Title: I was laid off on maternity leave, and my temp now has my job full time. I want to sue my Fortune 100 company. Please help!

Question:
This is going to be long, but hopefully coherent and in-depth enough to get some good advice from the great legal minds here.

I have been employed as a contract employee for over 6 years at a Fortune 100 company in the US, which I shall not name. I LOVED just about everything with my job. I had a great supervisor, schedule flexibility, a salary that reflected my market value, and laid back co-workers. I was very happy in my position, and I knew I had it good. I was perpetually afraid of doing something that would screw it up because I knew that I would never find another position in my chosen career or industry that allowed me the flexibility that I had. It was also the first job I actually enjoyed.

In May 2018 my husband and I decided to have another baby. With my daughter (now 6 years old), it took me over a year to get pregnant. Well, this time it happened in a month. We were ecstatic to find out that we would be welcoming our second child, a boy, in April. I had already been through one pregnancy with this job (I was pregnant when I was sent to the company by my contractor), so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect with maternity leave. I knew what I needed to do before I left, and since I was having a scheduled C-section due to medical reasons I also knew when I was going to be leaving. That gave me plenty of time to tie up loose ends, get ahead of my work, and just have things ready to go in general so that when my due date got close I wouldn't be leaving a heaping pile of work to stack up.

Near the end of my pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This meant that I had to take a few extra days off of work to see a nutritionist on top of my already scheduled weekly doctor's appointments. No problem. My boss lets me work whatever hours I want as long as my work is done. Things worked out seamlessly. So when my last week before leave came, I had everything ready to go. My work was done, and I was told that a temp would be coming in to take over some of my recurring weekly duties. I was assured that this person, who we will call X, would only be there while I was on leave... that's when I started to get nervous.

I went on my FMLA protected maternity leave in April with the expectation of taking the full 12 allowed weeks to recover from my C-section. I didn't know what to expect since this would be my first section and I was just preparing my employer for the worst- just in case. I notified my supervisor that if I felt up to it though, I'd like to return a little sooner and ease back into work. If you haven't ever had to recover from a c-section, you're lucky. Having a major abdominal surgery where another human being is cut from your midsection is brutal. Oh, and then you get the added joy of caring for that screaming, pooping, feeding human while also trying not to bust through stitches. Unfortunately my son also had colic on top of all of this, thus depriving me of the little sleep I was able to get while suffering through the pain without meds (they caused me to be constipated, so I took as little as possible). And I was breastfeeding. My hormones were raging during all of this, and I ended up with post-partum depression. There were days when my husband was truly worried about my mental health. But, it got better. I got better. And finally 8 weeks after we welcomed my beautiful son, I decided to ease back into work.

I called my boss on a Monday to confirm that I would be returning on Thursday, and everything was good to go. I was excited to see everyone and start making money again. My job offered no short-term disability or maternity pay, so my husband and I had saved up enough to easily make it through the 12 weeks of my leave without taking a financial hit. At 8 weeks out, our baby fund was starting to dwindle. So when I called on Monday, I had every expectation of going back to work as normal.

Tuesday, my supervisor called me and notified me that I was being laid off due to "budget cuts." I was told that my position was being eliminated, and I was being laid off with several other people in our department- including my temp. He apologized profusely, told me he had no idea it was coming from corporate when we spoke on Monday, and that was that. I was a name on a piece of paper to them, nothing more.

I spiraled back into depression almost immediately, but this time it was so much worse. I now had TWO children, no job, was still aching physically from surgery, and no hope of finding a job even close to as good as the one I had. I was devastated. As I stated before, I was always afraid that I'd do something to screw it up, because I knew I had it good. In my mind, I had done just that. Screwed it all up. I started regretting the decision to have my son, whom I loved dearly, but it felt like the minute he showed up my life started to fall apart. At this point I was tetering on the edge of a complete mental collapse, and I will admit that I occasionally considered suicide. I reached out to family for help, and things eventually got better. It took around a month for me to come to terms with the fact that I was now unemployed, and what that would mean for me. I had put all my eggs in that one job basket, and I didn't know what to do next.

I was angry- I didn't think that my company could let me go while on maternity leave. I thought FMLA protected me, snd it would have. If I was the only person "laid off." But they told me that my temp was let go too, so I didn't fight it. FMLA didn't protect me from budget cuts or a mass layoff, just discrimination. So, I did what I always do- I let it go.

I filed for unemployment and decided to move on. The only thing was that I needed to collect a few things I left in my office, so I requested that the department hold onto them until someone could get it all to me. I don't want to give away too many details about my employer, so I'll just say that  I can't get onto the jobsite without being employed there.

After months of requests, I never got my stuff. I got fed up this weekend when I realized that there was something personal I needed, so I messaged an old co-worker to see if he could run it out to me one day this week. He said he would, but he was busy. If he couldn't bring it out to me, then he would have X do it....

X was never laid off. X is now a full-time employee. X has my job.

I am livid, and I finally reached my breaking point. Up until now I've given my supervisor and employer the benefit of the doubt, but now I'm ready to go nuclear and sue the company. They let me go on maternity leave, lied about it, and hired someone to do my job at a much lower rate.

I need to know if I have a leg to stand on. I need legal advice on going after these a\*\*holes. For the loss of income. For sending me into depression and making me regret having my precious child. For lying to me and trying to make me think that they could legally do this. But is it worth it to go through the process? I would think that I have a pretty attractive case- a breastfeeding mother on maternity leave laid off by a Fortune 100 company to save a few bucks... in 2019. I've never needed a lawyer, so I have no experience with this. I can't afford to spend thousands of dollars out of pocket- I still don't have a job. I need to know if I should actually pursue this lawsuit, and what I should expect. I have time to dedicate to it, and I'm pissed enough to go "scorched earth" on these people. I'm looking for an employment lawyer in my area- what can I expect?

Thanks in advance for any help. Even if I don't get any advice, it's nice to be able to tell my story and get it all down somewhere.

Answer:
 Which company laid you off exactly? Your contracting firm or your client?Answer #2: Some practical advice here: Focus more on a job hunt than this lawsuit.

Definitely pursue a lawsuit by contacting a plantiff's employment attorney.

However, even if one will take your case they take a 50% fee of any settlement or awarded damages.

Also keep in mind that your damages here are the wages between the time you would have returned to work and the time you do or should have found another job.


Title: Father died several years ago but I am still receiving debt collection letters because we share the same name except for my middle.

Question:
Hello, this is my first time posting to this subreddit and I was hoping you guys could help. I live in Florida, the central Florida area to be exact. I will not include my county unless it is necessary.

Basically my father passed away almost five years ago, and he left behind a lot of unpaid bills. Ever since then, because we have the same name except for our middle name, no matter where I move I get a debt collection letter saying they will settle for less and less money.

However I know my rights, it is his debt and I have no responsibility to pay for it. They were mostly legal fees and medical bills. Each time I get one of these bills it is always from a different debt collection agency and I am getting tired of it.

You might suggest I ignore them and throw them in the trash. The problem is when I see a letter for my father it brings back all the hurt I felt from losing him, and I am tired of it. At this point it is borderline harassment and emotional torture.

So here is my question. How do I get these letters to stop? I do not want this following me for the rest of my life. Is their some sort of number I can call or some agency I can notify that will help me? I would appreciate any feedback you guys can give me.

Answer:
 You've gotten a lot of good advice, OP, so I'll give you one more tip: keep an eye on your credit report. Sometimes these bottom-feeders will try to slip a debt on there if they think you don't pay attention.

I once got a notification about a debt that wasn't mine (and the person wasn't related to me); once I sent the proper certified letters the harassment stopped. Good luck, OP.


Title: If both parents are jailed can an adult child be held responsible for debt?

Question:
WA State. Hypothetically, if both parents of an adult only-child were jailed for tax related offenses, could said child be held responsible for their debt?

Is there anything else that may become the child's legal responsibility in this situation?

Answer:
 99% no.  The 1% only comes in if the debt is for some kind of state benefit (social security, child support related stuff), and you were a minor dependent on the parent who committed fraud at the time the fraud was committed.

The idea is that you received some of the benefit, so you'd be on the hook to pay some of it back.

but if it's just mom & dad cheating on their form 1040's, no.


Title: Missing Person (My Father) Help

Question:
My father went missing on Thanksgiving however we have reason to believe he was missing prior to this. The police in his hometown will not take it seriously. His wife dropped him off on the side of the road in Illinois on the way to visit family and he just vanished. There was a very suspicious Facebook post around that time saying he is leaving but also saying things he would never say. The police in our town (where he went missing) have searched and searched with nothing turning up. He would have contacted family since he was so close. The police in Prescott seem content with the wife refusing to answer questions although there is no evidence to her story. What can be done to pressure the police where we believe he actually went missing?

http://m.pjstar.com/article/20151204/NEWS/151209712

Answer:
 He's an adult with no known mental health issues? I very much doubt that the authorities would take any action under those circumstances.

Forgive me, but it sounds as if you think his wife (I assume not your mother) was implicated in his disappearance? If that's the case, all you can do is push the authorities to take his disappearance as a result of foul play. Ask them to review his bank accounts/credit cards etc. They don't have to tell you the results but they can do this.

I'm telling you though: people disappear all the time simply because they don't want to deal with their problems. I hope your father makes contact soon.Answer #2: Hire a private investigator.


