(6/29) HOTL Hour 2

Handel on the Law. Marginal Legal Advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. This is
kfive good handles here on a Saturdaymorning right until eleven o'clock. Phone numbers
for legal questions eight hundred five twozero one five three four. That's eight

(00:21):
hundred five two zero one five threefour. And as I always tell you,
top of the hour is the besttime to call, unless our lines
are jammed. And last week wehad I think a couple of hours you
couldn't get in. So I'm suggestingyou jump on the phone if you have
a question or to ask eight hundredfive to zero one five three four.

(00:46):
And welcome to Handle on the lawmarginal legal advice where I tell you you
have absolutely no case. All right, Conservative Supreme Court advancing the concept that
religion should be more involved in governmentalaffairs. Now throughout the last i don't

(01:06):
know, seventy eighty years, it'sbeen a fairly liberal court and the concept
of separation of church and state,which has been mantra. It's almost the
Court's almost been religious about separation ofchurch and state. You can't have Nativity
scenes in school, you can't haveschool prayer, you can't even have moments

(01:30):
of silence. You can't have prayerat public events football high school football games.
Well, it's going the other way. And the Oklahoma State Superintendent of
Schools ordered all public schools to incorporatethe Bible in two lessons for grades five

(01:51):
through twelve. As you can imagine, that drew a media condemnation from civil
rights groups and supporters of separation ofchurches. They went completely crazy on the
concept of you can't do that.You know, you can't have the state
mandate studying the Bible. I mean, how about Muslim students, how about

(02:14):
the Quran? Does that make sense? How about kids who are atheists come
from either agnostic or atheist families?Do they have to study the Bible as
a religious tract? And by theway, freedom of religion includes the concept
of no religion in school separation ofchurch and state. So state Superintendent Ryan

(02:40):
Walter's Republican says that adherence to thismandate Bibles will be taught, have to
be immediate, and strict compliance isexpected. And here is the quote.
The Bible is an indispensable, historicaland cultural toasta touchdown. Without basic knowledge

(03:01):
of it, Oklahoma students are unableto properly contextualize a foundation of our nation,
which is why Oklahoma Educational Standards providefor its instructions. Looked the Constitution,
the word God doesn't even exist,doesn't exist. Religion has no part

(03:22):
of our constitution, our government,and the way this country is run.
Now, if you look at thefounders, do they happen to be Christians?
They were, Yeah, they werewhite Protestants for the most part.
And you can say the Declaration ofIndependence talks about the Creator, Okay,

(03:44):
but that's not the Constitution. Andso I think this is going to be
nailed, except we have a SupremeCourt. Now, the Bible can be
taught. I actually had a Biblecourse in junior high school, but it
was taught as literature and historical document, not as a religious tract. That's
allowed because the Bible does have extraordinaryinfluence and importance as history, because a

(04:11):
lot of archaeology is based on theBible. And of course as literature,
it's one of the most, ifnot the most important book that's ever been
published. But as a religious tract, uh uh. And we'll see what
the Supreme Court has to say onthis one. I cannot imagine the Supreme
Court. Well, maybe maybe itwill upholding this new law, this new

(04:32):
order by the state Superintendent of Schools, and good luck on that one,
all right, Shelley, Hi,Shelley, welcome. Hello. Yes,
I was in a car accident onWednesday. I was hit by a transport
driver and he did not seem torealize he hit me. So I chased

(04:58):
him down and on phone with nineto one one the whole time, and
I followed him to where he wasgoing and he was going through a guard
check. I asked nine one one, what do I do? They said,
let the guard check know. SoI told the man that guy just
hit me. So he went andgot him, and the guy came back
and he said he didn't know hehad hit me. And the police came

(05:25):
and wrote a report, didn't givehim a ticket because they said, he
seems not to know that he hitsyou, so we're not going to call
it a hit and run. Sohe gave me the insurance information. So
when I go to pile a claimthat insurance is not an insurance company,
and they write the forms, it'scalled a cord. They write the forms

(05:46):
for insurance companies, but they arenot an insurance company. And I don't
know how to get my claim filed. Oh they'll they'll go ahead and turn
it over to the insurance company.And they should because is what the insurance
company have done is simply outsourced thatpart of the procedure. We don't want

(06:08):
to take the claim. You takethe claim, you write it up and
give it to us. And that'swhat I'm assuming. So by the very
fact that you have made the claimand they're writing it up, you're dealing
with it. You've made the claim, and if it turns out that nothing
happens, then you've got two choices. One you sue how much damage to

