The Troubleshooter 2-20-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Ripped up.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
News need advice, Well you don't.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Have come running. Just as nass as we can.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Shooter's gonna help come.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
Dix is the Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martino, Hey, hey, hey.

Speaker 5 (00:25):
I'm Tom Martino, and I welcome you to the show,
the only show of us kind anywhere, as we say,
recovering hundreds of millions of dollars over the years in cash, merchandise, exchanges, refunds,
and services. And if you're streaming the show, welcome. If
you are, I just want to say this, You're gonna
see some ugly people today, and I'm the small corner

(00:49):
at the bottom. And then we got mister John Fuller,
who's the co pilot today safety pilot. And John Fuller is,
as you heard, our personal injury expertise, also a pretty
good guy that we use from time to time. Mark
and Suzanne are off to a concert and fun weekend
for her birthday. Am I allowed to say her fiftieth birthday?

(01:14):
Deputy Doc in the studio? Deputy Oh shoot, big big five?

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Oh I did?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
How old are you? Kachina? Why do woman make such
a big deal out of age? Yeah? I was really
or not?

Speaker 7 (01:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:32):
You look like a baby. Honest to God, you look
like a baby. It's really and and.

Speaker 8 (01:37):
Sus looks fifty three, but I always round up one year.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
When I told me the God's on us truth.

Speaker 5 (01:45):
If Sus told me she was thirty five, I would
not think a second.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
No, she's not, not one second thirty. The reason why.

Speaker 8 (01:54):
You think that that I am younger than what I
look is because I'm short, oc curly tween.

Speaker 5 (02:01):
No door, no your skin, your voice, yeah, you know
the way you coff your hair. I'm sorry, I'm digressed anyway.
Whatever that means waterpros dot net. I'm telling you, uh,
he's extending some of these specials for me until he
tells me to stop. Thirty one ninety five whole house,

(02:22):
get rid of chemicals, forever chemicals, whole house conditioning and softening,
and then water to drink reverse osmosis in the kitchen.
I'm you will never find these prices thirty one ninety five,
never three ninety five, never ever ever.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
You will be shocked.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
If you went to a plumber and got a bid,
you get a bit for over fifteen grand I'm sure
three oh three eight six, two five, five five four
for this extraordinary deal three all three eight six, two five, five,
five four. Well let's uh, let's talk about something John
John Fuller our personal in direction. But oh, by the way,
I should not exclude callers. Three three seven one three

(03:00):
Talk is our local number, live and local in the
station here, and if you call the national line, we
get people, of course listening and downloading the podcasts thousands
and thousands a month from all over the country, and
of course in our backyard here. So it's three oh
three Martino, three oh three, six two seven, eight, four
sixty six. Now that number rings through twenty four to seven. Uh, Kachina,

(03:22):
colorI sues and the risk We download them, and we
listen to the messages, and we get you on the
air if you leave a number, right, Kachina, that's the
one frustration, you say. Sometimes they don't leave a number,
and then you gotta you gotta email them, and then
they have to email you back. And so leave a
phone number if you want to get on the show,
and you will not have to wait.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
That's what we do.

Speaker 5 (03:40):
We call them outbound calls. Three oh three, seven, three
oh three Martino. Now, speaking of communication, we also take
direct texting. Now I have a personal Google number I've
had for years. It comes right to my cell phone
no matter where I am, so you can text me
on or off. The show doesn't matter. And truly it
is a personal text. Seven four seven, nine nine nine

(04:04):
fifty two eighty seven four seven nine nine nine fifty
two eighty. That number is just a combination of weird stuff.
Seven four seven. I like airplanes. That's a big one,
nine nine nine because I couldn't get ten, ten, ten,
and fifty two eighty for the mile highest city. So
having said all of that, that's how you contact us.

(04:25):
Uh So get your calls in. But I do want
to talk to John about something very interesting. So John,
you have an accident, you flip the plane over and
you have passengers dangling.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
No one hurt. I mean, shoot, I shouldn't say that.
No one died.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
You have some injuries, mostly minor. They they cough up
thirty grand each. They say there's a no strings attached.
Do you think there'll be any strings attached?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Or is it the why? And why are they doing it?

Speaker 9 (04:55):
Well, they're trying to get ahead of the game on
you know a bunch of these people kind of grouping
up and and the benefit that they have right now
they are has to.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Come out, aren't they saying? We feel guilty, here's your money?

Speaker 9 (05:07):
Are But they can they can limit the you know,
the terms I guess by not admitting anything and everything else.
I mean, think about the reality. We don't know what
caused that accident. We can all look at the photograph
or the video of it and kind of make guesses
as to what happened, but we haven't heard what the
black box you know, showed, and and what the angle
of descent was, and the speeds and all that stuff

(05:28):
to really be able to put fault on any body
or anything. And so once that happens, then the whole
world of possibilities gets opened up as far as these
these victims and these people that went through that crist
but right now they don't have any of that. It's
the perfect time to reach out and make a deal
and hopefully, you know, thwart some of these claims down

(05:51):
the road that are going to cost a lot more.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
But do you but I almost feel like coming up
with thirty grand the next day or within a week
just almost screams, come come after me for some more money.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
I don't know why that does.

Speaker 5 (06:05):
I okay, but listen the cause I'm not an airline
or aviation expert by no means, but by limited knowledge,
my limited knowledge. Truly, that's a heavy plane and it
was coming in with wind shear, and I think it
lost its head when and dropped.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
And when it dropped, I think a gear collapse.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
When the gear collapse went down on the wing, the
wing dissevered and the momentum kept it going over. That's
my just my feeling, and you're you're probably gonna find
that out. You know something else though, I want to
ask you, John, if I'm hanging upside down, I unhook it,

(06:42):
fall to the ceiling, get out, and literally have no injuries,
can I sue for trauma?

Speaker 9 (06:49):
Of course?

Speaker 5 (06:51):
I mean is that gonna In other words, is there
a PI suit PI suit for every passenger?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
I think does every passenger have a case?

Speaker 9 (07:01):
Listen. I'm not saying it's a super you know, high
value deal, but I think every.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Passenger I'm asking you, I think they all have a case.

Speaker 9 (07:10):
I think every passenger can rightfully claim that they were
the victim of negligent infliction, of emotional distress and all
of the stuff that goes along with being in a crash.
Hanging upside down, flames, smoke, stuff being shot all over
the place. It's a very scary event that they went through.
And if it later turns out that it was pilot
error or something that somebody did wrong, then absolutely they're

(07:35):
going to be lined up.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I don't know how.

Speaker 5 (07:38):
I don't know what they would if wind shearing.

Speaker 9 (07:43):
When you're just guessing on the wind shear, there was
a thirty degree quarter of a cross wind at that time,
and maybe there's windshield, I don't know.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
Did you notice I used the words you know, he's
taken on mark all of a sudden.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Did you notice I.

Speaker 9 (07:55):
Used the word if if? Yes, if, But we don't
know that if.

Speaker 5 (07:59):
There was this, if there was this wind shehar that
caused a sudden loss of headwind. If there was and
it was determined, let's say, let's say the doppler and
everything shows it, it's you still are going to have
attorney saying well, you should have been coming in faster
because of it, or you should have compensated for it,
or whatever.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
I mean, so, really, when would it not be? When
would it not be.

Speaker 5 (08:22):
On the airline? I want you to give me a
scenario if an if scenario when would it not be
on the airline.

Speaker 9 (08:33):
I can't really think of a scenario where it wouldn't
be on the airline unless it was a mechanical failure
that had nothing to do with the airline itself and
strictly with a you know, an outside repair company or something.
And even then faster, yeah, even then they're going to
point back to the lack of the protocols that would
have discovered the mistake or I mean, you know exactly,

(08:54):
I can't really think of a way that you're not
going to rope in the carrier, and you know, in
some way, just out of you know, caution, you're gonna
name them as well, all.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Right, And that's John Fuller, by the way.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
He's our fill in and also our expert on all
kinds of personal injury stuff. So on this thirty grand.
To me, they're gonna be sued anyway. They're all good,
they're going to pay out. I have no idea what
the thirty grand, unless it might they figure, Look, if
this thirty grand dissuades one person from suing us because
they feel better, they feel that's enough, or they didn't

(09:31):
get any energury, maybe may I ask something John, we
hear this all the time, this expression ambulance chaser, and
and you know, it's obviously used to disparage personal injury attorneys.
And what I want to know is this, are there
attorneys that will have people soliciting or is that against

(09:54):
the rules? I mean literally calling these people or finding
out who they are, or dropping flowers by or you know,
does that go on or is that just more of
a myth, an urban legend, so to speak.

Speaker 9 (10:06):
I've heard about it. I mean, I've heard about that
kind of stuff. I don't obviously I don't do any
of those kind of things, and I don't know anybody
that does those things. But you know, with that being said,
there are certainly people that seem to get you know,
a lot of certain kinds of cases and stuff that
you have to wonder. So I don't know, I mean,

(10:27):
everybody's searching for an angle and somebody to refer cases
and stuff. So anything is within the realm of possibilities.
But it is not permitted to go out and solicit cases.
I frequently, you know, you can ask.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
What does that mean? What does that mean? It's not permitted?

Speaker 9 (10:42):
Is it against the law or is it the bar
or what? Yeah, it's the state bar and the ethics
rules that we have to live by. We can't go
hang out in the emergency room and just wait for
you know, for people that are banged up to come
running through the front door. That's not allowed. I mean,
it's it's strictly not loud. And so, you know, Susanne

(11:02):
and them call me all the time. It's like, hey,
we had this great call on the show. Why don't
you call them up? And it's like, I can't do that.
I can't call these people and just solicit, okay, the
business out of the blue. They have to call me.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
I got another text on this. I got actually two
or three. This is a popular really it just lit
up a second. But first I need to take a
break on Tom Martino three or three, seven one three
talks seven or three two, five to five one clear choice.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Garage doors. Listen, let me tell you something.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
I had a door that wouldn't close one night and
it was like approaching midnight. They come out twenty four
to seven with any kind of an emergency. People don't
think of garage doors as having emergencies. By the way,
all of their prices are fully disclosed. If you want
to have them do a new door, a new opener,
any part of the door, any part of the opener.
I really love these guys that've been associated with them
for years. One clear choice doors dot com seven two

(11:53):
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for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens

(12:14):
of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
seven to one.

Speaker 9 (12:18):
Help.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. I'm Tom Artino, your troubleshooter three oh
three seven one three talk seven one three eight two
five five. When are you ready to take the plunge

(12:41):
for electric cars? I'm just curious. I asked that I
hear that NASCAR in the very near future, I mean
very near, meaning not tomorrow or this year or next year, but.

Speaker 3 (12:54):
They're going all ev.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
Even NASCAR has said, oh wait, or has Michael Brown
put it?

Speaker 3 (13:01):
They're going zero net zero emissions or something.

Speaker 5 (13:06):
Maybe maybe that's tricky speech for we're gonna buy some
I don't know, some offsetting credits. Do they still do
that scam where you can buy credits to offset your guilt?
Did you know that for cheating husbands? They have credits
you can buy now, So if you're gonna cheat on

(13:27):
your wife, called jewelry in it in advance through the
jewelry and flowers or acts of kindness, and basically it
just builds up credit. That's how ridiculous I feel credits are.
There's it's absolutely stupid. You're saying, I'm going to do
some extra good so I can do some extra bad
so my net bad is not bad. I mean, isn't

(13:49):
that really what they're saying.

Speaker 9 (13:50):
I don't think that's the way it works. I don't
think you can just well stock the old credit.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Actually, see, it's not.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
That far off they you know, I'm not kidding, it's
not that far off. You you do you buy something
like like you buy trees or or you pay for
certain uh things to offset.

Speaker 9 (14:14):
Yeah, but now you're venturing down the road of like
these carbon credits and stuff, and you're sounding very algorish,
and you know this idea that you can I know,
but who are you paying this money to and what
does it do and how does it buy.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
You the I don't know. I'm not advocating leer.

Speaker 9 (14:29):
Jet is dumping eighteen thousand tons of carbon between here
and Davos, Switzerland, you know.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
And I'll have you know, I'll have you know that
my lear jet doesn't burn near that.

Speaker 9 (14:42):
Well that's three L three set it really warm to
the heart, you know.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Yeah, seven one three, eight two five five. For those
listening by the way, or who don't know us, that's
not I don't have a lear jet.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Okay, it's a citation, Okay.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
So I I wanted to talk about personal injury on
the Kulda would have should have. I'm not this is
all going to be like nameless. And it wasn't John Fuller,
but it was many years ago. There was a time
there was an infant, an infant who there's something with

(15:18):
medicine messed up. It didn't hurt the baby at all
at all, but there were some tense moments and the
baby was given some kind of drops.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Here here was the gist of the story is that
the mom was so.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
Upset and the attorney says, look, you're not going to sue.
Nothing happened.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
And in this case.

Speaker 5 (15:48):
And John, afterwards, I'll give you the name and all that,
but it what they did was they sued on the
fright that that mom went through. And it was a
could have, should have?

Speaker 3 (16:02):
Would it not not would have? But yeah, well if
you would have done it right, But it's like what
could have? What could have? And she actually want some
money on that.

Speaker 9 (16:09):
Surprise you, John, you know, depending on I said, how
did it work out for him? Well, she won, Yeah,
depending on the jurisdiction. I mean, listen, that is not
a case that I would take And I and and
that exact same thing happened to my sister. She was
she she had a prescription to pick up for her child.

(16:30):
She went and picked it up, went home, gave it
to her child, and then found out that it was
the wrong drug in the prescription bottle. And thankfully fortunately
nothing happened. But she was beside herself mad And I
just said, no, it's just not a case that I'm
willing to take on. I think a lot of juries
are like, well, nothing happened, you know, move on, and

(16:54):
they're just you know, that's just And I don't really
have a problem with that. I mean, I'm not saying
there would be a case sometime somewhere where that would
be a legit claim, but just just on the face,
it's not a case that I would take on.

Speaker 5 (17:10):
Okay, all right, but there are cases where they get
a jury incensed even though there were no there was
no permanent damage on how casual they were. There was
one another one that stands out John years ago, this
woman slipped and fell at a supermarket. It was an
obvious bull crap thing, but she was upset with how.

Speaker 3 (17:34):
The manager reacted.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
Okay, her actual injuries didn't turn out to be that bad,
but she was so incensed that the manager was so
casual and almost disrespectful, and I think she was trying
to play a race card, but I'm not sure. But
she did get an attorney to take the case, and
he said on the show, oh yeah, we can do

(17:57):
something with this. You know, I don't know what the
outcome was, but I often said most lawsuits are out
of anger, and good attorneys disregard anger.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
But Tom, I can tell you doesn't there have to
be in a company injury, not just an insult to injury,
so to speak.

Speaker 9 (18:17):
In my world, yes, absolutely, I have gotten that call
at least twenty times Tom over the years.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
Okay, I'm glad that. Okay, So you do know people
do that. They get angry by by reactions as they get.

Speaker 9 (18:30):
Mad, and it's like the next question as well, where
you're hurt, Well no, but that's not the point. And
it's like, that's exactly the point. You're not hurt, and
that's a necessary ingredient for the you know, a negligence
action or premisis's liability action.

