Spy Stories and more with Jeff Hammock from Spy for Rent

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:53

January the 10th, 2026. You're listening to the Ligal Lib with Joe Ingram. You're an Alabama lawyer on WERC in Birmingham 105.5, WBHP 102.5 in Huntsville, and WRTR 106.9 in Tuscaloosa. Welcome to the broadcast. 105.9. I keep getting it wrong. I'm sorry, Tuscaloosa. Do not send me hate mail. 105.9. John just crucified me. If you're listening to our show, you can download the podcast, share it with your friends, encourage others to listen to it. If you have a question, please go to your iHeart radio app on your phone. Click on the little red button. That is the Spy for Rent hotline. Spy for Rent Hotline. That will get you to give us a comment for the show. As always, our feature sponsor is Spy for Rent. Jeff Hammock and Corey Fuller are the investigators that you need to know in the state of Alabama, and they can help you with any needs that you have as far as private investigation, doing a forensic on a cell phone, process of papers. They even do bug sweeps, folks. Yes, they do bug sweeps. Jeff Hammock of SPY for In is our guest today, and we will get with him in just a minute. My office represents people from Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, and Mobile. If you need representation, please call my office, 205-825 Laws. 205-825-5297. You can speak with Holly or Elizabeth, my intake specialist, and they will get you in for a consultation. My office represents people in divorce cases, alimony, prenups, post NUPS, modifications, and modifications of child support. We represent people in criminal cases, federal criminal cases, state criminal cases, and even municipal court cases. We represent professionals that have licensed defense issues, such as doctors, pharmacists pharmacy techs, nurses, practitioners, dentist, dental hygienist, any of the professional boards in the State of Alabama, we'd provide representation as well. So if you need representation for professional licensed defense, call my office, 205-825-5297. We also represent people in personal injury cases. We talked about that last week. We'll talk about that more in the second hour. So let's get to Jeff Hammock, a spy for rent. Jeff, what is the spy story of the month? No, we're going to come right out with the story, huh?

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Yeah. No topics?

SPEAKER_03 3:42

Well, we we talked about topics before we got on the air. I'm going to leave it up to you. Which one you want to do today?

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Let's go with the lovely couple that met in rehab.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

All right. Let's let's talk about let's talk about uh love and lust at a rehab.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

Love, lust, and life, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:04

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

So you represent a lot of clients that unfortunately they've they've they've had to go to rehab, right? Absolutely. How does it impact the marriage? How does it impact the divorce, the custody of the kids, that sort of thing?

unknown 4:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Right. A lot of times when one parent has an addiction, whether it be alcohol or substance abuse, uh, it makes the other parent be unable to be the best version of themselves for the children or the spouse to function for the best interest of the children. And one spouse may say, Hey, if you'll go to rehab and give it a shot, I'll try to make this marriage work.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

And when it doesn't, the divorce comes into play, the custody issues come into play, those sort of things.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Absolutely. I've I had a spouse one time that the wife came out of rehab and he would film her at night. It was sad. She would be face down on the dinner table in her food. And uh he had in private investigate her and she met a man in rehab, and he the the boyfriend lived in a trailer park. It's really sad uh because he was a very high, high esteem professional in the state of Alabama, and she was going to a trailer park every day having a sex with a man that was a drug addict.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah. Some of the best choices coming out of rehab probably aren't being made for long term. And this is where this couple met, was in rehab. They had both had uh extensive drug addictions. Uh both had gotten clean, fortunately, when they came out, uh, kept their friendship going, and inevitably moved in together. And if you know from addiction, there becomes a sense of dependency and codependency on one another, and you often blur those lines long before you realize you're crossing them, right? You begin to enable someone who was previously addicted to to certain behaviors. Uh so for several years the couple got along well, gained full employment, both of them had a job. Uh year two into the post-rehab, the woman decides that she's not going to work anymore. Come to find out she was fired uh for stealing. But her boyfriend didn't know it. Still supportive, get you another job. Um employment took a while. And in the times that she was staying at home and not employed, things began to disappear around the house. You know as well as I do what that's an indication of.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

She's taking items out of the house to go sell for drug money.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Right. Swap and sweep. Yeah. You were done. So a couple of table saws, some drills, things like this, the tools were coming up missing, and the items got greater and larger every time. So at some point during the confrontation, she admitted she was back to using again and could not restrain herself during the daytime while he was at work. Now he had a great job. He went in uh not very early in the morning, had an extended lunch hour where and he lived close enough he could come home. So he started doing that. But again, she she would slip out in between the hours when he was locked down at work. So he decided to just tie her up during the hours that he was going to be gone. And in doing so, he put a handcuff on her and he uh had a cable hooked to a hook in the ceiling with a little roller. She could roll from one end of the place to the other, but she could never escape the bedroom.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Jeff, when you're describing this, I'm thinking of the nine to five movie in the 80s with Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, where they tie their boss up in the in the room with the garage door opener.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

And he could she could move from bed to bathroom and so forth.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

How nice of him.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Yeah. And he came home for lunch. Yeah. And and and of of the file of information from from defending this guy, uh, it was a criminal defense case. He indicated that he always came home to unchain her because she needed her freedom. He was there to support her, she wouldn't use dope. What a sweetie. Wasn't it? Great guy.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Great guy.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

So the crux of the story is he gave the detective during the arrest. Obviously, we you you name off some charges you think he could be charged for right off the bat.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

Um and that's important because we're also talking to married couples, too.

SPEAKER_03 8:49

Kidnap, well, maybe not kidnapping. Um goodness, you caught me off guard. I'm not prepared for this all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Um Well, just call it the nine to five charge. Dolly Parton's nine to five charge, whatever that was in the movie. Yeah. So he's he's she's restrained. Um inevitably uh he was arrested. She filed for a PFA, uh, talked to the police. The police come in, they arrest him, and his defense is that he was only trying to help her. And the question was that that arose was what about a fire? How could she get out in case of a fire? And in his mind, he had thought that through, right? She could she could get away if there was a fire, where there was no way she was handcuffed. What he showed us was these solo cups where he had frozen handcuff keys into large chunks of ice inside the cup, and they were scattered about the house just within arm's reach. In the event there was a fire, his philosophy was the ice would melt, she could unhook herself and escape. I don't think he thought through how long it takes to melt a cube of ice in a house fire and your chances of survival waiting on that key, but every day he he would refreeze the solo cup with ice and and the key in the bottom of it.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

How long did it take him to come up with this uh crazy?

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Well, I don't know that you didn't help him with the story and coming up with the idea of what happens here because again, and I'm not I'm not but these spy stories are not to make fun of people in some sense. They are, they don't. It's just to talk about and say how, and I don't want to say this, common ice cube, or can can we use the bond word? Yeah, bondage. Ice cube bondage is actually a thing. It happens. Um there's I guess you could Google it and look it up and see how you could apply the ice cube bondage, but in this case he did it to keep a drug addict restrained from buying dope. Do you know how long he did this? A couple of weeks. Just a couple of weeks. Just a few weeks. I think she got tired of it. Uh how long ago is this? This has been in the southern part of the state, and it's probably been about twelve years ago. Good twelve years. Okay. We've had another one since then. Um similar to that? Well, you talk similarities. I mean, you know, there were handcuffs involved, there was an ice cube involved with the key in it, but the activities were totally different.

unknown 11:32

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

So what did this gentleman get uh charged?

