(07/13) HOTL Hour 1

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
In the morning first hour, ittakes a little while for us to warm
up. You me the world.So let me give you the phone number
if you want to call in.And lines are always open as we open
the show, and the number iseight hundred five two zero one five three
four. Eight hundred five two zeroone five three four. And in the

(00:23):
morning, the wait is not long. And sometimes it is as we begin
the show, or halfway through theshow, or a quarter of the way
through the show, and people aregoing to be waiting a while, and
sometimes all the lines are busy,and so there you are and you're calling
in and you're hearing the the buzzbuzz buzz of a busy signal. But
you can always call back a fewminutes later, because I like to go

(00:45):
through these calls as quickly as possibleas I lose my patience. Eight hundred
five two zero one five three four. Usual rules always apply. I've been
doing this for decades now, andthe rules are are, if you are
a more more on or particularly inbasilic, good chance, you're coming aboard

(01:06):
very very quickly. If you arein a mental facility Europe virtually immediately.
It helps. If you're completely unintelligiblewhere I cannot understand one word you say,
usually from insert name of country here. That helps you immediately and all
of a sudden, any all sudden, any major handicap helps a lot.

(01:26):
If you're an amputee, a doublemputee, someone is actually dialing the phone
for you, that helps enormously too. By the way, any combination of
those also very helpful for you toget in and maybe even jump the line
eight hundred five two zero one fivethree four eight hundred five to two zero

(01:47):
one five three four as the linescome in. Okay, this is handle
on the law, marginal legal advicewhere I tell you you have absolutely no
case. Well, our good friendRudy Giuliani, he went into bankruptcy and
he had all kinds of problems whenhe filed for bankruptcy, and there was

(02:10):
talk of the bankruptcy not going forward. The bankruptcy judge is saying, no,
thank you, I am not goingto discharge you from your debts.
What a lot of people don't knowabout. You file for bankruptcy and you
list your assets, and you listyour debts and list the amount of money

(02:32):
that you earn, and the bankruptcycourt has to look at all the documents
and determine yep, we're going togo ahead and liquidate, which means you're
out of it completely and all thecreditors just walk away and there's nothing they
can do. Or usually it's areorganization, which means we're going to take

(02:52):
all of your debts and put himin a pile and figure out how much
you owe per creditor over what amountof time and what interests. For example,
let's say of a real estate lease. Well, still sticky to the
lease, but reduce the amount,maybe increase the time to pay for it

(03:13):
or pay it, reduce the interestrate, basically rewrite the lease. That
happens during a reorganization. Also,the judge can say that the creditors get
thirty cents on the dollar and that'sit, and the creditors suck it up.
Now, obviously you have to bevery honest about this. It's all
under the penalty of perjury and youhave to cooperate. Well, here comes

(03:34):
Rudy Giuliani, who has not cooperatedfrom day one. He is obfuscated.
This is the judge saying this,by the way, in his decision to
say no, no, no,I'm not going to let you go bankrupt.
Nope, you've obfuscated. You havedelayed in giving the court documents.
You have eliminated documents that we're askedfor, delayed everything thing, and based

(04:00):
on your behavior, no bankruptcy.Thank you very much. You're done.
Get out of here, okay.Couple things. That means that the amount
of money that Juliani owes still isowed, and he cannot hide behind the
bankruptcy laws, and everything he ownsis liable to be picked up by his

(04:23):
creditors, and that's going to beeverything he owns. The only thing he
has left is a couple of piecesof property. A couple of residents is
one in New York, one inPalm Beach, Florida, worth about eleven
million dollars, he says, somepretty high end property. What he owes
is one hundred and fifty three milliondollars, about twenty people in businesses,

(04:45):
including the big one, to twowomen, a mother and a daughter,
who were election workers, who heoutright admitted or outright accused of committee fraud.
You guys lied, you committed fraudin favor of Joe Biden, and
without any proof, he went publiclywith that he slandered them. They got

(05:06):
a huge award. I think theygot a one hundred and something million dollar
award, and they got death threats, big time death threats, which were
not appreciated, to say the least, and the court took that into account
too. So at this point,Julian is gonna have nothing. By the

(05:28):
way, he lost his job asa talk show host. He was on
WABC, which was the premier orone of the premier radio stations in New
York talk stations. He lost hisjob and he was making hundreds of thousand
dollars for a one hour show.But that was a mercy stoop. That
was advertisers coming in and those thatwere politically in tune with Juliani and his

(05:50):
crowd, and they bailed out andthe station bailed out. He basically has
nothing now. He makes a littlebit of money with appearances and going to
what rallies and I guess a littlebit of consulting, but certainly nothing like
what he did. And here's theinteresting part. And he lost his license,

