Rising Florida Insurance Costs and Delta Class Action Lawsuit

That’s right. Legal Live with Farah and Farah 1045 WKV. Phone lines are open. 8557651045. Again, the phone number 8557651045. Eddie and Chuck in the house today. That’s right, Justin. Answering your questions and giving us nuggets of knowledge. We’re going to be talking about all kind of stuff today. And um your phone calls are the priority uh here on Legal Live. Give us a shout. Give us your opinion on a legal matter. give us your opinion on something we’re talking about. We want to hear it. I’m going to start off on something that I’ve been talking about and Chuck and I have been talking about for a long time. And it’s been go it’s not it’s it’s the insurance situation that we’ve talked about before. And um as as you recall a couple of years ago um the insurance companies put pressure on Tallahassee.

They gutted the insurance bill that gave consumers the rights to fight that that gave the consumer the ability to successfully fight an insurance company on homeowners claims. They claimed, you know, that the uh rates are going through the roof. Only people making money were the lawyers. This bill, we got to we we got to we got to pass it. Insurance companies are leaving. But, you know, they can leave. They can use that leverage. they can threaten to leave and they can leave putting pressure to make it get the bill passed. So the bill was passed and um they claimed that you know rates were going to go down. But yesterday I happened to pick up the Wall Street Journal. I was at the dealership getting my car repaired. There was a Wall Street Journal journal um newspaper there Friday, January 23rd. And let me tell you, on the front page of the journal, insurance companies, big profits.

That’s what it’s all about. And it states, “Enurance companies that cover homes and cars are reaping rewards of the inflation busting price increases that have squeezed households budgets nationwide. The near record profits are fueling tremendous anger among people in every state. So these rates are going up everywhere. Travelers, [snorts] for instance, a bellweather for the industry reported w Wednesday net income last year jumped 26% to $6.3 billion. So these insurance companies, don’t don’t let them fool you. You know, I mean, we got we got b this law that’s gone. the law the the one law that you had, the one Florida statute that you had that when you had a homeowner’s claim that if you won that claim, if you were if you if you won the lawsuit, you can make them pay your attorney’s fees.

So, even if the claim is a small claim like 5,000, a claim that no lawyer would take, five or 10,000, even 15, a lawyer won’t take it, you can file that lawsuit because you’ve got the power of that statute making the insurance company pay your attorney. That is gone. Other valuable consumer um protections are gone. Never, you know, gone. Hopefully, I maybe we’ll get them back, but they’re gone. They’ve been gone for two years. The result of that, what is it? Are are premiums coming down? No. If you read this article, premiums are not coming down. Premiums are going up and insurance companies are just making more and more money. Yeah. They’re making it on both ends. Yeah. They’re making it on the higher premiums and then they’re making it on well all those small claims that they used to pay.

They don’t have to worry about pay because it’s not financially suitable. Yeah. Cuz if you got a, you know, if you’ve got, you know, $10,000, you know, worth of damage to your house, that’s a lot of money. Yeah. Okay. But now in the under the old law, you could hire a lawyer who would take it on, collect the 10, and then get their attorney’s fees on top of that. Now, if you hire a lawyer, you’re either paying them by the hour, which eats up the 10 grand. Yeah. Or you pay a percentage plus all the costs out of that, which means you get nothing out of pocket. You you don’t you don’t get full you don’t get full justice because you got to get the 10 grand. Well, not even that. Then you get into a point where you have to then you have to do the math to be like is it going to be worth it to to chase this essentially. So it doesn’t it’s not worth it. So they [clears throat] get get out of having to pay all those those smaller claims. Yeah. Okay. I’ll just continue reading. which is probably the bulk of this, you know, bulk the property and casualty industry, which includes home and autoinsurers, racked up last year its highest underwriting profit in almost two decades. So, they made more money last year than they’ve, you know, just since 20 years ago.

