(04/27) HOTL Hour 3

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law,marginal legal advice where I tell you you
have no case hopefully ah lawsuits.As you know, I've been a lawyer
for a very very long time,and not a very good one, I
might add. But at the sametime, I really pay attention to lawsuits
because I sort of roll that way. And for some reason, well actually

(00:23):
for a good reason. We inthe United States suit like crazy, and
that means that anybody can file lawsuitand there really isn't very much consequence to
it. You file a crazy asslawsuit and you hire lawyers as you really
don't have anything there, or there'stoo much work involved, or the lawyer
finds out you're basically crazy, andthere's this major fact that you left out,

(00:46):
and everybody just goes away. Youdismiss and you walk away, and
there's no consequence. Other countries plentyof consequence by not only filing a lawsuit,
but if you lose or walk away, you get nailed with the consequences
financial consequences. But not here.So here's a good one, right.
A bunch of prisoners in New Yorkand they're at a state corrections prison,

(01:11):
of course they are, and whathappened during the last solar eclipse. Boy,
did we make a big deal aboutthe solar eclipse. And it was
totality, which means it was completelydark where the Moon covered up the sun
one hundred percent and it's all excitingeverybody just to look with the glasses,
etc. So what happened in upstateNew York at the Woodburn Correctional Facility is

(01:38):
that the administration shut down the prisonduring the eclipse, just shut it down.
No one's walking outside to look atthe eclipse. Well, of course,
lawsuit ensued, and a lawsuit isfiled in federal court and Upstate New
York arguing that the lockdown of theprison violates the inmates' constitutional rights to practice

(02:02):
their faiths by preventing them from takingpart in a religiously significant event read the
eclipse. Plaintiffs six men who areincarcerated, a Baptist, a Muslim,
a Seventh day Adventist, two practitionersof Santadia, which is kind of a

(02:23):
bizarre religion, a lot of voodooin that one, as well as an
atheist. And here the complaint reads, this is right out of the complaint.
A solar eclipse is a rare naturalphenomenon with great religious significance to many.
The Bible passages describe an eclipse likephenomenon during Jesus' crucifixion. Sacred Islamic

(02:51):
works describe a similar event when theprophet Mohammed's son died and the next eclipse
won't be visible in the US untiltwenty forty four, and that means or
warrants that this eclipse warranted a gathering, celebration, worship, and prayer,

(03:13):
which the state correctional facility took awayfrom the men. The lawsuit says that
one of the plaintiffs, an atheist, was given special permission to view the
eclipse using glasses those special glasses thatwould be provided by the state, but
then the shutdown occurred. The lockdownoccurred, and he was not able to

(03:36):
Four of the other plaintiffs asked forpermission, but were denied by officials who
said that the solar eclipse is notlisted as a holy day for their religions.
H Well, there's the lawsuit.Don't you love lawsuits, especially these
wacky ones. I don't know howwacky it is. If you believe the

(03:57):
solar eclipse has great religious significance.Now i'd like to know where, but
you know, it's sort of kindof connected. So and I don't know
what the damages are either, becauseusually it's if you don't allow me,
the prisoner, to engage in areligious activity, or I want hlal or
kosher food, the compensation to youor the consequences to the facility is okay,

(04:25):
will now allow you kosher food,Will now allow you to practice your
religion. You know, it's notlike here's a million dollars, So what
do you do? All right,Well, here's what you do. If
you're around in twenty forty four andyou're still in prison. We'll let you
see the eclipse, all right.Don't know what to do with that one.

