Insurance Claim1

You gotta wonder what judges are thinking when they hand down decisions.  Sometimes, you think they're going one way and then they go another.  Sometimes, they come up with decisions that are so "novel" that you gotta wonder where they came up with that one. For example, I was reading the Daily Journal the other day and found People v. Garcia, 2017 DJDAR 10777 (2017).  Now, I'm not complaining about this case.  In fact, I'm applauding the courts decision - it's just the way they got to their decision that is baffling. The facts of this case are that Pedro Garcia was staying as a guest at his sister-in-law's house.  At some point while he was a guest, he forcibly raped and sodomized his 12-year-old niece (who was also at sister-in-laws home as a guest and was a family member).  Garcia was, subsequently, convicted of forcible sex crimes against a child under 14 AND first degree burglary. See, the masalah is that burglary is generally associated with...

I think it was Woody Allen who said, "Eighty percent of success is just showing up."  Good thought since most people who need legal help think they're so unqualified that they can't even help themselves. Take, for example, the lady who came into my law library the other day.  Seems she lives next to a house and they share a common driveway.  In fact, she and he both have a common easement.  For those that don't know, an  EASEMENT is a right to cross or otherwise use someone else's land for a specified purpose.  In this case, she needed the common road to access her house. The duduk perkara was that the other guy was acting like a jerk by blocking her access to the driveway.  He'd park his car in the middle of the road or block it with chairs and rubbish.  It got so bad that when she had to call an ambulance one evening, they couldn't get through because of the rubbish blocking access. When lady had had enough, she called the police but...

You gotta wonder the timing of some things. Take, for instance, November.   November is the month for Thanksgiving and Veterans and wouldn't you know it but just the other day, I had a young Marine come into our law library seeking assistance? Seems a few months back, he was serving overseas. When he got home and was sifting through his mail, he found that he had been served a complaint for a sizable sum of money. Because he didn't respond after 30 days, a default was entered against him. So, let's recap.  Military man is serving overseas and while he was deployed, he was served and a judgement was entered against him.  I think that the operative words here are: WHILE HE WAS DEPLOYED .  The thing is, courts really don't like it when people take advantage of persons serving in the military.  Really, REALLY. I guess because politicians don't like it they created the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) in 2003 under 50 USC 3901-4043 . ...

The longer I work in the business of law, the less I am surprised about things. Things like judges who make law on the bench .  Things like politicians who think they're above the law .  Things like police who think the're above the law (in the video below, the Public Defender is defending her client and is arrested for doing so - and the police go and violate the law messing up the whole process ( fruit of the poisonous tree , and all). Thing is, daily I see or read about instances where the police ignore the rule(s) of law to effectuate an arrest and it makes me wonder whether police get prizes for arresting people?  So, for a jaywalking arrest, you get a whistle; for a misdemeanor, you get a dozen donuts; for a wobbler felony, you get a pony.  Is there some competition to chalk up arrests?  I got to wondering about this after helping this Guy who came into the library for help.   Seems Guy had been walking through a local public park one day ...