93.1. Kiss FM – Ask A Lawyer – Part 1 – Aug 28, 2025

(0:00:01) 93.1 KISS FM. It’s Iris and Grizz in the morning. My morning show. Living life in El Paso right here with you. It is the last Thursday of the month. You know what that means. It is Ask a Warrior with Michael Goodman. We’ve got Michael joining us live in the studio. Good morning, Michael. How are you doing today? Good morning. How are you? I’m doing fantastic. Happy Thursday. It’s already going to be September. Jeez Louise. Labor Day weekend is coming up. Yep. Labor Day weekend. Do you have Monday off?

(0:00:29) No way. We work. I knew it. All right. So remember, you can always ask a question. You can always download the Kiss mobile app or go to our Facebook or go to our website, kisselpaso.com. You have a legal question you need answered live on air. That is what Michael Gopin is for. Let’s get straight to those questions.

(0:00:46) First question comes in from Sandra, who writes, I was hit by a teenager driving their parents’ car near my neighborhood. Turns out the kid didn’t have a license or was not on the insurance. I’ve got hospital bills and car repairs piling up. Can I go to the parents’ insurance even though the kid wasn’t supposed to be driving? What are my options here?

(0:01:07) Okay, well, in that case, the question is, was the child specifically excluded in the policy? If he was specifically excluded, you’re going to be out of luck on the parent’s insurance. If he just wasn’t on the policy, that’s a different story. So I can lend you my car, you’re going to be covered unless I specifically exclude you from the policy. So if the parents let him use the car, gave him permission to use the car, there’s coverage.

(0:01:36) Unless there’s that exclusion. So that’s the question. If there’s an exclusion, no coverage. No specific exclusion, coverage. If they don’t have coverage, you’re going to have to get that insurance coverage we’ve been talking about, the uninsured motorist coverage, because there won’t be coverage that applies. So I hope you have that, but that’s the question in this case. Most of the time, people don’t specifically exclude their kids. So it’s very possible that there is coverage here.

(0:02:04) Okay. All right. Next question comes in from Victor, who writes, I got into a wreck with an out-of-state driver on I-10 near Zaragoza. They rear-ended me, but now their insurance is dragging their feet, saying they are only paying the minimum coverage from their state, which is only $5,000. Is that true? Can they do that? How do I move this forward? Well, Victor, good news for you. They cannot do that. Okay.

(0:02:28) And I don’t know of any state that the minimum is $5,000 anyway. I don’t think that’s a true fact. But if you’re driving in the state of Texas, you have to comply with the state of Texas minimum laws. So what that means is the coverage will automatically adapt to the minimum of this state. So whatever state that this person is from, they have to comply with the Texas law. And that coverage will increase to $30,000 per person, $60,000 per accident.

(0:02:57) when they get into a wreck here in Texas. So they’re not giving you the accurate law here.

(0:03:04) You need to get some legal advice and get going on this one because they’re pulling your leg here. Because insurance people… Is not your… Nope, not your friend, not your friend. Not your friend, not your friend. We’ve learned that many times. They’re not being your friend here. Does not sound like it at all. Okay, Monica writes in with this one. My child was hurt at a daycare in Central El Paso when she fell off a swing that wasn’t properly secured. The people from the daycare refused to give us the camera footage and keep insisting that it was an accident.

(0:03:30) I want proof to cause to cause my daughter is saying otherwise. What can I do here? And can we file a claim with your office? Yes, you can file a claim with our office. And yes, in fact, it was an accident. But that doesn’t mean the daycare is not at fault if the swings were not secure. Yeah. And I’m assuming from the facts here is that she didn’t just fall off the swing, but the swings fell. Yeah. And that’s what caused her to fall.

(0:03:59) In that scenario, it wasn’t heavy enough or it wasn’t bolted down properly. They didn’t have it how they were supposed to. Right. So that would be something that would be negligent upon the daycare and you’d be able to recover. So that’s the question exactly how this happened. And when you say it wasn’t secure, I’m assuming that the whole set fell. That’s what I’m envisioning too. If that’s true, then we have a case. And of course, your little one didn’t do anything wrong that would

(0:04:28) contribute to this accident. They were just playing on the swings like a normal kid. Right, just like they’re supposed to do. Yes. All right, before we go to the break, let’s get to one before that. Patricia writes in, I’m not sure if this falls under personal injury, but it has to do with our pet dog. We took her to a groomer here in El Paso. She ended up getting seriously injured. Her hip was dislocated and she needed surgery. The groomer hasn’t really taken responsibility. Is this something a lawyer can help with or do I have any legal options in a case like this? That’s an interesting one.

(0:04:57) Well, first of all, you would have to be able to prove that the groomer was the one that dislocated the hip. Just because the dog didn’t have an issue with the hip until he got home doesn’t mean it was from the groomer. He could have walked wrong. He could have done something else wrong. You don’t really know what happened.

(0:05:17) Uh, I don’t know how long or experience you are with this particular groomer or, you know, if you wanted to go actually talk to them and, and find out more information, if they noticed there was a limb, don’t know something was going on. Uh, you know, those would be the kinds of questions that you’d need to, to be asking. Uh, you know, you, you do have a right to, to file a lawsuit, uh,

(0:05:39) But the big issue here is causation, and did the groomer do something that was negligent that caused your dog to have this problem? They’d have to prove that to have some sort of case. It’s your burden to prove it, and that’s the trick here.

(0:05:51) Because they can ask for a camera, too, and the groomers will be like, no, what do you need? We don’t have a camera. I mean, we don’t have a video. Or when, oh, the camera’s magically turned off at that time. Right. Or something. All right. It’s Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. We’re going to get to a few more questions after the break. Remember, you can always download the Kiss mobile app. Go to our kissalpaso.com website. Click on Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. You have a legal question. Michael is here to answer it. We’ll get to more of those after the break. It’s Iris and Grizz in the morning on 93.1 Kiss FM.

Michael J. Gopin

Michael J. Gopin has practiced law in El Paso since 1987. Even after more than 30 years, he still remembers his first jury case. It was two weeks after receiving his license, when he represented a person whose life had been forever changed after being blinded in a work-related incident...