Title: Rear-ended but at-fault driver just gets to walk away? Florida

Question:
My family and I were rear-ended about 6 weeks ago.

A woman ran into the back of us at a stop sign and mashed up the back of our mini-van. I didn't get a police report; she was sobbing, apologizing over and over, kept saying she was really late, etc. She gave me her insurance and license to take a photo of and I thought that was the only thing I would need as she was so apologetic.

Her insurance claims they need to speak to her in order to fix our car, but she never would answer the phone or reply to letters they've sent so they have closed the claim. I messaged her on facebook as well (asking very politely that she please speak with her insurance) but she never opened the messages.

Our insurance says we can make a claim with them and pay the deductible ourselves but it seems absolutely insane to me that she just gets out of any responsibility by simply refusing to answer the phone. Is that really how it works? Due to unrelated & unexpected medical bills I can't afford the deductible right now and the fact that she can just walk away from leaving us driving around a smashed up car is beyond frustrating.

Answer:
 > it seems absolutely insane to me that she just gets out of any responsibility by simply refusing to answer the phone. Is that really how it works?

She's not making it easy, but no that's not how it works. You can sue her to recoup the costs you've incurred. This is what your insurance would do if you choose to go through them.Answer #2: Note: You should NEVER fall for a sob story.


Title: Need help fighting a drug paraphernalia citation.

Question:
I was driving home from a buddies around 1 AM on a weekday. I saw a cop in a turn lane as soon as I passed him he turned I knew he was going to do anything he could to pull me over (even if it was unlawful which it was) anyways he pulls me over and tells me basically that if I don't let him search my car he will take me to jail. Of course I let him search my car and he ended up finding my bong and that is all.

When he pulled me over I asked what I was pulled over for he told me it was because my license plate light was out, but as soon as he was done searching my car and after he handed me a citation I went to get my lights and both were on. So pretty much this cop pulled me over for no reason. I am wondering if there is anyway to fight this and maybe get the fine reduced.

TL;DR I got pulled over for doing NOTHING wrong cop ends up searching my car and giving me a citation for the bong in my car.

Location: DALLAS/FORTWORTH

Answer: You hire an attorney if you want to fight it


Title: Greetings from McDonalds, police looking for me or just paranoia?

Answer:
 Nope, those old tv shows with the cops stopping at the state line are not very accurate. Theft is theft. You can be arrested in one state and extradited to another.

Here's some good vibes: stop committing criminal acts.Answer #2: No legal advice, but how narcissistic can one guy be? You realize you're causing loss and huge inconvenience for all the people from whom you steal, right?

The fact that you laugh it off with a lol shows that you don't even give those people a moment's consideration. There are other people in this world, you know.


Title: [Texas] HOA wants to fine us for having a dog, but we don't have a dog!

Question:
The HOA allows dogs but for some reason thinks we are hiding a quote "secret dog" from them.

My husband and I don't own a dog or any pets for that matter but they still try to fine us. We even let them in the house to show them that there isn't a dog. They claimed the fact that there was a tennis ball in the kids room means we have a dog. The kids play tennis and they know this.

My husband even had his friend from animal control call and tell them that we don't own a dog. They won't listen!

Answer:
 Tell them to prove it or pound sand. Contest any fines in writing. From now on you should discuss the issue in writing only (email is fine).

Getting everything in writing is essential if they decide to go to court either for the fines they think you owe or to foreclose. Answer #2: HOA boards often attract insane control freaks.  You really need to follow the advice here and replace board with your sane neighbors and call the police and get restraining orders if she's looking in windows as you describe. Answer #3: No advice but this reminds me when we got a ticket for letting our Rottweiler out and having a weight vest on him.  They put him back in the yard and fixed our fence.  We didn't own a dog at the time Answer #4: Sounds like you did something to piss someone off, intentionally or unintentionally, and they're trying to make up something to get you out.

As for what you can do, did you sign a HOA contract when you purchased your home? It's usually a condition of purchase. If so, what does it say your recourse is for contesting complaints? Answer #5: Why do they think this?Answer #6: Do you need permission to own a pet?Answer #7: Seems to me like they have *prove* you have a dog.

They can't simply make up violations and *make* you pay.

I say like u/bagellord, prove it or pound sand.

Just stare at them blankly like they're crazy.... well, they kinda are.


Title: I am being charged for an extra month of rent+fees after moving out due to "bedbugs." Is this legal? What can I do?

Question:
I live in the Bay Area in California.

My boyfriend and I, along with another couple and a friend (total of 5 people) recently moved out of our old apartment complex.  We have been out for about three weeks, and two days ago received a letter saying that we owe over $4000 of fees, major charges including: around $800 for bedbug extermination fees (we never had any bites or evidence of bedbugs), $700 for rug replacement, and around $2000 for rent for the month of October - their reasoning is that they cannot let anyone move into the apartment due to extermination, and they say we are liable for that month of rent. They told us that the other apartments around us had no issues with bedbugs but we don't think they ever actually inspected the other apartments (they gave us a shady answer to that question).

My question is, what can we do?  We are willing to pay for the extermination fees.  The extermination company explained that we may not have bites because not everyone reacts (although I find it hard to believe that five people can live in a house with an infestation and never get bitten).   I do not understand how they can charge us for the rent a month after leaving due to this.  The extermination was complete yesterday as well.  So why are we liable for the entire month?  They should be able to have someone move in now that the bugs are gone right? There was nothing in the lease that said that we would be liable for rent after we left due to any issue.

We are not trying to get our deposit back, and we will pay the extermination fee if we really have to.  But this rental fee seems like bullshit.  Is this worth taking to small claims court?

We were given receipts for the extermination work done, but only after the fact (I have an issue with this because we are responsible for the fees but we were not able to choose our own exterminator), and no pictures were taken.  We are being forced to just take their word for it that our apartment was overrun with bugs.

What can we do?

Answer: If you are sure you guys didn't do it, tell them to sue you and tell it to a judge.  They have to prove you did it.  But if they bring an exterminators report of your unit being infested days after you guys left what are you going to say???Answer #2: On a related note, have you checked all of your beds for bed bugs?


Title: Walmart Restitution. Do I have to pay it? will they take me to court?

Question: I'm going to cut to the chase. I have been having a tremendously hard time financially for the past 4 months. I take care of two different households my own, and my parents. I do this because my parents are medically unfit to work and care for there basic needs. So I acted desperately and stole from the Walmart I work at. I'm not going to go in specifics on how I stole items from my job, but I was pulled in to the managers room to speak with the Asset Protection manager who controls all the asset security for all the Walmart's in my area. He basically interrogated me with a good cop approach for a solid 4 hours. asking me general questions and bringing up evidence of my shoplifting scheme. He told me I was allowed to leave at any time, and go to the restroom if needed. after a while as he asked me how I stole everything I told him the upfront truth and nothing but the truth. After that, I was given a written statement declaring my guilty plea and how I committed the crime as well. After signing for the document I wrote, he had left the room and I waited for another hour until he came back inside. He handed me a restitution agreement saying that I would pay back 3000$ worth of merchandise and that I would make payments to this for two years. and if I were to default they would pursue legal action against me.  Look, I understand what I did is completely wrong. I completely get that, but I did not even come close to that amount they are asking of me. I know for a fact that I stole a maximum of 550$ worth of merchandise. I was even shown all the "merchandise" from transaction records they pulled. I was threatened several times that they would call the police on me and send me to jail with a detective. I just want to know is it really worth it for Walmart to send me to court? I know it sounds like a dumb question, but I really am worried about missing those payments for restitution. because of my current financial affairs. I just want to know will I actually go to jail/court if I don't make these payments to them?

Answer:
 Yes, they can absolutely decide to press charges on you if you stop making payments. Find a way to pay it.

Edit to add: You also signed an admission of guilt, basically, giving them a slam dunk if this goes to court. Not what you want to hear, but you just gotta keep paying them. Answer #2: i mean... you broke the law. they can absolutely press charges if you miss a payment, you can't really blame them. honesty doesn't get a free pass. find a way to pay it. we all have our hardships. good luck.


Title: How does sponsoring someone from out of the country in order to grant them a visa work?

Question:
I live in Dubai but am originally from France.
I am miserable and want to move to the United States as New York is the only place where I feel truly happy. I lived there with a host family for a year a couple of years back, and my host father offered to sponsor me. How does that work? For how long is it effective? Is there any other way to get a Visa and come back to the United States?

Answer:
 Employment, if you have at least a bachelors degree and some marketable skill.

If you have at least $500k you could come in on an investor visa.

If you have US citizen relatives, they can petition for you (although it takes a while, depending on how close the relationship is). Your "host father" can't sponsor you for a green card, although a short term tourist visa may be possible, and that could help set the groundwork for an employment visa.

The problem is the job has to apply on your behalf specifically. So you must get the job first, and they need to love you enough to go through the tons of hoops they have to jump through.

Or you can meet a nice US citizen that you meet while here, and form a lasting relationship that can survivor even after you go back home, and eventually marry them.


Title: "No Cancellation" Gym Membership

Question:
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

So, my brother screwed himself over by signing a gym membership contract. After a couple of months, my brother stopped going to the gym, and tried to go in to cancel his contract. When we asked the manager about cancelling the membership, we were flat out told that there's no way out of this membership unless the membership is transferred to someone else, or the membership expires (after 1 year). After threatening to stop paying and stuff, she replied by threatening to take our contract to Collections Canada (basically the people who mess up your credit).

