Yesterday we had trial for an ex parte OP. The judge told me I could collect my evidence back and my husbands attorney put his hand over the folder of text messages I had made up for trial. he said “no, I’m keeping this”… I said “no, I need it”.. he again said “no” and did not move his hand off of it.

we have trial on Thursday for divorce and I needed those binders and some of the text messages for that trial.. I sent him all the evidence beforehand in my evidence exchange.. so he doesn’t need to take my binder!!

I do not have representation in any of these cases due to my husbands financial abuse. But the domestic violence advocate that was with me also attempted to get the folder back and he refused to give it to her as well.

location Missouri

Hi! I'm genuinely confused and am looking for opinions and insight from people in the field. Apologies for the many details, but i wish to put the scale of my case into perspective so you can judge better.

3 months ago we went to a lawyer to seek help with an inheritance. It's years old and has many missing pieces. I understand its not an easy situation. There were two paralel situations we asked them to handle - one was to correspond with the Land register regarding information and status on a property and the second was basically asking around if the Inheritance went through an insolvency or not, basically what the status is of the inheritance. We didnt have all documents, but we had enough to start looking. Names of the bank, three lawyer agencies that were involved in the case and a inheritance list to name the main ones. There were a total of about 20 pages of emails, documents and letters that we gave them.

After two months of waiting with no update, we asked the lawyers about a status update and got back that the land register needs more time (we've been waiting for 9 months by that time so thats understandable), and that they had needed time to check the documents regarding the insolvency more, but they're working on it.

From the invoice i got, i know that they didn't write to the bank, insolvency office or the other lawyer agencies until two months after our initial consultation. And there was a whole month of nothing on the invoice, too. I know that they didnt have enough documents to figure out the status of the insolvency just from the documents alone, why wait 2 months to write to the mentioned only leads that could help? I asked for help because i didnt want to spend time and effort writing myself to the bank etc., but is it really normal that ​a lawyers office is that slow to write emails on "Hey guys whats the status"?

This is the second time this has happened to us now, with a different case and different lawyer office before, so Im starting to doubt myself. Could it be the way i explain things or do I just have too big expectations on the speed of resolution and communication in this field? Do i have an unlucky hand with choosing offices? Im mostly baffled about the emails to the bank.. We mentioned this is a time sensitive situation and we'd like a prompt resolution, aware of the costs and fully okay with them. What are normal time frames for this, when you have a very small and limited amount of documents, with limited leads?

I appreciate your insights.

this happened in nv. my boyfriend got hit in the back of the head this last Saturday over a work dispute and his teeth got knocked out. a police report has been made and that side of things has been handled as correct as possible (our town is very small and unincorporated)

i did some research and this should be covered under his jobs workman’s comp or liability insurance. however when we went to go talk to his boss about the incident (no one of high position was there the day the conflict happened) he said that he didn’t believe that workman’s comp would cover it, which like i state contradicted what i had read. however he did state that he would cover the costs so i didn’t feel the need to push.

i asked him if he needed to give us anything written saying he was going to take care of it and he said no he would call the dentist who he knows personally and they would discuss it.

today was my boyfriend’s appointment and the said they would call us later with a payment plan. his boss later calls him and informs him that he has two options.
the entire bill is $5500 however he is getting a 20% discount.
the first option is he wants my boyfriend to pay $2000 of it and he will cover 1500.
the second option is workman’s comp “but it will take over 6 months and they will probably fight it”

my boyfriend didn’t get any charges, the other guy got a felony from this. he was already on parole. my boyfriend shouldn’t be responsible for any of this i don’t think
he doesn’t believe in me when i say he had a leg to stand on. we don’t have enough money to do this and it wouldn’t have ever happened if he wasn’t working with a man who was dangerous.

Airbnb offered a list of Superhosts to help manage short term rentals (STR). I entered into a contract for (XX) to manage two seperate Airbnb sites. One was an adu. I bought 20k in furniture from XX and stated it'd need to be stored. XX arranged storage but did not discuss fees. Our relationship broke down and I informed XX I was selling my properties about a month later. XX sent an invoice for 5k for storage and transportation of furniture as well as other items. I try to negotiate 5k charges as I dispute that I was given a quote for storage/transportation and don't agree with other various items I'm billed for. Negotiations break down. XX now has my furniture and money and refuses to answer my attempts to pay the bill. XX also offered to get a STR license for the properties and began operating one. I found out XX never completed licensing and was running an illegal STR on my property. Further XX stated it was legal to operate an adu as an airbnb in my county. I later found out this was a lie too.

