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That's probably as winnable as an impaired case gets, your friend is still garbage for driving drunk, and you're garbage for defending her poo poo tell her to shut up and pay up for a lawyer she'll probably be fine
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Oct 20, 2012 04:59
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terrorist ambulance posted:That's probably as winnable as an impaired case gets, your friend is still garbage for driving drunk, and you're garbage for defending her poo poo I'm not defending drunk driving. I'd love to hear about how you never have done anything wrong in your life and have never talked on your stupid loving cell phone while driving you piece of garbage. I didn't come here to debate drunk driving. It happened, it's done with. Nothing can change that. I can't ask a legal question in the legal question thread without having to be poo poo on about drunk driving? (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Oct 20, 2012 05:16
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porkfriedrice posted:I'd love to hear about how you have never talked on your stupid loving cell phone while driving you piece of garbage. I haven't, driving while impaired or distracted is loving stupid and negligent as hell and if you do it I hope when you die you don't take anyone with you porkfriedrice posted:I can't ask a legal question in the legal question thread without having to be poo poo on about drunk driving? Apparently not You got the answer you needed, why are you still crying about it
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Oct 20, 2012 05:17
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porkfriedrice posted:I'm married you moron. I didn't come here to get lectured about drunk driving. I know you can't resist pointing out people who aren't perfect like you. In the past three years I have had one family member crippled, one killed, and lost a close friend because of drunk drivers. Please tell me more about how your friend's behavior is no big deal and everyone here is overreacting. Alternatively, 
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Oct 20, 2012 05:19
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terrorist ambulance posted:
Who's crying here? I was only responding to you whining about all the bad people in the world. If you aren't offering legal advice, why post?
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Oct 20, 2012 05:20
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Soylent Pudding posted:In the past three years I have had one family member crippled, one killed, and lost a close friend because of drunk drivers. Please tell me more about how your friend's behavior is no big deal and everyone here is overreacting. Alternatively, Quote me when I said it was no big deal.
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Oct 20, 2012 05:20
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porkfriedrice posted:Who's crying here? I was only responding to you whining about all the bad people in the world. If you aren't offering legal advice, why post? No one in this thread is offering legal advice. You real dumb, chump
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Oct 20, 2012 05:23
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nm posted:Also, yeah, hope she has insurance. Light poles can be like 20k. Also, FUN FACT: Bankruptcy can discharge every sort of crazy grossly negligent liability in car accidents... EXCEPT personal injury when the driver was unlawfully intoxicated. That means drunk driver property damage is dischargeable. Go hog wild!
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Oct 20, 2012 06:12
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woozle wuzzle posted:Here's the real takeaway. I never learned that in bankruptcy but this makes me happy to hear. I'm normally not a tough on crime type but drunk driving is way too acceptable in society and I don't feel the punishments reflect the risk of harm to third parties in most cases.
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Oct 20, 2012 06:18
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porkfriedrice posted:If you aren't offering legal advice, why post? I'm not a lawyer, but "don't drink and drive" sounds like pretty sound legal advice to me. It is illegal after all.
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Oct 20, 2012 12:48
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Hello lawyer type goons! I'm hoping you guys can answer a fairly simple question that's been bugging me for a while. My job requires me to spend a lot of time out of the country. Because I get free airfare when I'm travelling between assignments, I like to spend any extra time I have vacationing in some part of the world that isn't the US. The duration I can be gone ranges from 5 weeks to 6 months. During this time, I don't really have any easy way to get my mail since I'm gone and I don't trust anyone enough in Houston to pick it up for me. My concern is if I should get a jury summons or an automated traffic ticket or something similar during this time. Will there be any serious penalty for me if I don't respond to one of these notices in the time required if I can prove with documentation that I was out of the country for the time in question?
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Oct 20, 2012 16:54
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mr_cardholder posted:Hello lawyer type goons! I'm hoping you guys can answer a fairly simple question that's been bugging me for a while. There could be, it depends on what you miss. I know in my state, if you miss a ticket, they will send you a notice to pay or plead. If you don't respond they will put it on the docket for a court date. If you miss the court date they will send you a notice for another court date. If you miss the next court date they will close the case. When the case is closed you will need to pay a $60 fee to re-open the case, and if you don't re-open within a certain amount of time the DMV will suspend your license. This would generally take a few months to happen but the danger is that you come back unaware your license is suspended and you are caught for driving on a suspended license which is a misdemeanor. As for jury duty, I don't really know. But you can call your local courthouse and ask to speak to the jury clerk and they would be able to give you a better answer. Basically, if you have any question as to pending charges against you, call your local clerk's office. As for non-payment/non-responding to a traffic ticket, being out of the country would not be an excuse.
