Title: [Canada] Can we rig a school raffle so the poor students win?

Question:
Ontario, Canada

I'm on a parents council for public elementary school and we are planning a bake sale and raffle for the last week of school before Christmas break. A discussion has been going around that this year we'll pick students from poor families (we are partnered with a food bank, so we know which families are struggling) as winners but still advertise it as a raffle like usual. The prizes are all basic necessities like holiday sweaters, stationery, food, etc. Are there legal repercussions if one of the parents disagrees with how we run it and complains up the school board?
Topic:
Canada

Answer:
 ... and do you expect people to want to enter your "raffles" in the future when it comes out this one was rigged, albeit for noble reasons?

Is there a reason you can't just provide assistance for the 'struggling' families without hiding it behind a raffle?Answer #2: There's no way that it's legal to sell people a ticket for something they are told they have a chance of winning when they don't because you rigged it, regardless of how good the intentions are. You are simply stealing from a group you think is better off and can afford it to then give it to those you think deserve it more.


Title: Being evicted

Question:
My family and I are being evicted from a "trailer park" we own the home, but rent the land. They gave us until the 20th with no warning at all. They said we have failed to fix our deck (caused by water damage that my family and I asked help for multiple times) and to fill in a pond we made in our front yard (we dug the pond after they refused to fix the half assed tar job they did on our driveway without permission. We went up and talked to the manager about it multiple times) what do we do? We were given no warnings, we asked them to fix these problems because its directly their fault.

Would we have any legal standing to fight this?
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 I’m not sure how the pond comes in to play. You’re only renting the land/pad, right? You don’t own those, only the physical trailer itself? If you don’t own the land they have every right to ask you to fill the unwanted pond in.

 The most you might be able to do is buy yourself a little time, depending on how long ago they gave you the notice to be out by the 20th. You’re unlikely to win this though, so you may want to look into alternative parks where you can move your home to. Best of luck!


Title: Friend "borrowed" money for a business, and just learned he did the same with one of my older friends. He signed a note between us that he would pay back the whole thing, and we also went to a notary public, and I think it's safe to say he's thieved us. We're meeting with him tomorrow. Help please

Question: [deleted]

Answer: You guys weren't "robbed" - You loaned money to someone who can't pay it back. Your recourse is to sue them for the money. Keep in mind even if you do that and win, you may have a hard time collecting on the judgement and suing him will come with it's own costs too. Probably worth a shot though, plus you can renew the judgement over time in the hopes that he someday comes into money or get's a job where you can garnish his wages. Answer #2: What does your note say? Is he delinquent under the terms? You can get a judgment against him, but he may not have any assets to pay you anyway. Did you get any security on the note?


Title: My landlord paid for my utilities and is demanding to be paid for them.

Question:
So, in my lease, we the Tennant's pay for all my utilities. When I moved in, the water was in my landlords name and I didnt know that. I setup all of our utility accounts online, and the public ones had me get my first bill to be able to finalize the account setup. Well, fast forward six months, and apperently we have only had water because our landlord had been paying our water bill for the last six months.

So I'm wondering if we are actually required to pay him back? Is it our fault that they paid it for half a year? We were supposed to transfer account ownership, but are we liable for them not closing their account/paying it once we moved in? There is nothing in our lease about paying him for water or other utilities, just that we must pay them.

It's a few hundred dollars of back payments, that he already paid, and is now after 6 months informing us that he has been paying it and is billing us for what he paid the city.

EDIT: I am in Corvallis Oregon, USA

Answer: Yes, you are required to pay him back. You never completed the process you were required to and the lease clearly says that this is something that is your duty to pay for. Failure to do so will likely result in eviction and being sued for the amount owed.


Title: Should I sue Lowes?

Question: So today in Lowes I was getting acid for a toilet clog. They come in a plastic protective bag. As i was walking to the front to check out i felt a burn in my side and it was the acid which had ate through my shirt and was eating in to my skin. I have 3 burn marks in my side, What should I do? This is in South Carolina

Answer:
 Did you seek medical attention?

Pretty sure you're not supposed to carry that stuff in your shirt pocket.


Title: [OK] How can I get mental help without admitting my guilt to multiple crimes?

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Call 211 for referrals for counseling.

Unless you are a danger to yourself or others, everything in counseling is private. They don't report past crimes and are unlikely to report animal abuse at allAnswer #2: Your behavior is very disturbing and it is good that you are able to recognize this and seek help.  You are at a very crucial age for these types of behaviors to emerge and develop and you definitely need to do something about this now.

Try starting with your school nurse or counselor.  Explain to them in generic terms that you need mental health counseling but that you also need privacy.  They probably aren't the people you want treatment from, but they may know of resources in your area and can point you to places that can help.

Maybe you can research some mental health professionals (psychiatrists, psychologists or counselors) in your area that specialize in treating adolescents.  On your next free afternoon, try dropping in on one of the offices and telling them your story and seeing what they can do to help.  If you are ever in immediate need of help, don't be afraid to go to an emergency room on your own.

See if there are any teen crisis centers in your area - they might be able to help.  You're doing the right thing - please follow through and seek help.  No matter what consequences you fear for being "found out" by your parents, or whomever, just remember that it will be much worse if they hear it from a police officer after an arrest.Answer #3: Poor cat and dogs.


Title: Typo on Apartment Lease

Question:
Hi All,
So me and the SO live in Missouri. We recently moved in together, and I migrated from a 1br to a 2br in the same building. When we went to go sign our new lease, the lease read something like this (numbers are simply for reference):

**************
Total Rent shall be $1000 per month due on the first.
     Rent Breakdown:
          Base Rent: $900
          Pet Rent: $35
          Storage Rent: $35
          Parking Rent: $150
          Total: $1000
*********

The person that drafted the lease obviously messed up, or simply could not add. The rental company is now saying we owe back pay, as well as they want us to pay the "correct amount".

My question is, are we legally obliged to pay the "correct amount" even though they drafted the lease incorrectly? The person at the rental company is telling me "State law case law for many years sides with the intent and not the typo". Is this true? I need some advice!

Thanks in advance!

Answer:
 When there's a scrivener's error on the contract, courts will try to determine the intent of the contract.

What did you all agree on before signing the lease? If they said $1,000 per month, then there's a good chance that they're stuck and have to settle for $1,000 per month. But if that wasn't the agreement, then you'll likely have to pay the full $1,120.

Alternatively, you could try to get out of the lease by convincing a judge that you relied on the typo to your detriment. Your case would be stronger if the lease said total amount $1,000 in two separate places, like your post suggests.

(Edited for typos.)Answer #2: Obvious typos and picking errors are generally not enforceable. It goes both ways too. If they accidentally put a "2" in front of that thousand, they couldn't necessarily go after you for that either. So yes, I'd say you owe that money.


Title: My friend got scammed. Our school police said there was nothing he could do.

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Your friend tried to defraud the apple store out of four iphones which he sold for $800. Answer #2: > and when my friend tries to cancel the contract, he finds out that you need to return the phone in order to cancel the contract.

HOW did he not see this coming? Did he just think the phones were his?


Title: I'm currently serving on a (US) Grand Jury, but I feel as if due process was skewed to benefit the defendant in a certain case. I want to speak out but I'm not sure of the legal ramifications.

Question:
Throw away because I'm not sure how illegal it is to talk about this sort of thing. For this purpose I'm keeping my location and situation as vague as possible.

 I'm aware that I signed a sort of contract that basically says  "don't talk about any of this or else" and that's fine, I guess. At the time I was ready and willing to serve, in fact I was very excited. But now I just feel sick of the whole process, especially what went down last month.

Long story short, I'm serving on a Grand Jury for the county I live in. Last month we had a case labeled "Death Investigation" which I thought was strange, there were no official charges, even the defendants name was left out of our case list. We had a situation where a police officer went to the wrong house for a domestic disturbance and ended up shooting and killing an innocent man. They brought in an investigator who gave us the details and we were encouraged to ask questions regarding the situation, except I noticed that he would continue to step out of the room whenever a certain line of questioning would go down because he had a "phone call." From my understanding, it was (at least) a case of criminal negligence. What went down should not have gone down, period. Someone made a fatal mistake and now someone is dead. In my opinion, someone should be held responsible, regardless of position.

But because of the lack of formal charges, and for what I believe to be deliberate misinformation, the case was thrown out.  I was the only one who voted true bill. No one else in the grand jury was willing to even discuss the possibility of pressing charges despite the concept of "probable cause". I wish I spoke up more, I understand it was my duty, but I really was the only one who grilled the investigator and my courage was spent at that point. I regret that the idea of criminal negligence didn't come to me until after the fact, but this is what I mean by deliberate misinformation. Normally they take the time to discuss what the charges mean to the law and what is required to press charges, but in this case there were no charges. Just "Death Investigation." If they had brought up the idea of criminal negligence in the briefing, I am positive charges would have been pressed. Instead of giving us the facts, however, the prosecutor used his time to instill sympathy for the defendant.

It's become a relatively big case in my area, and I understand because of double jeopardy there is no possibility of pressing charges again. But the victim's wife is pushing for a civil suit, and I saw her lawyer speaking on the news about the case being dropped by the grand jury. I want to speak out about what happened but I'm pretty sure the documents I had to sign in the beginning were for this very situation. Besides, I'm not sure if he'd be able to use any of the information I have to share about the Grand Jury situation because of some sort of legal fine print I have no knowledge in. I hate that I feel as if justice has not been served, and I want to speak out. This whole situation feels slimy to me and I feel like I should speak out, despite the fact that I could potentially be held responsible for doing so. It's my legal duty not to, but isn't also my duty as a citizen to speak out when I feel like the system has failed?

