03-06-25 Interview - Gary Bell and Brad Pollock from the Law Firm Bell and Pollock

The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock Accident and injury Lawyers.

Well, no, it's Mandy Connell, Andy Connell.

Koa nine am.

God, Wait, guy, can any three by Connell? Keeping sad thing local local. Welcome to the second hour of the show.

And you may be confused when you hear these next two voices. You might think to yourself, Wait, those gentlemen are on Saturday morning when I'm running errands. That's what I listen to the Bell and Pollock Personal Injury Show, and I say it all the time. Every time I listen, I learn something new and it makes me feel a little dumber but then a little smarter by the end of the show. Joining me in the studio Now from Bell and Pollock, I've got Gary Bell and Brad Pollack.

Hello, Mandy, how you going?

Hello Manday's time due legal Rock and Ronald let's get going here.

Well, I told you, guys, I love hearing other people those problems. I know that sounds weird, but I find it fascinating the things that happen in society on a regular basis that you don't necessarily think about.

You guys have been doing this for how long.

We've been doing the show twenty five thirty years now, So.

What do you know the weirdest case you've ever had? Do you have one that springs forth when you go, wow, that was a doozy?

Yeah, we have several. But you know, speaking of that, we had a great call in our show a while back and the guy says, I am so mad at my neighbor. He lived in eastern Colorado out on the planes. I'm so mad at my neighbor because so what's the problem. Well, he put a beehive on the fence next to my property. Well it's on his property, and so can you guys do anything about it? And what are the rights? So that was pretty wild and.

What I mean?

But what happens then? Do you have the right to tell somebody to move their beehive?

Yeah, that's great because I know that you're you are a big property owner person. So yeah, so are we Okay, So you can use your property, you just can't create a nuisance, okay. And so then and then the argument is, well, that's my property. I can do what I want, but you can't create a nuisance like if you had water overflowing or something like that would be. The other thing was that on this case he had plenty of places to put it down the fence away from the guys.

He was just mina jersey.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, I want to open the.

Phone lines to anyone who has any kind of situation where they have been wronged, they have been harmed by the negligence of someone else. If you if you've been in that situation and you have a question, and I will tell you guys that in the past, when I have done these on various shows, various markets, it's a lot of people who call and say, should I have called an attorney?

Right?

Should I have called? I think, why don't people just pick up the phone and ask the questions. Let me get the phone overer out three O three seven one three eighty five eighty five. That's seven h Let me try that again, three O three seven to one three eighty five eighty five and Grant will screen your call in just a second. I mean, how often do you think people just don't make the call, or they don't investigate, and they end up getting shorted.

That's the problem. A lot of times people don't call when they should call. The call is free, there's no reason not to call, get some initial advice, figure out what you want to do, and you get people that don't make the call when they should.

And I'd say.

Fifty percent of the calls I get that are late is just because somebody was afraid to pick up the phone and talk.

To their lawyer.

As a daughter of an attorney, I mean from the time I was five years old, I think I knew in any situation, even if everything is perfectly fine and everything's going your way, you better have somebody there because you don't know what.

They know you know in any situation. So I have a couple questions for you guys that I want.

To get answered to, and one of them is this, So I know I am not alone in asking this question here in the Great Metro. But after it snows in my neighborhood, there are sidewalks around some houses, not all houses.

Theyre's not sidewalks in every part.

But some Most people, a vast majority of people in this neighborhood, they all do the right thing. They shovel their sidewalks. The only reason this matters is because when they plow the road, it creates this huge mountain of snow between the street and the sidewalks. So if they don't shove with their sidewalks, then you have the choice of walking through sometimes really deep snow or even worse, it gets packed down and it gets turns into ice.

What is there?

What do they have to be responsible for?

Okay, I'm gonna ask for a part of it, and then you gonna catch the common law part of it. Listen, you live in Douglas County. There's an ordnance in Douglas County called the Snow and Ice Ordinance Number zero zero seven. That's zero zero three. Okay, what does it say? It says property owners are directly responsible for clearing sidewalks bordering their property. They can hire it out, but they're ultimately responsible. Okay. It also says, what's the timeframe? When do you have

Well, that makes sense. It also waters your line exactly.