(04:46):
Oh, okay, Now we takesome phone calls. Soon. Here
we go, Alex, Hello,Alex, welcome. So, yes,
I'm in California. Okay, you'reon a cell phone screwing up? All
right? Go ahead, can youhear me out? Yeah? Yeah,
better? Yeah, Okay, I'min California. And then twenty fourteen,

(05:09):
my dad signed a contract with asolar panel company to put solar panels at
the home. Nine years later,he was kind of frustrated with the high
payments in electricity bills. So wecalled the solar panel company and they said,
well, you need to check yourapp, the app that we have

(05:31):
to see how the solar panels areperforming. So we checked the panels.
Turns out that six out of thenine years the solar panels had been underperforming
for their contract that they were supposedto build a certain kill watch per hour.
So we got frustrated. We've beentrying to reach out for them for
months and no one's trying to getback to us. So we're just trying

(05:54):
to identify who it is. Soyou got you got the company and installed
it. If they're still around,you sue the company. I know you
have. If you're talking about it, they installed it and you're not paying.
You're talking about a twenty five yearcontract that goes with the house.
And so here's said, here's what'sgoing on. You can't sue the utility

(06:15):
and you can't sue the lending institutionthat's financed the twenty five years. All
you can do is sue the peoplethat installed the solder system. And here
is I mean, they're liable.There's no question they have to bring it
up to par. The only issueis how far back. Can you go
because they owe you money for thedifference between a properly operating system and one

(06:41):
that didn't and cost you X dollars. More problem is is you're they're going
to say, all you had todo was look at the app this is
the first time that we have seenthere's a problem. So the only thing
that we're liable for is for therepair of the solar system. Now you've
paid, I'm assuming you're talking aboutwhat what are they liable for for the

(07:04):
difference in cost over the years?Correct? Yes, I don't know where
you're gonna go with that way,because I don't know where you're gonna go,
because they're going to argue, whydidn't you look an informists. We
had no idea unless they're unless partof the contract is they monitor and they
have to let you know. Idon't know what the contract says. Yeah,

(07:27):
so they're at the very least they'reresponsible for bringing it up to par
and at the most they're responsible forthe repair I mean the cost of the
electricity that you incurb that's only goingabout four years. You're saying six of
the fourth two years are gone,because you have four years in which to
file a lawsuit, and so it'sa written contract of which it depends how

(07:51):
far back you can go on that, because there is a Yes, I've
been trying to contact lawyers, butI guess they're not. No, no
lawyer is going to take it.No, you're gonna have to put the
small claims career. No lawyer isgoing to take that. So I represent
myself. Yeah, you go smallclaims career, You represent yourself, and
you ask for the moon. Youask for the difference. How much was
the difference between when the solar systemis working and when it's not working in

(08:13):
terms of electricity costs? So howmuch is it? Yeah, Alex six
seven hundred dollars that you are payingand you have a solar system in your
house? Correct? Woo okay,all right, well that's several levels of
that. You see at some pointwhen you realize that, WHOA, there's

(08:33):
a solar system in my house andI shouldn't I should pay virtually nothing,
and yet here I am with aseven hundred dollars bill. At what point
you go, WHOA, something's wronghere. What happened is you let it
go or your uncle let it gofor all those years? Yeah? Yeah,
yeah, exactly. Yeah, nottoo smart on that one. You

(08:54):
know, you can't. You know, there's some responsibility that people do bear.
One of them was this, tyler. You're right welcome to handle on
a lot, tyler. Yeah,how you doing? I was working for
Saint Joseph Center. It's a nonprofitbased out of Venice, California. Pretty
much. They fired me for whistleblowing. And I've actually got terminated twice.

(09:18):
The first time in January of twentytwenty one, and then the second
time was in November of twenty twentythree. Wow, okay, So when
you say you were fired twice,they obviously reinstated you and then you were
fired again. Correct, Yes,yeah, what were you fired for the
first time? Out? Honestly,they didn't let me know. I mean,

(09:41):
they didn't give me a reason.Really, okay, all right,
so no reason there. Second timethey fired you, what was the reason
they gave you? They didn't giveme a reason again. They just sent
me a letter, a letter ofseparation. Okay, how do you so,
how do you know it was becauseyou're a whistleblower? Because I was
bringing up I was bringing up safetyconcerns. Yeah, I got it.

(10:07):
Okay, all right, how aboutthis, here's the problem you've got in
order to uh have a wrongful terminationbased on whistle blowing, which they cannot
fire you if you're simply a whistleblower. The problem in California because venice being
in California is uh that an employercan fire someone for any reason or no

(10:35):
reason except discrimination based on race,religion, creed, sexual orientation. That
if you can prove that was theonly reason they fired you, then you
got a case. If you can'tprove it. If you cannot prove that
that was the reason they fired you, then you don't have much there.