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Yeah. I I don't again, I don't remember the charges. I just know that he was facing some time for what he did, and it was in this domestic relationship, and it was during the time when we had common law. So it was falling more into this civil, is it a civil marriage issue relationship, or is this actual criminal defense? Because what couples do in their home? Well, Joe, you take it from there.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

What people do behind their closed doors, uh people have a perception that you ride some of the most prominent communities in Birmingham and you see these beautiful neighborhoods and you think they have no problems. And unfortunately, in my profession, uh again this week, I talked about last week, I've done five divorce consults this week. And the stories that I hear, you know, they always start out like, Mr. Ingram, I've got something to tell you, and I know this is probably going to shock your conscience. No, unfortunately, there's nothing that I've heard to this day that shocks my conscience. So just because you see a beautiful, shiny house and you see, you know, manicured lawns and they live in the best zip codes, you don't know how people live behind their doors.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

People will always be that way just because we want our own personal privacy. We lock our own doors, we shut our own things in. But every marriage has them. And there I as far as I I don't know how you say it, I think an ice cube probably would cause confusion on where the line's drawn. If it's a healthy activity that couples are enjoying, how far does it go before it becomes unhealthy? And it's a restraining order.

SPEAKER_03 13:37

Yeah. We talked about um we talked about having an app on your phone for consent. Maybe we need to develop an app for if you're into uh sex games in your house in your marriage that you consent to whatever uh type of activity you have. That way you can't come back if you're the other spouse and and have somebody say that you did something criminally to them.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Well, we all get tired. So yeah, yeah, and eventually it has to it uh such a difficult conversation here. Uh gosh.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

Eventually there has to be communication, otherwise there's gonna be a problem, right? And in this instance and in some of the other ones that you see these things that couples do, um let's talk let's talk about let's not talk about that. That's gonna that's gonna go way too far. Let's just say that I agree that there's to be a consent form somewhere for married couples, even though they're married. Yeah. Completely agree.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Uh I've had a case uh where uh someone came in and claimed that they were being raped even though it was marriage. And um let's just say um the person was embarrassed and claimed that no one's going to believe me because I'm married, and when you heard the story, uh I don't care if you're married or not, at some point you cross the line that even if you are married, it's not consensual. No means no to me. And in that story, when I heard it, it was obvious that no meant no. And uh I saw that case all the way through. We tried to have the other person prosecuted. Um sadly enough, because no one had ever made a comp a police report, called the police, called 911, said this was un against my will. The police ran it by the DA's office in these rape type cases now, and the the DA's office said we're not gonna waste our time prosecuting this because we don't think a jury's gonna buy it. Unfortunately. Now that doesn't mean that the other side, when they got counsel, didn't believe the story, and it did help settle the case because when you heard the person talk about the factual events of the case, you had to know that no men know. And and that I I I'm a full believer in that.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

And that's the I think that's the key thing. We drive by the houses, we see other families, we see other couples, but we don't really know the factual events that occur when the door is shut. And that is a form of abuse. People are abused daily by this. Wouldn't you agree? Every day at the door, the spouse comes home and the world changes for them. It it it could be the exact opposite where they come home and their world has already changed because the spouse is suffering an addiction, maybe alcohol, maybe drugs, whatever. So just be kind. And the whole part of the spy stories is is I I I just don't want to we're not ever gonna disclose the names, the details, enough con context. This is just to give you an idea that some people really do some things that are striking, but to the legal community, someone that's versed like yourself, you're not gonna raise our eyebrows. I mean, there's there's really nothing you can say that we're gonna run from that we haven't already heard.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

Yeah. And the other side of it is when I sit in those kind of consultations, even if it did kind of shock my conscience hearing something for the first time, you never want that potential client to get the impression that you're judging them, that you are looking down on them, that you would not want to represent that person, um, or that, you know, it it bothers you. Um now I have had some things even in my career that over 24 years that I've heard that just were unreal to believe that you could do to another person. Um the two biggest things that stick with me uh doing criminal work is if someone will hurt a defenseless animal, okay, animal abuse, or if someone will hurt a child, that is someone that has a very serious mental illness if you will hurt a defenseless animal. Unfortunately, I've had a couple of those cases, um, and uh they always end with a psych evaluation, and it tells a lot about the person, what happened to them, and it always goes back, and you know what I'm fixing to say. I see your smile. This is my psychiatry hat. It goes back to us all being eight-year-olds in adult bodies, whatever we transfer with from our childhood, we carry into our adulthood, and thus we carry our baggage into whatever next relationship we get into.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Personas and shadows. You want the world to look at you a certain way, but those traumas like standing in the sunshine creates a shadow. And you when you are confronted with something, you have this manager, this thing that's the manager that separates your shadow from yourself. And when yourself can't handle the situation, It is trying to manage that eight-year-old child stuck in the shadow. And that's why people flee. That's why they run. That's why they break out into anger. That management of that emotion is too overwhelming. That's why you see people break down in anger. That's why you see them run when there's a confrontation. They won't ever fight with you. They won't ever engage. They just turn and walk away. It's that eight-year-old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

I had a case uh recently. Um one parent was alleging that the other parent, when the infant was in his custody, uh, that something was happening to the child when they changed the diaper. And uh there was a full investigation done. Uh DHR investigated it. The child was taken to the hospital, they did a full rape kit to make sure everything was intact, there wasn't any penetration, anything like that. And they came back that there was no substantiation of claims, and they declared and determined that, as with any infant, that it comes down to when you change the diaper with baby wipes, that there could be redness or irritation. So there's no justification for the claims that were made. On and on and on, we get through the case, we get to trial, get all the evidence, get all the discovery. Well, what turns out is that the primary custodial parent without disclosing gender here. The primary custodial parent was raped at 13.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

And manifesting.

SPEAKER_03 21:53

And so because of what happened to that person at 13, they were overly cautious of everything else in their life with a presumption that it was going to happen to the next child.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Protection and control.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

Yeah. And when I got up to do my cross-examination, the very first question out of my mouth was, Isn't it a fact you were raped when you were 13? And the person looked at me and said, I don't think that's relevant. I said, I don't care if you think it's relevant or not, you're going to answer the question. Don't even look at the judge. It's relevant. Answer the question. And the judge, judge said, I guess it's relevant. And the parents said, Yeah, I was. And that line of questioning led all the way down through my timeline and my theory of the case. And I said, What this is all about is that because of what happened to you, you're transferring it to your own child, and you're trying to drive the non-custodial parent out of this child's life. And the judge looked at me and they were like, Joe has summarized this whole event.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Believe your children if they're old enough to talk. Believe them when they talk to you. We have how many, what are we gonna call it, co-mingle, co-join, stepparents, stepchildren, step nieces and nephews in this world. And you have to be very careful in those environments because we walk among a lot of strange people, Joe. And some of them have, as you said, suffered this trauma of separation, divorce, even possible sexual misconduct acted upon themselves by another person that they trusted, and they just turn around and reenact that on another one. And you cannot, I cannot overemphasize how important it is to listen to your kids. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Hey Jeff, before we go to break, we're talking with Jeff Hammock of Spy for Rent. Jeff Hammock, Corey Ford, they're the investigators in Alabama. Jeff's gonna be back with us for the second segment of the first hour, folks. Stay tuned. We'll be back. We are talking with Jeff Hammett of Plyphilimett. Jeff Hammett and Cory Fuller are the guys you need to know, and they are our feature sponsor for our show. If you ever need them, they're the people to call. They are my exclusive investigators. Uh, we were talking with Jeff in the first segment. Jeff, uh, after talking about our drug addicts and the uh tie the person up in the bedroom with the um garage door cable and leaving uh an ice cube hanging from the ceiling in case the house burns to the ground so they can get out. I don't know where we can go from there, but it brought up something that you said right before we went to the break. Um and and here's where I want to go with this. So every time I have a client that is a male that gets a divorce, I give them what I call them Joe advice going forward. One, don't run out and get remarried. Oh, Joe, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna do that. Okay. Two, if you're gonna see somebody, see them. Have a relationship, don't give them a key to your apartment or your house. Have a relationship, send them home. Okay, not gonna do that, not gonna do that. Three, if you get in a relationship and you move in or someone moves in with you that has minor children, do not do that. Why, Joe? Well, here's why. If they are children and they don't like you and they're probably not like you, they're probably not gonna like you because you're not their biological father, they may make an allegation against you of some type of sexual conduct, and it's gonna cost you more in the long run than that relationship was ever worth. And I've had that happen two times in the last 10 years, that very scenario. The gentleman goes and gets involved with another person, they have minor children, they don't like him because it's not their biological father in the home with the mother, and they figure this is the best way to get him out of the way. I'm gonna make an allegation. Whether it's true or not, he's gonna be put through total hell to get vindicated.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Well, let me tell you what hell starts with. First of all, it's your cell phone, right? Police are gonna examine everything on your cell phone to make sure that there's no extracurricular websites that would identify a passion for the same behavior of, say, a 13-year-old child. Maybe there's there's a lot of porn websites, and and it has, as with porn, will ultimately manifest from the actual screen to a person. It is just like another drug. Sidebar on that. So, yes, you will first get your cell phone taken away, your family will have a DHR visit, there's gonna be home studies, there's gonna be drug tests, the state will open up your entire life and it will remain open until the case is settled.