Over the last 20 years, 2025 was their best year ever. Rates on homeowners policies continue the relentless upward trajectory. States approved last year increases averaging 6%. you know, these insurance companies have to go to the state to get these rate increases. Um, they have to go through Tallahassee and they’re they’re giving them to them. You know, they’re our our our people in in Tallahassee are giving them these rate increases and their profits are through the roof. Um that’s why I mean you know the media the way these yeah you know when this c this fabricated crisis insurance crisis was out there um you know they control the media and you know people I mean our legislators in Tallahassee buckled and went for it and now we’re paying the price literally and figuring the average consumer the average consumer pays the price. I’m hoping, you know, they’re in session now here in Tallahassee and I’m wondering Yeah.

There’s not there’s nothing on the books to bring that back. Yeah. There’s you don’t have the people there that are willing to do that. Yeah. Is that is that the only way to fix it? Essentially try to get something in the books to get talked about and try to bring it back. But when you’ve got when you have people that are um controlled by the these insurance lobbyists have a control over certain a lot of influence I say control influence over a lot of people there and as long as those lobbyists have that kind of influence you’re going to never get something back on the books. I get it. It’s going to take a whole almost like a whole regime change or something to get that going. Yeah. But you want to take I think we had a caller right now. We we do have a caller. We really only have a minute though. So I’d rather be able to give Ellis a whole a whole break to be able to talk to us. So, how about we just go to break early so we can come back and get to Ellis. Uh, Ellis, hang on. We we see your question about Social Security. Uh, we’ll get to you next on 1045 WV, Jacksonville’s News and Talk. This is Legal Live with Farah and Farah. If you’ve got a legal question, 8557651045. That’s 8557651045. [music] We’ll be right back after the break.

This is Legal Live with Farah and Farah on 1045 WKB Jacksonville’s News and Talk 8557651045. That’s 855-7651045 if you would like to call in with a legal question for the show today. And uh I guess that’s where we’ll go right now. Let’s head out to the lines to Ellis from the West Side uh with a legal question. Ellis, thanks for calling in. Yes, sir. I know that the uh Ferris will comment on stuff that’s not part of their core area, and I wanted to bounce something off of them. Having gone to an HCA related doctor’s office for a drug test, they insisted on my social security number and seemed surprised, shocked that they weren’t getting it. And I just wanted to seems like they just opening themselves up to problems. But if you talk about uh you know that and because the advice you generally get is if it doesn’t involve your taxes or your employer, don’t give them your social security number. Yep. Um but it’s a medic. You went to see a doctor. Oh, I was sent for a random drug. Okay. For Yeah. Wow. I don’t know. You’re right.

So, this was not for medical treatment or anything. That’s just a random drug test and they asked for your social security number, right? Did you give it to Did you give it to them? No. I told them I told But I But apparently their HCA system, they just you got to and I said, but I just wish you’d comment on that. That Well, I don’t know. That’s not an area that I really am familiar with. I know that in our office we we obtain uh I don’t know do we I don’t even we do get the social security. Yeah. Because we have we have to submit bills. Yeah. Submit bills for payment. Yeah. Medical insurance paid. Right. Right. So there is we do get the social security number. Um I don’t know. I mean that’s a good question there Alice. I don’t know. I got I mean you were just set for a random drug test. I don’t know. You’re not seeking medical treatment.

There’s probably I wonder if there’s any confidentiality there that you got to deal with. Was this like was it your employer sent you or Yes. Oh, okay. The And they have that just happened to be the one they sent me to which you know they you know they’re also in the stack of P documents was a if all else fails I promised to pay for that and I wasn’t going to sign that either and they didn’t make an issue of that. But, uh, I I didn’t know if y’all had any commentary on the No, that’s a good question. I’ve never had that come up before. I really don’t know. Um, I you know, it’s a good question. I mean, maybe I can You didn’t give it to them. Did they still continue on and give you the drug test without this whole without the number? Grudgingly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that was good that you stood up for that.

That’s good information to put out there because now of course the driver’s license number. Okay. Yeah, that you’re connected to that. I gave them to them because that’s your proof you are who you are and u and if there was a negative which there’s not going to be. But but you think about how you think about it. Um really why do they need the social security number? It’s a drug test for the employer. Has really nothing to do with anything. It’s not employment. It’s not a check. It’s not taxes. It’s not tax related like he says. Um he’s not going there for treatment. They’re just asking it. I mean they can ask. Yeah. I bet it’s just a you know a thing on their paperwork that they could fill out.

