The Troubleshooter 9-26-24

Yet you need so you don't have a.

Suspenski Shooter's gonna help, come Man Dix.

Is the Troubleshooter Show now, Tom Martino, Well.

John, Troubleshooter Show on a Thursday. Today. This is Suzanne Major and we got John Fuller in studio today.

Welcome to the trouble Shooter Show. Yeah.

I feel like it's a trial by fire this morning. So hey, it's the only show of it's kind. We solve problems, answer questions, and take complaints.

You sure do a lot of them.

Huh. Absolutely, Let's see those calls light up this morning.

Yeah, three oh three Martino, that's three oh three, are six two seven, eight, four sixty six. You can also email us help at troubleshooter dot com.

It's a really interesting day.

It is my debut as host of this wonderful show, sitting in for Tom and Mark today. So I am John Fuller. Most of you know me as a personal injury attorney. I've been on the show for a number of years. So we're going to be here to answer all of your questions today, but in particular, if you have questions that have to do with personal injury, auto accidents, insurance, anything of the sort. I kind of do that stuff every single day, and I'm perfectly willing to answer those questions.

Your stuff sometimes.

Yeah, you know a lot of consumer stuff every time you're on the air, you know. And then a personal injury for sure, Personal injuryco dot com and that's John Fuller three three five nine seven forty five hundred.

I'll try and keep them in line.

Sus Hey, doc, you're working on anything.

I yeah, I have this really complicated thing with a dental claim.

I'm trying to get a.

Group to represent him.

What's going on with it. I didn't hear the call.

Well, this guy had some problems with Elite Dental group and then they suit him for back for money he owed them, and at first they wouldn't give him his medical records. And then we called them and told them, look, you're not allowed to withhold medical records because somebody owes you money. It's a separate issue.

So I got the medical records.

I had one dentist look over it and he said he's not sure if there's enough for a case. So I'm waiting to hear from a malpractice attorney that specializes in dental claims to see if we can get this guy some treatment.

Oh, I didn't know that. So they're trying to withhold medical records because he owes money.

Got the medical records. Oh, after I told them that they can't withhold it.

Oh nice.

So I have one dentist look at the records, and then I'm waiting for a an attorney to give me his opinion.

Ah gotchas.

So listen, your picture looks really good though the YouTuber said I should just keep you up there.

Actually, welcome to the show. Listen.

I just wanted to say something for the I just had to reboot. I mean that's all I did every once in a while. That's what happens. You have to reboot.

John, Thanks for being here.

I'll be cutting out a little early today for some personal stuff going on.

And speaking of I want to bring this up some cases.

We had that one case that we're not going to pursue out we didn't mention any schools, but we're not going to pursue it having to do with a girl who was on a soccer team of two. So we're not going to pursue that because the father said, you think, yeah, the track team. Here's oh, that's right, cross country track. And she here's what the problem was. She's had a little school and she wanted to know if she could

This guy was really pissed off. Now he's talked to a bunch of people.

He talked to Duffuty, Scott, he talked to he talked to Bow again, and then he talked to.

Other people. I think he talked to the consumer.

He's saying, you know, I'm being portrayed as a bad guy, and I'm not a bad guy. This is a guy that took thousands of dollars down sixty feet sixty two thousand. His name is Justin Garcia. Now here's what happened. I may admit, by the way that Carol might even border on a consumer nut And I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean there's some consumers that want to take control. For example, she went out and found a custom package for her log home.

I believe it was for a cabin, and.

Then she contracted Patriot Remodeling Services justin Garcia to build it, and she took delivery of the materials and then it went downhill. Justin says, she's getting to involve. She's not letting me do my job. Okay, well enough, even if that's true, even if she was a nutjob and she went out and found her own materials and she was spearheading the project, and even if it fell apart. Now she paid twenty eight grand for the pack for the materials, she paid sixty two it adjusted. It's been a year

For nothing.

Now, I don't see how this guy is going to get away with it, but I want to get him on today. If he wants to come on the air, I want to get him on today. And the hell with the contract. I want to know his justification. Okay, Now, the reason we don't have Carol's contract is she.

Had no way to scan it.

She literally made a copy of it and snail mailed it to us.

But I'll bet you Justin has a copy of it. Maybe he can email it to us. So why don't.

We try to get Justin Garcia on and he goes by several names, Patriot Remodeling Services, LLC.

He also has something else. He calls himself.

Innate Architects, Architecture, Engineering and Construction, and a host of other names in the past.

Yeah, hey, yes, this.

Is the one who actually dodged me yesterday. Yeah. Now he wants to come on the air, doesn't he.

Uh, I'm not sure about that.

Bo call in.

Okay, I know Bo's listening. I decided I'm not waiting till Monday. We don't have to see the contract. I want to talk to the guy I want to see. I want to give him every opportunity to clear his name, because, in my opinion, he sounds like a scammer. Okay, I don't know under what on what planet he can keep sixty two thousand dollars. The Contractor's Trust Act says the money but must be put in trust and spent for

You know, it's almost like money in our trust account. At the law firm. I mean, there's some money that jis flat doesn't belong to you, and you have an affirmative duty under the law to account for that money and to be able to, you know, give an accounting at any time for all the money that's come in and gone out relative to that particular account. So for a contractor, it's really no different. You need money up front. You know, we don't like that, but so be it.

I agree, and I don't understand his reasoning that he can keep it. So I just wanted to mention that's one we're working on right now and I really want to.

I really want to get to the bottom of that.

So that's what we'll be working on soon also, So give him a call again, and BO, I know you're I've got bo.

BO.

You know I gave this, I gave this a lot of thought. I didn't get a chance to talk to forgive me.

I have a lot going on today. We need to talk about this. He indicated he had a right to keep this money, right bore you?

Sure it did?

And under what on what planet does he live where he can keep sixty two thousand dollars.

First, I mentioned that Contractor Trust Act and he actually spouted off the CRS. And he says, why I have something that's above the contractor trustle And I said, how could you possibly keep sixty two thousand dollars? And then he told me he had some materials, And I said, that is the s because the lady Carol bought all the materials.

For the job.

Even if you did it buy some materials, it didn't equate to sixty two thousand dollars.

Now, this this guy spent the money. You want to make a bet he spent the money. You want to make a bet he doesn't have it in trust account. And I want to know why, he says his contract So he said his contract is above and beyond the Contractors Trust Act.

Yes, but he would he would not scan or email me the contract.

So I asked Carol to let.

Me see the contract she has. She's little old school. She had no way of doing it.

So she now know it to me.

And she snailed. She's also emailing me the cashier's check that she gave to him for the sixty two thousand dollars.

Now we need to go ahead, okay.

Dollar told me that he would only.

Come on the air, which I said, this was hokey if Carol gave him permission.

So I see that.

Now does anyone even understand why he would say that stupid thing?

Come on at AS nine?

So I called Carol last night yesterday afternoon. She's in a seminar today.

She's a the person.

She didn't want to physically talk to him, but she sent him a text and sent me a copy of that touched me telling Justin that she's giving him permission to come on the radio show.

Now, Tom, I.

Asked him to come on the radio show last week twice, and I asked his attorney to come on the radio show.

He refused to do it.

He said he didn't have to.

Well, well, of course he doesn't have to, but he's stupid not to.

But if you want to state why he has the ability or reason to keep sixty two thousand dollars, you should come on here and explain it to us because he's a scumbag in my opinion.

That's me too, me too. But I want him again. I'm calling him out.

He doesn't need anyone's permission to come on there. She came out and talked about him. He can come on, Come on, man, this guy is this is.

So slippery justin Garcia.

Come on, bro huh come on right Patriot Building seven nine five seven one.

Zero four to three seven. Come on, Tom.

If he has a legitimate reason that cupe sixty two thousand dollars and I'm wrong in this judging him.

I'll quitt. I'll quit the show, Tippy.

I mean, come on now, now what reason? You know?

Here's the thing there, there is none. I just don't want to get into it. I'm gonna I'm gonna take a quick break here. This this sucks. I mean, the guy doesn't have a right to keep the money. Uh you know, and didn't he say something about four hundred dollars a day penalty?

He told dollars he.

Had four one hundred dollars a day and charges for every day.

That get yeah?

So yeah?

Really?

So where where are his losses on that? Okay?

Anyway, I'm Tom Martine three oh three seven one three talkwaterpros dot net. Remember the best water system's lowest prices.

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They even they specialize in high efficiency to save you money. Three oh three seven seven zero two seven seven six.

So did we.

Try calling him again? Uh, that scumbag contractor.

And went straight to voicemail.

Tom Hi, Yeah, so justin you know, don't don't give don't give me any crap. Don't give me any crap, you know, So John Fuller, I do have a text, by the way, and uh, I got you up on the camera now.

So on the I tell people, you know, you can find.

Out roughly what your case is worth, and how to how to collect, whether you collect from your their insurance company or your own, and.

What do you do to evaluate a case? Somebody wants to know is it does it have to? They heard one time?

And I know you hear all these myths that it's ten times the injury expense.

Have you heard that?

I wish one time.

Ten times the medical bills? I don't know. So how do you put a price on this.

So there's a lot of variables Tom that go into valuation of a case. And if you just started in a vacuum and you said, all right, we've we've got economic and non economic damages, you could add up the medical bills, and you could add up the wage loss, and you could roughly approximate what the pain and suffering is. But there's so much more to it than just that.

