(05/04) HOTL Hour 1

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law,marginal legal advice where I tell you you
have absolutely no case. Oh isthis a good one with the Israeli Hamas
war. And here's a spin onit that you probably haven't heard. And
this happens to do or be withthe International Criminal Court. Now what is

(00:24):
the International Criminal Court? It wasestablished in two thousand and two as the
permanent court of the last resort toprosecute individuals responsible for the world's most heinous
atrocities, war crimes, crimes againsthumanity, genocide. And this comes out

(00:44):
of the Nuremberg trials after World WarTwo that the Allies held in which several
Nazis were hanged some of the tophierarchy, and a couple of them,
Himmler and Goring, committed suicide inprison during the trial. And we're no
doubt going to be convicted and hanged. And much the same thing happened in

(01:10):
World War two after World War twoin Japan under Douglas MacArthur, where certain
Japanese hierarchy, some on the warcabinet, etc. Were hanged for war
crimes. So you think it's anormal court, It is not a normal
court because what it has a tendencyto do is grab heads of state or

(01:30):
high members of governments. It hasno police force whatsoever, and it relies
on the member states to arrest suspects. It relies on the countries themselves.
For example, if the United Stateswere a member, which it is not,

(01:51):
neither is Russia, neither is China, and Israel is not. In
the case of the International Court andthe United States, for example, after
the Vietnam War, and this wasway later in two thousand and two,
there was a move to arrest thehigh members of the United States government for

(02:13):
war crimes, and the ICC hasbeen going after well democratic leaders and saying
that these are war crimes, theVietnam wars war crimes. What's happening in
Israel is a war crime. Canbe argued that it actually is. The
bombing of civilian targets is a warcrime, but Israel argues it's not going

(02:37):
after civilians. It's going after hamas, and civilians happen to be in the
way, which is different than targetingcivilians. So the argument Israel goes.
So Nettignao, who has been accusedof a war crime, says, quote,
Israel will never accept any attempt bythe ICC to undermine its inherent right

(02:58):
of self defense. The argument here, the Nittanya who is making, as
other leaders have made, is whatyou're doing is arguing that I am a
war criminal and the government should arrestme and turn me over to the International
Court that's at the Hague in Netherlands. They've tried a couple of people,

(03:20):
some Serbian leaders, who are nowdoing thirty years in jail. But it's
very, very difficult, and soit's not going to happen. It's one
of those things. It's like Interpolhas absolutely no enforcing powers. But what
Interpol does is it goes after peoplein various countries that are fleeing. For

(03:40):
example, if someone on the Interpollist a Russian is in Russia. Come
on, you think anything's going tohappen with that? Of course? Not
phone calls? Now, Hello,Bob, welcome to the well again.
You know, Come on, Bill, welcome to handle on the law.
What can I do for you,Bob? Hey? Bill. A few

(04:02):
years before my parents died, theygo down to Forest Lawn with my brother
to get a niche to put ourcremated remains in kind of the family plot,
so to say, and lo andbehold. After my parents passed away
in some years down the line,I learned that the whole thing was put
in my brother's name. And whenI called up Forest Law to inquire about

(04:24):
my remains being placed inside the niche, they didn't know who I was,
and they said I had no right. They said I had to go through
my brother, and I don't havea relationship with my brother. How did
how did you get in your brother'sname? Did he originally buy all of
those they call niches little miniature plots. I don't even know what they're called.

(04:45):
It's it's it's a wall niche.I guess they're called, uh,
safe deposit boxes, right, exactly, same thing, the same thing.
Yeah, and my brother walked awaywith it in his name. How did
I what happened? You know,Dad paid for it and he was there,
That's all I like. All right, So your dad effectively put his

(05:08):
name or had to be part ofputting everything in the brother's name. I'm
assuming, so brother, can oneperson could take care of all of it?
And brother hates you now and youdon't exist for brother? You got
it? Okay? How desperate areyou to have your ashes put in that
family Walntch area. Well, Ithought it was going to be a nice
idea. Okay, I understand.So how desperate are you to do that?

