(07/13) HOTL Hour 3

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law,marginal legal advice. Now, of course
you've been hearing and dealing with ifyou've been there. With these demonstrations against
Israel going on throughout the country,and a lot of them here in southern
California. One of the big oneswas at UCLA, and so lawsuits have
been filed and they're on either sidethese demonstrations, primarily anti Israel pro Palestinian

(00:28):
demonstrations, with some anti Palestinians proIsrael demonstrations to a lesser degree in fewer
people, and some of them havegotten pretty vicious, one particularly at UCLA,
and so a local Jewish man hasfiled a lawsuit against two groups that

(00:50):
led demonstration demonstrations across or outside ofan LA synagogue that ended up in violence,
and it was all kinds of nationalcondemnity against the demonstrator, including President
Biden and LA Mayor Karen Boss.The lawsuit was filed against Code Pink,

(01:10):
it's a feminist anti war organization,and at the same time against the Palestinian
Youth Movements, a grassroots group thatoppose Zionism and are calling for a ceasefire
in Gaza like right now now,people were injured at that demonstration. So

(01:30):
here is a local Jewish man andhe said he was trying to walk into
his synagogue and he was stopped andhe was injured. So the lawsuit is
about these two groups and anti Semitism, that it was spurred by anti Semitism,
which, by the way, thenbecomes then it becomes a hate crime.

(01:53):
Now here's what the two groups aresaying. This has nothing to do
with you being Jewish, mister plaintiff. This has to do with Zionism.
And we are simply demonstrating against thestate of Israel. We're not anti Semitic,
We're just anti Israel, which bythe way, is generally a croc

(02:15):
but that's besides the point because it'susually conflated anyway. But this is a
legal issue and it has to bevery specific. And so the argument is,
oh, no, you're a bunchof anti Semites. That's all,
is what the two what these groupsare, And they're saying no, no,
And here's our proof. Because therewas a real estate agent a real

(02:39):
estate event at the synagogue, andthere was an advertisement for that event in
the Jewish journal and said that therewould be an event, a seminar on
quote, housing projects in all thebest Anglo neighborhoods in Israel. We're gonna

(03:00):
show you where you can move toIsrael and get into great neighborhoods. They're
saying, where's the anti Semitism?Where are we anti Semitic when we're just
demonstrating against Israel. Also, itincluded religious education and opportunities for members of

(03:24):
the la Jewish community to make aliahalia is the ability for any Jew in
the world to go to Israel andbecome a citizen of Israel walking in the
door. Keep in mind, Israelwas created out of the ashes of the
Holocaust, and for over three thousandyears Jews never had a country. There

(03:47):
was the diaspora, where Jews areall over the world. Twice in the
history of Israel has there been aJewish state, once when King David,
the Kingdom of King David existed andtwy and the second time it was created
on April fifteenth, nineteen forty eight. That's it. And so one of

(04:11):
the concepts of the modern state ofIsrael was any Jew anywhere in the world
can come to this country, andyou are a citizen of this country if
you intend on living here and thenthere are all kinds of rules, etc.
And so what these pro Palestinian groupsare saying, That's what we were
demonstrating against, not anti Semitism.Moving to Israel. Going in, by

(04:34):
the way, a lot of thesesettlements are in the West Bank contested territory,
so there is a lot to besaid. Now, I am obviously
pro Israel. That's not an issue. You know where I stand. I've
family in Israel, I've gone therehalf a dozen times. I'm Jewish.
I mean, you all down inline. I am in favor of Israel.

(04:56):
However, anti Semitism is not necessarcessarilyor anti Zionism is not necessarily anti
Semitism usually. I mean the twoare in many cases inseparable, but not
here legally. I think that lawsuitis going no place, absolutely no place.
All right, let's go ahead andtake some phone calls. Hello,
Gil, welcome, Hi Bill.Yeah, I got on Bill. I

(05:24):
recently had I had a trust madeup a number of years ago this law
firm, and my wife passed away, and I bentually got a girlfriend and
I put her on my trust.I have a substantial irah and a pretty
good net worth, and I puther on there for fifty percent of my
IRA account, which is a bignumber. All right, you put the

(05:44):
wait a second, you put thegirlfriend on for fifty percent of the IRA.
Correct my will, oh my okay, and am on a trust and
then we basically got married. Idon't have any kids, so I raised
up to seventy percent. Well,I went to an attorney. This third
attorney did the original one, andI said, go from fifty cents to

(06:08):
seventy percent. And I also hadmy nephew as a co executor. He
moved out of states, so Isaid, I want to make him not
a co executor, but a contingentexecutor in case we both died together or
something like that. Okay, okay. I just got the bill from him,
and I'm shaken as I look atit. And he built me for

(06:30):
thirteen hours to make these two changes. Yeah, and yeah, that's what
lawyers do. Yeah, I knowlawyers do. Not How long or complicated
is that trust? And they hadcharged me seven thousand dollars. Yeah,
that's a lot of money. Butlet me ask you this, that's long
past. How long? How complicatedand lengthy is the trust instrument itself?