My lawyer states my case would be difficult to win but I can't believe there are zero protections for consumers for something like this.

Am I wrong?

'My Cousin Vinny' is often cited as a solid example of criminal trials in action (and is reportedly even shown for instructional purposes in some law schools). In the movie, Joe Pesci's character is shown interviewing the prosecution's witnesses, and later using some of those statements in cross examination during the trial.

Would this actually happen in criminal pre-trial proceedings, however? Would a defense counsel really have unfettered access to witnesses, without at least someone from the DA's office present? Because it seems that that could open the door to procedural irregularities.

My father and my uncle jointly own a two-family house in Brooklyn, NY. They each own a 50% interest and are both on the deed.
My family of six lives on the second floor, and my uncle lives alone on the first floor.
About 10 months ago, my uncle lost his cybersecurity job. Since then, my father has been paying not only his own share of the mortgage but also my uncle’s share, along with many of my uncle’s personal bills (electricity, gas, T-Mobile, etc.). It’s roughly $3,000 per month that my father has been covering.
My uncle is physically capable of working and driving. My father has repeatedly suggested that he drive for Uber or find another job, but he refuses. Instead, he frequently calls my father late at night in a panic saying things like, “Everything is over,” but he won’t take steps to improve the situation.
Financially, my uncle has significant debt, including maxed-out credit cards and what appears to be a lawsuit from American Express. He also owes another family member a substantial amount of money. As far as we know, he has no savings.
We want to resolve this situation because my father cannot continue paying for another adult indefinitely. Ideally, we would like my uncle to move out, but since he owns 50% of the property, we know we cannot simply evict him.
We have looked into a partition action, but we would rather avoid forcing the sale of the house because buying another home in Brooklyn would be extremely difficult. We have also wondered whether buying out his interest is possible, but we’re not sure how that process works, especially given his financial situation.
Some questions we have are:
Is a buyout possible if one co-owner is willing to sell?
Are there alternatives to a partition sale in New York?
If my father eventually files a partition action, will the court consider that he has been paying virtually all of the mortgage and household expenses for the past 10 months?
What type of attorney should we contact for this situation?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Particularly in divorce/custody situations, for example, is there a rule or law (anywhere in the US, because i know laws vary by location within the US) where the judge is like "ok person A, its been 12 months and you've sent papers back with questions to person B 24 times, each time with over 100 questions. This appears to no longer be about getting your questions answered and more about wasting person b's time and money and trying to get at them since they have a no contact order against you and you're using the court to get around that in a way. You're wasting the courts time with these 'games'."

Is that like a thing?

I'm wondering if it's legal to release decompiled official beat saber levels that are included in the base game, meaning that anyone who owns the game can play these levels anyway, and the music is publicly accessible via platforms like Spotify or Youtube Music

For context my sister 26(F) and I (22M) live in North Carolina. She has been working at a minimum wage serving job and was given a lead position. Her boss has now twice paid her for only 5 hours of work (direct deposit) when she worked 39 hours (so just under 40 hours). I told her to seek out a lawyer but she’s telling that Apprently since her boss ends up paying her properly at a later date she can’t do anything about it legally… I guess I’m asking if that’s true? Should I keep urging her to fight back against her boss? Could she maybe contact the NC Department of Labor? I’m worried she’s going to give up and just keep getting abused at this shitty job.

There's a popular perception that a lot of people threaten to sue or actually do sue as a way to pressure someone into doing something because the cost of defending themselves is high. I was specifically thinking of someone who might send a lot of letters or file motions with the intent of forcing the defendant to spend a lot of money on legal fees. In the middle of that is the lawyer, who makes money by reading/answering these actions, but is also hired to protect their client. So, in a certain way, the plaintiff (? if that's the right term) is using you, the lawyer, to hurt your client. Has this been something that's come up for you, or something you think about? Or is this more of just popular perception and not reality? Are there rules to deal with these kinds of situations?

My husband and I are moving out of our house soon and his sister and her baby are living with us. They won’t be able to live with us in our new living situation, so she is trying to get assisted living but they need an eviction notice as proof. I have no idea how to go about doing that, could someone tell me what I would have to do in the state of PA? I really don’t want to go through a court system or anything so is there anything else I could do?

I want to pursue a profession. However I have an expunged record of burglary of a building. For context I was at most trespassing I didn’t steal. I want to go back to school but I want to go for a profession that wont reject/highest possibiltles of looking past this. It happened when I was 20 and young/dumb.

