Trials and tribulations

This past week should have been easy peasy. A rare one with no court appearances, no significant meetings or appointments, and zero travel outside Amherst and contiguous towns and city.  Plenty of annoyances, though. Theme Week on the 4:30 Movie was battles with dealerships- battle joined in one, about to begin in a second, and avoided in a third.

In order:

Rochester Area Client hired me to sue a Porsche dealership near Albany, where he'd bought a Certified Pre-Owned 911.  "Certified" apparently doesn't mean what you think it means, because as soon as he took delivery, its brakes started squeaking to high heaven.  Dealer's response: "they all do that." My reply, from years of listening to Car Talk: "Well then, they all need to be fixed and you may as well start with this one."  Client, meanwhile, took it to the Rochester Porsche dealer, who reported the brakes were 50% worn and that $3,000 of repairs ought to get rid of the noise. I gave client two choices: sue Albanyish dealer in an Albanyish Small Claims Court, but he'd have to go for a quick hearing on it, for which he'd pay 20 bucks out of pocket and I'd get paid $200 for "small claim assistance" (but would not have to attend the hearing); or, sue the dealer in his own county's State Supreme Court, requiring them to come to him, for which he would (and did) pay $400 for filing and service fees and I'll get paid $750 for my time eventually, easy peasy if they didn't respond.  Which, of course, they did; they answered, demanded a deposition, and are likely spending way more than the $3,000 to establish the "they all do that" defense because, assholes.

Buffalo Area Friends got a sweet deal to move to Rochester for work.  To provide living quarters until they could sell their local home, they bought a 2019 RV which they could live in until they could sell their local home and find one there. Except, (a) the RV they delivered was actually a 2018, (b) it had miles and damage put on it between signing and taking delivery, and (c) oopsies, the water won't work when it's cold outside so, no, not usable to live in Oop Here from about next week to next May.  I wrote a nastygram suggesting that they'd pay the resulting loans if the dealer delivered a conforming vehicle by this past Friday, which of course they didn't. So I'll sue it, they'll answer, demand a deposition, and will spend way more than the case is worth to preserve their right to be assholes.

And lastly, the fight not fought: Fellow Dog Park Human Ann couldn't make our trip last Sunday, because she'd gotten in a minor but damagey accident in her 12-year-old Honda the Saturday before.  She called me on Friday for advice because things were starting to snowball against her: a collision shop, which she had not approved an estimate for, was about to begin $2,800 of work on said car despite initial indications that her insurance company was going to total it and give her a check for more than 3K.  When she raised protest, the shop threatened to pull her rental that day and charge her "restocking fees" for the parts they'd pulled off a shelf that afternoon.  I gave her some advice, but it was her insurance agent who really threw weight around and saved her day: they stopped the work, waived the BS fees, gave her the $2,800 to put into a new car (versus repairing a 2006 that would've needed $500 in unrelated repairs to pass inspection), and gave her time to get a replacement new car and salvage the old one.   We met up today at the Parp! with the new VW Jetta present, already giving off New Car and Old Ursula smells.

Not taking any new car claims, thanks.

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But I am enjoying tales about battles, generally.

The post I saw about it isn't public (yet), and I haven't seen any other news about it (yet), but someone who practices in the realm of criminal law has reported seeing, in response to a routine traffic ticket, a demand for trial by combat.  Just like on Game of Thrones.

I remember reading about stories where assorted nutballs from the 19th, 20th and even 21st century had tried to use this defense, so I went to google the term, and as soon as I got "trial by" in, it suggested something slightly different:




Despite the New England and Aussie refs, this turns out to be a craft beer brewed on our very own Elmwood Avenue.  Sadly, it's not in stock at the moment, but when I called to inquire, I told them about the pending motion and suggested they might want to brew some up.

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No nights out for us other than a poetry reading Wednesday night; we saw the lovely Colette this afternoon, missed most of the latest horrific Bills loss, and will begin the latest Doctor in seven minutes. Preferably with no insurance claims for a missing TARDIS.