SPEAKER_04 29:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Yeah. And so when you leave that relationship and you start another one, now you're indicted already, or you are charged, or there are allegations of this activity, whether it occurred or not, and you have now moved on in your life because you're you're not gonna live in that relationship anymore. You're going on to someone else that you can trust, right? Well, that that's gonna follow you. And the the most likely that person is gonna move in or marry another person who has been divorced. We're talking about age as you go, right? You start at 20, 21, you get married, you're divorced at 30, you have these allegations at 32, 33, you spend till age 36 fighting them, eventually you move in again with someone else. Well, there are very few unmarried people without children at age 36 and higher. Would you agree? That population, that selection is rather so you tend to repeat the same behavior, whether you not the sexual misconduct or the allegations, the fact that you put yourself in that that situation. I I don't know how how parents trust someone that they don't really know. They're just in love with them, but you know, you hear the story every day. I thought I knew them better. I never thought they would do this. I never saw this coming. Why? Why didn't you see it coming? Your child was going to say something, whether it's out in a behavioral change, right? They're lashing out, they're they're arguing, there's problems at school. Uh maybe they're trying to tell you, but you're so in love with this new person you don't you don't hear the real words.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

Yeah. Um Jeff, let me ask you a question. Um, because it's the time of year when uh uh I get my all my new divorce cases. You're really busy right now. And um I want to talk about this for a second. So I call you and I say, Jeff, I need to go have you serve a divorce complaint. We had this conversation about a month or so ago. Right. And you were kind of serious on on on the call in your truck. Um talk talk a little bit about what's that like to go serve that divorce complaint on a spouse that probably doesn't know it's really coming. What's that like for you in that role?

SPEAKER_02 31:40

Deliver a bad news. But I you know, I look if you're nice to people, it's not a bad thing. But if, you know, you knock on the door and say, Hey Joe, how you doing? And Joe says I'm having a great day, and I say, Well, that's all about to change. You're getting kicked out of the house, pack a bag, you gotta leave. You don't have to put it that way. You can you're delivering a set of legal documents to an individual, and that's the extent of it. There's there's nothing there to fight with.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

No, no, no. But is there a elo I'm sure there has I know where you're going.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yes, there's an element of concern. You're knocking on a door, a stranger's house.

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Well, it may not even be you're knocking on the door. You may go pick, you may go meet somebody that's at a park to give them a complaint. Out in the open. So you don't know what you're walking into, just like an officer when they walk into a domestic dispute situation. You don't know what you're walking into. You don't. So so are you are you covering yourself? Are you prepared?

SPEAKER_02 32:44

Yes. Thirty-one years, I'm not gonna walk around in the backyard and knock on the door if I can't get you at the front. That's what I'm gonna I'm not gonna go any further. Uh there's no reason for me to be in your backyard, right? Uh the rule four says that I'm just simply to deliver the documents. I don't have to, I don't have any authority whatsoever by the state, right? It's just a simple courier of a document, a notification to the individual. But yes, uh, I've seen the guns. People's come out with the guns, people's turn their dogs loose on us. There's there's just been a number of things. And other ones are just, you know, they hate their spouse so much they can't wait for me to get there. You know, they're willing to come meet me halfway.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Oh my goodness. Um let's talk a little bit about um. Let's talk a little bit about uh what is the best type of work you do in your investigative work.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Me. Um the company does a lot of things, but I enjoy the surveillance. I enjoy the cloak and dagger. You know, I I enjoy the I don't hunt, I don't fish, I find no enjoyment in that, right? It's just not exciting or thrilling. My thrill is to be in a car trying to follow someone who doesn't want to get caught doing what they're doing. Or be with close proximity to obtain the evidence. That's my that's the thing that still makes me the most nervous after 31 years is following people around town. You never know if they're on to you, they're gonna lead you into a place where their friends are. Uh if they're just driving you around to make you look foolish because their husband has hired you and they're in their emails and they can see that they've hired you. Right? We've we've had that before.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

What is the longest you've ever sat on surveillance uh in a case?

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Uh probably two days with no sleep. Two days. Yeah, you're you're uh I know I can't match yours. You you run with absolutely no sleep, but probably about you gotta remember you're in a vehicle, right? And you're hunkered down, and depending on what I call the comfort level, can you crank up and turn your air or your heat on? Can you maintain a sense of the environment where you're comfortable? Otherwise, you'll sit there and cook in the summertime. Wintertime you freeze. So depending on the comfort level really dictates how long you can go and still not lose your sanity sitting inside that same seat for 30 hours straight. The longest I followed probably would be from somewhere in north Tennessee to Birmingham and then from Birmingham to Ohio for a court case. He was a truck driver. He was injured in an accident, claimed an injury. He lived in Tennessee, he had to go to Birmingham to meet with his lawyer, so we brought him down, followed him down, and then he drove all the way to Iowa or Ohio or wherever this place was. It was a like a 16-hour follow on a car. It's a long time.

SPEAKER_03 36:04

Uh and and SPY Front does a lot of work for insurance defense firms as well.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yes, we do a lot of claims.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

A lot of claims. And and you see them, Joe. You've seen the people that come in that want to file a claim that's really not hurt, and you've seen the ones that are entitled to the actual money for the injury.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Yeah. Yeah. Um I was talking to you a couple weeks ago or I was talking to Corey and y'all were working a case. And I can't remember which one of you it was, said you were driving to y'all were going out of state or going to Tennessee or or Mississippi.

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Tennessee.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

Tennessee.

SPEAKER_02 36:43

When you called, I was in Mississippi heading to Tennessee. Yeah. Upper corner north of well, let's just say almost to Arkansas. Wow. It's um when you we had to go there, uh, it was something. Remember the super secret thing you broke a couple of weeks ago we weren't supposed to talk about. Oh yeah, not gonna say that again. Yeah. But we well, I'll just say it. I mean, we we can see certain cellular devices. And of all the cellular devices in the United States, we were we ran a comparison and was able to show that there was only one cellular device that and we'll making the city up, we'll just say that was in Atlanta at a certain address and in Arkansas at a certain address. Of all the cell devices there, there's only been one cell device that's been located at both addresses. Well, then we know naturally she's no longer, say, in Atlanta, she's in Arkansas. And then that's that's where we were headed, was just to confirm the theory.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

When you get a new case, how how do people reach out to you to hire you or Corey for an investigation?

SPEAKER_02 37:53

Uh there's an intake on the website. There is a cell phone you can always call and reach someone at, uh, and you just start talking and we kind of hear what your lawyer wants from us, what your lawyer needs you to have.

SPEAKER_03 38:05

But sometimes people call you outside of a lawyer.

SPEAKER_02 38:07

They call you outside of a lawyer. We will ask and hope that they go see a lawyer, especially if it's a divorce action. You know, uh there's really nothing else someone's gonna call us about, much less besides a bug sweep, phone sweep, some of the other services. But if it's a surveillance investigative activity relative to a divorce or a custody, we want to hear from your lawyer also. Because what that person wants is an emotion. What the lawyer needs is maybe type entirely something different, right?