(05:30):
Well? I don't know, not, I mean desperate enough, but
I'm not going to go to anyexpense to do it. Yeah. Well
that's the question. Is your brothergoing to be there? Is he going
to be there? No? Yeah? Is he when he dies? Is
he going to be there? Ishe going to be where in the niche?
Yeah? Probably in ashes, Iwould guess, But is he Is
he going to be there? I'mnot. I doubt that he had a

(05:54):
falling out with the family. Okay, so, uh, you're if you
go in there, you're not goingto be in the say, neighborhood?
Is your brother? All right?As soon as you said I'm not willing
to entertain legal expense, your conversationis over because the only way you're going
to do it is to actually filea lawsuit. But here's your problem.

(06:14):
Is your dad still alive? No? Oh? Yeah? Well okay,
so your brother owns them, that'sit, and owns them because your dad
wanted to own wanted him to ownthem. So your brother now owns a
bunch of niches that are in thefamily. Name doesn't like you, So
figure out where you're going to getburied other than the family niche Do you

(06:35):
like your family very much? Oh? Brother? Yeah, except for your
brother. All right. You know, I don't know what to tell you.
I mean, the bottom line isyou're going to be dead. I
mean, when you're in ashes,you're really dead. So you know,
I think you got to suck itup. I mean, you could start
arguing that there was some kind ofcoercion that he talked to your dad into

(06:59):
it. There's some kind of dressor fraud, promising that it would be
for everybody in the family, butproving that is impossible, and so nap,
your ashes are going to be scatteredto either the winds, the water,
the driveway, because if it's gotthe fish society or the fish society.

(07:21):
Yeah see, I'm in the fishsociety too, except they're throwing my
entire body in there. I'm goingto swim with the fishes. Actually that's
not true. But it's a greatconcept, isn't it. Stan, Yes,
sir, as they moved to ArizonaFell for a Yeah, hang on
a minute, Stan, are youtalking into a speaker? No, but

(07:45):
let me Oh maybe I'm hearing yourhearing aid. It just seems like very
echoey. Try it again. Hello. Oh that was a good one.
Oh yeah, that's okay, Yeah, thank you. All right. Anyway,
recently moved to Arizona. You cancall me a moron. Fell for
a door to door soil with salesman. Signed the lease on March twenty ninth,

(08:11):
and the lease clearly says I haveuntil midnight, seven days after signed
the lease to cancel. We havedecided to cancel in the meantime, and
there is absolutely nowhere in the contract. And you mentioned of what the penalty
would be if we canceled after theseven days. I just continue, there's
no penalty. It's just the contractsand force contracts in force. Yeah,

(08:35):
it just says, here's your contractthat you signed. You have seven days
to change your mind. After sevendays, here's the contract that you signed,
and you have a contract that isenforceable. So there's no way out
of it. That not really nowyou can't know. No, as far

(08:56):
as contract you're in place. Nowyou can say no, I am not
going to let you put the systemin Okay. With that, they can
sue you for the entire amount.However, they haven't done anything, right,
if they haven't ordered anything. Ifthe problem is is they're saying we're

(09:20):
prepared, we're ready, willing andable to put in a solar system,
and you're saying no, Will theynegotiate? Will the court give them?
You've got to pay the whole thing? I don't know. Probably not.
Would they get the entire amount?Probably not now if they've already sold it

(09:43):
to because the finance on those twentyfive year deals goes to finance companies who
then pay for my understanding, certainlythat works if you're buying it, if
you are it outright, then it'salready in the works and you're the one

(10:03):
that says no. For example,your car needs fixing, so they go
ahead and put it, put inan order for the part. The part's
delivered. It's let's say it's aspecialized order, and you have your crew
already set apart. In this caseyou are repair persons. The time is

(10:24):
allocated. You're paying for it anyway. Yeah, you're going to get nails
for it. Bottom lines. Ithink you're screwed. Sorry about that?
Cut them off? Go figure,huh here we go? Greg? Hello,
Greg, welcome? Yeah, Ispeaker all for you there. Yeah,

