Title: Pittsburgh, PA. The person I babysit for will no pay me.

Question: I babysit two kids for a divorced mom. When I started, I was told that I would be paid every other week by check from the ex-husband. It has been 6 weeks now, and the ex-husband told his wife that he is just not going to pay me. I am owed $200 dollars. Is there any legal action I could take to get the money that I am rightly owed?

Answer: Yes.  You can sue the mom.  Small claims court.  You won't get any future work from her.  (But, if she's not paying, then you're not likely to accept any future work from her either.)


Title: woman tripped over child at wedding reception

Question:
IN a nutshell - About 1 year ago me and my family were at a wedding reception in Louisiana. Early in the night my young child (11 months old at the time) quickly wondered (walked) onto the edge of the dance floor and a woman who was dancing tripped over him, falling down and injuring her hand and arm. She has had multiple surgeries in the past year and is now looking for compensation. Does she have a case? If anyone has any (serious) questions, PM me and I'll give as much info as I can. Thanks!

edit:
I found this information, for what it's worth:

http://law.justia.com/codes/louisiana/2011/cc/cc2318/

and this

http://family.findlaw.com/parental-rights-and-liability/parental-liability-basics.html

Answer:
 LA personal injury lawyer here. If you haven't been sued by the 1 year mark you're in the clear under Louisiana's prescription (statute of limitations) laws.

A toddler walking around is an open and obvious condition and the adult party guest would have avoided tripping over the kid if they were exercising reasonable care in any event.

I wouldn't worry.Answer #2: Yes, as a general rule injuries caused by your child's acts are your responsibility.  Liability depends on whether you were careless, and whether the woman was careless (it's very fact dependent.)

Hopefully you reported the injury to your insurance company, and the insurance at the reception site as well.Answer #3: We don't do PMs here, generally.

Winning a lawsuit against you would require proof that either the child was negligent (and the parents therefore vicariously liable) or that you were negligent in allowing this to happen.

The minimum age for negligence by a minor varies from state to state, but I don't believe it's as young as 11 months anywhere.

Whether it was negligence on your part or on the woman's part -- or some combination -- is a fact-specific analysis that is too complex to address here.

If she sues you, speak to an attorney who does personal injury defense.  If at the time of the accident you had homeowner's/renter's insurance with personal liability coverage, then contact them first if you get sued.

If the woman has medical insurance covering her expenses, it's not likely she'd have enough of a claim to make it worth suing.


Title: Can writing "i hope you go to jail" get you arrested? (CA-US)

Question:
Somehow, I got an email from the GOP asking me to sign a christmas card for the President. I thought it would be funny to say "i hope you, pence and ryan spend christmas in jail! Resign you traitor."

After I hit send i instantly felt afraid.

I am a pacifist and wish no harm on anyone.

I know it was stupid. Should I be scared?
Topic:
Constitution

Answer: No.  Hoping the legal system comes down on someone, justified or not, isn't a crime.  Name-calling isn't a crime either.Answer #2: Thankfully being a dork isn't a crime.Answer #3: If that was all you said, it doesn’t qualify as a threat. You didn’t threaten violence or physical overthrow of the government.


Title: Does a club have the right to use a picture of my dog(NC)?

Question:
So this is a hypothetical question, since they are my friends, but i was just wondering.

So my girlfriend took my dog to a school festival one day last week. During the trip he got quite tired, and took every opportunity he could to lay down and catch a quick nap. During one of these naps a club that neither me or my girlfriend are part of asked if they could tae a picture of him for an advertisement. My girlfriend agreed, so they took the picture; but i was wondering if she had any right to agree to it. The dog isn't shared, I pay all his bills, had him before I started dating her, and all therecords are in my name. IF I were to not want the dog to be in these ads, would I have any recourse or would I be out of luck because she consented? (NC)

Answer: Are you on public property? That looks like a sidewalk. If so they didn't even need to ask her permission.


Title: PA USA How do I protect myself against competitors?

Question: [deleted]

Answer: You protect yourself by offering a better price, better marketing, and better customer service. Unless your product is patentable, that's all you can do.


Title: [MI] My girlfriend was hit by a car while on a bike during work, not sure what to do from here.

Question:
First time poster to this sub, so please bear with me. I'm also posting this on behalf of my girlfriend, because she doesn't like to post on Reddit, just read.

She works for Jimmy John's and was on the clock going through town on her bike while sampling (had many little sandwiches in a bag and was passing them out to people). She was crossing a cross walk at a stop sign and took her turn to go after letting the car that was in front of the one that hit her go first. As she crossed that second car in line didn't see her crossing and hit her. It was nothing too serious, but her bike does need repairs, and she was taken to the hospital because she is 20 weeks pregnant.

At the hospital they mainly monitored the baby to make sure everything was ok, which everything is fine with baby. So here we are, later in the same day; her leg is a bit sore but everything else is fine with her and our baby, and her bike is in the bike shop getting looked over and repaired.

So what do we do from here? Medicaid apparently doesn't cover anything auto related, but we think since she was on the clock at Jimmy John's they may cover it, even though she went to the main hospital in town instead of the clinic they use. Any advice would be super appreciated! If you need any more info on the matter ask away.

Answer:
 Between worker's comp and auto no-fault insurance, your GF's medical bills will be covered 100%. The issue is *whose* no-fault insurance will be involved.

If she, or a relative who she lives with, owns a car with no-fault insurance, then that is the policy that will cover her medical bills. If neither she nor a resident relative has a car with no-fault insurance, then the insurance company that covers the car that hit her will pay her no-fault benefits.

To get the worker's comp claim going, all she needs to do is notify her employer of the incident.

To get the no-fault claim going, she needs to send the proper insurer a written application for no-fault benefits **within one year of the accident**. If she misses that deadline, her right to no-fault benefits will be forever lost. She can get a written app form by calling the insurer's claim line.


Title: Alberta: Ex-Girlfriend is charging me with assault

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 I would go back (or have someone else do it) and look for any cameras that may have captured the events, and try to get the footage before it's overwritten. Answer #2: Lawyer, now.

Tell him everything. Don't lie. Tell him it from your side. Try to play devil's advocate and tell him it from her side. Let him put the pieces together and build a defense for you.

On the other hand, I would see if it is possible to revisit the night where you called the police in regards to her and press charges.

You could be dealing with a situation where she might have already spun the lie way out of proportion and you will need every ounce of testimony you can get.


Title: Paying Child support while caring for child more than 50% of the time

Question:
Hello, I own my home in Delaware and live there alone while my sons mom live in Pennsylvania with her husband. I have been taking care of my 8 year old son every Saturday morning through Wednesday Morning for the last 4 years now.
I live about 40 minutes from my sons mom, and drive over 2 hours per day to take him to and from school. I pay nearly $200/paycheck in child support to his mother in addition to his clothes, jackets, vacations and child care which aggregates over $1,000/month. His mother has no expenses for my son  as she works for the union and his insurance is free, all clothes are hand me downs from her cousins son and he goes to public school. which means that
I'm currently paying at least $17,000 more than she is per year while also caring for him more than 50% of the time and am not able to claim him on my taxes. as of 2016 I was paying $180/month and his mother sued me to raise support. The courts do not as questions of
how much each person pays for the child nor how often we care for them. they only compare paychecks of both parties and calculate a "fair" amount of support, which came to over $800. we settled at $400/month. Do I have any chance at reducing or getting rid of child support?
Topic:
Custody Divorce and Family

Answer:
 Child support in Delaware, as in most states, is almost always entered in an amount consistent with the [child support calculator](https://courts.delaware.gov/family/supportcalculator/Disclaimer).

You have a strong chance at seeing the amount amended if the calculator comes to a number different than the current order.  You can talk to your lawyer about whether you have any chance at changing the order in a different case.

You should note that there certainly are valid calculations where you have the child more than 50% of the time *and* pay support.


Title: Restaurant advertises 22 ounce beer but serves 21 ounce glass

Question: As the subject has stated the restaurant specifically advertises 22 ounce beers for a small up-charge from the standard 16 ounce pint. I've recently come to find out that the glasses are actually 21 ounces as said on box and purchasing order. This is extremely  wrong in my opinion and im curious as to what options i have to stop this practice.

Answer: I don't know if it's extremely wrong. I consider many things I hear here to be "extremely wrong" and I'm not sure an ounce of false advertising qualifies. Have you brought this to the attention of the business owners? They might just immediately re advertise 21oz or try to find new glasses. I'm betting on the former since I haven't ever personally seen a 22oz mug/cup/liquid container. Standard is 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, and 32.


Title: Is this trafficking charge too harsh?

Question:
I am an 18 year old highschool student who sold 40 ABG 30 pills to a "friends friend" who ended up being an undercover cop.  I was given 3 counts of trafficking "HEROIN/OPIUM". The pills I attempted to sell were PRESCRIPTION GIVEN (albeit not to me) MORPHINE SULPHATE which is a  SCHEDULE 3 controlled substance under the FDA. Under the FDA also is MORPHINE DIACETATE (AKA HEROIN) which is a SCHEDULE 1 substance.

Do I have a point?

(If you can respond to this directly I would like the answer!)

I cite: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/dec/19/north_carolina_opium_law_snares

http://www.ludlumlawfirm.com/blog/2013/03/12/a-tough-pill-to-swallow-north-carolina-supreme-court-ruling-toughens-trafficking-laws/

http://scholarship.law.campbell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1522&context=clr

Answer:
 Our (and your) opinion of the "harshness" of the charge is irrelevant.

Get a good lawyer, hope for a good plea bargain.

And stop selling drugs.


Title: If you sell something on eBay, the buyer refuses to pay. Can you take them to court?

Question: Sold a car. The buyer says he doesn't want it now. But he was the winning buyer. Can I take him to court? And is it worth the legal fees?

