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entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

The Waffler posted:

A collection agency just sent me a notice of a debt that I owe because of a surgery in 2007. Due to some mistake with my father's insurance being switched three weeks earlier than it should have, my operation was not covered when the bill was sent out. We tried to work with the insurance company but they have done nothing. I do not have near the amount of money they say I owe. I live in Wisconsin. I was over 18 when I had the surgery.

What kind of options do I have in this situation?
Does this debt disappear after seven years?
Are debt collectors going to show up and rough me about?
Is a 4,000 dollar debt going to ruin my credit score?

I second nm's comments: the hospital will most likely accept less than the full amount, or at least agree to a payment plan.

The collection agency will certainly not rough you about, but yes if they sue you in court that will hurt your credit score.

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entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

zharmad posted:

Here's a question for someone a little more familiar with real estate law than I am.

Background
My parents owned two parcels of land that they had a mortgage balance of about $20,000 on in 1997, and they had fallen on somewhat hard times to the point where they were no longer able to make the payments. I had the money set aside to pay off the mortgage, and after discussing it with my parents I agreed to pay it off the mortgage on the condition that I be given ownership of the parcels with my parents, using joint tenancy with full rights to survivorship. One of the parcels has a house on it that I was living in and still do, and I didn't want to create an issue with my siblings having any claim to my house when my parents passed away. My parents quit claim to myself and themselves.

So this first quit claim deed has both of your parents listed as the grantors, and you + your parents listed as the grantees, as tenants in common or joint tenants? So you are saying that at this point, you and each parent now has a 1/3 share in the property?

quote:

In late 2008 my father quit claim to me

And now you are saying that in 2008, your father transferred his 1/3 share in the property?

quote:

and in November 2009 my mother quit claim to me on both parcels.

And now you are saying that in 2009, your mother transferred her 1/3 share in the property?


quote:

The current situation
I applied for a farm operating loan with the USDA in November 2009 and was set to close around the end of December, when the title company did the title search the underwriting felt that the quit claim deeds my parents executed were not valid because, even though they both quit claim on the properties the underwriter felt that the title on the property was tenancy in entirety, which to my understanding would have been true if they were the sole owners, however, since I had ownership since 2007 as well I felt the title was joint tenancy. I looked for some case law but wasn't able to find anything that related specifically to my situation. I'm really just looking for case law or something I can show the underwriter that shows the lien does not attach to the property.

Well, if your parents originally owned the property as tenants by the entirety, then the only way for you to get an interest would be for both of them to jointly execute a deed transferring an interest to you. If that first quit claim deed was invalid, or it didn't have both of them on the deed, then they didn't break the tenancy by the entirety.

The 2008 and 2009 transfers wouldn't break the tenancy by the entirety, you need to tell us more about the supposed 2007 transfer. Are you certain the transfer had both parents on the deed as grantors? Are you certain the transfer was validly executed?

Edit: There may be an issue of a "voluntary" or "fraudulent" conveyance. Your parents transferred the property to you after 2006 and 2007, when they allegedly underpaid their federal taxes. If it looks like your parents purposefully transferred the property to you because they thought they might get caught for tax underpayment, then that transfer might be disregarded in your jurisdiction. I'm a little hazy on this part of the law, so take this with a big grain of salt, but between 2006 and 2009, it looks like your parents underpaid their taxes, transferred a big chunk of property to you, and then got audited and penalized by the IRS. "Voluntary" and "fraudulent" conveyances are used by debtors to try and get assets outside the reach of creditors, which is what the IRS has become. I'm not saying your parents did this, but the timing certainly raises a red flag. If a court in your jurisdiction concludes that your parents were trying to use the quit claim deeds to prevent the property from falling into the hands of creditors, the transfers can be voided.

I think the real answer here is that, given the potential IRS tax lien on the property, you need to hire a real estate attorney to look into the transfers to you.

entris fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Feb 15, 2010

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

zharmad posted:


There is not really an issue of voluntary or fraudulent conveyance, because the transfer was done before any assessment of underpayment was made. The liens list the date of assessment as 12/17/2009, and since I did pay money for the property, my interest predates the assessment. It could look as though it was transferred fraudulently, however the transfers were conducted before any audit even began.

I guess the big issue right now is if the deed in 2007 really changed the title from tenancy in entirety to joint tenancy or not.

