In Episode 4 of 'Weekly Docket,' Phil Silberman and Austin Black delve into the legal turmoil surrounding the music industry on TikTok, the sentencing of a tax return leaker, and all the things you can be killed for in China. They'll also examine Gina Carano's lawsuit against Disney and provide legal insights on various topics, including joint bank accounts and enforceable contracts with mistresses. Tune in for another episode packed with captivating legal discussions and practical advice.
In Episode 4 of 'Weekly Docket,' Phil Silberman and Austin Black delve into the legal turmoil surrounding the music industry on TikTok, the sentencing of a tax return leaker, and all the things you can be killed for in China. They'll also examine Gina Carano's lawsuit against Disney and provide legal insights on various topics, including joint bank accounts and enforceable contracts with mistresses. Tune in for another episode packed with captivating legal discussions and practical advice.
Hello, welcome to the Weekly Docket. My name is Phil Silberman, owner of the Silberman Law Firm, your host. And today is February 8th, 2024, episode four of the Weekly Docket. And I'm joined by my co host Austin Black, who works out of our Dallas office. What's on our docket today, Mr. Black.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:So first we're going to be going over the day music died on TikTok where a thousand screams of a thousand Gen Zers just cried out over the internet for quite some time because they couldn't listen to Taylor Swift.
Track 1:Do you know what that reference, I wrote that title. I'm very proud of that title. the day the music died.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah, I have no idea.
Track 1:So Austin's kind of our youngish millennial, and this happened even well before my generation, but it was a plane crash. And several popular artists, in 1959 died. Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens and somebody called it the Big Bopper,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:bopper
Track 1:Tragic Day. It was a brilliant reference. I'm very proud of that. So I wanted everybody to get it. But what are we doing after we talk about the music dying on TikTok?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:We're talking about a a tax return traitor. Or the person who leaked Donald Trump's tax returns on and the sentence he was handed down.
Track 1:it depends if you're a Republican, then he's probably a trader. If you're a Democrat, he's a whistleblower. I just want to be clear.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah. Yeah. One of those. It can't be both, obviously. Then we'll be talking about how the Chinese government deals with people in similar situations. And then lastly, we're going to be talking about Gina I think it's how you pronounce her last name. Who, is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for her termination and also claiming defamation.
Track 1:that's our legal news. What are we doing after we, we do a little news? It looks like we've got some legal questions we're going to answer as usual. And we've got some funny legal soundbites. Lawyers don't want to be paid with your grill And then we'll be talking about what not to do after you're fired, how not to update your LinkedIn profile. That'll be the last rant and rave we have.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Okay.
Track 1:Let's start off with legal news. We've got Universal Music Group, who is a huge player in the music industry, and they've got some big names. Do you like the music of any people to have? Do you know who they've got signed up?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:there is no way that you listen to music in the modern day and you have not listened to music from people signed to UMG. The biggest one would be Taylor Swift, but then Drake the Weekend.
Track 1:so tick tock. And Universal Music Group can't come to a deal. And if you don't know how this works, most popular thing on TikTok is.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:is
Track 1:get some really popular songs and you lip sync to it, or you dance to it.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to it.
Track 1:And TikTok has this music library that they pay Universal Music Group, as well as some other very popular, big music producers. So that all the
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:that
Track 1:TikTok users
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:users
Track 1:access to this music library. And this is a really symbiotic, amazing relationship for both the record companies and TikTok because TikTok users want music. And the record companies and the artists want their songs to go viral. That's how it works. Now,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:now. Artists
Track 1:doing concerts and they're selling albums,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:but
Track 1:what really catapults their song to the top
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:top
Track 1:when. Some random person does a crazy lip sync or dance to the song and it goes viral and it's all over TikTok.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:There was a Icelandic Chinese singer named Lefe that my girlfriend was really into and is pretty obscure. And then one of her songs blew up on TikTok and we went to her concert at the end of the last year. And it was packed to like the walls with all these people
Track 1:So if you ask an artist, do you want, if you ask that the Icelandic Chinese chick, okay. Do you want more money and do you want your songs to be on TikTok? An artist is always going to say yes.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:is always going to say yes.
