In episode 10 of the ‘Weekly Docket’, we unpack the latest legal developments, including the multi-million-dollar Realtor Settlement Agreement, updates on Texas' border law battle, and the Justice Department's lawsuit against Apple's alleged smartphone monopoly. Join us as we answer legal questions about salary reductions, encroaching tree limbs, and the requirements of a valid will. Don't miss out on our engaging discussion!
In episode 10 of the ‘Weekly Docket’, we unpack the latest legal developments, including the multi-million-dollar Realtor Settlement Agreement, updates on Texas' border law battle, and the Justice Department's lawsuit against Apple's alleged smartphone monopoly. Join us as we answer legal questions about salary reductions, encroaching tree limbs, and the requirements of a valid will. Don't miss out on our engaging discussion!
Welcome to the Silberman Law Firm's Weekly Docket, Episode 10. Today is March 21st, 2024. We'll be talking legal news and practical law. My name is Phil Silberman, and I'm your host, and I'm joined by my co host, Austin Black. Excited for Episode 10. Tell us what's on our docket today, Austin.
Track 1:So today we're first going to be going through our legal news section and looking over a settlement agreement involving realtors that could potentially change, the real estate market pretty substantially. Then looking at Texas Senate Bill 4, that deals with immigration law, and it's highly controversial. and then we'll be talking about Apple getting sued for a supposed monopoly. over smartphones. then from there, we'll be transitioning into our legal questions section, what makes a will valid, and examples of some invalid ones, also talking about things like what a holographic will is. It does not have to do anything with star Wars. Which is what I thought before I started practicing, and then about whether a tree limb can reach from your neighbor's property, over to your property, and if it does, what you can do about it. then lastly, we'll be hitting on our rants and raves, and specifically talking about, Kate Middleton, Missing Princesses, because that is the subject everyone is quite enthralled
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:I'm not super excited to talk about missing princesses, but I feel like it's an obligation because my wife is obsessed with it.
Track 1:Okay, but tell me, do you think a missing princess is more interesting than a, currently present princess? I do, personally.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:I'm glad we're talking about missing princesses. And so we will get through all of this, but before we do that, let's start with our legal news section and we're going to tackle the realtor settlement agreement. this is big news, you may remember that some plaintiff's lawyers formed a class of all the people that had bought houses or bought real estate recently. They sued the Realtor Trade Associations, and they sued the big brokerages all over the country, what the realtors have done is anti competitive. They've. artificially inflated realtor commissions unnecessarily, before the legal battle went any further, we get news of a settlement agreement. here's what we know about the settlement. 418 million dollar settlement paid to people who bought a house recently. for those of you, you don't know how class settlements work. Usually if you're the actual plaintiff or you're a member of the class, you get some small checks. If you've ever gotten a check in the mail for and 55 cents. And it was related to some settlement because you bought a product. That was likely a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff's attorneys get the lion's share of the fees. usually it's 40 percent of the settlement. So There were several plaintiff's attorneys. They're going to have a very good day on that 418 million settlement because they're likely going to take somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of that and thousands of other people who bought homes, maybe millions of other people will probably end up getting some nominal amount in the mail.
Track 1:You'll get some email probably saying, Hey, we think you purchased a home recently. Come fill out your information here. And then maybe six, eight months down the road, you'll get a check in the mail. Or maybe if you're lucky, they'll have direct deposit set up and you'll just see an extra 3 in your bank account one day, like great.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:A house is a big purchase and those realtor commissions were pretty big. So Maybe it's a little bit better than that,
Track 1:Maybe
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:but here's the major terms of the settlement. if you represented the seller in a transaction and you want to advertise the fact that you're paying a commission or you want to advertise the house to a buyer, you normally do that on the MLS, which stands for multiple listing service. And as part of a contractual obligation of you placing the house on the MLS so that other buyers brokers could see it. And then. show their clients the house you had to offer a commission and all over the country in Texas, the standard you always offered was 3%. And the realtors, the plaintiffs and the attorneys that represented the plaintiffs in the class, they said that artificially kept Real estate commissions high ended up getting the settlement. So now you're a listing agent, you represent a seller. You don't have to offer a commission period. You could just put the property in them, MLS. So what does this mean, for the real estate market? what does it mean for realtors? Is this really a, industry disrupter? And the short answer is, I think the residential real estate market is going to end up being more like commercial real estate. But to illustrate this point, let's go ahead and do a little role playing. and this isn't like any kind of kinky fun role playing that you may be accustomed to.
