Judge Judy kicks ass!

I'm sitting in the TV room, watching Judge Judy while I knit and chow down on licourice. Yes, very funny. You can stop mocking me now. I'm enjoying myself, thank you very much!

Anyways, I adore Judge Judy. She's a hardcore bitch, and she doesn't hesitate to slam stupid people. I joke that I aspire to be like her, but realistically - how awful would our lives be if everyone was like that? But it's nice to spend half an hour watching the drama every once in a while (or every morning at 11:00am, on channel 4 *shifty eyes*).

Ugh. Judge Joe Brown is on right now, and he just doesn't have the pizzazz that Judy does :(

Back to Judy:
A lady lent her then-boyfriend $5000 to make renovations on his house, with the understanding that she would get paid back when the house sold. The market went to pieces, the man couldn't afford the mortgage payments, and the house was foreclosed. He had already paid $2000 back to the woman, she was here suing him for the remaining $3000 and interest. There was no written contract. Judge Judy ended up deciding in favour of the man because of a gaping loophole - the verbal contract stated that the woman would only be paid in event of the sale of the house. Since that never happened, the man owes the woman nothing.

1) Get it in writing! After the decision, the woman started going on about how that's not really how it was intended, blah blah blah. At least if she had it in writing, there would be certainty.

2) Get a real lawyer to do it! Any lawyer worth anything would have been able to pick out the problems and advise the woman on how to protect herself financially.

3) If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is! High risk investments have high potential returns - but there is a very good chance that you won't see any of that money ever again. If you definitely want your money back, buy a government savings bond at 1% annual interest.

4) There is probably a reason the bank won't lend them money! My business law professor made this point. Banks are fairly conservative, and they are in the business of making money. They WANT to give everyone loans - if they have chosen not to, that means they think there is a good chance they won't get their money back. Why should you, with much more limited resources, take such a high risk investment?

It's just so frustrating how blind people can be sometimes. Sure, the people on the court shows aren't the creme de la creme of society, but there are tons of people just like them who are getting screwed just like them. Really, what is wrong with our education systems? Shouldn't they be teaching common sense along with fractions and history?