(10/28) HOTL Hour 2

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Now this is handle on the lawmarginal legal advice where I tell you you
have no case, and this isan interesting one. This has to do
with the lawsuit against Panera Bread.Panera Bread has something called charged lemonade,

(00:22):
and what it is is it's awhole bunch of caffeine. It's, you
know, like a monster drink orany of those drinks where they get this
extra energy, and the extra energycomes from having enough caffeine in there to
basically kill you. Well, inthe case of Panera Bread and the charge

(00:43):
lemonade, that's exactly what happened tothis young woman who imbibed ordered a Panera
Bread charge lemonade there, drank itand then went into cardiac arrest and ended
up dying. And of course hermom is suing on the basis that Panera
failed to appropriately warn consumers about itsingredients. I've seen a picture of the

(01:10):
Panera Bread menu which is above thecounter, and it talked about charge lemonade
and it tells you how much caffeineis in it, So right there,
you know, eight million grams ormilligrams of caffeine, whatever the hell it
is. And she mom is sayingthat's not enough. Now that gets kind
of interesting, because how far doyou go? Mom argues that Panera failed

(01:37):
to appropriately warn consumers about its ingredientsbecause charge lemonade was offered side by side
with the non caffeinated or less caffeinateddrink and was advertised as a plant based
and clean beverage. Now does plantbase and clean some somehow translate into too

(02:01):
much caffeine or the appropriate level ofcaffeine or what is the appropriate level of
caffeine? Two three cups of coffee. I'll do that in the morning.
You have a couple of double espressos. You're doing at least that. But

(02:22):
I think the argument here is whenyou are drinking coffee and very strong coffee
or double shots or triple shots,you know that there is all this caffeine
and it's sort of a given.Charge lemonade sold right next to regular lemonade.
Even if this says the milligrams ofcaffeine, that's not enough, that's

(02:44):
not enough, and so it's noware they going to go any place with
it? You know? Is Paneragonna sue? Is Panera gonna settle?
I don't know, maybe maybe,And what's the takeaway here? Well,
the takeaway here is obviously on thesign you put in in very big letters

(03:07):
the caffeine. And if someone,for example, is diabetic and orders a
pepsi or a coke, they haveto put in very big letters the amount
of sugar. And if someone orderssomething that's plant based, they have to
put in very big letters the factthat there's no animal products. So by

(03:30):
the time it's all said and done, you're not actually going to be ordering
the product itself because there will beno room on the sign. All it'll
tell you is whatever you order,it has this much caffeine, this much
sugar, this much animal product init. And that's the way it's going
to go. Are I don't knowif they're gonna settle or not, but

(03:52):
people don't just anymore just die,you know, they just don't just die.
It's impossible, you know, Isit possible? I get calls all
the time, Bill, I Islipped and fell, and I go on
what I don't know, But Iwas in a casino. All I know

(04:13):
is I just slipped and I hurtmy head and I want to sue them.
I go, is it possible you'rejust a clutz? Is it possible
that you just fell because you area klutz. Uh uh uh, you
know, stuff happens now. IfI was saying this, if this was
an Internet show, I would notbe using the word stuff. You know

(04:34):
that. Okay, let's take somephone calls. Uh, Aaron, Hello,
Aaron, Aaron here, Hey,Hey, say, I got a
quick question for you. It's kindof kind of complicated, but I think
I'll be kind of concise here.I've been renting a room and a house,

(04:59):
decent size house for only three hundreda month, and I take care
of the tenant here, who happensto be the son of the person who
owns the house, but his sisterowned the mother are deceased, so the
house is promised to the god brother. So you've taken control of it.
I'm having a hard time understanding you. Erin. If you're not speaking through

(05:24):
a speakerphone, which I'm hoping you'renot, then you have to I'm not.
You have to be have a littlebit more addiction. You have to
peak slower, and you have tobe louder. Okay, Okay, how's
it now? Much better? Okay? I've been renting this room and house
for three years at three hundred months, also taking care of one of the

(05:46):
roommates of the tenant. He happensto be the son of the person who
owns the house, which is themother and the sister, who are both
are deceased. Anyway, the newexecutor of the house raised the rent as
a last week to be affected Januaryfirst, twenty twenty four to eight hundred

(06:06):
dollars a month plus utilities. Okay, that starts in January, and the
house is still in probate, andso he's the executor, and so he
says, his attorney is suggesting ormaybe just ordering, because they have to

(06:27):
value the house that this guy canbe living there for three hundred a month.
You know, you got to yougot to raise the rent now,
which okay, so it went upto eight hundred dollars a month, right,
yeah, they legally correct. Okay, that's the all right, when
you went through all of that,How about this bill, I'm paying three
hundred dollars a month. Can theyraise it to eight hundred dollars a month?

