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TheSpiritFox posted:This case is an instant throwout. The item specifically under contention is obviously utter bullshit, so really what is likely going to happen is Filing->Motion to dismiss->Dismissal. Thanks, man. I'll check those things out.
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Jun 20, 2010 17:02
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Quick question regarding landord/tenant laws, Brother thought he had found the love of his life in Florida, was going to move there from Seattle this summer. Internet love didn't work out and he never moved down but did sign a lease on a new apartment with the girl. She assured his name was taken off the lease. Fast forward a few months later, landlord is harassing my brother from Flordia regarding $2800 in two months backrent. Saying his credit will get destroyed, etc. I've told him not to worry about it, that they don't have a case to really stand on, and that it would take two legal eviction notices before they can even take him to court. And why would they go after someone out of state when they can legally go after the person that does live in state. Anyway, any thoughts?
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Jun 20, 2010 19:02
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I have a weird situation regarding a short sale house that i'm purchasing. The seller is in bad financial shape so i'm going to help him out a little. I'm buying his furniture (some really nice Ethan Allen furniture at 60% of it's current selling value). I'm going to pay him at the closing once the title is transferred to us. The only real requirement i have is that i'll pay him when we close on the house, and the furniture's condition hasn't changed since last inspection (i took pictures) SHould i have a contract written up for this? And if so, are there any other contingencies i might add? This sale is happening in Connecticut, if that makes any difference.
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Jun 20, 2010 20:27
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Morphix posted:they don't have a case to really stand on, Why not? He signed the lease and didn't perform on it, right? Morphix posted:it would take two legal eviction notices before they can even take him to court. I don't know Florida law, but it doesn't work that way in my state. I would suspect that they could sue him for breach of contract (not eviction) at any time. Morphix posted:why would they go after someone out of state when they can legally go after the person that does live in state? Because tenants never have any money. That is why they are tenants, not owners. So when you try to collect from tenants, you try to collect from all of the tenants and get what you can get.
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Jun 20, 2010 21:01
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Incredulous Red posted:goatse and tubgirl don't count as being served with a complaint Alaemon posted:YET. I think it's time we form a new committee to revise the FRCP. Amen. I'll support your "Goatse service" rule if you'll help me get my "Motion for Better Facts" and "Motion for Dope-Slap" accepted.
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Jun 21, 2010 03:30
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I had my heart set on Goatse Pleading to replace Iqbal/Twombley
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Jun 21, 2010 13:17
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joat mon posted:Amen. I'll support your "Goatse service" rule if you'll help me get my "Motion for Better Facts" and "Motion for Dope-Slap" accepted. I'll support all three of these if you support my "Motion for Opposing Counsel to Go gently caress Themselves". It's been tossed about for years but I think we can get it out of limbo.
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Jun 21, 2010 17:00
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CaptainScraps posted:I'll support all three of these if you support my "Motion for Opposing Counsel to Go gently caress Themselves". It's been tossed about for years but I think we can get it out of limbo. My wife filed a "Motion for Haircut" when she was in private practice.
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Jun 21, 2010 17:13
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I have a question regarding court dates. This all takes place in Virginia. My friend got pulled over in May and got a ticket with a mandatory court appearance. On his ticket it says the court date is in late July, but he recently got a notice that he is being charged with a failure to appear in court which claims his court date was in late May. Is the date written on the ticket sufficient evidence to throw out the failure to appear charges?
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Jun 21, 2010 17:49
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Solomon Grundy posted:My wife filed a "Motion for Haircut" when she was in private practice. Oooo, I need a haircut, please elaborate on this story.
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Jun 21, 2010 17:54
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I have a question regarding court dates. This all takes place in Virginia. If the ticket really has a July date, I can't imagine this not being worked out somehow.
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Jun 21, 2010 18:13
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entris posted:Oooo, I need a haircut, please elaborate on this story. Not really much of a story. She had a criminal case, and the defendant went to jail with a really bad haircut. She wanted to clean the defendant up for trial, and the jail was loving around and not giving the kid a haircut. So as trial approached, she had to get the judge involved. I believe an "Order for Haircut" was the result.