Track 1:But
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:But
Track 1:if you ask the record company, do you want the songs on TikTok? Yeah, the record company is going to say maybe for the right price.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Sure.
Track 1:Okay so what happened?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:happened?
Track 1:They all of a sudden people are humming along doing their lip syncs and all that kind of stuff. And they did all these videos for years and universal music can't come to a deal. TikTok then has to remove all the music, so what you get are these videos now of the person lip syncing or dancing or doing
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to
Track 1:gyrations, but it's just muted. That's what happened, overnight.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I'm actually really surprised that they weren't able to reach a, um, any sort of agreement here on this That really shocked me.
Track 1:It's just a money thing and they can't get a deal done. let's talk about the legal standard here.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:about the legal
Track 1:If you're
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you're a
Track 1:guy, regular person, and you want to use a song, what's to stop you from just putting Taylor Swift, shake it off in the background and then recording it and doing your dance?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:dance?
Track 1:The answer is copyright law. And there's a bunch of huge misconceptions out, out here about the use of music and videos.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:videos. Some
Track 1:Some people will say if it's a really short clip, like five, 10, 20 seconds, then you can use it.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:it.
Track 1:Not true, complete urban myth, you can't take a Shake It Off song for 10 seconds, dance to it, and have a really short video and be good. It's still a copyright violation.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you need some
Track 1:So you need some sort of license. And the way this works is if you're a commercial user like we are, our law firm has a TikTok account, we're a commercial user. We have access to a special library on TikTok. We don't do any ridiculous music videos or whatever. We don't do anything like that. And if you're an individual creator, then you get that library. And it's all about these licensing deals. And it's all about, it's all about money. There are some limited circumstances where you can claim a fair use for the use of an artist's music. One of those circumstances is education. if you're doing Shake It Off in a classroom as part of a presentation and it's not public, that's likely a Fair use. There's also documentary exceptions. but be careful. It's not always a fair use. there's a famous Elvis Presley case where the documentary filmmaker
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:did the
Track 1:thing with Elvis Presley and the Presley estate sued the documentary filmmaker for copyright infringement
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:And
Track 1:the documentary film member lost because.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:The documentary had just Elvis all throughout the thing and all of the, entire songs and
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:The court basically said you've done too much. You've, you, this wasn't a commentary. You basically just included all the Elvis
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Elvis
Track 1:right? So be careful with that.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah, and it's interesting because not a lot of Americans tend to think that because we have fair use laws that every country has them, right? And they don't have them. For instance, like Nintendo, one of the most litigious companies in the world, there's no fair use in Japan. And Anytime like a new Nintendo game or something comes out, any person uploading gameplay or anything to YouTube always has to worry about Nintendo copyright striking their just gameplay for, because they don't have any fair use.
Track 1:that's a great example. And if you're a small business owner listening to this, because we see lots of small business owners out there with social media platforms.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:social media.
Track 1:ripping off music and
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:funny
Track 1:doing funny dances and putting it in their social media posts,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:copyright
Track 1:is a copyright violation.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:in
Track 1:you have to put it in perspective
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:by the
Track 1:if,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:close
Track 1:isn't, by the way, this is close to a real world example. If there's a famous Johnny, you may not be a Johnny Cash fan, but I'm a huge Johnny Cash fan. And there's a famous Ring of Fire song. I fell into a burning ring of
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Fire song.
Track 1:Okay.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:familiar with it.
Track 1:Yeah.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:H,
Track 1:He's very familiar with it.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:for
Track 1:And Preparation H,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:ring.
Track 1:is a medicine for hemorrhoids, wanted the rights to the Ring of Fire song. And it got very close. I don't know if it was the agent or whoever it was for the Cash music. They were like, this is going to be an amazing deal. You're going to get paid all this money. And they're
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:They're
Track 1:going to have ring of fire going on in the background of Preparation H and I don't have to explain to you the joke. It obviously was
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the joke. It's
Track 1:going to be a very funny thing.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:thing.