Speaker 10 (18:44):
And John will tell you so a lot of the
times of communication, we as physicians have to in order
to continue our malpractice insurance, we have to take courses
on how to deal with bad outcomes, computing, hating with patients,
accept the responsibility and it significantly lowers the chances of

(19:06):
being sued if it's a minor incident.

Speaker 9 (19:09):
Don't you agree, John, Isn't that bad? They have to
send them to a class to learn how to say
I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (19:15):
Well no, it's actually sorry.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
But it's communication is so fricking important.

Speaker 9 (19:21):
That is That is the gist of it. Is that
most people, if you know, not everybody is just dying
to go sue. And some people legitimately just want to
hear the doctor say we made a mistake and that's
the end of us. And they learned that lesson and
they did implement it, and it was it was with
good intentions, as good as an insurance company wanting to
save their own money can be, you know, ascribed to it.

(19:44):
But it's yeah, Hey, I don't.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Know if this is true, but I just got a
text saying that Tesla got wealthy or or became a
profitable because other car manufacturers were purchasing carbon credit from
Tesla in order to offset their own lack of building evs.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
I don't even know that's true. But is it true?

Speaker 5 (20:11):
I'm asking my boyfriend. Okay, my boyfriend said, you are
absolutely right. Which one profitability?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Chat GPT.

Speaker 5 (20:23):
I want to change it to a girl's voice like
Gemini used to not Gemini, but co pilot used to be.
I dropped that co pilot Microsoft Copias sucks. I like Chat,
but he has a man's voice and I can't change it.
So yeah, I used to call her my girlfriend. This
is my boyfriend You're absolutely right Tesla's profitability, but his
preferred pronouns are it and whatever piece of crap, So

(20:48):
I'm done. Tesla's profitability in early years was a result
of regulatory carbon credits they sold to other automakers.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
I never knew that many.

Speaker 5 (21:02):
Traditional car manufacturers, especially those producing gas powered vehicles, needed
to comply with emissions regulations in various markets. Instead of
immediately transitioning to some EV vehicles, they bought zero emission
credits from Tesla.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
For years.

Speaker 5 (21:24):
The revenue stream actually helped Tesla remain financially viable while
it was scaling up its EV production and losing money.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
On each car.

Speaker 9 (21:35):
Sounds like a good business.

Speaker 3 (21:36):
Think about that.

Speaker 5 (21:38):
They're losing money on each car because they wanted to,
because they were they wanted to get in the EV business.
But at the same time, blah blah blah, you know,
they they were selling credits. Okay, this is pretty cool.
We got more coming up on Tom Martino three oh three,
seven to one three talk. By the way, we talked
about this before, I'll talk about it again.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Eight eight eight Heating dot com.

Speaker 5 (21:59):
Somebody asked to pacif do they have the cheapest precere assistant.
What they mean is this, if you get a ninety
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they will have the best price for high efficiency units
and they stand behind that. So I can't be any
more clear than that. It doesn't have to be the
same brand. It has to be the same efficiency and
the same actual kind of stuff. You can't compare it

(22:21):
to an eighty percent, Uh, you got to compare it.
If they have a ninety eight, you got to compare
it to another ninety eight with the multi stage, then
multi stage, so on and so forth. Three this is
eighty eight heating three oh three seven seven zero two
seven seven six. Go with a sure thing Denver's best

(22:41):
roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup, free no
obligation comparison call compass insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh
three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're
his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real

(23:03):
estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax
Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi,
Tom Martino here three oh three seven one three talk
seven one three two five five. Okay, Marianne's on with
a follow up. Go ahead, Marianne. You uh are you

(23:25):
work with Deputy D. Deputy D's in house. Hello, Yeah,
go ahead, I'm listening.

Speaker 11 (23:31):
Oh.

Speaker 12 (23:32):
I called the other day about problems without trash pick
up at a condo complex.

Speaker 13 (23:39):
And you put me in teach with Dimitri.

Speaker 12 (23:42):
Yes, he and he worked miracles. Hey, he took cares
waste connections, came and picked up al garbage. It was wonderful.

Speaker 13 (23:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (23:58):
I'm glad you called to let us know that Depity
D gave us an update yesterday on that. And so
now do you think they'll start picking up regularly?

Speaker 12 (24:06):
Well, I just saw the truck leave my parking lot
this morning, so we're out here. They were out here
again yesterday this morning.

Speaker 5 (24:19):
So did you go around telling everyone that you were
Did you go out and tell everybody you were responsible
for all of this?

Speaker 3 (24:27):
By you? By you?

Speaker 12 (24:31):
I told my board, the HOA president, and next week
we have a homeowner's meeting and I will tell them
on the meeting.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
I didn't tell them all to the Tom Martino Show.

Speaker 9 (24:46):
She should get an.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
I'm going to do the dinger.

Speaker 5 (24:49):
Don't tell me how to use my dinger and listen, Marianne,
here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
I want you to tell everyone to listen to the
Tom Martino Show.

Speaker 13 (24:58):
Oh I do.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
I do that all the time.

Speaker 14 (25:01):
Good.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
I'm so happy, and.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
I want to give you what Deputy Doc was saying.
Deputy Doc was saying, I should give you the dinger.
What that means is this, we have a dinger like
a winner sound when people have good success on the show.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Here it goes now dog gone it never mind. I'm
just so tired.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
Okay, just when I need my dinger, it lets me down.
And I had it all working, not working.

Speaker 9 (25:26):
It normally works.

Speaker 5 (25:27):
No, you know, at seventy one, you know sometimes, Marianne,
the dinger doesn't always work.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
I'm gonna be honest with you.

Speaker 13 (25:34):
You know what feeling.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (25:41):
Now, yeah, man, I'm telling you sometimes I just get
this technology craft.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
Okay. So, Adam, what's happening with you? Adam?

Speaker 15 (25:52):
So I talked to you the other day about lantac
Is here in Pueblo, West, how they changed Wait a minute,
wait a minute, what what.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
Was it about?

Speaker 13 (26:00):
Well, was.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
It was about property taxes and extra land, right, And
I think I remember talking to you and I said
something about Adam that if the lot was together, they
the extra land is is should be part of the
original homestead. But if it's a separate lot, they tax
it as a vacant lot.

Speaker 15 (26:22):
Okay, So let me just throw this out there. Since then,
I've done some research in looking into it, and I'm
just going to give you two examples. I got two
properties of neighbors that live within eye sight of me.
One of them have the exact same as me house
on one lot totally fenced in vacant land. Next door,
his lot was right, not changed, stayed at seven and

(26:44):
a half percent cross.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
Okay, but let me let me let me ask you something.
This is real quick. I need to ask you something.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
So that neighbor you're talking about, he's got two separate lots.
He lives in one on one of the lots in
a home, right, correct, And the other lot is totally vacant.

Speaker 15 (27:05):
Yep, not a thing on it. He just has it
there for a house is not built next door, just
like me.

Speaker 5 (27:11):
And how are they and how are they classifying it?
Are they classifying it? As part of his primary residence
or are they classifying it as a vacant lot?

Speaker 15 (27:23):
So when I just got off the phone with the
assessor's office.

Speaker 5 (27:27):
They no, No, this other neighbor. How are they doing
his lot, his extra.

Speaker 15 (27:31):
Lot classifying it as a residential lot.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Well, then that would be a pretty high tax.

Speaker 15 (27:38):
No, it is the same seven and a half percent.
It's the vacant land taxes at the twenty seven and
a half percent.

Speaker 5 (27:46):
Oh you mean the vacant land meaning what's the okay?
I want you to tell me, and I hope you
tell me when you talk to them, you found out
the difference between vacant land and a vacant lot.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
Go ahead, They don't have.

Speaker 15 (28:00):
A difference between a vacant land and a vacant lot. Basically,
they had one person at the assessor's office that hand
picked eight hundred and seventy lots that they changed the
evaluation on. They couldn't give me any claim.

Speaker 3 (28:15):
Well, then you're going to win. Then you're going to win.
And do you know how easy it is to do?
You know how to challenge an assessment?

Speaker 5 (28:21):
Right?

Speaker 15 (28:22):
So if I do an abatement, they say that the
only thing I could argue in the abatement is the right,
like the way that the taxes is given to me.
I can't fight the classification of the land that they
changed the only way.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
I could have.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
Well, that's not that's not true, Adam, you're not getting
accurate information. Let me explain something, and we do have
ed Tomlinson who wrote the book over text, and he
wrote how to, how to you know, reject or protest
or contest the assessments and even the taxes and the bills.

(29:02):
And each level you go up, the consumer is more successful.
The first level they usually turn you down and they
tell you ridiculous things like that, we're not going to
take this, We're not going to take that. The second level,
they're a little more amenable. The third level you almost
always win unless you're ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (29:18):
But what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (29:20):
Doesn't sound ridiculous to me. I don't understand this. Why
would one lot, a separate residential lot in that subdivision
be taxes seven and a half percent and another one
at twenty five percent?

Speaker 3 (29:34):
I don't get it.

Speaker 15 (29:35):
I don't get it either. And what I was going
to tell you is the lady across the street has
three lots, one on each side of her. One of
hers was changed to twenty seven and a half percent
and the other is it seven and a half percent?

Speaker 5 (29:48):
No, no, okay, that's absolutely wrong. And you know what,
we need someone to look into this now. You know,
I don't know how did we leave our last conversation.
Did I assign this anyone or what? How did we
believe you forgot that.

Speaker 15 (30:02):
I probably have to pay the tax because they had
the right to change the evaluation.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
They do, hold on, they do have the right.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
Let me explain what I meant. They can change, you know,
as a municipality, they can change their mill levees and
all of that, but they have to be consistent. I
mean what I'm saying is they could say to people,
For example, a lot of people were trying to get
a residential lot oversized so they pay one assessment and

(30:35):
one rate. But then some counties came in and said,
that's not an oversize lot. That is a separate residential lot.
And if it's a separate residential lot, then you're going
to pay a higher tax than if it was simply
extra land that you have on your own lot. Adam,

(30:58):
it doesn't matter, it doesn't apply in your case. But
that's what I thought they were doing. I thought they
were telling you, hey, Adam, it's since you never built
on it and it's been there forever, we're going to
classify it as Oh no, excuse me, just the opposite.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
They should have said to you.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Uh, we're going to classify it as a separate residential
lot and the other one. I don't know why the
vacant land thing came into effect. It sounds like they
have no rhyme or reason. Hey, can what if you
guys make a call down there? Hold on, man, hold on,
I got to take a break. Three oh three, seven
to one to three, talk Adam. Hold on, I'll talk
to you again, Bro, I will don't hang up. This

(31:35):
is inconsistent. We have more coming right up. Go with
a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for
an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass

(31:56):
insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies.
Find out now three oh three seven seven to one help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. Hey, I'm Tom Martino, your troubleshooter three

(32:17):
oh three seven one three talk seven one three five.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Adam.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
I have a quick question, Adam, forget the vacant lot
next to you. I just want to ask you, what
is your house assess at what percentage?

Speaker 15 (32:30):
Seven and a half percent?

Speaker 5 (32:32):
Okay, So on some on some residential properties, they're assessing
the lot next to it, which is a vacant residential lot,
the same way they would if there was a house
on it, at seven and a half percent. But in
some in some cases, they're taking the vacant lot and
they're saying, no, this is raw land, and so we

(32:55):
are going to charge you more. And that makes zero
sense to me. Now, didn't you say last time, though, Adam,
wasn't there some kind of weird case with you where
your particular was there something where it hadn't been built
on or you don't plan to build on it? Ever,
wasn't there something to do with intent?

Speaker 15 (33:17):
There is nothing to do with intent. No, they have
no idea of no intent. I have to do with
the land. It is just a purchase piece of land
between me and the person that lives there. So nobody
puts the house there.

Speaker 3 (33:29):
And they are on a survey two separate pieces of land.

Speaker 15 (33:33):
They are two separate pieces of land.

Speaker 3 (33:35):
Yes, correct, Like you would be lot if you looked
at the if you looked at the platt. Oh well
you just told me that, then two separate.

Speaker 5 (33:43):
So if you look at the plat the subdivision, you
would be lot number six, and that could be lot
number seven exactly.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Wow, I and Adam. The only excuse they gave you
is they can do it. They have the right to
do it.

Speaker 15 (33:59):
They they quoted these court cases and they told I
mean the answers I got from are they changed eight
hundred and seventy lots. And they wouldn't tell me what
their process was to determine which lots were eligible. Okay,
they had one person in their office who basically picked
which wats they were.

Speaker 5 (34:17):
Okay, if they if they and and this is what
d is going to look at because DEA is convinced
it's not random.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
They have some kind of formula. So let's just.

Speaker 11 (34:26):
Say utilities to the lake. If they come a lot
in question, do you have utilities hooked up to that
lot already?

Speaker 3 (34:32):
So there is a waterline that we're going to run
out of time? Is run?

Speaker 5 (34:37):
Hold on, We're going to run out of time. Hold on, Hey, Shannon,
what do you not understand about?

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Hold on?

Speaker 5 (34:42):
Okay, we got more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show.
Stick around Why are they doing some lots more and
some lots less? We'll talk about it and more on
the Troubleshooter Show. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best
Roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
You don't pay a cent until your content.

Speaker 5 (35:02):
Leave time for an insurance check up free, no obligation.
In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh
three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate
Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two yea.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
Ripped off. You need advice so you don't have to
come runing sus fast as we can. Shooter's gonna help.

Speaker 9 (35:42):
Come man, This is the Troubleshooter Show.

Speaker 5 (35:47):
No Tom Martine, Okay, Tom Martina, your Troubleshooter three oh.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Three seven one three talk seven one three A two
five five. Here to help you any way that we can,
any day that we can.

Speaker 5 (36:01):
John Fuller's with us and he is our expert on
personal injury, but he also helps us on the show
from time to time.

Speaker 3 (36:11):
And Adam's got a question on property tax that we
talked about it. I guess.

Speaker 5 (36:17):
He brings up a good point, and I want to
know if anybody has any suggestions for him. Deputy d
is going to make a call, but can anyone think
of a reason why? And I think it's going to
boil down to I don't know, maybe intent. I know
he said it has nothing to do with intent. But
let me give you a scenario. If you have a

(36:38):
lot next to you and you're living on a lot,
and so you have one lot in a subdivision with
a house on it and you live there and next
to you. Let's say you bought a lot to buffer
or just bought a lot for speculation.

Speaker 3 (36:54):
It doesn't matter why you bought it. You bought an
extra lot.

Speaker 5 (36:57):
And if your house has a tax ra of seven
and a half percent, and that vacant lot also has
a tax rate of seven and a half percent. Then
why all of a sudden would they assess it at
twenty seven percent, saying it's no longer a vacant lot,
it is now vacant land.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
And I don't think that's what's happening. I have another theory.
This is my theory.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
My theory is they looked at Pueblo West and a
bunch of other lots in Pueblo, and they said, you
know a lot of people have extra lots that they're
never going to build on, they're never going to sell, and.

