(12/02) 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. Youknow, I love doing stories about lawyers
who are completely insane. Not thatlawyers in general are not insane, but
occasionally I get a story about alawyer who has done something, let's say,

(00:22):
reasonably crazy and has gotten suspended forit and not an issue of moral
turpitude. Usually it's some lawyers stolea ton of money from the trust account
or abandon the client. You've heardme say that constantly. Abandonment is a
big deal. But occasionally just getcrazy ass stuff. And this is a

(00:43):
fun one. This was a suspensionthat this lawyer got. A Hawaiian excuse
me, an Ohaian attorney by thename of Jack Blakeslee. He's been around
for thirty years as a lawyer andis very well known Vietnam VET. And
so he does criminal defense work.That has been his practice for thirty years.

(01:07):
And there are, as you canimagine, victims rights organizations or criminal
rights organizations out there that advocate forcriminal suspective criminals. They give free legal
help and advice and here's how youhandle it. Well. He's obviously not
very happy with those because he's onthe other side of the coin. He

(01:30):
thinks that criminals are basically criminals,and they should be tried and and they
should get as good as defense aspossible. All right, So you've got
victims rights groups who are out there, You've got you've got defendants rights groups.

(01:51):
This is a particularly one with he'sa defense attorney, and this is
a victims rights group that he hasbeen arguing with and fighting for a bunch
of years. So, oh mygod, he's in proxy for almost fifty
years. He's no youngster in anycase. He's been suspended for a year
with six months stay. That's somedingswhat happens very rarely when someone gets suspended

(02:12):
for X period of time, partof it is stayed, which means,
okay, a year suspended, sixmonths stage, you can go back to
work at the end of six months. So here's what he did. There
is a victim advocate who works forthose who have been just piled up representing
the family of this slain child.And what he did very interesting story.

(02:38):
What he did is he pooped intoa pringles can and then drove the open
pringles can with his deposit in itin his car. It's a pleasant concept.
And he drove to the home andwhat he did is he dropped it

(02:58):
off on the porch. Hmm.Very interesting. And he got surveillance camera
caught him because of course everybody hasa ring camera these days, and they
caught him on a surveillance camera,and he was arrested, and then he
was in front of the judicial system, in front of the it's when you

(03:20):
are suspended. It goes in frontof a judicial administrative hearing. And he
now here's his defense that he randomlychose the locations. He would do this
again and again because it was alla prank, and he randomly chose these
locations because he got a kick outof imagining the look of surprise on people's

(03:42):
faces when they found one of thesePringles cans. And it was just in
his head and it was random,but just happened to be this person who
worked for this organization, right,Well, yeah, not really, not
really. So the judicial counsel said, you're not practicing law for a year,

(04:03):
except that was stayed and he goesback to six months. I believe
that they ordered him never to buya can of Pringles again. By the
way, they didn't. I wouldhave done that and he got nailed.
So just another story of crazy lawyers. We get crazy judges, we get
crazy lawyers, we certainly get crazyvictims who argue all the time lawsuits.

(04:28):
It's just a crazy way to practiceand live with life. And I'm in
there. I'm in there for sure. Now I want to take a phone
call in which I may actually knowwhat I am doing. So let's go
for that. Hello, Thomas,welcome to hand along the law. Hi
Bill, So my question, mystore version of my question, is can

(04:51):
a spout can of wife I planta frozen embryo without the ex husband's concent
Yeah, the answer is probably yes. It's really interesting stuff. It's there
have been lawsuits in which a husbandhas argued, or even just the father

(05:13):
of a child. Let's just saya couple gets together. A husband not
husband, doesn't really matter. Soyou have an embryo that's created. You
can't do without the dad. Youknow, he's got to do what he's
got to do and produce a spermspecimen. And then you're talking about fertilize
it in the petri dish and thenimplanting it into either the wife or the
surrogate mother or the mother to beit doesn't matter. And so the consent

(05:38):
was originally there and now it's herbody. If it's implanted, you have
no say. If it's not implantedyet, it depends on who has custody,
who is actually holding on to it, because it is just property.
It's like anything else, and youknow, go to a divorce. One
of the things you're splitting up isthe embryo. But here's the problem is

(06:01):
that both sides have a point.Here. Father is saying you don't have
the right to create a child ifI don't want to create a child,
even though originally consent was given,and the mother to be says, you
don't have the right to stop mefrom being continuing pregnant. The bottom line
is, yeah, she can probablyshe can go ahead and do it.

