The Dumbest Things Said To Me By Other Attorneys - Lehto's Law Ep. 2.19

hello and welcome once again to L to's law I'm Steve L attorney at law in state of Michigan I've practicing law for 24 years in the fields of consumer protection and lemon law a frequent writer my stuff appears on Jalopnik I write from time to time for opposite lock and I also write books got a brand new one out here right now called Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird design development production and competition as you can hear and see it's in hard cover it's on Amazon but if you want a signed copy I can get you one for a discount just email me at the address the end of the podcast lon.com I'll hook you up at a discount I'll even sign it for you so long as you live in North America and if you live outside of North America we'll have to work out some kind of swap in fact a good friend of mine named Simon traded me a Manchester United shirt for a book not too long ago and uh yes I'm a Manu fan even though they're struggling this year now today's L to is law we're going to talk about the dumbest things I've heard attorneys say and every attorney's got stor of crazy stuff they've heard in court from clients from judges but yes attorneys are not immune even attorneys will say stupid stupid stuff so today it's the dumbest things I've heard attorneys say and quite often this is simply an arguments they've made in court against my position so a defense attorney will come into court and say something really really stupid and uh I'll stand there and often times a judge will sit there and look at them going are you kidding me so my favorite my favorite in this tops the list although you'll see the other ones are are good too uh there was an attorney who represented one of the big three automobile manufacturers and the big three of course are Ford GM and Chrysler I won't tell you which one because I don't want to embarrass them but one of the big three uh manufacturers had an attorney who would routinely come into court and say and this is an exact quote she would say your honor my client is not a manufacturer under the Lemon Law all my client does is assemble the parts to cars and then sell the complete cars to dealerships therefore they're not a manufacturer now yes that's all any autom manufacturer does is assemble cars out of Parts uh and in fact Michigan's lemon law specifically defines a manufacturer as someone who assembles cars I kid you not so she would get in front of the court and say this and I would stand up and read the definition from the Lemon Law and the judge would then look at her and say well what do you have to say about that and she'd say well all we do is assemble them your honor we don't manufacture them so uh she made that argument several dozen times on several dozen of my cases it never flew once not a single time now we've all seen those films where there people trying to build airplanes before the R Brothers and the thing would you know go about 3 feet and crash into the ground like a ton of cement you would think if she made the argument once or twice and got shot down she'd stop making it but she didn't she made the argument for about a year or a year and a half before her Law Firm got fired and that big three manufacturer now has a different Law Firm that hasn't made that argument sense it's the dumbest argument I've encountered in the Lemon Law setting but it's not the dumbest thing I've heard a man defense attorney say so like I said I've heard others now one of my favorite cases of all time is I had a client who had a uh vehicle that had bad brakes and this was a foreign car company this is one of the car companies that don't Sue as often and you know I'm in Southeastern Michigan the bulk of my cases are American car companies it's not because they make cheaper cars it's because they have a larger market share okay once in a while I get a Volkswagen or a Honda or whatever in my in my office and this is one of those vehicles vehicles got bad brakes my client CU it's the weirdest thing I go to you know stop and sometimes the braks just don't work they don't work as well as they ought to now I'm skeptical of these kinds of things cuz brake Technology's been around pretty much as long as cars have been around so they've got that figured out so when he said I got problems with my brakes I said well let me see the repair orders sure enough in the repair orders were documented examples where mechanics had gotten in his car and said yes I test drove it and the same thing happened to me the brakes didn't work properly so the mechanic would then to fix something give it back to him the brakes still weren't fixed we filed the lawsuit the manufacturer hires an attorney the attorney calls me up and say say Steve we want our guy to test drive your vehicle we don't believe there's anything wrong with your client's car okay so we say fine we turn the car over to them and they have it for a day and then the attorney calls me and he's got this really sheepish tone to his voice he goes Steve we've got a problem I go what's that he said our expert was in an accident with your client's vehicle and I go what happened he goes well the brakes failed I kid you not I said well great you going to buy the vehicle back and he goes no he goes actually this helps our case and I go why is that and he said because the brakes failed for our expert in a way different than the way they failed for your client therefore what your client says about The Brak failure is not true but they are failing in a different way and this is the first time they've ever failed that way and I go can you explain to me what the difference is between this way and that way because as far as I can tell your expert just rear ended someone in traffic cuz the brakes failed and my client says it occasionally hits the breaks nothing happens