(05/27) HOTL Hour 3

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 sex abusecases mainly well sex abuse when people were
children and were abused by we knowalready the Catholic Church, and the Catholic

(00:21):
Church has settled for billions of dollars. A couple of archdioceses had to in
fact go bankrupt. You've got theBoy Scouts of America. They had to
technically go bankrupt, and they havewritten out billions of dollars of checks.
You have, I think the GirlsScouts. If I'm not mistaken, and
if I am, I stand corrected. Also involved in some of these and

(00:44):
the other defendant in these cases aregovernments, county governments. You're talking about
department of Social Services, where youhad social workers involved in children. And
this became a huge issue, andfor the most part, people couldn't sue

(01:07):
because in many, many, manycases, people suppressed their abuse from those
who were in charge, who theytrusted. I mean, these kids were
vulnerable. And in the Catholic Church, kids came forward and said that the
priest abused me, and the priestsays that's not true. The parents called

(01:29):
the kid liars. I mean howcan you accused the priest of abusing a
little boy. I mean, comeon, that's crazy, especially if you
trust the priest. He's a teacher, he's been involved in the parish for
so many years. So these kidssuppressed it and through therapy because they're pretty

(01:49):
screwed up. Being abused as akid is no fun thing and psychologically it
is pretty damaging. So these memoriesand feelings come up, and no lawsuits
were filed because this has happened twentyyears ago, thirty years ago when they
were children, and you have astatute of limitation problem. Well what happened
is governments were aware of this andlegislatures opened up the statute of limitations saying

(02:15):
you can go back all the way. For the statute was open for a
number of years. It's closing upbecause it's not forever that you can sue,
but it was forever going back youcould sue for a number of years.
In other words, the statute disappearedfor another several years. And going
back till the time someone was achild fifty years ago, sixty years ago

(02:38):
and was abused, well, thesettlements are going crazy. As you can
imagine, La County, the biggestcounty in the country, and I think
has the biggest budget in the countryforty three billion dollars next fiscal year.
The chief executive officer has said thatfor La County, the we, because

(03:02):
I live in La County, haveto set aside three billion dollars out of
forty three billion. It's about sevenpercent of the entire budget of the county
going towards settling sexual abuse cases fromcounty employees. And it runs the Gamut

(03:25):
Medical People's social work System, Departmentof Child and Protective Services. I mean,
it just goes on and on andwell, I mean think about think
of the breath and scope of thesexual abuse that went on years and years
ago. Has it stopped? Yeah, I think so. I think it

(03:47):
has because the settlements are so insane, and I think there's some accountability.
Schools, for example, I havebeen held accountable. You've seen teachers.
And this is just Ali County.This is not for example, Los Angeles
Unified School District, which has hadits own issues with this and has a

(04:08):
three billion dollar budget and rode outchecks and wheel right out checks for hundreds
of millions of dollars. The LAPublic School District, the second biggest district
in the country has been hit withchild abuse claims over and over again,
and I think this just shows howrampant, how deep this problem goes.

(04:31):
And I think if there's any goodnews out there with the church and the
teachers and the social workers that forthe most part this has been taken care
of, and the supervisors who letall of this happen knowing about it,
also are getting nailed, and sothey should all right, phone calls Marcus,

(04:51):
Hello, Marcus, welcome, Marcushere. Yes, I'm a senior
in in the nursing home and theministry that won't let me use my electric
wheelchair go out on my appointments,and I'm wondering, Uh, is there
anything that can do about that?Yeah, hang on a minute. When

(05:12):
you say won't let you use yourwheelchair to go out in appointments, does
that mean going on the street,going on the sidewik How long are you
know? What's the distance from thefacility to whatever or wherever appointment you're going
to for a doctor's appointment? Yeah, you know, I understand, But
where what's the distance? Um?Within three to four three to four miles?

(05:39):
So you're talking about taking that electricwheelchair and going three or four miles
to your doctor's appointment and going eightmiles or three to four miles back.
So it's six to eight miles onyour electric chair, correct you, guys.
But but I'm taking transportation like plansand access and my insurance. Okay,

(06:03):
I'm a little I'm a little confused. So he won't let you take
the wheelchair to get onto a vanthat then takes you to the doctor's appointment.
Correct that? Okay? Have youasked? Why not? Um?

