Better Call Saul (2015–…): Season 1, Episode 8 - RICO - full transcript

- Hey, Gene.
- Thanks, Jimmy.

- Trina.
- Hey, Jimmy.

- Got a package, Dan.
- Thank you.

How's it going?

What's up?

- Hey.
- Hey, yourself.

Jimmy, I'm really slammed.
Just tell me what you need.

What is it?

I can't open it.

So, what does it say?

"I must call to your
attention the newly passed...



...Environmental Impact and
Sustainability Assurance Act...

...a statute that as you know,
went into effect without any...

...ex post facto provisions in place."

- You got a second?
- Not really. I'm...

- It'll just take two seconds, I promise.
- All right.

What's this?

- Is this a joke?
- Nope. No joke.

You passed the bar?

Yeah. I did.

I thought if Kim can do it,
maybe I can too, you know?

So I got my last few credits
for undergrad from a community college.

They're not just for draft dodgers
and yoga classes, all right?

Then I found a law school
that would accept me.

I mean, it wasn't
Georgetown or anything.



The University of American Samoa.

- Oh, correspondence school.
- Well, I wasn't gonna quit work, right?

Nights. Weekends. You know.

They call it distance learning nowadays.
They're accredited.

Go, Land Crabs.
So you know, I did that.

And the bar exam's a mother.
I mean, for me, it was.

I failed it the first two times,
but I guess it's like losing your virginity.

Third time's the charm.

This must have taken you years.
And you kept it a secret all this time?

Why? You didn't come to me for help?

Jesus, Chuck. You're the busiest guy
I know. You're doing important shit.

- I don't know what to say.
- Are you proud of me?

Yes. Absolutely.

Thanks, Chuck. That means a lot.

Oh, hey. I was hoping, you know,
if you think it's appropriate...

...once I get sworn in
and everything, consider hiring me.

As what? Oh, a lawyer.

Obviously. Yeah.

That's a question I'm gonna have to take
up with Howard and the other partners.

You know, it's not my decision alone.

But how could they say no?

So much drive.
Jimmy, look what you've done here.

- I told those guys devil's food.
- Yeah.

- I will sue the store for you.
- Good.

- Remember us when you're all big time.
- I don't remember you now, Burt.

You representing mail room. You show
those upstairs jackholes how it gets...

Hey. What're you folks up to?
Having a party?

Just a little celebration on behalf
of New Mexico's newest attorney.

I heard. Jesus, Jimmy.
You're a regular Charlie Hustle.

- Congratulations, my friend.
- Thank you.

- Would you like some cake?
- Oh, here.

Don't mind if I do.

Really, really impressive, Jimmy.
We're all proud of you.

I hate to interrupt, but could you
give Jimmy and me a moment?

- Sure.
- Yeah. Absolutely.

Please, sit down.

Let's reassess in six months.

Thanks for understanding, Jimmy.

You want the door opened or closed?

Closed.

How's it going?

- Settling back in.
- Great.

So apparently they are ready for us.

Thanks. But I wanted to get some things
done before lunch.

And I'm still trying to...

Come on, Kim. You deserve this.

Come bask in the glow.

Thank you for coming. I appreciate you
making time in the middle of your days.

I'm pleased to announce
that working closely with...

...the Bernalillo County
District Attorney's Office...

...we've reached an agreement
for Craig Kettleman.

We believe this is a
just and fair outcome...

...and brings to a close an incident
Mr. Kettleman deeply regrets.

He is committed
to making amends...

Can I help you?

Yeah. I'm here to see Mrs. Landry.

Sign in right here, please.

- Are you a relative?
- Lawyer.

But I treat my clients like family.

- You know where to find her?
- Yeah. Thanks.

Hey. Good morning, folks.
Hi. Jimmy McGill.

Hey. Pick a card, any card.

All right.

How's it going there?
Good. Whoa, not so tight.

A little surprise from the card fairy.

Give me that squeeze.

Squeeze whatever you got that's below
the water that I can't see. Oh, yeah.

All right, Mrs. Landry. Just a few more
signatures and thy will be done.

Would you like another Hydrox?