(10:46):
that would be good. Yeah,I'm here, okay, okay,
Bill, Yeah, listening to theshow regularly. I just had a question.
I love a neighbor with a propertyline dispuit over a hedge that I
planted all over thirty years ago thatwe were both agree up, agreeable on,
and I just ran a string linefrom my marker on the curve to
my offence and plannet it. Nowit's pretty much. She had a survey

(11:11):
it don supposedly, but was neverrecorded with the county, so I think
it was, and no markers wereput in. So now she decided to
cut my head down six foot talldown to like two and a half feet
tall. Is it on her property? You know? Well, as far
as I know, I'm gonna I'mgonna have a survey I'm having Okay,
Well, it's on. If thesurvey shows it's on your property, no

(11:33):
problem. Even if the survey showsit's on her property. It's been up
there for thirty years and she hasnever said anything. It's the same for
last year or too. Okay,hang on, but is it same owners,
same owners for the last what thirtyyears? I believe it's probably thirty

(11:56):
years of bay. Okay, wellthat makes it easy that I think.
I means it easy because thirty yearsdown the road, after you've accepted this,
effectively you have waved. If thathappens. She has waived all liability.
She has accepted it. There wasno complaint, there was no survey
done. It's okay, that's fine. And then thirty years later she does

(12:18):
a survey and said, oh,by the way, I don't think she's
going to prevail on that, soplan I'll go ahead. Here's the interesting
part. So this this gentleman camedown and had to serve. I thought
he was serving our streets. We'llcome to find out he was surveying our
property line. So I talked tohim. Shame on me. I never

(12:39):
got a card from or anything.I let him in my backyard down this
slope. Did it all at aGPS you know survey thing? And then
you know if she told me allthat the wall is on my property?
Okay, So I keep calling thecounty to find a recorded survey, and
there never has been a long youdon't have no, it's not a recorded
survey. What happens is initially ifyou look at the property line. It

(13:03):
is recorded as the original description whenit was zoned, and it will say
that really complicated stuff when you readit, it's you know, it goes
on and on and on. Butthey didn't put any any any stakes and
markers or the license number of thesurveyor, which from what I understand is
that's the reader. Yeah, butthat's so therefore she can't okay, so

(13:26):
she doesn't have a survey or.You can attack the survey Now do you
need markers? I don't know.I don't even know how surveys work.
But with the technology today, bythe way, you don't record surveys that
are done after the fact. That'sfor your information. The property line,
as far as the county is concerned, is already there. They don't need
a survey or. And so it'sonly in the question of disputes. So

(13:52):
if it's on your property, yeah, you see her to replace it.
If it's on her property, you'rearguing I have the right to do that.
And now you replace it and shecuts it down, and you know,
what do you do? I mean, it's on her property, and
she's going to argue, and you'rein front of a small claims judge,
So what do you do with thatone small claims judge knows less than you

(14:15):
do about it. So you're Ithink you're only assuming that what if it's
on the property line itself, it'sa shared a shared head. Okay,
Well then you both have to agreeand then you Yeah, then you can
argue that she doesn't have a rightto do that unless you both agree,
and then you so you go aheadand plant it or you talk about you

(14:39):
get a bit on how to replaceit at the height the bush was,
uh, the and then you consumeher for that. I mean, it's
just it's one of those that frankly, I don't care at all about that.
He's driving me nuts, all right. Technology, no matter what business
you're in, technology is part ofit. I mean, there's no way

(15:01):
around it. Go to an officeand see any desk that doesn't have a
computer, that doesn't have technology involvedin the business. I don't care what
it is. So let me tellyou about Robert. You're rup Hi bail.
Two parties owned some property and onehalf or one one party sold his

(15:28):
half to a third party, okay, and the thing got reassessed and the
taxes went up until the first partysays, oh, he wants to keep
his original half half tax costs maybeincrement up one half two. Yeah,

