(05/20) HOTL Hour 3

Handel on the Law, Marginal Legal Advice.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is handle on the law marginallegal ad vice after the decision overturning row
Row v. Wade, Dodge decisionor the Dodd decision, and we sort
of knew with the new very conservativeSupreme Court there was a very good chance
that was going to happen. Andnow we have an idea of where the

(00:23):
courts are going to go, wherethe Supreme Court is going to go in
a couple of different issues. Weknow abortion is gone. The right to
abortion is constitutionally no longer protected rightunder the US Constitution, as Roe v.
Wade had was decided, So nowthat's off the table. The other
thing we know is that, forexample, gun rights will actually be expanded.

(00:48):
This Court is very much in favorof gun rights, and Second Amendment
arguments are going to be much lessconservatively applied. In other words, if
you're a gun owner, get readyfor some real freedoms that you didn't have
before. The other thing is thatthe Court is going to expand religious freedoms.

(01:11):
There has been an effort and amovement of the courts over the last
decades of the Court itself to separatechurch and state and to make it number
one church and state and to makesure that religious rights are private. You
know, for example, praying inchurch, praying at football games, praying

(01:34):
in school has for the most partnot been allowed. And one of the
issues if you want to pray atwork, or if you wear religious garb
at work, the employer has toaccommodate you, but with not undue burden.

(01:55):
In other words, for example,let's say you are a Muslim and
you need a place to pray.Muslims five times a day pray, you
know, the carpet, the ruggoes on the floor and they kneel and
they pray. And if it's ahuge company that has many many offices,

(02:15):
for example, it is not anundue burden to set aside an office that
basically a chapel. If you willa room for Muslims to pray, that's
not an undue burden. If youare a small company with four offices and
six employees, that becomes an undueburden. So it's all about how much

(02:40):
of a hassle it is and howmuch of a burden it is for employers
to accommodate religious freedoms. Well,the court is now looking at another case
that has come up, and thisis growth de joy, and it happens
to be with an employer's obligation toaccommodate an employees requests under federal law.

(03:02):
And this was a Postal service isa Postal service employee, a mailman who
works for the post Office, andhe's a Christian, very religious Christian,
and he was unable to find coveragefor his Sunday shifts. Prior to that,
he always was able to find coverageand the shift worked on Sunday.

(03:23):
Well, current law requires that employersmake accommodation for religious requests as long as
it doesn't impose more than the adiminimous standard, a minimal cost undue burden.
Now there words, any kind ofundue burden is not going to the
religious worker will not be able tohave his or her requests made. Well,

(03:51):
it looks like the court may overturnthat and require employers to be much
more sensitive and broad broadly accommodate religiousrequests. Justice Gortious Gorsage said, I
think there's common ground that didn't dominimustscan't be the test because Congress didn't pass

(04:12):
civil rights legislation to have a dominimuseffect right. In other words, the
least bit of civil rights violation.The employer gets nailed, So why not
say the same thing with the leastrequest of an employee for religious rights.
Well, that's what's going to happen. You're going to see that small businesses

(04:36):
will have to accommodate Muslims or religiousfundamentalist Jews and will give them the time.
It's a whole new world that welive in. It really is,
Nina. Let's start with you.Welcome to handle on the lawn, you

(04:56):
know, good morning meet a goodmorning Bill. Yes, A quick question.
M February ninth, I received anotification from my bank that there has
been a claim against me, afraud claim. Still hasn't been hasn't been
settled. I don't know what theresult is. It's been over seventy days.