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Yeah, we had that conversation the other day.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Peace of mind or piece of evidence. It's it's it's two different things.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

Well, sometimes what the client wants, the client can't hell.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Um Well, I love the ones that call and say, I want everything. Well, what do you mean by I want to know everything? I want to know when they go to the bathroom, I want to know when they leave work, who they're talking to, and just well, everything costs a lot of money. You can't give someone everything on a budget. So we we start backing them down to to say what is relative. Is it is this something that is actually bothering you that that that an attorney can argue in court, or is this just something carrying over from the marriage and you want peace of mind? Yeah. And that's where it goes.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Yeah, and and Corey worked a case for me a couple months ago. We knew that one spouse was cheating, and we just wanted confirmation, I think, for the other spouse to justify the divorce. And Corey was really good. We set the other person up. We said, Hey, we're going out of town. That gave the other spouse thinking this uh window of opportunity. Window of opportunity that, hey, he's gone. I can go do what I gotta do. And Corey was like, Hey, I think this is time we can catch. the cat and the mouse. And he was absolutely right. And we did it not once, but twice in that case. And both times were totally successful. And why I'm getting to that is Corey was being smart. He was being a good steward of the client's money, not wasting their money, saying, hey, let's, let's, let's, you know, let's break this window down to when we think we're really going to get a good bang for your buck and not waste your money and get you what you need so that you can justify what you're paying us for.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Experience helps pull that out. Com context from the lawyer, context and conversation from the client helps us narrow down the calendar hours, the watch hours of availability. And you have to remember that short of a trip out of town, short of an extended overnight, people have about an hour to an hour and a half in their day to mess around on the spouse. Unless they are in complete control of their schedule throughout the day where the where the other spouse has no idea where they're supposed to be or what they're supposed to be doing. Call it an outsize salesperson, for example. Those people move in and out of the office, out to client's office and back and forth. Those are the hardest because they can pop off for 20 minutes somewhere moving back and forth from a job and conduct the affair. The ones who are locked down from nine to five, who get off at five, it's the five to eight thirty time frame that we're usually working those individuals or 430 in the morning till 730 when they're supposed to be at the gym. But we we typically will work it around your work routine because if you're locked down you can't go anywhere. You're stuck there, right? You don't have the opportunity. So you have a lunch hour opportunity. So why why should I follow someone from their residence in the morning if they're leaving in just enough time to get to work, if that's their normal routine, there's no sense in following that they have to be at work. So maybe we would take those elongated hours that another investigator would you know charge 12, 14 hours a day for and we just apply one hour, two hours for lunch, and then we apply the five to seven time frame depending on what the children's cur curricular activities are that night. There could be a dance pickup there could be a football game practice something that the kid has to be shuffled to. So the spouse that is having the affair knows their spouse is locked down, they have that about an hour and a half window of opportunity. Never thought about that never thought about that. And that and that's the average that's not every time but a general rule is it's outside of the work activity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Work hours I mean yeah except uh when I worked at Alabama Power uh this is a true story folks uh back in the 90s when I worked at Alabama Power there were two employees of Alabama Power that were having an affair together and they were having sex in the Alabama Power parking lot and I had gone to my car to get a pack of crackers honest to goodness they were having sex in the car and I was like oh my goodness I know both these people and it was hard to look at them after that uh knowing what I knew.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Um how often did you shake their hand?

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Uh never after that again and it was hard to even look them in the face because I lost total respect for both of them. One of them was how do you say this one of them reported to the other one. So you know you've got all kinds of issues there.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

You've got labor employment issues you've got infidelity issues there's all kinds of things that were going on there and I lost total respect for both of these people the rest of the time that I stayed Alabama power there's a principle that says you don't do business with people that cheat on their spouse and and the reason is is because you will find yourself in that same letdown feeling about them when you hear the story you see the story. And so you just don't do business with people that cheat. Very good very good advice.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

Yeah um so folks today is January the 10th 2026 as a legal lowdown. This is Joe Ingram your Alabama lawyer we have been speaking today with Jeff Hammock of Spy for Rent. Spy for Rent is your investigator for the state of Alabama. They work throughout the state and if you need them they are the ones I would call uh I have them on speed dial and they have never let me down ever. They are phenomenal at what they do they are extremely reasonable with their prices and being good stewards of your money and trying to get you the result or the satisfaction you need to justify whatever decisions you make that you feel like you need to make in your life. Jeff I think I'll see you again in about four weeks we're going to try to do one spy story a month is what we talked about. So we'll have to think long and hard for the next story we do but I'm sure you can come up with something.

SPEAKER_02 45:38

I well I have some questions for you. Sure. As an investigator of 31 years what is it exactly when a client comes in and let's say you hear on the horizon in the conversation you foresee that there's probably infidelity or there's some type of uh we'll just stick with infidelity right in the marriage. How do you convey to the client that you need an investigator and this is why you need the investigator for the infidelity. Especially when the one the spouse and they often sit there and say I just want out I just want gone. I don't want to go through this I just want I just give me the papers today I'll sign them and I'm gone. And you're looking at it going this is an 18 year 22 year marriage your adult kids are gone so there's no child support but you've never worked you have alimony due to you how do you convey to them the need to take that uncomfortable step because people tell us all the time I've never done this before I'm uncomfortable talking never thought I would have to talk to a PI because we have this this persona of being shady and wrong and we you know wrong may be the answer shady right unscrupulous but uh we're not we're actually a pretty professional organization I would think you're very professional good staff very professional so you and Corey are extremely professional.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

No so I had one the other day um if I have the spouse that is not the breadwinner and you're looking at a long-term marriage for alimony um and you have pretty good indication that there is infidelity I say look we need this evidence to try to to get you alimony or get you half of the 401k or half of the of the uh you know the value of the marital assets to get you the full value people that are going through a divorce Jeff right then it's an emotional decision 12 months down the road 18 months down the road it becomes a business decision and I say I don't want you to look back in a year and say you know what I should have listened to Joe. I regret it now I let him off the hook I should have gotten more.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

You're you're acting on emotion.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Yeah and I tell them I'm not emotional you're emotional you have blinders on I'm being extremely objective about your case and so that's how I tell it to the wife now if I have the husband and I also had this in another consultation this week long-term marriage uh we're pretty sure the wife's doing something the husband works about 16 hours a day he's a great breadwinner for the family he's never home the wife tries to keep him away from the house we know something's going on I said we need this evidence because it will keep down the amount of alimony she's going to try to get out of you for the rest of your life and I couldn't convince him to do it. He said Joe I just want out.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

I don't care I just want out I said fine but I make them sign something that in my practice so that they don't come back later and say you know this was a long-term marriage the evidence was available my lawyer advised me to go do some discovery do some evidence do some investigation and I didn't take his advice so they can't come back later and make a claim against me for malpractice as a divorce lawyer you ever bought a car you go in that little room you get the show the salesman that's just really pushing you and pushing the papers in front of you and six months down the road you can't afford the payment you can't afford the insurance it's a piece of crap car and you have what we call buyer's remorse. And when a lawyer sits down with you in a courtroom environment trying to negotiate your case into a settlement and you take the first offer that comes across on that paper or you go against what that offer is from your lawyer, what they're urging you for, you're gonna have buyer's remorse in six months. Six years you're still going to be writing that alimony check and it's easier to reduce it than it is to stop it. It's cheaper to pay to fight to have that monthly stifling reduced in the beginning than it is six years from now when they're cohabitating. Yeah. And get the alimony terminated. So listen to your lawyers and if they put you something in front of you and it's on paper you just have to look and decide if that's what you're buying today if that's the car you're taking folks you had great advice today that was Jeff Hammock of Spy for Rent.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

