(05/06) 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,federal court case. Usually on these cases
or at these cases, the lowercourt judge will make a decision, that's
the district court judge, and itgoes up on appeal, usually a three

(00:20):
court judge a panel. Sometimes ifit's a really important case, they'll put
the entire panel on. It's liketwenty seven or twenty nine judges. Very
rarely, so it's usually a threeappeal, three person appeals court, and
then it can or cannot be kickedup at the Supreme Court. Supreme Court
takes almost no cases. Supreme Courtwill hear maybe eighty cases during the course

(00:46):
of a term. Over five thousandcases are usually submitted to the court,
so the chances are not very good. Now there's some automatic state against state
pretty important, or one district versusanother district where that goes up. You've
got the ninth district very liberal district, where we are got the fifth district

(01:07):
down for example Louisiana, very conservativecourt. And if the two of them
are opposites, then you'll usually goto the Supreme Court. Okay, so
this one is a three judge panel, And this had to do with a
rolling ruling by the lower court.And it was a case that was brought
in twenty nineteen by the California RestaurantAssociation against the City of Berkeley. Oh

(01:32):
what did the City of Berkeley thistime do? What they did is they
prohibited the installation of natural gas pipingwithin any newly constructed building. Huh,
no natural gas in the building.And this is the California Restaurant Association says,
Wait a minute, we cook,we gat with gas. You ever

(01:53):
heard the phrase, now you're cookingwith gas. There's a reason that phrase
is around because restaurants cooked with strangelyenough, gas gas flames, not electric
flames. Although induction heating is movingforward, very few restaurants I use induction
heating. It's always gas. Youcan control it. It's instantly hot.

(02:14):
I mean, that's how restaurants cook. So the previous case had been dismissed
and it was brought in twenty nineteen, decided by the lower court, brought
up and now we have a decisionby the appeals court. And here is
what happened. The three judge panelin San Francisco said the city could not

(02:38):
in fact, invoke that law thatrestaurants will be able to use natural gas.
That this law that said natural gaspiping will not be banned in new
buildings. They can put in allthe natural gas piping they want. And
it wasn't because these justices are incrediblyoverweight, and they eat at restaurants a

(03:01):
lot. No, because they haveto do with federal law. And natural
gas is piped over state lines.A lot of natural gas comes in from
the Louisiana area. They you know, a lot of a lot of distilleries
definer refineries, not distilleries refineries downthere, and piping is going all over
the country, and that falls underfederal law. And so according to the

(03:24):
Peels Court, the Energy Policy andConservation Act of nineteen seventy five, passed
by Congress, expressly pre m stateand local regulations concerning the energy use of
natural gas appliances. So the restaurantAssociation now prevails. And guess what natural

(03:46):
gas in Berkeley? You can goAlthough that vegan salad twig stuff they served
in Berkeley, who goes to eatthere? Anyway? You know? You
ever seen like a restaurant menu there, it's Bush number one, Bush number
two, Bush with pineap pine nuts, bush without pine nuts, twigs.
I mean, it's all of it. Okay, let us go ahead and

(04:10):
take some phone calls. Annie,Hello, Annie, welcome to handle on
the law. Mind who is afraidthat her only option is to declare bankruptcy.
She's seventy six years old, notin the greatest health, and she's
got about twenty thousand dollars in debton credit cards. But she's paying twenty

(04:33):
seven percent interest. Oh yeah,that's crazy running her. Yeah, yeah,
she has to stop a month.Yeah no, she stops out immediately,
stops paying credit card debt. Nowshe'll never be able to use her
credit card again. But she's seventysix years old, not in good health,
right right, right, all right, So by the time they figure
it out, and by the timethey sew her, she's dead and it

(04:54):
doesn't matter. You know, theyreally tend to leave dead people alone.
The point is, it really doesn'tmatter. If she has no assets,
they're not going to go after her. There they may be into an asset
search. I mean for twenty thousanddollars over how many credit cards two two,
you know, that's maybe enough forthem to go after I mean,

(05:14):
she could theoretic. I mean,she could go bankrupt. That's going to
cost her a thousand and twelve hundreddollars and that'll leave her alone. But
since she has no assets, shecan call the credit card company or the
collection company, go hey, Ihave nothing. I live on Social Security
and go ahead and knock your socksoff. So she really has some choices
there, she really does. Allright, let's go ahead and take up.