(10:58):
Okay, So what if because theyhave put me on lead for a month
and a half prior to them terminatingme after because I have safety concern Okay,
okay, so you brought up safetyconcerns and they put you on leave.
We're at the same place is theycan't come up with any other reason

(11:18):
other than you bringing up safety concerns. Okay, how do you prove that
you have proof? Is there anemail that says we're letting go of Tyler
because he is a whistleblower and noother reason? No, sir, Yeah,
yeah, that's the problem. SoCalifornia. You would think California being

(11:41):
so employee favorable, right, sodedicated to the employee. Legally, it's
discrimination cases are very very tough unlessyou've got a race thing and got one
person who happens to be either innecessity and at this that is singular,

(12:01):
or it's just it's very very difficultto say today the lease. All right,
Janet, welcome to handle it along. What can I do for it?
Yes, ma'am, you helped mein February regarding a claim against the
County of sam Bernardino. It wassnowplowd damage from that big storm last day,
and so I went ahead, didthe file, filed the small claims,

(12:22):
went to court, and you wereabsolutely right. I won my case
and they had thirty days to payor appeal. Well, they appealed.
Okay. So my question to youtoday is should I get an attorney?
Attorney? No, it's the same, no, absolutely. First of all,
what do you attorney? How muchdid you how much? Janet?
How much did you win? Tenthousand, five hundred and twenty three dollars?

(12:43):
Okay, because that's court fees,et cetera. The jurisdictional limit is
ten thousand dollars. All right,so you're gonna get an attorney who's going
to charge you thousands of dollars tothe county to say to court, no,
you don't. You don't get anattorney. What an appeal in small
claims does if you get what iscalled the denvo new trial, so it's
effectively the same trial they appealed it, and the small claims rules are that

(13:09):
the first trial disappears and you doit all over again, same evidence,
everything, and if it's maybe getthe same judge, maybe not. You
certainly bring up that you won thefirst time. Oh you've been then there.
Yeah, they're going to say youcan't say that, you know,

(13:30):
just all the kinds of crap.So legally you wouldn't be able to say
that in a real court, superiorcourt, not the same small claims.
It's not real. It is real, but the rules of evidence. Nobody
cares. They just do it.So you bring up the fact that you,
hey, I won the first timeand these jerks are back again,
and you do the trial again,Janet, that's all you can do.

(13:52):
Yeah, that's it. And ifyou lose, you lose, And if
you win, you're going to bein the same place you are now because
the system gives you the ability toappeal. Let me see who's been sitting
there for a while, all right, Darryl, Hello, Darryl, Welcome.
Hi. I have just a reallyquick question for you. I just

(14:15):
recently hired some housekeepers, and I'mwondering, is it more advantageous for me
to pay them in cash this istax wise or by check? Wow?
Well, first of all, thereare no tax implications paying them in cash
or check because there's no deduction thereby paying house clean okay, paying for
your house okay. Second of all, do you know paying them in cash

(14:41):
under the table is completely illegal?Paying them? Yeah, that's a weird
question, but I don't think itmatters one way or the other. How
much they charging you to clean yourhouse a couple of hours, three women,
one hundred and sixty bucks. Ohthat's a good deal. That's a

(15:03):
good deal. Yeah, I askhim. If I pay you cash,
you know kind of break doway yet. Who the hell knows, But there's
it doesn't really matter other than Iwas just wondering. I know my husband
is disabled, and I don't knowif I could also maybe maybe you can
deduct it, maybe then you haveto prove it. Then you're paying me
cash okay, and then you paymy sorry, pay him by check and

(15:24):
you deduct it. But nobody cares. Now it's a you know, you
do whatever the hell you want.I've never had a question like that.
What are the ramifications of paying thecleaning ladies in cash or check? Now?
I really don't know and really don'tcare, frankly, and I don't
think anybody else cares either. Becky, welcome to handle on the law.

