Attorney Christina Baer discusses building personal injury cases for mold exposure, drawing from her family's own illness. She recommends hiring a certified mold assessor and mold-literate doctor, documenting everything with photos and timelines, and knowing your state's statute of limitations, which in Texas runs two years from discovery.
Chapters
Hi, everyone, and welcome back to another Change the Air interview. My name is Kendra Seymour, and I am very excited for our interview today because as I've said before, our goal at Change the Air foundation is to provide you with that actionable and reliable information so that you can feel empowered when talking with professionals and making those decisions for you and your loved ones. Which is why I know you're going to love our guest today, Christina Baer. Welcome. Welcome, Christina.
Glad to be here.
For those who may not know Christina yet, you're going to want to write down her name. And that's because she's not only an amazing lawyer, she is a true force for change and a passionate advocate. And after tragedy struck her own family, she built the personal injury firm that she couldn't find. She handles cases in Texas and advises and consults on exposure cases across the country. She also represents military families and in federal court. And she's just an all around amazing person. So thank you again for being here.
I mean, I'm just excited about what you all are doing. I should. I should be interviewing you. I'm going to have a podcast one day when I come up for air, and I'm going to interview you about everything that you like.
Oh, thank you. Thank you. I don't know how you do it with your time. You're like this. You're just taking on things left and right. But I guess let's just jump right into it because you and I were talking before. You don't just wake up one day and decide that you're going to take on mold and other environmental toxins. So. So you have a personal connection to what you do. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey?
It wasn't that long ago. It was the spring of 2020 when things started hitting the fan, if you will, at my house. And I was sent home to work from home. And my son, who is almost three, started running into walls. He was. He had bruises all over his forehead. He was regressing in his developmental milestones. And then I had a daughter who was almost nine at the time who was having just extreme mood swings. And. And then I wasn't feeling well. And I had not been feeling well for a couple of years. And I'd been on this quest to get well. So I was calling myself at the time, Christina 2.0. Christina 2.0 was going to be gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, alcohol free, exercise as much as she could. I was on this. I left my big, firm job to try to reduce Stress in my life. I was determined to get well because I felt every day like I had been hit by a truck. And the thoughts that were going through my head were not okay. And I felt dizzy, and I was losing my words. And, you know, doctor, I was going doctor after doctor who told me that it was stress. And I had four kids and, you know, like, maybe you should stress in your life, maybe exercise more. So that that spring when I was sent home and everything started to fall apart even more, I finally found a doctor who gave me a mycotoxin test. And my score was through the roof. It was just one of the battery tests, right? I was checking for parasites, and, I mean, I was doing all the things. And this was just one test I was given. And they said, go test your house. And that was the beginning of the rest of it. We tested the house, and I had a wonderful mold assessor. His name's Tim Taylor. I will sing his praises. So there's no tomorrow because he came into my house and he said, tell me about your family. And he sat down on my living room couch. Like, I just had never. I mean, I was thinking about him as like a repairman, you know, or a pest control or something, right? Like, I. Why are you, like, sitting down? Like, why? It just felt weird. And I told him about my daughter Madeline, because I had been reading about my toxins, and I thought maybe that was going on with her. And he said, I often find it behind the wall, in the wall behind the bed, the kid most affected. And he took a flashlight and found water damage. And that wall was full of stachybotrys. And she had been spending hours and hours in her room coloring during COVID when schools were shut down with her door shut, in a room with a mycotoxin that we have learned is used in biological warfare. Been on this journey ever since. That was long answer to your question. That was. That's my, like, personal story. And then as I was, you know, building a case for our own family, I just thought that other families might need help too. And I wanted to build the personal injury for my companion.
I. I teared up there listening to your story. I mean, it. Not because it has so many similarities to my own, because there were some, but I. I know what that means to, you know, be told by Dr. Oh, you know, you're just tired, mom. Your kids are young, you're stressed, eat better, exercise more. And when finally a doctor says, tell me about your home or. Or an IEP or somebody says, takes the time to understand maybe bigger picture of what's going on in your home. And you were shocked by that, that that should be commonplace. And it's just, I'm sorry that that's something that you guys run through. Are you guys on the right track now? Everyone moving forward?
