(05/20) 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 there is.This is La County we're talking about now,
where I happen to habitate. It'sthere's always been a problem. This
goes across the country too, andthat is cash bail. And that's typically

(00:20):
what bail is. One is arrested, you come in, you're held in
custody, and then there is abail hearing, or there's an immediate bail
amount that has been set. Youknow, for example, you get a
traffic ticket or whatever, they arrestyou, there's an inswell, there wasn't.
The one case where I was actuallyarrested when I was nineteen years old,
and I think I've told the storylike an idiot. I ignored a

(00:44):
court date on a traffic ticket.This is why I always tell you,
do not ignore court dates ever.Ever, do not ignore any kind of
a court summons or court document.So I did, and I popped.
I was jaywalking, and of coursethey ran my driver's license, and there
was warrant from my arrest and offto jail. I was hauled and I

(01:07):
just went through. I didn't gointo prison or anything or any behind bars.
They just processed me fingerprinting me themugshot. I paid one hundred dollars,
which is what the bail was,and then I left. However,
when you get arrested for something alittle more serious, you get put into
the pokey. I don't know wherethe hell they ever came up with that
term, and then there's a bailhearing, and you want to get arrested
during the week because on Friday,if you get arrested, you could spend

(01:30):
the entire weekend in jail waiting fora bail hearing. So typically it is
a dollar amount, and the argumenthas always been poor people who can never
make bail. Effectively, it isno bail. It's a no bail situation,

(01:52):
and the only people that get whoare not granted bail are people who
are at a flight risk or area danger to society to others. That's
it, because bail is not topunish bails to make sure you show up,
and if they're comfortable were you showingup, then they don't worry about
That's why a lot of people haveno bail at all, because the judge

(02:15):
knows that they're going to come backand have their dating court So in this
case, or in many cases,you have poor people. You have homeless
people that have no assets, thathave no money, So even a five
hundred dollars bail is no bail.And there has been a movement afoot for

(02:35):
many years to have a cash bailtotally eliminated. Well, a lawsuit was
filed in La County and La CountySuperior Court Lawrence Riff. Judge Lawrence Riff
handed down a ruling granting a preliminaryinjunction against the county's cash bail system.
Six plaintiff sued they were all arrested, they were held in jail for five

(03:00):
days because they couldn't afford their bailamounts. And then quite often the district
attorney just drops the case now wedon't have enough evidence here, or the
city attorney, the Dare city attorneysimply drops the case. And here are
these poor people who have been injail for five days a week. So

(03:20):
the judge has said in this ruling, as of right now, there was
a preliminary preliminary injunction against the county'scash bail system. That's to these six
plaintiffs, and now this is goingto go up. Cash bail is still
required for people accused of serious orviolent crimes, so that's not the problem.
This was just this was coming.There's no question about this. This

(03:44):
was simply going to happen. Allright, let's go ahead and take some
phone calls. Oh yeah, Jeffe, Hi, jeffee. Welcome to handle
on the law. Thank you,bill. My house was burned down Arson.
Congratulation. Good answer, by theway, very good response. Yes,

(04:13):
sir, a collection agency from acable company. I won't mention the
and they're in another state and they'resaying it's my fault because of the fire.
O, it was Arson. Itwas my faults of the fire,
and that I have to pay themor send it to the insurance. But
I don't have to do anything.I wonder what you think about that.
Well, I would turn it overto the insurance company because it's going to

(04:35):
be paid. I mean, that'spart of your insurance policy. But I
would call the collector, actually emailthe collector, because you wanted it all
in writing, say hey, it'sbeen established this was Arson. And incidentally,
in your in your contract, excuseme, in your contract with a

(04:56):
cable company, there may very wellbe a clause in there a forced masure
clause Act of God kind of thingwhere you can argue it's physically impossible for
me to get cable because I don'thave a house anymore because it was burned
down. And excuse me, bill, I don't even deal with this cable
company. I have no dealings withthem at all. Oh so it's not
even a cable company that connects toyou. No, I have one good