(05:17):
My question is, at the endof this, whatever the decision is
made, whether it's in my favoror not in my favor, am I
entitled to know what the what thewhat? What they came to? Yeah?
I would think so, sure,sure, especially if it's against you.
What is it? What happened?So let me ask you what a
fraud to claim? What does thatmean? Are they arguing that you have

(05:41):
defrauded the bank. Somehow, somebodydefrauded you. Someone put a claim against
me who lives up. I don'teven know the person, Okay, Instead
that I cashed his check and Ifragently got ahold of the check. I
don't know that. Also for otherpeople, for other people who he's put
a claim again, okay, Yeah, well seventy days isn't the end of

(06:03):
the world. I mean, ifthey take their time doing that, it
should be okay, And yes,especially uh they're what they're going to tell
you that that the fraud claim isno good, that you've been cleared.
That's what they're gonna tell you.What more do you want to know?
Well, I just want to knowif if they turn because they ken't anyway,

(06:25):
that's all I really want to know. If I would be entitled to
know what the what the result was, Yeah, of course, yeah,
not only yet against If it goesagainst you, then you start arguing with
them and they say, our investigationhas said that, in fact, you
have committed the fraud, and thenyou go, I want to know how
and where because now you're in alawsuit with the bank. How much money

(06:48):
are they talking about here? Youknow, close to a thousand. All
right, well, you know,you know it depending on how much money
you know. And I'm I'm I'man older you know, I'm a senior.
And being ethical and being honest hasalways been part of my who I
am. Yeah, that has nothingto do That has nothing to do with

(07:08):
the legal system, you know,ethical and honest. A credit bill,
Yeah, I mean that's yeah,that has very little to do with it.
Monica, Hello, Monica. Hyyes, ma'am. How are you
not so good? It could havebeen better? But that's okay. My
family's all right. The dogs arefine. Had a good breakfast this morning.

(07:30):
Okay, now's where are we goingon with a question? And Sam
and Barbara good? I love them, Yes, thank you them. I
used to hear them when they're little. Anyway, thank you about this is
about elder care. My sister andI are just starting to or have been
helping my dad. My dad isalmost ninety. He is upside down in
his home. He has a mortgagethree hundred and eighty dollars mortgage. He

(07:55):
is also in jet credit card getsixty thousand dollars. He's also suffering from
MCI, mild cognitive impairments and we'refiguring that he will be to go into
an assisted living pretty soon. Hehas a pension. He makes over one
hundred thousand a year. His pension, Leslie, is very good. I
want him to file for bankruptcy andenjoy his last few years with not having

(08:20):
to worry about paying all his allhis monthly income into credit card peam.
Yeah, that makes sense. Canthey touch his pension? Can Okay,
that's a good question, all right. First of all, once they know
his situation and it's a pension,creditors can't touch it, all right,

(08:45):
Okay, they just can't. Now, there are a few instances where some
of it can be touched, butfor the most part, creditors are out
of the table. Even the bankup for the most part, does not
affect pension or pensions are not affectedby bankruptcy. So he got a couple.
I mean. The bottom line ishe's gonna live exactly the way you

(09:09):
describe. He's gonna live on hispension. He's gonna be pretty comfortable.
Bankruptcy. What it does is justclean out everything. The creditors are going
to be they're gonna leave you alone. And they still might bug him.
But I wouldn't worry about that becausethey're they're on a lot of Yeah.

(09:30):
Yeah, that's easy, I mean, and you once you just have to
let Yeah, the answers go throughthe bankruptcy and that's only not that he's
a danger of getting his money takenanyway. If he doesn't go bankrupt.
It just becomes easier where any creditorthe calls. You just send him a
copy of the bankruptcy notice and thedischarge papers and you go just leave me
alone. I'm bankrupt. I'm done. You get on the phone and say,

(09:52):
not only is he bankrupt, hehas no assets, he lives on
a pension, and that's it,and you'll be fine. Yeah. The
short answer is he'll be fine,all right, And the long answer is
he'll be fine. Uh, thatworks. Sandra, Hello, Sandra pay
bill. Um, I'm gonna begoing to a divorce and during there's no

(10:16):
minor children in the house. SoI want to know how compact, how
I can protect myself from my pensionor retirement from being attached or attacked by
whom by whom? Okay, howlong have you been married? Eighteen years?
Okay, Yeah, that that becomesa little problematic because Now this is