No formulas, but there is no formula.

There is not a formula.

I wish there was, but in twenty two years I've yet to come across a formula.

So it's a case by case. And this is not a text. But going on the topic of what we just talked about, what about what someone and I hate putting it this way, what someone is worth, what they make, what their job is. People some people are owed more than others. I mean, let's just put it that way. Is that right or wrong?

John?

Oh?

I think that's definitely right. I mean, you know, again, you have different categories of damages, and so you know, I always tell clients you have one basket of damages and it's unique to you. And so in that basket we will have all of your treatment, all of your you know, your medical bills, any future treatment, any limitations that you have on what you do for fun and what you do with your family and all these things.

And that's that's really as simple as it is.

So Okay, if somebody is an unemployed ditch digger, what does that do to the scenario of that.

Will drastically reduce the value the case. You mean, it is what it is. You know, the relative economic impact of a life altering accident for an unemployed ditch digger is different on paper than for a you know, world famous radio host.

You know, you know, really though, it has to do I guess with what does it have to It has to do with what your economic damages are. But what about pain and suffering? Everyone probably deserves the same for a soar back or not.

In a lot of respects that loss of life.

Of enjoyment, that's true.

But unfortunately those categories are capped in Colorado. So there is an upper limit depending on the type of the case and a lot of other factors, but there is a limit to these non economic, intangible, if you will, losses in Colorado and in many states. So really the only damages that are not capped are.

Your economic losses.

You know, if you had, for instance, three million dollars of medical bills, why would it make sense to put a cap on the amount of medical bill if they are what they are, and then the same logic goes along with your wage loss and your inability to earn money.

That loss is what it is.

It can't be capped by by some law in a different state. So it may be capped by available limit. Yeah, but it's not cap by you know, by by law.

All right?

Threeh three Martino three oh three six two seven eight four sixty six.

And you can write to us.

Help at troubleshooter dot com. Whenever you call or right, we will get you on the show. And there's no need to wait, so you can call in about that. We're going to try to get Justin Garcia again to come on and talk about why he feels he can keep sixty two thousand dollars and do nothing.

Would you want a contractor.

Who takes sixty two thousand dollars and doesn't do a thing. Now, maybe he couldn't do anything because of circumstances.

Well, if that's the case, what were you gonna say?

Give it back?

That's right, you're supposed to have it in trust for the job. And as Deputy Bo said, if you have any expenses, let us know about it, all right. Frank Duran the real estate man dot com. If you're wondering what will my house sell for, he can tell you free of charge complimentary. You know, prices have gone up just a tiny bit. Demand has gone up, just a tiny bit, even with small drop in interest rates. Whatever it is, Frank can determine all the factors and tell

A two five five.

So John, somebody texted me and you know this wasn't this wasn't planned to have a personal injury day. But I don't care. People text me and let me give those numbers out. You can text me, but on this one before I forget Okay, it's on personal injury.

Somebody wants to know.

If you have insurance and you get or you have accident insurance or some kind of coverage on your own, is the other party who's responsible allowed to take that into consideration to give you less.

Short answer is no.

We call that a collateral source, Tom, And the essence of it is that if you were if you were savvy enough to go out and buy insurance company you know, or buy insurance, you paid for that out of your own pocket, you know, through your work, through your paycheck.

Those kind of things.

We're not going to let the at fault guy take advantage of and somehow reduce their liability to you just because you happen to have coverage that kicks in to pay some or all of the medical bills. So the short answer is no, we don't do that.

Okay, So in essence, they have to make you whole. It doesn't matter what you did on your own.

I mean, yeah, it doesn't. That's what coverage.

That's the gist of it. And that makes sense.

I mean, if you went out and bought you know, again, you have imagine that you have one basket of damages, right and all of your medical bills and your wage loss and everything else is in that basket, and the at all person is responsible for everything in that basket. If you happen to take something out of that basket and pay for it out of your own pocket, you would feel like you needed to get reimbursed, right, and that wouldn't shock anybody's conscience.

I paid out of pocket, You have to pay me back.

The same is really true for these other benefits that you've bought and paid for. You took money out of your pocket. You paid for that coverage. The coverage kicked in and did what it did, but that in no way changes the person who caused the damages responsibility for paying for it.

And it's been that way, gotty many years.

Got it all right?

So back to this contractor thing. Somebody wants to know why, What if this woman changed her mind, wouldn't that be I don't think she changed her mind. We're talking about this woman contracted for a custom build on her lot with Patriot Remodeling Services and paid sixty two thousand dollars down to build a cabin provided by another company that she and she paid for.

That.

Okay, so she wanted a custom build for a cabin.

Okay, but she bought that. Okay.

Now, even if she put according to the contractor's testag if she put sixty two thousand dollars down for the labor and she bought the materials, even if she changed her mind, that money is supposed to be in trust, and the only money the contractor can keep is a loss. What would be a loss? Okay, Let's say he eked out some time John to do the job and did not book any other jobs for that time.

Could he claim that as some kind of a loss.

Yeah, I mean theoretically he could. I mean, that's the essence of a trust account, is accountability. Right, You're gonna have to detail out every single penny that went in and every single penny that went out. And I don't think that there's anything in the contractor's trust account that allows him to contract out of it applying to his duty to protect that.

Right now, No, you can't wave your rights like that.

So suggesting that he somehow has a higher power by virtue of his you know, wonderful drafting of his contract is just ridiculous. You know, I'd like you to try that defense in a criminal court. If they try to prosecute this guy for, you know, for stealing money from this lady, and that's what it'll come down to.

So Dimitri did some searching on this guy as well, Deputy d and we found.

Well, let's just let me just ask Jim atriam, what did you.

Didn't we find some stuff on him, like some licensing actions and other stuff from previous companies.

No, that wasn't me.

But I did find that he's been operating with three different companies A and I did find that he's listed as owner at Innate and they have a Denver phone number and a Denver address, as well as a Belle View, Washington phone number and address. And I already texted those to Deputy Bow a few minutes ago in case.

What about licensing? Do we know anything about their licensing?

Bo?

I remember that Bo gave us an update on licensing from El Paso County that was yesterday.

He said he was license there.

I think that's what I remember both saying.

So Bo called justin Garcia at Patriot Building and it's also Patriot Remodeling Services. Listen, it could be anything seven seven, one zero, four to three seven. And he was pretty sketchy he said his contract does not fall within the

Way before a year and a half.

Okay, she waited, tried to work things out with this guy and then finally called us.

But Garcia, you're all over our deputies. Off the air.

Flap in your mouth. You said you wanted to go on the air. Come on the air. I promise you really, as much as I'm doing this now and giving my opinion and calling you down, you come on. I'm gonna treat you with respect and let you tell your story. I really am, I really am. But I'm gonna have some questions too. Okay, you're gonna you're not gonna smooth talk me, bro, but you can come on the air.

Come on, Garcia, come on the air.

Come on the air and tell us why people should trust you when they give you money that you're going to do the job or give the money back or keep it in trust. And I want to know why you feel you can get around the Contractor's Trust Act. He's probably meeting with an attorney this morning because he didn't realize it was going to go this and again, I want to make sure bo. I want to get him back up. I want to make sure he contacted

I've had friends go to them.

They also do hair restoration and they can do a weight loss of drugs at pennies on the dollar compared to the market. Denverregion dot com go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to one help.

Okay, it has to do with medical stuff.

Now.

John deals with mostly acute medicine, meaning people are in trouble and they get emergency help. Oddly enough in America, Not oddly enough in America we have some of the best acute medical teams in the world for keeping people alive, resurrecting them from near death and or reviving them and just getting them back to life. That's emergency medical, but regular medicine. It's interesting we rank the worst when it comes to.

Developed industrialized nations.

We're the worst, and yet we're one in acute medicine. The high income countries and that have the worst healthcare.

We're not the worst. Worst. Well, yeah, we are the worst, worst, but we're we're in a in a group of.

The country Sweden, believe it or not, bad, Canada bad, Switzerland bad, Germany bad, US bad.

The US is the worst.

So the bottom five Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, US. Now the are developed high income countries. Obviously there are countries in Africa and around that that have worse healthcare. Okay, so the best healthcare in the world for high income countries Australia. That, followed by the Netherlands, followed by the UK, New Zealand and France.

I can't I was trying to find a correlation here.

Now, Sweden, Canada, and Switzerland have socialized medicine, right, I'm not sure if Germany does on the low bad countries, but then we don't have socialized medicines.

We are at the bottom.

As far as as far as access to healthcare. The Netherlands have the best, the US has the worst access. And I always thought it was good access that anyone could go and get treated, but that's not what they're saying. By the way, we have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show three h three, seven to one to three talks seven one, three, eight two five.

Stick around for more.

We're gonna try to get Justin Garcia on, but we are taking your calls three oh three seven one three Talks seven one three eight two five five or three oh three Martino. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Please time for an insurance check up free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three, seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the Real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two, ripped of you.

You don't have.

Come runing just as fast as we can.

Shoot 's gonna help man.

This is the Troubleshooter Show.

No Tom Martino, Hi, Tom Martino here three zero three seven one three talk three oh three seven one three eight.

Two five five.

So we are here to help you, and we do it every single day. Solve problems, answer questions, take complaints, and make your life just a little easier. And we have this ongoing case that we've been talking about that we'll get to. Deputy Bow has been in touch with the El Paso County District's Attorney's office and we'll be talking to the investigator there about violations of a Contractors Trust Act. Right now, Richard is on the phone and wants to talk about a quit claim deed, which a

What's going on, Richard, Well.

