Title: FIL released from Hospital with Hepatic Encephalopathy (OH)

Question: Father-in-Law  has reached End Stage Liver Disease and has developed Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) (stage 2 from what I can determine).  He had checked himself into University Hospitals of Cleveland due to various complications with both.  When we found out, we made the drive up there to see him and find out what was going on (estranged relationship).  FIL was more or less unresponsive and severely impaired in speech and motor function due to the HE (stage 3/4).  After talking with the doctors and nurses on staff, we were told they would be holding him until the paperwork for Medicare was complete and they could relocate him to a Hospice facility.  After a weeks' stay at the hospital, he became more aware and gained some mobility, but is still unable to walk unassisted and is confused easily and has mood swings, along with slurred speech.  We found out a short while ago that the hospital has allowed him to release himself in this state.  Does this constitute medical negligence of some sort? I don't feel that his mental state would allow for him to make a fully formed decision about his medical condition.  Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Answer: The bar for medical competency is very very low.  Hepatic encephalopathy can also improve a great deal with treatment so that someone could go from being totally comatose to able to make their own decisions medically in a reasonably short period of time.   A hospital is not a medical jail - so it depends how he was when he was released it may have been reasonable or may have been unreasonable


Title: Illinois - I'm 17 and my Dad has been incarcerated and needs money but I can't use his card

Question: So I'm 17 and my dad just called me saying he's been arrested and needs a deposit for any privileges like using the phone, they gave one call but no more. He gave me his CC info and told me to go online to use it. I put in the info, doesn't work. I call and they say I can't use it because I'm not the cardholder. I called the jail and he can't use the phone again to call and deposit it himself because he's not allowed to use his card. I can't drive there to bring cash nor can I afford the $ he needs. I feel hopeless, no way I can talk to him or get him money.

Answer:
 Hey, let's start with you:

Do YOU have a place to stay and another adult who can care for you/check in on you?  That's priority #1, ok?  Your dad's basic needs will be taken care of in jail, so we can forget about his commissary money for a few days if we need to.  It's not an emergency.

If you don't, PLEASE talk to ANY adult at your school.  They can help you.  But your needs are currently FAR more pressing than your father's, OK?

Once you are safe, talk to a trusted adult about this (which is who your father SHOULD have called, it is COMPLETELY inappropriate for him to put you in this situation, IMO).  They can help you navigate visiting hours for the jail, and maybe help your father get some money in his account.  But like I said before, he's not going to starve without commissary money, so don't you go sacrificing to get him some.  Take care of yourself first, visit him, and maybe let him lie in the bed he made.

This is NOT your problem to fix.


Title: My ex was awful and violent. I happen to own her name as a domain. Any issues using it for fun? Oakland

Question:
She hit me with a car. Broke in my house after we broke up. I could go on and on.

Suffice it to say I have massive reasons to be pretty pissed.

We were going to use her domain for good a long time ago but I'm kinda feeling doing something fun with it.

1. I could go all out and trash her with police reports and the assault charges she has, voice recordings of her demanding coke, nudes, other info etc. There's a lot of choices.

2. I could make it not mention her specifically and just have a lot of information on sociopaths, narcissists, psychopaths.

3. I could just have it redirect to some really screwed up site.

She not the only person in the US to have her name but there's not many.

Are those choices legal?

People post to myex.com

Answer:
 The trouble with fighting with Crazy is that from the outside nobody can tell the difference.

Be the bigger person and let it go.

Legal advice: don't do things that are likely to end up in front of a judge. This most assuredly looks like one of those things.


Title: State I do not live in is going after me for unpaid 2013 taxes. What are my options?

Question:
Edit: Missouri

Hi, I post here about 3 months ago and the problem did not go away.

I was born in the State but since 2002 I have been out of the country going to school and living. I married a local who is not an American. In 2013 however my wife had significant capital gains income. As an American I paid more than $100,000 to the IRS because I needed to report all family income no matter where it came from as I still have citizenship.

So paid the IRS, it sucked, wife was not happy but such is life. We moved on.

Around Feb of this year my parents get a letter from the State's Dept. of Rev saying I owe them $35,000 in taxes and $10,000 in fees. This clearly was a shock to me as I am not a resident of that state as far as I can tell. I'm assuming the IRS gave the State my tax info. So the letter said pay up or tell us why you do not owe.

So I sent them a letter in March explaining that I had not lived in the state since 2002. I let them know where I was living, why I paid taxes to the IRS and where they could contact me e-mail, phone number, local address, parents address). I asked them to contact me if it was not resolved and that if there was no contact I would assuming it was resolved. This is what I was told to do by this subreddit to do. I thought it worked.

Now I get a letter saying that my time has expired on the appeal process and that I owe them money and it must be paid in 10 days or they will take my money form the bank and put a lien on my property.

So clearly WTF?

As far as I can tell to be a resident you have to either live in that state for so many days (180) or have a house there. My house is not in the USA let alone that state. I was not in that State for 180 days but I did visit.

The address however I gave the IRS to get mail was my parents address as there was no way mail form the USA would make it to my current location. I'm guessing the State just assumes I live there too but I told them this was not correct.

So now what? Time to hire a lawyer? Last time this subreddit was telling me it was a bad idea and that the govt would be reasonable if I did not get a lawyer however I do not see any option at this point.

It will be very hard to do however as I am not in the USA and clearly my money will be gone in 10 days so there will be no way to pay him.

Looking back I should not have legally married my wife and all of this would have been avoided...

Is it illegal for me to move my money into a bank account not in that state? Can they still get it?

Can I be arrested if I do not pay my taxes?

Can I lose my US Passport?

I really tried and thought I was doing the right thing here and it is all going sideways on me... Sorry part of this is just a rant... No idea what to do.

Answer:
 A few comments:

1.  I don't know why you paid 100K to the IRS if your wife is not a US citizens or resident.  You could have just filed separately.

Anyway, more and more states are taking the approach that if you live overseas that it is just temporary and you will return.  Virginia was the first to do this, I see that MO appears to be taking the same approach.

I run an offshore trust company and have been advising all of my clients to establish residency in Florida before moving overseas for this very reason.


Title: [UK] My girlfriend's dad wants to change her name.

Question:
My girlfriend's dad wants to change her name. She's 16 and will be 17 soon. Next year she'll be 18. Is he allowed to change her name without consent?

I know she doesn't want it to be changed, but he can be quite abusive so she hasn't argued much about it.

If the parent wants to change their child's name without the child's consent, is that easy for them to do?

Answer:
 You didn't mention anything abut the mother, but the father will need the the agreement of **everyone** with [parental responsibility](https://www.gov.uk/parental-rights-responsibilities/who-has-parental-responsibility).

Even then, she can change her own name being 16+.Answer #2: UK operates under deed poll. Simply put, he can try and change her name but it doesn't actually matter unless she uses it for everything.

Changing your name in the UK is remarkably easy. You just sign a little form and get two witnesses. But like I said, if you never actually put down this changed name, or register it for anything or get your passport changed, then it doesn't really matter at all.

EDIT: Also, that sounds like terrible living conditions, I hope she gets out of there as soon as possible. Answer #3: I am curious as to why he's trying to change her name.


Title: Canceled Flight - Air Travelers Bill of Rights

Question:
Recently my flight was canceled and I'm wondering what I can do. I understand there is an Air Travelers Bill of Rights in the USA but I'm unsure how this regulation is enforced and/or if the airline is legally compelled to obey it. It is found under docket DOT-OST-2010-0140-2051 on regulations.gov [here](http://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOT-OST-2010-0140-2051).

The airline sent me an email when the flight was canceled. However the airline employee at the gate told me and everyone else to disregard the email and that the flight was not canceled. The flight status proceeded to change from canceled to on-time numerous times before the employee at the gate informed us that the flight was officially canceled roughly an hour after the scheduled departure time. The employee stated that they delayed making the cancellation official in hopes that they would be able to "salvage the flight". The employee told us that we would have to leave the terminal and return to the ticket counter for further assistance. When asked both the gate employees and ticket counter employees stated that the flight was canceled because they did not have enough crew to staff the flight. It was not canceled due to weather, mechanical issues with the plane or any other event that was outside the control of the airline. The customer service staff for the airline admitted that the flight cancellation was the fault of the airline itself.

The staff at the ticket counter seemed to have no idea what the policy was for canceled flights. When some passengers brought up the Air Travelers Bill of Rights the staff claimed to know nothing about it. The staff began with a first in, first out system of asking passengers to write their date of birth (DOB) on their boarding passes and then surrender them to the staff who would then take them into a secure office to try and book alternative flights for the passengers. However this system broke down almost immediately when staff proceeded to leave the ticket counter and then go to individual passengers in line, regardless of their position in line, and take boarding passes. The staff did no kind of obvious triage, for example booking passengers with infants or unaccompanied minors on replacement flights prior to single adults, etc.

The flight was an overnight flight, departing at approximately 11 PM. When it was finally officially canceled at approximately midnight  there were no hotels available within a 30 minute drive from the airport. Around 2:00 AM the airline staff who took boarding passes from passengers gave out the first re-booking options which were for flights departing between 6 and 7 AM meaning that those lucky passengers would only have to wait 7 to 8 hours to catch another flight. Those flights were quickly booked and numerous passengers, when offered alternative flights, were offered flights that were departing at 9 PM, 11 PM and some that didn't depart until August 2nd when the original flight was on July 30th. Those passengers would have to wait somewhere between 12 to over 48 hours for another flight.

