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Incredulous Red posted:How did she register the van in her name if the bill of sale didn't have her name on it? One would assume that her name is on the title. Or is that assuming way too much ( sounds like it is ).
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May 20, 2010 04:28
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Incredulous Red posted:How did she register the van in her name if the bill of sale didn't have her name on it? Yikes, I didn't realize this, this doesn't look all that good. I asked her this question - basically, she got the DUI two weeks after she got the bill of sale, and never ended up registering the van because she couldn't drive it. It's been sitting unregistered in her yard since February. Her plan (again, that of a 20 year old female) was to wait until the summer, since she couldn't drive it anyways. It didn't dawn on her that this would mean the owners could essentially take it back. Does that pretty much mean she has no claim to the van? I'm hoping she isn't essentially left with a bill of sale for "one life lesson".
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May 20, 2010 04:37
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Murmur Twin posted:Yikes, I didn't realize this, this doesn't look all that good. What information, exactly, does the bill of sale have on it? Does she have the original copy of said bill of sale?
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May 20, 2010 04:53
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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 |
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May 20, 2010 13:49
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(This is in Minneapolis, in case this offers anyone special insight.) My friend lives in a big student housing apartment building run by what he calls a "bitchy leasing company." He signed what he says he thinks was a year-long lease, with a move-in date of September 1 last year. He just got a notice from the company that his "move-out" date is August 13. I told him to read his lease, which he's looking around for (and also IANAL, etc.), but his question in the meantime is basically a huge "what the gently caress"? Is this kind of thing common? Can he be made to pay full rent for less than half a month? If there's something to that effect in the lease to that effect is it enforceable? (Also if it's worth it to withhold the last month's rent and dare them to go to court over it. Apparently there is no security deposit or anything else he had to pay ahead of time.) To me this sounds shady as gently caress, and I really hope the answer is they can get screwed hard. But I know nothing about landlord/tenant stuff except how to fight evictions.
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May 20, 2010 19:26
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Angry Midwesterner posted:(This is in Minneapolis, in case this offers anyone special insight.) I'm a landlord, and I have my tenants on a 50 week lease. When I wrote my lease, I made it so that they would owe a fixed sum for the lease term, not the year, and they would pay that sum via a series of 12 payments due on the first of each month during the lease term. So the answer is "read the lease and tell us what the lease says".
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May 20, 2010 19:53
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I think this is frivolous but I am still curious to know the answer: I'm in a musical group and we had to let two members go for creative differences. One of them was the singer and he had written most of our lyrics. We would like to keep using the lyrics and he doesn't want us to. Are we allowed to or not? I think that every member of the band contributed their talent and material to the band thus making it the band's property. If I left the group, the new drummer would be allowed to play my exact drum parts (provided he was able) so I feel like it's the same idea vocally.
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May 21, 2010 03:39
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Angry Midwesterner posted:(This is in Minneapolis, in case this offers anyone special insight.) Minneapolis has some of the strongest landlord-tenant laws I've ever seen. also: http://www.homelinemn.org/ (Grandmarc?)
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May 21, 2010 05:30
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nm posted:He should definitely read the lease. The apartment compny can probably be made to pony up a copy. Yeah. Do they have a reputation?
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May 21, 2010 06:06
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They sure do. Boy they suck.
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May 21, 2010 16:29
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ATwoSlotToaster posted:I think this is frivolous but I am still curious to know the answer: It depends on the circumstances whether the lyrics were a work made for hire or a joint venture between the authors.
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May 21, 2010 17:23
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SWATJester posted:It depends on the circumstances whether the lyrics were a work made for hire or a joint venture between the authors. And - it is not an easy question at all. The end result is that you may be able to use the lyrics, but you may have to pay a performance royalty. But it is a well complicated analysis before you get to a result.