Ive done some research and found this page: https://www.ontario.ca/consumers/joining-gym-or-fitness-club

Does this apply in our situation? If not, whats the next step that we should take?

Answer: Your brother signed a 1 year contract and you guys think he can cancel it at anytime and just walk away from the commitment? Thats's not how it works. If you want to cancel, pay out the rest of the contract. If you foolishly stop paying like you want to, your brothers credit will be ruined. They likely won't sue and will just send to collections.


Title: Can I sue someone for keeping files that are mine on a computer?

Question:
Disclaimer: maybe I say dumb stuff. I barely know about law, so point out anything I say.

Lets say I have various files on a PC: these include various photos, and what's most important to me are a few musical creations of mine, made with Ableton.

Now, lets say that at a point in the near future, my father decides to kick me out of the house (I'm 18), hide the computer and refuse to let me access the files, and possibly destroys them by reformatting the PC. In that case, can I sue for destruction of property or something similar? Can I get details on similar cases?

LocationBot update: I live in Spain.

Answer:
 If that computer is yours because it was gifted to you or you bought it, your parent is not entitled to take it.

If the computer is not legally yours, store those files elsewhere.


Title: [NY] Can I drive out of New York State with a restricted New York driver's license if it's for work?

Question:
I can not find an answer anywhere on the internet and the DMV are super unhelpful.

I can drive to and from work with a restricted license, but I have to travel out of state a lot for work. Specifically Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey,  Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.

Can I drive through these states with a restricted New York driver's license?

Would love so clarification on this one! Thanks!

Answer:
 New York State has both Conditional and Restricted licenses.

Conditional licenses are granted to drivers with drug and alcohol related violations.   They must attend an impaired driver program class, and these licenses come with strict conditions, usually breath ignition interlocks and 0.00 BAC limits for the driver.

Restricted licenses are for drivers with other violations, like speeding.   As the name suggests, they restrict the driver's permitted driving activities to specific things like driving to and from work, or to and from school, or to and from a doctor's appointment, or to and from a driver education or drug treatment class.

The restrictions aren't easy to find online, but in this case they are laid out in the statute itself, [NY Vehicle And Traffic Section 530](http://codes.findlaw.com/ny/vehicle-and-traffic-law/vat-sect-530.html).

Specifically section 530(3)(a) says that the restricted license:

>shall be valid only:  (a) during the time the holder is actually engaged in pursuing or commuting to or from his business, trade, occupation or profession

I think the key phrase is "engaged in pursuing".    If your job requires travel to different customer sites, then the restricted license is valid for the work-related driving involved.

But that's not a blanket permission to drive anywhere for any reason just because you're "out of state on business".   If you were working overnight and staying in a hotel, for example, and wanted to drive to a restaurant for dinner, I would argue that is not you being engaged in the pursuit of your work.

OP should be aware that an automated license plate reader (ALPR) system will come up with a "registered owner has suspended license" alert, which is grounds for a traffic stop and investigation.   It is very tempting to stretch the permissions given by these restricted licenses, and very easy to get caught doing it.


Title: Options vs crazy family member?

Question: [deleted]

Answer: Call the police if X assaults you and follow through with filing a police report. Unless X is the owner of the house, you can formally evict him for nonpayment of rent, but it sounds like your bigger obstacles are those in the house who are enabling X. Do they even agree that X needs to leave?


Title: How much trouble am I in?

Question: I’ve just smashed my neighbours window but she provoked me a lot I’ve got msg from her calling me names and threatening I know I’m in the wrong but I just want to know what to expect

Answer:
 Well for starters you've gotta have to pay to fix the window.

Secondly if they inform the police then you might also have criminal issues (I don't know how big due to a lack of location).


Title: [OK] I live in PHA apartments and a cannabis card holder. Their newsletters say cannabis use is an evictable offence

Question:
I live in a public housing authority housing which is sponsored by HUD. The last 3-4 monthly news letters talks about medical marijuana cards are not allowed and anyone found to have cannabis will be evited, as it is federally legal. The news letter says,
"HUD required that we create and enforce policies that mandate an eviction of any household with a member that is illegally using marijuana or whose use of marijuana infused with the health, safety, or right to peace enjoyment of the premises of other residents."
And at the bottom it in large bold letters says,
"MARIJUANA of any kind (including medical) is STRICTLY PROHIBITED ON FEDERAL PROPERTY"

I am worried that though i have the card for medical alleviation of my disability and dont use on their property i will still be evicted. I dont want to talk to them about it because it would be putting me at risk for eviction. I am trying at a lost to where to look for answers and thought maybe someone can enlighten me and find some answers

Do I need to worry that i am a card holder, yet dont use on the housings authority's property?
Will OMMA (oklahoma medical marijuana agency)  be able to release my name to the PHA?
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
>I am worried that though i have the card for medical alleviation of my disability and dont use on their property i will still be evicted. I dont want to talk to them about it because it would be putting me at risk for eviction. I am trying at a lost to where to look for answers and thought maybe someone can enlighten me and find some answers

As long as you do not smoke or bring any marijuana onto the property, there should not be an issue.


Title: No pay for on-call anyone could do, and on-call keeps increasing

Question:
Hello everyone! I'm hoping someone can help me out here. I read the new labor laws and have tried to research a bunch but I can't find an answer to this particular question. My SO works for a fairly large company, and he typically works about 47 hours a week and makes under the new threshold. I know that his company will switch him to hourly and only let him work 40 hours a week, but he is also constantly on call. He is not a doctor or anything in the medical field, they literally make him be the answering service half of the month for people calling out for shifts or who have questions.

This means several things. 1. He can't travel when he's on call more than 30-45 minutes from where he works. 2. He can't drink alcohol while on call. 3. He has to have wifi, and his laptop on him at all times. He has to answer any calls no matter what time from 5pm until 8am and weekends.

He used to be on call one weekend a month, but now it's two weeks a month! He is spending half his life unable to travel, drink, leave wifi, etc. The company (based in MD if that matters) does not pay him a penny for any of this. We get woken up at 1 am, 6am, you name it and it's just people calling out of shifts.

My question is, how is he impacted by the new labor laws with regards to on call? His office is in NC. Let me know if you need any more info, or if this answer can be found easily. He has asked and his company isn't sure how things will change yet.

I believe that he should either be compensated or they take the on call weeks away, but I'm not sure if that's correct. Thank you!

Answer:
 [Here](http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/hoursworked/screenER80.asp) is a handy website from the DoL and [here](https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.pdf) is the relevant fact sheet (also from the DoL) and [this](https://www.dol.gov/whd/opinion/FLSANA/2008/2008_12_18_14NA_FLSA.htm) is a more detailed letter of interpretation from the DoL.

Of note, is this particular paragraph from the letter:

>As noted above, the number of calls received while on call is a relevant factor in determining whether the on-call period is compensable under the FLSA.  In Bright, for example, a hospital required its on-call biomedical equipment repair technician to be reachable by beeper, remain sober, and arrive at the hospital within approximately 20 minutes after being called.  The technician received calls while on call an average of 4-5 times per week.  The Fifth Circuit concluded that the employee was able to use the on-call time “effectively for his own personal purposes” and, as such, the time spent on call was not compensable.  Id. at 677-78.  On the other hand, in Renfro the Eleventh Circuit concluded that on-call time was compensable for firefighters who were required to wear pagers and respond to callbacks within 20 minutes, and received an average of three to five calls, and as many as 13 calls, in a 24-hour on-call period.

The TL;DR: is this situations can be highly complicated and the DoL hasn't really established clear cut rules on where things fall.  They are highly dependent on the facts of the case.

It might not hurt to get a free consultation with a labor attorney.  Other coworkers being affected might be a relevant point to bring up as well.


Title: Potentially explosive and messy divorce (multi state, military, abusive controlling spouse).

Question:
A friend of my significant other is having her marriage fall apart. Here's the bullet points:

* He's cheated on her, and she has multiple 'friends' who have confirmed this, after hiding it from her for an unspecified amount of time up until now. There were suspicions but many people helped keep his alibi's and stories.

* He is a pilot in the military, and all of their friends are military families. The risk this would put to his career is why many of them have put on this cover up, because rocking the boat would also lead to many other pilots and crew being dragged into it. Most of the cheating he's done has been with female service members attached to his unit, or at different bases around the US.

* He is super controlling. He monitors the bank statements and questions any small transaction she makes. They pay for everything on credit cards and then pay it off each month, and the CC is completely in his name. He has security camera's in the house which he checks often and randomly when he is away and she is at home. When he's at home and she is away, he disables them - although she's seen evidence of strange women, and female Marine's attached to his unit, in their house in the past contrary to his denials.

* They are currently stationed on the east coast in SC. This state I think requires a trial for proof of infidelity or other justification for divorce. She has family in both Texas and Michigan she can stay with, but is not sure that will help her chances of getting out of the marriage with anything. Bad past relations with some family limit her amount of time to sanely stay directly with them for more than a month or so.

* She runs her own very small business (no inventory or staff, just her) which has contributed to the marriage, but is not enough to support her completely after she's out. She also has fears he can try to take half of the business during the divorce, possibly control of it.

* She has no money of her own in any amount that could be used to get a lawyer immediately. Their bank account is closely monitored by him, and any withdrawl will raise a red flag and he will cut her out of all accounts and possibly do impulsive things to sabotage everything.

* Their income level most likely knocks her out of the ability to get any free legal help through the courts. What is the best avenue to confirm that, just incase she can get some help.