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Oct 20, 2012 18:17
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Emo Rodeo posted:As for jury duty, I don't really know. But you can call your local courthouse and ask to speak to the jury clerk and they would be able to give you a better answer. I'll be sure to give them a call and check. I doubt it will happen since I served last year but since it's random as far as I know, can never be sure. What's the best way to get the contact number for a courthouse? I assume there will be a website somewhere that has this information? Emo Rodeo posted:As for non-payment/non-responding to a traffic ticket, being out of the country would not be an excuse. Just another reason to hate camera enforcement, I suppose. Good thing that Houston no longer has any red light cameras thanks to prop 3. Also a good thing I drive like an old lady.
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Oct 20, 2012 19:10
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I'd try to get someone to check or monitor your mail at least occasionally. If you're tough to get ahold of, it's entirely possible you could get served by sub service via regular mail or something silly and end up getting sued and losing your case because you were out of the country and didn't even know about it. That's an extreme (and unlikely) example, but basically your interests could be prejudiced by not checking your mail at all for months on end. Get it forwarded to your mom or something while you're out of the country
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Oct 20, 2012 21:34
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porkfriedrice posted:I'm married you moron. I didn't come here to get lectured about drunk driving. I know you can't resist pointing out people who aren't perfect like you. I just can't imagine why people aren't tripping over themselves to help you.
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Oct 21, 2012 00:37
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So I have a question. I'm on a local roller derby team having some problems. Over the course of the year we've all paid dues and participated in fundraisers in order to help the team. That money is in a banking account. Last Wednesday the majority of the members votes to dissolve the team. We are all leaving to join a separate team. Two of the members have decide to try and continue the team. But what to do with the money? We feel that we have worked hard for that money doing fundraisers, and want to split the money between all active members, but technically the team is still intact, so do they retain the money? Another issue is that these two members wanting to continue the team are brand new and have not helped in any fundraisers or paid any dues. So do we have any legal right to the money? Is the right thing to keep the money with the team?
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Oct 21, 2012 22:59
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Tamgerine posted:So I have a question. I'm on a local roller derby team having some problems. Over the course of the year we've all paid dues and participated in fundraisers in order to help the team. That money is in a banking account. What do your bylaws (I'm assuming you're incorporated) say?
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Oct 21, 2012 23:21
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Tamgerine posted:Last Wednesday the majority of the members votes to dissolve the team. Not a lawyer, but no the team is not still intact, especially in the technical sense. Y'all voted to dissolve the team as an entity, just because a small minority wants to keep it going doesn't matter; the organization, itself, is no longer a "thing," in whichever way y'all codified things. My bigger question to you (and your team) is why wasn't this a part of the motion to dissolve? Assuming your charter/by-laws don't have any prescribed ways to resolve this (also, I'm straight up assume the team doesn't have a charter or any by-laws), things could get tricky. The simplest solution for your group would be to reconvene and resolve this issue amongst yourselves by popular vote, as y'all did with the dissolution. To help give y'all's decision legal binding you can start the meeting off with everyone agreeing to follow through with the majority's decision.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:30
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We're not incorporated, and the bylaws say nothing. Part of the reason we left is because there was complete disorganization and mistreatment of our bylaws and constitution (which our President stole from another team). We've already made the popular vote, the majority of members voted to split the money equally. But the president is the only one with access to the bank account. If she decides not to give it back, well what can we do but nothing? Hiring a lawyer or taking her to civil claims court would cost more than what is probably in the bank account. She initially told us she was going to give it all to charity, which we did not suggest and voted against. I'm pretty sure we're screwed, but I was curious to see if we had any legal right to the money. I'm not sure how we could legally force them to not continue the team, regardless of an official majority vote.
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Oct 21, 2012 23:41
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Tamgerine posted:Hiring a lawyer or taking her to civil claims court would cost more than what is probably in the bank account. She initially told us she was going to give it all to charity, which we did not suggest and voted against. I don't know where you live, but small claims court generally is pretty cheap (as in probably somewhere between $50 to $100). In some jurisdictions, the plaintiff if victorious can recover the cost of the filing fee in the final judgment.
