r/AskLegal

Location: Arkansas. I can’t have my taxpayer money going to folks who tried to overthrow my government. I do plan to gather a group in Arkansas.

I am working in a company since 10 years and yes am being too loyal for this company. But recent months my wages has been cut by 40% and told that company was bearing losses. But as of today I knew that the only my salary has been cut and others are getting their normal salaries and raises also. My boss is also telling that he has purchased a 80lakhs system for ai. So what should I do? Forward legally or what?

I am in a drastic downfall in my life so finding another job now is not possible but yes am try and to find a new job.

How do you actually get quick, reliable legal advice online? I’ve been trying to figure this out and it feels way harder than it should be.
Also, real talk - how easy is it to actually reach a good advocate when you need one urgently? I’m thinking of working on something in this space, so I’d really appreciate honest takes. What problems have you run into trying to get legal help online?

Location: Nevada

Trigger warning and please don't flag this. I'm really struggling and a recent case in the news has me spinning about and reliving a sexual assault that happened to me in November of 2018. I need to know if I have any recourse (with the cops or the perpetrator) after this long and who I would need to talk to about it. Idk what kind of lawyer I would even need. Details below, please skip if it's not safe for you to read.

I was violently assaulted in Nevada in 2018. I was on a date with a man I met on Tinder who was in my city for a conference. We had fun while we were out and I liked him and felt like going back to his hotel room. I know that doesn't look good for me, the detective on my case made sure I knew it. Anyway, we got back to the room and kissed for a bit then he got extremely violent and he scared me. He eventually gained power over me long enough to penetrate me with his fingers as he attempted to also rape me. I fought HARD. I was not letting that happen. I told him no, scratched and kicked, and eventually got him off me long enough to get up. When I did this he sat back on the bed super casually and started laughing. I grabbed my purse which was in eyesight and thought to put my balet flat shoes on, which were next to the bed. Adding this detail because the detective told me it was suspicious I had the ability to grab my belongings when I was leaving. I just knew I may need to run so I needed shoes and I would need a phone, which was in my purse, to call 911. As I left I saw there was blood all over the sheets. So much blood. At least a 1 foot round spot of it, I will never forget that image. I tried to grab the sheet for proof but he jumped up so I ran. I got to the elevator of the hotel/casino and got to the main floor bathroom as fast as I could. I was dripping blood down my legs, crying, shaking. I went into a bathroom stall and called 911. Cops came quickly and took my report then took me to a place where they do rape exams. It was just like a metal building in a place I didn't recognize behind a gate. They did the rape kit. The nurse begged me to get stitches for the lacerations to my vagina but I was already in so much pain and so empty I couldn't handle the thought of going to the ER. I should also mention I'm a nurse and I was worried about running into coworkers. I was so embarrassed.

A detective followed up with me days later after I left several messages. They brought me into the station and took my phone. They said they needed to download the contents for evidence and I gave it to them. That took at least 90 minutes and they gave me the phone back saying they couldn't get anything off it. (Side note, the first cops that came took photos of his tinder profile and our text messages I showed them on my phone.) The detective treated me like I had committed a crime. I was told my story was suspicious because I went to the room willingly. I was told they saw the security footage which identified the perpetrator leaving that hotel room holding the crumpled up linens I said they would find there. The detective went so far as to say he acknowledged that he saw the person leave with sheets but since he couldn't confirm they were the actual bloody sheets he wasn't going to investigate further. Then he dropped a bomb on me. He said they contacted the perpetrator who had retained a lawyer. The detective said because he got a lawyer there was nothing else they could do to help me. The detective closed my case that day. I was in shock. I left. I thought about it for days then called the police back. I never again got to speak to that detective. I tried to even get a copy of the report and any documents related to the investigation and I was denied. I wanted a copy of the rape kit report and they said they don't give those out. After a few weeks I dropped it due to falling into a deep depression which lasted months, with resulting trauma that has lasted until today, seven and a half years later.

Since the Justice system betrayed me, after I did everything I was supposed to do, are there any protections the civil legal system may provide? I have always wanted this person to face what he did and to have consequences. You know I don't even know his full name? I blocked a lot of stuff out. I was hoping if I had the reports I could get his name as a starting point for a different investigation or something. All I know is he went by the name "Ashay" (sp?) which was a nickname, worked at EBAY as a computer engineer and he was in town for a conference. I contacted tinder to report the assault and they said they didn't have a record of his account. He deleted it.

