Title: Passport expired, no birth certificate and family. Urgent help!!!

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 So you have an expired Thai passport, no UK passport, you're in the UK but you don't know anything about your immigration status due to the death of your mother.

Do NOT leave the UK (if you like the UK and generally want to be there).  Do NOT travel to Thailand or anywhere outside the UK.

Go to the Thai embassy and figure out how to renew your passport.  It shouldn't be a problem.  An expired passport is reasonable proof of your citizenship and identity.  Make sure to tell them you want the clipped, expired passport BACK (because you need it to deal with the UK people).  You may have to have your [adopted family] or whoever vouch for your identity.  Or if you have a school ID card or something like that.  Or your school report cards.  Whatever you have in support of your identity.  Make photocopies of your current passport and hold onto them.  Is there any sort of visa document attached to the expired passport?  Was it stamped when you entered the UK?  These are important.

Write off to Thailand and get a copy of your birth certificate or other birth documents.

And finally (this can be done at more or less the same time as the above), you need to sort out your immigration status.  The UK's immigration people should be able to tell you what your status was when you entered and what it now is.  Then you will have to figure out how to turn that status into "UK permanent resident" and/or "UK citizen" so that you can stay indefinitely without any further problems.  Assistance of an immigration lawyer may be needed if the situation is problematic.

Again, do NOT leave the UK for any reason until this is sorted out entirely.


Title: Can be punished for not working during a driving ban? (New York)

Question: I got a notification from HR today that not coming in to work during driving bans is a "choice" and not doing such will result in a loss of vacation time, days off, or unpaid days if neither are available. I work in an office which is a non-essential service and take public transportation which closes down during driving bans/inclement weather advisories.

Answer: Yes, you can be *punished* and/or terminated for not coming to work during a driving ban unless your employee contract states otherwise. Answer #2: Ask to carpool with HR.


Title: My friend was murdered. I need help.

Question:
I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.  A few years ago, my oldest friend was murdered.  The shooter even admitted to doing it.  The admitted killer was in the middle of running for state level legislature.  Approximately 3 weeks after a grand jury returned a murder indictment, the DA inexplicably dropped all charges and the defendant walked.  As I understand it, the DA had been investigated at least once for possible dirty dealings.

I want to stress that I believe the killing was simply a terrible accident involving too much alcohol.  I have known both the shooter and the victim since we were children (I am now retired).  I want to know if there is some way to get this investigation re-opened and have the killer prosecuted.  I want him held accountable for what he has done.

Since he was never actually tried for this, the case could be re-opened, yes?  I just want to see Justice done.  I miss my friend and he deserves better than an unaccounted for murder.

JLP III

Answer:
 So, first, I'm sorry for your loss.

Second, your friend died, but was not "murdered" which implies an intentional killing.  You say it was a terrible accident, which would make it manslaughter at best- if recklessness or negligence could be approved.

You can ask the new or current DA to open the case- they are under no obligation to do so.Answer #2: If the charges were already thrown out, it's very unlikely it will be pursued again without new evidence.Answer #3: Generally, only the DA can decide whether or not to prosecute a case. Some states have a process where a private lawyer can bring charges, but that's rare and we'd need to know the state to tell.Answer #4: JLPIII, you yourself say it wasn't a murder, but rather, a "terrible accident."   Maybe two drunk guys messing around with a gun, and someone got killed.  Tragic, but the prosecutor who dropped the charges likely decided there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt.


Title: As fiance was leaving her mother's house to move far away for good her mother burnt her face with a cigarette. OH

Question:
My fiance has been experiencing domestic abuse at the hands of her mother since she was a teenager. We have hit the point of savings and her ability to drive away to come stay with me in the city I live in. We managed to keep this hidden from her mother over this time period of planning. Today is the day and as my Fiance left to leave for good her mother burnt her face with a cigarette. Now that she is no longer dependent on her mother I would like to take action.

We cannot afford an attorney because we are both low-income students. But since she is driving 3 hours away from a small town to a new city I'm not sure how to go about this. The former town is Steubenville OH, famously known for the rape case some years back. Thus we have little faith in reporting to the police there since they have failed to take action previously when domestic abuse was reported and have a history of just being scummy.

What actions can we take if she has thus left the town with no intention of returning?

Answer: Call the police if you or someone was assaulted.


Title: Open Carry in Ohio - Republican Convention Coming

Question:
So I'd like to attend some of the rallies around the Republican Convention Monday but I know there is a potential for trouble.  I also know BLM is planning an Open Carry march.  So I'm applying tomorrow for my CCW, but they are not necessarily awarded the same day or next day.  So I'm thinking about openly carrying so I have a means to protect myself if things go sideways and I get cornered somehow.

So I'm hoping an attorney here can give me a general understanding of when a firearm is carried openly and when it is concealed.  For example a weapon in a holster that is visible, but the holster snaps over the top of the pistol.  Or if your shirt obscures it temporarily when you bend over and its worn on your hip.

Answer: You won't be able to go into the RNC with a firearm. You'll end up with 10 bullets in your chest courtesy of the Secret Service. If you're lucky.


Title: [OK] My lease is in violation of the Oklahoma Landlord Tenant Act, and I'm curious whether this particular passage means the whole lease is null or just the portion that is not in agreement with the act.

Question:
I am just curious what this specific section of the Oklahoma Landlord Tenant Act means:
"B. Any agreement, whether written or oral, shall be unenforceable insofar as said agreement, or
any provision thereof, conflicts with any provision of this act."

Answer: Generally, the specific clause is invalid.


Title: [Severna Park, MD] If I were to give my friends swords, would there be any legal repercussions if those swords were mishandled?

Question:
I want to surprise my nerdy friends with real katanas, with full-tang, high carbon steel, real fittings, etc.

If the swords were mishandled by them (someone stole them and did something wrong, or they accidentally cut someone, etc), would I face legal repercussions because I gave them the swords?

Thank you!

Answer: Most likely you don't have any concern.  Possible negligent entrustment risk for a civil suit.  Is everyone here an adult, or are minors involved?


Title: The hospital mailed the bill for having a baby to my unknowing parents, what can I do?

Question: [deleted]

Answer: You can file a complaint. But you have insurance and they charged it. That is pretty normal. Did you pay for the procedure at the hospital? Set up a payment plan?


Title: Can you sue a Tiktok teacher for teaching you incorrect information that led you to injury?

Question: Saw a YouTube video about Tiktok teachers teaching people how to survive a plane crash and a real pilot debunking their tips. Their tips seemed reasonable at face value so a reasonable person may subscribe to their ideas and if their tips ever led to the injury of someone watching can they be liable for the damages?

Answer:
 Sue, yes, but highly unlikely to win.  You’d have to establish that the teachers in the video had a duty or obligation to random viewers in a legal sense.

If instead, said viewers paid for a plane crash survival course, there’s a reasonable expectation that the teachers should be teaching something reasonably correct, but I think it’d still be hard to make a case.  In most cases the teacher is still going to be only offering their opinion on how to survive, which carries little authority.  And anyone who offers such a course is likely to emphasize and disclaim that they are merely giving their opinion based on their experience, and that there are no guarantees that said advice will actually be useful/save you.

If they misrepresented something (e.g. by wrongly claiming their tips were endorsed by the FAA), maybe you’d have a case.  You’d also have to show that the instruction given actually contributed to your injuries (e.g. if the advice was to take cover in the lavatory and you died, but everyone else on the plane also died, it’s hard to say that running to the lavatory contributed, vs just the plane crash).Answer #2: Well, if you're alive to sue, you obviously survived the plane crash. Were they saying here's how to walk away from any plane crash with no injuries? Or just survive?

Unless you're talking about your family suing on your behalf because you died. The only way I could see that working is if most other people survived but you did something really unique that was taught in the video that ended up with your death. And of course your family would need to prove you did that because of the tiktok video.


Title: Using Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, etc... on novelty shirts

Question: A buddy of mine is wanting to make some novelty shirts that use the likeness of the characters on the shirts. I've seen tons of shirts like this out there and I'm wondering if they have to pay Namco (or whoever) for the rights or if these characters are used so much it doesn't really matter.

Answer: Yes. You have to pay a license.


Title: Leaving Country With Child- No divorce in place

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 So Dad is in the U.S. military and is deployed to Germany or somewhere.  Mom is in rehab.  Question at hand is only where the kid will live from September to December 2016.

Without a court order, either parent can take the kid anywhere.  Now, it may be that Mom can file for a divorce and a court order ordering the child to stay in the USA, but this apparently has not happened yet.

A court would consider a lot of things, supposedly centered around the best interests of the child.  A parent in the U.S. military is not leaving the reach of U.S. law, despite being in another country.  U.S. laws and custody orders are fully enforceable against U.S. military members and the military will happily kick the ass of a servicemember who doesn't obey them.  So for a lot of purposes, this is NOT "leaving the country with the child".

Also you should understand that while living on a military base is obviously a change, it's not a hardship.  The schools are decent, the housing is acceptable, everyone speaks English and there are McDonald's and whatever other "comforts of home" one might want.

It seems clear that Mom can't currently provide a good home for the child and Dad is willing and able to do so.  Also, Dad would not be leaving the reach of U.S. law.  Again, it is possible that a court would order the child to stay with you, but I wouldn't bet on it - court is likely to want to place the child with one of its parents if at all possible, and it is possible in this case.

So if you really wanted to proceed, Mom (not you) should be talking to a family lawyer about emergency custody orders.


Title: What happens if I report ex for child pornography but they can't find it?