(06:28):
your car? By the way,I haven't gotten an estimate yet, it's
just the back end brand. Mycar is like barely months old. Yes,
there's a whole issue there. Butwhat do you think it'll be under?
Well, where are you or whatstate are you in? I'm in
Texas, Okay, I don't knowwhat. I don't know what the small
claims jurisdiction is in Texas. Butif it's just a couple of three five

(06:51):
thousand dollars, that's probably under thesmall claims jurisdiction is below the small claims
limit, So you file in smallclaims court. If they don't talk to
you, and then you have possiblyyou turn it over to your insurance company,
because I'm assuming you have comprehensive andyou say, you guys, take
care of it. You'll get paid. You're okay on that one, okay,
okay, yeah, all right,So yeah, that's interesting. I

(07:13):
tell you, I didn't know theydid that in Texas, by the way,
because where I live in California,you file directly with the opposite insurance
company. You make a claim,that's all you know. They send you
the claim form or you take astatement, they'll call you and then you're
done. And if they won't,if they won't even contact you, or
when you contact them, well,actually what ends up happening is you contact
the driver, and the driver youexchange information and in this case, this

(07:39):
guy was driving the truck obviously gaveall the information and you tell them make
a claim. There you go,who do I talk to in the insurance
company? Then we'll there his insurancecompany will contact you, and if they
don't, you have a small claimsuit. And if they don't, here's
what I would do. Go tomy own insurance company and say, you
guys, take care of it becausewhat I have is a effectively and un

(08:00):
insured driver because I can't get hisinsurance company to contact me. So there's
a couple of ways of doing it. This is Handle on the Law Exactually
I want to handle here on aSaturday morning, eight hundred and five two
zero one five three four. Welcomeback to Handle on the Law Marginal Legal

(08:22):
Advice. Hello, Karen, you'reup. Welcome to the show. Oh
hi, thank you for taking mycall. Sure, I've purchased some property
about twenty years ago or more.I'm unable to take care of it anymore.
At the time, I put myname in my son's name on it,
not knowing I shouldn't have done that. Now I need to sell it.

(08:43):
In the meantime, he got married. They are now separated, have
been separated for ten I'm sure I'mlosing you. You just cut out,
Hold on, hold on, holdon. They've been yeah, I know,
just cut out for a minute.They've been separated and they've been separated,
how long? About ten years?Okay? And you still own the

(09:05):
property with you and your son's nameon it. Correct, Yes, yes,
sir, Okay. They tell meI have to have her signature to
be able to sell it. No, not really. I mean it's like,
no, you really don't. Imean what mortgage companies do is they
want everybody's signature on everything. Butno, she has nothing to do with

(09:26):
it. She doesn't own the property. Whatever claim she makes to the value,
she goes against her husband or herex husband. No, the two
of you can sell the property easily. Now do you agree on selling the
property? Is your son okay withselling the property? Yes, she is.
You're fine. Then you're fine.Okay, you're fine. So just

(09:50):
go ahead and put the property upfor sale. And she I don't know
what she's going to do to tryto stop it. Is she going to
throw something in the court. Youshouldn't throw a lis pendance, which means
she can stop it. She isclaiming to be some kind of owner,
but she's gonna lose, get nailed. You're gonna be fine. Go ahead
and sell it, okay, enjoysell your property. Here we go,

(10:15):
Susan, Hi, Susan, welcome, Thank you. Hey. So I
have this company that I signed upfor that every time I make a purchase
somewhere they take money out of myaccount, which is fine, and they
place it towards stocks. Well,up until like two and a half months
ago, they weren't doing it anymore. They said, I need to reconnect.

(10:37):
So I've been trying these past twomonths. Finally I said, I
just want to cancel because it's notworking. You're not reconnecting. I've done
all I can. So they havebeen giving me the run around, and
I'm wondering what can I do?Yeah? Were they located? You know,
they're located in Florida. Okay,and you, I assume live in
California, right, Yes, I'mliving cal How much money do you think

(11:01):
they've taken out since you had acontract with them? Well, they've taken
out two thousand dollars, they sayhow much they take out, and that
two thousand dollars goes into stocks.Okay. How much the stocks are in
your name? Yeah, they're inmy name. Okay. So what they've
done is they haven't taken money outfor the last two months. No,

(11:24):
okay, So why don't you justcash in the stocks or let the conversation
has done? So you they haven'tdone it for the last two for the
last several months, you still ownthe money. Yeah, I still have
the money, but it's sitting intheir account, so they won't get so
they won't give you the money,right, Oh okay, got it?
So you know you obviously demand ifthey won't deal with it. This is