Title: Caught with LSD in Indiana, out on bond, help

Question: On my way back from Electric Forest this year me and my girlfriend at the time got in an argument and she pulled over on the side of the interstate (don't tell me it's stupid trust me I fucking know) and she smoked a bowl of weed before sitting behind the car for like 30 minutes. She gets back in the car and we are just about to pull away when lights turn on behind us. The cop smells the weed and asks if he can search, we say yes, he finds a roach, the Apple we are smoking out of, and 4 hits of LSD. He takes us both to jail. I spent a month in jail before getting bonded out, she spent a week in jail then bonded out and disappeared I still haven't talked to her. I go back to court in a week and I'm terrified I'm going back to jail. I don't live in the state my charges are in and I'm technically not allowed to leave the county until the trial is over. My charges are felony possession of a narcotic (lsd), misdemeanor possession of marijuana, and misdemeanor paraphernalia possession. This is my first offense. Does anyone have any idea what's going to happen to me because my public defender hasn't answered any of my calls since I've been out of jail

Answer:
 Why are you consenting to a search when you know there are drugs in the car?

The only person who’s going to know how your case will go is your lawyer, go to their office, don’t just call, this is very serious.


Title: (NY) Got into accident that wasn't my fault, got a ticket for expired inspection because I called the police to the scene

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Because you were already way outside the inspection date I don't see any way you could be construed as not guilty of having an out of date inspection. Luckily it's not a very expensive ticket, and you were within 60 days of expiration which makes it even cheaper. Answer #2: Well you are guilty, pay the fine. Answer #3: Can you get your car fixed, get the inspection done, and then go to court and plead No Contest? Is it just generic traffic court?

Last time I went the judge was having a good time and was waiving basically everyone's tickets, even multiple offense speeding tickets and shit.


Title: We think someone is trying to break in our hotel, what are the first steps we should take?

Question:
I apologise in advance for my poor English, I should also mention that all of this information came from my parents and I did not see any of this directly.
Also, we are renovating so luckily right now we don't have any tenants in the hotel.

My family owns among other things a buidling in one of east Europe's major cities, this building is divided in 2 parts: One half is a hotel and the other is made of apartments for rental.

Lately, 2 incidents happened.

1) A few days ago (around 2 weeks) someone entered the room where the electric panel of the building is and flipped all the switches off, leaving the tenants without electricity until we figured what happened. That room is usually locked so we don't have cameras in there, I didn't quite understand why the door wasn't locked at that time but my guess is that the electrician which came for a routine check left it open.
Anyway, my brother (who works there) told that when he went to check on the electric panel to see what was the source of the blackout he saw a little gipsy girl (8-10 years old, I apologise if this may sound racist but I feel it's an important detail) standing there (not in the panel room, in the room adjacent to that one) and she asked my brother if he knew where the toilet was.
She obviously wasn't a tenant so my brother kicked her out from the building (figuratively, he didn't hurt her in any way).
This girl wasn't seen again until yesterday.

2) This morning my brother found footprints in the snow in the building's backyard (each apartment at the first floor has it's own backyard) so he went to check the footage.
Yesterday night (I didn't ask the time but they were sleeping so I'm guessing around midnight)the cameras caught the aforementioned girl walking through the backyard and stopping at each window to peek through it, we are not quite sure how she got there but upon checking we discovered that one of the emergencies doors of our underground parking was broken.
Whether she, or someone else, broke it we cannot say.

Since incident number 1 my parents thought that someone sent that girl to purposefully sabotage our business or to steal from us, I thought they were just paranoid because our building is located in a really nice part of the city and I didn't think that someone would take any illegal action against it's competitors. I still don't (and I still find hard to believe that someone would try to steal in this part of the city, especially considering that the building in front of ours is so big, likely more than 60 apartments, that has several night guards of it'sm own)  but such a young girl trespassing alone in a Cold (as I said, it snowed that night) winter night is strange to say the least.

Tl;dr and questions

A young gipsie girl has trespassed 2 times, time coincides with that of incidents in the buildings.

My parents want to hire a night guard for some time to discourage further attempts, at least until we open again and go back to our 24/24 receptions schedule.

I also want them to file a police report, but they don't want to because
a) They think that police won't do anything

b) They are not in the city right now and they think it's pointless to report the trespassing if it didn't happen the same day of the report.

Even if all of that were true, am I wrong in believing that having filed a police report could help us should anything else happen? It would prove that we tried to contact the police.

Also, what can we say to the girl if she comes again?
Obviously we won't threaten physical harm, but can we say that is we saw her again we will call the police?
I mean, we can't prove she did anything more than trespassing and I would think she is able to walk anywhere she wants if it's not private property.

Answer: If the girl is 8~10, that's justification enough to call police and/or child protection services (or whatever they're called in your area).  She's unaccompanied by an adult, possibly trespassing at odd hours, and that's something they would be willing to investigate--regardless of the rest of your story--for her own welfare.


Title: Damage By Roommate's Pet - What Are My Options

Question:
Portland, ME - I did a lot of searching online regarding this already (didn't find much in the way of results that pertain to me), but was curious what my legal options are for my current roommate. She is notorious for not accepting responsibility for anything - let's get that out of the way. Her cat has peed on my things 3 times at this point, totaling over 1000$ in damage. The last incident was yesterday when the cat peed on my bowling equipment, ruining 687$ dollars worth of my gear. Why this is so frustrating, is I mentioned the smell and she lied to me about it, tried to hide it, and had I been able to tend to it, it wouldn't have been ruined.

Is there anything that I can do to try and recoup some of that money. Her response was "I can't be responsible for what my cat does," yet, the cat has only done this type of thing when she doesn't clean their box, feed them etc. All in all, she's a horrible person, but I need to know what my rights are.

2nd part of the story which makes it even better. In the same time frame, she bought another apartment and has given me 22 days to move out, but there's a catch. I'm a 'qualified roommate' and my name is not on the lease. The lease is already paid for first, last and sec deposit - but she is telling me that she's giving the other half of last month back to her first roommate and is expecting me to pay it. Am I legally responsible to do this? I've reached out to the land lord to verify. It's a property management company, so I'm sure they're up on the law.

My plan, if it all falls into place like I hope, is to refuse to pay rent if I am not legally responsible if she refuses to replace my equipment. Is this viable?

Thank you so, so much in advance. I'm going insane. I've never met someone who thinks so little of others; it's really mind blowing. If this was the reverse, she's flip out like crazy.

EDIT - clarification

Answer: Don't refuse to pay your rent. Sue your roommate for the damage the cat caused. Also, your roommate needs to give you a minimum of 30 days notice if she wants you to move out.


Title: While my instincts tell me this is illegal. What law, if any, would doing this be violating? [Canada or USA]

Answer:
 This is what the charge "criminal mischief" was invented for.

You'd also be civilly liable for the damage to the paint, which might be a four-figure exercise on some vehicles.Answer #2: Off topic in an off-topic sub, but I was at the local Kroger in July. A very similar SUV was parked like that, but they also just nosed into the spot so they were hanging out into the lane blocking other cars.

Some random guy was taking all the carts out of the corral. He faced like 12 of them all different directions and tied them together in two groups in front and behind the SUV with rope from his truck. They couldn’t be rolled out of the way. I stood watching this for like ten minutes. It was pretty funny.

I personally would have just called a tow truck, but A+ for effort. No damage to the car because those carts weren’t going anywhere without major effort. Answer #3: It might technically be vandalism


Title: [Wi] Roommate got "homesick" within first month of our 12 month lease and left.

Question:
Hi /r/legaladvice, So I am pretty sure this is a small claims court issue but IANAL (obviously) and was hoping for some guidance on a bit of a sticky situation I am in.

A friend of a friend contacted me saying they were interested in moving to my city and wanted to know if I liked the place. We ended up talking for a few weeks after they decided to make the move.

So while talking my former roommate (FR) kept sending me links to apartments they were interested in, and they were all in some rougher areas of the city. After a while we decided that because I was currently also looking for a new place, we should just get a two bedroom and be roommates. I had originally wanted a one bedroom, but we seemed to have similar senses of humor and got along.

So we discuss our budgets and what we were looking for. We ended up finding a place we agreed on and signed a 12 month lease together. FR offered to buy me a plane ticket if I would fly out and help with the drive during the move, I agreed because I like road trips.

Less than one month into our lease, FR asks if I can talk after I get back from school that day. That's when I'm told that FR has begun to feel home sick and has decided they don't care for the city and have made up their mind.

I didn't realy know how to react, I was pretty flabergasted. So Ijust told FR that I wish they'd given this more thought beforehand because its going to make my life more stressful than it needs to be right at the beginning of my semester, and probably end up costing us both money we didn't have to spend. But I couldn't stop them from doing whatever they wanted, I just asked that they contact the landlord and find out what the penalty would be for breaking the lease.

Long story short, we decided the easiest route would be for FR to move back home and continue to pay her half until her or I could find a suitable replacement.

Now here we are, the second month of this 12 month lease and I have only recieved half of their portion of the rent. They initially asked if they could give me their portion in in two payments, half the first week of the month and half the next. I agreed.

I have screen shots of all of our text messages where FR agrees to continue to pay their share until the room is filled, also another where FR admits feeling guilty for being the cause of this whole situation. I have been polite and respectful the entire time, no name calling or arguments have been exchanged.

Unfortunately now she is already behind and starting to not respond to me contacting her.

I looked into small claims court already, and Wi apparently has a $10k limit, which this would fall under. Is this something I could take her to small claims for? How many months would she have to fall behind? Should I continue to screenshot texts, or should I use email instead for future communications? What can I expect if I have to take this the small claims route?