Answer:
 Car and real estate sales are non binding on eBay per their policy.  From the website.

For motor vehicles and real estate, bids are considered non-binding. When you bid on an item in these categories, you're expressing a strong interest in buying the seller's item, but no formal purchase contract is created if you're the winning bidder.


Title: Is it possible for a state to legally leave the U.S and become its one country without civil war?

Answer:
 [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States):
> In Texas v. White (1869), the Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession unconstitutional, while commenting that revolution or consent of the states could lead to a successful secession.Answer #2: Nope. [The union is perpetual.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_Union#Constitutional_basis) Several court cases considered the matter after the civil war and decided that secession is illegal. Which means any state attempting it would have to fight.

Texas has always misconstrued their position. They're not the only state allowed to secede. They [might be allowed to divide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_divisionism) into as many as 5 states, but while the charter says that's the case the legality hasn't been seriously tested.Answer #3: For the last time Alabama, it’s not legal but we’d make a special exception for you.


Title: My father created a lease agreement for the room I stay in but I'm not sure is is legal. Mind taking a look? Fort Worth, TX.

Question:
I typed this exactly the way he created it.

1.Landlord leases and transfers possession to Tenant, for the term of this Lease Agreement, of the premises located at [the address]. Said premises being specifically described as follows: One 15 foot by 20 foot room, on the North East corner of the house.

2. The premises leased under this Lease Agreement shall be used by Tenant solely for the purpose of : Sleeping and dressing.
No other part of the home will be used by Tenant ( Kitchen, Garage, and the other Two Bedrooms. That is to say no use of Stove, Refrigerator, Cabinet Space to store or keep and of their personal belongings.

3. The premises leased under this Agreement shall be used and occupied, in accordance with items 3 above, only by parties listed below. [which was my name]

4. This Lease Agreement shall be effective for a term of Six (6) months, beginning on the 6th day of March 2014 and ending on the 31 day of August 2014.

5.In consideration for this Lease Agreement and the rights hereunder, Tenant shall pay rent to Landlord during the term of this Lease Agreement in the amount of $375.00 per month a total rent for the term.

6.Rent payments hereunder are due on the First Day of Each Month or as the Landlord may designate.( Plus 33% of the Utilities used by the total home. That is to say Tenant will pay 33% of the monthly bills, on Electricity, Gas, Cable TV & Cable Internet Cost, based on the Month before.
If any rent due and payable hereunder is not made within Five(5) days after said rent shall become due, Tenant shall pay to Landlord additional charges equal to 25% of $375 Dollard (93.75) said rent remains unpaid.

7. On or before the start of the term of this Lease Agreement, Tenant shall deposit with Landlord the sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) as a security deposit for the compliance with and performance of the terms and provisions of this Lease Agreement. If Tenant should default or breach any of the terms and provisions of this Lease, or has otherwise caused damage to the leased premises except for normal wear and tear, Landlord may apply, or keep all or part of security deposit to the extent required to correct such default, breach, or damage.

8. The following , appliances, or other personal property are NOT included an forms a part of the leased premises under this Lease Agreement: Refrigerator, Freezer, Washing Machine, Clothes Dryer, Stove, Storage Cabinets.

9. Landlord will not provide not be responsible for, any additional costs to Tenant, for any services and utilities for the leased premises.

10. This Lease Agreement shall terminate if all or any part of the leased premises should be acquired or condemned by eminent Domain.

11.Landlord shall have the right to enter the leased premises at reasonable times and after giving reasonable notice to Tenant to inspect, repair, or improve the leased premises or to respond to any emergency.

12. Tenant shall not assign or sublet Tenant's interest under this Lease Agreement without the prior written consent of Landlord, which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld by Landlord.

13. The terms, provisions, and convenants contained in this Lease Agreement shall be binding on and inure to the benefit of Landlord and Tenant and their respective successors, heirs, and assigns.

14. This Lease Agreement shall be governed by the law of the State of TEXAS.
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 What did you do to piss off your father?  Do you at least get to use the bathroom?

IANA(Texas housing)L, but looks legit to me.  If you are interested in the nitty-gritty of Texas residential tenancies, here is a link to the applicable laws:
http://law.onecle.com/texas/property/chapter92.htmlAnswer #2: What do you think is illegal, exactly?

I mean, it's horribly written, by someone who thinks using words like "hereunder" a lot makes something more legal, and the grammar and syntax are terrible.  But nothing is jumping out at me as totally unenforceable, with the possible exception of the late fee, which may be governed by statute.


Title: Strip searched at school

Question:
      I'll start from the beginning, two months ago me and a friend went to a girls house and she said she wanted to smoke weed. She gave me 20 dollars and i went and got two grams for us. (I know it's a stupid decision) Anyway her dad wound up finding out somehow and contacted my parents i was punished and then received threats from him if he saw me.

      Fast forward to now, Friday my friend drove me to school and about a half hour after i entered school the principal grabs me when i'm switching classes and says come with him. When i enter his office they're two cops and an assistant principal who tell me they received intel that i had done a deal this morning. (While they were telling me this they were trashing my friends car looking for anything to arrest us they were picking little specs out of the floorboard and testing them for weed.) Anyway i told them i do not know what they are talking about and they began to go through my bag and did not find anything. They then told me they needed to search me.
 I figured that they were gonna just pat me down until he closed the door then they said you need to take your clothes off. Keep in mind I am a minor and my parents were not aware that anything was going on. I pulled my pants to my knees and took my shirt off. He told me i need to take my shoes off and pants all the way off. He threw my shoes and scuffed them up once i had them off and after he searched them. They still did not find anything. They told me to go to the police station after i left school. Upon arriving at the police station they just started telling me random bullshit like that they know i am having a party may 19th. (I am having a party but not even in the same state) They told me that they have intel on the location and will arrest me if i even attempt to have it. They basically just threatened me saying that someone has come to the police station with a list of names. They told me they know i sold to someone two months ago. I later found out her dad had come to the police station earlier that day with a list of me and three friends saying he knows we deal. We don't deal at all.

I just feel like i have a target on my back and that they are trying to catch me for anything. There is no way it was legal to strip search me without my consent or my parents consent when i am a minor all over an anonymous phone call and an upset dad. Legally what are my options?
I am located in Tennessee.

Answer:
 I'd suggest you contact the ACLU.

You can be strip searched once you're arrested and brought to the youth detention facility but it appears you were never even arrested. Answer #2: you really need to talk to your parents about this.


Title: Better format. Cyber harassment.

Question:
About two to three months ago I received a call from a officer, he told me to stop contacting a person or further punishment will happen such as charges and some sort of anger management help. Fast forward a month since that call the person who I was harassing told me to pay them four thousand dollars and no charges will be pressed. I’ve started to pay them but I feel as if that I shouldn’t have to if I stopped when I was told to stop. This person further stated saying I already have a ten thousand dollar charge on my record already and that if I don’t pay she will add on to that. I was never contacted after the first call about me being charged with anything. I recently blocked this person on social media and now receiving text from them. I was wondering if I should be worried that I’m still at risk or being charged even though I was left off with a warning or am I better off paying?

: I know the girl personally and I verified that the officer is indeed a real person.

The girl lives in California I live in Florida.

I know I was left off with a warning but she is still trying to extort me for money.
I did get caught with harassment but was left with a warning.

 Can I still be charged or sued?

Answer:
 This is a complete scam, you should not have paid a cent and should cease payment immediately. What they did is extortion and you can report them to the police for that (but you shouldn't incriminate yourself, so be careful and consult with a lawyer first if you want to do this).

As for the harassment, did you do that? And are you still doing that? If so, you should stop immediately and it might be a good idea to consult with a criminal defense attorney to prepare for possible charges. If the police contacts you, don't tell them anything without discussing it with your lawyer first.Answer #2: You should report this to the police.


Title: What to know before starting a rental race-car (theoretic) business

Question:
Lets say I have a quality collection of racing cars, and I'd like to generate a business around others being able to use/race with them. I've collected many cars on a spectrum from basic to extravagant... This is not a business validation question, I'd just like to know everything I would need to consider as I go about this business. To that point Id also like to exclude legal discussions around the liability of drivers. This really pertains to my cars and the methods in which I want to rent them out.

* What do I need to know to protect myself and my collection?
* Am I allowed to charge for "lost or stolen" items?
* Am I allowed to issue some sort of asset-insurance without formal legal & financial qualification ? (not including actual drivers insurance)
* Am I allowed to issue an asset indefinitely (no specific period of time & at no extra cost or hidden fees)?
* May I randomize which cars each renter can use (for fairness and even distribution)?
* What am I not allowed to do? -- obviously I wouldn't include hidden fees or bait and switch methods.

My ideal is to make these cars accessible and allow for renting of whatever car at the same price (again not asking for biz validation here). At that point I would create a "fair" system to allow for even distribution of usage.

Answer: This is way beyond the scope of this subreddit. If you are serious then speak to a lawyer about your plans.


Title: Victim of Credit Card Fraud and now Merchant is Persuing Legal Action?

Question: Recently I was a victim of unauthorized use of someone trying to claim that i was the one who purchased and asked for resume writting service. Someone also racked up  $1500 in purchases with my credit card without authorization. I had to file a dispute about these charges because it wasn't me who did it. Lucky the claim came back in my favor. Until today I recieved a letter from this so called resume service claiming that if I don't pay at least $195.00 for the service that supposably I recieved  they will file a claim in small claims and a complaint to BSIS which I currently have a license with for Security. Here's the thing can any company stalk you online to see who do you have a license with without your consent? To me this is like running a background check without your knowledge. I also have a letter from my bank that all unauthorized transaction were reversed after the dispute.