(11:46):
a company that's clearly pretty flaky.I've never heard of that model, but
there's tons of models out there.So you can call the Florida authorities find
out if if they're investigating, becauseit sounds like it may be a complete
flight company. You can sue themin small claims court, and that usually

(12:07):
you have to do that in Florida. I'm assuming you live in California,
correct Susan, Right, Yes,okay, you can possibly sue them in
here in California and have them servedover there. But then a company that
won't won't even contact you back.Pretty flaky, pretty flaky, ye,
So I would start first going tothe authorities down there to see if there's

(12:31):
any investigation. If they are investigating, and there are other people like you,
you can just kiss your money goodbye. Florida Authorities is like like a
lawyer and no, no, likethe district attorney, like the district attorney.
Where they operate. I'm assuming there'sis there an address where they have
an office I'm not sure. Ijust I've been dealing with emails. Oh

(12:56):
well, okay, but with theemails, is there an address on their
a physical address this is our office, or they're just on the internet and
they don't exist physically. Yeah,there's an address, yes, okay,
that you find out where that countyis with that what county that city is
in, and you contact the districtattorney and see if there's any investigation going

(13:18):
on. That's the easiest way ofdoing it. That's a tough one.
You know so much out there areso many scams, and then if it
is a scam, your money's gone. It's that simple talking about scams.
Cyber Thieves commit silent crimes, andit happens in the dark, and someone
uses your name, your information online. You don't even know what's happening.

(13:39):
And you know when you find outyour credit bill card, your bill shows
up with all kinds of bogus charges. And now what do you do.
It's not easy to unravel that.But let me tell you what you can
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(14:01):
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(14:22):
and then you look at it yougo, yeah, no, I
bought that. Nope, I didn't, and you've been completely screwed and ripped
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It's really nice and kind of insurance. Join save up to twenty five
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(14:46):
name as the promo code handle han d e L. That's h A
n d e L twenty five percentoff. Go to LifeLock dot com where
you can call eight hundred LifeLock.Eight hundred LifeLock. This is Handle on
the law. You're listening to billHandle on demand from kf I AM six
forty and this is kay bye.Do handle here on a Saturday Morning right

(15:11):
up until eleven o'clock and then it'srich Dmurrow with the Text Show eleven to
two, followed by Neil Savadra theFork Report, and Neil is on Monday
through Friday with me on the MorningShow, and then on Saturday he does
his three hours from two to five, all things food and he really is

(15:31):
a foodie and really knows his stuff. Back we go more handle on the
law, marginal legal advice. Charles, you been there for a bit,
Hello, Charles, welcome TI.Yes, fourteen months ago we installed solar
and I'm sorry you installed well,you installed solar? Is that what you

(15:54):
said? Yes? Okay, gotit all right? So we got our
let to operate from Edicine. Calledthe company, Hey, we got it.
They came out, turned the systemon, said we were good to
go. So I just got thetwelve months settle up bill and it was
twenty eight hundred dollars. So Icalled the Edison said, hey, you're
not producing anything, and I calledthe company. They came out, the

(16:17):
technician said the system was installed wrong, and they corrected the system and it's
producing now. But I had atwenty eight hundred dollars bill in between that
year and anyway, they said itwas installed wrong and it could create damage
in the future the way it wasinstalled the first time, and they're refusing
to reimburse anything. Well, that'seasy, okay, that one is easy.

(16:41):
There's a twenty eight hundred dollars asmall claims court. Okay, that
is a no brainer. The onethat is interesting is it could cause damage
in the future. Now it hasn'tcaused damage, but it could cause damage
and it's producing yeah, and sowhat the could could doesn't work. When

(17:02):
it does it works for you,then there is legal obligation. So at
this point it's only your twenty eighthundred dollars, which you're going to get.
I mean, that's not going tobe a problem. And you have
to And who told you it couldcause damage? The folks said Edison did
know the technician with the company thatare okay and they're not, and so

(17:23):
did he suggest they do anything?So it makes sure that it doesn't cause
damage negative, just keep an eyeon it, Okay, fair enough.
So what you want to do isyou make the demand for the twenty eight
hundred dollars. That's an easy one, and you also let them know per
your technician the way it's installed,it could cause damage, and you are

(17:47):
going to be held responsible for anydamage it causes. And so I demand
that you fix it right now.Now do they You don't have much of
a lawsuit because it could cost damage, but you want to put everything on
the record. Okay, yes,And that's what my wife has done.
And everything's an email back and forthwith and they refused. They gave us