** He has not to my knowledge been physically abusive to her. Only financially and emotionally, and he is controlling of every aspect of her life. She is only now in the past week realizing how much so :/

As a friend fairly new to knowing her, but finding a strong desire to help (I got out of a abusive marriage a few years back, so I know what this all feels like)... I am just trying to help devise a plan to leave, survive, and get out so she can start over. The only direct assistance me and my gf can offer is the ability for her to stay with us a long as she wants but we are residents of TX, but travel constantly so we live on the road. Not sure that's the best option legally for her, or emotionally right now. I am also willing to help out a bit making sure she can get a place and eat, but I can't afford lawyer level bills right now.

I am hoping his fear of losing his career status over this will prevent him from filing for divorce, giving us some time to plan and make things happen in her favor. That said, she should go directly to the JAG to initiate this? As a spouse and not enlisted, can she even do that?

Answer:
 You are all way, way way way way way overthinking this.  She takes money, she goes and hires an attorney, and they work it out.  If he denies her more money, her attorney can petition the court to order him to pay.

If she goes gallivanting down to the base to try to wreck his career, she'll be the bad guy.


Title: [California] Injured in a car accident but had preexisting work injury which was made worse. How do I separate the two?

Question: When I make my injury claim to the insurance company, how do I determine the value of the injury as caused by the car accident?

Answer: Ultimately, the question of causation of injuries ordinarily has to be offered in the form of opinion testimony from a medical doctor. It will be up to your doctors to say which injuries were caused by which event. By the way, in most jurisdictions that I'm aware of, exacerbation of a pre-existing injury is absolutely recoverable. The defendant has to take you as you are.


Title: Is it illegal to own too many cars?

Question:
Hi r/legaladvice,

I just have a quick and simple question. I live in Oakland, CA, and wanted to know if it was illegal to own to many cars. My neighbor owns 8 pickups trucks, yes, 8 pickup trucks, which he does NOT even use!

Since he does not have a driveway, he parks all of them on the street which prevents other neighbors that only own 2 cars from parking. I am not jealous that he owns 8 trucks, but what I do hate is that he does not drive any of them except 1. He has had them for over 2 years, so I know he is not in the selling business. He only moves the trucks when the street sweeper is going to clean the street. Also, he is single, so it is not like he has a family or a wife that drives his trucks.

He has the entire block very annoyed because he is hogging up spots, and not even using his trucks. Is there anything we as a community can do?

Thank your for reading and any advice you can provide.
Topic:
Traffic and Parking

Answer:
 [OMC 10.28.030](https://library.municode.com/HTML/16308/level2/TIT10VETR_CH10.28STSTPAGE.html#TIT10VETR_CH10.28STSTPAGE_10.28.030USSTSTVEPR):

> A. No person who owns or has possession, custody or control of any vehicle shall park such vehicle upon any street or alley for more than a consecutive period of seventy-two (72) hours.
>
> B. In the event a vehicle is parked or left standing upon a street in excess of a consecutive period of seventy-two (72) hours, any officer of the Police Department or any regularly employed and salaried civilian employee of the City who is engaged in the direction of traffic or enforcement of parking regulations when designated by the Chief of Police, may remove said vehicle from the street in the manner and subject to the requirements of Sections 22850 and 22856 inclusive of the Vehicle Code of the state of California.

You can call [Oakland's parking enforcement](http://www.oaklandnet.com/government/fwawebsite/parking/parking_home.htm) to report multiple cars being parked for more than three consecutive days.


Title: [US, FL / MI] Trying to Help Friend Who Appears to Have Been Gutter Served, Garnished

Question:
So, I got a call from a friend of mine who has unexpectedly found that his wages have been garnished. We can't prove it (yet) but we strongly suspect he was "served" at a former address out of state and that gutter service was used to obtain judgement against him.

I'm trying to get him in touch with a lawyer in his state. FDCPA lawyers are easy to come by and hire on contingency, that's not a problem. I'm having him pull his credit report (today) and talk to his HR department (this Monday) to get a grasp of the situation and who the creditor is, etc. He currently resides in MI. The debt (likely medical, but we don't know that yet) likely originates from MI which was his home state until about 3 years ago.

My questions are:

1. Besides the above, what else should I have him do between now and the time he meets with his Lawyer? I'm just trying to make sure my friend has his ducks in a row when he obtains a lawyer early this coming week.
2. What, in general terms, is involved in proving gutter service?
3. What's the process to overturn a judgement obtained through gutter service?

I'm sure his attorney will go over much of this, but I'm trying to ensure he goes in well prepared.

Answer:
 His employer should give him a copy of the garnishment order. That will have the case number and the court which issued the order. He can go to the court, look up the other documents filed in the case and figure out the identity of the creditor. There should also be an affidavit of service which will describe where service was performed.

If he has some grounds to deny that service was validly completed, he could possibly get the court to set the judgment aside. This is possible to do by himself but is far more likely to be successful if he hires an attorney.

Keep in mind that even if he is successful in getting the judgment set aside, the creditor may still be able to file a new case and serve him (unless the the statute of limitations has run on the debt I would say this is very likely if he gets judgment set aside).

A complicating issue would be if the original judgment was obtained in a different state and domesticated in the new state to be enforced in the new state. If that case, tracing the case number of the garnishment order will only lead to a copy of the judgment from the old state. He would then have to go to the original court in the old state to check the affidavit of service.


Title: Possession of alcohol as a minor...

Question: I know it is illegal in most states for minors to posses alcohol in public. (New York state in this case) but does a police officer have the right to identify someone on suspicion that you are a minor? Is someone legally obligated, minor or not to identify themselves to police, solely on suspician that they are committing the crime?

Answer:
 > Is someone legally obligated, minor or not to identify themselves to police, solely on suspician that they are committing the crime?

If the police have cause to believe you're committing a crime, they can detain you, and/or arrest you, and identify you.

If the crime is "minor in possession" they have to have cause to believe you're a minor, and in possession.


Title: If two people are on a checking account together, can they each withdraw whatever they want from it without legal ramifications?

Question: In a nutshell, my friend still shares a checking account with their ex from a very long time ago. I think they just forgot they were each still in it. Can either of them withdraw money from it without any legal issues since they're both legally on the account?

Answer:
 No legal repercussions as in "can't be criminally charged" for it.

But one of them could sue the other for the return of the money if it's clear that it belonged to just one of them.


Title: Mom died in car accident. Dad is suing vehicle maker for defective gear. Do his daughters automatically get a portion of the money for the law suit?

Question:
Florida, Dade County

Longer version:

Motorcycle accident. Their mother died on the site and the father is suing the motorcycle maker because they knew there was a defective part.

The father is not all that mentally stable. He never really has been, now he's worse. His daughters have always been good to him, but he's just a piece of shit. He is suing the making thru him and his wife (individual law suits). He keeps telling his daughters they wont see a dime because he's a scumbag. Will they automatically see any of that money? Is there anything they can do?

Answer:
 If he sues on his own behalf, then he gets to keep any award.

If he sues on behalf of the estate, any award would be distributed according to the will, or if there is no will, Florida's intestacy statutes.


Title: [VA] Is it legal to discriminate gender when looking for a roommate?

Question:
Virginia, USA

Being in college, I often see ads that say something along the lines of "clean, quiet female wanted as housemate in 3 BR apartment." As far as I know, gender is a protected class, especially in regards to housing. So just out of curiosity, are these kinds of ads legal? If I (as a male) were to respond to this ad, and got denied due to my gender, would I have legal recourse?

If it is legal, then would an almost equivalent ad saying something like "clean, quiet Caucasian wanted as housemate" also be legal?

Answer:
 Roommates are generally exempt from fair housing laws. In the case where roommates would be sharing a bathroom, kitchen, or other common area, they can advertise a preference for a particular gender roommate. In your example, advertising for a Caucasian would violate fair housing standards, while advertising for a female would not (assuming shared space).

See more here: http://www.phonehome.org/Portals/0/Images/PDF/Advertising%20For%20Roommates.pdf


Title: Employer refuses to pay for any time worked past 10:30pm

Question:
The bar/restaurant that I work in the kitchen for recently changed their kitchen hours due to high payroll costs. We usually are fairly slow after dinner so this change makes sense. However, my employer posted a note explaining that he believes everything there is to be done in the kitchen can be done by 10:30pm, the kitchen closes at 10pm. He asked that all employees sign this typed note. If we receive any food orders past 9:30 or have a busy dinner (which happens often) this is pretty unreasonable especially because he started scheduling only one closer. I should add that my employer also has a history of “forgetting” hours on employee’s paychecks and also has an illegal break policy. My question is, if there is genuinely more work to do than can be before 10:30pm is it legal for my employer to not pay me any hours worked after that time?
Topic:
Labor Law (Unions)

Answer:
 He can fire you for not completing your duties prior to 10:30, but if you do work, then you must be paid for the time. Answer #2: Those "forgotten" hours can be reclaimed by making a wage claim. You never gave us a state or province, so how to do that is a mystery.Answer #3: Soon on /r/legaladvice

###Employees refuses to work past 10:30 pm


Title: Forgery

Question: Hi, I live in Texas I'm 17. The highschool I'm attending offers you early release (we can leave school before the other students) if you are working or participating in an internship. I wrote a fake letter saying i got a job at a veterinary clinic/internship/learning experience. Well my principal called the clinic to verify (which they never do so i wasn't planning on that) and now the doctor is threatening to press charges?? Can she?

Answer: The vet can absolutely report you to the police, who can investigate your crime and take the case to a prosecutor for formal charges if there is enough evidence.