No, I mean, I don't, I, I, you know, are we on the right track? We are on a track. We are working hard to get well. But we recently did brain scans with three of us and my little four year old has what they call a brain of fire. His entire brain is on fire. And then, you know, my now 10 year old girl also has things. And so it's just like, it's, it's this lifelong journey and I think I thought at the time when, that we'll get out and then we'll be okay. And I had no idea. I had no idea because we were in that house for eight years.
Right?
So that was, you know, my daughter's almost her entire life in that room from the time she was in a crib to, to the time we evacuated. So, so yeah, it's, it's just not gonna, it's, it's a lifelong journey. But now I get to partner with other people who are also on that journey. And many of you, you know, many of your listeners may also be there and yeah, and it changes, it changes your life and what you care and want to do thereafter. But for me, it has also brought me to this new mission in life of helping other families and also orienting our own family to do that because our kids really understand now mommy gets to go help other families and, and they're, they're proud of that. And you know, we always talk about when bad things happen, we look for the help. We try to be the helpers or look for the helpers. And there were so many people like Tim Taylor who helped us on our journey and now I get to be one of those people for my own clients.
Yeah, that, that silver lining there. I mean, while it's something I'm sure you never wished you had to experience, it's, you know, I, I appreciate you taking your, you know, this horrible thing that happened to you guys and turning into something positive. And just as a side note for anyone else listening, I can attest to this, and Christina did. Healing is not a straight line. Right? It's, it's gonna be two steps forward, one step back. Sometimes it's, it's not this straight line. It's a big old squiggle and you do the best you can and you keep taking the steps and moving forward and, you know, healing is possible and getting to a safe place as possible. It's about having the right information and the right people. So let's get in a little bit more to the legal side because I'm so excited to pick your brain on this. And I do just want to briefly talk about the Melinda Ballard case, because when you talk about old and, you know, legal stuff, it's probably one of the first really big cases. And I think it kind of set a precedent for future cases. Can you kind of tell us a little bit of high level overview for anyone who may not know what that case was and what that meant for future mold cases? So.
So Kendra, it was the beginning and the end. Melinda Ballard is a, is a hero. She took on industry and she took on the insurance industry. And she was suing State Farm. Her husband got very, very sick. And they had a personal injury claim for something they called encephal. Is it encephalitis? Is that right? Which is basically swelling of the brain, inflammation of the brain. And we know a lot more than they did back then about inflammation of the brain. And at the time there were some hero doctors working on those issues. I believe it was Dr. Ray in Dallas. But they didn't have, they didn't have epidemiological studies. So they tried to prove this in state court and they got shut down on personal injury. This is really important when they went to the trial court. So when they went to trial, so their personal injury claim was dismissed, but they were allowed to go to trial on their property claim. And they were also. A property claim can include mental anguish because they lost their home and everything in it. Some of your client, some of your listeners may know what that feels like.
So.
And they had been in and out, in and out, trying to remediate and getting sick. Every time they came back. She was allowed and did testify about what that meant in terms of illness for her family as part of mental anguish. So their verdict was $38 million, which is enormous. And that was a message to the insurance companies of, hey, toxic mold is really serious. So what do the insurance companies do? They shut the whole thing down by removing insurance, by removing mold from their policies. They now no longer cover mold. So if you sue a company, they're going to have a, you know, traditionally for a construction claim, the defendants have insurance and their insurance will usually cover liability for an instruction construction claim. Now they have, now they have these exclusions for mold. So you have to be pretty brazen as I am to bring a claim against that company that has that in that provision. Right? So as a result, lawyers stop doing mold cases because the insurance companies didn't cover it. And I think they wrongly read the Ballard case as saying, you can't prove personal injury, at least in Texas. And that is not true at all. You can prove personal injury. And not only that, but since the Ballard case, the science has changed. So I even believe that we can prove injury for inflammation of the brain, and I believe I'm going to do it in my case. So it's real. The inflammation of the brain is real. Now there are epidemiological and scientific studies to prove it. Now there's something called an ICD10 code, which is World Health Organization code, a diagnostic code for toxic mold exposure. That is incredible. You know, back in the day, it was junk science. Now it is recognized by the World Health Organization. So I welcome the opportunity for a defense lawyer to say, christina, this is junk science. I'm like, oh, really? How about the World Health Organization, right? Are they junk scientists? And I can depose any defense expert and say, you know, do you have respect for the World Health Organization? Say, yes. You know, tell me more about there. There are leaders in the world, you know, and their diagnostic codes are carefully vetted, right? Oh, yes. You agree that every single one of, you know, every diagnostic code is. It's something that has been studied, clinically proven. Oh, yes, right. You have. Every. Every doctor has to admit that. So mold is no longer junk science. I think that we can credit Melinda Ballard with being a leader in the industry. I mean, being a leader in her time. And I think the time is right to fold insurance companies and contractors accountable for making people really, really, really sick.