(18:08):
four hundred dollars. No that's notenough. You turn it down. No,
no, you say no. Nowyou know I'm supposed to get virtually
zero. And I don't know whatthe argument. There's going to be some
kind of some kind of mathematical formulathat's going to be used. How much
do you? Oh, that's easy. How much now that it's working,

(18:30):
What is your power bill every month? Oh? We don't know yet.
Okay, once you know, Onceyou know, you can say that it
is now X dollars a month orzero zero. Now in the house that
I had that I put a solarsystem in six years ago, and I

(18:51):
mean a big solar system. Mybill and I was in their first tier.
My bill went down to zero.So if I were to gain into
a fight with the solar people,which of course I'm not going to.
They did a phenomenal job for me, and I recommend them and I do
commercials for them. And it wasa big, big mess because everything is

(19:11):
on a hillside for me because Icouldn't do the roofs, so it was
a big deal. I'm down tozero, So if I were charged now
and I have a bill, Iturn around and tell them, hey,
you know what, it's zero,And if it's if I've been paying based
on their negligence, They're gonna pay. So I think you're gonna be okay.

(19:32):
Jim, Hi, Jim, welcomeHi. Two years ago, I
got a notice from Walls Fargo thatthere was some unusual activity on my credit
card. It turns out that awoman got four hundred dollars out of an
ATM in Dallas, Texas, andthen she also bought a round trip ticket

(19:55):
from Dallas. Jeez, I can'tremember the city, but she was flying
back in a few hours later onthe other plane. I called up the
Dallas Police Department. I told himI wanted to press charges against her if
she got off the plane and ifthey could meet her and get all their
information and stuff, because they wantedto. All right, so what happened,

(20:18):
Jim, Well, they didn't doanything right. I was wondering what
would your advice be. My adviceis to deal with your credit card company
and get your money refunded and sayI've been I've been defrauded. And the
time they simply refund the money,they eat it up. Is what happens

(20:42):
when you have fraud. And asfar as calling the police department, they're
not going to bother. They gota lot of other stuff to do.
Police departments are underfunded anyway, Thisthey don't care about. So yeah,
just deal with it with your creditcard company. And it's one of those
things that when did this happen?Now? How many how long? What

(21:06):
kind of time ago? Two yearsago? Oh, then you're done.
They're not going to pay. Whydon't you look at your statement? Don't
you look at your statement every month? The money bill? Okay? Then
okay, so that's what I said. Good for you, you got your
money back. Now what you wantthe cops to show up and take her
off the airplane? What do youthink she's carrying two hundred dollars worth or

(21:27):
two hundred thousand dollars worth of cocainewhere the Feds do show up, or
someone is about to go overseas andthey're fighting extradition and they're about to leave
jurisdiction. Jim, nobody cares whensomething like that happens. You got your
money back, You're done, okay, Yeah, all right? Good.

(21:48):
I mean it's you know at theend of that story is great, absolutely
great. Kingsley, Hi, Kingsley, welcome, ideal Well hopp and I
had that lawsuit two years ago.I love you. I'm here. Oh

(22:12):
Kingsley, you're there. No,we left, We'll put it Kingsley on
hold. I mean said then,you know, there's the beauty of cell
phones. You can call from anywhere, which is kind of nice. You're
driving along because a fair number ofpeople listening in the car, uh and
through the internet, and you're you'reyour cell phone. I don't even have

(22:33):
a home phone anymore. Uh literally, when I moved, I gave up
my land lines. Done. Everythingis a cell phone. But this is
what happens. And how often haveyou lost dropped out? Uh? The
line gets a little sketchy. Go, I know I dropped out of a
cell So, uh, let's figureout when Kingsley comes back. Uh,
Kathy, Hi, Kathy, you'reup. Welcome to handle on the law.

(22:57):
Hi, go ahead. So myquestion is, in April of this
year, I signed a year leaseon an apartment. I didn't like it.
It didn't work out, so Icontacted the leasing company and the leasing
person said she would let me outof the lease when she found someone to
replace me. She said, you'reresponsible for the rent until then. I

(23:21):
said, cool, and May Mayeleventh, so I paid all May came
out of my checking account made firstand May eleventh she found someone to take
over my lease and she threw atext. She said she would reimburse me
the remainder of May and give memy five hundred dollars deposit back. And
I didn't get it. So liketwo weeks after that happened, I texted

(23:45):
her and went an update. Shesaid, we are waiting for all the
money to clear and then you'll getit. And I haven't gotten it.
That was about a month ago.So I and the text to her two
days ago, emailed her this timeand I just want to know what my
recourse is. Your recourse is toviolence. It just yeah, he is