(06:49):
That's the question. The rest ofit, the brother dying and who's
ever that's all crap now. Thefact that it's in probate at this point.
The executor I don't think has aright to raise the rent until it's
finished with probate. That I think. I'm not a probate lawyer, but
I think that's the case. Theother side of it is, if you're

(07:12):
in California. I think in Californiathey can't raise the rent more than ten
percent in any given year. Sowhere are where are you situated? Where's
the house? Airon? What city? It's Oh, it's in Los Angeles.
It's in the city of Los Angeles, right, yes, Okay,
within the city. I'm going tosuggest you contact the Rent Stabilization Board.

(07:35):
They control rents and within this Here'show it works. State of California has
its law, and you have tocomply with a law. County of LA
has its law, and if it'smore restrictive, you have to comply with
that. Now, if it turnsout that La County, for example,
allows twelve percent increase but the stateonly allows ten percent increase, ten percent

(08:00):
kicks in. But if LA Countyonly allows five percent and the state allows
ten percent, the five percent iswhat controls, So you can be more
restrictive in terms of additional rights.City of La has rent stabilization its own
rules. And regulations regarding rent,and that is the rent stabilization Board,

(08:24):
and that's who to call. Andthe bottom line is the rules are pretty
complicated, but I think they canonly raise the rent, and they determine
how much the rent can be raised. By the way, now, there
are some other rules that kick in. For example, if your brother wants
to if the brother or the deceasewants to move into the house, he's

(08:45):
allowed to kick people out for thepurposes of moving in. That's why you
want to call a rent stabilization board, because they're going to give you all
of the fun rules. Hi roma, yes, ma'am. What can I
do for I two and a halfyears ago? It took that long.
I'm prior to that. My neckI have offa two and a half years

(09:05):
ago. It took that long.What took that long to go? Because
I went to a lawyer because Ifell in a hole and the sidewalk.
Okay, and who'd you sue?Okay, I sue the state. I
went to a lawyer. He said, well, sue the state, the
state on the state on a holein the sidewalk, not the city,

(09:31):
the state, No exactly, Well, what you know, I'm just curious.
What did the state have to dowith a hole on the sidewalk.
I do not know, because theyare the ones that particularly take care of
the highways and the sidewalks. Thestate takes care of the sidewalks. I
have not heard of the state evertaking care of This is what my lawyer

(09:56):
told me. Okay, all right, so the state, all right,
So the state took care of thesidewalk, which is new to me.
But okay, so you didn't suethe city to the state, all right,
Okay, I went as a lawyerput it all in his hand.
So that was it. The onlytime that I really went to a doctor
pertaining to that was because I wasbleeding all over the sidewalk and I needed

(10:18):
seventeen stitches under my chin, andit was a miracle that I didn't break
my jaw, but I didn't,thank God. And so I did go
to a lawyer, and so,okay, it took two years back and
forth. I don't know why,but it did. I didn't get consulted
or anything. But when it gotnear to the end, they had apparently

(10:41):
gone to every doctor that I hadgone to, which was not many.
One was because yeah, I don'tcare. I don't care when they got
it is important for you to knowwhy I was having the pain. And
he said they'd go to therapy.So I went to therapy. Pete who
said that, who said that?Which are the doctors? Which are all

(11:03):
the doctors you went to? Saidgo to therapy GP, your GP?
Okay? Yeah, all right?And then what happened then won't happen okay.
So now it's at the end.And then the secretary she called me
from the lawyer's office and said,we have been granted twenty five thousand dollars
okay, which from which I receivedsix thousand right, okay? And so