Yeah. You know every company they’re in they’re in the information gathering you know they want as much information to put into their system you know and yeah you know I mean it’s not data collection thing or something. They’re trying to get data on people. I don’t know. Yeah. Who knows? But yeah, like you said, if if it’s for like tax purposes, yes, you got to give it. Yeah. Or a government or, you know, but he’s not he’s not getting treatment. He’s just going there for a drug, a random d drug test. Has nothing to do with medical treatment. Has nothing to do with the federal government. Has nothing to do with taxes. No, he did the right thing. I wouldn’t give it to him. Yeah. The lesson there is to push back when you don’t feel like comfortable giving it to him. Yeah. Well, you know, the days where you were literally forced in the Navy to put it on your underwear, those, you [laughter] know, was never it was never a smart thing to do anyway. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, but all right. Thank you. All right. Thanks a lot. All right. Thanks, Ellen. Yeah. We appreciate it.

Obviously, phone lines are open. 8557651045 if you’ve got a uh question you would like to ask Legal Live with Farah and Farah. Yeah, we’re talking about, you know, this is not a political show or anything, but listen, we’re in everything’s political. Everything’s politics. So, we talked about the lobbyists and how they have influence over the their legislators and our lawmakers, how they, you know, they got money. You know, a uh an insurance company can come to you as a as a lobbyist and say, “Listen, we think there’s a crisis. We need to change this law.” And, you know, they can make large donations to their campaign. I mean, politicians, what do they love? money so they can run a campaign. Yeah. And these campaigns are not cheap. I mean, they’re millions of dollars these days. I mean, you can’t Everything’s expensive.

They need money. And so, these lobbyists show up with bags of cash and they can they can influence. I mean, it’s it’s common knowledge. I mean, the way it is, you know, follow the money. But, another interesting thing that’s going on right now are these social influencers. And I was just reading an article about that. I’m really not in that much into social media, but for instance, when uh President Trump came up with that um proposal to kind of decriminalize marijuana on a federal level, the person who kind of tweeted about that, who is kind of got connections with, you know, with the Trump uh with the White House, he was on X, he’s got 640,000 followers. He said he told Trump it was a no-brainer to do that because 70% of Republicans support decriminalizing marijuana. And that influencer was paid $300,000 by the marijuana companies to tweet about that. Wow. So people who what this article is about is that people who have access to the president, social influencers who have access to the president are getting courted by, you know, companies and special interest groups because they know they have influence. They’ve got followers and so they’re getting paid the money that the lobbyists used to get paid. So the influencers picking up that cash and if you think about it, they have a wide reach of the public. Yeah. Yeah. They got influencers. they got access to the White House because the they always like this particular one um or they’re big MAGA influencers.

They have I mean they got they got a following, you know, they got they can they can move the needle. And the thing about paying an influencer to tweet or talk about your project is that they don’t have it’s not like a super PAC where you have all this disclosure requirements and filing with the federal government. You ask anybody who deals with the super PAC. There’s all kind of requirements that you follow the federal information who, what, how much, and all that. When it comes to the influencers, there’s nothing like that. No, there’s no requirement. There’s no, it’s not like, not that reporters have ethics, but there is a code of ethics for journalism, a journalism code of ethics. Justin could probably talk to you about it, but when it and so none of that applies to these influencers. Yeah. because they’re not not considered part of the media and they’re not a super PAC. So, I just think it’s interesting that now the influencers are getting paid the money that the lobbyists used to get. And on top of that, like you were saying to the rules, like you’re supposed to if you’re paid to say something on social media, you’re supposed to do like a hashtag ad or, you know, sponsored post type thing, but who’s regulating that? You know, who’s monitoring that? You you look at a post and you would never know. Is there a legal requirement for you to do it or just that people should do it or they’re doing it? Cox Media has told us like if I post something on behalf of a client like if you guys paid me to post something, we’re doing social posts through you guys, I would have to disclose that you’re paying me to say this. That’s your That’s okay. That’s your employer telling you.