That's a good segue into my next question, then, like, let's get to specifics. So keeping in mind, everyone listening, this is not to be construed as legal advice. Right. Laws vary by state, and that's super important. But what do you think makes a good legal case? What steps would someone need to take? What do they need to know, document and do? Kind of take us through that process if someone's at home taking notes right now.
Okay, first step, hire a certified independent mold assessor. Do not rely on your landlord. Do not say landlord. Could you please hire a mold assessor? Because they will hire a mold assessor who will come in and take an air sample in the middle of the room and be like, no mold here, right? So you need to hire your own independent, certified mold Assessor. And you should have them test the air, but also take dust samples and mycotoxin samples. And I always want to know what is the air you're breathing, because often some of the most dangerous molds are in the H Vac. I wish I could show you this picture of this client's H Vac. And then you open the vent. And that vent had not been cleaned in many years. And I showed it to the I love taking deposition. And I showed it to the leasing agent, the property manager of the defendant. And I said, would you spend a single night in this apartment? And they said, no. Yeah.
I mean, they're the lungs of your home. Right. Everything.
Because that's the air you're breathing, it comes through there. So you want to make sure. First of all, by the way, she had two mold assessors. The first one said, I can't open that vent. It's been painted over too many times. Wrong mold assessor.
Right.
The mold assessor who's going to go in and break it open and then test up there. Because that's what I want to know is coming. You know, where. Where your error is coming from. Because, you know, you can take an air sample in the middle of the room and it can be perfectly fine.
Right.
If that air is coming through and that has Tritonium up there, you're going to get very, very sick. So first, hire a certified mold assessor. Then find a mold literate doctor. If you're sick, make sure that you're documenting what your symptoms are and that. That you're going to a doctor who can treat. Treat you. Right. And who is. Who is literate on mold. Because a lot of doctors just don't know. Right. Like, most doctors don't even know there's a World Health Organization code out there. They just don't know. It's just not something that they've ever done before. It's, you know, as you said, Kendra, it's just, I wish the doctors all along knew to give me, to ask me about my house. But I don't. I don't blame them. They were wonderful doctors who were taking very, very good care of me. They just didn't have that in their toolkit. And that's what your foundation is all about. And so there are mold. There are certified. You know, there are professional doctors out there who understand mold. Now, the first thing I should have said is, I hope that you'll reach out to us at. Well, just. Well, because I actually wrote out all the things that I wish I had known when I was in your shoes. And we give that for free to anybody who. Who reaches out to us. These are the steps that I wish I had taken.
I love that we've sent people to you before and even out of state just for, you know, connections to people in their state who can help them. So we'll definitely link in this, your website and information and how to get a hold of you.
And my hope is that every single person who has a viable case is represented by good counsel in this country. That is the purpose of my law firm. Because, Kendra, when I was looking for a lawyer, no one would take my call. I mean, I called this guy. James Kumi was the only one I could find in my area that had mold on his website, and he only took wrongful death cases.
Oh, my God. So you had to die in order.
Like, you have to die to get representation. And as a fellow lawyer, I reached out to him and said, hey, you know, I'm at the U.S. attorney's office. I'm a. I'm a lawyer, like U.S. attorney's office, kind of. Kind of like the Navy SEALs of the law. So I kind of thought that maybe, like, he would engage differently. Right. Can I just take 15 minutes to, like, talk to you? No response. I emailed him twice, called his office. No one ever called me back. And so what I am trying to do with my law firm is if you reach out to us, you will get a call, you will speak to somebody, and we can't always take your case, and we don't have lawyers in every state. We're working on it, but we can at least point you in the right direction. We can at least send you the resources that I wish I had. We can help in some way, and we can return your call. Right. And so anyway, do those things, Call us, get a certified mold assessor, see a mold literate doctor, and if your house is killing you, consider leaving that house.