The staff said that the airline would not provide hotels, transportation from the airport to hotels, food or drinks to any of the passengers who elected to wait for the next flight they could be re-booked on. Even if passengers wanted to pay for their own hotel they could not because no hotels had vacancies in the immediate future. Additionally all of the places to purchase food or drink in the airport were only accessible after passing through security, which none of the passengers could do because the airline staff had our boarding passes and they would not give us boarding passes for re-booked flights until we accepted their offer. The result is that essentially all the passengers, which included families with infants, children under 10 years old, elderly and disabled were forced to stay in the terminal for a minimum of 7 to 8 hours with no access to food or drink.

The airport itself, distinct from the airline, did provide cots, pillows and blankets to the passengers around 2 AM. I'm not sure if any of you have tried to sleep in an airport terminal with cranky children but it isn't a pleasant experience. There was no place that was remotely dark, bright lights were always on. The PA system had regular announcements so it wasn't quiet. Also the travelers who were already scheduled to depart on 6 AM flights on other airlines began to arrive around 4 AM to go through security so it quickly became very crowded with hundreds if not thousands of other passengers arriving to catch their Sunday AM flights. No rest for the weary was to be had.

The airline staff told us that we had two choices. We could either accept their re-booking offer or we could have a refund of our original purchase price. They offered refunds in the form of travel vouchers for future travel on their airline before eventually relenting and offering "cash" refunds but only if you happened to have the physical credit card that was used to originally book the flight. A number of passengers wanted to accept the refunds but found that even if they did that there were little to no flights that they could book on their own that would get them to their destination any faster than what the airline was offering as re-bookings. In my opinion this is largely due to the airline not canceling the flight initially and leading us on that the flight would not be canceled, then the staff not even offering us a refund option until several hours after the flight was canceled. Had we been told the flight was canceled ASAP and we been offered refunds immediately then a number of the passengers would have been able to find hotel rooms (if they chose to do so) or would have been able to book flights to their destination that were departing between 6 and 8 AM, rather than those flights filling up and not being able to book flights to their destination that weren't departing until 9 and 11 PM the following day.

My family was lucky in that we were re-booked for a flight on another airline that departed around 7 AM. It was not a direct flight to our destination, as our original tickets were. It had an approximately 1.5 hour layover in another city, then arrived at our destination at approximately noon making our entire delay approximately 13 hours.

According to what I've read at regulations.gov the Air Travelers Bill of Rights specifies the following:

1. Where ticket refunds are due, providing prompt refunds including refund of optional fees charged to a passenger for services that the passenger was unable to use due to an oversale situation or flight cancellation.

2. Increases the minimum denied boarding compensation (or DBC) limits to $650/$1,300 or 200%/400% of the one-way fare, whichever is smaller.

3. Implements an automatic inflation adjuster for minimum DBC limits every 2 years.

4. Requires that a carrier verbally offer cash/check DBC if the carrier verbally offers a travel voucher as DBC to passengers who are involuntarily bumped.

And there was this explanation to help customers understand some of their rights:

"Currently, bumped passengers are entitled to cash compensation equal to the value of their tickets, up to $400, if the airline is able to get them to their destination within a short period of time (i.e., within 1 to 2 hours of their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and 1 to 4 hours of their originally scheduled arrival time for international flights).  Bumped passengers are currently entitled to double the price of their tickets, up to $800, if they are delayed for a lengthy period of time (i.e., over two hours after their originally scheduled arrival time for domestic flights and over 4 hours after their originally scheduled arrival time for international flights).  Under the new rule, bumped passengers subject to short delays will receive compensation equal to double the price of their tickets up to $650, while those subject to longer delays would receive payments of four times the value of their tickets, up to $1,300.  Inflation adjustments will be made to those compensation limits every two years."

Clearly we were delayed for "a lengthy period of time". So what do I do here? Do I need to get a lawyer and take them to court? If so where? Municipal court, small claims court, Superior court, Federal court? I can't get anyone from the airline to acknowledge that they owe us anything under the Air Travelers Bill of Rights. Or did we give up our rights because we accepted their re-booking? Are we not entitled to anything because our flight was canceled so that means we weren't "bumped"?

tl;dr canceled flight screwed us over and the airline had horrible customer service. What can we do about it given the Air Travelers Bill of Rights?

Thanks!

EDIT - Sorry, I forgot to include my location is Arizona. However the flight was from Texas to Arizona. When re-booked the flight went from Texas to California and then on to Arizona.

Topic:
Consumer Law

Answer:
 You're entitled to compensation if you're bumped from a flight, not if the flight is cancelled. You can complain to the DoT but I doubt anything will come of it. Sorry =(

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/publications/flyrights.htm#complain


Title: (IA) SO was arrested for dui

Question: SO was arrested for dui and is fighting it. She declined a breathalyzer since she is vegatarian and did have a couple drinks that night. She is in the science field and had heard horror stories of false readings from her type of diet. Iowa will take your license away for a year just for denying the sobriety test. She appealed that and they still took it away. Is there any way a judge can overturn the DOT's decision?

Answer:
 When she got her driver's license, she signed multiple things. One of these was acknowledging the fact that if she refused a breathalyzer, her license would be suspended for one year. She has no way to fight this. Her vegetarianism has literally zero to do with this. I have an MS in chemistry, that is not how it works. Answer #2: IANAL.

>She is in the science field and had heard horror stories of false readings from her type of diet.

This is a defence she could have presented if she had tested over the limit. It's not a reason to refuse the test and based on what you've said, there's no reason I can think of that the DOT's decision would be overturned. Answer #3: The judge's ability to overturn the DOT's decision is extremely limited.  The criminal system and the licensing system are totally separate.

If she wants to hire an attorney and try, she certainly can.  However, much of this "my diet caused the problem" stuff is nonsense, and she'd need to prove that in court.  Answer #4: What she got hit with was the implied consent law.  If you refuse to provide a breath or blood sample (not a roadside test) in the course of DUI investigation your driver's license will automatically be suspended.

She can still receive a DUI if the officer can prove she was impaired (driving observations, field sobriety tests, person observations, ect.)

Also the .01 to .02 readings from vegetarians are not false readings.  That's what's really in your body.  The source just ins't an alcoholic beverage.  I've never had a DUI with someone that was a point .02 unless narcotics were involved.


Title: Georgia dui update

Question: Back in december I got pulled over by a georgia officer for not properly moving over while he pulled someone else over. He smelled alcohol and gave me a field sobriety test. After that he said he was going to have me blow for my bac. I refused and was put in clay county jail for the night. I never had my blood or breath tested. I got a lawyer as soon as I got out and am happy to say that I got the charged reduced to Failure of Due diligence. My total cost for all of this was $2200 for bail and $2500 for the lawyer. In all less than half the average cost of a Dui and no significant criminal charges on my record. So not 100% sure but I feel that refusing to blow in the breathalizer and give them 100% proof of breaking the law I was able to get a reduction which was a huge win for me. Not sure if I should say my lawyers name as per side bar rules but if its allowed I would love to give him credit so that he may be able to help others.

Answer:
 Great, now please don't drive drunk ever again.Answer #2: Congratulations.

You got a plea bargain on your first time DWI.  So does almost everyone.  The break you got on the criminal charge is probably offset somewhat by the license suspension/revocation you have to deal with for refusing the test.

I'm glad you are happy with the service your lawyer got you, but the reality is that what happened to you sounds like a pretty standard deal (at least for cases I'm familiar with).

I still get plenty of DWI convictions on cases where people refused to blow.  That can be used as evidence of your guilt in court, and there are never any shortage of observations of intoxication that can prove the case even without a BAC reading.


Title: [NY] I put together the identity of my attacker from nearly 20 years ago

Question:
This post is part therapy, it's a part of my past that I look back on and wish I could tell my younger self to stand up for myself.  This was when I was in high school senior year, almost twenty years ago.

My friend threw a party at his house one night-- the party blew up, and it had a bunch of people from different schools, a lot of whom I and my friend didn't know.  Late into the evening, my buddy tells me and our circle to tell people to start leaving.

We start doing the rounds, around the yard, and I approach this group of guys who end up being psychotic.  Two of them beat me up in front of an audience for telling them the parties over.

One day I get a call from one of them.  He begs my forgiveness, he even calls my parents.  It turns out I'm related to his close friend (my cousin).  My uncle was there for the revelation, he calls my father, my father tells my brother, so my brother paid him a visit.  When he came back, he told me not to worry about it anymore.  I wasn't there for it, but my brother is a very intimidating person (I'm his opposite), and I like to think whatever he said to him put fear into him.  So I dropped it.  Didn't think about it for 16 years.  I felt like I had some justice.

Fast forward 2016, my cousin is getting married.  It's a wedding abroad in Italy, and I'm totally psyched to be going, spending a week in a place I'd never traveled to.

We get to the hotel, take in all the amenities, and make our way to the pool.  I meet my cousins friends, all is going well, and this guy charges up to me, gives me a bear hug, and says "You're the one of the fam who never hangs with your cuz!", he starts getting weirdly chummy in an feely way.  I'm a little put off by it, but just brush it off as him being weird and touchy.

The attendees goes to a night club one night, we have a roped off area, music is loud and crazy, and amidst all the people dancing and partying, this same guy shoves me, for no reason at all.  I look at him like he's a loon, he walks off.

Wedding night, we're at the dinner table.  Everyone's laughing, having fun, I ask the guy where he's from in front of everyone, he barks "pffft, fuuuck you".

I didn't say or do anything, a) because I had no clue who this person was and b) I was determined not to let the whole thing escalate to the point where it would ruin the trip and wedding for myself and cuz. c) he was consistently embarrassing himself

I go home.  Look at the wedding pics on facebook, and following tags, I piece together that it was the other scumbag who beat me up.

I've been sitting on this for 2 years.  I told myself not to think about it.  But I keep having nights like this where I'm up until 3am.

