(11/4) 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 tell you,
whatever your name is, you haveabsolutely no case. That's when my day
is made. What La County didwhere I live in La County is institute
something called the zero bail system.Zero bail means no money bail, and

(00:25):
boy, let me tell you bailbondsman's are thrilled about this one. There
are only two types of bail,if you will. One is money bail,
where no, it's no bail eitheryou are if you are a let's
say a defendant, a suspect isaccused of a serious crime, is a

(00:46):
danger to others, or is aflight risk, then there is no bail.
That person could be as rich aspossible because when there is bail,
that doesn't necessarily prove they're going toshow up. Is to make sure that
that person shows up in court.That's all it is. It has nothing
to do with innocence, that hasnothing to do with guilt, and it

(01:07):
has nothing to do how valid thecase is. It is you've been arrested
and you have to show up.So poor people very rarely can make bail,
especially if you're destitute. You're notgoing to be able to make bail.
Low level crime, the word isout. You don't have to make

(01:27):
bail. You're probably going to showup if you're not a threat. If
you are a threat, and we'retalking about some serious accusations here, if
you are a threat or a flightrisk. Remember Jeffrey Epstein, boy,
you talk about a flight risk,had unlimited money, had a private jet

(01:49):
or two, had a couple ofislands that he owned in the Caribbean that
were part of countries that did nothave an extradition treaty within United States.
That's about as that's about as flightrisk as you can get. And the
accusation was astronomical. Under the rules, now there is no bail. You're

(02:13):
done. You're not getting out untilthe law, until the accident accusation proceeds,
and frankly, you're gonna stay therefor a while until you're either quitted
or convicted, and then off yougo to prison in this case Jeffrey Epstein
for the rest of his life.And then he ended up committing suicide,
and he saved the state a lotof money and poor people. Let's say

(02:34):
someone gets tagged for a misdemeanor,five thousand dollars bail well, if someone's
destitute or homeless, there's no wayso effectively that person is in jail awaiting
the outcome of his case. Sothe zero bail system established by La County
says exactly what I just said,flight risk and or serious crime, you're

(02:58):
in prison. Where you're in jailawaiting the process, low level, low
level crime, accusation, or totallydestitute, it doesn't matter. You're not
going to get nailed with a bail. So, as you can imagine,
police departments, especially LA County,went out of their minds. Crime is

(03:21):
going to go up, We're goingto see recidivism. Just nuts. Prosecutors
went, man, you can't havethis happen. But LA County went forward.
Now we only have preliminary results.Okay, it's only a few weeks
into this system and they're already pullingsome kind of data out and you want

(03:44):
you want to guess seems to work. The zero bail system seems to work,
and it's moving in the direction thatit seems to work. And as
it works, you'll see prosecutors andyou'll see the police, and you'll see
conservative enforcers of the law, Imean progressive as all are always you know

(04:06):
no bail We love criminals. You'llsee conservatives and the police and prosecutors just
come on board. I mean,there's the data right there. You won't
see the bail bondsmen come on board. That is going to be a tough
I tell you there are going tobe more baristez who used to be bail
saw bondsmen or women than you've everseen before. All right, let's go

(04:30):
ahead and take some phone calls.All right, Sam, You've got an
interesting one. Welcome to handle onthe law. I'm walking down the sidewalk
and the police storm me with gunsdrawn, and they command me spread eagle

(04:51):
on the dirty sidewalk. After handcuffingme with these special handcuffs that caused my
wrist to bleed. The cop chewinggum starts to ask me questions, and
I decided this is an opportune momentfor me to say to him. I

(05:12):
said that gum you're chewing is disrespectfulto the uniform. Oh geez. He
left me. He left me,and another officer came and started asking me
questions. To make a long storyshort, I was driving, writing,
not driving, writing my own electricscooter down the street and they thought I
stole it, and I said,why did Okay, let me interrupt you.

