They're gonna lie. Andso we never said that. She never
called us. Now there you gotphone records of phone calls, but you
don't have what was said. Andthey're going to say if listen, well
here i am, I'm the renter, and you come up and you're suing

(15:45):
me. And hey, you saidyou turn off the valve. No,
no, you didn't say anything abouta valve. All you said is you're
calling a plumber. We didn't knowwhat to do. You never told us
what to do. So it's goingto be insurance. It's going to be
insurance. Otherwise you're nailed. Okay, who are you going to sue?

(16:06):
Who are you gonna sue the rent? But by the way, I did
record the conversation. You recorded theconversation, oh okay, but without their
that's right, without their call yourinsurance company and say I've recorded it.
Okay, see what they say.Not that it matters because it's the damage.

(16:30):
Now, if you sue them,you can't use the recording in court
because this is California. Need permissionfor both sides. So it's gonna be
insurance. Yeah, that's the onlygo around on this one. Georgie.
Hi, Georgie, you're welcome.Well, hold on, you're not.

(16:51):
You're not helping me here with thephone call. All right, you're not
a speakerphone, are you? Yeah? I can't. Okay, that's your
question. What work information did yougive me to get a living trust?
A living trust? Okay, let'sstart with it's good to be alive when
people are dead. It's very difficultto create living trusts. Okay, that's

(17:14):
for starters. Where you go forliving trusts, Well, you go to
Disneyland and see if anybody's out therethey can do it, and just sort
of ask around. No, that'snot a good idea. You go to
a trust and a state lawyer.Or you can go on the internet,
George, and you can you know, if it's a simple trust, you

(17:34):
can write one through the internet,which I have my doubts you're gonna be
able to do. But how complicatedis your trust? How much money do
you got that you want to leaveto people? How about one point five
mil? Wow? One point fivemil? Oh? Okay, how many
beneficiaries? I've just gotten much moreimpressed with you now. How many beneficiaries
are there? All right? Howcomplicated is it? How is the one

(18:00):
point five million held in one houseand bank accounts and stocks? Annuities,
bank account, one house and stocks? All right? Well? You know
I would based on a million anda half dollars, I'd still go to
a trusted estate lawyer, only becauseyou want to do it right. I
mean, that's a chunk of money. So just go to a trust and

(18:22):
a state lawyer. That's it.You look them up and you interview one
or two and you find out it'llbe a couple thousand dollars probably to write,
maybe fifteen hundred bucks. And thenyou got your trust, and then
you got your living will, okay, and then your job after that is
just to die. That's it,got it? Yeah? You know,
And if you have a problem witha living trust after you die, just

(18:45):
call me. Yeah, we'll straightenit out. Francis, Hello, Frances,
welcome. Oh yes, Bill,this is my issue. I purchased
two cameras at best Buy, Ireturned them because they were not uh cooperating
with my cell phone. Meanwhile,I get hurt, I get injured for

(19:06):
five months, and I go toCity Bank and I tell them I didn't
go. My son went as trusteeon my trust to explain my situation that
I was incapacitated. They refused toaccept the doctor's letter, the POA from
the attorney that I was injured,that I am injured, and refused to
accept the best by investigation letter fromthere, and best Buy is their client

(19:30):
that I did return the merchandise.So on that note, I decided best
City Bank was not for me,So I closed the City Bank accounts.
After I did that, City Bankcame after me. They defamed me.
They co accused me of fraud.I have all of this inviting. It's
not what was it a letter?Was it in an email? Uh?

(19:52):
No, it was it was sentto me, sent to you? What
was sent to you? Accusation?Hang on the accusation. You know this
is not going to go well.And so I'm talking, I need somebody
for each other. Very impressive.Okay, give you corn is actually a

(20:17):
Jalipino corn that they wanted lunch betterthan with chili, And with chili you
can get either homemade or you canget hormone. Works very well. That's
a very nice, nice recipe andyou'll enjoy it tonight. So it's been

(20:38):
a pleasure talking to you this morning. Uh, why don't we move on,
Frank, you're a pillow, Frank, hi Bill. In September,
we had a roof replaced completely,and during that process there was a huge
thunderstorm came up kind of suddenly.The roofers had already torn off all of