(06:23):
I be it asked, and basicallyit bawls down to you just discriminate against
me. Well, hold on,hold on why And so you're yeah,
well, if there is discrimination,okay, that one is under the ADA.
I think there's discrimination right there onits face. And then if you're
part of a minority group, thatadds to it. So it's um uh

(06:48):
yeah, yeah, yeah, Ithink it's discrimination. And you can even
argue elder abuse, I guess somewherein there. But I'm surprised that the
administrator, what administrator would not letone of the clients in a facility take
an electric wheelchair out to a vanthat provides transportation that has a ramp.

(07:13):
So you can move it up.And what does the administrator say when you
ask how why are you doing this? He won't. He just won't.
He won't really won't give an explanation. He just tilled me, No,
you won't do it. Okay.The facility is that a government run facility?
Yes? All right? Uh youwant to talk to and call the

(07:35):
agency that controls it. I don'tknow which agency that is. It's a
county facility. You call the countyand they'll answer the phone. And you
say, hey, I don't knowwhat to do. I'm being discriminated against.
I'm not being allowed to use myelectric wheelchair, and now you're allowed
to use your electric wheelchair in thefacility. Correct, No, you won't

(07:59):
do that either, Okay, Yeah, you make the phone call. You
make the phone call. Do youhave access to a computer. No,
I just have a tablet. Ohno, tablet works. You want to
start looking up it. Just startputting in discrimination, not allowing transportation,
I mean, just almost everything.You want to throw which agency? And

(08:22):
I think you'll get it because basedon what you say, yeah, I
mean you have some kind of case. I don't think it's going to be
money damages, but certainly being allowedto use the wheelchair. That's kind of
weird administrator saying no, you can'tuse your electric wheelchair to go to a
doctor's appointment, and you can't useyour electric wheelchair in our facility. What

(08:45):
is he supposed to do? JustI guess, roll himself in a non
electric wheelchair or wait for one ofthe staffers, which they're understaff, to
take them around. I don't know. That doesn't make a whole lot of
sense. This is hand on thelaw. Dab hello, dab, yes,

(09:05):
Billy. My husband was a myex husband, excuse me, was
a federal government employee for about twentysix years and um, we divorced after
twenty five years of marriage and threeyears later he retired and I was written
into the retirement plan in the divorce. However, when he retired, he

(09:31):
refused survivor backfot no, I'm sorryhe refused to what he refused survivor benefits?
Okay, in the in the retirementplan, and the retirement plan was
made up of a savings plan,ten percent of his salary and social security.

(09:54):
So um, social Security was notpaid into during that time that a
point whatever percent it was was paidinto the retirement plans. Anyway, he
passed away about four years ago,and I was notified there were no survivor
benefits, and I, you know, for me anyway, I got to

(10:16):
thinking, well, maybe I cango get his social Security. Yeah,
I don't think it works that way. Certainly, the retirement plan that survived
you get half of all, right, because the retirement playment had no survivor
benefits though, So when he passedaway, I was told there were no

(10:37):
survivor benefs you get Basically you getno benefits at all. Is uh?
It was a pension survivor, whichhe can incidentally say, no, I
have a retirement plan through my union, and I can name a beneficiary,
or I could say there is nobeneficiary. I get more money if I
don't name a beneficiary on a retirementplan. Now that's a retirement and the

(11:01):
law allows me to say when Idie, it's over, or a survivor,
I get less money. But it'sthe second person to die. In
other words, if I die first, my spouse ends up getting whatever money,
the same amount of money usually untilthe spouse dies. So I think
that's legitimate. And he refused socialSecurity. He wouldn't take it is that

(11:22):
what you're saying. No, no, no, no, he didn't refuse
social security. This particular plan withOPM, which is the government's administrator of
these retirement plans with the government,specifies that they take the money that would
have gone into social Okay, Iunderstand. I think teachers have the same

(11:46):
plan in California or similar. It'snot so security as a separate plan.
As far as social security is concerned, how much you get and how much
you have earned or should have earned, you call the Social Security Administration.
Actually that's easy because you make anappointment. They're very very good. Make
an appointment, You walk in thedoor, you sit there, and you
wait. And I had a questionabout it. I couldn't get through the