If there is truly nothing to be done at this point I would even appreciate hearing that. I've gone this long with this event constantly in the back of my mind and I can successfully hold it back until there's a strong reminder, like reading another survivor's story in the news today. I want to move on and I thought I could without justice but so far, I can't. Who do I talk to? What kind of lawyer? Will the police open the case back up?

I read today that in Nevada it's not sexual assault unless there is penile penetration. That can't possibly be true right? Right??

Please help.

As the title says, our neighbors are no longer friendly. There was a divorce and we sided with the party that moved out. We didn't really side with anyone but we helped them move out and that was enough. Before the breakup both families shared a package box to help with deliveries. The road is long and there is no exit so the package box is in a convenient location on my land. I contributed the box and I have been maintaining it. I am tired of maintaining it and I don't trust my packages' security anymore. I have had to fix it and trim around it. I planted and landscaped around it. I just don't feel like doing it anymore and we have arranged a turnaround spot at our house for deliveries. There was no formal agreement in place and it is not an official USPS box. Can I just move it without getting sued? My neighbors are exhausting and I just don't need the interaction. I want to plant a tree and be done with it and them completely. I can't see anything wrong with just taking my corner back but they are "sue" happy and I can't afford to pay a lawyer for this.

Hello all! I was hoping to get some advice on a bit of a frustrating situation I'm in. Over a year ago my ex partner moved out and failed to remove herself from our rental lease. I didn't realize this until later, and at that point she was long gone and we were already no contact. Now that I'm trying to move out of this unit, my rental company is telling me they can't accept my 30 day notice until *both* of us physically come in to sign the notice form. But at this point my ex is a ghost and won't respond to me or the property manager (they've tried, she leaves their emails on read).

I've already signed my lease at the new place and am actively moving in, but it appears I'm stuck paying for both places for longer because I can't give my notice until she decides to step in (if she ever does). There's also the matter of the $2700 deposit that I paid for entirely out of my own pocket, which would be lost if I were to try to leave without doing this properly. However, if that money is a lost cause anyway, I could potentially just move out rapidly and terminate without notice? That would potentially be cheaper than paying rent for who knows how long just to give the proper notice.

So here are my questions:

- Can they actually force me to keep paying indefinitely if the other lease signer is MIA, or do they have options they aren't telling me about?

- If getting her off the lease without her isn't possible, would there be consequences if I just moved out and stopped paying rent? (Obviously they'd take the money out of my deposit, but could they come after me legally or put an eviction on my record?)

I just really want to find the cleanest way to get off this lease for the minimum amount of financial damage.

Thanks so much for any advice!

I'm in California.

[Burner account for privacy.]

Most privacy conversations on this sub frame the issue as a Fourth Amendment question. Search and seizure, probable cause, the warrant requirement. That framing is mostly wrong, or at least mostly incomplete. The doctrine that actually decides what's protected and what isn't, in almost every smart home, cloud account, and digital service case, is the third-party doctrine. It's older than most of the technology it's applied to, and it's the load-bearing wall in the house-of-cards we all live in.

The case is Smith v. Maryland, 1979. The court held that a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in information they voluntarily share with a third party. The facts were narrow at the time. Smith had called a victim from his home phone, and the police had the phone company install a pen register to record the numbers he dialed, without a warrant. The court said the numbers weren't private because Smith had handed them to the phone company by the act of dialing. The phone company was the third party. He'd voluntarily shared. No warrant required.

I spent eighteen years working traffic homicide cases in Florida, and the doctrine quietly decided more of those cases than the Fourth Amendment did. Cell tower data, cloud backups, app records, smart device logs. The framework that determined whether I needed a warrant or just a subpoena was almost always third-party doctrine, layered with the Stored Communications Act, not the Fourth Amendment in any direct sense. The Fourth Amendment governs the house. Smith governs the cloud.

The doctrine has been eroding, slowly. Carpenter v. United States, 2018, was the first real crack. The court held that historical cell site location information, the records of which towers a phone connected to over time, is sensitive enough that the government needs a warrant to get it, even though the data sits with the carrier. The reasoning was that the information is so revealing and so involuntarily generated (you don't really "choose" to ping cell towers) that the old logic of Smith doesn't fit. But Carpenter was narrow. It carved out cell site location, not everything else. Cloud email, cloud photos, smart speaker logs, Ring footage, thermostat history, search history, all of it still lives substantially in Smith's world, modified by the SCA, which gives weaker protection than a warrant.