Track 1:And the wife or the widow of Johnny Cash, I can't remember when Johnny Cash died, shut it down.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:No,
Track 1:she said, no, the Ring of Fire is a song about transformative love.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:we
Track 1:And we don't want that,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:by
Track 1:Image ruined by being associated with Preparation Age. So if Preparation H had decided screw it, I'm going to do a Super Bowl commercial
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:the ring of fire in the background anyway, I can assure you
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you
Track 1:that the Cash family would have sued
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Inc. And
Track 1:Preparation H. And
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you're
Track 1:it's the same thing if you're a small business owner out there doing this in social media.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:You're
Track 1:You're going to get sued if you don't have the license to this material.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:saying the song Ring of Fire is not originally about hemorrhoids? That's
Track 1:That's exactly what I'm saying. A common misconception.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I'm glad
Track 1:glad we, we've cleared that up.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:that
Track 1:about
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:You
Track 1:documents and records. So
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:trying
Track 1:you remember Okay. When Donald Trump was running for president and the custom among our presidents in the United States is to
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Donald
Track 1:your tax record.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:seize his. No. for coming
Track 1:Okay.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:The allegations being, maybe he didn't
Track 1:almost all the presidents have at least for tax returns. Donald Trump didn't want to release his all kinds of ballot. No, absolutely not. Thank you for clearing that up. They're absolutely not required by law. Donald Trump did not want to release his allegations being maybe he didn't make as much money as he
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I
Track 1:I mean you've got to be really a Trump hater to do this. He purposely goes out there and gets a job as a, as an IRS consultant, like premeditated years in advance with the specific goal. Of leaking Trump's tax returns. And he also leaked other wealthy Americans tax returns,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:respect the dedication.
Track 1:Yeah.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you agree with it or not.
Track 1:Yeah. This guy was motivated
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:this.
Track 1:do this. So he does this and that's how the, the Trump tax returns got leaked.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:occurred.
Track 1:So
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:guy
Track 1:committed a crime,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to
Track 1:Just to be clear, and I can't remember what he was charged with. Exactly. but the judge does, have some, I think she had a quote, the judge said it was an attack on our constitutional democracy, the New York times, on the other hand, had a different take on it. The New York times. promoted him as a whistleblower. So if you're a progressive liberal Democrat, this guy's a whistleblower, if you're a Republican, maybe the guy's a traitor, but he ends up, the judge threw the book at him. He gets five years. In prison, which was the maximum sentence for these kinds of paper crimes.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:gets five
Track 1:I hope it was worth it. You're doing five years in a club fed.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:The New York Times is using the term whistleblower here for the release of Trump's tax returns to get such a strange use of that word, right? Because the definition of whistleblower, like just if you search on Google definition of whistleblower, it's a person who informs on a person or organization engaged in illicit activity.
Track 1:It's clearly politically loaded and legal definition of the term whistleblower the key term being like illicit illegal activities. Trump was relying on his
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:his,
Track 1:right not to disclose his tax return. So the concept of whistleblower is obviously inflammatory. Nonetheless, Mr. Littlejohn gets five years. I just want to say, if he were in China. He'd probably be executed. And that's where our next piece is going. And this was a headline in the wall street journal. Chinese banker gets to live that wasn't the exact headline, but the banker gets to live another two years. The Chinese banker
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:banker
Track 1:sentenced to.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah,
Track 1:accepting bribes. I think he accepted 29 million in bribes. He did some insider trading. He did some other bad things.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:things. But who hasn't accepted 29 million in bribes every once in a while, though?
Track 1:Is it
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:is
Track 1:in China that punish you by death?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:death.
Track 1:But we don't do that in the United States. If Mr. Little John. Had been in China, they'd have killed him.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Probably. I guess it depends on whose tax returns he leaked, right?
Track 1:Yeah.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:about.
Track 1:Sure. You're right. What's this guy's name, by the way? Former president of China Merchants Bank. Can you pronounce that name or should I take a stab at it?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I don't know how to do the last name.
Track 1:Okay. Tim.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Okay,
Track 1:Tim.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:should
Track 1:Yeah.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Tim.
Track 1:Tim. Tim.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I Y U. So I'm not sure how to pronounce that, yeah. Tim Hogan.