It's all first statement call I had my dad did this, he quit claimed it to me at the beginning of August. And last regards listening to your show, you said there are some people think they can do it a certain way and it ends up being the wrong way.

Well, it depends on what. It depends on. How why did he quit claim it to you?

Well, okay, my sister lives there and stood there for ten years and she's just not capable of taking care of the place and so, and he's getting up there in years.

So I guess he just thought that was probably the best and do.

But why, what was the what was Richard?

What was the point he wanted to leave the house to you when he dies. If he wanted to do that, he should do a beneficiaries deed. If he did a quit claim deed when he's alive, that's a legal way to do it as well.

Does he owe money on the house?

No, okay, so a quit claim deed would be strong, but it's not wise.

He accomplished what he wanted. The house is now yours, okay, But he screwed you. Here's why.

How is that?

Here's why if it was a beneficiary deed or left in a will or left in a trust, meaning all three of those ways, all three of them happen at death, the trust, the will, and the beneficiary deed. The beneficiary deed is him on the deed with you taken over. So all three of those happen at death. At death the day of death, the house has a day of

How long has he been there?

What I would guess he'd probably owned it for ten years to it was a will to my grammar to him.

What did he buy it for or what is his basis when it was willed to him?

Honest time, I don't know.

Well, let's take a guess what's it worth now?

Right now?

According to the City and County stuff, it says four hundred and thirty three thousand.

Yeah, you can't go by that. You don't go by the tax assessment.

Okay, so it's probably more like five point fifty or six. But let's say, just for argument's sake, it's five hundred. Okay, what do you think, just roughly, what do you think he bought it for? Well, just doesn't go ahead, just as an.

Exam it was it was will to him from my grandmother.

I understand that the day that she died. What do you think the house was worth? That is your dad's base iss, Let's say for argument's sake, it was two.

Hundred two fifty.

Let's say two fifty okay, okay, now that is now your basis when he quit claimed it to you two fifty, not.

Day of death. Out Now, that means if you sell.

It for five hundred, you're going to pay tax on two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, whereas you would not have paid that tax if you got it on the day of death.

Do you see the difference?

Oh my god, yes, it's horrible.

Yeah, so he cost you right now if the Democrats have their will to be more, but right now it's twenty percent fifteen federal and five percent state. So you are going to pay twenty percent on that. So if you make whatever you make, take twenty percent off of it on that house, and you don't get to count the basis on the day of death. You have to go back. So you need to find out what that house was worth. You literally need to check the records and go back to the day he inherited it. That's

They get a lot of tax. So so if.

You if you make too fifty on this house, you're looking at a tax of fifty thousand dollars.

Jeez, I was afraid when he said last week this is gonna happen.

When did he quit claim it? When did he quit claim it first of August?

Why?

I mean he thought he was doing the right thing.

Yeah, yeah, all.

Right, that's too bad. You know what I do want to talk?

Can we did you say, Kachina that mackenzie's not available this week? Did you tell me he was not available this week? Dan McKenzie, you are correct?

Okay?

Is Kiling Park available? I want to see we can undo this is Kiling Park Triday, damn it.

I have two experts and they're both.

Gone for the for the week. I want to know if we can undo it. Who else can we ask?

Maybe David Salisbury he retired.

I don't know if he I don't know what Tom, but he still knows stuff.

Dan McKenzie's in quart or what is he on an issue?

By the way, Not sure Tom?

What if he quit claims it back to his dad? Wouldn't that just undo the deal?

That hold on? Now?

That's what I was thinking, except now his dad I think gets a new basis too.

I have.

Yet good point, John, Yes, oh man.

I wonder who would know? God, this is a really important question. We might have you back tomorrow to talk to Kiel and Park.

They're going to be available tomorrow. Let's hope we can undo it.

I don't think you can because I I think once it's recorded now it's a whole new ballgame. Now when it goes back to him. I don't think that Man, gets his old basis back, which might be better. Actually, well no, no, no, wait wait wait wait wait if he inherits his dad's basis, and then the guy who gets a quick claim inherits maybe wait, I don't know, doc, maybe maybe let's just wait and see. We're gonna try to find an expert today. We can't get one of them.

Was great, thank you.

Yeah, and listen, people, how many times do I have to say this, don't try to do a state.

Planning on your own. You're screwing yourself. Just don't do it on your own.

Okay, you know these quick claim deeds, they're so stupid. Here's another stupid thing. When you have these people limiting the gifts they're giving to their grandkids and to their their kids and their nieces and nephews for college and all that, they're limiting it to that sixteen thousand dollars limit.

There is no limit. Okay, there is no limit. Oh, I can.

Only gift sixteen thousand dollars to my people per year.

No that's not true, not true.

You don't pay tax. If you pay more, you can give you right now.

I'm just going to tell you right now, the way the law.

Is, you can give one million dollars of your money as a gift to anyone and they don't pay tax on it. Right now this year, one million dollars, no gift tax. Do you understand that. Here's what the law says when it goes over. Please remember this because I have gotten a attorneys who don't even know this. Every dime over the sixteenth ho or whatever the limit is, I think it's sixteen. Everything over the annual limit goes

I might have it off a few million, but basically the concept is true. You don't have to.

Limit your gifts unless you're bezos or elon muskers or actually anybody that will leave more than sixteen million behind. Okay, so don't go through all these conniptions. I had a guy worth a bucket of nails who said, oh my god, my mom.

Gave me more than fourteen grand.

I don't know what to do because at the time the limit was fourteen grand. He's thinking he's got all these taxes do so that's it. Don't try to do a state planning on your own.

Okay.

That's why we have people like Killing Park and Dan mackenzie. In fact, let me give out mackenzie's number, because I was supposed to do a spot form anyway. Dan McKenzie McKenzie Law eight three three COO plans eight three three co plans. He's live and local, but that's just an easy name to number to remember.

Eight three three co plans.

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Time for an insurance check up, free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one. Help You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi Tom Martino, your trouble shooter three O three seven one three talks

Hello, Brian, what's going on?

Man?

All right? Tom?

Thanks for talking, sir.

Yeah, so I've got I heard you talking about taxes and real estate. So if ye about my specific scenario. I bought a new house, moved into it, and been waiting to sell my current house. I'm carrying two mortgages whatever. I always do things the hard way. We I'm just trying to understand what is my capital gain gonna look like, uh my burden when when I actually do it to the closing table.

Okay, Now you have a primary residence that you're going to sell.

Is that correct?

Yeah?

Okay, let's talk about your primary residence. A lot of people think capital gains are contingent upon whether you bought another house or not. It's not anymore capital gains. I'm going to simplify it. Capital gains were this way, you pay capital gains on whatever you make on your private residence above the exemption for private residences. Okay, now, it's that simple. So it doesn't matter if you buy another house, or if you buy a yacht or don't buy anything and just piss the money away.

It doesn't matter.

It used to be when you bought a house more expensive, you deferred the gain. That does not apply to residential properties. Right now, it's very simple. A single taxpayer is given an exemption. They can make a profit of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and not pay a dime of tax.

Now, if you own it with.

Your spouse, you each get two fifty for a combined total of five hundred thousand dollars exemption.

Okay, okay, well that's real simple.

I'm in the clear, yes now.

But let's just say you, how do you figure your basis? A lot of people figure what they paid for the house.

But if you put.

Carpeting in the house or any permanent improvement that's not window coverings unless they're built in shutters and stuff. But if they are regular, if they are permanent improvements to the house, like landscaping, carpeting, painting, new furnace, new water heater, any of that can be added to the purchase price to give you your new basis. So you're allowed to count everything you spent on that house for permanent improvements to

So it's in my name only?

Okay, well I think we're It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it's just in your name. If you both have is it both your primary residence?

Yeah? Yeah, so it's both of them.

Yeah yeah, So anyway, you would talk to an accountant about that. I believe that you're not going to worry about it though, And and do you are? Do you have any nibbles on the house? Again, do you have any nibbles?

I mean anybody selling the house? I mean, what's going on.

Actually we okay, so the day after it was announced they're dropping the rate, we went we got.

An offer and went under contractor oh that's great stuff.

We're wiping way.

So that brings up another question. Do I get since you said expenditures of of of perch or of selling, does that include the fact that I'm paying too more?

Do I get to wipe that?

Second?

Mor Well, what does that mean?

Well, the mortgage, the mortgage has nothing to do with it. In other words, it's the profit you make obviously if that if you refinanced, and it's sometimes the mortgage counts some of that, doesn't. All you look at is what you bought the house for and what you added to it in improvements. That's all that matters.

Okay, okay, Yeah, and then that will count, does not? What's that?

Okay?

Yeah, the cost of selling that you mentioned, that doesn't include the four months of paying on two more?

No, no, no, no, no, it does it does count. It does count. The what you call it does count. The commissions you pay will count.

However, Hey, Tom, does landscaping count or is it only the physical house?

Landscaping would if it's part of the property, permanent property if you did a patio, if you did a tree, if you did it's all goes to that property.

All right, man, we're gonna do fine.

Thank you, Mark, Thank it. I think it's great. I think you're going to sell now, especially with it. Oh you just said you did, you have a contract, So I wish you the best. Three oh three seven one three eight two five five.

So what is your question? What is your complaint? What is your need?