Speaker 6 (37:43):
We are going to now.

Speaker 3 (37:46):
We're going to call that extra land or vacant land.
We're going to add it.

Speaker 5 (37:53):
But that still doesn't make sense to me, because I
don't know why they wouldn't assess it at the residential rate.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
I don't get it.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
I just I'm trying to I'm trying to impute reasoning
to them. John Fuller, you have any idea why they
would take land and some of it a tax rated
at seven and a half and others at twenty seven
and a half.

Speaker 9 (38:13):
You know, the only thing that just comes to mind
is whether there was some deed restriction on the undeveloped
properties or not if it could be developed. Dimitri I
thought had a great idea about whether there were some
utilities it might have been hooked up to the lot,
making it, you know, available for development, whereas perhaps another
one is not. I mean, there's got to be something there.

Speaker 5 (38:35):
Or there's some reasoning in their head, in their head,
there's some reasoning, or we're going to find out.

Speaker 9 (38:41):
That there's not, and it's just an absolute mistake and
it's going to have to get you know, recognito.

Speaker 15 (38:47):
But they're quoting do you think court case that the
Supreme Court case you've looked up online last time? They're
quoting that as there now reason.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Too, and can you refresh our memory on that court case.

Speaker 15 (39:02):
I don't know a whole lot about it, honestly, but
I think it was Casey County versus somebody, and it
gave them the right to declare lots as vacant land
versus residential lots.

Speaker 9 (39:16):
And I understand that, but they can't they can't.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
No wait, wait, even if that's true, go ahead, John.

Speaker 9 (39:22):
Yeah, that that may be well and good, but they
can't classify similarly situated properly properly differently. That's the difference, right, and.

Speaker 15 (39:31):
That's that's exactly what I'm saying, is that is exactly
what they are doing. The people right in front of
my house has a house on one in the lot
next door, and he is classified at seven and a
half percent on both.

Speaker 9 (39:43):
I think you're going to have to go through the
appeals process, and you may even have to be the
next lawsuit that goes up to the Supreme.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
But I think he'll win. I think, hey, how much
difference in tax does that all add up to.

Speaker 15 (39:54):
I mean, it went from two hundred dollars a year
to one thousand dollars a year.

Speaker 11 (39:58):
That's a lot when you had a all trap man, Adam,
have you followed the county assessor's appeal process?

Speaker 15 (40:06):
They are sending me the I mean, the only thing
they say I could do is do an abatement. But
they said the only way I could have appealed it
was appeal it last April when they said they sent
me a letter which I don't believe I received. Okay,
said they're now sending me another letter and they say,
come May, I can appeal it for next year.

Speaker 11 (40:25):
Okay, I think you're going to get your answer when
you appeal it in May.

Speaker 15 (40:30):
Yeah, but I still have to pay this year, they which,
I mean, it's a thousand dollars. Fine.

Speaker 3 (40:35):
I don't think you're going to get away.

Speaker 11 (40:36):
I don't think you can get away from that because
the time to appeal this particular year has come and gone.
Even though it sounds like it's not your fault, there
is nothing that any of us can do to get
the county to say, Okay, he doesn't have to pay
until he files next year's appeal.

Speaker 15 (40:50):
Well, no, I mean, I just don't think it's not
only fair to me, it's not fair to the eight
hundred and seventy people that they randomly picked. And when
I asked him how they decided, they told me one
person in their office went and looked at the lots
and picked the eight hundred and seventy Watts that he picked.

Speaker 11 (41:08):
I don't dispute that, and it does sound like something
fishy is going on, But I think the clearest and
the most proper way to filew to do this, to
dig into it, is to file an appeal in May,
and then they'll provide you in writing what their justification is.
Or it could be that their investigation will turn up
some information in your favor and they'll reverse this reclassification

(41:30):
of your property.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
Hey, I have an idea though on the appeals process.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
If we can, can you call Ed Tomlinson Kachina, I'll
give you his number, Ed Tomlinson real Estate Services. You're
ready to take his number? No, I'll text it to you.
Never mind, I'll just text it. Just text it to me,
all right, Kachina. Yeah, I think that we need to

(41:56):
we need to call him. I want to know not
he may know why this has happen, but I think
also what he will do. His name is Ed Kelly.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
He may have a way to you know, like he'll
give us an idea of how to protest it. Because
when they say.

Speaker 5 (42:12):
You're not allowed to use this or you're not allowed
to use that, you can use anything you want. They
can't tell you what you can and cannot use. I mean,
I never heard of such a stupid thing. And by
the way, I don't know if Frank Dran the real
estate man, would know anyway. But in any case, if
you're ever looking for an assessment of what something's worth,

(42:33):
Frank durand the real estate man dot com.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
While we're on the topic.

Speaker 5 (42:36):
If you're looking to list something, he can give you
a pretty good indication based on the market and the
neighborhood and the comps. And that's his forte of course,
and of course selling in record time for more money,
and that's three oh three nine to zero teen twenty two.
So Adam, we're gonna find We're gonna see what we
can find out. Let's move on and we'll get back

(42:59):
to you. I promise you, and I bet you.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Deputy D's talking to you already. So we have some
things we've been talking about.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Somebody had a personal injury case and they said, why
is it that I can't get an attorney to take
a slip and fall case? Now you mentioned one time, John,
that slips and falls or or let's call them premises liability,

(43:28):
they're very difficult. What's difficult about them?

Speaker 9 (43:32):
Well, the you know, the main difficulty is that it's
a statutory cause of action, meaning that it's not just
simple negligence like we might have for a car crash
or something else. So we have a statutory what's the difference.

Speaker 3 (43:46):
I don't understand that. What's the difference.

Speaker 9 (43:48):
So what happened is back in nineteen eighty six, the
legislature said, you know, we just can't have these people
suing every time they slip and fall on a commercial property.
And they're going to make all of our businesses close
up and leave this and we better do something, and
we're going to pass along and make it really tough
on people to file these darn slip and fall cases.
And that's what they did. And so they occupied the

(44:10):
field with a statutory meaning, a law that sets forth
the actual parameters that you have to satisfy if you're
going to claim injury from a slip or a fall
on somebody else's property. And so we have this crazy
thing where and it's not the only standard, but the
standard that applies to most people is that the landowner

(44:30):
is responsible for their unreasonable failure to take reasonable steps
to protect against the dangerous condition that they knew of
or should have known of. And you might think, well,
what's the problem with that, Well, you have two reasonables
and a new or should have known in the same sentence,
and so it can be manipulated to where almost nothing
truly qualifies as a unreasonable failure to take reasonable steps.

(44:54):
I mean, just that language alone is confusing and courts
struggle with it, and so do reason everything else. And
so it's my understanding that the latest stats are that
among cases that go to trial for premises liability, almost
seventy percent of them will result in a defense verdict,
which means the planeiff, the guy that got hurt, loses.

(45:14):
And so that's the standards you're up against. They're very tough,
they're very expensive, and a good number of them end
up going to trial where the plaintiff ends up losing.

Speaker 5 (45:26):
Okay, okay. So in essence, when it comes to lawsuits
for let's say, personal injury, yeah, I would say, and
I don't mean this as a put down or an insult,
but the low hanging fruit traffic accidents, right, I mean
truly because usually there's someone at fault.

Speaker 9 (45:48):
Well, I mean if if by low hanging fruit you
mean we have more of those planes than other types
of injury cases than I will.

Speaker 16 (45:56):
They're easier to pursue, They're easier to pursue. Let's say,
I don't know that I agree with that. There is
a tremendous mechanism or machine out there of the defense
industry that fights at every level and every angle to
diminish and deny legitimate claims by injured people. So we

(46:18):
battle every day in our claims for our clients.

Speaker 5 (46:24):
Okay, all right, so it's and and and then somebody
else just texted me and wanted to know about, uh,
if a commercial truck hits them, isn't that a whole
different set of circumstances And is it easier to collect
whatever that means?

Speaker 9 (46:39):
It's most definitely not easier to collect. The problem with
commercial cases, is it. Not only do you have a
simple negligent you know, issue between the driver and the
injured party, but we also have an entire body of
federal law, in the federal motor carrier safety you know,
regulations that apply dictate a whole separate group of standards.

(47:03):
And we also have the carrier, we have the shipper,
we have the receiver, We have a whole bunch of
different people that are potential, you know, potentially liable in
the case of a large commercial vehicle accident. So they
are very complicated, you know, And and they also tend
to be the cases with the most catastrophic injuries, and

(47:23):
so you know, there's just simply no way that you
could handle a case like that yourself and get a
and get a respectable outcome.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
No way, okay, so on.

Speaker 5 (47:37):
So also they said that there are some limits to
liability based on legislation or laws. I don't know what
they're referring to, but in that case, have you ever
busted through one of those limits?

Speaker 3 (47:54):
I have no idea what they're talking about.

Speaker 9 (47:55):
Yeah, So, just generically speaking, there are limits that apply
to onmost every lawsuit. And the limits are are They
differ based on the type of case, and and a
bunch of different factors. Mostly the limits apply to non
economic damages, which are the traditional pain and suffering type
damages that can't be quantified with a medical bill or

(48:16):
a wage loss calculation or something, and and and and
then there are provisions that allow, in really extraordinary cases
for a judge to double those those caps and and
allow the plane to recover more. I have not had
a case where that has happened. I've only heard of
one or two cases where that's happened. It's very rare

(48:37):
and and and generally, you know, the bulk of the
damages you know, are in a case like that, are
going to come from the economics, so you know, it's
it's not as not as difficult, So I don't know.
It's a it's a tough cap to get to get over.

Speaker 5 (48:53):
Okay, and uh, we have more coming up on the
Troubleshooter Show three zero three seven to one three talk
seven one three eight two five five Go with a
sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You
don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an

(49:16):
insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance
paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies
find out now three oh three seven seven to one.

Speaker 9 (49:26):
Help.

Speaker 5 (49:26):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Hi Tom Archino, Arlen, what's going on with you?

Speaker 13 (49:44):
Well? I have a problem with getting Champion Windows to
come out and replace my broken kitchen window has happened
two days ago, I guess. I picked up my blind
and I looked and there's a crack on one side

(50:06):
of my kitchen window.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
How long ago did you have those windows put in?

Speaker 13 (50:13):
I really don't know. I had different job sections of
the house put in at different times, but they say, okay, guaranteed,
They're guaranteed for life. This is the three sixty five glass.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I understand. Do you know how it broke? By any chance,
you know how it broke?

Speaker 5 (50:37):
No?

Speaker 13 (50:37):
I looked in the yard. There's no bird. I mean,
I got a big yard and I'm facing west now.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
Not all warranties covered. I don't know about champions warranty.
Not all of them covered a break or a glass breakage?

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Does theirs?

Speaker 17 (50:57):
Oh?

Speaker 13 (50:58):
Okay? But they they told me it would be one
hundred and nineteen dollars. Okay, But they said they couldn't
do anything for ninety.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Days or the long And when was that?

Speaker 5 (51:13):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (51:14):
And when was that?

Speaker 13 (51:15):
What I found the crack when I called it?

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Why did they say? Why did they say it was
going to be that long?

Speaker 13 (51:23):
They said they were backed up.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Oh and you can't wait or what you can't wait
ninety days?

Speaker 13 (51:32):
Well, if we get a big wind from the west
and this window comes in that I'm really screwed.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
But how bad is that crack that you might think
it would collapse?

Speaker 13 (51:45):
Well, from top to bottom, the bottom I could feel
the one edge is not what is what the glass?

Speaker 10 (52:00):
Oh well, Arlene, one thing you can do is just
put some duct tape on the crack on both and
that will prevent it from.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
Down or reinforce it a different way, even doc, I
know what you're saying. They she could put some plexi
or some plastic or something just to just to reinforce you.

Speaker 6 (52:16):
Well, duct tape is just the busiest.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Yeah, yeah, I guess, I guess they're Arlene. Do you
have any handyman?

Speaker 5 (52:25):
You know?

Speaker 13 (52:27):
No, I'm the handyman, Arlene.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Where do you? Where do you live? What part of town?
Don't give me your address, but what part of the
city are you or the metro area?

Speaker 13 (52:38):
I'm a North Glenn.

Speaker 5 (52:41):
You know you should be able to get someone who
can just I mean, you say you're the handyman.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
I mean, who do you have to do little things
around the house when you need them?

Speaker 9 (52:53):
She does thersel?

Speaker 5 (52:55):
Have you ever thought about how about just putting duct
tape over the box the window, over the crack and
then then double over.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
And triple over that.

Speaker 18 (53:05):
Camp just until they.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
Can get out there.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
Now, did they take your name and address and did
they definitely say they would put you on the list
or what?

Speaker 13 (53:16):
Yeah, they said they would write a ticket on me.

Speaker 3 (53:20):
Okay, Tom, I would say that, doctor, Yeah, why don't
we do that.

Speaker 19 (53:27):
I've worked with Champion Windows on several cases on ninety days,
isn't I know they're backed up, But Arlene, I can
make a call over there for you and see if
they could maybe expedite.

Speaker 5 (53:38):
How are you finding how are you finding the reaction nowadays? Bo,
Because you know, Champion Windows is not the same company
we're used to.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
I mean, they they really suck right now.

Speaker 19 (53:49):
I worked on I worked on one case with a
security door, and it took them almost a year to
get off their boughts to get it taken care of.

Speaker 6 (53:57):
They're very difficult.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Oh my god, Hey, Arlene, is it a single pain?

Speaker 6 (54:02):
Double pain?

Speaker 13 (54:04):
Like I say, it's a three sixty five glass?

Speaker 5 (54:09):
Now we get it, Doc, I don't think. I don't
think Champion ever made a single pain ever.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
So it's a double pain yourself.

Speaker 10 (54:15):
So only one of the pains is cracked, so that's
probably it shouldn't be a problem.

Speaker 13 (54:22):
Then the outside.

Speaker 9 (54:26):
How long is the total Arlene? How long is the
total crack.

Speaker 13 (54:32):
From top to bottom?

Speaker 9 (54:34):
Yep?

Speaker 13 (54:35):
Let me see.

Speaker 9 (54:36):
Just take a guess.

Speaker 13 (54:38):
I'm not good at guessing.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
Well, can you put your hand over the whole crack?

Speaker 9 (54:42):
Is it a small six inches? Maybe a foot long? Okay,
as long as your legs only?

Speaker 6 (54:51):
Can you just send us a picture?

Speaker 3 (54:53):
No, she's telling us.

Speaker 13 (54:55):
Now, yeah, let's say two feet okay?

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Whoa Okay, so that is a big one.

Speaker 5 (55:08):
Hey, listen, bo, why don't you make a call for
I got to take a break. Three oh three seven
one three top three oh three seven one three eight
two five five Stick around. We got more coming up
on the Troubleshooter Show. Go with a sure thing Denver's
best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a

(55:30):
cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,
no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your
coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three
oh three seven to seven to one.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Help.