Title: What legal obligations do I have to prevent suicide.

Question:
The last couple of years have been pretty rough for me. Off the top of my head 5 of my close friends have attempted suicide (some of them multiple times) and several more have had periods of suicidality. There have been several occasions in which someone has expressed suicidal desire or intent to me and I have always tried to talk them down and/or get external help where appropriate or possible.

I want to know if I have a legal obligation to do something like this. If someone had expressed suicidal intent to me and I failed to act appropriately and they died would I be responsible in some criminal or civil way?

In the near future I plan on confronting my former best friend for being violent to me. This person has a history of suicide attempts; if she kills herself because I confronted her am I legally responsible? What if I failed to give her all the help she might want and she killed herself anyway?

I don't want her to die, and I will try to get help for her if that's what is required. But I do want to know what is at stake for me here.

Location: Australia

Answer:
 Legally you aren't responsible for her actions. The same with the confrontation unless it progresses to something that would count as deliberately infliction of emotional distress (the standard for this is not just a normal argument it has to be extremely brutal)

But I would ask myself what you actually hope to achieve by confronting her. It's not going to make you feel any better.

If you believe somebody is suicidal and an attempt is immenent than call 000 - the police are required to do a welfare check

https://www.sane.org/mental-health-and-illness/facts-and-guides/sane-steps-how-to-help-when-someone-is-suicidal


Title: Security Guard told me to stop using dash camera

Question:
I work in a federal building. Today as I was pulling up, the security guard asked if my dash camera was recording. I responded that it was recording. He told me it was illegal to record on federal property and I'll have to turn it off every morning as I pull in.

Now, this building and parking lot is clearly visible from google maps. It is surrounded by a chain link fence that is clearly visible from the road. There is an apartment complex that occupies 1/4 of the buildings perimeter, with windows and civilian parking spaces around the facilities chain link fence.

I know that I am free to record the building and parking lot from a public road, but am I required to follow these instructions while physically on the federal buildings parking lot?

I don't intend to rock the boat here, but I would like to save the hassle of having to reach over to my passenger side windshield and turn off my dash camera every morning, when it'll only stop me from recording areas that are 100% viewable by the general public.

edit: I've had a dash camera for over a year. Several other guards have commented on the camera, but never asked me to stop recording or turn it off. They've asked me about it in curiosity. I also live in WA state.

Answer:
 Turn your camera off.  If you work at the facility, you can probably find the policy from security stating why.   Opsec is important.

If you're just someone visiting the facility, just assume theres a good reason.

I realize this is bad logic from a legaladvice perspective, but from a federal facility perspective, its par for the course.


Title: Award winning WWF Poster stole my design

Question:
[removed]
Topic:
Removed

Answer:
 I'm an attorney, but not in copyright specifically.

You may have a case. Talk to an attorney. From the gut - most likely scenario is that the wwf contracted the design work and is unaware that their ad agency is in the habit of stealing work. The agency may also be unaware that their designer is stealing work. Somewhere in that chain, you may find someone who is embarrassed enough to capitulate easily and settle on sending you a revenue stream for the use of the image, and I hope so. Answer #2: Contact a civil attorneyAnswer #3: What's a Dentsu?Answer #4: You should probably put your country in the OP.


Title: Chance of Winning this Parking Citation?

Question:
So I got a $60 parking citation for staying a little over the 4 hour limit in the library's parking structure.. I just started going to the library since I moved and never seen the signs..

This is in the City of Alhambra, California.

I tried to appeal for these following arguments:

 * It's a poorly lit structure with few parking signs in proportion to the size of the lot

 * The library staff never warned me about a parking limit when i signed up for a card.

 * The library website doesn't mention anywhere about a parking limit in their structure.

I got a response a week later saying "It is the driver's responsibility to look for posted signs while parking or stopping and adhere to the time given"

What's the chance of me beating this unfair ticket if I request an Administrative Hearing? They all have proof that my car was in there the whole time - but even their own guy who took the picture shows how dark the lot is.

[GetCitationImageUrl.jpg](https://postimg.org/image/lzuz459fr/)

Can I argue for obstructed/conflicting signs? Is it a good enough reason to convince the judge?

Greatly appreciate any advice...

Answer:
 >What's the chance of me beating this unfair ticket if I request an Administrative Hearing?

Zero, nada, niente, zilch. You've just listed all of the reasons why it is actually a legit ticket.


Title: Discriminated against during the hiring process, what are the next steps I should take?

Question:
I live in Arizona, and have a medical marijuana card. Our medical marijuana act states that employers may not refuse to hire somebody based on medical marijuana usage outside the workplace. That is my understanding from reading the AZMMA, and from reading lawyer's websites.

The company that is refusing to hire me is a larger corporation, I'm willing to disclose their name though I'm not sure if it will be helpful. I didn't even ask about marijuana over the phone, but I was told that before I could be hired I'd need to pass a drug test including marijuana and she explicitly said "medical marijuana cards don't count". I feel that this is a red flag of discrimination and a violation of my rights. I told her that I was a patient and that it didn't sound like things would work, and ended the call.

I'm curious as to the ways I can move forward. Should I contact their HR department and report this discrimination, or should I threaten legal action? It's not fair that I should be rejected from a chance at employment merely because I won't be able to pass a drug test (marijuana can stay in your system for months, and I need it to control my interstitial cystitis and chronic pain) and from what I've read, the law is on my side.

I would link to the AZ Medical Marijuana act but Google links are banned. It's pretty easy to find on Google though. There are also some law websites reiterating what I've read in the act, that it is indeed illegal to use medical marijuana use as an excuse to not hire somebody.

Answer:
 You're correct, in AZ you're protected from adverse action for marijuana.  However, your problem is you didn't follow through with the process.  Had you taken the drug test and got declined for it, you'd have an outstanding case.

Instead, you withdrew your application and the only evidence you have is your testimony of a verbal conversation over the phone.  Unless they admit to actually saying this, you don't really have a case.

If the company is smart, they will deny knowledge of that conversation, reference your request to withdraw the application, and then leave it at that.


Title: Brand new vehicle caught on fire.

Question:
Okay, didn't really know where to ask this but I feel a battle with the insurance company and the manufacturer oncoming. This morning my 2014 Chevy Silverado caught fire. I've only owned it for 4 months. I've had other issues with this truck (all taken care of by the dealer) and I just want to be done with it. What can I expect just to clear my hands of this?

I'm almost positive its totaled, everything forward of the firewall is burned up ( all the plastic on the engine, wires , etc) down to the bare heads.

Answer:
 Given the date, is it possible that a neighborhood kid decided to dispose of some leftover fireworks into the grill of your truck?

Also, xpost this over in /r/insurance as they're pretty good at predicting what insurance people will do.Answer #2: I'm no lawyer, but I'd bet you've got a manufacturer defect case, unless you've been doing some hardcore offroading


Title: Working at Amazon fucked up my vision.

Question:
Can I sue?

Before starting at Amazon I had 20/15 vision, I'm 23 y/o. I started as a Picker at a new robotics location. Their picking stations are set up with a touch screen monitor, a sliding step ladder and a laser scanner/LED light. The laser scanner is mounted over the screen monitor on the side of a chain link fence that keeps you safe from the AR (Amazon Robotics) floor. Both the scanner and monitor are on a swiveling arm that can be positioned left or right. The monitor can be moved up and down but the scanner stays at the same height. The scanner can however be tilted within a range of about 45°.

I'm 5' tall(short?) And the scanner is at a height of about 7-8 feet. Whichever way I would tilt or swivel the scanner it's still in my face not to mention they had us on very high picking rates so that the most efficient position for the scanner to point is straight down the middle of the monitor and about 4-5 inches from the monitor towards you (pointing down).

Across from the picking station is a packing wall where all the picks will be located and pushed through to the other side to be packed. Think of a cubbie shelf that you can see through the other side. On the other side of the packing wall is a packing station and a packer with a scan gun. So every now and then I'm locating a pick into the wall where a green button shows me to and I get a red flash from the scan gun because the packer on the other side has to scan a barcode under a chute to pack out.
So for 8-10 hours 5-6 days a week I have this laser getting in my eyes and a scan gun occasionally flashing in my face.

My vision started blurring very quickly in a span of months. I only worked there for 11 months until I was fired. It's not terrible vision, my prescription is on the light side but it's quite significant to what my vision was before. I fear my vision will keep worsening. It's been 3 months since I stopped working there I haven't noticed anything yet but I  plan on keeping an eye (😉) on the progress of my vision.

I've been asking my mom for my last optical exam forms but she's lost them so I don't really have proof of my initial sight grading or whatever it's called. Also want to know where or how I can score a probono lawyer since I don't have much money. If you need anymore details I'll gladly reply as long as it doesn't give out much identifying info.

I know this is a long shot because Amazon probably can afford the best lawyers but wtf. Know what I mean? /:

Answer:
 >Can I sue?

Yes, but good luck proving it was the laser scanners that damaged your visual acuity.

Laser bar code scanners are class 1 or 2 which pose practically no ocular damage risk. By comparison, laser pointers that you buy at Walmart are class 3R which are limited to 5mW, and those can't damage your eyes either. Risk of damage doesn't become appreciable unless you're working with a high powered class 3B or any power class 4 laser.

Visual acuity can change at any time, especially when you're young. Have you gained weight since you worked there? That will affect vision.Answer #2: I had perfect vision until about that age too; and now I’m down to 20/70 in my left eye. Sometimes your eyes just change.