Track 1:that I may be accustomed to. I hope you're talking about our viewers because I do some very different things than
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:is some not so fun role playing where I'm gonna be the listing agent and you're going to be the buyer's agent pretending to represent a buyer. So I've just listed my property in the MLS and I've said, buyers come show it, no offers of commission. you've got a buyer. You want to submit an offer on my property for my seller. You come to me and what are you going to say right off the bat so that you might be able to earn a commission?
Track 1:I got a cash buyer.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:You got a cash buyer. Okay. And I'm like, great. My, my sellers love cash. You've got a well qualified cash buyer. Are you going to want a commission on this
Track 1:Yes, I want a commission of at least 15%.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:that's rather high. so go back to your buyer and get that 15 percent from your buyer because my seller really doesn't want to pay anything.
Track 1:sounds like I'm not going to be able to show the house to them
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:That's a good answer. So if it's a super hot market, I might say, this is just an incredibly hot market. go ahead and take your buyer. I've got other people showing, and I've got other offers on the property where buyers are willing to pay their own commission. we don't need your offer. Come back to us if your buyer is willing to pay a commission. let's say it's not a super hot real estate market. and I need your buyer. I said, wait a minute. Okay. come on, bring your buyer. And,
Track 1:I
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:I
Track 1:don't think
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:you
Track 1:that We're very different from 15
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:look, Austin, half a percent on 2 million.
Track 1:It's a number.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:This is a two million dollar house and I'm going to tell you half a percent is 10 grand. That's plenty of money for the couple houses you've shown and the paperwork you're going to do. You can make it work on 10 grand, can't you Austin?
Track 1:it a percent
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Okay, there you go. so we've negotiated a percent for Austin, which is the equivalent
Track 1:000.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:000. on a 2 million house. that's an okay deal. And maybe I want to pay that 20 grand right now, if I'm the seller, Now, let's talk about more typical houses where we're not talking about the residential market. And I think this is a concern. If you're representing first time homebuyers, people are in a two, three, 400, 000 price range for homes. And then the question becomes, the buyer's agent is working hard, showing a lot of houses. Sometimes buyer shows 20, 30, 40, sometimes they show a hundred houses to first time home buyers. And they're asking lots of questions And then you come to me, Austin, you're representing a buyer in a 400, 000 house. And you're like, I need 3 percent Phil, which is 12, 000.
Track 1:Yeah,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:And I'm thinking, gosh, Austin showed a hundred homes. It's a first time home buyer. You may have fully earned that 12 grand. So that's going to be a market driven thing, maybe as the seller, I can't afford to pay the 12 grand your first time home buyers. They don't have 12 grand, maybe they're doing an FHA loan and they can barely afford to put three and a half percent down. So 12, 000 might as well be 12 million.
Track 1:sure.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:you get into a situation is, how do those buyers effectively get real representation? And that's what the realtors are screaming about.
Track 1:If the, if 3 percent isn't a standard anymore.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:right, So it looks like the deal is going to be The realtor associations are laying down, which is what I said they should have
Track 1:sure.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:the battle to fight. And I think this is going into effect July. You no longer have to put Any offer of compensation on the MLS, but the realtors are saying, you can't get buyers that really need representation if you pass this. And you, based on that example, I just gave you, do you think there's any credibility to that?