Question:
He's in Illinois. I was living with him but moved back to my home state shortly after finding out about the child pornography.

Will they still watch him or am I just going to cause problems for myself? I know for a fact my recent ex looks at child pornography. Real young stuff that just makes your skin crawl. I acted like I was cool with it so I could find out what he actually looks at and find out everything I need to know to report him. I was far from home so I broke up with him for something unrelated and had him bring me home before I tried anything. Now, every time he was done viewing hours worth of porn and saving whatever he liked to his removable hard drive, it looked like he deleted everything and refragmented everything. I asked him how he kept hidden and he said he bounced his ip and changed it all the time. I know he uses tor. One day when he was at work, I searched everywhere for the hard drive and it was nowhere to be found. I think he keeps it on him. It's like the size of a pack of cards. He had to delete stuff from it often and he said he had over a terabyte of it and I assume alot of it is child pornography. Apparently I'm the only person alive that knows he's looked at this stuff. It's not just a curiosity either, he really enjoys it and seemed obsessed. I'm worried that I'm going to report him and they won't find anything because he does a good job of covering his tracks and has his stash pretty well hidden. Then he'll know it was me and might retaliate. His dad is a pretty big corporate lawyer too so I'm worried that he would just get out of it or something. Hopefully his family is just as disgusted by this as I am though. I just worry that they won't find it and I'm reporting him for nothing

Wasn't sure where to post about this. I looked in alot of places and didn't find anything appropriate so I figured I'd turn it into a question for legal matters. I'm not really worried about retaliation. I'm more concerned that they won't be able to find anything. He claims to know alot about computers and spent alot of time covering his tracks. What even happens when you report someone for this? Do they monitor them or just do a search?

Answer: That's not how it works. They don't "watch" people.  If the uncover sufficient evidence of cp during an investigation they get the address of the account holder from the ISP and then get a search warrant. A mere accusation that at one point he had cp is likely not sufficient to get a warrant. In fact it sounds like something a jilted ex would do.


Title: Guy's trying to make me pay $50,000 for a two house paint job

Question:
I hired a painting service to paint two houses I was building and he told me he wouldn't know how much it would cost until he was finished. He ended up charging me $50,000 for a job that should've only cost me $4000. He has threatened legal action because he has already done the job and I won't pay. What do I do?
Topic:
Other Civil Matters

Answer:
 >he told me he wouldn't know how much it would cost until he was finished.

Red flag right away. Who conducts their (painting) business that way? If he can't bid a job properly, I'm worried about his other skills.Answer #2: Document that you made a good faith effort to pay him a reasonable amount for your market area, and proof you had the money, and then if he sues you bring that to court.


Title: I got caught shoplifting in Tesco almost 2 months ago. Not heard anything? Building a case?

Question:
This happened in U.K on June 19th, I was caught abusing a loophole in the self checkout where I scanned cheaper items to put in heavier, more expensive items down.

I had being doing this for a while quite often, but didn't take anything of high value, just food on my lunch breaks. When I was caught, they said they were on to me for the past couple months.

The thing is, they didn't even pull me into their office, they took me to the side and gotten my personal details and didn't even bother calling the police because what I took that day was such a low value.

I also doubt the CCTV footage can gather enough data for every occurrence, the fact that they have a lot of footage to track back to that may not be stored any more, and the poor video quality (I'm assuming) to accurately identify the events.

They said the head office will review the CCTV footage of previous time I went in and will probably take it to the police.

I immediately wrote a letter showing deep remorse and apologised, (I know, bad idea) in which the customer service manager replied with a letter thanking me, but not saying what actions the head office will take due to data privacy laws.

I was expecting this to trigger a DWF letter to pressure fines on me, but it has almost been 2 months and haven't heard anything else.

Is it likely the are building a case and the police are getting involved? I have been told my others it's nothing to worry about, and recent news sources state that the police and less likely to crack down on these petty crimes in the UK, especially when the value of goods are below £200.

Or should I expect a late DWF letter and nothing else?

Answer:
 That's not a loop hole, that's theft.

/r/LegalAdviceUK


Title: Canada BC: Parents took $8500 from and account with both my and their name on it

Question:
I am a teenager living in Canada. I have worked very hard to earn and save $8500 over the past year. My parents messed up paying an enormous credit card bill, sending money to the wrong place. Without asking, they took the entirety of my bank balance, even though I was in the house.

A few days back I did offer SOME money, when they said they were having trouble paying their bill. I never said I would pay the entire bill just supplement what they need for this month, and I would have also worked out details before forking it over.

Had they asked me, I would have been reluctant handing over everything, but I still would have because I would know when it would be payed back beforehand.

Was this legal? And what can I do about it now, and if they don't pay it back?

Answer:
 There's nothing you can do.

It's both you and your parents money. Answer #2: > My parents messed up paying an enormous credit card bill, sending money to the wrong place.

Sounds like a convenient lie.Answer #3: Move forward and learn from this. Separate your finances. Make bank accounts without their names on it. Don’t let them do this again.

As someone who has had similar experiences with their parents, don’t let them fuck you over any more.

I would also recommend doing a credit check online and making sure they haven’t taken out anything under your name.


Title: Husband already no-fault divorce, how can I file fault-divorce?

Question:
My friend Amy's husband told her about 4 weeks ago that he wanted a divorce. It was kinda out of nowhere, so Amy's been devastated since. Originally he said it wasn't her, it was him, that he was the problem, and he thought they'd be happier apart.

&#x200B;

Well, since those 4 weeks, he has been emotionally/mentally abusive towards her, manipulative, admitting to cheating on her with a new woman, not coming home (he didn't return home for a whole weekend, with no contact or explanation), and even taking their minor child out of the house to go stay with the woman he's cheating with.

&#x200B;

Last she checked, he still hasn't filed the divorce papers yet. But she's not positive. Can you she go ahead and file her own at-fault divorce? This is in a fault state. What would happen if he had secretly already filed papers?

Answer:
 > Can you she go ahead and file her own at-fault divorce?

Yes.

> What would happen if he had secretly already filed papers?

The court would consolidate the cases.


Title: Opposing Hockey player gives me their ambulance bill

Question:
I recently joined a recreational coed floor hockey league with a few friends. In my first game, we were playing against “Blue team”, who had a player on their team. While playing, this player (call them “C”) and I ran for the corner to chase after the puck. I stopped before the corner, and “C” kept running, bumping into me, stumbling after doing so, and running into the brick wall. They hit the wall with their shoulder hard, kept falling and hit their head on the metal door frame just to the right of the corner. C hurt themselves enough to require the paramedics to arrive, and an ambulance picked them up and drove them to the hospital. The injuries ended up being minor, as they were released and apparently were playing floor hockey again the week after. When the paramedics asked the referee and our teams goalie what happened,(who I've never met, nor have any sort of relationship other than this one time playing hockey together) both said exactly what I said: it was an accident, C ran into me and then ran into the corner.

C and their team did not agree, and thought I pushed them into the corner. Which I absolutely did not do.

This past weekend, I was informed by one of my teammates (I missed the game due to a work Christmas party) that C had approached my teammate, gave my teammate the ambulance bill (with their name/address on it) and told my teammate to inform me I have until December 31 to pay this bill. While I feel awful about the accident, I will not be paying for this ambulance ride. I was planning on returning the invoice to their address with a note saying “I will not be paying this”, and leaving it at that until something more drastic happens.

What should I do? Should I consult a lawyer pre-emptively, or leave it at that until they progress it further.

Answer:
 First, if your league or team is insured, then this is a non-event. Let them know a player is looking for compensation for an injury sustained at an event and let them field it.

Failing that, if you are actually sued, get an attorney. Personal injury cases can be a large dollar value issue, especially in countries with deficient public health systems like the US, and defending one without representation would be unwise. Your homeowners' or renter's insurance may also provide help if your policy includes liability - contact them and ask.

I would not respond without talking to an attorney. Whether you do that now or whether you wait and see if you're sued is largely your decision to make.


Title: Informally or formally

Question: There's a guy at my school collecting nudes of underage teens for the sole purpose of blackmail I'm going to do something about it either formally or informally my question is what charges or punishments could he face if I turn him In and what punishments could I face if I stole his phone and removed the memory card before returning it if it caught either way something will be done about it because it simply isn't right

Answer:
 You need to call the police on this, not take matters in to your own hands. Not an expert, but if you stole his memory card, you'd be in possession of CP I would think. Be Clark Kent, not Superman. Report the issue, don't try to solve it. Answer #2: Do not steal his phone. First, you would be committing an offence. Second, you would be creating "reasonable doubt" if his case gets to trial. You report your suspicion, police seize his phone, and find the kiddie porn? It's pretty much airtight. You steal his phone, remove the memory card, and turn that over to the police? His lawyer is going to put forward the theory that YOU put the kiddie porn on the card in an attempt to frame him.

Not only would you be breaking the law, but you could be invalidating key evidence. You are Peter Parker (a reporter), not Spider-Man (a vigilante).


Title: Landlord sent me Notice to Comply and Vacate? (State: Washington)

Question:
The saga continues, and I'm at a point where I am unsure of what to do or expect. Yesterday I wrote about [having been kicked out of my apartment](https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/53yxmz/roommate_put_my_stuff_out_on_the_curb_and_changed/). Today, at around 6:30am, I awoke to the sounds of K frantically calling me. For the record, I hadn't bothered calling her because I figured she would not be reasonable about the situation. Anyway, she told me to get back because we were being threatened with an eviction by the landlord. This spooked me enough to leave the hotel.