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Oct 22, 2012 00:17
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A little over a month ago I got a speeding ticket (62 in a 45) a bit outside of Atlanta, GA. I've called the number for the county recorder's court every other week or so and put in my citation number, but it always says that my ticket doesn't exist. Am I off the hook or is there more that I need to do? edit: actually, now that I look at it again, the court date listed was the 7th of this month. How long would it take before they got after me for missing it?
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Oct 22, 2012 02:53
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Tamgerine posted:I'm pretty sure we're screwed, but I was curious to see if we had any legal right to the money. You're not screwed, because the courts (and feel free to stop me at anytime here, lawgoons) don't make their decisions based on simple check boxes. If y'all brought this before a judge, it wouldn't be thrown out because you don't have by-laws governing dissolution and/or the president wants to keep things going with your money. The little paperwork things are just nice cause it makes the process easier when you can say "President" is violating the terms of the contract (see: by-laws and charter). quote:I'm not sure how we could legally force them to not continue the team, regardless of an official majority vote. Unless the by-laws specifically required an x% vote for dissolution, it doesn't matter. You, as a group, decided to dissolve and "the team" no longer exists. Full stop. In fact, the courts are designed to handle these kinds of issues. Most of the time (or so I've heard) when you bring a claim to small claims, the first question is "have you tried to remedy this yourself?" You have and now someone (the president) is trying to renege on the deal. All you'd be asking is for the courts to enforce an agreement
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Oct 22, 2012 06:33
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Apologies if this is the wrong place, I looked all over and couldn't really find some where to ask but... I live in the UK and recently returned from a year long trip to Australia in which time I was working. It's time to file my tax return but my Australian bank account has long since been closed because I didn't leave any cash in there to keep paying for it. My question is this: Can I use someone else's account to pay the refund in to? I've tried contacting my old bank (Bankwest) but there's no way to get through (the phone number they provided for international calls apparently doesn't exist). Thank you.
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Oct 22, 2012 16:44
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BirdOfPlay posted:You're not screwed, because the courts (and feel free to stop me at anytime here, lawgoons) don't make their decisions based on simple check boxes. If y'all brought this before a judge, it wouldn't be thrown out because you don't have by-laws governing dissolution and/or the president wants to keep things going with your money. The little paperwork things are just nice cause it makes the process easier when you can say "President" is violating the terms of the contract (see: by-laws and charter). So, the other thing. If your bylaws authorized you all to vote on decisions, and you voted to dissolve, the team is dissolved. Their attempt to continue the team, under the same name, is totally fine. But it means that they're a new entity trying to proceed with the same name, not the old entity. Naively I imagine that either means a pro-rata distribution of the team's assets to all the team members, or returning the funds to people in the proportion that they'd contributed the funds. In general, this gets really messy with non-profits and large quantities of money. For instance, I had some friends dealing with a local non-profit (designed to raise money for animal shelters) that went inactive, and effectually dissolved, after raising about half a million in funds. The old head of the non-profit wanted to recreate it, and created a new non-profit with the state, with very similar (slightly more focused, aimed only at funding non-kill shelters) purposes. To get access to the old bank account, they had to formally do so in court (I think, i am a little vague because I wasn't involved), and a host of other non-profits with slightly different purposes (funding shelters who are willing to kill) all got angry about it and intervened to try to get a chunk of the money. At the end of the day, the woman who raised a half million dollars for her dream only was able to funnel about $300k to it. tl;dr, follow your internal by-laws, and as part of dissolution, vote to take care of all your assets or things get messy.
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Oct 22, 2012 18:10
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My question relates to U.S. immigration law, and I'm hoping someone out there knows of a creative solution that I have been unable to find. My girlfriend is in an unfortunate immigration situation in that she is here on a student visa, but really shouldn't be. She came to the U.S. with her parents and younger sister when she was 12 years old. She is now twenty-four, and will be twenty-five in early January. Her father was brought to the US from Germany because of business, and his company's lawyer was handling immigration stuff. Several years into the process, it was revealed that the lawyer had completely mishandled all of the paperwork, which meant that my girlfriend and her family were back to square one in terms of getting permanent residency status/green cards/etc. At that time, though, my girlfriend came of age, which led to her being excluded from the rest of her family's legal proceedings. Her family has been issued green cards, but she has not, because she was treated as an independent entity. No one seems to be able to tell her how she can become a permanent resident without marrying a U.S. citizen. That's something we've considered on multiple occasions, and we're willing to take that option, but we would prefer to wait if possible because we'd rather not have a marriage that was precipitated by legal necessity. Does anyone have any idea how she could become a permanent resident? As I said, she is here on a student visa and is currently a graduate student, but that's not a permanent solution and there are other work interests she would like to pursue, but cannot. Perhaps most frustratingly, Obama's executive order disregard individuals in her position. We're very much at a loss and hoping to find some relief in this matter.