Answer:
 Important question: did you file a police report regarding your card information being stolen?

Either way, get back in touch with the company and inform them that your card information was stolen, and that you never requested their service. If they sue you, you would raise that defense in court.


Title: Belongings were in a car that was repoed-repo man wants nudes for my stuff How do I get my belongings back?!

Question:
Okay so here goes...
I have to give a little back story, so bear with me. I was out of state with my two young daughters visiting a friend. I am a single mother and this was my first trip by myself with my girls. I was staying with a friend in a bigger city than I am used to, which meant more traffic and I am horrible with direction. My friend suggested I leave my car at his work so that he could drive, thus me avoiding stressful traffic. I agreed that this would make the most sense. So we put my car seats, iPad, kid travel toys, shoes, kids clothes, luggage, etc into his car and went on our way. By the time we had dinner and got to his place it was dark. We brought in our suitcase, but left everything else in his truck since it was late.
The next morning I get up to get the rest of our belongings and to my surprise...no truck. I go back inside and tell him "uh hey your truck isn't outside?" He looks at me with a strange look and doesn't say anything. Silence. He asks me if I am joking, I say no, he goes to check, see that the truck is gone, and just sits at the table.
I start panicking, asking questions, and am ready to call police because obviously truck is stolen as well as all of my belongings?!
Ok so here is where it gets fishy. So my friend says he thinks he knows what happened. He says that he bought the truck from someone in Miami and thinks maybe the guy came and got it. Now at first I really thought it had been stolen, but right when he said that I saw my first red flag. But being alone, no vehicle, no car seats, I was a little in shock.
My friend says he is calling an uber so he can go get his other truck(a jeep) and then we can get it figured out. Uber comes, he leaves, I am stuck.  I don't know much about reposition but ALL arrows point to that. I don't really know what to do at this point so I google and call around a bit. I call the police station and they say they have no record of a truck being reposed from that address. So I start to think maybe it is stolen. Friend calls and says he is trying to figure it out but has left me and my daughters at his house now for two hours. I would call an uber/taxi(would be my first time using uber/taxi in my life) but I have no car seats!
So my friend calls and says he is going to stop at Walmart and pick up seats so we can at least have a way to leave if we all need to. But by this time I know something is up and just want to get the heck out of this situation.
When my friend gets back he has this sketch story about how he got his truck from a man in Miami, who got it from his son who was moving away, and he makes payments to the man. He says he thinks the man just was taking his money and now the truck might possibly be repoed. No shit. Now I feel bad because his truck got repoed, but I also don't know what to believe. Plus my belongings are in that truck! He tells me that he has contacted his lawyer and will get it all straightened out after the weekend when his lawyer is back in the office on Monday.
All this is too much so I pack up our stuff and my girls and leave. Looking back I know I should have called police or done more than what I did at the time, but please understand how stressed and upset I was.
Monday comes around and still no word about truck or our things. I don't hear much from him in the next week or so. He calls me within a few weeks and tells me that yes the truck was repoed but since it was still in the other guy's name I can't get my belongings because the repo place won't release anything to anyone except the person whose name is on the title of the truck. I ask for names/numbers of repo place or something/anything. He gives me the number of the repo place where truck is located. I call the place and explain my situation. The guy I talk to is a bit rude at first but eventually he understands(or so I think) my situation and wants to help. He tells me he will talk to his brother and see what he can do. He also asks to see a picture of my id and a list of what I am missing so that he can prove it is really me. I am an idiot and send him a picture of my drivers license and my list. He says I don't sound like that I look like and I kind of laugh and brush it off not thinking much about it. (I did sound pretty scary I had just gotten over a bad cold and lost my voice)
So a couple of weeks go by and no word. I call, no answer. Eventually guy texts back and says he can help! YAY! Turns out no yay. He tells me "maybe" he will send stuff then says "what do I get"
What the heck dude?! So I see where this is going and tell him he would get a big thank you. Not what he wanted to hear. He asks for a picture of me. I didn't respond.

Now here I am on Reddit asking for advice. Is there anything I can do? Will I ever see my things or am I just wishing and hoping? Should I file a police report or is it too late?
Thanks in advance for any advice. Also, yes I know I have made mistakes in this situation and probably spelling/grammar mistakes so please go easy on me. (Yea I know asking Reddit to go easy on you is kind of dumb in itself but hey, worth a shot)

I will add that the iPad was my daughter's, but was a family shared iPad and had pictures and videos of myself and kids on it. I am uncomfortable with this being in the hands of a random person, especially one that wasn't so nice. I tried to locate it and erase it but without being connected to wifi it won't work.

Pics provided for proof
[](http://m.imgur.com/gallery/CoBdoda)
[](http://m.imgur.com/gallery/bn5GUkj)
[photo 3](http://m.imgur.com/gallery/5x8Lu0M)

Answer:
 You should definitely call the police, and perhaps accept that your "friend" is a predator or in cahoots with one. You do realize that he's full of some kind of shit, right? Exactly which kind, chunky or s-shaped, I'm not sure. But he's definitely filled with it.Answer #2: Where is the repo guy located? Florida?

Unfortunately, it looks like the best person to act on all this is the owner of the car, who should contact their lender and discuss getting personal items back. Also, the owner of the car is supposed to be sent an inventory of all items in the car and be given an opportunity to recover them. But, you might be charged a "reasonable fee" for storage. See here:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0400-0499/0493/Sections/0493.6404.html

Your friend is almost definitely the owner of the car. I'm guessing he was too embarrassed to admit it, so came up with some weird story about the man from Miami who's supposedly acting as a middleman between your friend and the creditor on the car loan. That sounds like bullshit. Now he's acting flaky.

You can and **should** file a complaint against the repo company (the "recovery agent") here:
https://licensing.freshfromflorida.com/contacts/FileYourComplaint.aspx

If your friend gets nowhere, or refuses to help, you might have to resort to small claims court.


Title: [NJ] My mom took out car insurance under my name, I've called to have it corrected and nothing was resolved. How much does this matter and what should I do?

Question:
Throwaway just to keep my business private.

I am a 20-something year old student in New Jersey. I've still been on "family plans" until I'm not totally broke, which I appreciate. However, last year my father abruptly passed away, which really screwed a bunch of things up. Our plans were all in his name, and he was the foundation of everything that kept my (nice) but irresponsible mom in line.

His estate has been settled for the most part now and of course things had to be taken out of his name since he is no longer with us. Unfortunately, my mom I guess still has not so great credit or whatever. At some point, my mom must have switched our family car insurance (just me and her, only child) into MY name instead of hers, they must have not approved her for some reason. I was unaware of this, and only found out because I have mail forwarding set up with the post office (I share an apartment with someone else not far from my mom) and got some stuff from Geico in my name.

I called Geico after reading it over and was really confused. I understand my vehicle, which is an older model car that's totally paid off, being in my name. However, when my father passed, my mom consolidated the family vehicles and just got one reliable car she could afford on her own, which is fine. Don't know how she got approved for that, my credit is already frozen and I checked and doesn't look like she put that under me this time thank goodness. However, her new, bank owned vehicle is under my name on the car insurance. Both vehicles are listed under her (our family home) address.

I called/contacted Geico more than once to ask about this and correct this and find out what the deal is and why it's in my name. I told them point blank it's not my car, it's not my address, that my mom always takes policies and credit lines out in my name so that's why I always keep my stuff frozen. I requested to have every single document mailed to me at my apartment address, and they mailed me the WRONG things for the vehicles my father owned we no longer even had. They still have not even sent me a permanent insurance card for my car, so I'm afraid to even drive to work. It's also sketchy because I cannot log in because my mom set up the online account in her email and log in info even though it's under my name, so I can't see or do anything. I told them this and they just were like meh.

Geico claims they'd have their certain department look into it, which I guess got nowhere. I also told them I did not want my mom to be able to make any changes on the account until this was sorted out because she has a habit of running my credit into the ground for non-payments on lines she's opened up. They gave me the option of creating a verbal password so only I could make changes if I called in, which I did. Lo and behold, that didn't work because my mom called back in anyways and changed everything and locked me back out. I just got back from vacation to a letter at home that my policy was cancelled for non-payment because of an overdue balance, but I cannot log in to change any of the billing.

I'm trying not to be angry at my mom, because losing my dad and everything else has already been horrible enough, but I need to find out legally what I'm on the hook here for. Geico is being absolutely unhelpful and I don't want to be held responsible for my moms non-payments or if she gets into an accident am I going to be sued as the "policy holder" even if it's not my car, registered to me and I don't live there? How do I get them to put HER car in HER name and leave me out of it?

Answer:
 /u/Jacaranda18 gave an accurate, but very brief answer that you should listen to.  His answer is accurate, it just needs to be expanded a bit.

Your mother is engaged in identity theft.  That is a crime.  The system isn't set up to be 'nice' to mothers who are a little ditzy, and what she's doing isn't simply ditzy, it's a *crime*.  She is *stealing* from you in a very real sense, attacking your future with reckless abandon.  You're gonna have to choose between helping her screw you over, or protecting yourself -- she's made a mistake, and someone has to pay the consequences.

Geico isn't going to be able to do much until you get a police report and establish that someone has engaged in identity theft.  Until then, they need to get *their* money paid, and *you* are the client of record, and due to pay.

The police report on identity theft is a legal document that gives them the right to re-assign that debt to someone else.  It's a protection: someone can't move their debt to your name willy nilly, there has to be a justified legal reason (identity theft).

/r/personalfinance has a [https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/identity_theft](wiki article) on identity theft you should read and follow.