That’s Yeah, Cox Media. Yeah, they would be the one telling. But I thought I’m just an influencer. They Yeah. Who doesn’t have a company? I don’t I don’t have no I I’m tweeting. It’s me. I’m not working for anybody. I’m working for me. And some of them may not realize the impact that they can have with those Yeah. I think what’s going on now. So this guy I mean it seems like it it’s a little better than having that local just a lobbyist going in there under behind closed doors. At least the public is aware that you know. Yeah. But here you don’t even know that he’s getting who’s paying. Yeah. at least the lobbyist you can go you can find out hey you know so such and so company paid this lobbyist or contributed so much to this guy’s campaign nearly see a paper trail of it yeah a paper trail here this guy who um tweeted about the decriminalization of marijuana and support he may not even care about it you know he’s getting paid he’s got he’s got 640,000 followers able to get in someone’s ear yeah he’s got he’s you know he says 70% of Republicans go for it uh are supporting it so let’s do it it’s like where’d you get that Where did you get the And he has access to the White House. I mean, these these influencers that this article talks about have influence in the White House.

They know people there. They know people. They know the decision makers. So, they can go to they can go to these decision makers say, “Listen, you know, decriminalize it. You know, the Republicans want it. Here’s here’s all.” And so, this guy gets paid 300,000 for tweeting about it for a for a simple tweet. What? You still can’t do over 140 characters, too. [laughter] Pretty nice. What’s that breakout per word? Yeah. Oh yeah, that’s a good one. We have to do the math on that. So that’s crazy. Yeah, that’s a hefty price. Yeah. Just in that regard how things are just getting expensive for the ordinary person, you know. I not I mean in our our practice, we we we’re sensitive to that because we see people who are the in these accidents or in a slip and fall or something and you know they you know they can’t work and it’s not like they have a ton of money in the bank.

A lot of people are living most people that we deal with are living week to week. it’s very difficult on them and um you know we have to do what we can to try to get them through it because you don’t want the insurance company to use the fact that they don’t have any source of income to take advantage of them and they’ll try to do that they know you don’t have the I mean lot sometimes people will fold their tents and move on because they can’t they got to just take whatever the insurance company’s offering because they can’t hang around and stay the course and we see it and it’s it’s you know it’s there are ways around it and there’s things we can do to help them but typically the typical person that’s in an accident really and can’t work, doesn’t have a source of income, doesn’t have somebody he can depend on.

Do you do you think that’s part of a insurance company’s playbook is is test the waters to see if they’re they’re willing to really fight the whole way? Oh yeah, they’ll they’ll look at they’ll look at their you know they can figure out they have data too. They can figure out where you are economically pretty much what you’re and [clears throat] they’ll they’ll procrastinate and things like that, but there are things we can do to fight that. But what I thought this interesting article again the Wall Street Journal um talked about um people who you know Florida I I was born and raised here Florida’s al always the haven for retirees but they talked about now recently in Florida that retirees can’t retire here. People can’t come from up north. Everything’s gotten so expensive. Yeah. And they talked about these high-end developments near Tampa where, you know, these wealthy retirees are coming down, living the high life, and they talked about some people who just can’t do it anymore.

They’re they they came down here. They looked at the prices of everything, and they’re they’re retiring like, you know, somewhere in Alabama, some nondescript town you never heard of. Yeah. My parents my parents want to move here, but they can’t they can’t find a spot that’s uh within the price range because everything’s so high. Yeah, exactly. That’s another example. But um you used to be able to come down and bring your mobile home and you could rent a pad and and retire. It had these I remember driving around New Orlando and Tampa even in Daytona these gigantic mobile home parks. But what they’ve done is they, you know, you own the mobile home, they own the land, they just keep raising the rent and price or they just sell out there to some developer. Yeah. Who wants to come in and put, you know, a resort or some So that that’s kind of always kind of falls forward to being the haven or the place to come to retire, losing it a little bit. You better have a lot of money if you’re [laughter] retire. It’s a rich haven now. Especially if you need to buy insurance for your home. [laughter] Part of it. Exactly. That’s a big part of it. Okay. We’ll be right back on Legal Live with Fair and Farah 1045 WKB. If you’ve got a question for Eddie and Chuck, 8557651045 8557651045. We will get your call right after the break. We’ll be right back.