(06:24):
She can destroy it. The otherside is you don't have a right to
keep me from being a father.There have been cases all over the country,
and thank goodness, I've never dealtwith that. I did reproductive law
for over thirty years and I've hadevery situation you can imagine when it comes
to embryos and custody and marriages.Never had that one. And the cases

(06:46):
are all over the place, dependingon the jurisdiction, because none of this
is controlled by federal law, especiallynow that Roe has been overturned. So
yeah, that's the answer. Quickanswer to the question. Now, was
that just you wanted to know orwas that your state in the middle of
it? Then I'm said, inthe middle of this, I'm getting divorced
who were married for about seven years. We have a five year old son,
but we have one frozen embryo that'sleft over from that IDF process.

(07:10):
Okay, do you have Okay,and you're gonna have a very hard time
finding someone who actually specializes in that. Where do you live California? Where
southern California? Oh? Okay,got it. You know, I don't
often do this because I generally say, just go to handle on the Law
dot com. But we don't haveattorneys on handle on the Law dot Com
that deal with this. But Iknow every attorney out there who does,

(07:34):
so I'm going to make an exceptionin this case. That is email me
at my home station. You knowwhere I broadcast from, and that's KFI
and just talk. You can call, or you can email one of the
producers there and I will go aheadand forward you the name of a couple

(07:55):
of attorneys who do specialize just inthis because this is such a sub specialty,
it is so ditch. There areprobably and when I started doing this,
were two attorneys in the world thatdid this kind of law, and
now there are several hundred. Butit's very it's hard to find someone who's
good. So do the email andI will go ahead and forward you the

(08:16):
name of a couple of attorneys.Right, thank you, It's okay,
that's you know. Service is mymiddle name. Actually, Service is not
my middle name. Usually it's Idon't give a rats is my middle name.
See, I like that, Ido like that. Michelle, Hi,

(08:37):
Michelle, welcome, Hi, Hia. Remember me, I was the
one who had the kitting Hanmi,I can and no I don't remember you,
but go ahead, okay. WellI was the one that had the
sugar daddy that chaid that I hithim and he had fell on the ground
and went to the hospital. Andthen I had a warrant for my arrest
and they arrested me and all thecharges yourself. But that's another short Then

(09:00):
I go to and drinding. Ijust got my driver's I send it back.
I had to just sended for whateverreason, and I had to stop
sign and I looked down at mydog and I looked back up and I
hit the back end of the cabillact. I didn't know it was a higher
patrols wife, but anyway, andthey had two scratches. I walked up
and saw that she was okay,and I said, pull into Walmart parking

(09:22):
lot because we're in the middle ofthe road. And I don't know what
happened. I panicked, she wascrying, she was freaking out, and
I panicked, and I just droveoff. My My karma was ten minutes
later, I got into another actionand then bumped into somebody else. So
my question, I know, Iknow, So my question is they nobody?

(09:43):
They came to my house in Tensecola. Who is they? State?
A state police? A state police. Yeah, later on that night or
something, and and he said,my girlfriend has a car in one of
my cars and she's it could beher, but he didn't say it was
her. But yeah, he threwme under the bus. So what do

(10:05):
I mean he threw you under thewait, he threw you under the bus.
The cop threw you under the bus. My boyfriend threw me into the
bus. He said my name.He didn't really have to say my name.
But okay, all right, butbut there's no warrant for me.
I checked fd L E all thetime. Then you're okay right now,
Then you're okay, right now,you're okay. You know I have to

(10:26):
do worry about a civil suit.I'm sorry, okay, there's only two
little scratches. It doesn't matter.I mean, they can sue you.
They can sue you and argue hitand run. But if they if you
haven't been charged as a misdemeanor hittand run, you're gonna be fine as
far as that's concerned. You justhave to worry about a small plane.
I'm okay, right, yeah,yeah, you're fine. And I'll tell
you what you're very good at istalking over people. And I can't wait