(05:36):
Why did they think you stole it? Okay, I'm going to be
honest. There's no other way butbeing honest. And excuse me. I'm
beginning to shake. I'm not usedto being on the telephone. And I
was approaching at night on my scooterthese cops, two cops, standing by

(06:01):
their cop car, and I wasin a parking lot and I stopped and
I said to myself, I thoughtI said it very softly. I said,
whoops. And I turned my scooteraround and I scooted. Well,
I drove rode the opposite direction fromthe costs because I'll tell you, I

(06:25):
don't like cops the way, butthey've done to me. Okay, so
apparently they have bad ears and theycan hear anything, you know, rustling
thousands of feet away. Okay,So they put your spread eagle, they
put the handcuffs on you. Theycause your richs to bleed. And what

(06:46):
happened after that? Sam, Iwant to know that you're familiar with what
cops are available at the Marquis deSade store out that for these cuffs were
twisted. You know what I've never, I've never bought handcuffs, and you
know what, let me, uh, I'm going to google Mark Key the

(07:11):
Sad Handcuffs Store, because it maybe it may be a chain, for
all I know, it could bea franchise. But in any case,
Okay, So you had handcuffs thatwere particularly painful, more so than other
handcuffs. That's the allegation. Correct. How do you know that? How
do you know that? Because I'mprivy to many different cops putting handcuffs on

(07:34):
me for no darn good reason atall, And that's another story other times.
How are you privy to that?How? Sam? How are you
privy to that? How am Iprivy to what that other cops that they
put these kinds of handcuffs on you? You just said, I'm privy to
this sort of thing, where pete, where cops put these kinds of handcuffs.

(07:56):
I'm privy to a variety of copshandcuffs. How How do you how
how do you study them? Doyou? They arrested me for nothing at
all? I understand that, butthat's not the point. You had said.
I am privy to these various kindsof handcuffs, and I'm just asking
you, how are you are privy? Do you study them? Uh?

(08:18):
Do you look them up? Doyou have friends that manufacture them? I'm
just curious. No, No,I'm just a victim of them. And
you're a victim of one of thepolice putting handcuffs on me. No,
but you said you are privy?All right? Never mind, okay,
never mind. I'm not even gonnago there, all right, riding your
scooter at night, and uh,the couple of cops you see, cops?

(08:39):
Were they walking or driving up by? What were they doing? They
were? They drove up, theydrove up okay, And you said,
oh, and you turned around andwent the other way? Okay, Nope,
that's wrong, that's wrong. Okay, I'm sorry. What what happened?
Going back in time before this,all before they chase me. I

(09:01):
was driving toward the cop car,right, I was. I was in
a parking lot. Yeah, Iwas way far away, and I went,
oh, okayently I said it tooloud, and that's all I said.
Okay, what am I missing here? Sam? Hold on? Uh?
I said, you're driving in aparking lot and a couple of cops
are there. You go, ohoh and turn the other way. And

(09:24):
drive away. I'm wrong on thatbecause you just said I'm right. This
is getting really confusing. Sam,Are you there? Okay, so you
got you gotta cup your story straight. Okay. So now then from what
you tell me, they then approachyou and they throw you on the ground.

(09:48):
And but first a cop comes upto you. He's chewing gum,
and you say, chewing gum isdisrespectful to your uniform. He then goes
and the other cop comes up.What was the ca conversation after you are
Ah, you're a shame to youruniform where you don't respect your uniform.
What was the conversation before they threwyou on the ground. You're putting words

(10:13):
in my mouth. I'm asking youwhat was Was there a conversation or they
just threw you on the ground.Sam, you just tell me what happened.
Just tell me what happened. I'mnot throwing words. Just tell me
what happened. Now I'm confused.Where do I start? I Sam,
I just recapped it. I justrecapped that. You said I'm wrong,

(10:35):
and then you repeated exactly what Isaid. Sam. This is getting I
don't want you to be wrong.Okay, there we go. It's Uh,
you know what, what can whatcan you do with that? Because
there are a couple of things.First of all, telling a cop you're
chewing gum and uh uh for somereason that is disrespectful for your uniform.

