Alright, it is Wednesday, 420 22.

For those who know what 420 is, happy 420 day.

Not really my thing, but I get that it's somebody's thing.

And because it's Wednesday, not just because it's 420, it is also Blitz Day.

That means we are taking questions from phone and callers over at

the Blitz Nine n Seven with Loper and Randy.

We are also continually responding to the Lawyer Talk podcast, Q and A series.

And what that means is if you submit us a question over Lawyer Talk Q a.

I'll answer it right here.

Yours truly will give you the answer, just as if you got on the radio with the Blitz.

Maybe even better because you get to hear it over and over and over again.

And what better deal than that?

Well, it could be a little better for me

if you just joined up and became a Patreon and gave us a buck a month.

But short of that, it's a great deal.

So look, without further Ado, we've got Blitz right here, ready to roll.

Here we go.

All right, so the lines are wide open

right now for any sort of legal advice that you may need.

Steve Palmer joins us and he's the man giving us.

Steve, how are you? Hey, good morning.

How are you guys doing today? Dude?

Doing pretty well.

So Johnny Depp on trial against Amber Heard.

Have you gotten to watch any of this? I have not.

I was out of town and I haven't followed it much.

I just feel like these little stalls just

look so miserable there as the camera captures them at that trial.

But short of that, I haven't been following it.

Yeah.

He made a statement going into it that he warned the entire courtroom that he's not

going to sound like he does in the movies, that he has a different pace of speech.

He almost has like a British accent.

Kelly brought this up earlier.

It almost sounds like when Madonna was doing her thing.

And you're like, he's from Kentucky, right.

But he's like, good afternoon.

The weirdest thing. But it's so cool.

I love him. I love him, too.

I mean, like, do a British accent.

I don't care what you're doing.

I mean, if you were in his Council, Steve, what would you suggest?

Would you say maybe cut the accent out or would you just let him be him?

You got to let him be himself because as

soon as you try to fit now, there is one exception and he falls within it.

But as soon as you try to fake it, it gets exposed rather quickly.

And I was about to say, unless you're like

a professional actor and he might fall within that exception.

But even then, if he's going to be

authentic, if he's really going to tell his story, you got to do it as yourself.

And we actually work a lot with witnesses

and even psychologists and acting coaches to get people to that raw self where they

can tell the truth without masquerading as somebody else or

thinking you want to look like somebody else.

So it's very important that you be

yourself because everybody gets up there and you've got to be.

You know, if you're just the average everyday person and you don't do anything

in front of people, ever, you might be a little bit nervous to testify, right?

Yeah. It's very nerve wracking.

You end up in a situation where you start

thinking about what everybody else is thinking about, and that becomes a

negative feedback loop that just repeats over and over and over again.

And next thing you know, you don't know

even the question you are asked and you start speculating and you get in trouble.

It's really too many lawyers in my

profession do not in the trial profession do not prepare their clients for this.

And it's very important that you do it.

I actually get clients over to a courtroom

in the hot seat, and we put them through the paces of testifying several times.

We practice it, we get them comfortable with it because, boy, it's like performing

on a stage, musical or otherwise, you got to be prepared for it.

Otherwise it could be a disaster.

All right, we go to line one with Chris.

Chris, how are you doing today? You're on with Steve Palmer.

What's your question? Yeah.

Is it possible to have your driving record expunged?

In a word, no.

First of all, in Ohio, we talk about sealing records, not expunging them, but

as a practical matter, we'll just call that the same.

We cannot, however, seal traffic records.

Only criminal convictions can be sealed in

Ohio, and not all of them, even traffic records, however, can be sealed and

traffic records can't be sealed and you're sort of stuck with it.

Now, that said, after two or three years,

the points typically fall off, or actually after three years, the points will fall

off, and then soon it's in your review mirror.

Now, if you keep re emerging into the

system by getting new speeding tickets, new drunk driving cases, new reckless Ops,

or whatever it is, and you're just going to be peppered with it forever.

But the goal stop the bleeding, and then

pretty soon people forget about it, even if you can't get your record sealed.

Wonderful. Thank you.

All right, we got a Nick here online, too.

Nick, how are you doing, man? Good.

All right.