(15:48):
Yes, thank you. In twentyeighteen, I had me replacement surgery.
The doctor cut an artery and theyhad to life light me to another hospital
where I received bypass surgery. Aftermy recovery, I contacted lawyers within a
three hundred mile radius of my homeand no one thought I had a case.
Wow, I just accepted. Ijust accepted that. So fast forward

(16:11):
to last week. I saw anotherorthopedist because I still have a swelling and
numbness between my knee and my ankle, and they ran he ran a test
and he found a very rare,slow growing bacteria that if the second test
proves to be true, I'm goingto have to have everything removed and new.

(16:33):
They put in. Wow, andthen five years I have to have
that one taken out. Okay,So let me ask you a question.
Now, it's a big deal.No, no, there's no question.
It's a big deal. Where doyou live that you that no lawyer within
three hundred miles would take your case. I live in Jacksonville, Illinois,
and I had lawyers in Chicago Springs. Wow. Okay, so something is

(16:55):
weird here and you did it rightafter the surgery. Correct? Oh?
Yeah, the statute of limitations.I don't know what it is in Illinois,
but your past the statute. Nomatter what I got to tell you,
Becky, it doesn't make sense tome. Based on what you have
said, it seems to be tome to be a pretty clear case of

(17:18):
medical malpractice. So I don't knowwhat to tell you. I don't Chicago
lawyers wouldn't take the case. Theremust be something else going on that I
don't understand. I just don't getit. I'm glad I could help you
out. James, Hello, James, welcome. Hi. My truck was
repoe December because I made a claimwith my bank and it basically refunded the

(17:45):
past six months that I made tothe loan company. Okay, I don't
understand. Wait wait, wait wait, I just didn't understand a word of
that. Your car was repolled becauseyou made a claim. Was the car
payments were not being made? Yeah, basically basically non payment. That's not
the main sport of the question.When I called to have an extension,

(18:07):
they said the furthest they would dowas the thirty first of December and it
would be sold at auction. Icalled again multiple times, asking for an
extension. Well, my PRUP wassold on the first. I then went
to my PIO box and found aletter from them saying I could have an
extension till the eighth of January.This was sent probably weeks prior to me

(18:33):
even calling and asking for that extension. Okay, hold on, hold on.
They sold it on the thirty first. How many days before you received
that letter did they sell the car? They sold it at auction January first.
I checked my PEO box probably twodays later, saying in the mail

(19:00):
that it could have been January eighth. I could have asked for that extension.
Okay, and all right, that'sinteresting. Yeah, value the truck
was about sixteen thousand. Yeah,no, I you know I absolutely know
that. I'm just thinking of youknow, what were your damages You hadn't

(19:23):
paid, and you're saying I couldhave paid, and you said I could,
and you didn't give me the chanceto pay you six months back.
Just a quick question. If let'ssee you go to court based on this
and you said they gave me untilX days, would you been able to
pay. Yeah. They were askedfor probably four hundred and fifty dollars to

(19:47):
get everything reinstated in my monthly paymentsgoing back again. I just needed that
a little bit of extra time,right, Okay. I'm just trying to
think based on that you relied onthat and didn't have to come up with
the payment. It was only gonnabe four hundred dollars and they sold the
car wrongfully. I guess I wouldargue, you get the value of the
car. Yeah, you take thema small claims court. Uh, you

(20:10):
know the value of the car andyeah, yeah, no idea it is.
And so you're what you are inthe middle of is a wobbler.
A lawyer is going to cost youa ton of money. Uh, and
it's probably not worth it. It'sone of those cases where you argue you're
on your own. You file insuperior court and argue on your own.