So, so that's the ordinance part. That's what we call lawyers call the statutory part. Brad's going to explain to you what the property liability common law statute is for the duty and responsibility if you don't comply.

Well, it's pretty simple.

If you've not exercised reasonable care and taken care of your property, you're going to be responsible for injuries that are caused by your failure to exercise that reasonable care. One of the things you have to do and reasonable care is remove the snow and ice from your sidewalks. Probably should be careful because you probably want to remove it from the driveway.

Also, that was a follow up question.

I got to this a delivery driver said, I'm delivering huge boxes. Are people responsible if I fall and you know, wipe out in their driveway that has not shoveled.

Right, Well, if they've had twenty four hours it has been snowing. Under law and even under the common law, especially if they're ordering those packages they're having people come to their property.

You've got to make your property safe for people.

And the bottom line is is get the snow shoveled, get the ice melt out, take care of your sidewalk, take care of your driveway, and avoid the problem.

Okay, So I'm just gonna leave a little note. I'm gonna start leaving little post it notes on people's doors. There's a tiny handful of people that does this, right, but boy, it makes it awful and dangerous and not fun to be out there.

And some of us we got it. I gotta walk my dog.

You just said the keyword in the statue, dangerous, dangerous condition. That's what it causes. But boy, would I love to cross exam in one of those neighbors that doesn't do this.

Okay, So I'm glad I asked this question. I am now armed to the teeth with the information that I need, Thank you very much. But I have callers on the line who want to join the party.

So let me go to Jeff. You are on with Gary and Brad from Bell and Pollock.

Hi.

I have a question pertaining to.

A dog fight. A dog fight, oh bite? Okay?

Yeah, So if somebody has a dog that's on a path and.

They let that dog bite you, what are the recall or what are the actions that can be taken for that?

All right, I'm gonna give you the first part, Brad, I'll give you the second part. Thanks for the question. Uh, the laws change in Colorado. It used to be this old adage of every dog gets his first bite. That was the old adage. That's kind of comical, sometimes not so comical. But that changed and they passed you or No. Eight nine, ten years ago. That says theirs strict liability

Sure that statue is CRS thirteen twenty one four, and it's it's very simple. The dog owner is automatically liable. Whether or not the owner is negligent and caring for the dog, or whether or not the dog has ever shown signs of aggression, They're going.

To be liable period.

They've got the responsibility now that that liability under the statute is for the expense of taking care of the dog bite. Obviously there's times when you have more than the expense of taking care of the dog bites.

The emotional problems this can cause.

If it's a young child, it can cause a whole lot of emotional problems for the child. Then they start looking into a little bit more. Did you know the dog had dangers to propensities?

Were you're not.

Properly taking care of the dog, or were you not properly candeling the dog when you had people over.

Did you get any any kind of training for the dog? Did you get any kind of disciplinary actions with the dog so that you could control the dog?

And that's when you start getting into even greater damages that you're going to be responsible for as the owner or as the person on the property who you're responsible for that dog.

Help.

I'm so sorry. One more point. So medical bills are strict liability. You get them, you should get them, and they pay the rest of your damages. You have to prove and you have to go out. It's the ordinary way, gotcha, all.

Right, Jeff? Does that help?

Thank you very much?

All right, thank you. Let me go to John. You're on mcary brad from Bell and Pollock.

Hey, guys, thank you so much for let me to say that I had the opportunity to have the gentlemen well as lawyers, but I got dropped from them because I refuse to do a needle test. I was definitely afraid of needles, and which was the test was going to be done during surgery anyway, So I eventually had the test out, but they dropped me as a client because.

John, I'm going to say this.

I would prefer you take this up with them at their office because I can't verify anything that you're saying right now, and they're both sitting here looking at me and shaking their heads.

Everybody know.

Just letting everybody know how that would be.

You know, guys, Sometimes, and this is my responsibility here, people will call up that are not necessarily engaged with the with the people on the show and try to say something that's negative and we don't have any way of verifying that. And I hope he does call with you guys, follows it up with you guys. Anyway, glad to take the car? Yeah, three oh three, seven eighty five eighty five Bill, you're on with Gary Brad from Bell and Pollock.

