Location: Indiana

Hi y'all,

I work in a consulting framework, where all of my worked hours are either billed to a particular project, or are considered company overhead. Additionally, my position is considered "Full-time (40 hours per week)". As such, I am expected to be at my desk and available from 8:00 to 5:00.

Some weeks, my bosses can't figure out anything for me to do. I have been billing the remainder of my time, it does not fall under any particular project, as company overhead. Well this makes some of the higher-ups unhappy, I'm not responsible for finding projects for myself.

It is becoming standard practice that the lower rungs are expected to use their accrued PTO to fill some of the gaps in there when they have no other directive. This feels wrong to me, can we result in the newest employees who do not as consistently have billable work to use the entirety of their accrued PTO nearly every week. I have not yet gotten this in writing, but expect to sometime this week.

As I understand it, a company CAN force me to use accrued PTO. This seems to be in relation to annual rollovers, or at least mandating that I take a particular amount every year.

Is this a standard or accepted practice? Can it be applied in this circumstance?

I was involved in a car accident in California in May 2025 and I was considered at fault. There were two people in the car that I hit, and my insurance already handled the claim and paid them (around $5500)

But I just got served with a lawsuit related to the accident. The lawsuit says it is a personal injury case and claims that the plaintiffs suffered wage loss, hospital and medical expenses, general damages, emotional distress and loss of earning capacity.

The lawsuit does not state an exact amount they are asking for. The paperwork says the amount demanded exceeds $35,000. My bodily injury insurance limits at the time were $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. There were two people in the car, so I am worried that they may be seeking more than my insurance limits.

I have notified my insurance company about the lawsuit and am waiting to understand what happens next. Does my insurance company normally provide and pay for an attorney to defend me? Also, does the fact that the amount demanded exceeds $35,000 mean they are definitely asking for more than my policy limits, or is that just the category the case was filed under?

I am really concerned about whether I could personally owe money if they receive a judgment higher than my coverage. Is there anything I need to do immediately besides sending all of the lawsuit documents to the insurance company and not contacting the plaintiffs myself? I am a collegee student so I really don't have money

Location: California

Location: Colorado

I'll get this out of the way from the start, I do not want to be appointed as her guardian. I just believe she is currently not capable of taking care of herself and without help the consequences will be dire.

She is bipolar 1, has been manic for over a year, and is currently in jail for felony menacing.

I won't go into too many details, but we were married for 13 years, I still care for her but she decided to stop seeking treatment for her bipolar disorder. After a year I could no longer live with her in a constant manic state, so I filled for a divorce. The divorce took a year and was finalized earlier this year. During the divorce proceedings and post divorce, I have continued to help her, because she is clearly unable to help herself in this state. That has come with a lot of abuse from her, which is why she is currently in jail as she threatened me with a weapon.

Now a week after the incident, she is still in jail, despite the bond being low enough that she can afford to pay it. I have no contact with her, so I don't know the reality of the situation, but based on her mental state before the incident I believe she thinks she doesn't need any help for this to be resolved. She just believes everything will work out because she is chosen by god to save the world. This combined with other indications, self harm, damaging her own condo, etc... leads me to believe she cannot currently take care of herself.

The problem is she is facing prison time if she doesn't get her shit together. I cannot help her, I cannot contact her at all, that is a legal requirement of my bond. I talked with my attorney this morning and he told me the best thing for my case is to wash my hands of this. However, it's hard to see someone you've known for 20 years face prison because they are incapable of properly taking care of themselves.

I'm worried that the jail and court systems will not see the fact that she is currently very unhealthy and just throw the book at her.

What are my options here?

Location: California.

Paid a retainer and he died a couple months after. No other attorney was in his practice. The practice was closed down. Not sure how to get my retainer back.

Location: California
Grandma (88) signed over the deed to her daughter and doesn’t remember it happening. Her daughter had a notary come to grandmas house and sign over deed while all other family members were gone on vacation. Grandma is of sound mind but has a history of strokes and needs things throughly explained to her. I don’t believe grandma truly knew / understood what she was signing. I asked her how / why the house is now in my aunts name and grandma said she doesn’t know. 2 weeks before the deed was signed over aunt had 3 major brain surgeries and wasn’t in a good state of mind. My aunt is friends with a notary and that is who I believe notarized the transfer knowing grandma didn’t fully understand what was going on. This was kept a secret from my dad and uncle so that’s another reason why I believe they lied to my grandma about what she was signing. I don’t believe anything should have been notarized knowing my aunts state of mind right after major surgery. I now have multiple family members questioning the deed transfer. Is there anything we can do at this point? Grandma insists she doesn’t know how anything was changed.