No, thank you. I'm all Hydrox'd out.

Please help yourself
if you change your mind.

All right. That one.

Okay. And that one.

And that is it.

What a relief.
I should have done this years ago.

Well, people do tend to put it off.
But everybody should have a will.

Please tell your friends.

And that comes to $140.

And I'm happy to take cash or a cheque.

Or cash.

One moment.

Could you write me a cheque?

Well, it's been so long, I really don't
know if I have enough in my account.

I am so sorry. This is awful.

But all I have is $43.

- Okay.
- Now, I could ask for an advance.

I am so sorry.

- It's fine.
- I don't know what to say.

This is awful.

You could keep the will
until I get my allowance.

And that should only be
until the end of next week.

That's not necessary.
Here's my address.

Mail it to me when you've got it.
All right?

And why don't we...
We'll just make it an even 120. All right?

Thank you.

You have a nice day.

Excuse me. Allowance?
Your family has you on an allowance?

No. No. It's my money.
I just get it from Sandpiper Crossing.

- Five hundred dollars a month...
- I don't understand.

You should have
social security cheques...

...plus that pension we talked about.

- So how are you on an allowance?
- Well, the cheques go to Sandpiper.

And then they take out
my fees and my expenses.

Why don't you come on in?
I'm afraid I'm not explaining it very well.

I have statements here.

Somewhere. Somewhere.

So your pension and social security
goes straight to the Sandpiper people?

They take out...
They take out what they need.

And then I get my allowance. Here.

And all the rest
goes into my savings account.

It's really all very above-board.
A lot of places do it this way.

This is how they do it
for everybody around here?

Well, yes. They try to make everything
easy for us.

Mrs. Landry, are any of your
friends around who I could talk to?

And okay. I said, "What?"

So I went in the house,
I told the house...

I could not find...

In order to find out,
you have to look on the back.

Okay. And see this key.

See, you have reading glasses.
Could I borrow your glasses?

- Yes.
- Thank you.

Oh, these are gonna help me.
But I don't know if they'll do the trick.

So tiny.

Four. Ten. Twelve.

I think it might be Q-tips. I can't tell.

It's probably an accident, but we should
look into it, don't you think?

They're not doing this intentionally,
okay?

This could be a mistake.

If we correct the mistake, then you'll get
some money back. And it'll be fair.

Hey, Chuck.

My boxes. The ones I left...

Sandpiper Crossing.
Sandpiper Crossing.

- Did you do my wills?
- Yes, I did.

Hey, would you look at that?
Thank you.

Don't thank me.
This was a one-time thing.

And don't think I don't see
what you were doing here.

You wanted to play Tom Sawyer,
wanted me to paint the fence.

God help me, it worked.

You need help? Hire a paralegal.
Stand on your own two feet.

Yeah. Sure. I'll do that.

- You're not even listening to me.
- No. I hear you, Chuck, okay?

Self-reliance. Great stuff.
Would you look at this?

What did I just say?

Take a look, okay? Just right here.

Do you see what I see? All I'm asking
is for you to take a look. Please?

Sandpiper Crossing.

It's a retirement home, assisted living.

This is one of their invoices
they send their residents.

What exactly am I looking for here?

Nothing earthshaking.
Little things. Things like...

Like this right here.

Fourteen dollars for
code 118-62. What's 118-62?

I wonder.

How could you even read this?

It's like microfilm.

118-62 is facial tissue.

- Fourteen bucks for a box of Kleenex.
- Yeah. And I found others.

There's three and half dollars
for a roll of toilet paper...

...22 bucks for aspirin.

It's a clear pattern of overcharging.

Nothing huge
but adds up to real money.

I mean, here, look. This woman, she got
soaked for like 400 bucks last month.

And there's a pretty solid attempt
at concealment of that fact.

Which to my way of thinking,
makes it...

Fraud.

This was in work I did?

Yeah. You must have missed it.

Look, Chuck. I got lucky, right?

Even a stopped clock
is right twice a day.

This is no mom and pop outfit, okay?
I dug around a little.

They're owned by some
real estate investment trust.

I'm working on getting more info
but this could be big.