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Jun 21, 2010 18:14
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I live in Orlando,FL the house in question is in Ocoee,FL...My parents are stupid and bought a second home right before the market crashed and have been trying to sell it for a few years-with no luck as it's a short sale and in FL those sales have to go before a judge and can take 6 or 9 months to process. My boyfriend's and my lease is up on the house we're renting in July and we have been considering moving into their extra house, they said that would be fine and that we could stay there, but my question is with the home going into foreclosure at some point ( I assume as they haven't paid the mortgage in 5 months or so) what would we be considered legally? And what kind of notice would we or they receive before we would need to move out? I imagine before the bank takes the house they would have to give my parents some sort of final notice and as long as it's a month or so that would be fine, I would just like to take this opportunity to save all the money I've been spending on rent. Like I said I don't expect much notice myself as no one would really know I was there, but I figure my parents will get some notice if their home is going to be possessed by the bank. Other information that I'm not sure is relevant: They do not claim homestead on this house as up until about 5 months ago it was a rental home. They have two loans on the home one larger loan and smaller loan each from a different bank.
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Jun 21, 2010 18:16
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Solomon Grundy posted:Not really much of a story. She had a criminal case, and the defendant went to jail with a really bad haircut. She wanted to clean the defendant up for trial, and the jail was loving around and not giving the kid a haircut. So as trial approached, she had to get the judge involved. I believe an "Order for Haircut" was the result. That is the story that I will tell law students who want to become public defenders. That is pretty amusing. Did she bill for that?
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Jun 21, 2010 19:10
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I have a hypothetical- located in Texas I'm selling a large piece of furniture on Craigslist, worth very little (sold for $75) but it weighs 400+ pounds. I have all tile floors. I have told the buyer that I refuse to help him move it, as I've moved it close to 3 times now, and thus let him know he needed to bring enough help to move the furniture. Hypothetically, let's say the buyer is inept and drops the furniture onto my tile floors (or into a wall, or whatever) and does significant damage to the floor, either via deep scratches or actually breaking the tile. The buyer is liable for any repair costs, right? Or would I have to have him sign some sort of contract saying he is liable for damage? Is there anything I should do to protect my property?
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Jun 21, 2010 22:17
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areyoucontagious posted:I have a hypothetical- located in Texas Get him to sign a contract that explicitly states that he is liable for any damages that result from him retrieving the furniture.
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Jun 21, 2010 22:40
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entris posted:That is the story that I will tell law students who want to become public defenders. It was appointed work, so it didn't really matter if she billed or not. She was capped at a couple of hours. I had a couple of good friends work as public defenders. They learned all kinds of stuff: -Never wear good shoes to jail (they get peed on); -Always have two things to carry in your hands so you don't have to shake your client's hand; -How to make Pruno; and -If you have to serve a subpoena in a bad neighborhood, go early in the morning, wear a tie, and drive an American car. Everyone will assume that you are a police detective.
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Jun 22, 2010 02:55
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Solomon Grundy posted:
quote:-If you have to serve a subpoena in a bad neighborhood, go early in the morning, wear a tie, and drive an American car. Everyone will assume that you are a police detective. These are fantastic, you have made me a better person.
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Jun 22, 2010 03:52
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DenialTwist posted:I live in Orlando,FL the house in question is in Ocoee,FL... It's my understanding, as a layperson who is not a real estate lawyer or any kind of lawyer, that when banks foreclose on homes they find it in their best interest to maintain current tenants until they sell the house. That way, there is someone to keep the house pretty and tidy while they try to show it to potential buyers. If you were to move in there, you could probably get a few months of free/cheap rent if you made a deal with the bank.