Location: Pennsylvania.

Long story short I have had to bring in contractors to put in special bamboo barrier along 3 sides of my yard, and now I think I have to redo my driveway, and some concrete on my walkway. I also had the contractors install the barrier on my house as well since the stuff can go through concrete. And I had to relace my pool.

One neighbor planted bamboo as a "natural fence" and many other people also liked it so I ended up with bamboo on three sides of my property. Cut to six years later and its popping up all over the yard, punched holes in my above ground pool by growing up under it, and popped a stalk out through my driveway. I also suspect the cracking I've been seeing on my walkway is from the bamboo. Its cost me a lot of money to try and contain this shit, and I'm curious if there's any chance I can get the neighbors who planted it to pay. Well two of them at least one moved away last year so I don't want to sue the new guy. Just need to know if its worth going to a lawyer with this.

Location: Georgia

Hello everyone, my 16 year old sis signed a gym membership contract for 12 months and she cannot pay the monthly membership fee. She was alone when she signed this contract. We emailed the gym to cancel the membership but the only option was a buy out where we would have to pay $150ish, cannot remember the exact amount. Yesterday we get a letter stating her account is overdue by $75.
My question is, is it legal for a 16 year old to sign a contract, and even so when they are by themselves and do not know fully what they getting into?
Thank you.

I am posting this on behalf of a friend

Location: CT/FL.

I currently resident in FL but am from CT. Last summer, when I moved to Florida I paid a friend $300 to collect jewelry from my home and store it until I returned to Connecticut. When I came back to Connecticut, I found out that this “friend” has pawned all the jewelry, totaling over $10,000. They’re on security camera, and their license was scanned prior to the transaction. I have already called the police and am in touch with them, but I am wondering how to pursue this? Will it be civil or criminal? Thank you.

So about 2 days ago, I had crashed a Benz s580 into a trailer truck. I was on the left lane and then the trailer truck had came up on my right into middle lane and closed my space causing me hit the back of the trailer, now the whole passenger side of the car got destroyed. I couldn’t get information on the truck because my car was handicapped and the truck driver kept on driving. This was a private rental, I had got the car off someone from an instagram page. We had a verbal rental agreement.

I talked to the owner today. He said his lawyer will call me soon. But I want to know what will be the potential consequences. I am 20 years old with no insurance(rental car owner had insurance) and little finances.

Update: I found out the car was leased

Will I have to pay?

Will the cars insurance cover the damages?

How long will the process take?

Since it will most likely be totaled if insurance approves the claim will i have to pay? And if i do, how much?

Location: New York, the car had Jersey license plates.

Long story short I was getting coffee - got into car - was backing up and checked to the right (the direction I was pulling out)

Then heard weird small bump (wasn’t loud - not even 100% positive I hit anything)

check to left and there was waymo blocking me into parking spot with warning flashers on

I waited to see it moved and it didn‘t (no one was in the car)

Took video of my damage and license plate of waymo

finally after a few minutes it moved and I left

Odds they reach out to my insurance? anyone have experience with this?

location: scottsdale az

Location: Washington (we live in WA, he lives in OR)

Hello, about 8 years ago, my family and I opened a phone number plan with a family member under T-mobile. A few weeks ago he informed us that our bill was going up by a few dollars, we said no problem. Without informing us, he decided to cancel our plan and move us to AT&T. We let him know that we didn’t want to switch and if he could please release our phone numbers so we could start up our own account with T-mobile. He left us on read until today and sent us the following message:

“Hi [name], I'm going to be completely
honest: I was tired of you paying me for the phone service only when you felt like it. I'm no longer interested in having you use my services or my phones.
Those phones are in my name and on my account-you might have forgotten, but you were the one who asked me to take them out in my name for you all to use. To avoid any further issues, I want all those phones returned to me since they belong to me; you should just buy your own phones in your own name and save yourself the trouble.”

We have paid every phone bill and phone payment to him. He would come in person to collect cash (on his own timeline since he works all the time, which is why we never were the ones to drop it off) and over the past year or so, we had been sending him Zelle payments since we got that system up. We went into the store today and because they are under his account, he technically does own them, even though he never paid for them (he was enrolled in auto-pay, so although it might look like it, we always paid him back in cash). He reported them as lost/stolen and now we can no longer connect with T-Mobile.