(20:33):
They're going to bring lawyers in.Uh, and yeah, it's it's something.
I don't know which way do yougo on that? It's it literally
is a win, and a winis a is a loss because it cost
you money, and a loss isa loss because it's extra. Because you
know, they took away my onlytransportation. Not really, I mean you

(20:55):
could, but when they when theytook your car, repote it. How
long was it that they had thecar for they I'd argue that too,
Sure, I'd throw that into themix. Why not. Yeah, it's
that's one of those where you noticethat I'm equivocating here. I don't know.
Because when it's small potatoes under tenthousand dollars to go to small claims

(21:18):
court. When it's big potatoes anythingtwenty five thousand or more than it's worth
to go to a lawyer. Whenit's somewhere right in the middle, you
go, what do you do?I mean, lawyers are not inexpensive to
say the least. Gary, Hi, Gary, Gary, question is yes,
My question is my dad took outlife insurance when I was a kid.

(21:41):
I did not know about it tillwe stuck him in the nursing home
and I had to go through hishouse all paperwork and then disclose everything because
we didn't know if there was assetswith it or not. Now I keep
getting he passed, and then Ikeep getting letters from the insurance company.
I can't have that type of lifeinsurance and he did borrow against it,

(22:03):
So how can I get them?Am I liable for it? And how
can I get them? Now?You have absolutely no a liability. What
ends up happening is there is lifeinsurance that pays off. It goes to
his estate, or it goes tothe beneficiary, whoever the beneficiary is minus
the amount of money minus the amountof money that he borrowed. Okay,
So if it's one hundred thousand dollarspolicy, let's say, and you are

(22:25):
the beneficiary, the insurance company isgoing to keep forty thousand dollars and hand
you sixty thousand because they loan themoney against it, and of course with
interest and all the crazy junk feesare going to keep. But no,
in the end, you are notresponsible for any of that. You're fine,
okay, all right? Steven,Hi, Stephen, welcome, Hey,

(22:48):
Good morning, Bill. A quickquestion about airlines. I was recently
on the flight Orange County to Vegas, which, as you know, it's
a fifty minute flight, but theflight was delayed up to three hours,
and we're sitting there on the tarmacand the gate on the tarmac. You're
on the plane for three hours,on the plane for three hours, all
right, So how long can theplane you keep? I know, I

(23:10):
don't I don't know the answer tothat, but I know that the rules
have changed giving you money because itused to not be. Uh. It
used to be where they didn't haveto give you each money or a voucher.
Now they usually did. I mean, if an airline is keeping you
on the tarmac for three hours andthey go too bad, that's the last
time those people are gonna fly.Everybody on the plane plane that airline,

(23:33):
And so they usually gave something.Now the rules under the FAA, UH,
it's there's real money. Uh.And they've actually changed that too,
just recently. It used to behere's a voucher. Now it's real money.
And so you just have to lookup the rules because I don't know
them. But that that's a verygood question, and it's just getting easier

(23:56):
and easier for consumers, for passengers, because it's miserable the airlines. I
mean, yeah, I'm going onvacation and it's a long flight. I'm
off to Europe, and so Ibooked my ticket, you know, and
I didn't get any great deal onthe ticket. Then I find out that
I actually have to pay another onehundred and fifty dollars so I can sit

(24:19):
together with the person I'm flying with. I mean, is that insane?
Welcome to the airlines, all thejunk fies. Oh, Zomon? Or
is that? Do I have thatright? Zamon? Yeah? Yeah,
is that Zomon? Yes? Yeah, this is not going very well,
real quickly, all right, Zomon? What can I do for you?

(24:42):
Well, I bought a house aboutfifteen twenty years ago, and it was
my between me and my wife andmy deceased watch now but yeah, the
deep I'm between both names. Butshe passed away. Then I've emailed again
and my house is under my nameand my wife name. There has to

(25:03):
change that name from my wife tomy new wife. Yeah, what kind
of consequences I would have if Ichanged the name? Nothing, I don't
There won't be any kind of consequences. You just do it. And I
don't think. I don't think thehouse is going to be assessed. Uh.
And I don't think there are anytax consequences because it's your new wife.