Yeah that sounds like the issue. Probably a ten-minute consult with a real estate attorney, who can look at all of the deeds, will solve the problem.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
What's the end game for ODC here?

He sues her in Florida, she ignores the suit, he gets a default judgment. Now he has to get a judgment lien on some of her assets, which means he's gonna have to bring a creditor's suit in her home state anyway. At that point, he's probably already surpassed the $175 mark.

He sues her in Florida, she actually (and stupidly) comes down and defends the suit. Maybe he can get her to settle. If she won't settle, then he has to fight over jurisdiction which means hiring an attorney, which means the $175 is gone. If he wants to fight pro se, I guess he could do that. But if she's bitchy enough to defend in Florida, she's probably bitchy enough to hire an attorney.

And even if she defends in Florida, and he wins, he still has to get his judgment lien attached to some of her assets. Although I guess if she shows up in person, the judge could make her write out a check or something. But who is stupid enough to fly down to Florida to defend a $175 suit?

I say that you should just chalk up the $175 to a lesson learned about performing contract work. The lesson is that you should get a deposit or payment for your work first, and then perform the work. Let them come after you if you fail to perform acceptably.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

dawiyo posted:

I own a small web design business and I'm starting to get some bigger name clients. Is it worth the money to hire someone to draft me a simple contract or will a canned one written for companies like mine work just fine?

Given how lovely the legal market is right now, lawyers are starving for work. I'm sure you could find a competent attorney for a reasonable fee, who could help you out with your contracts.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Solomon Grundy posted:

You could probably even find a lawyer to review your contract in exchange for web design services. What state are you in?

That's an excellent point.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Annakie posted:

Back in October I was involved in an auto accident that is indisputably the other guy's fault. Police cited him and not me, and when his insurance adjuster called me the first thing out of her mouth was "We've already accepted responsibility." My car was totaled and I've already gotten my settlement for that and bought a new car, so I don't need help with that, but I was hurt.

My shoulder got pretty messed up when I hit my airbag so for the last 3.5 months I've had to go to the doctor, go on pain meds / muscle relaxers, had a CAT scan done and just got done with a month of physical therapy, it's about at the point where it's as good as it's going to get. I also have what may be a permanent scar on my chest from the seatbelt.

I haven't consulted a lawyer yet because I've really been hoping that I can settle this whole thing without dragging it out, but I still want to make sure I get treated fairly now that it's time to start really dealing with insurance. I've kept good records on what I've spent, I have all my medical records available and followed all my doctor's advice to the letter. I've kept in touch with the adjuster and we seem to have gotten along fine this whole time.

Any general advice anyone can give me about what I need to do at this point? I've gone through a lot of pain and taken a lot of time out my life to deal with all this and I don't want to get rich off what happened to me, but what can I do at this point to make sure I'm compensated fairly? Even just pointing me in the right direction to other websites would help. Thanks! :)

When you accepted the settlement money for your car, did you have to sign any paperwork? I am specifically wondering whether you signed away your right to sue for additional compensation when you accepted that money? It sounds like you didn't agree to anything like that, but it's important to know.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
I think that I will second Incredulous Red here. I think that you could negotiate a settlement for your medical injuries without an attorney, but there are many ways for you to screw it up. The insurance people have more experience negotiating these things than you, and they will try to slant the deal in their favor. You need to make sure that the settlement covers all of your past medical costs, and also appropriately deals with the risk of future costs.

I think your best bet is to get an experienced attorney to do this work for you. I'm mainly concerned about the possibility of future costs - you don't want to accept a certain sum now and then find out that your settlement doesn't cover some unforeseen complication. I think a lawyer is probably better at planning for this risk than you will be. You may want to ask your doctors about the probability of future complications. If it's anything above 20% probability, you want a lawyer. If they tell you that "Oh everything is fixed, you won't experience any complications" then maybe you don't need a lawyer. (Doctors never say this, of course, because medicine is never this certain about anything.)

Edit: In essence, I am suggesting that you pay a little now for more security later, if an unforeseen complication should arise.

entris fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Feb 23, 2010

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Sonic Dude posted:

Quasi-legal question for a quasi-legal situation:

I've been receiving two emails a week from a company asking me to pay an "invoice" for a web hosting account that I canceled over a year ago. The "invoice" is dated on my cancellation date, and is for the six months after my account was (or should have been) closed. One emails comes from billing@[company].com, and the other comes from my email address, spoofed.