Is there anything I can do in this situation? Could I be of any help to the family's lawyer? Could I be any help in general, or does what happen in the Grand Jury stay in the Grand Jury?

Thank you.

Answer:
 Took me 2 seconds to find the case you're talking about. You probably want to delete this - you've already ruined your chances of even remotely trying to do anything about it. Answer #2: You can literally go to jail for posting this. I'd delete it. Answer #3: You should not have posted this. I'd also note that I think you're a bad person for violating the trust of your fellow grand jurors and possibly exposing them to harassment and danger.

>State grand jury proceedings are secret, and a state grand juror shall not disclose the nature or substance of the deliberations or vote of the state grand jury....Any person violating the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding Five Thousand Dollars ($ 5,000.00), or by a term of imprisonment not exceeding one (1) year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

https://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/2014/title-13/chapter-7/section-13-7-29/Answer #4: Delete post.  Find a lawyer and contact them about this.


Title: Got sent some stuff I didn’t order. Now they are saying I owe for it, even though it was allegedly picked up.

Question:
There’s a t-shirt company we order from frequently, and back over a year ago they accidentally shipped us 2500 worth of merch in packages with our company name. Products we did not order. We called them to tell them we received some merch in error, and they said they would send someone to pick it up.

Fast forward a few months and long story short, no one ever came to get it, after some fussing back and forth with them about why we weren’t going to be able to drop the merch off at their nearest location (30 mins away), we received an email that said they would send a carrier to get it, and that the carrier would provide their own labels so there was no need to print one off. Stuck them on the porch, came home the next day, they were gone. (We never have problems with things being stolen at that location).

Now six months later, they are saying they never received them back. The carrier never left any kind of notice of pick up on the porch of any kind of info, but they don’t usually do that’s anyways.
They are asking for the tracking info, but we were never provided that. They are saying if we can’t provide it or proof of delivery, then we will be charged for the products.

Remember, we didn’t order these. They were shipped to the wrong place, with our name on the boxes. We were never given any tracking info. I told her that whoever initiated the pick up should have the tracking information, but she said it didn’t work like that. It’s all just a bunch of bullshit, I really want to just say f it.

Is there any kind of legal precedence for saying businesses cant just send you shit and say you owe for it unless you can prove you sent it back?

Located in Alabama.

Answer: Anybody can "charge" anybody for anything that doesn't mean much. If you get sued, talk to a lawyer. Might be worth talking to one now to see if he will fire off a letter saying to leave you the hell alone.


Title: Can you be arrested for commiting a crime with your blinds open?

Question: So I read this thing that said you cant get in trouble  for public indecency in your home (depending on your state) even if you live in a glass house and everyone else can see you. I was wondering, does this apply to other crimes? Like doing drugs? If I sat in front of a window, and smoked a bong in an illegal state and a cop walked by, are they able to arrest me?

Answer:
 Your house is not a magical anti-crime zone.  If a cop has probable cause that a crime is being committed in your home, they can investigate it and possibly arrest you for it.  Seeing you commit the crime through your wide-open windows would count as "Probable Cause".Answer #2: > So I read this thing that said you cant get in trouble for public indecency in your home (depending on your state) even if you live in a glass house and everyone else can see you.

That thing you read is essentially completely wrong, so your premise is bad.


Title: Other employees with exact same experience and exact same role makes $3-$4 more an hour (CA State)

Answer:
 It's discrimination.

However, what it isn't is illegal discrimination. You're required to be paid at least minimum wage; past this, there's no requirement for them to pay employees equally.

If you feel this is sufficiently unfair, find another job.


Title: Ticket after snow caused me to slide through a stop sign

Question: I barely slid through a stop sign due to the accumulation of snow and was ticketed for running the stop sign. The officer could not see that I had slid because he was facing me head on from about 300 feet away. Do I have any chance of fighting this ticket? Ohio

Answer: When you're on the road, stuff doesn't happen "because of snow." It happens *because you drove beyond your ability in the snow*. You were driving too fast. Answer #2: Maybe.  But do you really want to admit to failing to maintain a safe speed for the conditions?  Because that's another violation you can be ticketed for, and you can be ticketed up to the statute of limitations which is most likely at least a year in your state.


Title: My college professor is suing me for defamation of character.

Question:
I was recently placed on academic suspension for insulting my college professor. I won't go into too much details, but the short story is that he needlessly insulted me in front of the entire class and I insulted him back. The assistant dean placed me under academic suspension, but other students at the college have come and praised me for standing up to him since he has a reputation for insulting students and getting away with it since he's tenured. One girl has started a petition to get red of his tenure and get him fired and I've also taken my own steps.

I looked up his name on Google and I found his mugshot along with an arrest record from back in 1981. He's been arrested for domestic abuse and I decided to take advantage of this. I printed out his mugshot with his arrest details, made several copies, and taped them around the campus with the words "Is this really someone you want to be a professor?" written on them. Several students have praised me for what I did, but the dean obviously wasn't pleased and he called me into his office. The professor was there as well and he blatantly said that he's going to take me to court and sue me for defamation of character.

He can't actually do that, right? Defamation of character means that you're making false claims against someone and smearing them with information that aren't true, but that's not the case here. This man legitimately did partake in domestic abuse, unless of course there's conveniently someone else in our city who just so happens to share his name and also happens to look like a younger version of him. His lawsuit can't actually hold up against me once the court finds out that he did indeed beat his wife and go to jail for it, can it?

Answer:
 Location matters.

Generally speaking, yes, the truth is a viable defence to libel and slander. And even if what you said was demonstratively false, he'd still need to show damages, which it doesn't look like he has.

Non-legal advice. You should really learn to pick your battles. Based on your actions, your college could suspend you indefinitely, which is going to seriously impact your future. If this is the hill you want to die on, that's up to you. But there will be other consequences to your actions. Answer #2: > He can't actually do that, right?

He can.

> His lawsuit can't actually hold up against me once the court finds out  that he did indeed beat his wife and go to jail for it, can it?

Doesn't sound like a super-strong lawsuit, but if you're sued, you'll need to retain an attorney and defend yourself in court.


Title: Parents stole my smartphone that I bought with my own money, sabotaging my social and academic life[SG]

Question: [removed]

Answer:
 The real legal advice for you sans a condescending comment is this: until you’re 18, your parents can pretty much do anything they want. Even if you paid for the phone, they are allowed to take it from you or restrict your access to it.

You have no legal recourse.Answer #2: >My parents being the out-of-touch apes that they were

I see why they confiscated your phone. And no it's not because they are out-of-touch apes rather something to do with how you behave.

>which is almost impossible without my phone.

And why is that? people use a computer to do their homework all the frigging time.

One quick question how old are you?Answer #3: I'll step in here and at least answer the legal question, no you have no recourse as your guardians can remove any non critical thing from your life and as much as you might believe otherwise, having a phone is not critical to you living.  Food, clothes, shelter etc are what you are granted by law, everything else is at the discretion of your parents.

If it makes you feel any better I would have gladly given up a phone when I was your age over what my parents would do to me as punishments.  Those out of touch apes would have me copy the entire newspaper in pen and paper using cursive, everyday, for weeks sometimes.Answer #4: HAHAHAHAHA

No you can't sue to get your phone back


Title: Paid $64,500 to mobile home company, mobile home still hasn’t been built as promised, their asking for me to sign loan documents before house has even started.

Question: On March 28th, my dad and stepmom toured a mobile home lot and decided to put $500 earnest money (held with the title company) down dependent on once our old house sold. On May 4th, my dad closed on our old house and received $115,000 and on May 11th we put a down payment of $64,500 (held with the title company)based on the contract agreement my dad signed to start building the mobile home right away. It is May 29th and the mobile home still hasn’t been started. The company we purchased from is altering their story and saying we have to sign off on loan documents (which is $43,000) before they start building it. The initial agreement was we give them 10% down and they will start building. Keep in mind the mobile home is worth $120,000. My dad feels uncomfortable with the transaction, feels that this may be a fraudulent business practice. He wants to back out , cancel it completely, and look for a new home with the money that they currently took from him. Per the title company agreement, he can cancel from no fault and be refunded the full amount. The company is saying no and will not refund his money saying its too late and he has to sign the lending agreement. Where should he go from here?

Answer: With this amount of money on the line, your dad needs to get a consultation with a lawyer in the area who can read the documents in detail. If your dad's understanding (full refund) is correct, the lawyer can then advise on the best steps to get it back.


Title: rapists rights in tennessee

Question: I have a child concieved from rape. I was in the hospital the night it happened, but i never told anyone I was raped (i slept the WHOLE TIME and had to be woken up to be drug tested i honestly didnt even remember the rape happened) The guy gave me 2 xanex bars and put me to sleep, his mom is claiming she was there and talking about how "fucked up" i was the night i was raped all over facebook & posting pictures of my son from my family's facebook calling him her grandson. People are driving by my house screaming things at me, a man pulled up at my house yesterday asking me if i'm a "bad girl" and asking me where my boyfriend's at. My rapists mom and family is CONSTANTLY harassing me. I don't know what to do. if i press rape charges do i have to prove paternity? Is his mom an accesory to rape since she claims she was there? I never want my son to see any of them in his life and i want all of this to stop.. i dont feel safe having my son at my house anymore. the cars screaming things all drive by at night & i couldnt get liscense plate numbers for any of them so i havent been able to call the cops :/ i'm also a minor right now and a minor at the time i got raped.  I live in tennessee and apparently rapists have rights is that true? sorry my post is all over the place this situation is horrible.