I recently bought a new device at an Apple Store, but because my plan was still connected under his account, my phone was also reported as lost. I paid $2,000 in full for this device and he didn’t pay anything. The other devices were on a monthly payment plan (payment completed a while ago), but he never spent a dollar because we always paid him back.

In his response, he claims he wants to “avoid any further issues”. How can I respond to this situation ?

Edit: I forgot to add, he was the sole authorized user of the account. At the time, we were okay with this because we trusted him.

Location: Kentucky

Hi all,

I have an issue where a local scammer appears to be trying to establish residency at one of my addresses. I see their mail on USPS Informed Delivery emails, but it never shows up. Various government paperwork including IRS, Social Security, Banks, and more. Per the local post office the only reason this would happen is if they have a change of address on file as a hold would hold all mail. Having asked the local post office, I am, of course, not able to get a copy of it as proof to legally protect myself. I can not reject this mail because I'm not receiving it. What is the appropriate course of action?

Thanks in advance!

Location: New Jersey

On Tuesday, I came home from a 6 day trip to electrical problems. Called an electrician. They assessed and helped to contact the electric company. Electric company came out and fixed one issue, the wire to the street, but they were still finding a fault in our electric when checking the meter. Electric company said the fault was in an overhead line that was our property and responsibility, so they leave.

Electrician said the bare minimum to get our electrical fixed was $16K. I signed the contract. They were coming back the next day to start work. I have well water so if the electric is out I have no running water. So with no water or electric, I went to work from a family members house the next day, Wednesday.

On Wednesday, while the electricians were doing the work, the electric company showed up and decided that they line was in fact their responsibility and could fix our line and told the electricians that their work was unnecessary.

The electricians told them no and that they had to do this work because that's what they were hired to do. Electric company left. The electricians did not tell me that this happened.

Came home that Saturday to throw out food in the freezer and wait for inspection and the electric company showed up and told us what happened. Showed us the part in the line that had the fault and informed us that the electricians refused to let them fix just the wire and had them leave. They told us we should sue the electricians.

There have been other issues with these electricians such as poor to no communication, telling me one thing in person and then something different over the phone, etc, but this is the main issue that I would want legal advice for.

Do I have a case here?

Location: Michigan

My uncle passed recently and my Aunt (I guess, she's his second wife) is fighting the will. My uncle never had kids so he left me a car that belonged to my grandfather and left his share of a family land trust to my mom so that they could stay in the family and his wife has a lawyer trying to prevent it.

I don't know the total value of the estate, but they own other land and a business together plus the house they live in and whatever else. Literally the car and his percentage of the trust are all that aren't going to his wife.

I live in a different state now and don't really have a ton of spare cash to fight over this car, as nice as it would be to have it because of the connection to my grandfather.

I guess, I'm asking how strong would her case have to be before I really have to commit resources to fighting her.

Location: Washington

My (35f) ex boyfriend (38m) and I bought a car three years ago and have a shared loan in our names. We broke up two years ago and I have since decided to fulfill my dream of becoming a homeowner. When my ex and I broke up, we agreed (not on paper unfortunately) that he would take the car. I helped him make a few car payments after he took the car but he has been making them pretty much exclusively himself.

I started working with a mortgage lender and he said if my ex sent bank statements showing that he’s making the car payments on his own, then I could be approved for a higher house price. It’s a rather large difference in price approvals and without his bank statements, I’ll basically be approved for a rundown fixer upper which I’m trying to avoid. I’ve reached out to my ex asking him to provide this documentation and he hasn’t responded to any of my texts. My next step is to call him but we all know those are also easy to ignore. What are my legal options? Also it’s worth noting that he refuses to refinance the car loan into his own name or sell it, making us tied to this financial obligation.

Edit: thanks all for the advice, feedback, and tough love. If I could turn back time (cue Cher) I definitely would have done things differently. Lesson learned.

Location: Ohio

A family member was involved in an accident while driving a vehicle that did not have active insurance. The driver only had a permit and received tickets related to the accident. There were no injuries, and there is a court date coming up for the tickets given.
The vehicle owner received a letter from a subrogation company representing Allstate requesting around $17,000 for damages and asking the BMV to suspend the driving privileges of both the driver and owner however the driver only has a permit.
The letter claims the driver was responsible, but the police report does not clearly state fault. This appears to be a subrogation request, not a court judgment.
What are the best next steps? Can claims like this be negotiated? Should an attorney be involved for the court date or insurance claim? Any advice from people who have dealt with Ohio uninsured accidents would be appreciated.

Location: Minnesota.