I've called, written (email and postal mail), and opened tickets in their billing system. All have been ignored. I opened one last ticket last night and was more than a little terse. I asked them, point blank, to stop harassing me.

Here's the response (emphasis mine):

The gently caress? Did he just threaten to "do better" at harassing me?

How do I stop these constant emails from a company (they're in MD, I'm in OH)? They're clearly trying to get me to sign up again by paying my "bill" and reactivating my account, but two emails every Monday for over a year is insane.

I don't want anything out of these guys (well, except to see the above rear end in a top hat fired). I just want to stop having to filter their email, and I want them to stop sending me poo poo. Does anyone know where I go next?

Best option: Improve your spam filter.

Other options:
Call the Maryland Better Business Bureau and lodge a complaint.
If they are owned by a parent company, call the parent company.
Post your story on Consumerist.
Change your email address.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Incredulous Red posted:

Have you done anything at all that could be construed as a crime?


He probably shouldn't answer that.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Just confront your fiance and stop with the passive aggressive bullshit.

I don't know if you can be used in PA but why risk it? Just confront her with what you've found and have your fight. I think we're all really sorry that your fiance cheated on you, that's pretty rough, but don't go sending those emails to the papers. If your fiance was a student I think the situation would be a little different, but she's not so you shouldn't out those emails.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

The March Hare posted:

I have a pretty general e-commerce (kinda) question here. If I were to set up a system in which people donate small sums of money for a chance at being able to 'win' a donation in their name to a registered npo of their choice, while simultaneously keeping a percentage of that money for myself, what kind of legal poo poo am I into here? I'm sure I'd have to pay taxes on probably all of it right?

As an example, if, over the course of a month, 1,000 people donated a total of 1,000 dollars at a dollar each I would then give each person a 'raffle ticket' for every dollar they donated. Whoever wins gets to make a donation of $500 to their charity of choice and I keep the rest for server costs and personal profit. I know it sounds ludicrous but I've been considering giving it a go as, aside from legal stuff, it would cost me almost nothing to set up. Just want to make sure it isn't illegal under some kind of tax law or anti-lottery law or... whatever.

Try this thread for the tax issues.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

XaphanTheFallen posted:

I could use some help legal goons.


I am in California and would like to know if anyone can educate me as to the procedures/codes for becoming the guardian of an incompetent adult, presumably over their objections. The reason of their incompetency is due to mental illness.

I figure I need to petition the probate court and probably get the affidavits of their doctor stating their incompetency, but I would like look more into it.

Thanks in advance.

Call up your local courthouse and ask the clerk, they'll point you in the right direction. After you file a petition of some sort, the court has to appoint a guardian ad litem for the allegedly incompetent adult. This GAL will meet with the adult, make an assessment, and generally represent the adult's interests in the court. It's not just a matter of filing affidavits from doctors.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

cory ad portas posted:

So this girl's crazy boyfriend threatened to shoot me, apparently he's Sur13 which I doubt. Still, he kinda kept going on about how he had "a .40 for my rear end," blah blah blah.

ROTC and poo poo seriously make me not want to have to deal with this rear end in a top hat, I don't need that kind of crap around me. Any advice?

The lawyer's advice is to go to the police, but honestly I doubt that's gonna do a lot for your practical fear of actually getting shot, beaten, what-have-you. The best advice may be to just stay away from that guy, and/or places where he commonly goes.

But yeah, go to the police if you think it's serious.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

cory ad portas posted:

Well it's not so much fear of getting hurt, because honestly I doubt this kid owns a gun and I could beat his rear end, but that isn't something I'm interested in doing while pursuing a college degree and a career in the military, you know? Looks bad. Thanks for the advice, guys. If he keeps it up, I'll just call the cops and tell them I'm being threatened by some kid that claims to be a member of a particular gang the police here just happen to be trying to get rid of.

Is he really claiming to be a member of that gang? Don't lie to the cops or anything. It's probably all pointless posturing anyway.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

floramarche posted:

I may be responsible for a family member's estate in the near to mid-future. There is not and likely will not be a will. Here in Ohio, the probate courts have a "summary release from administration" for estates valued at less than $5000. My questions :

Edit: drat you Grundy! :argh: Well, I wrote this out so I'm posting it anyway.