I mean, this could be
a big case, right?

Well, if it's more than a few errant
billings, and if it's systematic...

...and you establish a pattern,
it could be class-action.

What do I do now? I mean, what next?

Well, you need more information.
You don't want to go off half-cocked.

Full cock.

Okay. Now, I'm gonna head back there.
Thank you.

You're the best.

Back to see Mrs. Landry.

Okay.

- What gives?
- Sorry, sir. New policy.

We're concerned about
solicitation on the premises.

I'm not a gigolo
if that's what you're implying.

Legal solicitation.

We are obligated to protect
our residents from being harassed.

And we have the right to refuse entry.

I have clients in there now.
They have a legal right to meet with me.

Well, you'll just have to arrange
to meet them elsewhere.

Oh, come on, guys. Seriously?
You making Soylent Green back there?

All right. Okay. I'm backing away.

Yeah?

You know what?

Hey, this has gotten me
a little bit stirred up down there.

Can I use your restroom?
Please. I've got IBS.

Go ahead.

"To Sandpiper Crossing.

Clients of James M. McGill,
this is to inform you..."

Sir, are you all right in there?

"We believe that..."
"Breach of contract..."

Come on now, sir.
I've been very patient.

"Clear pattern of malfeasance..."

"Negligent infliction
of emotional stress."

Sir, I need you to finish up
and come out.

"Contact by the end of the week
or I'll be forced to move forward."

- I need you to finish...
- This is a demand letter...

...informing Sandpiper Crossing
of litigation...

...for defrauding my clients
through overcharging.

You're shredding in there. I'm not deaf.
I can hear you. Stop right now.

This here.
This makes it official, all right?

If you don't stop shredding now,
that's destruction of evidence.

Spoliation, that's what it's called.

And it's a felony. So call your lawyers
right now and tell them I said that. Me.

James McGill, Esquire.

I'm telling you, guys. Big mistake.

- Hey.
- Hey.

- Am I calling at a bad time?
- No. Not at all.

- How you doing?
- Pretty good. Getting by.

- How about you?
- Getting by.

It's good to hear from you.

Yeah. I've been... There's been
a lot going on. You know how it is.

Yeah. I know.

Listen, I was hoping maybe
you could do me a favour.

Do you think you could watch Kaylee?

It'd be during my shift,
the day after tomorrow.

I hate to ask,
but my regular sitter's down...

Anything you need, I'll be there.

You can get off work?
I don't want to impose or anything.

No. Anytime.

It's not an imposition.

Thanks.

Appreciate it.

Yeah. No problem.

- At quarter to 2?
- I'll see you then.

Okay.

Jesus.

Come on.

Where is it?

Goddamn it.

It's not like we're close to being done.
Can't you get somebody else to do it?

Right. They don't pay any of us
enough for this shit.

And it's going on and on.
And so I'm like:

"Why are you making
your problems my problems?"

Right. Like you don't have
problems of your own.

Exactly. That's exactly
what I'm saying. Thank you.

James McGill.

Mr. McGill, Rich Schweikart
of Schweikart and Cokely.

We're the firm representing
Sandpiper Crossing. How are you?

Quite well, thank you.

- How are you?
- Doing fine. Doing fine.

Sorry to call so late.
Did I catch you at a bad time?

No. No. No. It's fine.

It's just that you're whispering.

- I'm at the opera.
- What opera?

- Magic Flute.
- Mozart. Lovely.

Well, I'll try not to keep you.

We received something from you today
and we're not quite sure what.

It's a demand letter.

It was a little confusing
because it was written on...

Well, I had to write it quickly...

...because your clients were in the
process of destroying evidence.

Mr. McGill, if you're talking about
shredding documents...

...that's neither irregular nor illegal.
Every business does it.

You say potato, I say spoliation.

Maybe walk me through
what you're alleging here.

I believe it's all in the letter.

I'm not saying it's not.
But it's a bit hard to read.

Next time, I'd use double ply.

Let's not fixate on the medium, okay?
Let's look at the message.

Your clients are facing
multiple counts of elder abuse...

...and fraud, and deceptive
and unfair trade practises.

