93.1. Kiss FM – Ask A Lawyer – Part 2 – Oct 3, 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.

(0:00:14) It’s Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. You have a legal question, download the Kiss mobile app or go to our website and you can submit those questions and Michael will answer them live on air. So we’re going to get to a few more questions that we have. This one comes in from Leo who writes, I was recently involved in a car accident here in El Paso where no one was injured, but my car was pretty badly damaged. The other driver admitted fault at the scene, but now their insurance is trying to delay and lowball the repair estimate. They only want to pay half of what it’s worth.

(0:00:42) Since there were no injuries, do I still have legal options if I’m not getting treated fairly? Iris, do you want to chime in? You know, Grizz already answered one. Wait, what’s the question again? I know I read it, but I didn’t pay attention. Lowball offers. So, I mean, insurance company is not your friend. Right. They’re obviously going to try whatever they can to not pay what they need to pay. Right. Well, I guess what’s happening here is you’ve got an estimate for just, say…

(0:01:11) $10,000, let’s say, to fix your car. And the insurance company is saying, well, I think you can fix it for $5,000 based on what our adjuster is saying. So, they’re arguing over the amount of the damages and the proper price to fix it. So, that’s a case where what will normally happen is the insurance company will have a certain list of body shops that will honor the price that they’re doing. So, you’re going to be able to get your car fixed under their estimate, even though

(0:01:40) you won’t be able to take it to the guy who’s charging $10,000. Or, the guy who’s charging more money will be presented with that estimate, and they’ll say, well, fix it for this. And most of the time, they’ll say, okay, we’ll do that. They’ll go with what the insurance company said, because sometimes they increase and higher the estimate, hoping they’ll be able to get more money on the deal than what it’s really worth. So, something to look at. So, you may ask the insurance company,

(0:02:08) Who can I actually go to to get this car fixed? And they can recommend someone. Yeah. They’ll have a certain group of body shops that will honor their estimate for sure. And you can take it to the one that you want. Okay. All right. But if you don’t like that answer, yes, you have legal options and you can file a lawsuit and proceed that way. Okay. This way will be easier for you.

(0:02:31) Well then, there you go. Listen to Michael. Here’s our next question from Marco. We recently adopted a dog from the Humane Society about two weeks ago. They told us the dog was trained and showed no signs of aggression, but just yesterday the dog suddenly attacked my daughter, bit her ear and her head, and she ended up bleeding heavily with visible scars. We rushed her to the ER and now we’re left dealing with the aftermath. Can we build a case against the shelter for giving us a dog that wasn’t properly evaluated? Ooh, that’s tough.

(0:02:59) Well, that is a sad situation. I’m so sorry to hear about your daughter. My wife and I love to go to the Humane Society and all those places to look at the animals. And it’s a great place to adopt places and animals and cats and dogs and so forth. But no, they’re not going to be held responsible for this incident. Them seeing no signs of aggression is not like a warranty or guarantee.

(0:03:25) It’s not going to happen in the future. You know, an animal is unpredictable. They probably hadn’t been around children. I was going to say, it depends on the surrounding too. And if a small child’s poking at the dog. Right. And, you know, maybe a bad fit, I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like a good fit at this point. But no, they’re not going to be held responsible for an animal. And them, you know, being around the animal for a few days or however long it was in the shelter is no guarantee that

(0:03:54) that the animal won’t bite animals may bite. And that’s just the risk of having and being an animal owner. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Even, you know, even the greatest dog or animal in the world, you know, when they’re scared or afraid could potentially bite you. Yeah. True. It’s just how they are. And plus the humane society probably doesn’t have the resources to like test a dog in every single situation, you know, they’re not, they’re not out for that. I mean, that’s not their job. Right. Right. Uh,

(0:04:21) But they didn’t see signs of aggression, and that would probably be a fact, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. Yeah, because I’m sure they’re not going to say, no, this dog doesn’t have any aggression, and then knowing that the dog does, I’m sure they’ll tell you, well, the dogs usually, when I see places that are putting them up for adoption, they’ll say, not good around kids, does have this and that, like, we’re going to warn you before so you don’t bring them back. Right, and some breeds are better with small children than others, and some breeds are better with

(0:04:48) No other dogs in the home and some are better, you know, are good with dogs, other dogs and just depends. Lots of factors. All right. We have two final questions. This one comes in from Carlos, who writes, while I was incarcerated at the New Mexico State Penitentiary, we were being transported from one facility to another when we got into an accident with an 18 wheeler near Alamogordo.

(0:05:08) This happened back on March 18th of 2025. I have all the paperwork, but I don’t know where to start or if I even have a case since I was in custody at the time. Can I still pursue legal actions? Well, in any state in the country, if you’re in the penitentiary and they’re transporting you to another location and there’s an accident, yes, you have legal rights. Your legal rights are not suspended because you’re in jail. So, yes, if you were involved in an accident, there was an at-fault driver there.

(0:05:38) you would have a case. You’d also need to get some medical treatment, ask the people that are taking care of you to go to the doctor, get seen, get treatment. But yes, you do have a potential case. So there’s no

(0:05:54) There’s no law that says if you’re in the penitentiary, you have no legal rights if you’re involved in an accident. You do have legal rights. And that’s good to know. That’s good to know for everybody. You have your rights, all right? Yep. All right. They’re not denied. So our last question here comes from a user on the KISS mobile app. Interesting, but not like a ton of details, so just give us what you can. Okay.

(0:06:14) She says, if my sister is in the hospital and she fell off her bed after having her leg amputated and she was on strong drugs, is the hospital held liable? Also, her bed had no working alarm while she has a fall risk in this moment. Well, there is a potential case there. The question that I will have for her is, did they have up the bed rails? Was she restrained? Did they keep her in a place where she was safe? And that’s the question. You know, how?

(0:06:45) She just had her leg amputated, so she’s not going to be trying to get up, so she must have just twisted and fallen off the bed. So it sounds like there were no rails. And if that’s the case, that sounds like that’s not the proper standard of care for this facility. So that would be the angle to pursue in terms of liability. The question that I would have for her is what consequences, what damage happened to her from falling off the bed? Was she damaged? Oh.

(0:07:11) What happened? What was the result? We know her leg had already been amputated. What further damage was caused by this fall? Right, like did she get any bruises on her after she fell, break a bone or something? Correct. Did she get a concussion? I mean, what happened? And that’s the key to this case in terms of whether or not it’s worth it to pursue because medical malpractice cases are extremely time consuming, extremely expensive, and without a significant type of injury, it wouldn’t be worth it for her to pursue.

(0:07:39) Okay. Okay. Well, there you go. We appreciate your question from the Kiss Mobile app. All right. And it’s Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. Remember, if you have a question, a legal question you need answered, you can always download the Kiss Mobile app. Go to our website, kisselpaso.com. Click on Ask a Lawyer with Michael Gopin. And Michael will be back next month. Oh, no, wait, the end of this month.

(0:07:58) Yeah, yeah, yeah. Last Thursday of the month. Yeah, last Thursday of the month. So he’ll be back again. So get those questions in and we will get them answered. Thank you so much, Michael. Appreciate you. Appreciate you. Good answers, both of you. Yeah, we’re learning. We’re figuring it out. My two law students here. Those are proud of us. Who would have thought? Look at us, Mom. All right.

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...