We have two open lines, by the way, if you guys want to call in.

Nick, what is your question for Steve?

Yeah, I had my car in a mechanic shop on Monday.

They basically raised my car up on the Zack by the door, damaging the car.

I'm just wondering if there's anything

that they can help me with as far as getting payment or what that process is.

Well, it's going to start with a request.

If it's true that the body shop was doing work on your car.

They threw it on a lift and caused additional damage.

Well, they're going to be responsible for the damage.

They can't just say that that was not their fault if it could be avoided and if

it happened as a result of some negligent action they took.

So you would start with a request.

You would say, look, body shop, you cause

this extra damage to my car, I need to be compensated for it.

And that could come in a couple of different ways.

It could come in just pure money.

You could go get an estimate from somebody

else who's qualified to make those repairs and say, it's going to cost X dollars.

Please pay it. Or if they offer to fix it themselves, you

might take them up on that offer if you trust them to do it.

But they got to make it right now.

Making it right doesn't necessarily mean making it perfect.

We can't wave a magic wand and go back in time and wish that our car were never

damaged this way, any more than you could say, I wish I'd never been in this wreck

and make it perfect, but we can make it reasonably perfect.

We can get to the point where

it is reasonable in our society to have a car that the Fender has been painted and

repaired to the point where it's almost perfect.

So you just want to make sure it was a mechanic shop that did it.

It wasn't a body shop that did it.

I took it in for an oil change and they raised it up on the Jack and damaged it.

But I want to know who pays for diminishment and value.

They're not giving me any answers here as

far as who pays for the rental car or anything like that.

So I was wondering if there's any way an attorney could just take the case.

I called you guys on Monday, but your

office said they don't take cases like that.

I certainly would answer questions about cases like that.

So here's the deal.

The same advice it applies.

Start with a request to the mechanic shop that caused the damage.

Go get estimates to repair your car.

Go get the estimates to repair the car.

Get estimates for your rental car, and then send them the demand to pay it.

So you guys caused this damage.

It's undisputed that you caused the damage.

Here's what it's going to cost to fix it.

Here's the time it's going to take to fix

it and the cost of a rental car during that time frame.

Please pay.

And if they don't, then you can go to

something like small claims court and file lawsuit.

The problem with cases like this, from an

attorney standpoint, is it almost costs more than it's worth.

And I don't mean to diminish what's going on with you, but

it's like calling a handyman to fix a small toilet leak or a full blown plumber.

It's cost a lot just to get them out there.

And it cost a lot of time, a lot of money,

and it may not be worth it, but it's also something that the court system has carved

out for us as citizens to deal with, and that is small claims court.

So I'd be happy to talk you through this more if you want.

614-224-6142 man, I was hitting a car wash

inside a car wash and I have to get three estimates.

And so I haven't gotten one because it's so daunting to get three.

I'm like three.

I don't have time for that.

What do you think, Steve?

Three estimates.

If you got to get the estimates, go get the estimates whether you got time or not.

There is this notion that you feel like, look, I've been wrong.

I shouldn't have to do any of this.

Well, we can operate in this should world

all we want, but nothing really ever gets done in the should world.

We just have to deal with the reality.

And if somebody hits my car in a parking lot and I've got to go get estimates and

deal with these problems, well, I could say this isn't fair.

And as my high school grammar teacher used

to say, you can punch my TS card and that'll be that.

But we still have to do it.

So get the estimate, send them off and get the problem fixed.

It's inconvenient, it sucks.

It's not fair, but really nothing is.

Now, can you ask for more in your time and damages because they're asking you to go

to three different places and all this stuff or no.

Yeah, you can. You can say, look, because of this, I was

out of work for X period of time and I wasn't able to earn X dollars an hour.

And all I would say in these situations is

make sure you can quantify it and document it.

So if you had to miss work to go get three estimates and it cost you half a day of

work, well, you can say, fine, I got your three estimates.

Now guess what?

It's going to cost you $50 an hour that I would have made at work as well.

And here's the documentation for that.

So whatever it is, document it.

Don't live in the this isn't fair.

You owe me more world without providing information, documentation and proof of

what your losses and then you're going to be far more likely to get reimbursed.