I'm not an Ohio attorney, so here are my general not-legal-advice answers. Check at the bottom for the good advice, which TLDR is "call the clerk's office."

quote:

1) Am I correctly reading the order of descent as whoever is closest to the decedent has full rights and responsibilities to the estate, or would people in the next category also have a say? For example, if a child is the closest living relative, but the decedent's mother is also living, would the mother be able to contest the child's administrator request?

Typically, states have laws that give certain family members priority when the probate court determines who should be appointed administrator of the estate. This priority is not iron-clad, generally, and anyone with an interest in the estate can object to the appointment of administrator. So, in your example, if the child is the closest living relative, the decedent's mother can certainly object to the child's appointment as administrator. Similarly, if the mother is seeking appointment, the child (or child's guardian) could object.

So here's the thing for you to think about. If you become the administrator, you will owe a fiduciary duty to every living heir of the decedent, whether or not that heir will eventually inherit anything. For example, if the decedent left behind two kids, his mom, and his brother, the kids will probably take everything. But until you close out the estate and do all of the appropriate paperwork, you have to give notice to the mother and the brother.

Question: if you are going to seek appointment as the administrator, do you have any problematic relationships with any other family members?

quote:

2) Are personal items, such as clothing, small electronics, furniture etc. considered to be part of the estate? Do these things need to be part of the inventory, or is there a dollar limit below which items need not be disclosed?

Yes, these things are part of the estate, and yes they need to go on the inventory. As a general rule, however, I've seen administrators list these sorts of things as "Clothing and other personal effects - $200" and "Furniture - $250." In my experience, personal tangible property is generally reported with a low value, except for the type that I mention in #2 below. You can list them in category, rather than listing out every single shirt or pair of pants.

Despite the fact that the tangible personal property is generally the least valuable part of an estate, it is one of the trickiest parts:

1. Clothing, furniture, and jewelry can all carry sentimental value, so the administrator has to be very careful when figuring out who gets what. A family member is more likely to raise a fuss over Mom's favorite necklace than they are about a $1000 checking account. So you need to be careful when figuring out what to do with this stuff.

2. If any of the furniture, artwork, jewelry, etc, is of particularly high quality, then yes you need to get an appraisal. If the furniture is antique, if the artwork is by a known artist, if the jewelry is expensive, you need to make sure you value it correctly on the inventory.

quote:

3) When writing the inventory, is it necessary to hire an appraiser, or can the administrator assign value him/herself?

For real estate, you can often use the latest tax assessment value that the county uses when assessing real estate tax. (If the county's tax assessment value is unrealistic, which is possible in today's environment, you could get an appraisal instead.) For a car, you use Kelly bluebook values. For anything tricky, like antiques, artwork, or anything that is unique and/or sufficiently unusual, you get an appraisal.

If your estate consists of ordinary personal property and a checking account, you don't need an appraiser.

quote:

4) Would I need to file an application to be named administrator before requesting summary release, or can these be done concurrently?

I have no idea, this is an Ohio-specific question.

quote:

5) How long does the process typically take? Would it be feasible to have everything completed within a week of the family member's death? [asking as I live several thousand miles away.]

You probably cannot get this done within a week, but this is a Ohio-specific question since you think you might be able to do the "summary release." You should ask the Ohio probate clerk in the county where your family member died. In fact, you should probably call the clerk's office and ask them your questions.

In general, you cannot expect probate to take less than a week, that's not reasonable. At the very least, most probate processes require that you a) get appointed as administrator, b) provide notice of your appointment and of the decedent's death to all of the potential heirs, c) marshall the assets, and figure out valuation issues, d) file the decedent's last income tax return, e) give notice to the decedent's creditors and pay off the decedent's debts, f) once all debts are paid off, make distributions to the decedent's heirs.

With a small estate, all of this is generally pretty easy, and it sounds like Ohio has a streamlined process for small estates as well, so it probably will be easy to deal with the estate. But I think it will take longer than a week, because typically you have to give notice to potential heirs, and they get thirty days (or similar) to respond before you get to move onto the next step.

quote:

6) If the estate is over the $5000 limit (unlikely), how does this complicate the probate process? What are the effects on the timeline?

If you aren't eligible for the streamlined Ohio probate process, then you're probably looking at a timeline of at least a month, but that depends on a lot of things - whether your other family members are going to complicate matters, whether the decedent has debts you need to take care of, etc.