Spy for Rent are your investigator in the state Alabama we'll be back after the break okay thank you if we need to after this legal health after we can go ahead and forward go after this weight for news and we have it fighting lawyer with the highest ratings for honesty and integrity to answer your legal questions and get you the help you need. You are listening to a legal loadout with your lawyers go in the money Go Ingram Go Ingram has more than 20 years of experience fighting for his clients here in the state of Alabama go focus in criminal defense and family law you don't have to face your legal into it go in them on your side of expensive legal matters you can always win to reflect go goingla.com and wind up and all around good today's January 10th 26th we're back to the second hour of the legal lowdown with Joe Ingram your lawyer on WERC Birmingham 105.5 WBHP 102.5 in Huntsville and WRTR 105.9 Tuscaloosa thank you John he looked at me he's like yes Joe's filing the night drinking he got it right got it right Tuscaloosa um if you're listening to our podcast please download it share it like it with your friends if you're like the content go to your app on your phone the iHeartRadio app click on that that's the spy for rent hotline you can leave us a message you can ask us anything you want to ask us provide any content you want to know about in the future so we're back for the second hour and uh if you were with us the first hour Jeff Hammock was our guest for the week Spy for Rent and we're going to talk about some national legal news we're gonna talk about some state news and then we're gonna talk about some personal injury information the second hour.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