(05:21):
one. And those aren't the people, all right? Did you ever have
a contract with those people, theone that's charging me? Now, Oh
that's okay, that's a different issue. Now you're right, and say,
forget about everything I said. It'sa real simple one. It's hey,
I don't have a contract with you. Please provide me a contract or a

(05:45):
recording that I signed up. Youdon't have one. And if you tag
me, if you report me tothe credit reporting agencies or sue me,
you are liable under federal law.Let them know that. That's all you
can do. Oh great, Anddo you think I should just go on?
You think I should just give itto the insurance company or no,
no, no, no, no, the insurance company shouldn't pay them.

(06:08):
This is you telling these folks thereis no contract. Angela. Yes,
ma'am, what's up? What's up? You're calling the show? Got what
I'm moron? I am? Okay? What can I do for you?
My husband co signed for a studentloan for my daughter and getting phone calls
like crazy. She's had it forten years. I want to know,
basically, can they take his check? Can they take our money from our

(06:31):
bank account? Yes? First yougotta get sued. First, you got
to get sued. Yeah, you'rehow's your relationship with your daughter, by
the way, Yeah? Good,that's even better. So you get to
pay it when it's as as opposedto we love her, but we're okay
with it. Okay, fine,so it's all right. So now we
start with how much money does sheowe? Twenty seven thousand? Okay?

(06:55):
And how behind is she in herpayments? Um? Every time every time
they call me, UM, theytell me something different. I have her,
uh send me over her pay stuff, I mean her bank account and
she pays it all the time.Okay, all right, so that's good.
That's good news. Okay, Soshe's just a late pay right,

(07:15):
Angela. She is not in takenout. No, no, no,
no, no, she is sheis A, Well, then why are
they talking to you? I don'tknow. That's why. I don't know
if it's current, ye, angelright, But Angela, if it's current,
why would a collection agency call you. That's crazy. Even late pays,

(07:36):
they don't call until you're really late, and then they call her and
you a picture of her bank accountwork. Then you just tell the collegient
collection agency we're current. Go poundsand or you even smile. And this
is all an email because you haveto have it all in writing. You
say you know what this is current. You are harassing me and not the

(08:00):
primary loanholder, not the primary borrower, and um, go ahead and sue
me. I've already contact an attorney. That's what you want to say in
writing. Okay, Okay, thankyou for your time. Honey, are
you talking to me? Are youtalking to someone else? I'm talking to

(08:22):
you. Oh I got honey,I just don't know. Uh yeah.
And the other thing, whenever yousay I've contacted an attorney, never ever
mentioned my name because people start laughing. Okay, so you can't see I
told you she started laughing. Irest my case. Oh Mike, hello,
Mike, welcome to handle on thelaw. Hi Bill, thanks for

(08:45):
taking my call. My wife andI have a will, but we don't
have a trust. And I've talkedto a couple of attorneys. They want
between thirty five hundred and five thousanddollars for it. Uh, you know,
we we have assets, but wedon't have a ton ton of disposable
income. Is is it safe tolike go online? And yeah, it's

(09:05):
a little it's yeah, it's alittle complicated because it's a will and a
trust, and so the trust dispersesthe money and then it's uh then what's
left the hard assets that are leftthat are not in the trust, uh
then fall under the will. Uhso thirty five thousand is well, you

(09:26):
can get a hell of a lotof probate, you can get a lot
of a state planning. So whatI would do is go online and you
answer questions. There's fa q's onall of these and see it's really how
simple your assets are? What areyou going to leave to whom? Methically?
Our house right, so we ownour house out right, but everything
else we got four one K,which you're not supposed to put in,