Like I noted above, however, some of your questions are specific to Ohio's probate laws, and so you really ought to call the local clerk's office. The probate clerk in most jurisdictions is the point-of-contact with the families of dead people, and in my experience this means that the clerk's office is very very used to helping people walk through the probate process.

For small estates, you don't really need an attorney to help you unless you have a complicated family. Oftentimes, with small estates, you can just ask your questions of the clerk's office and you'll be just fine.

So, look up the local courthouse in the county where your family member lived before their death, and call the courthouse. Ask for the probate division, or the registrar of wills, or whatever they call it in Ohio, and then ask your questions. If you can go down to the clerk's office, they probably have pamphlets and/or other literature with instructions for family members who want to probate a small estate. If you ask really nicely, since you are out-of-town they might be willing to mail them to you (although you may have to send them a self-addressed, stamped envelope or something similar).

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

floramarche posted:

Thank you Solomon Grundy and entris. That cleared up a lot for me.

Now I have one more question. Let's say I waive my right to administer the estate. Can the courts force me or a more distant relative to take the role, or is there a mechanism in place for a court-appointed guardian to finish the job? Or, is it possible to simply allow the state to take ownership of all the assets and not have anything at all to do with this?

Well, you do not have to serve as administrator if you do not want to. The courts cannot force anyone to serve as administrator. What usually happens, with estates that are not probated, is that the decedent's creditors will sometimes get themselves appointed so that they can collect on the decedent's death. But this doesn't happen with small debts, because creditors can't be bothered to do that, and it probably wouldn't happen with your family member's estate.


The state will not simply take ownership of the assets if nobody does anything, so far as I know. The only time that the state "takes ownership" of a decedent's estate is when the administrator determines that the decedent has no living heirs at all, including distant cousins, and then the probate rules generally have some sort of escheat statute.

States generally have procedures whereby someone can get themselves appointed as administrator, but I've never heard of a court proactively selecting an administrator for an estate, especially if family members are alive.

Here's the thing. If no one probates your family member's estate, then technically any assets in his/her estate remain in his/her estate, and nobody should be taking them. So, if nobody probated and the family just divided up the assets, that would technically be illegal. This happens all the time with small estates, however, because a lot of people are completely ignorant of the existence of probate. In these cases, the biggest problem is that creditors will come looking for the decedent, find out that the decedent's assets have been subdivided amongst family members, and then go after family members to collect on the decedent's debts.

The other issue that you run into, if nobody probates the estate, is that the bank is not supposed to disburse any assets from the decedent's accounts to anyone who isn't already on the account as a joint owner with the decedent. Any real estate that the decedent owned cannot be sold, same with the car. The title would get all screwy. Basically, if no one probates, the assets don't move anywhere, at least not legally.

Was the decedent's bank accounts jointly titled, do you know? Did the decedent own any real estate, a car, anything with a title to it?

Edit: if you don't want to do anything with the estate, you don't have to. But don't expect to receive anything from the estate, and don't expect the estate assets to go to anyone else. If you don't care about the assets in the estate, you can just walk away. Of course, if you do, someone else in your family may decide to serve. What's your hesitation with serving (aside from being out-of-town)? Do you mind if someone else in your family serves as administrator?

entris fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Apr 28, 2010

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

uG posted:

So I hired the best lawyer I could for my probation violation. As you might remember they sent me a notice that they have an arrest warrant in the mail. My lawyer has given me some papers to take to the court tomorrow to get me in front of the judge to plead not guilty on my violation and get a hearing set. He said he talked to them and that they will release the arrest warrant once I do this. Does that sound right? It sounds to me like they just want me to show up to the court building so they can arrest me...

Well, you gotta trust your lawyer man. If you are confused about this, if you don't understand these papers that he wants you to take to the court, then call him up and ask him for clarification.

If the police want to arrest you, they will arrest you, either at your house or at the court building. They don't need to engage in some round-about scheme to get you to come down to the courthouse just so they can arrest you.

But you have a lawyer, trust him.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Try calling the bank where she had her account, and see if you are the transfer on death beneficiary. If you are, you can probably avoid probate on that. You may have trouble getting them to talk to you since you aren't the administrator of the estate.

If no one removed her personal effects from her apartment, or whatever, eventually the landlord would just toss it all away as abandoned property or something, I imagine. S/he would probably sell anything of value. I'm not saying it's legal for the landlord to do this immediately but if you were to leave everything in the apartment, then eventually the landlord would have a right (probably) to deal with the stuff.