Track 1:I don't think that's true. I'm not a real estate agent, but just from the ones that I've, worked with and the property purchases that I have, I'd help close.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:our firm and you are actually living proof of how regular buyers can get decent representation in the modern internet age. let's talk about Houston Association of Realtors. The most dominant site for searching real estate in Houston is controlled by the realtors. It's HAR. com. Some Buyers can go there and pretty much see almost everything all the can see. All the listings on hard. com do all their own searches and then they can go to open houses, all the scheduled open houses, see all their own properties. They could call up the listing agents directly, have the listing agents open the doors
Track 1:then they give me a call. They give me a call and say, Hey, I'm purchasing this property. I want you to review this contract I've written up, make sure there's nothing weird in it, but yeah, we'll support you through closing answer. Any questions you have, draw up the deed. If we need to do that we will be the one who holds your hand and it'll be a much cheaper fee than 3 percent of the sale
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:And we've done that for years. And I of our rate, these are our current
Track 1:Sure.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:three to 400 an hour. And it might take, three, four hours to do a little back and forth and prep a standard TREC contract. So you may have a buyer pay a thousand dollars or 1, 500 in legal fees to our firm and be able to get in many ways a better service. And I'm not beating up on realtors because look, I've been a real estate broker for a long time. I've had many, many realtors sponsored under me. And there's a place for realtors and what they do, but there are alternatives there's one more thing I want to say about this realtor settlement agreement. And there was a big fear that if you had a medium sized or a small sized brokerage, you were going to be caught up in all of this litigation for years to come. the National Association of Realtors and the Realtor Boards, they've really done you a service as a small broker or a medium sized broker. Almost all brokers, because what this settlement agreement does is it covers liability. retroactively for this anti competitive practice. So you're basically getting a get out of jail free card here. this settlement covers almost everybody except these gigantic brokers. I think it's anybody that had less than 2 billion in volume in 2022. And that's got to be like 99. 9 percent of the brokerages in the country. Probably everybody except a handful of very, very big players that are left in this litigation. So realtors out there, you can thank NAR. They actually did you a service to get you out of this liability retroactively, what does the industry look like moving forward? I don't think, realtors are going to become extinct. There's still a place for realtors. I do think that there's going to be big sections. realtors that have focused on represented buyers, that are probably going to be out of a job. It probably puts downward price pressure even on listing agent commissions. So I don't think the realtor business is going anywhere. It's just gonna be more competitive pricing, and there's probably gonna be less revenue and profits. And this is nothing new, I've had companies and realtors that have done this for years where we've done discounted listings and negotiated commission. This is just finally going to force. I think some of the big brands that have been really responsible for controlling these rates into finally getting their commissions lower. All right, let's move on to talking about the Senate Bill in the state of Texas. This is Texas's immigration and this is the one where Texas passed a law saying you come over here and illegal and we think you look illegal, I don't know what that means, but basically if you're speaking Spanish and you look brown and you're close to a border and you may be illegal, we're going to arrest you and then deport you. And if you don't voluntarily go back, then we're going to punish you by all sorts of crimes. Did I summarize that law
Track 1:Yes, it's extremely vague,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:we talked about this in a previous episode where Arizona tried something similar to this. And of course, it's an it's attacked on racial profiling because the idea being the law enforcement in Texas or Arizona, you're just going to arrest a bunch of brown people that speak Spanish and that is racial profiling. And that's a problem. But we do have an immigration problem. Texas believes they have a right to defend their borders. they're wanting to take matters into their own hands and start deporting people. They have a strong suspicion of being illegal. And the feds have come out and said, one, racial profiling, two, everything to do with immigration has always been within the federal scope of legislation, and therefore the state is preempted from passing laws regarding
Track 1:We
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:the Fifth Circuit stopped this law. And the Fifth Circuit banned it, and they're in the process of, of reviewing it, and it went up to the U. S. Supreme Court, and the U. S. Supreme Court had an opportunity to go ahead stay the enforcement of the law. Much to the surprise of a lot of people, the Supreme Court let this thing go into effect for a matter of hours. And it's unclear whether the state of Texas, our home state, actually arrested anybody in those hours that they were able to enforce. It probably did not, So we're going to see how that comes out But the Biden administration is obviously very much against Senate Bill 4, and I'm curious, Austin, I want to ask you, really just against Senate Bill 4 because they believe it, it is racial profiling and it preempts their power? do they have any ulterior motives?
Track 1:we could say that they like, because we don't really have a lot of protection on verifying voter ID that they don't want to protect it because they think that people coming here would be able to vote for Democrats. I don't know. I think that just the reason that it's so open to racial profiling, is a big reason why it should not be enforced anyways,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:can't we all get on the same page, Democrats and Republicans? Can it be a nonpartisan issue that we want to protect our borders? And answer the Democrats always give is, of the Statue of Liberty kind of theory, give us your teeming masses and that's what makes America great. But the Republicans, they'll say the Democrats real motivation is the Democrats are in the business of giving poor immigrants free stuff. they know that because they're in the business of giving poor immigrants free stuff, the poor immigrants will vote for them. So they can stay in power by letting immigrants pour into our country
Track 1:and I think you agree with me on this, I think immigration is a very good thing. I used to be an immigration attorney. I think immigration is a great people who have only ever lived in the United States criticizing America's immigration policies as being too restrictive. I guarantee you have never lived anywhere else.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:if you want to talk about strict immigration policies, look to New Zealand and Australia, Well, we are a country that was, that was built on immigration. Right now, the fifth circuit's going to hear more arguments and they're going to deliberate we'll see how that comes out. talk about fresh off the press news today. Okay. The US justice Department sues for monopoly saying that it has, for a long time violated antitrust laws, anti-competition laws making their smartphone, dominant in the smartphone market. That's their iPhone. So Department of Justice alleging Apple violates antitrust by implementing practices to make their smartphone dominant in the U. S. market. So I've got some statistics for you. 60 percent in the United States has an iPhone, and I'm part of the 40 percent that has an Android. when you look at global market share, that global market share is 70 percent of the world has Android devices. And my wife's response to that was, I kid you not, is that's because they're all poor and only poor people have Android phones. So I checked the statistics on this I was shocked to see this, that of all iPhone users, the average salary is 53, 000 a year. all Android users, and I believe this is in the United States, the average salary is 37, 000 a year. so there's some truth, there's some truth in that.