what's the difference and he said well we'll just save that for court and I said you know why don't you do that we'll you know we'll go to court we'll get FR front of a judge and he goes no no we're going to get in front of a jury I said no no this will never get in front of a jury I said what's going to happen is we're going to get in front of a judge I'm going to file a motion for what's called summary judgment or summary disposition in Michigan where we're going to ask the judge to not even bother sending this to a jury because the case is so clear-cut in our favor that your own expert proved my client's case I said if you want to try to argue to the judge that there are different ways breaks can fail and it makes a difference under the Lemon Law which it doesn't I said knock yourself out couple days later he called me back said ah you know my client against my advice has agreed to buy your client's vehicle back even though I personally think there's nothing wrong with it I said wait but your expert crashed it when the brakes failed How can there be nothing wrong with you well something's wrong with it but that's the first time that's happened your client had a different problem we fixed but then my expert discovered another problem with it I said well I'm just glad your client didn't kill kill somebody in my client's car when he discovered the problem with the vehicle now getting back to the client uh of mine who had the vehicle built by one of the big three manufacturers and the attorney for that manufacturer said well we just assemble the cars we don't actually make them um I had a similar argument but this was a different attorney different manufacturer this is actually the big rig truck and occasionally I represent people with other vehicles I've represented all kinds of crazy stuff snowmobiles and personal watercraft and several big rig trucks guys will buy these you know huge TR tractor trailers for doing cross country you know Trucking and once in a while something goes wrong with them and I had a client who had an very very expensive brand new tractor trailer and for whatever reason there was this instrument panel that didn't work and um the name of the truck company that we were suing was on the instrument panel and so we filed this lawsuit we're going through this case and at one point in time we're get in front of the judge and um the judge turns to the defense attorney and goes what's your defense on this I mean it looks like this thing's defective it's been in the shop a million times the Michigan Lemon Law doesn't apply to Big Rigs so we don't have that clear-cut number of times that just win you know we win at but the judge was kind of asking to defendant why are you fighting this case what's what's there to fight here it looks like this thing is defective it's never been fixed it's something the guy paid for why isn't he entitle to have this thing work and the attorney said well your honor we didn't build that part and I and the judge kind of both did the old Double Take looking at each other going well it's in your truck and it's got your brand name on it what do you mean you didn't build it who cares you warranted it and that's the key here the warranty applies to everything in the truck and she said no no no they get that part from the supplier and so it's you know he should be suing the supplier now here's the thing every Vehicles got parts from suppliers if you honestly think that Ford Motor Company is actually building every single part in your Explorer or you know that your car is you know actually every single part's made by your manufacturer uh you got another thing coming your car your car is assembled from parts that have been brought by bought from all kinds of different manufacturers and different suppliers and vendors and so on some of those parts are built in other countries as you may know and uh so you know the parts get brought to a central you know assembly point and then the cars get built from those parts but they're not all built by that same manufacturer and so this attorney actually said CU you honor my client didn't build the dashboard in this truck someone else did and the judge goes okay okay so are you saying that Mr Leo's client should be suing the manufacturer of the you know the company that built that or supplied this dashboard she said yes the judge goes well then who is that I kid you not the attorney said we don't know and I I I then clarified to the judge I said your honor uh she's raised this argument with me before and I asked her specifically who is the supplier that supplied this part if you want me to sue them I will but you know who were they she goes my client won't tell me so what what we know about this as you read between the lines is is that a client actually recognized how dumb this argument was that if you actually think that a person who bought a defective vehicle is got to sue every vendor who supplied every part to that vehicle uh it ain't going to work and it didn't work and the case wound up settling without us ever having to sue the vendor who uh supplied them with the parts of the dashboard but that's a kind of idiotic argument that people will make now another dumb argument I encountered once in court I had a lawsuit against a used car dealer on the east side of mome County and um I've mentioned it here before it's one of my favorite cases it's the one where the vehicle my client bought uh blew up a few days after she bought it because somebody put 90 weight gear lube in the crank case to quiet what was probably a rod knock and we think this because 3 days after she bought it the rod let loose and pieces of the engine scattered all over the place and somehow escaped through the bottom of the oil pan and um we went to trial on this and we won jury came back in our favor and there's a whole process that most people