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May 21, 2010 17:39
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Posting here on behalf of my girlfriend (GF) in Massachusetts. My GF had a root canal done when she was 19 (about 2-3 years ago). At the time, she was still insured by MassHealth, which is a health insurance program for low-income families that cuts out for children while they are 19. The dentist that she went to for all her dental work, including the root canal, is located in a lower-income, Vietnamese neighborhood in Dorchester. Now that my GF no longer has MassHealth, she goes to a free health clinic. In a recent visit to this clinic a new dentist took x-rays of her teeth and found that the root canal was done poorly; as a result the nerves and other tissue inside the tooth are "growing back wrong". According to the clinic's dentist, the nerves there are already inflamed and there is a possibility of infection in the future. Furthermore, he found that a separate filling that her previous dentist put in had a piece that fell out due to similarly poor work. At the end of the appointment, the clinic advised her to go back to the old dentist to get the root canal re-done as getting someone else to do it would cost ~$2000. My GF has already set up an appointment to discuss the first possibility with the old dentist next week. However, she's hesitant about getting it done with her previous dentist because she fears that the work will still be poor and that the root canal won't really be fixed. Here's some more details about her prior dentist that explains her lack of confidence in his ability to do it right this time: 1) He conducts himself in a way which suggests that he doesn't care about his patients at all and swoops in only to do the major dental work and disappears right after, leaving his interns/staff to handle all other matters. Throughout her years of visits to this dentist, my GF (who is Vietnamese) complained that the dentist (who is white) would only speak to her through the Vietnamese dental interns even though my GF is fluent in English. In fact, there were several occasions where my GF tried to address the dentist directly using English, and he would either ignore her or use a Vietnamese intern as a translator even though my GF and said intern would end up speaking in English anyway. The dentist would also never explain procedures and 99% of the time he would leave all communication with my GF to the interns. 2) The peculiarities of how he'd schedule appointments with my GF. He would try to schedule a frequent number of appointments for a procedure but would only see my GF briefly each time. For example, the root canal he performed took 5-6 visits over the span of a over a month. There was no infection or abscess that would necessitate repeated visits/more time. Given that the neighborhood the dentist operated in was lower-income and largely non-English speaking, my GF and I suspect that the dentist did this in order to take advantage of his patients and use them to milk more money from the MassHealth insurance system. 3) And of course, the poor quality of work on the root canal and the filling. Not to mention when my GF got her wisdom teeth removed (4 in all, 2 at a time) from this dentist, both times she was not prescribed painkillers or antibiotics. They told her to just take Advil or Tylenol. Eventually they did prescribe her antibiotics but this ended up happening AFTER everything had healed. TL/DR; My girlfriend found out the lovely work (root canal) she got done from a shitheel of a dentist needs to be fixed. She has no money and was advised by the free clinic that discovered the shittiness to go back to shitheel or pay ~$2000 out of pocket to get it done at most other places. She's afraid to have the old dentist "fix" it because she's afraid of more damage to her teeth/no real improvement of the shittiness of the situation. Is there a practical way for her to get the work done elsewhere and have someone else foot the bill? She doesn't care who pays as long as she can get her root canal redone properly. Damn Phantom fucked around with this message at 20:08 on May 21, 2010 |
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May 21, 2010 20:01
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SWATJester posted:It depends on the circumstances whether the lyrics were a work made for hire or a joint venture between the authors. It was definitely a joint effort. Solomon Grundy posted:And - it is not an easy question at all. The end result is that you may be able to use the lyrics, but you may have to pay a performance royalty. But it is a well complicated analysis before you get to a result. Yea that is kinda what we were thinking as a worst case scenario. We then thought it would be a good idea to change a lot of the lyrics but just a little bit. Thanks guys!
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May 21, 2010 20:59
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ATwoSlotToaster posted:It was definitely a joint effort. Changing the lyrics "a little bit" isn't going to solve anything because the new lyrics would likely be treated as a derivative of the original and protected under the same copyright (whoever owns it).
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May 21, 2010 21:51
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John McCain posted:Changing the lyrics "a little bit" isn't going to solve anything because the new lyrics would likely be treated as a derivative of the original and protected under the same copyright (whoever owns it). Technically the band owns the copyright but i don't think the old singer even knows that. This is all pretty slippery.
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May 21, 2010 23:36
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ATwoSlotToaster posted:It was definitely a joint effort. Not necessarily. There are factors that determine whether this is the case that aren't always easy to figure out. And even then, depending on the makeup of the band, it may not end the inquiry there.
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May 22, 2010 04:07
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Angry Midwesterner posted:Yeah. Do they have a reputation? Don't recall the details, but he needs to read that lease. Always read your lease.
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May 22, 2010 05:47
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A lot of lease terms are pretty much a repudiation of laissez faire economics in and of themselves.
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May 22, 2010 08:08
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Apartment leases are examples of how everything you learned about contracts of adhesion in law school is bullshit. Nothing about an apartment lease from a big leasing company will favor you. You will still lose if you sue over it. My last lease even has a clause saying that you waive any claim of unconscionability in the contract.
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May 22, 2010 08:12
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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.
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May 22, 2010 14:21
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I got a summons and the date is either missing or so faint to be illegible. Who do I talk to about this? I don't see a phone number on the slip. NYC here.