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

TL;DR - Roommate and I sign a 12 month lease, less than a month into lease roommate decides to move back home. They initially agreed to pay their half until the room is filled, they are also on the lease with me.

Answer: You will need to pay rent and then sue your friend for any monetary damages you incur as a result.Answer #2: You can sue for any and all amounts that you wind up out due to the roommate's abandonment. You could sue monthly for the amount she doesn't pay, but you are far better off, if you can afford it, to cover the rent while looking for a new roommate, then suing the former for the entire amount at once.


Title: Tldr; campus leasing office stole my bike along with a hundred others to be sold for their profit. They claim it's their legal right to do this on their premises. Is this actually legal?

Question:
I'm a university student in Texas and I live in on-campus housing. Recently I came home from the airport to discover my bike was gone. With a little investigation i found my leasing office had gone around campus cutting free bikes to be sold for their own benefit. Now this is especially weird, because my bike is registered with my leasing office and is clearly marked with a neon tag.

It wasn't until I threatened the office with involving the police (treating this as an act of theft) that I got my bike back, and the bike still had it's registration tags on it. I demanded reimbursement for the $80 lock they cut and for inconvenience of them stealing my registered bike to be pawned, but they said they were %100 in their rights to cut any locks and take any bikes since they're on their premises.

Can they do this? I mean is it legal? Should I do something about it? I'm going to the campus attorney to talk about it sometime in the next week, but I'm curious until then.

Edit; bike was stored in the proper bike racks in the proper way.

Edit: a few have mentioned the attorney will be of no help against the school, but the on campus housing is operated by a private company contractor. That and the attorney's page from my school's website explicitly says they can help with disputes with the on campus leasing office. So yeah.

Edit: (ripped from one of my comments) They sent an email saying they would mark damaged, abandoned, or improperly stored bikes a week ahead of time with red signs to be removed. I don't know if they actually did that, because my bike was never marked with any signs but it was still removed.

Wow another edit: some of you think I'm overreacting with this, and you're probably right. But I'm not from a rich family, and that bike was premium. Probably one of the most expensive gifts from my parents I've ever gotten. And the only reason they got it for me was because I'm going to college for free and not costing them thousands of dollars.

One last edit: when I say home, I mean my apartment on campus. It's where I live, and that's where I currently am this summer and for the foreseeable future until I can get the hell out of here. My bike was never abandoned as many have thought.

Answer:
 > some of you think I'm overreacting with this, and you're probably right.

forget that, set a precedent with them that stops them from doing it to other people


Title: A friend of mine was date raped and there is no evidence anymore

Question:
Two weeks ago some guy I know (we're both seniors in high school) had shown me some sexually disturbing pictures. These pictures involved him assaulting an unconscious freshman from our school, he has since deleted these pictures.

 I consulted the girl in the pictures and she told me and my friends that all she remembers was them hanging out, and at some point in the night he started getting touchy and started kissing her, she told him to stop and he did. An hour later he took some ecstasy and gave her one too and she went to sleep.

She doesn't remember the events of what happened, but these pictures existed and I saw them. She believes that she was assaulted, but she doesn't want to put under public eye for reporting the rape, and I don't know how to deal with this situation either. With the little evidence that composes of my account of seeing the pictures that don't exist anymore, and her account of being passed out. She wouldn't even have suspected anything until my friends and I told her about the pictures.
He's 18 and she's 13

This is in Texas

Answer:
 Your testimony of seeing the pictures is evidence but without her cooperation it will be hard to go forward with a case.

She needs to tell her parents, get checked out at a hospital (especially if she has never been sexually active before) and report the incident to the police.  Police reports are public records but the identifying information for victims of sexual assaults, especially minors, is protected.


Title: Ex boyfriend has submitted me to relentless legal abuse and the sentences published destroy my reputation. What can i do to move on from that?

Question:
Hi reddit.

I am a my wits end. I had an abusive boyfriend, as many stories he started being a fabulous person being really helpful in my love to end up giving me the sourest time in my life.

In the end of our relationship I had an affair and it got discovered because his ex wife, which is also subject of meticulous legal abuse, got a surveillance team on me or so he claims, I really have no clue and I really not care.

In the middle of our relationship we bought a house together and after I did put most of the money for it his true colors showed. He started to be seriously abusive and controlling. I ended up looking for comfort in an old friend.

After my affair got exposed by the surveillance report my boyfriend spiraled out of control and I had to get a RO. He appealed and he lost but the sentence is searchable by my name and this is embarrassing.

I do have a high profile professional job and my coworkers and customers google me all the time, I see that in linked in.

Now when you google my name it comes a sentence that explains sexual details of my affair, details of how my boyfriend abused my children and even mentions a yeast infection.

I did talk to my lawyers about making sure the PDF was no searchable or the names where not mentioned but my lawyers a6re not even considering it.

It is so damaging for my public image, which is what my boyfriend was looking for in revenge that I am considering changing my legal name.

As a details, we do have other 5 cases open, he is pro per in all of then, I have already spend a ton in lawyers and I don't see the end.

Please help, I am desperate, very desperate.

Edit: California

Answer:
 >As a details, we do have other 5 cases open

For what?

As to your online reputation? There are companies that specialize in this kind of thing.

What do your lawyers suggest you do about all of this?

>I did talk to my lawyers about making sure the PDF was no searchable or the names where not mentioned but my lawyers are not even considering it.

Other than that. I'm not sure your lawyers can take on google to make them unindex a page.


Title: [NY] Dog escaped, bit someone, how do I save him?

Question:
I have been breeding pitbulls for 3 years now in my backyard. I'm at a point where I have 15 dogs, the bulk of which are worth 4-7k each.

Last night one of the more rowdy dogs was able to escape. It got a few blocks away from my place before he attacked a guy who was biking. The guy on the bike fell over, but was able to defend himself well enough.

I got a call on my cell that they had taken my dog to the pound.

I haven't heard anything from the biker, what do I do if he does contact me?

I don't have any business insurance or anything, is there anything I can get now to help me?

What type of lawyer am I looking for?

How can I save my dog from being put down by the state? This dog is probably worth 6000 dollars, and is worth a lot to me financially and emotionsially, what do I do?

Answer:
 the part of this that makes me suspect trolling is that you haven't said anything about trying to get your $6k dog back from the pound. all you said is that they called you to say they had your dog.

aren't you gonna like...drive down there and ask for him back?


Title: My job requires us to save vacation hours for a annual shutdown?

Question: So the company I just got hired to sells manufacturing epqipment. I guess sales are slow the last days of December so they close the office. The thing is, they require us to save vacation hours during this shutdown. This year we have 3 days to set aside. I feel like this isn't really fair, having forced vacation. I'm asking because another new hire used all his currently acrued vacation days and when he got back he was called to the office and they docked the two vacation days from his paycheck. Is there something legally wrong with this, it is it really just a crappy circumstance? I work in a northern suburb of Chicago if that makes a difference. Any thoughts?

Answer:
 Perfectly legal. While it's "your" vacation in the sense that it's owed to you, when you can use it is your employer's decision.Answer #2: I wouldn't even called this a crappy circumstance as this is standard across many industries that close down over the holiday period. It shouldn't be a surprise to employees either since it happens every year. Obviously you can't work if your employer is not open so while you may not think it's fair to have a "forced vacation", it's also not fair for them to pay you for days they aren't ever open.

If you're concerned about saving your PTO for other dates, you could always ask your employer if you have the option to have those days in December unpaid instead. They're not obligated to do this, but it may be an option they could consider for those wanting to save PTO for another time in the year.


Title: Question about filing for Unemployment in NY while having a part time job. Don't want to commit fraud on accident.

Question:
Got laid off yesterday and I've been told I should file for unemployment.

I do have a small part time job with no set hours. I work anywhere from 0 to 40 hours a month. Usually more around 20 hours.

I'm going through the unemployment process online and they want to know my "Employment Status". Should I state that I am "Not Employed" or "Employed"?

Answer: You're employed. That won't disqualify you. You have to report all earnings which may reduce your benefit amount. It's not fraud to have a part time job while collecting unemployment. What's fraud is not reporting those wages and getting more benefits than you should.


Title: Girlfriend's father is wanting to get a divorce.

Question: My girlfriend's dad is looking into getting a divorce. His wife has never worked a day since they got married. Prior to marriage he has owned and operated a farm. Since then, he has built a new home for them. His question is how much is she rightfully owned even though she has never contributed a single penny? This resides in the state of Kansas. Thank you for your help.

Answer: It really depends. The fact that she hasn't worked actually benefits her in terms of spousal support and if her name is on the house with his it doesn't matter that he actually paid or whatnot. The best thing he can do is hire an attorney.


Title: I'm being accused of a hit and run by a cab company and it will cost me more to fight it than to give insurance info.

Question:
This is in Arizona, a month ago I was driving to a popular street to play guitar and try and make some money. My light turned green and a cab hit me in the intersection, I pulled into a lot (yes I know that means I left the scene) and waited for the cab who saw me pull in. I attempted to file a police report but was told to contact my insurance company since I wasn't at the scene. The next morning I attempted to contact the cab company but was told they were unable to disclose any information. It's been at month and I've received a letter from the company 2 days ago with my plate and Vin number threatening that the company will take legal action unless they receive my insurance info within 10 days. If I fight this it will cost me more than my truck repairs are or even what my truck is worth. On top of that I feel like the court will be in the company's favor since I am a 17 year old. Any advice on what I should do?
Tl;Dr cab company accusing me of a hit and run a month after I tried contacting them

Answer: Contact your insurance. That is your next step. Answer #2: Did your ever contact your insurance company? What did they say?


