by Andy Chen | Jul 24, 2013 | Philosophy
Much is said these days about the state of the economy (booth US and world) as well as problems like persistent unemployment, the increasing number of people on entitlement programs, etc. Many people wonder aloud about where the jobs of tomorrow will come from and what kind of future and economy their children will live in. If you stop and think about it logically, the problem is actually much overblown and the analysis starts with this simple picture. On the left is a flip-style phone common up until about 2007, when the first generation iPhone was introduced. On the right is a Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone. The phone on the left is prepaid and costs about $20 per month. The phone on the right is under contract and costs roughly $50 per month. Given the price difference, you would think most people would avoid the phone on the right, but you’d be wrong. The question then becomes: why do people pay more for the phone on the right? Answer: the phone on the right allows you to do much more stuff than the phone on the left. In other words, people pay more for the phone on the right because it is more useful than the phone on the left. This leads to the first big lesson: People pay more for things that are more useful to them. This should not come as a surprise if you think generally about why people spend money. Regardless of what you buy — a car, a sandwich, a vacation to Bora Bora — you spend money in order to solve a problem. The...
by Andy Chen | Jul 21, 2013 | California, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
A few weeks ago, I was called upon by a former client to deal with the aftermath of a close friend passing away suddenly. The passing did not occur in a hospital so the deceased’s body was taken by the county coroner. If you were like me, you’ve never dealt with a situation like that before. One big question I had was how long does the county coroner’s office hold on to the deceased’s body? After a bit of research, this is what I found. Hopefully it will help you as well. The question of how long the coroner will keep the body is specified by California law in Health and Safety Code section 7104.1 which states the following: If, within 30 days after the coroner notifies or diligently attempts to notify the person responsible for the interment of a decedent's remains which are in the possession of the coroner, the person fails, refuses, or neglects to inter the remains, the coroner may inter the remains. The coroner may recover any expenses of the interment from the responsible person. In lay person’s terms, the coroner has 30 days in which to locate and notify the deceased’s family to come claim the body. As the Santa Clara County coroner was kind of enough to tell me, a county coroner is a law enforcement agency and has the same access to law enforcement databases and research tools to locate people that a police department or sheriff’s office might. The other big question I had was what happens if the deceased’s family is located, but fails to claim the body for whatever...
by Andy Chen | Jul 14, 2013 | Philosophy
I’m sure all of us have witnessed a moment when, for example, an older person gets confused about a piece of technology. For example, it might be a parent or elderly relative who can’t use a cell phone or computer. A similar type of confusion/intimidation occurs when, for instance, a young person (e.g. the stereotypical high school jock) walks in to a school library. The reasons for the confusion can be varied. For instance, perhaps the technology is relatively new and given the older person’s age, this is literally the first time in their life that they’ve had to use it before. Another circumstance is if the older person has used a similar device in the past, but the device has been upgraded now to include so many more features that it becomes too confusing. A modern cell phone, for example, that is also a camera, text messaging device, email device, GPS, and web-surfing device is a good example of this. I imagine most of us dismiss such incidents as being harmless or annoying and move on. My take on an incident like that is, you guessed it, different. In thinking about the example of an older person getting confused by a cell phone because it has too many functions, a couple of things jump out at me as being evident. The cell phone did not get the ability to text, take pictures, display driving directions, and check email overnight. In the same way, the old person’s confusion at how to use the cell phone likely did not arise all of a sudden either. It is more likely that...
by Andy Chen | Jun 17, 2013 | Law, in real life
One of the situations clients often present to me is this: “Andy, I sold my car a few months back and I got a letter in the mail a few days ago that I owe money for a parking ticket on that car”. Sometimes, the parking ticket is a toll transponder ticket for crossing a bridge or using a toll road without paying. In really bad cases, the unpaid ticket the client didn’t know about has already gone to collections. Often, the only reason the client discovered it was because they were denied credit somewhere. Regardless of what it was you got in the mail, the bottom line is that the law (or, more accurately, the department of motor vehicles in your state) still believes that you are the registered owner of the vehicle you sold and, thus, are responsible for any tickets, fines, etc that the car accumulates. To fix this, what you — as seller of the automobile — should have done is notify your department of motor vehicles that the car you sold is no longer yours. The way to do this in California is to file a Notice of Release of Liability form (REG 138) with the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The form is available as a PDF file you can print or you can even fill it out online if that works better for you. Under California Vehicle Code section 5602, filing a REG 138 Notice of Release of Liability form cuts off the seller’s liability for future fines, tickets, fees, registration, etc that the car might accrue. Vehicle Code section 5900 says...
by Andy Chen | Jun 13, 2013 | California, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
In this episode of Info Series, I’m talking about a problem that I run in to surprisingly often: Does a Power of Attorney or Durable Power of Attorney in California need to be notarized in order to be valid? I recently helped an elderly client execute a Durable Power of Attorney and the client had me present it to his nationwide bank as well as his previous employer from whom he is receiving a retirement pension. Both the bank and the employer tried to convince me that the Durable Power of Attorney needed to be notarized. Fortunately, I’ve looked this question up before and the answer lies in California Probate Code sections 4121 and 4122. Section 4121 begins by saying that “A power of attorney is legally sufficient if all of the following requirements are satisfied:” 4121’s subsections are listed as: a. The power of attorney contains the date of its execution b. The power of attorney is signed either (1) by the principal or (2) in the principal’s name by another adult in the principal’s presence and at the principal’s direction. c. The power of attorney is either (1) acknowledged before a notary public or (2) signed by at least two witnesses who satisfy the requirements of section 4122. Section 4122 lists the following requirements for witnesses: a. The witnesses shall be adults. b. The attorney-in-fact may not act as a witness. c. Each witness signing the power of attorney shall witness either the signing of the instrument by the principal or the principal’s acknowledgment of the signature or the power of attorney. Thus, under California Probate Code...