Would you consider that, like, a requirement that you need to leave the house?
It is a requirement for me. It's a require.
It's.
It's. We'll help you. We'll send you the resources and all, whether you can. We'll send you the resources. But if you, in order for us to refer you to another counsel or consider your case a viable case, I'm just not going to represent people who are still in their houses because I can't claim that your house is uninhabitable if you're still at it.
Right.
And I know that that takes a long Time for people to get to that place and they might not be able to leave and all those things. I'm just saying that to have a viable legal case against either a builder or a landlord for personal injury from toxic exposure, you cannot continue to be in the toxic.
So for those listening, you know, if you're not sure what an IEP is, go to our website and we have great interviews from Brian Carr that you can listen to to find a good quality indoor environmental professional that the key thing she, she mentioned there. Because not all indoor environmental professionals are going to do the job justice.
Right.
We want more than just that air sample in the center of a room. You want that thorough physical inspection with photos, test results that Christina mentioned written up in a report. Then you're going to find yourself a mold literate doctor. And that's typically an integrative or alternative type practitioner because mold is more than just an allergy. And then you're going to give Christina a call and she's going to send you some resources and maybe point you in the right direction. And then you need to consider, once you have all the documentation, you need to consider leaving the house.
Yeah. And don't, you know, again, get that documentation first. The other thing I would say is take lots and lots of pictures. Document, document, document. You know, if you have seen my, the CNBC article on my family, you will see this picture of America. I think that Cooper holding Scott, my big son holding my little son. And my little son looks so sick and he was so sick and, and still is by the way. I mean we have not solved it and we'll be on a lifelong journey with him. But that picture just says a thousand words and that's what, you know, cases are stories. So tell the story. And if you're trying to get a, a, a lawyer to take your case and we help you do that through if you nationally, like if you come to us, we can help you find counsel in lots of, lots of states. But we will help you think about how to, how to present it to a lawyer. Because often mold clients show up at these lawyers offices with like binders and binders and binders and you're like a personal injury lawyer's worst nightmare. But if you have like a few select pictures of like that, that example of my big kid holding my little kid looking so sick like in a doctor's office right underneath a blanket or a hospital bed or, or that picture of that vent right. Thick with black stuff. Those are the pictures. Those are, that's what that's what's going to tell your story. And you're showing your personal injury, a personal injury lawyer that you have a story to tell tell. So document, document, document with pictures and, you know, a timeline, writing it down and all of that. Yeah. And then, you know, once you have that, think about your exit strategy.
Now one of the things that you kind of touched on here is when you find that lawyer about what to go with, what are some of those other characteristics? Because if I, I'm, I think I'm accurate in saying these are not easy cases. They take a long time, take a lot of money. So I've heard you talk before about trying to find a lawyer on contingency. That correct. Can you tell us Listening.
So I only. Yes. I only take cases now on contingency, which means that I don't charge my clients anything unless and until we prevail. And that's because my clients cannot afford me. They can't afford me. They've just lost everything that they have usually. Right. And I don't care how much money you have, you toxic exposure, whatever kind of toxic exposure it is, and this is true of my clients in Hawaii too. You spend all of it trying to get well and trying to get your family to safety, Whether you have a lot or a little or something in between, you have just spent all of it and you can't afford a lawyer and you certainly can't afford a lawyer to get a good response result. So contingency lawyers are the way to go. And then, you know, the downside is that on the other end, they do take 30 to 50% of the recovery. But that's recovery that you would not have had otherwise you would have zero. I mean, that's, that's the question. Like zero or 30 to 50%. I charge 40%, which is right there in the middle. But, but yeah, that's how you know. And then the lawyers, they spend the money on the experts and they invest in the case. And what I tell my clients is I want them. My firm is called Just well, Right. Because I, my number one priority is that they get well. So for I'm working on this huge Hawaii case and I'm sure you'll want to talk about that, but my goal for them too is that they get well. Like, it is not that I get rich, it is that they get well. That's why I started this practice. So their job is to go forth and get well. And my job is to go forth and get them financial recovery. And by the way, them getting well Means less financial recovery, recovery for me because they're going to be less injured.
Right.