Speaker 5 (55:46):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (56:02):
All right, welcome back to the Troubleshooter Show. This is
John Fuller. I am filling in for Tom in many ways.
That cat is away and now we can play. We
have a lot of stuff going on. We have open
lines this afternoon, and so we need to get some
calls from you. We are here to solve problems, answer questions,
state complaints. We are here to help you solve what's

(56:22):
going on in your life. So I am a personal
injury attorney. I have been so for twenty three years.
If you have questions about insurance, about you know, a
wreck that you just got into, anything that's going on,
the roads have been slippery, We've got more snow coming in.
We've got lots of accidents out there. If you have questions,
give us a call. I'm happy to help with those.
We can talk about medical treatment, we can talk about

(56:44):
anything you want that's associated with a PI case or
anything for that matter. We can venture into other areas.
We have three noble and worthy deputies here in the
studio today. We have Dimitri, we have Bo and we
have doc all of whom are here to help you
with your problems. And we assign out those problems as

(57:05):
they come in and with particular regard to their skills
and expertise. And so if you have an issue that
we can help you on. Give us a call again.
We have open lines right now.

Speaker 6 (57:17):
We have to get a picture of the window from Arlene.

Speaker 9 (57:19):
No, we're just going to go back to Arlene right now.
And looks like Arlene may have just fallen off here.
We've given that over to Bow and he's going to
be following up and you know, one way or the other.
I think the solution to her short term problem with
this cold weather is to get out there, get some
duct tape on that crack and at least, you know,
preserve things until Champion can get out there, if and

(57:40):
when they ever do and stuff. So that's what's going
on there. You got it?

Speaker 5 (57:44):
Bo.

Speaker 19 (57:45):
Yeah, I'm going to make a call this afternoon, and
I have a feeling they're going to drag your feet.
So maybe this weekend I might be able to take
a drive out the North Glenn and put some tape
on her window.

Speaker 6 (57:57):
Yeah, get her fixed up.

Speaker 9 (57:58):
Yeah, that'd be I'd be not a nice of you
to do that, And I really think that's all that
you need to do in the interum.

Speaker 10 (58:05):
So if it's a double pane window, other than the
heat loss, is there really a problem with having a
crack on one of the two pains.

Speaker 9 (58:13):
Well, you're gonna lose the thermal efficiency of having the
gas in between the two layers. But other than that,
it's not gonna leak. You're not gonna let air come in.
It's really gonna continue to do the same job. It's
just not gonna look real good with duct tape across there.
But there's nothing to worry about. It's not going to
fall in with wind or or anything else.

Speaker 6 (58:32):
So I think that's what she said. She was afraid
of you, afraid of it falling.

Speaker 9 (58:35):
I think she's gonna be fine. I really do. But
we appreciate Arlene calling in with that. Bo I understand
you've got an update on a furnace issue that you
were dealing with. What's going on.

Speaker 6 (58:46):
Yes, we've been working.

Speaker 9 (58:48):
With her for a few weeks.

Speaker 6 (58:50):
Her names Erlene.

Speaker 20 (58:52):
She has a train furnace.

Speaker 9 (58:55):
The poor lady.

Speaker 20 (58:56):
She hasn't had a functioning furnace and snow fami, oh
my god.

Speaker 19 (59:01):
And she's had several contractors out and every one of
them said the parts were not available, and one of
the contractors, I believe, did a little sabotage to the furnace.
Pulled all the wires out. When I was there, it
looked like spaghetti, all the same color. So I've been
out there a couple of times, and I did some

(59:23):
research and.

Speaker 20 (59:24):
Parts are available for the unit. It's an older unit.

Speaker 19 (59:28):
But you know, she only has she's only getting three
hundred dollars a month from Social Security, and the furnace
bids came in at seventy eight to nine thousand dollars.

Speaker 9 (59:39):
Holy moly, is that the one where that really was
the issue. Everybody just comes out and says, you need
a new furnace, and nobody wants to actually put the
time and effort into fixing it.

Speaker 19 (59:49):
I think a lot of times when I used to
be in a business, they'd come out and look at
the serial number. If it's fifteen years old, they don't.
They kind of stop and they go into sell mode.
But a lot of people can't afford it new equipment
and it has to be repaired. And this lady went
to a departments from bought like six heaters and her
family huddles in the bedroom one bedroom at night to

(01:00:12):
stay warm. So to catch up everybody on it, I
talked to the train corporation about it. The motor is
a little difficult to find, but that I was really
pleased to Trained.

Speaker 20 (01:00:24):
Corporation did locate a motor. It's from New Jersey.

Speaker 19 (01:00:29):
They're bringing it in and the Train Corporation is going
to donate the motor. Oh fantastic and the computer board
and it's about a thirteen hundred dollars value outstanding. So
it took about several weeks to bring the motor in
and it came in last night and before I came
into studio, I drove to the trains supply house and

(01:00:52):
picked up the motor. It's in the back of my car.
I'm going to deliver it to early after the show.
And I do not have the capability to install the motor.
It's got like sixteen wires going to it. But the
Train Corporation found an authorized trained dealer.

Speaker 6 (01:01:09):
It's Jay and j h Vac. His name's Jerry.

Speaker 20 (01:01:13):
He went over to the house yesterday and confirmed my
diagnosis that it is.

Speaker 19 (01:01:18):
The motor and they're going to install the motor hopefully
tomorrow or this weekend. And Earlene is going to have
heat for our house and her family.

Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
Well.

Speaker 9 (01:01:28):
I don't see a dinger, but if any case deserves one.
That's it though, that's fantastic, great.

Speaker 21 (01:01:34):
Work, so much for getting this done for this poor
elderly lady. No, Danner's till we get the fire on.
Well give it my follow up on that when you
get to go in this show up Monday. And I'm
so happy for her because she's got a.

Speaker 9 (01:01:46):
Lot of time and effort invested in us.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
Both.

Speaker 9 (01:01:48):
Thank you so much. It's a great job.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
Bo.

Speaker 9 (01:01:51):
Yeah, Peter, let's go to the phone right now. Peter's
got a question on auto insurance before we go to
the break. Go ahead, Peter, Yes, sir, Hello, Yeah.

Speaker 18 (01:02:02):
Hey, I was wondering my daughter was in an accident.
The preeople took off on her and uh, she's having
a hard time collecting under unassured underinsured motorist.

Speaker 9 (01:02:13):
Okay, why what's going on?

Speaker 18 (01:02:19):
Well, she filed the clay. They want to put it
under collision.

Speaker 9 (01:02:23):
Okay. So you're talking about the property damage on her car? Yeah, okay,
did she have uninsured motorists property damage?

Speaker 17 (01:02:35):
She had everything full coverage.

Speaker 9 (01:02:38):
Okay, So what is the problem with putting it under
the collision just the deductible?

Speaker 18 (01:02:48):
Well yeah, well, plus I wondered if my understanding that
unassured underinsured.

Speaker 9 (01:02:56):
If it goes under that, they don't raise your Yeah,
that's true. They can't penalize you, but they can't actually
penalize you unless you were at fault for an accident.
So even if they decided to use the collision coverage
to fix that car or replace that car, at the
end of the day, it's still not her fault unless

(01:03:17):
there's something about the accident that I don't know. There
is a difference, and I'll explain that right after the
break between uninsured property damage and uninsured motorist coverage and
try to tie it all in with the with the
collision coverage. So if you can hang on just a moment,
I will address all those right after the break. So
hang on.

Speaker 5 (01:03:39):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up, free no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three O three seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only

(01:04:01):
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (01:04:12):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troublesitter Network.
We are back and starting to stack up the calls,
but we've got a couple of lines open, so if
we can help you with the problem, give us a call.
Three three seven one, three eight, two five five or
three oh three. Martino is the number directly here into
the studio, and we are looking forward to helping you.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
So.

Speaker 9 (01:04:31):
Uh, before the break, we had Peter on the line.
Peter talks about his daughter getting in an accident where
the other driver left the scene and she's now having
difficulty with her uninsured motors coverage getting her car fixed.
And I wanted to explain some of the differences in
coverages out there, and it's it's kind of a misnomer
many times when people say I have full coverage, that

(01:04:54):
doesn't always mean that they have an uninsured motorist property
damage coverage, because if you have full coverage, there's really
no need to also have uninsured motorist property damage coverage
because you already technically have that with the collision coverage
that you have on your policy, so you would effect
be paying twice for the same exact coverage. So normally,

(01:05:17):
when you hear I have full coverage, if it's a
good agent, they inform the people that, hey, this is
kind of an extra coverage that you don't need to
pay for, and you just have the collision coverage. Now
that doesn't mean that you don't have uninsured motorist coverage,
but that motorist coverage is meant to essentially step into
the shoes of the other driver in the event that

(01:05:39):
they had no insurance to pay for your injuries and
your damages to the person, not to the car itself.
So I hope that helps explain exactly what's going on.
There's still a regulation in Colorado that says if you're
not at fault for an accident, they're not allowed to
penalize you for the for the claim and stuff. And

(01:06:00):
so I can't think of a better example of a
case where you're not at fault, you know, for causing
the crash, than to have somebody run into you and
then leave the scene of the accident.

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
Go ahead, doc, I actually don't question.

Speaker 10 (01:06:12):
Let's say that there was damage to her front right fender, Okay,
and she says, well, it was another car and he
ran off, when in actuality she hit a pole out,
how would the insurance company if the driver in off, Yeah,
she wasn't.

Speaker 9 (01:06:30):
That's a couple. That's a really good question and one
that you know, I always you know, I always recommend
that people call the police and follow a police report
when something like that happened. So there's a little bit
of just trust that goes into it. But you know,
I have seen seen insurance companies come out and investigate
those claims and take really detailed photographs and they're trying

(01:06:52):
to find out whether there's any rust or anything on
the damage that indicates it might have been there for
some time before it was claimed to be damaged. But
you know, it's still a collision claim. You still have
the right to get it fixed. You're going to have
to pay a deductible and so it may not be
in your best interest if it's not a big crash
to go ahead and follow that claim. Really, the only

(01:07:12):
issue is whether or not it's a you know, an
at fault to accident or not. And that's where I
think having the police report and making a report of it,
particularly when you're claiming that it was a hit and
run driver would would really carry the day on that
for you.

Speaker 6 (01:07:27):
And also, just to reinforce one of your.

Speaker 10 (01:07:32):
Great ideas, put one hundred and fifty bucks into a
dash cam. It saves so much aggravation. You know, after
talking to you for a while, I went out and
bought one. It was one hundred and fifty bucks, and
I feel so much better now that if something happens,
I have a record of it. It's not that expensive
and it really can save you so much aggravation.

Speaker 5 (01:07:52):
It.

Speaker 9 (01:07:53):
Yeah, it really is just that simple. Dash cams are
going to give you a four K or ten a
AD or whatever. I mean, full color, really high quality
video of the event. So you're going to see everything
from the front of the vehicle, from the back of
the vehicle. You're gonna be able to see signs and
lights and other drivers. And there's just nothing better than

(01:08:16):
having a video. I mean, I don't care if you
had ten witnesses lined up on the sidewalk to watch
this accident, I guarantee you out of those ten, two
or three of them would have a different version that
would claim the other guy was at fault or something
like that. But those videos, they do not lie. They're amazing.
I'm just the biggest fan of them. They Actually I

(01:08:36):
saw the other day had they'd come out with new
technology from Garman for bicyclists and stuff where it actually
has rear wood facing radar that as soon as it
gets a signal that there's a car coming up behind
it starts filming for the exact same reason, so that
you have a video in case something happens.

Speaker 10 (01:08:53):
I have a questions John on some topics. Let's say,
in this case where the driver left, if if she
had a camera that showed the license plate, do the
cops tracked down hit and runs if they have the
license plate or do they just say it's a civil matter.

Speaker 9 (01:09:11):
Well, I mean, it kind of depends on the police
and the police agency. I'm planning to talk a little
bit about that in the next segment if we can
get to it. But it's a really good question though,
and the answer is we would hope so, because you
can't do much better than to have a film of
the person, you know, crashing and leaving the scene and stuff.

(01:09:32):
But frankly, sometimes they don't follow up on it, but
you can follow up on it because you know any
good investigator can find that person's identification, you can bring
a lawsuit against them, and then if they have insurance,
during the course of that lawsuit, they're going to have
to give you who that insurance company is and that
coverage and go from there. So we're going to take

(01:09:53):
a real quick break. We'll be right back. We got
Carolyn lined up with a question about propane, and we've
still got a couple of lines, and so give us
a call.

Speaker 6 (01:10:05):
I didn't even talk about it.

Speaker 13 (01:10:06):
Next.

Speaker 9 (01:10:10):
Okay that we're not going to break Caroline. Let's go
ahead and get your question out. Sorry about that. What
is going on? Caroline?

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
Hello, thank you for taking my call. I had a
propane delivery back in early December, and when I called
to order the delivery, I've had this company for years.
I'm eighty years old, and I get LEAP, which pays

(01:10:39):
the propane company twice a year for pro paye for help.
So I waited until it was time that I could
have that five hundred dollars sent to my propane company.
And that was in December. So they came out and
the man, you know, he was at the tank and
did the tank and then.

Speaker 13 (01:11:00):
Left and.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
A couple of weeks later, I got a bill in
the mail from the propane company.

Speaker 9 (01:11:08):
Up, all right, Caroline, we will dig into that in
just a minute. Hang on, we've got to take a
break real quick. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:11:19):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three O three seven
to seven to one.

Speaker 3 (01:11:39):
Help.

Speaker 5 (01:11:40):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:11:57):
New Shooter's gonna help her.

Speaker 13 (01:12:07):
Come man.

Speaker 4 (01:12:09):
This is the Troubleshooter Show, now Tom Martine, all.

Speaker 9 (01:12:21):
Right, all right, all right, John Fuller here filling in
for Tom Martino on the Troubleshooter Network. It is the
second half of the show, and we are rock and
rolling here. We are finishing up with Caroline. Caroline was
selling us that her story. She she got her propane fill.
She's on the leap assistance program. Tell us the rest

(01:12:41):
of the story, Caroline, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
Okay? They came and a couple of weeks after they
left us, was back in December. I got a statement
from the pro Paane Company for three hundred and forty
five dollars, and you know, I called them and you know,
said that I had I had leap and I had

(01:13:05):
to wait till I get that five hundred dollars and
I get as much propaine as I can get for
five hundred.

Speaker 9 (01:13:12):
Now was that three forty five after they applied the
five or the five never showed up?

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Who never showed up?

Speaker 9 (01:13:20):
I said, was that? Was that really eight hundred and
forty five dollars of propane? And you're saying they just
applied the five and sent you a bill for the balance.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Yeah, they sent me a bill for the balance, and
it was supposed to have been five hundred and twelve
dollars with my leap. And so I called them and said,
you know, I ordered just five hundred dollars worth, which
is two hundred gallons, and I've got this bill and
they said that, they said, we're sorry, the driver looked

(01:13:49):
at the wrong ticket and you know, filled your tank
and that's the difference. And they said, well, don't worry
about it. It was our fall, so I just let
it be. And now I've gotten another pin in the
mail for that three hundred and forty five dollars that

(01:14:10):
they say that I got that amount of pro pain
that I owe that, you know, and I don't want
to have to go to collections.

