(11/4) HOTL Hour 1

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law,marginal legal advice where I tell you you
have absolutely no case. Okay,let's start with what happened after the murder
of George Floyd in March of twentytwenty. At that time, the police
were let's just say, they weren'tregarded certainly in the same vein as they

(00:25):
were prior to that the last fewyears. I mean, police used to
be revered. You'd have the beaton, the cop on the beat would
walk, would know everybody in theneighborhood, and everybody knew him. And
it was basically Officer krup Key thateverybody liked, except for those in the
that were in the musical. Solet's now talk about what happened after that.

(00:50):
So you had cops that weren't Imean, it was sort of even
Stephen. After the murder of GeorgeFloyd, then it become the sentiment became
very anti police. Discovering many manycases or let's say, many cases of
police brutality excessive force. Body camsalso helped. Even though and no one
pays attention to this, body camsvindicated the vast, vast majority of the

(01:15):
police when accused of excessive force However, the police that were guilty of excessive
force, and in the case ofGeorge Floyd, can you imagine what excessive
force did? It killed him andit's killed others. Now we're those are
the ones. Those were the onesthat made the news, and those are

(01:38):
the ones that we look at,and those are the ones that prove that
the cops are horrible. They're sinister. All they do is beat people up
and they don't care about you.So what happened In response to that?
There was a mass movement across thecountry, especially among progressives, that said
the police are bad. So therewere two two two movements. One was

(02:02):
defund the police. Defunding the policemeans basically cutting budgets and replacing police with
social workers, because that's what youreally want to do. That's how you
deal with criminals. You send outthe social workers to talk to them,
and therefore, I guess the crimeis averted or the criminal goes, oh

(02:23):
okay, I'm sorry, I won'tdo that again. The other one is
to do away with police forces entirely, which a few municipalities did. Well,
guess what happened, No police Lotsof crime stats are pretty clear.
The more police you put on thestreets the less crime. So progressive mayor
DC mayor progressive DC mayor Muriel Bowser, who was really one of those police

(02:49):
are bad, police are bad,has completely changed her tune. Oops,
WHOA, why don't we undo ourprogressive stuff and actually give the police power
back and not defund the police andnot cut budgets. And especially today when

(03:09):
you can't even have police sign up. The police forces are desperate for recruits
that you're gonna have to entice somemore money. But nope, well that's
changed. You're can see that changeall over the country for sure. Okay,
let's go ahead and take some phonecalls. Uh, Chris, Hello,

(03:30):
Chris, Welcome, Good morning Bille. Yes, sir, I have
a client that's trying to sue mefor thirty seven hundred dollars for retail contract.
He has already paid the contract andpool. He has called me multiple
times to go out and take alook at the issue that that was done
after the job was finished, andI have tried to go back out there,

(03:53):
but he hasn't give me the timeof day. Okay, forward three
four months, he sends me aletter telling me he's going to take me
the court for assue me with thirtyseven dollars because I didn't complete the job.
What was the job, Chris?It was a it was a plumbing
job. That would be okay,So you're a plumber. Is a plumbing
job? All right? He paidyou in full, and now he's coming

(04:14):
back and said you did a rottenjob and I won thirty seven hundred dollars
back. Was that the entire bill? By the way, so the entire
bill is at eleven thousand, okay, So why did he choose thirty seven
hundred dollars? Where did that?Okay? He just decided it's thirty seven
hundred dollars okay, all right,And so now he's threatening to sue you.
He called you, say you aletter called you. He sent me

(04:39):
a THIRTI fied letters, okay,and did you respond not yet? Okay?
When did you get the letter?A couple of days, A couple
of days ago. All right,here's what you do. You send back.
I hope you have his email,but if you don't, okay,
So you send him an email andyou send him a certified letter that basically
says, hey, you've accused meof doing something wrong. I want to

(05:04):
go see it, and then hehas to let you go see it,
because I'll tell you, under thelaw, you have the right to mitigate
damages, which means, okay,you say I screwed up. I want
to go see that I screwed up. Just let's see the problem. And

(05:25):
he said, Nope, you're notgoing to see the problem. He's going
to have a problem. He's goingto have a problem because all you have
to do is prove that he won'tlet you on the premises and his case,
his case is over. Okay,then bring in more proof, bring
in more proof, send them acertified letter. Okay, bring them all

(05:47):
in. Bring them all in aswell as I would do a certified letter
per my previous tech message text messages, and send him a screenshot of the
text messages. And he's going togo into court and say thirty seven hundred
dollars and you're going to say youwon't even let me on to find out
what's wrong. Oh, by theway, where did you get thirty seven