(06:54):
It's very simple. I have ahome and the two big things I have.
I have a Okay, how manyI'm just curious how many pages?
Well, I haven't gotten anything yet. It's just a bill to do it.
Okay, Well, how about theoriginal trust you have that in your
hand? I had to pull abook out, bill. Okay, Well,
I wish you had had that.But okay, if it's a simple

(07:15):
trust and he charged you seven thousanddollars, that's pricey. I mean that
is that's let me tell you,that's pricey. However, to make those
two changes in a trust that hewrote, did you say thirteen thousand dollars
he billed you for? Well,no, he's got the bill is for
seven thousand dollars for these changes.Okay, Okay, that's crazy. So

(07:40):
Gil, it's real easy. Thisis yay. Bill. All I want
is they told from fifty to seventyand change. Well, I understand,
No, I get it. Youdon't have to repeat yourself. I understand
what you're doing here. And sowhat I'm telling you is that Bill is
crazy. It's just insane. Okay. So you tell here's a complicated way
of dealing this with this. Youtell him no, you say, not

(08:05):
a chance, and you go takeme to court, argue that this is
worth seven thousand dollars to make thesetwo changes in a trust that you wrote,
and somehow that's worth seven thousand dollars. Explain that one to a judge.
That's what you tell him. Well, I'm just exactly what I was
going to do, but I wantedto try it by you to say,

(08:26):
yeah, no, that's what youdo. That's no, that's what you
do. I mean, your firstthing, your first response is this is
completely crazy. It is. Itis crazy. It is And by the
way, are you telling me.Hold on a minute, let me ask
you this. You're telling me thatoriginal, that original trust he spent thirteen
thousand dollars. I don't remember theoriginal because that in a number of years

(08:46):
ago. Okay, got it.Yeah, but he sees out of his
mind. Ye yeah, tell himto go stuff it and I can't wait.
Let him go in front of ajudge. Let him go in front
of a judge and argue that can'twait for that? Then it Hello noe,
Hello, yes, hello, whatcan I do for you? I

(09:07):
was in the apartment. I wasin the step up program, and I
was in my apartment for nine yearsand I paid my rent every month,
I mean every month without a sailall of a sudden last year last year,
in March and August, they saidthey didn't receive those too much events.
I didn't find out about this untilOctober last year. Okay. And
did you pay them? By theway, did you pay the rent for

(09:28):
those two months? Yes? Yes, I did not have proof that I
paid them. Okay, you haveproof, and you have proof you paid
the rent? Yes, okay,and they still me anyway, now I'm
what they evicted you anyway? Yes, okay, what does that mean?
They wait a minute, what doesthat mean? They went to court and

(09:48):
got an eviction order? Or theyasked you to leave and you left?
What? What? What does thatmean? They evicted you? They took
me to court and the judge andtheir lawyer gives it were been a few
times without me, and next timewhen I went, they didn't even listen
to my case. That makes itup? Okay? And you so you
showed the judge that you had paidthe rent and he ignored that correct,

(10:13):
Yes, yes, okay. Andwhen you said they had taken you to
court several times and you didn't appearor you didn't know because I didn't know
nothing about it. Because okay,so they didn't serve you. No,
not do they already been quote acouple of times. And then I so
I get it up. All right, So they evicted you. They got
a court order, the judge sayyou're out. You got thrown out.

(10:37):
And now what's your question is isit can they do that legally? I
was in this step up obviously not. No, No they can't. If
you have proved you've paid the rentand the judge throws you out anyway,
No, they cannot evict you underthose circumstances. Sonette, there's nothing.

(10:58):
There's something more to this story unlessyou have a completely corrupt judge who clearly
is on the take. He wasn'teven the good He was like the step
before you get to a judge.Oh right, he was a commissioner.
Did well, okay, fine,that that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter.