You’re going to need to show a direct causal link between the laser exposure and your eye problems. And if the change is cause by an astigmatism or lens hardening, and not rod or cone damage from laser light; you’re certainly going to be without a case. Answer #3: You are going to have a difficult time proving that your employment caused your vision issues. Consult with an employment attorney and see what they say.


Title: I just learned some really f*ed up information and I don't know what to do with it. Need help!

Question:
Okay, so I think I know what needs to be done, but some legal advice would be much appreciated.

I just learned that my uncle was in possession of child porn about 7 years ago.  My aunt found the pics on a thumb drive and told my mother and my other aunt.  They confronted my uncle and he admitted that he used the pics to masturbate.  Well, my aunt and uncle have a kid together.  She is around 11 now, which means she would have been like 4-5 around the time that this happened.

My mother should have called the fucking cops right then and there, but for some godforsaken reason, she and my other aunt decided not to.  I don't fucking know why, other than they didn't believe that my cousin had been abused and didn't want to get my uncle arrested. Which is so fucking stupid and I know that and had I been made aware at the time I would have just called the cops myself. I have been a mandatory reporter for this shit before and I still feel like I have a responsibility to report this to the cops, even 7 years later.

Here are the issues...

1. My uncle is dying from liver failure.  He has like 5 months to live.  He has been an alcoholic for many years and is on the list to get a new liver if he can show that he won't fuck up the new liver by not drinking for a year or something.  But he may die before that time is up.

2. I have no proof.  My mother has no proof other than what my aunt told her.  I have no idea if my aunt and uncle still have the thumb drive.  I have no evidence or proof that my cousin has been abused or anything.  He may just have had it to masturbate to, which still doesn't make having it okay.  I don't know if the cops can even do anything at this point.

3. My mom and my aunt had a huge falling out a few months ago and it is still somewhat on going.  If my mother calls to report it now, I have a feeling my aunt will just tell the cops that my mom is lying to get back at her or something. Would my mother get in trouble for not reporting it right away?

What the hell should I do reddit? Should I make my mom call the cops?  Should I do it myself?  Should I just hope my uncle dies in a few months?

tldr; Should I report someone for possession of child porn even though it happened over 7 years ago? Can my mother be held criminally liable for not reporting it?

Edit:  This is in the US.

Edit 2:  Thanks for all of the great advice everyone!  I am going to take it and just let it be for now unless more evidence comes up.  While there is a good possibility that my uncle may die soon, he might also make it and I couldn't bear to know that my cousin was abused and I did nothing.  Not to mention all of the children that were abused and taken advantage of to make the porn.  But I don't think the best thing for my cousin would be to open this can of worms at this time.

Answer:
 The federal statute of limitations is 5 years as far as I can tell.  So unless he has something now, the statements about what he had 7 years ago are not going to be enough to prosecute, at least federally.  You don't specify your state, so no idea there.

I understand how you feel about this and generally share them.  But you are dragging something up from 7 years ago involving a now possibly dying man and a possible shitstorm that could destroy your family forever.  So think long and hard about whatever it is you decide to do.Answer #2: Not your business.  Let it go.


Title: [US] What does "Continually confined to a residence, hospital, or institution" actually mean? Questions about selective service.

Question: [removed]

Answer:
 > If a man is placed in a hospital, nursing home, long-term care facility, or mental institution on or before his 18th birthday, had no breaks of institutionalization of 30 days or longer, and remained institutionalized until his 26th birthday, he is not required to register.
>

> If he is confined to home, whether his own or someone else’s (including group homes), on or before his 18th birthday and cannot leave the home without medical assistance (for example, by ambulance, or with the help of a nurse or EMT), and remained homebound until his 26th birthday, he is not required to register.

https://www.sss.gov/Registration-Info/Who-Registration

> For Selective Service to determine this exemption, the following supporting documentation is needed when you mail your [status information letter](https://www.sss.gov/Registration/Status-Information-Letter) request form:
>
> * Proof that your dates of confinement or institutionalization are accurate
> * Proof that you were continuously incarcerated, or never released for any period of 30 days or longer.

https://www.sss.gov/Registration/Who-Must-Register/Hospitalized-or-Incarcerated-MenAnswer #2: It means that if you were required to be in one of those places (as a result of a court judgement or psych evaluation) for the entire time between your 18th and 26th birthdays, and weren't let out for more than 30 days during that time, then you weren't required to register for selective service.  You will have to fill out a [form](https://www.sss.gov/Portals/0/PDFs/Status.pdf) and provide proof.  Basically, it's just for people who are long-term convicts or incapable of living on their own.

You're far better off just registering.  There will not be a draft in your lifetime, and registering just takes 30 seconds of your time.  In return, you'll be eligible for federal benefits, including student loans.  It's kind of a stupid system, but it's what we have.


Title: [CA]Mother taking away visitations with my son because of a text message.

Question:
 I am at a loss as to how to proceed and am in need of advice. I have my son every second weekend friday to Monday with an overnight the following Thursday. I have visitation. Mom has full custody. His mother at the beginning of the school year asked me if I could walk my son to school every day because her job was conflicting with his bus schedule. I agreed to do this. This is not part of the "legal order". Along with this, I pick him up from school every Tuesday and Thursday to bring him to his jujitsu classes. In the last few weeks, she's expressed not being interested in bringing him to his jujitsu (even though he loves it) due to having no time in "her" life. Then she decided to get a puppy. Three weeks in a row, he's not been at his classes. I texted her tonight and said enough is enough. I'm fed up and that a dog shouldn't take precedence over his extracurricular activities. I also questioned why she got a dog if her life is so busy. So this lead her to saying to me that if I couldn't be civil, she wouldn't be dropping my son off anymore in the mornings and I am not allowed to pick him up for jujitsu either. And then she made it official. This is only hurting him. We've had this routine since September. I don't know what to tell him at this point. I know I need to speak to a lawyer. This kind of change in schedule for an eight year old boy is not okay. He's already suffering from mental health issues due to her lack of stability. He was self harming at home for months before she let anybody know. I asked her to get him help and she refused. Finally when it happened in my home, I brought him right into the hospital and got him a councillor.
I am begging for help at this point. I am still going to walk to his school to see him before class every morning. I'll notify the school of course. I've spoke to his councillor as well. Can I ask for an emergency order? She's verbally threatened to stop our regular access as well. This is absolutely heartbreaking and I am very worried about my son right now.

Answer: Also, can you handle both ends of the jiujitsu class? Taking him there and picking him up?


Title: [GA]I am a US citizen. Does my wife and mother of my 3 month old have any right to be in the States other than a tourist visa?

Question:
I got married and have been living in Korea for 3 years. I have very suddenly gotten a job in the States and it is very important that I am at that job very soon. We have not started the green card process as we were not planning to move to the States this soon.

My question: Everything I have read takes about ten months to get a K3 visa so my wife can come over without committing "visa fraud" as we are planning on staying longer than the tourist visa she will be on.  The government can't keep my kid away from me and my wife away from the kid right? Should we just go ahead and go on the tourist visa and do all the green card stuff in the states?

i posted this in /r/immigration as well as i'm not sure where to best find this info.

Answer: If you bring her over on a tourist visa you will have problems getting her a green card. I had a friend do that with his filipino wife and their child and it was a legal mess. She had to return to the Philippines then reapply. You should do it the right way to avoid legal headaches.


Title: High school rules for bathroom breaks?

Question:
My sisters school just implemented a new policy where they can only go to the bathroom twice per nine weeks per class, along with a five minute break in the middle of the day before lunch. She said if the teachers don’t give you permission to use the restroom and you go anyways they will block the door...

How legal is this? I told her that if someone tells you that you can’t do a basic bodily function to ignore them, if you need to go you need to go, and that if they physically stop her to go to the principal and our parents.

Can the school do this?
Topic:
School Related Issues

Answer:
 NAL but I’m sure there’s at least 1 kid who has IBS, PCOS, or some other diagnosable condition who has a parent furious and “aw hell nah” over this right now.

Hell, my kid doesn’t have any issues like that and I’d still be marching down to the office to let them know they better be letting my kid pee when she needs to. If they threw a big enough fit over the policy, you could probably get the kids’ drs to write up notes stating they need to be able to take bathroom breaks when necessary. Answer #2: Seems like a good way for a teacher to end up with a puddle of piss on their floor and a lawsuit for causing emptional trauma to the kid that pissed themselves in highschool.Answer #3: Well girls have periods, so no. This is not legal.Answer #4: Public or private, location, age?


Title: Am I responsible for day care costs? (Wisconsin)

Question:
I have 2 children with my ex and we have shared placement. I get them 35% of the time. We went to mediation last year for child support. I agreed to everything and had no issues paying what she asked. Then day care expenses came up. My ex pays almost $500 a month in day care expenses and said that I am responsible for half. My issue with this, is they go to daycare on HER days. I told her I would be able to provide care, and she said no from the beginning. When the issue came up during mediation I told the mediator I would have no problem paying it, if the judge told me I was responsible for it. She had us wait 20 minutes and then came back and said that the court can't force me to pay, since its considered variable costs. My ex is now threatening me with filing contempt of court for not paying.

I keep getting mixed information when I look up the laws in Wisconsin.

[This says I am responsible](https://wisconsinfamilylaw.info/tag/do-i-have-to-pay-daycare-in-a-divorce-in-wisconsin/)

[This doesn't help at all](http://www.divorcesource.com/ds/wisconsin/wisconsin-child-support-4628.shtml)

I am not sure what to do. I am really just looking for some guidance and maybe a little clarification! Any help is welcomed.