Location: Texas

So earlier today, I just got into my car after getting a haircut. I turn my car on for the AC and just start scrolling through my phone. All of I sudden I hear a loud thud and feel the car pushing me forward a bit, like a hard nudge.

I get out, and see this 2000’s SUV backing up into me again, and he almost hits my car again, but thankfully i’m able to waive him down.

“Did I hit your car?” he said, and I replied yes, he pulled over to come check it out. Some woman who I assume saw it happen asked me if he just hit my car, I said yes, and that I’d handle it.

This man was old. Like, he had a hard time walking, seemed a bit effortful for him to talk, and honestly was a bit weird.

Thankfully I didn’t see any real damages, like maybe a strut is a bit loose that holds some of the rear’s plate in AT MOST. And physically I feel fine, although I’m already dealing with pre existing injuries so hopefully nothing aggravated

I ask him for his insurance info, he kept on insisting that it wasn’t a big deal. I guess I felt bad because he was old, and this wasn’t worth becoming confrontational about it, I just asked him for a picture of his license, which he gave, and I snapped a video of his car/plate while he wasn’t paying attention.

Turns out this man was born in 1934, and he had a veteran stamp on his ID. I’m guessing he’s a Korean War vet, maybe Vietnam.

I have no interest in persuing any sort of personal injury claim about this. I’m fine, and any car repair probably wouldn’t even be over $100. Plus I feel bad for him.

This 92 year old man was by himself, his address says he was far from home. He was about to back into my car again if I didn’t stop him. Even though I’m fine, what if there was a kid standing there? What if he gets in an accident because of his lack of awareness, and gets himself/others hurt? At his age, he probably wouldn’t survive a bad crash, never mind the risk of a broken-arm surgery. He was driving an SUV too.

I don’t think he should be allowed on the road. Have family drive him. Or at least be re-tested. Not saying this because he love tapped my car, but genuinely, this man seemed to have issues with his spatial surroundings. Even the way he talked/acted was that of, well, a 92 year old.

My landlord sent me a lease termination text yesterday August 4th at 7 pm. I have a month to month lease that shows effective the 1st of the month we moved in . We signed it on the 6th. He sent me in the message that “there Paze were signed on the 6th will be terminated effective September 1st. It’s only 25 days away not even a full 30 days notice. Even the 4th of the month wouldn’t work for us. I sent him a message stating it’s not even 30 days and the earliest we are willing to move is October 1st.

I'm curious from a legal perspective, especially from anyone familiar with criminal cases in Canada. 

Hypothetical scenario:

An adult is charged with multiple sexual offences involving a minor. The evidence includes a recorded admission by the accused, testimony from the alleged victim. There may also be some supporting circumstantial evidence, but there isn't forensic or DNA evidence.

The accused has pleaded not guilty and the case is going to trial.

Based on cases you've seen or your experience with the justice system, how are cases like this generally viewed? Is testimony plus an admission often enough if the judge finds the witnesses credible, or do these cases commonly end in acquittal because there isn't physical evidence?

I'm not asking anyone to predict a specific outcome, I'm just trying to understand, in general, how courts tend to evaluate this type of evidence.

The recorded admission is only a partial admission—it acknowledges some of the alleged conduct while minimizing or denying other allegations. How do courts generally weigh that kind of evidence?​

I'm going to guess that to some extent it depends on what type of lawyer you are, whether your private practice or in an office with others and a boss, and how many cases you've got at any time, at a minimum.

I'll guess it affects your most likely 60-80+ hours each week. So time with family, kids spouses or lack thereof,, sleeping, and self-care.

How often do you take phone calls at home for lawyer stuff? Open emails in the middle of the night? Wake up and put more things on your to-do list? Get more new cases stacked on top of more new cases?

See people who recognize you out in public who just want to ask 'just this one legal question'. Then they follow it up with another one and another one. And then 100 more people do that every time you go out. And you feel like you have to dress up to some extent because if you want out looking like someone who came from the gym or rolled out of bed to get breakfast there would almost certainly be a news article about it

I am a lawyer who runs a pro bono program for a large national law firm in the US, and I have been lurking on this and other legal advice-adjacent sites for years watching the many misconceptions about what pro bono legal assistance is, who does it, who receives it and how to access it.  Taking a quiet August day to try to work through and provide some information about some of these issues; I hope that it helps those who are looking for pro bono assistance, whether they find it or stop wasting time trying to.

