Time for law and disordered. I demand a lawyer with attorney Jeff Kaufman on one oh one one W JR R.
All right, Jeff Kaufman is here. He is a personal injury attorney for Kaufman and Lynn where he's one of the partners. If you or someone you know has been injured, however it may be, and you think you might need a lawyer to get involved, that's a good question asked. The first question asked, DoD does my situation even warrant legal representation?
Jeff? I mean that's the way it works. A lot of times you think about you know, people see all the billboards and everything, and they're going wonder what the deal is. And it's real simple. If you got hurt it was no faulty your own, you know, then you got to see a lawyer. Don't trust the insurance companies, don't do anything. Call a lawyer immediately. It doesn't have to be me, but you know somebody who will give you advice and you feel comfortable with.
If you do, want to call Kaufman and Lint here locally four oh seven, seven oh six thirty five thirty five, or you can email Jeff directly, right.
Yeah, at when you need Jeff at when Union this dot com.
All right, So I do have some questions that have come in here from listeners. I want to get to those. I want to bring one real quick that we just had in idiotology. Though three year old kid is with mom at a Walmart supercenter in Bedford, Indiana. Somebody, another shopper in there has their emotional support monkey with them. Wow, a sixteen year old Java macom monkey. Of course, the three year old sees a monkey. Monkeys is strong, and
three year olds are curious and attractive. Nuisance monkey scratches up the three year old. Now, the kid's going to be fine. Mom's not going crazy or anything. The person who has the emotional support monkey produces paperwork. I've got an emotional support It was paperwork for an emotional support dog that they were trying to They're faking it. They're faking it. So what would have been and the potential liability there if this mom decided you know, hey.
Yeah, it's absolutely there. She's responsible. The hard thing in these situations the monkey owner is yes, the monkey owner is absolutely responsible. Even if it was a support dog and it did it. The fact is this is that when it comes down to it, they're responsible for their animals. I mean, these are the animals are the same, and I know people are gonna have a problem with this. Animals are considered property in most states, so you're responsible for your property and what it does and what it
doesn't do. I mean, that's just the way it works. It's like there's no difference between a gun and an animal. That happens all the time, so the store has no liability in a situation like this. No, Well, here's the problems. A lot of places, based on federal law, aren't allowed to ask for you know, to show paperwork and things like that. It depends on the state, depends on what
you're dealing with. Emotional support animals are difficult. I mean I've seen emotional support sheep, I've seen these others issues. I've never seen a monkey. It's kind to the point where some of these are you know, people are telling me, they go, Jeff, you're a little rough here. Okay. First off,
this the support animals the people who need them. For example, like my son is on the autoism spectrum, if he needed one, I mean, they it costs ten twenty thousand dollars to maybe even fifty to you know, train these animals to make sure they're okay. Just don't slap, you know, a jacket on it and say, okay, this is my emotional support animal. You know, you've got to be responsible. There are people out there that really need It's like steal in parking space, handicap parking spots.
Speaking of cars and whatnot, this is a good question. Listener wants to know. Hey, I'm currently looking to buy a new vehicle, and I've been, you know, going and checking out some different dealerships and whatnot and trying.
So that's our own piece of hell, isn't it trying?
Yeah, well you eat.
Everybody goes through this, but every five years. Yeah, test drives. If I take a vehicle out from a dealership on a test drive, you know, someone from the dealership generally goes, yeah, just show your license. You go, you take the test drive, see if you like the car.
What happens if you are involved in an accident, whether it's your fault or someone else's fault in that brand new vehicle that.
You're test driving, How does that play out? It depends on what kind of insurance policy do you have. It's your insurance, you know it might cover it. The place most the car place most likely has their own insurance on top of that, so you know it's going to be trying to figure out which insurance policy covers it.
So if you're in their car, the dealership's car, Let's say you're just out, you know, minding your own business, taking the test drive, and somebody smashes into you, and it's not your fault there is, it'll be all on them that you have no life.
Yeah, here, we've talked about this before. In the state of Florida, forty percent of all drivers don't have insurance, which is scary. It is. So that's why I keep telling you and your people think I'm selling insurance, make
sure you don't opt out of your uninsured motorist. And you have to do that when you're whether online or you're talking to your person, and you're only allowed to get as much uninsured motorists as you actually if you hit somebody, let's say you have fifty thousand, you know you can get fifty thousand of uninsured motorists. On top of that, you can't get more uninsured motorists. And you have regular insurance.
And generally that uninsured motorist does not. It's not going to add tremendously to your assure does Oh no, you mean to your premium? No, no, not to the premium. But I can tell you the difference. I mean, I've seen people that nothing and thank God they had this thing. And it feels bad every once in a while when I try to tell people and they're going, well, I opted out because I couldn't afford the three hundred dollars.
And that's about what it is. Do not opt out. It's an extra lay or protection for you. So that's the only protection you have a lot of time, So be careful.
For people on the road right now. Think about this. If you're going to work right now, or school or wherever.
Could you mention that Georgia is better than we are with this. Georgia beats us. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Georgia. I'm just going you Normally people think george is a little you know, backass, but they are so much better than we are est requiring.
People funneling into this state from all over the place, so you have no idea what you're dealing with.
It's painful all right.
