Your Right To A Hearing (1972)

It ain't going to work, Mrs. Eaggan. What do you mean it's not going to work? You haven't paid a rent for 4 months. Mr. Scott, I told you that I'm going to get you a check. When the check gets here, then you will get in the room. A landlord can no longer lock out a tenant. The tenant first has the right to a court hearing. It's always at the bottom. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Put your wrong check there. This is only for one day and I worked a full week. Maybe you haven't paid your bills and they might have garnished your wages. I worked a full week. I had no control over that. Pay your bills. Wages can no longer be garnished without your first having the opportunity of a hearing. [Music] Oh no. Personal property can no longer be repossessed from your home against your will without giving you a chance to tell your side of the story in court. [Music] Ernie Salsburg. It's me serving you with a municipal court summon on the attached complaint. Whoa, wait a minute. You don't understand. Hey, I'm sorry. But it's like a Hey, listen. I'm sorry. Look out. Hey, what is it? I'm three months behind on my guitar amplifier. Got 30 days to answer this. Come up with a whole thing. 760 bucks. Or else. What else? What? Or else? No guitar. No guitar. No group. No group. No gigs. No gigs. No money. No money. No gigs. says here, "If you wish to seek the advice of an attorney." Oh, the money. What's to defend? I don't know, but a lawyer might. Yeah, for more dough, we don't have. Yeah, but I heard when you're broke, they're free legal services you can go to. I think there's something called the Neighborhood Legal Services Society. Well, Barney, you got to try. Well, try, but I don't think it'll do any good. It's too late. What can I do now? We can file a written answer to this summon and as long as we can come up with some kind of a straight answer about why you haven't paid, you have a right to a hearing in court and maybe we can work out something in front of the judge about the payments. So they can't just take my guitar or my pay. That's right. In most states, they can't take any of your personal property except for a car in some situations until you've had a hearing before a judge. So as long as we can file an answer to this thing in time, you have a right to a court hearing. It sounds too complicated. Let him try to take my guitar. Hey, wait a minute. Come on back. Sit down. It's really not that much trouble. Why don't you just tell me the whole story? Well, I was working with my band for a while. And uh we've been practicing pretty regularly and it was sounding pretty good. And the rest of the guys in the band have pretty good instruments. Figured it was about time I got a new guitar and an amplifier. So, I went down to the music store and I found a guitar I really love. [Music] Hey, now here's a young man's really got taste. Beautiful little instrument, isn't it? Yeah. Let me tell you something. We have a special on this. I can knock $50 off the tag price. How do you like that? 50. And we can give you terms. Real good budget terms. Low as you need them. Don't have to worry about paying less than you would. I figured besides my regular job, I'd make up some of the money playing jobs with the band. Mr. Macintosh there checked up my age which was 18 and he gave me a contract to sign. Now let's see a couple of vital statistics. You're 18 I think you said 18. Good. Are you married? No. Not married. That's about it. About it. Anything else? That's all you All right. You may step down. I would just like to add one word. Um, my client does not contest his obligation to pay under this contract, but I would like to point out that uh Mr. Macintosh's store is filled with signs offering bargains and special budget terms, and it's very enticing, and I I think it would be easy to understand how a young man like my client might be led into taking on more than he could uh really pay for. Boy, I can understand that readily, counselor, and thank you. And I guess Mr. Macintosh that we ought to reflect upon the fact that if your merchandise weren't advertised in such an alluring way to younger customers that perhaps you wouldn't find yourself in a courtroom like this seeking either a repossession or some kind of an arrangement. On the other hand, Mr. Saltsburg, you are 18 years old, which means that you have the capacity to enter into contracts. And what that means, of course, is that you have to be responsible for the debts that you incur. uh this was a valid contract. This merchant uh dealt fairly with you. Uh he checked your age and so on and he entered into a binding contract with you. You're liable to pay him the sum of money. Beyond that, you could have avoided all of this hassle. As a matter of fact, if you had simply gone down and talked to the man and explained your problem as it is, all he could see was some kind of a ripoff was going on. Now, I gather from what you said on the stand that uh in fact if he allows you to keep this equipment uh then you in the next 90 days would be able to get off these back payments. I guess he's got some engagements lined up with the equipment and then be able to keep the payments going regularly after that. Now, is that true? Yes, sir. All right. What about it, Mr. Macintosh? You know, actually, if you were to go along with something like this, you'd save yourself a good deal of time, headaches, and and some money. I think your lawyer will tell you. So, how about it, Mr. Macintosh? Are you willing to give it a try? Well, sir, if the boy had even telephoned me and explained his problem instead of just ignoring my bills, I might have been willing to wait, but not now. I I think he's the He's made a good suggestion. Your honor, if the court wants to defer judgment until we have had an opportunity to meet with Mr. Saltsburg and his attorney and work out a new payment schedule, my client will be happy to have this case taken off calendar. All right, counselor, it's so ordered. Now, Mr. Saltsburg, I want to put a couple thoughts into your computer before you leave the courtroom. First off, you were wise to answer this summons. There are people who don't, and those people just get into trouble. Uh, first off, uh, what happens is that the judgment is entered against them. It's a default judgment. They're just as liable as a result of that judgment as if they had come into court and argued and presented evidence and lost. Uh, that judgment then is entered, as I said, and it results in a bad credit rating. a bad credit rating can really upset your your life and future years, family life and whatnot. Uh, and it still could happen in this case now if you don't pay very serious attention to whatever arrangement that you work out with Mr. Macintosh. Uh, you're going to have to abide by that agreement when you reach it. Otherwise, that equipment's simply going to be repossessed. In short, it's a heavy situation when you don't stick up to your obligations. Now, you're lucky. Mr. Macintosh did not have to to make this agreement. He was legally entitled to get this judgment and then get execution on that equipment. But apparently, it looks promising that you're going to have some kind of an arrangement that's going to bail you out and let him get paid. All right. Now, that's all I wanted to say. Play my guitar. [Music] [Music] [Music]