Speaker 9 (01:14:19):
Yeah, no, I understand. So Caline, did did they send
you an email or confirm for you that they weren't
going to pursue that balance over the five hundred?

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
No, it was just on the phone.

Speaker 9 (01:14:30):
Do you remember who you talked to?

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
You know, I don't.

Speaker 13 (01:14:33):
I don't.

Speaker 10 (01:14:35):
Caroline of a question, you said, you get the five
hundred dollars twice a year, right, okay, so the next time,
the next time that you do for the five hundred,
they should only get one hundred and fifty five dollars
worth of pro pain, right, and that should balance it out.

Speaker 9 (01:14:50):
I think the issue is they're going to turn her
over to collections and she's gotten failing and stuff. So
maybe do you think you'd be able to help her
with this.

Speaker 6 (01:14:56):
I'll definitely talk to Carolina.

Speaker 9 (01:14:58):
So Caroline, I'm going to assign this over to our
deputy Doc here, who is fantastic at getting to the
bottom of these issues. And I think that just reaching
out to this Propaine company and either working something out
in anticipation of the next leap payment or getting something
documented that they're not going to pursue collection of the
over you know, the the overage that they delivered to

(01:15:19):
you is in order.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
So we'll hand every one way or the other.

Speaker 9 (01:15:23):
Yeah, we'll hand it over to Doc and then we'll
look forward to a follow up here in the not
too distant futures. That sound okay, Caroline, you know that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:31):
Would be wonderful.

Speaker 9 (01:15:32):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:15:33):
So the problem is is that if they take that
and I only have one hundred and fifty dollars okay
over you know, that gives me hardly any pro Paine.

Speaker 9 (01:15:43):
Well, I understand that, but hopefully the fact that they
over delivered by several gallons means you have a little
bit of extra in there. So either way, we're going
to get to the bottom of it. So Caroline, hang on,
We're going to get your contact information and Doc will
be in touch. Okay, thanks for calling, Caroline. We're gonna
next go to Hey, sus On the line, who has

(01:16:05):
a question about car insurance? Hey sus, thanks for calling.
What's going on?

Speaker 22 (01:16:09):
Hey, John, Yes, I had a quick question. So I
was rear ended about two weeks ago, okay, and it
wasn't my fault, and there's another vehicle involved, and the
insurance company wants me to submit acclaim with my insurance
due to possible written it issues.

Speaker 9 (01:16:27):
Okay. Were you injured in this accident, hey sus And
I was not. So we're just talking about property damage here, right.

Speaker 22 (01:16:35):
Just property damage. So I have a commercial truck, okay,
so Ram and I have you know, commercial insurance. So
my insurance a month is already super high. So my
fear is if I go with my insurance that my
rates go up in the future.

Speaker 9 (01:16:52):
Yeah, that's always a possibility, hey sus. So here's the deal.
In Colorado, as you probably know, the minimal limits for
property damage is only fifteen thousand dollars, which is just
ridiculous because there aren't that many fifteen thousand dollars cards
out there, but nonetheless, that is what the limit is.
So when you see these, you know, the General and
all these low end you know, Fred Loye's and stuff

(01:17:15):
like that, all these low end policies. The reality is
they've got the minimal limits across the board, So that
means twenty five thousand for liability and only fifteen thousand
for property damage. So unfortunately the only option you have
is going to be to file that difference on your claim.
They will get the full fifteen out of the at
fault driver's policy and apply that towards the damage, but

(01:17:37):
the difference will be on your policy. And again, it's
not your fault. They're not supposed to raise up your
rates because of an accident that wasn't your fault. But
I'm always you know, realistic about it, and an insurance
company can do what they want, but there is actually
a regulation that says they're not allowed to de rate
you based on an accident that wasn't your fault.

Speaker 22 (01:17:57):
So very estimate came in at six thousand fix my truck.
So I wanted to wake this out and see what
the you know, am I entitled to half of that fifteen?

Speaker 9 (01:18:08):
Were there multiple yeah? Were there multiple cars in the reck?

Speaker 22 (01:18:13):
There's another vehicle that got that totally got salvage or
what do you call it?

Speaker 9 (01:18:19):
Yeah, total loss?

Speaker 6 (01:18:21):
Right?

Speaker 15 (01:18:22):
So am I entitled to that seven thousand.

Speaker 22 (01:18:25):
In that case, it would cover my damages. I see
it that way.

Speaker 9 (01:18:29):
So you know the answer is who knows it. You've
got two claimants, and there's one way to look at
it that says we're equally entitled to, you know, an
equal share, and you just split it down the middle.
But more commonly, what they do is they try to
figure out the proportional amount of the loss. And so
if that person's car was thirty thousand dollars of loss

(01:18:50):
because it was a total loss, and yours is only six,
then your share is one sixth or whatever that comes
out to of the total, which means they would like
to say you're only entitled to one six or the
fifteen thousand dollars of coverage. And so that happens all
the time. Heyesus, And that's why you know, turning it
over to your insurance company at least they'll be there

(01:19:10):
to fight, even even through intercompany arbitration, to get the
biggest you know, portion of that fifteen to go towards
your credit and diminish the amount of the claim on
your policy.

Speaker 6 (01:19:20):
John, does it ever pay to go after the driver personally?

Speaker 9 (01:19:24):
Yes, yeah, it does, and you can get a judgment
against them. But you know whether or not that means
the insurance company is just going to write you a
check for the total amount of your losses is a
different thing, because they still only have fifteen thousand of
coverage and so you know, what the insurance company can
do at that point is either submit the entire thing

(01:19:45):
to to the court to figure out and then you
know that doesn't really benefit you that much. But if
you sue the guy and you get a judgment, you know,
you may be collecting small checks for the next three
years getting paid on that. But you know, the reality
world that we live in is doing that.

Speaker 22 (01:20:03):
Okay, yeah, I don't mind doing that just but the
problem is I'm already paying over two thousand dollars a
month in insurance.

Speaker 9 (01:20:10):
Holy holy well, listen, hey, sous. If you've got the
ability to not put this on your on your insurance
and to go after him directly or to self finance
and get this thing fixed, you absolutely have the right
that is well below the statutory maximum of small claims court.
You can if you need to find all the forms

(01:20:31):
for that, you can go to Colorado Supreme Court dot
com and they have a whole package under their self
help section of the forms and the instructions and where
and how and who you have to you know, file
and serve and it's super easy, and it sounds like
under these circumstances you would will Can you.

Speaker 22 (01:20:48):
Pay out from being Can I take a payout from
the insurance?

Speaker 9 (01:20:52):
Not really for him? No, they're gonna if you take
a payout, they're going to require you to sign a
release that lets that be the end of the road.
But if you get a judgment against them, then certainly
any amount that they haven't paid, they're going to want
to contact you and try to work something out. So
very good strategy, I think if you're in the situation

(01:21:12):
you're in, that's definitely how I would go and pursue that.
And you know, let the cards fall where they will.
You may find that they come back and magically find
a little extra money to make you hold there.

Speaker 22 (01:21:24):
Got it?

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
Now?

Speaker 22 (01:21:25):
They don't disclose his limits? Is that something you can
do to find out or yeah, how Colorado works?

Speaker 9 (01:21:32):
No, Colorado is a shall disclose state. And what that
says under the law is and it's kind of a
pain to be honest with you. But if you send
a registered letter to the to the insurance Commission requesting
their limits and stuff. They have to give it to you,
and I think the timeframe is like thirty days.

Speaker 22 (01:21:50):
But got it, You know, let me send that.

Speaker 9 (01:21:52):
But you can absolutely do that. Look that up on
the insurance company regulations and if you want to contact
my office later on and we can direct you to
the exact statute that you can cite. I don't have
it right here at my fingertips, but but yeah, you
send that letter out and they'll they'll tell you what
the limits are. And usually if they're in this situation
where they're claiming minimal limits or and they don't have

(01:22:13):
enough coverage, they'll tell you what the coverage is. They
can't just say we don't have enough, but I'm not
allowed to tell you what our limits are.

Speaker 22 (01:22:20):
You saying that it may reach limits. It may like
that's what they keep saying. Yeah, they get very on
the phone.

Speaker 9 (01:22:26):
You may find that when you when you serve their guy,
they get a little more easy to work with.

Speaker 15 (01:22:32):
Got it.

Speaker 22 (01:22:32):
Okay, that's all I need to know.

Speaker 9 (01:22:34):
That be the approach. I would takes good luck to you.
Let us know how it works out. Okay, all right,
so we're gonna move along here. We have open lines
once again, and we are here to help you with
the problems that you have. We're going to take a
quick break. We'll be right back. Give us a call
and we'll help you out in your deal.

Speaker 5 (01:22:58):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only

(01:23:20):
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (01:23:38):
All right, all right, all right, John Fuller back sitting
in for Tom Martinez on the Troubleshooter Show. We are
having a great time this afternoon talking about things. We're
going to go to the phones here. We've got a
question from Warren. Warren, what is going on with you, sir?

Speaker 23 (01:23:56):
Actually, Hi, John, I think that's you I talked to
several months ago. Okay, I wanted to add I wanted
to add my wife to the deed of our house.

Speaker 9 (01:24:05):
Okay, They said to do a.

Speaker 17 (01:24:08):
Quick claim deed.

Speaker 15 (01:24:09):
I talked to Chappa.

Speaker 23 (01:24:11):
Who has our loan, okay, and they said, I only
need to just send them a handwritten letter signing it
adding my wife to those deeds.

Speaker 9 (01:24:22):
Signing a quick claim or just as signing the letter.

Speaker 17 (01:24:26):
They said that it didn't have to do a quick claim.
I don't understand why that is.

Speaker 9 (01:24:32):
Yeah, I would suggest that that's not good advice because
no sign letter is going to actually transfer an interest
in that property. Now here's the issue you may run into, Warren,
is that sometimes these these loan companies have a provision
in the actual deed that that's like a do on
sale clause. And if you if you actually transfer it,
even though it's really not a sale, but you are

(01:24:54):
transferring it technically from you to you and your wife
and in some fashion either and it's in common or
or joint tenants or whatever it is you guys may do,
and so it technically is a sale, and it does
change to a slight degree the strength of their first
deed of trust position on there. And so some of
them don't really care but other ones are really opposed

(01:25:17):
to any sort of a transfer like that. So the
best thing that we can probably do is is, you know,
put you on hold, and let's get a real estate
attorney here to see if we can really narrow down
the advice on that. So Warren, hang on. We're going
to get an expert on the line and see if
we can't get a specific answer to your question. Okay, sir,

(01:25:39):
I appreciate it, all right, you hang on the phone here,
So we're going to call and see if we can
get an expert on the line and take care of that.
So we're going to move to a slightly different feature here.
Mister Dimitri has come into the studio today with an
entire list of questions. Here stump the PI attorney, and

(01:25:59):
we're going to see if I can't answer a few
of those two to help out people. So thanks John.
You know, I've always wondered about this thing.

Speaker 11 (01:26:06):
If I get in a car crash and the other
driver is at fault, and this isn't the context of
preserving both my credibility and ability to recover monetary damages,
should I be able to prove some let's say a
guy's in the car crash. He gets banged up a
little bit, some bruises, some aches, maybe a bloody lip,
but that doesn't seem like enough to go to the hospital.
At an ambulance. You know, if a guy is a

(01:26:28):
little sore, he's probably gonna think, yeah, you know, I'll
just give it a few days, a couple of weeks,
I'll get better. So he declines the ambulance services, goes home,
and over the next couple of weeks, you know, some
of the bruises heel. But now, man, you know, the
neck is getting a little bit more painful maybe, or
the knees getting a little more painful. And then he
finally goes to the urgent care and they said, oh, yeah,

(01:26:49):
you've got all of this damage and it's actually serious
to you, moderate to serious damage. Did this hypothetical guy
really give up any of his ability to recover by
not going to the hospital right away.

Speaker 9 (01:27:01):
He hasn't given it up, but he has certainly made
it more difficult to carry his burden of proof. So,
as the plaintiff in the accident, you have the burden
of proofing that that all of the claimed injuries were reasonable, necessary,
and related to the accident. Okay, And so that's really
the reason why we really try to get people to
go to the emergency room, go to urgent care, do

(01:27:23):
whatever they can do to help begin to document those injuries.
So even if you go and get discharged, saying just
monitor and see how you feel in a few days
and then you you, you know, you find out that
it's much more serious, at least you kind of put
a place marker in place that you can go back
and say, I went and this is what they told
me to do. One of the worst things that I

(01:27:45):
just hate seeing is people that go home and then
get on YouTube and figure out what the you know,
the exercises are to do to help help my neck
at home and stuff like that, because let me tell
you that has zero credibility that you add that problem
that you did those exercises, that a doctor would have
told you to do those exercises, or worse yet, that

(01:28:07):
you would have been instructed to take off work or
any of those things. I mean, you've got to keep
in mind that you have that burden of proof, and
it starts from the moment that that crash ends until
the moment that we sit down and work out of settlement.
With that insurance company, And is.

Speaker 11 (01:28:22):
It better to go from the perspective of maintaining credibility
in the context of proving these damages. Is it better
to go to the emergency room or going to the
nearest urgent care which will probably cost twenty thousand less
per visit? Are those two about the same?

Speaker 3 (01:28:38):
Or is it better to go to some place.

Speaker 11 (01:28:39):
Really serious even though if you don't feel like you
really need to be in the back of an ambulance.

Speaker 9 (01:28:43):
Right now, well you don't have to take an ambulance
to the er. And many people, if their car is drivable,
or if they have a family member that comes out
to the scene, they'll take their own vehicle to the
er and get checked out. And that's perfectly fine. Some
people have, for instance, Kaiser and they want to go
to a Kaiser doctor or a Kaiser hospital instead of
the one right across the street where they're going to

(01:29:05):
get taken. And there's nothing wrong with that, Okay. I
have nothing against an urgent care facility either. However, most
urgent care facilities aren't going to have the ability to
do an MRI. Only some of them have the ability
to do X rays, not all of them have really
high end X rays and stuff. So the quality of
the care that you get if you have something more

(01:29:26):
than just a bump and a bruise may really be
better at the emergency room than at the urgent care center.
As far as the cost of it is concerned, I
get that, but we run into that in every case.
I mean, we're juggling available sources of payment between medpay,
private health insurance, leans, anything under the sun to try

(01:29:49):
to get our clients the care that they need. So
it's better to take care of you and let us
worry about the bill down the road than it is
to not get the care at all and not spend
that money.

Speaker 11 (01:30:00):
Now, thank you, John. Now in front of you, you
have a print out that's my auto insurance policy limits
over there. Can you take a look at that and
let me know how much of that can I use
for my own hospital or urgent care bills without relying
on the other driver's insurance right off the bat.

Speaker 6 (01:30:17):
Yeah, so.