(05:35):
I'm sorry, go ahead real quick, because we're almost at the end
here exactly. Hello ell, ell, welcome to the program. What can
I do for you? Hi Bill? My issue is that my wife signed
a contract with a SPA company toget a outdoor jacuzzi spa. Yeah,

(06:00):
and two months later she passed away. Oh and so, uh she put
down a eighty seven hundred dollars depositfor the for the spa and uh so
I contacted them and let them knowthat she had passed away and requested that

(06:23):
they, you know, refund thedeposit, and they said no when um
as part of the contract there wasno UMU returns, no provision, no
returns, nonrefundable basically, and theydon't care. Why, right, yes,

(06:44):
sir? Okay, all right?So a couple of ways of handling
it. Uh, they actually havea legal argument that a contract is a
contract, and at the same timethere are a bunch of schmucks. I
mean, come on, guys,you're really going to do that? So,
um here is first of all,Uh, you're okay, do you

(07:05):
guys? Uh, let's start withyou guys have money? No? Not
okay? So that that helps becausethey technically could even sue you for the
balance, although you can refuse toaccept it, and then there's a whole
legal thing there. I was justconcerned because I got to tell you they're

(07:27):
based on what you told me aboutthis company. I wouldn't be surprised if
they went ahead and sued you forthe whole contract. Um, so you
got a couple of choices. Okay, what I would do? All right,
and this is not legal, thisis just bill handle. Uh.
Yeah, they have a showroom,right, Yes, yeah, I would
just take her and have her justparker in one of the jacuzzis and just

(07:51):
have her float around for a whilethat you know she's They're really gonna hurt
sales on that one. But youprobably can't do that. No, I
understand. There's all kinds of legalissues there. Um. You know what
you do is you sue them insmall claims court, but legally they have
you. So if nonrefundable is nonrefundable, and even the death of the purchaser,

(08:16):
but you sue him anyway. Alyou sue him anyway. You got
nothing to lose on that. Imean, the worst that happens, you've
already lost your deposit and that's done, and you can argue that they haven't
been harmed, uh, that it'snot taken out of inventory. And you're
not suing on a contract issue.You're suing on an equitable issue that it's
just not fair for them to keepit. That's what you want to do.

(08:39):
But you just give it a shot. You got nothing to lose small
claims court. Okay, oh goahead, Well all right, never mind.
Um, yeah, that was alittle bit off base, wasn't it.
Taking a dead person throw him ina you know, a spall and
just let him float around for awhile. If I was going to buy
a spaw and I saw that,I'd go to another company in about two
seconds. Truly. Oh we doingfor time. We're fine, Greg,

(09:03):
Hello, Greg, you're up.Welcome. Hello Bill, you just repeat
to everybody. No good deed goesunpunished. Of course not in a tip
of niceness. Twelve years ago,a niece was graduating from a prestigious school
and we co signed student loan forher. The original agreement was paid twenty

(09:24):
four month sign time, then wecan be released. Well, the first
payment she didn't make, we paid. Second payment she didn't make, we
paid, But that got straightened up. So she shows us a thousand bucks.
Anyway, But now, and thatwas years ago. Haven't heard how
many years ago? Probably up twelve? Okay, a long time, all

(09:46):
right, so we only have aminute here. What's your question, my
friend? Okay, uh, yougot the stolone company's colleague she's behind.
Can we sue her? No,because twelve years no that they can't sue
you. You can't sue her.They can't sue you or her. I
mean if you co signed, bothof you are responsible. It's her loan

(10:07):
you co sign, which means ifshe flakes, you get to pay.
But twelve years ago, I meanthat's long gone. The statute. Just
tell them, hey, there's astatute there now is I don't know if
it's federally ensured. I don't knowif there are exceptions to student loans.
I don't think so, but theremight be. I have no idea.
But you know when you started it, when you said in a fit of