(21:07):
the roof instead of covering, insteadof taking off half or a quarter of
it, So when the storm brokeloose, they still didn't have their tarps
up on the roof. Consequently,half of my roof was just wood,
no shingles, no underlaymen. Thefolks doing the job didn't speak English,

(21:34):
so I couldn't communicate with them.There was no supervision on the job.
Well, none of that matters,None of that matters. What matters is
what happened with the roofing company andyou how much damage was done to that
roof because of the rains. Wehad damage inside the house. All right,

(22:00):
give me, let me get letme ask you this. Let me
go another way because I don't wantto go through this couch, et cetera.
Yeah, how much? How muchmoney did is it going to cost
you to replace the roof or repairany idea? The total house damages are
about forty thousand dollars. Okay,so that's what you have. You have
forty a grand worth of damage.Now you hire a roofing company. I'm
assuming it's license, it was bondedat you went and followed the rules or

(22:26):
was it somebody sort of off thegrid? Noy? Okay, good,
good, good. That helps youa lot. Okay, fair enough.
So here's why I think they're liableis when the rains came. We knew
the rains were coming. It's notlike it came right out of the blue.
It's not like there was a tornadothat all of a sudden appeared a

(22:48):
quarter of a mile away and noone could anticipate it. We knew the
rains were coming. I mean,there's no question we knew that it was
going to be a big storm.We knew days in advance. They blew
it. They blew it, frank, and they are responsible. So you
get to make a claim because theyhave insurance, which is going to write

(23:10):
you a check. And if youhave a fight, there has not been
an adjuster to the house. Andokay, well, okay, you made
a claim. They turn it overto their insurance company. And when you
say there has not been adjuster tothe house, how long has it been.
Okay, you've got there's an issuegoing on. It's time to call

(23:32):
your insurance company, your homeowner's policy. Hopefully I got an echo coming in
here, so that's not helping.You call your insurance company. Hopefully they
cover it. And if they do, they're going to go after the roofing
company. And that's what you wantthem to do. You don't want them
to say, hey, it's allon you. Sometimes they do. Sometimes,

(23:52):
depending on the company and the relationshipyou have, maybe have a broker
that has a lot of sway withthe insurance company, they will do the
work. But you have you've gota case, You've got a good one,
and you get to hire a lawyer. And the problem is all the
lawyer can do is make you whole. There's not a contingency, there's no

(24:15):
punitive damages or anything involved. Soyou get to pay for the lawyer.
Now there's an attorney's fees. Clausein the contract where the where your attorney's
fees are reimbursed. It's right therein the contract. Prevailing party pays all
attorneys fees. So you're going toget money back. You'll have your attorney

(24:37):
paid for if you do. Youknow that the roof company made a claim
against their own insurance policy. They'remaking a claim against and contractors that they
used to Yeah, okay, sookay, I mean none of that matters.
They can make all the claims theywant. You have a contract with

(24:59):
them. And if they say,oh, it's the other guys responsible,
you go, that's fine, goafter the other guy. It's not my
problem, it's your problem. Iwant my money. Should I do both?
Go to my insurance company? Yeah? Yeah, you do all you
do all of it. You seewhere it's covered. Now you'll be covered.
It's just now you're not stuck withforty thousand dollars. Uh. Mickey,

(25:21):
Hi, Mickey, welcome, Hi, thank you. An ambulance took
my husband to Tarzana Hospital two weeksago. They gave him a pain packed,
pain pills, pain shot, morphine, more morphine. It sent him
home. Medicare doesn't want to payfor that, but the next hospital two

(25:41):
days later found he needed two majorsurgery, one of which was done last
week at three am. How doI appeal the Medicare denials to pay that
ambulance? You you appeal it.That's how you do it. You call
Medicare to do that. You goonline, you make appointment. It's it's

(26:02):
very easy to do and they're prettygood about it because you can always appeal
an administrative decision. So you goonline and the Social Security you can call.
Make an appointment. Yeah, they'lltalk to you. Soci Security actually
does a good job these days.Yeah, make an appointment. You talk
to someone at the way. Here'show it goes. You make an appointment
and you have a day and atime, and you walk through the front

(26:26):
door, okay, and there's abig sign on the doors there's Social Security
administration, and you sit down andyou check in and then they call your
name, mickey. And when theycall your name, you go up to
the counter and you'll be talking tosomeone who will straighten it out and will
help you. That's how you doit. Remember, front door is really

(26:48):
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