And that's just the start, okay?

I'm not a betting man,
but I'd bet I'll find more.

Mr. McGill,
are you related to Charles McGill?

He's my brother.

Yeah? How's he doing these days?

I fail to see the relevance of this.

The only reason that I made this phone
call was out of respect for Charles...

...on the off chance
you might be related.

My partner suggested to send a
Rule 11 letter and have you sanctioned.

But I didn't want to
jump to that immediately.

How about you stop trying to rattle
my cage and just respond to the merits?

This is my response.

You have no good-faith basis
to threaten litigation.

This is a shakedown
and we both know it.

Now, if you push this any further,
my hands will be tied.

I'm sorry for interrupting your evening.
Enjoy the Magic Flute.

Blow my magic flute.

Jimmy, what're you doing here?

Oh, Chuck. I'm sorry to...

...show up like this.
I just needed space to work.

What is all this?
What have you done to my dining room?

They were spoliating,
the Sandpiper people.

They wouldn't let me in.
I could see they were shredding.

- I wrote them a demand letter, I gave it...
- You broke into a nursing home?

- Assisted living.
- And you stole their garbage.

No, it was in public.
There was no lock, no nothing.

I just lifted the lid and there it was.

There's no reasonable expectation
of privacy in that situation, is there?

You can't say it's private
if a hobo can use it as a wigwam.

That's the standard, right,
if animals or vagrants can get in?

More or less, yes.

Okay, so this is all legal.
It's completely above-the-belt legal.

I just need to figure out
what they're trying to cover up.

You don't shred like this
unless you got something to hide.

- Not necessarily.
- Oh, come on, Chuck.

A lawyer shows up,
starts figuring out their little scheme.

And suddenly this?
No, it's not a coincidence. It's in here.

Well, at least it's not cross-cut.

Look, you won't even
know I'm here, okay?

I just need some space
and some quiet.

And I'll be out of your hair as soon as...

Stop. Stop. It's okay.
You can work here.

Thanks.

I don't mind the company.

You look like you could
use a cup of coffee.

Good God, yes.

I'll put it on.

Up, up. Up.

God's sweet sake.

Oh, good. You're up.

Well, Jesus, Chuck,
how long have I been asleep?

Chuck, how did you...?

I can't believe this.

Thank you. This is a huge help.

I felt like I was
shovelling snow in a blizzard.

Well, it gets better.

What's this?

It's your smoking gun.

It's an invoice for syringes.

Yes. From?

Morrissey Medical Supply.
Lincoln, Nebraska.

- So?
- Trust me.

Meanwhile, we need to
start pulling case law.

Any precedent dealing
with 18 U.S.C. 1961 to '68.

Probably not a bad idea to pull
30-47-1 from NMSA. 1978.

I don't think that's gonna play, really.

But it's a good opening salvo for us.

Wait. "Us"?

We're working together on this?

That's up to you, Jimmy.

All right. All right. All right.
Let's get to work.

- Kim Wexler.
- Hey, gorgeous.

Oh, man.
Sweet talking right out of the gate.

You want something.
Make it fast. I want to go home.

Okay. Okay. Will you look
something up for me on Westlaw?

Please?

You're lucky I'm a pushover.

- All right. Hit me.
- Thank you.

Anything on Sedima v. Imrex.

Schlesinger v. Disney.
Holmes v. SIPC.

Whoa, slow down. Slow down.
v. Disney.

- Holmes v. SI...
- PC, yeah.

Anything on 5712,
one through 24, NMSA, 1978.

Okay. It would help if I knew
what you were looking for, here.

Anything. Everything.

You want me to just
read you the headnotes?

No. No. Print it. Full cases.

And any cases that cite to those cases.
Shepardise like the wolf's at the door.

Jesus, Jimmy.
That's gonna be thousands of pages.

Pretty please with sugar on top?
Come on. You owe me one.

Yes, I do. But this is gonna
take hours. And who do I bill it to?

Bill it to Howard.
I still remember his code, 1933.

Same year Hitler came to power.

You're not funny.
I'm not billing it to my boss.

How about yours? I'll pay you back.