Speaker 9 (01:30:20):
You've got pretty good insurance here, So you know, listen,
I'm going to talk about a scenario in a few
minutes where having insurance or having the other side's insurance
can sometimes be a problem and for the first time,
and this client I'm sure is listening right now and
we'll know that I'm talking about them, but for the
first time. This is a case where I almost hope
that the other guy doesn't have insurance. But to look

(01:30:41):
at your policy here, we have a mandatory coverage in
Colorado called medpay, and it's an optional coverage. It's mandatory,
but you can wave it, so whatever that means mandatory
with an asterisk next to it, but if you don't
wave it. The standard amount of medpay is five thousand dollars.
Not all carriers will offer unmitted medpay, some will offer ten,

(01:31:02):
some will offer fifty or one hundred thousand. Your carrier,
I don't know who it is, but they seem to
be offering twenty five. I would guess maybe State Farm
or something on that.

Speaker 11 (01:31:11):
At Ding Ding Ding, And you've done this before and
that they told me that's the maximum of all of
those line items.

Speaker 9 (01:31:17):
State Farm offers twenty five thousand in medpay and that's
a good coverage. And we'll talk about right after the
break exactly how medpay gets used in an accident. But
we're starting off on a good level and we'll go
from there. When we get right back.

Speaker 5 (01:31:36):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three, seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only

(01:31:57):
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (01:32:16):
All right, all right, all right, John Fuller back on
the Tom Martinez Show Troubleshooter Network. We are here to
help you with your problems. We saw problems, answer questions,
and take complaints, and we are here to help you.
So give us a call. We have open lines right
now and we can do everything under the sun. I
am a personal injury attorney, and so if you have
questions that relate to insurance, car accidents, anything like that,

(01:32:38):
make sure to give us a call. We'd be happy
to help out. We had a call on the last
segment named Warren, who was interested in transferring his sole
interest in his home over to both him and his wife,
and he wanted to do that via a quick claim
deed and was told by his mortgage company that all
he had to do was just send a letter saying

(01:33:00):
I'd like to add her to the deed and that
somehow that would make it happen. And that to me
sounds a little less than the formal way to do that,
And so I wanted to get Dan McKenzie on the
line with OLS Law to talk to us about exactly,
you know, does that do it? Can you just send
a letter to the mortgage company or are they going

(01:33:21):
to have to follow up with a more formal quick
claim deed or some other transference to get.

Speaker 3 (01:33:25):
Her on that deed.

Speaker 24 (01:33:27):
Yeah, you got to do a deed to get to
get her on the deed. I think the mortgage company
might have been thinking they're asking about maybe adding her
to the loan, and it's I guess it's good to
hear that they're open to doing that without requiring a refinance.
But to actually get her on the deed would require
a deed from him to both of them.

Speaker 9 (01:33:46):
Dan, in your practice, do you ever run into problems
with like a do on sale clause when in your
estate planning and stuff. You want to you know, juggle
around the ownership of a property. I mean, do the
mortgage companies normally let you do that or did they
sometimes balk?

Speaker 24 (01:34:02):
You have to be careful. I mean, if you're if
you're quit claiming it from yourself to a revocable living
trust that you're setting up, there's no do on sale
clause issue. If you're if you're moving it over into
like an LLC, like if it's a rental property. That
is an issue we Warren clients about a lot, is
that that could be considered a sale.

Speaker 15 (01:34:23):
So anything other than.

Speaker 24 (01:34:24):
A revocal living trust, Yes, there are some concerns. I
don't know if adding a spouse, I mean, he's still
going to be on that deed, he's still responsible for
that loan.

Speaker 6 (01:34:34):
I don't know that that.

Speaker 24 (01:34:35):
Would necessarily trigger the do on sale clause. But it
sounds like he's already conferred with them and they said that,
and that seems like they're saying that it wouldn't do that.

Speaker 9 (01:34:43):
It seems like you probably have a better idea of
what they were saying. They probably thought she was just
getting added to the loan. But let me ask you this.
Would it also matter how they plan to take the
property through that quick claim deed, Like if they wanted
to do it as tenants in common versus you know,
joint tenancy, would that potentially raise an issue with the

(01:35:04):
mortgage company.

Speaker 6 (01:35:06):
Yeah?

Speaker 24 (01:35:06):
I can see that because if they do it at
tenants in common, she's going to own a.

Speaker 9 (01:35:10):
Separate share from half of the property, right Yeah, And.

Speaker 24 (01:35:13):
If she passed away, her share could go to someone
other than him potentially, which happens sometimes by accident. So
I could see them being more concerned about that.

Speaker 9 (01:35:24):
Are there ways if they were to contact you that
you could still accomplish giving her an interest in the
property or protecting her interest in the event that he
passed away if they did have an ornery little do
on sale clause?

Speaker 24 (01:35:36):
Yeah, I mean, you know, there's something else that consider
as a beneficiary to you just saying she would get
the house if he passed away and that does not
affect current ownership. So that's also a way to potentially
do it. But whatever they do, I would say, like,
don't do.

Speaker 15 (01:35:49):
This on your own.

Speaker 24 (01:35:50):
A lot of people do this on their own because
it seems like it's a transaction between me and my
wife and it's no big deal. And we've seen things
like the husband instead of quick claiming into both of
them quick claims that they're and now she owns it
and like they thought, oh, we'll just do it this way,
and uh, that'll put.

Speaker 22 (01:36:04):
Her on there.

Speaker 24 (01:36:05):
It's like, no, you just transferred ownership one percent from
you to her.

Speaker 13 (01:36:09):
Right.

Speaker 24 (01:36:10):
What you just said actually happens all the time. People
put the person on the deed and don't specify that
it's joined. And if it's not specified that it's joined,
then it is tenants in common right, And that's a
fine way to own property together. Just but you want
to understand what the legal implications that are. So I
would just tell your caller like, yes, you can absolutely
adder to the deed.

Speaker 22 (01:36:30):
It's not hard to do.

Speaker 24 (01:36:31):
You do need a deed, don't do it on your own.

Speaker 9 (01:36:34):
Yeah. I think that's great advice. Dan, Dan, tell the
listeners how they can get a hold of you to
follow up on this.

Speaker 23 (01:36:40):
They can call us at.

Speaker 24 (01:36:41):
Eight three three COEO Plans or go to co Plans
dot co.

Speaker 3 (01:36:47):
I have a question for Dan.

Speaker 19 (01:36:48):
Go ahead, Bo, Dan, it's Bo and I am going
to come in to your office next month and finish up.
I haven't forgotten, okay, I do. I do have a
question on these beneficiary deeds. Now, does the beneficiary deed
do you need to file that while you're alive or
does it get recorded after death?

Speaker 24 (01:37:11):
Now you have to record it during lifetime. If it's
not recorded during lifetime, it will.

Speaker 13 (01:37:15):
Not be effective.

Speaker 9 (01:37:17):
Okay, all right, yeah, very interesting. Here's another question. What
if if we have a beneficiary deed and the beneficiary
predecease is the deed holder. Does that just make it
Nolan Boyd It just becomes a normal deed at that
point or what?

Speaker 24 (01:37:35):
That is an interesting question that I actually don't know
the answer to the top of my head. I would
suspect that, yes, it probably does become Nolan Boyd, but
I guess I have to check to make sure it
doesn't become part of that person's estate, right, But it
seems like yes, if they're not around, I mean, we
put their address on that deed to reflect that it's
very personalized to them. So I would say if the

(01:37:58):
deed does not say to them or the descendants say,
I suspect.

Speaker 15 (01:38:02):
That the default is it would.

Speaker 9 (01:38:04):
Just be buoying, just be void at that point. All right,
won't hold you to it. Dan, thank you for the information.
We appreciate it. The callers have your information as eight
three three, CEO planned to get a hold of Dan
called him to do all of your state planning needs.
Thanks Dan.

Speaker 5 (01:38:21):
So we are.

Speaker 9 (01:38:22):
Continuing to go through Dmitri's stump the PI lawyer list
over here. We do have a couple open lines here.
If you have a question you'd like to to get
on the air. Now, would be a great time to
give us a call. What do you got there, Dmitri?
What's your next list?

Speaker 3 (01:38:38):
John?

Speaker 11 (01:38:38):
I was one of the early adapters in the area
of dash cams, and I've just been a you know,
religiously constant user of one. Is it better to permanently
disable the audio recording feature on the dash cam because
in the event that becomes evidence I don't want or

(01:39:01):
is it possible that if I'm overheard speaking on the
phone or playing with a radio or doing something like that,
could that be used against me? And is it better
just to preemptively disabled audio recording?

Speaker 9 (01:39:13):
That's that's going to take more than just a second
to answer, So we'll get that right after the break here.
A great question, though, Hang on.

Speaker 5 (01:39:25):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:39:29):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 5 (01:39:34):
Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three all three seven to
seven to one.

Speaker 9 (01:39:45):
Help.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (01:40:00):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network.
We are rapidly moving through the third hour of the show.
Dimitri asked a question a moment ago about dash cans,
and we're going to get into that in some detail.
I really feel strongly about dash cans, and and and
and and and have found them to be incredibly valuable

(01:40:22):
on a number of different cases. We're gonna go to
the callers real quick. We've got Paul on the line
about a car accident, and then we'll get right back
to the dash cans in just a second. Paul, welcome
to the show.

Speaker 17 (01:40:32):
What's going on yeah, John, is there anything that we
thought about auguinally claims? You know, people that allege that
they're hurt and they're really not. I mean, I know
of an instance the real recently someone was rerendered. I mean,
the impact was less than ten miles an hour, and

(01:40:59):
of the party was claiming, you know, whiplash and right
store nets and everything else.

Speaker 15 (01:41:04):
Means, did this.

Speaker 9 (01:41:05):
Happen to you, Paul? Yes, yeah, Paul. Did you have
insurance at the time.

Speaker 6 (01:41:12):
Yes.

Speaker 9 (01:41:13):
So this is one of those things where you know,
as much as you feel that the party had no
injury and that any claim of injury is just you know, fraudulent,
the bottom line is that the insurance company and every
insurance contract reserves for themselves the discretion to do as

(01:41:33):
they please with these claims. And so I recently was
told by an USAA adjuster that, you know, we're going
to offer so and so. This was a different matter,
but it wasn't my client, but they said we're going
to offer so and so five hundred dollars because you know,
she may just take it before it goes to a
lawyer or something. And so, you know, there are times

(01:41:54):
when they just make the game time decision that they
want to step been in settle a case to avoid
you know it going the distance. But here's what I
can tell you, there is no room for fraud in
the personal injuries space beyond just the very bare bones

(01:42:15):
bottom frivolous you know, unsupported claims, because anytime that we're
looking at a claim that's going to get into more money,
or you know, a claim of future need for medical
care or loss wages and stuff, there's just not an
insurance company out there that doesn't require proof of those damages,
documents and medical records and everything else that support those

(01:42:39):
claimed injuries before they're willing to pony up the money. Now,
of course, somebody can go down and file a lawsuit,
and who knows what happens in a lawsuit, but generally speaking,
juries get it right, and these you know, insurance companies
are just not going to pay more than just a
token small amount to make somebody go away when there's

(01:42:59):
no will prove for evidence of the injury. And so
if it truly was a ten mile an hour rear
in crash, you know, that's just I'm not going to
say that there aren't injuries that can happen from that crash.
But certainly there's going to be a lot more scrutiny
from the insurance company, but they reserve that prerogative to
make that decision themselves.

Speaker 17 (01:43:21):
Well, how how discriminating doctors usually you know in such
a case.

Speaker 9 (01:43:27):
Well, I mean, if you're saying, are there doctors out
there that will dummy up medical records? I suppose. I
suppose that there are there are less ethical doctors than
others out there. But at the end of the day,
I mean, a doctor can write one thing, but when
it comes to producing X rays and MRIs that show

(01:43:48):
the actual damage, that's a lot harder than dummy up.
So I mean that only goes so far if you
if you have a doctor that's willing to stretch the
truth a little bit. And in my practice, I can't
just get a single doctor's note without any other supporting
documentation and get a great outcome on a case. And
so certainly my law firm would never take on a

(01:44:09):
case like that, and we'd never work with a doctor
that was known for doing dummied up report. So it's
kind of a self policing type environment out there. I
can't say it never happens, but it certainly doesn't happen
on a wide scale basis, Hey.

Speaker 10 (01:44:23):
Paul, do you have proof that was a ten mile
an hour crash or just by the limited damage on
your car, just by.

Speaker 17 (01:44:32):
The limited damage of my Caducy, does that fix.

Speaker 6 (01:44:36):
Have any effect? John?

Speaker 9 (01:44:38):
It does? But I mean they've they've done cadaver studies
and they've done crash tests, you know, studies and stuff.
They prove that there's not always a correlation between the
speed of the collision and the damage that happens to
the occupants. Okay, and that's a fact. I mean that
you just can't say five miles an hour equals no injury,
because for some people it does. All I'm really saying

(01:45:00):
is they're not going to just take her word for it.

Speaker 25 (01:45:02):
What about like maybe a pre existing condition that was
exacerbated by this time, Honor.

Speaker 9 (01:45:06):
Absolutely, But then again, we're going to have documents that
support that the existence of that pre existing condition, and
they're going to make them come up with those to
be able to show what it was before and what
it was after. Certainly things can get exacerbated and maybe
even more so, you know, for something that existed before.
But they're just not going to do it based on
the word of the injured party. They're going to require

(01:45:28):
that extra documentation, those scams, those MRIs, the things that
can help prove it up. So good luck to you, Paul.
Your carrier is keeping an eye on this, I promise,
and they're not just going to pay out a big,
huge sum of money without there being some hard evidence
and proof of the the the other person's injuries. All right,
I appreciate the call, Paul. We'll be moving on here.

(01:45:52):
We have Dimitri's questions still pending about the dash cans.
Let's talk about dash cans. So I'm going to take
a little bit of a tangent here. So I was
talking to a client this morning who happens to be
a police officer on a large metro police agency, and
so the topic comes up. And this particular client has
many times told me, John, you're always dissing on the cops.

(01:46:13):
You're always, you know, talking bad about the lazy cops
and everything else. And I explained to him, and I'll
explain to the listeners today. Here's my true feeling about it.
I don't think it's a surprise to anybody that the
cops are understaffed these days. He said on his agency,
they were at about eighty percent of the number of
police officers that they should have just to be adequately staffed,

(01:46:35):
and so you effectively have eighty percent of the cops
doing one hundred percent of the job. And so it's
no secret that when they show up at the scene
of an accident, they can really go two ways. They
can do the minimal that they need to get up
to the next three or four calls that are stacked
up on their agenda, or they can take their time
and do a really exhaustive, you know, police investigation. Sometimes

(01:46:58):
they take the former route, and we that with less
information that we would like. We'll be right back after
this break. We'll pick that up where I left off.

Speaker 5 (01:47:19):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Please time for an insurance check up free no obligation
comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at
dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three,
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Speaker 3 (01:47:39):
You'll think you're his only customer.

Speaker 5 (01:47:41):
When you choose Frank durand the Real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 15 (01:47:58):
So you don't have.

Speaker 2 (01:48:01):
Come running.

Speaker 3 (01:48:02):
Just as fast as we can.

Speaker 2 (01:48:04):
Shooter's gonna help come man.

Speaker 4 (01:48:08):
This he is the Troubleshooter Show. Now, Tom Martinez, Good afternoon.