Track 1:Got the, gets the death sentence for that. And there's a quote in the quote in the journal is
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a,
Track 1:Normally people that are given death sentences in China end up effectively living out, life in prison sentences. But then the next part of the article is like,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:is like
Track 1:but in 2021, there was this this other guy,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Who
Track 1:the death sentence and within a month they executed the guy. he was the chairman of a state owned Chinese debt management company,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:company,
Track 1:engaged in some really illicit activities. China handed down death sentence, killed him in a month. Do you know how long it takes to kill someone in the state of Texas, to execute someone in the state of Texas?
Austin Black:Texas? Isn't that like over 10 years?
Track 1:Yes, 11 years. The Chinese, they get it done in One month when they're ready to
Phil Silberman:execute
Track 1:somebody
Austin Black:man, I, look. I don't know death penalty is such a can of worms, right?
Track 1:who got the two years left, he got a two year reprieve from the death sentence, the Chinese court pointed out that he was repentant, that he returned all the money and yes, they're going to let him live for another two.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:he just gets two more years, right?
Austin Black (2):We don't they could kick the can down
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:road a little bit longer, although the guy who was killed in a month, he really must've pissed somebody in the wrong communist off or something in, in China, we have a list of things that they'll kill you for in China, here's the list. If you're a soldier and you're a coward, or you're, or you surrender, they'll kill you. They'll execute you.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:so desertion.
Track 1:Yeah. No, I, yes, I think so. I think they, I think if you desert in, in, in China they'll kill you. Embezzlement, which is what these two gentlemen did, these financial crimes, probably a form of embezzlement, bribery, things like that. So just common robbery. They'll kill you in China for common robbery. I,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:limit on that?
Track 1:I don't know the answer to that,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I
Track 1:but I wouldn't count on any kind of high amounts there in, in communist China, a legal possession of a firearm.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Okay.
Track 1:You'll die for that. And then here's my favorite. Separatism.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:die by the sword. I
Track 1:That's,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:they don't like the guy who said that in, in China.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:China. Separatism. I
Track 1:Sep,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to look
Track 1:I had to look up what they meant by separatism.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:separatism.
Track 1:And separatism, it actually means exactly as it sounds, is doing anything that will separate you from a group of
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:of
Track 1:Chinese communists is you will die for. Cultural separatism.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:separatism, the
Track 1:Advocacy of separating yourself from any larger group, ethnic, cultural, gender. So I guess if the whole, I might be a woman or man thing, even though I was born the opposite, that would be a form of separatism that you would be put to death for in China. moving right along. We've got another case about separatism. We have Gina
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Carano.
Track 1:Carano, who was separated from her employment with the Disney company. She was fired from Mandalorian
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:She
Track 1:Cara Dune.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:In the Mandalorian, she played a mercenary who ended up helping the main character of the Mandalorian, who was played by Pedro Pascal.
Track 1:she also posted some social media posts where she compared Jews being rounded up during the Holocaust to maybe right wing, uh, political advocates
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Maybe a
Track 1:in the United States. Yeah,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah.
Track 1:They didn't like that. What else do we have? Oh, look, if she mocked COVID mask wearing,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:people said that she was trans people. It was just, it was a bunch of stuff that like people who were more right aligned would probably wouldn't have an issue with. But yeah.
Track 1:right. But it's undisputed that these kinds of things are all protected by free speech. Now, there are some exceptions to free speech. the classic example to the exception of first amendment free speech is yelling fire in a theater, you're sitting in a packed theater, you'll fire, you create a stampede
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:people
Track 1:people get hurt. So your free speech to say the word fire is limited just on general public safety. There are limits to. Free speech, but these, I don't think anybody is disputing that she's
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:she's
Track 1:to espouse
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:of
Track 1:kinds of opinions, even if they are detestable
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to
Track 1:you.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:really clear, right? This is not A First Amendment issue here, right?
Track 1:She's suing Disney.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:her
Track 1:and she's got to come up with a reason to sue them. So here's her angle is that it's a gender discrimination thing.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Absolutely, and they fired her, and not only did they fire her, they put out a very public statement saying that her, I'm forgetting the exact language, it was basically that her positions were like reprehensible, and like terrible, and it was a very public statement about her removal from the Mandalorian, and that's a big part of the lawsuit as well, the defamation part. I
Track 1:but
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to
Track 1:point and business owners or HR people, if you're out there listening to this is why you don't give a reason when you fire somebody.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:someone.