(11:18):
But I have a problem with youwere able to prove you paid the
rent and the judge ignored that.Yes, don't know what to do?
Don't know what to do? Youcan go to the presiding judge, write
a letter and say here's what happened, and I see what you can do.
I don't even know if you,uh what number one can't appeal it

(11:39):
because I think an eviction is asummary proceeding. Yeah, I don't know
if that's appealable or not, butI don't know what tell you and that
when you have the court not believinga proof, what do you do with
that? I've never seen it ever, and I've been a lawyer for a

(12:00):
lot of yours and I have simplynever seen it. Jason, Hello,
Jason, welcome. Handle Yeah,ask me too, longtime listener. I
know you're a busney man, soI'm trying to I'll try to make the
story quickly. Oh yeah, here'sI to do with me being busy.

(12:20):
It's a question of me being bored. But thank you for saying you were
going to make it quick. Iappreciate that. Yeah for sure. Yeah,
well, this is a little bitof a long winded story, but
it's nonetheless quite like intriguing. SoI am a recent college graduate and a
year ago I was going to acareer for I didn't want to pay for

(12:41):
parking, unfortunately, and so Iparked in a liquor store parking lot.
Unfortunately, when I came back,my car wasn't there, and so my
first logical line of thinking was itgot towed. And after a few phone
calls with the police and the towcompany in the area, as well as
the owner of the lot, theytold me it hadn't been towed by them.

(13:01):
So I called the police and filedthe vehicles stolen. So nine months
later, the police find the vehiclein a tow yard under a tow company.
And it turns out the vehicle wasnever stolen at all. It was
towed and I was never notified forit, okay. And there isn't hold
on, man, there wasn't asign in the parking lot that said this

(13:26):
is for customers only. Vehicles willbe towed away at your expense. Here's
the phone number to call. Yeah, so I called that number. It
said they would tow overnight. Iwas only there for three hours, and
it was totally that doesn't matter.I I don't care. I don't care.
But you call that number and didthey tell you they have the car?
They told me they did not havemy vehicle, okay. So and

(13:48):
then you find out they did haveyour vehicle. No, it turns out
a different tow company, okay.And so there was no number to call.
All right, so a different toecompany came in and then they let
you know. And this is ninemonths later, nine months later than okay,
I told me my vehicles at thattowyard and all right, so all
right, got it. So what'syour question? So my question is do

(14:11):
I have a potential like lawsuit onmy Yeah? Well yeah, well actually
they have a potential lawsuit against youbecause they're going to argue we towed it
and wept. I have the car. How much money do they want?
By the way, is the towyardsaying they want to pile of money?
No? No, no, SoI the police were able to take that
vehicle out of the towyard and Iwas able to pick up the vehicle,

(14:33):
and it's okay, so who doyou want to who do you want to
sue? I want to sue thatcompany that had my car for nine months?
Okay, did you will have tobuy another car? No? I
got the vehicle back nine months later. What did you do for nine months?
I was unemployed? Okay? Whatdid you do for nine months for

(14:54):
a vehicle? I used my mom'svehicle. Okay, so so you had
a car to use, so youreally weren't out you know all of that.
You didn't buy another car, youdidn't rent another car, so your
damages are fairly limited at this pointbecause you had a car. Yeah,
true, Okay, so yeah,you could theoretically say the value of my

(15:18):
car I want, Well, here'syour car. Okay, I didn't have
a car for nine months. Lookwhat you did to me. Well,
I did have a car for ninemonths. I used my mom's card.
So it's I don't know what you'regoing to sue for. I guess for
like the nine months that I didn'thave a VEC, but you did have
a car. The problem is youdid have a car to use, Jason,

(15:41):
that's true, and so I don'tknow what it's worth to be forced
to use your mom's car. Idon't know what that's worth you sue.
But okay, the defense is,Okay, you're suing us because you didn't
have a car for nine months,but you were driving your mom's car for
nine months. See, that's theproblem is you got to show damages.

(16:04):
And now if you didn't have acar, if you had to buy another
car, if you take the bus, that the argument is legitimate. Couldn't
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(16:27):
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(16:48):
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(17:12):
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D E L handle the Oscar Hello, Oscar, Oh, Oscar? Are

(17:34):
you there? Yes? I amokay. What can I do for you?
Who? First thing is I listento your show every morning and Donald
Trump is seventy eight years old,not seventy seven that you keep saying okay
and none of you are cool?Would correct you? I don't know why.
Yeah, because we don't care,all right? So moving on?