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What's going on? Let's talk? So I have Let me just get this one here. Okay.

I had another question because we were talking about this capital gains. Somebody wanted to know about commercial property. Does the exemption apply?

No, it does not.

But what a lot of people do is when they have a rental, they build up a lot of that in a rental.

Then they sell their primary residence.

They take the tax exemption, They move into their rental for two years, and then sell it because it has to be two of the last five, and they get another tax exemption. Now, there are some builders and the irs.

No one has ever caught up with them. Now I don't I shouldn't even use the word caught.

Up with them.

They don't say anything about it because it's illegal. And here's what it is.

They build a house or fix up a house, fix and flip or or renovate or whatever. Right, Or they build a house and they live in it for two or three years, sell it, get all that exempt, They get five hundred thousand tax free.

Do it again, five hundred thousand tax free. Do it again. Not bad? Is it? I mean? Really not bad?

And fix and flippers can do that too, even if you sell it out right, but it is a way to live tax free. Now, on top of that, if you want to make that even better, you can have some of the I'm getting really weird here, but you can have some of the money that you build a house with from your overfunded life insurance and that's growing tax free.

You borrow from your life insurance.

Policy to do the house. You sell the house tax free as part of your personal exemption. Then pay back your life insurance policy for the money you put out for that house, and you pay yourself the highest interest allowed, and that interest goes to your cash value of the life insurance. So now you've just made a ton of money on your life insurance which is growing tax free, so your cash value.

Is going up.

Then you made a ton of money on your house that you didn't pay tax on.

Think about this.

So now if you do that back and forth with an overfunded life insurance policy and spec homes and you build up now that you keep making tax free money from the spec homes, that money, you do anything you want with a tax free but when you pay back your life insurance, you pay it back with top interest. That's going to shelter more and more cash, growing tax free. So then what do you do with this big bundle of money in your life insurance. Well, we've said that

You're going to borrow from your life insurance borrow from it.

So let's say you're sixty five, seventy fifty five, whatever age you're older. You're retiring. You're not a dumb worker like me who wants to keep working. So let's say you retire and you take monthly payments pick one ten grand, ten grand a month, five grand a month, two grand a month, and their policy loans or take it take it once a year. You know, a fifty sixty to seventy five eighty thousand dollars loan.

Live on it as income, but it's the loans. You're not paying tax on it.

So what happens to all these accumulated loans on your life insurance? When you die, the life insurance proceeds pay them off. So I've just given you a strategy as a fix and flipper or builder to make money the rest of your life tax free and grow a retirement fund tax free. There you're welcome. Three h three seven one three talks seven one three A two five five. So I want to bring up Deputy d right here, and I want.

To bring up there's a reason, well there's a big reason.

I'm bringing them up because he did some research here on the Consumer Protection Act. You're on camera now, so on the Consumer Protection Act. D. This is important, John, you know about the Consumer Protection Act too. The Consumer Protection Act is a wide reaching We always talk about the Contractors Trust Act, but.

The Protection Act is very wide reaching.

And one of the things that I like about it is the wording about deceptive trade practices. God, does that handle a lot of stuff. John, I guess you can attest to that. I mean deceptive trade practice. That's open for a big interpretation. Deceptive trade practice, I mean, think about it. So what we're saying is, let me just bring us all up here. What I'm saying is is that the Consumer Protection Act says this, this, this, and deceptive trade practices.

Right, let me get your mic on.

There you go, So, d Yes, there were some interesting things in the in the Consumer Protection Act.

Yes, this is the body of law encountered called the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. And the part that really excites me here in the context of that dirty contractor that we just discussed earlier, is that it provides for three times, and I'm reading directly from Justia, three times the amount of actual damage is sustained if it is established by clear and convincing evidence that such person engaged in bad faith conduct, plus attorney's fees and cost of the action.

Wow, John, did you know about that that?

I never knew the Consumer Protection Act provided for attorney's fees and treble damages.

I didn't know it.

Yeah, they do.

The only.

The only problem with that.

I mean, as you as you look at all these different things, Tom, is you have to kind of really look down the road. Is it possible that a judgment that we obtain under this act. I mean, even though it may be trouble damages plus fees and stuff, what's to stop the guy from running right across the street and bankruptcy, you know, versus on the other hand, if the DA actually decided to prosecute him. In addition to, you know, the very real possibility that a jail sentence

I found something else on a big time Denver criminal defense attorney's website. This is in the context of the contractors the contractors trust Act, Truck Trust Act. He says that violations of the car to Trust Act UH will lie against contractors and even officers, owners and principles of the corporation and and the corporate veil will not protect them from liability and card under under that act.

Wow, yeah, that's that's true. But it but bankruptcy will.

And so then well, unless it's fraud, right, I mean, if it's I mean, if.

There's a fraud exception of course, but I mean you still got to get to you fraud. What he's talking about there is you know, this, this idea of a corporate veil is what people say all the time that I can just I could just hide my assets in a corporation and therefore nobody can touch me.

And that's really not true, of course. But you know, I don't know.

No, no, I I know what John, John, I know what you're saying.

If it's fraud, it's not dischargeable. But you have to prove fraud or you have to at least bring a big enough claim against you know, because financial difficulties, you could violate the Find the Contractor's Trust Act through financial difficulties, and that would and that would be bankruptible so to speak, it would be dischargeable.

So you know it's I used to do criminal defense work, okay, Yeah, back in the day, so to speak. And there is nothing that will make criminal charges go better in court for you than making your victims whole.

Okay.

I mean you've got a choice.

Don't make them hole and go to prison, or make them whole and have the chance of coming out of something with probation or something. You'd be amazed how many people get motivated to bring something in and try to make these victims whole.

Yeah, I got you.

It's a beautiful thing, all right.

We have more coming up on The Troubleshooter Show three h three seven to one, three talks seven one, three, eight, two five five. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now

We also have an email.

Address, help at troubleshooter dot com. Help at troubleshooter dot com. So I people are texting me, by the way, and you can text me at seven four seven, nine nine nine fifty two eighty. That's my personal personal text on my personal Google that is forwarded to.

My cell phone.

Now, Tom, how many different healthcare systems do we have? We have Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, private employer provided, no insurance, no in.

In self pay. It's ridiculous.

We need universal, socialized medical That's why we ranked so low. You know, I will say that healthcare and medical care is one area John, you can chime into. You deal with it more than anybody. The healthcare system. I mean, we need something. I think I hesitate to call it universal or government provided, but there could be a limited number of carriers, mandatory participation in a way that saves money. The Obamacare that the benefit Obamacare did it trust me.

That's the one good thing it did. It expanded meta deca.

Now I believe the Medicare system is one of the best run systems in the world. Medicare, it's a great system. Now Medicare for all.

I don't know.

I think healthcare, though, is one of those areas. And insurance, okay, because we're talking about health care and insurance are tied together. I think that insurance ruined the health care industry. Insurance actually put a layer of administration and cost there that wasn't there before. You know, if you really look at how doctors are reimbursed, for example, for births, and deputy doc will tell you this, when insurance came in and the prices went up, he didn't get more money for

I say they were like the mafia.

They inserted themselves into the healthcare system. Most of our costs right now in healthcare, most of our costs is administrative and insurance.

It's not the actual provider now.

The actual provider raises those costs because of the insurance and the administration. So yes, it appears as if they're all charging too much, but they're doing that to keep up, just to have enough to keep for themselves. It's it's a god, it's it's a complicated situation. So what is the answer. What is the answer? John, What do you think the answer is? To a healthcare system? Do you like some kind of I don't like using the words socialized because it sounds because we have we're obviously we

I don't know that.

To me, we need to do something because what we have isn't working anyway. Three oh three seven one three Talks seven one three eight two five five. We have more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. Stick Around three oh three Martino three oh three six two seven eight four sixty six. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent

D need advice, so you don't have.

Come run in chess as can ye.

Shooter's gonna help.

Come man, This.

Is the Troubleshooter Show. Now, Tom Martino.

Well, come back to the Troubleshooter Show. This is not Tom Martino. This is John Fuller sitting in for mister Martino who is out for the rest of the day, and joining me here in the studio is the lovely Suzanne and uh doc hey John, And we're here to take your questions, answer your issues, do our best to solve your problems. Give us a call. The Alliance are wide open right now at three oh three seven, three eight, two five five.

Many of you know me.

I am a personal injury attorney here in Denver, Colorado. I have been for twenty two years, which seems like kind of a long time. But in that time I've had a wide and myriad, you know, selection of cases that makes me qualified to talk about almost nothing. But nonetheless, here I am, and I'm ready to take your call and give us a shout. Now, Tom kind of teased the last hour with this concept of health insurance, and

Stuff like that.

So using medicaid and trying to select your own medical providers is an almost recipe for disaster. I don't know, doctor, did you get involved in medicaid claims?

But the point is kind of similar. It often is up to the insurance company rather than the doctor, to

And meanwhile the patient goes just waiting, trying to get the treatment that they need and suffering through whatever's going on.

Exactly, I didn't.

Realize, John, I mean, I'm kind of stuck when you said it was way different twenty years ago. I didn't realize that. I guess before what you could go directly through your healthcare insurance when you're injured in an accident.

So no, the crazy thing is that in this no fault system that we had before, we didn't use our own private insurance for the treatment related to car accident.

What did you use?

