Speaker 1: Get up, gett boys. It's back and reoaded. All in
Speaker 1: your mind. Yeah, not deep throating. This is for the streets,
Speaker 1: the reel, the railroaded, the distant franchise, the truth, the scapegoating,
Speaker 1: and they ain't knowing we speak the truth, so they
Speaker 1: quoted because we wrote it. The North South East coat
Speaker 1: is the gv my for keeping your head bobbing. It
Speaker 1: ain't no stopping and wants to be try to head
Speaker 1: by then the system is so corrupt they throw the
Speaker 1: rock out their heads and then blame it on us.
Speaker 1: Don't get it twisted on code and me and dancing
Speaker 1: for no Buttoment biscuits. It's Willie d y'all scar faces
Speaker 1: in the building. Collectively we are the ghetto boys, reloaded
Speaker 1: with another episode of information and instructions to help you
Speaker 1: navigate through this wild, crazy, beautiful world. In the studio,
Speaker 1: Family attorney, child support activists Cassandra Daniels, Hey, y'all, hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me if I feel so honored to
Speaker 1: be here. You don't look like an attorney, like a
Speaker 1: regular right, what I'm looking like look like everybody's gonna
Speaker 1: be hiring you already. H that's what they need. That's
Speaker 1: what they need to do, whatever that look is. You know,
Speaker 1: I always thought it was interesting, like you know what
Speaker 1: you do? Uh. I know that you're a family attorney,
Speaker 1: but like, like, explain this dichotomy of being a family
Speaker 1: lawyer and a child support advocate, whereas you know, your
Speaker 1: primary focus is the cohesiveness of the family, correct me
Speaker 1: from wrong cohesiveness of the family, while at the same
Speaker 1: time advocating for the parent who has to pay child support.
Speaker 1: You know, does that ever become problematic? Well, it's not
Speaker 1: a dichotomy for me, um, my approach to there. You know,
Speaker 1: your approach to your profession is unique to you, right,
Speaker 1: So you I can be in it for the money,
Speaker 1: I can be in it for trying to you know,
Speaker 1: separate families. I could be in it for a saving family.
Speaker 1: So it's it's what it's an individual approach. My approach
Speaker 1: to what I do as a family lawyer is just
Speaker 1: about advocating for what's right. Right, So in the divorce
Speaker 1: case that maybe representing the wife, representing the husband. It
Speaker 1: just depends on the facts. Um. The reason why as
Speaker 1: a family lawyer and just as a human being, I
Speaker 1: ride for and I advocate for child support reform is
Speaker 1: because of the injustices that I see as an as
Speaker 1: the law is applied in real life. What are some
Speaker 1: of the injustices you see? So, like, I have a
Speaker 1: client that that's the one that I've been really talking
Speaker 1: about a lot, Like Lee. So I have a client
Speaker 1: his one of my clients cases. Um, he is currently
Speaker 1: still paying child support or has an obligation to pay
Speaker 1: back child support for a child that has been determined
Speaker 1: that it is not his by DNA evidence. And we
Speaker 1: had our day in court. We lost because we did
Speaker 1: not file our suit. Timly, that's the only reason why
Speaker 1: I was thrown out because it we did not file
Speaker 1: our our suit before the expiration of the statue of limitation.
Speaker 1: So for here, for, here, for and forevermore he will
Speaker 1: be on the hook for paying over forty dollars in.
Speaker 1: That's Christopher Crin, Christopher Kron. So yeah, this is a
Speaker 1: wild case to me because this guy, they proved that
Speaker 1: he was not the father and then the DNA test
Speaker 1: results got lost. Family, listen to what I'm saying. The
Speaker 1: state claims that they lost the DNA results, They lost
Speaker 1: the results where they determined paternity, and then they said
Speaker 1: that he waited too long to prove that he wasn't
Speaker 1: the father. Yeah, there's a four year statual limitation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that he had. There's absolutely nothing that can be done.
Speaker 1: That's bullshit. Yeah, there's absolutely nothing that Now. The only
Speaker 1: thing according to the state law right now, that that
Speaker 1: that's a remedy left for him. He can follow a
Speaker 1: petition to have his parents child relationship terminated. And what
Speaker 1: that would do for him is because when you have
Speaker 1: when you owe back child support, there's arrears, there's I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: there's interest at a cruise six at this point. And
Speaker 1: so if we follow the petition determine the parent child relationship,
Speaker 1: then it will stop the arrears from a crewing on
Speaker 1: the forty thousand and he has, but it won't wipe
Speaker 1: away what he has what he owes currently. And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, does who gets I don't know. I'm assumed
Speaker 1: to go back to the state. I'm assuming it goes
Speaker 1: back to the state because they don't go to mom
Speaker 1: and Christopher's case. They said that, okay, we won't charge
Speaker 1: you for what your old mom, but we need our
Speaker 1: peace right. So what does federal law say? So, so
Speaker 1: all of this comes down from what they call Title
Speaker 1: four D, right, and that that comes from the federal government.
Speaker 1: And that's that's a title. That's not that's not a law.
Speaker 1: That's just well, it's it's it's a provision of the
Speaker 1: law from the federal government that deals with child support.
Speaker 1: What does the Constitution say. The Constitution doesn't speak specifically
Speaker 1: about child support. So why is this in the law? Now,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. I'm just saying, right, I get it.
Speaker 1: So there are, like I said, on the on the
Speaker 1: federal level, there are acts and provisions that have been
Speaker 1: implemented as it relates to the Social Security Act. Right,
Speaker 1: we know the Social Security Act. And under the umbrella
Speaker 1: of the Social Security Act is the welfare well welfare
Speaker 1: programs that deals with you know, all the stuff that
Speaker 1: we know about Medicaid and and food stamps and and
Speaker 1: TANNEF and all of that. And then underneath that umbrella
Speaker 1: as well is titled four D, which deals with child support,
Speaker 1: establishment of paternity, establishment of child support. And a lot
Speaker 1: of this is in connection to the welfare system because
Speaker 1: it's an opportunity for the states and the federal government
Speaker 1: to reimburse themselves for the cost of these services and
Speaker 1: benefits that they provide to families. Wouldn't that be considered
Speaker 1: like that dabtor's jail like debtors. Isn't that like illegal? Right?
Speaker 1: So we need to address this ship bro, Like this
Speaker 1: is getting out of hand. So a lot of people
Speaker 1: I've heard it. I've heard it, Um, I've heard that
Speaker 1: that assimilation being made that to you know, debts, dabtis, prisons,
Speaker 1: and and the collection of child support. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I can make that connection because I can only
Speaker 1: speak to you from what I understand about the law
Speaker 1: and Texas law at that. Right, Um, people are not
Speaker 1: being thrown in jail specifically because they owe money, right, Um.
Speaker 1: A lot of times people are thrown in jail. They
Speaker 1: can be thrown in jail for the non payment of right,
Speaker 1: but they have to show. In order for someone to
Speaker 1: be thrown in jail for a non payment of child support,
Speaker 1: after finding enough criminal contempt, it has to be shown
Speaker 1: that they had the ability to pay, but they just didn't,
Speaker 1: so their their their violation of the court order by
Speaker 1: not paying was willful. That's what has to be shown
Speaker 1: for them to go to jail. Yeah, but that's the
Speaker 1: easiest part in the world to show. Why do you
Speaker 1: say that, because I mean, I know a ton of
Speaker 1: people that did I went to jail for this ship.
Speaker 1: But did they show that it was did they show
Speaker 1: that I went to I went to jail. Uh and
Speaker 1: and with the ku klux klan. Oh yeah, because that
Speaker 1: that lady, that white judge, it was a lady. Um
Speaker 1: what's that ladies name? She didn't want to hear none
Speaker 1: of that. I was like, man, I've been, I've been,
Speaker 1: I've been. Uh, I don't know what. I don't know
Speaker 1: what had happened. But I had already paid it. I've
Speaker 1: already paid it once. Right, it's already been paid once.
Speaker 1: You got a lawyer, I did, but I think the
Speaker 1: lawyer wanted my money. Yeah, so the lawyer wanted the money.
Speaker 1: See when I've already paid child support already, like an
Speaker 1: astronomical amount of money. But if you don't pay that
Speaker 1: money through the courts, yeah, man, yeah to the person.
Speaker 1: Let the court paid the the person. Right, that's a
Speaker 1: great point. Then that's a gift. Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1: That's a great I got screwed, Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1: So what he what he's talking about is um, one,
Speaker 1: if the state prefers that all child support payments go
Speaker 1: through the state. What does the state have to do
Speaker 1: with the relationship between the kids, the mom and the father.
Speaker 1: What does the state have to do with this? That's
Speaker 1: that's that's okay. I I think that's a great question.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great question. And I can't speak
Speaker 1: for the state. I can't speak for the federal government.