(06:10):
hundred dollars? Where's your plumbing expertise? So that's what you're gonna do,
you'll be fine, okay, Andyeah, yeah, that's that's the way.
That's absolutely the way you would doit. And also I would get
a second opinion and tell him thathe's ugly. That's also helpful. All

(06:31):
right. See that's how that works. Yeah, you see, that's the
law. You have a chance tomitigate your damages. You have a right
to cure the problem. And ifyou look at virtually every written contract that's
actually well written, attorney's fees clause, you know, duties, timelines,
whatever, you'll see the mitigate damagesto cure damages, and there's a timeline.

(06:56):
Chris, Hello, Chris, Goodmorning Bill. My question is this,
I received a warning for walking mydog off leash. The actual cost
of the ticket in the state ofWashington is one thousand and twenty five dollars
for walking my poor little golden retrieveroff leash. And my question is how
can I fight this amount? Youcan't somehow, Yeah, you really can't.

(07:20):
You really can't, because it isa municipal decision and it is crazy.
I once got a ticket, andthis was a bunch of years ago,
for driving while texting. Actually,there was a woman cop who was
on a bike who came up andsaw me in the window and goes,
hey, roll down the window.I was at a stoplight and she pulled

(07:43):
me over, and so they're onthe ticket said it's a twenty dollars fine,
and I said, yeah, andyou know, I appreciate I did
something wrong, but twenty dollars istwenty dollars and she started laughing. She
goes, no, no, no, you don't understand the additional excess fees
and the way they triple finds.So I ended up paying one hundred and
ninety dollars for a twenty dollars fine. So what you'll see on there whatever

(08:03):
the basic the basic commount of theticket is they can throw anything on top
of that. And what that meansis effectively, this is in punishment.
This is a revenue call. Thisis the way the city makes revenue by
tagging you. You have no defense. Your dog was not on a leash,

(08:26):
and your poor little dog. Noone cares that. You guys live
in a dumpster and there's no foodfor the dog. Nobody cares. It
is one thousand dollars you're going topay. Now. You can go in
front of the judge and you pleadnot guilty. To go in front of
the judge, and you go yourhonor. I don't have the money.
I don't have one thousand dollars.And the judge may say, well,

(08:48):
then you do community service and that'swhat they give you. You get to
go out and clean up freeways orwhatever with that little yellow vest for a
while, or you go, yourhonor. Can I leak? Can I
at least have time to pay?And you and you cut the deal.
You go, I can't afford onethousand dollars. Can I pay two hundred
dollars a month for the next fivemonths? And basically you're throwing yourself on

(09:11):
the mercy of the court. Butthe bottom line is, Chris, you
got tagged. Yeah, don't don'twalk your dog without a leash. Hey,
one final comment. I really respectyour show, but I don't respect
anybody who gets pulled over by abike cup. Oh yeah, you're right,
and yeah, you know you wellsaid he's absolutely right. Sean,

(09:33):
Hello, Sean, welcome Bill.I own a condo on the first floor
of a four story condo complex.The third floor leaked down two floors to
the guy above me and into myunit, causing twenty thousand dollars in damage.
Long story short, my insurance coveredmy portion, and they are mixing

(09:56):
my deductible of one thousand dollars.Could I go to the third floor owner
and sue him for my thousand dollarsdeductible? His insurance, by the way,
denied to claim for the second floorbelow him and for me, so
they're not going to pay us.Basically, I had to go to my
own insurance. Got you know,nix on thousand dollars deductible. Okay,
you got tagged. You got taggedfor one thousand dollars deductible by your own

(10:20):
insurance, right, Okay, yeahit was twenty thousand. They gave me
nineteen minus one thousand. So Iwant to go after the guy on the
third floor. Yeah, I wasa damage and get my thousand dollars.
Yeah, I mean you could hisinsurance Yeah, his insurance denied details.
Yeah, his insurance deny. Theyalways deny. Uh, it's completely crazy.