We used our own car insurance, and we had a coverage called PIP or personal injury protection. A lot of people listening will remember the old PIP days as we referred to it, and personal injury protection was this this extra policy on your car policy that had fifty thousand dollars for medical and fifty thousand dollars for rehab, but

They could go to.

An orthopedic doctor, they could go to a chiropractor, they could get massage and anything else under the sun, and it would give us the ability to kind of custom formulate the healthcare that people needed to get better. The downside of the system was twofold Number one primary care doctors didn't take the auto coverage. They just wouldn't. They just wouldn't do it. If you showed up and said Hi, I'm here because of a car, they would turn you away and be done with you. You couldn't get the

The coverage wouldn't cover someone else. If you were at Faull and hurts somebody in an accident, it didn't cover them. Right, everybody had their own.

So all of your liability coverage was still in place to cover the other guy. I'm strictly talking about covering God's own injuries, whether you were at fault or whether the other guy was care after an accident. We got all of our care under our own policy. So here's the other downside of that regime, if you will. It was abused like nobody's business. Okay. You had a number of doctors out there that specialized in treating accident injuries.

That's all they did.

They ran all these little injury clinics and stuff, and miraculously, nobody got better until either the money ran out or the three year statute limitation was looming and all that.

Wow, And is that why they changed it? Because there was a lot of fraud going on. Is that why they overhauled the system? If you will.

Yeah, what happened was the insurance companies. You know, in Colorado, we have a system that anybody can put just about anything on the ballot. Okay, it's a referendum issue. With enough signatures, they can put just about anything on the ballot. The insurance companies, primarily the auto insurance companies, convinced the people of Colorado that a new system was better, and that they would all say massive amounts of money.

And it was actually a.

Ballot issue that the people of Colorado voted on. So they voted to get rid of the old pip days, if you will, and implement what we have today. And so for the last almost twenty years whatever. The opposite of no fault is a pure fault, if you will. Now, the person who's that fault is responsible for everything. But the challenge is there's no mechanism to get them to

We understand that we're at fault.

But the only way we're going to pay you anything is if you sign this release that lets our driver off the hook completely. So nobody's going to sign that release. If you're in the middle of getting treatment, you don't know what the future holds. You've got potentially a surgery

Of our clients.

I understood, Okay, it's.

It's just it's kind of the system that we have to deal with. I say, We've got a couple of callers on the line. Let's take let's take Tommy an issue with auto owners insurance.

Tommy, you're on the air. What's going on?

Oh?

I'm on there now, yes, sir?

Oh, okay. Well, on July tenth, my neighbor who lives in the corner house, there's an empty lot between us, and he had put new blakes on his truck and and everything. He did pump them up or something, but he ran into the side of my house and it moved the wall three and a half inches. And I've been dating with the insurance company, the underwriters and since then, and the first two weeks they said they were going

So, is this the insurance company for your neighbor that you're dealing with?

No, this is the underwriters for his insurance company?

Okay, and that's Auto Owners Insurance.

Uh okay, So because his insurance is Weeding agency or Collins Okay, So.

We don't really deal with the agencies too much. Is it the actual insurance company, auto owners or who is it?

Yeah?

Auto Owners? Okay, I guess they're in I guess they're in Denver.

Yeah, So what are they telling you?

Well, okay, this has now been about a month going by, and we finally did a hold of the lady that's got our clone, and then she says that she needed, you know, a bid on it, how much it can costs to repair it. We send that to her, and you couldn't get a holdover for a week or two. And then when we did get a holdover, she said she needed itemized. Well, sent that to her and then

Okay, tell me we're going to work through all those issues. Hang on just a moment, we're going to go to a break. We'll be right back. So yeah, definitely we'll get to the bottom of this.

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Welcome back to the Troubleshooter Show. This is John Fuller here. We are talking with Tommy right now. Tommy had a neighbor who did a break job on his truck and apparently mess something up and the truck rolled down the hill and hit his house and it has been struggling with auto owners insurance. Right now, and we we have Brian Burns that's going to be joining us here in just a second. We want to hear the rest of the story, Tommy tell us in a nutshell, Really, what

Well? I sent him an ismed thing on the bed that they want to drass.

This is a bed in your home that got damaged when the wall got moved.

No, no, they wanted they wanted an itemize on the cost of all the repairs.

Okay, what did that come up to? By the way, they.

Come to fourteen thousand, seven hundred and fifty dollars.

Wow, that's kind of a lot. This must have been more than just a little bump.

Oh yeah, it's a two fifty four ninety four two fifty four pick up with a diesel motor. He had put it and rebarsed and started it. And when he started coming off his little concrete pad there coming down the hill. Well it wasn't slowing down, oh, she wrote, And I guess I guess he kind of freaked out or something. Hit the gas pedal.

Oh my goodness, it was actually dry. It when it hits your house.

Oh hit it in the truck with the door shut.

Now I got to ask here too. Is the house structurally okay?

Still?

Or you're still living there?

Oh yeah, yeah, it's it's.

It's not gonna come tumbling down. It's the strong wind blows. Is it Is this.

A frame house you have here, Tommy? Or is this a frame house that you have here?

Or yeah it's a frame house. Okay, it's a free story.

All right.

So hey, Tommy, did you just move here from Boston? Your accent sounds a little like you came from back east.

I'm probably your stab of bread.

I can promise you Tommy is not from Boston. Okay, yeah, Tommy, sounds more like my people there than than yours.

Yeah. Well, but uh yeah, I mean that's what when you hit the gas, I mean things just I know, ain't everyone's stopping? Then they just hit the wall. I hit about thousand pounds worth of the way on the other side of the wall and tried to garage and it moved it, you know, the whole the whole wall moved.

So Tommy, what's going on? You gave him the estimate and stuff. What did the insurance company tell you?

Next?

Well, they won't answer their phone calls.

Now, Oh, okay, how long has it's been You're being ghosted?

Huh?

How long has it been?

It's happened this It happened on July the tenth.

Okay, that's been a while, John, Tommy, what does your neighbors say about this? Has your neighbor called the insurance company to say you got to take care of Tommy's house here?

Well, okay, I guess probably the first of all. Just they told us that they sent him a letter and he had two months to respond to it and uh, but she said she never heard back from him. So I went over and put a note on his door, yeah, and ask him the place called me a shance company and tell them, you know what happened.

Tommy. Do you have insurance on your home? Your own insurance?

Yeah?

Yeah, I do. And that's the first thing they told me.

Just who's that with?

Uh? State Farm?

Stay Farm? Have you talked to State Farm?

Well? We did, but you know, I kind of feel like, you know, auto owners is hit the insurance great, and that's kind of like right, So what's.

He saying, John, that the homeowner's not doing his part in getting this?

Maybe that might be what's going on. You know, we run into this from time to time. Maybe Brian can talk about this. You know what I'm thinking about, Brian is maybe Tommy should be following acclaim with his own insurance company and let them worry about going after the other carrier. I mean, do you have any other advice about how to make auto owners get off there? Uh took us and to get going on this complaint than you know, other than dealing with his own company or suing the neighbor.

I can't think of anything else. What about you, Brian?

No?

I mean, and as you guys were talking here, I was sitting here saying the exact same thing. I think that what I would do. Because he has no contractual relationship with auto owners in this case, who knows what the other driver is saying? The other driver to be saying, well, you know I was doing this. You know, who knows people people argue and start to make up stories. So he doesn't he can't force auto owners to pay.

It's exactly what you said.

He either sues the neighbor if the neighbor's not really doing anything. I promise you auto owners is going to start paying if he's getting sued, or if you just don't want to go through that hassle, you make the claim on your own policy and let them subrogate. And that's exactly what they'll do. They'll suburgate, subrogate against auto owners and try to get that money back. But in the meantime he'll be out as deductible.

Well, and and that's a great point about the deductible, but I can also tell you, Tommy, if you paid a deductible under your policy to get this repair done and then State Farm goes out and collects from auto owners, the very first dollars that they get in will be used to refund your deductible, and so you would get

But I have a question, Brian, if he does have to submit a claim through his own homeowner's insurance, would that affect his renewal when that comes up.

I don't think it would affect his renewal. I hear what you're saying, Susan. I'm always reluctant to file a home claim, specifically because unlike an auto claim, there's not such thing as not a fault ultimately on a home. But in a case like this, you're talking about a lot of money here, and I just I don't think it's worth, you know, to sit and wait and wait

I mean, that's the best way, really, if it were you know, if it were me. And here's what I can tell you about auto owners. I have a lot of clients that have auto owners, and generally speaking, they're happy with auto owners. But I've also handled a million claims against auto owners for clients that have been hit by insurance of auto owners.

And here's what I can tell you, without exception, they are slow to pay.

They will make the most ridiculous low offer that you've ever heard of and Nicol and DIMEU. They will eventually pay, and they will eventually pay a fair amount, but it takes forever. So what you're experiencing is pretty consistent with what I experience with my clients. And the only sure way to speed that up would be to follow lawsuit. But it's not something that I would ever really recommend

All right, not to what I was trying to avoid because you and I only because I don't know if that shows up as a mark on her home owner's insurance or again share or not.

Here, I'll give you one more option. Why don't you give him my contact information? I don't mind calling the contacts I have at Auto Owners and see if I could maybe figure out what's going on. I'm not the agent, I'm guessing for the person that was involved, but so they won't give me details, but I could at least try to push it up the ladder to say, hey, can you look at this claim that's going on? And this guy's sitting here waiting. You know his house is

So thinks awesome doing that. I think that's awesome, Brian. Thanks doing yay.