Answer:
 I would not pay unless a court orders you to do so.

The mother is free to determine what kind of care she wants to provide for the child.  If that entails putting them into day care, then she can pay for it since there is no agreement for you to pay.

It'd be hard to show contempt of court since the mediator explicitly said that the court considered it a variable cost.


Title: {Massachusetts} Drafting a simple loan contract for a friend.

Question: Long story short, a friend of mine has a high interest loan that's really killing her finances. I am going to lend her the money to pay it off because I can get a loan for the amount at a third of the interest over a slightly longer term(This will save her $3000 over the life of the loan). Is there a simple form for setting this up with her?

Answer:
 You're going to borrow money in order to loan it to a friend? Yikes. I wouldn't rely on a simple boiler plate contract here. In fact, I wouldn't do this at all, but if you are intent on doing this you should have an attorney draft a contract that properly protects you and your (borrowed) money.Answer #2: Between friends the obstacle isn't drafting the contract - the obstacle is *enforcing* it.

If you're not willing to sue your friend and then garnish her wages or bank account, then there isn't much point in writing a contract at all, except to enforce a claim against her estate if she dies before repaying you.


Title: 19 year old assult victim

Question:
Sorry for the history on this account, its my throwaway.

So last night I got thrown out of a college party (due to overcrowding, not because I did anything) and after I left the party a  guy who appeared to be on cocaine, and who did not live at the house where the party was, followed me out of the house and attacked me completely unprovoked and broke multiple bones in my face and I may require surgery.  Me and my assailent were both underage and drunk.  I was wondering if I'm still able to go to the police or if the fact that I was drunk would make that problematic.

 I live in PA and the house in question was actually a rented apartment.  I live in the same complex, but a different building.

Answer:
 Yes, you can go to the police to report this crime.

You don't have to tell them you were drunk; but do not lie.  When they ask you if you were drunk, tell them politely that as it's not legal to drink whilst under 21 in your state, you decline to answer the question without an attorney present.

You can also sue him in civil court for assault.


Title: Albany, NY: House lease started February 1st, but house had plumbing issue. New move-in date of February 14th, but there is NO chance it will be ready by that date. Can I break my lease?

Question:
Details:

-Lease signed 12/16/14 and effective 02/01/15, and deposit was paid, but no rent.

-Year lease, $925 per month, $925 security deposit.

-Landlord promised (not in writing) a new natural gas furnace, replacement of 4 cracked windows, professional cleaning, paint/patch touch up throughout.

-Mid-January landlord tell us the furnace will not be replaced until April at least, same for windows. Now we're stuck with an expensive oil furnace. Landlord reduces rent by $25 a month for the inconvenience.

-January 29th the landlord starts doing the other work that's needed, and discovers a 2nd floor plumbing leak. Informs us that we cannot move in on February 1st, and instead we can move-in February 7th. After repairing the first leak he turned the water back on and left. The next day he discovers there was another MAJOR leak and had to tear out a large part of the ceiling. The water also went down the walls and soaked the wood floors, which are now warped. Landlord informs us the new move-in date is Feb 14th.

-I went to look at the house today, Feb 7th, with my father who's a contractor, and he said there is no way the work can be finished properly in a week. There is too much drywall/paint work needed. Plus the house still needs to dry out because it smells musty and is probably starting to mold.

-Also, on January 31st I paid for $388 worth of fuel oil, which is now being used to heat a house I am not living in.

Questions:

-Can I legally break the lease and request my deposit and fuel oil costs to be refunded?

-If we do not break the lease can I request a refund for the fuel oil purchase?

-Now that the wood floors are warped can I request he replace them or reduce the rent?

Any help would be appreciated!

Here are some photos of the property in it's current condition: http://imgur.com/BQ6A7IR
Topic:
Real Estate law

Answer: The lease is already broken if they couldn't furnish you a habitable apartment by the begin date. As to the fuel you purchased, did they ask you to buy that?


Title: [Australia] Can a school monitor a student's laptop outside of school hours, and when they aren't connected to the school's network?

Question:
A year ago, the local high school implemented a 'bring your own device' program, where students can bring in our laptops/tablets/hybrids/etc. to use for schoolwork, and 'private use' during time that is not 'lesson time'.

Part of the process to configure the laptops for the school internet was to install a program called 'ABTutor', which lets them monitor our laptops through screen viewing, among other things.

One of the other things, as was recently discovered is a key-logger, and since this program is installed on the computer, said key logger runs 24/7 (if you have your computer on, that is).

Recently, a fiasco involving Omegle and potential underage sex, (which is what led to the students discovery of a key logger, though there is no confirmation on this, just deductions), has made everyone realise that the monitoring by ABTutor doesn't just happen at school, but runs at home too, or at least the key logger does.

When questioned about how they made the discovery, they stated that the program installed onto people's laptops has certain keywords it 'red flags'. When a red flag is found, a screenshot is taken (other things could happen too, but students were only told about a screenshot), and it's stored by the program, until the next time someone connects to the school network, upon which the program does a data dump of all the red flags picked up on that computer, even outside of school.

Basically, anyone who brings a laptop into school and gets it configured (which is a requirement), is from then on, key logged and tracked by the school.

When something is picked up, dependent on the severity, the school reports what it found to the police, and the students parents.

I read through the contract the school provided with this program, and nowhere does it mention said program, or being monitored outside of school. However it does have one on being tracked/monitored/controlled when connected to the schools network, but i reiterate; *nothing about when you are not on the school network*.

Basically, I question the legality of this. Firstly, no out-of-school-monitoring is mentioned in the contract (which I will endeavor to get a digital copy of ASAP), and even if it was, how can they legally monitor what one does in their private time, on their private device, on their private network?

Since all students part of the program are minors, I have a feeling this might factor in, but I'm not well versed in internet privacy laws, adults' or minors'.

*Just like to mention, some (more tech-literate) are not immediately affected by this, because they uninstalled the program, but as of next year, there will be a requirement and likely checks, to have the program installed. (This was told to the students by the principal after the event discussion)*

Answer:
 There was a pretty infamous incident in the States, but keeping in mind you are asking about Australia I don't know how much of that would apply.

In this scenario, some of the major differences is that the school issued the laptops, the school installed tracking software, the tracking software could activate the webcam, and the school used photos taken to discipline student behavior at home even though they claimed the webcam would only be used to recover lost laptops. Again, this is in the States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District

Edit: and the school settled.Answer #2: Contact the Department of Education in your state.Answer #3: If you want to avoid this you can just split your hard drive into two volumes, each with its own copy of Windows, and install ABTutor on only one partition. You can then choose which part to boot from. Or, if you can download a LiveCD operating system like TAILS to just boot from whenever you don't want to be monitored. PM me if you want more info.Answer #4: I suggest getting in touch with the council for civil liberties in your state.

Edit: [here](http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/screen-spy-keeps-watch-on-students/story-e6freoof-1226358220320) is a similar Australian story where the laptops were government-supplied and while that seemed to be ok, in your case they are privately-owned devices.


Title: Is it legal to tax goods twice in Texas?

Question: I work for a cell phone company which requires customers to pay taxes on their phones upfront. However, my boss taxes the taxes they pay. For example: he will sell a phone for $1000. The tax rate is 8.25%, so the customer would have to pay $82.50 upfront. My boss will tax that $82.50 and will charge them $89.31. Is this legal?

Answer: That does not sound legal. So he’s basically ringing up tax (on the phone purchase) as a product in order to apply tax? If I was in your position I would be documenting this, preferably with video/pic evidence, and report it to state tax authority. It sounds fishy but I’m not a tax expert.


Title: A job contract where I have to pay them if I leave the company before 2 years.

Question: I was offered a contract in Germany at a Company. It is a good offer for first job but the payment is not very good. I am interested but there is a contract term where if I decide to leave the company before two years I have to pay them 10 thousand euros (5x more than the monthly payment). Never heard about a contract like that, is this even legal?

Answer:
 I suggest you not take this offer. It is not uncommon, at least here in the US, to charge people for training if they leave before a certain period of time. But the amount of money here is excessive and inappropriate. It does not speak well of the employer at all. Answer #2: I am from Germany and you probably shouldn't take that job wether it is legal or not. In general contract penalties are legal but in most cases apply for not following the obligation to provide a resignation notice in advance or not showing up at all for work after you signed the contract and so on. In some cases you can be made liable for training expenses but the amount of 10.000€ with a monthly payment of 2000€ seems excessive. The German labour court ruled that one monthly salary is  adequate. Answer #3: I received a stipend from my practice before I started work. Part of the contract for receiving the stipend was that if I left before two years, I would have to repay the stipend.

When I received the contract, there were a few terms that my lawyer and I didn't agree with. We discussed it together, and some of those terms were deleted or rewritten. It won't hurt for you to say you won't agree to that one item if the rest of the contract is acceptable. The worst they can say is 'no' and then you're no worse off than just turning it down completely without trying to negotiate. Answer #4: That's absurd, run away.  For all you know, they'll make your life miserable to force you to leave.


Title: Father's death may have been partially do to hospital negligence.

Question:
Tennessee. A couple of years back, my father passed away after a decade of battling illness related to his diabetes.
The first time he visited the hospital was back in the mid 2000s. Ever since than, he was in our for the remainder of his life, he was constantly diagnosed with complications including multiple infections, including staph among others.
After his sudden death, his body had to be sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. When we received the report, one of the things we had no idea of, was that the hospital who had done of his surgeries had left suture material inside of him, for years until his death. My mother and I have a strange feeling that could be a big reason why he had so many infections and complications which with out a doubt cause him more pain and shortened his life.
Is there any legal action we can take against the hospital? Could it possible be too late, since it's been two years since his death? Thank you for any advice.

