Show Notes (12.16)

LHL is back tomorrow and has quite an interesting show planned. Legal Help Live will be covering a variety of topics ranging from Supreme Court cases, male prostitution, marijuana legalization, and other topics you can find listed below.

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
Supreme Court to Review Text Messages in Employee Privacy Case
-A swat officer claimed he had an exception of privacy that would prevent the city from retrieving sexually explicated texts he sent to his wife and mistress and others.
Nev. Brothel aims to offer 1st male prostitutes
-Owner of a brothel in Las Vegas aims to hire Nevada’s first legal prostitutes within a month.
Marijuana legalization initiative headed for 2010 ballot, organizers say
-Supporters of an initiative that would legalize marijuana in CA say they have collected enough signatures to ensure that it will be on the November 2010 ballot.
California adopts stricter rules for drug abusers in the health industry
-Nurses, dentists, and other professionals with addictions will be subject to more drug tests, and any restrictions to their licenses will be listed on public websites.
Effects of judge’s Katrina ruling could be huge.
-The harshly worded legal ruling held the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers responsible for much of the flooding during Hurricane Katrina.
Foreclosures will keep rising through 2010.
-Mortgage Bankers Assn. says delinquencies and home repossessions have hit a new high. Blaming job losses for most of the pain, it sees a continued surge in foreclosure through all of next year.
UC Regent approve 32% student fee hike.
-The decision was made with little debate after a lengthy committee discussion Wednesday. Thousands of students and labor union activists effect throughout the television industry.
‘BMW Bandits’ have extended their operation into the San Fernando Valley.
-The thieves known for stealing air bags and headlights from luxury cars in the Westside and Mid-Wilshire areas have targeted about 10 vehicles, not all BMW’s, in the Valley.
Porn Kings trying to release Prejean sex tape.
-The world’s largest porn company has obtained a copy of the Carrie Prejean solo sex tape and are trying desperately to release it.
A setback in Maine for Gay Marriage, but Medical Marijuana Law Expands
Hollywood Spider-Man impersonator caught in legal web.
Boxer Mike Tyson is arrested after altercation at LAX
McCourt Divorce – Dodger cuts 87 year old part time baseball scout from $18,000 to $8,000 per year.

Show Notes (12.2)

Legal Help Lives got a packed show this week. We're going to be discussing numerous topics including Gov. Schwarzenegger's problems with the law and Obama's uninvited guests as well as taking calls on your legal questions and issues beginning at 4 PM.

Legal Help Live is a live on air show based in Los Angeles. You can catch us on Channel 36 (la36.org) in Los Angeles, or on Channel 16 in Santa Monica. The Legal Help Live experts deal with all sorts of topics and are your resource on legal matters ranging from traffic tickets, to personal injury, workers rights violations, to you name it. If you've got a question just give Legal Help Live a call at 1 (800) 405-4222.

If you can't watch the show on TV, check it out online at la36.org.

Show Topics 12.2
California Athletic Commission
-Fighters can be disciplined for marijuana use
Sex Offenders booted from two online social networking sites
-more than 3,500 convicted sex offenders were kicked on Facebook and MySpace in the first sweep under the NY Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act.
Serena given a fine due to her outburst at the US Open
Gov. Schwarzenegger caught breaking traffic laws
Sylvester Stallone in violation of seatbelt law
IRS saws Schwarzenegger owes over $79,000.
Scams for press coverage and the legal problem create.
Obama’s uninvited guests prompt inquiry
Swiss Authorities will not appeal ruling allowing Roman Polanski out on bail.

If there's a topic you'd like to see discussed, leave a comment below or tweet LHL @legalhelplive.

Protecting Yourself from Illegal Contractors

With any natural disaster comes rebuilding, unfortunately many out there seek to capitalize on that at the expense of those who already can't afford it. In an LA Times article titled "Authorities Seek to Warn Station Fire Victims about Illegal Contractors" the question of how to protect you, the home owner, from unscrupulous contractors is raised.

Here's what Legal Help Lives Stephen Jamieson had to say:

It irks me (legal phrase, given I am lawyer) that people are out there to victimize the victimized in these times of great strife and tragedy. this is especially true when it occurs during a horrible recession and people are likely at their most vulnerable position even before the fires. Contractors always need to be licensed. If they are not licensed they are not entitled to be paid. That is the law. Don't pay them in advance and don't hire them unless and until they are confirmed to be licensed and insured. No exceptions!

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?

Legal Help Live - from March 4, 2009

Stephen Warren Solomon and Ralph B Saltsman on Internet Dating

Internet dating websites bombard us daily. “CraigsList” and “Seeking Arrangement” and “E-Harmony” and “Match.com” are all trying to draw men and women who want sex, companionship or marriage to view their sites and join their programs. No one can open the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times without seeing articles and ads enticing the reader into the chase. How many fatal attractions, rapists or other unsavories are lurking in any of these services lying in wait to cause injury or emotional damage? No one really knows. Who is legally liable when patron becomes victim by meeting then dating an internet contact when that victim is stalked, raped, or murdered?

Beyond the actual criminal actor, one obvious target for legal liability is the Web company. But those businesses are shielded by legal immunities constructed to protect web providers. If a website has done nothing to verify information provided by a participant, shouldn’t the law hold the site liable when that participant harms another lured by that site? One could argue that the providers need to determine the accuracy of information before it’s out on the internet. The legal theory is not much different then for the car dealer who sells defective automobiles or for the restaurant that serves contaminated food. Those businesses may be liable for damages caused. Even in commercial “speech” the First Amendment protects the internet, but those commercial internet systems should not be wholly absolved from the responsibility of providing basic customer protections. In our instantaneous electronic society, the concept of buyer beware does not provide adequate basic protection from injury or death arising from internet contacts. Of course, it will take an act of Congress strike a better balance.

Legal Help Live From February 18th

Here's the opening banter from our February 18th show. We always enjoy taking your calls and offering you advice and opinions!

Tragedy Strikes A Young Angels Pitcher

Angel’s pitcher Nick Adenhart was tragically killed in a hit and run car accident in Fullerton, CA on April 9th after being struck by a drunk driver who ran an intersection at a speed of approximately 50 to 65 miles per hour. The driver fled the scene on foot and was captured by police 30 minutes later. 

 
In addition to criminal charges, the drunk driver may be subject to a civil suit for wrongful death by the victim’s family. Stephen Jamieson and Stephen Solomon, partners of the law firm, Solomon, Saltsman, & Jamieson, and co-hosts of the live television show, Legal Help Live, say that “it may be possible to file a civil wrongful death case against the driver or the city or state that operated the intersection. This case could not bring back the life of the Angel’s pitcher, but might generate millions of dollars for the family.”