texts: Can someone use an alias in a covenant not to sue that refers to the signing person?

texts:
Take the following scenario:

a party wants a company to sign a covenant not to sue where they agree not to sue me
The company doesn't know the party's name (yet)
the party does not want the company to know their name as long as they have not agreed not to sue them

Could someone use an alias in the covenant covenant not to sue, and then say that it refers to the person that has signed the covenant not to sue ?
This way, the person has the company sign the covenant not to sue paper first. Then the person signs it too and adds the party's name. This means that as soon as the person has signed the agreement, the company will know the person's name but will also not be allowed to sue the person.


texts: Is selling a product at a different price per country discrimination (and thus illegal)?

texts:
If a company sells a product globally, but wishes to set the price of that product differently per country, is that discrimination or legal?

The business reason is, it is more profitable to sell to some countries but not others. So we wish to disincentivize but not exclude some countries by setting higher prices.


texts: Employer suddenly decided to use finger prints for clocking in and out. Can I refuse?

texts:
I work in a retail store with about 20 staff members. Usually 3-8 work at a time. The job isn't meant to be permanent and pays close to minimum wage. All of a sudden they are adding a fingerprint scanner to clock people in and out.
My question is, if I refuse to give them my fingerprints, can they do anything? My contract says I must give 2 weeks notice to quit but given how they sprung this on us, this wouldn't be possible.
Given the COVID pandemic, this sure seems like a strange time to be implementing such a thing.


texts:
Context:   http://www.oneclubofjusticides.com/

The contentment on that page is shocking but not unbelievable.   I've found credible (Washington Post) reporting of similarly shocking judicial behavior in the court system hearing my case.  Another more recent case is that of Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Audrey Creighton who had romantic relationship with felon and reportedly hid him from justice.

One opposing council I've faced was even Treasurer of the Committee to Elect Sitting Judges... which supported Creighton with campaign contributions, and he did this with the full knowledge and even accolades of the bar association.   That attorney demonstrated what I thought was unprecedented ability to get rulings to his client's advantage.   The very concept that attorneys can contribute to the election of Judges who then hear their arguments leaves me with little hope of finding an attorney to represent me well in that system.


texts: Does the European Commission have jurisdiction in the U.S.?

texts:
When U.S. corporations want to merge or are subject to acquisitions (for example Oracle acquiring Sun Microsystems in 2009) it seems they must seek approval from the European Commission --- which is another jurisdiction.

Questions:

Why must U.S. companies get European Commission approval?
What could happen if the U.S. firms chose to ignore the European Commission's decision?
Are there other juridical bodies in other jurisdictions that can stop U.S. mergers?


texts: At what age can one live alone (in Greece)?

texts: In Greece, how old do you have to be to move out and live alone (by which I mean that you could buy your own home, or even move to another country for the rest of your life)?


texts: Can the Developer of a Program be penalized if it is used illegally?

texts: If a developer writes a program, for example a password cracker or a code decipher, and it is used illegally, will the developer or the user get punished? A password cracker could be used, for example, if you forgot your email password, and that is perfectly legal. But you could also use the password cracker to hack into someone else's account. Same deal for a code decipher (it could be used legally or illegally.) So my question is: if a user uses a program illegally, is the user or the developer punished? Is there something a developer can do (like put a user agreement that states you should not use it illegally?)


texts: Would insurance company have duty to defend it's customer in unfair business claim case?

texts:
So our business insurance company (mostly for accidents with customers and employees) is doing everything possible to not have cover our legal defense costs by coming up with various ruses. I have successfully fought off most of them. The most ridiculous ruse was where they tried to convince me that our civil case was actually a criminal case. Despite summons and complaint clearly stating that it is civil case.

The last excuse I am trying to fight off is where they claim that they don't do anything related to "unfair business practice" claims.

We already hired attorney to defend us in the civil lawsuit. He seemed to agree with our insurance company that they probably would not have to cover our legal defense costs.

However, I beg to differ. At least I found this court ruling in Massachusetts that is somewhat similar to our situation where court overruled vague language in insurance policy and decided that there was actually duty to defend. Have not discussed this with my attorney as he charges per hour and at this time I would prefer that he focuses on the actual lawsuit, not insurance matters.

Is there a practice in California to get business insurance companies to cover legal defense costs for lawsuits that make property damage claims due to unfair business practices? If yes, how to convince my insurance company that they are actually responsible for duty to defend us despite what insurance policy states or does not state?

P.S. I don't think to answer this question one needs to see our insurance policy, because to my understanding courts overrule clauses in liability insurance contracts that create paradoxes. Imagine if you had auto liability insurance that stated that if you were drink&driving, then insurance would not cover anything. What if plaintiff is a fraudster and knowingly filed a misleading complaint alleging that you were drunk (just like in our civil case plaintiff is misrepresenting relationship between us and other defendants)? The insurance company would say "hey, the plaintiff in complaint stated you were drunk, so we don't have to help you out on this case by providing legal defense". What if defendant in discovery stage could disprove that he was drunk? Would insurance company suddenly become on hook to pay legal defense costs? What if defendants was poor, but with insurance, and could not afford to get the case to discovery stage without his insurance company's help? I believe this is the reason why courts put Duty to defend burden on insurance companies so that their customer would have fair chance of getting proper legal defense.


texts: Does the UK allow someone to opt out the full electoral register?

texts:
I am aware that the open register has an opt out option, but does the full register also have an opt out option?