Answer:
 How old are you? Are we talking about statutory rape as well?

In Tennessee it looks like his parental rights *may* be terminated if he is convicted. That will certainly not happen if you don't report.

You should call the police about any harassment, even if you don't have all the plate numbers. Answer #2: First of all, I'm sorry for what you've been through. Make sure you are [getting help](https://www.rainn.org/get-help) and taking care of yourself.

> People are driving by my house screaming things at me, a man pulled up at my house yesterday asking me if i'm a "bad girl" and asking me where my boyfriend's at.

Call the police every time this happens. Every single time. If this is happening regularly, you may have grounds for a restraining order, assuming you know who these people are.

> Is his mom an accesory to rape since she claims she was there?

Not automatically, no. Answer #3: Have you reported this rape to the police? It may have been some time, but the sooner the better nonetheless. Also contact RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) their 24/7 number is 800.656.4673, also https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline.

From what you're saying, you seem hesitant to make a police report based on what you perceive to be lack of evidence.  Don't let that stop you.  Anytime you feel a crime has been committed, or may have been committed, you can report that to the police (non-emergency number if some time has passed or to the emergency number if you feel there is an ongoing or immediate danger).


Title: [UPDATE] My friend text me and told me he was going to kill himself- thank you for the responses

Question: I posted here the other day when my friend with a history of mental illness told me he was going to commit suicide and wouldn't tell me where he was. I'm so happy to let you guys know that my friend is alive and doing much better.  I didn't exactly take the advice given here (which was to call 911 immediately) because he told me that if he saw emergency personnel show up where he is, it would escalate and he would take his own life before they got the chance to reach him. I know he is a gun owner (and a history of serious suicide attempts, the most recent being 5 weeks ago) so I didn't want to take a chance. Instead, I got our closest friends and family together to find him so we could at least attempt to deescalate the situation.  I won't go any further with details out of respect for him, but I sincerely appreciate the caring responses I received from you all. I'm so glad this community exists and can help in a time of crisis for someone. My friend is alive and is getting the help he needs.  Thank again everyone.

Answer: If, God forbid, this happens again in the future, you can tell dispatch that he's threatened to kill himself if he sees emergency vehicles, and they'll probably respond silently and park around the corner. The cops know what they're doing. Answer #2: I'm glad your friend is alive. What steps are his friends and family taking to make sure he doesn't kill himself with his guns at a later time?


Title: My management position was "eliminated"

Question:
I started working for a specialty marketplace in NJ March 2017. Started in the deli and quickly proved myself. They moved me to the pizzeria because I have previous pizzeria management experience. The current pizza manager was checked out and I saw an opportunity. The manager left after another pizza guy got canned for drinking on the job. So I was the only one who could do all the prep work and make schedules and make all the pizzas. This was in October. The only other help in the department were counter help. I worked so hard to keep the department running with no support what so ever. I worked 20something days in a row from open till close. There were many many days where I didnt take lunch or even sit down (also I stupidly signed paperwork saying I took breaks), I wanted to make an impression. I was put in a position where I could either take a break or do a batch of dough, and I chose the latter 9 times outa 10. I wanted my department to succeed. I was trying to prove myself because I was young and excited about a new career. After about a month they made me the pizzeria manager. Huge raise, I was elated and proud. But still no help. Eventually they got me a couple days off by having someone from another store come in and run it for a day or 2. My body started to hurt, first started with my ankles then moved to other joints. I let it go until one day I woke up and couldnt walk. This was January I believe. At this point they had moved someone from the bakery to help out in the pizzeria, but it was too late. The damage had been done. When they did xrays on my ankles the doctor asked if I had been running marathons. I said "i dont run unless somethings chasing me".  He said, "well then we have a problem." Rheumatologist lead to pulmonologist and cardiologist and after months of tests I am diagnosed with something called Sarcoidosis. Its an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in the joints, heart, and lungs. Chest xrays showed nodules in my lungs, but luckily nothing in my heart. I couldnt walk for a while and I was put on disability. They dont know the exact cause of sarcoid, but autoimmune diseases generally come out when the body is under immense stress. I truly suffered for months from pain and side effects of the meds. Luckily I responded well to the meds and was on the mend, but this is something that can come back and haunt me any time. While I was gone, they gave the pizzeria responsibilities to the deli manager. Long story short I came back healthy and ready to work in late May. They told me that they eliminated the pizzeria manager job company wide. I checked with my contacts at another store and it was true, they let the other pizza managers go too. I was heart broken, I sacrificed so much to try to get ahead at a stupid job. I cant say for certain that the conditions i was working in caused my sarcoid because the jury is still out on the cause of this disease, but I believe that if they had given me the support necessary to run the department without killing myself, I wouldnt be in this predicament. So they offer me an hourly position in the bakery (20k less a year) and I accepted because i didnt know what else to to do. That was in June. Ive been in the bakery since then making peanuts compared to my management salary and I am CONSTANTLY having to go to the pizzeria and bail them out because theyre understaffed and have no leadership whats so ever. The current pizza guy went on vacation so I had to cover 12 hour shifts and still help out in the bakery. I tell management that I will always help out when I can for limited amounts of time (half days and such) but I was uncomfortable working 12 hour days in the pizzeria, it hurt my body. They kept pushing and pushing and some days I gave in. Last week I worked a 9 hour shift in the pizzeria because the normal guy was sick (wonder why) I give him about 3 more weeks till he drops from exhaustion. So long story short- I work myself until I get sick, come back and my job is "eliminated" company wide because they saved money just having the deli manager do my job. **Until Today I got word that they hired a Pizzeria Manager, I was never given an opportunity to reapply for the position that I fought so hard for. Its hard to explain how i feel right now. I only found out through small talk with someone. The new pizzeria manager is a friend of the deli manager. I dont know what to do but I feel so wronged. Unfortunately a lot of this is my fault. I could have demanded lunch breaks and time off, and maybe i wouldnt have gotten sick, but the thought of my department failing was to much. I wanted to succeed so bad.**

So is it worth it to get a consultation with a labor attorney? I dont even know what to ask for. I brought this on myself but I feel like the management had a responsibility to look out for my well being. They put me in a position where I had to choose between my health and the success of my department. From now on, I look out for myself, because no one else will. I had a final interview with another company today and it went very well. Should get an offer this week. I just feel like a chump and I wish there was something I could do for some closure or recompense.

If you made it this far you're a saint and i appreciate you,

Thank you- DumbPizzaGuy
Topic:
Employment Law

Answer:
 Years ago, when I was at a job I hated but somehow also excelled at I had a therapist tell me that I was killing myself for a job that would replace me in a week if I dropped dead in the office. You may want to think about that.

Legally, you don't really have anything here. They did legitimately eliminate the position and when they added in an equivalent one they were not required to allow you to apply, and honestly it sounds like your medical condition is such that taking the job wouldn't be a good idea anyways.


Title: I ended my lease with my previous apartment 4 months ago, and now they say that the agreement was cancelled because the new tenant's credit check didn't go through and now my credit is being affected because one of the tenants refuses to pay his rent. Help?

Question:
(Southern California/ Long Beach Area) So basically what the title says. I rented out a room with three other roommates and I stayed there for about two years while I was attending college. My mom was my cosigner and basically paid my rent. I moved out about 4-5 months ago after signing my name off of the lease in an "add/delete" form that basically adds the new tenants in and allows me to leave. The managers signed the paperwork along with the rest of the roommates and the new tenants moving in and my mom. The managers said that with this paper we were done and officially off the lease. 2 months later my old roommates get a copy of the paperwork taped to the door with a sticky note saying "canceled" on it because they then found out one of the credit checks didn't go through and they apparently emailed all of us. (I never saw any email and they emailed the wrong email for one of us, despite the fact that she changed her contact info) Now one of the tenants decided to leave last minute without 30 days notice or finding a replacement and refuses to pay his rent which is due in a few days and because of this both mine and my mother's credit is at stake if the rest of the tenants can't find the money to pay the rent. (Which they definitely can't afford) They tried talking to management but they refuse to take any action against the guy leaving because they say hes not on the lease anymore. My old roommate is looking at finding legal action against both the guy who left and the management company because of the mess they made and the fact that they didn't notify us by mail nor did they write up a new contract. But what can I do to help and how can I protect myself and my mother from destroying our credit? I feel really awful because she's only involved in this because of me. Please help if you can! Any advice is greatly appreciated.

TL;DR I signed myself out of a lease but the landlord/management is saying that contract is void because of an error they made and now I'm being held responsible for the new tenant's rent issues and my credit is ruined.

Answer:
 Does the document you have say that being removed from the lease is contingent on this new person qualifying?Answer #2: I feel like your old roommates actually posted here about this exact situation a few weeks ago, prior to the new renter moving out.  Finding that thread here and looking through the answers may give you a starting point.

Once you signed the paperwork and an agent from the property signed it, you were done. I've never seen a property let you walk out of a lease before running the credit of the person you were turning it over to, and if they did, that's on them.

The person who owes the rent is the new renter, who was allowed to move in for two months and was put on the lease officially when the property agent signed off on your add/delete.

You, or your old roomies, really need to get a copy of that add/delete document.

If the property management attacks your credit, you can use that document to challenge it and get it off your report. (Don't do it online, though, use certified mail to the credit bureaus.)


Title: Valet crashed my car and won’t compensate completely for repairs

Question:
Hi everyone, this is my first post so please bear with me.