(10:39):
simply a question of mathematics. Howmuch of that pension happened or how much
of it was earned during your marriage, anything that happened before your marriage.
I'll say you you're working, geta job at twenty five, and you
start working at a place that givesyou a pension. So you get married

(11:01):
at thirty five. The first tenyears is yours. You are married for
twenty years, and then you getdivorced that period of time. For the
twenty years you split the pension.After you separate, it's all yours again.
So it's just a question of math. How do you protect it.
You don't because your ex is entitledto half of your pension during the course

(11:26):
of marriage. Now keep in mindyou're entitled to half of anything he is
brought to the marriage too. Yeah, he's brought nothing. Ah, you
you married the wrong person. Eighteenyears and you married someone who's just sucked
on the teat Yeah, well,I thought i'd give it a shot.

(11:46):
Now eighteen years give it a shot. At what point you go, Okay,
I gave it a shot. I'mdone eighteen years later. But yeah,
you do the math, and ifif your entire pension was dedicated on
or based on the time you weremarried, he gets half of it.
He gets half. Okay, onemore question. Can I withdraw? Yeah,

(12:09):
but when you withdraw? He getYeah. When you withdraw, of
course you would withdraw. He getshalf. All right, Well yeah,
well okay, I know you didn'twant to hear that, but that's the
way it works. Welcome to Californiaor Workcome to any community property state,
and when you're married community assets,half of the income goes to the other

(12:30):
side because you it's all considered acommunity. The only things that are exempt
inheritance is exempt. Income from separateproperty is not community assets. Let's say
one of the parties, either thehusband or the wife, or the husband
and the husband whatever, has separateproperty and income off of that. Let's
say apartment buildings, uh, investmentsin a company that happened before the marriage.

(12:56):
That is separate property. But notwhen you're working. That is correct.
Sarah, Hello, Sarah, welcome. Hi. We've had a caregiver
to help care for my elderly parentsfor about a year now. We've been
paying on the side about thirty ninethousand dollars. How do we settle up
with you know what taxes we're goingto have to pay. Oh oh wait,

(13:20):
hold the money you've paid under You'vepaid under the table. Yes,
okay, you know I'm not gonnagive you advice here. I'm going to
tell you to go to an accountantbecause this has to do with penalties,
This has to hold on. Thishas to do with the chances of being
caught, and you're willing to takethe chance. So there are a lot

(13:46):
of parameters in here. At bottomline. If if that is an employee,
then you have to register as anemployer and you're liable to primarily the
Franchise Tax Board in the state ofCalifornia, where unemployment has to be put
in and medical has to be putin, and you've got to put in
Social Security and all of that,and you haven't for a while. Huge

(14:09):
penalties. Talk to an accountant,okay, and you two have a private
and you two have a private conversation, and see the way you go.
All I can tell you is thisis what's old. And how many people
do you think pay housekeepers under thetable in this world? How many people
you think pay housekeepers under the tableand then declare it to the irs a

(14:33):
year later. I'm not giving youadvice. All I'm saying is talk to
an accountant. William. That's aname I'll remember, Hello William. Yeah,
is this Bill? It is Bill. I'm an eighty year old veteran

(14:54):
living in a senior citizen's low incomehousing and I just was awarded from the
VA Hospital nine disability and the landladyhas excess to our bank account. She
says, well, you're getting thismoney, your rent's gonna go up.
And I said, well, accordingto the VA and the Treasury Department and

(15:20):
HUD that controls the building, thatthis is not considered income and you don't
have to pay state or federal taxes. She says, well, I don't
care what the government says. Yourrent's going to fifteen hundred and fifty.
So what do you what do youpay now? I'm paying four to fifty,
all right? So, and Idon't know the answer whether that's considered

(15:43):
income or not. Is disability ispeople get disability, It's partially taxed,
is partially not. It's sort ofa it's kind of way, sort of
an outlier, kind of a weirdsituation on disability and how it works now,