Anyway, like I said. I have no idea if you can press assault charges almost 20 years on, but like I said, this is part therapy.  I keep thinking back to the night he beat me up, or even at the wedding-- for not piecing it sooner, wish I had kicked him in the nuts.

I tell myself I need to let it go, because he's clearly a failure at life, because the girl he proposed to at the wedding (ya, super tacky guy, proposing at someone else's wedding) left him and he went on a tweet storm about it--- but it still doesn't satisfy me.

Is there anything I can do?

Answer: absolutely nothing.  Statute of limitations on that was only a couple of years.


Title: Wedding venue says can't get married in contracted spot

Question:
My sister is getting married in CA in 6 weeks. Yesterday the venue called her and said the spot they were planning on getting married will not be available because they accidentally double booked the area/ weren't supposed to schedule a wedding there at that time of year. The location of the ceremony was the entire reason they booked this  a venue  the ceremony location is specified on the contract they signed. Guests already booked flights and made reservations in the city so my sister can't move to another venue outside of that city. The venue simply says they have to choose a different spot on the grounds and have it there. In the contract it's states that the venue can change the location of events at any time for the safety of the animals and plants at the location as well as the guests. The change is due to them having another group on the location overlapping the wedding. My question is, if she can find an alternate venue, can she break the contract and get the venue to pay for increased fees such as resending invites etc? And if she can't find a new spot in time, what would be acceptable to ask for in return for changing the location, if anything? Thanks.

Thank you to everyone who responded. My sister sent an email last night asking about what is going on per your advice. We'll see what the venue tries to say. She contacted a lawyer who will look at everything once they've heard back from the venue. I'll let you know if anything happens. Thanks again to everyone.

Answer:
 Having just gotten married in last year, I would advise you spending 200-500 bucks and get an attorney to review the contract and give you their opinion on what your options are. Answer #2: Choose a different spot on the grounds and have it there, ask for 50% refund? Answer #3: I assume your sister's wedding is the one that was booked second?

I had something a little similar happen to my wedding last year. Where they booked another wedding for the reception only and then 2 months before the date the other wedding wanted to do the ceremony in the same spot only 30-45 mins before ours.

The place gave us assurances it would not mess ours up, and in the end they gave us free increases in the food and alcohol and we even changed to the back up spot due to rain and it all turned out great.

Given the time and stress, find a lawyer in CA to review it and write a letter. At the very lease the venue better give you a discount on something.


Title: [Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA] Asking on behalf of coworker, dog was poisoned yesterday.

Question:
Like the title says, one of the guys I manage at work came into his home yesterday morning to find his large German Shepherd laying the floor with bloody vomit trickling out of her mouth. After rushing her to the vet, it was determined to be the result of an anti-coagulant type of poison (they were sure it was rat poison).

He searched his entire home for household chemicals, but he has said they are all kept locked up in the garage, and the dog never goes in there. The dog showed no signs or symptoms the previous day or night. This happened shortly after he allowed her to go to the bathroom in the grass strip next to their townhouse (they live on an HOA in a townhome community).

There are a few explanations we have talked about, one of which is the family next door. They are extremely afraid of his dog, and have shown hostility and fear towards it in the past.

The other explanation we were able to think of is that it is possible that the HOA has a pest control program (they are responsible for all the grounds, basically anything outside the front door is the HOA's responsibility to maintain).

I'm leaning more towards pest control, as the dog had to have "found" the source of the poison on this grass strip, and I doubt anyone who wanted that dog dead would have left it up to chance like that, however, the family next door is afraid of her, so I doubt any of them would have gone within arms reach of her to do this, if they even did it at all. Like I said, I have my doubts about that conclusion.

The HOA does have a leash policy. So, he shot himself in the foot there by allowing his dog off leash to go to the bathroom.

Of course, there could be other explanations we aren't thinking of, but these are the two that make sense to us given the context.

What exactly could his options be? The fact that the HOA has a leash policy sounds like it could be a problem for him. However, if they do have a pest control problem and use rat poison, the poison was in a location any animal could have gotten into, including a child.

Money or compensation isn't really a drive here, he is more concerned about this happening to someone else, or if the family next door is responsible. Anyways, could I call upon your expertise?

Answer:
 > What exactly could his options be?

He can complain to the HOA.  That's about it.

If it turns out the HOA did put out poison, he *may* have an outside shot at a claim.  However, given that the HOA very specifically told him to leash his dog and keep an eye on him, that would be a very difficult claim to win.

If he has evidence that another party deliberately poisoned the dog, he can sue them and/or report them to the police.


Title: We've been robbed twice and we're trying to stay safe, but the LANDLORDS keep leaving doors unlocked! Help!

Question:
I'm a college student in Minneapolis, Minnesota who lives in a house with 8 other people. We're all good students and pretty responsible but we just keep getting screwed over.

Two weeks into the school year (before we could get renters insurance figured out) we got robbed and several laptops and watches were taken, stuff totalling like $6k. One of the front doors didn't have a doorknob, and although we had lots of written evidence that the landlords knew about it, legal action was not worth it because no one had time or money as we're all very busy. Between moving out again and fronting lawyer money and everything there's no way we all could've stayed in school.

We did consult a University lawyer who sent them a letter and the doorknob was replaced the next day. We were fine until we got robbed again on Christmas eve...no one was home, all the doors were CERTAINLY locked, and luckily only a few hundred dollars of things were taken. We have no idea how they got in as everything was locked and there was no sign of forced entry which makes me nervous because every single person who shows up to the house (painters, maintainance,  management) seems to just have a key on their keychain so who knows how many are out there. Anyway....

Fast forward to today. All of our neighbors amd people we know in the neighborhood have since had break ins. None of us  go out to our cars or for a smoke without locking the doors. Today we woke up with all of our doors WIDE OPEN. Not just unlocked, but open. The "painters" had been there early in the morning to get some supplies they had left and we can only attribute it to that.  We've asked maintenance people to lock the doors before but the management company is HORRIBLY irresponsible. I could list a dozen aweful things they've done besides this, but this is the only one that actually makes me fearful.

Apparently this company ('Minnesota Rental Properties') is known for being aweful. They had a few kids die in a fire a while ago and it doesn't surprise me. They break SO many codes, but can get away with it because students here can't call the city inspector because MPLS has a 3-person zoning limit and they would get kicked out. The company is also very notoriously lawsuit-happy and won't hesitate to take students to court for anything, apperantly.

I would appreciate any and all advice here. We've since learned many lessons about who not to rent from but for now I just need to know how to stay safe.  Thanks!

Answer: What, specifically, do you want to accomplish here? "Stay safe" is very vague.


Title: Do judges ever drop charges if they feel the guilty person was suffered enough consequence in the crime?

Question:
Just as a hypothetical to explain what I mean, say a bad guy tries to mug someone. The victim fights back and in that fight, a knife was pulled and the mugger gets stabbed in the spine which permanently paralyzes the mugger from the neck down.

Would there ever be a a case where the judge feels that being paralyzed is enough of a punishment and drops any further charges? If so, is there a name for it?

Answer:
 They could play out in the sentencing phase- they still get convicted but get probation instead of prison time, for example.

But it would be unusual to just drop the whole case for that reason.Answer #2: Just take a look at nearly every single case of a driver killing a cyclist, ever, if the driver was sober.  "Have to live with the fact that they killed somebody" + a probation period is the norm because people think that "living with the fact that you killed a person" is punishment enough.Answer #3: I don't think a judge can actually "drop" or otherwise dismiss charges that the defendant has already been declared guilty of, but if there's no mandatory minimum sentence for the crime in question, they can exercise their discretion (which is the name you're looking for; "judicial discretion") to sentence the defendant to time served, meaning their punishment is just the time they've already spent in jail or on probation in the lead-up to the verdict.


Title: Younger neighbor said to chase him when he was on bike, fell off, being sued

Question:
A few days ago I was walking home from buying a Gatorade. My neighbor several houses down (11, I am 21) was riding his bike down the block towards me. He saw me and said “hey chase after me” and rode the other way. Eventually he made a circle and was coming up behind me, swerved into me and fell off his bike. He began crying and holding his arm, so I stayed with him and called my parents. Eventually his parents came outside, and he said “he pushed me” I told them my side of the story and we separated. Yesterday, his parents knocked on my door and said he has a broken arm, and they are going to sue me for pushing him off his bike. What can I do in this situation. I didn’t push him and it was a total accident, I stayed with him until his parents were there, but I have no proof I didn’t him?? Please help.

Location: Illinois

Answer:
 “Sorry your kid got hurt, but it wasn’t my fault. He was riding his bike carelessly and crashed into me because of it. I will not be suing you for assault, though, since you have enough problems right now.”

Burden of proof and all. Answer #2: First, if they have health insurance, they should be going through their insurance first. It's unlikely they'll sue just for the deductible, and their health insurance is going to take one look at this situation and eat the cost.

They're going to need proof to win a lawsuit, and an 11-year-old's testimony _might_ not hold up without any other supporting evidence. On balance, I'd be very tempted to do nothing, and see if they sue you, just to have the matter closed: it takes up your time, but the worst outcome is that the judge orders you to pay the expenses they're asking for plus their filing fees.

However, if they're asking for a large amount - and fracture treatment without insurance can add up quickly - then you should speak to an attorney either before you talk to them, or if you decide to ignore them (and I would), if they sue.

If you have homeowner's or renter's insurance with a liability policy, this may be covered, and you should talk to them if you're sued over an injury you allegedly caused.Answer #3: You just ignore them for now.  Since the kid is lying, nothing much will come from this.  Answer #4: Is there anyone on the street  that may have caught anything in CCTV? For proof etc. Answer #5: You should take a look on your body to see if where he hit you has a bruise. Something like that may be beneficial. Take pics if you do


Title: If police come to the door of my residence and ask if they search the place, and I grant them access, am I under any obligation to stay? If during their search, I decide to leave for work or go for a walk, and they are not detaining me, can I just up and go?

