r/legaladvice

Location: Kansas/Missouri (wife and I live in Kansas, were subpoenaed in Kansas, to appear as witnesses in court in Missouri)

Hello - my wife and I were each served with subpoenas to appear as witnesses in a friend's divorce proceedings. The wife (not a friend of ours) subpoenaed us, our best guess as to why is to try and disparage the character of her husband. I have no idea if that's right, but it's a guess.

We arranged childcare and showed up to court this morning, only to sit outside in the hallway for around 3 hours before being told they were done for the day and we would have to appear again on June 1st.

I will again have to take PTO to sit in the courthouse that day - is there any way I can avoid doing this? Or get more compensation past the $41.50 I got for this first appearance?

I'm happy to provide any more info if it would help. Thanks in advance.

Location: Ohio

Did not expect to be writing this today.

Sold my 2018 Civic on FB Marketplace back in April. Guy paid $7,200 cash, I signed the title over, we did a handwritten bill of sale with his name, license number, everything. Seemed like a totally normal transaction, guy was friendly, nothing felt off.

Got a letter yesterday from a Progressive claims adjuster while playing on my phone saying the vehicle was involved in a hit and run on May 3rd in Columbus and that as the registered owner I may be held liable for damages to the other party. Apparently the buyer never transferred the title into his name.

Called the number on the letter and the adjuster was pretty cold about it, basically said "you're still the registered owner on file." I have the bill of sale, the texts from when we arranged the sale, and I know I signed the title but I did NOT file a Notice of Transfer with the Ohio DMV which I guess I was supposed to do within 30 days.

The phone number the guy gave me is disconnected. His FB profile is still up but he hasn't responded to messages.

How bad is this actually? Does the signed title and bill of sale protect me or does the fact that I didn't file that DMV notice hurt me? And is there anything I should do right now before this goes further

Hello all,

Any insight or advise would be greatly appreciated. My brother is in the middle of a divorce. His soon to be ex-wife is trying to claim or fight for my parents home that they resided in (2014-2025). My parents purchased the home back in 2007 and made payments on their own until my father passed away (4 years ago now). The home/deed are still under my parents name so my mom still owns it. My brother and his soon to be ex wife lived there with them, essentially for free, as my parents helped them out with their kids. My brother started to assist my mom with mortgage payments once my dad passed away and his ex wife just moved out a year ago. Would his soon to be ex wife be entitled at all to the property or any payments he has helped with? Location: Texas

Thank you!

I work a cashier/customer service job. My schedule says I work from 8:00-3:00. I arrive at 7:40 to turn on the computer and count the cash drawer before we open at 8:00. My boss last week (he only rarely is at my location) was there when I got to work. He changed my clock in time from 7:40 to 8:00. I claimed it was wage theft. He says I’m not “scheduled” until 8:00 and therefore was working “overtime”. I only get between 25-30 hours a week so am not in fact overtime. Who is right?

Location: Texas!

Location: Texas

I was selected as 1 in 10 students for a short term (10-12 weeks) summer paid internship for in veterinary medicine. This program begins June 1st and covers wildlife, equines, clinics and it a great opportunity for me and any future vet school applications. I accepted the offer, signed a contract, and was in the process of sending in I-9 documents.

To preface, I broke my ankle in March, had ORIF surgery, had some complications and was taken back for an unexpected hardware removal last week. 9 weeks out, I was full weight bearing in a normal shoe, walking normally, so I'm only expected to be off my feet for 2 weeks this time, transition to a walking boot, and should be back to normal by the end of June at the latest. When I was told I'd be having surgery, I emailed HR to give a heads up on the situation and to prepare for any accommodations to be arranged.

HR said they'd speak to the program director, and to follow up with any updates. Today they called and said they didn't want to make accommodations seeing as it was a short term position, and would rather the position go to somebody who can fully perform the animal husbandry duties of the job. I explained the walking boot is temporary, 2 weeks maximum, and I would be able to walk, stand, lift, and complete most tasks needed.

I'm so sad that my injury has already taken the last few months from my life. What possible steps can I take to follow up to their decision? Should I ask for the department head's contact information, request their decision in writing, file an EEOC claim? Should I just let it go?

Any advice at all is appreciated.

Location: Denver, CO, USA

So this is a doozy. I’m in Denver Colorado first off, and so is everyone in this story.