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Jun 22, 2010 04:03
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I have an odd question about illegal subletting in PA. I moved into a 3 bed/3 roommate sublet at the end of August '09. The apartment complex that I moved into is owned by an actual rental group, however the sublet was handled outside of the landlord ($35 app fee, credit check, etc etc) I was asked to pay the former roommate's security deposit of $288 (buying him out basically), paid my rent by signing a check for the apartment and dropping it off at the rental office and moved in. I did not sign any paperwork with the rental agency since everything was going fine and the roommates were pleasant and I was just happy to have a place to live since I had just gotten out of a bad relationship and barely had a job at the time. In November, I was a day late on the rent causing late fees to be charged (which I paid out for all the roommates) which sent the one roommate (the one that sublet the room to me) into a tizzy and caused her to ask me to find a new place to live since I "would cause problems for her credit". I had paid all bills and rent on time previous to this and until I left. I agreed that I would look for a new apartment should she find a new roommate. February rolls around and crazy roommate calls me as I'm about to pay the month's rent saying she found a replacement and says I need to move out in three days and crash with someone else. I refused and told her I would only move out if I found a new apartment. Five days later I packed up and moved into the new apartment. Before I left I informed both the new roommmate and the psycho subletter that I needed my security deposit back, preferably by the end of the month. I move into the new apartment fine, but end up incurring debts by the end of the month due to the previous roommate's utilities not being paid before I moved in (I made sure to sign paperwork this time). In April, I began to call old crazy subletter who states that she doesn't have my money, it's not her problem anymore, and to contact the new roommate. It takes me a week to do so and I am promised money by the end of the month. After calling and texting every other day to ask about the money and failing to meet for planned exchanges of money, new roommate eventually pays me $150 of the $288 security deposit around mid-May and we agree that she would pay the rest by the end of the month. I have called the new roommate just about every other day and she does not pick up or respond to any texts. When I asked today for information pertaining to the new roommate so I can contact her further, the one pleasant roommate who moved in about the same time I did is attempting to help me by getting information about the new roommate for me (I only knew her by a nickname and where she worked). On the other hand, crazy subletter claims I have no recourse against her and that I was a lovely roommate. In short: 1) Should I go to small courts to claim my last $138? I have photos of all checks ever associated with the apartment along with all records of all texts I sent and recieved from mid-November. The nice roommate would probably be able to testify on my behalf. I'm drafting up a demand letter and sending it certified mail to the new roommate to see if it will elicit any response. 2) Is there any recourse I can take against crazy subletter? The fact that I was promised repeatedly by both her and the new roommate that I would have the funds by the end of February, which in turn causing me debts that would have been paid by the security deposit if it had been returned on time. Since she essentially "took" a security deposit from me as a cost of moving in, wouldn't she be liable for it?
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Jun 22, 2010 04:55
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I had a guy hit me back in May. Backed up into me and caused 1,100 dollars worth of damage to my front end. Progressive, his insurance company, is now telling me he called them after the accident and admitted to a rescinding of coverage and had coverage reinstated so he hit me uninsured. My car is only worth about 2500-3k, but him hitting my drivers side front end to match the passenger side front end doesn't do me any favors for resale value a year from now. Do I have a case in small claims court? Will I even get any money if I go through the trouble? Police report said he hit me, and he claimed no loss on his end. I am in Louisville, KY. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Jun 22, 2010 |
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Jun 22, 2010 15:19
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T-Shaped posted:I have an odd question about illegal subletting in PA. In my state, it costs $95 to file a small claims action, plus you have to pay to have the person served. Theoretically, you can recover that from the other party, but don't count on it. Getting a judgment is the easy part. Getting paid is not so easy. You might end up out on the $138 plus the expenses of the law suit. So no, don't sue for $138.
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Jun 22, 2010 15:25
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cheese eats mouse posted:I had a guy hit me back in May. Backed up into me and caused 1,100 dollars worth of damage to my front end. Progressive, his insurance company, is now telling me he called them after the accident and admitted to a rescinding of coverage and had coverage reinstated so he hit me uninsured. You always have a case for small claims. No guarantee you'll get any money out of it, though. Did the other guy get cited for no insurance? If he didn't and you're going to traffic court then I'd try to use that as leverage. If you live in a mandatory insurance state then he's likely to get hit with a fine on top of whatever he was already ticketed for. He may be willing to pay to avoid the additional fines. When this happened to me I managed to get about .50 cents on the dollar for damage caused. Not great, but it was something.