(11:28):
I said, well, that's notvery much, and she said, well,
naturally the lawyer tests to get histhirty percent or whatever it is.
I understood that, but apparently theydeducted every doctor that I had gone to.
Yeah, well they would on thecase on that case. How many
doctors did you treat with because ofthat fall? Well, I'm probably going

(11:54):
to the therapist about every week.Okay, that's the therapist. How about
the doctors I didn't I only wantyou only went to therapists. How long
were you? And boy, youweren't even referred to a therapist by a
doctor. You just went to atherapist. No, you have to be
referred. Yeah, but Roma,I asked you, how many doctors did

(12:16):
you go to? You said none, I went to a therapist. And
then I said no, no,I'm not misunderstanding. You're not being very
clear. Roma. Oh sorry,yeah, answer the question. So no
doctor referred you. And then itturned out that a doctor did refer you.
All right, So how many doctorsdid you go to? How many
doctors did you go to? Iwould say three, okay, and all

(12:39):
of them treated you. All ofthem did some kind of medical work for
you on this case. Correct,they referred me. They gave me advice
because they took an X ray tosee if there was any All three of
them, all three of them tookX rays, all three of the one
of them did take an X ray. And then they know. It's been
a real pleasure talk, King Diu. Roma, one of the better calls

(13:01):
I've heard. If she calls back, tell her to call some plumbing show.
It's going to be much much easierto deal with that. Monica.
Hi, Monica, welcome, greattiming. Thanks handle. What's happening is
I've been in probate a year anda half and my sister and I are

(13:22):
the only kid were in probate.We've got enough money to fix the house
up. We might sell it.But he's it's the appraisers are taking years,
one hundred years. They're not finishingit. And get another appraiser.
Get another appraiser right now. No, but but they set it up.
They doesn't matter. If you're itdoesn't matter, then call the lawyer and

(13:46):
say I want another appraiser. Orif you don't give me another appraiser,
I'm going to have you removed asthe lawyer. You had the right to
do that, Monica. Okay,now that's what I would do. Now
it's uh. Now, if it'son behalf of the estate, the lawyer
is going to say you don't havea right to do that, but you
can certainly influence it. Who's theexecutor of the estate. Who's the executor

(14:09):
my twin sister. Okay, tellyour twin sister to call the lawyer and
say we need another appraiser because they'redragging their feet. And if since she's
the executor, you say hey,and if that doesn't work, I'm going
to go into court. And getanother lawyer. I mean, there's something
going on and it could be there, just that everybody is dragging this to

(14:33):
just garner more fees, appraisal fees, lawyers fees. Why would a lawyer
ever sort of stretch it out toget more fees. I don't know.
I've never heard of that happening,have you? Andy? Hello? Andy,
Welcome Angie and okay, Angie,sorry about that. Oh that's okayhead,

(14:54):
What can I do for you?Thank you for taking my call.
Okay, I need I want toknow what you think. The outcome of
this situation is I am in afamily trust and I am being sued for
over a million dollars. My father, who passed away in January, he

(15:15):
had a building that he's owned itfor over thirty years and did not have
any insurance on it and he gotsued low and behold and this woman has
you know, like the story goes, and my father, I don't know,
he was a charming man. That'sokay, Hang on a minute,
as I gotta ask a question.This woman sued your father and did she

(15:39):
win? No, it's okay,going on right now, Oh, the
lawsuit is going on right now.And you're getting sued. So who owns
the house now, Angie? Isit's in a trust? Correct? Oh?
We just lost Angie. Just somethinghappened. She dropped out. Don't
you love cell phones? We continueon with a handle on the law number.

(16:00):
We still have lines open. Imean it's crawling along, but hey,
you know we've uh so far,I haven't gotten to the wonderful song
baby Shark that we do in linesare really horrible. Phone number here eight
hundred five two zero one five threefour. That's eight hundred five two zero

(16:22):
one five three four. All right, back we go to Angie. Hello,
Angie, all right now quickly,I'm gonna rehash what you have.
All right, You've got a uhyou got a house or a business property
that's in a trust? Correct?Yes, okay, And you are being
sued for a million dollars by whomwho is suing you? Just an individual

(16:49):
her name is? She's actually justa woman, okay, just a woman
and sue okay, and suing youfor what? What have you done?
Does she say that she is entitledto money out of the trust? Oh?
Yes, because what happened was doesshe she purchased something or she went