who don't know much about the courts don't know that it happens but when you win a lawsuit you know it's not like they just pull out their checkbook and cut you a check it's a whole process you have to go through to get the defendant pay you money and one of the things is you have to get a judgment entered and there's often a fight over simply entering the piece of paper that says yes the plaintiff won this case so we had to have a motion for entry of a judgment because the defendant was objecting to everything I filed with the court I could have called him up to wish him a good day and he'd object so I filed a proposed judgment he fought so we have a hearing on the entry of the Judgment so I came to court with this piece of paper that's a proposed judgment that I'm going to ask the judge to sign and stamp and make official and that's just a you know something that's going to happen I mean the guy has very little argument to stop that but he's trying to throw up all kinds of roadblocks so we're out in the hallway before the case gets called and the attorney walks over to me and he says hey Steve by the way he goes I'm just letting you know you're never going to collect on this judgment and I said well if that's true why are you objecting to it okay and he said well you know my client blah blah blah they you know and every attorney out there blames their stupid actions on their clients they go my client wants me to do this if your client by the way guys and if you're an attorney pay very close attention if your client wants you to do something stupid you have the right to say no remember it's attorney and counselor one of the things you are allowed to do as an attorney is to counsel your client against doing stupid things and if your attorney wants you to go into court make a stupid argument it's your job to actually say to them you know something that is a stupid argument now don't get me wrong once in while they throw enough money at you I guess you can make the argument or if you've got a good faith argument that has some some Merit some validity somewhere to this that you can make the argument but the idea for instance that we don't build cars we just assemble them or we don't know who provided us that piece but you should go see the vendor those are such idiotic arguments you couldn't pay me enough money to go into court and make them I I I would refuse I'd actually tell you I'm sorry I won't do that if you want an attorney to do that go find someone else pay them okay but you know trust me you want good legal help sometimes they're going to stop you from making dumb arguments so the attorney says to me he says well Steve he goes here's the deal you're never going to collect on this judgment and I said why is that and he said this morning I advise my clients to go back to the car dealership remember this is a lawsuit against the car dealership and he said and and as you know you're going to get a judgment against the dealership not him personally I said I understand that and he said well I've advised my client to go back to the car dealership and put sticky notes on every single car in the lot saying this car now belongs to Corporation X and he goes and I've just this morning filed the paperwork with Lancing creating this second Corporation so this morning my client is at the dealership you can go there right now said well dude I'm in court I'm not going to leave court to go see what your client's doing at the dealership he goes no no go you should go there right now I said no I'm not going there right now he said well he's putting sticky notes on every single car and all the furniture in the office we'll have a sticky note saying this chair this fax machine this coffee machine now belongs to Corporation X and your judgment is against defendant it's not against Corporation X and he said so the fact that all of our assets have now been transferred over to this other entity when you get your judgment it's worthless because the entity you got the Judgment against is uncollectible and um what's interesting about this is this guy actually practiced business law if you went to his website today it says that you know here's my name my specialty is business law and I and I looked at that guy and I said I'm I'm curious in Michigan can I transfer ownership of a car with a sticky note is that legal does the Secretary of State's office on their website say one way to transfer ownership of a vehicle is to put a sticky note on it and say it belongs to someone else and he said well you know we're not talking about titling for you know Secretary of State's purposes you we're talking about assets here and I said yeah and the assets are Automobiles and right now if I call Lancing and run the you know vins of every single vehicle in that lot they're all going to come back as being owned by the defendant corporation that I'm suing right and he said well we're going to fight you on that because uh he goes those you know all those sticky notes replacing those uh indicate a transfer of ownership to a second corporate entity and I said okay well we'll see about that uh one of the things that I also mentioned to him is the fact that all car dealers in Michigan have to carry bonds and they're bonded and so when you sue somebody if they get rid of all their assets somehow if they did it properly uh you could still attack the bond but number two of course sticky notes don't transfer ownership about half an hour later we walked out of court I had a signed and stamped and true copy of a judgment uh entered by that Court signed by that judge and I handed it of course to the defense attorney said here you go uh you got 28 days to pay that otherwise I'm going to go there and start snagging vehicles and I don't care if they got sticky notes on them or not and uh short while later the attorney called me up and said well