(10:48):
for you to go to court anddo exactly this. Uh, when you're
in front of a judge, smallclaims judge, when you get sued for
those scratches. Hey, I wantto tell you about of scenario. So
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(11:11):
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(11:33):
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(11:56):
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(12:18):
handle and use that code get yourfifteen percent off Zelmans dot com. The
code is handle Hilo Raine Welcome.Hello. Yeah, I have a question
my grandson who lives in Chicago.He was leaving the subdivision he lives in

(12:39):
at a light and a driver wasdriving so fast. I think they were
trying to beat the other light andmade a turn into the subdivision and hit
him. He teed him right inthe middle. You know. Luckily he
didn't hit him closer to the anyway. His car was totaled. He has
been home from work now two weeksin excruciating pain his hand. He can't

(13:00):
even twist the jar open. Hehasn't been working. And here's okay,
let me ask this. I havea couple of questions to ask you.
The other driver drove into him asagainst the light. Is that correct?
Yes? Okay, he actually hithim so hard that he pushed him up

(13:22):
on somebody's blocks. Okay, allright, fair enough, Now was he
injured other than what you told me, nothing s broken? Okay, So
I assume he's gone to the doctor. Correct, yes, Well did the
emergency good and they died? Andwhat did they diagnose? Nothing s broken?

(13:43):
Yesterday he went to I think anorthopedic doctor, and I think he
was, you know, pain withstuff. Yeah, okay, here's here's
the problem. I mean, becausethe car was the car was so damaged
and it was so total. There'sa lot of validity to his claim of
injury. But the problem is issoft tissue, and everybody hurts from soft

(14:07):
tissue. That is so subjective.Gee, I heard I hurt. And
there are people who are so stoicthat you know they could be losing their
arms and they don't complain. Itwould have been much better if, in
fact he did lose his arm.That is a much better case. But
this is worth talking to a personalinjury lawyer to see effectively what the other

(14:31):
side's insurance company is, because someare more liberal. And that's in quotes
about giving money under these circumstances.Because he assuming, obviously the driver who
has insurance, I'm assuming, andif the driver doesn't have insurance or doesn't
have enough insurance. I'm talking aboutthe other side. Then I'm assuming that
your grandson has underinsured or uninsured motoristscoverage. If he doesn't, he's out

(14:56):
of his mind. They both havethe same insurance company. That doesn't matter.
That doesn't matter. It depends onoh he does have Insureansy and in
the limits here are California, it'sfifteen thirty fifteen thousand for a single incident,
thirty thousand for more than one ormore people. I don't know what
it is in Illinois, but youtalk to a personal injury lawyer on that

(15:16):
one. There's no question about it. There's enough there. Problem is a
soft tissue. I mean my back. I got that limb bago. You
know, you get an old jewhe's getting complain about everything, and then
you get a young, crazy assmarathon runner who just doesn't hurt you go
through the wall. That's all thereis. Mark, Hello, Mark,

(15:37):
welcome. Yes, sir, Ihired I had a property to supree with
a neighbor, and I talked toa lawyer for like ten minutes, and
I didn't like what he had tosay, so I hired another lawyer,
and the previous the first lawyer keepssending me a bill for three hundred bucks.
I have to pay it. Well, you know, let me ask
you a couple questions on that one. Did you go in the office and

(16:00):
have a conversation with him or wasit a phone No, the only thing
he sent me a letter saying tofurther, I need to send him a
five thousand dollars retainer, which Ididn't do. Yeah, of course.
Well, and you spoke and thiswas a phone call, correct, correct?
Okay, Well, what's going tohappen is he's going to argue he
was at least half an hour onthe phone. So you got to pull

(16:22):
the phone record somehow, and you'regoing to get a bill, and I
assume you can get it where itshows you the phone calls and how long
they are, assuming that is thecase, you spoke for ten minutes.
He sent you a retainer and yousaid no, thank you. That's not
legal advice. That's just a negotiationsas to whether he's going to represent you