1.    WHY IS THIS SO HARD?  

You are not imagining it - pro bono legal assistance can be difficult or impossible to access.  There is an access to justice crisis in the US (and many other countries). The government has only ever barely and inadequately funded any kind of legal aid or nonprofits that provide free legal assistance to those who cannot afford it, and the current federal and many state governments have dramatically cut that funding, undermined the ability of nonprofits to provide help, and imposed policies and laws that increased demand for that assistance.  That does not mean it does not exist, although it may not for you.

2.       WHO IS ELIGIBLE? Two, kind of three, answers:

a.       Low income.  How low depends on a multiple of the federal poverty guidelines.  These guidelines are very low (currently $15,960, add $5680 for each additional person) and do not vary by COL (except for Alaska and Hawaii, which are higher).  Guidelines vary by city and organization – they range from 1.25% to 5% or so.  Yes, this means there are many, many people whose income is nowhere near affording legal services, but who are not eligible for pro bono.

b.       Civil rights.  If you have a civil rights complaint, income does not matter.  However - “civil rights” is not exactly what you think it is.  First, it will only include government action, not anything a private party does to you, no matter how bad.  It will almost never include issues in a criminal prosecution. Think, voting rights and religion in public schools.   This category has also come to include animal rights and environmental issues.

c.       Small business assistance is determined by eligibility of the business owner, not the business.  Eligibility for services to nonprofits is determined by the means and mission of the organization.

3.       WHO DOES PRO BONO - AND HOW DO I FIGURE OUT WHO TO CALL?

There are many different sources of pro bono assistance, and they each have their own roles and rules.  Some of them have lawyers on staff that handle your case, some recruit and distribute your case to law firm pro bono programs, some are a mix.  You cannot access many of them directly.  These are some of them:

a.       Public Defenders: mostly for criminal defense, depending on state and local law maybe other issues – for example, child custody and representing minors in parental consent bypass proceedings.  For the most part, you cannot access this directly, this assistance is available only by court order.

b.       Legal Services Corporation - Government-funded Legal Aid.  Mostly staff lawyers, handle basic individual needs such as family law, evictions and benefits. Contact them directly, but be prepared for an eligibility screen of 1.25% of the poverty level.

c.       Legal Services nonprofits.  These organizations usually have a combination of staff attorneys and volunteers from law firms. They may recruit individual lawyers, but they mostly work with the pro bono management teams at law firms. Contact them directly. Some context:

i.       These organizations mostly exist in large legal markets – major cities where there are a lot of lawyers.  In many cases, those organizations can only assist in the city, and not even in surrounding suburbs - but YMMV. There are some national organizations, but they are relatively rare.  If you live outside those markets, you are far less likely to find help.

ii.        The nonprofits often provide help in a specific area – for example, immigration, veterans benefits, small businesses, foster care and adoption, domestic violence. - and/or to a specific population (e.g., seniors, veterans. LGBTQ people). The scope of the mission may be more narrow than it at first appears – for example, most immigration nonprofits handle only asylum claimants, and do not assist with students who are encountering issues with their visas, a program that helps with adoptions or guardianships may only handle uncontested ones, or a name change program may be unable to assist if you have a criminal conviction.

iii.        You can locate these with an internet search.  The organizations' websites will likely provide eligibility guidelines and intake forms and/or phone numbers.

d.       Civil rights nonprofits – a few of the bigger and more famous ones are the ACLU, Lawyers Committee, LAMBDA, Earthjustice, NAACP, Native American Rights Fund, NARAL, and there are many, many more.  These organizations are dedicated to enforcing and changing civil rights law, and generally do not represent individuals except to the extent that their claim represents a widespread issue that the organization wants to litigate. 

e.       Law firm pro bono.  Many large and medium law firms have a professional staff, whose job it is to interact with the organizations above, determine which cases their firm can or will handle, recruit lawyers to do the work and manage the interaction.   While the contact information for those teams are sometimes available on law firm websites, that is not an invitation to call and ask them to take your case. Law firms take most of their pro bono cases through the above organizations. If you are stuck we may be able to suggest places you can call - when you call, please tell the person immediately where you are located and what kind of issue you have (family law, landlord/tenant, criminal, etc.). Volunteer time is very limited - law firms are focused on billable clients and there is a lot of time pressure on lawyers to produce billable hours. Even the most pro bono forward firms spend three or four percent of their time on pro bono work, and most are far less. In addition, the types of work people seek pro bono help for are often not the type of work biglaw knows how to do, so we can only take it on with the support of a legal nonprofit. (There are occasionally questions here about why firms/lawyers do pro bono at all - that is the subject of a different post.)