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May 22, 2010 19:18
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PrinceofLowLight posted:I got a summons and the date is either missing or so faint to be illegible. Who do I talk to about this? I don't see a phone number on the slip. NYC here. The summons should have the name and address of the Court on it. I would just look up the number to the Court and call them directly.
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May 22, 2010 19:20
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I joined New York Sports Club back in 2007. Recently in March, I got them to change my monthly fee to be about $10 lower. They made me sign the attached contract which clearly states that I may cancel any time after Jan 14, 2008. Now that I've gone into cancel, they say that I entered into a verbal agreement that cancellation before March 2011 would result in a $150 cancellation fee. I don't remember them telling me this, but the point is that the signed contract clearly states that the date for the early termination fee has long past. Not only that, Statute 56:8-42 of NJ State law clearly states that Health Club contracts must be in writing. Now, it's pretty clear to me that no one at the club will cancel my membership so I've been referred to member services. In the event I am stonewalled there as well what are my paths of recourse? I can have them bill me the $150 and file a dispute with my Credit Card company? Incidentally, I've already called the CC company and they said I am perfectly within my rights to file a dispute, however, I'm worried that even if my CC denies to payment it might come back to haunt me later if NYSC decides to pursue the money in collections. I've already decided to file a dispute with the BBB and send the story into every consumer watchdog on the internet. Is there anything else I am missing? edit: Contract - 
SnatchRabbit fucked around with this message at 19:22 on May 23, 2010 |
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May 23, 2010 19:16
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SnatchRabbit posted:I joined New York Sports Club back in 2007. Recently in March, I got them to change my monthly fee to be about $10 lower. They made me sign the attached contract which clearly states that I may cancel any time after Jan 14, 2008. Now that I've gone into cancel, they say that I entered into a verbal agreement that cancellation before March 2011 would result in a $150 cancellation fee. I don't remember them telling me this, but the point is that the signed contract clearly states that the date for the early termination fee has long past. Not only that, Statute 56:8-42 of NJ State law clearly states that Health Club contracts must be in writing. It looks like they're trying to say that you're canceling your contract before it expires. Go talk to member services and report back if they give you any problems.
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May 23, 2010 20:14
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Okay, can anyone here explain how speeding ticket violations work in Los Angeles, and how I go about trying to get out of paying one? Here's what happened: I was driving on a straight, four lane road (not entirely sure if it qualifies as a highway but there was no median between the two opposing directions of traffic). While coming up on an intersection, I got distracted because a light bulb on my dashboard popped out of the dash for quite literally no reason I could see. I caught it and tried to stick it back in: when I looked up again, I was coming up too fast on a red light, so I slammed my breaks. I skidded about four feet past the line but did come to a stop, so I backed up slightly to let traffic go through and then kept going. Of course, there was a pair of CHP motorcycle cops in an obvious speed trap that I was unprepared for as I had never been on this road before, so he pulls me over as soon as I'm past the intersection. He politely asks me what happened, and I explained that I got distracted by the bulb popping out and didn't see the light change. He tells me that I was going too fast, 45 in a 35, to which I stupidly admitted that I was in a hurry. He tells me that he could cite me for running the red light (around $400 he said) but he'll only cite me for speeding as that would be about half that. Normally, I'd pay my fine and take responsibility for my actions. But I haven't been able to find a job in six months and I have literally $300 in the bank right now. So I need to get out of this because I clearly can't afford to pay it, let alone take an insurance hike. But, unlike every other state I've spent time in, the frigging ticket doesn't even tell you how much they're going to charge you: apparently you have to go online and find out and it takes about a week. Then you have to show up in court regardless of what you're doing about it? The back of the ticket has confusingly worded explanations of how to pay or contest the violation, but I can't really understand the wording and no where can I find any straight forward explanations of what the cop's scribbled abbreviations on the ticket mean or how much I should expect to be fined. So my primary questions are how do I appeal this ticket, and how much do I owe them? Again, he only cited me for going 45 in a 35. EDIT: he also wrote " L45 R575' PL16995 LV/peds/x-515 " on the ticket as one of the violations, and I have no loving clue what that means (he wrote the speeding, that, locking breaks and skidding, and mid phase red, but only circled I for infraction on the speeding and circled nothing for the rest). CaptainFuzychin fucked around with this message at 00:47 on May 24, 2010 |
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May 24, 2010 00:43
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CaptainFuzychin posted:Okay, can anyone here explain how speeding ticket violations work in Los Angeles, and how I go about trying to get out of paying one? I can explain a lot about LA speeding tickets to you. For example, he wrote down everything you helpfully admitted to him. You're going to get a summons and bail amount mailed to your home address. That will tell you how much this is going to cost you. Anyway, the advice on California speeding tickets is always the same: do a trial by written declaration (instructions are on the back of your ticket). Say that you were going at a safe and reasonable speed, consistent with the flow of traffic. Leave out everything about your damned light bulb and running the red light- you weren't cited for it, it's not at issue. Then pray that you cop hates doing paperwork. If he doesn't respond, you win- if he does, you can petition for a trial de novo, in real court, where you have a shot of the cop not showing up. This works out especially well in California since (1) there's not a whole lot of money for overtime right now, and they usually, but not always, schedule court appearances on the cops' days off, and (2) it's summer, he might use his days off for traveling. Also, which road were you stopped on? I forget the jurisdiction rules for CHP, but oftentimes they won't be chartered to enforce speed limits on roads that aren't highways (some city roads are also technically highways, but if this one isn't you might consider putting it into your written declaration).
