Joann Leigh Pheasant's Answers

How to win a phone appeal concerning unemployment benefits that were denied by california edd. Employer is fighting it.

First of all, prepare for the hearing. Get all of your paperwork organized so that you can easily put your hands on everything. This may sound trivial but you have a limited amount of time to present your case and this can make a difference. The charges made make a difference. CA law states that unemployment may be denied if the employee commits misconduct. " Misconduct conncted with work is a substantial breach by the claimant of an important duty or obligation owed the employer,...

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What happens when you dont file an answer for a civil lawsuit with in the 20 day period

The plaintiff can file a motion for default. You will be served a copy of this motion. If granted, a Motion for default means you lose the case. Procedurally an attorney can then request that the court "vacate" or in effect re-open the case so you can answer and the case can go forward. It may or may not be granted. That means you can lose the case by doing nothing. The court can order you to pay damages to the plaintiff. That's kind of a lot of legal answer, which may or may not make...

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How would you interpret this rental lease provision?

You are correct in finding this language confusing. I'm not sure whether it means five days in a row or five days either. It's language designed to stop extra tenants who are not on the lease. (And who may not have good credit or be hard to evict.) Remember in CA when the Landlord needs to evict a tenant they need to have the names of all people occupying the residence. As a general matter, contract ambiguities are construed against the drafter. In English, it means if you wrote it,...

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Dui

You don't really have enough information here to answer this question. However, generally speaking you should do the following. FIrst of all, get a lawyer. If you can't afford one use the defense attorney appointed for you. If you're in Seattle they generally do a pretty good job. AT ALL COSTS ATTEND all of your court appointments. Don't be late, don't miss them, don't show up under the influence of anything. Be honest with your attorney. You can get a DUI for driving impaired while...

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Grounds for appeal

I read this a little too fast. Since this was done without oral argument there is NO trial transcript. This is almost impossible to appeal unless there is no case law that supports the Judge's opinion. I'm sorry but this is one where you will probably lose.

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Grounds for appeal

The short answer is probably not. The long answer is appeals are based on issues of law only, not issues of fact. Criminal cases may be appealed on the basis of incompetent representation of counsel but this is not available in a civil case. You may be able to appeal on another basis and only a qualified attorney can review your case and figure this out. This is a complicated area of law and will be expensive for a couple of reasons. The attorney must first order the complete trial...

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Personal injury law in WA state, car auto accident

There are a couple of things here that are interesting. First of all, who owned the vehicle? Parents? If so, she may be under their insurance, or more specifically they may have liability under the "family use doctrine". Secondly, I'm not sure that "how much trouble she's going to get into" is really your problem. Perhaps she should be in some trouble. She is driving without legal insurance - this sounds like a minor accident from your description but what if it wasn't? Shouldn't she...

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WA state insurance and personal injury law, hit and run accident and filing a claim with our insurance company

I would advise hiring a personal injury attorney. FIrst of all, if the facts you represented are correct, the other driver was at fault. Whether or not he was supposed to be driving is not your problem. That is an issue that the owner of the car and the driver of the car (if different) and their respective insurance companies need to sort out. If the other driver or driver/owner does not have insurance or does not have adequate insurance you will be looking to your own policy under your...

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Suing a small business from out of state

You may or may not be able to enforce this in small claims court. One of the potential problems here is service of process. In order to be able to properly sue someone in WA courts there are a number of criteria that have to be met. The Sales agreement will likely be upheld in a WA court. However, just filing a claim against the other business does not indicate if they've been properly "served" or given correct notice that they will have to appear in court. The safest way to have a...

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Is this legal to do in the state of california

The service was improper. You can serve an unlawful detainer by posting if you can't find the tennant but that has to be "to the "Court's satisfaction". Suggest that you object formally to this service of process. You would be advised to get an attorney or go to the legal aid clinic. This is general legal advice and does not create an attorney client relationship.