The gov website is silent on this issue.


texts: To what degree do I have to comply to COPPA in this scenario?

texts: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is designed to restrict sites collecting information about children under the age of 13 years of age. If I am operating a general purpose web service that has, in its End User License Agreement (EULA) or Terms and Conditions/Terms of Use a clause that prohibits children under the age of 13 from registering on the site, am I still obligated to take action if they disregard this requirement?


texts: Why do boxing fights need to be sanctioned by state authorities?

texts:
Why does boxing (and perhaps MMA) need to be sanctioned by state authorities like the Nevada Athletic Commission or New York State athletic commission?

Other sports like baseball require no such state license, nor does a contact sport like football or even a sport that includes actual physical fighting like hockey.

Why isn't engaging in a boxing match a form of protected free speech that the state cannot obstruct?


texts: Can records of custody court cases be searched in NYC? If so by whom?

texts:
Person A has a need to find person B.

They do not know person B's name or other identity, but know they are somewhere in New York City, New York, USA.

But they know the following about B: within last 4 years, B was a parent involved in a court case where their older adult child won custody of their younger underage child from them.

Some information about the children is known but not precise identity (let's say birthday and first name for one of them is known; as well as ages).

The only way I can think of to find person B would be to review every single court case involving custody in New York City, and see if the information about the winners matches the known info.

Question #1: is this even possible? Is there some sort of central database which contains details of all recent court cases involving custody of children in New York City?

Question #2: If this is theoretically possible, who would have access/privilege to do this? Any random person? A registered lawyer? Police? Court officer?

I am assuming that custody case info would be somewhat protected, unlike criminal cases, but do not know enough to be sure.


texts: Why doesn't the 4th Amendment apply to traffic stops?

texts: Police have to search and seize your documentation in order to successfully execute a traffic stop.  Isn't this a violation of the 4th Amendment?


texts: In UK, can religious institutions discriminate against the sexual orientation of their own clergy?

texts:
There is this other question about the same subject but it is applicable to the United States. In this question I want to ask about UK employment laws.

This is in consideration of the United Kingdom employment equality law, about which the Wikipedia page says:

  As an integral part of UK labour law it is unlawful to discriminate
  against a person because they have one of the "protected
  characteristics", which are, age, disability, gender reassignment,
  marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and
  sexual orientation.

In this case I was looking at articles such as this one about a 2012 court case against the Catholic Church in UK, in which the solicitor Tracey Emmott (of Emmott Snell) is quoted as saying:

  "The relationship between a bishop and a priest of a Roman Catholic
  diocese has many of the hallmarks of an employment relationship, and
  therefore it is right and proper that the church should be held
  legally accountable for abuse by its priests."

According to above statement it seems that at least in some cases the position of a priest with the parent church is viewed as an "employment relationship". What I am curious about is what the UK employment law would say about the relationship in cases where a gay priest decides to "come out". In this kind of situation, is the employment of the priest protected by UK law, or not?


texts: Is an "unmarried with no dependents" employer or higher education requirement discrimination?

texts: It looks like service academies in US have some extensive requirements such as "Unmarried with no dependents or financial debt". How is this justified? I would expect a higher education institution/employer to be flooded with lawsuits if they ever use something like this.


texts: Purchase of alcohol with a minor present

texts:
Hello people who know a lot more about alcohol laws than me,

So a general gist of my question is, why is it legal for certain stores to deny the sale of alcohol to me (who is over 21) with a minor present (20 year old).

So some background information on this, on my 21st birthday I went to Sam's club with some friends to buy alcohol for my birthday party, I heard from other people that they would deny sale if not everyone in your party at checkout is over 21, so to avoid that hassle I had my friends just walk right past the checkout line and I purchased it by myself.

Yesterday afternoon I went to a Sam's Club near my place with one of my roommates (she is 20 years old). We were doing some apartment shopping for groceries and misc things for our place, and on the way out I was asked by my parents over the phone to pick up a few bottles of wine for dinner that night. Not thinking to much about it I grabbed a few bottles and threw it in my cart that was piled high with items. Once we shopped for everything on the list, we went to checkout, piled everything on the conveyor belt and had the sales associate scan it all. While I was standing there with my membership card and credit card and my roommate was loading stuff back into the cart, the associate got to the wine bottles and asked for the ID's of both myself AND my roommate for the sale of the alcohol. I argued saying that I was buying the alcohol for personal use not to give to the minor, and she called over her manager who confirmed what she said. That they have to ID everyone at the checkout lane and ensure that they are all over 21. Clearly my roommate couldn't meet that so they took the wine out and we continued our purchase.

Over this past weekend, I went to a Ralph's with my girlfriend (20 years old and she wasn't going to drink) and purchased some beer and mike's hard lemonade. We had a few other things to pick up so she carried one of 24 packs of alcohol to the register while I carried the rest. She went in first, and set the alcohol down and gave it the cashier to scan, and walked right on past to pick it up at the other end. I dropped off my stuff and after that they asked for my ID (which I gave without an issue) and I paid for it all and left. No hassle, no extra questions, nothing else.

I am under the assumption that stores "reserve the right to refuse service to anyone", but how does the denial of sale of alcohol work? Is this Sam's Club policy? Is it a California law? Is it a city/county law?