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May 24, 2010 04:50
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SnatchRabbit posted:I joined New York Sports Club back in 2007. Recently in March, I got them to change my monthly fee to be about $10 lower. They made me sign the attached contract which clearly states that I may cancel any time after Jan 14, 2008. Now that I've gone into cancel, they say that I entered into a verbal agreement that cancellation before March 2011 would result in a $150 cancellation fee. I don't remember them telling me this, but the point is that the signed contract clearly states that the date for the early termination fee has long past. Not only that, Statute 56:8-42 of NJ State law clearly states that Health Club contracts must be in writing. You cannot modify a written contract with a verbal one, at all. So what they're saying doesn't hold water. IANAL however I do enjoy watching a lot of tv court 
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May 24, 2010 05:28
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OzzyBlood posted:You cannot modify a written contract with a verbal one, at all. So what they're saying doesn't hold water. IANAL however I do enjoy watching a lot of tv court Eugh, you can sometimes and it depends where you are and what kind of contract. But it's one of those things where you go before a judge on some issue and he says "but the contract says this" and you both say "actually we agreed to change that to this don't worry about it it isn't what we are arguing over".
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May 24, 2010 09:58
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Alchenar posted:Eugh, you can sometimes and it depends where you are and what kind of contract. But it's one of those things where you go before a judge on some issue and he says "but the contract says this" and you both say "actually we agreed to change that to this don't worry about it it isn't what we are arguing over". My contracts class was kind of a gigantic joke, but I do remember the professor mentioning a 'parol evidence rule' I'm not sure what the exact content of the rule is and if jurisdictions actually use it, but I thought the jist of the rule was that verbal modifications of written contracts - especially when they directly contradicted written contracts, didn't hold much water (unless we're talking about warranties or something). Again, IANAL (Is there an acronym for "I am just a stupid 1L" yet?) but I think the poster is ok.
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May 24, 2010 13:14
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JudicialRestraints posted:My contracts class was kind of a gigantic joke, but I do remember the professor mentioning a 'parol evidence rule' He should be fine. If it came to a judge then the question that gets asked to the Health Club is "is this a standard term or was it one that was specifically for the OP and nobody else?", the inevitable follow up being "well if it is a standard term then why isn't it in your written contract?"
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May 24, 2010 14:23
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Incredulous Red posted:I can explain a lot about LA speeding tickets to you. For example, he wrote down everything you helpfully admitted to him. Well, all that sounds encouraging. So I basically write out a written statement and then what? Mail it to the court? Or do I have to show up and present it? I was actually stopped on a main street in I think Panorama City. I don't know the name of the street since I don't know the area at all and was relying on a GPS to get me to a job site that I'd never been to before. Also, given that I don't strictly speaking know what the vehicles look like, he might have been just a regular LAPD cop, not CHP: now that I think of it, his uniform was blue, meaning he's LAPD right? As I mentioned to the cop, I have no idea how any of this works or who's who in CA law enforcement as I only just moved here a few months ago. EDIT: Also, should I mention that the primary reason for my fighting the ticket is that I am flat broke and don't have the money to pay it? I assume no, as there's no real reason for the court to give a poo poo about it, but you never know what might make someone sympathetic.
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May 24, 2010 15:26
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JudicialRestraints posted:My contracts class was kind of a gigantic joke, but I do remember the professor mentioning a 'parol evidence rule' The parole evidence rule only bars verbal representations prior to, or contemporaneous with, execution of the contract. It does not bar later verbal modification. It is unclear to me when the health club is claiming the modification took place. But as Alchenar says, the judge's first question is going to be why that provision is not in the contract.