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Oct 22, 2012 23:28
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Naan Bread posted:Apologies if this is the wrong place, I looked all over and couldn't really find some where to ask but... Can't Australia send you a check (or vice-versa)? I guess I don't understand why you need to have a bank account in Australia in order to pay taxes or receive a refund.
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Oct 22, 2012 23:48
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Naan Bread posted:Apologies if this is the wrong place, I looked all over and couldn't really find some where to ask but... At least here, h&r block will pay the refund onto a prepaid debit card, which you can then do whatever with. That might be worth looking into.
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Oct 23, 2012 00:03
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LuciferMorningstar posted:Does anyone have any idea how she could become a permanent resident? As I said, she is here on a student visa and is currently a graduate student, but that's not a permanent solution and there are other work interests she would like to pursue, but cannot. Perhaps most frustratingly, Obama's executive order disregard individuals in her position. We're very much at a loss and hoping to find some relief in this matter. Why haven't her parents petitioned for her? I thought any green-card holder can petition for their unmarried children. It probably takes forever, but it seems like something they should have thought of years ago?
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Oct 23, 2012 00:04
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Alright, there's a bit I got to say so please bear with me. I also want to note that I'm writing on my mother's behalf, I hope that is okay. Firstly, we live in Michigan. Back in June my mother and stepfather made the decision to sell some of the trees on our property because we had a lot and we were really hurting for money. They got in contact with Logging Company A and the company sent a guy out who came through and marked 204 trees in ORANGE paint. This is important. Before any thing moved forward, though, my mother and stepfather wanted to check out other companies and see what they were offering so they got in touch with Logging Company B, and that company sent a guy who came through and marked a number of trees in YELLOW paint. My mother tried getting a specific number from the company four different times before she was finally told "around 200". It should be noted that shortly after contacting Logging Company B, my stepfather had to leave for Alaska due to his job, so it was just my mother handling everything from here on out. On her way to work at around 7am, my mother ran into the guy from Logging Company B. He confronted her with the contract demanding she sign it right then and there and that every day she doesn't sign it, they'll knock $250 off their offer. So my mother signed it. She has said multiple times that she felt pressured into signing the contract. During logging, a tree was dropped on our small fishing boat. Logging Company B's guy had come to my mother asking what it was going to take to make that incident go away and when my mother said she wanted to be reimbursed in full for the boat, he said there was no way that was going to happen. My mother had to call and hassle the company every day for three weeks before they finally paid us for the boat. Now the logging finished up and our property is devastated. Entire areas were cleared out and the whole place looks like a warzone. In addition to that there's countless trees that were just cut down and left where they fell. The company obviously took way more trees than "around 200". As a matter of fact, every tree of the 204 marked in orange from the other company was gone as well. When Company B's man first came through the property he made it a point to say that they weren't going to touch the trees marked in orange. He then went on to mark the trees his company wanted in yellow. Today I just got a look at the contract my mother was pressured into signing. It doesn't state how many trees the logging company was going to take (something that is required) but it does clearly state that the company would only take tree marked with YELLOW paint. In addition to that, there is supposed to be a witness present for the signing and there wasn't. There's no witness signatures. Now, I just got the full story and I'm furious. This company was shady in it's dealings, used intimidation tactics to get the contract signed, and the contract itself isn't even complete. My mother wants to take this to court but she isn't even sure how to go about getting started. She also thinks she has no leg to stand on legally whereas I think she has a strong case. We can even get the Company A's guy to say, "yeah, I marked 204 trees in orange". So basically, we're wondering what our first step should be. Legal consultation seems obvious but we're not sure what kind of lawyer to get or if we should even get a lawyer right off the bat. tl;dr: A logging company bullied my mother into signing what appears to be an incomplete contract, robbed our property, and left the place looking like a warzone, and now she wants to do something about it but isn't sure what the first step to take is. Thank you for taking the time to read all this  Proletarian Mango fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Oct 23, 2012 |
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Oct 23, 2012 00:47
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Upmarket Mango posted:tl;dr: A logging company bullied my mother into signing what appears to be an incomplete contract, robbed our property, and left the place looking like a warzone, and now she wants to do something about it but isn't sure what the first step to take is. Get a lawyer?