Speaker 1: I can only tell you what they say, right, I
Speaker 1: can speak for the state and the government. It's about money,
Speaker 1: like everything else, it's about that money. Mean is it's
Speaker 1: about the money. It's about the money with the state
Speaker 1: and the government. But I don't even think it's about
Speaker 1: the money. I think it's about tearing the family apart,
Speaker 1: especially with black people, and ultimately that boils down the money,
Speaker 1: right because why why else what they want to task apart?
Speaker 1: But but to keep their foot on our neck, right,
Speaker 1: that's what to try to make sure that we remain
Speaker 1: a permanent under class. And then when you catch a
Speaker 1: professional child supportmociply, who doesn't you don't care about none
Speaker 1: of that? Who don't know what the what's what's going
Speaker 1: on between the government and black men? They down with
Speaker 1: the government because they want to turn they I mean,
Speaker 1: they government want them to turn their backs on us
Speaker 1: just as they have. You know, before we go, before
Speaker 1: we go any further, let's let's be crystal clear that
Speaker 1: we when we talk about child support reform, uh, we're
Speaker 1: not riding for dead beats. We're not riding for dudes
Speaker 1: who don't take care of their babies, the dudes that
Speaker 1: try to uh circumvent their parental responsibilities. We're not talking
Speaker 1: about those dudes, you know. We're talking about the guys
Speaker 1: who the government in the state takes advantage of, who
Speaker 1: when they know this guy as a job and he's
Speaker 1: just getting by and they come in and take everything
Speaker 1: he got, and it's it gets to a point of
Speaker 1: where it d be like, man, you know what, I
Speaker 1: may as well not work at all. I'd rather not
Speaker 1: even work at all then to go on record and
Speaker 1: just be working basically to get this woman some money.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you question. So if the government it's saying, um, well,
Speaker 1: I think that the state or not I'm sorry I
Speaker 1: was the state says well, I think that the best
Speaker 1: um way to fix this is that you pay you know,
Speaker 1: a month to the man. Shouldn't a lady be responsible
Speaker 1: for the other seven fifty shouldn't be a split since
Speaker 1: it's half a kid. I'm just asking you mean in
Speaker 1: general child suport in general, the period if if if
Speaker 1: I got to pay, if I gotta pay fifteen hundred,
Speaker 1: you gotta pay the half because it's half your kid
Speaker 1: and all my faults. And I shouldn't be soldly responsible
Speaker 1: for the money part because you got a job too.
Speaker 1: So the idea, the idea behind the child support is
Speaker 1: there's one parent that's going to be the custodial parent
Speaker 1: in Texas, that parents has the child. I think, like
Speaker 1: I think the break up break down on is like
Speaker 1: percent the time, it's not the noncustodial parent only has
Speaker 1: the child on the first, third, and fifth weekends. But
Speaker 1: he's okay, so he's only he's only responsible. He only
Speaker 1: has the child what a a time, But he's responsible
Speaker 1: for responsible. Then it's not because in theory, when the
Speaker 1: with the kid is with mom, she's providing for the
Speaker 1: mom financially. That's not true. Why do you say that?
Speaker 1: Because the money comes out of the man's pocket. The
Speaker 1: man a paying rent, the man a paying ship. A
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of that child support payment does
Speaker 1: go towards But let me be very clear. Let me
Speaker 1: be very clear, Okay, I don't have a problem with
Speaker 1: the child support system in in and of itself. I
Speaker 1: understand the concept, the concept behind it all is to
Speaker 1: make sure that both parents are contru being financially to
Speaker 1: the care for that child. I don't have a problem
Speaker 1: with that. That may have been the right so on
Speaker 1: the base level, on the base level, right that on
Speaker 1: the base level, that is the way that child support
Speaker 1: is designed, and I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 1: It's all the other laws and requirements and stuff that
Speaker 1: murky up the waters. Not even a law, it's a statue.
Speaker 1: It murkey's the murky's the water. So for for instance,
Speaker 1: so you're saying that some of the child support does
Speaker 1: go to pay the written all that, But the thing
Speaker 1: about it is child support, how much you pay as
Speaker 1: a as a non constodial parent. It's going to be
Speaker 1: based on your income. It's got what they call guidelines
Speaker 1: child support, So it's going to be a percentage based
Speaker 1: on the number of children of your net monthly income.
Speaker 1: So you may not be paying fifteen hundred dollars if
Speaker 1: you're not, if you're if it's dollars, is not and
Speaker 1: you've got one kid. If that's not your net monthly income,
Speaker 1: you know, are gonna be paying. You're gonna be paying
Speaker 1: based on your income. So some people are receiving two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, some people are receivings. Some people are receiving
Speaker 1: thirty dollars. I get that, but but here's but I
Speaker 1: got to pay exactly that. I got that. But for
Speaker 1: the for those cases where the system is clearly flawed
Speaker 1: and it doesn't it's not working out for the woman,
Speaker 1: you know, the custodial parents, they should not overstep their
Speaker 1: boundaries to try to make other others like compensate for
Speaker 1: the money they didn't collect from. These guys that ain't
Speaker 1: really making any money, are really making any substantial contributions.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that that is happening? Because they
Speaker 1: want the money. It's all about the money. When you
Speaker 1: how much money does a kid need to get by?
Speaker 1: Think about this some some there are some people that
Speaker 1: collect a hundred thousand dollars in child support every money,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty thousand in child support every single but that, yeah,
Speaker 1: but that that doesn't make sense, man, do that that
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense? And that lets you know that lets
Speaker 1: you know, look let's go back to Christopher Crump's case.
Speaker 1: Christopher Crump, the state said, look, your old party. But okay, okay,
Speaker 1: we believe you you're not the father. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to give her any of that
Speaker 1: back money. Uh, we still want to what if it's
Speaker 1: about child, or if it's about the child? What what
Speaker 1: does what does the state need money? They don't care.
Speaker 1: That's not about the child. Will they don't give about
Speaker 1: the child. That's my point. They shouldn't be called child support.
Speaker 1: They're not here to They're not here in interests of
Speaker 1: the father, the mother, or the childer in there for
Speaker 1: the interests of the state. It should got nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the kids. It should be called attorney general
Speaker 1: support or state of state support. Government support. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you follow it, if you follow the if you
Speaker 1: follow the laws, even from the federal federal level on down,
Speaker 1: it appears as though it is a money thing because
Speaker 1: they forced you to pay, Like you were just saying,
Speaker 1: if you don't pay through the state dispersement unit, then
Speaker 1: it can be categorized as a gift. That makes no
Speaker 1: sense to me, right, if I am paying money to
Speaker 1: this household where my child is financial financial contribution for
Speaker 1: the care of my child. It's it's financial contribution. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's going through the state or if
Speaker 1: it's going to through the dispersed dispersement unit or to
Speaker 1: her directly. It's still it's still for the care for
Speaker 1: my child. So why then does it have to go
Speaker 1: about the term of our definition of a gift because
Speaker 1: it wasn't given, it wasn't paid through the dispersingment unit.
Speaker 1: The only justification that I can come up with that
Speaker 1: is that they want to force people to pay through
Speaker 1: the disbursement unit. Now why do you why why do
Speaker 1: you want to force people to pay through the dispersement unit.
Speaker 1: Why because from the federal government down they get the
Speaker 1: state gets to charge you administration fees for processing those payments.
Speaker 1: So there's a there's a certain amount that they withhold
Speaker 1: from everybody's child support. If you are a recipient of TANNIS,
Speaker 1: if you are a recipient of Medicaid, you actually assign
Speaker 1: over your rights to the your child support. It's no
Speaker 1: longer your you don't even have rights to it. So
Speaker 1: when you when you make the statement about um, other
Speaker 1: other child support payers are carrying the load or the
Speaker 1: brought for other other other other people who are paying less.
Speaker 1: I think you made a statement that was that was
Speaker 1: kind of cant to that. The way where I see
Speaker 1: that happening is is when in these cases when a mom, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, in my hypothetical, a mom is receiving TANNEF
Speaker 1: or medicaid, right, and you've got two moms, right, temporary
Speaker 1: assistant for temporary assistance for needy families, that's what it's
Speaker 1: called in Texas, so they actually get money money. So
Speaker 1: so if you've got two moms that are on TENNIF, right,
Speaker 1: this mom a her baby daddy is supposed to be
Speaker 1: paying her two hundred dollars a month in child support.
Speaker 1: Mama be her baby daddy is supposed to be paying
Speaker 1: her twelve hundred dollars in child support. The state is
Speaker 1: gonna take depending on what states do win. They're taken
Speaker 1: all of it. They're taken the two hundred and they've
Speaker 1: taken the twelve hundred and some states well. And this
Speaker 1: is all sanctioned by the federal government that that the
Speaker 1: states have um you know, you know, taken on as
Speaker 1: as a part of their own laws as well. So
Speaker 1: the states get to decide how much of the child
Speaker 1: support that they will pass through to those families. Right.