Track 1:Do you make 37, 000 a year, Phil?
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:yes, Slightly below
Track 1:Slightly below that, okay. you're bringing the
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Yeah, right. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm helping.
Track 1:You're doing your part.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:here's the news though. Apple gets sued. this is one of these ecosystem arguments that Apple for years has done everything it possibly can to keep us all in the ecosystem. And that's the iMessage thing and the color of the text. And then it's the app, all the app store stuff, right? How if if you're a developer and you want to push your apps to iPhone users, you have to pay the tax. You have to go through. the Apple app store. And there was a European law recently passed that, and I believe they, they called it, the digital markets act
Track 1:I
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:that says Apple enough's enough. You have to open up the opportunity for other developers to be able to create their own app stores. So that's going on in Europe right now. And the criticism that developers are already levying is Apple has really still made it impossibly difficult to be able to push another marketplace on their iPhone users. And the big thing they're complaining about is the wallet. I guess I don't know if they call it
Track 1:Apple wallet. Yeah,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:And they're
Track 1:Yeah,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:right. Apple pay and it's all, you're basically confined to Apple's ecosystem and that keeps everybody in the iPhone market. And then they've been able to artificially inflate prices. That's why you can charge, whether it's for 15 or 1600 bucks for the latest iPhone.
Track 1:something like that.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:All right, we're gonna have to see how this antitrust lawsuit shakes out with Apple, and we'll keep everybody updated on that. Let's answer some legal questions. So the first one we've got is, can your employer legally reduce your salary without notice? Austin, if I go to you and I'm like, all right. Today I'm reducing your salary by some number. If have I violated a
Track 1:No, you've not.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:So Texas is an employment at will state.
Track 1:you come to me and tell me, hey, I'm reducing your salary because you're a white male. There, Yes.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:or if I said I'm reducing your salary retroactively, because you can't do there was a contract, I said, Austin, you're going to work for, some number some hourly rate, you're gonna work for X dollars an hour. And you've been doing that for months. I can't go back into this point and say, okay, well, no, I'm reducing it retroactively. No, we already, that deal is done. that was a contract that already happened, but absent a contractual agreement that covers some future dates, employers are in fact, free to reduce. salaries. Now, there are some interesting sort of points about that. If you're an employer and you go out there and you reduce, and this is from the Texas Workforce Commission, an employee's pay by 20 percent or more, they're going to presume that's a valid reason for the employee quitting. And if the employee quits for a valid reason, then that employee will be eligible for unemployment payments. so Texas again, employment at will stay your of pay and compensation can change. That doesn't mean as you an employee, if you're an employee, you've got to stay, you don't have to like it. You could say, Hey, I'm take this job and shove it, so to speak, and walk off the job. If you have an employment contract covering future dates, that's something different, but that's not what we're talking about here. All right, let's talk about wills. And first of all, what are the elements of a valid will in Texas, Austin?