(10:56):
That's smart. Uh. The otherthing, the only thing missing is poking
him in the chest and say hey, buddy, I pay your salary.
That's right up there. And thenthe issue becomes being stopped. Can the
stop cops stop you? Yeah?Is good faith and all you have to
do is say oh and turn around, go the other way at night.
I don't care if it's a privateparking lot or not. Now the cops

(11:18):
have good cause, they have reasonablecause to go up to you and say,
hey, what's going on? Now. We didn't get the rest of
the story where I said what wasthe conversation? But the reason I'm repeating
this because it's important and that iswas it excessive force? Did they have
any reason to throw them on theground? And the bodycam is going to

(11:41):
prove all of that out. That'ssimple. This is where the body cam
is priceless. Did he simply answerthe questions and he threw him on the
ground for no reason and handcuffed him. So I don't know the answer to
that, and clearly Sam doesn't knowthe answer to it either. Oh yes,
Oh Mary, Hello Mary, welcome, hior. Quick question about.

(12:07):
I have a quick question about.I was in a car accident and the
other insurance paid for the property damage. They reimbursed my insurance, and then
when it came to the bodily injury, my insurance said I need to directly
go to that insurance to recover anycosts, and so I let that insurance

(12:31):
company. Now I have I havemystoric, I have urgent care bills,
and I think I had like lostout on it two hundred fifty dollars and
membership. But anyways, they said, we're denying it because we just don't
think there's all right. That's whatthey do. So what is your question,
Mary? So does it does ithold more weight? If I was

(12:52):
to go to small claims, becauseI'm thinking it's only about seven thousand,
it's the most What it means thathold more weight? There's no weight involved
at all. And sure this companydenies it, and you turn around and
see the driver for your seven thousanddollars it is Paul Claims Court. Here
are my medical bills. Here's whathappened. The insurance company already paid for
the repair of my car, whichthey obviously accepted liability. And what they're

(13:16):
saying is we don't believe you thatyou were injured at all. That's effectively
what they were saying. And soyou go, okay, you sue the
driver and let him worry about it. And he turns over the insurance company
and maybe they negotiate, maybe theydon't. Maybe they say, nope,
we're not going to pay no matterwhat. So the insurance company is telling
their own driver, we're not goingto cover it. We don't care.

(13:37):
Happens all the time. Okay,so sue the driver. Now let's talk
about your damages. Let's talk aboutyour damages. Loss of work, urgent
care, all legit, any otherlosses. I want to know where you
came up with seven thousand dollars.Well, well, I was out a
whole week. Okay, Okay,you're out a whole week, all right?
Loss of work okay, and urgentcare? Are there any other damages

(14:03):
I paid? Oh? I hadto pay the car rental while okay,
those are damages that adds up.That's all included. Was there are you
asking for bodily injury because you've gotpain and suffering. What did urgent care
say? Well, urgent Care saidit was a sprain, and they say

(14:24):
I would have to wear a brace. But I'm a computer programmer, so
that's why I was at work,out of work. That's why as long
as you know, I mean,all that's legitimate. So if you're not
arguing pain and suffering, because nosmall claims judge is ever going to give
you pain and suffering, but willgive you compensatory damages, which means everything
that you have lost in your caseand everything you have paid for rental car,

(14:48):
urgent care, out of work,all totally legitimate, and a small
complaints court will gradily give it toyou. And it's going to take You're
going to take the driver to smallcl tims court and the driver is going
to have to explain how, No, Mary doesn't No, she doesn't deserve
she doesn't deserve this. She didn'tgo to urgent care, the doctor is

(15:13):
wrong, she didn't rent the car, she didn't have to rent the car.
I mean, where's the driver goingto go? So it's a small
claim sasue. You go right,you go right after the driver for that
stuff. Frank, Yo, Frank, yes, yes, I have a
coature regarding Medicare. I missed acouple of payments and the castle of my
Medicare park being out there asking meto wait until the next open enrollment period,

(15:37):
which is what January. Yeah,so here, I am a sixty
seven year old that doesn't have coveragefor a few months. I've been to
the Social Security Office to kind ofgive him the run around, and uh,
all right, so what's your question? What legal ramifications does anybody have?