(17:57):
What can I do for you,Oscar? Legally? Yes? The problem
I have is I had a judgmentagainst me from my HOA when my home
got four clothes to twenty ten andit was an abstentia and the HOA got

(18:18):
a judgment which I ignored, andeverything sort of went away until about twenty
sixteen or so. My bank accountdisappeared also, and I was told the
marshals got it for a part ofthat judgment. Now I've been looking for
trying to find information on the judgmentto see if it still exists, and

(18:44):
I can't find it. I usedtruth Finder, I use yeah, Well,
is there someplace, Oscar if thereis a judgment against you and money
was taken out of your bank account, which by the way is legitimate.
They do that with judgments and itdoesn't exist. That's a problem. So

(19:04):
it has to be someplace it is, it has been filed. You can
go to the court the truth flier. I've never heard of it. But
what I would do is the countyI do it. Here's what I would
do, all right, is youpull up just the county in which the

(19:26):
judgment has been rendered. You putyour name, you put h O a
name, you put the word judgment, you put basically about the time.
And you should be able to pullthat up. And you're saying you've tried
that and it doesn't work. Rightif we want to the La County court.
Wow, you know what you gotme on that one? Because if

(19:48):
there was a judgment and the judgmentdoesn't exist in any record any place,
what do I do? I can'tmake it up? Yeah, so I've
got you called who found on truthfind that? I who found all the
information about you know, the saleof the of the house, the but
not But you don't. But youdon't have the judgment. The judgment is

(20:11):
not there's what you're saying. Meantmy credit doesn't show the judgment. Okay,
you know, all right? Thenthere's a real interesting issue, and
that is how did the HOA getyour bank account without a judgment? Right?
Yeah, that gets interesting. Okay, And you're saying this was twenty

(20:32):
sixteen, so it was eight yearsago, right Yeah, why'd you wait
eight years? Oh no, no, no, I keep checking ever since
then and using a different back account. Yeah no, I understand that that's
easy. But how much money wastaking out of your account initially? Oh,
that's a couple of hundred bucks.Then I wouldn't worry about it.

(20:55):
Then I wouldn't worry about it.Yeah, I just you know, I
just just suck up two hundred dollars. So you know, it's not it's
not worth it. It really isn't. Peter. Hello, Peter, thank
you a quick question. So,uh, we've September the eighth of twenty
three, we got a letter fromour homeowners insurance saying that they're going to

(21:18):
cancel us on December the eighth oftwenty three because we have a tarp on
the roof. So I called heragent. I said, look, there's
no tarp. We had a tuperat one point due to the storm,
so that we had in twenty twentytwo and twenty three, we had a
leak in the roof and it wasall fixed. We have a brand new
roof. I said, what youknow, what do I do? And
she said, oh, I wouldn'tworry about it. I called it again,
just to confirm. I spoke withanother agent. I said, look,

(21:41):
I'm responding to this letter. I'mgonna worried. Oh, don't worry
about it. If the tarp isno longer in the roof, you're fine.
December the ninth, I called.Then I get a letter and I
also called the Mber the ninth,and our homeowners got canceled. Yeah,
we were paying ninety one dollars amonth. We've had it for forty five
years. Our homeowners insurance from ninetyone dollars a month to six sixty one

(22:04):
dollars a month. Yeah. DoI have a claiment? Do I have
a claim not against our homeowners insurancebut against the AEGIS office for what?
Well? Well I was diseased byhim. So okay, you were deceived,
he said, don't worry about it. Well, how about this,
go ahead and worry about it.They're going to cancel you anyway, Peter,
what are your damages? Well,I mean you know, well,

(22:30):
I premously went out from Yeah,I understand that, But what did I
understand because my premiums doubled? Yep, yep? What are your damages?
What did Peter? I don't knowwhat your damages are? Well, for
several reasons. First, that's whatthey that's what they do now. They
put up drones and if someone hasa tarp, they go, you're done

(22:52):
because of the roof leaks, andwe're gonna have to pay money to repair
the roofs. And we're not interested. Tarps means we canceled. How about
that? No tarps, we cancelbecause works is not interested in ensuring your
home anymore in your area. Thathappened to me. So what are your
damages? The insurance company does whatit does. The fact that you were

(23:15):
told not to worry about it.Okay, So the guy misled you.
What he should have said is worryabout it now what? Okay? I
understand that, all right, Sohe misled you. They were gonna do
what they were gonna do anyway,Peter, yep, yep, Okay,
you cannot say because you told menot to worry about it, therefore you

(23:36):
should pay my additional insurance costs well, not me, for my elderly mom.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Nobody cares. Nobody cares about
your elderly mom. It has todo with they don't want to share the
house anymore. They're done. Andby the way, they have a right
to do that. It's a businessarrangement between you and them. You know,
if you and I have business rangefor forty five years ago, you
know what, I don't want todo it anymore. I'm done. Yep,