This is legal live with Farah and Farah on 1045 WKV Jacksonville’s News and Talk. If you would like to call in with a legal question for Eddie and Chuck, 8557651045. Phone lines are open. 8557651045.

Yes. Um hitting them with nuggets of knowledge. I’m talk about another lawsuit right now. Um this is one against Boeing. Um, and it deals it deals with the Delta 737. And I I tell you, I’ve I’ve been on planes before where I’ve kind of smelled some smelled something not funky, but this is a um a situation where a pilot was exposed to vaporized engine oils during flight and um when it landed and they were going up to the gate, he had trouble breathing, balance issues, motor skill problems, tremors, memory loss. He’s asking for a million dollars on this lawsuit. And the word the word is this ca these kind of cases is not uncommon. And the problem is is that as the plane I guess what’s on the ground that draws air supply from the engine. I never knew it did that. Some of the air supply comes from the engine. Maybe there’s a pilot out there that can explain it.

Yeah. So that fresh outside air is siphoned from the engine and compressed and I guess it gets sent into the cabin. But there are chemicals that get into that oxygen or that air and people are getting sick and um I know I have felt it before. I’ve gotten dizzy um from it. Yeah, I don’t like it. I’ve experienced that. It’s like a diesely smell. It’s like you’re smelling gasoline or something. But people are getting sick from it and it’s the way the air is um it’s deals it’s a Boeing jet and it’s the way that the air is coming through from the engine. I I don’t know. So anyway, we’ll see how that turns out. That could probably be a class action. I see it cuz I’m sure he’s not the only one who’s dealing with it. I was going to ask what is the like I guess the the circle of life or life cycle of a class action? How does one come to be essentially? Well, you you find a um there’s a common injury, you know, that that where that’s yeah, that’s where it really matters.

That wouldn’t that wouldn’t really be a class action to be more of a mass tort situation. Class actions typically are financial type things, you know, where you have somebody who got cheated. Let’s say a credit card company was cheating everybody out of $10. Nobody’s going to file a lawsuit over $10. I see. But collectively, you can file a class action to represent everybody and that way everybody gets their money back. Mhm. If it’s like 300,000 people who are owed $10, it’s worth it for an attorney. And there’s that common damage. Everybody’s $10 out. You know, when it comes to physical physical injuries, you I may have memory loss, you may have this, I may have something different. So, it’s hard to do it that way. Typically, those are mass tors that each case is handled individually in a group kind of thing. Interesting. But yeah, I shouldn’t have referred to as a class A. It would not be, but it’s the same idea. Same idea. Yeah. Multiple claims coming. But we’ll see how that turns out.

I know that um when this pilot left the plane, his head was throbbing. He felt confused. I mean, like he’s got it’s just gotten worse and worse. So, he’s me had a really ill effect from this from the air from the fumes or whatever from the from the airplane. Well, and I would imagine like, you know, pilots and the other staff on the planes like you know us were exposed if we’re exposed one twice, you know, four times a year depending on how much you travel where they’re doing maybe four flights a day. They’re living in it. That’s their job. Yeah. So, they would most likely get impact more than average traveler. Interesting. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. So, um you I want to talk a little bit about and we don’t we do some employment stuff at the office. I’m We have attorneys that do it. I find it in interesting on what people can file for and what I don’t know if I maybe touched on this last I think I kind of touched on this last week. I I’ll skip that. I just because I find it interesting that when you file a a claim for uh employment discrimination, hostile work environment, things of that nature that um the you are in some states have uh under in the federal government under if you follow under federal law.