(16:00):
And none? Frank? Okay.Open Medicare goes from October to January,
all right, and that's the onlytime you can sign up period to
change your plan or or to buya new plan Medicare B and C and
D. And if you don't pay, you lose your coverage beforehand. So

(16:25):
what do we do is do wechange it and say open and only open
enrollment except for Frank, who isallowed to do it anytime he wants.
You see the problem? Yeah,yeah, you're out of luck. You're
out of luck. You're not goingto get those Medicare and don't miss your

(16:45):
payments, man, that's critical,that is super critical. How'd you meet
a couple of months. How didyou miss a couple of months? Well,
I didn't set up payments sometime,set up for right, fair enough,
fair enough. So uh no,I got it. There are I

(17:07):
get it. I get it.I have set up various plans that uh,
somehow the bank screwed up. I'vedone that before auto pay and it
is uh. And if thank goodness, it wasn't my insurance, my medical
insurance, because guess what it wouldhave lapsed and if it was Medicare,
it would have lapsed till the nextenrollment period. Your negligence, Frank,

(17:32):
is screwed up. And you screwedup within a time laying times a time
period. It's like a statute oflimitations. You have to file within four
years. But I missed it bytwo days. What could I legally do?
Absolutely nothing? You missed it.Those are timelines. Becca, Hello,

(17:52):
Becca, welcome, Hello, Becca? HIU off my secret frosts.
Oh that's okay, Yeah, I'mhere. Okay, that was a quick
sprint. Sorry about that. Somy question is is there something like double

(18:14):
jeopardy in civil cases? Okay,First of all, double jeopardy is a
criminal issue, and good for you. Asking is there something like double jeopardy
in civil cases. So tell mewhat happened to you, and then we'll
throw it and then I'll answer it. Okay, I I was injured.
There was a lawsuit. Okay,you were injured in well, you were

(18:37):
injured. Was it a car accident? Did you fall downstairs? What happened?
I hurt myself during Yeah, Ihurt myself doing yoga. Oh okay,
So that's why I don't do yoga, by the way, Yeah,
kill you every time? All right. So you hurt yourself doing and uh

(19:00):
and then what happened and well alot of things happened. So which things
do you want to know about?Well, just what happened you? Okay,
you hurt yourself doing yoga? You'vegot in some weird uh pose,
laughing cow or you know, stretchedout camel or whatever you call those who's

(19:22):
yeah, something like that. Okay, So you got so you got injured.
Was it in a yoga studio?It was? Okay? And I
saw okay, So, uh whathappened next? So I sued I sued
my insurance company for bad face andthere was a settlement. Okay, Well,
i'd understand what did your insurance companydo. That was bad faith.

(19:47):
They let's see what am I insurancecompete to this that they denied treatment?
Okay, you needed treatment and theydenied it. Your own insurance company.
Uh, why didn't you end updoing the the insurance company. Why don't
you sue the yoga studio? Whywhy didn't that happen? Because it was

(20:08):
the insurance company that made the problem. The yoga studio wasn't the problem.
The doctors weren't the problem. Andat that time, all right, I'm
confused. I'm hold on. Letme start how why you get hurt in
a yoga studio? It's not theirfault, and you sue your own insurance
company. So you're talking about medicalinsurance. They wouldn't pay. Is that

(20:30):
correct? Correct? Okay, gotit, They just wouldn't pay your meds.
All right, that makes it easy. So it has nothing to do
with the insurance company, has nothingto do with yoga. It's just you
hurt yourself and you turn in.You want to be covered by your own
insurance. They said no, thankyou when you sued them. Okay,
fair enough. So what happens afterthat, Well, there was a settlement,

(20:52):
and it's part of that. Ihad to sign an DA. Yes,
that says I'm guess I don't rememberwhat I signed, Okay, And
part of that did I give upmy Can I now sue my employer for
something like that? No, andI'll tell you. I'll tell you why,
because you didn't just sign an NDAh NDA meaning non disclosure agreement,