Some questions(plus the ones right above) that I would like answered if possible:

Where is the law/rule that states you can't sell alcohol to a legal adult if a minor is present?
Why was I able to purchase it at Ralph's without an issue? Was Ralph's the one in the wrong here for NOT denying the sale?
If this law/policy does exist? What is the point of it if I can just make the minor wait outside, purchase it, and give it to them?
When I was a kid my Dad purchased alcohol (beer) all the time at Wal-Mart, Ralphs, etc (not at Sam's Club as far as I can recall), and never had this issue. If a minor went with him and he wanted to purchase alcohol, would they deny him for the exact same reason they denied me? If they wouldn't have denied it to him why would they have denied it to me (profiling)?
Is the purpose of this law/policy just to make it more difficult to give alcohol to minors? It doesn't change the fact that the person purchasing it is over 21 (and they accept the liabilities if they do end up giving it to a minor) and can just go next door and purchase alcohol there?

I am not pissed that they denied the sale as I should've paid more attention like I did the first time, I was just rather annoyed that I had to drive to another alcohol selling location and pay more there. I am mainly curious as to why this happened.


texts: Does torture violate the US Federal Constitution, and if so under which theory?

texts:
We all know about the tortures that took place at Abu Ghraib prison.
However, Justice Scalia explains to us that torture does not offend the US Federal Constitution.
As Justice Scalia explained to us, the Eighth Amendment says

cruel and unusual punishments [shall not be] inflicted

and torture is not punishment. In fact, as Justice Scalia explains to us, one is punished for something he/she has committed in the past. For example: "I caught my child smoking, so as a punishment I took away his mobile phone".
But "torture" is not an infliction of a damage to make the accused pay for something he/she committed in the past, or to elicit someone to refrain from committing that offense again. This is not the purpose of torture. The purpose of torture is to extort information useful for a future criminal investigation.
The explanation that Justice Scalia gave to us is consistent with the defition of punishment (remember, the Eight Amendment prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments") that BF Skinner gave to us in his operant conditioning theory:

Positive punishment: Providing a stimulus that an individual does not
desire to decrease undesired behaviors. For example, a child hates to
do chores. His parents will try to reduce the undesired behavior of
failing a test by applying the undesired stimuli of having him do more
chores around the house.
Negative punishment: Removing a stimulus that an individual desires in
order to decrease undesired behaviors. For example, a child loves
playing video games. His parents will try to reduce the undesired
behavior of failing an exam by removing the desired stimulus of video
games.

In both cases, the purpose of punishment is "to decrease undesired behaviors". The purpose of torture is not that (after all, the accused is already into custody, so he cannot committ other undesired behaviors), but to extort information useful for further prosecution or to catch other accomplices. So, also under this theory, torture is not punishment.
Moreover, as Ingraham v. Wright explains to us, the US Federal Supreme Court has "limited the application of the Eighth Amendment’s “cruel and unusual” language to criminal punishment".
A prisoner who is tortured was not subjected to criminal proceedings (in fact, the torture itself is used to extort information useful for a future criminal proceeding), let alone a criminal punishment.

Is there some legal theory, or some legal scholar, that has argued that "torture" violates the Eight Amendment to the US Federal Constitution? What would be the argument of such theory or scholar?

Is there any other legal argument that would make torture unconstitutional, on the basis on whatever constitutional provision?

Are there federal laws prohibiting torture?


texts: Who is responsible for the property expenses with a life estate which is owned by tenants in common, when not all of the owners live on the property?

texts:
If a property is owned by tenants in common but has a life tenant (who does not own the property so there are three parties involved) who is responsible for outgoings such as rates and repairs?

If one of the owners lives on the property and the other does not, does the responsibility change?

I would think it would be equitable for the life tenant and the owner who lives on the property to share the expenses, as the tenant who does not live on the property receives zero benefits from the property until it is sold (if both tenants in common — which means no survivorship rights — are also the remaindermen) in equal shares). However, in the mean time, they are responsible for the outgoings of the property 50/50 with the other tenant in common. I think it is also equitable to have expenses of a capital nature (those expenses that affect the structural integrity of the property) looked after by all of the tenants in common and same with insuring the physical house. Day-to-day expenses, repairs, and costs should be met by those who live on the property or alternatively a rental agreement should be arranged at the market rate.

Yes, the specifics of the laws regarding this may vary from country to country but overall from what I've researched the agreements are fairly similar and this is a common occurrence. Life estates are particularly popular in estate planning.


texts: How can the judicial branch enforce a judge's order against the CBP if it does not comply?

texts:
Inspired by recent events, I am wondering what would happen if a court makes a clear ruling (say, that border officials must not turn back refugees) and if CBP explicitly refuses to comply.

(I say "clearly" and "explicitly" because the point of this question is not to worry about cases where the ruling or non-compliance is unclear.)

Can/would they send US Marshals to compel or arrest CBP officers to let in people at the border, for example? What if the officers are ordered not to comply? How could it realistically play out?


texts: Are seat-belt warning alarms mandatory (in the UK)?

texts:
I'm aware that wearing a seatbelt has been mandatory in the UK for many years now, but are seat belt warning alarms mandatory, and if so is there any requirement that they be both visual and auditory?

I spend a lot of time making frequent/short journeys on private land and have deliberately disabled the seat belt warning buzzer in my car. (the flashing light still comes on, but the annoying buzzer is now silenced).

I regularly take my car to the dealer for servicing/MOT and every time it comes back with the annoying beeping turned back on. I then spend ages working out how to turn it back off again (through an esoteric combination of turning the ignition on/off in conjunction with pressing various buttons and switching the lights)

I've spoken to the dealership and they claim that the alarm is a legal requirement, and they have to fix it (and charge me for it) before they can allow the car to leave their premises.

I think they're deliberately confusing company policy with legal requirement.

My questions are...