Where smart home data lands depends on where it sits. Data on a hub in your closet, on a drive in your house, on a camera that never reaches the internet, that's "papers and effects" inside the home and gets the full Fourth Amendment treatment. Data on a manufacturer's server, even data you generated, is third-party doctrine territory. The same camera, the same recording, the same motion event. Where it lives decides which framework applies, which standard the government has to meet, and whether you'll ever know they asked.

So the practical takeaway, if you're trying to build a private digital life, is that the doctrine is the thing to pay attention to. Not the Fourth Amendment, which is sturdier than people think but covers less than people think. The third-party doctrine is the one that decides what's protected, and it's built on the premise that you already gave it away.

Once you share information with a third party, the law mostly stops treating it as yours. That's not a future risk, it's the current rule. Be deliberate about what you hand over, to whom, and under what architecture. The default architecture of consumer tech is to route everything through someone else's server, which is the architecture the doctrine was designed for. Local-first, end-to-end encrypted, or off the wire entirely are the postures that keep your data on the side of the Fourth Amendment instead of Smith. You can't unshare what you've voluntarily given away.

Location: Ohio

Neighbor discharged firearm in his back yard (does not have the required space, or a backstop. We are in a township) the round passed through my garage and it landed in the outside wall of my home. The neighbor is a family of three, mom, dad, son. Son was the one who fired at my home. He is an adult.

We were on good terms with the family and they made contact with us today to have a private meeting regarding the incident. I thought you werent supposed to discuss these things between parties. I think they want to try to talk me out of pressing charges against their son.

I am supposed to rely on city prosecutor to handle all this, but ive tried calling them and they havent returned my calls.

What do i say to the parents? Am i supposed to ignore them? I dont want to talk to them, but im hoping there is an official reason i can cite.

Does anyone have any advice for navigating things with the prosecutor?

Thank you!

Edit:

police report was made immediately after the incident.

Please dont suggest I talk to them. I dont want to talk to them. They almost killed me.

I owe approx 1,700 to Portfolio Recovery Associates.
I have been considering getting a lawyer for $750 flat rate, and they will handle everything from paperwork, motions, showing up to court, trying to get it dismissed and if that fails a reduced settlement. I will be very hands off.

The lawyers I spoke with told me they could probably get it reduced by 60%.

Knowing that, I will be spending/paying close to the same amount I actually owe. Guess I’m trying to figure out if I have a fighting chance and if I can do this myself and save myself $750.

For context:
-Initially missed the first court appearance because I was improperly served at my mom’s house, which I haven’t lived at for 5+ years.
-filed a motion for new trial and was approved.

I’m going to be 16 this year.

Location: California.

btw this is my first time writing on Reddit so idk how i’m supposed to format this. I literally only found out about reddit because of smosh read reddit videos, so i kinda wrote this the same way i write abt my dream in my notes app. just bear with me, this is kinda a long one 

I have REALLY bad period cramps. Like genuinely horrible. Imagine if someone fed your organs through a wood chipper and then shoved them back into your body through your nose. That’s basically what days 1 and 2 are like for me lol.

Without medication i can literally pass out from the pain. I also have anemia, but according to doctors and nurses the passing out is usually from the pain itself. The nurses know me so well at this point they can identify me from the way i walk.

The thing is, I LOVE P.E.

I’m competitive, athletic, and one of the faster runners in my grade. Most of the credit goes to my long legs, i’m like 5’8”. Unfortunately my coach sees “fast runner” and assumes i’m basically an immortal demigod or some shit.

Today we had a surprise timed 2 mile run.

Normally i finish in around 10-12 minutes depending on how much i care, but today was Day 3 of my period and i forgot to take my meds. Usually by Day 3 things calm down enough for me to function like a semi-normal human, so earlier i thought i’d survive the day until i saw the STUPID board fucking taunting me

“timed twice mile :)”

And that STUPID ass smiley face too bro like tf was that.

Before class started i went up to my coach and said, word for word “hey coach i’m on my period, could i sit out this one?”

And he replied “Oh you’re my best runner. You can handle it.”

Then he literally WALKED AWAY.

