Legal Help Live Show Notes

Legal Help Live offers free legal advice each Wednesday at 4 PM. During the show the Hosts take calls from viewers with legal situations from parking tickets to personal injury. Viewers can catch the show on LA cable channel 36 or 16 in Santa Monica. Online the show can be viewed on LA36.org.

If you'd like to ask the Hosts a question call 1(800)405-4222

SHOW TOPICS 8-4-2010

-CITY OF BELL PENSION-CM $ 600,000 A YEAR PENSION-POLICE CHIEF 411,300
PENSION -Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, convicted of
witness tampering, receives a pension of about $215,000 a year. Robert
Citron, who led Orange County into bankruptcy in 1994, collects
$142,000. And Former Vernon City Manager Bruce Malkenhorst Sr.,
indicted for misappropriating public funds, collects the highest
public pension in California, $509,664.
-Does this make my butt look big? Good. -You know you're not on the cutting edge of fashion when you learn about a new trend from the Wall Street Journal, as I did this week in reading a front-page story about the growing market for padded
undergarments to enhance a woman's rear end. Talk about being behind
the curve; there I was still trying to slim down at the gym while JLo,
Beyoncé and maybe even "Mad Men's" uber-curvaceous Joan Holloway were
moving tastes in the other directio
-PERSONAL INJURY & TORTS Adults Who Serve Minors Liable-By Ciaran McEvoy -Daily Journal Staff Writer -A bill that seeks to dismantle California's barrier preventing
lawsuits against adults who knowingly provide alcohol to minors in the
home passed the State Assembly and awaits the signature of Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger. AB 2486 the Teen Alcohol Safety Act of 2010 passed by
a 67-1 vote. The bill was inspired by the December 2008 death of
17-year-old Shelby Allen of Redding, who died from alcohol poisoning
at a friend's home with the parents present. California is one of only
three states that prohibit civil liability against adults in cases of
alcohol-related injury or death.
-VA ALLOWS MED MARAJUANA IN 14 STATES CA IS INCLUDED
Long Beach City Council votes to pursue medical marijuana tax -8 to 1 on Tuesday night to hold a%The Long Beach City Council voted public hearing next month on whether to place a measure on the November ballot that would levy a 5% tax on medical marijuana
collectives.
-Man falls off surgical table; St. Joseph's Hospital sued-When straps holding a 300-pound, 61-year-old St. Paul man to a surgical table failed, he hit his head on the floor and later died.
-22,700 died since 2007 in Mexican drug war-la times
-Some customers heated over indoor ‘tan tax,' which was part of health-care law-10 percent
-Goldman's $550 million SEC settlement: Who gets the money? -Of the $550 million that Goldman Sachs Group on Thursday agreed to pay to settle the government’s securities fraud suit against the company,$300 million will go to the Treasury as a penalty.
Your share as one of 310 million Americans: about 97 cents. The other $250 million will reimburse two sophisticated investors that were among Europe’s biggest casualties of the global financial-system crash. They were the ones Goldman allegedly duped -- although the Wall Street titan had insisted to the SEC that the investors knew exactly
what they were getting into, or should have known. The German bank IKB in 2007 bought $150 million of the subprime-mortgage-related securities that Goldman concocted and sold.
The SEC alleges that Goldman failed to disclose in its marketing materials that the securities were chosen in part by a hedge fund thatwas betting on their failure.
IKB lost its entire $150 million as the securities crumbled in value with the housing bust. It will get all of that back from Goldman. Interestingly enough, IKB had its own struggle with accurate disclosure: The bank’s former CEO on Wednesday was convicted in
Germany of misleading IKB’s investors about the extent of the bank’s investments in U.S. subprime loans in 2007. IKB required a series of German government bailouts in 2007 and 2008. It was sold later in 2008 to Lone Star Funds, a Dallas-based private
equity firm. Goldman also will pay $100 million to Royal Bank of Scotland, which
bought the Dutch bank ABN AMRO in late 2007. Via credit default swaps, ABN AMRO in 2007 had agreed to insure the highest-quality portions of the Goldman securities. It was a bad move: The collapse of the securities left ABN AMRO on the hook for $841 million. That’s what Royal Bank of Scotland paid to Goldman in August 2008 to unwind the insurance deal. Most of that sum was subsequently paid by Goldman to Paulson & Co., the hedge fund that had helped design the deal. Royal Bank of Scotland had to be rescued by the British government in late 2008 as the bank’s credit losses deepened. Goldman shouldn't have much trouble writing those reimbursement checks: The $550 million amounts to just 16% of the $3.46 billion the firm earned in the first quarter alone, and 4% of its $13.4-billion in full-year 2009 profit
-PERSONAL INJURY & TORTS-Adults Who Serve Minors Liable-By Ciaran McEvoy-Daily Journal
A bill that seeks to dismantle California's barrier preventing lawsuits against adults who knowingly provide alcohol to minors in the home passed the State Assembly and awaits the signature of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. AB 2486 the Teen Alcohol Safety Act of 2010 passed by a 67-1 vote. The bill was inspired by the December 2008 death of 17-year-old Shelby Allen of Redding, who died from alcohol poisoning at a friend's home with the parents present. California is one of only three states that prohibit civil liability against adults in cases of alcohol-related injury or death.
-Ex-NFL Player Sues Electronic Arts-By Jean-Luc Renault-Daily Journal Staff Writer
A former professional football player has claimed in a federal class action that a major video game publisher improperly used his and other retired athletes' likenesses in a popular game without permission. The complaint, filed in San Francisco last week, is the latest round in an ongoing fight over the use of professional and college athletes'
images in video games. Athletes have filed several lawsuits against publisher Electronic Arts in recent years, claiming right-of-publicity and trademark violations under both California and federal law.
-Are Medical Marijuana Dispensaries on the Chopping Block?-By Ellin Davtyan
Local governments throughout California are anxiously awaiting the ruling in Qualified Patients Association v. City of Anaheim (G040077). The issue before the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division Three, is one of first impression on whether local governments can enact regulations entirely prohibiting the operation of medical marijuana
dispensaries.