My daughter moved out and in with her boyfriend and his mother a little over a year ago. I didn’t see her for a few months and when I did she’s obviously pregnant. Obviously. I say, omg sweetie and we get a test and she’s genuinely shocked. She’s 36 weeks and genuinely shocked because “I trusted his mom because she’s a nurse”

Because her boyfriend and her NURSE boyfriends mother had been convincing her for months she was just getting fat and “acting bipolar”

Then the boyfriend tells me “I should have just bought a test for her when mom first thought”

Now here’s the kicker. When they decided to raise the baby this woman went holy nuts. She called CPS about “neglect concerns” while my granddaughter was still in the NICU. She harassed the nurses in the floor to the point they came into the room and asked the boyfriend to call off his mom.

Come to find out-the mom’s just gotten engaged. And has made comments that lead me to believe she knew that my kid was pregnancy and did and said nothing, even when asked. With all that and the freaking out over not getting the baby-to the point I am worried she will show up here.

Today I found a card in a baby book that came from that house. Addressed to the mom. Congratulations on the adoption. Dated before she gave birth.

Now I might be a little mom headed here but I genuinely believe this woman and possibly her son knew she was pregnant and played on her naïveté and vulnerability (I only adopted her at 17 she’s had it rough) so the mom and new boyfriend can have a baby.

They also are holding all the things they purchased for her hostage because “she’s supposed to be mine”

Is this ok? Can they just do that? Would it even be worth speaking to a lawyer about?

I’m so angry and scared and it just seems so WRONG.

Thank you for any input

Location: Northern Michigan.

I live in northern Michigan and do various fields of construction. Yesterday while putting up a 2x12 support beam on an old pavilion we're raising to pour a new pad under, the person on the end of the beam dropped it while we were up on ladders. I was in the middle and the beam turned the ladder into a guillotine on my left food. I fortunately didn't break my foot but I have a massive hematoma and the swelling hasnt gone down yet. So I'm stuck on crutches and icing it every 2 hours. I asked my boss if there is anything I can do that doesn't require moving and he said he'd think about it. My dad said to not file a claim if I'm only out of work for a few weeks. I need to make money some how. Especially in today's current financial situation. Can my boss fire me if I file a claim through the labor department if he doesn't file one with his insurance? I've never gotten hurt this badly before and im not sure what to do. Please help me.

Location: New York State

An 86-year-old widow has 4 adult children (3 sons, 1 daughter). She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and qualified for 24/7 in-home care.

Originally, she named her daughter as Power of Attorney. One of the sons became angry that his sister was “in control,” took their mother to a lawyer and allegedly convinced her that the daughter was stealing from her and that she needed to switch POA to him. At that point, the mother already had cognitive decline and confusion and agreed.

After becoming POA, the son had the mother sign over roughly $500,000 in checks to him over about 2 years, which he allegedly gambled away. He also opened a joint bank account with her and used her ATM card. He did not sign checks as POA — the mother physically signed them herself — but she reportedly had significant memory impairment and would sign anything put in front of her. She could not even complete a clock drawing test at that time.

There is evidence that the daughter, while previously acting as POA, never took money for herself. Before the Alzheimer’s progression, the son had never received gifts anywhere near this size.

My question is: in New York, could this rise to criminal elder financial abuse, exploitation, larceny, or breach of fiduciary duty by a POA, even if the son argues the money was all “gifts” from his mother? Does someone acting as POA have a fiduciary obligation to stop taking money from a cognitively impaired parent rather than facilitating large transfers to themselves?

****Part 2 / Additional context: Once the daughter realized what had happened with the POA and also saw that her brother was not facilitating the 24/7 home care their mother qualified for, she petitioned the court for third-party guardianship. The son was reportedly leaving their mother alone overnight and for extended periods during the day despite her condition and care needs. The court granted third-party guardianship relatively quickly.

The appointed guardian’s position is that aggressively investigating the son right now could upset and agitate the elderly mother (the guardian’s ward), and that the daughter will have to wait until her mother passes away to fully pursue the issues.

Does the fact that third-party guardianship was granted relatively quickly suggest the court already had serious concerns about the son’s conduct/capacity to care for her?
Is it really true that this cannot be investigated until the mother dies, or can APS, law enforcement, the DA, or another authority investigate financial exploitation while she is still alive?