Speaker 1: Some states don't pass through any they take the whole
Speaker 1: two hundreds, they take the whole twelve hundred. Right. Some
Speaker 1: states passed through fifty dollars. Right, So then how is
Speaker 1: that equitable? And you're doing this under the under the
Speaker 1: guise of this is a reimbursement for the for the
Speaker 1: cost of the benefits that you're receiving. But there should
Speaker 1: be a dollar amount that's attached. If I'm getting tan,
Speaker 1: I we both getting tanned, there should be a dollar amount.
Speaker 1: I should be able to get a receipt from the
Speaker 1: government from the state how much you paid me in
Speaker 1: in for this tannent that I'm receiving, and then let
Speaker 1: me pay you that. Right, But that how it's arbitrary
Speaker 1: because no, so now you're taking my two, you're taking
Speaker 1: the twelve. But if it only costs five, then the
Speaker 1: one that you took twelve from what that seven at?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. So I don't understand a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how it works. I don't understand how
Speaker 1: it works that in my in my my mind, question, counsel,
Speaker 1: what's the best way to go about rectifying, like fixing this.
Speaker 1: What do we do to fix this? Great question? So
Speaker 1: that's what me and my and my my colleague, my
Speaker 1: my new friend Kenya rock mind. Um you entered. She yes, Yes,
Speaker 1: So she's been. She's been rallying behind this for a
Speaker 1: very long time. Sheld, we need to put some light
Speaker 1: on what she's doing. Absolutely, she she wrote a book
Speaker 1: called The Child Support Hustle. Um, she's been. Yeah, she's
Speaker 1: been out here like trying to write, writing bills, making
Speaker 1: proposals and a very's very active and she's been active
Speaker 1: for a very long time. I only know not the details.
Speaker 1: I know in general that because she and I talked
Speaker 1: about this, that her and I hope I'm getting his right.
Speaker 1: Her child's father was on child support. She didn't want
Speaker 1: him to be on child support anymore. She tried to
Speaker 1: get him off child support. They wouldn't allow him off
Speaker 1: child support. I remember she was telling me that she
Speaker 1: was receiving tannef and she wasn't getting his child support
Speaker 1: payments begin again because she had to assign her rights
Speaker 1: to it, so she wasn't getting his payments. Um. She
Speaker 1: told me that she had quested a statement she wanted
Speaker 1: to know exactly how much have y'all paid me or
Speaker 1: paid and benefits towards to my benefit. And she was
Speaker 1: never able to receive any type of statements or received
Speaker 1: to be able to see exactly how much she had
Speaker 1: received in benefits to see if it reconciled with how
Speaker 1: much they've taken from her child support. So that's that's
Speaker 1: how she got motivated in it. And so you introduced us,
Speaker 1: and so I said, okay, well I'm gonna I'm a
Speaker 1: legal profession I'm a lawyer, so I know the legal
Speaker 1: aspects of this. So I wanted to lend my voice
Speaker 1: to what she was already doing. And instead of me
Speaker 1: recreating really the will, I said, okay, well, let's partner it.
Speaker 1: We both have the same goal, we both have the
Speaker 1: same mission. Yeah. So so to answer your question, what
Speaker 1: do we do? We want informed, the informed the public
Speaker 1: because a lot of this stuff people don't really know,
Speaker 1: Like the stuff that I'm talking about. The it's called
Speaker 1: the Work Opportunity and Personal Responsibility Act that was passed
Speaker 1: by Bill Clinton. Um, I think it was a nineties
Speaker 1: six Um, A lot of people don't know. It's not
Speaker 1: common knowledge. Um. The the aggressive enforcement measures that that
Speaker 1: were um I guess um past in that act and
Speaker 1: how we see now it in our in our day
Speaker 1: to day lives with people's licenses being suspended and all
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff. All that's comes from the
Speaker 1: federal how's suspending one's license. It's all tactics too, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tactics to try to force people to be complicit.
Speaker 1: And so so what I do is that what we're
Speaker 1: trying to do is want to educate the public on
Speaker 1: the fact that these things are occurring and the fact
Speaker 1: that there's an issue. Many many men. It's mostly been
Speaker 1: men in the past that have tried to sound the alarm,
Speaker 1: but they got slapped down and you know, coined as
Speaker 1: debbie dads. Nobody, nobody cared. But Kenya and I both
Speaker 1: have the same story and that we were both recipients
Speaker 1: of of chills. I used to receive chall support. One
Speaker 1: after my divorce, I received child support. I benefited from
Speaker 1: child support. So I understand how a single mother or
Speaker 1: a single non couse odo parent could you know, be
Speaker 1: benefited from the from receiving child support. But as a
Speaker 1: legal professional, being on the front lines and seeing these
Speaker 1: people's lives and how they are being um, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, disenfranchise and harmed by the application of these laws.
Speaker 1: I see that, and I and I recognize the flaws
Speaker 1: in the system. So it's about bringing awareness to the public,
Speaker 1: creating enough noise to work. This is a conversation that
Speaker 1: people are having. And then it's now you know, beating
Speaker 1: down the doors of you know, legislators on the state
Speaker 1: level as well as the federal level and making these
Speaker 1: you know, drafting these bills, drafting these proposals for um
Speaker 1: new legislations and amendment to current legislation, and not being
Speaker 1: quiet until somebody said, opens the goddamn door and let
Speaker 1: you in. You know what I'm saying, Yeah, let's come
Speaker 1: back to make something. Let's come back to some of
Speaker 1: the legalities of child support reform, and we'll get back.
Speaker 1: We talked about a little about Kenya story, touched about
Speaker 1: on that a little bit. But let's I want to
Speaker 1: hear about your story. I think, I think I think
Speaker 1: our audience want to hear your story. How How does
Speaker 1: how does a girl with uh Instagram model looks become
Speaker 1: a lawyer? Like even aspire to be a lawyer? Tell
Speaker 1: us your story, like how to give us your humble
Speaker 1: beginnings in the show what's that? What do you say?
Speaker 1: Instagram model looks? Have you seen those girls on Instagra
Speaker 1: on Instagram? They so you be Oh goddamn if I
Speaker 1: got to all, who's going to that too? Too? Where
Speaker 1: are you from, Cassandra? So I am from Lake Jackson, Texas?
Speaker 1: You know where that is? Lake Jackson, Texas to dight
Speaker 1: south from Houston. Yes, I'm a country girl and I've
Speaker 1: been in Houston since what two thousand nine? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: you at what point? First of all, how many signings?
Speaker 1: It's eight of us and I am the first four.
Speaker 1: I'm number six. Yeah, I'm number six. Took you that
Speaker 1: loan to figure out what happened? Well, so my father,
Speaker 1: my father was married at four children, and then he
Speaker 1: divorced and married my mother and he had four children.
Speaker 1: So it's is eight of us total four with my
Speaker 1: mom and dad. So I'm second with my mom and
Speaker 1: dad six in the total weight. So how is growing
Speaker 1: up in your household? And what did you were you?
Speaker 1: I guess you were pretty shop in school? Were you
Speaker 1: always shop in school? Or no? I'm an average student.
Speaker 1: I was always an average student when I was in
Speaker 1: law school. My motto was I'm gonna see my way
Speaker 1: out of here. I wasn't. I wasn't trying to win
Speaker 1: no awards, to be on nobody list. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to get out, you know, from you got a degree.
Speaker 1: Can't nobody what they're gonna do. Challenge me because I
Speaker 1: gotta see you in torts, you or whatever. I got
Speaker 1: my j d um. But no, I knew I'm a
Speaker 1: peak So I grew up in the preacher's home, um,
Speaker 1: and I knew I was lucky enough to just know
Speaker 1: early on what I wanted to do. It's very challenging.
Speaker 1: It's hard for young young people to try to figure
Speaker 1: out that one path they want to take for their life.
Speaker 1: But I knew. Yeah. So I knew in the seventh
Speaker 1: grade that I wanted to be a lawyer. And I
Speaker 1: never changed my mind. I never changed my mind about that.
Speaker 1: At that time, I didn't know I wanted to be
Speaker 1: a family lawyer. Lawyer. I just ended up in family law.
Speaker 1: But I knew I wanted to be a lawyer because
Speaker 1: I always was. I was. I would always say back then,
Speaker 1: people get screwed because they don't know their rights. So
Speaker 1: I liked the advocacy part for part of being a lawyer.
Speaker 1: That that's what attracted me, and so I just never
Speaker 1: changed my mind. I ended up in family law because
Speaker 1: out of undergrad my first job in the law office
Speaker 1: was in the family law office. I was doing their billing,
Speaker 1: and then I just because I was in a family
Speaker 1: law office, I picked up on family law stuff, and
Speaker 1: I just stayed in family law. So when I went
Speaker 1: to law school and graduated past the bar, I'd already
Speaker 1: been doing the work as a paralegal for other lawyers.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, I'll just hang my own shingle
Speaker 1: and do it for myself. How many times to take
Speaker 1: you to past the bar? One time at the game.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how big of a deal that was.