Is a seat-belt warning alarm legally mandatory?
If so, does a garage have to switch it back on if it's been disabled?
If an alert is mandatory, does it have to be both a flashing light
and a buzzer? Is a flashing light on it's own enough to qualify as
an alert - in which case what's wrong with me turning the buzzer off?


texts: Surrogate Court Petition for Probate NY Notification To Others In WIll

texts:
I am in the process of filing papers with the surrogate court for petition of probate. I am just compiling all the needed information and such before I do so. I was told others named in the will need to be informed and listed.
What is the form called that is sent to the other people named in the will? Also, does a copy of each get submitted at time of submitting the paperwork?


texts:
I am F-1 US Visa-holding student with an anticipated OPT authorization that is good May 9th through August 15th.

I have an opportunity to broker an investment in a manufacturing company registered in Nevada, USA. Am I eligible to claim brokerage on such an effort?  Or does my F-1 visa prevent me from collecting such compensation?


texts:
I right on some French embassy website:

La carte nationale d’identité est un document officiel qui permet à tout citoyen de justifier de son identité et, sous certaines conditions, de sa nationalité française.

translate.google.com:

The national identity card is an official document which allows any citizen to prove their identity and, under certain conditions, their French nationality.

In which conditions is one's French ID card not a proof of one's French citizenship?

Example of a French ID card:

The content of the red rectangle means "French citizenship".


texts: How can people confess to their drug use in a book without any legal consequences?

texts:
Using illegal drugs is illegal.

Yet Obama and Steve Jobs confess that freely. Write a book about it.

Imagine if they confess to murder instead. That would be problematic.

So why?


texts:
A young lady (21) is connected to our family through friendship.  Over the last year or so she has had a rough go of it.  Central to these issues is a legal dispute with her step-father and the mother has sided with the step-father.

While we do not know the complete details of the situation, the wife and I are pretty sure that it is sexual in nature.  There is criminal prosecution against the step-father where the young lady is the key witness.

Recently we found out that the step-father's attorney contacted this young lady.  Hearing of the conversation second hand, it sounded like he was trying to manipulate her into dropping the charges.  No real threats, but more of the promise of being one big happy family again, that kind of thing.  Perhaps the implied threat of never being a family again if she proceeds.

I believe that this sort of thing is clearly against the law and could be grounds for disbarment.  It would seem to me, that it would be especially egregious if the case in question was sexual or violent in nature.  Am I correct?

If so how does this person proceed with bringing action or making a complaint against this lawyer?


texts: Cursing in NJ by an Elected Official Councilman

texts: What is the statue number that addresses an adult (an elected official) cursing at another adult publicly in New Jersey?


texts: Does a voluntary release form with two signers which uses the wording of I instead of we release one if they do not sign?

texts:
A few years ago a woman I was dating asked me to cosign on a loan for a vehicle. I did so, and all was fine for 2 years. Then after a bad breakup, she stopped making payments.
The bank sent out a notice of voluntary surrender to both her and myself to be signed and sent back. I personally did not sign the form as one of the lines in the paper said "If the property does not sell for the total amount owed, I will be responsible for the unpaid amount." As I took this to mean that I alone would have to pay this back. (Nowhere in the letter did it state that there were cosigners or two parties involved) She, on the other hand, did sign the paper that was sent to her and return it to the bank.
Several months later I have received word that I, as well as her, are being sued for the rest of the amount owed on the vehicle after the sale, which comes to a total of $4800. As I have not signed the release and she did, is she responsible for the amount owed? I have not only the original letter, but also the emails from the bank about the release and a recording of the bank manager telling me that she signed the form and I did not (I'm in Missouri, where one party can record their conversations.)


texts: Do internal annotations on user accounts fall under the GDPR?

texts:
In a platform such as Stack Exchange or any other moderated forum-type site, in which specific moderators have access to account information that regular users don't, and in which said moderators may make annotations on an account for the purposes of helping moderation, is the GDPR relevant to said annotations in any way? "Annotation" here simply means any arbitrary text message a moderator or employee may attach to an account for future reference, e.g. to keep track of continued bad behaviour.

Does the account holder have any rights to see said annotations or request their deletion or alteration? In practice that would be counter productive for the moderators as it would inhibit their ability to moderate the platform efficiently.

Would any other sort of metadata, like say, encryption keys generated for and attached to the account, be subject to the same kind of disclosure? If not, why would it be different?


texts:
I live in Grande Prairie, Alberta, and I noticed that some commercial properties in town are very affordable. I don't plan on starting a business nor do I plan on trying within this year.

I did try researching my city's bylaws, but all I could find was the purposes that I could use my property for based on zoning, none of which were relevant to personal use.

Is it legal to live on commercial property?
And as a partially overlapping question, it legal to own the property without using it for commercial purposes?


texts: Is there a fine for no health insurance 2017

texts:
I'm referring to the 2017 tax year (Jan 17-dec17 filed April 18)

My CPA for 10 years is telling me there is a fine this year for not having health coverage.  Multiple other people i know who used h&r block, etc are telling me they didn't have to pay one.

I looked on the 1040ez and it says right there that you do have a fine. But they are claiming it's not relevant due to an executive order.

My understanding is there is no mandate to prove you had insurance.  But you are still lying on your taxes if you don't disclose it and pay the fine.


texts: Should 'lie' ever be used in a legal context?

texts:
Source: Ontario Small Claims Court - A Practical Guide (2011). p. 190 Bottom.

(d) Inflammatory Pleading
§9.15 A plaintiff or defendant in his pleading may make scandalous or in-
flammatory references to the opponent. For instance, it does happen that
either party will castigate his opponent as a "bare-faced liar". The motions
judge will strike out the offending reference.