(25:26):
Maybe there is on her part.I don't know, But all I
can tell you is how to doit, because I don't know. I'm
not an a tax person. Uh. And how to do it is fairly
easy. You have to bring thehouse into your name because she has to
slight your Your dead wife has tosign a deed that transfers from her name

(25:51):
on it to just your name.Very difficult to get, very difficult to
get dead people to sign those documentswith your wife. Was she buried or
was she cremated? Okay, wellthat's easier than having someone who's been cremated
as sign a document that I mustgive you. So what you get to
do is you get her death certificateand you file it with the recorder's office

(26:18):
and it's an affidavit of the deathof a joint tenant. So he goes
into your name and that is fairlyautomatic. It's just easy. You can
just look that up and then whenit's in your name, you transfer the
property from you to you and yournew wife, so it becomes a joint
tendancy where you and your new wifeown the house. So that's fairly easy

(26:42):
as far as the only thing istax consequences and whether they're going to reassess
the house. I don't know,Okay, so you may want to talk.
Yeah, I don't know. Idon't that. I don't know that.
I don't know because I don't dotaxes. And you could call someone
in terms of whether it's reassessed ornot, because that is a non legal

(27:04):
issue. John, Hello, John, welcome. Yes, can a reasonable
case be made against a big boxstore for pain and suffering for a botched
installation? No, No, it'sjust a breach of contract, John,

(27:26):
pain and suffering is pain and suffering. Now the big box store that they
don't actually do the installation, obviouslythey refer people installers, separate contractors.
But you still argue if it's theirrecommendation unless you sign off saying they're not

(27:47):
liable under any circumstances. All we'redoing is giving a recommendation, even that's
up in the air. But painand suffering, first of all, if
they install it wrongly, I agree, it's a pain in the ass.
I also agree that you suffer becauseit's a pain in the ass legally,
not a chance. What you haveis a breach of contract and it's money

(28:10):
damages and that's it. So howbadly do they screw it up? John?
It was a matter of time.It was a project that was supposed
to take a few months and tookeighteen months. So you have you gone
to the store and complained to managementand saying, hey, you guys refer
this. This is one of yourguys. Took eighteen months. Oh yeah,

(28:33):
what are they saying? They're justtelling you to pound sand Well,
no, they've made an offer tome, but it wasn't for the full
amount. So okay, full amountof what is the full amount of?
What the installation of what I paidfor the materials and the labor. Wow,

(28:53):
you want all your money back aswell as getting so basically you want
a free installation, free cabinetry,and free labor. How much did they
offer you? About five k?Okay, how much did it cost you
to put it in? That waslike eight eight So effectively it's gonna cost

(29:17):
you thirty five hundred dollars for aneighty five hundred dollars installation, and you
were out of cabinetry for eighteen months. Oh maybe fifteen months, should have
taken about three to have taken threemonths. So now you get to go
to court and sue them, maybeten thousand because you can know your own

(29:40):
for an extra fifteen hundred bucks andhave some judge say yeah, that's worth
it. Or what if I'm ajudge, I'm going to ask you,
Okay, what did you do?John, I mean during that time when
you didn't have cabinet tree, whatdid you do? Well, there's a
lot of details, and I'm notsure we have enough time. No,
no, no, no, nono, I'm not talking about what did
you do? Did you bring didyou bring in boxes? Did you use

(30:02):
another closet? What'd you do inlieu of the cabinet tree? I really
can't get into those details, butI can just assure you it was a
nightmare and I would have paid doublethat if this right, if it's worth
it, if it's worth it foryou to get ten grand because you want
more than the cost of the cabinets, and you're going to say it was

(30:25):
worth more, My hassle was andby the way, pain and suffering is
out of the question. If you'reif you're going to argue to a court
that I should get because of thehassle. And let's say you can come
up with some extraordinary story of ahassle, which I'll give you, and
you don't even want to tell mewhat it is, so it has to
be some criminal, you know,sex with the animals, saying you are

(30:48):
arguing for free cabinet try and severalthousand dollars on top of that. That's
what you're arguing in front of ajudge. Okay, that's all I'm telling
you, and I don't know enoughabout it, but you know, I
can't even say I would take itbecause I don't know the facts. But
that's effectively what you're asking for.The general answer, Can I get pain

(31:11):
and suffering? No, you can't. This is handle on the law.