Speaker 1: But I know a lot of people that that's that.
Speaker 1: It's been a challenge for that. So I'm fortunate enough
Speaker 1: to be able to that. I was able to kill
Speaker 1: it the first time. Yeah, perfectly, Yeah, I killed it.
Speaker 1: And that's your being a law Why it was that
Speaker 1: I never want to do nothing else. If I was
Speaker 1: if I wasn't doing law, if there was anything else
Speaker 1: that I would want to do and I would love
Speaker 1: doing it would be Instagram mother. Now I would be
Speaker 1: like singing somewhere. I would have a band and like
Speaker 1: just be singing. Can you say, I don't think you
Speaker 1: don't do that? Why are you saying that? Why? Why
Speaker 1: are you discourage me from my dreams. I can hold
Speaker 1: a tune anything, anything, I don't sing for free, go
Speaker 1: to your favorite I don't you're not give something. This
Speaker 1: is the moment when I mean, you said, you said
Speaker 1: if I wasn't, if I wasn't a lawyer, I sing.
Speaker 1: So I mean, just anything proved to us that you
Speaker 1: could have made I don't. Yeah, I will you. I
Speaker 1: don't want I'm not saying that I would have made it.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, this is what I want to. This
Speaker 1: is what I want, lawyer, I show. But I grew
Speaker 1: I grew up singing in the church, right. I was
Speaker 1: the musician at my church. I was the praise and
Speaker 1: worship leader at my church. And I enjoyed it. I
Speaker 1: absolutely loved singing. I still sing now, like to myself.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. So why why why didn't you
Speaker 1: grow up and get into the family business, UM ministry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great question. UM, To be quite honest with you,
Speaker 1: if my father hadn't passed Um, I probably would uma
Speaker 1: passed when my dad passed. Um, I was eighteen when
Speaker 1: I got married, so he married at Yeah. So when
Speaker 1: I was twenty when he passed, I just I just
Speaker 1: turned twenty when he passed. Mm hmmm. Yeah. So I
Speaker 1: was the last one of his daughters that he walked
Speaker 1: down now wo yeah, but had he not passed, I
Speaker 1: would have. Um. The gentleman that I married was a minister. Um,
Speaker 1: he your divorce right. And she said the gentleman that
Speaker 1: I that's respect that that that said something about you
Speaker 1: to be able to say that, because a lot of
Speaker 1: gentle a lot of people are better, you know, after
Speaker 1: they know he's top down on that exit. We at
Speaker 1: that moment like I've been divorced now for almost ten years,
Speaker 1: and believe me, we had Oh god, I acted bad
Speaker 1: at what has acted? Bad man? Man? Bad? Just know
Speaker 1: I acted bad man when we when we separated, and
Speaker 1: because when we separate it I put him out and
Speaker 1: put him. I put him out of his house, of
Speaker 1: his house. I put him out, and he left. He
Speaker 1: left our house and he moved in with this girl
Speaker 1: that he was working with. And he ain't never left.
Speaker 1: He'd been he still that right, web for thirteen years.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good that's a good run. I give
Speaker 1: it a good show. Yeah, remember years. But I acted bad,
Speaker 1: So what does it acted bad mean? I tried to
Speaker 1: amaze him. I remember, you scratched his carb? I probably did.
Speaker 1: I remember. The one thing that stands out in my mind.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what happened. I burned up all his clothes,
Speaker 1: like I took all his clothes out of the closet.
Speaker 1: I did one of those waiting to excel things, put
Speaker 1: them all in the backyard and burned up. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: then I remember, I don't know what happened while I
Speaker 1: was so mad, but I knew he was gonna be
Speaker 1: in South Houston, South Park, as his people used to
Speaker 1: live off re wrote, and I was on the north side.
Speaker 1: And I remember driving all the way over to his
Speaker 1: mama's house, and I was posted up down the street.
Speaker 1: Why was I posted up? Was posted up down the street?
Speaker 1: It was just me. I was posted up down the street,
Speaker 1: and I had his mama's his mama house in my
Speaker 1: eye view, and I saw him pull up with another woman.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't I'm trying to remember why
Speaker 1: I was even wild and all like that, but I
Speaker 1: pulled up. It caused the whole scene. I remember his
Speaker 1: mama coming outside. I caused the whole scene. That would
Speaker 1: have been dope, though like I was blowing the fact
Speaker 1: I was looking at it. I was just like I
Speaker 1: would have been. That would have been good for the story,
Speaker 1: though not like like most of the time when when
Speaker 1: women act like that would dudes because they did some
Speaker 1: ship before? Did you do some ship? I wasn't mad
Speaker 1: at him because he was with that girl. I was,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, my anger with him and the
Speaker 1: times that I acted out was because when he left,
Speaker 1: he just left. He wasn't paying child support. Lord, he
Speaker 1: wasn't helping our financially, and that that those were the
Speaker 1: things that just made me angry. Did he did you
Speaker 1: kick him out? Yeah? But your kids are still there,
Speaker 1: so you want you want to kick him out and
Speaker 1: making you want to come big, come back exactly what
Speaker 1: the money at? Because I gotta take care of these kids.
Speaker 1: And that's why I say, I understand how about the
Speaker 1: child being a child, because there's a difference between I
Speaker 1: think that there is nothing wrong with requiring someone to
Speaker 1: support their children financially. Fine, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: go through the goddamn powers that be to do that. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you're you're right, But unfortunately that's sometimes it's the only
Speaker 1: option because somebody may not. Sometimes that's not sometimes because
Speaker 1: you may have Sometimes you may have an agreement. Okay,
Speaker 1: he's gonna we don't need to go to support. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you money. Okay, he agrees, he gonna give
Speaker 1: you two hundred dollars. Then he's skipping out on the money.
Speaker 1: He don't he's not paying, but the bills keep coming
Speaker 1: every month, and he funny with the money. So now
Speaker 1: you got you don't have a choice but to go
Speaker 1: to the people and put him on child support because
Speaker 1: they're gonna make sure he pay every month. So I
Speaker 1: get it, ladies, I get it. I totally get it,
Speaker 1: but I think it's wrong when you got situations where
Speaker 1: like my guy, he wasn't the father, or I got
Speaker 1: another client. He worked in all in Gas. He had
Speaker 1: a child support order based on what he was making
Speaker 1: at that time, which was good money. He lost his job.
Speaker 1: He needed a modification. So when you lose your job,
Speaker 1: they don't automatically change your child shopart obligation. Not just
Speaker 1: lose your job. But like I know ball players that
Speaker 1: their child shop work was based on what they were
Speaker 1: what they were getting when they were playing ball. They're
Speaker 1: not playing ball no more. The money is not coming
Speaker 1: in the same, but they still on the hook for
Speaker 1: the same amount they can't afford it. Wouldn't it be
Speaker 1: easy if they just dropped it down like they made
Speaker 1: the law, like based on a percentage as opposed to
Speaker 1: a hard number. That that way. So if it's a percentage,
Speaker 1: then if I got just like you automatically take money
Speaker 1: out of my my, my, my, my, my pa, my
Speaker 1: pay check, you know that money could automatically be calculated
Speaker 1: when when you see a drop, you only get in.
Speaker 1: You only get what that number is that I bring in. Period.
Speaker 1: So if I if so, if I'm making you know,
Speaker 1: ten thousand a month, and then you know and you're
Speaker 1: get that's two thousand, right, So if if that if
Speaker 1: that ten thousand drops down to five thousand, you know,
Speaker 1: then we're talking what is that a thousand dollars money? Right?
Speaker 1: And and that that should automatically I don't have that.
Speaker 1: They don't have the um they're not compassionate in the state. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, I absolutely agree with you, and that's
Speaker 1: a part of what I'm proposing, the change that I'm proposing. Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's there's something called the Child Support Incentive Child Support,
Speaker 1: Child Support Performance and Incentive Act, right, and it pays money,
Speaker 1: incentive money incentive payments to the states based on their
Speaker 1: level of performance in four to five categories. I couldn't
Speaker 1: think of the fifth one last night, and those categories
Speaker 1: are the establishment of fraternity collection, I'm sorry, establishment of
Speaker 1: child support orders, collections of child child support and collections
Speaker 1: of arrears and something else I can't think of the
Speaker 1: fifth one. And so what I've proposing is an amendment
Speaker 1: to that Act where they would add as a fifth
Speaker 1: or sixth um measurement modifications, because that's what we're talking about, right,
Speaker 1: If you have a change in your circumstances, you need
Speaker 1: that previous order modified. And it should be automatic, right,
Speaker 1: not automatic, And maybe maybe I don't know if it
Speaker 1: can be automatic in the sense of they detect that
Speaker 1: there's a decrease in your pay and they automatically do it.