The quote above concerns Ontario law, but I intend my following question to concern advocacy in general (and not limited to a jurisdiction).
Adding 'bare-faced' to 'liar' does appear too affecting, bombastic, and pointlessly insulting, threatening. But when is it not an inflammatory pleading for a litigant to plead 'lying' or allege the other party as a 'liar'? Or should a litigant never use the morpheme 'lie' in a legal context? I ask not about judges because they have less to lose.


texts:
My uncle was one of 4 beneficiaries of a large insurance annuity held by my recently deceased grandfather.  My uncle passed away unexpectedly and tragically before Christmas leaving behind his wife whom is not a direct beneficiary.
The family decided not to inform my grandfather as he was far gone with dementia and the news would probably cause him to suffer even more. Before any estate or beneficiary changes could be established however, my grandfather passed away a week later of natural causes.
The estate lawyer said that my uncles wife is not entitled to any inheritance as she is not on the will or as the beneficiary of the above mentioned annuity being by far the largest asset in the estate. This is an uncomfortable situation now as it is not clear what the surviving three children of my grandfather will do. My father, stated he was going to give a quarter of his inheritance to my uncles wife but was concerned about double taxation as he would have to pay income tax on his distribution of the annuity and then my aunt would then pay income tax on her portion as it would greatly exceed the allowed gift exclusion of $15k.  It is also not clear if my other aunts and uncles plan to be as generous as my father.
Since the deaths were only a week apart, my uncles estate is still in full force so why exactly does his quarter of the annuity not go into possession by his estate then? Why cant my uncles estate just take the payout and pay he income tax on it directly, then get distributed to my aunt and closed out?
The location is Pennsylvania, USA.


texts: How can laws against discrimination be enforced?

texts:
In Canada it's illegal to discriminate against someone on grounds of sexual orientation or gender. I replied to an ad on craigslist I found and they responded with a boilerplate questionnaire with questions, such as "do you smoke" or "do you have food allergies?"

One of the questions was "Are you straight or LGBT?". I'm fairly certain that it would be illegal for a landlord to base the decision to rent to someone or not, based on their sexual preference. But how on Earth would it be enforceable? I don't think simply asking the question is illegal. Even if a plaintiff could prove that they weren't selected to rent the house, what can be done about it? For the land lord to rent to them because they asked if they were straight?

Also the questionnaire asked about tattoos. Is it a form of discrimination if a person is judged based on tattoos? I know some jobs require their employees to cover tattoo at work.

EDIT: the main question is, what should/can a person do if they are asked the question and are likely in the minority group? For example if someone who is gay is asked by the landlord if they are gay, and then not given the house?


texts: What does 'duty to devote full time' mean?

texts:
In a work contract there is the following term

  Duty to Devote Full Time

  The Employee agrees to devote full-time efforts, as an employee of the
  Employer, to the employment duties and obligations as described in
  this Agreement.

Does this mean the person would not be able to have any job at all outside of the scope of this one? Or just jobs that may interfere with the performance of this one? For example of this job takes place Monday to Friday and is for an accounting firm, would it be ok to have a paid job dressing up as a mascot for a sports team over the weekend?


texts: Is customer list really a trade secret in California?

texts:
This is about the lawsuit where our tenants and we, the landlord, are being sued for misappropriating competing beauty salon's trade secrets (i.e. customer list).

We are about to sign retainer contract with our to-be attorney and will try to get us dismissed on basis that we are merely the other two defendants' landlord and not employer. So don't have anything to do with the alleged theft of trade secrets.

However, to my surprise, the other two defendants went to at least 3 different attorneys and neither was willing to take up the case (I don't know the reason yet - will discuss with them tomorrow). The tenants are young and have limited life experience and are totally at risk of default judgement if they don't take up the case themselves or still can't find attorney. I am willing to help them for free and at least attempt to build some defense by doing the paper work that they would submit under their names (I have an engineering background and I like to take up challenges outside my comfort area).

But this left me wondering - is customer list really a trade secret in California that attorneys are afraid to challenge?

The plaintiff in complaint states that the customer list is a trade secret that was built over years by providing quality services that helped to establish business' reputation and helps to attract new customers and causes existing customers to return while generating stable income for business. Here are my 2 defense arguments that I came up with to at least build defense against the trade secret misappropriation:

Most hair salons attract new customers based on business' reputation that is readily accessible on public websites, like Yelp or Google. Contrary to secretive tech startups, beauty salon customers after receiving service are explicitly encouraged by the employee or employer to post public, non-anonymous reviews describing their experience without any restrictions. Which implies that customer list can't be a trade secret because there is no effort to hide customer identities.
Most returning customers are usually seeking their favorite hair stylist. Which means that customer list alone can't be constructed as trade secret. It should be viewed as trade secret only in tandem with their favorite hairstylist that they are explicitly seeking. Which means that the moment their favorite hairstylist leaves the employer the information becomes incomplete and hence can't be a trade secret anymore.

Would, in your opinion, something written like above convince court?


texts: Entering private property that is not enclosed

texts:
I want to find out which German laws regulate entering (on foot) private nonenclosed property.

Example: A paved surface right next to a public sidewalk. No fence, no signs. It doesn’t have to be used to access something.

What I found:

§ 123 StGB (English translation) seems to apply only to enclosed property. According to what I read about it, it can also apply to nonenclosed property if it’s obvious that it belongs to adjacent enclosed property (like it might be the case for front gardens or backyards).
§ 59 BNatSchG and § 14 BWaldG seem to apply only to areas like open fields and forests (see Betretungsrecht).