At that point i was already regretting every life choice that led me to forgetting my meds, so i followed him and told him directly “I forgot to take my meds. If i run this i might faint. Do you really want that?”

And this man looked at me like I was the problem and said (plz read ts with an annoying high pitched voice) “I understand you’re on your period, but you still need to participate. I expected better from you”

Not only did he raise his voice at me, but he basically announced to the entire class that i was on my period. Might as well have grabbed a megaphone tf??

I kept arguing with him and he threatened to fail me for the day if i didn’t participate. I told him idgaf, then this GROWN ASS MAN said he’d punish the whole class score if i didn’t cooperate, so now i had like 40 people staring at me which got my ear red so I just sat down.

I kept trying to convince him while we walked to the track. I told him i could make it up another day and he straight up walked away again. At that point i honestly felt trapped, so i was like “whatever. I’ll survive this shit and at least i can skip my math test next period.”

Which honestly in hindsight was not my smartest financial investment lol.

The run started and almost immediately i could feel the cramps getting worse. Halfway through the first mile it felt like my internal organs were having a firework show or some shit.

I was running with the fastest guy in my class. We normally run together and he slows down for me sometimes. gentleman fr.

Anyways we were running up this small slope near a tree and then everything just stopped.

Passing out was NOT like the movies btw. There was no dizziness, no slow motion collapse, fuck i didn’t even get a dramatic last words moment. One second i was running and the next second i woke up in the ER.

Apparently i collapsed and hit my head on a tree root, and from what people told me i stayed unconscious long enough for an ambulance to get involved, which is actually insane as hell to think about.

The guy i was running with apparently sprinted over yelling for the coach, and from what i heard the coach didn’t even notice at first and basically JOGGED over instead of actually fucking running like how he’s SUPPOSED to do like tf?? I was literally laying there unconscious and this dude was acting like he was checking the mail or some shit. What if i had an actual serious head injury tf??

Also he (the guy not the coach) told me he stayed with me in the golf cart, staff use golf carts for transportation, and waited for the ambulance even while i was unconscious so like... is this some debby ryan type shi ifykyk.

If you’ve ever smelled expired hand sanitizer, that’s exactly what the ER smelled like. Thick air, weirdly heavy.

The second i opened my eyes i knew exactly where i was. Honestly movies do a terrible fucking job showing what this actually feels like. I thought if i ever woke up in a hospital i’d be confused or in shock or something, but no. It was so obvious i was in a hospital.

My first thought was literally “oh shit am i in here for my period??”

My aunt was there along with two of my friends and the runner guy all still wearing their uniforms. I was in a hospital gown and immediately felt embarrassed because obviously strangers had seen me unconscious and changed me.

One of my friends gasped so hard she practically stole my oxygen when she realized i was awake.

I asked how long i’d been out and she said OVER 4 HOURS

And i was immediately like “oh shit.”

the doctors said i likely passed out due to period pain and hit my head on either a tree root or the ground. she said i wasn’t fully unconscious the whole 4 hours but more like i was super drowsy, like i was acting drunk and was in and out of it, then i’d fall asleep for a bit, wake up confused, then go back to sleep yk.

they did scans on me when i first got there, luckily no internal bleeding (i thought thats where blood is supposed to be?), no broken bones either. i do have a bump on my head though, my right front tooth is chipped (like a third is gone so ive got a slight lisp), and to top it all off i sprained my ring finger.

My aunt was crying too hard to really explain everything and basically just told me we’d deal with the coach tomorrow after sleep and after some Sonic chili fries. ngl I’m still waiting for those fries, its been like

Now my whole grade knows about it, which means i’m probably gonna get harassed when i go back, and random people are adding me on Snapchat asking if i’m alive which honestly does NOT feel like a good sign.

My family is furious because this is NOT the first time i’ve passed out in P.E.

It’s happened around 3-4 times before. One time i was unconscious for over 8 minutes and they almost called an ambulance then too.

So now i genuinely wanna know:

what am i actually able to do legally here?? Like what are my rights?? We got a big ass hospital bill now, which yeah we can pay, but it’s still annoying af for my aunt yk?

Can i sue or something?? Report him?? Hold the school responsible somehow??

Idk i just wanna take this man to court.

reading this back i think i probably should’ve used Grammarly for this one. THANKS FOR READING MY TRAUMA NOW IM GONNA PASS OUT(to sleep ts time ofc)

Like say, idk, I own and operate a paint store, and Im a super woo woo type and take starsigns very. seriously. Could I just not hire someone because they are an aires or a gemini and that would technically be ok because its not a protected class?