Additional question:

How are cases like this usually proven if the elderly person physically signed the checks herself?

The concern isn’t forgery, it’s whether someone with diagnosed Alzheimer’s truly understood what she was signing or the amounts involved. The massive “gifts” only started after cognitive decline and were far outside anything she had ever given before.

Also, if someone is acting as POA, don’t they have a fiduciary duty to protect the person’s finances rather than continue accepting unusually large checks from someone they know is cognitively impaired? Or can they simply argue, “She wanted me to have it, I’m her son!.” The line becomes blurred. Morally, everyone knows this is wrong. But how can it be proven that the incapacitated person was not lucid each time she signed a check (or at least a majority of the time)?

The adjuster totaled my car without my consent, they are charging me for the owner retain value even though they aren’t willing to take the car themselves and sell it for scrap, they’ve made have been giving me as little info as possible and I’m nervous they are just trying to give me as little as possible. This is a property damage claim because the car was unoccupied and the limit is 15k and in this same accident the faultee hit another car a newer ev and totaled that car as well so it’s made the process take over sixty days and added a bunch of layers. Can anyone who knows more about this type of thing help me understand if I should counter and how or what could go wrong if I do just any info would be helpful
Location: California, US

I was born in Texas but I live in Kentucky, I was a home birth and there was no midwife. My parents did NOT get me a birth certificate or ssn and now im 20 and dont know what to do. They refuse to help me, ive called a few lawyers and they said there's nothing they nor I can do. I was home schooled/un schooled, and baptized at 8 but apparently not my parents nor the church has the proof of that. So I need any help possible edit: my parents never claimed me as a dependent on their taxes location: Texas/Kentucky

Location: Michigan
as the title says, my ex wrote a letter asking to cancel “all” my policies. i think he forgot i have 5 children. the ex in question wrote to cancel all my policies but he is the father to only 3 of my children. i received a letter in the mail stating “as per your written request, we have cancelled the policies for the following” and proceeded to name all of my children. i never wrote a letter asking for this since i am on limited income. what are the laws against this? can i use this in custody court against him? would this be considered fraud since he/his wife forged my signature on my case? the only way to access my case is through my social security number so i have no clue how he even had access to this (he doesn’t know his kids shoe sizes or birthdays).

besides the fact that he is in contempt of court since it is stated that our children will remain under my policy, what else can i do? my other children need their medications and he has completely thrown a wrench into my life because of this. i called my caseworker today and i was able to reinstate my children’s insurance but there has to be some rule he’s breaking just by forging my signature on something so important. does this violate HIPPA or something?
any advice would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: to address any confusion, 3 out of 5 children are his. he is unemployed. he fraudulently cancelled my policy (medicaid) and put our children under his new wife’s policy. the court custody order states that our children will remain on medicaid. there was a “letter” submitted, requesting a cancellation, from my name and signature. I DID NOT write a letter OR request a cancellation on any policies. when he requested that all my policies be canceled, they shut off ALL of my children’s medicaid, not just the 3 children we share.

EDIT 2: my ex remarried and she put our children on her employer insurance (not medicaid). my ex has denied all health issues with our children (adhd, anxiety, GI issues, gynecologist appt for our daughter) and has also verbally harassed their primary physician. he has denied healthcare for our children and has purposefully withheld their medications they are supposed to take everyday. the reason this insurance stuff is happening now is because he does not want to get in trouble for the problems he has caused for our children’s healthcare but the providers won’t give him new prescriptions. he specifically denies medications when i try to hand them to him and now he is arguing i “won’t hand them over” when we do drop offs. he has a history of abuse and is intentionally taking them off my medicaid so he can claim the title of “responsible parent”.

Hi, I’d like some legal advice about a situation at my old job in Location: Illinios. I’m 16 and worked as a shift lead at a fast food restaurant while going to high school full time. I was working around 33–40 hours a week, often 6–7 days a week, and management would schedule us under 5.5 hours to avoid giving breaks. I started at $15/hour and later got raised to $17 when I was officially made shift lead.

The workplace became very stressful, especially after I had an argument with the kitchen manager (“A”). After that, he constantly targeted me, and I felt unsafe around him. He had even gotten into a physical altercation with another manager before and wasn’t disciplined. I would get so anxious around him that I’d shake or almost cry at work.