Speaker 1: But it absolutely needs to be easily accessible. He needs
Speaker 1: to be easily accessible. I should be able to just
Speaker 1: like my baby mama can just call the Office of
Speaker 1: Attorney General and be like, yeah, this is the baby
Speaker 1: daddy and I need child support, and they pick up
Speaker 1: the ball from there, up I will go. A payer
Speaker 1: of child support should be able to pick up the phone,
Speaker 1: call the Office of Attorney and Journal and say look,
Speaker 1: I lost my job or it's COVID and I've been furloughed,
Speaker 1: and that that's all that needs to happen. The Office
Speaker 1: of Attorney General will pick up the ball to do
Speaker 1: the modification. Just as they are quick about establishing fraternity,
Speaker 1: establishing child support, they need to be just and enforcements.
Speaker 1: They need to be just as quick and automatic about
Speaker 1: doing modifications because that's what's messing people up. That's what's
Speaker 1: causing people. So if you lose your job and you're
Speaker 1: still on the hook for paying a month and you
Speaker 1: ain't got that kind of money coming in, now you're
Speaker 1: in arrears. Now those aggressive collection measures are implemented. You
Speaker 1: can't leave the country, all this stuff. They're taking your
Speaker 1: tax returns, all those things, when all of that could
Speaker 1: be alleviated by just simply making modifications easily, more easily
Speaker 1: and readily available and provided through the Office of Attorney General.
Speaker 1: Currently you pretty much gotta go. Hi, you're a lawyer.
Speaker 1: If you lost your job, how are you gonna pay
Speaker 1: for a lawyer to get a modification? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Is there any time that you feel like
Speaker 1: a client or a potential client may not need your
Speaker 1: services and they can handle that themselves. In regards to
Speaker 1: child support, that's a great question. That's a great question
Speaker 1: the businesswoman and me. The business woman and me wants
Speaker 1: to say, no, you always need a lawyer. There's nothing
Speaker 1: you can do on your own because now you're cutting
Speaker 1: into my revenuence, right. But but I'll be honest about it. Um.
Speaker 1: When it comes down to child support, a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff is done through the Office of Attorney General. And
Speaker 1: again they don't represent you. They don't represen as mom,
Speaker 1: you know. And yeah, you can come in there without
Speaker 1: a lawyer. I don't advise it though. I just don't
Speaker 1: advise it because you need somebody they're protecting your interests
Speaker 1: as a non lawyer. There are some things you're just
Speaker 1: not gonna know, you know. Like one of my clients,
Speaker 1: he's got a child support order right now, that's so crazy.
Speaker 1: They gave they said it's child support. He don't know
Speaker 1: why they said it the way they did. He just
Speaker 1: agreed to it. He's like, I don't know what they
Speaker 1: got those numbers from, Like what you didn't You didn't
Speaker 1: ask the right questions. You didn't you didn't ask, You
Speaker 1: just signed off on it. So that's why I think
Speaker 1: that it's important for you to go down. Can you
Speaker 1: go down and do it without the lord? Yeah? But
Speaker 1: is it a good idea though? Because no one's protecting
Speaker 1: your interests, no one, no one who knows the right
Speaker 1: questions to ask are asking those questions. No one that's saying, Okay, no,
Speaker 1: we don't agree to that, because I know we don't
Speaker 1: have to agree to that. No one is there doing that,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? I think they should have
Speaker 1: like um court appointed child supporting attorneys in the Training
Speaker 1: General's office. You get one, you get one, you get
Speaker 1: an enforcement issue. If it's an enforcement like if they're saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you haven't been paying your child support, it's an enforcement
Speaker 1: case because those are quasi criminal. You can be sent
Speaker 1: to jail for that and then this criminal's criminal contempt. Um.
Speaker 1: They will appoint an attorney for you if you cannot,
Speaker 1: if you're indigent, if you can't afford one. But if they,
Speaker 1: if they accept my proposal, and they and they make
Speaker 1: modifications a part of the thing that's a priority and
Speaker 1: of the services that they provide, then people won't really
Speaker 1: need lawyers. They would just like I said before, it'd
Speaker 1: be that phone call that they would make, the Office
Speaker 1: of Attorney General, would do everything else, would initiate the case,
Speaker 1: all of that, because all they would need to do
Speaker 1: is is initiate the case. Asked for his financials, asked
Speaker 1: for the proof that there's been a change in your income.
Speaker 1: How much you're making now? Okay, now we based child
Speaker 1: support on what you're making now. So I had to
Speaker 1: look it up real quickly. I was trying to remember
Speaker 1: who may who said this quote a man who is
Speaker 1: his own lawyer as a fool for a client. You know,
Speaker 1: that's pretty pretty Abraham Lincoln, he is sucking? Is that
Speaker 1: a Wikipedia? Is that? Wikipedia is everywhere? But Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 1: said that. But you know, I just want to make sure.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, even a broken clocks right once
Speaker 1: twice a day, right, so just because the truth, don't
Speaker 1: care who tell it? Right? So, I mean, but that
Speaker 1: is the truth in my opinion. I just don't think
Speaker 1: it's a good idea. There are are some things that
Speaker 1: family law you can do for yourself, like a divorce case,
Speaker 1: Like if you and your and your spouse y'all have
Speaker 1: an agreement, y'all both want to be divorced, you don't
Speaker 1: have a bunch of property. Or if y'all just have
Speaker 1: an agreement, everything is laid out in y'all agreement. You
Speaker 1: don't need a lawyer for that, and you can go online.
Speaker 1: They got the forms and stuff you can fill out,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, but but yeah, but if you have
Speaker 1: a situation where you you're on trial for double murder,
Speaker 1: did you see that one guy? Yeah, if you see
Speaker 1: the evidence will show show that I did not kill her,
Speaker 1: like y'all said I killed her something. He watched too
Speaker 1: much Madlock. He did too much TV. They would have
Speaker 1: gave my lawyer. I find myself at in the middle
Speaker 1: of the night watching Madlock. Look Madlock, don't sleep on Madlock? Now, okay,
Speaker 1: they should put at the bottom of the television man.
Speaker 1: Who would like some of your inspirations growing up in
Speaker 1: terms of law? Well, that's a great question and interesting answer.
Speaker 1: Nobody I didn't like you knew you like Johnny Cochrane though,
Speaker 1: oh well, yeah, like during the o J I thought
Speaker 1: I was Johnny Cochrane and I wouldn't even know lawyer
Speaker 1: like damn during the o J trial, you know that
Speaker 1: was interesting. But the crazy thing is like I didn't
Speaker 1: idolize any lawyer's I wasn't like that little girl that
Speaker 1: was like looking at all the court shows growing up,
Speaker 1: like I just wanted. I don't know where the idea
Speaker 1: of being a lawyer came from, not even Judge Judy
Speaker 1: or none of that. No, I didn't really Judge. She
Speaker 1: was something I did Judy. I really didn't get caught
Speaker 1: up in that Judy entertainment strictly entertainment. All those court
Speaker 1: shows are just strictly entertainment in my opinion. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: what not all when I watched Judge Mathis, you know,
Speaker 1: I watched dude that he come with conviction. He really
Speaker 1: he lost his my daddy. I've been seeing the stuff
Speaker 1: on ball Alert when he like going off the cup
Speaker 1: time about stuff, right, who George Judge Mathis, No, you
Speaker 1: ain't talking about JD. You're talking about Somebut you got
Speaker 1: to figure out the other black judge, the Black Maire
Speaker 1: Judge Black skin. Yeah, what's his name? Let me google
Speaker 1: that round. Hey, Siri, who Judge? That's going crazy? I
Speaker 1: do not understand. That's Judge Brown. Oh it's Joe Brown.
Speaker 1: What's going on with him? But the thing about it
Speaker 1: is that like Joe Joe Brown. No, the thing about
Speaker 1: it is that he's just he's just the type of
Speaker 1: cat that he's uncompromised, you know. And and see, this
Speaker 1: is when we're not used to We're not used to hear. No,
Speaker 1: I don't clearly I don't have a relationship with him,
Speaker 1: but you hear what I said to him. But but here,
Speaker 1: that ain't the point, bro. The point is. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're a friend of mine. But you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: The truth is the truth. If you're speaking the truth,
Speaker 1: you're speaking the truth. The problem. The thing is is
Speaker 1: that you know, like us, oftentimes, you know, people are
Speaker 1: not used to people speaking candidly, people that are not bought,
Speaker 1: people that stand for something, and even when our opinions
Speaker 1: are unpopular, Uh, it's still our truth. And people are
Speaker 1: not used to that. They're used to people complying and
Speaker 1: being politically correct and and and being afraid to speak.
