by Andy Chen | Aug 10, 2015 | Law, in real life
Many crosswalks in California have signs like these now that, in theory, remind drivers to stop and not run over you. Clearly this sign (at the Target store in Sunnyvale, California) has seen better days at it appears a driver was so attentive that they ran the sign over. Perhaps flashing LEDs embedded in the road would help. The “state law” in question is from the California Vehicle Code, specifically section 21950(a) which states as follows: “The driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.” In my experience, though, a lot of pedestrians forget section 29150(b) which states that: “This section does not relieve a pedestrian from the duty of using due care for his or her safety. No pedestrian may suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run in to the path of a vehicle that is so close as to constitute an immediate hazard. No pedestrian may unnecessarily stop or delay traffic while in a marked or unmarked...
by Andy Chen | Jul 17, 2015 | California, Law, in real life
If you’ve ever been to a gas station in California, you’ve probably noticed that the station has an air pump to inflate your tires. Every air pump I’ve ever seen also has a water hose to fill your radiator. Some stations have air pumps and water dispensers that require a token that a customer who buys gasoline can get from the attendant. You may have also seen a sign like the one above on the air pump or near it that says that California law requires the station to provide free air and water to it’s customers. The rationale here is to provide for public safety by giving the average driver the means to keep their tires properly inflated and cars from overheating, both of which should reduce accidents. The law in question here was passed in 1999 and went in to effect on January 1, 2000 as Business and Professions Code section 13651. Free air and water is covered in section 13651(a). The requirement regarding the posting of a sign like the one above is in section 13651(a)(2). Section 13651 also covers the availability of gas station restrooms in sub-section (b). Should you as a member of the public come across a gas station that doesn’t have free air and water available to its customers, section 13651(d)(2) provides that the gas station may be subject to a fine of $250 by the Division of Measurement Standards of the California Department of Food and...
by Andy Chen | Jul 8, 2015 | Law, in real life
I was at a grocery store recently and came across this sign in the bathroom. I’m sure many of us have seen this sign before. I looked it up what this California state law was (something tells me it’s in the Health and Safety Code… call it a hunch) and found section 113953.3(a) which specifies a hand and arm washing procedure, including “vigorously rubbing together the surfaces of lathered hands for at least 10 to 15 seconds.” The subsections of 113953.3 list out the situations in which hand and arm washing is required. Subsection (a)(3) says that employees shall wash their hands “After using the toilet room.” Section 113953.3 applies to employees (defined in Health and Safety code 113770) of a food facility (defined in Health and Safety Code 113789(a)). A “food facility” means any “operation that stores, prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption at the retail level”. In my opinion, this would include both grocery stores and...
by Andy Chen | Jul 1, 2015 | California, Law, in real life
Little known fact, I love Subway Sandwiches. Like a lot. In law school, there was one on my home and I’d stop in there every night. If you’re in California and have been to a Subway Sandwich, you may have noticed that a hot or toasted sandwich costs more than a cold one, all else being equal. One of the Subways in my neighborhood has this sign on its register: Now, personally, a hot sandwich sounds disgusting as all get out, but to each their own. This “sales tax on hot sandwiches” things is apparently a big deal as I’ve seen other Subways with signs similar to this, no doubt attempting to placate customers of hot sandwiches angry about the higher price. I spent some time looking and as best I can tell, the California state law in question is California Revenue and Taxation Code section 6359. It is a bit long to cut and paste for you, but the basic idea is this: Those of us who have gone grocery shopping in California know that you don’t pay sales tax on most grocery items. That is the general rule that, essentially, described in section 6359(a). Section 6359(b) defines in very broad strokes what groceries are exempt from sales tax under Section 6359(a). Section 6359(c) defines some grocery categories that you definitely have to pay sales tax on. As usual, though, there are exceptions to the general rule in section 6359(a). Section 6359(d) defines seven categories of items on which you have to pay sales tax. Number 7 (i.e. Section 6359(d)(7)) is products sold as “hot food products”. “Hot...
by Andy Chen | Jun 27, 2015 | California, Law, in real life, Statutes... and stuff
If you’ve never been to the Central Valley of California (where my Modesto office is), one thing you’ll quickly realize in the summer is that it gets hot. Like 110 degrees hot. All the time. I was at the Modesto Home Depot the other day and came across this sign reminding employers to provide drinking water for their employees — and, of course, to do that with a water cooler from Home Depot. I knew that California required employers to provide water, but I had never looked up what the precise law was. Having seen this sign and being a lawyer and very nerdy, I decided to look it up. It turns out that it isn’t statute that requires employers to provide cooling water to employees, but rather that it’s a regulation. Specifically, it’s Title 8 Section 3395 of the California Code of Regulations entitled “Heat Illness Prevention” issued by the Department of Safety and Health within the California Department of Industrial Relations. Lawyers often cite this as “8 CCR 3395.” Under Labor Code section 6308 and 6317, the Department of Safety and Health — otherwise known as Cal/OSHA — has the authority to enforce Section 3395. Section 3395(c) of Title 8 specifies what the providing of water: “Provision of water. Employees shall have access to potable drinking water meeting the requirements of Sections 1524, 3363, and 3457, as applicable, including but not limited to the requirements that it be fresh, pure, suitably cool, and provided to employees free of charge. The water shall be located as close as practicable to the areas where employees are working. Where drinking water is...
by Andy Chen | Aug 2, 2013 | Law, in real life
I’m in California Superior court quite several times a week for one thing or another. Because of that, I meet a lot of regular lay people (i.e. non-lawyers) at the courthouse who, upon seeing me in a suit, inevitably engage me in conversation during which they ask me a legal question. Unlike most lawyers, I don’t mind this and try to help them as best I can in the minute or so I’m in line with them. One of the things I see a great deal is that non-lawyer lay people do not have access to basic resources that people who are around the law a lot (e.g. lawyers like me) take for granted. There’s the legal research resources, of course, but the resource problem goes deeper than that. One of the things lay people lack is pleading paper, or the paper that has the line numbers on the left and the title page listing out the parties, the name of the court, etc. Pleading paper is really easy to make in Microsoft Word. Since most people have Word, I’ve made a Word document of blank pleading paper for use in California Superior Court. This document should be compatible with Word 2003 and later versions of Word. If you do use it, please modify it for your individual case (e.g. insert the county you are in, the name of your parties, etc). As always, because I don’t know the details of your particular situation, I don’t guarantee or promise the paper will be useful in your situation. Please exercise common sense and ask for help when you don’t understand...
by Andy Chen | Jul 29, 2013 | Swag
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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...