(17:11):
to the flower shop, and shemade friends with the lady who rents the
flower shop. This was my dad'scommercial business. Okay, So again,
how you have to connect her makingfriends with the woman who rented the shop
from your father, and how old? She was giving her a ride home
and she went out the back gate, and while the lady who was giving

(17:33):
her a ride home was pulling hercar out, she was opening up the
gate so she could pull out hercar. All right, then you know
what? Okay, hold on,here's what's going on. You're not getting
sued because you didn't have anything todo with it. If you are getting
sued, my father had no insuranceon the building, I understand, But
why are you getting sued? Whatdid you have to do with any of
it? Because I am the familytrust, you're the trustee, I am

(17:59):
I thought you your sister was thetrustee business. I'm sorry, I thought
your sister was the trustee. Imisunderstood. Well, no, my mother
is still alive. She's the onewho actually took a second attorney off of
this case. My dad had twoattorneys, okay, and your dad and
there was no and there was noinsurance to pay anybody. That's Okay,

(18:19):
well then you have to hire lawyers. Okay, then you have to hire
lawyers. All right, So what'syour question? What's your question? Okay,
here I have Okay, I haveone, and he my father knew
he might drop the ball. So, like I said, you had another
one to keep an eye on thisone. And nothing's really happening, and
it's going to come to trial inApril and nothing and nothing is happening.

(18:42):
Nothing is happening, but it's stillcoming to try. Yeah, mom,
why don't you why why aren't youtelling me about how do I get another
attorney? Isn't that the wait?Yes, I get another attorney, Get
another attorney. Okay, that's allyou can do. Even if she didn't

(19:03):
tell me how bad it would be, because it doesn't matter who your mom
didn't tell you how bad it wouldbe. She has no idea how bad
it is. Yes, okay,yeah, she doesn't know. And by
the way, she's not suing youbecause you're not responsible. She is suing
the estate. She's suing the trustthat owns the building, and she is

(19:25):
going against the trust and saying Iwas injured and the property was defective or
whatever it is. Whatever the basisit is. So it's not you that's
getting sued, it's the trust,and the trust has to hire a lawyer
and that's and you're doing that andyou're going to trial. And okay,
now what based on what you said? I don't even know what A lawyer

(19:48):
is picking that up for a milliondollars and here's the trial. You don't
even want to go into that.James, Hello, James, welcome.
Yes, sir, it is Bernardino, District Attorney's real estate fraud is building
a case against the escro and brokerwho sold my mom's house, made a

(20:10):
terrible job. Okay, they're workingwith her. My question is do you
think she should get a second orher own attorney. Oh yeah, well
no, hold on a minute,Hang on a minute. If the DA
is building a case, it's thatis the strongest you can do, because
now we're talking about a criminal violation. And if they can get a criminal

(20:33):
violation against the people that ripped offyour mom, that's far stronger than Yeah,
that's far stronger than any civil violationbecause a part of any criminal violation
is restitution has to be paid.And now you're dealing or she is dealing
the broker or the agent is dealingwith the dealing with the DA's office,

(20:55):
and dealing with the courts. Soshould you get an attorney? I don't
know. I would. I wouldget an attorney just to find out a
real estate attorney where the DA isat and get any kind of information.
You know, how how strong isthe investigation? When are they going to
do it? How much money wasyour mom ripped off? For? Probably

(21:18):
about one hundred and fifty grand easy, it's a lot of money and the
house has already been sold. Yeah, yeah, but they can't sell a
house apparently. I don't know Along story, Okay, So I mean
the broker who ended up buying thehouse or who sold it to can't sell
it? Correct? No, yeah, because she probably put a list pendons
on it that stops everything, stopseverything. He didn't someone else stopped it.