(10:43):
I have to re up my insurance. And here in California, all
right, three of the major insurancecompanies have just bailed. They're just not
interested in insuring California anymore homeowners becauseof the wildfires and just the risks.
So they're there. There are afew insurance companies left. They have just

(11:03):
doubled, doubled the policy because it'sup in November. Finished, goodbye.
And I always get replacement value ifmy home is destroyed, I of course
get replacement value. And my policyused to say replacement value, and they'll
go fifty percent above that in theevent it goes over that. Nothing Now,

(11:28):
So the answer is yeah, becausethose are your damages one thousand dollars.
Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah,insurance him, he's telling me State
Farm's gonna go out and they're gonnasend somebody on my behalf. No,
they're not, because I'm not suinga state farm, suing you because you
damaged me and I'm out of thousanddollars. Well, he can turn it
into his insurance company and maybe they'llpay one thousand dollars. I don't know.
And unless the insurance company, whenyou got your money, it says

(11:52):
you're done going after everybody. Iknow that happens when their insurance company pays
and you accept the settlement, theysay that's it, you're done. You're
accepting this in full and complete settlement. And if your insurance short of a
law, and I don't do insurancelaws, you know, as a matter
of fact, I can say Idon't do insert name of law here,

(12:15):
and you know, but yeah,that's those are part of your damages.
So you know, we'll see.Yea. What did the check say when
you sign the settlement agreement? Didit say you're done, You're finished,
you can't go after anybody. No, it was it was our insurance that
paid us. I went to thempersonally. I didn't tell I get it.
I get it, and you havegood and you got nineteen thousand.

(12:37):
I have a twenty thousand dollars claim, which is not bad, you know,
if that's all it costs you,and you see the guy on top
of that. I think you're okay. I do think you're okay. Aroma.
Hello, Roma, I'll try again, though, Okay, I'll tell
you very simply. Maybe the lasttime I called you, Oh wait a
sec Roma, you're the lady withthe sin call right. Well, yeah,

(13:00):
I'm not going to ask you aboutthat. That still prevails, but
I'm okay, So go ahead.Okay. I fell in a hole in
the sidewalk. Prior to that,I've had an arthrodic neck because of my
age. Okay. The only timethat I have been to the doctor for
that was when I fell because Ihad to have seventeen stitches put in.

(13:20):
I hit my chin and miraculously didn'tbreak my jaw. Okay, this was
the second time out. Oh yeah, it was, though there was only
one fall correct, Yeah, okay, got it, Okay, okay,
miraculous, Okay, did break yourchin? Seventeen stitches? Got it right?
Right. I did get a lawyer, and he sued that we're not

(13:41):
sure that's what we kind of didlast time. I don't know. If
it was a city, I don'tthink so, or the state, I
don't know, the county, Idon't know. But he did sue and
we did get or I supposedly gottwenty five thousand dollars. Did you see
the settlement? I supposedly got twentyfive thousand dollars. That gets interesting,

(14:03):
Why do you I saw they toldme. They told me, Oh okay,
the lawyer told you you settled fortwenty five thousand dollars. Yes,
okay, okay, So of coursehe keeps his fee out of it,
right, I may they deducted hewent back into the history of my going
to a doctor, and they deductedevery single thing that I've gone back for

(14:28):
now. I have not gone backfor anything. Okay, hang on,
they deducted the how far back didthey deduct for the arthritic condition when you
went to the doctor. Yes,that was the start. We had to
go to the hospital. Okay,okay, hang on, you fall.
Wait a second, roma you fall, okay, and you fall with a

(14:52):
pre existing condition arthritic neck. Youtake a spill, you don't break anything,
thank goodness, but you get seventeensdisches in your neck. Go to
a lawyer. I want to getthe timeline correctly. You go to a
lawyer, sues the city, state, county, whatever entity because you don't
know at this point. And hetells you we got a twenty five dollars
settlement, and right, I getit. And they went back and and

(15:16):
even charge you for the medical carefor the arthritic condition prior to the fall.
Is that correct exactly? And anydoctor that they could find that gun
too for anything. Oh yeah,well they know they're allowed to do that.
I mean they're allowed to get allyour medical they're allowed to get all
your medical information. That's easy though, even though you've got really good insurance.

(15:39):
Yeah care, yeah, yeah,Now that's the whole point insurance pay
for all of this, right,yes, okay, get it all right.
So as far as the accident,okay, as far as the accident
is concerned, that's what they're responsiblefor, whatever whatever damage there is,
minus whatever the value of pre existingcondition, because they're going to say,

(16:04):
uh, it wouldn't have been nearlyas bad but for the pre existing condition.
That's one argument. That's their argument. Your argument is pre existing condition
and the accident exacerbated my condition,that it's far worse this fall because I
had it pre existing. All right, I understand I'm talking legally here.