(16:03):
how it connects to your rent,Your rent for example, is predicated
on state law or county or citylaw, and the fact that it is
or is not considered income hasn't verylittle do with your rent unless the housing
is based on your income. Andnow you're getting disability and there is a
connection, which she obviously is saying. She is saying, I don't care

(16:27):
what it says. You are nowgetting fifteen hundred dollars, I'm going to
go to fifteen hundred dollars a monthbecause you are getting X dollars and so
yeah, no, I understand yourquestion. The problem is that's really a
little bit too nuanced for me.I mean, you need a specialist to
do that, and I wouldn't goto a lawyer at this point, I
have, you know, I'd goto the VA and ask for help from

(16:51):
them, even though the VA probablydoesn't have much to do. You'll get
You'll get a lawyer who may putyou in the right direction. That's what
you need. So a quick answeror it's a good question. I just
don't know if rent that's controlled,Uh, you know, I don't know
if it's federal rent control or acontrol by the FEDS. And I under
a veterans program, it's uh some, um, yeah, it's some pretty

(17:15):
complicated stuff. Thomas Bill, Hello, Thomas, what can I do for
you? Yes, sir, heylisten. Yeah, my mother passed about
fourteen fifteen months ago. She leftsome property, land and a manufactured house,
a mobile home. My sister,my older sister, was the executor,

(17:36):
or is the executor on the wheel. She was supposed to take action
to sell the property, distribute theyou know, the money to the to
the children, the surviving children.She doesn't seem to be doing anything.
Do we have any recourse? Yeah, of course you do. How long
when you say she doesn't seem tobe doing anything, how long has it

(17:56):
been since uh the person who outthe will died? Sixteen months? Oh
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahyeah yeah. How much money is involved
here? Oh? Not much?About one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
Okay. Do you know if there'sa provision in the will that the executor
gets paid? No, she's notgetting paid. Okay, so she's there's

(18:22):
none, all right, So she'sjust being lazy, right, yeah,
or for whatever reason she's not.Yeah. Yeah. The answer is the
answer is you got a couple ofchoices. You can go into court you're
gonna have to go into court haveher removed based on inactivity and have someone
else named, or have the courtorder her to sell it now because and

(18:45):
this is going to be basically thesame thing in terms of cost, and
the estate will end up paying forit out of that one hundred and eighty
thousand. You just have to frontit. And so you're gonna need a
lawyer. You're gonna need a probateand the state lawyer to go in and
simply file lawsuit to force her todo it, and and and her end
of it. And this is whatI'm what I would say is are you

(19:07):
talking to her at all? Onlyby text? Then she doesn't respond toory,
okay, So I would text hersaying how many beneficiaries are there,
Thomas? Right now? There's sevensurviving? Okay, and you're one of
the seven including okay, don't includeher. So there's six of you right
right? All right? So areyou in touch with the six? Yes?

(19:32):
Okay, you're all on the samepage, correct, yes, all
right? What's going on? Okay? Then what I would have all of
you do is text her and saywe all six of us will commence lawsuit
against you. Maybe even getting maybeeven by a lawyer, letter from a

(19:53):
probate, and a state letter aprobate and a state attorney. And I
think if you're splitting up the costamong six people, I think that's worth
it. Who writes a letter saying, please be advised, and this is
typically what kind of letters I usedto write when I was representing people,
Please be advised that I represent namename, name, name name, in
reference to your inactivity on the estateof the name of the dead person.

