(07/13) HOTL Hour 2

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law,marginal legal advice, where I bill handle
tell you in certain name here youhave absolutely no case. All right,
I want to share with you what'sgoing on in Congress and the law and
the ability of Congress to do whatit does. There is one provision of
the Constitution that says Congress has theabsolute right to waste its time and introduce

(00:28):
bills that have no chance of passingand are only introduced for political purposes and
no other reason. Here we gothe squad in Congress, the progressive let's
just say, the insane liberal partof Congress. A few of these congress
people Representative Alexandria Ocsia Cortes, theOAC, she runs that group, and

(00:52):
it's a group of progressives. Andyou have the one Palestinian American who is
part of it, and a fewothers. Okay, So AOC introduces a
articles of impeachment against two justices ofthe Supreme Court. The only way you
can toss out justices is via impeachment. As a matter of fact, that's

(01:15):
any justice, any federal judge.Impeachment. That's it. Otherwise than that
not removed. So she introduces articlesof impeachment under that provision of the Constitution,
which allows Congress to completely waste itstime. And so this articles are

(01:36):
asking Congress to vote the removal ofthe judges because they refuse to recuse themselves
from cases in which they had apersonal bias or prejudice concerning a party.
That is, you've got a coupleof the justices Alito and Clarence Thomas,
who were taking gifts from high endbusiness people who didn't specifically had cases in

(01:59):
front of the court themselves. Butyou know, obviously shareholders of businesses,
I mean pro business people, andThomas and Alito are as proud as pro
business as you can get. Now, they're not supposed to take gifts,
and boy do they take gifts.I'm talking about vacations on private jets.
It's some of the best resorts onthe planet. Yeah, I mean,
seriously good stuff. It's good tobe a justice. However, they can

(02:24):
do that all day long, andthey are not in violation of the law.
They're simply allowed to be conflicted allday long if they want. Now,
there is a code of conduct,but too bad. Again, the
only way to remove a justice isby way of impeachment. So, yeah,

(02:46):
what a complete waste of time.I don't know even why they bother
with that, And it's going togo to a committee which is going to
be dismissed instantly. You need twothirds of Congress. The Republicans have a
majority already. How were the Howdo you get two thirds to impeach you
justice? You can't. The samething on the other side, where you

(03:10):
have Marjorie Taylor Green. You knowwhen she introduced articles of impeachment against President
Biden ten minutes after he was swornin to the presidency. She's saying,
we have to impeach him for wrongdoingwhat being sworn in and walking down the
steps crazy people. So I justyou know, this is why Congress is

(03:37):
going absolutely note placed. This lastCongress will be considered the most ineffective,
the most ineffective Congress in the historyof the United States. All right,
let's go ahead and take some phonecalls. Ricardo. Let's start with you.
Welcome Ricardo, Morning Bill Bill.Yeah, I got divorced in two
thousand and five, and during thedivorce it was a spousal supports settlement of

(04:03):
seventy thousand dollars which was paid duringthe before the final judgment last week,
I received a lean on my propertyfor seventy thousand dollars from whom which I
believe i'd be from this an attorneyand an attorney representing who my ex.

(04:27):
Okay, and you've paid the amountthat was due under the settlement, correct,
yes, correct, okay, Andhe's demanding that amount of money which
you've already paid. That's the valueof the lead correct correct? Okay.
So what's your question? My questionis there's any statue limitations A B.

(04:48):
When was it filed? I needto get a two weeks ago? Oh
okay, there's no statute issue.That's that's done. Okay, Yeah,
you're no, in your favor.I mean, the statute has nothing to
do with this, it's not relevant. What you have is a lean that

(05:08):
was filed for the amount of moneythat was paid pursuant to a court order.
What it is is a frivolous lean, and I suggest you contact the
attorney, write an email to theattorney that signed the document and say this
is proof that I paid it,and then you send the proof whether it

(05:31):
was check or they took it outof an account, whatever, and you
say release the me lean immediately orI will contact an attorney, and I
will go after you. By theway, if an attorney does that.
Uh, And he's given information thatthat lian is frivol frivolous, and continues
on. He's looking at a lotof trouble. I mean a lot of
trouble. Okay, you're fine,You're fine. Just let him know.