Now, each state has its own law, and there may not be these restrictions, but under federal law, there’s a cap of $300,000 for emotional damages in a a discrimination type claim. Um, but you do get back pay. In addition to that 300, you’re entitled to back pay, front pay, um, and attorney’s fees. So, you do have some rights. I don’t know what Florida’s law. I’m going to have to ask the attorney in our office if there’s any cap on damages in Florida and under the federal system is 300. But again, each state has its own um its own u version of that. What would you say to somebody who maybe is in a situation like that but is afraid to file something with the potential threat of you know being punished by the company essentially? Yeah, that’s a good question because you know there’s under certain certain situations the employer should knew or should have known about. If you don’t tell them then they couldn’t have taken action. But but if the supervisor if your supervisor is the one who is harassing you and that leads to tangible adverse employment actions such as a demotion or something like that like a retaliation type.

Yeah. If a supervisor does it you you got them. You don’t have the you don’t have to report go do it. go ahead and go ahead and and do it. Um, so you don’t have to have the employer doesn’t have to be on notice. That supervisor the employer is directly responsible for what the supervisor does. But um, if there is no tangible employment action like I’m going to demote you because you didn’t go out with me. Sure. The employer can only be liable if it knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take prompt action. So if a I got to understand this if an supra harasses you but there’s no adverse effect um maybe you got to report it. You got to tell you can’t before you file your lawsuit paper trail with an HR department or something although but if there’s adverse action you don’t have to report it. Just go go to the law and the employer needs to investigate it and and and take action. I mean that’s where people get in trouble. Like companies get in trouble where they just turn their, you know, they turn away from it. They don’t want to deal with it. But you got, you got to investigate it and document everything. Yeah. That kind of covers the company. Yeah. You know, and probably yourself at that point. If you’re sending something as a start of, hey, something’s going on, you on your own should be documenting, right? So that if it gets to a point where they need to involve you guys. That’s right. They have a paper trail of like, here’s everything I’ve tried to have them help me with. Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. But I I think under the law, again, I want to ask our employment lawyer about it. I think under certain situations, certain actions do not have to be reported. You can file your lawsuit immediately. Okay? I want to find out about that. I know according to this article, if there’s no direct like demotions or anything like that, then you do have to report it to give the employer a chance to investigate it. But if a supervisor does it, it seems like it’s automatic on the employer at that point. So, I don’t know because that’s almost like using the status or the power at that point to or plus you’re you’re a representative. You’re the supervisor. You’re directly tied to management. You’re the one who’s supposed to be keeping everything in line and you’re not. Yeah. Interesting. But if it’s but if it’s an employee on employee, that’s different. You know, manager, you got to report it because if it’s just a an employee on employee harassment, then unless the employer knows about it, can’t take any action. So, I can see in that situation where you’ve got to do something to the report it to the higher ups, at least give them a chance to to write the wrong or or reprimand where it needs to be. Okay. Well, let’s let’s head to break and and jump into another uh segment here in just a second. And if you’ve got a legal question for Eddie and Chuck on Legal Live, 8557651045, the number 8557651045. We’ll be right back after the break. Legal Live with Farah and Farah on 1045 WKV Jacksonville’s News and Talk. Phone lines are open 8557651045. That’s 8557651045.

If you’ve got a question for Eddie and Chuck today, uh we’ll go out to the phone lines right off the rip here. We got Grant from downtown with a question. What’s up, Grant? Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my call. I have a uh I have a family law case where I I had to fire my attorney and I ended up suing him and his business and it was dismissed without prejudice. And um what had happened was the other party did what’s known as the nuclear option in a family law case where they accuse you of something wild and crazy and the judge out of an abundance of caution suspends your time sharing and this is what happens to me. Um so I was investigated reports they demanded reports reports came out everything said you know that my child’s safe with me and all this but um I needed to I didn’t have an attorney when that’s when that happened. So, I took out a a rather sizable loan to uh hire a an attorney and gave him the money. And um he he didn’t uh file anything for me to re you know receive time sharing for many many months. Um and at the time also my uh my child support was was calculated on a on an old job that I had where I made a lot of money and now my my income was half of that. So, you know, I I asked them to file to have my uh child support um recalculated, and they didn’t do this either. So, after many months, he finally did file something for um for time sharing to be rec uh recalculated or or to return time sharing. And during that hearing, he he told the judge that I I wasn’t interested in spending time with my child, and I didn’t want any time sharing. So, um you know, I was really upset and and I had to fire him because I couldn’t uh let him continue like that. So, I sued him and the the judge dismissed it without prejudice, but they didn’t ever um deny that he had failed to represent me, that he failed to schedule meetings with me on my request, failed to communicate with me or Right. Right. file things timely to uh protect my interests.