(20:18):
It is obvious that you are preachingyour duty and your lax and just whatever
language the lawyer will come up withit. And I'm gonna take it to
court and you're gonna pay for andyou're gonna end up paying for lawyers fees.
That's what I would do. That'sthe way to do it. Yeah,
that's a yeah. But the questionis sixteen months. Yeah, that's

(20:38):
a little bit late for sure.Bob, Hello, Bob, yes,
high, Yes, go ahead.How are you? I have a question?
Recently in my neighborhood, they havecreated a four court pekare bow and
I am a retired is a noiseof the pick above. Every court takes

(21:04):
four players and of the racket andeverything. He's kind of driving me crazy.
Yeah, all back, Now thisis is this private? Does someone
build it? Or is this somekind of a public court that was built
a the city of Oo? Wasthis city land? Yes? He is

(21:26):
a public I mean it was.And so you are you next door to
the park? Yes, very close. Yeah. I think you've got an
issue there, my friend, becausethe city is allowed uh to open up
a pick a pickle ball court ora tennis court, and I wish it

(21:48):
was a neighborhood did that as opposedto the city. What I'm going to
suggest you do this is not lawsuittime or warrior time, is you go
to your city council person in Pasadywho represents your district, and say this
is crazy the noise. After thatyou've done that, yeah, yeah,

(22:10):
And they won't, for example,limit they won't limit the hours to ten
o'clock and then you have to thenwe lock it up. They keep on
playing. There is a limit,but they don't honor it. So for
example, Sunday is Sunday. They'resupposed to start at nine, they start
at eight. They's supposed to startyou in your week, for Terry,

(22:30):
but they start three Terry and thisis adjacent to a school. I don't
know. Well, that doesn't matterif it's adjacent to a school that you
don't have standing and it's nothing todo with you. It's the people in
the school that have the problem.You're with that problem. Your problem is
they make too much noise in theevening and there's a racket correct exactly,

(22:51):
okay, and they're not willing toenforce their own ordinance, correct he Okay,
that is a little problem. Howmany neighbors are in your position?
I want to say, at thesethirty two people? Okay, all right,
can you get hold of those thirtytwo people? I can write the

(23:12):
petition? Okay, because yeah,you want to do as much of that,
because if the city council person doesn'treally care about one person, they're
thirty two voters or more in thatbuilding and that they pay attention to,
and so they're the more the merrier. I mean, there there's someone going

(23:33):
to pay attention to that. Souh, because if you hire a lawyer,
I mean you know, in theend, then the city defends and
the mean or out of thousands andthousands of dollars, So you have to
go through all your administrative remedies thatyou possibly can, and you have city
ordinance, then the county, becausePasadena is in the County of Los Angeles,

(23:56):
and then you can well. Idon't think there's any state law on
it, and it's usually as citycontrols. But that's all you can do,
is I get as much going on, Parts and Recreation can ask the
head of Parts and Recreation, what'sgoing on? Why aren't you enforcing it?
Well, we don't have enough people, is typically the argument. Nothing's
easy. Noise issues are never evereasy. All right, Harry, your

(24:19):
turn, welcome to handle on thelawn. Yeah, good morning Bill.
Last July, I purchased for myadult daughter a chicken salad caesar wrap sandwich
from a major fresh grocery store inDelhi, type establishment that's around the country.
And when she sat down to eatit at home, she thought was

(24:41):
biting into it and eating the sandwich, and she suddenly bit on kind of
what was started choking on a collectionof small bones that were contained within the
sandwich. It wasn't just one bone, but it was like a set of
small bones, almost if someone hadbeen deboning chicken and then accidentally wrapped it

(25:04):
up in the sandwich. Yeah,I'm sure. I'm sure that happened.
No, and it happens, Imean all the time. And so let
me ask, and this is alwaysa question, you ask, what kind
of personal injury happened to your daughter? I'm assuming she didn't choke to death?
So that's that's good news. Uh? Was she? Uh? Was

(25:25):
she chokey enough? The paramedics werecalled, although she'd probably be dead anyway
if she was. So what happenedto her? In terms? And get
it spit out? Okay? Andbut it upset her? Yeah? I
know, here's the problems. Yeah, No, I understand she is she
with a psychologist, yes, okay, And the psychologist is saying that whatever

(25:47):
trauma she is now undergoing, orwhatever it happened subsequent to the chicken bones
in her throat, has exacerbated orhas caused some kind of emotional injury.
Correct, I would say, yes, okay, fair enough. Now,
assuming all of that is true,and there's no reason for me not to
believe you chicken bones, choking,um, emotional distress, nobody cares.