Title: Police harassing me

Question:
The police were pounding on my Door around 1.30am I was asleep. I thought someone was trying to break the door down to get in (sleepy brain) I was so frightened. This is the 3rd time they have done this asking about the person that lived here before me, it's starting to feel like harassment. I answered all their questions the first time, but they keep coming back. They  bang on the door, ask questions and don't even apologise when they realise I'm not the person they are looking for and for being so aggressive.
I wish someone could help me

Answer: Call the police in morning, ask to speak to a supervisor or commander/whatever and ask to explain what is happening.


Title: [Ohio] I have been informed that my neighbor stole my cat.

Question: Long story short, my kitten ran away about three months ago and we never saw any sign of him ever again. We posted signs and asked around but nothing turned up. Just a few days ago, I was talking to my neighbor (not that ones who stole my cat) that I never really talk to and they inform me that my other neighbors have my kitten. What can I do? The cat had no identifiers on it such as a collar or nametag but it did have very distinctive grey fur.

Answer: I would confront the neighbors and act happy and thankful. "I heard you found my kitten. Omigod thank you so much". And then see what happens. If that doesn't work, small claims court.


Title: Leaf Blower exploded in my hand

Question:
So, as the title states, my Troy Bilt leaf blower exploded in my hand yesterday, while on the roof clearing leaves and pine straw. The blower was recalled in 2014 for this exact reason, but I was unaware of that until today.

So, I’d prefer not to go through lawyers and courts, but I certainly want my medical expenses and a little bit of “I’m Sorry, I hope this makes you a bit happier” coinage. Nothing major, but I have pretty heavy swelling and bruising, and some lacerations to my dominant hand. I went to the ER for X-rays to rule out a break.

What’s fair for me to ask for from the manufacturer? I definitely want my co-pay reimbursed and my blower replaced. Other than that, should I give them a dollar amount?
Topic:
Personal Injury

Answer:
 They may tell you to pound sand and that they did a recall and their bases are covered. You will probably need to engage a personal injury attorney.Answer #2: You likely have a reasonable products liability claim. A recall is a subsequent remedial measure that many manufacturers will take to prevent further injury but generally will not totally remove liability for products that remain in the hands of the public. It would be different if you had received notice of the recall prior to your injury.

With a products liability claim, you don't have to prove an actual wrongful act by the manufacturer, only that the product caused injury and was in substantially the same condition as when you bought it. Effectively, negligence is presumed because there was something wrong that only the manufacturer had control of.

These types of claims vary by state. You can probably get a consultation with a PI lawyer for low or no cost to you.


Title: Landlord did not disclose violent criminal history. Help!

Question:
In case this matters, we live in California.

Last month, my husband and I moved into a condo in a duplex. Both units in the duplex are owned by our landlady (Liz)--she rents out one and lives in the other with her husband, whom we'll call Jay.

A few days ago, my husband and I were both home sick and around lunchtime, we overheard what sounded like a very heated domestic disturbance between my Liz and Jay. Liz ended up driving away (Jay was physically blocking her car, Liz was laying on the horn, etc.). It was scary to listen to. Liz has not been back since, and we have since heard Jay discussing a restraining order, so we assume she has had this placed on him.

This 'tussle' really put my husband and I on edge, because Liz was clearly terrified of him during this fight. Jay is a very physically intimidating man--over six feet and he looks like he is on steroids, to be frank. We started to google him a little bit to see if he has any previous history of violence or anything. Much to our chagrin, we have found that this guy has been in prison at least six times, all for violent offenses including sexual assault & battery, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, assault of a firefighter/emt, resisting arrest, etc. As far as we can tell, he was charged and served time in a different state. He doesn't seem to be a fugitive.

The condo we live in is solely owned by Liz (as far as we can tell, based on property information we found on the county clerk-recorder's website), and Jay is not mentioned in any of the lease documentation we signed through a legitimate property management company.

At this point, we do not feel safe. Liz has not been back to her condo since their fight 2 days ago. My husband and I feel that if we had been informed of Jay's criminal history, we would not have elected to live in this unit.

Do we have any recourse? We have already spent a deposit and moving expenses getting us here and this feels like this nightmare is just beginning. I honestly have no idea if Liz knows about his past, nor if the property management company has any idea. What the heck can we do?

Answer: There is no requirement for your landlord to tell you any information about people that live in other units. If Jay threatens you in any way, call the police.Answer #2: I don't think you can do anything, really...it has nothing to do with your apartment or your lease. Maybe anonymously call the police if something similar happens again.


Title: (TX) Neighbor cut tree down and threw limbs/trunk into my yard damaging my fence. Need advice!

Question:
My neighbor hired people to cut out the top of one of his trees and drop the trunk sections and limbs over his fence and into my yard and two other neighbors, damaging our fences. This tree was not leaning over any of our yards and there is no way any of the materials would have dropped in our yards naturally.

&nbsp;

I spoke to the workers and my neighbor and they all ensured me that they would pick up the trunk sections and fix my fence. They then bent back my mangled fence, not actually repairing it, and then he paid them and they left without picking up the giant trunk sections they dumped into my yard.

&nbsp;

It has been several days and my neighbor will not respond to any emails or phone calls and he won’t answer the door. I figured this would happen because he is an old disbarred attorney that has a reputation for screwing people over. Since I anticipated this, I took video of the workers dropping limbs and photos of the damage, workers vehicles/plates, and him speaking with them before they left to never come back.

&nbsp;

What are my options? Should I call the police? Take it to small claims court? I’d much rather not deal with the hassle of a court case, but he can’t just get away with dumping his crap on all of his neighbors and damaging our property.

Answer:
 The general consensus seems to be small claims court, which was my first thought, but does anyone with Texas law enforcement knowledge know if this is grounds for any sort of fine or ticketing to my neighbor even if he claims it was the workers? Or is this purely a small claims issue?

Also can I legally throw all of this lumber back over his fence if he doesn't take care of it?


Title: Filing a police report for theft, while I was trespassing. Also, making an insurance claim.

Question: So i was trespassing in a beautiful outdoors area near a swimming hole and took some beautiful footage with a drone. I placed the drone in a semi hidden area so i could hike across a creek and take some photos without carrying the case (incredibly stupid decision) now my drone is gone but I'd like to file a report because there was only two other individuals in the area who I'm farely sure stole my drone. I also wanted to try and make a homeowners personal property insurance claim for the drone since it was a $2000 purchase and I work a minimum wage job. (extra bit of useless info for your enjoyment: this was only the 3rd time I had used this drone, if I don't find this thing with the GPS flight recorder or the help of authorities and I can't get a claim I'll have paid $2,000 to use a drone 3 times without even having the footage I took to show for it :')

Answer:
 The police probably won't care that you were trespassing though there is an outside chance it will become an issue.  Just because you were committing a (minor) crime does not make it legal or justified for others to commit crimes against you.

But I have no idea if your trespassing changes anything in regards to your insurance claim.


Title: Landlord is having contractors come over during my work hours, curious if I can be compensated for this time.

Question:
This is a weird question, but I've had to do it so frequently I'm actually noticing a difference in my finances.
My landlord is planning to renovate my attic into a separate AirBnB, however at this point the only access to the attic is inside. There have been numerous contractors, electricians, plumbers etc over in the passed few months, all during my 9-5 job and I have to be home to let them in. Just curious if I can get some of the lost income.
I should also add, my landlord is also having contractors come in to my apartment for renovations she's planning to do in the fall after I move out.

Also not sure if this is where this should go.

Answer:
 You don’t have to be home to let them in. You are just being nice. Stop it. Stop it right now.

Letting contractors in is her job.


Title: [FL] Question(s) regarding dog walking, sidewalks and cyclists.

Question:
Hello there! If this is not the right sub-reddit for this kind of question(s) please let me know and I will remove/post in the correct area.

So my question is in regards to a hypothetical situation I feel I will encounter any day now and getting a better understanding of my rights as a pedestrian.

I have a German Shepherd dog who is coming up on 4 years old. I often walk him after I get home from work which is around 4-5pm. I currently(am moving soon) live near an elementary(closest), high school, and middle school. By the time I usually walk my dog most of the schools have been out for quite some time but there are still some stragglers walking/biking home or just going somewhere after school.

The problem is that my dog does not like people on wheels. Whether it's a bike, a scooter, roller blades, whatever it gets him(and me when they're too close) riled up.

Now I'm not talking about someone riding on the other side of the street mind you, he may pay attention to them but he will not react how he does if they try to ride right by us on the sidewalk. By react I mean he will pull on the leash(lunge) and bark at them. If they are too close and he does this I do not correct him, I have been the victim of 2 completely random physical attacks and do not put anything past anyone of any age. Generally when I see someone on a bicycle coming towards us on the sidewalk I will put my dog in a sit/stay position on the sidewalk and stand there letting the cyclist know I do not intend to move and that they should be aware of my animal.(If at night I do the same thing except I have a flashlight blinking around my neck so that they are aware there is an obstacle) If I am on a multi-use path such as a wide trail and I see someone coming towards us on wheels I will get off the path and also put him in a sit/stay until they have gone by, out of principle I do not do this when I am on a side walk.

Why? To me it seems like if I am driving then cyclists want to ride in the road and if I am walking my dog then they seem to favor the sidewalk, I can deal with one or the other but not both so I do not yield my right of way on a sidewalk as a pedestrian.

I get young children riding on the sidewalk as they may not know better/feel safer but I still do not get out of their way. I leave it up to them to figure out that I am standing still with my dog at my side and they can either run into me(not advised) or go around me in the grass(preferably with a few feet as a buffer) and maybe when they get home and complain to their mom/dad they will do a google search and find that even if they are allowed in their city/state to ride on the sidewalk they must yield to pedestrians.

Now my real question is if I get a real hard headed cyclist that sees me and my dog standing still, sees me looking dead at them, is ignorant of the laws and decides to ride on the sidewalk perhaps within inches of me and my dog and my dog lunges, bites/scratches/tackles/etc and dismounts them causing bodily injury who is at fault here?