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Oct 23, 2012 01:00
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LordPants posted:Get a lawyer? Well is there a certain kind of lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing (contracts) or what? My mother is weary of just hiring some lawyer willy-nilly because a few years ago my little brother was attacked by the neighbors dog and the lawyer we hired basically said deal with it and dropped our case.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:04
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Upmarket Mango posted:Well is there a certain kind of lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing (contracts) or what? My mother is weary of just hiring some lawyer willy-nilly because a few years ago my little brother was attacked by the neighbors dog and the lawyer we hired basically said deal with it and dropped our case. So. Yes. There are lawyers who do contracts. Look into lawyers who do a lot of construction work, or contract work, or corporate litigation. Complex civil litigation is also a decent sign - call up your local state bar and ask about it. That said, the lawyer who told you to deal with it and dropped the dog bit case was probably right, and not some 'willy-nilly' hired lawyer. If they told you to go after it no matter what, then they'd be lying to you, probably by charging you tons of fees.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:08
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Trillian posted:Why haven't her parents petitioned for her? I thought any green-card holder can petition for their unmarried children. It probably takes forever, but it seems like something they should have thought of years ago? Parents only got green cards a year or so ago, and they could, but the wait times are simply too long for that to be a feasible option, unfortunately.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:18
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Arcturas posted:So. Yes. There are lawyers who do contracts. Look into lawyers who do a lot of construction work, or contract work, or corporate litigation. Complex civil litigation is also a decent sign - call up your local state bar and ask about it. Thanks for the response. Neither of us even thought of calling the state bar so I think we'll definitely be doing that and then moving on from there.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:27
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Upmarket Mango posted:Thanks for the response. Neither of us even thought of calling the state bar so I think we'll definitely be doing that and then moving on from there. Remember, your state bar won't provide legal advice. What they have instead is a lawyer referral service, so you'll get a list of lawyers in and around your town. It'd also be worth going downtown/looking around for the various firms, and seeing if you have any friends who've dealt with lawyers they liked. I imagine there are some MI goons that could have firm recommendations, but since that can get dicey with the anonymity thing, I'm not sure if they'll speak up.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:30
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Upmarket Mango posted:Well is there a certain kind of lawyer that specializes in this sort of thing (contracts) or what? My mother is weary of just hiring some lawyer willy-nilly because a few years ago my little brother was attacked by the neighbors dog and the lawyer we hired basically said deal with it and dropped our case. If there was any merit to the case the lawyer would have not said that.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:32
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^^^I don't know what happened with that whole ordeal, I was just told that we couldn't get a lawyer to help and that was the end of it. I only brought it up to illustrate that my mom is a bit hesitant and not sure what to do.Arcturas posted:Remember, your state bar won't provide legal advice. What they have instead is a lawyer referral service, so you'll get a list of lawyers in and around your town. It'd also be worth going downtown/looking around for the various firms, and seeing if you have any friends who've dealt with lawyers they liked. Gotcha. I hope I'm not sounding too ignorant, we just haven't dealt with anything like this before and we're a bit overwhelmed. I appreciate your help.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:46
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Upmarket Mango posted:Gotcha. I hope I'm not sounding too ignorant, we just haven't dealt with anything like this before and we're a bit overwhelmed. I appreciate your help. A few years ago we need a lawyer for a major (major to us) medical thing and didn't know where to start. Besides calling the state bar we also went in and talked to several big firms from whom we got recommendations (they didn't want the case as it wasn't "big enough"). Made me feel a lot better about who we ended up picking, and everything went well.
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Oct 23, 2012 01:54
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Naan Bread posted:Apologies if this is the wrong place, I looked all over and couldn't really find some where to ask but... What others said - if you don't provide your bank details then the ATO should be able to send you a cheque to your UK address.
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Oct 23, 2012 02:32
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Brilliant, thanks for your help!
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Oct 23, 2012 05:06
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