You probably won't be able to sell the car because typically only an administrator can pass good title. But you could let the car sit there, and call in a report to the police about an abandoned vehicle. Someone will tow it eventually.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Pillowpants posted:

If a friend of mine is really bad with money and just wants someone to take care of everything for him, can I do that legally?

I'm talking about setting up autopay or paying his bills on time every month and such?

If your friend wants you to manage his finances for him, you can do that of course. You would essentially be an unpaid financial manager or somesuch.

In order to be successful in managing his affairs, you need access to his account statements, and you need the ability to make payments on his behalf. You can do that with just his verbal authorization but the banks won't cooperate with that. You could have him execute a power of attorney which grants you the power of attorney with regards to his financial assets. That's probably the way to go.

Another option, which requires less paperwork, would be for him to add you to his bank accounts, so that you can write checks on them. This approach has a drawback, however, in that you could take his money and run (and if he added you onto an account so that you had access, that is potentially a taxable gift which is no good).

Short answer: yes you can do this. The answer is a valid power of attorney. If he wants to do this, go find a lawyer to draft one. It shouldn't be too costly.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Pillowpants posted:

Could I charge him for it or is that venturing into across line into the financial adviser world? He's offering me $20 a month to help him.

You could charge your friend, yes. That would be a separate contract from the power of attorney that he would execute. I don't know about your jurisdiction's laws, but in many states, if you are a power of attorney you have an agent's duties that you must perform. This means that if you do anything wonky with the money, your friend can sue you for breaching your duties.

The power of attorney would list all of the things that you are authorized to do on behalf of your friend, and this list of powers needs to be carefully tailored so I recommend having an attorney draft this.

Or, of course, your friend could just grow up and learn how to set up autopay on his bills and whatnot.

Here is your takeaway: since this involves the control of someone else's money, you better make sure that the arrangement is structured in the right way. If your friend decides that he doesn't like you handling his money anymore, he could make life very bad for you if you don't have some sort of arrangement in place. From his perspective, he needs a formal arrangement to protect him as well, because otherwise he could get screwed by you.

Any time you have Party A managing money for Party B, you have to be careful because people can get really uptight about their money. It's not a casual thing for you to just access his bank accounts and manage his financial affairs. Also, $20 a month is ridiculously low for this kind of service in my opinion.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Surly posted:

Do you really need a legal expert to tell you why this could potentially be disastrous for your friend?

This.

dMastri, your question is a technical question, along the lines of "What are the chances she'll get caught?" As lawyers, we don't know the answer to that question, but we are typically a very risk-adverse group, so to us it does not seem like a smart thing to do. To me, at least, but I'd be surprised to hear an attorney suggest that she go ahead and take the trip.

I think the real question is what sort of person is your friend that she would be on a probation and decide to buy a plane ticket in clear violation of her probation? I suspect that she has a lot more trouble coming down the road at her.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Nautatrol Rx posted:

Question:

US/Arkansas/Not involved in any activity or legal proceeding at the moment.

Is there such a thing as being an accessory to libel? For example, if someone asked me to set up and design a webpage to essentially smear a public official, would I be held liable for what they say on that web page if I am only providing the web design and publishing service?

Also, if I was paid to take their general ideas and write them into a coherent format, would I be in hot water for that?

My position is neutral on the official, and the potential client claims to have evidence that the official is not acting in a manner that is fitting of the position. If anyone could point out potential pitfalls in this endeavor, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

I think that if you simply set up the webpage, and were not the owner of the site, you would probably be fine. If you rewrite the owner's words at the owner's direction, I would be inclined to think that you were just an agent working for the owner, and that the words would be attributed to the owner and not you, but I'm not sure if that analysis holds up.

The more basic question is whether the owner of the website is really going to say something libelous. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that libel against a public official has to be done intentionally, IE, the speaker has to know that it isn't true and says it anyway. If your buddy thinks he has evidence, and thinks it is the truth, he might be fine.

But again, I'm not really sure about that. I don't think you would have an issue though. Just get a contract made up that says you are getting paid to set up a website and do basic proofreading and editing. That would make it clear that the content of the website was not yours.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Nautatrol Rx posted:

To make it a little more clear, the potential client claims to have statistical data regarding sexual discrimination in rulings by a judge.

If you are publishing statistical data of case rulings and the gender of plaintiffs / defendants, I have a very hard time seeing how that could be construed as libel.

