Today’s program featured the down and dirty legal picture in the real estate and criminal defense world. Arcadia Rotarians, Dave Freeman and Rich Hutton provided insights into their areas of expertise in the law: Dave Freeman in Real Estate and Rich Hutton in Criminal Law.
Dave began by saying he has been in practice for over 30 years. He then talked about “Scams” taking place in the Real Estate market due to the faltering economy and inability of some property owners to make payments on their property, whether is residential or commercial.
The usual situation is a property owner falls behind in payments. What to do? Scam artists, real estate people or lawyers, prey on these people with often times disastrous results for the delinquent owners. These Scam artists will arrange for a sale with the lender at less than market value, or less than the principal of the outstanding loan. This creates a deficiency for the Borrower(s), but on the other hand the Scam artist has a front person buy the property at the lower price and then turnaround and sell the property for market value. So a secret profit is made at the expense of the Borrower(s). What is even worse, since the 1990’s, lenders are suing delinquent borrower(s) for the deficiency, i.e. the difference between what the property sold for and amount of the loan. The Borrower(s) may find themselves in a lawsuit to recover this difference and or a judgment against them and a bad credit score.
Dave offered some helpful hints to those purchasing property, or planning on investing. “Fung Shui”, he advised that a seller hire an expert on this concept to assist in a potential sale. Failure to Disclose: It is critical to list all known defects and in many instances to hire a good inspector to check out potential defects in pipes, underground problems. Permits, zoning, easements, property lines and buy sell agreements: he said take your time to check these out, investigate the property with the City and read these agreements very carefully. Don’t waive a contingency agreement until absolutely sure every clears. Buy for yourself, not in a group, make sure there is a safety margin in loan payments and don’t fall in love with a property, make sure the deal makes sense.
Rich Hutton has been practicing for 40 years in the criminal field, first as a deputy district attorney and then in private practice. He is a certified criminal specialist and represents defendants in a variety of prosecutorial situations.
Rich talked about what a lawyer is expected to be: that is aggressive and using other tools in his arsenal. He also said it makes sense to get along with the other side, too.
Rich described his workday, starting the first thing in the morning with either a DMV hearing, motion or trial. If he is not in trial, he will return to his office to meet with clients, discuss settlement with the prosecution and basically spend the time conferring telephonically. If he is in trial, the whole day will be spent at court and then he will return to his office after 6:00 pm to handle procedural matters.
The function of a criminal attorney is to represent people charged with a crime. Those charged can have the whole weight of the government working against them. So, the defendant is entitled to the best defense possible.
He described a case that left him with a deep impression of believing in a client’s case. He had a hard time believing all that this client had told him, but when the case was in trial and he cross examined the arresting officer, the truth came out and the implications showed that his client was being framed.
His advice to all who were present: Don’t let the cops in if they want to talk to you; Don’t talk to the cops, they will testify against you; Don’t talk to the FBI, because if you make a misstatement, you can be tried for lying to the FBI, which is a crime; and finally, Do nothing and say nothing. Excellent advice from a man who knows.