Speaker 1: Judge Joe Brown is not afraid to speak on what
Speaker 1: he believed to be the truth. And whether you agree
Speaker 1: with him or not, to me, to hear a black
Speaker 1: man speak like that in such a way that he's
Speaker 1: not afraid of the establishment, he's not afraid of the
Speaker 1: dominant society. He don't care about all of these social
Speaker 1: construction constructions, constructs. He ain't tripping on all of that
Speaker 1: he's speaking. And so you're not gonna agree with everything
Speaker 1: he said. Obviously he's not gonna agree. The reason why
Speaker 1: he sounds like he is to some people, he sounds
Speaker 1: unhinged because that's what the truth due to you. The
Speaker 1: truth would make you sound like a radical. The truth
Speaker 1: would make you sound like a radical when you're just
Speaker 1: being a human. Well, you know, when you when you
Speaker 1: when you give him that little explanation, it just makes
Speaker 1: me think about Trump because that's exactly what we don't
Speaker 1: speak the truth. Where you can do that, you can
Speaker 1: speak the truth, you can speak you can speak the
Speaker 1: truth and all of that stuff. And that's fine that
Speaker 1: Trump speaks the truth. My sister speaks the truth, but
Speaker 1: I wouldn't vote for as president. I wouldn't want her
Speaker 1: to be the president. Can you respect him? And his truth.
Speaker 1: I don't respect nothing about Donald Trump. Donald Trump, Donald
Speaker 1: Trump is a sucker. The difference between him and Joe
Speaker 1: Brown is that Joe Brown, Joe Brown loves his people.
Speaker 1: He loved black people, and Trump don't. Well that's Trump
Speaker 1: that I don't think people don't. I really don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think he loved white people because
Speaker 1: if he did, he wouldn't put them in these types
Speaker 1: of these compromising positions like that ride at the Yeah,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't do that. And when he and when he
Speaker 1: when he basically sicked them on the United States, and
Speaker 1: when he sicked them on the United States, he was like, yo, man,
Speaker 1: I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with And then
Speaker 1: when they went out there to do it, Trump was
Speaker 1: hitting the opposite direction. And then they never called him
Speaker 1: and while it was happening, he never called him off.
Speaker 1: The dude is not now we love you that guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that dude, ain't he ain't right? Man? Ain't that something
Speaker 1: I will never forget? You know? They talked about where
Speaker 1: were you when Kennedy was shotting Malta Ki? Where were
Speaker 1: you when they ride when they on the Capital? Man,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there like, be right. I cannot be. This
Speaker 1: cannot be what I'm saying with my own eyes. Why
Speaker 1: does why does the Senate refuse to put that that
Speaker 1: committee in place to really check it out. Man. It's
Speaker 1: so crazy, man, And it's and it's really happened. They
Speaker 1: running for their lives, running from these people, but it
Speaker 1: never really happened. But it's so crazy. It's it's such
Speaker 1: a slap in the face of those law enforcement officers
Speaker 1: that were there that we're trying to protect. You know.
Speaker 1: They want to put that guy that shot that chick.
Speaker 1: They want him, they want him a charge. He shot
Speaker 1: that lady and killed him, the one I was trying
Speaker 1: to get in the well? What was the how was
Speaker 1: the room? It's after the fact, man, I was. I
Speaker 1: was just sitting there and such discussed watching it happened,
Speaker 1: and I said, this is white privilege. This is white privilege.
Speaker 1: Where where is the black Black Lives matter matter? Tear
Speaker 1: gas and all the stuff they was using on the
Speaker 1: Black lives matter? I know, y'all got some o left.
Speaker 1: And then when they came out with new laws that
Speaker 1: same night. There was some stuff yesterday man that was
Speaker 1: mind blowing y'all about Um about slave patrol. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the that's what the slave patrol to pull least,
Speaker 1: and how how they how it started. Not only that,
Speaker 1: but like they don't they don't do that too. It's
Speaker 1: it's only for black people, Like I gotta pull this
Speaker 1: up to y'all, go ahead and let me find it
Speaker 1: because it's only for black people, Like the police is
Speaker 1: only for black people. Mm hmm. That's what I read,
Speaker 1: like it's only for the slaves. Well, you ain't got
Speaker 1: to read that to know that exists. All you gotta
Speaker 1: do it's just watch how they move and watch how
Speaker 1: they deal with people, watch how they deal with us
Speaker 1: versus others. Yeah, if you look at the origin, if
Speaker 1: you trace it back to its origin, right, you trace
Speaker 1: it back to his origin, And absolutely I think it
Speaker 1: is it's aligned with what you're talking about. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think that's the origin of it. So
Speaker 1: it's it's it's kind of um, it kind of makes
Speaker 1: sense that what we see today it still has those
Speaker 1: remnants from the genesis. It's genesis. You know. How do
Speaker 1: you feel about then that many lawyers get just over
Speaker 1: all the culture of law, what people feel that lawyers
Speaker 1: are crooks, and liars, and you know, people as long
Speaker 1: as you shoot them a dollar, you know, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: holly for a dollar. Yeah, that we do have that reputation,
Speaker 1: don't we. Well, I mean, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: And too, you know, I heard not to cut you off,
Speaker 1: but I did hear that the lawyers and then and
Speaker 1: the judges were in cahoots in general. Yeah, well answer
Speaker 1: that question first and then come back. Well, it is
Speaker 1: what it is. I mean, it's a stereotype, right, No,
Speaker 1: No different than a stereotype that they have for black people,
Speaker 1: No different than the stereotype that they have for black women,
Speaker 1: for women in general. So there's a stereotype raps. Right.
Speaker 1: Arguably there is a little bit of truth in every stereotype, right,
Speaker 1: I think, so there's a little you there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of okay when um, so, I don't have a
Speaker 1: problem with it is what it is. I just accepted, like,
Speaker 1: it ain't me, you know, I don't you know, I
Speaker 1: don't do what I do for the money. The money comes,
Speaker 1: but it's not what motivates me. It's not what motivates
Speaker 1: me at all. Mr Crump's case, I work pro bono.
Speaker 1: Now I had to stop doing this because I I
Speaker 1: if someone came to me and they didn't have the resources,
Speaker 1: and I saw that they really needed help, I would
Speaker 1: extend myself and I'd be like, Okay, I got you
Speaker 1: for free ten times out of ten, and I have
Speaker 1: been screwed. No, lie, ten times out of ten that
Speaker 1: I have done that, I have been screwed. The person
Speaker 1: has not appreciated what I've done. It has just not
Speaker 1: worked out. Yeah. So what I started doing was I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I gotta they gotta have some skin in the game.
Speaker 1: They gotta be able to pay me something because I
Speaker 1: need them to be invested in this because this they
Speaker 1: life my mine. So with Mr Crump, that's basically what
Speaker 1: I did. He paid me. He paid me some money.
Speaker 1: You pay me a portion, not not what I would
Speaker 1: normally request. And then I said, Okay, I got you,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I didn't get paid for the bulk
Speaker 1: of his case. I don't. I don't get paid for
Speaker 1: any of the stuff that I'm doing, um, promoting his case.
Speaker 1: I don't. Well, what about taking that portion and then
Speaker 1: after the case is resolved give it backulous I haven't
Speaker 1: been a spent about it. I'm going back and get
Speaker 1: it from Sacks. Listen, listen, I'm just talking, well, what
Speaker 1: what what I'm what I'm doing that what I'm what
Speaker 1: I'm doing is like like I'm just looking at the
Speaker 1: angles here like so I'm listen, I'm about I'm about
Speaker 1: my paper. You know, I love my people and I
Speaker 1: love the community, and I do give as a I
Speaker 1: think that all of us. I think, uh service is
Speaker 1: the greatest like gift that you can give to the world. Service.
Speaker 1: But there has to be a balance, and so you
Speaker 1: can't just be running around here just doing everything for free,
Speaker 1: because then you're gonna be asking for somebody. You're gonna
Speaker 1: be You're gonna become a beggar. Yeah, it's and it's
Speaker 1: hard because, like I said, for me, I'm not motivated
Speaker 1: by the money. So like, um, it's hard for me
Speaker 1: when I'm when I'm having a conversation with somebody and
Speaker 1: you know, I see what they really really really need
Speaker 1: help and they can't afford it. The one guy, Um,
Speaker 1: I mean I took this case. What what why do
Speaker 1: you do that you don't believe money? I mean, the
Speaker 1: money comes, the money comes, I don't have to It's
Speaker 1: kind of like what you're saying is that money is
Speaker 1: not your primary No, it's not the focus. It's not
Speaker 1: the focus. I don't. I don't, that's not that's not
Speaker 1: the focus. I didn't go to law school for them.