So if you listened last week we were talking about this story. I did not know John that Saturday night what I talked about was about to happen. Folks last Saturday night President Trump raided Venezuela and took Manduro in the night I did not know that was going to happen a few hours later. That's got to be the biggest story of the week and there is so much disinformation out there. You can't take a sitting president of a foreign country the UN's all up in arms this is illegal this is wrong. Folks you're all wrong let me tell you why one this is the same thing that Pappy Bush George H.W. Bush did in 1989 in December he took 27,000 troops he took Norega out took him to Florida he was indicted in federal court for drug trafficking he was convicted there you go same thing and by the way history always repeats itself if you'll think back or if you go back and do a little history or do a little googling if you do any research at all President Reagan made the same offer to Norega as Trump did to Maduro he said just go away and you won't be prosecuted Well neither one of them took the bait and both of them got what they got so what does that tell you Trump is a little bit right like Reagan. If he says he's going to do something folks I think he's gonna do it. There you go. Oh and a side note the other day um Venezuela is trying to get their gold back their gold bullion back there is approximately three uh billion dollars of gold in the United United Kingdom Bank of England that they're trying to get unfrozen it is still there. Well in 2020 uh Maduro filed a legal action to try to get the money back the gold and it went all the way to the United Kingdom Supreme Court and they said no uh we've had elections in Venezuela and the duly elected of Venezuela is a man known as Juan Guardo said no the money will stay frozen or not the money the gold will stay frozen in the Bank of England bank and that's where it's sitting today. The reason I think they were trying to get some money back, they're trying to hire some high profile defense lawyers for Maduro to fight his case in uh up in New York in the Southern district. Folks I'm going to tell you how this is going to play out it may take a year it may take two years when this is over he's going to be convicted and he is going to spend the rest of his natural life in what we call Supermax out in Colorado I predicted it and that's where he's going to spend his time okay second big story of the week nationally I want to talk about this this really is important the mayor of New York the biggest city in the United States is run by a socialist of the Democratic Socialist Party of America he took the oath on the Quran I don't care about religion except to the extent your religion becomes like a zealot okay second of all he just appointed someone to his cabinet named C make sure I get this right C Weaver she is a socialist as well she put out two tweets one in 2019 that said ownership of a home was white privilege no it's not and she also put out a tweet in 2017 that said elect more communist can you believe that how in the world did the CIA allow Mandami Mandami whatever you want to call him to get elected the mayor of the biggest city in the United States not only is socialism on our shores knocking on our door in the seat as the the mayor of the biggest city in the United States it's very scary what's about to happen. And by the way during his speech when he was put into office I want to make sure I get this correct I don't want to misquote this really bothers me. Where are my notes? Oh this is what he said at his speech we will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism that is double talk for we will come take your property and redistribute it to the poor who are lazy who will not work and those who want to live off the government that is a dangerous quote of a fantasy that has tried and never worked in places like Cuba China Russia and Iran and we'll get to Iran in just a minute okay whatever happened to the to the segment of Governor John Winthorpe of Virginia that said that the United States is the shining city on the hill that's what we are we are a democracy where the strong will survive and those who who do well will conquer. That's what America's founded on not this kumbaya crap of let's all sit around and share what we have no that doesn't work and I don't want it to work I want the best to survive that's my thoughts on it. So that's that's the big city out of New York that bothers me. We talked a little bit about Iran last week if you remember guess what folks this week's going on in Iran there is a huge revolt and As a matter of fact, the Iranian regime is trying to block the internet right now because two major cities are under attack. They have set government buildings on fire. Iran could fall as a regime. I don't know if they will because they don't have any support over there, but it's close. Iran is in trouble. Thanks to President Trump. That's another big story to be watching. Some news. If you own a business, for anyone who owns a business, the IRS, the IRS just came out with some new standards for 2026. And the mileage rate for business use went up two and a half cents. Well, Joe, that's not a big deal. Well, you're wrong. We're up to 72 and a half cents for every business mile you drive. I drive a lot of business miles, so it does add up. And by the way, the prices of gas are coming down, so you're getting a double savings there, thank President Trump. If you had uh sleepy, crazy Joe Biden or laughing Kamala, you would still probably be playing paying close to$3 a gallon for gas. And they would, you know, want to do away with all the gasoline in America, by the way. Thinking about divorce news of the week, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, the Urban Cowboy, is what I call him. They settled their divorce case this week, like most people should. And what do you mean by that, Joe? Well, they came to a settlement outside the press. Nicole's going to take her net worth. The urban cowboy, Keith, is going to take his net worth, and the two teenage daughters are going to come see him every other weekend. You keep your case out of the public opinion and you keep your case out of the public record. They sealed the record. There's nothing you're going to see there. That's how high-profile people generally take care of their divorces. So good for Nicole and the Urban Cowboy. Some Alabama legal news this week. We're going to be talking about election news all year long, folks. Joe, who is Wes Allen? Wes Allen is the current Secretary of State. He decided not to run for a second term for the Secretary of State. He decided to run for lieutenant governor. And he's got a clear shot now that A.J. McCarron got out of the race. I don't care about your football, Alabama Auburn crap. A.J. McCarron had no business being the lieutenant governor of Alabama. He had never even voted. He didn't know anything about politics. Anyway, Wes Allen has just reported at the end of December he has raised just over$1.8 million in his war chest, which means he has double the number two candidate on the Republican side for lieutenant governor in the state of Alabama. That gentleman is named Rick Pate. He is the agriculture and industries commissioner. And he has just raised over a half a million dollars. But by the way, he had to loan himself$100,000 of that$500,000. So what does that tell you? He is way behind in collecting money for the race. My guess is that Wes Allen will probably win the primary. And once he wins the primary, it's just a given that he will be the next lieutenant governor of the state of Alabama. On the Democratic side of the lieutenant governor race is a state representative named Philip Ensler of Montgomery. Folks, he raised just$54,000 closing the end of December. Of that$54,000,$20,000 came from one individual in Birmingham, Alabama, who I'm not going to name because I don't want any uh blowback from that person. What does that tell you? He doesn't have a prayer of winning the race. There you go. Some really good legal news this week that we need to talk about. There was a case argued before the Alabama Supreme Court this week related to whether the police have a right to ask to see your ID or your driver's license if the police suspect you of probable cause. That case was argued before the Alabama Supreme Court this week. And how this case got started is back in 2022, there was an investigation in Childersburg, Alabama, and the police could not find the suspect. So they were walking through a neighborhood. They walked up to a gentleman. They said, What is your name? What are you doing here? Can we see your ID? And the individual said, I'll give you my name. He wouldn't give them his ID. And so the police got mad and they arrested him for my favorite charge, John. Obstruction of governmental operations. Joe, what is that? That is a charge that the police use when they have nothing else to charge you with, but they want to make your life hard. What I mean by that is you're going to be arrested. You're going to be put in the back of a patrol car. You're going to go somewhere. You're going to be fingerprinted. You're going to have your mugshot taken. You're going to be charged with a crime. You're going to have to defend yourself, spend some money, or have a public defender for obstruction of governmental operations. He fought the case, and it went all the way to the 11th Circuit in Atlanta in 2024. And in 2024, the 11th Circuit said, We do not believe you had probable cause to arrest him because he didn't show you his ID. They dismissed the case. But in a little twist, and I found this really interesting. The Eleventh Circuit said, We want the Alabama Supreme Court to hear this case. You tell us. You tell us, does the police have the right to ask to see your ID or your driver's license if they suspect you of probable cause? Do you have to show your identity in that situation? So they had horal arguments this week in this case. Stay tuned. I will give you the outcome because it will have a big decision on all criminal investigations going forward. So, yes, this is really an important case, folks, that we need to watch. So pay attention to that case. Next case I want to talk about. This next case troubles me on so many levels. The Walmart off Lakeshore. Have you heard this, folks? Was set on fire again by three juveniles. And guess how much damage was done? Approximately five million dollars. Hello? This was done back in August. And at that time, I went and looked it up. They said that the damage was roughly$130,000. Why in the world, if you're upset and you're got some cause, you go set a Walmart on fire? I don't know. And I'm a criminal defense lawyer. To the tune of$5 million. Allegedly, two of the people that were arrested are 15, one is 16. The 15-year-olds are going to be charged in juvenile court. The 16-year-old is being charged as an adult with arson, which is a class A felony. Hello. Now I'm not saying he's going to be convicted, but you know there's all kinds of cameras in Walmart. Look up. If he is convicted, he has ruined his life. Why did he do this? Where were his parents? What are his role models? What is his cause? Why did you do that? So many questions there that bother me. On so many levels. It really does. The decisions you make today, as my mother used to tell me, Joe, the decisions you make today can and will affect the rest of your life. There you go. So don't go set Walmart on fire, especially on Lake Shore, because I got stuck in traffic that day. And I said, What's going on? And then somebody told me. So that's my story about the Walmart fire. You're listening to The Legal Lowdown folks with Joe Ingram on WERC here in Birmingham. We're going to be with you the entire year. We're also on up in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. Welcome to the broadcast. If you have any questions, you can call my office 205-825-5297 or 205-825-LAWS L-A-W-S. See how it spells? 5297. Very good. Speak to either Holly or Elizabeth. We'll get you in for a consultation. My office represents people in divorce cases. My office represents people for modifications of divorce, prenups, uh, post-nupes. Joe, why would I get a post-nup? Well, I'll give you a perfect example. Let's say you've been married for 10 years, and the marriage is pretty good, and you got pretty good assets, and one of the spouses commits infidelity. And you go to marriage counseling and you want to reconcile your marriage, but you want just a little bit of insurance in case something happens in the future. You get what we call thus a post-nuptial agreement. And did one of these uh one time and uh you put in there that we are not gonna commingle funds anymore, we're gonna keep everything separate. And in the event you do X, Y, or Z in the future, this is how the marriage will end. Thus, you don't have to go file go hire a divorce lawyer and fight for all your assets. We've already determined what's going to happen if you do your bad behavior again. That is the reason for a post-nuptial. And by the way, President Trump's probably done a postnuptial three or four times with Melania. Uh and he did it again when he got back in the White House. Melania's deal keeps getting getting sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. So that's what the purpose of a post-nupti is. Uh, we represent people in criminal cases. And take aside what I just said about the Arson case. Yes, I do represent people and I do advocate for them on a really strong basis. But I don't like people to make stupid decisions. We represent people in federal criminal cases. We represent people in state criminal cases, and we represent people in municipal court cases all the time. So if you have a criminal case, you can call my office 205-825-5297, or you can look us up on the web, joeinggramlaw.com. We also represent people in personal injury cases, and we will talk a little bit about that this hour. We represent people for auto accidents where you're not at fault. Someone hits you, you're not at fault, you have injuries, you go to the doctor, you need compensation. Thus, you come see me. We may file a lawsuit on your behalf if you have damages. If you're injured in an uh accident with a tractor trailer, I talked about this extensively last week on Corridor X. It bothers me tremendously that there are not any cameras for video surveillance on Corridor X. We need to work on that, folks. I've talked to some state legislators uh throughout the state. Um this is a very big need. That's a big, very big stretch of interstate, and there are not any cameras there. I think we need it. Uh we represent people in motorcycle accidents. Uh, gave you the example last week. I talked about those people that drive those high-speed motorcycles uh that weave in and out of traffic. We represent people that are hurt in motorcycle accidents. We also represent people that are injured that are uh pedestrians in a crosswalk. Yes, I'm a perfect example. I was running one day and I was hit by a truck and a crosswalk. Running. We represent people for slip and fall cases. You don't see those as much because generally speaking, if you have a business, whether it's a grocery store or a McDonald's or a gas station, if you have wet areas, you're pretty good about having a sign available to put out that says caution wet area. So they're covered themselves, and if they've got a camera up, unless it's just extremely negligent, um, it's gonna be hard to win a slip and fall case. But it's still a case you can file if you have injuries, because they probably have insurance. Okay. So those are the kind of cases we do. Um we're gonna take a break here in about two minutes, and we're gonna come back for the last segment of the show. Um that you're listening to the legal lowdown with Joe Ingram on 1055 WERC here in Birmingham, uh 102.5 WBHP in Huntsville, and 105.9 in Tuscaloosa. I got it right a second time, and John's shaking his head. He gets going, yeah, Joe's still not an idiot. He got it right twice today. Yes, a clock is right twice a day, and I am too sometimes. So um stay tuned for the last segment of the legal lowdown. As always, you can go to the iHeart app, the little radio app on your phone. That is the spy for rent hotline if you want to reach out to us. We've had some folks call my office in the last week, John. We've had one person that keeps calling repeatedly, almost stalking me. It's kind of scary in a way. Um I'm not taking your case. I am not tanking your case. I'm not even taking your calls. Please quit calling. Uh, we have a conflict of interest. You've been to every plaintiff lawyer in town. Nobody wants to take the case. You know who you are. Quit calling my office. Okay. Just quit calling. We're tired, we're tired of hitting the delete button. Anyway, we'll be back after the break, folks, for the final segment. We're almost home. Baby back.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:57

Going, if you need confidential legal help in, we can't go after it. Goinglive.com. Stay tuned for more. Joe will be right back after this plane for the news and weapon. You are listening to the legal lowdown. Let's go inward. Go is the clear veteran of the Alabama courts specializing in criminal defense and family law. If you need a private legal consultation, email at JoeIngramLaw.com. And now welcome back to the Legal Lowdown. Let's go Ingram. Alright, Rebeye.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:32

Listen to the Legal Lowdown. This is Saturday, January the 10th, 2026. If you're listening to the Legal Lowdown with Joe Ingram, your Alabama lawyer on WERC in Birmingham, WBHP in Huntsville, and WRTR in Tuscaloosa. This is the final segment of the week. So we're talking a little bit about personal injury cases. The most common type of personal injury cases are car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, and bicycle accidents. Folks, if you have a personal injury case, please call my office 205-825-5297-205-825-250 or WALLS LAWS if you need a consultation. There are slip and fall cases or what we call premises liability cases. That is a situation where a property owner has a duty to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition. If you are injured or someone on someone else's property due to a hazardous condition, thus, if you're in the grocery store and there's milk all over the floor, or if you are in a gas station and there's beer all over the floor, uh call my office. That is a premises liability case. Uh dog bite case. You see these all the time now where um people live in communities where there are leash laws and they don't have their dog on a leash, and the dog runs out and bites you uh and you get injured in some way, maybe the dog has rabies or the dog has injured you really bad and bitten your leg. That's a dog bite case. Well, it might be covered under the family's um homeowner's insurance policy. They have insurance for that, and you can recover damages for that kind of case. Uh workers' compensation cases. We talked a little bit about workers comp last week.