Answer: Doctor here. I'm sorry for your loss but it's common that sutures are left in after surgery and they are no the cause of your father's recurrent infections. Diabetes makes people very prone to infection both through impairing the immune system and the fact that bacteria feed of the higher levels of sugar in the blood. From what info you've given it's extremely unlikely you have any basis for a suit here. Answer #2: FYI, non-dissolvable sutures are frequently used during surgeries. You don’t go back and remove them later, so they remain permanently. Do you have any reason to think these sutures were inappropriately used?


Title: Doctor called asking for more money after I already paid the bill in full.

Question: I live in Connecticut and I have been seeing this doctor for a little over a year. Every visit has been the same, I’m an established patient and all my visits have been routine visits so because of my insurance, every bill has been $93.87.  I had an appointment on Monday and today I got a message from his office manager saying this visit was “a little bit extra” so now I owe an additional $41.03.  This visit was exactly the same as all the others. Any advice about what to do would be appreciated.

Answer: What kind of doctor bills by the minute?  $41 for 2 minutes is $1230 per hour -- was he performing brain surgery?  Ask for a detailed bill.Answer #2: Ask them for more information why it was a little bit extra.Answer #3: You need to check what the EOB for the visit says.  It will tell you the exact amount you owe to the doctor, especially if the doctor is in network.   Answer #4: As long as the doctor you are seeing is a participating provider with your insurance then you do not owe anything more than what your insurance company says that you owe. I would ask specifically what the date of service is, and then call the insurance company and ask them what is the exact amount of my financial responsibility from that date of service , and ask them to send you a copy of the explanation of benefits. It is customary for the insurance company to send you an explanation of benefits every time a claim is processedAnswer #5: You need them to provide the line-by-line invoice of services and costs associated with each.


Title: Suspecting my bf's mother is trying to access my medical records (Florida USA)

Question:
I overheard something that made me uneasy...recently discovered my boyfriend and I are pregnant and he had told his mom recently cause we would be keeping the baby. The mom doesn't like me much and has thrown around accusations that it's not his baby and that the timeline doesn't add up etc

She is a nurse and married to a physician at a nearby hospital so I think she does have access to my information if she really wanted to look into it. I have nothing to hide about my current pregnancy but I did get an abortion when I was younger and it's very painful and not something I want anyone to know. Is there anything I can do to protect my health info any more?

Answer:
 Contact your MIL place of business and ask for their HIPAA compliance officer. Ask for a printout of everyone who as accessed your records during the period of time in question. All EMR systems that are HIPAA compliant should have a log of each person who accesses a record and I believe they are required to send you the information if you ask for it. The clinic I work at has specific forms patients can fill out to get copies of this information.

EDIT: Also, if she does not work at the local hospital system, call them as well and ask for the logs because local hospitals give doctors and their staff access to the hospital system if they have privileges there.Answer #2: I'm a hospital IT security & privacy guy. First, there's a lot of misinformation here about who has access to what. If a person has an account on the medical record system, chances are they can see at least some information about any patient in the system.

I have two suggestions for you:

1) Call the hospital's privacy officer or legal department and express your concerns. They may also have a patient relations group that can help. You want them to do two things: review your records to see if anyone has accessed them inappropriately, and flag your account for privacy. The way different systems handle this varies, but it's a common feature in medical record systems.

2) If you feel that your records were accessed inappropriately, or if you don't get anywhere with the hospital, file a complaint with the OCR. http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/complaints/  This is the government agency that oversees the HIPAA privacy laws and can levy fines against the hospital for violations of those laws.


Title: Sent nudes to a redditor thinking it was a female, turned out I was catfished by a male classmate.

Question:
Started talking to a female redditor on a different subreddit. Traded Snapchat names and began talking. Asked for pictures of my dick and sent them, only to later realize that the person wasn't a female; but rather a male classmate of mine from grad school. The person said that they knew who I was after I sent them face pictures. The photos they had sent me were all snapchat pictures with filters on making it difficult to decipher who the person actually was.

The person had mentioned how nobody in our grad school class knows that he's gay and would appreciate that I wouldn't tell anybody. I was completely baffled by this that the person has incriminating pictures of me and that's what they care about. I'm also concerned that the person lives in the same city as I do and could potentially go and stalk my family.

I'm extremely uncertain as to how handle this situation.

I made a very similar thread on r/advice and was told to post here. The other comments to the post are there as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/comments/9cn9jr/sent_nudes_to_a_redditor_that_said_was_a_female/

Answer: What is your question? Unless someone here is underage it isn't really a legal issue. In the future don't send dick pics to random internet people you don't know.


Title: My election vote was turned in, and it wasn't me.

Question:
Hi, I'm just asking what I can do, if there's a way to cancel my vote, because someone else (family member) intercepted my ballot, filled it out, forged my signature, and turned it in this morning (March 3rd).

I confronted this person, and they denied it even though I found the envelope opened with all the contents except for the ballot.

She admitted to it later on, and got angry at me for even mentioning it. She is a huge Trump supporter, and was always irritated that I'm a Democrat, and that I even had the audacity to register.

&#x200B;

I've tried to google help, but I'm not really sure what to do at this point.

Can anyone here please help me? I'm 100% serious.

Answer:
 What state do you live in ?

In general, you can report this to your election board.   It might be called the County "Registrar of Voters" or "Elections Department" or something similar depending on where you live.

The most probable outcome is that your ballot is invalidated.

A possible outcome is a criminal prosecution and jail term for your family member.


Title: ex-wife nightmare

Question:
I'm facing some serious issues with my ex-wife. I could really use some advice. I live in Massachusetts. I pay child support for two children, and the amount I pay is barely doable based on what I make. That's beside the point though, the current problem is about my corporate Amex card that I have (or rather had) through my work. Back in August our daughter was going to college and my ex wanted me to help pay for her plane ticket to get there. I didn't have any money, so she asked if I could let them use my Amex to charge the ticket, and then she'd pay me right back before it was due. I gave the number to her and she charged the plane ticket but then kept charging all kinds of other stuff too. I told her to stop, but she managed to rack up a huge bill in a VERY short amount of time. Before I knew it, it was $9,000! I finally had the sense to change the number, but it was too late. Since then, she has been claiming she'll pay it over and over, and she has made several payments to Amex, but none have gone through. This has been ongoing now for 9 months! The card is now canceled and they call me every day. I tried to claim it was fraud, and I have chat logs with her that show this, but I don't think Amex is going to accept that (I haven't yet sent them the chat logs though). I have threatened to deduct payments from child support, but she claims they're "separate" and that if I do that she'll take me to court.

As if this wasn't enough, I recently found out that she's taken out some parent loans in my name on behalf of our daughter. Without my consent at all of course.

I appreciate any advice about what my options are here.

Answer:
 You done derped friend. You absolutely shouldn't have given her that card even to charge for the flights because they weren't a work expense. Now potentially you could both be charged with fraud.

Get a lawyer, send her a demand letter and hope your boss doesn't call the cops.


Title: Dog mutilated in neighbor's yard (MA), best course of action?

Question:
Live in MA, which is a strict liability state in these instances, but curious if the situation works against me.

My 9 year old daughter is in our back yard with a 7 year old male yorkie (not neutered - likely irrelevant to the scenario but I'll provide every fact I can just in case).  [since someone will ask, he was adopted last year and the vet said at that age and his size it could lead to complications, so they advised against it and we went with it]  Neighbors on the back side, behind a 3-4 foot chain link fence, have kids and dogs.  The young neighbor girl (maybe 6 or 7) comes up to the fence and asks if she can hold the yorkie.  My daughter agrees and hands him over the fence to the other girl.

One of the neighbor's dogs, a male chow (not sure if neutered) proceeds to run over and grabs the yorkie from the neighbor's daughter and proceeds to go to town in him, shaking back and forth with the yorkie in his mouth.  Kids start screaming, my daughter leaps the fence (gashing her leg in the process and needing a tetnus shot now), and starts grabbing at the chow to free her yorkie.  She gets him free - then the neighbor father runs over and starts kicking his chow to make sure it doesnt attack my daughter, which it didn't, thankfully.

The yorkie is recovering from surgery currently, multiple broken ribs and several gashes, but vet is hopeful he will pull through after making it through the surgery last night.  No lung punctures which was the major concern)  Current bill is sitting around $2500 could go higher depending on the prognosis, will know more later this afternoon/evening.

I'm going to try the rational approach and go over and ask for their insurance info to see if their homeowners covers it, but this is where my questions come in.  I'm also assuming that their Chow would have been excluded from their homeowners policy if their agent had any clue as to what they were doing.

Should I make that my first step, or should I file a police report first?  Certainly starting with the ask on the off chance that they agree and dont fight it seems like the most neighborly way to approach it, versus going to the police first and starting on an antagonistic footing.  Maybe if they push back, then go right to the police?

Assuming it is not amicable and easy, which seems likely since this is not a small dollar number, does the handing of the dog over the fence hurt or help?  I would think that regardless of age, the little girl asking to hold the dog created a permission for the dog to be in the yard, which is really the only defence against negligence I can see that they might have.  The yorkie had snuck into their yard in the past under the fence (and was never attacked obviously), but those holes were patched weeks ago and that did not play a role in this attack.