(12:07):
phone, but on the internet,I made an appointment, walked in,
boom, it was done. Now, as far as the retirement plan itself,
it's uh. From my understanding,you can either take it as uh
no survivor and you just take ityourself and when it and when you die,

(12:28):
it dies. So I would startwith Social Security Administration and see where
you go from there. And becauseI'm just living on my own social security,
my own my own social security iswhat I'm living on and I worked
part time. So, um,that's all I get. I get now,
No, I understand, I understand, but I but you know again,

(12:48):
I don't. I don't do that. Did you know that he was
not going to name you as asurvivor, was not going to take the
survivor benefit? No, he uhnever told me and uh opium never informed
me. I don't know, butI don't think they have to. I
just want when I say, doyou know he never talked about it.
My father, for example, hada pension plan. He was a union

(13:11):
electrician, and he said no survivorship. So when he died, my mom
got nothing from the pension. Itdied with him. And so it's,
um, it's just one of thosethings that you have. Now again,
Uh, do you have access toit? Could you ask for it?
I don't know the answer. Sothere are people out there. Uh,

(13:33):
there are lawyers who specialize in USin well actually social security, and they'll
tell you and they're very good aboutit. Just question to find them out
and there it's a subspecialty that dealwith the social security of bitistration. Emma,
Hello, Emma, yes, yeah, go ahead. So we're not

(13:58):
going to be doing this through it. We're not no, no, we're
not gonna be doing this through aspeaker phone. That's not gonna happen,
Emma. They told me it wasokay. Uh it's sounds. Who told
you it was okay to go througha speaker phone. The lady, the
lady that I spoke to because youcan hear me? Well, she said,

(14:18):
well I can't hear you. Well, all right, so that was
I'll talk to her about it,because you know how you feel about speaker
phone. All right, I'll letthis one fly. Go ahead. Oh,
okay, I'm I'm on speaker phonenow, I mean I'm on my
phone right now. Yeah, butyou're on this you're on bluetooth right No,
No, I turned it off.I turned it off. I can't
tell the difference, but go ahead, emma. Okay. So so twenty

(14:41):
years ago, my dad purchased,uh, twenty acres with eight other people.
Uh so, now we want tosubdivide the property, and those eight
p other owners do not want to, So we each half ten acres.

(15:05):
Okay, wait a second, butyou don't each half ten acres. You
each half ten percent of twenty acres. No, my my, my dad
has tan akers and the other angowner'sown ten acres. Okay, let me
ask is your dad still is yourdad still around? It's under my brother's

(15:28):
name. Okay, So it doesn'tmatter what your dad is or is not.
Your brother owns ten acres of land. Yeah, okay, now all
right, So, so how dowe subdivide it if they do not want
to that. I don't think youcan. I don't think you can.
I don't think you can because you'vegot half of people don't want to subdivide

(15:52):
it because they can argue it's notgoing to be worth as much. We
don't want to do it, wedon't want to develop it. Now,
you can force the sale of theland. That you can do, and
under certain circumstances you can force buyingthem out outright. The problem is that

(16:14):
that they've already developed their side.Wait a minute, hold on, wait
wait wait wait wait, that meansthey've subdivided their side. Correct, No,
not to know. How do theydevelop? How do they develop ten
acres without subdividing it? So,so my my brother went into the county

(16:36):
to UH to ask some sort ofform that says UH the fourteen that they
can develop the land with fourteen mobilehomes, you understand, okay, But
let me ask let me ask this, Uh, the ten acres that have
already been developed by the other owners, how were they able to How were

(16:59):
they able to develop ten acres withouta subdivision? Without a subdivision? How
did they were they able to developit unless they put one piece of property
on it or one warehouse on it? I don't know. Did they develop
it with separate lots? There's atmy twenty mobile homes sitting on their side.