Hey, guys, Mandy's honor. I have a I bought a twenty two ionics five from Handy and the car broke down and it was in the shop total for almost a year, like literally eleven and a half months. I'm a ten ninety nine client, I'm a taxi driver and I bought the car to be an owner operator. During that time, I lost over thirty thousand dollars and all had I told you was we gave you a honor. They wouldn't honor the meeting. Lemon law business business.

Wait, is that accurate?

So Lemon law?

Lemon laws don't apply to businesses when they buy a vehicle.

It's usually to consumers who buy a new vehicle where the Lemon law applies.

Uh.

They will fight you to say that they're not.

Responsible under the Lemon law for a business operation or a business endeavor where you're losing money. However, there are other ways to go after him, and the other ways to go after him are to hold them responsible with it. But they have to have the knowledge that's that's what you intend to use the vehicle for, and they have to be selling it to you for that purpose for you to be using the vehicle as a commercial vehicle.

And did they know that, Bill?

I did mention it to the guy when I was buying it to the salesman. I don't know if you mentioned it to the finance guy, but I did mention it to the salesman.

Okay, Well for my take. You know a lot of people talk about the Lemon law. We got the Lemon law.

Wow.

Sometimes you don't want to be subject to the Lemon law because you got to take it back a number of times. You have to give them a fair opportunity to repair, and I've seen that not workout more than i've seen it work out. But back to your issue. So if the Lemon law doesn't apply, what you know

Have you follow up with them in their office. That's other plan.

Had other lawyers tell me it's a winnable case, but it takes too long.

Well, what do they mean by it? Takes too long. I mean, you know, you hear a lot of things about but.

Lawyers wanting to get cases done fast. Sometimes getting case done fast isn't what you need. Sometimes you need to make sure you do the right job, and you do and you approach it correctly.

So I don't know why they say it takes too long.

I think I think you got to sit down with some lawyers who have the willingness to stick it out for you.

I would love a complication.

All right, give a.

Call there, Thank you very much. Okay Roberts, you're on McGerry and Brad from Bellan Pollock.

What's your question?

Yes, a underage driver that lives down the street took his mom's suburban and hit three of my vehicles, and I recently got a judgment for approximately seventeen thousand dollars. Question is, and the owner of the car was the mother's boyfriend. So I'm wondering this fifteen year old. I don't think he's going to have a job forever.

What do I do?

Is there any legal recourse to have to get a lawyer to sue the parents or the owner of the vehicle. I guess that's basically, well.

Let me ask you a couple of questions and then Brad can start flying over here. Legally, Uh, you said you got a judgment. You use that word. Did you go to court and you get a judgment?

Yes?

Against the minor?

Uh?

Yes, you're the only one charged.

In state court. In criminal court. Carry Oh, it was always in a bit. It was restitution that you got, wasn't it right?

Yes?

Okay, you haven't sued in civil court anybody?

No.

Okay, Well, if you did, we'll be glad to consult with you. But if you did what you have to do and you avoid a bunch of legal mumble John Jumbill called race you da kata and collateral stopp well, all that means this, you have to bring all your claims that you're ever going to bring. I guess everybody you're ever going to bring them. And so if you sue the minor but you didn't sue the parents, assuming the parents meet the test, which is another conversation, then

Can you even do that.

We can't hold you know, miners responsible for contracts, so can they be sued They can be found liable in that case.

Absolutely.

In this case, yes, you have a judgment against the kid for restitution. That doesn't include a number of other elements of damages that you're entitled to. That's probably just the amount necessary to fix the vehicle or your cars.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

And it probably doesn't compensate you for the time without the cars and for any rental cars you're gonna have, and other expenses you're gonna have.

That takes going to court.

That this would be a county court action and to be an action that you should be able to get a lawyer.

Give us a call at our office. We'll talk to you about it. It's something you can do to to go against the parents.

You start looking at who had the responsibility to watch over that vehicle, who had the responsibility to make sure it was safely tucked away in the driveway or in the garage, or along the.

Curb, and you weren't going to have an aggerous driver drive it.