Speaker 1: I mean the money is a as a perk, it's
Speaker 1: a perk, But that's not my motivator. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Does that make sense? It's a motivator, but
Speaker 1: not your primary motivation. Maybe that's because the question is
Speaker 1: for me if you were not going to get paid
Speaker 1: at all with a little sick Absolutely, if you do something,
Speaker 1: if you do something for money, you'll never have none.
Speaker 1: But if you do it because you love it, you'll
Speaker 1: never be without it. Who said that, Brad Jordan's Well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you something. Man. Listen, when I was
Speaker 1: a cook for Kentucky friend, I was a cook for
Speaker 1: a business broke into a Kentucky frog. I think that's probably.
Speaker 1: First of all, that was not a Kentucky friends. Secondly,
Speaker 1: that was allegedly allegedly happening on to a Kentucky frien.
Speaker 1: You don't understand what I said. I said first and
Speaker 1: five most allegedly start bringing up pass Now it's cool
Speaker 1: he could bring up pass stuff. I mean you know,
Speaker 1: I got to cover it. I mean, you know, in
Speaker 1: statue of limitations and stuff like that, and I ain't
Speaker 1: tripping on that, but I guess my my point here
Speaker 1: is that I uh, I did not love cooking chicken.
Speaker 1: I cooked it out of necessity to I can so
Speaker 1: I could get a check. So you you were saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, if you love what you do, you always
Speaker 1: have money. I had. I was you never got money.
Speaker 1: Well the reason that I was with I was with
Speaker 1: money was because I was a cook. No what, No,
Speaker 1: there was nothing else. I was doing something that I
Speaker 1: did not love, but I was doing what I had
Speaker 1: to do until I could do what I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: So right now, I'm you know, I'm sitting here, you know,
Speaker 1: and and and you know, having a conversation with an
Speaker 1: attorney and floor shirt you got on looking good, just
Speaker 1: sitting here having a conversation with an attorney. Cassandra Daniels
Speaker 1: and and Brad Jorge. You know, this is this is
Speaker 1: this life is good man. You gotta do is keep
Speaker 1: on waking up, keep on waking up. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: The money is always a motivator, whether or not. The
Speaker 1: question is if it's your primary motivator. I agree. I
Speaker 1: agree with that. Yeah, I agree with that. But there
Speaker 1: are some cases that money for me, that money is
Speaker 1: not the motivator, Like the one case w my guy,
Speaker 1: Oh God, he lost his job and only guess like
Speaker 1: they was he was getting unemployment. They were taking just
Speaker 1: about all of his unemployment. Like he was really struggling
Speaker 1: financially because most of his money was going to pay
Speaker 1: out y'all support and he needed a lawyer. The other lady,
Speaker 1: the mom on the other side, she had to the
Speaker 1: money to pay a lawyer to litigate it. We went
Speaker 1: all the way to trialing that on that issue. Nobody
Speaker 1: else would have did what idea for him. Nobody else
Speaker 1: would have done that. I worked that case for free.
Speaker 1: I worked it for free. He when he initially hired me,
Speaker 1: he had money. He ran out, and what was I
Speaker 1: supposed to drop him? Well, how did he appreciated? Now?
Speaker 1: He is the only one and he knows it. He
Speaker 1: is the only one of the people that I've extended
Speaker 1: myself in that way that has actually appreciated it. He
Speaker 1: said to me, I will work for you. I will
Speaker 1: work for you to pay off whatever it is that
Speaker 1: he does. I'll have him come in and you know,
Speaker 1: do some administrative stuff for me, review my discovery things
Speaker 1: like that. Even still this case is yeah, his case
Speaker 1: is done and he still works for me. Even now
Speaker 1: he could he could have chunked dudes and been like
Speaker 1: I'm out. So I respect him. I respect him, but
Speaker 1: he's the only one everybody else. And I think that
Speaker 1: since this UH podcast is is UM on such a
Speaker 1: big level, on such a big platform, I think that
Speaker 1: you should tell people how to get in contact with
Speaker 1: you because I noticed his tons of men out there
Speaker 1: that's going through the same ship that your clients are
Speaker 1: going through, you know what I mean, They would love
Speaker 1: to have somebody that represented them, that understood what was
Speaker 1: really happening to them most definitely. So yeah, they can
Speaker 1: call my office. My number is three four six seven
Speaker 1: zero three one to three four six seven zero three
Speaker 1: one to three four and your Instagram, so Instagram is
Speaker 1: h was right, Willie. My instagram is at the Daniels
Speaker 1: Law Firm p LC underscores and then you can go
Speaker 1: to my website that's www dot the Daniels Law Firm
Speaker 1: dot com. Th and then rocket mind what's her stuff?
Speaker 1: You know? So her website is UM the child support
Speaker 1: hustle dot com. Um, I don't want to give out
Speaker 1: her number because I don't know if that but that's
Speaker 1: definitely And then she's also on Instagram. Let just know
Speaker 1: y'all working together on Yeah, I really want to have
Speaker 1: this bullcrap that's going on. I really want to have
Speaker 1: her on. Let me find her, Ina, I need to
Speaker 1: put her in here too. Yes, I might need to
Speaker 1: have another sit down to a partner one thing, so
Speaker 1: absolutely we can bring both of them back. Instagram is
Speaker 1: the child support hustle, the child support hustle, She's she's
Speaker 1: forever posting information stories. UM, definitely follow her. She has
Speaker 1: been m fighting for this for a very long time.
Speaker 1: And I'm just lending um my voice, M my my
Speaker 1: education might know how my abilities UM to partner with
Speaker 1: her because again, like, ain't no since to me reinventing
Speaker 1: the will and trying to go off and do my
Speaker 1: own thing when this sister has been fighting to fight.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? We other than one as
Speaker 1: they say, Yeah, I wanted to ask you about your family.
Speaker 1: How often do you get family members that come to
Speaker 1: you trying to get pro boned or action. Um, I've
Speaker 1: made it very clear to my family that I don't
Speaker 1: offer free services unless you are my my dad's siblings,
Speaker 1: like my my aunts and uncles. If they if they
Speaker 1: come to me, they don't pay. They don't pay anybody else.
Speaker 1: They gotta pay. Now. I do this for all of
Speaker 1: my clients, and I end up doing this for a
Speaker 1: lot of my family that come to me. I end up,
Speaker 1: like you know, maybe not building them for certain things.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't just hear them like I would.
Speaker 1: I don't just build them like I would normally build.
Speaker 1: I'll give them a break here and they're on some
Speaker 1: things and stuff like that. Yeah, I'm gonna tell you though,
Speaker 1: want to make man he charged us for everything. People
Speaker 1: don't understand that, man I wrote, I wrote your name
Speaker 1: down with a pencil, and I'm gonna need like right. People.
Speaker 1: People don't understand that that's how lawyers works. If they
Speaker 1: we build by the we build our hourly rates. We
Speaker 1: build them. Yeah, I build like a lot of tourneys,
Speaker 1: building fifteen minute increments. So that means that if I
Speaker 1: send an email or if I respond to an email
Speaker 1: and man taking me two minutes, but I'm going to
Speaker 1: charge you for fifteen minutes because that's how I bu
Speaker 1: build in fifteen minute increments. So everything that we munch
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes worth. The law service, what depends on what
Speaker 1: your good answer good what good question? Good question? Exparence
Speaker 1: on what you're hourly ratings, So my hourly rate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I won't say, Willy, wait a minute, she got to
Speaker 1: tell people what the radios don't. I don't need to
Speaker 1: tell me. It depends on who calls. Really, it's not
Speaker 1: just our we we love you, ma' I'm just making
Speaker 1: a joke. Yeah, Well, here's there's what I think about that. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I say, uh, there are lawyers for everything that you want,
Speaker 1: and that's different lawyers for different levels and whatever you're
Speaker 1: trying to do. So I say, if you want to
Speaker 1: call a certain lawyer, then you know, once you find
Speaker 1: out what that rate is, you decide whether you want
Speaker 1: to do business with that lawyer or not. And if
Speaker 1: you want to do business with that lawyer, you don't
Speaker 1: complain about the rate. Here's the thing. But you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is that when I hire you lawyers,
Speaker 1: I based on the certain I hire lawyers based on
Speaker 1: the service that I need. And when any time I
Speaker 1: need a lawyer, it's always serious stuff. So I want
Speaker 1: a very good lawyer. Of course, I want the most
Speaker 1: reasonable rate that I can get when I call these
Speaker 1: this lawyer, I know what that rate is. So I'm
Speaker 1: not tripping on it because I know I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: what i'm paying for. So as long as I'm getting
Speaker 1: what I'm paying for, and he and he's getting what
Speaker 1: I'm and he's getting what I'm paying for, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I mean, he giving what I'm paying for.