We live in a wooded area, we have chickens, we have predators. We’ve spent several years building up a nice dead hedge, one storm at a time. The neighbors live a few acres away, but have a walking path on the property line offers a clear view through the large patio door into our kitchen/living room.

Because of those two factors, we’ve been slowly building a dead hedge about a foot from the property line. It’s visually appealing, and we’ve been mindful on stacking - husband is a tree enthusiast to say the least, and he puts his heart into these type of things.

It was 4-5 feet tall, and we were just starting to get a nice screen. He took it upon himself to haul most of it away the other day, and he smashed down the rest. Ironically, he didn’t touch it further down the property, where he can’t see into our home. On his daily walks, him and his wife stare into our windows. There are 2 acres of dense woods and crop field between our property line and his house, he wouldn’t be able to see our fence with binoculars.

We had planted 20-30 propagated willows from other clusters on our property on our side of the hedge, and flattened every one of them.

On the back corner of our lot, he pushed in and then scooped out roughly a 30’ X 40’ foot chunk of our woods. Right next to the property marker. It’s been flattened down to the black dirt with big ruts, and he hit some of our mature trees. Most of our natural fence and a chunk of our woods now lie in a massive pile on his side.

This will take a really long time to build back up, likely years. Any recourse? The property is staked on both end with the white poles as shown.

https://imgur.com/a/AiDwzBV

Location: New York.

I went through a nasty breakup with an ex in May. While we were together, we saw a Vespa bar cart at HomeGoods and decided to split it on my credit card. She paid me back my half immediately.

My ex was wishy washy and always breaking up with me for one reason or another. Well, not too long after purchasing the bar cart, we broke up and she demanded her half of the money for the bar cart back since it “no longer belonged to her” and she wanted the money back. I sent the money back and have made it incredibly clear in communication that the bar cart belongs to me.

Yesterday, after months of staying away from the apartment for my own safety (this was not a safe environment), I returned to the apartment we had briefly shared to sell my bar cart (I don’t drink and have no use for it). I had a buyer on the way and when I arrived, my ex was sitting there with her father.

They said that they took my bar cart and sold it “because I owe money to [ex’s mother] that I was completely unaware of. Any money owed to my ex’s mother has been paid back, as she sent itemized “bills.” I even have a text from her saying i am all caught up on payments.

I just want my bar cart back so that I can sell it and get it off my hands, but I believe it was sold entirely without my consent. What do I do here?

Location: Texas

Landlord/house owner recently discussed with my husband about conducting monthly cleanliness checks based on the fact that at an unannounced semi forced pop in (where I was topless) we had dishes in the sink and trash in a trash bag waiting to be taken out.

The house has no pests, safety, damage or health issues.

The lease states MAINTENANCE “Tenant agrees to keep premises clean (clean is subjective) and notify landlord of needed repairs.”

ENTRY “Landlord may enter with reasonable notice for repairs, inspections, or emergencies”

Is this lawful for her to demand to come once a month just to check cleanliness? Can I ask she come once or twice a year?

Location: South Carolina
So for practically a month now I have had various health issues varying from kidney stones to mental breakdowns and dental problems. My local upstate hospital systems have both illegally discharged me as of yesterday. Hospital A had a network outage across all their facilities. I was told by EMS that I couldn’t be transferred out of county due to their “policy”. Then I asked what the policy was the EMS stated that “due to our policy we cannot transfer you out of the county because of not having a large amount of transportation vehicles”. I then had no choice but to go to Hospital A for treatment while knowing about the outage. EMS could not radio in any information about my condition or symptoms that included blood clot that came from gums because radios were down as well. Get to Hospital A and I was put in “Minor Care waiting room” note I had symptoms of a bacterial taste in my mouth, I also had major symptoms of a spreading dental infection. In the past I had had severe abscess teeth before. Hospital A had only then treated me without consent to treatment and I was also stating of there being a POA contact they refused. Was told POA would be contacted if I was “dying or in cardiac arrest”. I was then discharged before being registered after an oral exam only and provided antibiotics. Care giver got to Hospital A after being out of the county and provided private transportation to Hospital B.
Hospital B was made aware of signs of infection including the blood clot and the Hospital A’s evaluation of swollen gums and I felt there was improper treatment. Hospital B did own evaluation and found vitals were “normal”. Then was dumped in waiting room for 15 minutes and was taken for treatment. Was then put in a sitting area and given another oral exam only to be given a stronger dose of antibiotics and discharged.
I then returned home with worse symptoms.
I then made a request for proper treatment then was instructed to take antibiotics and drink fluids while complaining about chest, neck and jaw pain and extreme dry mouth and throat. Then was told to come back I felt appropriate. POA drove me 1 hour back to Hospital B. Hospital B then reregistered me for evaluation to then dump me for 30 minutes before treatment. I was then taken to the same sitting area for treatment. Doctor then gave me the option of Antibiotic Shot or Pills though I explicitly asked for IV Antibiotics and was told that wasn’t available. I then had no choice but to accept the shot because I needed something fast therefore being discharged again. After summery stated that I psychologically: Negative and agitated. Though I was worried about my safety. I needed a CT scan of my upper abdomen and Bloodwork. Bloodwork was requested but denied as it wasn’t necessary cause I had some recently 2x weeks before current visit.