We each received a Notice to Comply and Vacate from the landlord, addressed to me and K. Apparently, due to K changing the lock, we violated our lease and now the landlord is planning to evict us. The letter says we have:

- damaged her property
- harassed her to the point of not feeling safe (guessing she means my phone calls even though I never threatened her)
- failing to comply with municipal regulations (not sure why)
- engaged in potentially criminal activities

She's giving us until October 3rd to move out, according to this document. I'm tempted to get a lawyer but I have no idea if I can even have one in civil court. On top of it all, K is suddenly asking me to move back in and help her. I am currently back at the apartment but I have no idea what my next move will be. I ended up ditching work due to this and feel like shit. I promise this will be my last post here, just need help on what the next step will be.

Edit: I wanted to note that this letter doesn't look entirely official. It seems written by the landlord herself so I'm not sure if it is legally binding. It could be but I want to know for sure about this as well.
Topic:
Landlord Tenant Housing

Answer:
 Ok wait your roommate illegally evicts you and your landlord is now evicting you. You need a lawyer...literally yesterday Answer #2: IANAL

Please read the attached carefully.  Even if you were month to month, you would have 20 days notice.

http://www.tenantsunion.org/en/programs/tenants-rights-hotline

All sorts of things are wrong, wrong, wrong.  Get a lawyer.


Title: I think I discovered a child porn ring, what do I do?

Question:
Okay, here is the long story.

I am 16, living in California. ~8Months ago I was added on snapchat by a user named Amy. I added, and didn't hear anything or receive any messages from "Amy" for 8 months. Last night she messaged me, making small talk and then asking me to send nude photos to her, in exchange for her to send back. This isn't that uncommon for people my age, but I was confused as I didn't even know who she was. I asked her "who even are you, have we met?" and she claimed that we had met a few months ago, at a school dance, and that she went to a random high school that is about 45 minutes away from where I live/My school. I was skeptical at this point, but still not sure this was a fake situation. I asked her what her instagram was, which is something that 99.9% of social teens my age have. She had "just deleted her account." Ok, this is getting suspicious. She then said, "Just watch" and proceeded to send me images of a girl my age nude, and then an extremely sexual video (not trying to be too graphic). I noticed between the video and the photo, they had different aspect ratios. For those who don't know about digital imagery, this means that the video and photo were taken on different cameras. You can tell this because on the photos, they filled my entire screen, but on the video, there were black bars on the bottom and top of my screen to make the video fit properly without stretching it. At this point I knew this was some sort of scam or catfish, etc. I called her out on using a program to upload photos to snapchat and send, which is against the TOS of Snapchat, and shows that she is lying. She denied it "I don't know what you're talking about, wtf." I pressed harder and she still denied it. I stopped responding for a few hours. I figured it was just some sexually excited teenage girl who wanted nudes but didn't want to send her own photo, and just let it go to that, but my curiosity was killing me. I messaged her again, "I know its fake,  but my curiosity is killing me, how do you upload to Snapchat, why do you do it... I need answers!" She claimed I was the "first one to notice it was fake" and such, explaining that she is "self conscious about her body" so uses other womens photos to seem more attractive. Seems legit, I still was suspicious, but that made sense. I was trying very hard to figure out who she was or her instagram, and she even gave me a fake name, but claimed she blocked me on instagram because she didn't want me to accidentally find her account. Before she left, she did something very strange, she said: "Just rate me, on 1-10, how hot am I" and sent a photo of a girls face, fully clothed etc. Linked [here](http://imgur.com/a/nwQMF). I said "wtf" and she blocked me. Although, before she blocked me I screenshotted that photo. I did a google reverse image lookup and found nothing, so I put it through a deeper reverse image lookup and found it on two websites. "amateurmastrabations.com" and "poringa.com." See screenshots of search results [here](http://prntscr.com/fqisvv). I sent the screenshot of the girl around to some of my other guy friends, asking if they had ever received it. One of my really old friends recognized it, and asked if some girl named Amy tried to catfish me using it. I quickly called him and got all the info he had on her. He said she added him OVER A YEAR AGO through the username ######.marie56, (I am blocking out the first part because I don't want anyone to add her and let her know that I am investigating the situation). This was strange because she added me on ######.marie57. Two different accounts, same screen name, same username formula, only thing different was the number. I figured that whoever is behind this must be using the same formula for all of the accounts, so I did a search. I found that the same username was used, with the exact same screen name, only thing different was the numbers, 7 different times (see screenshot here)[http://imgur.com/a/nwQMF]. This on it's own wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that the account she added me on alone had over 2 thousand snapchat score. For those not familiar with snapchat, this means that she has sent/received over 2,000 messages/photos on that account alone. That's a lot of teenage boys. Back to my friend. He said that she added him OVER a year ago, and tried to catfish him about seven months ago, claiming that she had met him at a school dance, just like me, but at a different school. This makes me think that whoever is behind this has a system of gaining the trust of the kids. Additionally, my friend was sent a phone number from her. After doing a reverse phone lookup for that phone, I found it was registered as VOIP at XO Communications. Looking into XO Communications, it seems like it is an enterprise voip provider, meaning that whoever is behind this would have had to purchase MANY phone lines. (I could be wrong on that, correct me if so). That's where I'm at right now. The fact that its registered with XO communications makes me think that it's some sort of larger scheme, as well as the fact that one of the photos I was sent was on what I believe to be a child pornography site. (amateurmastrabations.com - I didn't visit the site, so I don't know for sure) This means that whoever is behind this, also visits the child porn sites, or had visited as some point.

There are a few possibilities on whats going on here, and I'll let you decided what you guys think is most likely.

1) This is some sort of scheme to catfish young boys into sending nude photos, and then selling them on child porn sites, etc. The reason I believe this to be true is because of the amount of accounts that exist under this alias, the fact that one of these photos was from a child porn site, AND the fact that the number was registered from a B2B Voip Service.

2) This is someone my age, trying to get pictures of other people my age, but not wanting to use their own photos. The problem with this theory is that all the evidence is stacked against it. Why would they get a clothed picture of a girl our age from amateurmastrabations.com when they could easily steal one from google images or from a peer's instagram account? What person my age (mid teens) would set up this long of a con, one in which they catfish for over a year now, set up fake voip numbers, numerous snapchat accounts, etc.

3) Something else.

Thats it, that's the situation. I hate to beg for upvotes, but it would be nice to have this seen and read by as many people as possible. The reason I'm posting it here is because I don't know what to do/what I can do. If there is a better sub to post this, please let me know. Thanks for reading, I know that was a novella.

Chase

*TLDR; Catfished to send nudes, found out about business level infrastructure for a catfish scam that has been running over a year, probably a child porn business. HolyshitwhatdoIdo*

Answer: You did way too much analysis for what will still be the same blackmail scam this always is, wherein you Skype her your dick and "she" threatens to send it to your friends and family if you don't give her money. Try r/scamsAnswer #2: Please edit your post to remove the request for a PM then message the mods.


Title: Got scammed need revenge

Question: [removed]

Answer: Learn to write out your problem more coherently. I can't even understand what you're asking.


Title: US, CA: Someone bought a counterfeit product & they're angry

Question:
Hello All! A little active in this community, but made a burner as this has to deal with my work. We are based out of California, and the complaint is coming from Thailand through social media.

&#x200B;

**Background:** I work for a company that sells products internationally and I handle their social media. We received a complaint from a customer that they bought a counterfeit product and my support team told them there was little we could do to help them and that they needed to file a claim with the online retailer they dealt with (they are a verified reseller for us, but they also host resellers, similar to how WalMart and Amazon function, which is who they bought the product from). This customer didn't like that answer and has now been putting us on blast on social media, complete with screenshots (fortunately, we were polite and professional and consistent, no errors there). They are claiming that we are violating *international copyright AND trademark laws* and that they are trying to compile a class action lawsuit. It's my understanding that while there are general agreements between countries around these matters...there is no "official" copyright/trademark law. Additionally, those protect two different things. They are claiming we are liable under international C/TM laws for not protecting the consumer. But those laws are meant to protect the owner of the IP, not the consumer, correct? And to that point...my companies legal ground would be enforcing for using our branding/logo on a product.

**TL;DR(ish) My question**, as I don't really want to bug my legal team as their bandwidth isn't great and they are weird about social media...***this person is full of it, right?*** We are going through the process of enforcing on the reseller, but due to the nature of these kinds of things, we aren't exactly sharing that information for logistical/security purposes. That, and the few times we've responded to them they immediately went bonkers claiming they are going to message the CEO, class action, etc. My boss, compliance team, legal, etc. have all been involved, but legal hasn't really said anything and I keep getting messages from the customer. Mostly want peace of mind.

Thanks for reading!

Answer:
 >My question, as I don't really want to bug my legal team as their bandwidth isn't great and they are weird about social media...this person is full of it, right?

You have a legal team. Do NOT get advice from internet strangers when you have a legal team - they are there for precisely these kinds of situations.

Ask your legal team already.


Title: Got my first ticket. Can I fight any of the offenses?

Question:
I was pulled over on my motorcycle right near my dorm on the University of Tennessee campus. The cop that followed me unsafely close claimed I was driving at an excessive speed, but on the ticket she did not mark down speeding. I was also marked down for disregarding a red light when I was really turning right at an empty intersection. Lastly I was also noted for not having my license; I did have my school ID and since it was school police they were able to look up everything. Including my driver's license number. I've never had a ticket so I would like to fight this.