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Jun 22, 2010 15:30
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Krispy Kareem posted:You always have a case for small claims. No guarantee you'll get any money out of it, though. I don't think he did and never saw the officer hand him a ticket. Is this a case of the officer being lazy and not checking the cards we gave him? Progressive is also investigating him since from my end it sounds like insurance fraud as well. He probably saw my car and thought I wouldn't say anything. My father has been an attorney for 30+ years and a good friend of mine is in law school so if I decide to pursue I should be alright legally. I also have witnesses. I'd rather just have Progressive cut me a check and move on. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 15:41 on Jun 22, 2010 |
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Jun 22, 2010 15:39
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This is probably too obvious, but do you not have UIM/UM insurance?
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Jun 22, 2010 15:47
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:I have a question regarding court dates. This all takes place in Virginia. Unless the Commonwealth's Attorney is a douchebag, and if what you're saying is true, then it will be dismissed.
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Jun 22, 2010 17:25
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Contract question! Going camping this weekend on a buddy's undeveloped private land. About 8 years ago, he had an incident where he was camping up there and a girl got bitten by his dog (after antagonizing it, but that's a whole other story). She sued him over it. Since then, he's quite paranoid about being sued should anything happen on this land. He won't be able to attend this weekend's festivities and asked that I draw up a contract or a release form or something and have everyone sign so he can't be held accountable for anything that happens. After some Googling, it looks like there's no point to use fancy legalese. Correct? What kind of contract should I draft up? Do I just call it a contract? Is it actually a release form? Does any of this really matter? From what I read, it sounds like I can draw up a really simple document absolving him of liability and just have everyone sign off; would that stand up in court? This is in Massachusetts.
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Jun 22, 2010 17:35
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dMastri posted:Contract question! http://www.pittsfield-ma.org/images/downloads/Release%20Hold%20Harmless%20Agreement1.pdf I think you know what needs to be changed in that document. Still probably won't hold up to any real degree in court.
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Jun 23, 2010 06:03
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Posted this in the lawyer and law school thread on accident, realizing that it'd be better here, so I'll ask here: This is probably a stupid question and might not even be in the right place, but I have no one else to ask and it does have to do with law (somewhat), so I guess I'll try here. I'm trying to write a story, and in it, a character is charged with attempted murder of a little girl. It is assumed that, had he not been interrupted, this would have been a murder and a rape case. However, he's stark raving mad (or so he manages to convince everyone... the details about this aren't really important to the question). For the story, he needs to be put in a psychiatric hospital (and be there for quite awhile - at least 7-10 years). How probable could this be pulled off? I know nothing of law, unfortunately, but I want it to be as realistic as possible. In the story, it's a minor detail, but I'd still like to even it out. What I'm basically asking is this: would the court sentence someone to involuntary placement in a psychiatric institution for that many years? Or would he just get tossed in prison? Extra: I was reading about child molesters (of which they have no proof of him being, but which he MIGHT have been had they not gotten there in time) will be sentenced to psychiatric hospitals after prison stays. I'd be willing to run with that IF it was plausible that, with a good enough lawyer, he'd be able to get off a 5 year sentence for attempted murder... and considering a best friend of mine's uncle was put away with two life sentences for attempted murder, it seems like it's reaching. If this is the wrong place for this question, I apologize heartily, and welcome ridicule for my terrible story idea. :v
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Jun 24, 2010 07:20
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In most states, to use the insanity defense the burden of proof is on the defense; you have to present either "clear and convincing" evidence or "a preponderance of evidence" that you are insane. This is opposed to normal defenses where the burden of proof is on the prosecution. To use the offense you basically need to admit guilt. So most defense lawyers will avoid this defense at all costs; it's way easier to poke holes in the prosecution's case (or just to plea). In that case there would almost certainly be a plea deal. Cases really only go to trial when both sides are somehow convinced that they can win or else when the defendant is completely stupid as well as being rich enough to afford a court case.