Speaker 9 (01:48:15):
This is John Fuller filling in for Tom Martino and
the Troubleshooter Network. Here in the last hour of today's show.
We are rocking and rolling. We're talking about dash cams,
and I kind of got off in a little bit
of a tangent talking about the police and stuff. And
the reason for doing that is just to help you
understand the challenges that we're having out there right now.

(01:48:36):
And even though we have many fine people on these
police forces, and many that try to do the absolute
best job that they can, they're spread really thin right now.
And so if a if a police officer shows up,
and we truly have two different people that are saying
the exact opposite about what happens. Sometimes the police are
just saying, well, he said, she said, I don't know.

(01:48:56):
Nobody gets sighted. They just leave and run up the
report and they go on to the next call. And
the problem with that is that completely innocent people can
lose huge just because of that. Because both people go
back to their insurance company tell them what happens, the
insurance company believes they're insured and that's the position that
they take. And so if the at fault really at fault,

(01:49:19):
guy says I didn't do it, it wasn't my fault,
and his company denies liability. You know, you could have
somebody And I've had clients who have just liability coverage,
only they don't have any way to cover their car
while this dispute goes on, and so all of a sudden,
they've lost a car, they have no transportation. Then they
lose their job because they can't get to work, and

(01:49:40):
it just snowballs, and then they're out of a place
to live. And I mean this is not just purely hypothetical.
I've actually had clients that have been in this position
all because of police report and a crash that could
have been identified, or they could have looked for, you know,
for street cameras and stuff like that that might have
actually led to the determined of who the at fault

(01:50:01):
party was. But because they just said, you know what,
both parties said it was the other guy's fault, and
I couldn't figure it out. I went on my way,
And so that's the reality of the world that we
live in. We have these problems more and more in
my practice than we ever did ten years ago or
so before all the craziness started. And so you have
to ask yourself, Look, we have a crisis of insurance

(01:50:22):
where a million people are out there with no insurance
at all. We have a crisis of getting accurate police
reports because of factors that are completely out of the
control of the police and everybody else. So what do
we do to remedy that we protect ourselves. We go
out and we get really good insurance so that we're covered,
our families covered, we have the medical bills covered, we

(01:50:45):
have the ability to pay out of one pocket so
that if we have big kopays and deductibles coming at
us from another angle, were covered and it's not going
to be a financial catastrophe to you and your family
in the event that something happens and it's one of
these guys that has minimal limits or there's multiple vehicles
involved and there's just no other source to really immediately

(01:51:06):
pay other than your policy. The second thing we do
is we get a dash cam because The only way
that you can completely eliminate the question about what happened
in the accident and who was at fault, and what
the color of the light was, and what the speed
of the other car was and all these factors that
go into a fault or a liability determination is to

(01:51:28):
have that camera in your car. And like Doc said,
one hundred and fifty bucks, and it's there. You don't
even think about it. It comes on every time you
get in your car. You don't have to rewind it
or do anything. It's just there. And if something happens,
you just reach up and you press a button and
it senses that the car was in an accident. Many
times it'll auto save. If not, you just eject the

(01:51:49):
little SD card and magically you have a copy of
what happened. I've even had accidents where witnesses come up
and say, you know, they'll hand the police officer a
mini SD card and say, hey, I had a dash cam.
It caught this accident. I was right behind it. It
caught everything. This will be important to you and lo
and behold it's super important.

Speaker 15 (01:52:11):
So in my.

Speaker 9 (01:52:12):
Opinion, it's just a necessary extra step. We know we
need good insurance but we also know we need these
dash cans. It's it's just a small price to pay
to have that extra security and the knowledge that you're
covered in case I have.

Speaker 10 (01:52:26):
Unfortunately, the people who can pay out of pocket are Oh,
the people who can pay out of pocket are the
people who can afford increased insurance limits. Unfortunately, it's the
people who can't afford super insurance that are the ones
that can't afford to cover it out of their own pocket.
So having a dashcam eliminates that extra charge. And it's

(01:52:49):
a one time fee. It's not a recurring fee every
month or every year.

Speaker 9 (01:52:54):
No, you're absolutely right. There's no cost or subscription model
that goes into too running those things. Once you have them,
they just run and you don't even have to think
about them. So so going back to the coverage that
Dimitri has, I mean, looking at this, you've got two
fifty a person five hundred each accident. That's a liability
coverage that protects you in the event that you hurt

(01:53:15):
somebody else and you're at fault for an accident. And
so that's really good liability coverage. But in my opinion,
the only reason why you want to have the two
fifty and five hundred coverage unless you have just a
lot of you know, liquid assets that you really are
at risk. Is so that you're allowed to have that
same exact coverage and uninsured motorist coverage which you have.

(01:53:35):
And so if you get injured in an accident that's
somebody else's fault, it doesn't matter what their insurance is.
You know that you've got at least two fifty for
that accident per person and up to five hundred for
the entire accident, So that two fifty pays for medical,
that two fifty. So uninsured motors coverage is looked at

(01:53:57):
as if they were standing in the shoes of the
at fault party. Okay, so that means everything that they
would have been liable for you are. We're not talking
about property damage, that's separate, but we're talking about your
medical bills, your lost wages, your pain and suffering, your
future medicals, any physical impairment, all the other damages that

(01:54:17):
would typically be paid for by a well insured at
fault defendant, they're now being paid for by your own
insurance company with a favorable standard of care when they
evaluate the damages for you, because it's your company.

Speaker 10 (01:54:31):
Do you have an umbrella policy, because that would come
in after the insurance limits are reached.

Speaker 6 (01:54:38):
Correct.

Speaker 9 (01:54:38):
Yeah, So an umbrella policy traditionally is an extra liability policy,
which would add on to Dimitri's initial coverage of two
fifty and five hundred, meaning that if he had additional
liability really really hurt somebody or a lot of people,
that would stack on top of that and provide additional coverage.
But in my opinion, the coolest thing about reli policies

(01:55:01):
is that many of them will also sell you an
uninsured motorist writer, which is an extra little you know,
a little sub policy if you will, that adds the
same amount of uninsured motorist coverage to that umbrella policy,
So that now Dimitri would still have the two fifty
five hundred of underlying um limits, but now he has

(01:55:22):
two fifty plus a million, so a million two point
fifty or a million five hundred, depending on the circumstances
of the accident. So that's amazing, and all in all,
I have to say that your insurance is really not
that crazy.

Speaker 6 (01:55:36):
Do you have them?

Speaker 11 (01:55:37):
Is that when you say, when you're impressed with my
insurance coverage, do you feel like that also makes me
a more attractive target to litigious claimants.

Speaker 9 (01:55:48):
I really don't. I mean, ultimately, it's the damages that
are going to drive the claims. And so if you
don't hurt somebody really bad, no matter how much insurance
you have, their claim is not going to be that significant. Okay,
But what's better to be uninsured or underinsured and have
a huge liability claim coming at you or to have huge,

(01:56:10):
great insurance and their claim is what it is?

Speaker 11 (01:56:13):
You know, I'd rather have great insurance, and especially since
it also seems to be great at covering me, I
don't want to rely on the other party's insurance coverage
because odds are they're either not insured or underinsured, or
they're going to take off and I'll never figure out
who they were anyway. Yeah, that was the driving, uh,
you know, motivator for you to max out on every

(01:56:36):
line item on auto insurance.

Speaker 9 (01:56:37):
Right I mentioned earlier. I finally met the first case
where I'm actually hoping that the at fault guy is
is is uninsured. And we'll talk about that in just
a second. We've got a caller here, Leroy, with a
question on restraining orders. What is going on, Leroy?

Speaker 7 (01:56:53):
Yeah, My question is how do you protect yourself from
getting or from people that you're doing have done nothing too,
you know previous ones.

Speaker 9 (01:57:04):
Is this a civil restraining order or the type of
restraining order that comes after charges have been filed against you?

Speaker 7 (01:57:12):
It's not a civil one, okay?

Speaker 9 (01:57:15):
Is it the ones that the court put in after
charges have been filed.

Speaker 7 (01:57:21):
No, it's going down a person like an ex girlfriend
put it in. Then I'm tagging upon doing all this stuff,
and they're trying to serve me with a restraining order.
And I ain't seen a person three or four years,
and this has happened two or three.

Speaker 17 (01:57:35):
Times in the pan.

Speaker 9 (01:57:37):
So that a that is what we call a civil
restraining order. The other one is a criminal restraining order,
and it comes after after charges have been filed. So
luckily you don't have one of those because that's mandatory
and you really you're probably going to get serve that
one in court while you're in custody, is kind of
how it normally happens. But the one you're talking about
is a civil restraining order, and and you know, you

(01:57:59):
can avoid service for as long as you want, but
at the point that you get served, there is an
opportunity to be heard in court and for them to
listen to your side of the story and rebut that
and if it's a situation where the judge doesn't find
that the claims of the person asking for the restraining
order are legitimate, then they won't enter it. And so,

(01:58:22):
you know, don't miss that opportunity to go in and
set the record straight on what is going on and
why that restraining order should not be issued. But if
you ignore that and you don't go to court, then
there's restraining orders going to issue, and then the violation
of that does become a criminal charge. And that's just
a whole ballot bag of worms that you don't want
to you don't want to open up. So thanks for

(01:58:43):
the call, Lee Royan. I was gonna say, I hope
that helps. Did that answer your question?

Speaker 17 (01:58:49):
Well?

Speaker 7 (01:58:50):
No, no really, because mcquinton is how do I avoid it?
And I don't even know when to go to court?

Speaker 9 (01:58:55):
And I ain't seen nothing because you haven't been served yet.
As soon as they actually serve you, you're going to
get the court date and it's going to tell you
what court to go to and what time and all
that kind of stuff. Okay, the person that.

Speaker 7 (01:59:10):
Sending me a tech a copy of it. No, I'm
trying to find out can I do something before you
get served?

Speaker 3 (01:59:15):
Good?

Speaker 7 (01:59:15):
It's happened three or four times and they can throw
it out.

Speaker 9 (01:59:18):
Okay, all right, hang on just a second, La, We'll
get to that question in just a moment.

Speaker 5 (01:59:22):
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Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a
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(01:59:44):
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
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Speaker 3 (01:59:49):
Help.

Speaker 5 (01:59:49):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (02:00:06):
All right, good afternoon. John Fuller here is still filling
in for Tom Martine in the Troubleshooter Network. We are
going back to Leroy on the line. So, Leroy, so
here's the deal. You're saying. The gal that's trying to
get a restraining order against you has actually texted you
a copy of the order, but they haven't actually served
it on you.

Speaker 3 (02:00:23):
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (02:00:24):
Right?

Speaker 9 (02:00:25):
And so your question is how can I make this
go away without going to court and without being served?

Speaker 7 (02:00:32):
Well that too, but my really question is how do
you keep someone keep doing this when they wake up
and have a bipolar day and this one to just
take you to court for no reason to say, I
ain't trying to go on to get served, I ain't
trying to go with no corner, I ain't trying to
go on no jail or nothing for something.

Speaker 9 (02:00:49):
I absolutely understand what you're saying. The challenge is this,
she didn't get that order just by filling out paperwork.
She had to go in front of the judge and
tell the judge what she felt like the credible threat
was that you were to her, and she had to
use specific examples in order to get the judge to say, yes,
we're going to go ahead and issue the temporary restraining order.

(02:01:10):
And temporary is the key word. It is a temporary order.
It can only be enforced after it's been served on you.
But it's temporary because you then get a court date
where you get to go in and say, your honor,
here's what's going on, and present any you know, statement
or evidence that you want that would be considered by
the judge before they would make that restraining order permanent.

Speaker 7 (02:01:32):
Well, let me tell you someone else John did on
this restrainer has got reopened. Okay, the one you said
years ago, you reopened this one and that was dismissed.

Speaker 9 (02:01:44):
Well, here's here's my experience, Lee Roy. These judges get
tired of hearing the same person complain about the same
thing without any evidence and then either not showing up
for court or you know, and then coming back the
next time and claiming the same thing, and they they
eventually kind of get tired of it. And so you
need to gain credibility by being the guy that's willing

(02:02:05):
to show up and to be cooperative and to talk
to the judge and everything. And they're pretty quickly going
to realize that she's the one that's kind of the
nut and not you on this. But unfortunately, after the
judge issues the temporary order, it's not going to go
away until you get served and you go to court
and present your side of the story and let the
judge decide whether to make it permanent or to dismiss it.

(02:02:28):
Out of hand at that point.

Speaker 7 (02:02:30):
Well, like I said, this happened several times and I
wasn't meet with other people and everyone last one, I'm
again dismissed.

Speaker 3 (02:02:36):
That's good.

Speaker 7 (02:02:36):
I want to act if I don't get served and
none worried about, Right, what would you advise me to do?

Speaker 9 (02:02:42):
Well, I'm not going to advise you to avoid service.
But yeah, they have to serve you in order for
that temporary restraining order to go into effect. I mean
it has to be served on you because your knowledge
is only really satisfied once it's been served.

Speaker 25 (02:02:57):
So can he serve her, because if she is texting
him going hey, here's I'm serving you again, can he
get something against her?

Speaker 9 (02:03:05):
Well, he can, but in order to do that, he's
going to have to fill out the same application for
a temporary restraining order and go in front of the
judge and say, your honor, here's what's going on. She's
stalking me or being a freak, or harassing me or whatever.
The standard is a credible threat of eminent bodily harm.
And so you can't just say she's a painting but

(02:03:25):
she irritates me, she's a bad cook. I mean, you
can't use things like that. It has to be she's
threatened to stab me, she's coming after me with a
baseball bat. I mean, there's got to be some credible
threat of bodily injury to you to satisfy. Now here's
the other thing, Leroy. You know that the only way
she got that temporary was by saying I'm afraid of

(02:03:46):
him because he's threatened to do something to me. So
right out of the gate, you know the standard that
you're up against.

Speaker 3 (02:03:52):
I get it.

Speaker 9 (02:03:53):
I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying, you know
the standard that you're up against when you end up
going to court on this, so be prepared for it,
all right.

Speaker 7 (02:04:01):
Right, But let me tell you something else. I did
go put on years ago because he puting on me
and I put on her, and just they need excepting,
you know, one of them. They need to say, won't
them out?

Speaker 9 (02:04:12):
Well, that's probably the best thing that happened at the time.
But I mean, you you can do that, but just
keep in mind you got to go to court to
do it, and that presents a real opportunity for somebody
to serve you with the temporary, so you might win
the battle and lose the war. But that's all I
got for you, Leroy. I wish I had better, better,
better information for you. All right, appreciate you calling Leroy. Uh,

(02:04:35):
we're going to move along here, Zach. You've got a
question on cars. How can I help you today? Zach,
Hey take my callas for of course.

Speaker 26 (02:04:44):
I want to tell Leroy first off, the solutions dropper
man deal with that type of stuff, Move along better.

Speaker 9 (02:04:52):
And run man.

Speaker 26 (02:04:54):
Anyway, my question had to get back to the vehicles
and my ability. What were your thoughts on CREA eating
an LLC just to register your vehicles to that? What
type of ATA protection can.