And that is okay with me. That is, that, that is like the, that's the cost, that, that's, that's the cost of doing business, if you will. Like, I want them to get well. And so I try to give them some resources to send them on their path. I'm not their doctor, I can't give them medical advice. I'm not, you know, I can't even tell them which path to go on. But I can, I can provide some of those resources and point them in the right direction to go get well. And then one day I hope I call them with a really good settlement opportunity. In some cases we're going to have to take to trial. I think we're probably going to have to take my own case to trial, which is honestly so sad. I don't want to go to trial. I don't want to go to trial. But man, I have a story to tell and I have those pictures and I have all the evidence and if, if I have to go to trial, I'm going to go and I'm going to tell the jury of that story and I'm going to let them decide how much it's worth.
And I think too, the more people who kind of stand up to builders or insurance companies or landlords even the more cases that set the precedents and hopefully make people realize that this is a huge health concern, it's widely problematic. Right. It's estimated, I think on the low end the EPA says almost 50% of buildings have an ongoing water leak. We know from Brian Carr and others, I mean that number is much, much higher. And so the more that we hold people accountable on whatever that looks like, hopefully we'll start to see some of these changes. Now if someone's listening, like I don't, I don't have it in me to fight a two or three year long legal battle. Listen, I just want to get out of my lease because we know my landlord isn't going to remediate correctly. Right. We know remediation is not well regulated. Listen to go to our website. Listen to our interview with Michael Rubino. We're going to be doing a lot more on remediation and you don't may not want to stay there if they're just going to throw some bleach on it or throw some paint on. I hope you don't because that's not safe or healthy for you. So how would somebody get out of a lease with Minimal financial loss on their part because, you know, they'll say, yeah, you can break Your lease for $7,000 or six months rent or whatever. Is there any options out there for people who just want to get out? Minimally, yes.
So. So in that respect, I would actually reach out to my friend Shelly Federico, who is a paralegal and, and a survivor herself, and hopefully you can provide her information in this somehow, but she can help you. And I think that that's what she's going to be. She's going to do really well is help people break their leases. Because really, in every state it's different. But you send a termination letter. You send a letter where you say, and Shelley has the rules on every state, by the way, so she'll be able to tell you. But you send a letter that basically says, this house is uninhabitable, I'm going to move out in seven days or however many days. On this day I'm going to be moving out. And please send my security deposit to this address. And if they fight you on it, then, you know, you can sue them over that because it. Because that place was uninhabitable and you moved out because it was uninhabitable. But always the first step is a certified mold assessor. Because you can't claim it's uninhabitable if they get their own mold assessor to come in. And that is what that is, Kendra. That is the mistake that everyone makes. And it's totally normal. If you're in the situation, you're used to asking, you're used to advocating for yourself and saying, I need a repairman. I need someone to come check the pests. I need somebody to come fix this leak. And so it makes sense to say, I need you to hire a mold assessor. But it's counterintuitive. But when you. When they hire the mold assessor, that mold assessor is not objective and is not going to give you an accurate, the most accurate picture of what's going on. And I wish it, I wish it were so, but it's just not. It's just not. It'd be like saying. It'd be like saying to the lawyer, to the landlord, please hire me a lawyer.
Right. I love that you bring this up because we've run into this with people we, we've helped, and I have over the years, if you don't pay for the results yourself, the iep, the inspection, you don't necessarily have rights to those results. So your landlord will say they sent Someone out they the report back, and you may say, hey, can I see a copy of that report? And they can say, nope. Right?
Yeah.
So I just have to trust you. Like, what. What does that mean? And so you want to own the results. You want to. I. I know it's hard. You want to spend the money yourself to pay for that person of your choosing who you vetted to do the inspection.
Well, yeah. And. And if you're working, you know, to put yourself in the mold assessor sheets.
Right.
If you're working for the landlord, it's in the landlord's best interest for there to be no mold.
Right.
So you're going to come in and you're going to say, I don't even have to test. The rules don't require me to test. The rules just require me to do a visual assessment. And so I'm in this room looks good. Right. Literally. I mean, like, they. A lot of times, A lot of times the landlords in the cases that I have, they didn't run a single test.
It looks, it doesn't look toxic. Oh, it's just mildew. Oh, it's dry. It can't hurt you.