(09:50):
I guess, and four o oneK I know, I think I think
the four o one k goes straightto a beneficiary if I'm not mistaken.
So that's out of a will,that's out of a trust anyway, So
you don't have much. I wouldthink a simple will would be a simple
trust would work for you. SoI would first go to a website and
I'd see, because there's a lotof them out there, and see as

(10:13):
you as you go through the questions, and they all have those questions,
you know, what does it mean? What you know before you're signing up,
and see if it fits you beforegoing to lawyer. Now, thirty
five hundred to five thousand dollars isabout the going rate. But I think
you have more or you have fewerassets than justifies doing that. So who

(10:35):
are you leaving this? By themoney too, by the way, the
kids, of course, you knowwho else? What are the kids?
Of course, I've got kids.And if you think they're getting a dime,
you're out of your mind. Thekids, of course, Oh maybe
he likes his kids. Now thereit is. See I make all kinds
of presumptions here. Yeah, Ellen, hello, allan welcome. Yeah,

(11:01):
I had a plumber. I calledthe plumber to fix a stuck outside Fawcett
and the plumbing coming sent over plumber. He used WD thirty in a wrench
to get the faucet free and watercame out. He deemed it fixed and
left, and about two hours laterI attached a host to it and turned
it on, and maybe another hourlater my wife came out and set our

(11:24):
basement's flooding. So the work plumberdid. When you turn on the faucet,
it leaks, and it pretty aboutanti water and part of our basement.
There's no property damage, but I'mwondering who gets to pay for the
people that come in to get thewater out and dry the walls? All
right, Well, the plumber does, because it's a tump. The plumber
is the one that's screwed up.The unfortunate part is that you're gonna probably

(11:50):
have to sue the plumber because theplumbers that you're going to send him a
bill, say here's what it costs, and they's gonna say, no,
thank you, I'm not going topay. And what do you do?
You sue how much money has beena cost, how much it gonna cost
to fix all that? I wouldguess they were drying to walls for maybe
five days, so probably four toseven thousand. Someone, Well, there's

(12:11):
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(13:26):
com. Liam, Hello, Liam, welcome to the show. You know,
um, my sister got restraining orderagainst me a few years ago,
try to attempt to try to attemptto get control of the property. Well,
family goes after properly like coltsclter Tuna. Anyway, there's no restraining order

(13:46):
now. And you told me thatI could just legally walk right in.
Well she's not let me in andthe police won't help escort me on my
property. Who owns titles to thehouse hold? On who owns title?
Who's on the name, Whose nameis on title? I mean my mom
and dad? My mom and dadhad passed it. Okay, Oh,
okay, your name is on title, right, okay. Intervening years though,

(14:09):
she um somehow got her u atthe at the recorder's office. She
got my dad's supposedly left to trustto my two sisters, But I don't
think that's valid because refers to mydad is and her Yeah yeah, hold
on a minute, okay, uhyeah, she can't stop you from why
you're the one that owns the house, and so all she can declare herself

(14:33):
is a tenant. So you mayhave to a victor. The problem is
she has already established a tendency probablyand what city are you in? Uh,
the house is in Rancho Cucamonga,Okay, no rent control, I
think at Rancho Cucamonga. And ifthe police won't touch it, because how
long has she been in the home. Uh, well, it's been twenty

(14:56):
years since I've been in my home, so twenty she's been in that house
for twenty years, So it's fairto say she's established a tenancy. Don't
you think she is now a tenant? Okay, so you have to a
victor. I understand that my makeaterm right now is getting on the property,
so I don't have to pay anymore on that right now. Well,
I mean she can stop she canstop you from getting on the property

(15:18):
because here's what you are allowed asa tenant, and this is those under
California law's less Recho Cucamonga has itsown ordinance. For example, LA has
its own ordinance. Santa Monica hasits own ordinance which are far more restrictive
to the landlord. That's called rentcontrol. So you look under California law,