(21:15):
and that usually is very unusual,but they can do it. But when
you signed and got your money,part of it is I will never sue
anybody again as a result of thisincident. I'm accepting the money in full
and final settlement. I'm done.I'm I disappear now as far as any

(21:37):
claims are concerned. So the answeris, uh, there is those such
thing as double jeopardy under those circumstances, just type of double jeopardy, because
that's a criminal issue. So no, you accepted, you accepted the deal,
and the deal was Becca, here'syour money, and you promised not
to ever go after us or anybodyelse again. All right, So there,

(22:00):
or at least us, at leastus you never you never go after
us. And by the way,you're going to shut up about this too.
You can't talk about this case.Maybe because the insurance company didn't want
to go public on that one,which I can see an insurance company saying
you buy insurance you get injured,and they say no, thank you,

(22:21):
okay, no wonder they settled forsure. Mark. Hello, Mark,
welcome, Hi Bill. My sistergot in a car accident. She was
going to visit some friends. It'skind of like a rural road. I
think it's a county road, butit's not like mandatory double wise, like

(22:41):
maybe a car and a half wideroad. One of the neighbors from the
friends she was busying it is comingdown the hill. He's not paying attention.
He's in a big Sport two fifty. She's in a Honda Cord,
a little older car, nice car, and she realizes he doesn't see her,
so she pulls over as the hornand he plows right into her.

(23:02):
But he's saying it's her fault.And first thing he said was, oh,
I didn't see you, And thenhe goes, well, I think
you know. Okay, he's saying, And so he's saying it's her fault
because he was in his lane andshe went into him in his lane.
No, she pulled over to theright and he still plowed into her.
Okay, how is it her fault? How is how is it his argument

(23:23):
that it's her fault? I don'tquite get since he hit her, well,
because he's got a thirteen year olddaughter in the car with him in
the truck and she had nobody,So it's two again. Yeah, but
it's a third, but it's youknow, it's a thirteen year old daughter
too. I mean, I don'tknow how much credence. You know,
you got to go against your yourdad when you're thirteen, so I don't

(23:45):
know how much that validity that's goingto have. We're kicking hurt, but
it's you know, it caused alot of damage to the car, cars.
Where was the cars? Was?Was the accident on her side of
the road. We're pictures taken?Yeah, yeah, you're taken. Okay,
and his car Hold on a minute, his car was on her side
of the road. Is that correctas far as I know? And I'd

(24:07):
have to see the rest of thepictures. Yeah, you have to see
the pictures. If that's the case, the case is over. I mean,
your sister has a dead bang winner. Now, if it's in the
middle, or it's over one wayor the other, then that becomes really
tricky. It becomes a he said, she said, right, it becomes
a he said, she said,and a daughter's word, which you know,

(24:30):
I just say, come on,that's not true. So that's the
answer, you're it's pictures that aregoing to control this one. Yeah,
they presented the insurance company and bothinsurance companies like, you know, it's
equal fault. Yeah, of coursethey are. But you don't want to
do that because you don't want tobe at fault. Your sister doesn't want
to be tagged for an at faultinjury accident. That's the worst thing you

(24:52):
can do. And the worst thingtoo, is she never you know,
they didn't call the police to makea report. Well they should have.
They should have, Yeah, andyour sister should have. But that doesn't
change liability. So what's going tocontrol are the photos? And thank god
everybody now has cell phones. Uh. No, it's insurance company. Uh.

(25:15):
And if they say if they sayno, yeah, we're watching our
hands. Yeah. And if theyif they say no, uh, once
you've established the other side's liability,that should be pretty clear. And if
not, you go ahead and yousue uh the driver and then the insurance
company for their side if they're notpaying you, they have an issue or
the driver has an issue with them. Steve, Welcome to the shoe.

(25:37):
Yes, yes, good morning Bill. Yes, I was involved in a
not not at fault by myself accidenton five twenty six, twenty three.
That was an injury accident. Theother party, uh supposely was a stolen
car, and so it's going throughmy uh my non insured driver coverage whatever.