Track 1:it needs to be signed by the person who's making the will, otherwise known as the testator. there needs to be testamentary intent. They need to be intending to make a will, right? and then you need to have two witnesses over the age of 14. That's a requirement. that's generally how you do it. And usually the two witnesses are going to sign it too. and that would be how you make the very standard will in Texas.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:you could say something simple like when I die, I want to leave all my stuff to Jill. And then if it's not handwritten, you need to have it signed by two witnesses over the age of 14 in Texas. So that's a valid will in Texas. about a holographic will? What's a holographic will,
Track 1:It is a handwritten will. generally these are things that are done close to the end of someone's life. They usually don't have another will. when this happens, like someone for some reason thinks that they're going to die or they just scrawl out one before they get on the plane because they're afraid of flying. but it has to be written entirely in the testator's handwriting, including the signature. you can't type up a document in Microsoft word and then sign it by in handwriting. That will not be holographical. It won't be available either. same requirement of like testamentary intent needs to be signed,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:that's exactly right. The idea was, you're sick on your deathbed and maybe you don't have a will. you feebly reach for a piece of paper on your nightstand and a pen. and you write your entire will in your own hand without any printed word. We, in the state of Texas, we want those last wishes to be respected and that's how we get this exception for the valid holographic will. Now what Austin mentioned was a valid point because we had a question from one of the attorneys, that, that worked for a firm, not actually from the attorney itself, but her dad, she said, Phil. And Austin, please talk about this on the podcast. So my dad will listen to it. Dad wants to sit down at his desk with his PC, bang out a will and word, print it off and sign it. And we see that all the time, unfortunately. And that's not a valid will, because it's not written completely in dad's own hand. So it's not completely and entirely holographic. it doesn't meet any exception requirements. It did not have the requisite witnesses. unfortunately, that's not a valid will. So what about signatures? we had a pretty cool fact pattern that came up at the firm the other day. Where, mom did a holographic will completely in her own hand. And instead of mom signing it, Jane Doe, mom just signed it mommy.
Track 1:Yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:and did that constitute a valid signature or a scent in The will? what did we say
Track 1:The judge determined that it did in that situation. Now that would be up to a judge to determine that is not something that is clearly. in a statute or anything of the sort, but in that situation, the judge is that's adequate. I would not recommend either you or I signing our will mommy. That probably would not work for our wills,
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:and the case that in the case that came up, one of the attorneys that our firm mentioned a case that he had read where the judge ruled that the guy signed it, my brother ed
Track 1:Or your brother, Ed. Yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Your your brother
Track 1:Yep.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:something like that. that was a valid signature. Pretty much if your signature is as far as ascent goes.
Track 1:Quite powerful.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:you want. Yeah, it's whatever you want it to be. that old saying of make your mark,
Track 1:Yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:an X. All right, encroaching tree limbs. We get this one all the time. And this is where you've got some type of tree. It could be like a big oak tree extending over your neighbor's property and the neighbor doesn't like that limb over their pool because the leaves are dropping everything is going into the pool. So the neighbor wants to cut the limb down and then the owner of the trees, no, you can't do that. My arborist says the weight of the tree will all be. wrong and it will cause the tree to suffer or even die. And we've done serious cases about this. And in fact, one time we had this case where we represented a property owner that had this beautiful old oak tree where this gigantic limb was extending on a property and the neighbor wanted to cut it down. and we told the judge that this tree limb had been there so long that it, it has a right to be there as an easement. And we argued that under the correct easement theory is that the limb was there by virtue of an easement by prescription, the tree limb, had been there obviously over 10 years and it had developed a right to be there. Okay. Akin to the adverse possession theory. And we'd made this beautiful, eloquent argument the squirrely judge looks at us and says, are you telling me that you're arguing for a trees meant when do that, you have to
Track 1:Yes. yes.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:a mandatory laugh. If You want your client to win.
Track 1:You have to laugh at the judge's jokes. Yes.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:So exactly, judge, we're arguing for a treasement. so that's the law. you can have beautiful oak trees that extend over properties and those oak trees have a right to be there and they can't be touched because they've been there so long now I want I do want to point out, the beautiful old oak tree with the gigantic limb that's been there for 30 years is completely different than some little brush or shrubbery that has overgrown or some type of vine that has grown across your neighbor's fence. That has clearly not been there long enough to establish an easement. And by all means, that is a type of trespassing. you can cut
Track 1:Yep.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:types of, vegetation. All right, let's go ahead and rant and rave. This is my favorite part of the show, usually. But was having dinner a week or two ago and it's my tradition. I usually invite my family over for Sunday dinner. It's my wife's tradition to hide out in the bedroom while my family comes over. and my dad looks at me and says, Phil, have you heard about this missing princess? I almost fell out of my chair because, my dad is like this old school kind of burly guy. Who's owned a salvage yard for many years. And he's asking me about princesses and my brother chimes in. He's Oh yeah, I've heard about this princess that's gone missing. and I just. hung my head in disbelief tell us what's going on
Track 1:Kate Middleton has been missing, for a while. And when I say missing, there haven't been public pictures of her, like issued from the palace, Okay. and recently there was a picture that was released, of Kate Middleton with her children. and it was determined they don't know exactly how, but that this picture was digitally altered. why? They don't know, but this is leading everyone to believe that there's something wrong with Kate Middleton, a lot of people have theories about what's going on with her.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:So we have a top 10 I've researched and scoured the internet for our listeners. Okay. And Kate Middleton, the princess is missing. And I've come up with the the top theories. about where she's gone and why she is missing. Okay. one, cosmetic surgery.