Track 1:you need to go, if you're an HR or if you're a business owner and you're firing somebody, You need to go watch that scene in Moneyball where the kid is nervous about telling a big league ballplayer that he's been traded. And Brad Pitt says, you just got to go do it. These guys are professional ballplayers. Jonah Hill, he does a great job at this part, by the way. Shout out to Jonah Hill. So
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:he
Track 1:So he sits down and he looks, he's You've been traded.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:and
Track 1:So and so will take care of the rest,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the rest.
Track 1:done.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:if
Track 1:If you're a business owner and you're firing somebody, this is why you say, you just say
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:just
Track 1:you're terminated and that's it.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Disney just had to virtue signal. They just
Track 1:yeah,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:it. And that's a big part of this lawsuit. So
Track 1:it is. And Lucasfilm got sued too. And they refer to the social media posts.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:CEO at the time Disney, makes a statement about her post on a lie with the values of Disney. When you do stuff like that, business owners or HR people you're giving the
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the employee
Track 1:ammunition. To come back and build their complaint to their petition against you to see now Disney may have so much money.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:money.
Track 1:don't care. They felt like the virtue signaling was well worth
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Gina
Track 1:the risk, but sure enough,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:suing
Track 1:Corona comes back and she's suing for a California labor code violation
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:actor
Track 1:that.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:social
Track 1:been a whole lot of male actors out there that have been very public with their social media posts and they didn't get fired. So therefore it's gender discrimination. Maybe if during the hype of the Marvel franchise and, Captain America and Iron Man are out there espousing their views on social media, maybe Disney's making so much money. They look the other way, who knows, but let's answer some legal questions from people who are probably.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:The
Track 1:bit less fortunate than celebrities.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the
Track 1:And we've got a general question. We get this question all the time. widows calling us,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:widow
Track 1:husband dies. No will
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:house
Track 1:husband has children from a previous marriage.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:sadly,
Track 1:They bought a home together the widow on the phone bought a home together with the husband who's, that was the second marriage for the husband who had children from a previous marriage. No will, and the widow says, hey, I need to get this house in my name. And I'm, Austin, I'm sure you and the other attorneys that, that help out on intake and take calls get that one a lot. The answer is, and sadly, you have to tell the widow what?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:only way she's going to get that house entirely in her, quote unquote, in her name so what that means is like it's only her name on the deed is if the children from her husband's previous marriage sign over their interest To her
Track 1:Yeah, so the immediate sad news to the widow is we're sorry, but you've retained your one half of the community property. The other half are owned by your husband's children,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Children,
Track 1:some of which may be yours, some of which may have been from another relationship and that always Bye. Bye. The next question is how do I get into my name? Like you attempted to answer is if all the children like you, they can sign a deed over to you, but usually the children from the previous relationship are unwilling to sign the deed
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:The
Track 1:to the widow, but all is not lost for the widow.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yes,
Track 1:the widow has what's known as a spousal homestead right. That allows her to live in the property for
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a life
Track 1:ever.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:be another
Track 1:A life is
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Exactly. Yeah,
Track 1:right. So widow can live there for a very long time.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:All right.
Track 1:All right, next legal question. We have
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:have P
Track 1:O. D. Is payable on death beneficiaries, survivorship.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:of calls
Track 1:get a lot of calls into the firm
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:dies.
Track 1:where
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:on
Track 1:some, someone dies, they were on a bank account with somebody else, and the person calling was listed as payable on death, listed as beneficiary listed as survivorship. In those cases, Do they need to do a probate?