I took notes the night it happened which has more information than I wrote here. I would advise looking at that more than this.
http://i.imgur.com/x2UXylo.jpg

Topic:
Traffic and Parking

Answer:
 Came here hoping OP would stick to his guns and I'd watch his arguments slowly devolve as he clung hopelessly to the idea that he had any case.

Unfortunately, OP's responses have been polite, reasonable, and mature.

This isn't as much fun.Answer #2: >  I was also marked down for disregarding a red light when I was really turning right at an empty intersection.

Did you come to a full and complete stop at the red before proceeding?

> I was also noted for not having my license; I did have my school ID

Did you have your driver's license?


Title: Whole crews paycheck was denied. business then closes days later?

Question: I'm on mobile so apologies. This was in the high Rockies of CO. I was a Ass. GM for a semi well known west coast franchise chain. It was a young business but apparently one of the owners was stealing out the account. Well one week checks get issued but it was denied by the bank then a couple days later the business closes and the owners refuses to pay our last checks. Is their anything I can do for my crew? We tried a employment lawyers but they said they couldn't take the case. I'm willing to put my compensation into the legal fees but I imagine thats just not enough.

Answer: If you were employees, you can each file a [wage claim](https://www.google.ca/search?ei=RwJyWpTMNOfqjwS48rOYDg&q=colorado+wage+claim&oq=colorado+wage+claim&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i67k1j0l2.2426.2426.0.2635.1.1.0.0.0.0.101.101.0j1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.1.100....0.eivD7QjyfxM). Those claims will have a fixed precedence if and when the company declares bankruptcy, and while it's likely you'll ultimately be paid pennies on the dollar, it's your best shot at getting anything.


Title: I'm a photographer collecting horror stories (sexual advances, unwanted flirting/touching, etc) from models about other photographers in my area. I plan to release the stories but I want to make sure to avoid any lawsuits and protect the models and myself.

Question:
I'm from Texas. Yesterday, I put up a post on my IG asking models to share their stories via DM (direct message) about photographers who had made them feel uncomfortable.

My plan is to collect these stories and release them all at once on a separate IG account in January. I will keep the models' names **anonymous**. As for the photographers, I'm still undecided about the best route.

I've received some pretty messed up stories so far.

* unwanted flirting
- pressuring models into nudes
- touching/groping without permission
- offering money for sex
- uncomfortable comments

The thing is, I wasn't there for any of it. There is no evidence. Granted, some of these photographers have a reputation for these behaviors, but it's still he said she said. Aside from that, I know I have to be careful with these stories since I can't blindly take the models' words as truth either.

My goal is to protect the models and prevent future ones from working with photographers who use their platform as a way to condone misbehavior.

What is the best route to go about this without getting sued for defamation, libel, or slander?

Edit: I see that it's a bad idea. What if I keep the names of the photographers anonymous as well?

Answer:
 This is a horrible, horrible idea. Answer #2: If you name any of the photographers they certainly can sue you for libel, lost wages (if you caused them to lose clients), defamation... and a whole host of other things.

Probs not a good idea.Answer #3: > What is the best route to go about this without getting sued for defamation, libel, or slander?

Don't do it.

Regardless of the merit of any case, there's nothing you can do to guarantee that a suit won't be filed against you.  You might win, you might lose, but nothing you can do will stop the suits from being filed.Answer #4: nope. don't do it.

even if you don't explicitly name the photographers, if they can be identified with the information you provide, you will get sued.

you say there's no evidence, but what you really mean is that the models can't provide you with evidence that they're telling you the truth. won't it be fun to show up in court and find out that there actually is evidence...from the photographer...that the model lied? because that's a very real possibility, considering it doesn't sound like you're going to talk to the photographers.


Title: Can you sue somebody for sexting your spouse in VA?

Question: Throwaway obviously. There was no actual physical cheating but there was sexting and both parties sent PG-13 rated pics (meaning no full nudity but just in their underwear).

Answer: Your description sounds like consensual behavior between two adults, you may not like it, you may think they shouldn't have done it, but that doesn't make it illegal.Answer #2: Not successfully, no.


Title: [California] My vacant house was rented out by a scammer

Question:
I own a house in CA, but recently moved out of state for work. I left my house with a property management company to find a renter and manage rent collection/etc.

I found out through a neighbor that someone is living in the house, however no one has signed a lease yet through our property management company! Through communication with the police, it sounds like the "tenants" found the rental listing through craigslist, paid in cash, and somehow got entry into the house.  edit: they moved in last night, so they've been staying for like 24 hours so far.

Legal Problem 1 - Police will not remove the people. The people refuse to leave since they paid rent to *someone* and it was a "too good to be true price" as per usual rental scams. I would take a loss if I rented it at that price.

Legal Problem 2 - I pay the property management an extra fee for eviction service. However, they are claiming no responsibility since these aren't their tenants! By the way, they said they never had this situation happen. I assumed since they have the keys, they are in care of my house. Who is liable here? What if the squatters trash my house?

I tried googling but all I get is information on avoiding such rental scams, but nothing on what to do if you are the property owner!

Answer: I was on the other side of the fence on this once. I was a kid and our house burned down. We quickly found a rental the next town over. We stayed there all summer (paid deposit, rent, bills and all that and got the keys). It was awkward when the owners showed up like wtf.. we had no idea. It was quite humiliating. We left promptly. We made sure everything was in tact and the place was clean. It was a tough year to say the least. I know they caught the person's responsible. My parents had to go to court and all that. I hope it works out for you. They should be decent human being and realize you are both victims and try to resolve the situation as quickly  as possible.  My heart goes out to you, good luck!


Title: COPS "Dishonest Dudes" S28-E14

Question:
[Boston, MA]

Watching the episode, a guy is pulled over on a vespa for "exiting a high drug traffic area". Guy has a closed 40 ounce on him. They run his priors, he has a rap sheet with felonies. They then pull him off the bike and ask if they can search him, he declines. The officer then pats him down saying "I'm not searching you, I'm checking for weapons". During that search they find marajuana, crack and a pistol. They say he "definitely seemed nervous".

At what point and under what premise do they establish probable cause? Do prior felony charges negate the option to decline searches? Is a pat down independent of a "search"?

This is not an attempt to absolve a criminal of his offenses nor to cast doubt on the police officers. I ask in an attempt to understand process and procedure.

Answer:
 The key word here is "reasonable suspicion that he is armed and presently dangerous".

The cops were definitely pushing the envelope. As a defense lawyer I would try to get it suppressed.


Title: [ME] "Caught" with fake id. Need some help

Question:
Around the fourth of July my buddy and I went out to a club and I gave him one of my fake ids. It has my picture and last name on it and was denied by the club and a cop went over to him and gave him a court summons for possession of a false identification card under §2051. It says on the ticket that its a civil charge. This week I guess the cops were doing some digging and found my real information from the fake id card and called my house looking for me. I talked to the officer and he told me I have two options either I can go meet the officer and receive a summons to get a civil charge and go to court to find out the fine or I can not talk to him but I could face charges that could be criminal. I'm 18 and have no idea about any legal stuff should I not meet the officer to get the summons or what should I do?

For more detail my friend was given the civil summons up front at the club and has a court date in a few months. I wasn't called out at the club, but now I am being held responsible for being the actual owner.

Answer: I will never understand why so many kids put their real info on their fake ID.


Title: [MA] Neighbor signed a contract with a mason to do work on shared property line

Question:
In Somerville, if that helps at all.

Our neighbor told us that she has signed a contract with a mason to do work along a stone ledge that separates the two properties. Her driveway is flush to the top of the ledge, and our walkway is several inches below the top of the ledge.

Her concern is that since her driveway is raised up, if the ledge were to fall apart, her driveway would be damaged.

The main issue is that she didn't consult us before about this work needing to be done, and is expecting us to pay for half of the work ($1250). We haven't even seen the quote from the contractor yet. Can she demand that we pay if we were never consulted on this? We've already sent her a letter saying that we're not comfortable paying for something we never agreed to.

Side note: I know that if we were to get a lawyer to dispute this, we'd spend way more than just paying up front. This just isn't a priority for us right now and also don't like having things sprung on us without talking about it first.

Thank you!

Answer:
 Call another mason and get another quote. If the price is in line and the work is good, it might be needed anyways. I wouldn't nuke the relationship with the neighbor over work like this if its price isn't out of line.

Retaining wall damage is much cheaper to fix when its mild than waiting for it to fall apart.Answer #2: This usually comes up on the topic of fences.  Shared fences along the property line are the responsibility of both parties and in many cases, one owner can sue the other one for half the money required to maintain the fence.  The basic idea here is "don't be a dick about the fence that benefits you both".

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter49

Now what you seem to have is a retaining wall situation.  A shared retaining wall holds up their property and protects yours.  I suspect that the retaining wall might count as a fence, from the definition given in the law.  (Or perhaps it's a very tiny retaining wall, it's a little hard to tell from your description.)

Even if it doesn't, you might still have an obligation under the law not to let her property collapse.

You seem to be upset because of the way the neighbor approached the situation.  That's reasonable.  But putting that aside, it may not be worth making an enemy of your neighbor over a relatively small amount of money, and the law may not be on your side.

I would see if there's some accommodation you two can come to.


Title: Can you sue because of a police report?

Question:
North Carolina

A friend of mine recently visited North Carolina. When he returned home, he received a phone call from the police there. It turns out that he took a picture of a church that he thought looked cool, someone saw him take the picture, and reported it to the police as suspicious. They tracked him down using the license plate on his rental car. Everything was cleared up on the phone. As a black man, my friend believes that he was racially profiled, and has apparently hired a lawyer to file some sort of lawsuit.