(21:42):
It doesn't matter whoever stopped it stoppedit. So the point is it's
not going any place, and that'sthe first thing you want to do.
So whoever did that? And Idon't know who was another interested party?
I have no idea. I wouldthink it'd be someone involved in the ownership
of the house or the transfer ofthe house who's been screwed and that's you,
your family, So then you justlet it go. How it's going

(22:07):
to go along? The fear isthe house changing hands and then you have
a bona fide buyer who pays forthe house, but now title is completely
screwed up, which is what youwant. Yeah, I'd get it.
I'd get an attorney at least bya couple of hours. An attorney,
yeah, probate and a state attorneyprobably, or yeah, I get a
probate in a state attorney to checkthat out. Uh, Orville, Hello,

(22:30):
Orville, Hey, Bill, Hey, I got a question for you.
My wife's on a CPAP machine suppliedto her from a local health facility
around Well, what it is isApria Healthcare. Oh yeah, okay,
So I got private insurance and Ialso had she's also on Medicare. Okay,

(22:52):
AFRI is the cop let me get. Apri is the company that supplies
it. Correct, that's correct?Okay? And company insurance company and Medicare
have been paying for this monthly aroundJanuary. Around January, I get a
bill for two hundred and forty dollarsor something. So I called them and

(23:14):
I said, Bill, my insurancecompany all the blue, I just get
this bill and they say, no, we did, and they refuse the
bill because she's not in compliance.So I went to her respiratory therapist.
They downloaded all the information. Theysaid, she is in compliance, and
I do have a compliance report here. So I called my insurance company told
them what I just told you.Now we've been back and forth, back

(23:36):
and forth. They keep billing me. Insurance company keeps telling them that I'm
not responsible for the bill. Soyesterday I got a bill from Apria and
they said they sent that bill toa collection agent. So I don't know
what to do. Okay, Well, first of all, you owe the
money to Apria. They don't carewho pays them. They're entitled to get

(23:57):
paid. Are they produce the product. They have nothing to do with the
coverage or not the coverage. Theyjust want to get paid. Now,
I happen to know the folks thatApri and they're very good because my dad
went on a ventilator he needed oxygenbefore he died, and happened to be

(24:19):
APRI and there they did just aterrific job and it was and it was
paid for. So you're falling betweenthe cracks. The one thing you don't
want to do is as you're dealingwith this, because this is a mouse.
Everybody's pointing fingers at everybody else isyou. It doesn't matter that you're
in collections. I mean that canbe figured out. You don't want it
to go against your credit. That'swhat That's what I'm worried about with.

(24:44):
Yeah, exactly, and that isabsolutely correct. So you call the collection
agency and maybe cut a deal topay a certain amount of money while all
of this is working out, Becauseif the insurance company says, yeah,
we're or the insurance company says you'renot in compliance, and your therapist says
you are in compliance, then yougo up the ladder on the insurance company.

(25:06):
Then somebody is saying no. ByI talked to the insurance company yesterday.
They said that they're they're not followingthe Medicare guidelines and they're not supposed
to, by law be billing mebecause my insurance is responsible for it and
Medicare is responsible for it. Okay, but if you're not following the Medicare
guidelines, Medicare is not going topay. No, They're they're not following

(25:30):
the Medicare GUIDEE you're talking about.The insurance company isn't following the Medicare guidelines.
Apria Apri is billing me and they'renot supposed to. They're not following
the Medicare guidelines. It's called CMS. Okay, well okay, I'm yeah,
okay, I'm You got me confusedon all of that. So you're
I'm not going to be able tohelp you want any of that other than

(25:51):
the advice I'm giving you. Dealwith a collection agency while all of this
is happening. Call you ever youhave to, and don't you know you
don't want to get in the legalsituation because that's crazy because it's a couple
hundred dollars a month, okay howmuch? And you're getting built cut a
deal with a collection agency while thisis going on. Can I give you
a hundred dollars a month and thenyou'll get it back from somebody? But
yeah, that's the practical way ofdoing it. Because if you're go,

(26:15):
oh, should I see a lawyer? Absolutely not not for a couple hundred
bucks a month, you don't.And it'll work out. You start talking,
You go up the food chain andso see who you can talk to
and you know, at some pointyou find someone that's pretty good, especially
when you say my mom is dying. I'm telling you right now, I
don't have the two hundred dollars.I live in a dumpster. She's going
to die right now, and thedog that takes care of her has just

(26:37):
died, and she loved that dog. I mean, I would just go
on and on. Travis. HelloTravis, what can I do for you?
Hey? Bell? How you doing? Quick question for you. I
have a neighbor directly next door tome who's been building a sport court in
her backyard for a year. Well, and therefore there's a port at next
to my house directly proximal to myproperty for a year. Do I have