unknown 1:18:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:39

There was an old wise tell back in the 70s and 80s, I think. Um do not do not tell somebody you got hurt at work, you'll lose your job. That's not true, folks. Um the laws have changed tremendously over the last 50 years. If you get hurt at work, you need to report the injury when it happens. And they'll either tell you to go to a ER doc or they'll report you to a nurse or they'll tell you to go get treatment. Um if you're hurt on the job, tell them go get treatment. Don't wait and say, I got hurt a week ago. That's not gonna help your case. I'm not saying that you still don't have a worker's comp claim. I'm just saying you're gonna make it harder if you're really hurt on the job. Go get treatment for your accident. And by the way, don't tell the nurse or the doctor or whoever I got hurt on the job and I'm gonna sue them for everything they got so I don't have to work anymore. That's not true. They're gonna write down every word you say. Workers' compensation in the state of Alabama is based on a scheduled basis. Joe, what do you mean by a scheduled basis? Well, everything under workers' compensation has a value. Uh, your fingers are what we call a scheduled value. Member, your pinky, your thumb, all these are scheduled members. Your arm is a scheduled member. Uh, your leg is a scheduled member. The things that fall outside of the schedule are parts of your body like your neck, your back, your spine, uh, your shoulders. Those are non-scheduled member injuries. Those are the type of injuries that um would get you more compensation or more value if you're hurt on the job. I am told that the worst surgery you can have is shoulder surgery. I am told that it's even worse than back surgery. Um, shoulder surgery can be very, very hard to overcome and takes a long time in therapy to go through if you have shoulder surgery. Uh, if you have a worker's comp case and you file a claim and they fire you for no reason, you may have a cause of action for um firing you after you file a worker's comp case. That is a separate and distinct claim. I've had a couple of those in my career. Uh I had one that was a total knockdown. They had no reason to fire this gentleman. He was a veteran. He was replacing a keg in a bar. He dropped the keg on his foot, broke his foot, and they fired him the next day. Well, hello. Not only did they have to pay him for his broken foot, they ended up paying more for wrongful termination than they did for the foot. And just as a side note, uh, I had a case one time where an employee was killed in the line of duty. Uh, the most you can recover for that is 500 weeks compensation. And you're thinking, well, Joe, that's not a lot. I know, but that's the law in Alabama. So you take what the person makes a week, you multiply it, but multiply it by 500, that's the most you're going to get for the compensation if you get killed in the line of duty. There you go. That's something to think about. What are the kind of damages you get in a personal injury case? Well, you get past and future medical expenses. You get the uh expenses for going to the doctor, and you get expenses if you have to continue to go to the doctor when the case is over. You can recover for lost wages and loss of earning capacity. If you're off work and you don't work for a year, we take what you make, that's a loss of your income. Let's say you get totally permanent disabled and you can't work anymore. We look at what your future compensation would be based on the number of years you would work in your life, and that would be your loss of future earnings. Property damage. Let's say someone takes a car and destroys your home. What would it cost to rebuild your house? That is the value of what the property damage would be in that situation. We also have what is called non-economic damages. Joe, what in the world is that? Well, let me break it down in very basic terms. Pain and suffering. Pain and suffering. I hate those terms in a way, but they're they're real terms. Your pain and my pain is a different level of pain. What is painful to you is not painful to me. A shoulder surgery is very painful. Is a broken foot painful? Yes. Is it more painful than a shoulder surgery? I think not. It's common sense, folks. Pain and suffering. Loss of enjoyment in life. What does that mean? Well, let's just say that you were into fly fishing and you lost both your legs, which means that you're probably not ever going to go fly fishing again up in Montana in the rivers. And uh that's something that you enjoy doing every summer. Loss of enjoyment, fly fishing, permanent disability or disfigurement. What does that mean? Well, maybe you lost your leg. You're totally disabled. You've been disfigured in some way. Maybe you've been an accident in a burn case. Maybe your face was totally burned off on one side. Maybe they've repaired it the best they can. You're going to be totally disfigured the rest of your life. That is a disfigurement wages compensation. So, how does a personal injury case work? Well, generally you go hire counsel, they may get the police report. Uh, they're going to see if the other side has coverage. They're going to send you to doctors, they're going to send you to treatment, they're going to wait till you're fully reached full capacity of being rehabilitated, and then they're going to try to settle your case. Now, generally speaking, in the state of Alabama, a personal injury case has a two-year statute of limit limitations window, which means that you have to file a lawsuit within two years from the date of the accident. So if you go to some of these personal injury lawyers, they will wait till the 12th hour to file a lawsuit. Yet if it is a significant injury, you don't wait two years. You go ahead and file the lawsuit now, and you work through the process. It depends on the type of injury you have on whether or not you go ahead and file the lawsuit. And people always ask, Joe, why does it take so long to settle a personal injury case? Well, you're dealing with an insurance company. You're dealing with an insurance adjuster. They have hundreds of claims. And so you file your claim as soon as possible and you update the insurance adjuster routinely on your client's injuries and their treatment and what's going on so that they know what's coming. And as soon as the client has reached their limit of where they're going to get back to, then you file your demand letter. We demand X amount of dollars for my client's injuries. And then the adjuster takes it and looks at it, and they know what the value of a case is. Well, they have to run it up the chain of command. They have to run it up to their supervisor to say, we caught we're going to offer X for this claim. Well, you're not obviously going to take the first offer. Just like when you go buy a car, you're not going to take the first offer. So you have to negotiate. That takes time. You have to navigate the legal system. So it takes time. So, folks, uh, my advice to you is to contact a reputable Birmingham Alabama injury lawyer, such as myself, if you need to file a personal injury case. That is my advice. What are some of the questions I get for personal injury cases all the time? Joe, how much is my personal injury case worth? Well, that goes back to the old answer I got in law school all the time by the professor. It depends. I hated that answer. It depends. Well, it's true, folks. The value of your personal injury case depends on a number of factors. The severity of your injury, the amount of your medical bills, the amount of your lost wages, the extent of your pain and suffering. Remember that word again? Pain and suffering? Those are all things that we take into account to determine the value of a personal injury case. Joe, how long is my personal injury case going to take? Well, again, it depends. The length of your personal injury case varies on the complexity of the case and the injury and the willingness of the insurance company to offer to offer a fair settlement of your case. Some cases are resolved in a matter of months, and some cases take years if you have to file a lawsuit and go through the court system. It's just a fact of life. What should I do immediately after an accident? After you are safe, you should seek medical attention. You should get a police report. You should get copies of your medical records. You should get information, insurance information from the other party. You should get their name, their number, their email address, a copy of their insurance card with your iPhone. All that's good stuff to have. And do not make a statement to an insurance adjuster if you're going to hire a personal injury lawyer. We talked about this last week. They are going to record that statement, and that statement is going to stick with you, and you're stuck with that statement. What kind of evidence is important in a personal injury case? Evidence is your medical records, police reports, photos of your injuries, photos of your car, photos of the other person's car, videos of the accident. A number of people now are riding around with dash cam videos in their car to make sure they have evidence so someone can't say that they rear-ended them. That's good evidence to have. Evidence of your injuries. Witness statements. Maybe you have someone that witnessed the accident. You get their name, you get their number, you get their email address, you have counsel, you say, can my lawyer contact you to get a witness statement? Oh, absolutely. That lawyer needs to get that statement immediately, get it recorded, get it under oath. That way you have it for future reference if it takes a long time. You need that statement. Documentation of your lost wages. How do you do