Track 1:people think she had possibly plastic surgery, yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Yeah. Number two, she has Crohn's disease. That's where basically you have to use the restroom a lot, And she can no longer be out in public because she's using the royal throne room too much. did I mischaracterize Crohn's
Track 1:So, yes, like the intestinal issues, like there are surgeries that people can have to help them with that. So I think they think that maybe she's undergoing those surgeries and well and recovering. Yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:did not mean to insult Kate Middleton or anybody with Crohn's disease. All right, moving along. She donated a kidney to Charles III.
Track 1:Okay.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:And I think this is the most popular one. Prince William marital concerns. Or like maybe he cheated on her and she's, recovering from that type of trauma and she's hiding. right, mental health. Nervous breakdown. Princesses have nervous breakdowns.
Track 1:More often than not. just watch any Disney movie.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Yeah. but They always overcome.
Track 1:overcome. We believe she will too.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Yeah. Okay. She is secretly the street artist Banksy and is hard at work. All right. She vanished after seeing Willy Wonka in Glasgow.
Track 1:Okay.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:And this is the final one I have. I don't know how serious this one is, but she had a Brazilian butt lift operation.
Track 1:Yeah, that one. I yeah, I don't know. I think one I saw was that she was addicted to, what's it called? a like cooking video game. So she got really into this cooking video game So she's just because of that.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:game
Track 1:video game addiction. that's the one that I think it might be.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:she's like my 14 year old and his friends, that he's, that she's holed up somewhere in a basement
Track 1:Exactly.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:playing video games
Track 1:she might even be playing with her 14 year old, maybe.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:I, I think the most popular theory is this idea that, there's some
Track 1:Yeah.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:and she's basically. distraught and not able to make public appearances because of that. I don't know.
Track 1:I hope not. I hope she's alright.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:my kind of rant and rave about this is you sign up to be the princess of England or you sign up to marry the prince. isn't a lot of this stuff in the job description? what does the employment contract look like? You marry the guy who's next in line to be the king. He's going to cheat on you. That's just a given. you're basically a public, Austin's
Track 1:wait, how is that a given? I'm sorry. I would expect some level of marital fidelity.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:marital fidelity from the King of
Track 1:Absolutely. There should be a higher standard for him.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:you'll have to cite me a precedence for that. Like, when have we had marital fidelity from any king or whatever? I've been to Europe enough and listen to the little tour guides talk about how often they
Track 1:They may not have a great track record, but there is still a standard
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:My wife made the point that they married for love, and that's different because she was a commoner. He chose her. He should love her and be faithful to her.
Track 1:I agree.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:I'm thinking you sign up to be the princess. you're signing up for a little infidelity from your husband. You're a national tourist attraction. Your job is you no longer have any private life. Everything's in the public. You do all these events and in exchange for that you get to be princess. That's the deal.
Track 1:I don't know. I get that argument, like the same argument as like US celebrities are US politicians, right? I do think it's a little bit different though, with her, marrying for love, right? I don't think that She necessarily wanted to be put as under the spotlight as royals in England are. It's ridiculous. They're treated, they're held like a higher standard than celebrities are.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:what did she think was gonna happen when she decided to get married? she should have had some sort of attorney do a prenuptial agreement. I don't know what kind of bargaining power she would've had, but she could have put something in there if you cheat, you abdicate and I get to be
Track 1:Well, I mean, the family might be together again soon because Trump is talking about deporting Harry when he gets elected.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:Ha. I like this. I, I, I
Track 1:And as far as the basis of that, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe he's going to use Texas law and say, you look Mexican.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:that's a great, that's a great defense. we could trick Prince Harry into coming to Texas and then we could deport him under Senate Bill 4 and we can say, look, we deported
Track 1:white guy.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:a white guy with red hair, so we can't be
Track 1:Exactly. He could use
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:racial profiling here. on that note, we're going to bring our show to a close. I've been your host, Phil Silberman. Black has been my co host. Like us, follow us, leave us reviews wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a legal question, email us at info at Silb law firm. com. I N F O at Silb S I L B like boy law firm. com. Let us know you want that question answered publicly in the podcast. Thanks for listening. It's been a great
Track 1:Thanks guys.
phil-silberman_2_03-21-2024_140027:it
Track 1:Bye.