About 3 weeks ago I attended an event that used a valet company for parking. While parking my car, one of the employees backed my car into a pole causing severe damage to my bumper. Upon getting my car back and noticing the damage, the employee gave me the manager's contact information and told me I would be fully compensated for the damages. After contacting the manager I was instructed to get two estimates of what it would cost to repair the car both coming to around $3k. The manager then went on to send an appraiser to calculate the cost of damage which they later found to be only $1600. This, however, is not enough to actually fix the damage that was done which was entirely the companies fault. The manager refuses to pay more and now I have no clue what I should do as I don’t think it’s fair that I’d be responsible for paying $1400 for an accident that was not fault. My car was like new before the incident having no damage to the bumper prior to the accident. Do I need to get a lawyer? Is the company allowed to pay so much less than would be required to fix the car?

For further reference, I am a college student in California.

Answer: Report what happened to your insurance company and give them all the information for the valet company. Let them sort it out on your behalf.Answer #2: If you have full insurance coverage then contact them and let them sort it out. If you only have liability insurance then you will need to sue them yourself in small claims for the cost of repairs.


Title: Landlord withholding security deposit despite agreeing to small cancellation fee for early termination

Question:
I will try to keep this as short as possible, though it feels like a long story.  This involves my tenancy at an apartment in **Central Connecticut**. All editing done to the provided photographs is solely to protect identities.

For my first job out of college, I accepted an 18-month temporary position with a company near Hartford with an end date of December 2015.  I moved in July of 2014 on a 1-year lease, and as that lease drew to a close, I was contacted by the landlord about renewal. At the time, I actively was looking for a job in New York City, and expressed my concern with committing to a long-term lease when I could need to move out at any time.  The landlord allowed for a lease-termination date of October 1st, and in addition suggested adding a clause to the lease which would allow for early termination for a smaller fee, in this case $350 (rent was $710 for the previous lease, $725 for the new one, and my security deposit was $710).

That email conversation which took place at the end of May can be seen [here](http://imgur.com/a/DomXf)

As she instructed, I added an additional page with a cancellation clause to the end of the lease and signed it with the understanding that she would sign it as well.

The copy of the lease (pictures taken from my phone) can be seen [here](http://imgur.com/a/wDHqw)

On June 12th, I was informed by the landlord that my apartment had been rented for October and that she had told the new tenant that I was moving out October 1st (this becomes important later).

In late July, I got the good news that I had gotten a permanent job in NYC.  I informed the landlord that I would be moving out at the end of August, and was willing to pay the $350 fee which she acknowledged and accepted.

Throughout the process of moving out I was very communicative and she was very responsive concerning me moving out at the end of of August.  She also said multiple times that I would be getting my security deposit (presumably minus the $350 fee) within 30 days of moving out.

Now the bad part:  two days ago (after waiting over a month from our last correspondence) I texted the landlord to find out when I would be getting the deposit as it had been over a month.  She now claims that she is keeping it because I said I was moving out October 1st (remember that text in June?) and that I owed September rent.

The full extent of our text conversations concerning me giving notice of moving out early, getting the deposit back, and her now refusing to return the deposit is [here](http://imgur.com/a/feScv)

The text message she is hanging her hat on is [here](http://imgur.com/a/TdHaM)

I pointed out that we had a cancellation clause in place for a smaller fee, but she has since failed to respond.  She also did not answer her phone when I tried to call later in the day.

**My claim:**

* The cancellation fee was specifically in place to protect me from losing my full deposit if I were to need to move out early.  She suggested it and she agreed to it.
* She was well aware that I was moving out at the end of August as evidenced by our text conversations.  She acknowledged and confirmed the notice I gave on July 30.
* Multiple times she assured me that I would be getting the deposit back, and only now is changing her story.

**My concerns:**

* I do not have proof that she signed the early termination addition. If she were to try to claim that she never signed it, her emails show that she was acting in bad faith, but I don't know how much weight that holds.
* I did not submit "written" notice that I was moving out.  From what I understand, text messaging can constitute written notice if the messages are acknowledged and confirmed, though I honestly am unsure about this.

My question is: Do I have a case for a small claims lawsuit?  The exact purpose of negotiating the termination fee into the lease was to prevent this sort of thing from happening.  I know that I am in the right in terms of the spirit of what we agreed to, but I am concerned if the evidence I have is enough to take her to court.

This entire situation is making me sick the past two days, so I am hoping to get some answers as to whether or not I can stick it to her in court or if I need to take the loss and erase any trace of this dreadful person from my life.

Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer: You have excellent documentation of everything, it would seem. Send a demand letter in writing, by certified mail, demanding return of your full deposit within ten days per the agreement evidenced by the communications you have documented, or else you will be filling a small claims suit. Often a clear threat in a scary looking certified letter will goad deposit thief landlords into action, but if not then you'll have to follow through and file your suit. Good luck and keep us updated.


Title: Trying to get out of Gold's Gym 2-year contract

Question:
I was really dumb by signing up for a golds gym contract on Nov 30. The lady that helped me was so incredibly rude by talking on the phone about some previous employee for 10 minutes as I was waiting to sign the required bits of the contract. I knew I should've just walked out of there in the moment but I wanted to give the gym a chance because the rest of the staff were pretty friendly, the gym was nice, and I had been meaning to get back into the gym lifestyle. Since I don't have a credit card at the moment, I used a debit card (I know...) and thought "yeah I'm sure it'll be worth it I guess". Even if the upfront fee was $134.99 and monthly payments are like $35. Yeah, I'm not very smart with my money so I'd like to start being smart by fixing mistakes like this.

So I'm asking you guys for help on how to get out of this contract. I'm based in the Bay Area of CA, so if any state laws could save me, that would be great. I'm just so disgusted by the greed this company has and I just wished I knew about this before signing up in the spur of the moment. This has definitely been a learning experience and I will absolutely be sure to never do anything as dumb as not fully reading/understanding the contract entirely.

Appreciate all the help I can get and I'm more than willing to explain any questions that could help me get out of this contract. I'm not moving or injured, just a dumb Redditor who didn't realize how gym contracts screw people over :(

Answer:
 >I'm just so disgusted by the greed this company has

What greed would that be? Do you mean the membership fees that are charged in order for the business to generate revenue? Which is what businesses are usually aiming for - a profit.

What does the contract say about termination?


Title: Unexpected and possibly accidental inheritance from ex-wife (Idaho)

Question:
Just got notice of this yesterday and am pursuing actual legal advice from a real lawyer, but just wanted to see if any commenters here might have any thoughts.

I got divorced 7 years ago. My ex-wife did not remarry and has never been close with her family. She died about a month ago after a ~6-month battle with leukemia. Yesterday I received a letter from the lawyer handling her estate telling me that I am still listed as the beneficiary on her two retirement accounts (one from her own employment and one inherited from her father when he died).

The letter points out (correctly) that the decree of divorce specifically awarded those accounts to her and my retirement account to me, and states that "the failure to make a change to the noted beneficiary was an over-sight by the deceased". It further claims that "Idaho case law clearly addresses the right of the Estate to the proceeds of the insurance/retirement accounts in such a case as this." but includes no case reference. The letter requests that I "immediately provide to [the brokerage firm holding the accounts] a clear and unambiguous release of any claim to the above noted retirement accounts."

My first thought is that the divorce decree is irrelevant because she did receive full ownership of the accounts as decreed, had 7 years to change the beneficiary on the accounts, and furthermore had 6 months advance notice to get her affairs in order before passing.

I will not be immediately sending the requested letter, as I need a little time to understand exactly what is going on here. The letter from the lawyer concludes with "The alternative is the filing of a declaratory relief action in the Probate matter to obtain a determination of the rights of competing claims to the proceeds."

Thoughts/opinions/suggestions/comments appreciated. Thank you.

#Edit:
Thank you all who have replied. I'm learning a lot. And apologies for taking so long to get back into the discussion; some days at work are just too hectic for me to get to reddit and today was one of those days.

First, to answer the questions which seem to be on point: 1) No children whatsoever are involved. Neither of us have ever had any. 2) The accounts are described as a "Traditional IRA" and a "Roth Inherited IRA". I don't know if that's enough information to be helpful.

Now, on to the stuff that I left out because this isn't /r/relationships but people seem to want to know anyway:

When she found out she was terminal, she contacted a long-time mutual friend (now known as Bob) to be the executor of her will. During that time she told Bob "the most important thing is that my mother get nothing". I didn't ask Bob if she mentioned her brother and sister, but I can tell you that for the 10 years I was with her I met those two on exactly one occasion: when their father died and we all had to deal with liquidating his estate. It was ugly. They fought the whole time, with one even changing the locks on the deceased father's house so the other two couldn't get in.

Bob did tell me that she kept a picture of me & her on display in her living room right up until the end, even though she & I did not maintain contact after the divorce. So even though Bob said she didn't mention me when discussing the will (while restating that she was really focused on her mom getting nothing), it would not surprise me at all if she would prefer me to get this money rather than her brother and sister. There is no other family in the picture.

When Bob got word that she had passed he contacted her lawyer to start dealing with the will, and found out that she had changed it and he was no longer executor -- that duty had been passed to the woman who rented the spare room in her house, who as I understand it she has known for maybe two years, but who did act as her defacto caretaker for her final few months. According to Bob, the housemate gets the (very nice) house, "and basically everything".

Now back up 7 years to when we got divorced. Based on straight reading of Idaho divorce law I could have left her with basically nothing except for those retirement accounts, because all other significant assets were mine before the marriage. But I didn't want to be that guy who leaves the ex with nothing. So I told her we could sell the million dollar house to which she had no solid legal claim, and I'd split the proceeds with her after paying off the mortgage. She would walk with a little over $400k in cash. She was pissed and said she would take everything and leave me with nothing. Her lawyer eventually convinced her, literally the minute before the gavel was to fall to start the divorce trial, that if she didn't take my offer she would be the one with nothing and she should stop taking bad advice from scorned women on the internet and just take what was basically a huge gift and move on. So she did.