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Jun 24, 2010 07:32
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evensevenone posted:In most states, to use the insanity defense the burden of proof is on the defense; you have to present either "clear and convincing" evidence or "a preponderance of evidence" that you are insane. This is opposed to normal defenses where the burden of proof is on the prosecution. To use the offense you basically need to admit guilt. So most defense lawyers will avoid this defense at all costs; it's way easier to poke holes in the prosecution's case (or just to plea). In that case there would almost certainly be a plea deal. So they could ask for a plea deal and end up in an institution? Because that's ultimate where the guy WANTS to be. (In the story, anyways.)
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Jun 24, 2010 08:53
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deadselly posted:I'm trying to write a story, and in it, a character is charged with attempted murder of a little girl. It is assumed that, had he not been interrupted, this would have been a murder and a rape case. If this is going to be another story about a guy who knowingly does a terrible crime, successfully fakes NGRI and bides his time until he can wreak more havoc on the same or similar victims, DON'T. It's not realistic, and on a more practical note, the more dumb stories like this that people read, the harder it is for real people with real problems to get favorable NGRI (Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity) resolutions. Successful NGRI cases are extremely rare. You don't go NGRI because you're a 'little bit whacky' or even 'a crazy sumbitch' and you do something 'merely' bad, like attempted rape/murder. You go NGRI if you are so out of it that you genuinely believe that you must stab and slash your child into mincemeat because god told you to or you eviscerate and decapitate your parents because you genuinely believe they turned into demons and want to kill you. Both you and your crime have to be jaw-dropping, batshit crazy insane. As a practical matter your insanity has to be manifested and clinically recognized and documented well before the act that gets you in jail. As a practical matter, the DA, the DA's psych experts, the judge and the victims family also have to buy into the fact that you are NGRI. So your smart psycho has to begin his cunning plan months or years in advance. Malingerers or fakers will get caught, either by the defense experts (so the defense won't present an NGRI defense because it won't work) or the prosecution's experts will say a person is malingering. There are specific tests and specific parts of specific psychological tests that are used to sniff out malingering, so a diagnosis of malingering isn't going to be based upon a psychologist's or DA's 'hunch' that a person is malingering, anymore than a suave or convincing defendant will be able to trick a psychologist into saying the person isn't malingering. So your smart psycho has to become a psychologist so he can get his hands on the proprietary tests and study the ways that he needs to change his worldview and structure his actions and behavior so that he can attempt to avoid being determined to be malingering, knowing that if the DA or DA's expert even intuit that he's malingering (regardless of the tests), they won't be on board for NGRI. Most successful NGRIs don't involve strangers, either, because there's very little chance that the victim or victim's family will be able to provide the against-interest corroboration of a history of insanity and little chance they'll buy into the concept of NGRI for a stranger. Once you're surmounted those odds and you've got a realistic, non-cliched NGRI, things get easier for you. Once a person is NGRI (usually when both sides agree to a nonjury trial before a judge who already knows the score is and rules NGRI) the person is sent to a mental institution until the psych doctors there think the person has been treated enough so that the person is no longer a present or future danger to him/her self or others. The docs will be pretty darn sure before they put their reputations and careers on the line for a patient and recommend he/she be released. Depending on your state's laws, the DA, judge or some other decisionmaker(s) will have the final say on release. Edit for more constructive help: It's a lot more plausible for an attorney to get an attempted murderer/rapist a deal for 5-10 years in prison than to get an NGRI. I'm guessing you want a 'clean' victim, so other ways a 5-10 year deal would work are: poor or tainted identification by the victim, misconduct by the police, like a bad confession (ranging from beatings to not honoring the right to counsel) or mishandling evidence. If you've got an attempted sexual assault, you're going to have to make sure there's no DNA (either because the assault didn't get far enough or the DNA never made it to court through some other set of facts). Bad ID by the victim is more