(16:25):
Roma your opinion means nothing here.We're talking legally, and what they paid
for and you got set twenty fivethousand dollars supposedly. Did you see did
you see the settlement agreement? Yes? I did? Okay, you signed
it? Okay, got it allright? Fair enough? Did you sign
did you sign the agreement? Yes? All right? Well, then you

(16:47):
signed the agreement. Unfortunately, yousigned it, and you've accepted it.
You've accepted, you've accepted what they'reoffering, and so and so they went
back and they went back to allthe doctors you have seen for the arthritis,
and they deducted that what did youend up getting out of the twenty
five thousand dollars six thousand okay?And so the lawyer got a third right

(17:10):
seven thousand dollars or more whatever itis, eight thousand dollars okay. So
that's the lawyer's fees. And thenthe medical costs. And were you,
by the way, were you coveredfor insurance that covered all your medical costs?
Okay? Well here's the deal.You're not allowed to double dip.
You're not allowed to pay four insuranceand have your medical covered. Now you

(17:33):
get pain and suffering. Okay,that is different. Medical costs can be
deduct but pain and suffering is whatthey pay you. So I have no
idea as to what the negotiations wentwith the lawyer, and I have no
idea, but a couple of thingsthat you are upset about, are you?

(17:53):
And by the way, it's legitimateto be upset about because people don't
know they can go back in yourmedical records. They can go after the
time you were born and get yourmedical records. Two, they are allowed
to be paid back. They becausethey gave you or the insurance company your
insurance gave you insurance and you gotmoney, so it's a third party claim

(18:18):
just a small amount. I'm sorry, Well, I mean I got actually
almost six thousand. No, Iunderstand, and that's that's probably for paid
and suffering. So what is yourquestion, Roma, Well, it is
the law then, yeah, yeah, that's the way they did everything,
right. Yeah, it's the wayit works, not necessarily the law.
A lawyer can charge whatever he wants. And your insurance policy and this is

(18:44):
not the law. You read yourmedical insurance policy. And if there's a
third party that pays the medical bills, in this case it was the city
or the county, then they getreimbursed. I'm a member of Kaiser,
so I go in and I getaccident and I break my neck. Right,
someone just plows into me, andKaiser gives me twenty thousand dollars or

(19:04):
forty thousand dollars with medical care,and I get and the insurance company on
the other side pays it. Kaysergets paid back. Read your insurance policy.
That's unfortunately the way it works.Michelle, Hello, Michelle, welcome.
Hi. I have back surgery scheduledfor this coming Tuesday. I'm with

(19:26):
Blue Shield and they have denied mysurgery They have approved everything up to this
point. Epidural shots, medication,acupuncture, you name it. See,
my doctor had appeared a peer aweek ago and that doctor asked me to
do CBT prior to surgery. Hesaid he would take a letter I called

(19:49):
blue Shield. They said it doesn'tneed to be a program, it could
be an evaluation and a letter whichwas provided along with two others. There
two other PhD a psychologist letter.Yeah, hang on, hang on him,
Hang on a minute. The insurancecompany is denying surgery because you have
PTSD? Is that correct? Ido not. I do not have PTSD.

(20:11):
Where did that come up? Thispeer to peer doctor who is in
New Hampshire is required is requiring CBT, a CBT program with it, by
the way, with a registered physicalseries. Okay, okay, Michelle,
Michelle, you go, you goto your doctor. You go to your

(20:32):
doctor. I did. And theinsurance company saying no, and they're relying
on this other doctor. And I'massuming your doctor says he's full of it.
Yes, yeah, you get toget into it with the insurance company.
Unfortunately you do. Yep. Yeah, I've hired an attorney. Yep.
That's what you have to do.And you get to go into it,
and now you get a lot offun happening because if it turns out

(20:53):
they should have covered it, anduh, you either are in a lot
more pain or the injury gets worsebecause you haven't done the surgery. Then
that one gets interesting because hey,had you done the surgery on time,
X would have happened. Because youhaven't done the surgery, then X plus

(21:15):
would have happened. And that's whatyour larrior is gonna argue. I've never
heard of this, by the way, ever, ever have I heard of
a doctor doing that? You?You, and everybody else who I have
spoken to goes. I don't understandhow it how he's requiring a registered physical
therapist to do CBT. It doesn'texist. They're not licensed to do it.