(05:56):
Yeah, let them know. Youcan't just file lians. And I don't
understand how that why you would filelean anyway, because there that's not actually
connected to the divorce. So ona bunch of different levels. I have
no idea. Joanne, Hello,Joanne, Hi Bill, Yes, ma'am,
Yes, ma'am. Okay, Ican't hear you. Oh okay,

(06:19):
you can't hear me at all?Why you're very soft? And what happened?
I'd go with my phone. Okay, I'm gonna tell you my case.
You know what. We may wantto have you call back, because
if you basically can't hear me,I gotta tell you. I speak in
a very loud voice. So something'sgoing on. You want to move a
couple of feet and see if itworks better? There you go, okay,

(06:41):
much better, much better? Okay, all right, Joanne? What
can I do? For you.Yes, I put in a walk in
tub, and my old water heater, which allowed enough hot water for a
full tub, that died. Andso in a panic, I searched the
web and I called the first plumberthat answer. So he came out.
I don't know if I could giveyou his name. No, you do
not want to give me his name, because both of us are going to

(07:04):
get sued. And I don't careif you do, but I care if
I do. So first, allright, first plumber comes out and does
what I said, that my waterheater had died, which had had,
and he went and he bought meanother one, and he charged me sixteen
hundred dollars for the eater and theinstallation. Okay, and I probably probably

(07:26):
should have gotten estimates, but Ididn't have a question. Actually, actually
that's not horrible. Okay, youno, you didn't get ripped off to
the tune of thousands of dollars.It may have been expensive, but that's
right in line. A lot ofplumbers would charge that. How big a
water heater? By the way,Well, I guess it's a forty gallon,
all right, I big? Okay, that's not very big? All

(07:46):
right, Well, that's what myproblem is. I think my old one
might have been sixty. Ah doyou know if it was sixty, I
don't know for sure. Okay,yeah, all right, Well and now
this one isn't okay, it's notenough water for my full tub. Okay.

(08:07):
So I called him, and Icalled him quite a few times.
I actually got him a couple oftimes. Now he comes from a different
area. I'm in an ocean side. He livestened to me Killa Mariette.
Actually, so he said. Hetold me that if he was down here,
we had other customers down here,and when he came down here,

(08:30):
you would give me a call andcome look at it. Well, that
was ages ago. I think Ihad to put in in September fifteenth,
twenty twenty three. Okay, allright, well you're still within the stature.
Okay, So he's ignoring you basically, bottom line. Okay, all
right, what's your quess? Yourrecourse? You assum in a small claim
score for the sixteen hundred dollars uhhe put in you? Just tell your

(08:52):
story. He'll say, oh,no, it was appropriate. This is
why I asked you. Uh,you had a sixty gallon tank and unfortunate
and by the way. I'm notsaying you did anything wrong, because no
one thinks of this. I wouldlove for you to have had a picture
of that water heater, because hemay very well say she had a forty
gallon. I put in a fortygallon, and your argument's gonna be there

(09:16):
isn't enough hot water where there wasplenty of hot water before in my regular
tub. By the way, thosewalk in tub things that you see commercials
for, do they take more waterthan a regular bathtub. I'm not sure.
I actually okay, sure, Oh, by the way, doesn't matter.
He should know how much water thosetake, so that's not a big

(09:41):
deal. I'm just being curious aboutsmall claims, small claims court. We'll
see what the judge says and giveit a shot. Yeah. I don't
know what the hell she was doing, all right, that was probably my
mistake. She probably had the bestquestion in the world. Okay, Peter,
what can I do for you?Yeah? Sure, Yeah. I
get bit by a dog and adog daycare boarding facility. I worked there

(10:05):
but was not on the books.It was a strange situation. I was
doing work for the owner, andyeah, that doesn't matter, that doesn't
matter. Yeah, Okay, sohe been the dog baby. The first
time, I let it go thedog babe me. Second time, I
was working with the big dog area, and this time the dog bite was
pretty bad. The doctors got ittreated, but it's gotten infected to go

(10:26):
back again. I don't know wherethe negligence goes with the owner or yeah,
let's start. Let's start with this. Did you or the facility kill
the dog? No? They didn't. Oh why not? Well, I
mean because they're making money off thedog. This is the part of the