(26:06):
The truck. My truck was inthe shop for six months. They
the insurance company spent twenty five thousanddollars in repair. I got the truck
back from the shop three weeks ago. I took it back and I said,
I wasn't happy. I just pickedit up again. I don't feel
that they can uh satisfactorily complete therepairs. I picked the shop, although

(26:33):
they the shop said that they werean insurance company approved shop. So my
question is is do I have anyrecourse? Yeah, okay, let's go
through it. Let's go through ita little bit. So you picked the
shop. Did the insurance company writea check for the twenty five thousand dollars?

(26:56):
Yes, the insurance company, right, all right? So I wrote
an initial got it? No?I understand. So the insurance company paid.
So do you want to Would youlike me to tell you where you
completely blew it? Yeah, I'dlove it. Okay, here's how you
blew it. You picked the shop. If you are unhappy, hey,

(27:18):
the insurance company says, that's onyou. We got a bill, we
paid for it. If you're nothappy, guess what. You go talk
to the shop, sue them asfor money back. It doesn't matter.
You pay, you don't pay,they're off the hook because that's the agreement.
So now on the other side ofthat, and I'm glad you brought
this up because I'm gonna use youas an example of what people should and

(27:44):
should not do. You always goto the insurance company's body shop always,
and I'll tell you why, because, first of all, they have a
contract and they do it is anapproved and you have to have the insurance
company, uh make sure could makesure that it is approved by the insurance
company, and say, yeah,this is a qualified certified, uh sort

(28:07):
of certified shop. Because there wasa problem, I'm not happy with it.
The insurance company calls the shop andgoes, what the hell is the
matter with you? And you knowhow hard it is to become certified with
insurance companies hard as nails. Theseshops have to go crazy. You know
how easy it is for an insurancecompany to throw a shop off their certification

(28:29):
list. Very easy. They gettwo three complaints, the shop is gone.
So what I'm telling you is they'reeven more careful with the the insurance
with the chops that they send youto. So that's where you made a
mistake. Okay for starters. Nowyou sue, you're gonna have to pay
because the ensure the I'll tell you, the shop's going to tell you to

(28:52):
go pound sand unless they're willing tofix it for no money. And they're
they're agreeing that they screwed it up, but typically Lee, have you asked
them, hey, guys, youscrewed it up. Fix it? What
was it doing for six months inthere? Yeah? Well they're they're kept
they kept uncovering things as they gotfurther into the vehicle. And then I
was waiting for the insurance company adjusterto come out to inspect it, and

(29:18):
that took two weeks and then itwould take another And I'm going to give
you I'm going to give you anexample, and I'm not I don't you
know. I don't do pitches forinsurance companies, and I do a lot
of bitching. And I'm going tojust give you an example of what my
experience is, and that happens tobe with Mercury Insurance. I've had them
for years and years to years.I never had a problem. So I

(29:40):
was just in an accident. Itwas my fault. I called my insurance
company. H inspector came out oneday. I had comprehensive I had to
pay a thousand dollars reductible. Thething was ready in nine days and it
was spotless. Why because this shophas a contract with insurance, And I

(30:00):
said where do I go? Andthey said, here are your list of
shops and I grabbed them. Soyour complaint, which is probably legitimate,
there's no reason for me to justbelieve it is against the shop. There
it is. You got you've gotto get your You've got to get your
car fixed. It's that simple.And either they're going to do it or
you're going to do it, andthen they have to pay for it because

(30:22):
that becomes a small claims matter.What's the takeaway here? Always go to
the shops that are certified and arerecommended by the insurance companies. I'll even
tell you you can go to anyshop you want. It used to be
they would only pay for shops thatwere certified, but now the law has
changed. You can go to anyshop you want. Well choose theirs,

(30:47):
because if there's a problem, theshop gets into a screaming match with the
insurance company. And believe me,the shop wants the business and doesn't want
to lose it. This is handleon the law.