Speaker 1: I ain't got no problem with a lawyer. I know
Speaker 1: a lawyer guys and and and and this is it's
Speaker 1: not even a joke. I know he starts off at
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand. I don't give a dam. It's a traffic
Speaker 1: to Yeah, how much is it gonna be? Yeah, So
Speaker 1: that's a great point that, well, you know, I know
Speaker 1: you gotta be talking about Ken you know. Yeah, I said, uh,
Speaker 1: but that's as you get what you pay for, know that.
Speaker 1: So if you want to go get a lawyer that's
Speaker 1: cheap or want to give you a payment plan and
Speaker 1: all that, you're gonna get that. If you want a
Speaker 1: lawyer that's good at what they do, that's not gonna
Speaker 1: you know, be you know, bad customer service, not give
Speaker 1: you the run around, not not calling you back, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Then you're gonna have to pay
Speaker 1: for that. So when you when you call and you
Speaker 1: do that consultation and you get the rundown of how
Speaker 1: much this person's our only radius, how much the retainer's
Speaker 1: gonna be, you got to make that assessment or as
Speaker 1: to whether or not you can afford it. If you
Speaker 1: sign that contract and you hire that attorney, you have
Speaker 1: just waived your right to complain about how much it
Speaker 1: is costing you because you just agreed to pay my fees.
Speaker 1: We do not. And I'm saying this because I've had
Speaker 1: some conversations with my with my colleagues, my girlfriends, who
Speaker 1: are also lawyers, and we get tired of having to
Speaker 1: have these conversations with our clients about pain. You want
Speaker 1: good service. I'm doing my part by providing good service.
Speaker 1: Now you do your part by pain, don't bother? Right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's how, that's how, that's how. You know you talk
Speaker 1: to these criminal lawyers too. You're like, look, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do my part again. You this money, you keep the
Speaker 1: cuffs off, you know, like I'm gonna do. As long
Speaker 1: as I do my part, you do your part, everything's
Speaker 1: gonna begin. It's an exchange. It's it's an exchange. And
Speaker 1: if you can't afford that lawyer, go find go down
Speaker 1: to wherever the other lawyers you get anything up under
Speaker 1: you know uh what they call him uh in the
Speaker 1: Martindale Hubble, the five pre eminent whatever you're you're, you
Speaker 1: gotta deal with that because you took because you took
Speaker 1: a chance putting yourself in that position. I'm going to say,
Speaker 1: you can't shape up. Uh Latitia Kings, I won't get
Speaker 1: a lawyer. And let me say this. Let me say
Speaker 1: this as well. Okay, all right, and I'm speaking for
Speaker 1: my my female colleagues and criminal No, I'm gonna say this.
Speaker 1: You know, people, a lot of times it seems, and
Speaker 1: I hate, I hate to accept this as being the truth,
Speaker 1: but it seems a lot of times that people are
Speaker 1: more willing to drop a bag on male attorneys that
Speaker 1: there seems to be the especially especially when you're talking
Speaker 1: about your female and your black female, there seems to
Speaker 1: be this level of like lack of confidence that comes
Speaker 1: because it's a female and it's a black female. You
Speaker 1: gotta know who I think in court, Willie, you have
Speaker 1: to know, Like, if you got a white judge that's
Speaker 1: a female, then you got to play the game accordingly.
Speaker 1: If you got a black judge that's a male, then
Speaker 1: you gotta play the game accordingly. You don't want to
Speaker 1: go into a courtroom with a Hispanic judge and a
Speaker 1: cowboy hat win. Uh, white guy. It is a game
Speaker 1: because if you watch the even just on a on
Speaker 1: a rudimentary level, just watching these ary if you just
Speaker 1: watched the head if you just watch these judge shows,
Speaker 1: you'll see if the judge is white, the bailiff is
Speaker 1: is black, if if the judges the hispanic, those things matter.
Speaker 1: Those things matter. But if you like a sorry, but
Speaker 1: if you got a white judge, you need a white
Speaker 1: lawyer you got a black judge. No, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's I don't think it's that you got to know
Speaker 1: the person. You got to know the proclivities of that
Speaker 1: particular Yeah, like you don't understand he know, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, just us. I had to bring out my
Speaker 1: spell words because he got the Bible with match about this.
Speaker 1: This is how this is how I hire your lawyers,
Speaker 1: Like I hire your lawyers, I hire your lawyers, especially
Speaker 1: if I got a serious situation, like some type of
Speaker 1: criminal case or something. I hire your lawyers based on
Speaker 1: not who they know, but who know them in the
Speaker 1: inside of the courtroom. It's like it's like somebody saying, Man,
Speaker 1: I know scar Face. Okay, yeah, you know scar Face,
Speaker 1: but don't mean scar face. No you because if scar
Speaker 1: Face don't you know you, you can't get nothing done.
Speaker 1: You see, So what does that mean? What you mean
Speaker 1: what you say about knowing him, he can't get your done?
Speaker 1: What does that mean that I said, if you if
Speaker 1: you don't know that person exactly, they can't get nothing done.
Speaker 1: So so my my point is is that like I've
Speaker 1: heard lawyers say yeah, oh that's the judge. Oh yeah
Speaker 1: I know ife, and and somebody who ain't, who ain't
Speaker 1: up on the on their game, might hear that and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, that's comfy. I like that. You know
Speaker 1: he know the j Yeah, yeah, he know the proc prosecute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but do they know you See, that's how you get
Speaker 1: things done, because all of this stuff really bars down.
Speaker 1: We are we're not computers, were human beings, So all
Speaker 1: this stuff bars down to relationships. That's all it really
Speaker 1: is relationships, access and options. No, No, don't discredit. Don't
Speaker 1: discredit the skill of and the ability and know how
Speaker 1: the attorney. No, I'm not. I'm not discredited in that.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you it's the old saying, it
Speaker 1: ain't what you know, it's who you know, and you
Speaker 1: can have That's why. That's why, that's why sometimes, but
Speaker 1: that's that's why a lot of times you can have
Speaker 1: a job I law you that can be sharp and
Speaker 1: know that and know that stuff. If you walk in
Speaker 1: a certain kind of a certain courtroom, some judges are
Speaker 1: intent on like shutting you down. I don't care how
Speaker 1: prosecutors killed you are. Some lawyers are, yeah, because they're working.
Speaker 1: Who's with the prosecutors. But some lawers, some judges are
Speaker 1: intent on shutting you down. I don't care how good
Speaker 1: you are. They'll make you go out and and and
Speaker 1: file some type of charge against them and fill again
Speaker 1: file with the bar to get them this bar or something.
Speaker 1: Because some of them they act like the curt room
Speaker 1: is their house. Like what I say goes. It don't
Speaker 1: matter what the laws goes. I am the law that
Speaker 1: lady was has ain't goddamn me in court that I
Speaker 1: went to like she was like making up her own ship.
Speaker 1: I was like, that ain't in the books. Some of
Speaker 1: some of them have that type of mentality, old Republican
Speaker 1: mean asked, wrinkle face as judges got that mentality. Yes,
Speaker 1: some old democratic mean ass sprinkle face mother's got that
Speaker 1: mentality too. And some of them got smooth faces and
Speaker 1: they got that mentality that the deal is that man,
Speaker 1: that we're just part of. We're we're a very wicked system.
Speaker 1: Has stewardship over us. Stewardship is in the right word
Speaker 1: to use. It's it's the cold game, bro, It's the
Speaker 1: cold game. But we appreciate you coming on the show
Speaker 1: and you know, giving us that information, insight, getting to
Speaker 1: learn a little bit more about you. Didn't answer my question,
Speaker 1: are the lawyers and the judges in cos I would
Speaker 1: say no. I mean, look, some people would say that
Speaker 1: you should. Thanks a lot, ladies and gentlemen appreciate you
Speaker 1: joining us on another ghetto boys reloaded with with with
Speaker 1: with Uncle Faith Marvin, Mr Willie d And we had
Speaker 1: a hell of a time with miss Casey. And she
Speaker 1: killed us. She killed it, she killed it. She she
Speaker 1: kneeled that she hit the hammer I've been doing you
Speaker 1: for a long answer. That's a that's other ship, that's like,
Speaker 1: that's a professional name. We were just were just homeboys
Speaker 1: and homes I remember when you was taking that damn
Speaker 1: bartest and fucking uh Golden Corral. He was like, I'm study,
Speaker 1: I'm studying for the bar. I'm like, care, I studied.
Speaker 1: I was studying several different crocker barrel. Cracker barrel is
Speaker 1: a cracker barrel. Crocker crocker barrel, cracker barrel. That's what
Speaker 1: I was trying to figure out. How we met, That's
Speaker 1: how we met. You're using that with your brother? All right, FA,
Speaker 1: we can we'll continue. We're gone. We'll continue discussion later.
Speaker 1: All right, in a minute, no more talk, Okay, thank
Speaker 1: you all for having me. This episode was produced by
Speaker 1: Aching and brought to you by The Black Effect Podcast
Speaker 1: Network and Heart Radio.