Title: Landlord coming in without notice, what can be done to stop this? (OH)

Question:
Today my boyfriend and I were sitting in our living room and our landlord knocks on the door. We just had a baby and we’re not feeling up to talking to him. There was no emergency and we didn’t get any notice so we didn’t feel the need to open the door. He continued to knock them just opened the door with his key, no verbal warning or anything. We had the door chain on so he couldn’t get in, but he just shut the door and left without a word. I would love to change the locks but I know that isn’t legal, so what can be done to stop him from doing this. This isn’t the first time he’s tried coming in and our neighbor said he’s tried it with them.
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer: Have you tried confronting him about this? IANAL but perhaps a stern reminder to him that it is not legal to enter the property without proper notice as agreed upon in the lease agreement might scare him off trying again. I would also recommend installing motion cameras in your apartment. theres a very good chance if he has tried to enter you're apartment while you are home that he may have been encouraged by previous 'successful' attempts.


Title: Car Detailing Gone Wrong

Question:
[deleted]
Topic:
Small Claims Procedure

Answer: I suggest you go get your car.


Title: My neighbor has left a kiddie pool full of rancid water in their backyard since last summer, I'm worried about mosquitos, who could I contact to make them empty the pool?

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Life advice: code enforcement or HOA complaints are going to piss people off a lot more than a polite request.

> I don't want to ask them to empty the pool because I'm worried about them getting mad then having to deal with vindictive neighbors.Answer #2: The one thing you definitely don't want to do is buy one of those chlorine tablets they sell for $1 at the box store and chuck it over the fence into the kiddie pool. You could get in trouble for doing something like that. Answer #3: "The guys that live in the house are sketchy looking"

Bring a friend with you? Sometimes in life you have to interact with people no matter how they look. The person could be more normal than you think. You seriously need to go over there and just ask them to dump it. Grow up.


Title: Sword laws

Question:
Legal question regarding sword laws in California:

I am a native of Westminster California in Orange County. I have no criminal record and have little to no interest in owning a firearm personally. Where I live there are a lot of unfortunate homeless and/or folks suffering from drug addiction. On more than a few occasions, I have been approached in a hostile manner especially at night when I walk my dog. (I tend to get home late.)

While I do not wish to own a firearm for myself, I am still interested in defending myself the best way I know how to. I have been classically trained in swordsmanship and do not feel confident in my skills with a knife. I am curious about how the law works regarding carrying a properly sheathed, fixed blade in the open when I walk my dog to the store and such and while what research I can find on the matter seems to suggest I can do so legally, they have seemed to be lackluster resources at best.

I feel I should further add:
1. No, it is not a katana. (not sure why I felt I needed to add that but there you go)
2. No, I am not a sword wielding lunatic wishing to go all Purge on people.
3. I have no want, desire or plan to harm anyone, and I truly feel for said unfortunate in my city. However, I do simply feel that just the sight of a blade, even still sheathed, would dissuade would be aggressive advances. Were it still not to discourage such advances, I would like to be able to confidently defend myself the best way I know how to.

Thank you for your time!

Answer: Define classically trained, for humor's sake


Title: Neighbors concerened about the look of my property...

Question:
Owned a large lot\(almost 7 acres\) for a few years now. Been wooded up until two years ago. Got up with local loggers to clear most of it while leaving a buffer of trees between the two neighbors on either side. The one neighbor and his wife were so concerned about us cutting down her squirrel tree that I decided to leave some of the larger ones that would have normally been harvested inside the buffer zone according to the logging contract.

I then contracted a local surveying company to come out and divide the property up into 5 separate lots after I cleared and burned debris and stumps so the surveyors had an easier time.

I then moved a modular home onto the uppermost lot farthest away from the "squirrel tree "people because the layout was nice and it would just be easier to landscape in the future.

However when the loggers started working there was an old tractor/ four wheeler trail already in place so they started there. It then became apparent they could work faster if they didnt have to traverse up and down the property so I laid out some culvert and crusher run on the lot beside the "squirrel tree" people so that the loggers could finish up the other half of the property without all the back and forth...

there was a yard or so of crusher run left over so i just dumped it probably about 15ft inside the property closest to the squirrel tree peoples yard.

It had been sitting there for almost two years now but about a month and a half ago I was driving by and I noticed it had been covered with leaves.

I thought to myself thats really weird, no other spots around it had leaves piled up like this, especially on a rock pile thats about 3ft high...

I assumed it was the squirrel tree people because my brother had caught the woman moving the wooden stake the surveyors had used to show the location of the EIP. She had moved it twice. The 2nd time I told her it cost alot of money to have the whole place surveyed and if she or her husband touches it again I will have to figure out a way to litigate the matter and get the police involved.

So i got the neighbors covering up MY rock pile, and moving a very expensive wooden stake.

On top of that the husband mows my lawn out by the road all the way up to my driveway, he will do two passes but he wont go into the ditch. I previously didnt mind him mowing but now Im starting to get upset that they think they can do whatever they want to lively up the appearance of my property.

I have wanted to sell the lot beside their house once I got the other four lots cleared up a little better, just not to them. But before I do that I think I will remove the buffer of trees I left them with and use it for firewood.

In the meantime what can I do if they touches my property stakes, dumps leaves, and keeps mowing my lawn?

Answer:
 Moving properly done surveyor stakes is an actual crime, and a potentially serious one. Contact a lawyer and let them know. You can have them write a serious letter to these people letting them know they are not to so much as sneeze on your land. Answer #2: Talk to a lawyer.
They can draw up a lovely letter expressing the nature of the violations, the potential penalties, and your polite request for them to cease and desist before you find the need to take it legally further.


Title: Food Poisoning at a Restaurant

Question:
Back in April I got food poisoning (along with 5 others at my table) from a sushi restaurant. I reported the restaurant to the city health department and during a city inspection 2 days later, the restaurant was hit with 3 violations, one of which was for:

31. CLEAN MULTI-USE UTENSILS AND SINGLE SERVICE ARTICLES PROPERLY STORED: NO REUSE OF SINGLE SERVICE ARTICLES - Comments: MUST STORE MULTI-USE UTENSIL BEHIND FRONT PREP AREA FRONT PROPERLY TO PREVENT CROSS CONTAMINATION, AND MAINTAIN.

I have about $1300 in medical bills from the ER that I had to pay as a result of treatment for the food poisoning, plus I missed 2 days of work. The hospital didn't do any advanced testing, nor did I have any leftover food to test, but my diagnosis was gastroenteritis.

Is the fact that multiple people got sick from the same batch of food, plus the health department violation, enough to get my medical bills paid by the restaurant?

Edit: location Chicago, IL

Answer: Have you approached the restaurant and asked for them to pay your medical bills?


Title: Airborne Neighbour Nuisance

Question:
My parents live on an acreage in rural Alberta and they have a Neighbour who has built a runway for his personal airplane that is aligned so every time he takes off and lands he flys directly over their house. He takes his small plane out for a joy ride nearly every day (mostly weather dependent) and he really seems to enjoy taking off and landing (he’s up to seven times today so far). As he is taking off and landing he is always flying very low when he passes over the house.
My parents are generally on good terms with this neighbour but when they asked if he could alter his flight path so he is not always flying directly over the house he flat out refused and told them to just deal with it (this guy owns two quarter sections so he has lots of space where he could move this runway).

Read up on this a bit and from what I can understand because this guy has established an aerodrome already any petition to move the runway would have to go through the federal system. I also read that essentially means that there is nothing we can do about getting the runway moved.

Are the any other options that we can explore to discourage this guy from always flying directly over our house?
Topic:
Canada

Answer:
 It's not likely a registered aerodrome or airport.  Put up a big, tall bright orange flag pole as close to the end of the runway as possible.
Case law: Look up Chatham Kent municipal airport and take a look at the silo that stood there from 1980 to 1985.  Basically the solution was for the Feds to buy the land at a premium from Walker, then the town buys it from the feds and bulldozed the silo, then walker rents it from the town.Answer #2: You are probably screwed. Transport Canada is your best bet but they generally don't handle noise complaints, you address those to the operator of the field.

Low flying is something they may do something about, private fields don't need authorization to exist but still need to follow regs which include avoiding flying over buildings during take off/landing phases to mitigate the risk of accidents involving people in the ground.

Given the very limited teeth they have on this issue you may want to find a way to handle it directly as TC contacting him may just make him step it up.


Title: Is there grounds to sue my apartment complex for not holding other roommate responsible as well?

Question:
I live in a student housing apartment, not owned by the university though. They have individual leases for each roommate paying almost $600 in a 627 sq foot apartment. Which is a 2 bd, 1 ba equaling to 1200 dollars a month for them. My roommate had 1 month shorter contract than I do and moved out without cleaning any of the common areas as well leaving some of her stuff. I called to manager who said that they will inspect her room, but they cannot inspect common areas since I am still in the apartment and cannot prove that she made the mess. Now in one month I have to clean everything so that we both do not get charged. They are refusing to be any sort of help. Also, during the year I contacted the manager several times repeating that cleaning was an issue but the only "option" was for me to pay 300 dollars and move into another apartment. Is there anyway I can sue them?

This is in South Carolina, USA

Answer:
 >I can sue them?