Are there any other relevant laws?

If not, this would mean that anyone is allowed to enter such a property, correct?


texts: Registered as a Ltd company but not traded yet; government threatening me for not filing taxes

texts:
I registered myself as a Ltd company a year ago with the UK government to ready myself for working freelance as a web developer. Since then I have been involved in other projects (mostly voluntary, some conventionally paid employment, on which I paid taxes) and have not done any freelance/company work whatsoever.

Now I'm getting bills from the UK government for ever escalating amounts (they are saying £1300 last letter I got) for not filing taxes for a company that has not traded at all in any meaningful sense of the word (have paid out for some artworks and server rental, but never actually charged for any services).

What can I do about this? I don't have £13 spare cash, let alone £1300. Is there anything I can do to stop the government charging me money I do not have for tax returns it would have made no sense to file and the forms for which I don't understand anyway?

I already paid them £15 to register the company with Companies House and they have done literally nothing for me in return, so I really don't see how they can be wanting £1300 as a result of my not trading whatsoever.


texts: Implications of Failing N95 Fit Test During COVID-19 Pandemic?

texts:
I am a Registered Nurse and have documented evidence in my NY hospital that I failed the N95 fit test for years. What are my rights surrounding this and the COVID-19 epidemic? I have a NIOSH compliant full face respirator mask that I can wear.

Can I be legally be denied wearing the full face respirator if I previously failed the N95 fit test?

What are the salary implications if I reveal to administration that I failed the fit test?

Am I legally responsible to reveal this information to them?


texts: What is the extent of legal power of a USA Congressional inquiry?

texts:
When a US Senator or Congressperson poses a question to a private company about some behavior or action of the company, does that carry any legal weight?

In other words,

is the company required to answer?
if the result is "bad" (however that is defined), can the Senator or Congressperson impose any penalty? Is it all just "showboating" on the part of the politician?


texts: Citing "unusual circumstances", the deputy attorney general of the US has appointed a special counsel.  What are the tools available to this role and what limitations are in place regarding those tools?  For instance, my understanding is that the special counsel has wide-ranging power to issue subpoenas, but do those have to be approved by the justice department? I've also read that the special counsel can prosecute anyone who interferes in the investigation with which he's tasked, but how would that work in practice?


texts: Can a USA president pardon him/her self?

texts:
I saw an article where Donald Trump is claiming he can pardon himself.  Is this actually possible?

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-05/donald-trump-says-he-has-absolute-right-to-pardon-himself/9834788?pfmredir=sm&sf191046451=1


texts: If a potential suspect wishes to speak to the police and can't afford a lawyer what is the safest way to do so?

texts:
Let's say that an individual, let's call him Bob, has been contacted by the police who want to speak to him about an associate of his that was recently murdered.  Bob is not under arrest, but Bob knows that the police may consider him a potential suspect.

Any lawyer worth their salt would say Bob should not speak to the police at all, and that is no doubt the safest action.  However, if Bob doesn't speak with the police he can't provide them with any relevant information he may have about his associate, information that could assist the police in finding the associate's actual murderer.

So let's say Bob decides to speak to the police anyways, despite knowing the safest option is not to talk to them at all, in order to share some details he believes are relevant to the case and wants them to know.  How can he go about doing so in the safest manner to him?

I imagine hiring a lawyer before speaking to the police would be the best option, but let's say Bob is poor and can't afford the cost of hiring a lawyer, and he can't find a pro bono lawyer either.  If Judicial proceedings had started Bob would have a right to an attorney, but since he is only officially a person of interest at this point he would not be provided an attorney either.  So what can he do to protect himself when attempting to assist the police?


texts: Can a business run a contest that excludes residents of certain states?

texts:
Suppose a business in a state wants to run a contest for its customers. For this example, say it's a snowshoe race. However in order to make the competition more interesting, they want to limit the competitors to residents of warm states and exclude residents of states like Minnesota and New York.

Are there any legal problems with this?


texts: How long must an employer hold a paycheck?

texts: I am unable to pick up my final paycheck from my employer immediately.  How long do I have under federal law to retrieve my paycheck before my employer is no longer bound to honor it?


texts: Are these the only types of residential Tenancy agreements allowed in the UK?

texts:
On the Government's website it lists the types of tenancies, which makes me think that by law one is constrained to choosing one of those tenancies only and not have the option to create your own or customise one of those agreements by removing the standard clauses found within those agreements although you can add your own.

Am I right in my understanding?


texts: What are the different time requirements under law?

texts:
I was wondering about the phrase "time is of the essence". This compares to other time constraints such as "reasonable time" and "time at large."

My understanding of "time is of the essence" suggests that all the deadlines set forth in the contract must be met, that ordinarily, extensions will not be allowed. Is this a correct understanding?

Can "time is of the essence" be inferred from surrounding circumstances, even though it was not "stated" in the contract? For instance, if a "recital" to a contract said that one party needed to complete the deal by December 31, in order to obtain a tax advantage (or avoid a tax loss), would that imply "time is of the essence?


texts:
I have a friend who mouthed off to a cop, and was booked for, he says, "Failure to Obey".  I'm no lawyer, but have googled about and found the following statute, Alabama Code - Section 32-5A-4:

Obedience to police officers and firemen.
No person shall willfully fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of any police officer or fireman invested by law with authority to direct, control or regulate traffic.