I don't want my dog put down because cyclist expect me to jump out of their way while they cruise by at 10-20mph on a sidewalk.

Don't get me wrong, if I see a group of bicycles coming my direction with enough warning I will move to the other side of the road but when time does not permit or if it's only one person I will not get into the grass/road, nor do I feel I should have too, it is after a sidewalk not a sidepath or sideroad. I also after putting him in a sit/stay grip the leash very tightly with both hands so that they really would have to be within a foot or less for my dog to reach them.

TLDR: If I am walking my dog on the sidewalk and a bicycle/other wheeled vehicle rides by and does not yield/get off the sidewalk and my dog attacks them who is at fault?

Thank you for your time and answers.

Edit: no more need for further answers the circle jerk is over guys time to go, you don't have to go home but you can't keep jerkin it here.

Edit 2: it's the people in this thread that make me have to worry about some idiot coming right up on my dog.

Answer: Your fault. Buy a muzzle.


Title: Hit and run and the other driver said I was at fault

Question:
[This is in CALIFORNIA]
I was recently in a hit and run and the other driver sped away. I took down his plates number and called the police at the scene of the accident. Few days later I got a call from the police and the police informed me that he has located the other driver and the other driver told the police I was at fault. Now the police tells me there is nothing he can do because there is no proof who is at fault. Now the police wants me to exchange information with the other driver and we both claim the accident. I called the police right after the accident and he was nowhere to be found yet the other driver claims I am at fault now. Is my best bet to find a lawyer?

Answer:
 >Is my best bet to find a lawyer?

File a claim through your insurance and let their lawyers (which you already pay for) handle this. If you're lucky, they might recoup your deductible.

For the future get a dash cam. It's the cheapest insurance you can buy.


Title: [NY] Grabbed my fiancés breast when she wasn't in the mood while we were lying together. She's treating legal action, what should I do?

Question:
[removed]
Topic:
Troll Post

Answer: So the wedding is off then?


Title: Pregnant and want to leave father and state behind

Question:
South Carolina. I am posting this for a friend (at her request) who doesn't have reddit so this information is secondhand. I'm not even in the same state. Just looking for some helpful info or resources to ease her mind. Fake names used.

Amy is pregnant, Steve is the father. They were in a long term relationship but split up before Amy found out she was pregnant. Steve wants nothing to do with the child as of right now. Their past relationship was violent, from both parties. He would hit her, but she would hit back just as hard. Police have been called, charges have been filed. I wasn't there so I don't know the whole story. Anyway, Amy wants to pack up and leave town, more or less ghost the guy before the baby is born. She doesn't want to collect child support down the road, and to be honest he seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't pay anyway. Are there any legal consequences to this? What if Steve changes his mind down the road? My friend is scared and alone right now, any help helps! Thank you.

Answer: Child support can’t be unilaterally waived by the mother, generally. Definitely not if she receives public assistance.


Title: [CO] Landlord claims my lease contract needs to be "corrected" to higher rent amount.

Question:
When I was looking into this apartment (Pueblo, Colorado), I was verbally told that rent would be $650/month. When I actually went in to sign the lease, the contract stated that it was $545 (the manager read over it with me and said $545 verbally, as well). Two months later, they're now telling me that it was a mistake in their system and want to make rent $625 and "schedule a day to make the correct changes", which I guess means sign a new contract.

I realize they may have made a mistake, but think they are still bound to the contract. It's got "This is a Binding Legal Document" written at the top. I'm a little unsure, though, because I also signed this one page handwritten document called "Rental Agreement", which says rent is $650 and gives the move in date, lease term, etc. I'm not sure why there are two documents, but the "Rental Agreement" paper seems clearly incorrect, since it also says the lease term is 6 months while the official lease contract says 1 year.

**Edit:** Thanks for the input everyone. I decided to just offer to pay the original amount, since it was an honest mistake on their part and it's not really worth the effort to fight, plus all the good points made below.
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 Is it worth the potential hassle? You've already made out ahead for two months for over $100 after agreeing to the higher monthly rent and it seems they've negotiated the rent down from the initial price by $25. Presumably you'll have to deal with this landlord for the next year or so. Is it worth fighting for the "proverbial" bank error in your favor at the risk of an extended uncomfortable living situation?Answer #2: > I think they are bound to the contract. It's got "This is a Binding Legal Document" written at the top. I'm a little unsure, though, because I also signed this one page handwritten document called "Rental Agreement", which says rent is $650

It's strange for there to be two lease documents. Did the landlord sign either or both of them?


Title: [MN] I can't afford my rent anymore. What are the consequences of breaking my lease?

Question: I rent a 2 bedroom apartment for $700 a month. When I rented it in September, I was in a desperate spot to move into a new place ASAP and the price was too good to pass up. However, I've since had my hours cut at work to the point I can't afford to 700 for rent anymore. I talked to the landlord and subleasing is not permitted. The cost of breaking my lease is one month's rent plus the cost of the total number of days the apartment is vacant. I can stay with my friend at his house for less than half the monthly cost, so it would be cheaper in the long run to break the lease and move into my friend's house. Are there any other consequences for breaking my lease? Will it hurt my credit or ability to rent in the future? I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place here. 23M in Minnesota.

Answer: If you break the lease with the landlord's permission, there will be no legal record of it - i.e. no eviction suit or anything like that.  You would likely not be able to use him as a reference.  As you've been advised, you'd owe the full rent on the place until the end of your lease or the unit gets re-rented.


Title: Reimbursement being halted because I declined job offer? (NY)

Question:
I spent several hundred dollars on a plane ticket to a job interview; I was told I would be reimbursed at a later time. I was asked to do this so I could select my own itinerary. The hotel was covered by the job up front, since it was in the area. I also had a few meals covered.

They offered me a job and I declined. I got a very bad vibe about the job and the people who work there, and the person who would have been my direct manager had a poor/inappropriate attitude and I would not feel comfortable working there. The company is now saying that because I declined their offer, I am responsible for my flight and incidentals. Is this legal?

Answer: You could sue them and win if you've got evidence that they would pay for the flight and there was no mention of any conditions which needed to be satisfied for reimbursement.  It's just a breach of contract case in small claims.Answer #2: Did you have the agreement in writing, and were there any conditions attached to it? If so, I would send them a letter with a copy of the agreement and ask that they pay it, and if they don't, you have the option to take them to court if the money is worth it to you.


Title: Unresponsive lawyer. Undelivered service (+1 year)

Question:
Location [USA/CA]

I paid a lawyer to write-up a prenup. We first met last July. First payment took place then, but it was a bit more work than he thought at first so final payment was in January. Total $5000

I waited a few months and sent an email asking for update. I called the office. Nothing. I finally got ahold of him in June and told him the wedding was coming up. He said he was almost finished and would call me back and update me. Never heard back. Sent 3 status update emails and called since then. It's now October and my relationship is out the door (partly because of this fiasco). I'm not inclined to continue calling him every day and going to the physical location to chase this down, etc.

Can I take this to small claims? What's my options going forward. I have email records & call logs.

Answer: It doesn't take 3 months to write a pre-nup, it takes about a week 2 tops if you have a bunch of assets to list .Report him to the BAR, offer to go to fee arbitration through them.


Title: [GA] BP Gas Station Broke My Car

Question:
On October 12th, I got a tank full of gas from a BP gas station in Smyrna, GA. About 5 minutes after I got the gas, I was driving down the street and my car broke down. My car was moving at 35 mph but I was not able to break, accelerate or turn the steering wheel. This lasted for about a half of mile. I tried not to panic but my son was in the car and we were going down a residential street and there was nothing I could do to stop the car. Luckly, we didn't hit anything or anyone. Eventually, the car stopped moving and I was able to pull into a school parking lot.

I called my insurance company and while I was waiting for a tow trunk to come, a police officer came to me to find out what was wrong. I explained to him that my car just randomly turned off and he asked me if I had just gotten gas from BP. When I told him yes, he explained to me that several other drivers in the area had the same problem because the BP that we had went to mixed up their diesel fuel and regular fuel. The officer was not able to give me a police report because he said it was a civil issues but he did provide me with an event number.

I was told by family members to open a claim with my car insurance company and let them handle the issue but this hasn't been very effective. My car has been with the mechanic since October 13th and no work has been done to the car because my insurance company hasn't approved anything. It wasn't confirmed that I purchased bad gas and nothing has been fix. I spoke to the BP owner and he offered me  $350 for repairs.

When I try to reach my claims adjuster, I only receive her voicemail. I was originally told by the mechanic that the repairs would cost $2k and would take at least one week to fix. My insurance company told me that the repairs would only cost $750. This makes me nervous because I feel like they're cutting corners.

I'm having a really hard time with this issue. I've missed two days of work. I've been having nightmares about my son and I dying in a car crash. I have a rental now and when I drive I constantly think that I'm going to lose control of the vehicle. I know the fears are irrational but I can't stop my mind of thinking negative thoughts.

I really need some guidance about this. Do I have a case? Should I wait for my insurance company to fix this or get a lawyer?

Answer: I'm sorry this happened to you. For future reference if your engine shuts off you can still turn and brake it just takes more force. It sounds like you insurance is offering to pay for the repairs so I'm not sure what your legal question is.


Title: URGENT: Rented water heater just failed structurally, flooding my rental house's basement. I have attempted to control the damage. What do I do next? (Ontario, Canada)

Question:
Context: my wife and I rent a house in a community north of Toronto. The rental house we occupy has a water heater that is owned and rented to us by Enbridge (Enercare). We have occupied the residence since 2015 and haven't dealt with this sort of situation before.

