Boobus Americanus and the California legal system

Hello again loyal readers. The Old Cynic is back with Boobus Americanus and the California legal system.  As long time readers are aware, I have worked for many years in the legal field here in California and worked with quite a few people. Some good ones to be sure.

Let me begin with some examples. 

I am working on some cases for an attorney right now that are something else. In one case, his clients are trying to claim that a forklift driver who used to work for them was an independent contractor! Give me a break! The guy drives a forklift for God’s sake.  The attorney e-mailed me the payment records and do you know what they show. Yes folks, they were paying this guy like an employee! They deducted money from his check for taxes, social security, everything that they would for a normal employee! I have no idea what they are planning to do when this goes to trial. I would not want to be the attorney on that case. I do not care what I am getting paid!

And to top things off, the attorney wanted me to research on whether the “employee” who does not have the proper immigration paperwork, hey he is “undocumented”, lol, is entitled to even receive unpaid wages.  I did the research and guess what. Yes he is entitled to all of the same protections that everyone else gets, regardless of his immigration status. It’s California for God’s sake.  I look at it this way. I do not really want to work on these types of cases any more. There is an old legal saying, “Between those who are equally in the right, or equally in the wrong, the law does not interpose.” In other words the law will not get in the middle of a dispute between two people who both have “unclean hands.”  And I do not want to either. I was a legal immigrant to the United States and went through all of the hoops. On the other hand I would bet money that this company knew this guy did not have the right immigration papers when they took him on.

I just finished working on another case for the same attorney where this guy had loaned some money to a California Limited Liability Company. I read the Promissory Note and the terms stated that the money owed was subject to a flat 20% interest, no matter how soon the money was paid back!  If they paid the money back within one week it was still 20%. And to top it off, the guy wanted a late charge of 3% per month!!! Even though the Promissory Note just said a flat late charge of 3%, it did NOT say 3% per month. Even the attorney agreed with me that this guy was going to be lucky just to get the 20% per year interest, let alone everything else that he wanted.

I am so sick of working in the legal field.  I am getting allergic to all of the horsesh**! Oops I mean horse manure. Sorry about that folks. I am sure that it is all that exposure to the horse manure that has caused me to develop an allergy.  Like people who develop an allergy to latex after wearing latex gloves for so long. Same principle.

Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus American, not only as attorneys but in all aspects as well.