Jimmy, this is three...
Four hundred bucks worth of printing.

The accountants will find it. I'll get fired.
Which sounds fun, but no.

Okay. Hold on a sec.

Hey. Kim can't print without a code.

Should I go there,
take notes, come back?

No, no. It'd take too long.
Use mine, 1868.

Yeah.

- 1868, use that. It's Chuck's.
- You're using Chuck's number?

Chuck know you're
using Chuck's number?

We're working on something.
Bring it over to his place after.

- You're a lifesaver.
- Wait. You're working a case together?

Yeah. Keep this under your hat.
But it's gonna be huge.

Maybe a class-action, even.

We think it will settle
for one, maybe two million.

How does that work?
Chuck's a partner at HHM.

I know Chuck's partnership agreement.
He can work with outside parties.

That clause is intended for
small-time stuff, pro bono cases.

So I'm bono. I'm very bono.
Chuck's a rock star. They'll work it out.

And Chuck can handle this?
Last time I saw him, he was...

Last time you saw him,
he wasn't himself, okay?

This is good for him.

- Okay.
- What?

I don't know. I'm just... Whatever.
I'll see you in a couple hours.

Okay. We're ordering
a pizza. I'll save you a slice.

Hey, you know, if you don't separate
those, you're gonna end up with brown.

- Hello?
- Hey.

We're in here.

We're playing sculptor.
She's Michel-angelina.

- How's work?
- Oh, you know. Work.

How'd it go?

Kid's a dream. She's easy.

And you better stay that way.

How you doing, sweetie, huh?

Well. I better be going.

Oh, wait. Hang on a sec, would you?
I wanna talk to you about something.

What's up?

I wanna know what
I should do with this.

I've been carrying it around for weeks.

Like, holding on to it.

Every place I put it feels wrong.

I thought about putting it
in the collection plate...

...but that seemed, I don't know...

Look, with Matty gone,
I have expenses.

And the death benefit helped, but...

What I wanna ask you is...
Can I spend this?

Stace...

...if this money helps you and Kaylee...

...if it does a single good thing in this
world, then you spend every penny.

It's a relief.

It'll help a lot.

Of course,
it's only a drop in the bucket.

I swear, everyone I know
has had problems with them.

I had one. The computer in the engine,
it locked in the middle of the Rockies.

Yeah, it decided I was
overheating and that was it.

Yeah. I couldn't get it fixed
for 100 miles.

I had to have it towed to Telluride.
It was unbelievable.

No.

No, it's the chip. It's the little...

Yeah. It's like 800 bucks,
not counting labour...

Hey, Mel, can I call you back?

Chuck, the Sandpiper has landed.

Gentlemen,
I'm Jimmy McGill. Welcome.

Rich Schweikart.
This is Alvin Reese. Phil Jergens.

Thanks for coming.
Whoa, I have to ask you.

Please leave electronics in the car.

Laptops, BlackBerries,
PalmPilots, watches.

If you lick it
and it goes... leave it here.

Why?

My brother Chuck
has a certain sensitivity.

It's a medical condition.
This is the price of admission.

Yeah, I heard about this.
Go ahead. It's fine.

There you go.

Make yourselves comfortable,
gentlemen.

I'll be right back.

Chuck, come on, buddy.

I'm...

- I don't know if I can do this.
- You can do this, all right?

These guys...

Those guys, they're nothing, okay?
They're the Pistons and you're the Bulls.

All right? All you gotta do is
sit there and look intimidating.

They're scared of you already.
And they should be.

You're Charles McGill.

Let's go. Let's go get them.

Hey. Do you remember me, Charles?
We were on a co-defence.

Church's Donuts v. Amendola?

It was, Jesus, nine,
ten years ago. Yeah.

Our guys were suing the other guys.

They were suing us right back. The city
had some grievance with everyone.

So we had to bundle, like,
four actions together.

I was sure that we were sunk. But you...

You quoted... What was it?

Addyston Pipe and Steel.

You turned it all antitrust and the whole
thing went away in summary judgment.

It was amazing. It was amazing.

I figured you'd be arguing in front
of the Supreme Court someday.