So, um he the judge said he couldn’t be specific about why he was dismissing it, but yeah. No, he did it without prejudice, which means you could file again. Um did he who prepared the complaint for you? Was it prepared? I mean, did you I did you I mean, did you like use chat GBT or something like that to do it or did you I mean, did you get previously? Uh I work I work for the government and I I pour over these documents. All right. So So you know how toy of it. I feel very confident in doing it. Yeah. I mean I know that that judges don’t treat you the same when you’re not an attorney though. Well, the dismissal I mean the thing about it is they they do Well, I know it depends on your judges, but is it here in Duval County? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Because typically the judges almost bend over backwards to help people who um Yeah. No, I haven’t had like a really bad experiences outside of family court. In any other uh instance, I’ve had really great experiences with the judges here. So your wife’s attorney goes nuclear and says this guy’s a he’s a threat. Don’t let him see the kids. Correct. And that’s what So you didn’t have a lawyer at that time. They had a lawyer who did not. Okay. Right. we to have that to go nuclear. Did you you should have received paperwork that should have put you on notice that they didn’t want you to have any kind of visitation and that should have prompted you to get a lawyer at that point.

I mean, did you see the paperwork ahead of time? The thing is is that they had been doing that for the entire time that the the divorce had been going on. So, we’ve we’ve been getting divorced since 2021. And they they’ve been saying this over and over and over and over and over. And of course, none of the judges were taking them seriously or even entertaining the idea because nothing, you know, nothing ever happened. But um they had the right judge in the right instance where that judge agreed to do what they had asked temporarily and ordered um ordered me to go for psychological evaluations and um wanted to hear what DCF had to say in all of this. And of course, all of that occurred and you know, none of them ever found any fault with me or or thought my child was in any kind of danger with me. And and that prompted you to go get a lawyer when that was starting to happen. Yeah, absolutely. Because I was like, well, this wouldn’t have happened if I had had an attorney at that point. They wouldn’t have Why did he felt that way? Why did he dismiss it without prejudice? There should have been something for him to do that. He had to make a finding in the order that there was something deficient in the complaint. He He did not explain. And in his order, it was not eliminated. There’s [clears throat] nothing mentioned. He just says dismissed without prejudice. Did he give a reason? Nope. Didn’t give a reason. and and in court he said, you know, he’s not allowed to give me legal advice. So that’s what he told me. He said, I’m not allowed to give you legal advice. I’m going to dismiss this with with it without prejudice. Yeah, but typically they give a reason why it was dismissed without prejudice. But there was a So I had asked for, you know, I’d asked for just to be refunded first, which I’d already asked the attorney to do and you know, I showed him I gave him the documentation of that of asking him to return the money um so that I could hire an attorney that would represent me and of course he just didn’t respond to that. And then I asked for other damages like psychological damages and the damages from paying too much child support over this time because he didn’t file you know the economic stuff and the money the emotional damages that’s going to be difficult.