Even if you say, "I think that this data means that Judge X is biased against female parties," I think you would be fine.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Logite posted:

Quick question,

My friends dad passed away a few years ago and his older sister was transferred custody over his (aside from him and his sister) disabled/mentally retarded family.

His father passed over control of his family to his sister before he died. He recently shared with me that his sister is abusing his family mentally/emotionally and that he's wondering if he can talk to a lawyer about gaining custody over his family without risking them being split apart and the chance that they might be sent to a place that's worse off than they are currently. He's 19 and his sister 24.

We need more facts. How many mentally disabled people were under the father's care? How old were they when under his care? How old were they when he passed control to his sister? How old are they now?

If the mentally disabled people were over 18, was the father formally appointed the conservator of them? How did he pass control to the sister?

Your friend, is he mentally competent? What his relationship to the mentally disabled people? I assume they are his siblings.

Flesh out your question, it's not clear to me who is who.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Xinlum posted:



The ACLU seems pretty cool. Besides straight up donations what can I do to help them out?

Go to law school and then practice human rights law. The ACLU always needs new lawyers for its staff and stuff, so it's super easy to get a job there, although it only pays like $80k so it's not great or anything.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Xinlum posted:

Apparently mentioning the ACLU with links is good enough reason to school administrators. I was happy to see this in my inbox today.


Thanks for telling me about the Corpus Christi case joat mon. Hopefully this solves the problem and I don't have to bother those guys.

The ACLU seems pretty cool. Besides straight up donations what can I do to help them out?

Ok, serious answer: https://secure.aclu.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=TX_Volunteerpage

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
In my defense, I forgot that this was the Legal Questions thread... I thought this was the Lawyer & Law School thread when I wrote my reply, so I figured everyone would get my joke.

I wasn't serious, non-lawyer types :(

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Runaktla posted:

Why is he horrible, because he said $80k isn't that great for an attorney?

The joke was two-fold: 1) civil rights law jobs are very scarce and competitive, and 2) I was pretending that $80k isn't a lot for an attorney, when in fact most first-time attorneys would kill for $80k in today's market. Most would probably kill for $60k.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Of the top of my head, I'd say that if the hippies want their van back, they better pay her back the money she paid them. There was a completed transaction here: she paid money, they gave her possession of the van. Even if the record of the contract is bad, the hippies don't get to reclaim their van AND keep the money.

Edit:

If the transaction was valid, your friend owns the van and probably needs to sue the hippies to quiet title. (I think the transaction was valid, and the failure to transfer the deed over was just a ministerial error.)

If the transaction was not valid, then both your friend and the hippies have to put each other back where they started: she gives them the van, they give her the purchase money AND they need to pay her for the improvements that she made to the vehicle.

None of this will ever go to court, by the way, because the hippies aren't going to pay a lawyer to sue your friend. So she ought to ignore their stupid threats unless she actually gets served with something.

What state is this in?

entris fucked around with this message at 14:28 on May 20, 2010

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

SWATJester posted:

My last lease even has a clause saying that you waive any claim of unconscionability in the contract.

Hahaha that's adorable. I wonder what moron thought that the courts would respect that particular provision.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post
Lexical Unit, try calling Lambda Legal and ask them who the good GLBT-friendly attorneys are in Texas. Lambda won't represent you, but they should be able to point you in the right direction?

Here's the link for the Texas chapter, with a telephone number: http://www.lambdalegal.org/states-regions/texas.html

entris fucked around with this message at 22:17 on May 25, 2010

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Lexical Unit posted:

Thank you Auracounts and entris! I contacted The Lawyer Referral Service of Central Texas (aka The Austin Bar Association), Katine & Nechman, and Lambda Legal over email. Hopefully they get back to me soon. :)
No offense taken. Honestly, I've got use to it. And you wren't being inaccurate because it's been my experience that people/places/organizations that use the term GLBT most often really do mean GLB. I should have been more clear.

I think the best argument over nomenclature is the GLBT v. LGBT discussion, with the feminists insisting that GLBT perpetuates patriarchy.

Since I'm not a member of the community either way, it's not my place to judge. I just use LGBT when around women, GLBT when around men, and "the evil homersexuals" when around Republicans.

/good luck, Lexical Unit! Don't forget that you CAN move out of Texas, and there are plenty of friendlier regions of the country (although Texas's economy is doing pretty well, comparatively).