So when I got the letter yesterday saying that I was still listed as the beneficiary on those retirement accounts, I thought "Hmmm, maybe this is a way for me to get back ~1/3rd of the dough I gave her that I didn't have to -- that would be kinda nice." My financial situation is not nearly as strong as it was then. While I don't "need" the money it would make a significant difference in my life right now.

If it will require me to instigate a lengthy and ugly legal battle against her estate, I won't bother. But if the situation is more likely to default to me receiving the money and it would be up to her housemate to instigate proceedings against me to try to get it, yeah, I might let that happen rather than just pre-emptively sign a letter giving up an extra chunk of cash to this woman who basically hit the lottery by renting a room and taking care of a sick woman for a few months. I await advice from the Idaho probate lawyer I've contacted. That will be the final determining factor.

Thank you again. This has been educational.
Topic:
Wills Trusts and Estates

Answer: I believe Idaho has a revocation of nonprobate assets upon divorce statute. I can't find it as the numbering seems a bit different from the Uniform Probate Code, but it should be around 2-804 for those so looking. Answer #2: At least in the life insurance industry, if the beneficiary is not changed after a divorce, etc, the mistake is attributed to the policyowner, and the beneficiary remains regardless of the current relationship.  Answer #3: Those assets are not part of her probate estate and should transfer to you as a matter of law as the listed beneficiary. The attorney handling her estate might kick up a fuss, but as far as I know he/she can't do anything about the transfer of those assets. Answer #4: If she wasn't close to her family, she might not want them to have it. How about you write the lawyer a letter offering to donate the money to Leukemia research (or another charity you know she would care about) in her name?


Title: Signed Contracting agreement using my LLC, Contracting company now wants me to sign client NDA as an individual

Question:
I have an LLC and I work for a contracting company. The initial agreement, titled "Independent Contractor Agreement" was made between the LLC and the contracting company.  The contracting company places me with their client companies to work for.  The client company has a "Non-Employee worker agreement" which I signed with my LLC then sent to my contracting company to forward to the client company.  The contracting company has come back to me requesting that I sign their client company's "Non-Employee worker agreement" which is mainly a confidentiality agreement as myself/an individual, stating that the client company does not have a relationship with my LLC, and naming a company they do not have any agreements with can majorly delay my onboarding process as they have a stringent vendor approval process.

&#x200B;

Should I insist on signing the client company's "Non-Employee worker agreement" with the LLC or just comply with their request and sign as an individual?  By signing as an individual would I be giving up significant legal protections?

Answer: Keep it to the LLC.  They're employing your LLC, and not you directly.  They're trying to penetrate your liability shield and you should protect that.


Title: My Father passed, ex-spouse may be listed as beneficiary on pension, I've furnished a divorce certificate but now they want to see a separation agreement. Please help!

Question:
Hello! My situation is confusing and difficult so I'm hoping someone can help me in anyway with advice.  Here's what I know:

* I live in the US but my father lived and passed away in New Brunswick, Canada.
* My ex step-mom and my dad have been divorced for 6 years.
* She was listed on his home.  They bought it together.  So it seems the house is just going to her.
* He did not have a will that we know of or can obtain.
* The pension company seems kind of daft.  They asked me about my dad's spouse and how they could send her information.  I told them he did not have a spouse and that he had been divorced for 6 years.  They asked me to provide proof.  I obtained the divorce certificate from a city clerk.  They said they also need a separation agreement.

Is there anything I can do to obtain the separation agreement without getting my ex step-mom involved? I should mention that my ex step-mom is the conniving, ill-motives type.  So the least amount of involvement I need to have with her the better.

Why is this pension company putting the burden of proof on me to provide the separation agreement? Aren't they going to have to obtain it themselves?

Answer: Where is the pension located that may be the problem. The burden isn't on you, but if you want all the benefits it behooves you to solve this. They have no onus to move quickly on this and can just pay you a portion and hold the rest awaiting the spouse to contact and/or you take legal action.


Title: Is is still indecent liberties with a child if the child was 16, not under 16?

Question: [deleted]

Answer: Even if it doesn't, unwanted sexual touching is still a crime.


Title: Can I pursue perjury?

Question:
First of all, yes I finally did get a lawyer.  I'm asking here because emails to lawyers are expensive and if it's not worth pursuing I save the money by asking here.

My wife recently filed for divorce and in the paperwork there are several things she is lying about such as how much I make, her spending habits (she claimed 800 a month on food and 142 on clothes) and situational things such as that I don't feed or change my son (I have pictures, videos, and witnesses which all say otherwise).  Can I get her for perjury on these things?

Answer:
 You cannot "get" her for perjury - if those charges are ever filed, they will be filed by a District Attorney.

You'd better focus on proving the real situation and on getting the best outcome possible in your divorce proceedings.Answer #2: Let your lawyer handle everything. A difference in memory is not perjury. A divorce can take a while so you might as well as lay back and let it run it's course.


Title: Probation living in a Frat House

Question:
Flagstaff, Arizona
Hi guys, I will be going on probation effective the thirteenth of this month. It is deferment case so if I successfully complete it will be dropped to a misdemeanor. I am on low risk probation which means I only have to see my probation officer once a month. Two questions;

Obviously I know there is not supposed to be any alcohol in the residence, but I read if my roommates keep their doors locked they wont search them.

Secondly, there might be parties Friday and Saturday nights, I will not be attending them and will be studying in the library during these times. Will my PO be doing house searches as late as 10:30?

Answer: Maybe you should communicate your concerns with your P.O.


Title: Jumpstart Attempt Gone Wrong

Question:
Hey folks hoping you can drop a little knowledge on me - this took place in the Baltimore, Maryland USA area.

My Camry is the little engine that could, but what it cannot do is sustain the headlights being on for too long with the car off - made that mistake when I got distracted leaving the car. So I needed a jump.

My cellphone provider through an insurance company has a cool program for customers to access some type of roadside assistance, 4 time in a period, up to a certain benefit amount each use. So I call them up and after 1 or 2 cancels on me I finally get someone enroute to jump my car.

The company sent out to jump my car seems to be a 3rd party dispatcher type of service. A person drove up in their vehicle and pulled out a portable jumper. I say hello and I go ahead and open my hood and let the person work, standing on the inner portion of the driver's side door that I had open.

While standing there, something catches my eye, a small fire had started and I tell the person 'assisting' me that he had the wrong cables on the wrong terminals. He says an expletive and prompty reverses the cables and asked me to try starting the car.  Now before his help I was able to get my check etc light, instrument panel lights and the clock on, but now everything was dead dark.

He suggests we wait for a few more seconds with the cables on the battery to see if that would help but it definitely didn't. After that he gives up and asks me to sign something on his phone to which I refused. He said it doesn't really mean anything other than I confirm that he had come out but I told him I'd rather not make any moves until I talk with these companies because now there's a problem that I didn't have before.

The dispatching company does not have a website I have found out, only a customer claims line that asks the caller to leave a message and to wait a few days to receive a call back.

After talking with my cellphone company, both my personal insurance and the roadside assistance providing insurance company, they all suggested I call the dispatching company as it was their person they sent out who caused the issue and that they should have some type of insurance policy that would cover this issue. All of this took place in March and I have yet to hear back. I even tried replacing the battery to see if maybe that would fix the issue, but it didn't. What is it that I do now? Is there any specific legal procedure that I need to persue to have some type of resolution?

Answer: If you have applicable coverage on your car, let your insurance handle.  Your insurance should pay subject to the deductible and then go after the at fault party.  If you have no insurance that applies, you need to file suit against the at fault party.  I would sue the cell phone company, the insurance company that you went through with the cellphone company, and the actual company that came out to assist in small claims court.  You need to have your car checked out by a mechanic to determine the damages and the cost to repair, as this is the amount of damages you can seek.Answer #2: Not of much legal help here, but have you checked the fusible links?  These are normally run between the battery and the fuse panel, or between a main fuse and the fuse panel.  They are designed to blow if any over current condition happens, in this case a RP that put a dead short on the battery.  They look like normal wires with very thick insulation.


Title: Using a garage as spare bedroom

Question:
Hey friendos! My girlfriend and her mom are dealing with a couple of awful roommates and I remembered you guys were super swell at these kinda things! Sorry ahead of time for the lots of words!

Soo her mom has been renting, while they are on the actual lease. She has been there for 2-3 years while the roommates have been here about a year longer. Her mom has the downstairs master and my girlfriend(17) is living in the garage. It used to be used as a daycare room, has a window to the outside world and besides storage clutter is perfectly liveable.

The roommates (well only one actual pays for anything) are an older lady, not sure if a senior or not, and her two adult daughter. The younger of the two is 26 and has a child who is two as well. Grandma is downstairs in the second bedroom, mom and kid are upstairs in the bedroom there and the older daughter is on the couch. She has always been on the couch and while given an option to move awhile back with an old fling refused so that she could 'babysit'

They have two cats, my girlfriend and her mom have 4.

I stay with my love, less then 3 weeks at a time, and have a very well behaved dog. Totally house trained and silent. Of all the cats, theirs are loud and aggressive while one of my girlfriends cats is fiesty, though doesn't appear or act abused like the roommates.

The roommates are volatile and bitchy on their best days, constantly arguing with each other and cursing at the baby to vent, he is crying constantly unless me and my lady hang out with him. Saying "fuck you" is very common towards him, and the three obviously hate each other.