(10:48):
way they can make money off adead dog. No, I mean,
you know, whether you're boarding alive dog or a dead dog, you're
still boarding a dog. Yes,you're right about that, of course,
I'm right. I did say Ithought that maybe the owner, since the
facility didn't want to do anything aboutit, I sent pictures to the owners.
Yeah, number Okay, here,okay, here's okay, Peter,

(11:11):
assuming the dog is still alive,which I probably I'd rather have you say,
hey, Bill, I killed thedog. You know how much trumble,
But we're not going in that direction. Okay. So now, yeah,
the owner's liable except for the factyou work there and dogs bite,

(11:31):
and that's there's something called assumption ofthe risk. Dogs are taken from their
home and put in these little cagesor medium sized cages. What they're not
used to that or with a bunchof strangers. Okay, that's a big
assumption of the risk. Okay,you take your chances when you work in
that kind of facility. That's notto say there was a negligence involved.

(11:54):
It just really reduces their negligence.It's not like one hundred percent. It's
not like you're walking down the streetand a dog jumps out of the front
of the front door of the boardingfacility and bites you. I mean,
that's pretty negligent. So you've gotassumption of the risk in that one,
or at least for that motion onthe book. It doesn't matter that you

(12:15):
were on the books or not.It doesn't matter. You're there. You're
there, you walked in, youdid voluntarily. They didn't kidnap you.
And and well what if I becausemy dog was What if I was using
the dog and the dog put methere? Is that part of the risk
as well? Am I sorry whatI have a dog that was boarding there?
Yeah, it doesn't matter if youBut the point is you work there.

(12:39):
You understood the risk. Also,also, the infection part has nothing
to do with them. They're notresponsible for the infection. That's between you
and your doctor. If I wasn'tworking there at the time, well you
would. I wish you weren't workingthere either. No, I mean I
wasn't on the job duties there.I was going to visit myke. It

(13:00):
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.You don't got much to you the fact
that you were on the books ornot. You went to that facility,
you could go visit. You couldguy your paycheck. You could have gone
in and talked to a worker andask for a date. It doesn't matter.
Let me tell you about cyber thieves. Cyber Thieves commit silent crimes,

(13:20):
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don't even know what's happening. Youdon't tell you when you find out when
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identity theft affect every one of usalmost daily, and we've got to
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(13:41):
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(14:03):
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(14:31):
Beth, Hi. I'm calling thismorning because my twenty year old son
had his friend rent a car forhim in May of twenty twenty three,
and my son gotten a small accident, but anyway, his friend ended up
completing the rental and turning in thecar and we didn't hear anything about it.

(14:54):
And that was that until recently abouta week ago, Theri's mother,
who I'm friends with, received anotice in the mail from a third party
collection agency asking for twenty thousand dollars. Okay, so he got into a
fender bender, right, yes,Okay, did he take pictures? No?

(15:18):
Ooh, so it's his word thatthe car wasn't that banged up?
Correct? Okay? So and thenmy mother go ahead, But because it
has been over a year. Thathappened in May of twenty twenty three,
and we just got notification. Thatdoesn't matter. That doesn't matter. It's

(15:39):
within the statue. So that oneis gone. Now your son is twenty
Yes, twenty year olds are notallowed to rent cars. That's why his
friend rented it. Okay, Soeffectively they committed fraud on the insurance company.
Your friend or his friend. Uh, he rented the car for the

(16:03):
purposes of giving it to someone who'snot allowed to rent the car. By
the way, not talking about legally, we're talking about contractually procedurally with the
car rental company. So there areall kinds of problems. And by the
way, just to let you know, your son is not responsible. It
is the friend who is responsible.He's the one that rented the car.
Not your son. That's for starters. The other one is was there a

(16:29):
toe twenty thousand dollars for a car? What kind of car was it?
Just like a little Corolla? Okay, so a little Corolla twenty thousand dollars.
They basically they totaled it. Theytotaled it. And now the question
is when they sue for the twentythousand dollars and you get your friend where
his friends took it back? Thecar was drivable and the car ends driven.