Maybe mother's boyfriends should come into the picture here, let's get it going on that.

But I'm sure he was thrilled that his vehicle was used.

Really really three or But let me tell you one thing. You might already have the most powerful remedy because you've got restitution. What does that mean? If you suit in civil courts, you have to go through a trial, all that stuff, you got to get a judgment, But you've got an order of court granting you restitution. So if anybody violates the order, then they're in contempt of court.

Right, Is there any way to hold anybody else responsible for that?

Restitute shorter? But it's court orders to.

The kid, I mean because Let's be real, kid's fifteen years old. He's right, This kid's not gonna have a job that pays well for I mean a decade.

If that right.

So that seems like a silly, silly thing. I guess there's no other way to do it, though, is there.

Look, look, you haven't done a civil action yet, so you can make a claim against the boyfriend's insurance company and they're going to say, well, we're not responsible.

What Yeah, he was uninsured unsure vehicles. All of my vehicles had liability insurant. It's really high liability interurants. They're all paid for.

And yeah, well listen, maybe there's some hope left on the on the horizon here. We did a lot of legal shows called finding Insurance, okay, and the gravam on the bottom line for you right now is the kid didn't have any insurance, but and the and the boyfriend didn't have any insurance. But there's anybody in the household that lives there that might be related as a resident relative that has insurance or are we just talking about nobody has insurance?

I I don't know, but I don't believe any of them had.

Are you sure that's no insurance of course. Are you sure there's no insurance? Well?

Sure, I mean here was he when the boyfriend walked up the street with the mom. They had no proof of insurance. And then I think they found a card but it was expired.

No, no, you haven't heard directly from the insurance company yet. We could help you do this for free. You you need to make domand on the insurance. No, you make demand on the insurance company. We got to find out who it is and let them tell you. And when we get that answer, a lot they say, oh, I'm sorry, sorry, there's no insurance. Prove it. Well, here's how you're going to prove it.

Do you have uninsured insured letters covered?

Yeah, he said he was. He was covered up to the limits.

So yeah, you have uninsured motors coverage included on your policy, right.

I think he said he only had liability of coverage. That's what I'm trying to find out.

It was just yeah, just liability.

Yeah, yeah, no, you I am okay, all right. You know this is one where some pressure asked me applied against the the boyfriend, against mom exactly. Somebody negligently supervised that child and didn't take care of what he was supposed to be doing. Another question is do you know if the if the fifteen year old had started driving yet?

No, okay, so he wasn't on a permitted he was permitted and yeah.

Nothing okay the police.

I asked the police about the insurance from the boyfriend, and the police said, well, there's no insurance. Uh so I have no idea how to find out.

If you know. Okay, but I have no record. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but take that with a grain of salt, because what they usually in police usually means is they didn't have any proof of insurance. And a lot of accidents and people I don't know where manin Schorge card is. Just because they don't have proof doesn't mean they have They don't have insurance. It needs to be pushed, pressed, investigated.

Come see us, give them a call at their office. Three oh three seven nine five fifty nine hundred. We're going to take a quick time out. We're with Gary and Brad from Bell and Pollock. Gets your injury questions ready now three O three seven one three eighty five eighty five back after this, I have some follow up questions from our icy sidewalk via the text line if we can do those real quick and they'll get back to calls.

Uh.

Mandy asks them if home insurance covers that dog bite if it happens on a trail or away from your property, if you have a big liability policy, would that cover something that happened to off your property with your dog?

So probably the answer is probably, and we've done it before. Yes, and so homeowners need to get the best coverage you can. But since the strict liability for the medical bills, as we said, it's going to pay, there's some muchy's gonna pay in my will be the insurance company, all right.

I have multiple follow ups about the icy driveway. One of them is I live on two acres in Parker and my driveway is really long. I shovel the walkway from the driveway to my house about fifteen feet.

However, I rarely shovel the driveway. Do I have liability?

Okay, Ron, I'm gonna you know, I mean something like that. The idea is, if you have a common.