Well, that's. So that's true, too. But I'm talking about when they hire a certified mold assessor. A certified mold assessor can come in and say, looks good, but if you haven't opened that vent and you haven't tested what's in there, like, that's not, that's not a true assessment. Right. And whenever there are two results and one says there's zero mold and the other says there's a lot of mold, the. It's not like there's some answer in between because it's detecting something that is there. Right. So the fact that one didn't detect it does not mean that the one that did detect it is unreliable.
Right, Right.
I don't, I don't have a good analogy for that.
But.
But it's truly like, I guess if there's a pile of dirt somewhere, Right. And you put your hand and you're going on a smooth surface, and over here, it's smooth. So it's smooth. That doesn't mean that there's not a pile of dirt over there. Right, Right. So that the other guy felt his hand all along, all the way the dirt, and found the dirt doesn't mean that, that he was wrong. Right. Like, it means that he actually found it.
Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up because we're going to be doing a whole upcoming Thing we're super excited about mini classes on testing because there's pros and cons to every kind of test. There's no perfect test. And it's like Brian Carr says, you know, even with a testing, you could set up air sample in the center of a room. And I think it's like 70 or 80% of the time when there was a known mold source in the wall, that test came up saying the air was fine 70% of the time. I can't remember the exact statistic, but you can listen to the. It's part one of our interview or part two of our interview with him. But that. That is really true. Now, there is something that. Warranty of habit. Habit. I'm sorry, I cannot say that today.
Warranty of habitability.
Can you what. That is something someone would want to maybe look up for their state too, because that outlines a little bit more what is considered a place that you can stay and what is considered a place that, no, you have your rights, you can leave. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Yeah, so. So warranty of habitability is basically like, is the place habitable? And in other words, is there some safety concern with the house? So, I mean, I could not believe that. I got those two admissions right from the. The leasing agent and the property manager, both saying that they would not spend a single night in that house, in that apartment. But that's a, That's a big deal. That means that that place is uninhabitable by all accounts. By my. Because by the way, when they speak out, they're represented there. That's a party admission from there, because they're an employee of the defendant. So that, oh, we all agree that this was uninhabitable. When did it become uninhabitable? When she was already there or before she moved in? And what did you do to determine whether it was habitable or not? Oh, nothing. Oh, so you're not in the business of maintaining your property to make sure that it's habitable. Right. You can see how that line of questioning goes. So. So habitability is absolutely your friend. And if you just want to get out of your lease. Yes. Like, you're. You're basically, you're basically going to say this is not. This is uninhabitable according to these test results. Now, for that reason, I like the mold assessors who are going to straight up say that. And if the, if the assessor is hired by the landlord, they are not going to say that that place is uninhabitable. They're going to say it needs remediation. Well, the point is, is if it needs remediation, that means it's not inhabitable. Right. But I would much rather the assessors say it explicitly uninhabitable until we're meeting. So you can ask, you know, you can ask your.
To give you kind of like a final opinion on the property. And if it's, you know what you.
Should do, just say so in the mold report. Yeah, in writing. Say it in writing. You know, Josh, Rachel, he comes out across and, and I'm sure he'll be on your show. I hope he will be. He's my other hero in addition to Tim Taylor. But he, you know, when he comes across a property that's not habitable, he says so in red. Right. And that's how it should be because we should be shouting to the universe, this is not safe. Right. And you got to get out of here because this is, this is going to make you very sick and it can kill you. I have two, I have three wrongful death cases right now. Two of them died after they were my client. One of them died in the house that I asked her to and the house that I said was not safe. And she died on her couch in that house. And she was like 30. Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. Otherwise, like perfectly, you know, otherwise a pretty, pretty healthy. Right. It will. You know that that New York Post article came out about the girl. You probably saw it just in the last couple days about the girl who's 37, perfectly healthy, and then suddenly she has dementia, right?
Yeah. From Australia.
Yeah. Like these, this, this stuff can kill you. It really can kill you.
So don't, don't. If your landlord or someone's telling you not to worry about it or it's not a big deal, or your inspector or your realtor or whoever it is, take it from us, like become your own advocate, do your research. Now, there's one point I did want to circle back to, if we can, for a minute. There is a statute of limitations. So going back to. And I know that varies by state. Can you talk a bit about what that is and why that's important?