against my advice my clients agreed to pay you and they paid me with certified funds and that was the end of that case and I was dying I was dying to get into court and have the argument with a judge and say by the way sticky notes are just idiotic I mean come on transfer ownership of the vehicles via sticky note and then finally and this is one of those things where you really aren't sure if somebody is messing with you or they're just being stupid on purpose and and you know people who are stupid on purpose really annoy me if if you're stupid legitimately you you you actually are stupid you're medically stupid or whatever reason you're actually stupid okay or you don't understand something that's fine there are people out there you know no one's an expert on everything okay I'll tell you that's I don't know you know I know very little about many topics I just avoid those topics and if I need to know about them I go find an expert who knows about them okay but when people are just stupid they just say something stupid okay you have to look at them and go well what's wrong with you so I had a case up in Marquette Michigan okay and my office is in Oakland County and Marquette and Oakland County are about 9 hours apart by car if you're driving really fast and when we filed the case up in Marquette I was expecting the case to settle because it was a slam dunk and it did eventually settle but the defense attorneys decided to make us jump through some hoops because they'll often say hey let's make it painful with the plaintiff so we'll we'll drag him to court a couple times and so this this judge called us up and said would you guys I see that you're both the defense attorneys also out of Wayne County the judge goes would you guys want to do this pre-trial confence conference by phone it seems like that would be a very easy thing for you guys to do pre-trial conference by phone I said I'd love to the other attorney said nope your honor we want to come to court judge said really why and the attorney says well you know my client likes me to go into court and you know get to see the judge face to face and get a lay of the land and how the courtroom looks and so on and I think we're entitled to that the judge said well I can't I guess I can't force you guys to do it by phone so I guess you guys got to be here I said well you're honor I plan on driving up can we make it for the early afternoon the judge said sure we'll have your hearing be the first one after lunch one day so you just got to be here by 1:00 and I said I can do that so that morning I got up real early slapped on my suit jumped in my vehicle and headed north in I75 and floored it and I rolled into the parking lot of the courthouse for 5 minutes before the hearing uh got out of my vehicle put on my suit jacket grabbed my briefcase walked into the courthouse and Marquette by the way if you ever see the movie Anatomy of a Murder portions of it were shot in the Marquette County Courthouse beautiful Courthouse they've kept the courtroom exactly as it was in the movie it's worth a visit so anyways go to the courthouse talk to the judge for a few minutes along with the opposing councel the judge does this the pre-trial conference we're we're done in like 3 minutes and we're making small talk and then out of the blue the other attorney says well your honor you know he didn't drive up today and I think it's disingenuous of the fact that of him that that he you know asked for this heing be in the afternoon because we could have done it this morning since he flew in and uh I'm I'm I'm baffled by this because I don't know this attorney well enough for her to be accusing me of lying to a judge falsely accusing me and I and I and I and I looked at her and I looked at the judge and I said your honor my vehicle is in the parking lot right outside the door we can all I'll go out and look at it okay if she doesn't think that I drove up this morning then you know she's Incorrect and she turned the judge and she goes you're honor we don't know whose car that is and I said uh I can show your registration it matches the license plate that's in my wallet that shows you that it's my vehicle and the judge said no guys I don't care how you got here we're here we're done go home as we're walking I turn to the attorney go why why would you do that and she goes oh come on Steve you didn't drive up and I go my car is right there and she goes I don't know whose car that is and I and I pulled my registra I'm trying to show her my registration go that's my registration she goes up she walks away from me um so she accused me of lying to a judge and said that she didn't know how I could possibly prove a vehicle in the parking lot was mine and this is an attorney who represents car companies so those are among the dumbest things I've heard attorneys say I've heard Dumber I'm sure I have and as they come to me maybe I'll do a second episode of this summer down the road but that'll wrap up this episode of Leos again a reminder my brand new book just came out this past week Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird design development production and competition hard cover as I pointed out previously if you're interested in that contact me at lon.com and I can get you a copy discounted signed and sent to you uh you can just go out to your own mailbox and find it there one day with my signature on it again that's uh Leo canon.com lto canon.com Kenn n.com questions or comments look me up on my website Latos law.com and of course I'm on Twitter stev Leo sve this show is on iTunes stitchers SoundCloud and YouTube thanks for watching listening bye-bye

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 581,009

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Id: 1_11V25S5k0

Length: 19min 44sec (1184 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 18 2016