(15:39):
as a landlord, you are allowedto go in either for emergency purposes
to make a reasonable inspection, youhave to give twenty four hour notice and
she has to let you in.And of course she's not going to go
to a landlord tenant attorney because Ididn't know a lot of this before when
I gave you the advice, orI gave you bad advice, or I've

(16:00):
forgotten, and it's probably all ofthe above. So um, go to
a landlord tenant attorney because the copsonce you have a tendency established. She's
not a trespasser, she's she's nota squatter. She's been there for twenty
years. But you own the property. Have her introduced, Dave, have
her introduced a fraudulent trust, andthe judge and a landlord tenant dispute is

(16:25):
not going to decide on a trust. It's who owns the property. So
I think you're gonna be okay tossingher out. Try that, and then
of course that's not gonna work either. So he'll be calling me next week
and you go tell the second time, Bill or third time? You told
me? Uh boon Oh, Ilove that name. Boone? Yes,

(16:45):
Hi Bill, Hi, Where areyou from? Boone? Oh? Lakewood,
California, Lakewood California. That's thedeep South, you know, um,
where's from originally the North Lamorada.Okay, that's even more deep south.
That's probably ten miles from here orfrom here. Okay, okay,

(17:06):
before we get into it, Imean, obviously have to talk to you
about this. Where did you getthe name Boone? Uh? Um?
I was back in a high school. No one could pronounce my last name,
and I had a bunch of friendsnamed David. So my name is
David Buono, but no one couldsay Buono, so they called me Buno
Brono. Okay, right, allright, all right, fair enough,

(17:27):
Hey, thanks for calling. Uhnow, go ahead, yeah, okay,
Yeah. Back in twenty sixteen,I bought a brand new Jeep Wrangler
Rubicon, brand new, and Ibought the lifetime warranty from Mopark, the
manufacturer lifetime warranty on which car companygives you a lifetime warranty? I mean

(17:48):
that is I never heard? Yeah, I know, I know that was
one of the great things about buyingit. Yeah, no kidding, now,
but wait, doesn't that sound alittle bit too good to be true?
Because let's say you have the carthirty years from now still and there
are no parts that are left.Do you say, well, here's my
lifetime warranty. You have to manufacturethe parts. It's just I've never heard

(18:11):
of that, that's all. Butokay, so you have a lifetime warrant.
The only caveat too, It wasthat if it if the repair exceeds
the value of the vehicle, that'sthe only caveat too where they would where
they warranty would expire and that.But yes, it's a lifetime warranty.
Wow, ex braded and they onlydid for a couple of years. I
think they found the air of theirways and they stopped it. So I

(18:33):
haven't heard of It's fascinating, allright, go ahead, yeah, yeah,
So, um, a couple ofweeks ago, I was in a
really bad accident and that, andthe insurance company wants to uh salvage it
because it's within one hundred dollars ofa couple of thousand dollars of the value.
So I still have a little bitof value on the jeep. But

(18:55):
due to it being so close tothe value of the jeep, um that
they want to salvage it. Thething is that they're not considering any part
of this lifetime warranty, they willnot consider it. All right, hang
on him and hang on him innute, because I'm trying to get this.
Um let's get through this. Okay, who is offering to salvage it?
Is the insurance company for the otherdriver? Or is it Mopar? No,

(19:19):
it's my triple A insurance company.Okay, they're the ones that are
insuring the car. Yes, okay, you can say no, I'll take
the value of the car and thenturn it in. But you've got Mopar
that's going to say, wait asecond, we have a lifetime warranty,
but you already have an insurance companythat's willing to pay. Insurance companies have

(19:41):
the right to salvage cars. Theydo if the repairs are greater. If
the repairs are greater or close tothe value of the car, they're going
to hand you a check and salvagethe car. Yeah, now, go
ahead. The problem is that theywant to salvage it. Yeah, they
have a right to do that.Well, but they're not in the value