(21:37):
Well, since I've never heard ofit, I mean the doctor can
say you need you need physical therapybefore we'll do the surgery, or I
recommend physical physical therapy. It's hewants CBT, that cognitive behavioral therapy.
Yeah that's crazy. Yeah, you'reright, that's that's said. Yeah,
that's insane. Now we're talking thisand by the way, and and by
the way, I called his clinicbecause I found out an of the doctor

(22:00):
and asked about at his clinic,said, hey, do you guys do
RPT? Is an RPT do CBT? And she said, I don't know
what you're talking about. Okay,well that's what that's your lawyer picks that
one up. And I was goingto suggest you need a lawyer to take
this one and your ear that's allyou can do because you're not going to
be able to negotiate this one onyour own because you need a medical expert

(22:22):
to go the other way. Nowyou can go to your own doctor who
is going to say, uh no, she needs surgery, and yes he
did. This other doctor is completelyfull of crap. And then you get
into it with your own insurance companyunfortunately, and it's going to be arbitration.
It's going to be arbitration. It'snot going to be a lawsuit because
you sign an arbitration agreement. Anduh, you know, I don't know

(22:44):
what else to tell you. You'redoing You're doing it all that you have
to do. Wow, just uhno, I don't think she needs surgery,
even though other doctor said she needsphysical surgery. I want to have
a behavioral, cognitive, behavioral therapy. What Yeah, no kidding, No
one's ever heard of that, Martin. You're a Hello Martin, Hello Bill.

(23:07):
This sounds like a real trivial case. Yeah, well, hang on
a minute. Are you on aspeakerphone per chance? Anymore? Not anymore?
It sounds even worse. I'm reallysaying, there you go. Okay,
we're good, We're good. Okay. I have a gentleman from the
building department coming by and asking meto switch the covers on two of my

(23:33):
cars that have tarps on him they'renew tarps. He made me put new
tarps on. I said, I'llput new tarps on. He says,
nope, they got to be cloth. So I said, you show me
the ordinance that says I have toput cloth tarps on instead of instead of
regular tarps. So I called hissupervisor. Supervisor never returned my call.

(23:53):
I called him Emelda Padilla's office,and they just sort of sugarcoated the whole
thing. He said, sorry,I'll give you a bet on the back,
but you know you got to doit. Okay, what what do
you think I should do? Bill? Okay? Hang on, So,
uh, if you say go poundsand, they're gonna give you a citation
probably uh, and then you haveand then you have to simply appeal that

(24:18):
uh decision of the citation, andyou have the ability to appeal this is
and go ahead. Do they havean ordinance that backs up? He's been
here three times, he said,I want to know what progress you make.
I have no idea. I haveno idea inspect Carpenter said, why
are you inspecting my cars? Yeah? Yeah, no, no, no,
it's just you just listen. He'sblowing smoke. He doesn't like you.

(24:41):
You just say, uh, youhaven't. So he says, for
the third time, you haven't donea tarp. You go, you're right,
and I'm not going to guy he'san old boomer hippie. I mean,
all right, that's even better.That's even better. I'm an old
boomer hippie without hair. I don'tI don't think he has a lot of
hair. He doesn't seem to havethe teeth or the ordnance. Okay,

(25:03):
Martin, Martin, you simply sayno, that's all. You simply say,
Uh, nope, I'm not gonnado it. Well, I came
over here to see, uh,what kind of progress You're wasting your time?
I'm not changing this you can comeover a dozen times, you can
go and come over a hundred times. I don't care. And if he

(25:26):
issues you a citation and I don'tknow under what ordinance, he has to
put down the ordinance, by theway, I mean, if there is
a violation, he has to putwhat violation it is. And of course
he's blowing smoke. So you tellhim, hey, that has Yeah,
this is crazy. Okay, itis crazy, But Martin, it's easy.

(25:48):
Why why does it even bother you? You just tell him, you
know, if you goes are yourproperty, get off by property. Just
let me along. What's really ironicabout the whole situation is that there's an
old police car to keep moving thepolice car back and forth from one side
of the street. It doesn't matter, Martin, None of that matters.
None of that matters. You know. You just you're getting in See you're

(26:10):
getting exercise over something you shouldn't.You have someone who has a burr up
his rear end for some reason,maybe he had a loved one that was
murdered by an axe murder and rolledup in a tarp that looks like yours.
I have no idea, but Iwouldn't worry about it. Just tell
him to go pound sand I mean, there's nothing going to be He's not

(26:33):
gonna write you up. But ifhe does, then you got a real
interesting issue. Then you go inthere and you go will you take that?
You simply appeal that decision and tothat. There's not much more you
can do other than that. Justignore it. Just ignore it, you
know, just I would have thetime of my life. I take scam
calls, by the way. Ilove dealing with people. If I were

(26:56):
you, I'd be there having justa rip roaring great time with this guy.
This is handle on the law.