Yeah, people are going to shoot all over you.

Oh, my God, I'll need another car.

All right, let's go to Chris Online one Chris, it's Lopez and Randy.

And you are on with Steve Palmer.

Hey, everybody.

So, Steve, my question is this.

I recently got turned down for a job because they ran a background check.

And when I was young and stupid, 2001, by the way,

something popped up from where I had been involved in a crime

in 2001, and it has always been my knowledge as an adult in Ohio that after

seven years, that stuff doesn't show up on a background check.

It wasn't anything crazy like murder, kidnapping or rape or anything like that.

It's just a colony for yeah.

So generally speaking, things do not just disappear after seven years.

Now, it may be true that the people who

look for such things, like employers and those who would be interested in your

background check, don't care after seven years.

I can't comment on that.

That's up to them, but it doesn't mean that it's going to be gone.

So the only way to get it gone or to get

your record sealed is to actually file an application at the clerk of courts where

the conviction happened and request to have it sealed.

Generally speaking, nonviolent offenses,

lower level felonies, theft related stuff, those can be sealed.

And the standard is basically this.

The government's interest

or your interest in having it sealed has to outweigh the government's interest,

whatever that would be, to maintain the record.

And it's not a real high bar.

We help people all the time and be happy to help you.

In fact, 614-224-6142 from Yahweh Palmer. It is Steve Palmer.

We have one more to get to here before we run out of time.

This is Joe online, too.

I'm sorry, Alex.

My bad, Alex. Alex.

Going once, going twice.

All right, we'll go to the text for our last.

Okay, so Leanne says, a man that I know

personally has sent me a threatening email that reads, you are so effed.

When I kick open the door to that piece of

SRV, I'm going to really enjoy putting a bullet in the middle of your forehead.

Better call the police and ambulance while you're at it.

Have your Blump son there, too. Loving kisses.

Let the games begin.

Yeah, she says, how do I report? Who do I report?

This guy. You got to go to the police.

This is something that you need to go to the police right away.

I don't know if this threat is serious.

I don't know if he's going to follow through with it.

I have no idea. But you don't mess around with this.

It's actually a crime. It's called aggravated medicine.

You can't threaten to cause somebody

serious physical harm, and beyond that, you may qualify for something called a

civil protection order or an anti stocking protection or some sort of order that

prevents him from coming close or requires him to stay away.

And you could say, well, you can have all

the orders you want, but nobody's going to follow it.

Well, fine, but if he does violate the order, it gives you a phone call to the

police and he can be placed in custody and charged with crimes immediately.

So it has teeth.

Maybe not because he's just going to follow it, but because if he doesn't you

can throw them in jail or the police will throw them in jail.

So I would go to the police right away.

I would make a complaint, make a report and get some help.

Don't mess around with this. All right.

We're out of time.

Steve Palmer, thanks so much with us each and every Wednesday at 830.

If they want to get in touch with you, Steve off the air.

How do they do it? Yeah, go check us out.

Ohiolegaldefense.com 614-224-6142. All right.

Another great blitz session.

Another great blitz on Wednesday with nine, nine, seven.

Lopez and Randy, if you didn't get through today, no worries.

Just go to lawyertalkpodcast.com and submit your question.

I'll get it. I'll cover it.

I'll do it right here. Lawyer talk.

Q-A-A and if you're curious of all the

other questions, all the other folks who have been fortunate enough and smart

enough to send their questions to me, you can check out the answers to their

questions@lawyertalkpodcast.com. And while you're there, you might as well just go

ahead and subscribe because you want to get downloads and you want to get notices

of all the latest content that we're disseminating.

So check it out, loritalkpodcast.com. Now, those of you been following us for the

last few months know that we still do the roundtable, we still have the long form

stuff going on where we take on all the hot topics of the day and give you the

informed wisdom of norm of Brett and Jared's on the men.

So he's coming back and we give you all sorts of great content there.

We bring in guests, we do the fun stuff there, we do the quick Q and a stuff here.

I've been also breaking legal topics down to make it simple.

And like I say, everything can be made simple.

At least almost everything can be made simple.

So check out all the great contact at content again at lawyer talkpodcast.com.

So until next time here we are off the record.