(10:28):
niceness, you were dead wrong.You should have started it in a fit
of idiocy. I co signed.Okay, Yeah, but I think I
think you're okay. Now, ifyou own a small business and you got
through COVID, and you were ableto retain five or more employees through COVID,

(10:48):
you could be eligible for a pairetax refund of up to twenty six
thousand dollars per employee. And I'lldo the math on that one. That's
a lot of money. Let mesuggest get Refunds dot com. You answer
a few questions on line. Ittakes under ten minutes, and you'll see
if your business qualifies for that payrolltax refund. And there's no charge upfront
either. It's contingency, which meansthey're not going to get paid unless until

(11:11):
you get paid. And businesses ofall types can qualify. Even though it
took PPP loans, nonprofits, increasesin sales, professional corporations, doctors,
lawyers, they are experts in thispayroll tax refund program, and I've already
returned over three billion dollars to businesses. So to find out if you qualify,

(11:33):
go to get refunds dot com.You click on the qualify me button
and then just answer those few questionsGet refunds dot Com. Get Refunds dot
Com. Buddy, let's see whatseventy six year olds sounds like on the
buddy. Hello, buddy, Hi, I'm seventy six years old. I'm
on Social Security and my problem isthis Medicare and it sends the thing out

(11:58):
showing you how how much money isbeing spent. And I got two things
on here, ones for fifteen hundredand seventy six dollars, one for four
thousand, one seventy eight dollars.It's all during the month of March.
And during that March, I haven'tgot to the doctor or anything. So
it's fraud. Yeah, what doI do about it? Okay? Are

(12:22):
they asking you to pay anything?No? Okay, So here is the
fraud. The fraud is being committedby the medical provider against the federal government.
You have you have no responsibility,so okay, good. So you
know that usually questions Usually I getquestions like this, I have been a
victim. No, you haven't beena victim through all the rest of us,

(12:46):
including you've been a victim because we'retaxpayers. But okay, all right,
you can call the folks at Medicareand I think through the so Security
Office are the ones that handle it, and simply say there is fraud being
committed right now, and here isthe example, and I'd like to either
fill out a complaint for him.There's a fraud division of Medicare that deals

(13:09):
with it. As you can imagine, there is hundreds of billions of dollars
of Medicare fraud committed every single year. And you're gonna be a good citizen
and just call them and say whatdo I do? I want to turn
them in and hopefully they're going togo after these fraudsters. And yeah,
that's exactly what it's all about.But part of the problem is I'm allowed

(13:31):
twenty nine hundred dollars a year,and the pulgram that I'm in is that
if that's yeah, it should,it should And then there are more of
the doctors that they're going to turnme away. Oh it could be.
Then you sue the provider, youturn them in for you turn them in
for medicare fraud and you sue themand you should be in pretty good shape.

(13:56):
Okay. Can I say one morething the n I heard you on
the radio saying about AM radio maybegoing off the air because of Congress and
that we need to know. No, it wouldn't be no, No,
it's a whole campaign that radio stationsall over the country are doing AM radio
stations. And it's not Congress,it is it's car companies that are starting

(14:20):
to man you fact your cars withoutAM radio, and that's what this policy
is about. This program is tryto convince Congress to stop the car companies
from eliminating AM radio from their carfor example, electric cars. Because we
have you and you're you're to melike Walter, you're the best. Oh,

(14:43):
thank you, I lose you.I appreciate it. Thank you.
Okay. By the way, forthose of you that don't have no idea
who Walter Cronkite is, this provesby the way that he is one hundred
and fifty years old. Walter Cronkitewas probably the best newsman that probably we
exist at television journalist. He wasin the fifties and sixties. He want

(15:03):
CBS news and he was terrific.So I'll take that as a compliment even
though he's one hundred and fifty yearsold. Uh oh, Jennifer has a
good one. Hi, Jennifer yureRope, Welcome to handle the law.
Yes, ma'am, good morning.Yeah, so real, it's it's it's

