Insurance Claim1

So, barreling down the road on my way to work this morning, I happened to glance to my right and I see this young woman tugging on a very,  very  short skirt whilst attempted to put money in a parking meter.  I'm thinking...if you're embarrassed that you don't have enough material to hide your bare legs (and near-bare bottom), you might want to consider wearing a longer dress.   I'm just sayin. Of course, this brought to mind an embarrassing situation involving a young attorney who came in our library a while back.  Seems Young Attorney was preparing to file a complaint in Superior Court.   Simple enough.  Prepare the complaint , the civil case cover sheet , proof of service , that sort of thing. Of course, I tried to tell Young Attorney about the three things he needed but being young AND an attorney, he kinda didn't have any patience to listen to an omnipotent law Librarian. So, the FIRST time Young Attorney went to t...

Once upon a time, I was in the market to buy a house.  The wife and I searched everywhere.  Some houses were big, some small, some white, and one was this funky-psychedelic-freak-your-eyes-out-color.  Heck, there was this one that was so beat-up we called it the Lebanon house (because it was the worse fixer-upper we'd ever seen). One thing that I was looking for was what kind of neighborhood might we live in.  Some of the houses were in quiet neighborhoods.  Some were on (or near) a main drag with lots of car traffic.  The thing I would do is ask around and find out if people were good neighbors; were they loud, have bratty kids, have any kids (for our kids to play with), and whether they were nosey neighbors .   You know the kind - people who have to stick their nose in everything; have to know what all is going on around them.  Their house may fall apart but they've got to know what everyone else is doing.  It took us a lon...

Do you find satisfaction at work?   Do you like what you do? Have you ever thought, while sitting in your cubicle that you had found the perfect job? As a law Librarian, those thoughts have crossed my mind.  I mean, dig my gig, I do.  I really get into helping people find answers to funky legal questions.  Problem is that sometimes the answer to the question is not what is wanted.  When that happens, hell hath no fury. Take, for instance the lady who came in the other day.  Seems lady had sued for a sum of money in small claims court a while back - and she won! Drunk with success, lady waited a few years and decided to roll the dice again and file the same lawsuit against the same parties in a higher court (so she could get more money).  Imagine lady's chagrin when the defendant's serve her with a motion for demurrer  declaring that she can't sue them again for the same thing. She is floored and wants to know how to get a...

Once upon a time someone told me that everyone has a book inside of them.  Well, you might have a book in you, but getting someone else to read it is a whole nuther problem. Such was the case with an enterprising young lady.  Seems Lady had caught the vision and started writing a book about farm animals.  The first few editions were stories about raising and caring for farm animals.  Apparently, there were a whole lot of books on the raising and caring for farm animals and so her book wasn't selling very well. Not getting the reviews (or sales) she had hoped for, she started writing about the darker side of owning farm animals.  Specifically, she wanted to write an exposè, of sorts, on the...uh...love and...um...affection certain humans have had with farm animals. Yeah, that's one way to describe it.  Not something I'd want to read but, apparently, there's a market for that sort of stuff. The next edition got better reviews (and sales) from her ...

Today's news brings us the story of deceit and skulduggery. Seems Assemblyman Jim Frazier (a democrat representing the area of Oakley ) is proposing a bill ( AB 2353 ) in the California Assembly that would cut the limitation of actions for construction defect claims from 10 years to 5 years. See, there's this building called the Millennium Tower which is located in San Francisco. It is a 58-story luxury residential building (i.e. condos ) and it is sinking . Not only has it sunk 17 inches since its completion in 2008, but it's now leaning 14 inches towards a nearby skyscraper. The kicker is that the leaning and sinking weren't realized until year 7 (which, under Politician Frazier's bill, would have precluded any lawsuits against the developers). So, how might this apply to Joe Consumer (you know, people not living in the Millennium Tower)?  Say you bought a new home in California.  Let's say that 5 years and 1 day after you bought your house, you...