realistic. If she never got a good look at him or failed to properly ID him in a photo lineup (cops generally don't do TV-style live body lineups anymore), but there's some middlin' circumstantial evidence, like he was in the area at the right time, he has a shady past, he had duct tape in his trunk, the victim got race and hair color right, he couldn't properly account for/corroborate his whereabouts, etc., that might be a case that would plead to 5 to 10 years, possibly no contest to a lesser charge, like assault with intent to commit a felony. A deal like that (if properly structured) would get the guy out of prison in 3-5 years, and without having to register as a sex offender. joat mon fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Jun 24, 2010 |
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Jun 24, 2010 13:41
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joat mon posted:A lot of helpful stuff. Thanks so much for all of this! It's very clear and concise and makes a ton of sense. I'm not writing a crime drama or something like that; honestly, the entire reason I'd want him placed in a hospital and not a prison is because the ease of visitation there is much easier (and that's important for the story). The story itself does not revolve around the trial, the proceedings, or anything as it is mostly a background fact that I wanted to check out if it could even work that way, because while the story contains some fantasy elements (no, not vampires) I wanted what reality WAS there to make sense. I can see your point about not wanting to damage the minds of the public against cases where NGRI is actually an important decision; as someone exposed to a lot of mental health crap in my time (with other people - I feel pretty okay about my own stability!) I have a lot of sympathy for those unable to control their own actions or understand reality. This is the furthest from what I want to do. The only reason I thought it was even plausible is because this man, by all accounts, seems absolutely insane to the general populace BECAUSE he is not human and the reasons he gives for doing what he does (and the way he does it) are steeped in rituals that pretty much confound the investigators. But, I suppose if it were more likely that he'd pretend to be normal and make a plea for a 5 year term (and get it, because of fudged evidence and police handling and because the little girl refuses to ID him), I could have him serve that and then voluntarily place himself in an institution (which is where I want him to be for the sake of the story). Still, that opens up something else. The police catch him with his victim, after he's cut her up nine kinds of ways and she's dying of blood loss. Even if she refuses to say "That's the guy that did this to me," it's not like... she's 5. She can't drop charges, can she? Can 5 year olds even BRING charges against someone? Thanks again. I tried to PM you this, but you don't have it activated. >: I feel like a loser spilling this out all over.
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Jun 24, 2010 18:49
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A little over 2 years ago, my fiance and I were rear-ended in Augusta, Maine. There was no question that the woman who hit us was at fault. The police arrived, took a report, got her insurance information (as did we), and we went on our merry way, as did she. We found out in the coming weeks a number of things: 1) Her insurance hadn't been paid in 3 months. They, of course, were not about to pay for this accident. 2) Her SUV hadn't been paid in 3+ months. As I understand it (unconfirmed) the SUV has since been repossessed. 3) She was living in low-income housing, had a daughter, was pregnant with another kid, and has since had a third, all of which were with different men, and none of whom are anywhere to be found, now. So she had no money, no job, and no assets. She was more or less living off social security. (Amusing anecdote: She bought the SUV she was driving using $8000 as a downpayment that she had received as some sort of settlement. This was (if I recall what she said correctly) a $24000 new vehicle. When asked why she bought such a large, expensive vehicle, her response was that she was scared of hitting a deer, and wanted something large enough to survive such an encounter. So, she bought a $24000 SUV so she could hit deer and keep on driving. Wow.) We did not have collision on the vehicle at the time. We had just bought the car (used, thankfully) the week before, and had not gotten the insurance sorted out yet (all it had was the continuation of our previous policy, which didn't include collision because frankly the car was worth about $50 in scrap metal, so it wasn't even remotely worth it). So our insurance wasn't paying. (Side note: We did have uninsured motorist insurance, but unbeknownst to us, this only covered injury to us, not our property damage. Our fault for not reading our policy better, granted.) Yes, it was stupid to not get collision on the car the day we bought it. If we