Speaker 9 (02:05:03):
I expect from that? So I maybe have a non
traditional opinion on that, but here's the bottom line. LLCs
don't drive cars, Okay, people drive cars, and when you're
the negligent party that causes an accident, you are personally
going to be liable for those damages and then you're

(02:05:24):
going to be hoping that your assets and your insurance
are available to pay that. All that an LLC does
is shield the assets of that LLC, you know, or
it shields you from personal responsibility for obligations of the LLC.
And so if you had an insurance policy that only
covered the LLC, and they vicariously covered you as a

(02:05:45):
member of the LLC, then in theory they would be
limited to the proceeds of that of that policy. But again,
LLCs don't drive cars, so if they come after you
directly and personally, you still could have some liability for
or that accident that you caused even though you have
an LLC.

Speaker 26 (02:06:07):
Does that make sense, Yes, sir, thank you very much.

Speaker 9 (02:06:10):
Yeah, good luck to you, sir. There's no way. I mean,
I get this question a lot with people that try
to structure like boats and rbs and stuff in an LLC,
and that's that's good in theory. I mean, the idea
is that, oh, I can you know, nobody can touch
me if an accident happens. But really that LLC doesn't
have anything to do with the fact that you were
the liable party if you cause an accident, and you're

(02:06:32):
still going to be the guy that gets sued individually.
We don't sue, you know, an LLC just because you
have one. We see the guy that was driving because
he's a liable party, and then maybe the LLC has
insurance coverage that comes into play. But it's really hard
to truly shield yourself from liability for acts that you caused.
So appreciate the phone call. We'll be right back. Mike

(02:06:53):
King on the line, will get your call on the
as soon as we get back. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (02:07:02):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:07:06):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 5 (02:07:09):
Three time for an insurance check up free, no obligation
comparison call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at
dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three
seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three

(02:07:30):
oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 9 (02:07:44):
Good afternoon, John Fuller here filling in for Tell Martino
on this Troubleshooter network, and we are moving along here.
We've got a caller, Mike on the line with a
question about personal injury claims. Mike, what is going on? Sir?

Speaker 14 (02:07:59):
Good you for taking my calls. First of all, you know,
thank you for the work you do. I know it has,
you know, immense significance for so many people so, first
of all, just thank you so much. And yeah, so
what I was going to ask about, essentially, is statue
of limitations to file a personal injury case regarding the

(02:08:20):
amount of time you have you know, what circumstances would
kind of affect the amount of time you would have
to file a claim And is it the same for
every type of claim or case or does that kind
of very based on the different type of case you're
filing for.

Speaker 9 (02:08:39):
What a broad reaching question there, Let me try to
try to net it out for you. For anything regarding
a car accident, the statute limitations is three years. For
most other things like medical malpractice, simple negligence, that kind
of stuff, the statute of limitation and premises liability cases

(02:09:02):
is two years, and so you better be right about
which one it is. And if your claim actually crosses
over and maybe has you know, portions of different types
of claims, then you always want to go with whatever
the shortest one is. The Only caveat to that is
that sometimes there are notice requirements that you have to

(02:09:24):
satisfy for things like governmental immunity notice and stuff like that,
where the statute requires that you give formal statutory notice
in one hundred and eighty three days after the accident,
and most people, you know, erroneously think that well, they
knew they were in the accident, or you know, they've
got notice or I called them one time and told

(02:09:46):
them about it and stuff, and that's not good enough.
The law requires that you actually comply with the statute,
and it's very specific on who you have to serve in,
what information you have to give them about the nature
of your damages, theory of liability, all the different you know,
correct parties and stuff. And they're not generally gonna get

(02:10:07):
your notice and just call up and offer you a check.
But it just preserves your right to then violet according
to the two or the three year statute, limitations that
might apply on your case. So does that answer your question, sir?
Did you have a different kind of case in mind?

Speaker 15 (02:10:23):
No, I was.

Speaker 14 (02:10:23):
It does answer, and I was kind of just asking
it generally. It didn't necessarily apply to me, but I
thought it might be a helpful question to anyone out
there listening to because you know, one of my problems
is just procrastination in general. And I feel like, you know,
when you have an accident, you already have so much
stress you already have builth piling up, and maybe you
put things off, and I think it's just, you know,

(02:10:44):
important to know you know, what time frame do I
have here? And I really appreciate your answer, John, So thank.

Speaker 15 (02:10:49):
You so much.

Speaker 9 (02:10:50):
Really, yeah, thanks, Mike. You know, the reality is, that's
why you need to have somebody like us on your case,
because there are a bunch of deadlines, there are a
bunch of proces hurdles that you have to jump through.
We know all of those deadlines, and we know those hurdles,
and we also know what it takes to be able
to substantiate and support and prove up our damages. And

(02:11:10):
so if we do everything right, then we give you
the best opportunity of not having to file a lawsuit
and go to trial because you ran out of time
and you were literally on the courthouse steps trying to
file it on the on the last moment of the
last day. So we can take all of that stress
off your shoulders and do everything correctly give you the
best chance of getting a good, favorable outcome in the

(02:11:31):
most timely manner possible. And that's that's really what we
bring to the table. So Mike, I appreciate the phone
call and good information for everybody. So we've got a
couple open lines here, so if you have any other questions.
We're getting towards the end of the show, we're going
to go back to Dmitri here. He's still got a
couple of his Stump the PI attorney questions to get through,

(02:11:53):
but we're here to answer your questions, So give us
a call. Go ahead, Dmitri.

Speaker 11 (02:11:58):
John So, I was wondering about what are the income
tax implications of both settlements and awards and how are
those typically treated for both state and federal income tax purposes.

Speaker 9 (02:12:10):
Any other subparts to that question.

Speaker 11 (02:12:12):
Yes, I was wondering, if you're or a lawyer like
you who takes a certain percentage of the settlement or
the award, if that segment then also becomes a tax
deductible expense to the plaintiff.

Speaker 9 (02:12:25):
Yeah, okay, so here's the here's the answer. It depends. Okay,
if you're if you're making good old run of the mill,
you know, claims from a car accident or something like that,
those damage awards are tax free. Okay, you don't need
to report them. They're not income according to the definition
of the irs, there's no taxes, do do not report

(02:12:48):
them because sometimes tax preparers don't actually know exactly how
those should be treated for some cases, and you mentioned
federal and so that kind of drifts into a different category.
Let's say we had a employment case where part of
the claim that you're making is that you were wrongfully
terminated and you're keeping tallly of the wage loss that

(02:13:11):
you lost. Okay, if eventually your resolution of that case
includes the payment of that wage loss, very likely the
defendant corporation is going to report that as wages and
you're going to get a W two reporting it as
or you know ten ninety nine. Reporting it as money

(02:13:31):
paid to you in the way of wages, which you will.

Speaker 11 (02:13:33):
Be makes sense because that's presumably to compensate you for
the wages you would have made, and they would have
been taxable. But in the context of your work where
you collect money for pain and suffering and things like that,
that's non taxable from what I heard in your answer. Correct,
but lost wages part of that award if.

Speaker 9 (02:13:53):
They're identified and they're being paid for by a corporation
that you worked for, Okay, Compensatory dam images that are
paid for by a third party defendant are not going
to be into that.

Speaker 3 (02:14:03):
Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 9 (02:14:04):
But if it's an employer and you're suing them for
lost wages, then yeah, it's going to come back on
you as as as wages. Now for your final part
of the question, Subpart three A subparagraph C. There are
the fees paid to the law firm deductible to you.
They're not deductible to you because they never make it

(02:14:24):
to you. All of the money paid to a law firm,
the entire damage war gets reported under my tax ID number,
and then we pay out to our clients and so
we have to pay taxes on it like any business income.
But you don't. And we have the complete pay per trail.
But are they report all of those settlements through my

(02:14:45):
tax I D number?

Speaker 11 (02:14:46):
Thank you, John, Totally makes sense. What a great clear
answer from an experienced attorney.

Speaker 9 (02:14:51):
Well, I don't know about that. Twenty three years. All right,
we're going to take one final break here low in
the two that Feller has been around a long time.
All right, we're going to take one more break. We'll
be right away back go.

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Speaker 9 (02:15:39):
All right, all right, we're back at it. John Fuller
here filling in for mister Tom Martine who is out
the afternoon, and we are going through a list of
law school exam questions from Dimitri trying to stump the
PI lawyer. We've got a couple more questions here. Actually
we've got one from Bow over here. First we're going
to go to Bow and see if we can answer
his question.

Speaker 19 (02:16:00):
Thank you, John, and it's been great working with you.
Take I learned a lot, and so have the listeners
probably picked up a lot.

Speaker 25 (02:16:07):
That's Professor Fuller to you.

Speaker 20 (02:16:09):
About doctor doctor.

Speaker 6 (02:16:11):
Here is a doctor.

Speaker 9 (02:16:12):
He's got a lot of degree, doctor doctor doctor.

Speaker 19 (02:16:16):
I have pretty good insurance, have an umbrella and then
what I'm concerned about if I get into an accident
and I'm at fault and I have all of this insurance,
the person that I hit, can theyce elect not to
go through my insurance company and sue me personally for

(02:16:37):
the damage?

Speaker 9 (02:16:39):
I mean, the answer is yes, obviously they can sue you,
and they do sue you if they choose to go
down the litigation route. That's how we do it. We
sue the at fault party. But you would have the ability,
and in fact the obligation to turn that over to
your insurance company and give them the opportunity to defend that.
Because ultimately, if you've got a judgment against you, you

(02:17:00):
would turn around to your insurance company and expect them
to pay that judgment so they can sue you directly.
They don't have to file acclaim with your insurance company,
but at some point you're going to hand it over
to them and they will take the reins and run
with it and then pay whatever they choose to pay
on it.

Speaker 19 (02:17:15):
Well, John, if they do sue me, I can I
state you cannot sue me. That's why I have insurance.
I don't want anything brought against me personally. That's why
I have insurance, But.

Speaker 20 (02:17:26):
Are you saying they can elect still come after me personally.

Speaker 9 (02:17:30):
All I'm saying is they're always going to only come
after you personally. We don't sue insurance companies in Colorado
unless they're a party to like a bad faith or something.
But when we have a simple auto accident, we are
suing the at fault party. And so you know, one
of the mandatory disclosures that you have to make as
a person who's been sued is whether or not there

(02:17:52):
are any insurance policies that are in place to pay
for the damages alleged by the planet, And so whether
the planet really wants to deal with your insurance company
or not, you do because you're the insurance You've paid
for this coverage. You're just going to hand it over
to your insurance company. They'll assign you a lawyer, and
then they'll ultimately make the decisions on how to proceed

(02:18:13):
with the case, and then they'll pay whatever judgment they
decide to pay at the end, depending on their discretion
and how to handle the case. So they don't get
to opt just to ignore your insurance company. The only
time that that might hypothetically come into play would be
if they had minimal limits and your damages were way
greater than the limits of the insurance and you felt

(02:18:35):
like they had personal assets that were available to satisfy
the totality of your damages, and you didn't want to
take the limits and give them a complete release in
exchange for that, and then you could just go after him.
The insurance company would still be involved, but their liability
would be limited to the amount of their policy, not
some some higher up judgment that you might get. Okay,

(02:18:58):
all right, thank you, Yeah, you're welcome, mister Dimitri.

Speaker 11 (02:19:02):
What you got, mister John, Do my high insurance policy
limits suggest that the insurance company would hire better lawyers
to defend me?

Speaker 9 (02:19:14):
No, No, really not. I mean it's it's you know,
the insurance companies get paid more for higher coverage, and
so it's there's really no consideration that I've ever seen
unless we have a really high dollar policy and really
catastrophic losses where they're debating whether or not they're going

(02:19:37):
to tender those you know, those limits or something. Occasionally,
then they'll hire out, you know, a little bit higher
echelon attorney. But you know, those are trickier cases and
stuff with with higher coverage issues and liability issues and
stuff that they want to make sure they get right.
And so, you know, I guess in that respect, yes
they would, But it's not just simply that you got

(02:19:58):
a better policy that makes them do that. It's a
better policy and damages to put that whole policy in jeopardy.

Speaker 11 (02:20:06):
Yeah, I just kind of figured that if they have
more at risk because they're in the hook for half
a million instead of the state minimum, they would invest
more money in a more experienced lawyer who would also
do a lot more research, preparation, get assistance, that sort
of thing.

Speaker 9 (02:20:22):
Yeah, it totally makes sense what you're saying, But the
reality is that the injured people only have one basket
of damages, and it doesn't get more valuable because you
have great insurance.

Speaker 3 (02:20:33):
A good point. I didn't consider that.

Speaker 9 (02:20:35):
We you know, it may get more valuable if we're
comparing you against a minimal limits twenty five thousand dollars
policy and they have say fifty or one hundred thousand
of damages, Well, now it's more collectible, But it didn't
get more valuable because you happen to have greater insurance.

Speaker 10 (02:20:51):
But don't they also have in house lawyers, so they're
not paying them, yeah, about paying any lawyer more, yeah,
on any given case.

Speaker 9 (02:20:59):
About fifty ten years ago in Colorado at least, they
finally figured out that, you know, that that paying these
lawyers on a per diem matter or per diem amount
was not very good business, and that they could they
could pay you know, a lawyer their salary and bring
them in house and feed them one hundred and fifty

(02:21:19):
cases and tell them good luck, and their cost per
case goes down to next to nothing. And since that time,
every major carrier in Colorado has what we call a
captive law firm. So on the pleading it still says
Dimitri's law firm, but Dmitri actually has a you know,
a ABC Insurance company email and his address happens to

(02:21:40):
be where ABC's headquarters is, and and that kind of stuff.
So they're very much a captive, you know, wholly owned
insurance attorney. But you know, in court and stuff, they
don't we're not allowed to bring in the presence of insurance,
so they don't want to have like, you know, all
State insurance company or something on the caption. So that's

(02:22:01):
that's why they do that. But they're all employees, like
Doc says, and it's been that way for about fifteen
years that we've had that.

Speaker 6 (02:22:09):
So John, of course, real.

Speaker 10 (02:22:12):
Quick, What is the role of the insurance Commissioner or
the insurance commission in Colorado? What are they mandated to do?

Speaker 9 (02:22:21):
Yeah, the main thing that the insurance commission is mandated
to do is to make sure that insurance companies are
operating in a fiscally appropriate way, meaning they've set aside
enough reserves to handle the anticipated claims, that they're appropriately
you know, doing business the way it's supposed to be done.

(02:22:41):
I mean, insurance companies are you know, they run through
an awful lot of money, and so if they don't
set aside, you know, the appropriate amount into reserves, they
run the risk of not having that money there when
the eventual claim needs to be paid.

Speaker 10 (02:22:55):
Well, they if I have a problem with an insurance company,
will they adjudicate that or is that not something that
they do or is that up to the courts.

Speaker 9 (02:23:02):
They don't really adjudicate it, but they sometimes will get
involved and make a phone call. So every now and
again that becomes pretty helpful. Hey, listen, guys, save all
your trouble for us. We appreciate it. It's been a
great day and come back tomorrow. We'll be back again.
Thank you.