Question: If police come to the door of my residence and ask if they search the place, and I grant them access, am I under any obligation to stay? If during their search, I decide to leave for work or go for a walk, and they are not detaining me, can I just up and go?

Answer: A better idea, if you're in such a rush to go somewhere, is to not consent to a warrantless search in the first place.


Title: (MA, USA) Hospital sent me away with a serious infection needing surgery

Question:
Two weeks ago now my tooth got an abscess. I was in the middle of looking for a dentist so I went to an urgent care where I got antibiotics that didn't work. When I went back to urgent care for more antibiotics a week later, they told me to go to the ER because they thought I needed surgery to lance the infection plus IV antibiotics. I went to my closest one and without any tests and just feeling my jaw, they said they didn't even know if it was an abscess and told me to go back to a dentist. They sent me off with other antibiotics. I go to a dentist and with just one look, the dentist tells me to go to the ER because she also thought I needed surgery.

Luckily I found a hospital that agreed I needed surgery and the morning after, I got the surgery. I was in the hospital for five days.

I don't want to sue the first hospital. I'm not interested in a lawsuit. But I do think they were negligent towards me and I don't want to pay any money towards a place that really did endanger my health. How do I get out of paying the bill?

Answer: The purpose of the ER is to save you from dying. Unless this was life threatening you should not have been directed back to the er. What you needed was oral surgery not an er.


Title: Struck from behind by van while riding bicycle (GEORGIA, US)

Question:
Hello. I was hit two days ago. I should discharged today from hospital. I am going to need some rehab for my badly damaged knee but besides that I don't think I'll need much long lasting care.

I am currently in the Navy, but I separate to civilian life in march. So I'll maintain a paycheck.

I was not at fault and following all of GA law for riding a bicycle. The person who hit me told the police they were looking at their cellphone.

I'm currently in the hospital. I will be discharged to home care soon. I am active duty so I have awesome medical coverage, and I will go get MRI of my knee and elbow next week.

I just want to know what I should do. I'm going to contact her insurance because my bicycle and helmet definitely need to be reimbursed. My medical costs are covered until I leave the navy in march. But other than that I don't know.  Is there anything that I should do?

Answer:
 >The person who hit me told the police they were looking at their cellphone.

Wow, I'm amazed they admitted that. They're boned.

>Is there anything that I should do?

**Do not** make any statements to the driver's insurance company over the phone. I highly suggest talking to JAG on base first and get a referral for a personal injury attorney just to cover yourself. The attorney should be able to determine if their services are needed depending on the state of your injuries. While TriCare (ugh) may cover your hospital stay and physical therapy, your attorney may mention pain and suffering if he/she feels your injuries are severe enough.


Title: My father was killed in California. How do I (NC) go about filing for wrongful death?

Question:
He had texted us saying he was buying tires so he could make the move (he had been planning to live with us for a while; he needed to make sure he had everything ready first) and 8 hours later a woman who was driving the truck crashed into a tree and he died.
I believe drugs were involved, and roadside trees arent super common in California unless theyre small and decorative.
This isnt very organized or well thought out. I have no idea what to do or where to start. Anything you could offer would be incredibly helpful.

Answer:
 First, my condolences.

Second, take a breath. You're going to need to wait for information to come in.

The police will conduct an investigation, which should include toxicology tests of all involved, as well as witness statements and description of vehicle state.

Once *that* info is available - and you can maintain contact with California Highway Patrol or the agency in whose jurisdiction this occurred - you can begin talking to attorneys.

"Wrongful death" tends to be very fact specific. Even if this woman is found at fault, if she's uninsured or destitute, you're unlikely to see much in the way of recovery. An attorney can advise you better once the preliminary facts are in.


Title: Cops won't do their job, what are my options

Question:
There is a protest in front of a restaurant that I live next to.  They are screaming into a bullhorn for hours. starting at 10 am.  I can't ignore them or get away from it even in my own living room.  Cops are all around just watching them.  I checked the [Atlanta city noise ordinance](http://www.nonoise.org/lawlib/cities/atlanta.htm) and it states the following:

>It shall be unlawful for any person to make, continue or cause to >be made or continued any loud or excessive noise which >unreasonably interferes with the comfort, response, health and >safety of others within the jurisdiction of the city.
>(Code 1977, § 17-3102)

I told the cop," I support their right to protest, they should keep doing it, but please ask them to stop shouting into the bullhorn because I can hear them even when I'm wearing headphones in my own home".

Cop said "It's a political thing, so we won't cite them for it."

So I continue to sit in my living room, with constant screaming over a bullhorn outside my window.

Am I allowed to write a citizens citation or something, am I allowed to complain to the police chief?  What would you do?

Answer:
 Not only do the police have no obligation to stop it, there is a very good chance that doing so would violate the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution.

You can file suit for an injunction to get them to stop, but you will almost certainly lose and spend a great deal of money in the process.


Title: Is this discrimination? My sis is interviewed and asked back for a 2nd interview. Ironically the interviewer’s name is the same as my sis’s. Later my sis is told she no longer has a 2nd interview. HR said HER NAME is the same as the woman who interviewed her and that would be too confusing.

Answer:
 That is legal. Illegal discrimination is for protective classes. Names are not a protective class

Edit: or protected class. Whatever


Title: (Ohio) Entire school drug tested

Question: This is not my school, but my friend's who goes to a career center with me. They told me that the other day everybody at their home school was drug tested. As far as I know the school can only test you if you're part of an EC activity or club. Is it possible they tested all clubs and EC's all at once? If they did test the entire student body, what is the legality of it?

Answer:
 Public or private? Why was the entire school drug tested? Where the parents notified?

Gonna need a few more details.


Title: Help! My Mother lost her Citizenship Paperwork YEARS ago.

Question:
Hey Reddit,

So a little context. I am writing this on the behalf of my mother. My mom has been a US citizen for 2 decades now. Almost after getting her citizenship done, she had given birth to me soon after (In the states). I am now a 3rd year college student, and I am the only child in this family. I am the main person my family goes to in terms of needing things/assistance when it comes to research/advanced English.

My grandmother recently got diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She lives in South Korea. My mom needs her passport ready at all times, in case she needs to travel there and be with her until her passing. HOWEVER. My mom never needed her passport readily available until recently, and upon checking the expiration, it will be later this year in September 2019. She wants to renew it, but this is where it gets hectic.

She lost, or misplaced her citizenship paperwork that is needed to renew her passport. Apparently, the only time she could've lost it, is when we moved to our current house we live in now, almost 12 years ago! There is no other reason she could think of that could've had her lose the paperwork.

I'm currently filing a N-565 on USCIS, and upon reaching the end, there needs to be proof of any documentation stating that she lost her documents via police report or sworn statement.

&#x200B;

What should I do? Obviously police isn't the option right now, as the assumption here is that we lost the paperwork almost 12 years ago, so I am leaning towards the sworn statement of the situation. Is it okay if we write out a statement on word or google doc, explaining as much as we can about this situation and upload it? Or should we seek legal help in our area for more suggestions?

Thanks Reddit!

Answer:
 She currently has an unexpired passport, which expires in September?  Can she not just renew by mail?Answer #2: If she has an UNEXPIRED passport, that should be sufficient to renew and get a current passport.

You should be ae to renew by mail without a problem if you get going on it now.Answer #3: Assuming she had it at the time she got or renewed her passport in 2009, she must have had it in your new house. A us passport is valid for 10 years.

Having  said that, I’m not sure where she got the idea she needs her citizenship papers. This page lists what you need when you have an unexpired passport as she does https://www.usa.gov/passport#item-34907


Title: Automated debt collector calls, but I have no debt

Question:
So I've been receiving automated debt collector calls. The phone rings once, then hangs up before I can even get to it. Its always the same number and it's an automated message informing me that they are debt collectors seeking to make contact.

Relevant info.:

1) Message has no identifying markers. They do not mention my name, my number or what debt this is in regard to etc. Absolutely zero information given.

2) Messages left are under a different number than the number that calls.
Example: caller is a 1-800, but message left is by a 1-805.

3) I don't have any debt, which is why this raises questions of whether or not my ID has been stolen.

4) Should I even bother calling them back? I don't want to ignore it if it's important but I don't want them to know that my number is working if it's just a fishing scam. (Phishing?)

Conclusion: Is my ID in jeopardy, should I call them, or is this a scam?

Thanks in advance

Edit: Orlando, FL

Edit 2: thanks for all the advice. My credit looks fine. I'll be keeping a close eye on it. For the most part I'm not gonna pay these calls any mind unless they escalate.

Answer:
 They could be phishing, or they could be wrong number. Do they identify a company name?Answer #2: >Should I even bother calling them back?

No. I've periodically gotten those calls, and I know I have no debt. I also check my credit report just to double check. A lot of these are scams.


Title: [MI] My former boss deleted all of my personal files from my Drive after I left his company.

Question:
My former boss and I came to a decision that it was best if I don't work there anymore. He was making changes that I don't agree with, because they are based on pure greed. I was expected to enforce new rules that shifted financial burden onto the commission only employees and off of the company. He used to treat them very well, which led to him being extremely successful. Then he got greedy, they complained, and I was stuck in the middle. I had to listen and calm them, but I wasn't allowed to give him any feedback.

So when we came to terms, I packed up my office under his supervision, and I left.

I hadn't thought to sign out of my google drive. I had used it primarily for work, but I had two files on there that were mine personally. Nothing threatening, just my family address book.

As I was packing up my office, the boss texted the tech guy, and he started clearing my computer. I saw it happening, but didn't register anything.