(16:45):
or not. He's got no placeto go now. He may sue you
in small claims court. Even worse, he may sue you in superior court
because he's a lawyer and you've gotto defend. You simply have to defend
it, and you have no choice. But usually for three hundred bucks,
is he going to do that dependson how angry he is at you,
you know, and it depends onwhat a jerk he is. Oh no,

(17:08):
there are no lawyers that are jerksout there. I take that back.
I'm sure he is ethical and I'msure he follows, if not so
much, the law, certainly amorality compass. So no, I wouldn't
pay it, and I would writeto him and say, hey, you
know what, we were simply negotiatingwhether or not I was going to hire
you, and I decided to goin a different direction. This is not

(17:30):
legal advice. And you leave itat that. If he sees you,
he sues you, and you haveto defend. I had another lawyer to
do something. Yeah, that doesn'tmatter. That part doesn't matter. You
elected not to go with him,and that's the crux of this case.
And what kind of negotiations were theynegotiations? Did he give you legal advice?
And your position is all he toldme is send me five you know,

(17:52):
give me a retainer. Did hesend you the retainer? No?
I didn't say he sent me aletter asking for a retainer. I did
not. Oh, all right,then, yeah, I think you're fine.
The only thing you have to worryabout is a lawyer being just a
complete ass and deciding that he's goingto make your life miserable and it's going
to be work. He has tofile, it's going to cost him a

(18:15):
couple one hundred dollars to even file, and is it worth it? Or
he just goes away and just say, hey, this is what happened.
I wouldn't be angry with him.I'd call him back up or send him
a letter an email saying hey,I didn't ask you for legal advice.
I just asked you, you know, do I have a case or not?
And you spend ten minutes with me? And unless you're charging what is

(18:36):
ten minutes three hundred dollars? Ifwe're ten thirty dollars a minute, time
sixty Well, unless you're charging sevenhundred dollars an hour, which you know
some do you know it's not crazyto charge seven hundred dollars an hour,
But still I would say no andjust be prepared. If he is a
complete ass. Oh be hello,b you welcome? Uh hello, yeah,

(19:03):
yeah, thank you, thank youfor taking my call. My mother
bought a house in the late seventiesand she placed her second oldest child's name
on the house. About uh fouryears later, when she met her future
husband, she forced my sister totake her name off the house. How'd

(19:26):
she do that? Just like agun to her head? And she no.
She went to her job and said, take her name off because I
want my husband to name on it. So she so she did, okay,
and now it's now it's in hername or wasn't her name? And
the husband correct? Right, okay, so her so her husband And when

(19:48):
Mom got angry, she would saythat her husband didn't pay one penny on
the house. But anyway, butuh, he preceded her in death into
twenty sixteen, and so about fiveyears ago Mom went to a legal clinic
and put her portion of the houseinto my name. Okay portion, by

(20:12):
the way, her portion of thehouse is one hundred percent when her husband
died, so she owned the house. Her portion is the whole house because
I'm assuming it was helping out.Well, I'm still getting uh it has
uh the for the tax purposes,it has her husband's name on Yeah,

(20:36):
yeah, I mean taxes. Don'tYeah, don't make taxes. Don't keep
up with that. Don't worry aboutthe tax bill because that they're years behind.
Uh. What you have is yourmom owning the entire house and I'm
assuming it's joint tennancy because that's whyeverybody does it. And she is now
dead, so you've got her estateowning the house. So what's your question?

(20:56):
Oh, well, people are people. I have been told that I
had to go and hire a lawyer. Yeah, probably probably, No,
it's not his name. He doesn'town it anymore. You do. You
have to have a transfer, andit's just I would hire a lawyer.
They're right, because here it's alittle complicated because you have to file an

(21:17):
affidavit of the death of a jointtenant, so the property transfers to your
mom. Now your mom is deadand she owns the house, is there?
Did your mom leave a will?Actually? When when she? Uh,
she had a will? Uh,power of attorney? And who did
Okay, she let she Okay,she had a will? Would she leave

(21:40):
the house? All right? Hangon, she had a will? Who
who she leave the house to?To me? Okay, now what's your
question? Well, that was myquestion. Okay, Yes, you get
a lawyer. B yes, youget a lawyer. Uh, it's no
big deal. Uh, it's someprocedural stuff. It's uh. The filing

(22:00):
of an affidavit of a joint tenantthen is a probate that opens up pursuant
to the will, and after aperiod of time, when you go through
the hoops, the house becomes yours. How much is the house worth?
Oh? Maybe best Sidney thal that'sall. It's still worth it. Yeah,
but it's still worth it. It'sstill worth it. I would do
that. And people, they areall all kinds of confused. It's easy.