Lol no.  Is the room really so huge that you can't clean it in a month's time?  Christ almighty the entitlement is strong in this post. Answer #2: C'mon now. I moved apartments a week or so ago. I packed, moved, unpacked, and did a detailed clean of the old apartment in less than 48 hours. I think you can manage it in a month.


Title: I’m don’t think this is the right subreddit but...

Question:
I was watching Spiderman the other day when I got thinking if climbing buildings is illegal then would using Web to swing around them also be illegal
Topic:
Other Civil Matters

Answer:
 /r/legaladviceofftopic

And yes, probably everything that superheroes do is illegal.


Title: My gf jaw won’t shut

Question:
ND

I’m sorry if this is isn’t meant to be posted here. My gf and I were drinking and she went to sleep she woke up and started stretching while also yawning.

She opened her mouth a normal amount but then her mouth didn’t close. She started crying and calling for her mom. I got up and started trying to help her close it. And not freak her out.

After an hour she still couldn’t close it but she was still pretty inebriated. She’s out right now I’ve called her mom and she came over. We are both underage. I’m so scared.

If we go to the ER they’ll take her blood and find out she’s been drinking. She’s in college and has all A’s she only drank twice in her life.

I don’t want her career to be ruined before she even has a chance to start it. Im sorry I don’t know where to post this. Im so scared, im alone right now and I don’t know what to do I don’t want to ruin her career. I don’t want to ruin her career. Im in tears right now I’m freaking out
Topic:
Alcohol Related Other than DUI

Answer: Calm down. First, are you on anything besides alcohol? Second, for doctors aren't going to run the police to tell on you. Their job is to stabilize/treat you and get you out of there. Go to the ER, you will be fine.


Title: No one knows what happened to my package and won't give me any answers. What are my options?

Question:
I received a slip in my mailbox from USPS saying that a package was delivered to the front office of my apartment building, who has package acceptance as one of the amenities. The package slip was dated four days before.  I wasn't expecting anything. I went to the office to pick it up and they looked in the package delivery area and there was nothing there for me or my address. They had no other answers. I contacted usps and my local post office to get answers like who the package was from  or what time it was delivered, but they won't give me any answers either, other than once they drop it off to the front office it's no longer their responsibility and I have to deal with my apartment building. I have asked my apartment building several times to look into it by reviewing the security cameras for that day or investigating further; But they won't do anything saying that it was probably a mistake by the post office and I never received a package and they don't know what to say other than there's nothing that can be done. I have explained that they are responsible for the package by accepting it and that they must do their due diligence by researching further and just giving excuses or speculation isn't acceptable. But they won't do anything else.

What are my options and what should I do?

This is in Florida

Answer:
 > What are my options and what should I do?

You should chalk it up to a mistake and move on.  That's the most likely explanation.  They don't have to go full Law and Order on this.


Title: Can I[17M] legally stab my physically abusive brother[33M]?

Question:
Our family's story is very long, so I will try to make it as simple and short as possible.

My brother is my current guardian in Virginia, USA. My parents are living in Asia, but my mom is visiting me and my brother for a month.

My brother has SERIOUS anger issues. He slaps his TODDLER, pushes me, punches me, and pushes my mom. We had a meltdown today and he punched my head a few times while my mom tried to stop him. Even when he was clearly wrong, I got beat up because his ego was hurt. His wife is financially dependent and not very physically strong, so she can't do anything.

I'm legit scared of living here now. I have 2 months until college starts, but I don't know if I can hang around much longer. I wanted to call CPS for both me and his little baby, but my mom stopped me because she needed my brother to sponsor her when she wants to move to this country (aka chain immigration). Calling CPS on him will put him in jail and possible deportation to Asia. My mom said doing this could ruin my entire family.

The truth is, I don't care. I'm scared for my safety and my nephew's future life. I'm thinking about buying a combat knife from walmart. If he tries to lay his hand on my mom, I will stab him in the neck. Will I go to jail? I have a lot of people who have my back. My counselor, my teachers, my friends all know that I'm a very good student. I got a scholarship from my college and graduated high school with a 4.2.I hope my potentials will reduce my chances of going to jail. I think my entire family knows that my brother is an a-hole so they probably have my back too. My cousin also stopped talking to him because they had a meltdown so that's another person who'll help me in this case.

What do I do reddit? Killing him is a legit option I'm considering if he tries to get physical with my mom. I can stand being punched by him but I'm not going to let him do it to my mom. When I'm out of college and independent, I will 100% tell the cops about his behavior (if he's still alive at that time). My nephew and I deserve better.

Answer:
 >Will I go to jail?

Yes.

Really, you think killing someone is a better option than reporting him to CPS?


Title: Co-signed lease with SO. Broke up. He didn't pay his half of rent. Collections coming to collect. Credit score plummeting. Cue tears.

Question:
Yes, I ignored the advice to never co-sign a lease/loan. Hindsight is 20/20, etc. etc.

I was stupid. My SO and I were dating for a year before we decided to move in together in July 2012. We co-signed the apartment lease. He's absolutely terrible with money, doesn't go to work regularly due to severe depression (though he has an *extremely* understanding boss who hasn't fired him), and I knew all this going into this lease.

Over the course of the next year, due to his irregular work attendance, he hadn't always been able to pay for his half of rent. So some months, I would pay for 100% of it. We ended up breaking up in July 2013. We continued to live together until December 2013. For the months of August - November (December was already covered since we paid last month's rent upon signing), we agreed that we would each be responsible for paying for our respective half of rent directly to the rental property. I continued to do so, and he assured me he was paying his half too every month.

We move out December 2014. I leave the country and travel from January - May 2014, and so does he from January - March 2014 (completely separate trips). When I return at the end of May, I receive a phone call from a collections agency saying that I owe the rental property company approximately $2000 in unpaid rent. Needless to say my heart sank, and I began to wonder if I had somehow missed paying rent. After talking with the officer further, apparently she had been trying to contact me ex-SO with no luck. So I got in touch with him, and asked him point blank if he lied about paying his half of rent from August-November 2014. He admitted he had lied, that he had had a depressive episode during those months and barely went to work so he couldn't afford rent (don't ask how he managed to travel for 3 months after that, that's a *whooooole* other story).

I get him to contact the collections officer dealing with our case. He informs me that they have come up with a payment plan since he can't pay much right now since his wages are being garnished by the government due to other shit he owes *(I know I'm getting angry, breeeeathe)*. He and the collections officer agreed to have everything paid off by September 2014.

Fast forward to November 2014. I'm naively believing that everything has been taken care of. I receive a phone call from the collections officer. They haven't heard from my ex-SO since September, and there is still approximately $1400 due.

I'm pissed. I contact him again. He gives me the same excuses. Hasn't gone to work, etc. etc. promises he'll have it settled soon. I contact him in December. He hasn't paid a cent. Says it will be taken care of by early February (he only gets paid monthly, at the beginning of each month. Doesn't help a guy who can't budget for shit). I contact him in early February. He sends me a screen shot taken that day of his account where he deposited $300. Still $1100 to go. I asked him why he couldn't deposit the remainder. He said he hadn't gone to work these last 4 weeks. *Face palm*.

He now says he will pay it by March. I can't keep this going on forever. My credit is being obliterated. This has been an ongoing issue for over a year now. He had over $700 in his checking account that I saw from when he sent me that last screenshot. Why does he need $700 in that account and why isn't it going towards paying off this debt?! And why the hell am I seeing pictures of him partying with his buddies at music shows and eating sushi dinners and not putting it towards paying back any of his debts?! I have a full time job and debts of my own and can barely budget a coffee these days. Seeing him piss away his money instead of paying back debts (he also still owes me over $1000 in personal debt for all the times he borrowed money from me while we were dating), is just infuriating me even more and I seriously need to take some sort of legal action here. I just don't know where to begin.

Do I focus on getting my name off the collections agency hit list? Is this even a possibility?

Do I focus my anger towards the rental company? I'm upset that I was not notified at all that rent was underpaid since August 2013. I was still in the country for a few months, and they also have my email address with which they could have contacted me that way even though I was abroad. Instead, they took it straight to collections.

Or do I take my ex-SO to some small claims court?

Wondering if anyone out there has been through a similar situation and can provide some sort of advice/hope.

Please don't tell me that my best option is to just pay this off myself. *cries*

**TL;DR: refer to title.**

Also, we live in Canada (Ontario, more specifically).
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 You owe the money just as much as he does. This is what it means to cosign a lease. So they're doing nothing wrong by asking you for full payment immediately, since that is what you owe.

You can then sue your ex-SO. But he might not have the money to pay.


Title: Banned from visiting S. Korea for 3 years.

Question:
Good evening all,

Hope your weekend is going smoothly. I recently (tried) visiting S. Korea to visit family. More specifically to see my grandma and aunt, who are in remission from breast cancer. Even though they kicked all kinds of cancer ass, they still feel pain, swelling etc... So I decided to bring them a small vile of topical only 100% CBD lotion and oil for their use(I live in a state in the US where recreational marijuana use is legal).

I arrived in Korea, went through customs and retrieved my luggage. On my way out, they have a person who collects customs paper(those long pieces of paper you fill out during flights on international flights), and when I handed mine to them, they randomly selected me for a luggage check. They opened up my bag and found those lotions, which they immediately ushered me to a room with a phone call to an investigator.

Long story short, they rejected my entry to Korea and slapped a 3-year ban on my record. So my question is what next? I guess this isn't unheard of but definitely an uncommon thing. Please help! Thank you very much in advance.