House in a common neighborhood where people are going to be going up and down, and you're gonna have deliveries into your driveway or you're going to have people that might be using your driveway if you're talking about where you're living. The most I would worry about there is shoveling a path that somebody can walk up your driveway in a safe and reasonable manner without falling or slipping on ice or snow, not drive not part, not shoveling the entire driveway.

So they could just file take that path from their front door and just zip it out.

They can. But my answer goes, that's a private, private driveway, but is it used for like the public sidewalk. So for example that we used earlier Mandy was if you got deliveries, and you might have deliveries, and you know deliveries are going to come there, then you got a duty and responsibility. Okay, but if nobody's ever going to use your drivewayway, sure on private property, you know, probably no requirement whatsoever.

But if you order from Amazon, shovel a side a path for.

The Amazon driver will thank you.

All right, let's go to Jeff. Jeff, his mom was involved in a car accident. Jeff, you're on with Gry and Brad from Bell and Pollock.

Hi.

My question is dealing with the insurance companies and the actual police report that happened for this accident, my mother t boned a fellaw who was in a truck trying to back a trailer across the country road, couldn't see any lights or anything, and the other person got cited

Okay, a couple of questions, and I'll jump all over for you. When did this happen back in October? Last October? Okay, well, last year. We're losing the war against time. Okay, and we'll be glad to talk to You'll be glad to meet with you. There's no charge anything. Here's the deal. This is what lawyers. They never tell you on TV or otherwise, but this is what lawyers call a fact driven machine, a fact driven circumstances. So what does that mean?

What?

What does this backing up a trailer? You can't back up a trailer. So what are the facts? You understand what I'm saying. The actual facts have to be investigated. And I'm not just talking about a casual you know, a cup of coffee conversation. I'm talking about in detail, Brad, you're.

Taking, well, the guy was backing a trailer rope across the public road. The cause incident a crash stop it. Just tell the insurance company we don't want to hear it.

They need to pay that.

That's my advocate. Now, now you know, maybe they've got something. Your mom is speeding or she should have seen it or whatever. You know that that's where you need to have an advocate for you that says that you're not going to by that. Of course, the insurance company's going to say they don't want to pay. Of course, they ain't never want to pay anybody.

That's just the way insurance companies work.

So I'm going to tell you what we tell our listeners a lot. Okay, and our Saturday morning show US seven o'clock on k Howe and otherwise. Sometimes you don't need a lawyer, and they're kind of surprised when you say that, but in this case, you need a lawyer period period.

Jeff, give him a call tomorrow at the office.

All right, thank you, very all right, thank you, Jeff.

I want to get in one more before we have to take a break here in about two and a half minutes.

Andrea, you're on McGary and Brad.

Hello, Hello, Hi, my.

Son took a trip down to Cancun, Mexico in December of twenty three, and I talked to a couple of people about it and they told me it wasn't worth pursuing, but I thought I'd just call. He was visibly ill on the flight and after the flight. I know it's because a woman took his phone from him, was talking to him and said he had thrown up a couple of times.

He had passed out about.

Twice before he actually got out of the terminal. He had no recollection of being sick or what had happened. And the reason I know that the flight attent knew he was sick is the next day, when he was leaving with my husband, the flight attendant ran up to him and said, are you okay? You were really bad yesterday. And so I'm just wondering, are they supposed to get medical attention for somebody who's visibly ill on the aircraft during flight when he arrived.

They sure should be doing something.

It's crucial to inform the flight attendants or make sure they know and they can provide some assistance based on symptoms.

Can I speak as a former flight attendant on their one? Let me just say this, and I'm not trying to disparage your son, but a flight out of Cancun, a young man vomiting on that flight is not unusual because there was probably a lot of alcohol consumed. I'm not again, I don't know what your son, but that is no

And that's where they have to assess the symptoms and decide whether or not they think those are something out of the ordinary or if it's something they see every day, based on what's going on, who the person is, and what's been happening.

Right, it makes it At tells me that he has a VP shunt in his head, and I am sure that it was a malfunction because it was an early morning flight to Philly and then from Philly to Cancun. This kid does not drink when he's traveling, so he was just arriving there to meet something.

Oh, he was arriving in Cancun.

I apologize, he was riving and he tells me he has zero memory of getting on the flight in Philadelphia and zero recollection of actually.