Managers would often leave me, a 16-year-old, in charge at night. We were also pressured to stay later than scheduled and serve customers past closing. One night, after a very stressful rush with only me and another minor coworker working front, we decided to quit and leave after all customers were gone. We cleaned everything, clocked out, and left. We accidentally left our headsets outside because we were too scared to go back in after seeing A in the kitchen.

Afterward, the owner spam-called me and threatened legal action, claiming we stole or damaged the headsets. Police contacted us, but they couldn’t prove we did anything criminally wrong and said it was a civil matter. Now former coworkers are saying the restaurant is trying to sue us. What should I do?

Location: Ohio. The school district is attempting to move my 11 year old autistic child to the middle school (6-8 grade) class to complete his final year of elementary due to age and size. We are located in Ohio. We were shocked to receive an email 2 days prior to summer break. We feel that it's due to space and convenience. He has done great in the current setting and moving him into the middle school environment will cause regression. We were prepared to explore options during the next school year and work with the team on the transition from elementary school. He has autism, apraxia, and severe anxiety. Not aggressive. Has preschool interests. Please give some feedback. We feel purposely blindsided. Thanks in advance

Location: Louisiana

My child attends a summer care program at a small daycare. On Monday I received a frantic call to come get my child because there is a rock in his ear. Yes - a rock. I was told another child “spit a rock into his ear”. The story my 8 year old says is he was laying on the ground and the boy walked up and pretended to play telephone and spit a rock into his ear.

5 hour ER visit later, the rock is stuck to his ear drum. We are referred to an ENT. The ENT cannot remove it without surgery. Now - we have surgery Thursday.

I have contacted the daycare to help pay for the medical expenses. I have missed 3 days of work. I’m out an ER co pay, an ENT visit, and next the cost of surgery. If the daycare refuses to pay, do I have a leg to stand on?

Other facts:
• no incident report was provided to me at any time.
• the facility has cameras, the daycare manager states she didn’t see the incident. I asked her to look again. I never heard back.

Location: Washington State (King County)

Hi! Back in 2022 (during the peak of crazy used car prices, ughh), I was a broke college student who desperately needed a car after my catalytic converter was stolen. The car I originally had was old, and the cost to replace it was worth more than the car itself. I bought a used car on Facebook Marketplace for $3,200. The seller's name was on the title, but his FB account has since been deleted, and I don't have his contact info. I now know you should always check the VIN or do a thorough check, but I desperately needed a car at the time and was strapped for cash. I saw the clean title, saw it was low mileage, took it on a test drive, and that was essentially it. There are a lot of things I would do differently now when purchasing a car, let alone from fb marketplace. Hard lesson learned lol.

Fast forward to recently: Jiffy Lube offered to pull a free Carfax for me as some sort of promo they were running after I got an oil change - and I discovered the car was title-washed. It was in a minor accident in Oregon, declared a total loss by their insurance, and issued a salvage title. Someone (who I assume to be the person I purchased from) bought it at a scrap auction, immediately brought it up to Washington, and managed to get a clean title issued. Then after about a year, that was when I bought it. I'm guessing he just did a bunch of shitty DIY repairs to it.

Right now, the car is a mechanical nightmare (TPMS light is permanently on despite new sensors + good air in title, left blinker is entirely dead despite bulb replacements, airbag light just popped on, and there’s an active EVAP check engine light). It drives fine, but these little issues keep popping up and I just cannot afford the maintenance anymore and am exploring the option of selling it on FB Marketplace for around ~$500 (probably less) just to clear it out and save for a legitimate used vehicle.

My goal is to be 100% transparent. I want to explicitly state in the listing that I was scammed, that the car has a title-washed salvage history, and list every single mechanical issue. The last thing I ever want to do is screw anyone else over or land myself in legal trouble. I could see it being a good car if someone wants to take the time and energy to fix these issues. It is still lower mileage, and it drives. If it is too much of a hassle, I may just scrap it for the pennies I am being offered lol.

My main question is if it would be legally permissible/possible for a private seller in WA to sell a car with a "clean" physical title if they know it has a title-washed/salvage history, provided it is fully disclosed in writing? If so, are there specific steps I need to take to protect myself from liability once it leaves my hands?

Thank you!!