My own take (obviously possibly biased) is that in MA the following pushes the liability essentially 100% into their court:

- strict liability state
- dog had permission (even if only implied) by the girl asking to hold the dog on her side of the fence
- commonly known aggressive/dangerous breed (Chow)

I viewed the town bylaws and there is nothing on vicious breeds, only the standard no barking, leash law, etc.

I'm more interested in the money than having their dog destroyed, but at the risk of being an ass that could obviously be a potential good leverage point down the line, no?  The thought is that we were already willing to pay the 2500 out of pocket, so if we get it back we'll put a 6-foot solid fence between the yards and never have to see that dog again.

Would love any advice as to the best way to begin this process and thoughts on whether the handing of the dog is an issue, or anything else you think I might be missing, either pro- or con-, and if I have to go to court should I jointly approach it via the police and a small claims court?

Thanks.  Still fingers crossed for an amicable agreement between neighbors, I'll certainly update as I get more.

Answer: Not directly related to your question, but be sure that you are also caring for your daughter through this all, and develop a strategy for working through any sense of guilt she may now be carrying.


Title: Colorado - Naked library run in college.

Question:
My university team has a tradition of running through the library during finals week each year. It's been going on for decades because we've never gotten in trouble. I participated in it last year and it was quite the adrenaline rush.

Our coach sent this link in an email last week about hazing.
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/13899790/rider-university-cross-country-team-suspended-finding-team-members-preparing-run-naked-practice

Is this possible if it is completely optional? Is it considered hazing if we don't force anyone to participate? Another problem I would see is public indecency but nothing has happened yet. All we wear are masks and shoes as we run through the library.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
Topic:
School Related Issues

Answer: What a coincidence.  All starred members of this sub congregate once a year to run naked through a carefully selected courtroom.


Title: Crypto currency alt-coin (shitcoin) pump and dump. Is it legal?

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Pump & Dump schemes that include false or misleading information are illegal in the US.  The exact legality varies by country, so without knowing who is doing it or where they are, it's hard to say any more.

Simply buying someone and driving up interest is not, by itself, illegal unless there are false or misleading statements connected to it


Title: [Texas] My surgeon MAY have made a mistake

Question:
TL;DR: I'm interested in what an attorney might recommend in this situation. If I think my surgeon might have made a mistake or left something in me after my surgery that shouldn't be there, should I find a new surgeon to remove whatever it is, so I don't have to worry about my surgeon covering anything up? (An ultrasound was able to find a shadow but can't determine what exactly it is). OR should I stick with my surgeon who already knows my history and just hope they don't try and cover their mistake (IF it was their mistake)?

I had to have my gallbladder removed in late December. They did it laparoscopically so they only made one incision which was through my belly button. (This was a minimally invasive laparoscopic and robotic-assisted surgery).

I returned to work in early Feb but still had some minor pains to the right of my belly button. During the rest of the month the pain went from getting less painful and frequent, to becoming much more painful and very frequent and random. (Meaning it didn't only occur when I over exerted myself, it would happen sometimes while I was asleep or just sitting down at my desk working).

I went back to my surgeon to find out why my pain was so severe when it had been getting better. No signs of infection or hernia but he had me to a CT Scan to be sure. "Everything looked healthy" he said.

He then referred me to a pain management doctor. I went in, they told me they typically deal w/ neck and back pain, not abdominal pain. They didn't examine me. Only listened to me, and prescribed me muscle relaxers and a cream to rub on my stomach that's supposed to have medicine in it and numb my pain.

Those things didn't help and my pain got so severe again that I went to a local ER. They were able to tell that the pain was not coming from deep within but was very close to the surface of my skin. Ultimately after some tests and a very long and unusual ultrasound, they found a shadow from right where my pain was the worst.

They found a 3mm shadow that was about 2mm to the right of my belly button. This was below my skin but above my abdominal wall. They ruled out a hernia, abscess, or piece of metal or plastic. But they could see that there's obviously something there causing that shadow that shouldn't be there. And any pressure to that spot on my body caused extreme pain.

Their recommendation was to have my surgeon (or a surgeon) numb me and go in and see what is there causing that pain. So, at this point I'm in the process of following up with my surgeon to see what can be done (But he's super busy and it takes at least a week each time I call before I even get to speak to the surgeon, since he's usually in surgery and not in the office).

I'm wondering if I should actually go to another surgeon for this part, to see if something was actually left inside me, rather than going to my surgeon. This might not be the case and it could just be one of these weird rare things that happens after a surgery sometimes. But since there is a chance that something from the gallbladder removal surgery caused this to happen, is it best to go to another surgeon or stick with my original surgeon?

I'm just afraid that if they did somehow mess something up or something was left in there, could they try to cover it up if they find it and remove it?

On the one hand, I don't want them to cover it up or hide it if it was their mistake. But on the other hand, he's already familiar with my history, so going to someone would have to start all over. So that's my dilemma. Thoughts?

Answer:
Not a general surgeon. Not your doctor. Take this advice with a grain of salt. Not actual medical advice. Never take medical advice from a random internet source.

I am honestly at a loss for what they could have possibly left in the fat later under your skin.  Laprascopic surgery is done by incising the skin then placing a trochar. There is nothing that even really goes in that layer other than the trochar which is several inches long and not 3mm. Ultrasound is not a very sensitive test at all. Scar tissue will show up as a shadow. I will be honest, I would NOT go digging around in someone’s fat looking for a 3mm module found on ultrasound and your surgeon is likely to say the same thing. If you don’t see anything on CT, next step would be an MRI. Likely going to show nothing though, but an MRI is much lower risk than random unindicated exploratory surgery.  Answer #2: Not a doctor or a lawyer but legally whatever he does to you has to go in your medical record. If he goes in and removes something he left it still has to go in your medical record, it's proof it was done. You also have legal access to as many copies of your medical record as you like. If you'd prefer this surgeon didn't go back in to remove whatever this shadow is ask for a copy of your medical record and take it to a new surgeon. Get copies of what the emergency room did, too.


Title: My [20F] drunk boyfriend [26M] abused me last night and I got it on video. Can this evidence be used against me in any way?

Question:
My boyfriend has substance abuse problems, notably with alcohol. Last night I brought him to a get together with my friends and we got drunk together for the second time ever. He usually drives me home but both times he was too drunk to drive.

I noticed he was too drunk and even getting a bit irate so I decided we should leave. As we were leaving, other people were noticing he had too much to drink too, and they said I should make sure he gets home safely.

I sobered up by the time I drove him home. Once I got to his driveway, I tried to pull him out of the car and into the house. And that’s when he started getting very aggressive and physical with me. I pulled out my phone and started recording (only picking up audio until we entered the well lit house).

He continued to get rough with me and the last shot you can see in the video is him pinning me onto the bed and smacking the phone out of my hand and into the closet. After that, you can only see a sliver of the bed but you can see some shadows and hear audio. In a second video, I am seen evading him and he grabs my arm again. I never laid a hand on him.

How do I have a talk with him about this? He wants to video chat, and I want to send him photos and these vids as documentation. Would that be wise to do? Or will the video in his hands possibly be altered or edited in any way to be used against me? Should I meet him in a public place and talk about it in person instead? I’m clueless on what’s the best way to approach this without anything backfiring on me.

TLDR I want to show my alcoholic boyfriend photos and videos of him being an abusive drunk last night. What’s the best way to go about this without the potential of blame being shifted onto me? I also want to break up with him.

Answer:
 Why do you want to show them to him?

Filing a police report is your best bet.


Title: Comcast never responded to FCC complaint within the 30 day window.

Question:
I filed an FCC complaint against Comcast for several reasons, and received an email several days later, from the FCC, informing me Comcast must respond within 30 days from that date (date of email). That was on 1/8. I have received no communication from them. No mail, phone call, email, etc. I thought they legally had to respond to all complaints.

The only thing I can think of, is that they might have dropped some generic letter in the mail postmarked 2/8 and I just haven't received it yet.

Anyone familiar with this process? Is there any recourse to get an answer from them? Just looking to have my issues addressed and I thought this would be a better option rather than keep trying to contact them through the normal route.

Edit: I didn't think it was pertinent but my location is TN in case it does matter.

Answer: Have you followed up with the FCC? It's been forever since I've checked, but there is a chance that Comcast isn't required to respond to you directly -- they may have responded directly to the FCC and the FCC can take its time with a response.


Title: Eviction of boyfriend in PA

Question:
My friend lives in Pennsylvania and her boyfriend has started becoming more aggressive. He used to direct his anger at the inanimate objects, but on a recent phone call she indicated he has started shoving her. We're going to talk on the phone again tonight and develop a safety plan. I'm not entirely certain if she will leave him. He ended his lease early to move in with her and I guess she feels bad about kicking him out. She is hoping he will feel guilty enough for last night and leave on his own while she's at work. I have my doubts that will happen.

So here's where I need help. She is a tenant in a rental property. He is not on the lease. He moved from another state, so all of his things are there and he maintains no other address. She is on a one year lease. From my read of what I can find of PA law, she has to give him 15 days if she evicts him (or does she have to get her landlord to do it?). If, however, he physically assaults her in a way that can result in an Protection From Abuse order, she can expedite the kick out. But the PFA takes 10 days, right? So how does she protect herself in those 10 days living with him? She's very scared of him right now. Is there another way she can safely remove him from her apartment quicker? She's scared to just ask him to leave until she knows how she can legally enforce that.

Answer: Not a lawyer, but I’d file for a TRO immediately, then focus on the eviction issue.