I know that people can file lawsuits for any reason they want, but does he have any actual legal standing? I don't know who exactly he's thinking about suing, but I assume it would not be against the police, since apparently it was cleared up right away on the phone. So I guess he wants to sue the guy who called the police.

tl;dr: Friend believes that he was racially profiled, resulting in the police looking into him, and now he wants to sue.

Answer:
 Nothing to see here, move along.

Someone saw suspicious behavior, reported it to the police, the police conducted their investigation and concluded that no crime occurred.

Nothing to sue for.

But if your friend has already hired a lawyer, then he should be listening to his lawyer.


Title: Malpractice by lawyer - want to see if my next steps make sense

Question:
Our case was thrown out by the court since my brother "didn't show up" to court. We hired a lawyer to defend him against indecent assault appeal in PA.  1. The lawyer was late to the arraignment and the courts were not happy but we got a trial date.  2. The lawyer told us (have text as proof) we didn't have to show up to the first court date and turns out we did.  3. Lawyer never let us know the final trial date until an hour before the proceeding. We reached out several times prior asking for the date (calls and text) but didn't hear from him until the court date.

Due to my brother missing the court date, the appeal was thrown out and we never went to court. He is now on the sex offender list and have to report to a probation officer.  We never got a fair day at court due to our lawyer not keeping us in the loop.

We went to another lawyer and he told us to report him to the Disciplinary Board. What should we do?  We just want a day at court to fight against these false claims against a woman who has various fraud charges under her name.

Answer:
 Getting another shot at his case being heard is different from malpractice/disciplinary board.  If you can show 'ineffective assistance of counsel' or whatever they call it in your state, you might get another bite at the apple.  But **_but_** you'll have to show that your counsel _was_ ineffective, AND that if he had been effective, it woulda made a difference.

You'll probably want a lawyer to help you make that motion, but since you already talked to a lawyer and he didn't mention that, you might not have a good case there.

Malpractice requires a similar standard of proof: that lawyer did something wrong and that it made a difference.

The state board that disciplines lawyers is a much lower threshold and they might respond to the sloppy work and the showing up late and that stuff.  But **you** won't get anything from that.


Title: Landlord keeps pushing to move in with us before our lease ends.

Question:
Our current landlord is really getting on my nerves...

Ok. I have post this issue before see here : https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/87cpsu/can_our_landlord_move_in_during_midlease/

TL;DR  We are a group of friends renting the ENTIRE HOUSE, one of our friends had to move out of state for her new gig, but she is still paying her share and we are still paying the FULL AMOUNT of rent. Somehow knowing that we have an empty room now, our landlord got the bright idea that she can just move in with us, which is something NOT written in our contract nor is it something we are comfortable with.

After a failed attempt the first time and backing up for a month. However, our landlord recently came back at it for round 2, this time bringing her husband along and has an excuse of because she is pregnant and due in August, she wishes to stay in her own house the last few months before her baby is due.

guys, i am so stirred up right now. we explained everything to our landlord, yet she still trying to pull this annoying business on us, especially now there's only 2 months left on our lease, just take your rent money and by 8/1 the house is all yours, but i don't know why she just keeps pushing us to let her move in early, this issue is driving me insane i can't even focus on my daily work now, what can i do?

Answer:
 Tell them to either abide by the terms of your lease or you’ll take them to court for violating the terms of your lease. If preggo wants to spend the final days of her pregnancy fighting it out and losing, then let her.

That or ask her to buy out your lease and moving expenses if she wants back in so badly.Answer #2: > our landlord recently came back at it for round 2, this time bringing her husband along and has an excuse of because she is pregnant and due in August, she wishes to stay in her own house the last few months before her baby is due.

LOL, yeah, that's not a thing. Nothing has changed since your last post. All you have to do is keep saying no.

I might also find a new place for when your current lease is up, though.

If you're wondering, what's probably happening here is that your landlord wants her baby to have a home, and she wants it to be "her" home, which happens to be **your home** -- at least until the lease is up. Since I assume she has a place to live, which she ought to be able to pay for with, you know, the RENT you all pay her, she's fine. Her baby's not going to remember it anyway.


Title: Step mother left my father when he was out one night working...

Question: [deleted]

Answer: He should find a consultation with a divorce with a divorce attorney as he may be entitled, depending on a lot of factors like their respective incomes and length of marriage, to alimony. Other than that, he should talk to the divorce attorney about, well, getting a divorce if that's what's happening and splitting assets.


Title: Verizon is invalidating gift card balances months after trading in Smartphones

Question:
**Edit: I want to apologize for this username, this was a throwaway from a while back with a stupid name**

Hello!  I've lurked this sub for a while, but this is my first time requesting advice on potential legal situation.  I'm in the US, specifically SC.

Alright, so a few months back Verizon wireless was doing a promotion for a $200 gift card when you opened a new line and traded in an old, working smartphone.  People at an online forum I frequent caught wind of this deal, and regularly posted updates and talked about their experience at the stores.

Basically, you could purchase *any* Verizon Wireless smartphone, and trade in an old phone at the store for $200 off immediately.  About a week into the deal, many people started receiving a [text message](http://i.imgur.com/62Q4VSd.jpg) with a promotional code that allowed for *another* device to be traded in for *another* $200 gift card.  In the text message that was received, nothing stated that any additional terms needed to be met for this trade in, so many people (Including myself) traded in additional phones based on the extra text message that said you could trade in another phone for a $200 gift card.  I personally traded inexpensive phones that originally appraised at $0.00 on Verizon Wireless' website, and the trade in value was bumped up to $200 with the promotional code that was texted to me.  About a week and a half after Verizon Received my phone, I got an email with a gift card code for $200, and set it aside to use at a later date.

Many people (Including myself) received multiple extra promotional codes for additional trade ins for $200 gift cards, despite only opening or upgrading one line.  Once again though, these promotional texts said nothing about requiring additional lines to be upgraded, they simply said that you could trade in any working smartphone for a $200 gift card and thanked you for upgrading your device.

So this morning, nearly 2 weeks after my last gift card was received, I got an email from Verizon Saying the following:

>Dear Customer,

>You recently traded in a device using a promotion code for a new activation. The promotion code was only available for trade-ins associated with the activation of a new line of Verizon Wireless service using a 4G LTE smart phone purchased through Verizon Wireless' device payment plan. While you traded in a device, you did not activate an associated new line of service using a 4G LTE smart phone purchased through Verizon Wireless' device payment plan.

>Therefore, this email is to inform you that any remaining value on the above referenced gift card has been cancelled. Any reduction in the value of the device you traded in not covered by this gift card cancellation will be debited to your account. Within 45 days, a credit will be placed on your account for the market value of the device you submitted.

>If you have any questions, please send your name, address, and phone number where you would like for us to call you to Verizon at TradeInSecurity@Verizon.com and a Verizon compliance analyst will contact you.

>Regards,

>Verizon Wireless

So effective immediately, they removed the balance of almost $3000 worth of past gift cards, and they will not be returning my trade in devices.  The device was originally appraised at $0.00 so no account credit will be given.  I would **not** have traded in a device if I knew I was only going to receive $0.00 for it.

Verizon is essentially stealing not only the gift card values of phones in which they've already processed and accepted, but also the Smartphones themselves and they are not being returned to me.

In addition, Verizon Wireless' [Trade In Terms and Conditions](http://i.imgur.com/3cu5rb2.png) only states that "You must accurately represent the make, model and condition of your device in the Program submission and the final appraised value may be adjusted if...Your device does not meet the eligibility requirements for the promotion code entered.".  There were absolutely no "Eligibility Requirements" for the promotional codes that were sent in the text messages, and their Terms most certainly don't say that they can confiscate gift card balanced months after the trade in is completed.

Is this legal for them to do?  Is this something that I can take them to court for and hopefully get my money returned to me?  What steps should I take for this to be resolved?

Many members of the forum have had multi thousand dollar gift card balances revoked (Many did more than 1 line).  Would a class action lawsuit be a possibility in a situation like this?

Thank you all for your help!

Answer:
 Small claims/magistrates court limit in SC is $7500, so that may be your best choice for recouping the full amount.

Did you do the trade in after around the Tuesday before Black Friday (11/22/15 I think)? Note that after that point, Verizon updated their trade in web page to show that a new device activation and at least 90 days of service is required. If those requirements weren't met, they stated they had the ability to take back the trade in value.Answer #2: Cmon dude, you tried to pull a scam and it backfired on you.

So go ahead and try and sue them and see where that gets you.


Title: Question on Taking Money From a Failing Business

Question:
United States, Iowa.

My family owns a small business that will be going out of business in the next few months. In order to maintain anonymity, I'd rather not describe exactly why, but we have absolutely no choice in the matter, and it is inevitable. We have tried to sell the business, to no avail.

The business was started under a new corporation formed by my family members with a loan from a local bank, the outstanding balance of which well exceeds the business' funds / worth of assets. The corporation has no assets outside the business / inventory.

Several times over the years, those of us with ownership stakes in the business have put extra money in when it was needed, and received equal disbursements when there was extra money / one or more of us needed it. There disbursements have always been equal (per share), and have usually been in the neighborhood of $10,000 total. The business has never made us any money apart from these disbursements. All profits have gone back into the business / toward the loan.

The business currently has about $100,000 in it's main bank account. This account is used to purchase inventory, to pay service vendors, etc. This account receives daily cash deposits from the business.

As I said, the business will soon collapse, as one of our main sources of revenue will no longer be available.

Our plan is to simply close the doors and default on our loan. The bank will then receive all of the corporation's assets, which includes the main bank account with about $100,000.

