Show Notes

At Legal Help Live TV we cover all types of legal related topics. You can tune in each week at 4 PM on Channel 36 in Los Angeles and 16 in Santa Monica. If you'd like to call in with a legal matter just dial 1(800) 405-4222 to speak to a host.

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Previous Show Topics Include:

Exotic Dancers, Wages, and the IRS

Roman Polanski

Guns now allowed in Arizona Bars

Vallejo Police Outsource Report Writing

Appeals court dismisses Dan Rather's suit vs. CBS

City Council demands answers/solutions to L.A. water main failures

1 Skydiver dies, another injured after mid-air collision

Coyote reportedly attacks man in Griffith Park

Contestant sues reality show, claims she was shocked and humiliated

Is a second execution attempt cruel and unusual

Pregnant mother forced to give up IVF baby after doctors gave her wrong embryo

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Do we need another law on alcohol sales to minors?

In response to an LA Times article from 7/8 titled "Alcohol sales to minors a problem with self-service checkout" Ralph Saltsman of Legal Help Live had this to say:

As to AB 1060 which would disallow self-checking of alcoholic beverages at retail stores, according to Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control statistics, programs implemented in the mid-1990’s have diminished sales of alcohol to minors significantly. That may be why the ABC does not support the pending legislation. Existing law strictly prohibits sales to minors. The seller is faced with misdemeanor prosecution. The licensee is faced with a substantial fine and if the offense is repeated twice within 36 months of the date of the first violation, the license will be revoked. Revocation means forever.

Since the ABC began its program of funding local police departments to set up decoy programs throughout the state in 1995, sales to minors have dropped. Can a kid outwit a self-checkout system? Of course. Can that kid also outwit a trained clerk who is armed with electronic scanning devices? The answer is still yes.

As the law firm which represents ABC retail licenses statewide and which litigates disciplinary proceedings brought by the ABC against licensees, I believe we have some insight which may contribute to the analysis of the controversy between self-checking and clerical checking. Our observation is that there are no systems which cannot be circumvented, but the legislature’s, the state agency’s and retailers’ mutual obligation is to minimize sales to minors without destroying a significant part of the state’s economy at the same time. Statutes on the books now and the diligent oversight by the ABC with local police together with in-store systems and training seem to be addressing the age-old problem of the under-aged obtaining alcohol. Why interfere with a system that seems to now be making things better?

Families Sue City of Newport for Broken Neck and Drowning

Two local families have recently sued the city of Newport for the March 2008 drowning of 17 year old Victor Want and an August 2008 incident in which a young man dived into a wave and broke his neck.  Wang’s family seeks $20 million from the city, claiming that “there were no flags posted or visible showing that there was high surf or high wind conditions.”  The second young man’s claim seeks $500,000 claiming that an unspecified “dangerous condition of public property” and a “failure to warn” were the cause of his neck injury.

 

California Government Code § 831.2 states that public entities are not liable for injuries caused by dangerous conditions of unimproved public property.  However, § 835 of the Code states that a public entity is liable for injury caused by a dangerous condition of its property if it was in a dangerous condition and the public entity did not take measures to protect against a known condition.  Stephen Jamieson, partner with the Playa del Rey, California law firm, Solomon, Saltsman & Jamieson, and co-host of the weekly televised talk show, Legal Help Live, says cases where the government is a defendant present unique issues of “notice” and an opportunity to fix a known problem, as well as evaluating if governmental immunities are applicable.  Cases like this present special challenges to lawyers so victims should always assess what area of expertise is possessed by counsel they are considering to retain.