(15:24):
kind of weird. But so thispast week I just had a quick question.
So I basically got raid styled inmy house. I say, you
got who? You got raped?Okay, raid raided? Got it.
I know you don't like long stories. I know you don't, so love
you just start real quick. Sobasically, um, the other night,

(15:46):
my husband was outside, dream canwe live in a duplex? Um?
We live in Borderline East, La, Monofello and um basically the hood.
Okay, so um, he's inthe garage. I'm in my house and
I'm outside and at first I thinklike it's a UFO because I see these
red and green lights that are stablein the air and it's slowly moving and

(16:07):
I start to look at it andI realized that it's a drone and I
was like, that's weird. SoI go out into the back room.
I tell my husband's drone. Whateverand I looked down the street. I
could see it looked like the Fourthof July, like if you were in
the Disney light up thing. AndI was like, oh wow, something's
going down. So I go outthere. I give my dog go to

(16:29):
look and I realized that they're creepinglike there. You could just see all
the police and I'm like, ohwow, it's going down. So they're
at my front gate and they're like, get back in your house. And
I was like, do you wantme to open the dirt like, open
the door and get back in yourhouse. So I opened the door for
them and I'm like, oh,man, I wonder who they're getting.
Well, it turned out it wasme, Oh yeah, right going out

(16:52):
there to be no dy so,but I don't have anything right, so
I don't know what's going on.So I get a phone call from my
neighbor and she's a friend. There'sa lot of police outside. They have
big guns. They want you totell your husband to come outside, and
I was like, my husband,So I'm scared, and I go outside.
I'm thinking, oh my god,he's drinking. They're gonna kill him.

(17:14):
So I gough outside, right,And so I go outside and I'm
time. On man, it's apolice outside. They want you to come
out. He was like time,Basically you're lying, um, go away,
So I'm they're gonna okay, yeah, let me let me stop you
there for a moment. I wantto ask this question. Where did you
ever get the idea that I don'twant long stories? Oh? Because I

(17:36):
hear the long stories? Okay,got it? All right, let's no,
but it's basically long story shorts there. I know this is a long
story, but I know I haveit's all on video anyway there, all
right, so let me okay,you're just taking forever? Okay, police

(17:56):
they come out. Why did theycome out? We don't know. Okay,
you have no idea? Okay.And they pull you out of the
house. They're looking for your husband, they're looking for you and somehow your
puss afterwards you her gunshot fires okay, okay, so the report of gunshots
okay. And then so they pulledthey were you in your house or outside

(18:18):
my house? Okay? And theypull you out? Okay, they pull
you out on the house right,yes, Okay, what do they do?
Okay? What do they do?So I went outside to tell them
that he wasn't coming out, soall I heard was a bunch of guns
click on me and all these lightsand they mainly laid face fla the floor.
Nobody's saying anything to me. Theyhandcuffed me two officers, not hog

(18:40):
type of hogs, kicked me up, put me in the back of a
two men back to the truiser,hand took him. Basically searched my house
with no powerful pause over a cose. Wow, my inside of my house
with my artistic son and my tenyear old daughter. How are they going
to know you have an autistic signyou have big signs, and they have

(19:02):
to believe and they have to believeyou just because you say, okay,
I'm losing you. This is public. So basically they went through all of
this and left with nothing, andit was a fun I don't know what
to do about that. I'm noton parole. I'm not to prose.
I understand, Yeah, I understand, okay, all right, all right?