Is there any legal way for our family to remove any amount of money from this account and pay it to the corporation's shareholders, thus keeping it from the bank?

The bank is aware of our business' distress, but does not know that we intend to simply shut our doors and default on the loan. As best as I understand, they assume we will continue operating at a loss until we eventually run out of money, at which point they (unhappily) expect to take possession of a worthless business with no money.

We're not looking to do anything illegal, but we'd like to keep whatever we can.
Topic:
Business Law

Answer:
 > We're not looking to do anything illegal

You need a lawyer.  Now.  You know the business is in financial straits.  If you want to recover what money you can you need to tread very carefully.  Taking disbursements with known unpayable liabilities at this stage can be forced to be repaid when the company get sued to recover the debt, and could potentially be a criminal act.

Lawyer.  Now.


Title: Arkansas - Seller property disclosure indicated municipality sewer - Just found out that we have a septic tank

Question:
This is in Arkansas. We have a new old home, built at a time when septic tanks were not accessible / visible from above ground. We found out today from our water provider that they do not have sewer service at our address. We spoke with our neighbors, who also indicated that they have a septic tank.

On the property disclosures provided by the sellers of our home, they checked the box indicating that the home was on city sewer, and DID NOT check the box indicating that a septic system was present. Had we known that we were on septic, we most likely would not have purchased the home.

So now we have a house with a septic tank that wasn't inspected (Because we didn't know it existed) and are smelling sewage when the wind is just right. We need to bring a plumber out to locate the tank and see if it needs pumped, and possibly have to replace the tank (Who knows when it was installed or last inspected). Do we have any recourse with the sellers of our home since the property disclosure explicitly stated that septic was not present?

Answer:
 At the very least this is a material breach of contract, and you can very likely rescind the sale if you want.

The Arkansas Seller's Disclosure form is very clear that it only covers the Seller's actual knowledge, but they're not going to be able to credibly claim "we didn't know that we didn't have municipal sewer service" if they lived there and didn't pay for sewer service.

Unfortunately the disclosure form doesn't by itself provide penalties or specify how failure to disclose affects the sale contract.   It's just a standard set of questions that the Seller has to answer and provide to the Buyer.

You're going to want to review your purchase and sale agreement with a real estate attorney.

The likely outcome is that you're going to have to sue the Seller for a difference in value or an inspection and repair.Answer #2: Talk to a lawyer now.

You can probably rescind the sale over the failure to disclose.

Also, if you had a home inspector, they should have figured this out, so you may have a claim against them as well.Answer #3: I'm not a lawyer, but I'd imagine that one factor might be how long ago you bought the house. How long has it been?


Title: I received a denial letter for a loan I didn’t apply for.

Question:
About a week ago I received a letter saying I was denied for a loan I never applied for. I am not sure what the loan was for, how much it was for, how it was processed, or at what location.

Some information:

I’m 18 and still live with my parents.

I have only been building credit for ~5 months.

I have yet to contact the bank or any other organization.

The letter included my correct address (obviously) and name, and also a credit score which was ~15 points off.

I am unsure where to go from here as I don’t have much experience in financing or with banks in general. Any help would be amazing.
Topic:
Credit Debt Bankruptcy

Answer:
 Check your credit reports by visiting annualcreditreport.com. If there's nothing going on with them I wouldn't worry too much. However, if you choose to contact the sender for more information, independently vet them first. Sometimes scammers send letters purporting to be for one entity, but with their own contact info. In such an instance, this could be an attempt to phish you. Be wary of providing them with any sensitive details.Answer #2: My thought is that someone, very possibly your parents, applied for a loan in your name.  That's a common scenario on the legaladvice and personalfinance subreddits.  Parents take out loans and credit card in their kids' names when they turn 18 and then sometime in their early to mid 20's the kids realize they are tens of thousands of dollars in debt.Answer #3: Contact the bank and find out if you’ve been a victim of identity theft. If so, report it to the police.

Whether or not you suspect identity theft, get a free credit report from the three main credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Equifax, Trans Union), and see if there’s anything there that shouldn’t be, and if so then dispute them. If you have a police report I think you can also get credit monitoring for free.


Title: I friend found a phone and restored it. She returned the phone, and the owner is taking her to court.

Question:
[Edit] : I am in Los Angeles, California. It might be important to note that this is all happening within a high school setting, and the owner of the phone is a 20 year old student.
The school administration does not take my, nor my friend's story into account and are solely basing their judgement based on what the "owner" told them.

Backstory:

A friend found a phone in the girls restroom, and had restored it to it's factory settings. This was an iPhone, and so it had activation lock on it (only the owner can activate it with their account).
She gave me the phone, and I found the owner's number. I texted the owner, asking if they had lost an iPhone. They called Me, saying that they had lost the iPhone. They offered me $200 to return the phone, and a place and time was set to return the phone. I show up with the phone, and return it. It was a set up, and I am placed in handcuffs being accused of extortion. I am then accused of stealing the phone from the owner, which was not the case whatsoever. The cuffs left marks on my writs, and the police officer told me racial things such as "can't believe you'd do this to your own kind."

Once that is proven not to be true, the owner turns her blame from me, to the girl that found the phone. The girl that found the phone is in the same class as the owner, and the owner is accusing the girl who found the phone of stealing it from her (the girl who found it is a honest person, straight A student and would not steal anything).

The owner wants to take the girl to court, for "stealing" the phone.
Here's the interesting part; the girl cannot activate the phone. She claims to be the owner of the phone, but she can't activate it. The phone was activated with an email that is NOT the one the owner claims is her email.

Does the "owner" of the phone have a case? And more importantly, who is to blame here?

Answer:
 >the girl who found it is a honest person, straight A student and would not steal anything

Then why did she restore a found iPhone to its factory settings and when she discovered it couldn't be activated give it to someone else?  Why didn't she immediately give the phone to a teacher or an administrator?

>Does the "owner" of the phone have a case?

The owner cannot press charges or take anyone to court criminally.  The prosecutor will decide if charges will be pressed.

>And more importantly, who is to blame here?

It sounds like the girl who found the phone intended to keep it for herself.Answer #2: > The owner wants to take the girl to court, for "stealing" the phone.

She can certainly sue your friend, if she can assert damages.  She can't file criminal charges, although she can make a police report and can certainly request that they do so.

Why did your friend do a factory reset on the phone?  That's the most damning step of this story - it sounds like your friend tried to steal the phone for her own use, and then gave up when it didn't work easily.


Title: Company refuses to pay parking ticket on their vehicle

Question:
I work for a handicap transportation company. I was written a ticket in michigan for parking in a handicapped spot, I left my vehicle to retrieve my patient to load them on the lift and transport them. I came back and there was a ticket on the vehicle for illegally parking in a handicap spot. I presented the ticket to my superior and was told today they would not pay for it, they have claimed while we do transport handicapped patients, none of our vehicles have handicap parking and they are not responsible for the ticket.

I plan on speaking to the president of the company about the ticket on monday, and in the mean time I plan on writing an appeal for the ticket in case they do not help. My name is nowhere on this ticket, and the vehicle is not in my name. Can they legally force me to pay for the ticket? Is this something I can reasonably appeal to a judge about?

Answer: You parked a non-handicapped vehicle in a handicapped parking spot.  You will end up having to pay the fine if your company does not pay for it.  Answer #2: You might get fired if you don't pay it.Answer #3: They can sue you if you choose not to pay. You broke the law, not the company. You will end up paying it in the long run


Title: [MD] How legal is it for my apartment complex to enter unnanounced?

Question:
About a month ago, I recieved a lease violation for "poor housekeeping".  For the record, i work about 50 hours a week, come home tired and maybe let a few things slip - there's stuff on the ground sometimes, but it's more "messy bachelor" than "complete pigsty."  Nothing in the apartment is damaged.

I do my best to clean up and i recieve a secondary notice a few weeks later.  They offer no forewarning or advice other than "clean up or you'll be thrown out."  On the lease itself there is a small but nondescript clause about housekeeping, and the leasing office didn't give me any more definitive answers.

So, assuming a third/final warning/eviction notice is issued, how screwed am I?  Is this all entirely legal or what?

Answer:
 Could they have seen in through a window?

What does your lease say about LL or their representative entering your apartment? The last complex I lived in stated 24 hour notice for entry except in case of emergencies (stuff on fire, flooding, etc) Answer #2: Whether or not the LL illegally entered your apartment is a separate issue from you breaching the lease by not following its terms. If you aren't interested in upping your cleaning routine you should again ask the property manager/LL what "housekeeping" entails. periodically photograph your apartment, and if you get another warning take those photos immediately.

 "Housekeeping" is pretty nondescript, but I think it probably reasonably means that you'll do the dishes, sweep the floor, and take out the trash.


Title: Landlord claims I'm not on roommate's lease - Roommate is moving, landlord wants me out.

Question:
California

I moved in to an apartment leased to my roommate over a year ago (Dec 2013). Now that roommate is moving out, and my boyfriend is going to move in.

Only when my boyfriend turned in his application, the landlord claims he never received my original application, and I was never on the lease, and that when my roommate leaves (which is in a week), I have to leave too.

This is crap because I turned in an application when I moved in, although it wasn't face-to-face and I don't have a copy of the application. Somehow, the landlord never put me on the lease, and acts like I haven't been living here.
I have copies of my rent checks, which I've paid on time every month. Is this enough evidence? Does it even matter?

**TL;DR** Can my landlord make me leave if I was never technically on the lease? And would that be his fault that I wasn't?