(27:02):
any recourse here? Well? Yeah, I think so. The problem is
I'm trying to figure out, shortof going to court and having it removed
to another part of the property thatis right not next to yours, are
there other places where that porta pottycan be put so it's still done the

(27:25):
other way of the building. Yeah, at her backyard, the street,
anywhere except proximal to my property.Yeah, I mean they're not going to
make it on the street. Haveyou contacted her called her and said,
hey, can you just move inanother part of the property. Yes,
And she is very not compliant,not agreeable at all. Yeah. I'm

(27:47):
just trying to think of what youcan do with that. Yeah. I
mean there's there are ways to goingon this thing, but I don't want
it to cost you money. Me. The's the thing I can do is
you go in front of a judgeand you get an order, and the
judge orders her to place the portapotty in another part of her property.

(28:11):
So it's uh, it doesn't hurther and it helps you. In other
words, the porta potty right nextto your your house. I mean you
know, you argue about the smell, you argue about all of it.
Yeah, yeah, you know,I don't know whether than maybe threatening her
to take her to court. Imean, you're gonna win it. Uh,
you know, a judge is gonnasay, yeah, you got to

(28:32):
move that thing. Uh. That'sshort of that. I don't know what
else you could do. Maybe callwell on that day, We're gonna help
you with I'm sorry, maybe,but you know there's the thing. But
here's the problem. There's nothing unsafeabout it now, is there may be
a regulation and you get to dothe research on this a regulation uh in

(28:55):
which uh you're not allowed to placea port a potty next to an adjacent
building, especially a residence, ifthere is room on the property someplace else
that is less of a burden toyou and no more of a burden to
her. I don't know the answer. We both own half acre. These
are half acre properties. Wow,so they're a good size. And you

(29:15):
know why, did I mean,does she hate you that much that she's
willing to do that? Yes?Yeah, she absolutely hates me that much.
Absolutely huh uh. You know,here's what I would do, okay,
and then let let her go tocourt against you. Is get literally

(29:37):
some of the most foul smelling chemicalyou can get your hands on. And
I know that you buy that.I don't know where you get them,
but you can get stuff that smellsso bad chemically, and then just put
a fan up and blow it towardsher house and say, hey, why
don't you move it? Let itand let her load it court. Okay,

(30:02):
and you agree, Okay, Iwon't do it anymore. How about
filing against her and telling me thejudge at the same time. See,
Other than that, I don't wantyou to get a lawyer because it's going
to cost you money to get alawyer just to get her to move that
damn porta potty. Right, Yeah, anyway, it's yeah. When you
deal with stuff like that, Thisis where I tell you all the time

(30:26):
that the law can be very sloppy. What do I mean by that?
Well, when I loan you onethousand dollars and you don't pay it back,
I sue you for one thousand dollars. There it is. There's the
contract. When I'm suing you foran injury, I produce the medical I
go in front of a jury,and they say here's what it's worth.
That's fairly clean. When it comesto this sort of stuff, it gets

(30:51):
really sloppy. My neighbors too loud, plays music too loud? Well,
that's really subjective. What does tooloud mean? I mean, if it's
you can't do it after ten o'clock, Okay, there it is, ten
o'clock, Okay, ten oh five, she can't do it. But under
these circumstances, the porta potty istoo close to my house? Okay,

(31:11):
Well, how close is too closein this case? If it's right adjacent
there's plenty of room. Yeah,you're gonna win, but it's gonna take
a lawyer to do that. It'suh uh, that's a drag. That
really is unfortunately, Olivia. Hello, Olivia, welcome, Hello, Thank
you very much. I've got atwo part intricate circumstance here. You know

(31:36):
what. Okay, you know,Olivia, if you have a two part
intricate circumstance that I don't have timefor right now because we're really close to
the end of the hour. Solet me do this. I'm gonna stick
you on hold and we'll pick itup right after the top. Is that
okay? We does? Even ifit's not okay with you, I'm still
gonna do it. Okay, Sure, Okay, there you go. I

(31:57):
have no idea what she was aboutto say, nor do I really care,
but I will pick it up whenwe come back. Oh did I
just oh did I just drop herby mistake? I think so when she
comes back put her up, shemust think I'm just great. This is
handle on the law