When I got home, I remembered my address book and went to send it to my other google account. It was gone. Everything was gone except one very important work file.

I texted the office manager the next day and said that she might want to remove my access to it. She hasn't done it. It's been three days.

I looked in the trash and the files aren't there. I have a feeling I'll never see my address book again.

I wonder if he left that file on there to test me.

Does anyone have any insight on either of these?

Answer:
 Don't access files you shouldn't

Don't mix work and personal things. You had personal things on work drives. Nothing wrong with them being deleted.

Don't use work computers for personal things


Title: Is this interest usurious?

Question:
**Summary**: Interest charged is 45% per annum, but maximum is 12% per annum. Are my calculations correct? Is my understanding of the law correct?

&nbsp;

In order to pay for the hospital bills of my grandparents, my parents and their siblings borrowed money from one of my dad's friends. We're from **Davao, Philippines**.

&nbsp;

My dad's friend, who is a lawyer, lent the equivalent of **$4,300 US dollars (200,000 Philippine Pesos)** in return for a monthly payment of **$450 US dollars (21,000 Philippine Pesos)** for 12 months.

&nbsp;

According to [my calculations](http://s33.postimg.org/sgdbposzz/usury1.png), this is **45% per annum** compounded monthly or **44.15% per annum** compounded continuously.

&nbsp;

[Further calculations](http://s33.postimg.org/i7kujv4y7/usury2.png), if correct, say that the maximum acceptable monthly payment is **$380 US dollars (17,700 Philippine Pesos)**.

&nbsp;

Are my calculations incorrect?

&nbsp;

My understanding is that **12% per annum** is the maximum interest rate (see [here](http://jlp-law.com/blog/excessive-unconscionable-interest-rate/), [here](http://www.chanrobles.com/cralaw19925.htm), [here](http://www.philstar.com:8080/business/671373/usury-interest-rate-cap-and-tax-foreign-remittance) and [here](http://attylaserna.blogspot.hk/2015/05/unconscionable-loan-interest-usury-law.html)) in the Philippines. **How do I know under what compounding frequency is this?**

&nbsp;

Under Philippine law, does it look like **this interest is usurious**? What might we be able to do about this?

&nbsp;

I'm curious, **would this interest be usurious in some states in the US, Canada or Europe**?

&nbsp;

I haven't yet asked my parents or their siblings if they signed anything. None of us have spoken to a lawyer, but I guess we may have to do so. I have told only my dad about this. He and I have not yet told the others.

&nbsp;

Oh another thing, my dad's friend offered to treat my dad and some others to a vacation in France later this year.

Answer:
 >My understanding is that 12% per annum is the maximum interest rate (see here, here, here and here) in the Philippines. How do I know under what compounding frequency is this?

Did you even bother reading your links? They say explicitly that the 12% limit was repealed.

(From your third link):

>There was a Usury Law enacted in 1916, (also known as Act 2655). This was amended by Presidential Decree No. 116, which set the maximum rate of loan interests at 12 percent per annum. Any charge over the 12-percent rate was regarded as usurious. In December of 1982, however, the Central Bank of the Philippines (before it was renamed Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) issued Circular No. 905 effectively suspending the law by removing the ceiling on interest rates. Thus, banks and other lending individuals, groups or institutions may generally charge more than 12 percent per year.


Title: MD found out the gender of my baby

Question:
Hi! I’m currently 30 weeks pregnant with my one and done child. I cut off my “mother” who I dub “money dearest”. She found out I was pregnant via hacking my grandma’s Instagram account and just recently, I found out through my older sister on Discord that my egg donor (the toxic trash that I cut off) knows the gender of my kid via “making some calls”. I’d post the SS but don’t know how to post SS on a text post for Reddit, so if anyone knows how to do so, let me know.

Naturally, I’m enraged as I don’t want her knowing a damn thing about my child. I’m thinking either my grandma may have slipped and told her as she’s all about reconciliation with my egg donor despite my numerous refusals or somehow she found out who my OB was due to her being my authorized payee rep for SS and Medicare. She’s only my representative due to my autism as a child and her milking it for as long as possible. How do I lock things down more? What also can I do to prep for a potential GP right case? She’s batshit enough to do some shit. I’m tempted to message her on Facebook (before blocking her again) to tell her to fuck off and leave me and mine alone but I doubt that’ll do anything. Thanks for any advice ya’ll can provide.
Topic:
Healthcare Law including HIPAA

Answer:
 > I found out through my older sister on Discord that my egg donor (the toxic trash that I cut off) knows the gender of my kid via “making some calls”.

Or it's bullshit and they're just saying this to wind you up, knowing they've got about a 49% chance of being right.

Don't rise to the provocation. Tell your doctors you want nothing to do with her, and have a lawyer send her a C&D.

>She’s only my representative due to my autism as a child

She IS your representative, present-tense? Might she have a right to know under the laws that put her in that position?


Title: My toddler got caught in my building’s elevator. Can I file a lawsuit?

Question:
Yesterday morning my three kids and I were leaving to go to school. We live in an elevator building and we were going down to the garage. I set my 19 month old daughter down (she is very independent and wants to do everything herself). So she’s standing with her back to the elevator door and just as I look down, I see her hand on the elevator door as the door is sliding open. I couldn’t move her out of the way in time and her hand up to the wrist was sucked into the tiny opening between where the door goes in and the metal outside of it. She was screaming in pain. I was screaming at my older daughter to press the “door open” button. It wouldn’t open. I was terrified I’d have to leave to go find someone to help. I didn’t know what to do. It was awful. Terrified I’d pull her hand clear off, I pried it out of the doors. Her hand was in there for probably no more than 15 seconds but it felt like forever.

After I got it out, I rushed her to the ER. Thankfully, no broken bones or damaged tendons. Just tissue damage. It’s very swollen and black and blue on the top part of her hand, fingers, and wrist. The doctor said if her hand was any bigger, it would’ve been way worse.

After discussing it with my partner last night, I agreed that something needs to be said or done in regards to our management office. But, they don’t have a very good record of interest in resident matters. They never reply to phone messages and very rarely will they reply to emails. To get anything done, you must go into the office and many times will have to ask more than once for help. I sent an email to them last night asking for an incident report and for someone to check if the elevator is up to code(because we’ve lived here 5 years now and I’ve never seen any elevator inspector but what do I know). I should also note that there is no sign/warning in said elevator about getting caught in between the doors and that the doors won’t open or close if something is stuck in it.

My question is- do we have any ground to stand on for a lawsuit? My older daughter and son cried all the way to school, they were so terrified having witnessed the incident. It was not the worst thing in the world but quite traumatizing. My baby is also now terrified of the elevator. Should I speak to a lawyer or wait and see if the management company does anything?

Sorry this was long. Thanks in advance!!

Answer: No, but you can parent better. The fact that she got caught is a result of you not supervising her properly. It was an accident. Keep a closer eye on her and keep her away from the doors. Management didn’t do anything wrong.


Title: [Washington DC]Perfectly good house torn down during illegal construction, now the lot has turned into a dumping ground since the contractor ran out of money...

Question:
Good morning legal advice. I live in DC in a neighborhood that is undergoing quite a shift, lots of home renovations and flips, etc...Whenever something new starts I follow the permit application process and such so I'm aware of what is going on around me.

Last year a property that we share an alley with (90 degree angle when you exit our back yard into the alley), was purchased by a general contractor. The house itself, although not great, was structurally sound, and would have made a good flip.

The initial building permit consisted off basic drywall replacement, kitchen refurb, etc... normal stuff. This was about 18 months ago. Work begins. Things are going on as normal...until one day they just tear the whole house down. They then proceed to start building some cinderblock monstrosity (poorly I may add, one of the 20ft cinderblock walls toppled over and they had to rebuild it, the other wall kinks around a tree..)

After asking around, speaking with some of the construction workers, I find that they are building an office building...in a residential neighborhood...that is not zoned for that at all. I filed a complain with the city. The process isn't particularly transparent, but it seems like they got a stop order. I also find out that the contractor ran out of money. This was 8 months ago? Since then no progress has been made. There is a skid overflowing with trash, people have started dumping stuff there, including a whole car. Its become a blight on the neighborhood.

I've repeatedly filed with DC city (be it DOEE or other), but all they can really do is fine the individual, which doesn't help remedy the problem.

Its infuriating that someone took a perfectly good home, knocked it down and turned the lot into shit. I just want it to go back to normal (or at least have the lot completely restored to a blank slate status). What kind of legal action can I take to make this happen?

___________________________

Key bullet points:

* Perfectly good house sold to contractor

* Contractor tears house down to build office building

* Does not have the zoning or the permits to do this

* Runs out of money/gets a stop order from city

* Lot has turned into a dumping zone and a blight on the neighborhood

* Wut do?

Answer: You could offer to purchase the lot from the present owner.


Title: Possibly getting fired for talking about work on social media

Question:
I work for a huge, international company. We had a huge merger, and at the end of December, we become another company entirely. In August, when they recalibrated hours, I was deemed as part time since I'm a commission worker. Therefore, I lost my benefits. Luckily, my husband started at the same company within a week of this happening, so we enrolled under him as the primary. Seems simple. It wasn't.

For three months, we phoned and emailed our location HR, the company hotline, and the insurance company. Payroll deducted the insurance payments every month from my husband's check, but no coverage. Every one was pointing fingers in the blame game. So, at my wits end, I went to Facebook and asked for advice on what to do. I didn't curse, I didn't name call, I was honestly asking for help; I did, however, mention the company name. (I'm an idiot, I know. Fml.)