I came home from a night shift at 3:40am this morning and went to the basement to use the washroom before going to bed. I heard water running so I investigated and found a slowly growing puddle emanating from the water heater. Not knowing exactly where the water was coming from, I turned off the water to the house using the main water valve. I also called the emergency line listed on the heater. The lady I spoke to at Enercare walked me through what I could do to stem the flow from the ruptured heater. The house's main water valve is also faulty (even in the "off" position the flow continues), so I turned off the inflow to the heater itself, which seems to have halted the inflow entirely.

I also used towels to soak up all of the water I could access, and wrung them out into a bucket. I called the city and they are sending somebody later today to replace the house's main water valve. Enercare will contact me during regular business hours to come by and replace the heater itself (it was installed in 2002, long before we occupied this residence).

Some water has gone under the floor in the basement  living room, so I am worried my landlords may hold me accountable for any repairs. I am setting up a dehumidifier to suck some of the excess moisture out of the room while the damage is fresh.

I think I caught this situation at its earliest stage, but I'm worried about legal recourse from my landlords, and wondering if anybody else has been through this. If there is structural damage, mold damage, or if I need to tear up the basement living room floor do I have any recourse against Enercare?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

Answer:
 Maintenance and repairs should be your landlord's responsibility, not yours, unless the damage was caused by some kind of neglect on your part. It doesn't sound like you did anything to cause the failures in equipment and plumbing in this case. However, you can be held responsible if you fail to notify your landlord about problems that need attention. And you do have a responsibility to mitigate damage as much as you can.

Inform your landlord. Mop up as much as you can. If your landlord doesn't have repairs completed in a reasonable amount of time at his own expense, file a T5 Application About Maintenance with the Landlord and Tenant Board.


Title: Did Bobo commit a crime?

Answer: Do you believe everyone is familiar with your retarded circus?


Title: Need advice about a drug test!!

Question:
So I just took a drug test today as a pre employment requirement. The manager told me not to worry if I show up positive for THC now that it's legal (I live in California). I gladly took the test because it didn't matter.
Then I do a quick search and it turns out that because I take lithium and adderall daily, that can make a test come out positive for amphetamines! What do I do?! Do I go back to the testing site, or talk to the manager? And what would I tell them, how in depth would I need to go? Thank you, I need help ASAP!

Answer: Usually they ask you what medications you're taking first, did they not do that?


Title: [Ontario, Canada] Can you legally be high on your own property (as long as you have no illegal substances on the property too)?

Question: Just out of curiosity. I own a house and my friend gave me a weed brownie. If I were to eat it (thus having no illegal substances on my property) would my high be "legal"?

Answer: Having an illegal substance in your body IS possessing it on your property.


Title: revenge

Question:
Kansas.
I was recently canned by an abusive company on the word of a supervisor. The upper management keeps itself unapproachable to its workers. The supervisors use this to their advantage to abuse their workers, and at the same time this supervisor has been talking trash about the upper management a lot. I have a list of conversations I've had with the supervisor and want to send it to upper management. They're conversations about things that I obviously wouldn't have known about unless the supervisor told me. It contains a lot of personal stuff about upper management. Will I be looking forward to legal troubles when I send the letter?

Answer:
 What's the point?

Do you think you're going to get your job back?  You won't.

Do you think you're going to get your supervisor fired?  You won't.

What *will* happen is that any decent reference you had will disappear and you will be transformed into that guy who went crazy after he was fired.

Use your energy for looking for a new job.


Title: (GA) Employer is saying I have to work all my off days or else they will fire me.

Question: I am a full time hourly employee working 4 days a week.  My employer is saying there is mandatory overtime next week on the three days I am supposed to be off.  Is this allowed in the state of Georgia?

Answer:
 If you're at will, yes. You can be fired for not complying. Answer #2: Georgia has no "one day in seven" law that requires you to get one day off per week.

As long as your employer is paying you properly for all hours worked and all overtime, then they can schedule you for as many hours as they wish, and can fire you for cause if you don't show up for work.

As a practical matter, take care of your sleep and budget something fun to do with that sweet overtime pay.Answer #3: Georgia does not have any restrictions on mandatory overtime and neither does the Federal government.Answer #4: "Supposed to be off" doesn't have legal standing. You and your employer come to an agreement about when and how much you work, and if you can't then that relationship ends. The law protects you from working without pay or breaks, but not from having to cancel your road trip when your employer needs last "minute" help.


Title: CalOSHA and non-disclosure agreements (CA)

Question:
Here's an email my idiot former boss just sent me...

"I know you filed a complaint with Cal Osha against my company. They told me. You violated your NDA with me by doing so. You remember signing it don't you? You sure did I have it in front of me here. You are not supposed to disclose what goes on here and what you did for me. It's a legal matter now. I've CC'd my attorney here. You will be hearing from him."

So here's my question:
Can an NDA prevent an employee from filing a complaint with OSHA?

Answer:
 No it can not. File a complaint with the State labor board and OSHA. Answer #2: No. Non-disclosure does not cover reporting safety issues to a statutory body in any way shape or form.

Do you have a contact you spoke to at Osha (or their main email). I would send them a copy of the email. Osha does not like it much when companies make threats towards people who speak to them


Title: I'm a landlord. What If I don't have the money for a major sewer replacement?

Question:
I'm in Indianapolis. I have a rental house and the sewer line has a partial collapse. It will have to be replaced but the lowest estimate is $6,500 and I cannot afford that.

There is a clause in my lease stating:
"Clause 24. Partial or Total Destruction of the Premises by Acts of God / Casualty or Untenantable Conditions; If the premises are partially or completely destroyed or rendered untenantable by a fire, earthquake, tornado, explosion, terrorist act or any other occurrence or Act of God that is not caused by Tenant’s negligence or willful act (or the negligence or willful act of Tenant’s family, agent, or guest), the Landlord, in its sole discretion, may elect to:
(1) repair or rebuild the premises during the period of untenantability, refunding the rent proportionally that had been paid in advance for the period starting from the date of the damage; or
(2) not repair or rebuild the premises, terminate the Lease effective as of the date of the occurrence and refund the rent proportionally that had been paid in advance for the period starting from the date of the damage."

What are my legal responsibilities to repair the sewer? If I do not repair am I protected by this clause and able to end the lease? I appreciate the help.

Answer: Was the collapse caused by an "Act of God"?  If the collapse was the result of the pipes being poorly maintained or just outliving their useful life, then this wouldn't qualify under that clause.  Answer #2: What caused the collapse?Answer #3: You can't get a home-equity line of credit on the rental to fix this?


Title: Got summoned for jury duty and I have a question

Question: I got a reckless driving charge two weeks ago and have jury duty next week.  Will I be dismissed because of that?

Answer: Most likely, yes, if those charges are pending.  You should call the number on your jury summons to ask what to do.  They may release you then and there, or they may tell you to disclose it when you show up for duty.


Title: Daycare Drama (Oklahoma)

Question: I formerly worked at daycare center in Oklahoma. A parent recently contacted me in order to obtain a statement regarding an incident at the daycare with his child and her intoxicated birth mother. The incident occurred around four years ago and he wants documentation for custody proceedings. I asked my former employer to give the father a statement I had written at the time , but they were unable to locate it. I’m worried about opening myself up to potential legal and/or personal  problems if I provide a statement now. I’ve also been told I could be subpoenaed later if I don’t willingly provide a new statement. Should I refuse to provide a new statement? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer:
 You could ask the parent to have his attorney contact you.  Once you are contacted you can tell the attorney that the incident in question happened four years ago and any recollection you have of the incident you had written down at the time and provided to the daycare, but other than that you cannot testify for sure because your memory of the day is hazy.

If they subpoena you, you must show up to the hearing unless you hire an attorney to quash the subpoena.  Once sworn in to testify, you can tell the truth, it was a long time ago and I don't exactly remember what happened, I only know ____, and I had provided a statement to the daycare about it.

If you tell the truth you should not have potential legal issues.  As for personal issues, I cannot speak to that other than your workplace should not have given that parent your number if that is how he got it.


Title: [FL-USA] Car is financed, can no longer drive and I'm upside down. CarMax offered $6k less than what I owe. Couple offered to take over payments but leave it in my name for a year. Details inside

Question:
Car is almost 2 years old now (2014 Kia Optima) with only 15,000 miles. I posted an ad on Craigslist to have someone take over the payments but they must bring their own financing. My ad has been up for a couple months and everyone just assumes they can take my car and give me the monthly payment.

Enter some random girl. She has offered to take over the payments with a contract and in a year will refinance it under her and her husband's name. They (her and her husband) will also insure the car under their name. I'm very reluctant to do it this way but it would be easier than continuing to pay the $450 and $100 per month to keep a car that I can't drive.

Is there a bullet proof contract that would allow me to hand the keys over and not have to worry about them ruining me or my credit (non-payment, accident, etc)?  Is there any kind of contract that would at least protect me in case of nonpayment or accident.

Is there some sort of collateral that I could take? Maybe a title to a vehicle or something of the sort.

She plans on sending the contract over today via e-mail. Can anyone help me to see if it's something to pursue or should I just take the hit by selling it to CarMax.

Thank you

**edit** From the responses I've gotten, it is not a good idea, terrible actually, to go through with it. I will tell her in the nicest way possible to kick rocks. Thank you again to all those that responded
Topic:
Contracts

Answer: No. There is no way of protecting yourself. They could stop paying you then you would have to take them to court. They could rent it out to other people. They could resell the car to someone that doesn't care about a title. There could be an accident with the car that could leave you civilly liable for any damages and injuries.