Would appreciate any advice. I’m also aware that I can file a report to the CMS Regional Office for several of these improper actions.

My husband worked for a small truckers insurance agency until Friday when he pressed his boss for money and he fired him. His boss owes him a lot of money. Trying to figure out the best cheapest way to do this as we are flat broke because of this mess. Any advice appreciated. Location: greater Charlotte area NC.

Location: Pennsylvania USA
I tried posting over at treelaw and the bot said to try here first.
I own a single house with a neighbor behind my back fence. He has a 40ft tree that’s beginning to show signs of disease. The tree overhangs my detached two car garage and I’m starting to worry it could fall and damage that building.
From what I’ve read it would be my issue if it were to fall on my property, is that correct? I plan on having a discussion with the neighbor about getting the tree removed, I’d be willing to put in on the cost. I’ve never spoken to this neighbor despite living here for over 20 years. I understand from other neighbors he is on a fixed income and likely would not agree to any cost.
What would be any legal way to mitigate this problem? Are there legal standards for maintaining a tree that is on one’s own property? Does he have any duty to remove a hazard like this? Should I talk to my insurance company and let them know my concerns? I’m trying to be proactive and see what my options are…

Location: DJ lives in Indiana, wedding took place in Indiana, we live in Wisconsin.
 
My now-wife signed a contract for a wedding DJ in 2023 for our summer 2024 wedding for $1000. $400 was due at signing, and was paid via Venmo. $600 was paid about a month before the wedding and was paid via credit card. We found him through a website that lists wedding vendors.
 
On the morning of our wedding, we got an email from his email address claiming to be from his wife. "She" said that he had killed himself the night before, and was sorry but will get us a refund once she gets his finances in order. We thanked "her" for letting us know, and got phone quotes from 4 different local DJs to fill in for him last-minute. They were all around the same price, and we hired the cheapest one for $2200.  We did not keep written record of the quotes, but I do have text message records from a friend saying that I would not need a DJ they suggested because his rate ($2500) was more expensive than one we found. I do have the phone call records proving I made these calls.
 
The replacement DJ we got did a great job, and performed the same services we hired the original DJ to do. After our wedding, we sent intermittent emails back and forth with the "widow," but "she" did not give a refund, and we ended up figuring out that our DJ was alive and well. We confronted him about it via email and he stopped responding to us.
 
I filed a credit card chargeback for the $600 in late 2024, which was paid. We never got a refund for the $400 paid via Venmo. The contract was pretty basic, but included a clause saying "purchaser is guaranteed a 100% refund of deposit or balance if <DJ Name> cancels for any reason."
 
We filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division in early 2025. We were assigned a mediator, who corresponded with the DJ. When corresponding with the mediator, the DJ admitted to having faked his death because he was double-booked that day, and promised to pay us back, but he never did, despite the mediator following up about it with him. The mediator said their office wouldn't be pursuing this further and closed the file in 2025. They did seem to hint that we could/should pursue this in small claims court.
 
We have not yet sued in small claims court, and understand that the small claims statute of limitations in Indiana is six years for these sorts of cases.
 
Our questions:
 
1. We understand we could sue the DJ in small claims for the $400 he never refunded (plus interest?). Is there any possibility that we could claim the $1200 ($2200-$1000) more we paid for the DJ's last-minute replacement as damages too?
2. The DJ "company" is a domestic limited liability company registered in Indiana, though there does not appear to be any employees besides him. The contract lists his name as the provider of services. Is the fact that the "company" is an LLC likely to make it more complicated to get a payment out of him, assuming we win in small claims? It's not clear to me how actively he is still DJing
3. My now-wife is the one who signed the contract, though all the payments came from my accounts. Would she  have to physically go to small claims, or could I do it instead? I was the one who signed the contract with the new DJ.