Answer: What exactly is your legal question? You were caught with contraband and banned from the country for 3 years. That seems reasonably self explanatory.


Title: Suing a company for ableism

Question: I'm diagnosed with Asperger's, and some time ago some people at a major company took advantage of that to mock me. Thing is, I don't live in the United States, so I don't know how to get my lawsuit to court.

Answer: Mocking someone isn't illegal.


Title: Renewing my Green Card with a Misdemeanor Conviction

Question:
Hey there,

My green card is expiring soon, but I'm worried about going through with the renewal process because I have a class A misdemeanor conviction from 4 years ago. It was tried as a felony but brought down to a misdemeanor conviction.

Will this cause any issues if i file for renewal? I've been reading stories of ICE raiding people's homes after they file for renewal and their past convictions get flagged, so would love some info on this.

Thanks.

Answer: Yes it will cause issues. You need to consult with an immigration attorney.Answer #2: Yes. If you've got a criminal record, that must be declared as part of the permanent residency filing. Get an immigration attorney's opinion.


Title: Start up "failed" but come to find out owner made decent money on it before moving into next venture

Question:
I was brought on by a colleague during my undergrad to develop a website and set up other business avenues for a start up pertaining to apparel. Website completed and I was putting in tons of sweat equity on the notion we'd set up a good client base and grow throughout the years. My cut was to be 15%. Actual payment: $0. Now come to find out a couple years later the owner stated during an interview that he had made close to $20k on said start up before moving out of that industry into a different start up. What are my options? Is it worth it?

Edit: MA, USA

Answer:
 Impossible to know without knowing the details of the agreement and what "your cut" was supposed to be, exactly.

If it was a cut of the gross revenue, then you have a case.

If it was a cut of the net profit, the CEO could always say he paid himself a salary of $20K which was, he'd argue, a justifiable business expense, so although the company had $20K in revenue, or whatever, the company's profit was $0, so you got 15% of $0, which is $0, and you have no case.

If it was a percentage of the company, as it closed, you end up with $0.  One possible exception is if he paid himself $20K in salary, but as a shareholder or member you had certain rights where the CEO doesn't get to modify his own pay without the consent of X% of the shares of the company.


Title: How to loan money to my boyfriend without either of us getting screwed over.

Question:
I'm in college right now and since my mom pays a good portion of my tuition and lets me save the money I got through Social Security and get from working and everything from 16 to now, I have a lot of money saved up for a 20 year old. Plus my school has a co-op program where working for money is a required part of my graduation. All told, I have nearly 20k saved and still have three years before I graduate.

My boyfriend is in a slightly different situation. He lives in a college town a few hours from me where not having a car is a huge deal (I'm in a big city so it's not a big deal that I don't have one), and his parents pay 0% of his tuition - he works a lot, but only has about $5000 saved. His car just broke down and he needs to buy a new one because it's more than the value of his car to repair it. He's about $500 short of being able to buy the car he wants.

We've been together for about three years, and I have this money, and I don't mind lending it to him. I have clarified it'll be a loan and he's completely okay with this. I said I wanted something in writing just in case and he's very understanding.

So my question is : if I go onto Word and type up the terms of our agreement (no interest, in the event we get married, the loan is forgiven, and in the event we break up, he has one year from that date to pay me back the money), and we both sign the document, would this hold up in court? If not, what kind of process should we go through? I genuinely trust him but I'd feel far more comfortable if I had a little bit of legal standing here.

Answer:
 "Neither a borrower nor a lender be, For loan oft loses both itself and friend" - Shakespeare nailed this one 400 years ago. If you can spare the money make it a gift. If he decides to pay it back, great. If not, fine.

That said, what you're describing would be plenty of proof for small claims court that he owes you the money. However winning a case in court doesn't mean you get paid, it means you can now *try* to get paid with the court's blessing.


Title: Florida. FBI task force agent wants to meet me but won't so why.

Question:
He just called me and wanted to meet me for coffee or at my house. He said no one is in trouble he just wants to show me a few things.

I have no idea what this could be about.... Is this a scam? Are they trying to arrest me?

Answer:
 >Is this a scam?

Probably not.

>Are they trying to arrest me?

We have no way of knowing this.  You could be a victim, a witness or a suspect.

You are free to decline to meet with them.

You are free to meet with them and walk away and not answer any questions if you feel like you are the suspect.

You are free to consult with a lawyer prior to deciding what to do.Answer #2: Do you have any friends in the military? Public service? Could be that they are conducting a background check on one of them.


Title: Is it legal for my employer to require I take a lunch break if I work longer than six hours or risk punishment?

Question: I live and work in Georgia but my company is based out of Minnesota. I have only worked at this company for three months now and I was written up today because I was "supposed" to take a lunch during my shift yesterday when I worked 7 hours. I told my boss that the FLSA and the state of Georgia do not require me to take a lunch and he said that the company has mandated it across the United States and any shift longer than six hours the employee is required to take a 30 min lunch break. Is that legal to mandate I take a lunch break when I do not want too? I do not want to make it a big deal if I have to but I will argue it if they are being unreasonable especially since I was written up over it?

Answer:
 Yes and yes.

Unfortunately, the company can and will be sued for *denying* people breaks if they do not make them take their breaks.

It is lousy for you, but if people do not take their breaks, they can claim later that this is because they were pressured not to, or told they would be fired if they demanded those breaks, etc.

They were absolutely correct to write you up for it.  This is something they have to be very careful with.


Title: Motorcycle stolen, insurance won't cover it.

Question:
I had a motorcycle stolen from me recently. I financed it for $6600 for 5 years. I had it for only one year. I had full coverage on the motorcycle but the insurance company is basically telling me they are only going to cover what the bike is valued at (approx $2k), leaving me with the rest to pay the lean holder with a $1000 deductible.

How can I make them cover the most of the $6600 so I won't have to pay so much?

Answer: Insurance covers the current value of the vehicle (motorcycle) that is insured.  If you have a lien and want the difference between the amount owed and the current value you need to purchase gap insurance before something happens.


Title: [Maryland, US] Home Warranty did not pay for work they approved and now debt collectors are calling me.

Question:
Two years ago we had a problem with out thermostat and HVAC air handler.  We had a home warranty and contacted them.  They called out a local company to assess the problem and then pre approved the work.  I paid our deductible, enjoyed having heat again, and forgot about it.

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Fast forward to this week.  I received a call from a debt collection agency claiming I never paid the $680 for the work done.  I then received a letter from the agency stating that I owe money and that I can pay now or I have 30 days to dispute the debt.  I called the HVAC company that did the work, they are now out of business and their debts have gone to collections.  The guy I talked to said that the home warranty would frequently not pay for the work that was done.  I contacted my home warranty and they claim that they never received an invoice from the company.

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I plan on disputing the debt and asking to see proof of debt.  I feel that since the work was pre approved, I paid what I owed, the home warranty should be responsible for covering the costs of the the work and that the debt collector should be contacting them and not me.  However I do not know how this should actually play out.  Do I pay off the collection agency before anything hits my credit and then go after the home warranty myself?  Or do I try to convince the collection agency to go after the home warranty company.  Any advice would be appreciated.

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TLDR: Home warranty didn't pay for work done on HVAC two years ago.  Debt collection agency is now calling me for the money I didn;t know was owed.

Answer:
 If you pay any money on that debt, you will be assuming the debt as legitimate.  I would not pay it, I would follow the laws put in place to dispute the debt so it doesn't show up on your credit.

You pay the debt, you now have to use your resources to fight the warranty company for the money, which will not be fun and most likely get you no where unless you sue, then you have to collect.Answer #2: It sounds like its actually the warranty company's debt not yours. Debt collectors will sometimes do this.

The warranty company isn't even refusing to pay it they just never got the invoice to be able to pay it.

Don't pay the debt. Make it clear this is between them and the warranty company and NOT you.


Title: Landlord claims we never paid my rental application fee from August. (Virginia)

Question:
Our property manager that we rent from sent us an email a few days ago saying we have an outstanding balance because we never paid our application fee from back in August (we actually sent the check to them in June).  We checked our bank records and there is a missing check number which I'm pretty sure is the check we sent for the application fee.  This rental company has a history of being totally incompetent, so I think they lost the check and for some reason just now decided to say something about it.  I don't know why they would approve the application if they didn't receive a check from us for the application fee.  I'm not sure if we should pay them or if we should tell them that it's their problem because we sent the check and they lost it.

To give a little bit of background, the property manager told us we would be moving into a certain unit and then after we signed a lease for that unit, she told us that they got the numbers wrong.  This was also after we had the electricity, water, sewage, etc accounts set up for that address in our names.  We had a very difficult time switching that stuff back because the people that had the unit we were supposed to get were told the wrong unit number as well so they already had all of that stuff set up in their names.  On top of all of that, the mail is completely screwed up because we keep getting each other's mail.  I should also note that we never signed an lease for our current address.  We had only signed the one for the address we were initially promised.  They have mixed up our rental payments with the tenants living in the other unit several times.  When I called to inquire about the supposedly unpaid application fee I asked the property manager to tell me which unit I lived in and she told me the wrong unit.

If the rental company had been nice and easy to deal with during our rental agreement, I would probably just pay them the application fee again and let it go, but these people are totally incompetent and are a nightmare to deal with so I kind of don't want to give them anything that I don't have to...  Thoughts?
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 Ask them to verify that it is *your* application fee they are missing, not the application fee for the other apartment.

Once they verify you owe the money you have to pay them.