Forgot to mention my girlfriends mom doesn't only pay the majority of the rent but CONSTANTLY covers late bills for the house, including Comcast and water not to mention tons of favors she is not compensated for.

We are afraid my girlfriends mom is being taken advantage of due to her kind hearted nature and recent hard times, including the passing of my girlfriends father a few months ago and past homelessness due to the housing bubble pop.

EDIT:;;

Located in Santa Rosa

Also forgot to mention that landlord is chill and owns the condo being leased, of the two people paying the bills my gfs mom is clearly the more competent and is not only a single mother and widow but has good credit

Question is a two part-er to start off:

1) is it legal for my girlfriends mom to use the bedroom as her daughter's room? And what about the couch dweller, where does the law lie with that?

2) the roommates (at least two of them) are on the lease, but have refused to put my girlfriends mom on the lease. What about that?

Answer:
 Just a quick check here.  We are talking about a two bedroom house with seven people, six cats, and a dog living in it much of the time?

Your girlfriend and her mom aren't on the lease, they should give notice and move out as soon as possible.  This sounds like a terrible situation, the law isn't going to solve it, moving out will.


Title: Are there any laws pertaining to Selling food that used to have mold on or near it?

Question:
So walmart has recently implemented a new rule in my store where we have to take out molded produce in a container, wash the produce that didn’t have visible mold and put the ones that didn’t look too bad back on the floor(and throw away the bad produce)

For example, we get a lot of moldy 1lb containers of Strawberries. We have to open up the container, take the moldy strawberries out and wash the good ones and put them back on the floor.

Aside from being absolutely unethical, are there any laws regarding this practice as Illegal? It feels very wrong to put something that contained mold back on the floor for people to buy and get sick from.

Answer:
 That's... That's just basic produce handling. You remove the bad items. If any food that was with moldy food had to be tossed, our food waste issue wouls be so much worse then it is. Berries mold on the plant too, do you think the while row is contaminated then? Answer #2: So you're taking the bad strawberries out so they won't get sold with the good strawberries?

That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

What makes you think one good strawberry becomes bad just because it was in the same container as another strawberry that had a bit of mold on it?Answer #3: It’s not even unethical.


Title: Trespassing. No citation. No summons. Now have a warrant

Question: So three of us went hiking we had to cross train tracks to get to an easement drive way that goes through woods. The train police pulled up and took our info. He said we could get a trespassing citation in the mail in one to two weeks. Never got one and never got a summons. But I now have a warrant. And I looked online and it said vandalism/trespassing. I live in Ohio. I never signed a citation. And never got a certified letter for a court summons. Can I get this thrown out? And if so can sue the rail road company?

Answer:
 > I never signed a citation.

Doesn't matter, you don't have to.

> And never got a certified letter for a court summons.

That sucks. When you call the courthouse or the police station, let them know this and that you want to figure this out.

> Can I get this thrown out?

Not on any grounds you are stating. You can ask a judge for leniency.

> can sue the rail road company?

Of course not, they didn't do anything wrong.


Title: [NE] Boss wants to fire me to get more hours for himself.

Question: [deleted]

Answer: He could outright admit "we have too many employees and we're firing the ones that don't have tenure -- and, oh, I don't like you so you're first on that list" and it wouldn't matter. What he's doing is perfectly legal. That you were classmates or friends is irrelevant.


Title: Infraction for being in a park after sunset. Cop said it would be small fee but it turned out to be over $200. I'm a broke college student and thats ludicrously expensive for me right now. Any way I can lower it??

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 They tell you it will be a small fine because they don't want you getting angry at what the fine really is and creating a potentially dangerous situation.

> thats simply outrageous for a student with a minimum wage job.

Your job and student status has no basis on the reasonableness of the fine.

> The fact that I was being written a ticket for being in the park just 10 minutes after closing made me question if park rangers have quotas to meet or if this guy was just a dick?

Maybe he was, you know, enforcing the law. 40 > 30. It's not "30 minutes, but really you get another 10 minutes".

Did you check the official weather records for what time they say the sun went down? Did you admit to him that you agreed it had been more than 30 minutes?Answer #2: Go to the court date, be very polite and respectful to the judge, don't tell him how outrageous the fine is or how what you did wasn't wrong. Tell him it was a mistake and that you realize now you need to make sure you follow the rules. If it's plausible under the circumstances you can tell the judge that you meant to be out by sunset but that you got lost or whatever. If the judge is feeling nice and you have a clean record, he may dismiss the charge, suspend the fine in part or in whole. Or they may not, but this is your best bet. Answer #3: No they don't have quotas

yes he writes them all the time

no he has no reason to know the actual cost

They probably walk the route every night at close and ticket people still in the park.


Title: Contacted an escort for field research on a book I'm writing. She just got arrested. How do I protect myself?

Question:
A few months ago I started writing a novel in my spare time about how the city I live in is actually ran by an extremely well oiled crime machine.

There are a few bits involving prostitutes and I wanted to get a real feel for the character I was creating so I googled *city name* escorts and came across backpage.com and started making calls.

Believe it or not "hello, I would like to ask you a few questions for a book I'm writing" is not something that hookers respond very warmly too. So I posed as a potential client and just showed up with a notebook and pen.

I was asked to leave a few places, but one did answer my questions. And as luck would have it, she ended up getting arrested the other week for trying to recruit a teenager into the world's oldest profession.

So my phone number is definitely in her phone including a few non incriminating texts (just directions). I haven't heard anything from the police yet, but I'm curious as to what I should do if they do come asking why I was over there?

I know this sounds like a classic excuse for every john that's ever been caught with a hooker, but in this case its actually true.

Answer:
 >I was asked to leave a few places, but one did answer my questions. And as luck would have it, she ended up getting arrested the other week for trying to recruit a teenager into the world's oldest profession.

How do you know this happened?

> I'm curious as to what I should do if they do come asking why I was over there?

Decline to answer and hire a lawyer.

>I know this sounds like a classic excuse for every john that's ever been caught with a hooker, but in this case its actually true.

I'm sure you have tons of drafts, research, and notes to back this up.  Hundreds of pages or huge computer files.  So that maybe helpful to your attorney.


Title: Girlfriend locked me out of my own phone.

Question: I purchased an iPhone X. Then let me gf use it. It was still under my apple care etc. But when we broke up and I asked for it back. She logged in a new iCloud account and is refusing to deactivate it. Leaving my phone in “activation lock”. I have several txt msgs and voice mails of her admitting to this. Apple doesn’t seem to be able to do much about it. There is an on going case.  Now I am in possession of the phone. But it’s been rendered useless do to her.  Do I have grounds for small claims ? Damaged property ? It’s a 1600$ phone I paid for out right. And I’m not letting it slide.

Answer:
>Do I have grounds for small claims ? Damaged property ? It’s a 1600$ phone I paid for out right. And I’m not letting it slide.

Probably, but that doesn't necessarily mean that will lead to you getting her to unlock it or being able to collect.Answer #2: You need to contact Apple and be prepared to provide proof of purchase, any receipt with the IMEI should work.  The process takes up to a week.  I have to do this ocassionaly when an employee turns in a company owned phone.


Title: [NYC] Roommate trying to squat & I’m moving out on time

Question:
Posting on behalf of a friend.

She and her roommate are getting booted out of their apartment in Brooklyn. Roommate got into an argument with the landlord (landlord entered apartment with less than 24 hours notice; after argument, wrote them an email saying they needed to leave by Dec 31).

My friend has left the apartment but when she went back to check on things, roommate has not packed at all. My friend thinks roommate is going to try and squat past the end of the month and is freaking out about potentially getting an eviction notice attached to her name.

The tenant legal aid lawyers I can find are closed on the weekend; anything else she can do to help herself out right now?

Edit: just saw in NY there’s no notice for landlord entrance, but the main question is, is there anyway for my friend not to get jammed up because of her roommate?

Answer: Since the lease is terminated, your friend should write a letter, indicating that she has complied with the landlord's termination notice and has completed her move out, and return the keys to the landlord.  Your friend should also take pictures of the space to have a record of the state of the apartment at the time she left, in case any subsequent damage arises after her departure.


Title: Got pulled over for a 1st offense, a month later, my license is suspended?!?

Question:
Sorry, forgot to mention this is in Rhode Island.
So, about a month ago I got pulled over for having my phone out while driving.  The officer took my information, and told me "something will come for you in the mail".  A few days later, I got a letter which said it was my 1st offense, and a $0 fine.  Whew, I knew being a good driver would pay off.

Well today, I got two letters.  One says my license is suspended for "IND" for "FAIL APPEAR/PAY", with a $139.25 fee due.  The other says my license is suspended for 1 Month, for "DRIVE RECORD-COURT ORDER" with a fee of $0.  I never received any letters or notification between the these two.  So obviously something isn't adding up here.

What should my course of action be, and what are my likely outcomes?

I've only been pulled over on one other occasion; the officer saw it was my 1st offense, wrote me a little ticket which said something along the lines of the 1st offense letter I received in the mail, and that was the end of it all.

Answer: Your location is important. Do the letters have any way to appeal explained within them. Basic suggestion would be appeal it. It may be a clerical error of you had a fine $0 that you never paid, or some other error you need to get in front of a judge to get your license back


Title: [WA] My housemate blocked my car in the driveway and refuses to move his car. What are my options?

Question: My housemate parked his car directly behind me in the driveway so now I can't move my car. He refuses to move it. It's been like this for over 12 hours now. What are my options?

Answer: When I lived in a shared house the rule was if you blocked someone in, you left your car key on the table by the front door. Unfortunately, theres no cure for being a cunt


Title: My lease specified that I needed to sign up for Gas services but...