(17:21):
Okay, so that's a single Soit was so developing. It was
a single piece of land, allright. So now, uh, how
did they do it without your permission? Through I think through through uh the
the agency. Uh. And andthat we have some records regarding the Indian

(17:48):
reservation. Oh there's an Indian reservationon top of it. Oh my goodness.
All right, So I mean that'sabove my pay grade because once you
bring in Indian reservation. But ifthey were able to develop them, Terry,
they're ten acres. They can't stopyou from developing your ten acres unless
you have laws saying that you know, within a given uh, you can't

(18:10):
have another part of the mobile park. And there's a certain ordinance. You
can have just so many, butnot a lot of that makes sense.
Yeah, it's Indian reservation. Yeah, it doesn't work at least for me.
You know. And I said Iwish I would know more. I
have no desire to know more.This is handle on law and marginal legal

(18:30):
Advice. Molinda. Hello, Melinda, you're upe welcome. Yeah. Sorry,
um, I have a question aboutbeing a school district contract employee,
and in my case, I wantto know what exactly contract means. Well,
you're talking about a ten ninety nineemployee, correct, substitute teacher.

(18:51):
Okay, So when you get paid, do they take out withholding and your
Social Security so you get a netcheck after all everything is removed? Correct?
Okay, So your an employee basically, So they're talking about a contract
employee. Are you guaranteed any lengthof time or you guaranteed a minimum number

(19:11):
of days? Or they just callyou when you need when they need you.
I've had jobs in the last twoyears where I was guaranteed the full
school year. This year I'm ona call basis. Okay, that's fair.
So what is your question. Well, there's a there's a big shortage
of subs and I've done this forabout ten years. And sometimes I'm the

(19:33):
only sub and there's two or moreteachers out and I will they have a
computer program where you go in andthey show you what jobs are available and
you take it, and then that'son the record that you're coming in to
do that job. And I willcome in, like for example, to
teach mass that I've prepped for,and they'll say, well, no,
we really made you. We're gonnahave someone else do that. You know,

(19:55):
another teacher is going to going tocover it. We're gonna have you
go into special ed where I havelike adult mails. I have to change
diapers and things, and I'm alittle old for that. But or or
I'll they'll put me in pe orthey'll say, you know, no,
we need you in this classroom.And when there's a planning period m most
teachers have a planning period. Doyou have about an hour where you don't

(20:18):
have work? Well, I contractfor that job with that planning period,
but they say, well, no, you're going to go in this other
classroom. And teachers get paid togive up their planning periods to do that,
and I don't why, Okay,don't subs don't get paid, but
teachers do. Hey, the contract, it is a contract that you're sign
correct with the school district. It'sa contract. I'm, I'm, it's

(20:44):
a contract. I just go enterthe computer and I take Do you sign
any contract? Is there any signaturewhere you accept? Or is the computer
program itself programmed? The algorithm saysthat uponics, this is the job I
am taking and cannot be transferred.No, it does not. It just

(21:07):
says you will get a phone callor you'll get a message that says,
okay, your number your job number. You have been assigned to this job,
and your record number is blah blahblah. Okay, so you've been
so let me out. So you'vebeen assigned as a math teacher at this
school and you walk in and you'renot a math teacher. You are a
special ed teacher because they need youcorrect. Correct. I don't know what

(21:32):
the policy of the school district is. It depends on the policy of the
school district. It depends on thefine print. And you're going to argue
that I'm contracted only to teach mathand I don't want to go anyplace else,
And you may be right. Theycan't force you to do that.
On the other hand, they certainlycannot call you. They have the right
to say, Okay, you're notwilling to do that, we don't call

(21:55):
you. I mean, what areyou gonna do force them to put you
in that math class? I don'twant to get You don't want to get
what. I don't want to getblacklisted? And I really doubt our school
district has any extensive policy. Let'sget practical for a moment. Can you
force the issue? Probably, andhere is what you're going to force.

(22:21):
You're going to make them. There'llbe a court order assuming that you win
and change the policy and say,I, if you're signed up for math,
you walk in. They can onlyyou can only teach math. Okay,
you're not gonna get any money forit, mind you, it's just
going to be the policy changes andyou will be blacklisted. They'll figure out

(22:44):
a way saying you are the onethat brought this to us. Oh,
and are you part of the union. There's no substitute teachers here? Okay,
so you can. So you getto pay for the whole the whole
program. You get to hire alawyer and spend thousand dollars doing that and
if I am you are what Iam. I am part of the California

(23:06):
Teachers. They let me sign upfor that, so I may. I
don't know if there's talk to them, talk to them and see if they'll
do it. My guess is theywon't. But you know it doesn't hurt.
But I'll tell you what I wouldn'tdo is go and pay thousands of
dollars to make them change that policy. And maybe you force them. Maybe