(06:12):
he's been disbarred, and he's stillsitting on some criminal charges. And
as I've told you many times,I know someone who knows someone that is
actually connected to Giuliani. And Iasked this person two things. Number One,
how did Giuliani, America's mayor,get caught up in this? How
is that possible? This guy singlehandedly took down or almost single handedly took

(06:34):
down the mafia in New York whenhe was the US attorney there. And
two, he was considered America's mayorwhen he ran for New York and ran
New York for a period of time. He went from that to this,
And I asked, how is thatpossible? Well, he got caught up

(06:55):
in the Trump orbit. And whenyou're caught up in the Trump orbit,
that's it. You've you have drunkthe kool aid. And that's the kind
of charisma. Forget about the politicsof this. That's the kind of charisma
that Donald Trump has that those peoplearound him, and he has the ability
to garner unbelievable loyalty. The otherquestion I asked is is Juliani at all

(07:19):
remorseful or at least feels bad forhimself and lost everything as a result of
his actions politically? And I wastold nope, He's going down as a
true believer. He thinks every bitof it was worthwhile. Losing his license,
losing everything he owns, not beingable to work. Every bit of

(07:43):
that is worthwhile. Wow. Soanyway, no bankruptcy for Rudy Giuliani.
Can he appeal it? Yeah,absolutely, he can appeal it. He
has put up one hundred and fortymillion dollars bond to keep these two women
from grabbing everything he owned. Andthat's just the start, all right,
Dennis, you're up. Welcome tohandle on. Hi Dennis, good morning.

(08:07):
Yes, I'm calling about my grandson. He worked for Amazon for four
years, have high autism. Whenhe first got hired, he put down
and had a handicap. You aboutdo you know what Amazon got out here

(08:28):
in Ontario? They got like twobig buildings where we where working for almost
for four years. Was kind oflike they do the paperwork and I mean
the paper goods and stuff like that. And about six months ago they told
him he could transfer to the otherbuildings what they got all the bigger stuff.

(08:48):
And so a trainding in packaging wherethey take this up and they put
he put it in the box.Well, if he anything comes out of
order, he just can't handle it, you know, he get confused.
And so he was doing about uh, two hundred a shift and they wanted

(09:13):
four hundred. So they fired himbecause he he can't do it. M
hm. Okay, So I wonderand about he's going to get transferred to
another place where he put the stuffon the shelf. But last week they
fired him. Okay, So hedid that. So he did the He

(09:35):
did the first job for four yearswithout a problem. Do I have that
right? Yes? Okay, yes, when he put down he had a
handicap that he put down what handicaphe had on the application? He said
handicap. Now I don't know.We don't know if he if they asked
him, you could just talk tohim and tell that he got autism.

(09:56):
Well, I mean, you know, it's kind of hard for people who
are nons folks to make that diagnosiswhat's autism and what's not. So here's
the issue. You said they offeredhim another position. Did they tell him
he has to go to the otherposition? They just offered it to him,

(10:16):
he accepted it. He couldn't dothat work. And then you're saying
there was a third position that heaccepted and he can't do that work.
Correct, Well, we don't knowbecause they fired him. He going to
get that position in two weeks wherethey put stuff on the shelf. Okay,
well, I mean I don't thinkit really well, it probably does

(10:37):
matter as to whether he can dothe job or not. I don't think
there's much there. I really don't, because there's making as many accommodations as
possible. I think that what youcan hang your hat on is the fact
that he had a job for fouryears and was doing it appropriately, and
then they transferred him or he wasnot doing it appropriately, and they said,

(10:58):
well, try this one, andfrom what you say, he didn't
do that one appropriately, and nowhe is up for a third one.
And you're saying all of this happenedas a result of his autism, and
you're saying, it's just easy totell he's autistic, and so they hired
him with autism, and now they'refiring because of autism, And as far

(11:22):
as they go ahead, I don'tthink different because of autism because he can't
keep up with the don't understand thathe can't. And what you're saying is
he can't keep up because he's autistic. You've decided that. I mean,
okay, I mean that may betrue. I mean it could be he
can't keep up because he can't keepup. I mean, there are plenty

(11:43):
of people that are let go becausethey just don't make the grade. And
Amazon's being accused of really pushing peopleto the ultimate limit. There's a there
are lost. Yeah right, soyeah, I mean it's you know,
Amazon has some issues. Well youknow clearly. Do I think it's something
there? No, Do I thinkyou ought to talk to an employment discrimination
attorney because I'm not one, Yeah, I do. Because there may be