(20:03):
of it. But it's I stillhave like a couple of thousand dollars of
course. Wait, okay, whyhow do you say you have a couple
thousand dollars. How do you figureout you have a couple of thousand dollars?
Well, because the U the umthey're seeing that the vehicle, uh
repair is thirty thousand dollars and myvehicle is worth thirty three thousand dollars.
Oh, they're already saying that.Uh. Then you say no, no,

(20:26):
I want the thirty thousand dollars.I don't want the salvage and get
into a fight with him. Yeah, get a fight. You just turn
it down and you go, I'mlisten, No, I want I want
it repairing. They have the right, though, under your insurance policy,
to salvage it. They have thatright, read your policy, and the
warranty has that's a two. That'sa separate issue. And the warranty company

(20:48):
is gonna say they're offering you topay for it. They're already paying for
you want to double hit here,So I think, now that's not gonna
work, and they but I'll tellyou what you can do is you can
buy the car back. They'll salvageit and then turn around and sell you
the car. Now you have asalvage vehicle. It's unsaleable. But if

(21:08):
you if you're willing to run itinto the ground, and the warranty at
that point has probably gone too.I don't think there's a warranty that holds
up. Our phone number, incidentally, is because we have some lines open
eight hundred five two zero one fivethree four eight hundred five two zero one
five three four and lines are open, So we're off to kind of a
slow start today. Linda Hilnda,welcome to Handle on the Law. Good

(21:33):
morning, Bill, Thank you fortaking my call. How are you?
Yeah, well horrible? What canI do for you? Likewise? Okay,
I have a question. We boughta vehicle in December in Arizona,
brand new. The dealer we presentwe're California residence. We gave our California
drivers licenses. We told them wewanted it registered in California, California state

(21:56):
Farm insurance policy. They gave usninety day temporary Arizona plates, said we'd
be getting our license plates in themail. Messing never came. They expired.
I looked it up the Arizona plates. The Arizona plates expired, Yes,
then temporary and they said they werehold on. And then the dealer

(22:18):
in Arizona said that they would registerit in California. Correct, okay,
yes, okay, So no platescame. I get on the DMV website,
type in the then number. Nothing, okay, I go down to
the go down to the office.The lady looked it up for me.
Nothing, okay. I never neverregistered. It was never registered in Arizona,

(22:41):
is what you're saying. Or itjust expired expired, It was never
registered in either state. Oh,they didn't register it. You bought the
car and it was not registered period. Period. The only thing we ever
got was the ninety day temporary.Okay, Well how'd you get around you?
How how do you get a temporarywith that that's issued by the Department

(23:03):
of Motor Vehicles, the temporary theygive you the temporary. Oh it's dealer
temporary. So okay, I'm confusedhere because in my understanding is any registration
comes out of the Department of MotorVehicles and the dealership doesn't have the right.
They mean they give you a DMV, they give you a DMV document.

(23:25):
That's my understanding. Maybe I'm wrongon that one. Okay, So
now it expires in California. Youdon't have a driver's you don't have a
vehicle registration Arizonia. Don't have avehicle registration? Okay, now what we
have one minute. Basically, webasically can't drive the vehicle. Okay,
registrar in California. Why don't youcan't? Why can't you walk into the
MV and registrate? Okay. That'swhere it gets tricky because I went to

(23:45):
the DMV and they sent the originaltitle with the leanholder to our finance company.
Our finance company said it takes fiveweeks for us to get it in
order to transfer it to California.So we're stuck with a vehicle we can't
drive for a minimum of five weeks. Are you a member of the Auto
Club? No, get become amember of the Auto Club and have them

(24:07):
help you out on that. Theydo registration. Become a member of the
question. Yes, what's your question? Briefly? Briefly, my question is
we were forced to register it inArizona to expedite some type of registration.
No, you could have gone No, No, you weren't forced by whom

(24:29):
time time. No, No,you're not forced by time. You have
to it. You're through the cracks. Okay, so you have to register
the car in California, join theAuto club, and they will straighten it
out for you. That's how itworks. They deal directly with a DMV,
who the hell isn't a member ofthe auto club. Hello, Dave,
Hey, Hi Bill, thank you? Sure. My my wife and

(24:53):
I live in my choice no gunsallowed household, and it's just stood the
tools left. Our son of lawthinks it's a huge violation of his Second
Amendment right that he can't bring agun into the home. Yeah, that
he thinks. He says, we'rewrong. He can come in if he
wants to. But this is likea huge confusion thing all over the country.