Brian Burns with Compass Insurance Theeinsurancehelp Center dot com three oh three nine ninety six nine thousand. Thank you so much, Kelly, give him, Give Tommy Brian's information.

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Time for an insurance check up free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Welcome back to the Tom Martine Show. This is John Fuller fitting in for Mark and Tom today on the longest running show in the country with the same host, Martino. We are here to help you with all of your problems. Give us a call today. The number is three oh three seven one three eight two five five. My primary focus. I'm an attorney. I handle automobile accidents, and I'm privileged to be sitting next to one of my dearest clients over the years whose a major Yeah, for.

Sure, I've always appreciated your help, John, and I know Mark has two I do have a question for you, though, sure, so I how important is it that people call you early after an accident? And I only asked this because when Mark and I were hit sideswipe there in Castle Rock and my face was all busted up, I refused an ambulance right. I thought I was fine. I was pretty shooken up. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. So I know Mark called you as

So you've kind of got two issues going on there. I recall the phone call from Mark the day that you guys got in the accident. I was actually fishing up in Wyoming and got a call from you guys, and I was glad that I did. I was able to help and kind of get things started off on the right track. And that really is the important thing, is that you know, people don't know necessarily what to do when they've been in that accident. You know, what do we go to our PCP doctor? Do we go to the hospital.

There's an ambulance hitting here that I know is going to charge me money.

What do we do?

Where do we go?

Sometimes there's multiple people involved, there's three or four vehicles. Sometimes it's scary, and people don't know what the right thing to do is. And so the other side of the coin is that, in my heart of hearts, I truly believe that if I get involved in a case early on in the process, that when we're all said and done, I genuinely feel like I can put twenty five to thirty percent more money in your pocket, just because we set everything up right from the beginning, gotcha.

You know.

That's where medpay comes in. But it's only good if the hospital didn't build a medpay and take every penny of.

It upfront and stuff.

So you've got to really know how these things are supposed to work to get them to work best for you, got it, And if you do, then at the end of the day, there's going to be a better outcome, you know, And that doesn't that's before we even get to look at what kind of insurance the other guy has or how much or any of that stuff. That's just a matter of structuring your insurance to work best for you.

Well, I know, we needed someone to think straight for us because we were so jarred and rattled from the accident. We couldn't think on neither of us. And I was more hurt than Mark was, but it was you know, it's nice having someone hold your hand through the process, and we'll thank you, give you the steps, you know, so John Fuller three oh three five nine seven forty five hundred, give him a call.

Appreciate that, and we're going to go to a caller. Now, Drew, what is going on with you, sir?

Yes, sir, I am being harassed and T Bank is stealing my money.

Oh tell me more, Okay.

I was staying in a hotel. The last time I was there, there was no heed. I immediately walked out and I asked TD bank to put a stop payment on the final night in the hotel. They wrote me back that they would only put a stop payment. This is in writing. I had to find somebody else who is also so swindled by the hotel. I had to find some other merchant. That's ridiculous. I was supposed to

So let me ask you a couple of questions. Did this happen in Providence.

New Providence, New Jersey?

Okay? And when when was this?

Who is back a year and a half ago. I didn't do anything because I thought they had put the money back in my bank account. Now I find out they didn't.

Why didn't you just ask the hotel for a refund, Drew? Why did you go through Why didn't you just ask the hotel for a refund for no heat? Why did you have to go through your bank first?

The hotel was going to give me a refund, but when the bank said they were going to do it, I didn't want to take two refunds, so I let the bank supposedly do it, but they didn't do it. They also harassed me. If I got to the bank at four forty five, the bank closes at five, I was in line and then I was thrown out of the bank at five o'clock. They refused to wait on me. They're simply harassing me because I reported this and another thing somebody used my bank card and charged one hundred

Is there any connection between the erroneous debit card and the hotel?

Do you think?

I don't know whether there's a connection between the bank and a hotel. I feel that the bank that a couple people there are harassing me when I went into report and asked or stop payment.

Really, we've got different things. Hold on, We've got three different things going on here. You're not happy with the hotel, You're not happy with the bank handled your stop payment request, and on top of all that, somebody used your debit card, and then really the cloud hanging over all of that.

Is just really crappy customer service at the TD bank. Have I got that figured out?

They're the most convenient bank as far as I'm concerned, They're the most inconvenient bank.

And so you gave them all ID when we ran into trouble with the bank.

Why didn't you go back to the hotel and say, you know, it was too much trouble with the bank, just go ahead and give me my money back.

I might have to do that, but I don't know if the hotel is going to remember from.

Well, you've got the documentation from your bank that proves that you were there and that they build you right right. That I think is pretty pretty much proof that you were there and they can look it up. But I mean, have you know, listen, you got to vote with your feet in these situations. And if a company is not willing to provide you the level of customer service that you feel like you're owed, then you know there's plenty of other banks out there that are really trying to

Hang on, Drew, go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,

Hey, welcome back to the Tom Martino Show. We are here. My name is John Fuller.

I'm in a personal injury attorney here in Denver, Colorado, filling in for Tom and Mark today with the wonderful Suzanne right next to me helping out. And we had been on the phone with Drew for a while. I'm going to recap that issue. After Drew, We're going to

Seems to have straightened out for you? Is that fair, Drew? Did I did I accurately recount the issues that you have?

You did a very good job, except there was a seventy oh.

One hundred and seventy bye, Sorry about that. So where was one hundred and seventy spent?

Do you know?

Uh?

Supposedly it was spent at best Buy. It wasn't done by me because I don't use that card and I haven't been in best Buy in a year.

So did you file a complaint with TD bank about that charge?

I tried to. What happened was I gave them all my information, like I told you, even the transaction that I did at the bank that day I address social Security birthday, yeah right, and they said it's not enough information.

Did you walk in the branch o, were you trying to do that over the phone.

Phone.

Yeah, you know, that's one of the lessons that I think it's just hard for people to accept. But if you're a person that carries a debit card, you have to understand that there's almost no protection for you as a consumer for charges that get made on that debit card. It is not a credit card.

I only used mine for an ATM john. I've never used it to purchase I.

Don't even do that. I learned that lesson the hard way. One day I used my card and I, you know, I just used the debit because I didn't want to run up debt.

I just thought that was crazy.

And no sooner than I had gone through a particular drive through, I think I had gotten back to my office, which was all of like seven minutes away, and somebody was at Walmart running up five or six hundred dollars in no time. And here's the crazy thing about it, Like I can't individually go and file a complaint with the police because they consider the bank to be the

It was really eye opening.

But the long and the short of it is, and we've had callers on the show before, if you choose to use a debit card, you do it at your own risk, and there's a really good chance that if something happens or you get defrauded, there's not going to be any recourse from the bank.

Is that kind of what they're telling you, Drew?

Well, what they told me was all the stuff I gave him was not enough. They wanted to give me a code through the phone. But then they told me that a phone company could charge me a big phone bill if I looked them give me a code through the phone.

Well, I don't know anything about that. I think, Drew, you're probably going to need to try to walk back in there during normal business hours and see if you can't follow a complaint and allege the fraud. Normally, if they decide that fraud actually happened, they're going to put that money back in your account and at least you'll get a little bit of relief out of it.

Thanks for the culture.

We forgot it.

Another hour ago, John on the show.

All right to look at court, go with a sure thing. Denver's best roofer Well Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven seven to one help.

Yeah, ripped.

News need so you don't have.

Run insistas as we can.

Shooter's gonna help Come Man.

Six is the Troubleshooter Show Now, Tom Martine, Welcome.

Back to the Tom Martino Show. My name is John Fuller.

I am filling in for Tom and Mark today on the Only sho It's kind where we solve problems, answer questions and take complaints. We are here to help you out today. The phone number is Area GO three three seven one three eight two five five. Give us a call. We'd love to help you out with your problem. Sitting here with me in the studio today is as always Doc and the lovely Suzanne here by my side to help me out. Hey, Sean, Hey, yeah, you've got a couple questions over there, I do.

I wanted to know something since you're a personal injury attorney, if I get a ticket when when an accident happens, when I'm in an accident. Let's say I'm speeding, which I would never do so, but if I were speeding and got a ticket for that or you know, asked during the accident, does that make.

Me at fault?

No?

So, you know, here's the thing.

Normally, there's not multiple tickets given to multiple parties when you have an accident. There's one guy that's going to be charged with careless or DUI or something, or reckless driving or something like that. And that's pretty despositive of the issue of who's at fault.

But not always.

So I've had cases where you know, a person is not at fault for the accident, but they just happened to be drunk at the same time, so they got a DUI. But being drunk didn't cause the accident, Like you can be drunk at a red light and get rear ended. Being drunk didn't cause it wasn't about.

To give the other party a good case though, Like, hey, you're saying I'm at fault, but this guy was drunk when this happened.

Yeah, and so I've even responded that, yeah, and you're lucky they were because they were nice and relaxed and they got less hurt as a result of you running into them.

But really the two aren't connected.

I mean, the fact that the person was drunk, if they did nothing wrong, they did not do anything negligently to cause the accident.

It's a non issue. So so good question.

Do you ever deal with like road rage accidents where there's personal injury as well? And I mean that must get a little bit hairy as well, because you have two people accusing each other of you know, pointing fingers of who started what.

Yeah, yeah, unfortunately we do. So so here's kind of the thing.