A lovely coworker screen capped that post and emailed it to my boss. I keep a locked down, private FB for this reason and I apparently trusted the wrong person (I had 5 work friends on my list, small pool). I violated company guidelines by posting on social media, so I'm looking at a termination once the head of HR returns from vacation Monday.

My legal advice issue: is terminating me retaliation for airing my grievances? From what I can tell, my state is pretty protective of personal lives outside of work, and from what I've read, I'm legally allowed to post about wages, hours and working conditions online, as well as general grievances. I was advised on another sub to use the Colorado Revised Code § 24-34-402.5 (Lawful Activity Statute) as well as National Labor Relations Act in my defense, but do I have a leg to stand on?

Edit: the employee handbook I recieved has no parameters listed regarding social media. It merely states their social media guidelines can be requested from HR.

Answer:
 The National Labor Relations Act protects workers communications around wages and benefits, and health insurance is a benefit.  As /u/53045248437532743874 posted, you may have protection for posts made to social media, especially in this case as you were asking a question specifically relating to your rights, and because the post was locked.

This is a case where I would absolutely contact a Colorado labor lawyer, since you are expecting to be fired and want to get action ASAP.


Title: Broke up with my fiance, we have a 1.5 year old can I take her with me in Oregon?

Question: My fiance and I have a 1.5 year old baby together. We have since broken up and I want to leave my home with my child(I am the legal father) and stay at my parents for a night. I live in Oregon, can I be charged with custodial interference or kidnapping if I take her with me?

Answer: Not a lawyer: From my time reading this sub, the general stance appears to be if there's no court-ordered custody agreement, you can take your child with you.Answer #2: I'm a family lawyer in Oregon. Yes, if there's no court order you can take your child wherever you want. But consider the big picture as well. If there is a custody case at some point, your actions about sharing the child and showing you can co-parent are just about the biggest factor. So yes take your kiddo for the night, but don't prevent your ex from seeing him/her as you go forward. Unless your ex poses a threat - not a suspected threat or an I'm-not-comfortable- threat. A real one like physically abusive or actively using drugs etc. Answer #3: Also not a lawyer, but the consensus on the sub is yes, you can take your child. It would probably be wise to immediately file for custody soon after though.


Title: Can my professional certs be used by a company after I quit?

Question:
(TX - USA)

I quit my job and the company is still using my professional certification logos on their website and other marketing collateral. I was the only one who held those certs. and now I'm gone, so they are essentially misrepresenting their employees' qualifications, and potentially acquiring new customers who think the company has certified employees when they do not. Is this illegal activity? What recourse do I have?

Answer:
 Are they specifically claiming to employ you, or otherwise identifying your certs through some method that can tie to you?

If not, your only recourse is to report them to whoever issued the cert.  You, personally, have no recourse.Answer #2: Report it to the certifying authorities.


Title: Can I get arrested for having sex with my boyfriend.

Question: I'm gay, and me and my boyfriend have been together for over a year (since we were both 16) and recently his grandpa has been threatening to have me arrested. I am currently 18, and he is 17. Just wondering if I can get in trouble for anything, and if there is anything I can do to prevent it. Because his grandpa is an asshole. I am in utah

Answer: Depends on your country, or state and/or province.


Title: UPDATE:(FL) I'm an author, a woman wants to sue me because my book gave her daughter nightmares.

Question:
My publisher had a lawyer send her a cease and desist. She's stopped threatening to sue but she still sends me some hate mail from time to time. She'll just adore the sequel.

https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/3zki2w/fl_im_an_author_a_woman_wants_to_sue_me_because/

Answer: Suggest her child read the bible. Plenty of upbeat stories in there. Answer #2: I'm glad it worked out for you, although I'm selfishly sad that it didn't blow up into some sort of massive drama. Answer #3: I *still* want to read this book/series!


Title: Can you record TSA when they hand-inspect your bag?

Question:
I’m a photographer and I always request that my camera body and lenses get hand-inspected to protect them from the X-Rays. The last time I was at the airport, TSA treated my belongings like trash and ended up cracking one of my lenses. They claim they say no rough treatment in the security camera footage, which is just them covering their asses.

Am I allowed to videotape the agent/s when they inspect my camera equipment for the protection of my property?
Topic:
Searches and Seizures

Answer: The TSA has issued statements saying you can record checkpoints as long as you don't film the monitors they use to view xrays. That said, how could an xray machine possibly damage a camera lense?


Title: (NC) Fired without reason, and then all of a sudden I don't have a paycheck? How do I proceed?

Question: I worked at a BBQ restaurant, worked a total of 3 weeks, when during a dinner rush the executive chef told me "clock out, go home and don't come back." I was never told a reason for getting fired, and then I went in today and there was no check for me, after talking to the manager who said he would talk to the bookkeeper tomorrow and give me a call, I'm a little skeptical about whether or not I'm getting paid. I was registered in the POS system and it clocked my hours and such. Just not sure what else I'm supposed to do.

Answer: Well for one thing, is today payday? Would you normally be paid today for that time if you had not been fired? Apply for unemployment if you haven't already.


Title: California: Why did a misdemeanor show up on my background check when the courthouse specifically said the misdemeanor was DISMISSED and I was convicted of only an infarction

Question:
Happens in California:

Back in the days: So when I turned 18, I did something insanely stupid. I went gambling, won 400$ and bought a snowboard at Chicks sporting shop (I think its called Dick's now..). While walking out, I saw a 23$ white beanie that matched my snowboard, and decided "eff it, im stealing this." Ended up getting caught by the security and they ended up calling the cops. Got arrested, and my dumbass did not lawyer up.

Flash forward: Its been 11 years since then and I've completely turned my life around. Shortly after the time of my arrest, my mother got diagnosed with cancer and I had to endure watching her health decline day by day while waiting for an opening with any doctor that would accept a patient without proper health insurance. It broke me down but it helped me see how much a persons socioeconomic status can influence a persons health. I set my sight on becoming a doctor to see this problem through. Despite barely graduating high school (ditched too many classes to the point where they had to readjust the attendance policy) and having already failed multiple community college courses, I busted my ass.  I worked hard (had to work 2 jobs to help out around the house financially), busted my ass in community college (went from a 1.2 GPA first year to a 3.8 GPA in science heavy courses), eventually transferred to the best public university in California (best public university in nation according to USNEWS and Reports :D ).

Good news: 5 years after my mothers diagnosis, she took her last chemo and was considered to be in "remission." 7 years after my mothers diagnosis, I eventually got accepted to a medical school. I continue to work hard (our school ranks us, and I am within top 10 of a class size close to 300). Recently, I studied over 14 hours a day for 2 months straight for the most important exam of any medical student career: Step 1. Recently heard back- my board scores set me up to specialize in whatever field I want (leaning towards emergency medicine, which would allow me to provide medical assistance to less privileged parts of the world).

The bad news: My school just ran a background check on me and a record showed up for "Petty Theft" Misdemeanor.  I recently called the courthouse and they specifically told me that I was convicted for an Infarction and that the misdemeanor was actually dismissed. The administrative worker told me its not going to hinder me, but I am a little skeptical about her knowledge on this matter. I doubt many medical students roll around with "petty theft" misdemeanors, especially in our school.

TL;DR: Petty theft 11 years ago. In Med school now. Background check showing misdemeanor even though courthouse clearly says its an infarction on their records. What can I do?

Thank you so much for reading through this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:
 Okay most of that was totally unnecessary.

Your legal question pertains to the fact that just because the misdemeanor was dismissed and you did not properly expunge the offense from your record, nor the arrest.

You're eligible to have the arrest record sealed & destroyed as the misdemeanor charge was dismissed.

CA has a very informative page on all of this. Follow the steps and figure out how to get this removed.

http://www.courts.ca.gov/1070.htmAnswer #2: If it's been 11 years, you are almost certainly eligible for [expungement](http://www.courts.ca.gov/1070.htm).

If you had probation, file a petition under [Pen. Code, § 1203.4](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=1203.4.) for dismissal.

If you did not have probation, file a petition under [Pen. Code, § 1203.4a](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=1203.4a.) for dismissal.

Petition: [Form CR-180](http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/cr180.pdf)

Order: [Form CR-181](http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/cr181.pdf)


Title: [TX] Is my doctor's office required to give me lab results when I request them?

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 As an RN, I am not allowed to give you your results. Only a doctor can. So that may have something to do with why whoever called couldn't give you the results.

Were these routine labs like cholesterol or something else?they may have a policy about giving results because they don't want you to panic or go to Dr. Google.


Title: [Oklahoma] Am I legally required to put a 'DANGEROUS DOG" sign out if I have a dog trained in Schutzhund?

Question:
To put this into some context, let me start by saying I am an experienced dog owner and trainer. My dogs are always well under control and highly obedient. For years I have been privately training my own dogs in basic and advanced obedience. I am interested in joining a Schutzhund club and/or participating in competitions. Schutzhund is the sport of protection training and protection-related obedience. In this sport, competitions and training sessions are held in controlled areas where the dog is given commands (no unprovoked attacks).

I would like to invest in a German Shepherd puppy and train it in this sport, but the only thing stopping me is not knowing the legal specifics of it in my state. In Oklahoma, you are required to clearly post a dangerous dog sign you have "knowledge of the dog's vicious propensities". Dangerous dog owners are also required to have liability insurance or a surety bond of at least $50,000, insuring the owner for any "personal injuries inflicted by the dangerous dog". They also must be registered with the state as a dangerous dog.

My question is, would a dog trained to attack on command fit this criteria, and would I need to follow these rules? If I don't post signs like these, and an intruder unlawfully enters my property and is bit by the dog, am I liable? I am under the understanding that Oklahoma only holds dog owners liable if the bite victim was "rightfully" on the property and if the dog was "unprovoked", but I am not 100% sure how these are defined.