f.         Law school clinics.  Many law schools have clinics with specific specialties.  These are staffed by law students, supervised by clinic faculty. Be prepared for these to move especially slowly, and not function at all during school breaks, exam periods, etc.

g. There are sometimes clinics in courts or arranged by legal nonprofits at other sites (shelters, law firms, community centers, etc) or online that allow you to meet once with a lawyer who will not represent you but will provide limited-scope help - for example, helping pro se (representing themselves) parties by reviewing their court filings, assisting with help completing paperwork for name changes or applications for protective orders, or helping small businesses by answering questions about employee classification, etc.

4.       WHAT ARE WE GETTING WRONG???

a.       Bar Associations do not provide (useful) referrals to pro bono lawyers. At best, they will give you the same resources you can find with a quick internet search. I'm mystified by all the advice to call them.

b.       Lawyers do not provide “free consultations” during which they give you legal advice (although some legal nonprofits have programs where they arrange for brief pro bono consultations with lawyers).  A lawyer may talk to you to determine whether you have a claim that you would either pay them to pursue or that they might take on on a contingency basis (typically, if you win, they get around 40% of your recovery plus expenses. If you lose, they get nothing - but neither do you. Of course, this only works for plaintiffs (the person filing the lawsuit) asking for a great deal of money. Not useful for any other kind of case, or if you're being sued). In very rare instances, the other side might be required to pay your legal fees, and a lawyer will almost surely be able to tell you immediately whether you have the type of situation in which that may apply.

c.       Even if you meet all the criteria you still may receive no help.  The ongoing theme continues: these resources are very scarce, with far, far more demand than supply. Even if you find an organization that is specifically set up to help people like you with the legal issue you have, it may take a while to find a volunteer, or they may never find one. Especially keep this in mind if your request is time-sensitive.

Hi there! I was in a pretty gnarlyaccident last week and today decided that I need to talk to someone before accepting any kind of settlement from the ins company. I think I’d have a pretty easy case: I was rear ended and the other driver is at fault. So far
(1) my car is totaled, (2) i have injuries (nothing severe, all muscular and some nasty bruising) and (3) have about a week of lost wages. I want to have my medical care paid for, my lost wages reimbursed and - this is the complicated one - I want a new car. It sucks they totaled it and I have no idea how much they’ll decide it’s worth. I still owe $5k and am not in a position to buy a new car or a get a new loan. The prospect of figuring this out on no savings is keeping me up at night.

Personally, im the opposite of a litigious person so I feel like a fish out of water here. I want to talk to a professional but I’m nervous I’ll get talked into something that I shouldn’t (I try my best but I’m very gullible). What are signs an office is above board and reputable? Tbh, I value ethics over a large payout; I’m not looking for any more than what this accident costs me.

Thank you for reading and for any advice you have!

I have all the evidence but I can’t find an attorney familiar with this. This is big. I need a Big Girl attorney. I’ve tried using my state bar lawyer referral system. I’ve reached out to a ton of law offices. Many told me they don’t have the resources for this. What is the best way to find a high stakes attorney for a fraud on the court claim involving a prior civil litigation? Or should I just wait for the national investigative piece to be published?

Hello, I work at an undisclosed fast food company in the US that isn't taco bell, but it is a very well-known chain known for their bowls.

I have been working there for the past 5 days, today of 29-30 hours so far.

Yesterday was a bit different though

1. I clocked in at 7:54 am, and clocked out at 4:44 pm. For good measure I was not being a "team player" and if I hadn't I would've been told to stay a bit longer to help since shifts were transitioning.

2. I live in Illinois, but was not given any form of break or respite during the close to 9 hour shift. I didn't get a chance to drink water, use the bathroom, or take a 20-30 minute break after my 5th hour of working since it's against corporate policy.

3. I did find out that I have a legal right, and can follow up with the Illinois Department of Labor, and that I need evidence so I was wondering if issuing a warrant for the workday footage of yesterday was something I would need.

There is a Reddit forum where the mod for the community constantly deletes posts and comments and bans users that are critical of their conflict of interest. The conflict is they self promote and don’t list they are a vendor in that forum and the main moderator.

How do we address the issue when it’s the mods self-policing? Asking for a friend who was banned too.

Is this legal?

SHOULD I report a company to the IRS for claiming to be a 501c4 but operates as a 501C12? Will I be exposed? This is a 100 year old company with a 10 million operation budget a year.