You know, road rage is one of those things that tiptoes over the line into intentional conduct. Okay, whenever you you know, pull off the road and try to get in a fight, or god forbid, pull a gun or do something crazy like that, that's an intentional act. And intentional acts aren't negligence. They're not going to be covered

Oh, because it's a criminal case.

At that point, it's not so much criminal, but it's intentional. So insurance can only cover you for things that were that were accidental, that were negligence, right, something that you didn't intend to happen. If you steered over on the sidewalk and ran over somebody because they had a Raiders shirt on, there'd be no in insurance coverage for that.

That would be an intentional act.

So if you're irritated at me and we're both driving and you do something intentionally to cause us to collide or whatever, your insurance can deny covering my damages.

Yep.

Absolutely, they're going to deny that completely because what I did was an intentional act.

Is that where you get a personal injury attorney involved in to help with that?

Maybe the case that the PI attorney can't do anything to help you because we can only go I mean literally, we can go after the person, but that comes down to, you know, are we trying to go after the person or after the insurance policy. That's that's where the money is. So you know, you could go after that person and that's kind of like we were talking with Tom earlier. You know, what's that judgment worth and what do they do and.

Are they going to have to figure out their assets and all?

Yeah, exactly. So really, in my practice, we want people to be insured. We want there to be a pot of money at the end of the rainbow that if we satisfy our burden of proof that we know we're going to get paid and the check going to clear and spend.

One hundred and fifty bucks on a cam, a dash cam. The best advice you ever gave me, John.

I can't stress that too much. I've had so many cases now where it's a he said, she said case, and believe it or not. We hate he said, she said cases because many times, unless there's a camera on the intersection or an independent witness, we're just never going to resolve that. And so the insurance companies on both sides say, well, we believe are insured and we're going to deny the claim. And so the only way that you can resolve that claim is to go fully through

Is a dash cam.

Wow, and it's amazing when you have that full color. You're like, we're talking to the insurance adjuster and they're giving you all this bs about denying the claim and you're like, oh, did I mention that I had the entire accident on tape? They're like, no, let me send that over to you, and about thirty seconds later they're like, we'll accept my ability.

Done deal.

So, folks, give John Fuller a call three oh three, five nine seven forty five hundred, give them a call and get a dash cam for crying out loud.

Get that dash camp one hundred and fifty bucks at Toy Cars. Yeah, I think it's it's money. Well, Spark Toys. Excuse me, Mike, you have an issue with Phil Long in the Springs. Tell me what's going on, sir.

Yeah. Hi, So I bought two vehicles from so Long eight months ago, and a twenty sixteen Ford Edge and a twenty eighteen Ford Edge sixteen for myself. The eighteen for my wife traded into vehicles both look Christine's seven year warranties. Know the kids who sold me the cars as father's the general manager and partner so long, so I trusted in them.

About a month and a.

Half after we purchased both of these vehicles, my twenty six started having some issues on my brakes, and I reached out to the guy who's the kid who sold me the car, and pretty much got ghosted. And then I finally reached out to the dealership and I got a hold of the service manager and I told them, look, you know something's wrong with my brakes. I need you guys to give me a loaner and you know, moving forward.

Nothing wrong with the brakes.

I take it to an independent mechanic who's as he certified, guy I have been using since I moved out here almost six years ago, and he tells me, as they're about shot and you're definitely grinding and you're going to be metal to metal sooner than later.

So I let this go.

For a minute, I got sidetracked. I'm opening up my own business out of my home, so I kind of just my car's been sitting in the driveway and we've been using my wife's twenty eighteen. So in the beginning of August, my wife and I decided to take a short vacation out to Vegas, and we drove out. We wanted to drive from Utahon and whatever. So on the way back from Vegas, I start feeling my wife's car

The fact of the.

Matter is, man, that I've had my wife, my daughter, my four grandchildren in both of these vehicles that are not safe. I've done. I'm just going to move it forward really fast. Because I met with Chris about three and a half almost yeah, well it's a month now. I met with them on a Wednesday at ten am. At eleven fifteen, I left the meeting. He said, Mike, give me two hours. I'll get back to you. Thursday goes by, Wednesday goes by nothing, Thursday goes.

By no call.

So Friday morning, at eleven o'clock, after it was forty eight hours, not too I reached back out and I said, look, you know, nothing's going on here. And I have two unsaved vehicles, and what are we doing here? I said, I don't want to have to call an attorney. And I was told instantly, well, now that you said you're going to call on it to you need to have your attorney contact our corporate attorney. And I thought, okay,

So why do that? That seems like kind of the nuclear really, but why do that? Is it the damage done from that greater than the cost of just fixing the brakes?

Well, so the problem is they're telling me they'll have somebody look at these two vehicles that I've been paying on forts that are not safe, that don't have an ASC certified mechanic. And I've been to an attorney who

Mike, what what warranties did you have on these cars? They both are they were they both still in warranty, right, Yeah, but.

Those warranties wouldn't cover where in tearly breaks.

What warranty did you think would have covered that.

Bought these right? Well, we were told when we bought these vehicles, guys, that new breaks all around, new tires, new windshields, which I can see them.

I'm gonna pull it, Tom. Do you have that in writing that you had that there was going to be new breaks. There was there was new this knew that If you have that in writing, Mike, you should send that over to us. We have an angel over there, but you better have it in writing.

Okay, can you send me give me some information where I can send this information?

So you guys going so Mike attorney?

Who?

Okay? So why didn't you hire the attorney and go that route?

Well, I'm looking for a consumer advocate attorney that doesn't want six thousand dollars retainer.

All I'm asking.

For is I was just asking for one new vehicle that I wasn't even happy dealing with still Long because of all the people have told me. Bro, if you have to go to court for this, we will testify the guy who reposed for canvas hold me. I will go to court with you and tell them in open court how many people phill Long does this too?

And this isn't just me, This is just a community of.

Them allowing people to be unsafe on the road. All right, Not about myself, but my wife, my child.

Mike, got it, I got it, Mike, Hang on a sec. We'll be right back after this.

Go with a short thing Denver's Best roofer excel roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Good afternoon.

This is John Fuller on the Troubleshooter Network here rounding out our four hour block today of fun filled excitement. We were just on the phone with Mike a few minutes ago. Mike bought a couple of cars from Phil long Ford in the in the Springs and ultimately had bad breaks on both of those, and Mike's trying to return his car and he's having some difficulty. Here's the bottom line. Mike has dropped off. He's going to get his paperwork and get back with us, hopefully tomorrow, and

It will not stand up for you.

And all he was left with is sound and fired up John he was I and I.

Really feel sorry for the guy because he made some really poor decisions in my opinion, like doing a voluntary recall. If you can't get something resolved with the dealership, just call the bank and turn them in. That doesn't sound like the right course of action, particularly if he's trying to unravel those two and get a new car. No bank is going to loan y money if he's had two, not one, but two repossessions in the same instant over a break job.

Doesn't make sense.

It makes you wonder why he didn't just pay for a couple of break jobs. They can't be that, I know.

I really hope that we've got an opportunity to maybe get some of this figured out before it's just too late for this guy.

We'll reach out to it Angel.

He'll get a hold of this tomorrow hopefully, and we'll figure it out. So got a couple more calls. Let's go to Stephen with the question about duuis. Go ahead, Steven Hi.

So the case wasn't the vault about me, It's about my girlfriend. This was that happened in March of last year, twenty three, and she was driving to Uber Eats delivery and there was a car stalled on the highways on I twenty five southbound near the Tech Center, and she didn't.

See it because the car in front of her all of a.

Sudden swerved to get out of the way, and then when she saw the stalled car, it was too late.

But because she was the one.

Intoxicated slightly just over the limit, they gave her the citations. And I heard you guys talking earlier about this type of scenario. So my question just to wrap this up, Ken, can we can she still kind of fight this in court because she's having to go to these courts all of this d y and prove that she's not drinking, right, that's one issue, But I just wonder if they can get her out or some kind of I don't know fault.

For Let me make sure I understand this. Your girlfriend was driving for Uber while intoxicated.

Well, uber eats, that's what I am.

So she was delivering food, but she was under the influence and got a DUI. Yeah, okay, so you've got a couple of things going on here. I was just talking to Doc earlier about this. When you hit somebody in Colorado, if you hit somebody from the back, there is a presumption that you're at fault. Now it's a rebuttable presumption, but the law starts out with an assumption that you were the person that was at fault. Because we all have a duty to avoid obstacles in our way,

Is that is that common?

I there's a difference between the uber driver and well.

I understand uber eats, but she's still going and she's on the job, right, I mean, come.

On, I'm not defending her, but let me just say the same thing happened to me. And I wasn't drunk because I don't drink right, And there was a stall car and I was coming up on this was I seventy eastbound. You know where it goes over like Havana. There's like a little hump in the highway for sure, and it was right over the hump.

But I didn't see it.

I looked down in my app for like it seemed like one second.

I look back up.

There's a stalled vehicle. I got the citation for following too close.

Okay, I'm paying my.

Dues, but I'm just wondering.

I mean, there's got to be some.

Responsibility and obligation on the stalled vehicles.

Why are they there?

Did she take like a roadside test or a breathalyze or anything? Or are they just assuming she's drunk because she hit this vehicle.

Oh I wasn't there, but I got a call from the sheriff and they said, come pick up your girlfriend. We're not going to put her in jail because she's very cooperative.