This question actually came up years ago when we were facing this problem here and we now have it again in a good portion of Central Florida. Debris piles everywhere, Yeah, everywhere, everywhere. There's bags and bags of it now, debris piles and bags and just you know, post the two hurricanes.
And when that hurricane came by, you how much that debris just took everything out, right, So.
It's gonna be a while, obviously before all this stuff is picked up.
We're pretty good, I mean, our cison's pretty good.
I know it's pretty good, and there's a lot of crews out there doing it. I'm not coming down.
I want to thank all those people who are taking all this crap and making it safe for all of us. So thank you guys who are working the trucks and everything. A huge deal.
So what happens if we this was the specific question. We get to Halloween coming up next week, and you know there's a neighborhood where kids are out doing their thing, and you know, a debris pile comes into play, whether it's a kid, yeah, ducking out from behind one and somebody accidentally or is injured. Because it's dark, they don't see it. How does because these things are piled up
at the foot of people's property called hidden dangers. And if it's hidden and it can't be seen, you know, you're gonna have to put some yellow stuff around it. You're gonna have to do something so people can see it. It's like having a hole in your in your yard. It's the same thing applies.
You know. I've seen this happen where somebody has a huge hole in the yard and you can't see it at night, and somebody walks across it, you know, and you're gonna say, well, they were trespassing. Trespassers, you have to protect them against hidden dangers. Yeah, so be careful. Obvious dangerous, no hidden dangerous.
Yes, right, all right, what else we get? Oh question from a listener says, I've heard you say that it's very, very difficult to sue the government.
I'd say it's difficult.
I said, there's limitations to their specific question is what happens if you are injured on government properties? Say, and they give the examples, like a state or national park.
In the state of Florida, we have what we call state sovereignty, and it limits your damages to two hundred and three hundred thousand dollars two hundred thousand for an individual, three hundred total for a whole event. So let's say three of you are in a car and you know, you get hit by a police car or something. Each person is limited to a maximum of two hundred and the incident to three hundred. So there's only three hundred
thousand for the whole car. So those that's if an emergency vehicle, that's any government vehicle that could be a dog catcher.
Well, what happens if you're just what if you trip or something over a hazard? And like they gave the example, like let's use Washington, d C. So much of that is national problem. That's a different situation. DC has different laws. We're talking about Florida.
You'll be careful because every state has different rules and some don't provide it. In some states it's unlimited. So that's why when you say, oh, that city had to pay seven million dollars or fifty million dollars, that wouldn't happen Orlando. Orlando's limited to two hundred and three hundred. Every city, every state, in every state group in Florida is limited to that. About got you.
One final question, and it's not about it, it's advice in general from you. They're looking for your opinion. Jeff my Son is in high school. He's expressed interest in becoming a lawyer. He's pretty bright. I don't think you'd have a problem doing that. I just i'd love to get your thoughts on the landscape these days of someone looking to go into that field.
In general, our field is like any other one. You have to have aggressive people. You got to have people who care. I mean, the problem we have now is half my office, i'd say right now, eighty five percent of my office or women. And it's because women tend to be more aggressive in today's world than they were maybe twenty thirty years ago. So what's going to happen? Is this your son? You know, how can I put it?
He's got to learn how to fight for himself. You know, I would tell him, go on the speech in deb eighteen, get good at this, Take theater classes, anything that allows you to come out of your shell. But whatever you're going to have to do, you're gonna have to fight for it. The legal landscape is tough. I mean, we do need lawyers, though, so that's a good thing. Is there a.
Specific area of law that you think might be have hold more opportunity for someone who's just looking to go into it versus you know, ultimate big scheme.
I think you got to love what you love. I mean, it's any job. If you go into something and you hate doing it, you're going to be terrible at it. Now, what I tell people new lawyers and everything else like that, when they first come in, I say, get into the criminal defense realm. Get work at the public Defender's office, the state attorney's office. These are opportunities. You'll have to be in court and to fight, and you can't teach. You need that experience. Like when I fly courts all
over the world. Could you image walk into a court with a judge you don't know, you're on foreign territory and you have to you don't know what the room looks like, you don't know the bailiffs. You have to be prepared to fight at all times. And that's the benefit I love about what I do is that I get an opportunity to fight for people in different arenas, and that's kind of fun for me.
I have a question on that note here of the millions of people that are lawyers, that's what they do for what percentage of that do you think never step foot in a courtroom for I mean, you could be a lawyer and never actually step foot in a court room.
Well, if you're a divorce attorney, you got to go to court. If you're a criminal attorney, you got to go to court. God, there's certain areas that you might not have to be like trademark and things like that. I know lawyers who sometimes never go to court ever. But you know, if you're in the you're in certain
areas you're going to go a lot. I would say, there's some civil areas, like some proper stuff that you don't have to like if you do, for example, title work like home closings, she'll never go into a court room. Which the boring stuff, they're really boring stuff, okay, But the boy stuff pays. So I mean, I mean, if he if he's got if he's good, look if your boy's good, look in he's got a little flair, you know, he might do well in property.
You know, you never know. I mean criminal defense, criminal defense. I would not went over that journey. I did it for five years and that was enough for me. It's just a lot of darkness about it.
All right, Yeah, anything going on you want the listeners to know about you job?
Yeah, I had a good time. I was in I want to thank the Melbourne Independent Film Festival for inviting me there. This weekend I got to support a lot of special kids. Sorry,