- Well, it's good to see you.
- Yeah.

All right. Well, let's get started.

We've read your revised demand.
It's quite a laundry list. Very creative.

Yeah, creative.

Like the way your clients
have been billing my clients.

Because that's like
Salvador Dali creative.

Cute. You know,
you're not gonna make this stick.

Setting aside evidentiary concerns...

You guys couldn't afford 10 bucks for a
padlock, that's on them. Public property.

Maybe a judge sees that your way.
Maybe he doesn't.

But the damages for elder abuse...

...the statute requires proof that
there was some undue influence.

Someone threatening the
residents of Sandpiper Crossing.

No one has claimed
there was a guy with a knife...

...telling them to
hand over lunch money.

There are a lot of
assisted living facilities out there...

...that may be disreputable.

But that's not the case with our client.

All their facilities, all 12 of them,
every single one, five-star rated.

You go to any one of them right now,
you'll see happy, healthy residents.

Sandpiper takes care of these people.
They don't bilk them.

But we looked into it.

And some of your clients have,
in fact, been overbilled.

It's an accounting error. It doesn't rise
to the level of fraud, not even close.

We've calculated the damages.
All told, it's $46,320.

So here's what we're prepared to do.

We're gonna make your clients whole.

A cheque for the 46 and change
right now.

And on top of that...

...we'll give you another
46K to cover your expenses.

So what's that, 92?
Let's call it $100,000 even.

We admit to no wrongdoing.
And your clients release all claims.

I think you're gonna need
to do better than that.

This was in your demand letter.

They're syringes. So?

I don't know if you know this...

...but that's a standard item
in an assisted living facility.

Correct,
but it's not what it is that matters.

It's where it's from.

Lincoln, Nebraska.

Go, Cornhuskers.

Since you're not picking up what
I'm putting down, I'll explain it to you.

Nebraska, although they both
begin with the letter "N"...

...actually turns out to be a
different state than New Mexico.

So your client accepted shipments
across state lines for its enterprise.

In the U.S. mail, no less.

Are you trying to make this
a RICO case?

Like our client
is John Gotti or something?

You know as well as I do,
RICO's used mostly for business beefs.

Sedima establishes a pretty low
threshold for RICO provisions to kick in.

Interstate commerce is a bitch, huh?

Soon as we establish a pattern to...
What was your word? "Overbillings"?

I prefer the classic term of "fraud."

You're looking at treble damages
so your 100 grand...

...I think you know where
you can stick it.

Will you give us a moment?

Well, what number exactly
did you have in mind?

Twenty million.

- Excuse me?
- You heard me.

- Oh, you can't expect...
- Twenty million dollars.

Or we'll see you in court.

- Twenty million?
- Didn't you hear them?

This is a big company.
Twelve separate facilities.

They can't possibly
all be in New Mexico.

This is potentially a multi-state
federal class action lawsuit...

...with a RICO kicker
at the penalty phase.

Twenty million, that's conservative.

Class cert, that's where we start.

I'll draft our complaint.
Try to get us a conditional one.

They'll try to pierce it. It should hold
long enough to start discovery.

And we need to get you
back on the grounds.

Quash this prohibition against you.
Some injunctive relief. Maybe a TRO.

Jimmy, do you want to get
started on the TRO?

Yeah. Yes.

It looks good.
No heartworm. No mange.

- Where'd you get her?
- Shelter.

Good. There's too many
puppy mills out there.

I had a dachsie in the other day.

Some douche bred her
so much, poor thing.

She just had one giant hernia for a belly.
Couldn't even walk.

Those people can go straight
to hell as far as I'm concerned.

Anything else I can do for you?

You still in touch with your people?

Depends on the type
of work you're looking for.

Your do's, your don'ts
Your wills, your won'ts.

Well, you tell me what you got,
I'll tell you what I'll do.

I signed up three more
clients at the mall today.

Jesus, those mall walkers,
those geezers are faster than you think.

I could sleep for a decade.

Did you get what I asked?

The code provisions.

Shit.

It's in the car.

Just give me a minute. I'll...

I'll go.

Where's the...?

Chuck?

Chuck?

Yeah?