Answer:
 Is the lease your landlord had with your roommate which you applied for ending?

The landlord can choose not to renew the lease, whether you were on it or not.Answer #2: So, you have to sign a lease in order to be on the lease. Turning in an application just means you're interested in living there.

If you've been living there and paying rent, you're probably considered a tenant nonetheless. Absent a lease (and a location) I assume you'd be considered month-to-month.


Title: So Completely Confused and Scared

Question:
Ok, so I am kind of embarrassed to even put all of this out here, but oh well, I need some advice. In January I had put a ton of resumes out, and received an email from a company called Secmas Estates Ltd. I looked up the company, and the company was based out of Cyprus, but they also operated out of Philadelphia, and that would be the actual office I would be answering to. Secmas is supposedly am international real estate investment company. The position they wanted me to apply for was a customer service specialist. So I went through the whole hiring process, and got the job.

I was super excited to get started, because I hadn't had a job in about 3 years. The job duties, were described as monitoring client accounts, transferring client assets to the selected account for further investment, etc. Basically, I get $$$ transferred into my accounts, then transfer it to what ever account the client has selected. During the probationary period, I was told to use MoneyGram to transfer the funds to the account info they gave me. After about a month or 2, I was offered an advancement. With this advancement, they set up my own business license, set up an llc, tax ID, etc. After getting this advancement I got the ability to transfer MUCH :ARGER amounts of money, via SWIFT wire transfers.

When I first started working with Secmas, my pay structure was based on an hourly rate, as well as a bonus system. During my "probationary" period, my hourly rate was $18.50, and after it was $25.00. The bonus system was dependent upon the amount I was to transfer. So if I was to transfer $700, my task bonus would be $200, and then if I get it into the bank within a set amount time, I would get $100 bonus for time. Then when I  became an "entity" I would be working with total amount up to $90,000, so the task bonuses greatly increased as well. All of this would be GREAT, except I am only getting paid when there is a transfer to process. I have only been paid maybe a 1/4 of my hourly pay, which up to this point I am owed almost $20,000.

Last month I received my first "big" transfers. After the 2nd of these transfers, I was told that I would be receiving another very soon, and to just stay available, so I have. Well I have now not heard from anyone at Secmas since 8/2. I have been calling, messaging via our back-office system, texting, and trying to get a hold of anyone, by any means possible, but have had NO luck. In one of the messages I sent today, I informed them that I would be calling my lawyer, the BBB, etc. In the past this has gotten at least some sort of response. There is honestly so much more to this whole situation, but if I try to write it all out, this post would be years longer than it already is. So I guess my questions for you all is... What should I do at this point? Do you think I have been scammed? And has anyone ever heard of this company?

One more thing, I did check into the company before I agreed to the advancement. I admit, there were some things that had me worried that this may be a scam, but all of the red flags, seemed to have an explanation. I couldn't find anything that made me think that this company wasn't real. They had been in business for over 4 years, they had a secure website, the company had a legitimate business license, etc. So I went ahead with it. I even straight up asked my personal manager if this was a scam, and obviously she said no, but that isn't really saying anything.

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated. I am so desperate at this point I just want to stay in bed all day and cry. Thank you all SO much for any help.

Answer:
 Yes, this is 100% a scam, absolutely. The money they have been sending you is fake, and the money that you have sent them is real. Any deposits they have made are eventually going to be reversed when your bank figures out they are fake.

You need to talk to your bank ASAP about stopping anything in flight, but any money that you have already sent via MoneyGram is very likely unrecoverable.


Title: How can I go about forming my own cannabis company at 19 in California?

Question:
So I have access to funding to start a wax company with my friend, however, with prop 64, you have to be 21 to consume marijuana for recreational use.  If I have a medical marijuana card, which legally allows me to purchase and own cannabis for medical use, is there any legal way that I can form a company, or bring somebody on to form a company that I can then work with.  And if I owned a patent and wanted to not have to wait 2 years to be 21 to make a product out of that patent, what process should I follow if there even is one.

I want to find a way to make this business now instead of waiting around until I’m 21 when the market in California will simply be over saturated.
Topic:
Drug Possession

Answer: If you want to be involved in weed you need a lawyer, full stop. You are risking jail time by producing and selling any weed and the only way to minimize those risks is with a lawyer that specializes in weed. This is not diy territory.


Title: [MN] Employer allowed me to work full time on billable clients for two weeks. After the two weeks they send me backdated a separation agreement to say my final day of work was two weeks before.

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 You are owed for hours worked. As far as severance, that is not owed unless you have a contract stating otherwise. If you have not been paid for all hours worked, you can go [here](http://www.dli.mn.gov/LS/FinalWages.asp) to find about filing a wage claim in MN.

If you have been paid for hours worked and no contact stating otherwise, you are not entitled to severance pay. Answer #2: Do not sign anything. Contact the state DoL and file a wage claim.

Finally, contact an employment lawyer, as he is attempting to commit fraud. Backdating your termination would let him pay less for Social Security/Medicaid/Payroll tax, so you may want to tip off the IRS and state Department of Revenue - both of which may give you a whistleblower reward.


Title: I'm being harassed and threatened by a customer for "doing fraud". Am I in the wrong?

Question:
Using a friend's account. I'm in Los Angeles, California, USA

I'm in construction. A former customer of mine wants me to fix an error, and he asked me for the first time today with threats. There was no prior event of him asking me to fix it, so I'm sort of confused as to why he's harassing me.

His wife, an ex cop, left me a voicemail saying that if I don't go and fix the problem, she will "send boys my way". She is threatening to sue me for the error, and she  is accusing my wife of fraud because the checks her husband wrote to me were in my wife's name.

On an unrelated note, she had called my wife's workplace numerous times to find out where I was, because I was out of town and couldn't answer my phone. She went through many stages to get my wife's work number, and then proceeded to ask personal questions about our lives. I was creeped out by this, because there was no reason for her to know where I was since there wasn't any pending work being done for her.

There are text messages of them harassing me, of them threatening to sue me, accusing my wife of fraud, and a voicemail saying they will send people my way. These were all received today, and in the texts I told them to stop harassing and threatening me. They denied the fact that they threatened me.

The phone call with my wife at work is also recorded.

What are my options? What can I do? Is my wife actually committing fraud, and are these legitimate threats?

Answer: Did you make the error?


Title: I Need a Good "Made-up" Misdemeanor that Doesn't Sound as Bad as the One I Have for When I tell..

Question: [deleted]

Answer:
 Your ex's friend can't magically make google results go away, it sounds like someone is trying to separate you from your money.Answer #2: That's a stupid thing to lie about.

The mugshot sites that you want removed?

They almost certainly also list the charge on them as well as your picture.

So your lie will be exposed almost immediately.

He's (allegedly) willing to help you- you owe him an honest account of what's going on.

Assuming he can do this, which is pretty doubtful.


Title: Old Tenant From The Building Still Has Access To My Apartment (Their Old Apartment)

Question: I need some help guys, a couple of weeks ago a young man came into my new apartment with no notice and I called the police on him. Cops came, gave him a warning after he said he was coming to retrieve things they haven’t finished taking from the house when they left. For some apparent reason he had a pair of keys to the house. On top of that just today a few hours ago a woman came into my house with keys and went to the 2nd floor of my apartment (2 floor apartment) and rummaged through the 2nd floor room that still had some things from the previous tenant. Mind you I live in NYC and when that happened, I called police and I followed her down the block until police intervened and stopped her, police told me nothing was to be done and I would just have to change my keys and deal with it through civil court with my landlord. No arrest were made. I was completely astounded at the fact that police let her go. My question is what should I do? Should I report this incident and file a complaint on the police department? The last police officers acted wayyy different from the ones today. They literally just let her go.

Answer:
 Send a letter to your landlord (registered or certified, keeping a copy) demanding that he change the locks. Give him a specific but reasonable period of time to remedy - eg, 10 days from the receipt of the letter. I would also have a phone conversation if possible.

If he doesn't change the locks, change the locks on your own, but keep the other locks and swap them back in when you move out.

NYC does allow you to repair and deduct rent, but that's a big step and could lead down the path to eviction if done incorrectly. There are specific rules for things like notice, remedy period, etc.

[You should be able to call the NYC Citizen Service](https://advocate.nyc.gov/landlord-watchlist/tenant-rights) by calling 311 if he fails to resolve this promptly.


Title: [CA] Delusional Uber driver with professed potential for violence (not against me). Do I report anywhere besides Uber?

Question: I sat through a whole trip with a driver who is former LEO, CIA, military. I was mmhmming through describing how 9/11 money was funneled through Huma Abedin, but I became very scared when he described yesterday pistol whipping a dude that stepped on his toes at the beach. He proceeded to describe nonsensical past events like he had killed knife wielders on the beach and they turned out to be ISIS members, privately asking Ahmadinejad why he hates Jews and then later kicking the ass of his agents. There were a whole trip to the airport's worth of crazy "anti-terrorist" stories. I am basically worried he would commit violence against Muslims. Is there a place I should report this other than Uber?

Answer: That person is neither former CIA nor military. They are mentally ill and suffering delusions of grandeur. Call Uber and tell them about your experience and your fear. Not concern, fear. That is not the type of person who should have strangers isolated and mobile at his whim. Answer #2: INAL but I would call the police.  There's no reason to trust Uber to handle it correctly.


Title: Should I wait for the FBI or take more steps?

Question:
About 10 days ago I submitted a post stating that I got scammed over $23,000 and I asked for help. Some of you pointed me in the right direction (thank you) but now I am back as certain things have come up.