Advice would be extremely appreciated before I invest thousands of dollars into a puppy. Thanks!

Answer: These are great questions for your homeowner's insurance. Who you should talk to before acquiring and training a potential enormous injury liability. Strict liability states (of which OK is one) are not the place to guess with this.


Title: So my girlfriend has had a broken wrist for the past year.

Question: During her first two visits to a doctor she was given x-rays and told that it was fine. Only on her 3rd trip after 8 weeks to find out why it still hurt did they acknowledge that it did have a significant fracture. Should she follow up on follow this legally?

Answer:
 Misdiagnosis /= malpractice unless it is something so obvious that any other normal doctor would have caught.

Reading X-rays is an art, not a science. Answer #2: Malpractice is beyond the scope of this sub. However, I have something to share with you about fractures:

It's possible to have a nondisplaced fracture, which means the bones haven't moved from where they would normally be. These can be difficult to see on an x-ray, especially if the ends are right up next to each other. It's not completely unreasonable that they missed it.

The reason it's visible eight weeks later, is because bone healing has an initial phase where the broken ends just kind of breakdown. What this means is, fractures appear significantly larger on x-ray after a few weeks. There are also other signs of bone healing that would show up on an x-ray, and obviously if a bone is healing then it must've been fractured right?

At this point I think it's probably best to just focus on getting your girlfriend the treatment she needs, but you can always seek out a consultation with a malpractice attorney in your area.Answer #3: The X-rays at the time may not have shown a fracture. Does she have those x-rays and has she asked another doctor to look at them?


Title: [IN] Unorthodox procedure for a failure to yield stop.

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Oh you precious precious snowflake.  The officer was unprofessional with the retard stuff, but nothing you wrote is much outside of what happens during a traffic stop.  You are not usually ordered out of your vehicle, but it is permissible.  And people lie to the police, which is why he asked the question multiple times.

There was no force used, let alone excessive.


Title: Probable Embezzlement Found via Unethical Means

Question:
Texas, small company of five. Boss has moved away and hired {Allen} to oversee and run the business in his stead. {Allen} is the line of communication from Boss to the three other employees, myself included. {Allen} has become increasingly unreliable and detrimental to the business running.

I'm in charge of general IT activities. Recently, this has included ensuring {Allen's} company email remains under-limit. Due to the way the email system is set up, I must go into the email account directly on the server to clear out unneeded emails. I have been asked to to this twice in the past once the inbox got full and since the second time, I have been actively monitoring it without direct permission to keep it under.

Throughout the course of monitoring the email, I've noticed strange emails that seemed to be spam, but upon further viewing were requested by {Allen} and thus I left them alone. This included opening emails and attachments to better determine spam.

Yesterday, I noticed and email from Boss asking {Allen} about specific, unknown line items on the company credit card which {Allen} keeps on person at all times. Some of these line items, I recognized as those weird emails I found prior. Simple searches of the email determined that 60% of the questionable items could be traced to email receipts. The rest were in-person items that I cannot gather proof of.

These items are obviously not for business use, evident by my Boss's questioning and the fact that no business needs dating app+ subscriptions, paying off {Allen's} previous debt, and a service to forge legal documents personal to {Allen}.

What steps do I need to take to protect myself before bringing this to my Boss's attention? Due to {Allen's} nature, I know he will lie about this and smooth it over with Boss, but I have proof that company funds were used personally and potentially illegally with the forged checkstub. The problem is, I shouldn't know anything about any of this.

Answer:
 There aren't any you can reasonably take.  You were reading someone's email without permission from the company or the owner of the email account.  They can legally discipline or fire you for doing that.

Now, your boss can *choose* not to do that if he approves of what you did, but you don't have any way of knowing that ahead of time.


Title: Help. I'm a mistreated tenant.

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Sorry in what way do you think they breached the contract? By inspecting twice in five months or coming a day after they said they would? If it's one of those you aren't going to get out of a contract.

They may have a case against you, it's entirely possible that installing a bath violated your lease, are you going to remove it?

Bathing family members is not a normal commercial activity, it's not surprising that they think that's a residential use, although I have no idea if it would violate any zoning rules.


Title: [Pennsylvania] The apartment that I rented was supposed to be renovated. Upon arrival, I discover that it is not, which contradicts the lease agreement. I would like substantial rent concessions for compensation. What are my options?

Question:
Background:
My fiancee and I are from out of town, and we had 1 day in PA for apt hunting. So we schedule about 7 in a row on that day. When we get to the apt in question, we are shown only the model home, which of course looks amazing. I say it’s important for me to see the actual unit we would be signing up for, but we are refused based on their policy on tenant privacy.

An important distinction:
Some of their units are renovated (brand new kitchen and bathroom), in which rent is just a little over $100 higher than non-renovated. We say we will only consider renovated units. We are shown interior (non-professional) photos, and it looks great. We’re told there’s 1 left, and someone else is about to snag it. Selection in this area is not great, so we cancel subsequent viewings and sign up and make deposits on the spot.

Fast forward 2 months, and I show up with my moving truck to find that nothing is renovated. This violates the lease agreement. Kitchen and bathroom is old and decrepit-looking. Management is just as surprised as I am, apparently the unit was mislabeled in their systems. Now we’re stuck with an apt that we never would have considered had we known it wasn’t renovated. Based on my interactions with them, I do not believe they deliberately screwed me, but that this is an honest mistake. They have been sincere and prompt in our discussions and in trying to find an appropriate resolution.

Talking with management, I have two options:

1.	Stay here and pay non-renovated rent until a neighboring building finishes its own renovation (done in about 2 months). Move into that unit at that time. I would like for them to pay for all costs of moving.

2.	Stay here and pay non-renovated rent until they can renovate this unit (scheduled 3 to 4 months from now). Lose access to kitchen and bathroom during renovation, then pay renovated rent upon completion.

Needless to say, we are very unhappy with the situation and with the major disruptions and inconveniences that come with it. Am I legally entitled to any compensation?

Thanks.

Answer:
 So so so so many red flags here.

> we are shown only the model home

Haha, nope, you show me THE apartment I will get or I leave, immediately.

> we are refused based on their policy on tenant privacy

24 hour notice to show is a pretty standard thing (not a lawyer) so yeah you reply to this with "no problem, thanks for your time" and leave.

> We’re told there’s 1 left, and someone else is about to snag it.

ROFL and you believed this bullshit?

> Management is just as surprised as I am

No, they weren't, they weren't surprised even a little bit.

> apparently the unit was mislabeled in their systems

Betcha it wasn't.  I'd go a good half a paycheck on this one, maybe even a whole paycheck, I'm that certain they were lying.

>  I do not believe they deliberately screwed me

I wasn't there, but I am certain they knew exactly what they were doing.

> Am I legally entitled to any compensation?

Not a lawyer, but what's your lease actually say?  Does it have any verbage that confirms you are to get a newly renovated unit?  To continue in the spirit of "they totally knew what they were doing" I bet the lease doesn't say jack about renovated or anything like it but will include plenty of "as is" and other verbage to allow them to give you exactly the apartment you got.

Sorry, sounds like you are learning an important lesson in apartment hunting and dealing with rental property managers.Answer #2: What exactly does the lease say?


Title: My parents are going through a potential divorce and there’s a lot of hints pointing that my father is having an affair. What should I do?

Answer: Stay out of it?Answer #2: Make sure they both have excellent legal representation.


Title: Went to a friends house to visit, when I went back to my car there was a note from HOA saying I was in violation.

Question: Hey just wanted to know what I should do since I am going to visit my friend again and don't want to get fined. The paper from the HOA said I was in violation because my car had a dent in the side. Prerty much the neighbors didn't like the look of my car. Letter stated that next time I will be given a ticket. Is this even possible? I don't live there and it seems kinda ridiculous. Mind you that it's a small dent on 2007 camry, so it's not that bad. Agoura Hills Ca.

Answer:
 Car isn't even 10 years old and they are having a cry? My official legal advice is to go back in a rusty white Mark 4 Ford Cortina (which is the ultimate in westy class) and do donuts on their lawns.

^^Note: ^^Don't ^^actually ^^do ^^this.Answer #2: I recently bought a house.  Lots of people thought that I was crazy for insisting on avoiding a HOA.

It was a great move.  A HOA would be the UN to my Kim Jong Il.Answer #3: My Explorer looks pretty much like [this](http://www.hummertuff.com/exploder4.jpg). I'm so tempted to park in that neighborhood.


Title: My GF's sister might die; best case she will lose a leg. Can I do anything to help? (Indiana)

Question: So my gf's sister was walking around at the Indy 500 and fell and broke her leg. She is without insurance. As such, she was taken to Eskenazi Hospital, not the greatest. The Dr. set it and told her she needed to wear a cast for 1 month. She went for her follow up today, and it was discovered she had very severe clotting. Her whole artery was clotted. Best case, she will lose the entire leg. Worst case, she very well may die. Her surgeon today admitted that the original Dr. was very wrong, and she should have had the cast for 1-2 weeks MAX. Everyone in the family is devastated, and to top it off, today is her birthday. As stated, she has no insurance, so they are not acting very fast, she is in pain, and they aren't even giving her painkillers, because, according to her caseworker "they have to see what the hospital can afford to cover". She has Medicaid, but is close to maxed. Is there any recourse here? My gf's side of the family is not very well off, and this is going to really change their quality of life in a major way. I just want to help them out, and it seems like it might have been slightly negligent on the original Dr.'s part. Thank you LA for any advice you can give!

Answer:
 I'm very sorry to hear about her situation.