(22:23):
People hold the property in joint tenancy. The second one of the joint
tenants dies by operation of law atthat moment when it's the last breathing second
of the person who dies, Imean debt, the property transfers over legally.
And then just follow up, allright, Kevin. A wall problem?

(22:45):
Yes, yeah, yeah. Let'ssee. I live at the end
of a block. So the housebehind me were both on corners, and
there's a wall that runs along thesidewalk at the end of the block that's
connected. They had a big birdof paradise pushed that wall out, it's
cracked, needs repair to replace.It's a rental that they've owned for five

(23:07):
or six years. I'm been ableto get a hold of the owner.
I finally got a hold of somebodywho claims to be the property manager.
I guess he is when the housewas listed and I told him that I
need to see about getting the wallfixed. So they've said several times that
they were going to fix the wall, and it's excuse after your excuse has

(23:33):
been going on for a couple ofmonths. Now, Okay, so let
me I got it. I gotit. So you're you've got a couple
of problems on your hands. Firstof all, let's start with which side
of the property line is the wall. It's no, it's it's runs along
both of ours. It's not inbetween our properties, it runs along We're

(23:53):
both at the end of the block. Okay, I'm a little confused.
It's it's not on your property,but it runs along your property. So
I guess someone else owns the wallif it's not on your property. No,
no, sir, we are atthe end of the block. Okay.
We're both foreigners. Okay, areyou next to each other? Behind

(24:15):
each other? So it's it's thelot perpendicular to the it's the wall perpendicular
to the wall that divides our property, and this runs along the sidewalk.
It is our wall, but it'sconnected. Oh I see, Okay,
so it's not on your it's noton your property at all. The wall
is not on your property. Itis all right, but the wall that

(24:37):
runs perpendicular. Who owns that wall? Any idea? Yes, it's me,
Okay, it's on your property?When they yes, okay, so
it's on your property. Okay,we got a little confused. So it's
on your property. The whole wallis on your property. Correct, Well,
no, it goes from my propertyto their property. But when it
was built, the developers just builtit as one wall. Well, that

(25:03):
wall has to be on somebody's propertyunless it's floating someplace. No, it's
it's I don't think you're picturing it. No, I am not. I
have absolutely no idea, and youknow, I'm sorry about that, but
you know, I'm just not understandingthat at all. I can't I can't
picture that. Hey, you know, no wall, it is conducted,

(25:23):
but it's not connected. It's onmy property, but I don't own it.
Yeah, no idea how that works. But let me share with you
a life of pain. Not mine, but people that live in chronic pain
and chronic pain is all the time. And if you happen to be there,
or you have a loved one,let me tell you. Let me

(25:45):
suggest you go to The Pain Gamepodcast. That is for people who do
suffer pain and trauma or you knowsomeone who suffers pain and trauma. It's
a show about living in and withchronic pain and traumas The Pain Game Podcast.
It's funny, it's sad, itteaches, it inspires sometimes just have
to pray. Very funny, butit's not about whining. It's about shifting

(26:07):
your mindset when life and you hurt. That's how you deal with chronic pain.
Lindsay Soprano, who is the show'shost, shares her story of living
in and with chronic pain and trauma. She has lots of it, suffers
it twenty four to seven has foryears. Her guests have either lived with
or dealt with this pain and trauma, and everybody from experts in the field

(26:29):
to lawyers to stay at home moms. The show is raw, it's real.
I know, Lindsay, and Iknow how valuable. This show is,
and so every message though every episodeends with a message of hope.
That's thee good news on the outside. So listen to the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you listen to podcasts. It'sThe Pain Game podcasts and I strongly suggest

(26:49):
you listen to it, The PainGame podcast. This is Handle on the Law