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:If that's the only thing they care about, then no,
Track 1:So no probate needed. Those bank accounts with beneficiary designations pass outside of probate. There may be, as you correctly point out, there may be other reasons
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Maybe
Track 1:that a probate is needed. Maybe you've got a house or other assets. Other bank accounts without beneficiary designations, but be careful if you're out there listening to this and you're on bank accounts with other people, you really need to be careful how those accounts are styled and redefined print. There could be beneficiary rights. There could be no survivorship. Maybe the account's just a joint account
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a
Track 1:and there's no survivorship, right? So accounts can have all different,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:all
Track 1:Designations and legal rights. So read those.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:right. Next one. We
Track 1:Yeah,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:in say that a quote unquote friend of Care of her Five. Yes, the friend has
Track 1:friend call.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:financially for five years and had promised in writing to give her 10, 000 a month. But all of a sudden he stopped paying. And she wants to know if she can enforce that. Let me break it down, I think it's
Track 1:Let me, before we do that, let me break it down, if you have a mistress
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:your mistress gets
Track 1:the deal is your mistress gets 10 grand a month. And you may receive love and affection from the mistress and you're part of the deal as you're giving 10 grand a month. If you want to end that relationship the courts are reluctant to enforce those kinds of relationships because mostly they're unwritten. Mostly there's not any real consideration that would be satisfied, that would satisfy contractual element of consideration. So those are almost always unenforceable gifts, which is, sad for the mistress.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:mistress.
Track 1:There could be some exceptions to that.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Sure. One of
Track 1:One of them might be in the context of a, if you think about a gift deed, this is
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:is a
Track 1:It's not exactly what's going on, but
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:going
Track 1:If I give
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I
Track 1:a friend of mine a property, or if I give a child a property or a spouse a property, I may do a gift deed. And as a gift deed, what's the consideration that we reside in the gift deed? It's love and affection. a deed is a contract. You've got a property going to a grantee or to your child or something like that. You're giving a gift
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:like
Track 1:and then in exchange,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:you've
Track 1:you've gotten love and affection and that's a contract. So if you were, in this case, if you were to have a written contract with the mistress and the mistress were to promise love and affection
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:ex
Track 1:for X number of years and you were to promise a monthly payment,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:monthly
Track 1:might be able to construe a situation where you've got real consideration Going back and forth and you have an enforceable contract,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:consideration
Track 1:that's not
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:That's not
Track 1:the calls that come into us. It's usually a very undocumented
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:issues
Track 1:kind of organic thing. We've nailed our legal questions for the day, Austin. So we're left with some, we're left with some sound bites, just legal vocab, common misconceptions.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:misconceptions. Let's
Track 1:about probate versus probation, because you take a lot of calls at the firm.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:at
Track 1:If someone calls into you and says, Oh, Mr. Black, I'm so glad I got ahold of you. You're an attorney.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:of
Track 1:I'm looking for a probation attorney. You probably say what? That's
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:being probate, I'm going to ask you who died. That's probably,
Track 1:Yeah,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:probably be my first question. I'll ask them who died and if they're like what are you talking about? No one died. Then I'll know they're actually talking about probation and they need to talk to a criminal attorney.
Track 1:so common misconception. We're probate lawyers. We don't do probation law. I'm not even sure probation law is a thing. You're right. It's criminal law.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I don't think anyone has a specific probation practice, but yeah. Sure.
Track 1:some of those terms. You probably go back to your criminal lawyer, try to figure all that out, but that's not us. And, if you happen, To go see your lawyer and you've got a legal issue that our firm might handle, like probate real estate or business. We tend to prefer
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Credit cards, maybe
Track 1:credit cards nowadays,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:love
Track 1:maybe some checks.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:The
Track 1:don't love to take cash anymore. but here's what most lawyers will not take. And one time I was in my office and, the guy had a serious legal problem and he needed some legal help. And he said, Mr. Silverman,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a serious legal
Track 1:I don't have the money, but I can pay you with my grill. And I'm just going to tell you my.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Mr.
