Tom Riley Law Firm Answers Your Hot Legal Questions

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Today’s episode of Legal Live has strong themes of spousal support issues and a few questions from last’s episode. Find out what Peter Riley of the Tom Riley Law Firm had to say below.

The first question was from Lisa Morgan.

Lisa says “My ex husband was injured by a law enforcement officer on his own property. He has four children and is now unable to work. Are his children entitled to any funds if a lawsuit is pending?”

Peter says, only if the firm will get involved. He says if somebody is injured and can’t work, they have a claim for loss of earning ability. But that is their claim. And so the parent would have owned that claim and be the person who gets the proceeds. If they recover on that claim, and presumably the parent will then use some of that money for support or to pay back money might have been borrowed because they couldn’t. But the last income or earning ability claim is the injured party’s claim. However, children both minor children and adult children have potential claims growing out of the injury to the relationship. The phrase is loss of consortium and that’s typically thought of as the effect of the relationship between spouses but it can be any family members. And so if for instance, the injury has affected the parent’s ability to do things with the kids, the kids would have a claim. The kids have to bring that if they’re minors. They have to bring that by one of their parents, so the mother of the children might want to talk to a lawyer about potentially intervening on behalf of children in the pending lawsuit if there are no consortium claims by the children being asserted.

The next question comes from Ellie in Williamsburg, who asks, “What can you tell me about the new transgender Title Nine rule?”

Peter says, there has been recent activity by the Biden administration to add protections and make rules about transgender people being protected. The statute originally when it was signed by Dick Nixon, it goes that far back was to bar sexually-based discrimination in all facets of education, but we normally hear about it in the context of athletics. During the Obama administration, they started considering discrimination against transgender people to be something that was in violation of the Title 19 law, and then the Trump administration rolled all those back. And now the Biden administration has been since he was inaugurated been taking steps to increase the protections for transgender people and there’s been recently some rules that apparently are being promulgated to provide a potential legal basis to contest the recent laws in Iowa and other states concerning transgender athletes.

The next question comes anonymously from Cedar Rapids and it says, “My daughter was recently tried and convicted of a misdemeanor crime requiring three months of jail time in the Linn County Jail. But she’s a single mom and recently started a new job. Is she eligible for a jail furlough that will allow her to work during the day and return to jail at night?”

Peter says, The Linn County Sheriff’s Office administers the jail and they do have a work-release program. Yes, you’d have to apply for it, but it allows people to leave the jail during the day and work and then come back. Someone’s looking into this and you can’t do it for the first 48 hours of your sentence but after that, you can so she can apply and but it’s up to the sheriff’s office to administer that program. He said she should talk to her and maybe talk to an attorney. If she had a Public Defender’s they may not be getting want to get involved because it’s really beyond their role.

The next question comes from Mike in Mechanicsville.

Mike says “I’m recently divorced and was the sole breadwinner for my wife and three children. To make matters worse, I just lost my factory job. A friend has suggested that I apply for transitional alimony to allow me time to find a job before I begin paying out money that I can’t afford right now. Do you think that this is possible?”

Peter says, there may be something you can do although probably not what they refer to as transitional alimony. That’s normally alimony or support that is awarded for a relatively brief period of time to allow someone to do things that will make them be able to be gainfully employed like finishing an educational program or doing something to get recertified for something and so that’s usually what’s involved. So that probably wouldn’t be available and less and only if there’s a potential job that you’re looking for. That would require some training, because that’s really what that form of alimony deals with now.

The next question comes anonymously from Cedar Rapids. The questions says, “Recently, I settled a lawsuit against my former employer who fired me for misconduct, but I’m not happy with my lawyer or how she performed Do I have the ability to hire a new lawyer and file an appeal?

Peter says, Probably not. He says if you agree to a settlement, that settlement is binding and that’s what you agreed to. Now, there are occasional circumstances where you may not have agreed to the settlement and the lawyer made the agreement without your full consent or even any consent. The problem with that is if the other side seeks to enforce the settlement, there is a presumption that the lawyer has the authority to make deals on behalf of the client. And it has to be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence and so if a lawyer made the settlement on your behalf, you agreed to it, you’re bound by it. If you don’t think you agreed to it, you might have a way to contest it.

Another question comes from Helen Bucher.

Helen asks, “What can be done for a person that was denied Medicare Part B, due to being sick with COVID 19?”

Peter says, COVID-19 is not a basis for the denial of your rights under Medicare Part B. He says you’re either eligible for Medicare Medicare Part B or you’re not. If there is a denial of service, or if you’ve been getting some type of treatment, but then they stop it. So the denial of a new service or ending a service you are getting you you have to be notified by a denial letter number one, and number two, you then have the right to appeal that if you want.

The last questions from anonymously. The person says, “I was on Obamacare and gambled 126 jackpots totaling around 70,000. But I have proof. I lost that much so we didn’t have to pay taxes, but they counted it as earned income on the ABAKN. Therefore they said we owe $35,000. So currently they have as an on CNC currently not collectible, but they have a lien on our house. I am on Social Security, no way I can pay. Do I have any options so that we can maybe sell our house so we have some money to go to assisted living?”

Peter says, you can subtract gambling losses. The problem without all these is if you have a big win, like you know at the casino, they’ll send a 1099 to the government. So, large wins are usually documented as income through 1099. However, then there’s the other issue is now your benefits under a separate administrative program are being denied. The bottom line is, that’s a bad problem and you need to talk to somebody.

Reach out anytime to Peter or his partners@trlf.com. For more information you can visit the Tom Riley Law Firm website.