(19:26):
So uh, you know, Iunderstand the mistake was made. Let's
go through it for a little bit. Uh and if I here it is,
I'm going to ask you at theend of all this, it's worthwhile
contacting a civil rights lawyer. Okay, the problem is is by the time
you finish your story, you'll beeighteen hundred dollars just in fees to the
lawyer. Uh, you have toargue that, uh, the arrest was

(19:49):
in fact illegal. Their defense is, we got a report of gunshots.
Uh, they went in and itwas all exigen circumstances where if in good
faith they believe there was a danger. Uh they You didn't. Your husband
was in there. I'm not lettingmy husband out. He's not going to
come out all of a sudden there. Why wouldn't he come out? Is

(20:12):
that enough? No? Okay,I'm losing you. You're you're, you're
you're going in and out on this. I'm having a hard time understanding you.
I'm having a hard time with ittoo. Like there was nothing we
didn't We didn't refuse anything. Yeah, you didn't. You said wait,
wait, you said they asked foryour husband to come out, and you
said he's not coming out. Sure, seems like a refusal to me coming

(20:34):
out. Okay, Well you didn't. You didn't refuse. He did refuse
to come out, all right,And here's a quick answer. H And
that is basically, I don't knowYou've got a bunch of issues going on
there. Did the police act ingood faith once they knew there wasn't a
risk? Uh? They did?They keep on going for? How long?

(20:56):
Uh? Did they in any case? INVESTI gate properly about the gunshot
being reported? A lot of stuffgoing on. Now, effectively, you
were handcuffed, you were put inthe back of a police car. Are
you going to argue excessive force?When did they unhandcuff you and let you
go? How long were you inthe police car? For example? All

(21:22):
right, she dropped? Yeah,well probably the phone is uh. Yeah,
it was really a bad line.Yeah. I don't know if you
were interested by it with that,but I got bored about thirty seconds in.
Hello Franklin, Welcome to the show. Yes, volume bill, Yes,
sir, Yes, I'm seventy threeyears old and I'm a retired plumber.

(21:45):
And I went back to my unionand they told me that I don't
have the ten years listed right,instead, I have over nine years.
Can I get something for that?WHOA? All right? Yeah, that's
a tough one. And it happensall the time where you vest after a
period of time and before that youget nothing. For example, the union

(22:08):
that the Broadcast Union SAG after youknow, a screen Actors Guild which merged
with the after American Federation of Radioand Television Artist Artists, which is hilariously
call us artist. I've never understoodyou. So it takes a certain amount

(22:30):
of money you make a year untilyou vest for a given number of years
otherwise and then and if you don'tmake it, all the money is gone.
So the answer is if you havenot vested, that is correct.
You're not going to get the moneybecause that is your union program. That
is the plan you have. Buthow close are you to ten years?

(22:52):
Franklin? Yeah, they according tomy record, because it's a ball.
They told me I'm short with sixmonths, all right, yeah, and
I don't you know what, Idon't think I think the recent why because
the company I work for only onecompany, but they never put me into

(23:17):
apprentice program right away. But it'sdone, I mean yeah, yeah,
yeah, So all right, Sohere's your argument. Is everybody else put
into an apprentice program and you didn't, and you would have been there ten
years? Yes, but then yeah, all right, you gotta talk.
It's your union that's telling you you'renot vested with the pension plan. Is

(23:37):
that correct? Yes, this unionthey have a five years before, but
they put it back right away.I don't know what the year all right,
Yeah, you've got You've got totalk to your union rep. That's
what you have to do, becauseat nine and a half years, that's
a little short. And there havebeen stories of people getting nailed literally a

(23:59):
month before or on the union beforethe vesting period that kicks in. So
the by the way, the companyisn't controlling the pension plan at least I
don't think so. Usually it's anindependent company that controls it. You got
to go back to your union repand say what can I do on this?
And if you have to, uh, there are lawyers out there,
and you're the union should tell youthese are the lawyers and they should give

(24:22):
you at least free advice. Givethat a shot and see you see what
happens. Okay, Uh the Dan, Hello Dan, welcome to handle on
the law Hello Dan, are youup? All right? We're not connecting
with Dan, so we'll put Danon hold. Um Bill Hello Bill,

(24:48):
Hi Bill Um. I live inCalifornia. I did work remotely for a
company located in Las Vegas. Theywere a crypto company apparently with some Ponzi
scheme, so they got shut down. A receivership company that is based in
Oregon sent me a letter and theywant me to return all the salary that