(25:15):
No, no, not on thatissue. There's a huge confusion thing.
That's pretty clear cut. But uh, does he have a key to
the house. No, okay,why do you Let's start with, why
do you let him in the houseif he has a gun? Just say
no, thank you, you're notcoming into my home. Well, he
hasn't pushes on it yet, buthe's kind of a boundary pusher, so

(25:37):
he's okay. So he so thenumber one, you know, you're not
coming into my house with a gun, thank you very much. And if
you do, you're trespassing him tocall the police. You're not coming in
with a gun, and you're sayingthat is he arguing that he has a
right under the Second Amendment? Yeah, okay, I tell him first go
to a bank with an assault weaponon his shoulder, and uh say,

(26:02):
ay, I have a Second Amendmentright to walk into this bank or a
house of worship. I have thatright to do that. He doesn't.
He has the right to carry,depending on the carry state or not.
But no, you you're right todetermine who and what and under what circumstances

(26:22):
someone comes into your house. Tellhim to blow sand or blows break or
whatever. Yeah, I know you'refine, but it's a good But that's
what. By the way, it'san interesting question is how far does the
sendment second Amendment go? And itdoesn't go that far. So if he
insists on you call the cops,get the hell out of here, and
you'll be fine. There is nothere is no Second Amendment right. That's

(26:44):
not a bad question, you know, not bad Hill up. Hello Philip,
Welcome hell Bill, Thanks for havingme on. Sure. My question
has to do with their inheritance.My wife and I've been married thirty over
thirty years. Her mother is quiteelderly and My wife has made the statement
several times that any inheritance money,Um, if a couple gets divorced,

(27:06):
the other spouse has no rights tothose funds. Oh it goes beyond that.
Oh, Philip, you can stillbe married and you're not entitled half
of it. It's not income.It's not a community it's not community income.
It's her money, and she cando whatever the hell she wants to
it with it. She can putit, she can she can coll mingle

(27:26):
it. But go ahead. Yeah, she deposits that those funds into her
account. Yep, that's her,that's her money, that's her money,
So her money. So convince herto deposit in a joint account. So
she's right about that, She isabsolutely right. But there's a way,
there's an end around. Uh,you say, honey, it's your money.
You're absolutely right, So why don'tyou deposit it into an account that

(27:48):
both of our names are on,and somehow get her to do that,
then it becomes half your money.We don't have we each have our separate
accounts. Oh yeah, you're history. It's her money. How much money?
With how much money are we talkingabout? Philip? Somewhere north of
five hundred thousand. Okay, that'syeah, that's a wait she how much

(28:10):
does she actually get? I wouldassume half? Okay, okay, so
it's two hundred So two hundred fiftythousand dollars, right, yeah, okay.
Uh and you're thinking about getting divorced? No, no, I'm not.
But she's made that comment several times. Oh okay, I'm all right.
Yeah, but now yeah, she'sright. She's absolutely right. And
as I said, it goes beyondthat. See how the question I was

(28:33):
going to ask, is is itworse staying money? Is it worse staying
married? For two hundred and fiftysix thousand dollars or two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars? That's the wobbler,you see. If it was five million
dollars, there's no issue. Youstayed married. That's all the word it
is to it. But you know, two hundred fifty thousand is that worth
staying married? I don't know.It depends on you. Now, if
you own a small business and yougot through COVID, and you have five

(28:56):
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(29:18):
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(29:41):
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is handle on the law