Maybe it was based on that. I don’t know if you can get emotional damages. I mean there had to be like are you talking about like intentional in infliction of emotional distress by what? By him not doing what he was supposed to do. Yeah. Like that. Yeah. Well, you know, when you knew that I was in [laughter] a hard claim to make that’s a hard claim to make the money, getting the money back and the child support. Go ahead, Chuck. No, I’m just saying remember when you file a complaint, you have to lay out all the elements of the claim of the valid claim that you’re pursuing, you know, and so sometimes, you know, they’ll they’ll dismiss it when, you know, like if you don’t ask for damages or you just miss one of the elements of the claim that is needed, you know, and it’s allegation, you know, you don’t have to show proof at that point. It’s just an outline of what the claim is that you’re pursuing and it gives, you know, the opposing side [clears throat] knowledge of what, you know, what’s coming at them. And so if the judge sees, well, you didn’t, you know, you didn’t, you know, allege this or maybe he didn’t lay out he didn’t lay out the elements of the emotional distress. What caused it? You just can’t see how I received emotional distress. You got to see you got to give us you got to give some facts behind it. I mean, okay. Um, but you can drop the emotional distress and just go on the financial. He probably would not have dismissed it. Okay. So, it has to be the whole thing. That’s what I was wondering. He has to accept all terms of it or none of it. No, I don’t know. I haven’t seen the order. I typically the judge issues an order.

Here’s why I dismissed it. I mean, you’re telling me he gave you no information? I mean, you the legal claim has to be okay. Is it Is it negligence? Is it intentional? Is it an intentional tort? Is it you know you know what is the basis of the claim and then from there you got to say okay well here’s the elements of let’s say a negligence claim and you know you got to have you know a duty and then you know a breach of that duty and then damages and you have to allege all of that and give the facts behind it so that it stands on its own and that’s how you prevent a motion to dismiss. Yeah. But this Yeah. Who is does the lawyer you filed against does he have a is his insurance company defending him or has he defended himself? No, he hired a private attorney. He hired So he hired a private attorney or does he have insurance as an insurance company? I don’t know if the insurance covered it but another uh prominent attorney from downtown representative is representing. Okay. [snorts] Okay. Because that could either be his private lawyer or the lawyer appointed by the insurance company by his insurance company. But but as I said, um they didn’t deny any of the the facts of the of the complaint. They they were just um arguing about the compensation.

What do you mean the composite? One element said that they said, “Oh, the case isn’t final.” And they and they gave an example where um uh a case wasn’t closed, so they weren’t sure how much financial damage there actually would be because maybe it would swing back to the to to somebody’s way instead. There was no way of knowing that. The divorce is still going on. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. So, maybe that’s where the damages are not set yet. Okay. All right. I mean, what you could do is talk to the lawyer for the his lawyer and say, “Listen, here’s what I want.” Because, you know, they’re going to to them, it’s a financial decision, right? You got to figure out what you’re out of. Here’s what I’m willing to take right now. I’ll go about my way, hire my own attorney. Here’s what I think I’m owed. He didn’t do the work I paid him to do. And pay me this sum of money. and I’ll go and we can call it a day. You may want to do that. That’s make a try. Yeah. I mean, call and you have a right. You can call his lawyer. Yeah. And talk to him about it because that lawyer who whoever’s paying him, if it’s the insurance company or the lawyer that you’re suing, right? They’re going to make a financial decision. Do we want to have this thing drawn out or we can just pay him some money and move on? They didn’t file a counter suit either like to to recover attorney’s fees or anything like that. They just, you know, um argued that they shouldn’t have to pay certain pieces of it and that it was inappropriate for me to file at this time.

They didn’t deny but they can ask for they may be able to ask for attorney’s fees later, you know. Okay. Um yeah, I think that’s a good point. Reaching out to the other attorney reach out to the at his attorney and say, “Let’s call this a day. Nobody’s, you know, I’m out of pocket. It’s going to cost everybody a bunch of money and and see what they’ll they’ll they’ll probably work out something with you. Okay. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Good luck. That’s a long time divorce, Grant. It’s been going on since 2021. What kind of divorce is that, man? Six years. Oh, it’s horrific. Yeah. Unbelievable. That’s not fun. Yeah. Wow. I heard one going on that long. Yeah. So, I have a really great therapist. [laughter] Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for your call, Grant. We uh we appreciate it. I feel like I learned a lot. You got something out of it. You got Yeah. Well, you’ll have to let us know how it goes. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. Yeah. Keep us posted. Yeah. Well, that does it for Legal Live with Fair and Fair 1045 WKV Jacksonville’s News and Talk. We will be back next week. If you want to catch another episode or catch this episode, head to wkv.com or any podcast [music] listening platform. Until next week.