(15:48):
no, I understand that, Iget it. And the third party says,
oh no, you know, let'shave the inflated taxes. You're okay,
well, okay, So you havetwo people owning a property and half
of it is sold, all right, so what a three What if three

(16:11):
people owned it? Or let's sayfive people owned it and three of them
sold and two of them didn't.So you were asking the county, well,
two fifths should remain the same,but three fifths should be reassessed.
Okay, let me ask you aquestion. How many pieces of property are

(16:33):
we talking about here? We're talkingabout well, right, one piece of
property. And what the county doesis assess each piece of property. They
don't split up your taxes. Andfrankly, the county doesn't care how many
people own the property. So whenany part of it is sold and deed

(17:00):
is now recorded because it has tobe, uh, they reassess. I
mean there are some exceptions spouse tospouse, uh, but that's basically it.
So uh. The first part I'mnot saying saying the county uh do
something you know. No, Iunderstand, So what are you What are
you saying? I'm saying that oneof the original parties. I get it.

(17:25):
Yeah, so my yeah, Itell you. I just told you
what the lawyates. They assessed theentire property. I understand that, you
know, But how the passes getpaid. The people that pay the ten
don't care to care if it wasoriginally half and half and now it's half
and half for more money. Uh. They can get into a dispute,

(17:47):
file lawsuits if they want, saying, hey, you originally said you weren't
going to sell the property. Butbut here's the rule. If I sell
my half of the property and youown the other half, guess one,
it's going to be reassessed and you'regonna pay more taxes. That's it,
nothing more and nothing less. Itdoesn't matter what the It doesn't matter what

(18:07):
the first party does. The firstparty owned half the property. Okay,
you and I own a car together, and it is worth fifteen thousand dollars,
and so therefore I have seven anda half thousand dollars worth of equity
in the car, and the pricesdrop because you won't sell it. Okay,

(18:30):
so now we don't split it inhalf anymore, because I still want
my seven five hundred dollars. Itdoesn't work that way. You don't sell
half of a car, you sellthe entire car. You don't sell half
of a piece of property, althoughyou can, but the county doesn't care.
It's one piece of property and youguys have to suck it up or
file lawsuits against each other in termsof whatever agreement was made. But there

(18:55):
have to be an agreement in writingon this one, Robert, because if
there isn't verbal, contra rax promisesme nothing when it deals to real property.
Mike, Hello, Mike, welcome, Hey Belle, Good morning,
sir. I had a divorce finalizedsix years ago, and earlier this year,

(19:15):
I get a bill from my attorneyfor thirteen dollars and fourteen cents to
file an E filing petition to withdrawfunds from a blocked account. I don't
think I'm liable for this, butokay, do you get the money?
Do you get any of the money, Mike? Do you get any of
that money? There was? Therewas no I didn't know of any money.

(19:36):
No, no, no, Iget it, I get it.
I understand that. Do you getany money from that block account? None?
All right, So he's charging youthirteen dollars and fourteen cents. Yeah
wow. Let me let me askyou something, how what what do you
do for Mike? Can I ask? Oh, I'm I'm now retired.

(20:00):
Okay? What did you do foryears? What did you do? What
did you do from a municipal fromthe city of Long Beach? I retired
from the municipal? Okay, So, uh, let me ask you what
what your salary was as you endit, because it's obviously a public record.
So how much? Right around oneone hundred and ten thousand dollars?
What is that hourly? On fortyhours? What I was? One hundred

(20:25):
dollars hour? Yeah? Right?And so how much time have we just
spent on an hourly talking about thirteendollars? Mike? I appreciate the phone
call, but do you have alife? Do you do anything other than
worry about thirteen dollars? And youwaited half an hour, Mike, you

(20:45):
waited half an hour to ask meabout the eighteen dollars. I'm retired,
Bill, I have okay, Soyou have no life? Okay? Got
it? All right? That answersthat question. I don't want to send
this guy, sir. I thinkhe's not going to assume you. He's
not going to assue you. I'mlike, he's not going to sue you.
Pay it, don't pay it.I don't care. If I were