(23:27):
a judge rules. Okay, ifyou're signing up for math, they have
to give you math and nothing else. Don't know the answer. Kyle,
Hello, Kyle, welcome. Wellin San Pedro is a ten year old
residential age fifty five apartment building.Always they had three parking places, which

(23:48):
was never enough assigned for visitors only. Okay, and your question, we
just lose Kyle, we did.I'll put him on hold. Probably went
through a cell that was not doingwell. Bonnie, Hi, Bonnie,

(24:11):
you're up. Welcome to handle onthe law. Hey, Bim, we
have a million plus home and probablyanother million in financial assets. We only
have one daughter and we right nowwe have the simple wills. What are
the benefits of turning this over intoa revocable trust. You know your daughter

(24:36):
gets the property sooner. It's alot less hassle. You don't have to
open up probate. So what youdo is, I mean, probably the
easiest way is to transfer everything intoa trust and a revocable trust, and
then when you die, whoever yourname is trustee and if your daughter is
the only beneficiary, she can bethe trustee and then transfer the property to

(25:00):
herself. That's probably the easiest.But you can do a will too,
that has to be probated, anda probate attorney is going to go in
there, and a probate attorney isgoing to charge some money and they're not
particularly inexpensive, and it's going totake a while, but you end up
at the same place. The onlydifference is do you want the court protection
over it? And if I werein your shoes, I would not.

(25:22):
I think I would just do itin a trust. Just easy, and
you can do it through an internet. I don't think you need a lawyer,
especially if you have, well theassets. How complicated are the assets
to turn in? Transfer you intoa trust? The house is easy.
How about the assets? You know, just seeds and yeah, so you
can transfer all of that where youas an owner of CD, just all

(25:45):
of a sudden, you don't becomean owner of CD. It becomes the
Bonnie and her husband trust is areyou are you by yourself or you have
a dead husband on your hands.I have an eighty three year old boy.
I mean sometimes she's dead. Okay, I got it, all right,
So he's close to death. Soboth of you just transfer the property
into a trust and that would probablybe the easiest way. And it's simple,

(26:08):
it's really simple. All right,let me go, Oh you know
what, let's take a break andwe'll take the last break of the out
the hour and come back. Andfor those of you on the phone,
don't worry about it. We're gonnaget through. This is handle on the
lawn. Marginal legal advice. Dennis, Yes, Dennis, Hey, good

(26:32):
morning Bill. I was Grant neededa property out in Sanborddino County, unincorporated.
This was a marijuana grow um.It was about six months away from
being auctioned due to back property taxes, had about forty thousand dollars and fines
for getting busted the kid. Grantneeded the property to me because I'm an
IDW Union electrician. The inspector isa retired IDW Union electrician. He hooked

(26:56):
me up and he got a lotof those all that stuff, all those
fines he alleviated. I just hadto make some corrections and I got that
all resolved. Um. I gotthe property taxes on a payment plan.
So that's resolved. Now there's atenant there that's never paid rent or utilities
and he managed to grow. Um, he's still there. He keeps saying
he's gonna leave, but it doesn'tlook like he's gonna leave anytime soon.

(27:21):
And I want to get this propertysold. Do I need to hire an
attorney or yeah? Because you haveto a victim. H Dennis, you
have to a victim? Or CanI do that without an attorney? Um?
Yeah, he probably can. SamSam Bernadino Sammy Berdino is a little
tough because if he finds out I'mevicting him, he can force the issue

(27:41):
of utilities. It's my understanding thatI could be forced to pay his utilities.
All the utilities you're shut off.I've never had utilities out there in
my name. Yeah, and Idon't I don't think so. I don't
think so. Because he is therewith utilities. You were never responsible for
utilities. I think you're all righton this one. And yes, a
simple eviction and you can do iton your own, just follow all of

(28:03):
the rules. There's no rank controlin San Berdino County, so it's not
that complicated. And if he fightsit, then you hire a tenant landlord
tenant attorney. If he fights it, Uh, you know, you can
take this thing for several months.But that's it's a fairly easy eviction.
By the way, what local areyou with the ib W I'm local forty

(28:25):
emotion picture okay, need picture studioa lot. Yeah, my dad was
a local eleven Uh with the ibwad out yeah la la yeah, yeah
right, he was there for thirtyfive years and uh yeah he's a great
it's a great tension us, fabulouspicture with the with the motion picture.