Title: Failed to Register for Selective Service

Question:
I am a 29 yr. old American citizen, and I recently learned that I did not register for selective service. I don't recall getting a form in the mail to register, and my failure to register was truly a mistake. I am now attempting to apply for federal student loans for graduate school and suspect I will be denied for not registering. I am aware that failure to register is a felony punishable by up to 5 years of jail time and a $250K fine.

I grew up in a foreign country \(US expat\), but attended boarding school in the US up until I was 18. I proceeded to go to college in the US, and did not have to get federal loans. As a result I never realized my mistake before turning 26, and can no longer register for selective service.

The only reason I think selective service registration might not have made it to me is because my home address at the date of my 18th birthday was overseas? Mail is incredibly unreliable in the country I lived in. I was not automatically registered and have confirmed that there is no registration under my name and SSID.

What should I do? I appreciate any advice.

Answer:
 Head over to https://www.sss.gov/Home/Men-26-and-OLDER, they explain what can be done if you're past the registration age.  It may still be possible to get through this.Answer #2: You are unlikely to be charged with a crime (no one has in decades), but you have lost eligibility for certain government aid (including student loans) and depending on the state you may have lost additional rights.

NAL but having past the age of registration you are out of luck.

Edit: typo


Title: Can I use a fake name to get a job?

Question:
Hello! So, for certain reasons, I don't like the name I was given at birth and I want to change my first name. I don't have the money to get a name change just yet, but I really want to go by my new name. If I put my desired name on a job application and get hired and then my employers find out that it wasn't my actual name, could I get fired/get into legal trouble for that?
Topic:
Employment Law

Answer: You can call yourself whatever you want.  You need to fill out official documents (such as tax forms and such) when you get hired with your legal name.


Title: Getting DNA swabbed tomorrow, will I be tested for anything? What do I need to know? [California]

Question: [deleted]

Answer: You know you can celebrate a birthday and not drink right?Answer #2: Under no circumstances should you break the law (which includes underage drinking) right now.


Title: Sent the wrong board game then the right one - do I have to return the wrong one?

Question:
(IL) I ordered a game off of Kickstarter and instead of the one I ordered,  I received a different game. I emailed the company it was shipped through, ShipNaked, and they are sending me the correct copy of the game. However, they also sent me a shipping label to return the old one back. Do I have to return it? I kind of want to have both.

Company website - [ShipNaked](https://www.shipnaked.com/)

Answer:
 If they sent you a shipping label, that's a pretty strong indication that they still consider it to be their property.

A mistake doesn't make it your property, and the FTC consumer protection rule against fraudulent shipments (that you can keep it) likely doesn't apply.

There's another recent thread here where I went into detail about why.


Title: My mom read my mail (NY)

Question:
Hi, I'm an 18 year old male living with my parents while I go to community college. My relationship with my parents have been rocky at best but i'm stuck here because I have no where else to go. Anyways, the other day my bank statement came in the mail while I was at college. When I came home, I saw that it was opened. My mom has a savings account for me, so I just figured she was trying to figure out which bank statement was in this envelope (Because both have my name on them).

Anyways, Today I got into an argument with her about how I spend my money and when I said most of my money goes to gas she goes "Really? Check your bank statement". And then it kind of clicked for me because she normally doesn't have to open my bank statement (she never has before actually). Is this illegal in any way? Can I do anything?

To clarify, I have a savings and checking account that my mom cosigned for and then she has a savings account for me that was like a college fund.

Answer:
 You should request paperless statements so you don't have to worry about anyone touching your bank statements.Answer #2: Sure. You can call the postal inspection service to file a complaint then put your mom in prison or at least on probation. Of course, you will need a new place to live paying your own tuition and housing costs.
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/ Answer #3: It is illegal for your mother to open your mail, but as you're living in her house, and if you have told her unequivocally that you don't want her to do that, your best bet is to simply circumvent her intrusions and rent a P.O.Box.

You shouldn't have to do it (I have an adult child living at home and I wouldn't dream of opening his mail unless he specifically asked me to) but some people have boundary issues.

Make sure you've told her that you don't want her to do this though first. Maybe she needs you to be very specific about this whole thing before she gets it.


Title: Alcoholic roommate spirals into hanging with hobos. -Atlanta

Question:
Hello,

My roommate works at a civil law firm as a paralegal. He has generally gone to work everyday and done a spectacular job. He always pays the rent and utilities early. But, he's an extreme alcoholic.

Recently, he's lost control. He is on probation for public intox. That charge involved him being on alcohol, cocaine, and some type of bad hallucinogen at 6 am on Thanksgiving night. He was frantically waving at cars, trying to get away from the apocolyptic wall of fire that he saw. The police picked him up, he resisted, kicked the fuck out of the inside of the cop car. The dropped 2 charges and only gave him the public intox.

Then, he was arrested for Sexual assault and regular assault. The girl was a long time friend. They were at a bar celebrating roommate's sister's birthday. Roommate pinned the girl against a wall and reached into her skirt. They have a long history of consentual encounters, but she has a boyfriend now so she pressed charges.

Then the spiral began. He started bringing 2 homeless guys home from the liquor store. He hangs out with them in our house, then he passes out and there's an unattended hobo wandering the house. One of these guys is known to have broken into every house on the block! Our neighbor is a very old man who sits on his porch all day and knows everyone in the hood, he told us that this hobo is a bad guy. He also talked to the hobo last week and threatened to shoot him if he comes back on the street again. Roommate goes to work(still drunk from the night before I'm sure), then goes out on lunch break. He starts drinking at lunch and never goes back to work in the afternoon. His boss gave him an ultimatum: either you're fired, or you're going to rehab. He went to rehab.

Rehab lasted 1 month. He came home 2 days ago. He got drunk IMMEDIATELY. He brought his hobo friend's into the house IMMEDIATELY. While he was gone to rehab, the bad hobo was coming over to the house everyday while we were all at work and he was peeping in the windows and cars. That's why the neighbor threatened to shoot him. I just bought 2 top of the line security cameras that I've got set up recording to my Gdrive. I kicked those 2 hobos out of the house.

There are 4 people living in the house. Only myself and the drunk are on the lease. But we have 2 other guys living here that are cool. The landlord doesn't know about the other 2 guys. So ideally, I'd like to kick drunky off the lease and get the other 2 guys added on with me.

So, how do I kick him out? Should I call his probation officer and setup a time for her to come catch him drunk? Can I press charges for something? It's not exactly illegal to be a drunk asshole, but what he's doing is not right. He makes all of our lives hell with all of his drama every single day. If I get some suspicious looking video of the bad hobo can I press some sort of charges on him?

Please help! Thank you!

Answer:
 I'd contact the landlord, inform them your roommate is breaching the lease by having uninvited guests living in the apartment, and let the landlord take care of kicking out the hobos.  Landlords hate guests living in their dwellings because after 30 days, in most places, they are legally considered tenants, even though they don't pay rent; and the landlord has go through an eviction process to kick them out.

If your roommate refuses to leave and the landlord doesn't evict him (possibly because technically there's no cause to evict; depends on your lease), you should unfortunately look for a new place to live.
Answer #2: You can notify his PO and you can call the cops if he commits a crime. But that won't necessarily get him off the lease.

The ideal solution would be to pay him to move out. You could also contact your LL and encourage him to evict you both (I think LL could even file an eviction suit naming only the roommate). Then sign a new lease with LL on your own.


Title: Please Help Me Help My Mom (Dementia?)

Question:
I've resorted to asking strangers on the internet, because agencies I've called are not helping. It seems that legally I can not do anything to help my mother.

I live in PA, 2 hours away from my mom.

My mom is not doing well. She is not paying bills, her mail was shut off, she called her ex-husband (my dad) repeatedly, looking for me because she thought I still lived there (haven't for years). I think she has dementia.

She's been mentally ill for a long time, as well as an alcoholic. My dad says she won't eat. He brings her beer so she doesn't die from detoxing.

I've called the agency on aging.
They told me they don't evaluate people for competence or dementia, and help with things like bathing and cleaning.

I called the police. They can't get evaluations done. They suggested I go to the hospital and file a 302 warrant (I live 2 hours away). I looked up the thing, it's for mental health, not alcohol or dementia. I don't know if it would even help.

I called a local doctor asking about house calls. Trying to see if they will come visit her, but I don't know if she'd let them in.

My dad's the only one who has contact with her. He can't take it anymore. He said she lives in filth and can't remember that he just went over bill stuff with her to try to get her out of this mess. He doesn't want to bring her beer anymore.

Everybody I call basically says that she has to choose to get help, and she's refused this for over a decade. They tried to take her to the doctor, and she walked out of the waiting room.

My dad's afraid he'll get in trouble for elder abuse, even though my mom WON'T ACCEPT HELP.  Unless it's in the form of beer.

Please, I don't know who to call. This is so frustrating! The agency on aging lady acted like I was neglecting her, and I don't even live there!

I'm willing to travel to get things done, but from what people have told me, she has to let people help/evaluate her. She's not going to live long if nothing's done. There has to be something I can do, right?

Answer: Have you reached out directly to APS? Look up the county number for her area and call it for a welfare check. Be sure to stress she is a danger to herself since she is unable to care for herself. This is key for immediate action.Answer #2: My  mom's doctor told me to find a reason to have her hospitalized.  Once there they did millions of tests and found the Alzheimer's (we already knew)then the appropriate agencies got involved and she was moved to assisted living.  The hard part was that I had to refuse to take her home, and insist on help.  It took about two weeks. I had her hospitalized by saying she was having constant nose bleeds (she was) and it turned out it was because she didn't remember how many baby aspirins she was taking per day to prevent a heart attack.


Title: Methhead Roommates Forcing Me to Break Lease

Question:
This is an update to an earlier post I did that unfortunately has not been resolved and only got worse.