Question: I never did.  Yet, somehow I still have hot water.  I think this is the only thing I use gas for.  Should I say anything to my landlord?

Answer:
 If you are using a service but not paying for it, eventually, someone will find out and they will come looking for that money.

A clerical mistake or oversight, which looks to be the case here, does not absolve you of your financial responsibilities. You will eventually owe that money.


Title: I'm a photographer and I want to do nude art photos and I don't know if my state is ok with this, I live in Illinois, obviously this state isn't known for progression.

Question: I'd pay them obviously for the photos just not for the money I make off of them.

Answer: Sure it is legal. You need a local attorney to write your release and explain how to verify age and identification. One under age photo shoot and you will be the prison photographer


Title: Is it against the law to have a child and not report its birth? (USA)

Question: Say a couple moved to a cabin in the woods and had some kids but didn't document them via the paperwork. Is that legal or do you have to report all humans entering the world?

Answer:
 It's a question for state law, but quite uniformly across the states you are required to report births within a particular period. The benefit of maintaining a system of vital records that can record and prove age, lineage and citizenship is thought to outweigh the burden imposed on the public with this requirement. To name an example, in Pennsylvania you must file within 10 days, or face a $50 to 300 penalty (in theory, at least).Answer #2: IANAL -- I kind of feel like more information is needed about this theoretical couple in the woods.

A child without a birth certificate can't get a SSN.  They can't enroll in any kind of school, go to college, or get a legal job.  They will be ineligible for aid.  They won't be able to get a passport, a state ID, or driver's license, which will mean they won't be able to buy vehicles or certain equipment, certain chemicals, or register firearms.  They will have a hard time renting apartments, buying property, or just functioning in general as adults.

With all of the potential problems this poses to the child, it therefore becomes a question as to why the parents feel obscuring the birth is necessary.  Are they in legal trouble?  Are they illegal immigrants?  Are they just off-gridders shunning society?  Are they themselves young people looking to hide a birth due to cultural/family pressures?


Title: Rape victim and question regarding the process

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 No prosecutor in the country is going to forcibly arrest a sexual assault victim and compel testimony over the expressed desires of the victim.

So don't worry about that.  The decision whether or not to proceed is the Prosecutor's, but if you're going to testify that the defendant was not in a competent state of mind he's almost certainly going to lose even if he tries.

And then he gets fired or loses the next election.


Title: Rejected from the hiring process explicitly due to race.

Question:
My friend and I both sent applications to a Chinese company hiring English as a second language tutors in the United States. While my resume objectively had much more going for it in terms of education and experience, I was rejected while my friend was accepted because, quote: “...look Asian and our company isn’t looking to hire any foreign Asians or Asian looking teachers.” My friend is Caucasian. It’s also good to note that I was raised here and English is my native tongue.

I understand that parents of children being tutored in this field have this misconception that only white looking Americans are able to speak native level English, but isn’t it still illegal for the employer to explicitly reject based on race?

Does this law extend to foreign companies hiring in the United States or is it not worth my time? Thank you!

Answer: How did they communicate that? Was it in text, e-mail, writing, etc?


Title: College withholding transcripts due to student owing money

Question: I have a friend who attended a college in New York for a year or two but had to drop out because of financial trouble. The school refused to send her transcripts to the next university she went to because she owed them money and now she has to start over with no credits at her new school. They said they would send them once she had paid back what she owes to the school. This is obviously shitty and imo it should be illegal, but is it? Sounds somewhat like extortion to me. Any info concerning the legality of this would be appreciated :)

Answer:
 100% legal.

They have literally no other means to compel her to pay the money she owes.


Title: (TX) Gender Discriminated Parking

Question:
Hi guys. My work recently enacted a policy that is having people scratching their heads as to whether or not it’s legal and I was hoping you lovely folks could help educate me so I can help educate them. At my work, there is reserved parking for Management. It requires a tag and registration with the company. Because the company is growing so much, we’ve run out of parking for management. The solution that my company decided on was to revoke reserved parking access to male staff members. This has obviously raised questions about the legality.

My management team (mostly female) is pretty upset about this, as obviously we think there could have been better options – voluntary surrendering of parking rights, a staggered schedule, going based on tenure or – god forbid – keep the first come/first serve method we have now.

So from a legal standpoint, is this discrimination or not? Please help to educate me, this is in Texas, a privately owned company with over 500 employees.

Answer:
 Yep... Gender discrimination.  What if they had revoked reserved access to female staff members?Answer #2: This seems to be a clear violation of the law, but the question is how to handle it.  I think the females are in the best position to bring it up.  Since the company is so large, it probably has some sort of legal affairs department.

Alternatively, a man can use one of the parking spots, wait to be fired, and then sue.Answer #3: Is this in a questionable/dangerous area and the company is trying to prioritize safety?


Title: How to challenge a defaulted student loan and erase the damage to my credit?

Question:
Hello all,

I'm in need of some advice. As a recent college graduate, I had thought I rolled all my student loans into one monthly payment using the myGreatLakes service. However, there was one type of loan that was not included, a Federal Perkins Loan (FPL). Apparently this loan had to be paid using a different site (MyCampusLoan). This was completely unknown to me, as to the best of my knowledge, ALL my loans to be paid were compiled into myGreatLakes.

Long story short, I was happily paying the myGreatLakes payments every month on time, as I was supposed to. The FPL meanwhile was not getting paid every month, and defaulted. It defaulted without warning; I did not receive any emails from MyCampusLoan every month, or any notification whatsoever that this loan had gone into repayment, and needed monthly payments. It came completely out of left field. My credit dropped 100 points and I was alerted via an email notification from CreditKarma.

I have since entered into loan rehabilitation for the FPL, but to my current understanding, that giant hit to my credit will still be there after I complete the necessary payment. Is there any way to erase it? Should I speak to a lawyer because I received no warning(s) from MyCampusLoan that my loan was about to default?

What's so frustrating is that the FPL is one of my smallest loans; I can easily pay off the entirety of the loan right now...

Location: MA university within the United States

Any help would be appreciated!

Answer: You agreed to pay the loan. That was all the notice you needed. You didnt pay. The reason is irrelevant. THere is nothing to do but wait out the time until it drops off your credit.


Title: Does Grandpa have any legal standing to take back a large gift?

Question:
Last year, my parents-in-law divorced, and MIL moved in with us for a while. Since my husband and I were just starting out (We live in Oklahoma), her father, hence known as Grandpa (lives in California), gave us a thank-you gift of $25,000, on the conditions that $5000 automatically go to MIL (she was and still is unemployed, got nothing in divorce, Grandpa had even paid for lawyer) and the rest be used on a down payment on a house.
We shopped, picked out, and bought a house. The $20K wasn't quite all we needed for the down payment, but we made it work from our savings. Grandpa filled out a gift affidavit while we were going through the mortgage process.

Now, 11 months later, MIL has moved back in with her parents in CA, and Grandpa is asking for us to pay him $1000/month because he suddenly can't afford to pay for his wife to be in the nursing home. He has a net worth of over $6mil.
We're not really sure why he's asking this of us, but we told him that's not something that is possible. We barely live past paycheck to paycheck, I'm still in college, and now we have a house to maintain.

Does he have any legal way to try to collect this from us? He has never mentioned it being a loan until today, the word has always been gift. We have emails from this time last year, with the word gift in them. If we had known this was supposedly a loan, we would never had taken it. We only felt okay taking it as a gift, because we saw it as "payment" for taking full monetary responsibility for MIL for 7 months.
At what point do we contact a lawyer? We don't really have the money to get one, but he's known to sue people, even his own grandchildren.
Topic:
Wills Trusts and Estates

Answer: A gift is a gift. He can't change the terms retroactively. That being said, this might cause a lot of friction within the family, so it's up to you to decide whether it's worth it to stand your ground. Personally, If it were me, I'd explain that it was clearly a gift, showing evidence if needed, and will be treating it as such. Answer #2: You're totally in the right - a gift is a gift, and he can't change the terms after the fact. Of course, if you stand your ground about it, he's free to change his will, causing you to lose out on a $? share of $6 million dollars. You have to weigh the cost/benefit ratio for yourself, and what your refusal will do to your family, if anything.


Title: We have a right to not testify as a witness against ourselves. Why does this protection not apply when we've been called to testify for/against others?

Answer: Because that's not the right granted.  The right granted is to not incriminate **yourself** - not others.


Title: I had a sexual relationship with a girl, there may have been an age difference of slightly more than 2 years [Victoria, Australia]

Question:
I'm 17 and 5 months, she was around 15 years but I did not actually know how many months, I feel like the age difference was slightly more than 2 years. We go to the same high school together.

Anyways.

Me and the girl had a secret relationship that was unknown by any of her family or friends. We talked on messenger a lot, and met 3 times in total to have sex at my house. She's hooked up with many guys of different ages, and had an ongoing thing with a 23 year old. She's into older guys. (although that doesn't really help anything)

After the second time, her sister found out about our hook-ups through seeing the conversations, and confronted the girl.

The girl came clean about everything and the girl's sister agreed that we should all move on and that I was not to talk to the girl, otherwise I'll face consequences.

Well, as teenagers do, we found another way to talk, not through messenger but instead through instagram direct chats.
Last month, she came over for another time. All was well. We thought we'd evaded all suspicion and that everything would be fine.

Just today, the girls sister messages me, sending screenshots of my own conversations with the girl, and with it, says that they are likely to press *statutory rape charges* against me.