by Andy Chen | Jun 8, 2013 | Law, in real life
It might not seem like it to most people, but law is not something that just happens in the abstract confines of a courtroom. What happens in a courtroom appears in real life all the time and most people likely don’t even realize it. My goal with this Info Series is to show you those incidents of when law from a court room appears in real life. We’ve all seen police interrogations on television shows before. The suspect is brought in to an interrogation room with a one-way mirror where the suspect can be observed and recorded. One of the things that the police can do when interrogating a suspect is to lie and, for example, tell the suspect that they have evidence linking him to the crime already so he might as well confess. While it may seem strange that the police would lie, doing so during an interrogation can be perfectly legal thanks to a line of cases beginning with the 1969 US Supreme Court case of Frazier v. Cupp. In that case, Frazier was convicted of second-degree murder in Oregon. He appealed his conviction alleging, among other things that the police had lied in telling him that (a) his associate had already fingered him for the crime, and (b) that the victim had been at fault too by starting the fight that eventually lead to the death. The US Supreme Court disagreed and said that such questioning by the police can be proper, but it depends on the totality of the circumstances under which such interrogation occurs. As with most things in law, the outcome in...
by Andy Chen | Jun 6, 2013 | Tech Series
Regardless of its pros and cons and my personal feelings on the subject, people send text messages. When it comes to court proceedings, those text messages can often be used as evidence. You can print out an email fairly easily, but printing out a text message from your phone is more difficult. As with most things these days, there’s a smartphone app that will help. It will depend on the kind of phone you have. The app that I use is called SMS Backup + and it’s free through the Google Play store. As with most Android apps, it connects to your Google ID account. Your texts will appear in a folder in your gmail account. Here’s the HowToGeek tutorial on how to use and install SMS Backup +. Here’s a Youtube review of it as...
by Andy Chen | Jun 4, 2013 | Swag
A few weeks back, I wrote a celebratory post on my new line of branded swag pens. Quite surprisingly, I got quite a few retweets and follows from that, largely it appears from people who sell branded merchandise. #PromoIdeas: The Write Touch! | @chrispiperor @andychenesq #PPW! fb.me/2zqc1HtpZ — Robert Bruce (@LogoPrintWear) May 29, 2013 #PromoIdeas: The Write Touch! | @chrispiperor@andychenesq #PPW! fb.me/1yV0YVRDg — Promo Products Work! (@PromoProductsWk) May 28, 2013 In this follow up post, I’m going to go over some of the criteria I used to select which merchandise to get. I’ll also interlineate some of the feedback I’ve gotten from clients who have received pens from me. If you even try to look for branded merchandise like pens, you’ll discover that the selection is vast. I’m also a big fan of cars and a lesson from my love of cars helped me choose what pen to actually get. Criteria #1: Touchpoints: It’s part of human nature to want nice things, or — at a minimum — to not be reminded that something is wrong. When you drive a car, you use your senses to interact with it directly in numerous ways. For example, you’ll feel the seat and the steering wheel and you’ll hear the tone of the exhaust or the howl of the wind through the windows or the road through the floor. If any of these interactions are poor — for instance, the seat is really uncomfortable or the road noise really excessive — it will be a constant reminder that you’re driving a lousy car. The takeaway lesson, then, is to spend money on...
by Andy Chen | May 27, 2013 | Feel good series
In my last post, I mentioned that one of the reasons why I like being a solo practice lawyer is that it allows me to pick and choose the cases I want to take and not take. One of the kinds of cases that I generally will try and take are those in which I can help a veteran. There’s a lot of bad news in the world, so today I’m beginning a new series of posts in which I relay a good story to, hopefully, restore your faith in humanity. Today’s story begins like this. Bob (not his real name) was in the Navy. He and his wife Jane (also not her real name) had a home in which they had raised two children. About 7 years ago, Bob and Jane — like many people — borrowed against their home. When the economy turned in 2008, Bob and Jane found themselves unable to pay back the loan they had taken out. When the bank came to take their home, Bob and Jane put up a fight. During the course of that fight, they were ordered by the court to put up a $4,000 security bond. Sadly, Bob and Jane ultimately lost their fight and their home was taken from them. They should have been able to get back their $4,000 when they lost their house, but didn’t. It turns out that their old attorney neglected to tie up that loose end for them. Bob and Jane tried on their own for almost 10 months to get the $4,000 back on their own, but with no success. The court...
by Andy Chen | May 25, 2013 | Swag
I’m a solo practice lawyer. I enjoy the freedom it offers me to, for example, pick and choose the cases I want to take or not take. I also enjoy the freedom to work wherever and whenever I want. That doesn’t mean I’m alone, though. I’m on several email lists and one of them is run by the American Bar Association. The ABA posted a while ago offering pins to any solo lawyer on the list who wanted one. The supplies were limited, of course, so I didn’t think I would be lucky enough to score one. However, guess what I was surprised to find in the mail...