Title: [TX] 6 year old son wandered out of elementary school and was picked up by a stranger.

Question:
Son was picked up by his bus this morning as usual. Received a call around noon informing me that between being dropped off and his first class he wandered around the school, went to a book fair, and then left the school out a side door. Him and another child wandered through the surrounding neighborhood eventually getting into a car with a stranger who took them to another school and left them with the principal. After realizing the children didn't go to the school, the principal took them back to the correct elementary safely. My child was given and in school suspension and is in way more trouble at home.

Here is my concern. I don't understand how this was allowed to happen. As much as he made these decisions and is ultimately responsible for his actions, it seems like the school holds some responsibility for their safety.

I have a meeting with the principle. I want to know how this happened and what they are going to do to keep this from being a possibility again for my kids or anyone else's. This could have been a very tragic story had it turned out any differently. I'm worried that I may be met with some resistance from the principal and was wondering if I had any legal recourse if they tried to shift responsibility or not make changes to protocol.

Answer:
 A six year old should not be in that position.  The suspension is BS. This is the school's fault, not your kids. You are right to be concerned.  I'd raise this with the district. Answer #2: I've worked in several elementary schools in several states and there is no point at which this is acceptable. Those children are supposed to be  shepherded from the bus to the teacher's supervision, and at no point should he have been in a position to have the freedom to simply wander the school. They're trying to shift the blame.Answer #3: A part of what you demand from the district may be a new school. If any organization lost my car- I would never return there. This organization lost your child. Can you ever really trust them again? Make sure that option is on the table for you- you need somewhere you can entrust with your child. Answer #4: I would call bullshit on in school suspension.  Discipline at home as you think appropriate, but this was completely the school's fault and they are trying to shift the blame.  They are 100 percent responsible for the actions of a 6 year old, especially after he had already entered the school.

You should tell them no on the suspension  (in no uncertain terms) and escalate this to the superintendent.  As a parent of a small child, I would rain down fire on that school, teachers and administration alike.Answer #5: At this school we don't get a call right when he went missing?


Title: Life insurance beneficiary and marriage. Do I have a claim?

Question:
My husband recently passed away and his estranged daughter has claimed and received his entire life insurance policy. It looked like he never changed the beneficiary when we married. It was my understanding that our marriage makes the past decision void however after a conversation with the insurance company they said they don't care about marriage and they have already paid out and they consider the matter closed.

Do I have any claim here?

Location is New York.

Answer:
 > It was my understanding that our marriage makes the past decision void

Life insurance doesn't work that way. The named beneficiary received the proceeds, and (unless otherwise specified) the policy payout is independent of the estate of the deceased.

> Do I have any claim here?

Highly unlikely.


Title: Bf[31]'s former hookup [F45 married] has been harassing him for a year

Question:
[rhode island] About 6 months before he met me, my bf was involved with an older married woman who promised to leave her husband for him. When he realized she was just leading him on for sex, he ended it. She did not take it well, sending mean texts, emails, and calls. Then he met me and asked her to stop. He eventually changed his number.

About 4 months ago she applied for a job at my office so she could be my coworker. I did not know her name so this allowed her to get personal information from my cellphone and conversations and start harassing him again. I played dumb when I found out who she was and eventually found another job. I left my boss an envelope with the sexually explicit emails printed out and a letter stating why I had to relocate.

In her most recent voicemail she stated she intercepted to envelope and shredded it.

She is now applying to work at my current company.

I don't know what to do, I can't sleep at night. My bf is devastated because he is embarrassed about his former relationship and really wants to keep the police out of it, but he fears she may hurt me or try ruin my new job opportunity. Her husband is unaware, as are her two children.

I don't want a small town scandal but I'm terrified of what she might do next. I just need to know what the first step is to getting her to leave us alone.

Answer: Why haven't you guys gone to the police and filed for a restraining order?


Title: I was arrested with a few pounds of Edibles

Question:
I’m part of a group that provides free medical medical marijuana to veterans suffering with PTSD in places where the legal system does not allow it.

On my way home on Saturday I’m stopped by the state troopers who drag me out of the car, cuff me, and claim the car is stolen. The car was not stolen, it was my friends car and I happen to be riding with her boyfriend (he was hancuffed as well) he was in the car with me.

The vehicle was searched and nothing was found. They towed the vehicle to the precinct while I was already in a cell. An hour later they come in with a black  bag full of edibles.

I claimed responsibility for it and I was released on RoR the next day and was told to lawyer up, I’m facing felony charges.

I’m reading online That I may be facing 5 years plus. Uhhh what the fuck do I do?
All i did was get my fellow veterans with ptsd stoned. It brings joy to them, and brings joy to me. Help please.

Answer:
 > Uhhh what the fuck do I do? All i did was get my fellow veterans with ptsd stoned. It brings joy to them, and brings joy to me. Help please.

You distributed or trafficked in illegal drugs.  It's about to bring a whole lot less joy to you.

Get a lawyer and pray- your best case scenario may be a plea bargain that keeps you out of prison.Answer #2: You mean to say you are part of a organization that trafficks illegal drugs? That's how the legal system will treat you and your co-conspirators.

The real problem that you could have is that some jurisdictions charge based on the weight of the edibles, so like three pounds of brownies is like three pounds of pot.Answer #3: Get an attorney, stop talking about this to anyone who isn't your attorney.


Title: Moved into apartment with GF, now she’s physically abusive

Question:
So, I’m kinda shaking right now while typing this on my phone, so sorry for any typos.

My girlfriend just scratched my arms really badly and completely ripped my shirt apart by continuously grabbing & stretching it out. She kept trying to find things to hit me with (plunger & some thing that goes on a wall) and meanwhile I’m defending myself by trying to restrain her, but the moment I restrain her to the bed she keeps squirming around and ‘playing victim’ and saying I’m hurting her wrists while grabbing them and whatnot (but I’m making sure I’m not holding tight enough to actually cause her harm). But my arms are all scratched up, she’s bent my hands/thumbs/whatever she could grab so those really hurt now, and she’s completely out of control and yelling and all this stuff. I took my only chance and ran the Hell out of the apartment (can only imagine what neighbors are thinking) because she kept blocking doors so I couldn’t leave.

I took photos of the marks she just did and ones from two nights ago.

This has all spawned from me having females that I am friends with on social media and her demanding I remove them and me not thinking that’s fair. As of a few days ago, I have went through every social account I have and removed every single female.

She is friends with a police officer and so I feel like if I call them, she’ll play victim really badly and her friend will of course take her side. We literally signed this one-year lease last week and I completely regret it now. She wasn’t like this beforehand.

All my stuff is in the apartment (including work uniform), I work in 6 hours, and I’m extremely afraid she’ll start smashing all of my expensive computers, monitors, TV in living room, etc.

What do I do??
Topic:
Other Civil Matters

Answer:
 Call the police and wait for them outside.

Edit: this is called domestic abuse. It is absolutely a police issue.Answer #2: Call the police. The longer you wait , the worse it will be. Doing anything else is only making it worse.Answer #3: You need to leave this relationship and cease communication ASAP. Find a friend or family member to stay with temporarily. If your stuff is worth retrieval, contact your local police, explain the situation and ask for an escort while you retrieve it. If it’s not worth your safety and sanity, let it go.

Take a couple months at least to focus on your own stability. Find a new place. Do not cut contact with friends for an abuser, that’s how you they get you to end up with ‘nowhere to go’.

Whether your relationship is new or old, she is either way too insecure or you are way too untrustworthy or both to make a healthy couple at the moment. You can only fix yourself, you can’t fix her.

Plenty of other fish in the sea, and cutting off all contact will at least allow you to live a life free of worry of false abuse accusations while you stabilize yourself and find another stable partner.

Good luck, man, I’ve been there. I ditched her with the lease and left her the bed, tv, etc. anything that didn’t fit in my car that night. I’m happily married today, two kids, good job, past far behind me.

If she takes you to court over the lease later on, at least you can explain to the judge that you cut all contact and why and maybe you’ll have saved up enough to cover any small claims decision against you for past rent.

This is a “just keep running” situation.


Title: [Ontario] Responding to a noise complaint

Question:
I've moved into an old 4-unit wooden building a few months ago and the neighbor below (who is also a building manager) believes that I am causing excessive noise. He wrote a complaint to a property administrator recently.

Some facts:

- The floor in my unit is really squeaky (old hardwood). Sometimes I wake up at night to go to the bathroom and my neighbor would start banging on the ceiling because the floor squeaks as I am walking. I am walking barefoot.

- There is a very busy road 3 meters away from the building. Sometimes the whole building is vibrating when a big truck drives by. I don't believe that any noise that can be caused by me is louder than the noise caused by this road. If an acoustic engineer was invited to measure the noise levels, they would find that the biggest source of the excessive noise at any time of the day is this road.

- There is another person who started subletting a room in my unit a few weeks ago and she doesn't have any complaints regarding the noise level.

- On a few instances this neighbor called my cellphone and texted me very late at night (3-4 AM) telling me to stop partying and listening to loud music (I don't have a loudspeaker or a TV). I was asleep at this time, as well as the other person living in my unit.

What is the best way to respond to a letter from the property administrator about these noise complaints?

I tried talking to the neighbor, but it didn't result in a constructive dialogue. He just kept shouting that I am making noise and it drives him crazy.