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

TheFrailNinja posted:

I THINK this is the best place to ask this. I'm eighteen and I've been playing the drums since I was nine. This year is my senior year in high school and my band director had me teaching a couple of kids drum lessons all year in YTY (youth teaching youth) periods. This summer I want to make along side my regular job and I was wondering what the legality is of teaching private lessons out of my own home. I live with my parents but we have a half-finished apartment where my drum set is usually set up. What can I reasonably expect to charge for an hour? I know the craft backwards and forwards and I feel very confident in my ability to teach. I would be asking my band director these questions but a friend of mine said that he would tell me that I'm a student and it wouldn't be right to give lessons as a student.

So, does anybody have experience with this? Can I put an ad in the paper and not expect a letter from the town? This seems like a good idea to me because I have a friend who gives guitar lessons to a kid from our school for $15/hr., if only an hour ever week or other week.

You'll be fine, get to it and good luck! I took some bongo lessons once, if I wanted to, I could try to teach bongos to students and I wouldn't get in any trouble. The law puts the burden on consumers to decide which teachers are worthwhile. I've never heard of a state or local government requiring music teachers to possess a license or other teaching certificate, so you will be fine.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

What The Fucktrain posted:

I apologize if this is too specific for this thread, but what sort of laws or legal precedents and such are there for the validity of wills if the person writing them are under the influence of anti-psychotics (Zyprexa, which is from what I can gather rather controversial and strong, especially since in this case the person did not exhibit signs of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.) Obviously I'm not a lawyer myself but I know in a will you must be of sound mind and body and I don't think of someone on fairly strong anti-psychotics as of sound mind.

This is in North Carolina, if you need specific counties/cities I can provide that but I wouldn't imagine the laws would change at that level in something like this. If I knew where exactly to look I would do so myself, and if it wasn't so late on a Saturday I would call a lawyer now or tomorrow (I do plan to consult with one, or more possibly, but this is heavy on my mind.) Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I do have MSN/Yahoo/AIM, if anybody would like to talk there instead. Either way is fine with me.

As others have already said, the standard for testamentary capacity is pretty easy to meet.

A person can be competent on Monday, incompetent on Tuesday, and competent again on Wednesday. I know of at least one instance in which a person was competent in the morning of every day but in the evening would be incompetent. As SWATJester said, the question is whether the person making the will was competent at that moment.

As an estate planner, if I were advising a client who regularly took strong anti-psychotic drugs, I would be very aware of the potential suit for lack of capacity. I would probably take precautions to ensure that the client A) has capacity and B) that I later provide evidence of that capacity. I imagine that the lawyer in your situation has probably thought about this.

You could definitely ask a local lawyer whether they'd be interested in helping you challenge the validity of the will, but I doubt it is worthwhile. A testator who creates a will while under the influence of drugs (of any kind) is definitely sending a yellow flag, but the drug use alone does not bar testamentary capacity.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Silver String posted:

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for this question. I'm in Colorado. I have a friend who works in a doctor's office, getting paid under the table. She does this because the doctor was at one time her boyfriend so he set up this deal with her. Now that they don't date, they continue to work together but he withholds her illegally earned money whenever he thinks he is being slighted, etc. Who knows how many of the other people in his office he is loving around with.

My question is, can I report this to anyone since I'm not directly involved in any way? And if so, who? I would hate to put my friend out of money, but to be honest she'd likely be better off picking cans out of the garbage. Knowing this doctor, he probably has a lot more shady practices going on. Is there a way to get him audited or something? Thanks law goons. :)

You could try writing a letter to the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners, but you'll be stirring up a shitstorm for your friend, no question.

Try here: http://www.dora.state.co.us/medical/

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

Nihilanth posted:

I live in Missouri.
Not sure whether this is more appropriate for tcc or here, but...
I've recently been considering moving in with a pretty close friend of mine. Only problem is I know for a fact he sells weed.

If it's his name on the lease, and I live with him, would I be guilty of anything if he got busted? What if I just feign ignorance?

I think that you are making a poor life choice if you move in with someone who regularly breaks the law. Someone who is willing to take that kind of risk is unlikely to respect other rules, like a lease agreement. Find somewhere else to live, at least until the federal government finally legalizes weed.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

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.

entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

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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entris
Oct 22, 2008

by Y Kant Ozma Post

areyoucontagious posted:

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?

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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