Upon reading, it sounds as though it authorizes the police to literally issue arbitrary orders which must be obeyed, which seems wild.
The specific story that I've been given is that my friend hassled a cop about being "illegally parked" (the cop's parking job, not the friend).  The cop says 'Get out of my face'.  My friend "backs up" and repeats his remarks about the officer's parking job.  At this point he was arrested on "Failure to obey".
Taken at face value, it seems as though by not walking away the first time, my friend is in violation of the above cited statute.  Is there any fighting this?
EDIT:
Per @bdb484's sage advice, I went looking for municipal codes, and found Sec. 39-54 in Mobile, AL's repertoire, not conveniently located in the `traffic' sections:

Failing to obey direction of order of police officer.
It shall be unlawful and an offense against the city for any person to fail to obey the direction or order of a member of the police department of the city while such member is acting in an official capacity in carrying out his duties.

Seems I'd best start taking dancing lessons in case I'm ever asked to do so by a police officer.  :)


texts: When does free speech become disordely conduct or disturbing the peace?

texts:
Lets say Bob doesn't like the mayor of his city/town. Bob believes the mayor to be corrupt. The mayor is an ex police officer. So Bob decides to protest in front of city hall at noon with a sign and speaking loudly about his dislike for the mayor while walking back and forth on a public sidewalk. The mayor decides he doesn't want Bob speaking in front of city hall. So he calls the cops to usher him away. Bob refuses the officers request to move from the area so they decided to arrest him for "disorderly conduct" OR for "Disturbing the peace".

At what point would Bob's "Free Speech" become disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace?
Did the police violate Bob's constitutional rights?


texts: In the context of interpreting the U.S. Constitution, what is the distinction between textualism and originalism? Are the two approaches applied much outside of the U.S. in other contexts?


texts: Is an IP address of a phone an Admissible piece of evidence in court?

texts: If and IP address of a phone was used as evidence in court and that was the real only part of evidence the prosecution had, would that alone be enough evidence to prosecute the defendant?


texts: Why was the NHS able to prevent Charlie Gard's parents from taking their child to the US?

texts:
The European Court of Human Rights decided today that the parents of Charlie Gard, a British toddler with a life-threatening and (as his British doctors say) non-treatable disease, can not take him to the US for experimental treatment. All the UK courts had turned them down previously; this was the last resort and it's looking like Charlie will now be taken off life support.

I got in an argument on Twitter over whether this is somehow symptomatic of a Single-Payer healthcare system, on the basis that a state-run judiciary is more likely to rule in favour of a state-run healthcare system, placing the opinions of NHS doctors above the parents' right to decide what's best for their child.

My argument was that it doesn't have anything to do with the type of healthcare system at all, that this is some sort of custody conflict decided by the courts - but I don't really know what is going on! There was ample media reporting, but nothing I found provided insight into what actually went down here in terms of technicalities. On what legal basis is the NHS able to prevent parents from taking their sick child to another country? To put it bluntly - why couldn't the Gards simply take the 1.3 million pounds they had raised through GoFundMe, hire a private medical transport service, and give the hospital the two-finger salute on their way out?

Did the NHS (or the hospital) take custody of the child away from the parents? Or does the NHS get to decide upon the welfare of its patients once they are in the system? Why were the parents not able to take Charlie away on their own recognizance, like (presumably) adults can refuse treatment and leave the hospital?


texts: Why Genius doesn't have problems with lyrics copyright?

texts: I know that lyrics of almost all songs are subject to copyright law (am I right?). But I never heard that Genius (genius.com) where such lyrics are posted without any care had any problems with the copyright law. Do they oblige the copyright law? If yes, how? If not, why music companies don't sue them?


texts: What is the difference between competent, material, and substantial evidence?

texts: In Michigan, and perhaps in other states too, an appellate court will uphold the facts found by an administrative agency if the facts are supported by competent, material, and substantial evidence. What is the difference between competent evidence, material evidence, and substantial evidence?


texts: Where is the line between idea/expression dichotomy?

texts:
Just wondering where idea become expression. Let's take The Lord Of The Ring as an example, if i want to write a boook about two alchemist heading to a tower in order to destroy the ring of evil, would it be a rip of idea or expression?

FYI no, i'm not gonna write a book about it. :P You can answer me using Harry Potter as an example if you want, just interested in understanding where the line is.


texts: Can I translate a book with google translate just for myself. Is it legal or not and is it copyright infringement?

texts: When I get textbook, in it cover it’s written that this book may not be copied,


texts: determining who filed a disputed document

texts: A document was filed in a case, which provided a key piece of information that the Court was required to consider.  Party 2 learned of the filing six months later, states that he did not file it and objected that he had never been served with this document, and furthermore the title of the document was misleading as to the contents, and the contents were both incorrect and prejudicial to his case.  Party 1 states that she never filed it.  Party 2 states he was deprived of due process and wants reconsideration/relief.  What factors might a court consider in these circumstances?  Is it true that anyone can just walk up and file a document in any case, with no requirement to identify themselves?


texts: 2020 Election Challenges: after Supreme Court ruling

texts:
The US Supreme Court has ruled against hearing 2020 election challenges after ~50+ defeats in lower courts.

Does POTUS' lawyers have any other judicial mechanisms to challenge
the 2020 election?

Does the electoral college vote on the 14 December, render any
further challenges moot?

Please bear in mind I am not a lawyer and seek to understand the contours of the law


texts:
Last week I was issued a ticket for "Operating Vehicle While Texting/Reading/Typing".  It was a bs ticket since I had just pulled out of a parking lot and was merely plugging my phone in to charge it.  Regardless, I probably don't have a shot at winning that since I was still looking down with a mobile device in my hand.  My question is regarding the cost of this ticket.