First of all it was my first reddit post and I did not know all the rules so that account got banned because I put up way too much personal info. (Sorry mods will not happen again) Secondly, someone with good intentions linked the reddit post to their facebook page (which had over 500,000 likes) and I am sure they seen it because they shut down their entire facebook page and website.

I got into contact with the police department in their region and they said to contact the FBI as a few other people got scammed. So that’s what I did. I called the FBI and they told me to fill out a “form”. And now all I’m doing is waiting.

Quick overview: Over $23,000 was lost to a company that promised to deliver a car but has since pretty much vanished. And for those of you saying I should of have done more research, its true I should have however this is not your typical scam, they had a professional website, an actual office in USA, a business ID number, and they even did a few legit deals with people to give themselves some level of authenticity.

So my question is, should I get a lawyer or should I wait for the investigation to finish? Right now I’m having a hard time functioning because I’m so anxious about the results.. Since then I figured out a lot of things thanks to people on reddit. It seems that some of the possible suspects live only 2 miles from that office location and they currently have their home up for sale for over $800,000. I think they know it takes a while for things to start rolling so their selling their house and vanishing from USA and all I’m doing is waiting.. Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Marry Christmas/Happy Holidays.

Answer:
 The FBI can deal with criminal charges. You can sue civilly but will have to pay an attorney as it is unlikely they will work on contingency. Contact your local bar association for referralsAnswer #2: Given that you know who they are, you can sue them in civil court for the money to be returned. This can be done independently from the criminal case so you don't have to wait until you hear back from the FBI. Getting a lawyer to get the money before it's gone definitely seems like a good idea in this case.Answer #3: For $23K I would get the advice of a lawyer in the same area as your scammers operated in.  The FBI may or may not proceed on this, and even if they investigate the US Attorney's office (prosecutor) may choose not to prosecute.  Even if they do investigate and it is prosecuted there is no guarantee that it will help you out with your problem.  Their key purpose is to seek criminal charges.  Now there is a chance that either the FBI or prosecutor may negotiate with the scammers on charges with one requirement being restitution, or that a judge might order restitution, but I don't think that is a given.

I was once involved in an FBI investigation of white collar crime and in the end the US Attorney declined to take the case.  It was all about them weighing the severity of the case vs. their limited resources.  Not every crime is prosecuted.


Title: Received a civil demand but did not steal?

Question: My little sister and I were shopping at kohls a little over a month ago and I bought some things, she didn't. (Maybe that's why they suspected her?) anyways, today she received a civil demands letter in the mail demanding $325. I don't understand this considering she did not steal, no one stopped us in the store and got our information so how in the hell does this "law firm" have her name and address? This is kind of disturbing to me...regardless of that, I'm seeing that this law firm is a scam and companies send these out to even suspected thieves, as a way to hopefully collect money. That's such bullshit. I'm in California btw, and apparently it's perfectly legal. The law firm is Michael Ara Isen. Most places online say to ignore it, don't respond in any way, and certainly don't pay bc that is practically admitting to theft. So we plan to ignore it, but I'm wondering if Kohls really believes she stole something, will they file a lawsuit and take her to court? I don't understand what evidence they have, maybe she went in a dressing room? She's not dumb enough to steal, especially on a camera ffs. Apparently kohls cracks down on theft though so we really are unsure of what to do, especially how they got her information when she didn't buy anything and we were driving in my car?!

Answer:
 She can pay it or not.

If she does not pay it, they can sue her for more than the amount listed.

If they have information that leads them to believe she stole, they can also contact the police and file a criminal report as well.

Is the date she allegedly stole on the form?

If not, I'd suspect that maybe she was there a different time and is not being honest with you about it.


Title: Government trying to cheat me on my travel hours. Anyone have experience with this?

Question:
I work as a government contractor.  I was sent to an alternate work location (TDY) last week and was scheduled to work a full day on the day before Thanksgiving and then fly home the same night.  Flight time was 5 hours, actual travel time was 11 hours since it was on the busiest travel day of the year and I had a layover.

My government approval form states the trip allows for 20 hours of additional duty hours (overtime), and I only used 12 of those on my trip.  On my time card, I put down that I used 8 hours to travel back to my home state to use up the rest of my overtime.  My finance department saw that and said I had no approved travel hours to get me home and that duty hours are different from travel hours.  Since I already had 8 hours for the day, that would be all I would get.  To make a long story short, the government person who approves overtime requests said that only time in the air is reimbursable, which is 5 hours, so he finally agreed to reimburse 5 hours.

I read the [Joint Travel Regulations](http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/Docs/perdiem/JTR.pdf) and couldn't find anything on only actual time in the air counting.  Does anyone know the rules well enough to speak to this?  Is the government cheating me on 3 hours?

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong sub, wasn't sure where to post.

Answer:
 Just as a point of reference for the future, "the government is trying to cheat me" is a horrible way to address this. It paints you in a very unsympathetic light.

Try "I don't understand how the government is making this determination" or similar.


Title: Mother putting 4 cameras in houses interior without consent of youth.

Question:
This is in North Dakota.
My mother is already constantly monitoring my location and doesn't want us going anywhere, but recently she has purchased for cameras that she is going to place in the interior of the house so that she can monitor non stop. Is there any law protecting my sister (13 F) and I (16 M) from her putting up the cameras. My parents are divorced and I do not know where my dad is but he pays child support. Should I call the police or am I wrong in this situation?
Topic:
CPS and Dependency Law

Answer: So long as they are not in the bathroom she can more or less do what she wants.


Title: Insider trading question- pretty sure I’m not doing illegal things

Question:
I work for a contracting firm in the biotech industry (US). I am currently involved in a non-management position within a capital project for an as-yet unapproved drug. The client is a large biotech with hundreds of products. This capital project huge (9 figures), is using dozens of contracting firms, and spans a few years. The drug has a direct competitor, also unapproved. The competitor is also large.

I am seeing around the workplace a pattern of... technical problems. I have no direct evidence of any showstoppers, only a hunch that we will run into unforeseen issues which would result in negative press or delays, sulting in big upside in the competitor’s stock. As such, I am considering buying the competitors stock.

From all I’ve read (including this excellent subreddit), I think I’m in the clear to do so. I have no direct knowledge of anything certain, just a hunch. The timeframe also provides further uncertainty. There is already considerable attention to the drugs and biotech firms, enough that other press has driven stock price swings (though more so for the competitor, as its product portfolio is less diversified). Regulatory approvals (and its associated press) will have the biggest impact on stock price from what I can tell. And, AFAIK, I have no explicit requirement from my firm to file with the SEC as an insider. The only thing we do have is standard boilerplate legalese about being privy  to possibly confidential information blah blah blah.

Do you guys think I am safe? I’m fairly certain that I am, but I wanted to ask those with more background than myself. Also, if you are easily able to figure out the specific companies in question, please let me know via PM and I will make the premise more vague. Thank you all!

Answer:
 You have nonpublic information about something happening at company A that will affect the price of company B's stock. You can't trade on that.  It is illegal.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/misappropriation_theory.asp


Title: Cited for going 50 in a 35 zone. I asked the cop to see the speedometer. He said no. Do I have a chance of fighting this?

Question:
First off, I don't believe I was going 50. Maybe 46. Maybe 47. If it's 12 over the limit then I am pretty sure the consequences are much harsher than under, which is why I am posting here.

The cop was at a standstill on a side street. He turned his headlights on just as I passed and I immediately looked at my speedometer.  I am going under 50, but I'm speeding. Yep. He's coming for me.

He catches up quick and throws his sirens on. I know it's me so I'm already over in the right lane and off to a side street.

He takes his time getting to the car and says "The reason I pulled you over is that I had you going 50 in a 35." Then takes my licence and insurance.

He comes back with a ticket and explains everything. I then asked if I could see the speedometer readout and he says "I tracked you visually and then you were decelerating. I have no way of showing you your max speed."

I apologized for asking and tell him I didn't know how the technology worked anymore, but that the speed guns used to be able to hold the last reading from a tracked vehicle.

I believe he was lying about me going 50. What can I do here?

Btw this was in Missouri.

Topic:
Traffic and Parking

Answer: The fact that he didn't agree to show you the detector won't be a valid defense. Answer #2: Call a traffic attorney, I’m sure you could find one that will give you a free consultation. A speedometer calibration could be beneficial as well especially if it is an older vehicle. You could also take a driver improvement course preemptively and likely have the charge lessened or even dismissed. You’ll have to discuss these things with an attorney, usually you can talk to one for free without having to actually hire. Good luck


Title: Am I being served?

Question:
ok I have no idea if this is the correct place to post this or not.  This morning I was home with my sister and a car pulled up in front of our house.  There were four people in the car.  Two go out and came to the front door, while they were walking up they saw my sister.  They were maybe late 50s, wearing business casual.  One had a briefcase and the other had a bunch of papers.  They rang the door bell and kept knocking for a while.  Finally, when we didn't answer they backed away from our house, walking backwards slowly still facing our home.  They went back in the car and sat there.  My sister pulled out of the driveway around fifteen minutes later and that was when they finally left.

I have no idea why they came directly to our home and wouldn't leave until someone in our house did.  They also didn't go to the homes of any of our neighbors.  The only thing I can think of is that we are being served (but I have 0 idea what that would be for).

Does this sound like what would happen if you were going to get served?  If so, is there anything I should do?  I just have no idea what it would be for but can't think of anything else.

Answer: Could be Jehovah's Witnesses?  Business casual, group of 4, 2 come to the door, strange papers.  Maybe someone put your address down for something or other.