had been at fault, we'd have been completely boned. I know this. But that's not the point here. To summarize the following events, it took quite a bit of effort to track her down (she had no phone, and I had no car, go figure). We got her to sign an agreement stating that she would pay for the damage to our car (which was ~$5500) at a rate of $80 / month. We never received any of it. A few months later, we filed a small claims court case against her for $4500 + fees (as $4500 is the maximum in Maine for small claims, and going to a larger court would have cost $450 just to file, and we knew she had no assets - it was basically just to get an official judgment against her - so it was worth taking a loss in the amount we'd be getting to avoid having more out of pocket expenses). It went to arbitration, we came to an agreement and got a judgment stating that she would pay us $20 a month (we tried to push for the $80 she'd agreed to, but the arbitrator strongly suggested we agree to the $20, stating that if she filed for bankruptcy, we'd probably see none of it, and even $20 a month was going to be a stretch for her). The judgment also required her to notify us when her financial situation changed, and increase the payments appropriately. Needless to say, this hasn't happened. We got $20 in cash at the hearing, a month later she sent a money order for $20, another one about a month and a half later, another about 2 months later, and so on and so forth. In total, we got $140 in $20 increments at increasingly long intervals. For the past 8 months or so, we haven't heard from her, and have been having a difficult time getting in touch with her. I've been carefully documenting every $20 we received from her, along with the dates we received them and the method of payment. I've also kept copies of every correspondence with her, as well as all of the court paperwork. Last I heard, she was living with her mother more or less living off of the social security she's receiving for her 3 kids. Of course, I haven't heard from her in 8 months, so who knows what she's doing right now. My question is, is there anything we can do about this other than just sit on a useless judgment? I know we can take her to a disclosure hearing and try to determine what assets she might have, but we now live in MA, so it's a 4 hour drive to get to the Augusta, Maine court, and it hardly seems worth it, as the disclosure hearing costs money (<$100, but still), and if she has no assets, it gains us nothing (and as I understand it, gains her immunity to having to deal with it for 6 months until we can file for another disclosure hearing? Confirm/deny?)... How long is this judgment good for? I've heard both 6 years and 20 years. The paperwork we have doesn't state a time limit. Is there anything that we can do if she just decides not to get a job, or to get (another) boyfriend and live off their assets, or something of that sort? What if she gets (or has) a job (or an otherwise improved financial situation) and hasn't notified us? Do we have any useful recourse if this is the case? We had to borrow money (from a family member, which makes it even worse, to me) to pay for the car repairs, and while we're not being charged interest on that, the family member is losing the interest they would have been getting (they more or less cashed in on their retirement fund for us). So the longer she continues to not pay us, the more money my family member is losing as a result. (We're slowly paying the family member back, but our own financial situation isn't conducive to coming up with $5500 quickly). Thanks for taking the time! e: edited for clarification Joudas fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Jun 24, 2010 |
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Jun 24, 2010 21:35
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deadselly posted:Still, that opens up something else. The police catch him with his victim, after he's cut her up nine kinds of ways and she's dying of blood loss. Even if she refuses to say "That's the guy that did this to me," it's not like... she's 5. She can't drop charges, can she? Can 5 year olds even BRING charges against someone? In criminal cases it's up to the prosecutor (a District Attorney or similar) to decide what charges are tried and whether they'd be dropped. Whether or not the victim wants to press charges doesn't necessarily matter.
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Jun 24, 2010 22:48
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Talibananas posted:In criminal cases it's up to the prosecutor (a District Attorney or similar) to decide what charges are tried and whether they'd be dropped. Whether or not the victim wants to press charges doesn't necessarily matter. All right, makes sense. Thanks, I appreciate it. 
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Jun 25, 2010 00:59
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Joudas posted:My question is, is there anything we can do about this other than just sit on a useless judgment? No.