(16:53):
Okay, all right, so here'swhat they're saying this. Okay,
man, here's what the here's whatthey're saying you are. And now it's
we're talking about your son's friend.You are responsible for damage to the car.
You signed, you agreed. Lookat the damage you caused. No,
I didn't. It was only afender bender. Where's the proof that

(17:15):
it was only a fender bender.Here's our proof. It's gonna cost twenty
thousand dollars to fix it. Where'syour proof that it was only a fender
bender? Was someone involved? Itwas someone in the other car that was
hit. No, oh you meanlike did he hit another car? Yeah?
Yeah, how the accident happened?Was both so they were both it.

(17:38):
He hit the guy's tired because thecar was still old. Okay,
is the other guy still around?Was the other guy that they exchange information
or anything? No, why not? Because my son didn't realize he hit
him. So he Okay, sohere's you. Here's what you have.
You have he I got into afender bender with another driver, no proof

(18:03):
that there was another driver. Numbertwo didn't take pictures at all. It
isn't twenty thousand dollars. Okay,Well here's the bid, and I'm assuming
they have a picture of it nowbased on what you say. Of course,
he got into some other accident orwhatever happened, and they're trying to
nail your son's friend. And theother great thing is because their geniuses,

(18:29):
no one took insurance out on thecar, which I always always say to
do. It's a little expensive,but it's not insurance insurance insurance. What
it is is a waiver. Anydamage you do to the car is covered
by that eleven dollars a day orwhatever they charge. I mean, you
can walk in with a car that'sbasically not working. I mean literally you
bring in one tire and you gohear the keys and I bought literally you

(18:53):
could do that. And so yourson or your son's friend and your son
did ever everything wrong, and there'sgoing to be there's and they may take
a lawsuit because this is what carcompanies do. They turn the collections over
to always a third party. Alwayshere you go, you collect on it.
So, now, how old isyour son's friend at the time.

(19:18):
I think he was twenty four?Okay? And is he working? Does
he have assets? He's incarcerated?Well, where are they going to go?
What is he incarcerated for? Boy, your son has friends? What
are they What are you in jailfor? Oh? My word, I'm
telling you I can't talk about it. Okay, Well let's hint around it

(19:41):
serious crime? No, oh okay, So where are they going to go?
So okay, So even if theyget a judgment, where are they
going to go? Right? Worried? So I feel bad because then paying
them? Paying? Then pay it? You're not responsible If you feel bad,

(20:02):
pay it now. They're not goingafter your son. I guarantee you
they are not going after your son. There is no basis for them to
go after your son. What aboutnegotiating a like instead of twenty thousand?
Just offering like three or four.Yeah, you can do that. Okay,
I wouldn't do that because they're notgoing to talk to you. No,

(20:26):
but I feel bad if so,if we don't pay it and they
don't pay it, then does itgo on the kids? His friends?
You know? Yeah, I meanit's gonna be a lawsuit, gonna be
a judgment against it. They'll beYeah, they'll be a judgment against him
for seven years, ten years.Well, the judge, no, the

(20:47):
judgment stays basically forever ten years,and they can reaffirm it for another ten
years. So but there's a lotof defenses to that. I don't even
know if they're going to go forwardwith it, because, first of all,
if he can't show up in andhe's in prison, they're not going
to go forward. Ret's a letterto the Ret's a letter to the judge
saying, I can't move forward thatI don't even know if they can serve
him in prison, got it?And if they can't serve him there is,

(21:14):
they can't move forward. Okay,here's a takeaway everybody. All right.
We start with if you ever getinto an accident, you immediately take
pictures instantly of everything that happened.If there is someone else in the accident,
you immediately take insurance information and youexchange information. All right, that's
for starters. I believe in buyingthat waiver which they call insurance, that

(21:37):
waiver where even if it's someone else'sfault, the rental company will tag you
and then you can deal with itlater. And you have some credit cards
in the American Express and certain VisaMaster cars that have that built in.
You just want to check that outwith your insurance company. So the lesson

(21:57):
was that everything this kid did waswrong. James, welcome. What can
I do for you? Hi?Good morning, Bill? Yeah, go
ahead? Are you there? Yeah? I am I I I. My
question is an agreement was at alawyer that was done six years ago when

(22:18):
his services were terminated at when hefinished to judgment illegal judgment. I asked
the question recently and he offered towrite a letter to my ex and now
he's charging me thirteen hundred dollars.So I'm okay for a letter for a
letter? Yes, okay, yeah, I say okay. I didn't ask.