(12:09):
some case law, there may besome judgments and the appeals court that determined
that Amazon did wrong. And ifAmazon did wrong, then the argument is
does he get money? Does heget reinstatement? So it's time for an
employment discrimination attorney. There you go, ah right, Walker, Hella Walker,

(12:30):
welcome to handle on the law.Can you see Walter or Walker?
I said, Walker, But it'sas Walter. That's okay too, Yeah,
Hi, I go, okay.I have a house I view of
like an La harbor, long beachharbor, all the way down to the
coast to data point. I havea view of the ocean. And I'm

(12:50):
retired now. And when I wasworking a lot of times they come home
and there's a new satellite dish onthe roof next door on the apartment buildings
on the lower side my house.Is there anything I could do to get
rid of those? Let me askyou when you talk about satellite dish,
you talking about those little ones thatare about twelve inches in diameter that stick
out on porches. There's numerous seemslike the buildings like stepped down the hill.

(13:15):
Okay, no, I understand,all right, So you're not talking
about these massive, big communication satellites, all right, all right, So
you now have instead of having anunobstructed view of the harbor, you now
have this unobstructed view of a bunchof satellite dishes. Correct, yes,
okay, how do you like yoursatellite dishes? How do you like to

(13:37):
look at all? Like them?That's a tough yeah, I know,
but congratulations, that's your view now. Unless there is an ordinance, unless
there is an h o A thatprovides that views will not be obstructed,
they can do it. Yeah,you don't have You don't have a right
to a view unless they're is alaw, or unless there is an agreement

(14:03):
with when they pull the permit,for example, to build those and my
house is building in nineteen twenty nine, and their apartment buildings are build in
the fifties. Well, yeah,then they didn't have to have and there
was no ho hoas in those days. I don't think I got any place
to go on that one. That'swhy I asked you if you really like

(14:24):
the views of those satellite dishes.A lot of people do, by the
way, they'd much rather have aview of a bunch of satellite dishes instead
of an unobstructed view of the harborthere at day ina point. Oh yeah,
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(14:50):
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(15:13):
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(15:37):
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(15:58):
E. L at sweet dot comslash handle. Hello, Lynn, Welcome
Yo, Lynn. She had agood question too, Lynn. Are you
there. See we have a delayand sometimes people do the radio and they're
told not to listen to the radiobecause there was a delay. So if

(16:21):
Lynn now comes on, she's beenlistening to the radio. So we're gonna
do a countdown. Lynn, fivefour, Bill, Oh, there you
go. You were listening to theradio, weren't you. Oh I was
actually I'm at a gas station.Ah okay, fair enough, all right,
I'll let that one. Yeah,I'll let that time on. I'm

(16:42):
on dialysis, but I'm still workingfull time. Okay, you're on dialysis
right now at a gas station.No, I just finished dialysis. Okay,
we're working full time? Fair enough. I'm I'm working full time and
part of I'm an act of theassistant for an assisted living community, and

(17:03):
part of my job requires lifting somepretty heavy tables that I think men should
do and not me. Oh yeah, but my boss says that my boss
is threatening to terminate me because hesays it's in my job description that I
have to do this heavy lifting.Okay, is he able to terminate?
All right? I now have aquestion to ask you. All right,

(17:26):
let's start with a couple of questions. Are you a very well built lesbian
that has good upper body strength?You know, wearing the flannel shirt you're
not? Okay? Fair enough?Now, prior to you being on dialysis,
did you have to lift those boxesas part of your work, yes,

(17:49):
okay, And now you're saying Ican't do that anymore for medical reasons.
I'm on dialysis, and you're sayingI'm pretty week. Okay, Okay,
that's fair. Wrong enough, gotit. No, I know,
I understand, I understand. Andwhat's going on with your work? You
can't lift? And what are theysaying? He's saying, it's part of

(18:12):
my job description that I do dothe lifting, okay, and you're saying
it wasn't part of your job descriptionprior to now. Correct, Well,
I looked at my job description.It does have requirements for heavy lifting,
okay, but they never enforce those. Well I've only been on dialysis for

(18:33):
the last year okay, so theynever enforced those. Okay, But they
never enforced those because how long wereyou working there, Lynn, I've been
working there for four years okay,from doing the lifting up until about a
year ago. Okay, fair enough. So now here you go, you
can't lift anymore? And what arewhat's your boss saying? Then you go,

(18:55):
I can't lift anymore? Now whathe's saying that it's part of my
job description? Okay? Say?And what happens? Okay? So is
he threatening to fire you? Yes? Okay? Well uh, now,
uh this gets really interesting because justthe way this pans out, uh,