I had these two male roommates move in to my apartment in July. One signed a joint lease, the other refused to sign the lease agreement, we'll call him Brian.

The two have not been paying their portion of rent for the entire four months, nor the other bills. When I ask for the money, they get aggressive: yell at me, call me names, bring up my race, threaten me, twist my words and try to Gaslight me... The whole manipulative abuser rigamarole.

We have almost been evicted four times in the past few months. They wouldn't answer their phone so the landlord kept harassing me for the money and threatening me with eviction. I have asked the complex to evict them, they said they would if I paid the back rent owed. I did, using the money my recently deceased father left me for retirement. Now the complex is saying they have no reason to evict them since I paid the rent.

Brian has been increasingly hostile to me, including threatening me on multiple occasions. He also threatened to "beat the  living shit" out of our security guard. Brian, as you recall, is not on the lease.

I have been staying at a hotel for the past two weeks. I came home over the weekend to discover that Brian and his boyfriend smoke, make, and sell meth (I found and took pictures of everything). Now, I am from Crack Country so I knew nothing about meth. But after learning- I realize the signs were obvious the whole time.

They have been leaving the oven and gas stove on to cover the smell.

I contacted the police who said "you're allowed to do whatever you want in your own home. Let this be a lesson to you never to get roommates. It's cheaper to live alone. You should just move out." I told my landlord, they said I could move out and they are allowing them to stay and keep my deposit.

I had to move into a $2,000 room in some dude's house for this coming month because I didn't feel safe anymore. I'm losing out on my deposit. I'm losing out on my dad's money.

And these meth-heads are laughing at me. Do they really get to win? Am I not allowed to break my lease in this situation?

I talked to a lawyer. He said the best he could do is send a formed letter.
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 Wait, the police said they can cook meth in their own home? That doesn’t sound right. Answer #2: NAL

&#x200B;

A cop, given the criminal facts in this scenario (threats of physical violence, meth lab, no warrant required) would 100% investigate. Either you aren't telling us the whole story accurately, or you are burying those details in a long discussion to the police about unpaid rent and various other roomate conflicts.

&#x200B;

If you've called them and said "My roomates threatened to harm me, and run a meth lab" and not buried that in other details, and they ignored you, then you've met the most corrupt cops on the planet, or the dumbest. If this is the case, you can either cut and run, or you can contact a legal clinic / law office of some description, and ask a lawyer to assist you in filing this report, explaining that you are struggling to be taken seriously.


Title: I am TERRIFIED of what I Caught myself into!! PLEASE HELP!!

Question:
Located at South East TN, USA am 19 years old and by no means a sex offender of what ever sort
    I was watching porn on stupidcams.com on my phone; when you click a video, it will send you to a new tab that :
1. is the actual video on the same site
2. is the actual video but on a another site
3. is not the actual video but sends you to another sister site
4. is a an pop-up (jasmin live or some sort of "virus on device")

Now, I make a bunch tabs of the videos that grab my attention. When doing so, sometimes the pop-ups force themselves on to screen. But the pop-up that came scared me the most. I have no idea from what video it was; I was so shocked that I really don't remember what it said and I ended the Google Chrome task on my phone.

But what little i do remember ( and my not be in order) is:
a blue background, initials with a C, D, F(maybe?) and with a paragraph with something like
    " ip user:
      my city, TN
      android user......
      ........................................
..........................................
................child porn..................
............................................."

The child porn really terrified me and im so scared. i have no idea what to do, if i should go to my local police to get this sorted because IM not a disguting perv, or tell my parents, or get a lawyer.
PLEASE HELP

Answer: For the 1000th time, the authorities investigating these things do not warn you with a popup


Title: My coworker won't stop making inappropriate comments towards me.

Question:
(Montreal, Quebec)

I have a coworker who's 20 years older than me who won't stop making unwanted sexual remarks to me. He says things like he's going to grope my breats and butt and just won't stop talking about his penis to me. I've already told my boss. He received a second warning today but what can I do if it continues? I'm at a lost here.
Topic:
Canada

Answer: I would take this to HR and I'd be really surprised that your boss hasnt done more then a write up or two. I'm sorry but being late all the time deserves a write up, talking about your penis to someone at work should be a fireable offence. Make sure they knew you are uncomfortable around this man and do not feel like you are safe at work anymore. Those are key words! Please stand up for yourself and if this person ever touches you in anyway go straight to HR or the police because at this point its harrassment.


Title: Where does social engineering fall from a legal perspective?

Question:
So this obviously isn't something I'm doing/or thinking about doing, or I wouldn't be posting it from my reddit account, but I have a friend that essentially got apple to send him a free macbook pro via social engineering. I'm just wondering how illegal this is? is it the same as stealing? because he's kind of a dumbass and I don't think he believes that it's actually illegal, and google isn't coming up with much. thanks

Edit: so I think what he did was claim to not have recieved the macbook his roommate ordered, and convinced apple to send him another one, but I'm not entirely sure. by 'friend' I just mean some dude I know in one of my classes

Answer:
 "Social engineering" usually implies some sort of deception. That's fraud, quite possibly theft by deception depending on the location.Answer #2: By social engineering I'm assuming you mean fraud, theft by false pretenses, etc.   Illegal. Answer #3: Ok, give us the deets. What actually happened.
Answer #4: This thread has been linked to from another place on reddit.

- [/r/bestoflegaladvice] [My friend stole a laptop. Is it legal to steal a laptop?](https://np.reddit.com/r/bestoflegaladvice/comments/35yg9m/my_friend_stole_a_laptop_is_it_legal_to_steal_a/)

[](#footer)*^(If you follow any of the above links, respect the rules of reddit and don't vote.) ^\([Info](/r/TotesMessenger/wiki/) ^/ ^[Contact](/message/compose/?to=\/r\/TotesMessenger))*

[](#bot)Answer #5: It depends on the state(s) in which the activity took place, and the specifics of this "social engineering".

If you mean lying to obtain a laptop fraudulently, it's entirely possible your friend could be in hot water.


Title: TN: Magazine asked me to write and article for them. I did, they used it, and didn't credit me.

Question:
I started freelance writing recently and a magazine asked me to write an article about healthcare stuff, so I did. Took a lot of time and research to pull it out. It was going to be a good one for my portfolio and I was excited. This was early December, I think, when I wrote it.

Flash forward to today. The edition of the magazine came out and the article is credited to the magazine's editor, who stopped communication with me after I submitted the article (I figured it was rejected). Some parts are barely different, but there are huge chunks from my article that they copied and pasted into the edited ones.

So, what can I do about this? I already emailed the editor but haven't heard anything yet. I mean, this is clear cut plagiarism, but I don't really know what the legality of that is. Any info helps. I would like this to be settled as civilly as possible, and just get credit.

(I posted this a second ago, but the title was bad)

Answer:
 Plagarism isn't a crime, but copyright infringement is. What did your agreement with them say about where the copyright of the work is?Answer #2: IANAL but my close friend writes for publications. Did you have a contract? Was the use of the material supposed to be unauthorized to anyone but you, or did you grant them unrestricted rights to the work?

Nevermind, I see you answered that down below. You didn't have a written arrangement.


Title: Are indirect insults legal?

Question:
Talking about phrases á la

*You look like an [insert_insult]*

*Are you an [insert_insult]?*

*According to [a person], they are a [quoted_insult]*

How legal are those?

Answer:
 Direct insults are legal in most places Answer #2: You should be exploring the definitions for [defamation, slander, libel, fact, and opinion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation). You also need to consider the jurisdiction, context, and whether or not there are specific laws.

More specifically:

The first two examples seem like opinion. The third could be misrepresented as fact - but it depends on the source and the quoted insult.


Title: Please help a Walmart Cashier

Question:
Hi.. I am an international student in Canada and work part time at a Walmart and in the light of the recent terrorist events which happened in New Zealand and Sri Lanka, I was concerned about my safety and safety of my colleagues who work with me, So I asked my manager, In terms of Safety, Is there a gun detector at the entrance?

She went and reported this to the store manager and the store manager told me to write down on a piece of paper what made me ask that question, After I finished writing my statement,he suspended me for  1 week and  asked me to be available on my phone if Walmart wanted to investigate this, my manager called me after 4 days and said there is a meeting with the HR and the store manager tomorrow.

I am scared as to what might happen in the meeting tomorrow (My intention was only about safety). Will they report me to police, or will they fire me or deport me , should I get an attorney, I do not know,. I have not been sleeping well since 5 days because I am worried they will see me in the wrong light.

 PLEASE HELP!!!

Answer: Walmart cannot get you deported. The worse they can do is fire you.  You have NOT committed a crime so no deportation and no police involvement.  Asking questions regarding safety is not illegal.


Title: Company is deducting money from my paycheck

Question:
Edit: I am located in Washington state in the US

The company that I work for has a foundation for supporting employees that need medical help. I agreed to have $10 taken from each paycheck to contribute because I wanted to help. I made this agreement when I worked for them between 2013 and the beginning of 2016. I left to work somewhere else for about 6 months. After that I came back to this company and upon getting rehired I filled out paperwork saying I would contribute $1 per paycheck instead.

After about 3 paychecks I realized that I was still getting $10 taken out each time. I don't make a whole lot so this effects me a decent amount. So I brought it up to my manager who asked our area supervisor to fix it. But he never fixed it. I've brought it up every 2 weeks since then and each time I'm assured its fixed only to find out I keep getting money taken from me that I didn't agree to.

It's now been around 3 straight months of this happening every single paycheck and I'm absolutely livid at this point. Do I have any legal recourse to get the money I did not agree to giving to this foundation back because they can't fix it no matter how many times I tell them I do not want the money taken from my paycheck?

Answer: I love how generous they are with your money. If they were so concerned about their employees with medical problems, they could pay for them.