93.1. Kiss FM – Ask A Lawyer – Part 1 – Oct 23, 2025

(0:00:00) Wake up with Iris and Grizz in the morning. Weekdays on 93.1 KISS FM and the 93.1 KISS FM mobile app.

(0:00:10) All right, it is time for Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. We’ve got Michael Gopin joining us live in the studio. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? I’m doing fantastic. Grizz is out. So, you know, whatever he’s out, he’s out and I’m lonely. And then Michael Gopin comes and saves the day, everyone. And I brought a friend. Yes, I was going to say you brought a friend. Tell us a little bit about your four-legged furry friend who is just making my day. A little husky, right?

(0:00:35) A little husky, a three-year-old husky named Keeper is here with me. Hi, little Keeper. And very calm. I love it. Well, he’s not always so calm. Just here. You were like, please behave. If there’s other dogs around, he won’t be so calm. Okay, okay. Noted. Noted.

(0:00:50) But all right. So your Husky is going to join us, too, with Ask a Lawyer. And hey, if you have a question that you need answered, anything a law related question, you can always download the Kiss mobile app or go to our website, kisselpaso.com and send your questions in there. And Michael will answer them live on air. So let’s get to these questions that were sent in. First one, Vanessa.

(0:01:11) Interesting.

(0:01:34) Well, I don’t know exactly what the video shows, but even if the other car was speeding, I don’t know if there’s a speed limit necessarily, but that doesn’t necessarily prove whose fault the accident was. You know, what direction the car is, who had the right of way, was it one way or the other way? All these factors combine not only speed. Speed is one indication, but it’s also difficult to determine the exact speed from a video necessarily. So I’m not sure if they’re

(0:02:02) including or not including this video in their analysis of the factors. Uh, but they’re, they’re denying the claim for whatever reason, parking lot cases can be, can be tricky because there’s not necessarily rules necessarily. And, and, uh, so that, that makes it a little more difficult. Uh, but yeah, you are entitled to, to get a lawyer. If you have your own insurance, you could also file a claim with your insurance company to get them to pay, uh, under your collision coverage. Uh,

(0:02:31) lawyers typically don’t take cases that are only, uh, look at that dog now. Look at, I see the window, the curtains open. I’m like, is that a ghost? Oh no, I forgot. We have a dog in here. Insurance company, uh, lawyers typically don’t cases where people are not injured when it’s just property damage, because the reason being that you’re going to have to pay a percentage of the recovery, you know, to the lawyer for the car. Yeah. And they don’t want to put you out in terms of, uh, of that. You know, if you,

(0:03:01) it’s $10,000 worth of damage and they take a percentage, you’re going to be negative on your car. So it may be the best idea to go after your own insurance company, but you’re certainly entitled to make a claim and hire a lawyer.

(0:03:13) Interesting. All right. Next question comes from Jose who writes, my landlord entered my apartment without notice while I wasn’t home. He said it was for a routine inspection, but I never got any notice. Isn’t that a violation of tenant rights? Are they allowed to enter the home whenever they want? That all depends. Uh-oh. What does it depend on? The contract. Right. Your lease agreement. The lease agreement. So there’s no law that says they can enter at any time.

(0:03:43) There’s nothing that says that. There’s no law that says they cannot, but it’s up to the lease. So if you’ve agreed to allow them to come in for routine inspections, they can do it. If they have to give 24-hour notice, they can do it. The only exception to that rule is if there’s an emergency, a fire or a gas leak or something like that, they can enter the premises to save the building or whatever. So you have to look to your lease and read it, and that will give you your answer.

(0:04:09) All right. The answer is right there in the lease. Got to look at it. All right. Next question comes from Kevin, who writes, I was injured during a Lyft taxi trip the other day on I-10 when our driver got rear-ended in traffic. Now, I’ve been dealing with pain and medical bills piling up with not enough from the settlement. I initially got to cover everything. Now, plus miss work, I only received 5K, 5,000. Can I go back and file another claim? I owe a substantial amount to the hospital. That wasn’t covered.

(0:04:38) Well, unfortunately, once you settle your claim and you sign a written release, the claim is over. You can’t go back. You have no second dibs and you can’t go back if your Benico bills got more expensive. If you didn’t sign a release and didn’t release your claim, that’s a different story. Then it would be in advance if they paid you. But if you’ve settled your case, you’re one and done. You don’t get a second chance at that. There could be potential coverage from the Uber or the Lyft driver.

(0:05:07) which is called personal injury protection, which if they have that coverage, which they probably do, you may be entitled to get some additional money for medical bills. But in terms of filing that claim for lost wages, damages, those kind of things,

(0:05:22) No, you’re out of luck. You should have focused on that at the beginning before. Not settled too quickly. There you go. All right. Remember, it’s Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. We have Celeste who sent in this one. My daughter was injured on a school bus when the driver slammed on the brakes and she fell out of the seat so hard that she fractured her wrist. Could we file a claim here? I know schools have something that keeps them safe, but even in a school bus, how would that work?

(0:05:49) And then because there’s no safety belts in the school bus. There’s no safety belts in those. Yeah, that makes it a little tricky. No, you can file a claim against the school for a motor vehicle accident or incident. The question in this case is, did the bus driver do anything that was negligent, that was wrong? I know there was an abrupt stop, but there may have been a really good reason for it. There may have been a car in front of them. The car stopped. Pedestrian. I mean, there could be a hundred different things.

(0:06:19) that happened in front and the bus driver acted reasonably, didn’t get into an accident. So he stopped in time to prevent the accident. Uh, now I don’t know the situation of how your, your daughter was, was sitting in the school bus, uh, or not. That may or may not matter. Cause what if she was sitting in a way that she shouldn’t have been sitting and then that made the fall even worse. Right. Or more likely to happen in that kind of situation. So those are all the kinds of factors that would be considered.

(0:06:49) So the answer is yes, you can file a claim, but you’d have to be able to prove the bus driver was negligent in causing this accident, this incident, I guess.

(0:07:00) Alright, next question comes from David who wrote, I accidentally crashed into a business’s fence when I didn’t have insurance at the time. They sent me an invoice that seems too high and they won’t give me a breakdown of it. They also claimed they could charge me for the lost business time. Can I ask for proof of the repair costs? And am I legally responsible for a lost revenue? I don’t know how a fence stops them from working.

(0:07:24) I agree with you, David. I don’t see how a fence stops them from working either. And yes, you definitely can get proof of the repair costs. You can also ask to get someone to give an estimate yourself to provide one for you. So you don’t have to believe in whatever they provided to you. I mean, they could have got a higher estimate and maybe fixed it for less money. That happens a lot with car repairs and so forth. Same kind of thing.

(0:07:54) So yeah, you do have rights and you don’t have to buy into whatever they’re selling you, basically.

(0:08:00) Yeah, because they’re going to try and go for everything. Right. Like, oh, let’s get this. Well, it cost me time to get the estimate, and so I lost work. And now I need gas money. I need this. I need that. Exactly. And so, no, just be smart about it. And once you do settle, we just talked about this a moment ago, have them sign a release. Yep. So releasing you from any further liability. So they won’t come back and say, oh, by the way, you’ve got to do this, too. That’s right. Mm-hmm.

(0:08:25) All right. It’s Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. We’ve got some more questions coming up after the break. Remember, if you ever have a question you need answered, Michael Gopin can answer it for you live on air. Download the Kiss mobile app or go to our website, kisselpaso.com. Click on Ask a Lawyer on the must read tab and there you can submit your questions. We’ve got a few more coming up 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...