(24:08):
violent. Small claims court for themoney that they owe. Yeah, that's
all you know. And she's right. I mean money has to clear,
so the payment has to be madeby the new tenant. And from that
moment you are off the hook.You owe no more money. And if
they're holding money from you, thenyou uh, then you get that money

(24:32):
back, whatever they're holding over andabove the rent that you owe up to
the moment that the new tenant haspaid. The problem may be number one.
She told you that it was allverbal, right, Kathy, No,
I have a text, You havea check, a text that says

(24:52):
okay, good, all right,then you're fine. Then you're fine.
You have a text from the landlord, you know, okay, all right?
So you just sue him? Howhard is that? So? I,
well, I don't know how todo a small claims court. Look
it up. It's easy, youknow, look it up on the internet.
And here's the magic word. Whenyou look it up. When you
google it, you ready for thissmall claims lawsuit and they'll tell you all

(25:15):
about it. I'm not going togo through it. Too easy to find
that out. This is handle onthe law and this is K five.
You'll handle here on a Saturday morning, and we do have lines open.
I opened up. I went throughsome phone calls pretty quickly. Eight hundred
five two zero one five three four. Number to call eight hundred five two

(25:38):
zero one five three four and you'lljump in and you'll don't have to wait
as sometimes you do, depending onwhether you have to wait or you don't.
Damn, I'm good at this,aren't I? Eight hundred five two
zero one five three four eight hundredfive twos or one five three four and

(26:02):
welcome back. Handle on the lawmarginal legal advice. All right, Kingsley,
let's try you again. Hello Kingsley, Hello bit. Okay, you're
funding a little better. All right, let's do it. I have that
lawsuit going on TEA. Somebody hitin my car and I was supposed to
have a new replacement. I've beento the terraff he went to specially said

(26:26):
where they asked me to go.The last time I spoke with my lawyer,
he said that the offer they gavehim was not very poor. Okay,
you're a little hard to understand.You had a car accident. You
have gone through all the medical specialists, et cetera, and your lawyer said
that you should have a settlement anytime. Is that correct, Yes, you've

(26:49):
been going on two years? Twoyears? All right? All right,
so I assume you finished treating,right, you're done with all your medical
or are you still doing it?My medale? Okay? So what's your
what's your question? Kingsley was like, how long would you take? I
don't know. I don't know.Depends on the complexity, depends on the

(27:11):
insurance company, depends on how muchmoney you're asking for. It depends on
what kind of injury you've had oryou're alleging. And maybe they're negotiating,
maybe they're not. Maybe your lawyersput you on the back burner. There's
no way to tell Kingsley how longit's going to take. It shouldn't.

(27:33):
Sometimes they wrap them up in acouple of months, and sometimes they take
a couple of years, a coupleof three years. How much money are
you asking for? Well, letme put it this way. How much
are your medical bills? I don'ttoo well, Okay, I didn't understand
a word you said. How muchare your medical bills? I don't know
how much? You don't know?All right, So that's for starters.

(27:56):
Tell me about the injury, brokenbone, surgery or soft tissue, maybe
rear ended. Yeah, my needwas booked. Oh you broke your knee?
All right, did you need surgeryas a result? I said,
I did. They need a quersman, but I do want to do that
all you don't want to go?Well, it's a problem. Yeah,

(28:17):
yeah, okay. I can't answeryour question as to how long it's going
to take, unfortunately, because there'stoo much going on. It's just too
much criteria happening. Sam, Hi, Sam, welcome. Hey, I
have a rental and I have sentout the deposit refund checks, but they

(28:37):
have not cashed them after ninety days. So now what is my obligation?
Your obligation is still give it tothem, and you have to track them
down and say, hey, whyhaven't you cashed the check yet? There's
nothing Yeah, there's nothing that saysyou don't owe the money after ninety days.
Okay, I got you, Thankyou? All right. Yeah,

(28:59):
you don't get keep the money unlessno, you don't get to keep the
money. The only way to keepthe money is to track or try to
track them down, and you can'tfind them, and then they come back
four years later or after four years, within four years, they can still
sue you because well, I don'teven know if they can, because you
can argue waiver, and I don'tknow how long waiver is. There's a

(29:23):
four year statue for a written contract, which is what you had, and
they didn't necessarily breach. What they'redoing is not cashing the truck you off
the check you offered, So ata certain point it's you're done. But
I don't know where that is statutorily, and I think it just may be
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(29:49):
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(30:32):
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(30:55):
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(31:15):
com. This is handle on thelaw. You've been listening to the Bill
Handle show. Catch my show Mondaythrough Friday six am to nine am and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.