I am completely lost on what to do. There was literally no coercion, or force, or anything like that. I have chat logs of all the times she said she really wanted to come over and do stuff, that she was really eager for everything.
I have logs of her saying that I shouldn't let her sister tell me what to do, and that she wants to keep talking with me.
I have huge paragraphs where she describes all the things she wants to do with me.

*but*

They also have logs where I asked her for a nude snapchat (which she did not send and we agreed that she didn't want to do things like that)

And, the kicker.
They have logs where I talked about illicit substances with her, namely LSD, and the language implied my use of them (although there isn't proof that I used any drugs).

PLEASE HELP ME
I'm so panicky, I wanna just die right now. I'm so sorry for such a huge wall of text.
I just have no idea what to think. Is my life ruined?

TL:DR
I had sex with a girl and there was an age difference of slightly more than 2 years. Her family found out and may press statutory rape charges. Please read the rest of the story though.

I'll greatly appreciate any help, thank you guys so much.

Answer: You block this girl on your phone and all social media.  You never contact her again in any way.  When they press charges you get an attorney.


Title: Neighbor running an un-permitted business in apartment.

Question:
So let me start of by saying, I am probably being a bit petty here, but they have pissed me off on more than one occasion. I have been living in my current apartment for about two years now. It is a house that over the years had more and more additions added on that were turned into apartments. There are 5 units within the building, ranging from 600 sq. ft. to 1400 sq. ft. There is also one "parking lot" which is pretty much a driveway with pull in parking spots along the side. There are no assigned parking spots. The neighbor in question moved into the apartment complex about one year ago. She also happens to be very good friends with my landlord.

The reason I am being so petty about this, is about 8 months ago I was trying to sell my motorcycle. This obviously involved people coming to the apartment to look at it. My neighbor complained to my landlord saying that there were sketchy people coming and going and she didn't feel safe having our address out there like that, and my landlord told me that she wouldn't feel comfortable having strangers come to look at the bike on the property. Pain in the ass, but whatever. I took the bike to my inlaws house and sold it from there.

Less then a month after that, I started noticing a chalkboard with advertising for a yoga studio appearing on our front lawn. After doing a bit of research, this woman is running a full yoga studio out of her apartment, advertising our address on the website. Like I said earlier, we don't really have a full parking lot and their are 5 apartments in the complex. That leaves really limited parking. It has gotten to the point where half the time I have to park in the street, and with snow season coming, it's really grinding my gears. I've tried talking to my landlord, but she just blows it off and doesn't care, as the woman is her friend. Nothing I can really do their, but from my interactions with this woman, and how quickly she started running this studio from when she moved in, I'm willing to be that if their are permits you have to apply for, she did not. That's what I'm coming to legaladvice for. I have no idea if you really even need permits or anything, or firecode regulations or what not.  I don't really want to screw over my landlord on this either, but I'd be willing to bet that the insurance companies don't know that there is a business being run out of the apartment.  Like I said, I know I'm being petty, but the lack of parking after everything else I went through is just the nail in the coffin for me.

&#x200B;

Location is Portland, Maine.

Answer:
 > There is also one "parking lot" which is pretty much a driveway with pull in parking spots along the side. There are no assigned parking spots.

Does your lease include a spot in the lot, albeit unassigned? You can complain to your town about the unlicensed business. It's usually zoning that handles this.Answer #2: I’m sure her appt. bathroom is not ADA complaint
Answer #3: Here's the business licensing information for Portland. Go to town.

https://www.portlandmaine.gov/150/Business-LicensingAnswer #4: Bikers are like the nicest people in the world! I’d rather have them in my driveway than pretentious yoga students.

Anyways, yes, report her! Maybe hosting one on one instructional classes on occasion, sure. But entire classes in an apt? That’s ridiculous. Answer #5: Call your local code enforcement department and let them know that there is a business being run for the residential address, which is generally not permitted.  They will take it from there.


Title: Does landlord have to provide road salt to tenant in New York State?

Question: A friend told me that the landlord is responsible for providing road salt for the sidewalk in driveway.  I can see that being the case if the landlord does snow removal but if the tenant agrees to take care of snow removal in the lease they buy their own.  I do not plan on asking for it to be provided but rather to have a disagreement settled.

Answer: That is completely dependent on the lease. There is no law that says the landlord has to provide salt or snow removal.


Title: [Georgia] Bitten by dog while delivering a pizza to a house, work refused to pay medical bills unless I passed a drug test.

Question: [deleted]

Answer: They can ask you to take a drug test. They can fire you based on the results, or refusal to take a test. You can also sue the home owners for your damages. Have you seen a doctor at all? If you're still in pain months later there may be serious damage.


Title: I've been scammed by a skydiving company and I want to take legal actions against it.

Question:
The thing is that I came to Miami, Florida and felt like trying out skydiving. Checked out this one skydiving center and decided to book a flight.
The flight had to be booked 48hs before.
Paid for it and two days later, I went to the place. The flight was booked for 5.00pm so just in case I arrived 20 minutes earlier.
After doing the paperwork, I was told that I had to wait from 2 to 4 hours. Of course, I waited and after an hour and a half I asked if my flight was ready.

"It's dark already and it'd be illegal to fly now."

Paying for a service and not giving it to me is illegal as well.

The sun was still shining lovingly. (6.30pm)
If I arrived at five, wasn't it obvious that it'd be dark after 2 or 4 hours? Why would they let people book flights at 5?
They don't want to refund. They offered a reschedule but I can't, I'm leaving the country tomorrow.

Please, I'd like to know what I can do to make them fix this and how can I make them pay.
Thanks in advance.
Topic:
Consumer Law

Answer:
 If you paid with a credit card, you could attempt a charge back if they refuse a refund. Answer #2: I hope you paid with a credit card, always pay with a credit card. I had a slightly different but similar run in with a skydiving company in western MA.

They didn't want to issue me a refund for services they didn't provide so capital one took care of it and I washed my hands of the situation. Much less stressful. Answer #3: Huh, I've never done sky diving but only 20 minutes early seems cutting it short. Did the website say to just show up at 5pm? But I imagine if the issue was "you're suppose to show up an hour early for your flight to do all the pre flight steps, so you were late and missed the flight" they'd have said so and you'd have mentioned it. Answer #4: First, remove the company's name. Identifying info is a nono here.

Why did you have to wait? Was it a weather condition? Did you pay the full amount up front or a deposit?

It sounds like the plane was grounded after a certain time because the pilot didn't have the certifications to fly instruments-only/at night. That isn't a scam, that's FAA regulations. Since that flight can run ~ 2 hours and it was 6:30 that seems reasonable.

You'll probably lose any deposit you made (as part of the paperwork given/your agreement when you signed up).


Title: [Ontario, Canada] Accepted a Christmas job and then broke my wrist, can they rescind the job offer?

Question:
To make a long story short, I signed for the job a couple weeks ago with a November 1st start date.  I'm in a brace until November 7th and then after that I'll be able to do 99% of the job with the 1% being unable to climb ladders to grab products (they had to put a small metal plate in and my Doctor said that won't be fully healed for 12 weeks, so I can't grab heavy product or anchor myself on the ladder with that arm).

Now the manager is trying to rescind the offer because "scheduling will be a nightmare" if I can't be left alone (when would a temp ever work alone?) even though the ladder is only used sparingly and most product that is up above is also in the back room.

Is this legal?  My understanding is once I sign the job offer, they cannot discriminate based on physical injury, especially since I can still do the fundamental parts of the job (work the till, help customers, stock shelves, clean, etc.)

Answer:
 If I were your employer, I would think that being able to retrieve products from shelves would be a *critical* component of your job. Yes, I'm not allowed to discriminate based on a physical injury, but I'm still allowed to discriminate based on my employees' ability to perform their job.

Accommodations only work if they are reasonable for both sides.

Do me a favor and see if your job offer includes a job description. If "climbing a ladder", "retrieving products" or "lifting objects". Usually, the Job Requirements would be understood as critical components of your job. Are you unable to perform any of those tasks?


Title: [CA] My rapists mother might be suing me for "lying", can she do this?

Question: When I was fourteen I was raped by my cousin and I never told anyone. Years later I was diagnosed with PTSD after sharing the information with my psychiatrist. My cousin is 8 years older than me and recently moved into my grandmothers house and so for my own safety I told her what happened, I asked her not to tell anyone and within a week everyone in the family knew. My cousins  mother is furious with me for "lying" and insists she is taking me to court because I am using it to "control my grandmother" by asking her to move him out of the house and away from me and "defaming" my cousin. I have no evidence he did anything to me except a picture of his genitals he sent me at the time. Can she actually sue me for telling my grandmother this?

Answer: You cousin’s mother can’t, because she wasn’t injured. Your cousin could, but it would be a bad idea because then you’d get to find out lots of stuff in discovery. (And the photo of the genitals would come out in court and he’d be in real trouble.)Answer #2: Make backup copies of that picture.


Title: Received an e-mail saying FBI and police are monitoring my messages

Question: So yesterday I received an e-mail, which was sent to 5 other addresses as well saying that my conversations and pics with "so&so" have been monitored by the FBI and police. And if I didn't stop repercussions could happen. I haven't had contact with "so&so" in 3 and half years and "so&so" was 20 when we chatted. I would appreciate some guidance since I have no idea what to do. In that time we exchanged pics twice. I did google the name and didn't come up with much although the name on the e-mail also matched "so&so's" mothers name. The whole e-mail has me a little uneasy and not sure what to do.  I have a feeling its a hoax e-mail but still is eerie to me.

Answer: It was probably /u/Ramady. He does that when he gets bored.Answer #2: 99% sure this is a hoax.  If you're being monitored, they don't tell you you're being monitored.