that, Joe? Well, how long were you off work? I was off work six months. Let's get a letter from your employer. Let's get a letter from HR to show that you didn't have any wages in the last six months. There you go. There's your evidence. You build a strong case to present to the insurance adjuster to get the best value for your case. Will I have to go to court? Well, that depends. Most personal injury cases settle outside of court. It's just a fact of life. Uh, but if the insurance company is unwilling to offer a federal a fair settlement and you have to file a lawsuit, then you could have to go to court and have a trial if necessary. So those are the kind of questions I get asked all the time in personal injury cases. What if the insurance company offers me a settlement? You should never accept a settlement offer from an insurance company without first speaking with a personal injury attorney. Insurance companies are in the business of making money, and their initial settlement offers are often less than what you would be entitled to. That is just a fact of life. So seek counsel before you take the check, even if you need it really bad. What are some of the causes of car accidents in Alabama? Distracted driving. This is one of the biggest causes of car accidents today. Folks, people are looking at their phones. I drive down 459, I drive down 280, I look over next to me. Everyone is looking at their phone, texting and driving and texting at the red light. Put your phone down, folks. Distracted driving. Speeding and aggressive driving. Everyone that drives on 280 and 459 think they are in a race car out at Talladiga. 65 does not apply anymore. 75 does not apply. I'm even guilty of trying to get up near 80. Speeding and aggressive driving is the major cause of car accidents. Drunk driving or driving under the influence. You'll see this on Friday and Saturday night. You'll be going down the road, you'll be behind someone, you'll see them weaving over to the right or weaving over to the left and crossing back over the line. Those are folks trying to get home that had too much to drink at the bar or too much to drink at dinner. Those can lead to car accidents. Someone that is driving that is fatigued. Well, this is primarily truck drivers that are trying to deliver loads. I'm not picking on you truck drivers, but there are laws under uh DOT for the number of hours you're supposed to drive and the number of hours you're supposed to be off between your scheduled driving hours. I know you're on a schedule. I know you're trying to do your job, uh, but I see truck drivers all the time that are weaving over lanes and you know that they need to pull off the road and get some sleep. Running red lights and stop signs. You don't see this a whole lot, but it happens, uh, especially on 280. Uh, I get it. You want to get to the next light because everybody's trying to get down 280 to down to Greystone area. So you just think you're gonna run that light right past the summit. Bam! You hit them, you tattoo them, you ran the red light. Following too closely. Uh, you see this a lot in traffic. Everyone's trying to get to the same destination at the same time, either eight in the morning or five in the afternoon. Everybody's driving bumper to bumper traffic. You're following too close. It becomes a three or four-car pile-up on 65, 459, 2059, Corridor X. Following too close, tailgating. Weather conditions. I don't know what it is about the state of Alabama. When it starts raining, everyone starts driving exceptionally slow like they've never seen rain in their life. And what is it about folks that literally come to a stop to turn the car? Folks, you're turning the car. Don't stop. Just turn the car. Rain is a huge factor in accidents in the state of Alabama. God help us that we don't have snow like they do up in Minnesota. We we would just shut down. We would be, we would be just shut down the state because we can't drive in the snow. Poor road maintenance. This is where I get to pick on the city of Birmingham for a second. Birmingham has the worst roads I've ever seen in my life. Potholes, uneven pavement, all these other defects. UAB is constantly building a building, digging up a road. They never repave the road. UAB, if you're going to put up a new building, I'm glad that you are. I'm glad that you're here, part of the community. Repave the streets around the new building you put up, please. So those are some of the common causes of car accidents in the state of Alabama. What are some of the injuries you get from a car accident? Traumatic brain injuries, concussions, they can have a lasting impact on your cognitive ability and your quality of life. Whiplash, neck injuries. Folks, you can be in a car wreck, get hit at 60 miles an hour, throw your neck, you don't realize it for a day or two, and then you go to the doctor, and then you go, you have to start seeing a chiropractor, and you have some severe neck pain. It happens. You're not faking it, it's real injuries. Back and spinal cord injuries. These can cause paralysis and permanent disabilities for life. These are when you're going to the hospital in the back of a paramedic truck. Broken bones and fractures. You can be in a car wreck. You can break your leg if you're hit the right way. You can break your arm. The airbag can deploy in your face, and it causes significant injuries to your face. The airbag can deploy on your right side if you're the driver. It can cause injuries to your shoulder. You'll have redness, you'll have swelling. You can even have bleeding. Those can cause significant injuries to your body as well. Internal injuries and organ injuries. These are the kind of car wrecks that where your car is totally destroyed, maybe even flipped upside down. These are life-threatening injuries where you're going to be in the hospital for a long period of time and need serious recovery. And then there are lacerations and scarring where maybe your head hits the windshield. You got to get a couple stitches in your head. That's still an injury. You're entitled to compensation for that as well. Psychological trauma and PTSD. That is not fake. That is not legal jargon to get you money. That is real. I had a client one time that had a car wreck on 280, and she came back two years later and she said, Joe, every time I'm on 280 at that red light, I am reminded of the day I had that car wreck and I relive it. You can have psychological trauma or PTSD related to being in a car wreck, and it is real, and you may need to get counseling for that. And there's nothing wrong with that, and there's not a stigma related to it. So that's some of the information to talk about personal injury. We'll talk about more in the coming weeks. Folks, you're listening to The Legal Lowdown with Joe Ingram. You're a Birmingham lawyer on WERC. My phone number is 205-825-5297 or 205-825-LAWS L-A-W-S. See how that spells out? You can always call us if you need representation in a divorce case. You can call us if you need representation in a criminal case, and you can call us if you need representation in a personal injury case. You can speak with Holly or Elizabeth. They will get you in for a consultation. We had Jeff Hammock of Spy for Rent, our major sponsor today. He came in and gave us his spy story for the month. It was very entertaining. Jeff has great stories. If you need an investigator in the state of Alabama, folks, please call Jeff Hammock or Corey Fuller, Spy for Rent. They are the guys to know. They are the best investigators in Alabama, and they are my exclusive investigators that I use for process of service and my domestic relations work when we have to do forensics on cell phones or bug sweeps or anything like that, or do an investigation of infidelity. Spy for rent are the guys to know. So we've talked a lot today about personal injury. We've talked about some legal news nationally. We talked about some state legal news. It's going to be interesting in the next week to see what comes out of Minnesota. I think some big news is about to hit in the next week. People are about to seriously be indicted, and I'm talking about major politicians. It's coming, folks. We're getting close. They're at the door. Just hang tight. I'm not going to be wrong on this one. So if you're listening to The Legal Down Low Down, please download, like, share my podcast. Become an avid weekly listener to the show. Tell us what you want to hear. Tell us what you want to talk about. Tell us what you need to know. We're going to br provide guests every week. Um our guest next week is going to be Judge Philip Behackle. He was a former family court judge in Birmingham. He is now a practicing attorney that practices primarily divorce law in Jefferson and Shelby County. Judge Behackle is going to be in the studio with us. You're going to want to listen, you're going to want to tune in, you're going to hear what he has to say. He is an excellent lawyer and he has good information. We're about to call it a day. Thank you for listening to Legal Lowdown. Want to leave you with my final thought of the week. One of the most powerful forces in life is being able to do something and reputation over and over and over again. That's how you start to build movement. That's how you build results, build a body, build a business, whatever you want to do. Have a good week. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:45

Thanks for tuning in to the Legal Lowdown with your lawyer, Joe Ingram of Joe Ingram Law. Don't forget to follow Joe's Legal Lowdown Podcast on iHeart. If you need a private legal consultation, reach out to Joe on his website, JoeIngramLaw.com. Tune in again next Saturday for the Legal Lowdown with Joe Ingram. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by any other lawyer.