(24:00):
Oh, you can't do that,Bill. What a good lesson.
Yeah, it's not even a lesson, Peter, it's not even a lesson.
It's what they do. It's notlike you learned anything from it.
There's nothing to learn. There arethree companies in California that do homeowners that
bailed out of the state. Iwas covered by one of them, and

(24:22):
I had to find another insurance companyand I was canceled and I went bare
for two and a half weeks.Let me tell you how I didn't sleep
two and a half weeks. Ihad no homeowners insurance and I finally got
a policy for twice as much.The fact that my agent says, don't
worry about it, Okay, sowhat that has nothing to do with the
fact the insurance company canceled that theycan cancel that they use drones that if

(24:48):
you have a tarp up there forthirty seconds and the drone takes a picture
of it, Oh, we're donebecause you have a because you have a
tarp, they're allowed to do that. So you're screwed, you know,
as we all. Lauren, Hello, Lauren, what can I do for
you? I have a common blockwall with a neighbor. He had a
tree that was growing for years rightnext to it on his side. Yeah.

(25:11):
I hope this is a good storybecause I get so bored with I
got a wall in my neighbor witha tree. Okay, so the tree
is no tearing up the wall rightright? Okay, I know exactly what
you're one. I got it.You don't even have to go there.
I've heard these That's probably the numberone question I've heard over the years.
Wall, tree, neighbor, etcetera. Do you know what side of

(25:34):
the property line the tree the wallis in or on? I saw the
line. I think right down themiddle, right, yes, Okay,
do you know that for a fact? Well, I know it should be
I don't care if it should be. I don't care if it should be.
Is a different thing? Do youknow if it is or isn't.

(25:57):
No, Okay, so let's sayit is all right because he doesn't know
either. All right. So histree is destroying your wall, right right?
Okay, what's your question? Theliability to see? I would think
so yeah, yeah, I wouldthink so yeah, because it's a common

(26:18):
wall, and I would say,you pay for the whole damn thing.
It's your tree there's destroying the wall, or at least you pay for my
half. And then you split thewall right down in the middle. What
kind of wall? Is it ablock wall? Block wall? Okay,
so he can split the wall rightdown the middle and he's responsible for any
part of your wall, which ofcourse means he's responsible for the whole wall.
Yeah. Now, usually when thathappens, I wouldn't even split it

(26:41):
fifty to fifty with him. Iwould just say, hey, it's your
tree, you're ruining it. Andif he says no, I take him
a small claims court and see whata judge has to say. Okay,
we're done with all of those calls. Yeah, how many of these do
I get? I don't know.I thought there was a story there and
I I didn't. Uh oh yeah, there we go. Okay, Matthew,

(27:04):
let's start with you on this one. What can I do for you?
Matthew? Hey Bill, So I'mcalling about employer that just fired me.
I got two issues, when relatedto time clock stuff and when related
to the fireself. We'll start withthe time clock stuff. I was asked
to begin clocking out while working,hold on clocking out and they still had

(27:30):
you work. Yeah, and youweren't paid for they and you weren't paid
for that? Yes, correct.Now, there was this thing that we
were we were kind of allowed todo where we would extend, we would
clock out late because we would clockedout on a cell phone in order to

(27:52):
get that back. But you know, I think the law is about not
overworking an employee. So oh,I is you get paid for work?
It's not that complicated. So Imean, yeah, it's just that,
you know, I had to workthrough the lunch that I was plucked out
for and then later on. Okay, that's illegal. Okay, they're in
violation of labor laws right there.You got a violation from your company.

(28:15):
Okay. Number one, we gotthat out of the way. Yep,
there's illegal there in violation number two. Okay. And then so on the
day I got fired, I gotfired for a violation, a violation of
policy that you know I had agreedto follow when I got hired. And
okay, what was the policy ifyou don't report a vehicular collision even if

(28:42):
there's okay, and you violated thatand you violated the policy, Yeah,
they didn't really tell me. Theydidn't really tell me anything about it.
The damage that was done. Idon't know if they have to. But
okay, So what's your question,Matthew, Well, so on that particular
date was one of those days whereI had I had to play with the

(29:04):
time card to make my lunches workfor the company. All right, So
what's your question, Matthew, Well, do I have a case where there's
pressure to perform? No? No, you have a case for Here's what
you have a case for. Youhave a case for the work that you
were not paid for. That's it. That's it. As far as being

(29:25):
fire some kind of discriminary, discriminatoryfiring, No, they can fire you
for any damn reason. Matter offact, you violated a policy, you
didn't report an accident. I'd fireyou for that, especially if you had
agreed to that years earlier. Sothat one is off the table. The
only thing you have, The onlything you have is I didn't get paid

(29:45):
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