(19:15):
and yeah, the argument is you'redoing this because of my inability to to
do what you're asking me to do. Because of the medical issue that I
have. Okay, he's saying,no, No, that's not true.
It's just part of the work description. And the argument is, well,
until a year ago, I've beenand I've been on dialysis. That's when

(19:37):
you started deciding I'm gonna lift boxes. And I told you I was weak
and I'm on dialysis. I'm shorta couple of kidneys. Correct, Yeah,
that's what usually happens. Okay,So no kidneys, dialysis, Yes,
all right? So now what okay, is he threatening to fire you?
Yes, okay, all right,Well I think you have at least

(20:00):
a good argument. Now, hecan fire you for any reason he wants.
I don't think he can fire youunder the ADA, and I think
you're under the ADA Americans with DisabilitiesAct. I think again, Ronie,
I was thinking about I was thinkingabout that myself. I'm wondering if that
would come into it. I don'tknow. I don't know. I don't
do that. You see people callup and they assume I, number one,

(20:23):
have that specialty. Number two haveany idea of the law, even
question whether I am an attorney ornot. Yes to the third one,
by the way, just to letyou know it is definitely time to contact
an employment discrimination attorney. I thinkthere's something there. Now. Keep in
mind on the other side of that, in California, an employer can fire

(20:45):
an employee for any reason whatsoever,literally walking in the door and go,
you know what, you're too uglyto work here. I don't want to
look at you anymore when I walkin the door. That that person can
be fired for. Now, youcan't be fired for certain things. One
of them is a religion, creed, ethnicity, gender, that sort of

(21:08):
thing, but for any other reason. And then there are cases even limiting
that. But it's definitely definitely timefor a discrimination attorney. Deployment discrimination.
Hello Ann, welcome, Hey Bill. I had a Lemon law case and
I went with one of your advertisers. They got me an amazing settlement than

(21:32):
two thousand on a vold wagon.Yes so, but I still had I
sold the car to car Mets theeighteenth you sold the car, okay,
now what yes? So then thelawyers settled back with Volkswagen, I guess,
subtracting that, and so it wentdown to eighty four thousand. But

(21:53):
then when they gave me the settlement, they subtracted another eighteen thousand. They
can't do that, okay, ifthey charged you attorneys fees, they're not
allowed to do that with a Lemonlaw case. It's one of the few
cases that attorney's fees are not paidout of a settlement. They are paid

(22:15):
outside of the settlement. The carcompanies pay you whatever is negotiated and then
pay them. So there is anissue here. So you want to what
I would do is check with yetanother Lemon law lawyer. And there's a
few out there, good ones,and there's some that advertise here at this

(22:37):
radio station. Some that have somehave stopped, but you want a second
opinion, and saying, wait aminute, this does not seem kosher to
me. My understanding is that lawyersdon't do this under the Lemon Law settlement
score. I already had to settleto get any kind of money, So
I ended up getting fifty one thousand, from which you had to settle in

(23:00):
a minute. So you went fromone hundred and two thousand, and then
eighty four thousand and then down tofifty one thousand. Yeah, something's wrong
there. You want to talk toanother Lemon law lawyer. Something's wrong.
That doesn't make any sense. Soyou definitely want a second opinion. Of
course, since I don't do theLemon law, I don't have these statues

(23:21):
in front of me. I don'thave the cases in front of me.
But i'll tell you what the lawI know that you don't. They don't
take a percentage of the settlement.Well, no, it's another percentage they're
saying for a car turning fee.So what I say? But why do
they get I understand that Volkswagens cansay if you sell the car, that
reduces the amount of our payment toyou, although I don't know if that's

(23:44):
true or not. I have noidea. But assuming that's true, and
then they turn around and take anotherfee off of that settlement fee, why
did they do that? And bythe way, if you sold the car,
what'd you do through the attorney?Because you still own the car?
I had the case. I hadthe case the whole time for car.
No. I understand, I understandyou had the case, but you had

(24:07):
you in fact had the pink slip. How did they I don't understand what
they had to do with you sellingthe car. I don't know. I
don't know. And yeah, you'vegot it, Oh yeah, there's a
lot of this I don't understand,but there is absolutely no question you need
a Lemon law lawyer. And we'vehad an advertise here at the radio station.