(21:07):
him and I had your attitude,I would ding your credit for that boy.
That's worth it for thirteen dollars.Yeah, isn't that special? Jenny.
First of all, let me giveyou a quick hello. Hi Jenny,
Hi, Hi. Okay, beforeyou start, I want to I
want to say something. I've beendoing this show for over thirty years,

(21:32):
and you would think I have hadevery single legal question that exists over thirty
years. Every once in a while, I get a call that I've never
seen before, and let me tellyou, I get so excited. I
actually have an erection and this isone of those calls. So Jenny,

(21:56):
first of all, thank you,and second of all, let's go for
it. Thank you, mister handle. My mom is eighty years old,
a US citizen living in Mexico.Like a lot of expats, she orders
on Amazon. Amazon throws the packagesover her wall, damaging her property.

(22:18):
She keeps ordering and telling them tostop, but they don't stop. They
keep throwing the packages, damaging herproperty. Often she orders things like oil
and glass bottles. What can Ido to help her from here, others
than beg her to stop using Amazon? Is there any jurisdiction? Is there

(22:38):
anything I can do? I've beengo ahead, Yeah, I see,
I said. Anybody listening, Itold you I never got a question like
this. Yeah, you can askAmazon. Please don't do it. I
have no idea who delivers for Amazonin Mexico. My guess is they outsource

(22:59):
it, because I've never I've beento. I have friends that go to
Mexico. There are very few Amazontrucks driving around. And where is she
in Mexico? In it's a lotof older Americans. Okay, so it's
an American race. It's one ofthose American retirement communities. So it's a
little bit of America in this islandthat exists in this town. Correct,

(23:23):
that's right? Okay, Yeah,By the way, a lot of people
do that because you know, SocialSecurity, let's say give you twelve hundred
and fifteen hundred dollars or less.Here in the States, especially in southern
California, here, you're you can'teven afford a dumpster for that kind of
money and actually eat and just survivedown there. For a thousand bucks a

(23:48):
month, you can actually live apretty good life. So that's why a
lot of people do that. Okay, So she gets to or you get
to contact Amazon and go to oneof their folks and say this is what's
going on. She can call whoeveris the delivery service. They don't care.
I mean, that's Mexico, youknow what do they care? And

(24:11):
so when talking about damaging your property, what does that mean? So they're
throwing an Amazon package over the walland she's and they're damaging her property.
I don't know what that means.What property is being damaged? The walkway
has these really nice tiles and they'reall needing to be replaced according to her
contractor the oil just soaks through insuch a way that there's no way to

(24:33):
go. Okay, the oil.Okay, so the oil in the packages
break. That's great. Okay,Well, I tend to agree with you.
Stop ordering from aon Amazon, tryany other service, go directly to
the company the manufactures. They needto pay a little bit more, that's
what I suggest. Or I cantry to find you a Mexican lawyer and

(24:57):
those are a lot of fun,and start filing lawsuits in Mexico. And
if you do that, and Ihope you do, Jenny, then I
want follow up phone calls about dealingwith Mexican lawyers regarding Amazon throwing property over
a wall and the oil leaks intothe tile. That's the case that's going

(25:19):
to go to the Mexican Supreme Court. And if you think I'm making fun
of you, that's exactly what I'mdoing. But you know, new case.
I tell you that's a promo,Jacob, that is a promo.
Okay, I'm going to tell you. I mean, how do you deal

(25:40):
with this? Jacob's been with mefor years and years and years and I
don't even have to ask you haveheard a case like this before? Okay,
I'm excited now see I'm very excited. Sorry about that, all right?
So let's end up with your bet. Your breath, your horrible,

(26:00):
disgusting breath. You smell like anIraqi sheep herder. And can you do
something about it? Yeah, youcan take a mint and that clears it
up for a minute or two.But let me tell you about Zelman's minty
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(26:22):
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(26:45):
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