A few year back, I was an avid Facebook user.  That's "user" as in a hard-core junkie.  It was a visceral need to log on and check out the world.  OH COME ON, don't roll your eyes at me.  You (or most of you) do/did it, too.  You'd log on, post stuff that your closest friends don't care about hoping that someone in the world will listen, like, and respond. Thing is, the only reason I was even on Facebook was because it allowed me to upload my blog posts every week.  Then, one day, I got an error message and Facebook began blocking my posts resulting in my turning off my Facebook account.  Cold turkey, I did.   For the first couple of weeks, I went through withdrawals.  Then came the emails from friends asking me where I went.  My sister even called to make sure I wasn't sick or dead (true story).  The funny thing is that Facebook had become a drug (more like a time suck) and initially it was hard to stay away. ...

Once upon a time, long before I became an omnipotent law Librarian, I was a process server.  I dodged bullets, cars, and swinging fists of fury and I learned pretty quick that people really don't like process servers .  They don't like them because most process servers are handing out bad news (i.e. you're being sued).   One time I had to server process on a police officer whose wife was divorcing him.  He hid behind his badge for weeks.  Finally, I was able to catch up to him and as I handed him the legal documents, he opened his car door to let his service dog out to attack me.  Luckily for me, his 3 year-old boy also jumped out of the car and he had to hold on to the dog as he watched me run away. So, what is a process server ?  According to B lack's Law Dictionary (10th Edition), a PROCESS SERVER is: A person authorized by law or by a court to formally deliver process to a defendant or respondent. In layman's terms, a PROCESS SERVE...

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...

Does anyone really think they can get justice in this world, anymore?  Anyone?!  OK, OK, I realize there are some true believers who think that because they wear a long black dress everyday, that judges will ignore the the world around them and base their decision on the facts and rule of law . That's the hope, anyway. Thing is, anyone that pays attention to politics knows this is not (or no longer) the case.  For example.  I was reading the paper the other day and read an article in the Los Angeles Times ( New tilt to state high court? ).  Seems Kathryn Werdegar is on the California Supreme Court and she's retiring from years of service.  She was initially appointed to the California Supreme Court by then Governor Pete Wilson (a Republican) in 1994.  With the retirement of an evil Republican appointment, Gov. Moonbeam can now set things "right" and inject some Democrat blood into the high court's mix with a "new" Democrat appointment. What ...

Do you know what you know?  When you are at work, are you always scrambling around trying to figure out what it is you are supposed to do OR do you know what to do and where to go when someone asks you to help them find whatever it is you're supposed to know?  That's how it is with experts -  we go to them because they know what they know. This reminds me of an incident I had a while back after my wife had an accident.  Took out the front left bumper, she did. The other party was "at fault" and she asked that we use her body repair guy.  Body repair guy comes over to my house to give me a quote on the repairs and in the course of our discussion, he sees that the camshaft sensor and shaft is about to fail and he tells me how to fix it.   First you remove the four bolts that hold the power steering reservoir and slide that back. Then you remove this other 10mm bolt that holds the cam shaft sensor, pull the shaft straight out and insert a new cam sh...

I'm not paranoid.  Really, I'm not.  I just get skittish when government "officials" say there is nothing to worry about.  Really?!  If there is one group of people of whom you should be afraid, it is government "officials" who say there is nothing to be afraid of. Don't believe me?  Remember back when Edward Snowden distributed all that information during the Obama Administration?  Shortly after that revelation, POTUS Obama stated that ,  American's shouldn't be too worried about these disclosures because all three branches of government had blessed the programs and activities that were being disclosed. While that was a true statement, what was important to note is that what Obama was actually saying is that every branch of government was in on the fix .  The SCOTUS, the POTUS, and both houses of the federal legislature knew that the U.S. Constitution was being used as toilet paper to collect information on we the people - and the fed...