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Jun 25, 2010 02:45
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deadselly posted:Thanks so much for all of this! It's very clear and concise and makes a ton of sense. deadselly posted:Still, that opens up something else. The police catch him with his victim, after he's cut her up nine kinds of ways and she's dying of blood loss. Even if she refuses to say "That's the guy that did this to me," it's not like... she's 5. She can't drop charges, can she? Can 5 year olds even BRING charges against someone? Given those facts, the guy isn't getting a 5-10 year deal. The State doesn't even need the kid. The cops see him with her after he's cut her up. They are the State's fact witnesses now. Your guy will have detectable and DNA testable amounts of her blood on him, too. Maybe a slightly different tack might work better, changing from NGRI to incompetent to stand trial. To most people that sounds like the same thing, but they're actually very different. NGRI has to do with a person's state of mind at the time of the crime. Incompetency has do do with a person's state of mind at the time of their interaction with the courts: Can he understand the nature of the charges and proceedings brought against him and can he effectively and rationally assist in his defense? i.e. does he know what's going on and is aware of the consequences of what's going on, and is he sufficiently 'with it' to be able to work with his defense counsel to defend himself in court? As a practical matter, incompetency would be a much easier way to get where you want to get in your story. Legally and practically, it is much, much easier to be determined incompetent than NGRI. Practically, it is somewhat easier to malinger under incompetency proceedings than NGRI proceedings (but this will still be the weakest point in the realism of your story; they'll still run the same malingering-detention tests, but without as much confirmation bias) Once a trial court determines a person is incompetent to stand trial, they are sent to a secure state mental hospital for 'treatment' to help them attain competency, whether by drugging them to get the voices to stop and the brain to clear and/or by teaching them to parrot what happens in a courtroom and what a defense counsel does. Periodic reports are sent to the court, and if the staff at the mental hospital think the person is now competent, they send them back. The judge makes the final call on competency, though, and the person can be sent back again if they are again, or still, incompetent. The 'fantasy' elements of your story might well manifest to a 'normal' psychologist as active schizophrenia, and those perceptions, true in the world of your story, would not be susceptible to treatment by anti-psychotics, either. In my state, once a person is incompetent for two years, the criminal case is dismissed and the person is turned over to the mental health authorities for treatment. Again, practically and legally, it is easier for an incompetent person in treatment be be released 'to the street' than it is for an NGRI person in treatment to be released to the street. This is not to say that it's easy to get a person determined incompetent; depression or addiction or a mere diagnosis of schizophrenia won't cut it. The person has to be so out of it that they really don't understand what's happening at all, or their understanding of what's happening is totally divorced from reality. This is just a thumbnail of the process. If you want to ask more questions, fire away. I think the process will be of enough general interest that it will be OK to continue in this thread it you want. If not, someone will say so and we can do it by email. joat mon fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jun 25, 2010 |
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Jun 25, 2010 06:26
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Solomon Grundy posted:No. How long is said useless judgement good for, if you know? She was 19 when she hit us, so we figured we'd be better off with an uncollectable judgement than just waiting for the statute of limitations to come around (and we're already better off - it cost us $70 to take her to court, and we've gotten more than that out of her)... we're hoping that by the time she's 30 or so she'll realize that she's wasting her life and go get a job. Not holding our breath, but hoping. Also, if the judgement will last 20 years, well... after 18, unless I'm mistaken, she won't be able to collect social security on her kids anymore and will, theoretically, have to obtain some alternate source of income? How about the question regarding her not informing us about changes in her situation? Is there anything beneficial to us that can be done about that? (Her going to jail or getting any kind of criminal record from it isn't beneficial to us, as it makes it harder for her to get a job, which is ultimately the best solution for us.) What would this count as, anyway? Contempt of court or something similar, for violating the terms of her judgment? Isn't she technically doing that anyway, by not adhering to the payment plan? Is it bad that we came to an agreement through arbitration, not by verdict of the actual presiding judge? (IE does the judgment we have hold the same weight in either case, or do we somehow have a 'lesser' one?) Thanks!
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Jun 25, 2010 17:11
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Joudas posted:How long is said useless judgement good for, if you know?
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Jun 25, 2010 17:14
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