(22:42):
I didn't ask what. I didn'task him to write it? He
offered, all right, So withthat, what you call him up,
and what did you ask him?So he comes in six years later.
You're talking to him six years laterabout what it had to do with a
timeshare. She wouldn't sign a papertime right, but it was okay,
it was It was a single questionabout the time share, right, yeah,

(23:03):
okay. So he says, I'llwrite a letter to your ex and
then he turns around and charges youthirteen hundred dollars. And there was no
agreement between you and the lawyer interms of number one, him writing the
letter, number two, what thecharge was going to be, and there's
none of that. It was justa verbal phone call, right. Yes,

(23:27):
he just wrote to me I justreceived it yesterday saying that he had
an agreement in his office that wassigned six years ago. So I'm asking
was it in perpetuity or well,I don't know if it's in perpetuity,
but I mean he is entitled totimes spent. So now let's talk about

(23:49):
what he actually did. How longwere you on the phone with him,
I don't know, maybe fifteen minutes, making there's fifteen minutes, and then
he wrote a letter. So whatdo you remember what you paid him six
years ago? The the what theretainer? Yeah, it was five thousand

(24:12):
initially. And no, no,no, what did you pay him an
hour? Do you? I don'tcare what you paid him retainer? How
many hours he spent? Then?What did do you remember? What it
was an hour? I'm trying tofind that right now. Okay, all
right, well let me do this. First of all, for thirteen hundred
dollars bill, you tell him i'myou say, i'm. You can go
pound sand I'll see you in court. If you expect thirteen hundred dollars for

(24:33):
one letter, you're out of yourmind. Okay, shoe me, shoe
me. Just show me he reviewedthe judgment and whatever he added added on,
Well, that's a different story nowif he's saying he reviewed the judgment.
So okay, there's an hour.I don't know how complicated. I'll
tell you one thing you're gonna dohe's gonna do. If he does sue

(24:56):
you, he will manufacture thirteen hundreddollars worth of charges. Lawyers like that
come up with stuff that's complete crap, and you're going to have to just
defend. And you, first ofall, you asked for an itemized bill.
First thing you do, give mean itemized. Bill, just don't
send me thirteen hundred dollars of charges. I want to know how much time

(25:19):
what you did? Did he sendyou that? Yeah? Okay, so
what does he say? How muchtime did he say he spent on it?
He said it was over? Sorry, sorry, sorry, I don't
have a lot of time for youto read this. What sorry, I've

(25:41):
got it. I've got it righthere. Okay. How much time did
he say he spent on it?All right, I'm sorry, I can't.
I you know what, I justI don't have time for this.
It's you know, the bottom line. You can't start looking for documents.
Dennis, Hello, Dennis, welcome. Yes, Bill, this this Dennis.

(26:02):
I have a question. I'm gettingolder now and I've been having health
issues, and I want to putmy son on my checking account as a
thing, you know, as asignature, yeah, to pay my bills
when I have problems. I justwent to where I was in the hospital.

(26:25):
He had to take care of mybills. But I have to sign
all the checks, so I Iwant him to do it. All right.
He is telling me that he ishaving some issues coming down the road
with the I R S. Allright, will the I r S go
after me if I'm on my out. No. Two things, okay.
Number one, you're handling it rightby having him as a signatory, not

(26:47):
as an owner of the checking account. If you put you and him as
an owner of the checking account,yeah, the I r S can dip
in, but as a signatory absolutelynot known the account. It's not his
at all. How much money is? How much money's in the account,
Dennis right now? Is three thousanddollars? Oh, I mean that's nothing.

(27:08):
Okay, I'm I'm on assistant livingall right. You know, I'm
a Social Security and all that.All right, So okay, you're basically
living in a dumpster senior facility.Okay, so you're okay, you're in
a senior facility, dumpster and youonly have there you go, yeah,
and you have three thousand dollars.No, you're fine, Dennis. Just

(27:32):
have him as a signatory, asyou said, and you're gonna be fine.
You're handling it. Just you're handlingit. Yeah. And by the
way, enjoy your cat food dinner. I'm sure you're going to. Uh
hey, I want to talk aboutyour breath, and I don't care if
you care, but people want freshclean breath. I mean, it just

(27:53):
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(28:15):
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(28:36):
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