(28:47):
They actually kick in an extra annuityand uh, full medical for you in
his spouse for life after twenty years. Yeah, and that's exactly. Uh,
it was full medical. My mothershe called me up when day a
few years after my dad died andjust got so upset because they raised her
uh monthly co paid to thirteen bucksand she went out of her mind.

(29:11):
Yeah, it's a great. It'sa tough job, but it's a great
Yeah, No, it really is. But the answer, yeah, the
answer is, uh, yeah youcan. You can a victim, and
I would try it on my ownfirst, uh, and a landlord tenant
attorney. I mean it may costa couple of thousand dollars to get him
out if he fights it, butyou know, considering yeah, well he

(29:33):
knows it would go faster only becausethey know what they're doing. Yeah,
because I just want to sell thisplace and recruit my Okay, And if
you want to sell it as quicklyas possible, I would hire a landlord
tenant attorney. How much is thisproperty worth, Dennis, It's only worth
about one hundred and thirty thousand.Well, okay, I mean if you
want to spend I've already gotten likefifteen thousand pounds of trash out of that.

(29:57):
Okay. So yeah, I meanyou that's your choice. You can
do it on your own. Ifyou know what you're doing, it goes
quickly. If you have to learnwhat you're doing, you'll make some mistakes.
And if you hire a landlord tenantattorney who was experiencing this stuff.
It'll go as fast as it possiblycan go. So that's not a legal
question, that's simply how you wantto how you want to deal with it.

(30:18):
Susan, Hi, Susan, welcome. Hi Bill. How you doing,
Yes, ma'am him. I gotmarried two years ago and my husband
Oz IRS about sixty thousand dollars.I bought a house before I married him.
He's not untitled, he's not onthe loan or anything. Can the
i RS come after my asset?No? Not really, not really.

(30:41):
I mean they may, you know, ask you, and they may say,
hey, you're married, and butit was clearly his property. It
was clearly everything up to marriage ishis business. And if nothing much happened
with you know, after the marriage, property put into both of your names,
etc. No, I think you'regonna be okay. Uh yeah,

(31:03):
you tell your I tell you IRS. I'm done. It has nothing to
do with me. I didn't evenknow he owed taxes. There's a whole
series of rules and regulations. ButI think you're I think you're okay.
And why would you marry someone thatowes sixty thousand dollars to the IRSA?
Because I didn't know? Say,there you go that's exactly my point,
that is, and the IRS recognizesthat, so I wouldn't sweat that one.

(31:26):
Now, before we go, aquick word about phone calls. For
those of you on hold, stayput because I will still take phone calls
right after the show off the airand that so you stay on hold,
or if you want to call in, eight hundred and five two zero one,
five three four is a number tocall. And if the lines are

(31:48):
busy as you're calling in, justwait five minutes because I go through these
calls like crazy, no commercials oranything. Also, before we leave,
and remind you that if you owna small business and you got through COVID,
you were able to retain five ormore employees, you could be eligible
for that payroll tax refund of upto twenty six thousand dollars per employee.

(32:10):
So let me suggest going to getrefunds dot com. You answer a few
questions, it takes under ten minutesand you'll see if your business qualifies for
this tax refund. And it isa refund. It is not a loan
you get from the government, sothere's no charge up front. They don't
get paid unless until you get paid. And businesses of all types qualify,

(32:32):
even those it took PPP loan moneyand nonprofits or had increases in sales during
COVID. Is a good chance yourbusiness qualifies. They have already refunded or
get refunds. Dot Com has alreadyarranged for the refunds of over five billion
dollars to businesses. So go toget Refunds dot Com, click on the

(32:53):
qualifying Me button, You answer thosefew questions and see if you qualify.
Bet you you have an excellent chance. Go to get refunds dot Com.
Getrefunds dot Com. And remember I'mtaking phone calls and I will continue to
do so after the end of theshow. As we go into rich Deburo

(33:15):
and the number is eight hundred fivetwo zero one five three four. Eight
hundred five two zero one five threefour. This is handle on the law