Nothing between getting off the flight and talking to me in the hospital in Cancuns and the flight And it recognized him the next day in the terminal when he was with his father, who flew down that night at midnight to bring him home, and said, man, are you okay? You were really bad?

And so why didn't think I was on the phone with the people at the Kansuman Airport, I said, my son is in there somewhere. He needs attention, Please find him, please, and nobody can find him. He had managed to get himself to in a taxi.

Has no memory of any of this. So when your son's malfunctions, are you guys familiar with VP shunt brain? Yeah, And when the pressure goes up, you can get very sick really quickly, have no memory, be very nauseous, throw up, and you can even pass out. And these are all things that happened.

To him in the terminal.

And yeah, the flight attendant.

Recognizing him, you know, is just wondering if I haven't your recourse with the airline because he was sick on the aircraft, can.

We get the answer, I have to let you go only because I have to take a break. We'll get the answer on the other side. All right, We will be right back. For our prior caller who was looking for some maybe some recourse from an airline because she felt like the flight attendants were not responsive enough to her the son who was ill.

Sure, the first steps I'd take is I would go get in touch with the doctor who put the shunt in or was managing the shunt, and sit down with the doctor, talk about what happened to the sun, talk about the symptoms the sun had, talk about what might be his problem is see if the doctor believes that this is the result of something that the airlines did wrong or that the flight attendant did wrong. It doesn't

Sounds like it was.

Doesn't sound like there's a lot of complaint there. But the first step is going to the medical professional and finding out whether or not the symptoms that her son had are something that can come from being on that flight.

Well, and the other thing I saw is, you know, everybody, you should have person responsibility, and in this situation. The young man should have personal responsibility. If he or the mother knows about a condition that reacts to pressure, reacts to flying, then they should disclose that or not or not fly. That's not necessarily automatically. The airlines flight a fault, and I don't really see it. Look, airlines fly people from point A to point B. They're not emergency rooms.

Ma'am, all right, we are going to talk to Tom. This is probably our last one. We only have a few minutes left. Tom, quickly you're on with Bell and Pollock.

What happened?

Sure, good gentlemen.

On January twenty first, I was picking up a passenger at the height on Fourteenth Place in Denver. A gentleman happens to.

Be using a wheelchair.

When I picked them up. I let him into the help him get into the backseat, and I was putting his wheelchair in the back of my hatch. When doing so, his wheelchair kind of slid out and nailed me hard in the thumb. I had not yet on the apps started the fare itself, but I was in the process of picking up the gentleman. He was assigned to me. I was able to get him to his destination and complete the fare that way. Addictive over their response team a call letting them know I was injured in the

Amend.

I'm the writer on there in case that something was to happen, so.

Real quick, because we're out of time, Tom, I'm just gonna ask does who does he go after?

Here?

Guys, which insurance company?

Okay, so you make the claim, I don't think they're going to cover it, be honest with you, unless you prove there was some defect in the wheelchair. If it was a normal operating wheelchair, I don't think they're going to cover it. They have to look for somebody's negligence or breach of a duty, and if the guy that owns the wheelchair doesn't have a defective wheelchair, I just don't think. I don't think they're going.

To cover it.

You need to call me. We can talk about a claim. Uber.

Quite often these instances will send it to mandatory arbitration and give you a chance at proving your case in arbitration. It's longer than what we have a chance to talk to you today about. But call the office to talk to me and we'll see what we can do to get you set up to get access to make Can you queen?

All right? Guys, Tom, I hope that helps.

I have five and or more questions on the text line. I have three people hanging online right now.

All of these things. This is the kind of stuff you talk about on both shows. When is your show on k hell? What time is that?

It's so seven o'clock every Saturday morning, one hour.

O'clock one hour.

You could do a half hour here on on KOA at ten o'clock, one hour one hour on I'm sorry, I don't know why I said half an hour. As I said, this is my driving around doing errands. You guys keep me company on Saturday morning. You can also call if you have an issue and you just want to know. This is what they do in their office too, right, I mean you can call, you talk to someone, you have these same kind of conversations and find out if you actually need an attorney. So that's what they do