(24:30):
Uh. And I've spent a lotof time talking. I've never had
a Lemon lock case. And frankly, uh, I don't even know anybody
who has. No, that's nottrue. And got a pretty good settlement,
that's true. Yeah, fair enough, Al, you have an interesting
one. Hello, Al, welcome, Hello, Yes, what can I
do for you? My was mywife was five years and I we still

(24:56):
have a time here together. Okay, Okay, The maintenance feeds are coming
out of my account? All right, I missed you on that one.
Your maintenance fear coming out of whatof my account? Okay? Okay,
you're out of your bank account.The maintenance fees are coming out of correct,

(25:18):
yes, okay Oka. She wenton the floor this last month,
okay, and about some more timeshere all right. And you guys are
and and you are separated, divorced? What is divorce? Okay? You
are divorced? And she goes aheadand buys more time shares? All right,
now what exactly? Okay? Nowthey've got the uh, the maintenance

(25:42):
are coming out of my account?Why that's what I'm calling you for?
Hey, I got it? Okay, you wanna you wanta? Okay,
here's a complicated legal answer. Closethe account. Really, yeah, whatever
she buys on her jeez, al, did you let me ask you a

(26:04):
question? Did the two you meetat a mensa meeting? No? Come
on, what my wife buys somethingafter we're divorced and they're still taking the
money out of my account? Stopthe account, shut it down. Let
her worry about it. But thetime to share that we still share.

(26:26):
That's still asking. That's fine.I understand that. But you said she
bought additional time. Yes, shedoesn't have the ability to buy additional time
on your behalf once you're divorced.Was it a long mensa meeting? Josie,

(26:48):
Hi, Josie, welcome, Yes, hello, thank you personal well
for doing this show. I wasreferred by one of my prisoners my cases.
I lost my husband two years agoto COVID battling cancer right now myself,
I'm a sixty seven year old widdle. And what kind of cancer do
you have, Josie? I havethe liquor Hutchkins from Tama. All right,

(27:11):
when are you going to when areyou going to pop off? Here?
Would the doctor say? So?The doctor said that I'm going towards
good. The lymph notes are allshrinking. I'm going to have Oh good,
So you're right, so you're gonnalast pass the phone call? All
right? Fair enough? So yeah, oh good, good good. Okay,
So you've got you've got cancer?And what your husband died? My

(27:34):
husband died and he changed without myknowledge, his IRA and put his son
that was never a part of ourlife as beneficier. So my surprise when
I went to playing you know theIRA almost nine hundred thousand, Yeah,
I found out that I wasn't beneficier. So I hired an attorney, right,
and the attorney to represent me,I signed a contract at whatever he

(27:57):
recovered if we went to court.It was yeah, so I'm now.
So the judge granted, we didn'ttake it a court. We settled the
day of the court. The judgejust signed final papers. That fatality has
to roll over half of the right. Oh you got half of it.
I got it, okay, whichis fair all right, So you got

(28:18):
exactly what you're entitled to. Sonow my attorney is he says, it's
negotiable, but he wants out ofthe fourth fifty that I'm going to get,
he wants one hundred and eighty thousandplus. Okay, how much is
that? What percentage is that?I think? Yeah, attorneys do that,
So, Josie, that's what attorney'scharge when they take a case on

(28:41):
contingency. You when you signed aretainer agreement, did you pay money upfront?
No? No, See, it'sa contingency agreement. The attorney says,
I will take, and forty percentis right in line for a case
going to trial or going past thesettlement stage. I mean, when you're
at trial, that's basically going totrial. So he also took because he

(29:06):
recovered they made my steps and gaveme back everything he stole because he loved
me. Okay, all right,coins and he denized it. But we
were able to get the silver coinsback. But my attorney said when he
brought the coins back to my houseas we went to court, he said,
well, I'm entitled to forty percent. No, I don't think he
is. I don't think he's entitledto help you get back stolen goods unless

(29:32):
that was part of the court case. Unless part of suing the Sun inclusive
of those coins, was it Isued him? No, I understand,
But was that part of the settlement? Yes, okay, well then that's
then it's not separate. It's partof the settlement. You get four hundred

(29:52):
and fifty thousand dollars half of theIRA, and you get the coins,
and that's what they settled to.Yeah, he gets forty percent of that,
so you got more. Then yougot more than half the settlement because
you also got the coins. Correct. I got sixty the coins and he
got forty. I understand. Okay, is what were those coins part of

(30:15):
I'm giving you X number of dollarsfour hundred and fifty from the IRA and
an additional one hundred thousand, onehundred thousand dollars worth of coins. Was
that part of the settlement? Wethen recover the gold coins? He does,
okay, when you recover them,Okay, thanks for calling. I
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(30:36):
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(30:59):
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(31:22):
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(31:45):
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