(26:18):
Nobody cares except you and your daughtersand the shrink who's making money off of
it. It happens way too often. Uh, that's the risk when you
eat a chicken sandwich. That's whatwill happen. First of all, the
court, uh is, and you'llget into court, and I'm assuming,
well, the chicken sandwich place myright check as a nuisance value. Here's

(26:38):
a few hundred dollars go away.Or if you have a really aggressive attorney,
here's a couple of thousand dollars goaway. And that's after you know,
getting involved in litigation. Uh.They it's it's actually nuisance value.
But let me tell you why uhis. Uh. There's two issues.
One, Uh, the assumption ofthe risk. You're biting into chicken,

(26:59):
and chicken have bones, and itjust happens. Uh. There is an
inherent risk because it happened to everybodyyou bite into a piece of gristle or
whatever. So you have to assumeif you're an adult or a young person,
that that may happen. Number Two, the injury was so minor,
and the uh the occurrence or whathappened afterwards is so major relative to the

(27:26):
injury. For example, you're gettinga reinder, someone hits you at five
miles an hour, you have aninjury, a legitimate injury. Uh.
And you're now suing for a millionand a half dollars. Uh, it's
soft tissue. It happens to alot of people. No one really believes
you're to that extent. The courtor the jury just won't believe. Your
shrink just said, no, wedon't buy it. That's the that's the

(27:48):
problem. Uh So, Uh,you know, I feel sorry for your
daughter. Should probably never look ata chicken again without getting hysterical. But
you know, that's that's the reel, you know. I mean there are
no okay, legitimate injury, Iget it. And uh, let's say
emotional damage. I get it.I mean people do you know people get
stuck in elevators, for example,and they'll never be in an elevator again.

(28:11):
And you see those lawsuits that arewritten across the board when you have
some kind of emotional damage, thelawsuits are hysteria or hilarious hysterics. Never
able to sleep again. Uh ifI ever see a car again, I
go into immediate spasms and I gocompletely hysterical. I have nightmares for the

(28:32):
rest of my life. I mean, just on and on. It doesn't
it doesn't stop. Uh. Okay, Ali, we're gonna make this really
quick, Alick, what can Ido for you? Ali? Are you
there? Well? Hi, yes, Ali, thank you for taking very

(28:53):
quickly. I got about a minuteand a half. Okay. My car
was parked on the street in frontof my house and January twenty eighth,
middle of the night, this ladyslammed the back of my car. Total
in my car and a car infront of me. Okay, they were
both totaled, and she was drivinga Rene card, not one of the
big Rende card company, like aMom and pops home office business type Rene

(29:17):
card. Okay. Anyway, sincethen, I've been trying to get ahold
of her. She totally ignored me, like nothing has happened. I called
it many times and stuff the messagevoice NASA text. Okay, all right,
you've got to find owner of company. Yeah, you've got to find
her. You have to sew her. You have no choice, that's it,
right, I mean, I havea police report that matter. You
have to find her. You gottafind her, you gotta sewer. You

(29:40):
can have all the police reports inthe world if you don't. If you
don't find her to serve her thatlawsuit, you're out to lunch. Now.
It could be that you're out tolunch anyway, because if she has
crappy insurance and she doesn't have theassets to pay you. Okay, so

(30:00):
that's the problem. You got hitby the wrong person, is what it
ended up happening, Alley. Youknow, it's it's much better to get
rammed in by an Amazon or aUPS truck. And I've always said that
if you're gonna get killed in acar accident, do it in front of
a one, you know, oneof those big trucks that are owned by
big companies. Now I'm gonna endthe show, but I'm still gonna answer

(30:22):
phone calls right after the show asthe next show comes on, and that's
our tech show. So if you'reon hold, stay put, don't go
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(30:45):
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