Medical malpractice is well beyond the scope of this sub.  But based on the surgeon's opinion coupled with the very real and life-changing consequences at stake, it would be well worth it for your friend and her family to seek a consult with a medical malpractice attorney to present the basics of their case and see if there is sufficient basis to move forward.Answer #2: If the whole leg is clotted to the point of needing to be amputated, you need to take her to a different hospital. Answer #3: If the leg is clotted that is an emergent situation and she needs immediate treatment. She is in serious trouble.Answer #4: Absolutely consult a medical malpractice attorney. They can help walk her through everything from “Can we make the hospital/Doctor pay for my hospital bills?” to “Can we make them pay for physical therapy/prosthetics?” to “What about extra money for pain and suffering and lost wages?” and “Will this doctor lose his license?”

This is a very large issue with very large financial and personal stakes, so get a few consults from different people.


Title: Our old landlord in NYC is withholding our security deposit. We've won in court, but he still refuses to pay.

Question:
We moved out of our apartment in Brooklyn roughly a year and a half ago. We left the place in immaculate condition, however the landlord is refusing to return our deposit. A few months later we took him to small claims court where he no-showed and we won the judgement.

After still not receiving anything we were told to contact a sheriff's deputy to obtain the deposit. I was able to get him the information on where our landlord cashed our checks so that he could extract the money from there, but it seems he doesn't have an actual account with money in it there. At the end of the day all the deputy was able to do was have the debt be reflected on his credit report, but this is a man in his late 60's so I doubt he would even notice.

Do we have any recourse left to try and obtain this money?

Answer:
 Information subpoena?  Lien on the property?

https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/smallclaims/collectingjudgment.shtmlAnswer #2: Go to the court clerks office for the court you filed in AFAIK he has a court order to comply, and that means the court can force him to pay you.


Title: A picture of mine was used on Tosh.O blog, ESPN, The Chive, and a handful of other sites. Am I entitled to any compensation?

Question:
(America) I posted a picture of myself to r/pics a little over 18 months ago, and and it quickly blew up. It wasn't long before it was being shown on the web platforms I mentioned in the title of this post. I enjoyed my day of fame, and moved on from it, not thinking about it since. Then last week, I met a guy who worked for a film company and made mention that I could have received some kind of royalty compensation for the popularity of the post.
So my question is, is there actually anything I can do about that, or should I just constitute loving me life?
Here's some of the platforms I saw it on: https://imgur.com/a/4auVT

Answer:
 I love how these media shows, who would get really mad if somebody else ripped off their stuff, think it's perfectly ok to rip off somebody else's.

Yes, you can go after them.  If you have evidence of what happened, I'd send each of them a demand letter.  You could probably get several hundred dollars from each of them.


Title: Sued previous employer, now lawyer isn't paying us.

Question: I sued my previous employer as they failed to pay me at the right time and sometimes would tell me to "relax at home" to not pay for my overtime. The case was settled and it was agreed that my lawyer would send me a check every month, but they're behind 2 months already. Is this legal or can I take action? If so, what kind of actions can I take against a lawyer? I'm in California!

Answer:
 Send him a letter, asking what's up, send it certified, then if you aren't satisfied by the response do this:

http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/LawyerRegulation.aspx

or they have some suggestions to avoid that:

http://www.calbar.ca.gov/Attorneys/LawyerRegulation/ComplaintAlternatives.aspxAnswer #2: What kind of wage settlement is going to pay you once a month? Are you sure you understand the terms of the settlement agreement?


Title: Question about smoking weed[CHICAGO]

Question:
My buddies and I occasionally smoke weed in a little park within my friend's house. I believe the park is private property if that matters.

Last night, a Chicago Police Officer rolled by in his Tahoe and we immediately dispersed like roaches. It was very unlikely that the officer even saw us because it was dark.

If we were to get busted that night even after running, would that escalate the problem? We don't carry a lot of weed on us, only about 2g max rolled into blunts. Thanks a lot.

Also, would I lose my financial aid if we were to get caught with the <2g?

Answer: Are you asking if you could get in more trouble by running from the police? Yes.


Title: California. Live Stream Gamer wants to hold a subscriber only giveaway. Is this illegal?

Question:
The streamer is looking to run a giveaway where they would be giving away a prize of monetary value. They want the giveaway to only be open to people who have been subscribed to the stream for at least 1 year. It costs viewers $5/month to subscriber to the streamer. Being a subscriber doesn't usually give you any valuable benefits, it just helps support the streamer. You can watch the stream without being a subscriber. I did some reading online and am seeing some things saying that this might be illegal depending on the state.

Along the same lines, if they run a gaming tournament that is only open to subscribers of the channel and there is a cash prize for the winner of the tournament, is that illegal as well?

Thank you for any help you can offer. It is greatly appreciated.

Answer:
 California [prohibits](https://www.lawserver.com/law/state/california/codes/california_penal_code_part_1_title_9_chapter_9) private lotteries: where someone pays money as a condition of entering a drawing, raffle, sweepstakes, or other type of giveaway.

I'm not sure whether the case you describe would be legal or not.  In that case individuals paid money not to be included in the raffle but to support the streamer.  I'd lean towards illegal.


Title: Mother threatening legal action

Question: So I wanted to move into an apartment for summer classes for college and I wanted to ask my parents to cosign the lease. They pay for my college but threaten to stop paying my tuition if I prove that I cannot handle college. I am a sophomore right now and I have already lived in an apartment before with them as the cosigners. I wanted to move to a safer and cheaper complex and I want them to cosign. I spoke to my mother on the phone to request it and she decided to make a deal that I must perform in school to her standards or else I would have to pay them back for the part of the rent that they pay. Not only that I have to sign a "legally binding" contract that she would have to come up with, and that could mean that I could be sued if I cannot hold my end of the deal. Considering that I am in the engineering and computing section of the majors \(computer information systems\), some of the classes I have taken and probably will take have and probably will be absolutely brutal. Because of that, I can imagine that getting sued over something like this seems above what my mother can legally do. My question is, is this contract legal?

Answer: Don't agree to terms that you can't stick to. Leave it at that.


Title: I hired a bankruptcy lawyer 3 weeks ago, just got served with a lawsuit (AR)

Question: Due to substantial credit card and medical debt, I hired a bankruptcy attorney about 3 weeks ago. Just now, I was served with a lawsuit for a cc company. What do I do now? They were listed as my creditors but I’m not sure if my attorney has filed anything yet or not. Basically, can I still file on this debt or have things changed?

Answer:
 Let your attorney know. But yes this debt can be included and will be discharged as long as it was incurred prior to the date of filing bankruptcy (which of course, it was). The lawsuit will be put on hold and then ultimately dismissed at some point. Your attorney just needs to know so he can be sure to notify the plaintiff and the court.

If the BK was filed and this one was missed somehow, creditors can be added within a reasonable window of time, again, if the debt was incurred prior to filing.


Title: False advertising from Samsung and what I can do about it.

Question:
Samsung recently started a promotion to receive a year of free Netflix when you buy one of their qualifying devices. I've been looking into the Galaxy Tab S for a while now, so I finally took the plunge and ordered it from Samsung's official storefront on Amazon. Upon receiving the package, I entered the required info on the promo website and was told that my serial number is not valid. I hopped on the live chat support and spoke with a customer service representative. He informed me that despite ordering the device in the US and having it shipped to my home in the US, from Amazon's US WEBSITE, that I was somehow shipped an international version and therefore do not qualify for the promotion. The thing is, however, I have read through the official terms and conditions from top to bottom and nowhere in there does it say it must be a US device. It DOES say that I must be a legal US resident, which I am; living in Boston, Massachusetts. I have spoken to 4 representatives now who refuse to let me speak to a supervisor. I have been provided a number for Prize Logic, who is running the promotion, but discovered upon calling it that my only option is to leave them a message. Is there any sort of legal action I can take against them for violating the policies which they have set forth?

TL;DR: Bought a Samsung tablet to take part in a promotion. Samsung is refusing my claim despite satisfying all of the terms and condition. Help?

Answer:
 You were not a victim of false advertising.  Samsung said qualifying devices and never said the one on Amazon was qualifying.  They are correct that they owe you nothing.

Your issue likely stems from that the fact that when Amazon says something like "Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5-Inch Tablet (16 GB, Titanium Bronze) by Samsung", the "by Samsung" part means *brand*, not *official company storefront*.  If you go the Tab page and hover over the Samsung link you'll see *field-brandtextbin=Samsung* and clinking on it reveals simply other Samsung products not a Samsung storefront.  At best Amazon is likely an authorized Samsung dealer.

For example I purchased a Canon camera over Christmas.  It was listed in the same way "Canon EOS 7D Mark II by Canon".  I received a brand new 7D Mark II in a box, but the order was not sent directly from the Canon factory, it was sent from a camera store in California that had listed their product on Amazon.  Amazon groups them all into one listing because it is messy to have 10 pages of the same camera listed.  Same with other products.

Return the device to Amazon, citing the fact it is not the American version.  Amazon will normally give you free shipping back and tends not to fuss over returns, although they'll unless they guaranteed you the American version all they owe you is a brand new and functional Samsung Tab S.


Title: (Colorado) Would this be phone harassment with legal penalty?

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 He can absolutely report you to the police. Generally, a criminal harassment needs sustained, repeated behavior over a period of time that would cause a person to fear for their security or even if it is intended to annoy them.

So stop acting like an idiot. If a report is filed and the prosecutor feels like he has a case, you can absolutely be charged with a crime.


Title: My coworker might be an illegal immigrant

Question: [deleted]

Answer: Millions of foreign-born people living in America are legal 'permanent residents' without being citizens. (aka 'green card holders') They have the right to work just as citizens do, with few exceptions. (like working in certain government occupations). There is no requirement to file for naturalization if they choose not to pursue it. Your post contained no evidence that your coworker is here illegally.