(25:11):
I've made for about two and ahalf years. If I do not do
that, they said that they're goingto sue me for that. I asked
my CPA about this, and hesaid, I need a bankruptcy attorney to
explain to these people that they can'tclaw back the money. Boke to a
bankruptcy attorney. He says, no, you can't do that because this is

(25:32):
an interstate thing, and I needsomebody in Oregon. I don't play to
understand. Yeah, I don't needit. Well in bankruptcy, first of
all is federal. Bankruptcy is federalright off the bat. So now if
you're talking about a company and theywant to claw it back, first of
all, I wouldn't pay it back. I just say go ahead and sue
me. I did two years worthof work. I got paid for two

(25:53):
years worth of work. I don'tcare if there was fraud involved, that's
not my problem. I was hiredto do the work and I'm not part
of that Ponzi scheme and we'll seeyou in court. Absolutely, you do
that. And they're not going toget any attorney's fees anyway, so they're
going to pay a lawyer for this. So I don't know, not until

(26:18):
when you get the lawsuit. Youmay you may need a lawyer because if
they don't have a good case,then there has to be a motion to
dismiss. If there's something I don'tknow about the law over this, because
you're dealing with companies in different states, and you're dealing with uh, interstate
work, and it's it's stuff thatI don't know. At a matter of

(26:41):
fact, most of this stuff Idon't know. But the piece of advice
I'm giving you you do not writea check back. You say we'll talk
when you have a lawyer. I'llhave my lawyer talk to your lawyer,
all right. That I didn't ignorethem, Uh no, no, uh
well at this point I would.Yeah, yeah, just ignore them until
or tell them I don't or tellthem. Yeah, just ignore them.

(27:03):
That's the easiest way of doing itbecause you don't want to start anything.
Yeah, just straight out ignore them. Okay, that's good advice, I
think. Um Andrea, Hello,Andrea, you're up. Welcome to handle
on the law. Yes, ma'am, thank you real fast. I live
in an apartment building, and yes, I know we're going to smell other
smells from other units. However,I think the people downstairs for me directly

(27:29):
downstairs, I don't mean literally,but they're cooking something that smells like a
dead body dusting garlic. Okay,now that's the putrid smell. And it's
going through my whole apartment, isin my bedrooms, even when I go
into my closet. It just started. I've been back actually a couple of
months. I hadn't smelled it upuntil the last three or four days.
And they do it sometimes two,three, four in the morning, and
it's going on. Now, whatdo I know? I can ask them,

(27:52):
which I will if I'll find outwhat they're cooking. Can please don't
go dignally? Do I have anyrights? Yeah? You do have some
rights. Uh. Now let meask you? Do you do you happen
to know the ethnicity the ethnicity ofthose people downstairs? And he guesses,
yes, I do, and whatis it? Well, I don't want

(28:14):
it? Go ahead, Japanese,Korean, Hispanic? What are they?
Uh? Filipino, Filipino. Yeah. Yeah, they do a lot of
dead bodies with garlic. It's abig big dishes. But that's like and
the answer, the quick answer isthey have effectively made the place uninhabitable.

(28:37):
You you being unable to live hin a had an inhabitable environment. You
have to let First of all,you ask them to stop it. Okay,
that's who will Yes, Okay,you can ask them, and you
do it in writing. And thenyou go to the landlord and you say,
I cannot live here. We don'thave a landlord. If this is

(28:57):
I beg your pardon. Wait haveit's a co op that we own here?
Oh so you own the property?Okay, so the property Okay,
Well the co op has the abilityto toss them if they make it uninhabitable
for people, and that's a longshot before you get there. But if
they won't in fact do anything,then you go to the ho A or

(29:19):
or the organization runs a co op. Yeah this is tough. R Yeah,
yeah, this is a this isa long haul. You do have
rights, but it's really difficult.It's one of those things that takes a
long time. Complaint, prove it, talk to the h O a h.
They talk to the people that arecooking dead bodies, and I mean

(29:42):
it goes back and forth, butin the end, yes, yes you
have some rights. They're just reallydifficult to get. This is handle on
the law.