Track 1:ignorance, I looked at him, I was like, son, I
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:out
Track 1:really don't want your car grill. I don't know what value that has or anything. He said, no, Mr. And I kid you not, he took out the front of his teeth and set it on my desk
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:right? At
Track 1:and it was full of, precious metals and things of that nature. So we don't want your drill as your lawyers. All right. Rants and raids. I've, this is always my favorite part of, maybe I'm becoming an angry person, but I always like rants and raves. The first one we're talking about is, and I don't fire people on our firm. We've got
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:at
Track 1:another guy at the firm who's our firm supervisor, great attorney. He supervises lawyers sometimes, unfortunately has to fire. Some of them and this guy, we're not mentioning
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:mentioning
Track 1:Austin. I want to be clear. We are not mentioning any names in this bit, but you had mentioned it to me in a meeting. And I don't go back and check LinkedIn profiles for all the people that have worked at our firm over the years. But. This one was too funny to pass up. The guy worked for our firm for eight months.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:was,
Track 1:our firm supervising attorney, fired him.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:him, and
Track 1:And on his LinkedIn profile for the Silverman Law Firm for eight months he had, and I quote, culturally incompatible,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah, he put a reason for leaving the firm on his LinkedIn and I've never once for any job seen someone on their LinkedIn put a reason why they
Track 1:I
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:the need to.
Track 1:don't even think LinkedIn has a field for that. here's my advice to young lawyers out there. And by the way, the guy got fired because he wasn't working.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:working.
Track 1:Chris fired him. And I'm sure knowing Chris, who's an avid Moneyball fan, Chris probably, I don't know if the guy was working out of the office or not. Chris called him in the office and said, Hey man, you're not working.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:something
Track 1:You're fired.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:You
Track 1:that case, if you're just going to say something clear that's clearly a, an offense worthy of being terminated for, you can do that. I promise you, Chris did not go into a long list of cultural incompatibilities with this gentleman. so again, my advice to young lawyers is you were out of firm eight months. It didn't work out. It's certainly a bad look for future employers. You're going to have to own that. Don't put anything weird on your
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:on
Track 1:that you're looking to hire is they're going to not want to touch you with a 10 foot pole or whatever you need to come up with something a little bit better
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:bit better.
Track 1:Incompatible. And if that guy's out there listening to this podcast, no hard feelings.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Just please
Track 1:but
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:please.
Track 1:Take it off your link, take it off your LinkedIn and get yourself another job.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:job. Moving
Track 1:All right, moving right along.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:one
Track 1:Really burned me up this week.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:It's
Track 1:proposed law
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Canada.
Track 1:allow the mentally ill in Canada to receive
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:time,
Track 1:suicide.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a
Track 1:This is sick. Yeah, euthanasia. This is sick. Okay, mentally ill people, they don't, they're not in an ability to decide
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:whole
Track 1:whether or not they want to be in their lives one. The whole conversation of whether assisted suicide is even
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:good
Track 1:a good thing, period. But this would be one of the most liberal
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:suicide things.
Track 1:suicide laws in the world. Justin Trudeau was pushing it. And there, apparently there are still some conservative people left in Canada because they were calling, they were saying Justin Trudeau is creating a culture of death,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Maybe this is
Track 1:which,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Justin Trudeau wanted for himself once he was caught in blackface for the 50th time.
Track 1:yeah, that because he was mentally ill.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Yeah
Track 1:even as terrible as that is, I, I won't encourage that this kind of behavior. Now the, they actually, according to the New York Post, they put this on, they halted this new proposed law, apparently because they can't find enough doctors to do. Now, I don't know if they literally can't find enough doctors to, to kill the people,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:enough
Track 1:find enough
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to
Track 1:to evaluate the people for
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:they
Track 1:the suicide. producer, Aaron, is Canadian.
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:Going
Track 1:and I apologize, but I'm taking,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:I mentioned to you, I worked for the Canadian Embassy in Some time as Yeah.
Track 1:So I'm retracting the apology to our producer. And I'm just saying, Aaron, we don't need your maple syrup. When Canadians do stuff like this, we're boycotting maple syrup and Canadian hockey. Not US hockey, just the Canadian hockey. So
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:a picture with Justin Trudeau on my fridge over here.
Track 1:you did burn it. I that's a new condition of your continued employment at the firm is to,
austin-black_3_02-08-2024_122512:to burn the picture of Justin
Track 1:Is burn the trusted to the Justin Trudeau picture. Okay. With that bit of sad news that brings our show to a close. My name's Phil Silberman. I've been your host and thank you for listening and remember to subscribe, review us. We appreciate all of that on the weekly docket, Silver Law Firm's podcast. Sign up.