(edit for clarity: I have a clean title/registration, and it is insured! When I bought the car, the seller had clean registration too. I don't have a salvage title, hence why I am a bit lost legally and honestly very frustrated lol)

Hi everyone,

I moved out of my apartment about 3 weeks ago after living there for 2 years. During the move-out inspection, the only things mentioned were a few marks on the walls and a small scratch on the living room floor.

Today my landlord told me they’re keeping my entire security deposit ($1,100) for “full apartment restoration.” They also refuse to provide any invoices or repair estimates right now.

The apartment definitely wasn’t brand new when I moved in, and there were already some signs of wear and tear.

Are they actually allowed to do this? And are landlords required to provide receipts or proof of damages before withholding a deposit?

Location: new york.

Location : South Carolina. I’m on my HOA communities BOD. About a month ago I was driving and someone was tailgating me so I sped up as they continued to tail me. About a mile in he puts on his lights and I realized it was a police officer. I told him I thought it was someone road raging me and he let me go with a warning. I recognized him as someone who rented in my neighborhood.

Come this week there is an issue with people parking in an area that has restricted parking. The property manager sends out a memo to stop parking there or will get towed.

Turns out it’s the police officers wife running a business out of her home and having her employees park there. The police officer takes to the Facebook page publicly stating [my name and one other name] I don’t like you no one likes you, you do nothing for this community and you nit pick over stupid stuff.

Mind you there are 5 board members, myself and the other named individual who weren’t even involved with the parking conference call, two other board members who were campaigning for the tows, and the 5 who does not like me and is friends with the police officer.

They then starting parking in front of the other named board members house to bother him which just ticked off his neighbors who left notes saying don’t park here. The wife went on the Facebook page to cuss everyone out threatening them.

I’ve honestly never dealt with any of them. There is a lot of drama in my community which is why I’m not even on the community page.

I’m just looking for advice on how to protect myself. For a police officer to publicly post he does not like someone makes me feel he wouldn’t save me in an emergency or try to retaliate.

Location: South Carolina

I purchased the property in 2012. Three classic car bodies were left in the barn on the property. There was nothing in writing stating I would store the cars for them, but there was a handshake agreement that I would hang onto them for a few years so they could come and get them when they had the funds. The barn subsequently burned in January of 2018. The cars suffered fire damage. Fast forward to 2020. The son of the guy who sold me the property messaged me to inquire about the cars. I told him I was going to finish cleaning up what was left of the barn that spring/summer and I would get rid of them if they were still there. Never heard another word, so I sold them for a whopping $600 in May of 2020. The son got word that the cars were gone. He wanted to know who bought them. I refused to divulge that information. I thought that was the end of it. Fast forward to 2026 and I received a civil complaint stating that I was being sued for the value of the three cars. $24,000. Does he have any case whatsoever?

Location: Minnesota

Location: Fort Worth, TX

I bought my property last year and during all the hustle of closing I was informed that the property was not in an HOA in my closing documents and by the seller. A few months ago, I received a letter saying that my property was being included in the HOA. My deed doesn't specifically mention it and all the CCR's I've found before I purchased my property don't appear to include my lot in the addition. Looking through tarrant county clerk i see that I've been "annexed" into the HOA by a document dated after my purchase.

I'm in a townhome community so HOA's aren't uncommon but the previous owner mentioning specifically there is no HOA and the title company verifying no HOA, I want to believe I'm free, but I'm out of my league here. I've reached out to a few local but none of them are getting back so I don't know what to do. Where could I find the HOA's authority to annex my property without my consent after my purchase?

EDIT: To add some more context, I spoke with neighbors who have been in the neighborhood far longer than me and the lore is the original declarant of the HOA and who owned the townhouses went bankrupt and so for a few years nobody in the neighborhood was paying HOA dues, until some change in ownership the last few months. The few of us that had grass were maintaining on our own.

Also appreciate everyone's comments, i did reach out to 2 more real estate lawyers since posting asking for some legal might in my little battle.

My father passed away a couple years ago and my sister is threatening to take half the house. My father and sister were estranged and she never visited or helped him. In 2020 my father submitted a quitclaim deed to put my name on the house with him. I have a copy of the quitclaim deed. Everything was submitted and notarized. My father did not have a will. Does my sister have any rights to the property? Location: Indiana.