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May 24, 2010 17:10
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CaptainFuzychin posted:Well, all that sounds encouraging. So I basically write out a written statement and then what? Mail it to the court? Or do I have to show up and present it? Yeah, well, the problem with contesting it is that you still have to post the ticket fine. So you'd better borrow the money. Your ticket should tell you where you were cited. Yes, the blue uniform and being in Panorama City means that it was likely as all hell to be LAPD (this might actually help your chances when it comes to your trial by written declaration, but it's still a crapshoot). The instructions for the trial by written declaration will be on the back of the summons that they mail to your address. Actually, here's the form you fill out: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/fillable/tr205.pdf . The information re: court house and whatnot should be on your ticket or online. You should not mention that you're flat broke or that you were fixing your car while driving or that you were paying more attention to your GPS than the road. You should format your written declaration something along the lines of "ON the XX day of XX month I was driving my vehicle along XX road, en route to a job site, where I was employed to do XX. I was at all times operating my vehicle at a safe and reasonable speed, consistent with the flow of traffic. Near the intersection of XX and YY, I was stopped by Officer DICKBUTT and issued Citation No. XYZNMEHO under CVC XYZ.ZYX "Whatever the hell it is". This citation is unwarranted as I was operating my vehicle in a safe and reasonable manner. In fact, given the traffic conditions at the time, operating my vehicle at a lower speed would likely have created an obstruction to the flow of traffic and endangered my vehicle and those of the persons around me. For these reasons I ask the court to reject Citation No. XYZNMEHO and refund me the amount of my fine." I am not a lawyer. I have done this before with friends. It's a crapshoot. You should prepare yourself for losing. However, if you lose on the written declaration, you should still request a trial de novo and try to get traffic school. You will have to find money to pay for this as well. More questions?
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May 24, 2010 17:16
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Contacted an attorney so editing this out
Queen Elizatits fucked around with this message at 18:17 on May 25, 2010 |
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May 25, 2010 04:06
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SnatchRabbit posted:Now, it's pretty clear to me that no one at the club will cancel my membership so I've been referred to member services. In the event I am stonewalled there as well what are my paths of recourse? I can have them bill me the $150 and file a dispute with my Credit Card company? Incidentally, I've already called the CC company and they said I am perfectly within my rights to file a dispute, however, I'm worried that even if my CC denies to payment it might come back to haunt me later if NYSC decides to pursue the money in collections.
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May 25, 2010 04:41
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gvibes posted:You look pretty solid here, in my opinion. I'm not sure what methods there are of getting a garbage claim off of your credit reports though. Let it go into collection and then sue under the FDCPA? 
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May 25, 2010 06:32
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gvibes posted:You look pretty solid here, in my opinion. I'm not sure what methods there are of getting a garbage claim off of your credit reports though. Thankfully, it didn't get that far. I called member services and they canceled my membership without much issue. They assured me this is not their official policy. So just for laughs I wrote up a pissy email to their entire board of directors explaining that what their employees are doing is illegal under NJ State law. Executive Customer Service wrote me back with the following: NYSC posted:Your complaint has been received by the highest officers in our company. The Regional Vice President and District Manager of the <redacted> location have been made aware of the issue and it will be addressed accordingly. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience and can assure you that we take this matter very seriously. Small victories, I guess.
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May 25, 2010 15:17
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I was in a traffic accident about a week ago and am wondering what the best approach to take is. Essentially, I was driving down a 4 lane road and someone entered the intersection (no light), cutting me off and causing me to hit them. Both cars suffered moderate damage and my airbag deployed. I went to the hospital so I wasn't there to talk to the police. The officer later came to the hospital and wrote me a ticket for reckless driving because "witnesses said I was speeding". Is this worth getting a lawyer for? I realize reckless is a fairly serious offense but I haven't had any other traffic tickets except 2 speeding tickets about 4 years ago. One lawyer quoted a fee of $1,500 to take the case. Is that high? This is in Virginia.
Corsair Jr fucked around with this message at 16:06 on May 25, 2010 |
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May 25, 2010 16:03
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SnatchRabbit posted:Thankfully, it didn't get that far. I called member services and they canceled my membership without much issue. They assured me this is not their official policy. So just for laughs I wrote up a pissy email to their entire board of directors explaining that what their employees are doing is illegal under NJ State law. Executive Customer Service wrote me back with the following:
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May 25, 2010 19:33
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