Disclaimer: i do not own or operate a paint store and am not in charge of hiring or firing anybody at my job, I just have a wandering mind.

I'll try to make this concise.

Estranged relative died, had will leaving everything to my minor children. Relative's lawyer is executor, a family friend had POA at end of life. A mere month or so before death, relative takes on a tenant in their house - tenant needed housing, elderly relative needed help around the house. This relationship was facilitated by POA. A contract to sell their house to the tenant at perhaps half of the fair market value was signed by the POA and dated to the day before death. Executor/attorney says he spoke to relative a few weeks before death, claims they were lucid and not under any influence during the conversation and this was their wish, to sell the house to this acquaintance, handing over 1-2 hundred thousand dollars in equity to her, taking it away from their grandchildren. Attorney says there is some document or amendment to the will to this effect but this was not submitted to the probate court and attorney is so far refusing to let me see it, nor will they give me a copy of the POA to see if she was even authorized to make the sale on relative's behalf. Probate judge doesn't seem to see a problem here.

What do I do? Do I have a case? I've been trying to get representation but getting bounced around and ignored. Not sure I'm explaining the situation well enough.

We got a cash offer and accepted, they put the closing date 1 week after the signing. The buyer has done an inspection the day we signed but they didn’t pay option fee or earnest money yet, the deadline was yesterday. Section 5.D of the contact says that Buyer forfeits their right to terminate the contract if payment is not delivered in a timely manner.

What happens if they don’t show up on closing day? Do we have any legal footing to pursue this?

Im on here looking for a way forward if anyone has it. I have two children with my ex wife 7 & 11. Ive been paying child support for the last 8 years but for the last 5 year my kids have been living with their great grandmother. Fast forward 2026 my son is getting in trouble at school. Throwing chair hitting children. my daughter asked to live with me because she want things out of life her mom won’t accommodate like cheer & other extra curricular activities. Her mom said no. So I have recently retired due to disabilities in the last year or so. Which gives me complete free time & my pension is enough to many mu home and my kids. I made a petition for custody due to them not living with their mon who had custody & the school issues with my son and lack of exposure for my children. We go to court and the judge leave her with custody even though she doesn’t live with them and only see’s them on the weekends I dont have them. Im still paying her child support also even though they dont live in the house with them. My lawyer tried to appeal his decision but he denied the motion. Is there anything I can do? Im at my breaking point plus my ex wife is very disrespectful.

I got caught smoking in the bathroom in school, it was my first time and last time ever doing something like that, I got suspended for 3 days. The lady is telling me that I can go to jail and get a felony. I don’t know what to do/expect

I’ve never seen a single bodycam video or heard anything about police officers firing warning shots. But if a suspect is wielding a knife and threatening to charge an officer with it, or anything like that, I feel like it could be pretty effective to fire a shot next to the feet of the suspect to jolt them to the reality of what’s going on instead of just shouting and being forced to kill them when they charge, which is what always happens. If someone is mentally unwell or extremely intoxicated, shouting likely won’t help but I feel like a warning shot would make them immediately realize they need to stop.

Is this legal? If it is, is it considered a good and useful tactic? If it’s not legal, why?

I’m not sure if this is the right subreddit to post this on so please let me know. I just bought a new camper from Blue Compass in New Mexico. We did the walk through, they showed us how to use all the things, very thorough and very helpful. My wife and I love it. However, the day after we took the camper home, we received a call from them saying they gave us the wrong rv. The serial number was off by one number! So we drove close to 3.5 hours with a camper that wasn’t the right one so if we got into an accident while driving it then I’m sure that would cause some type of issue with the insurance claims. We did call them today and they said that they’ll have someone drop off our actual camper and exchange the two. I feel like something more should be done because it’s a pretty big mess up, they tried to say they were busy and it slipped past them but that’s definitely something they should be on top of. I’m not the type of guy to really have an outburst when it comes to a companies mess up but this was a big purchase and I feel like we’re kind of owed more than what feels like a “my bad” from them. I was honestly going to try to get them to throw in an electric tongue jack and an extra battery with cover or maybe even a reimbursement on fuel. I’m just not sure if that’s enough or even too much to ask for