Did she take an go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance Paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We are having too much fun today. We are going to go right to the phones again. Here of Karen, You've got to call about a car moped accident.

What's going on?

Yes, I have.

My daughter in law was involved in I guess the head on She was on her milk head and then got hit head on and she ended up in a hospital with injuries. And so they're wondering what are the first steps or first few steps about getting like an insurance in tale or what's the first couple of things they should do. This happened like a week ago.

Okay, is she doing Okay? Today she's doing Okay.

She's got a couple of broken bones and and things like that, but she's on the men.

Where where did this happen, Karen? What city?

It's actually in a different states?

What state in Hawaii? Okay?

So, and was your daughter ticketed or was she not at fault? Was it the other car's fault for the accident?

Do you know?

I don't know. That's my suggestion to them first is to get the police report. She was taken by ambulance, Okay, so I don't think she's in ticketed or anything.

So everything, Karen really comes down to trying to figure out, first you know, who's at fault in the accident. Okay.

I don't practice law in Hawaii. I don't know the exact system they have over there, but I can tell you that, you know, that would be step one for us if.

It were here in Colorado. So and the reason why.

That's really step one is we have to be concerned about who's ultimately going to be responsible for the medical bills that come out of that accident. And depending on the legal you know, framework they've got over there in Hawaii, it could be it probably will be the person who's

I know she just applied for medicaid.

Did she apply for medicaid because she was in the hospital and they were applying for her?

She applied for it because she can't go to work. I don't know if they applied for it for her or I don't know those.

But did she apply after the accident happened or before after? Okay, so it sounds like she didn't have her own health insurance before this accident, and they're they're trying to retroactively get her qualified for Medicaid, and there's nothing wrong with that. What that's going to basically do for you is to pay the initial bills of the you know, the hospital and the emergency room and and the different personnel that

Law is there. But in general terms, you're you're on track, You're you're you're spot on to want to get the police report and find out who really was, you know, was assessed fault in that if it's her. Did she have insurance on her moped?

I don't know on the moped. I know, I believe she's got car insurance when she's driving a car, but I don't know if the moped was or not. So probably not.

You never know.

I mean, you would typically put the moped on your auto policy as well. And in that case, you'll want to just give them a call if she was the one that was at fault for the accident, because they have a duty to defend her and kind of fend off the other driver if there were any injuries for that driver, And so you want to give them a

Or are you here in Denver?

No?

No, no, I'm in Colorado.

Okay, So.

Going with a personal they should you think they should contact a personal injury attorney for sure?

Well, you know, listen, this is what I do for a living, and what you're telling me is that you know your daughter's in another state, You're not sure of exactly what the circumstances were, You're not sure of exactly what the coverage is. Sounds like she really doesn't have health insurance, or if she does, it's only because they just got her qualified for Medicaid, and you're really not sure of who is at fault.

It sounds like to me.

I would pick up the phone and call a PI attorney right away. I mean, there's really no downside. They're not going to charge you by the hour to talk to you and help try to figure out what the circumstance is. And if it turns out that she's not at fault and you've got a case there, that person is going to be able to help you get the best recovery of anybody, particularly when you're, you know, two thousand miles away in Denver, trying to help your.

Daughter, right, right, Okay? Will that appen?

Right?

I hope your daughter is okay there.

Karen for the call, Karen, good luck.

She's out of hospital and she's you know, she's on the men.

Good luck there, Karen, Thanks for the call. So you know, it's just another example of you know, you just don't know what you don't know when you get in these accidents and everything comes at you so fast. You're in the hospital, you've got an ambulance that's sending out a bill about two seconds after they drop you off, and you just, you know, it's hard to get everything organized and on track so that you can focus on just getting better. That's really all you want to focus your

It did bring up a question in my mind, just because she brought up moped. I don't know what the law is, John, but recently there's been a new law or a change of law where motorcycles now can come up between vikers can come up between cars when you're coming up to a stop I'm pardon me, Ken, if you end up like if you don't see them and you hit them, who's at fault when they're coming up between you like that? John, I mean, that's just scary

Yeah, you try to go all Kamala on Ken, right there.

Goodness, I just meant to say that cars have to be stopped. Well, that's not what always happens.

That's not what always happens Ken, when I'm in my experience.

Yeah, so I believe that the law dictates that they can only do that, like at a traffic signal, where at least in theory, all the other cars are stopped and they can go up to the front. I think those I think it's crazy to do that most of the time. I think you're just asking for troubles, you know, and and and so it's going to come down to just the same analysis we use on everything else. Negligence is the you know, the failure and exercise do care

Bad just never looks like a good idea when they do it, that's all I mean. I love those guys out there and women, but then I mean, it never looks like a good.

Idea with it scares me a lot of times because you know, what really is the scariest thing to me is that you don't always see them, and all of a sudden, it's just zoom right up beside you and you you know, That's.

What I see most of the time, not like what Ken is saying, like where you're stopped and they're coming up fifteen miles per hour or less. That's not generally what I see.

I don't think I've ever seen a motorcycle do less than twenty miles over the speed limit.

They are unbelievable.

Have you gone less than twenty miles over the speeder?

Yeah?

I mean every motorcycle. I see going on when I'm on I seventy or twenty five, they're just zooming past.

Yeah, I you know, that's just one of those things. I don't know. Maybe you're doing twenty under the speed limit again. You know, Hey, we got to go to a break right now. Thanks, we'll be right back.

Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until your content time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call this insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies. Find out now three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real Estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Welcome back to the last hour of the Tom Martine Troubleshooter Show. This is John Fuller filling in for Mike and Tom. We have a couple minutes left today. We're going to go right to the.

Calls Bob, what's going on? Oh, Bob's gone, so we won't go to b I.

Wonder what he was saying. That was Bob with elliam Landscaping is a referral list member of ours. No, maybe you want to say something about the motorcycle law or something. So John, I did have a question for you, being a personal injury attorney, how do you pay for deductibles when you're getting treatment after an accident, when you've been hurt? How does that work?

Yeah, the very best way, if we're talking about health insurance deductibles, the very best way is to use our medical payments coverage to make make sure that it applies to your out of pocket maximums and your deductibles. And the very best way to do that is to get us involved early on where we can actually kind of jump in between the hospital and the ambulance and all the people that are trying to go after that met

For Okay, okay, gotcha. And then can you still claim damages even if you are at fault.

Yeah, that's a tough one generally injuring. Noah, generally speaking.

No, if you're at fault, you're not going to be able to recover against anybody. The only time that we run into weird situations like that is if you're a non negligent passenger in a car with a negligent driver, So you're you're in the front seat, the driver is the cause of the accident. Not only does the person in the other car have a claim against that driver, but you may have one.

Oh, your passenger would have a claim, this would have a claim against you.

Might very well.

Yeah, if you're a non negligent passenger, you can file a claim. As long as it's not your spouse, you can file a claim against that negligent driver. Yep, that comes up all the time.

Do you ever get like cyclists calling you for personal injury claims?

For sure?

And I mean absolutely.

The downside of cycling is that the damages tend to be a lot worse when you get into an accident and we do handle a number of those cases. We're always happy to talk to motorcyclists.

That have been I'm meant more bicyclist.

Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, you scare me.

I love them, but they scare me being out there. John.

You know, bicyclists have to adhere to the same rules of the road that cars do, and unfortunately the car drivers just don't see them that well, and so, you know, bad things happen, and the bikers a lot of times are just completely innocent victims and it's a complicated area of the law. If you get into that situation, absolutely give us a call. We we love handling those cases and helping those people recover.

Yeah, and that's John Fuller at three three five nine seven forty five hundred or Personal injuryco dot com.

Yeah. So hey, it's been a load of fun this afternoon.

Yeah, and we got to give John props. I mean, he did an outstanding job.

Thank you, so thank you. We're really impressed as we're nearing the ind here.

And also for.

Doctor to him to praise a lawyer, you know, he has to be good.

That's really a big move for you. Doctor. I want to say I'm really proud of you today. We come a long way in just this short little two.

Hours here, as long as you don't mention that evil five letter word.

Did you ever practice any other kind of law, John, or has it always been personal injury for you?

From the day I've been practicing. I began working in a a plaintiffs medical malpractice firm, but they did a little bit of everything, and then I kind of be doing what I do right now, and I've specialized in strictly personal injury cases for you know, the last twenty years.

So do you practice in Florida at all? And I asked, because you have a house down there, and I know you spend a lot of time there.

I've got family in Florida. We've always had kind of a little bit of a touch in Florida. But I've never practiced in Florida. I don't plan to practice in Florida. Florida has these nifty rules that say there's zero reciprocity. So there's no way I could ever practice in Florida unless I completely retook the.

Bar and started over. And this old dog is not learning that new trick, so that'll never happen.

Now, Can you represent your wife if she's injured in an accident, or does she have to get somebody else to do that.

I could do that. Yeah, I could absolutely do that.

Interesting, John, Are there multiple states that accept the Colorado bar and will admit you to their bar?

Yes, all the states are different, and most states have deals where if they'll acknowledge us, will acknowledge them, and so there's kind of a reverse or you know, reciprocal acknowledgement.

And you know, Flora is just not one of them.

So that's John Fuller, Personal injuryco dot Com three oh three, five nine seven forty five hundred. Join us tomorrow on the Troubleshooter Show for Car Day, we have Kevin Culkin in studio.