I don't see how we can resolve this issue. I think it is unreasonable to restrict my movement around my apartment at any time of the day and, honestly, it scares me that someone downstairs listens very carefully to what I am doing and starts banging on their ceiling whenever I have to use the bathroom late in the evening or at night.
Topic:
Other Civil Matters

Answer:
 >The floor in my unit is really squeaky (old hardwood). Sometimes I wake up at night to go to the bathroom and my neighbor would start banging on the ceiling because the floor squeaks as I am walking. I am walking barefoot.

This is reasonable, and if the super has a problem with it, he can call a carpenter.

>On a few instances this neighbor called my cellphone and texted me very late at night (3-4 AM) telling me to stop partying and listening to loud music (I don't have a loudspeaker or a TV). I was asleep at this time, as well as the other person living in my unit.

This might be harassment.

Your response is to tell your landlord that the person is complaining about noise you aren't making. It's pretty hard to do anything concrete to you about this, especially if it can't be proven.


Title: Kinda stupid, but my teacher wants to sell my phone.

Question: I took my phone to school several times, go warned, did it again, and got it taken away. Not smart, I know. But my teacher has an auction of all the stuff he has confiscated over the year on the last day of school, and he wants to sell my phone. Is this legal? I live in Idaho btw.

Answer:
 Your parents never went in to try to claim it?

Methinks your school has a policy about getting back confiscated items and if you didn't follow that policy, its just abandoned merch.

Where do auction proceeds go?Answer #2: Are we talking a college.  Some of your other posts indicate you're 22 which would put you out of high school???

Just want to be clear. This is a professor and not a high school teacher?

Edit: corrected grammar.  (You're not your ... sigh.)


Title: My abusive ex has reported me to the police, claiming all his own actions as mine. Help!

Question: We've been togetehr for 4 years, he beats me, rapes me, destroys my things. On Sunday he drugged me with sleeping pills, and next thing I know I'm in a police station being charged for criminal damage. I'm covered in bruises and have broken bones, but the police will not believe me that the actions were all his own, and I'm being blamed despite being the victim. I have pleaded with them, to no avail. What can I do, no one will help me, I am all alone.

Answer:
 Contact a dv shelter and  get out. They can help you find services for your legal problems

There are links in the wiki


Title: Could I sue my old dentist?

Question:
FYI, I am in Texas.

Okay, so two years ago, I was getting a procedure done - getting my front teeth replaced with crowns. I had a tooth grow in weird on top of another tooth and I hated the way my smile looked. Anyway, I got an infection in my gums while the temporaries were still on. I knew it would hurt for awhile, but I got concerned when it didn't stop after a few days, so I went to my dentist.

She told me I was fine.

Fast forward to the day I was getting my permanent crowns on. I told her it was still hurting and the infection hadn't gone away. I thought we should wait on the permanent crowns due to the infection. She disagreed and said I would be fine... she was wrong.

That summer, I went to a friend's wedding with severe pain in one of my front teeth - and by severe, I mean this: by the end of the evening, I was crying in the lobby, unable to sleep. It was excruciating. Well, my tooth had abscessed. If my dentist had listened to me the first time, maybe it wouldn't have gotten this bad. My parents called her emergency number, and she answered, sounding very annoyed since it was "her weekend." I finally was able to get some pain pills, but they didn't help.

Thankfully, my aunt's dentist (I was out of town in McKinney) drove in to his office to come help me out. He did a partial root canal and I was free from the pain. He told me to go back to my dentist and have her finish the root canal.

When I got back, she told me that the tooth looked fine and we didn't need to mess with it again.

However, a pus-filled bubble formed on my gum above the tooth. I mentioned it to her several times, even telling her about the swelling on my gums above, but she said that was just my bone. -_- I didn't trust her anymore.

Finally, I had enough and went to a new dentist who told me that this problem should not have been ignored. I am getting the root canal finished sometime this month by an endodontist (FINALLY), and he has put me on antibiotics for the infection.

Should my old dentist have to pay for the procedure, since she continually denied the fact that an infection was still present?

Could I even have a case here considering this is all just hearsay, not written down?
Topic:
Medicine and Malpractice

Answer: Medical malpractice is very fact-specific, and while you've given lots of those, you're best served by taking those facts to a local medical malpractice attorney.  You can most likely get a free consultation.


Title: [CA] Renting a home that has a large leaning tree.

Question:
I rent on a property that has a large leaning pine tree. It's leaning away from our house towards my neighbor's house. I called the city today and found out that it's a private tree and is not the city's responsibility to maintain or trim.

I'm concerned about what could happen in the event of it falling, in regards to both our liability and my neighbor's safety. I'm getting ready to notify my landlord of what the city said but is there anything else I should do or prepare for? He has been fairly difficult when it comes to repairs and other things, so I'm nervous about how he'll react to a potentially big cost.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer: That's not your problem. You wouldn't be liable unless you directly contributed to the felling like with a chainsaw. Get renters insurance.


Title: [Seattle, WA] Need advice on drug addicted teen, courts have failed us

Question:
I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this and again that it will be a long post without a tl;dr, but we are running out of options and I am hoping someone here has gone through something like this that can provide us with an answer.

For those who are not aware, Washington State law provides teenagers at the age of 16 a much larger range of legal and medical rights that would normally be provided at 18 in most other states.  This makes things much more difficult to make them go through counseling or other services that a troubled youth may need.  All they need to do is say "no" and we can not force them to do anything they do not want to do unless it is ordered by the court.  This is how it was explained by one of the juvenile court clerks, which I will get into in a bit.

So, a little background.  Starting at 15 or so, our son got into the wrong crowd at school.  They introduced him to theft, delinquency, drinking and smoking both cigarettes and pot.  Through most of that year, he was still the same quiet good kid he had always been.  Then over the course of a couple of months before his 16th birthday, he started going off the rails.  He started getting much more aggressive verbally and physically.  So, his mother did a quick search of his room one day and found alcohol and pot.  We confronted him as a family and he basically blew us off.  We were beginning to look at ways to get him in to counseling and such.  However, his birthday came shortly after.  He was now 16 and we could not force him to do any such thing if he did not want to.

Over the next year his behavior and drug use got worse.  He keeps leaving at odd hours and disappears for hours on end.  We know he has gotten into other stuff such as DMT, LSD, shrooms, and recently we found out he has done meth on several occasions.  In the last year he has destroyed our property on several occasions, once destroying a large window of our apartment which nearly got us evicted.  He has also physically assaulted his mother on several occasions.  All incidents fell under the lowest category of misdemeanor.   Every time he has gotten aggressive, whether damage was done or not, the police were called to help defuse the situation, but it never stopped him.

We did try the legal routes.  We started an At Risk Youth Petition with the Juvenile Courts.  However, when we spoke to the head case worker, we were told several things.  Because of his age, we cannot force him to go into counseling or rehab without his consent or the court ordering him to.  However, the courts use that as a very last resort.  Instead they try to come up with a plan with him that he has to voluntarily complete, but if he doesn’t the courts have no authority to do anything unless he commits a severe enough criminal act.  Unless he commits a severe enough crime, the courts can do nothing, the petition just makes it legal record.  If we decide to actually charge him with something, then it goes to the city attorney to make the decision to prosecute or divert the charge.  All of the charges against him were diverted even though we insisted he be charged so we could get the court to mandate counseling and rehab.  When diverted he has to follow some sort of counseling plan or the charges go back to the attorney to formally charge him.  However, he has not followed the plan he agreed to and the city attorney refuses to do anything about it.  Bear in mind that he has several destruction of property and assaults on record.  So in short, the legal routes open to us have been a massive failure.

We have spoken to a couple of lawyers that specialize in family law and they all pretty much tell us the same thing, unless he commits a severe enough crime or the city attorney does thier job and formally charges him, there is nothing we can do to force him to comply with rehab or counseling.  Now he is 17 and still doing what he was doing over a year ago and we are no closer to getting him the help he needs.  The courts have failed us and we seem to be out of options.  At this point we are just trying to wait it out until he is 18 to kick him out.  It sounds harsh, but we have to protect ourselves from his behavior if we are not able to get him the help he needs.  We don’t want him to end up as a street junky or in jail, we want him to get into rehab and counseling to get back to some sort of proper path so he can have a future for himself.

Is there anything we can do at this point legally to force him into a counseling and rehab program so he can get the help he needs or are we just going to have to continue watching and waiting while he continues to self destruct and possibly attack his mother again?

Answer:
>
>Is there anything we can do at this point legally to force him into a counseling and rehab program so he can get the help he needs or are we just going to have to continue watching and waiting while he continues to self destruct and possibly attack his mother again?

You family lawyer you spoke to would have the clearest answer on this, and it sounds like they've already answered it.

That said, from someone who has dealt with addiction personally and amongst family: you cannot help someone who doesn't want help no matter their age. If he doesn't want it he won't be receptive. I suggest you and your wife get into therapy (with a therapist that specializes in addictions) and seek guidance and support. It will be beneficial to you guys to understand what's going on and understand how to approach addiction. It's tragic he is so young but the mindset of the addict is always the same.


Title: Is this extortion or a settlement offer?

Question: The other party made a (non-negotiable) "settlement offer" (all verbally, nothing in writing), and is ready to sue if my party doesn't accept. The offer is based on claims that are far from the truth, so in my mind it's quite unlikely that there could be any written evidence to support a lawsuit. Knowing the other person (being very emotionally-driven), they might actually believe that their version is the truth and that their "settlement offer" is fair.

Answer:
 If you're a lawyer you should not be asking this question.

If you're not a lawyer you should not be advising someone on how to settle a potential lawsuit.