So important. So important. In Texas, it is two years from the date you knew or should have known that there was a problem. So let me give you an example. This is the case that's controlling. There's a woman who came into her house and she, she. It was a brand new house. Bought it, you know, from the builder and she's not feeling good. And she says, this house is making me sick. I don't know what's going on, but this house is making me sick. It's definitely making me sick. And she tells them something's wrong in this house, it's making me sick. But she doesn't find out that it was mold until like two and a half years later. Claim was time barred because from the. She should have known. The court determined. I disagree with this ruling, but this is the, this is the case. She knew or should have known. So I have so many clients who come to me and their claim is time barred because they were like working it out with their landlords for too long. They were trying to make it better. They let them remediate or what have you. And some, you know, to be fair, if there's remediation in the middle, you can probably claim that it was this mold started after the remediation or something. There, there are probably ways to address that. But it's two years in Texas, two years from the time you knew, Mercedes.
So that's another thing you're going to want to check if, if you're thinking about this, look into the statute of limitations for your state. And just to kind of add on to this, what happens if your landlord remediates? And we know that that term is not regulated. So that can mean anything from, you know, tearing it out without containment or throwing some, I don't want to say any products by name, something on it and walking away all the way to something that follows, maybe the IICRCS 520 standards and beyond. So what happens if my landlord fixes it? But now I'm like, oh, I'm not feeling good. Or I now know that that was not the best fix. Is there. What steps would a person take there?
Well, I mean, then it's failure to remediate properly. Right? Because yes, it's true that it's not regulated necessarily, but there are standards. So in this case. But I'm thinking of going to trial in a few weeks. I depose the maintenance guy and I said, what's the standard for water mitigation? And it's easier, by the way, to talk about standards with water mitigation.
Right? Right.
There's water damage. Everyone knows it's the IICRCS 500. Yeah, 500. Right. So he goes, IICRCS 500. And I was like, well, tell me about that. Right. And he agreed with me, by the way, this case about sewage. He agreed with me that contaminated water especially has to be addressed Differently. And it has to be removed. Any wet materials have to be removed altogether. They can't be cleaned. They must be removed. So, yes, there's not. That's not a legal standard necessarily, but it's the standard of care that everybody agrees to that I got. Well, I mean, at least this employee agrees and he's their representative. And so that is the standard of care. So. So there is a standard of care, and it is not okay to paint over it, for example, which is what they do a lot.
Right.
And you know. You know what I call that, Kendra? That is assault. That is the intentional infliction of bodily harm. So if someone's painting over it, I'm putting assault in that complaint. I'm calling it what it is. I'm putting assault in complaints of where there's painting over, because that's the intentional infliction of bodily harm. You have just concealed a known toxic defect. And it's a song.
That is such like a. It almost sounds shocking to frame it like that. But I think you're right. That's exactly what it is. Right. These are known toxins. This has been shown to cause such a wide array of horrible health impacts that, you know, we need to be changing how we think about this. So we're almost out of time. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna make sure that we put your links in. In this with this video. But if you had any other final words for people, what. What would you tell them?
I would. Leaving is sometimes the hardest thing you'll ever do, but often it will save your life. And I have a lot of clients for whom that's true. And yet when you're in it, it's so confusing and your brain is so fogged, and it's really hard to think straight. And it's. And it's hard to imagine that you have anywhere to go. And your first response is always going to be, I can't leave. I don't know where to go. And if you get out, even if it's to stay with a friend for a little while, you'll be able to clear your head, and you'll be able to find a place to go, and you'll be able to think what your next step is, and you will find that you have more strength than you think you have, and you will be a true advocate for your family. And your life might never be the same again because you've been through this experience, but you're going to find a way in the future to help others. And you'll find your own helpers along the way and you'll, you know, you'll build a team to help your family, and then one day you'll be part of the team. I hope for others who are going through it, too.
Yeah, I love that. I mean, and you're absolutely right. Going through it. You think I can't do this. I don't. I don't know what, how. And you are stronger than you realize. I think all of us have realized that who have been through this, that you are. You are stronger than you realize. Christina, thank you so much for joining us today.
You're welcome.
I hope you come back and we can talk more or, you know, maybe even do a Q A with people. But for those listening, thank you for joining us today. If you haven't already, head over to changetheirfoundation.org sign up for our newsletter by clicking the Join the community button because we're going to be sending out great interviews like this one through our newsletter, other tips and tricks, and we'll see you next time. Thanks so much.