Ordinance 257.602b states it's just a $100 fine for the first offense.  The magistrate told me it was going to cost me $240.  I didn't pay it because her GPS was down and I don't carry around $240 in cash on me...

The ticket was issued in Tuscola County, Michigan.
I did a bunch of digging around and found this: http://www.14adistrictcourt.org/traffic_court/traffic_fines.html

It shows $240 as the total for the ticket, which is ridiculous to begin with, but what is the difference in the Fine and Cost and what are SMCO and BLDG?  How can a fine cost $100 but I end up having to pay $240?


texts: Why does the government have the burden of proof in equal protection cases?

texts: In US law strict scrutiny requires the government to prove there is a legitimate reason for any law which discriminates. Why is the burden of proof on the government and not the other way round?


texts:
I recently saw an advertisement for a babysitting job which specified that applicants must be female.

Is this illegal under UK law?


texts: By what laws can the DoJ be the plaintiff for breaking confidentiality of the First Lady?

texts:
Quoting Techdirt:

On Tuesday, the Justice Department sued Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former close friend of the First Lady, Melania Trump, who recently published a book about her relationship with Melania, including revealing phone conversations that Wolkoff had recorded.

The complaint says:

Under the common law, and in equity, Ms. Wolkoff had a fiduciary relationship with the United States of America based on her position of trust and confidence. Defendant served as an advisor on many aspects of the First Lady’s work for more than a year. She participated in confidential deliberations on sensitive topics, including on issues as varied as personnel decisions concerning the First Lady’s staff, the First Lady’s official initiatives, and communications with the media.

Ms. Wolkoff owes to the United States a fiduciary duty to protect confidential information in her possession that she obtained through her service as an advisor to the First Lady.

What are the specifics of common-law and equity that allow the DoJ to be the plaintiff?


texts: Plausibility of US Suit over Ownership of Photos of Slaves

texts:
Background

As reported in this Washington Post news article and many similar articles in other major news organs, a lawsuit has very recently been filed against Harvard University and various associated institutions, including Harvard's Peabody Muse am. The complaint is here This suit seeks possession of several early photographs ( daguerreotypes) of slaves taken in 1850.

Other news stories:

Diverse Education
WGN TV
USA Today

These photos were taken in an effort to help support the then controversial but respectable "polygenist" theory that different human "races" had separate origins. This theory is now discredited, and had been used to support racist views and actions. These daguerreotypes  are believed to be the earliest extant images of slaves in the US, according to the story. They were taken at the instance of, and published by, then Harvard Professor Louis Agassiz, and remained in storage at the university.

Paragraphs 203 through 213 of count 1 of the complaint assert that the photographs were "unlawfully taken"  because the subjects never consented to being photographed, and were not compensated. Those paragraphs further assert that  Agassiz never had good title to the photos, and that thus neither did Harvard.They further assert that the plaintiff is the next of kin of the man shown in one of the photos, and as such is entitled to possession of and title to the original photos.

Count 3 asserts that under MA general laws Chapter 214, section 3A, use of these photos without the consent of the next of kin for "advertising and commercial purposes" is unlawful and actionable.

Count 4 asserts that Harvard's possession and use of these photos is unlawful under the 13th amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits slavery, and was drafted and ratified after the end of the US Civil war, more than 15 years after the photos were taken.

For the purposes of this question I assume that the photos were indeed taken without consent, and that the plaintiff in the suit has correctly identified the subject of the photo, and is indeed the direct descendant of one subject and the surviving next of kin of another, although I gather that these statements are disputed.

This suit has just been field as I write, and has not yet been passed on in any way by any court, to my knowledge.

Questions

is it plausibly the case that ownership of an original photograph would be awarded to the subject (or the subject's heirs) because the subject did not consent to the making of the photograph?
Do Massachusetts laws indeed protect personality and publicity rights in photos more than 160 years old, if they were originally taken without consent of the subject, and are now used without consent from the subject's next of kin?
Does the US 13th amendment give any private right of action to claim property obtained via ownership of slavery, or that may constitute a "badge of slavery"?


texts:
If I am notified that I'm a member of a proposed class-action lawsuit, could I opt out, wait to see how the class action lawsuit turns out, and file a claim if the plaintiff wins? It seems like this could be very useful for your case because you could simply point to that decision and say "what those lawyers said" (OK, maybe a bit more work, but you get the idea) and get a substantially larger payday than you could expect from a class-action victory.

I can think of a few ways this might fall down...

The proceedings and/or decisions aren't open to the public, or you can't attend in person. This seems unlikely given that it's not a largely personal matter, but there might be special rules around class actions.
The statute of limitations to file a claim might kick in before the class action is concluded. I don't know how long these cases usually take and what the statutes of limitations are around common causes for class action claims, but I'd be surprised if you had to file right away.
If it's against a large corporation, they might be able to bully an individual in ways that would be difficult to do against a team of lawyers fighting in a class action suit.
You might get a judge who disagrees with the other verdict. But my understanding is that judges will typically prefer to rule the same way given the same facts, provided the laws aren't too different.

Why wouldn't this work? Or does it work?


texts: Can a company disallow taking annual leave during a notice period?

texts:
I have just resigned from my current company and I briefly mentioned I have unused annual leave left to take.

They have told me, it is company policy to pay leaving employees for unused annual leave, and thus their preferred option is that I do not take my remaining annual leave.

Is this enforceable in the United Kingdom by law?

My employment contract doesn't specifically say that.


texts: Does the right against self incrimination mean you can't be forced to file a tax return?

texts:
Irwin Schiff claims that because you have a right against self incrimination and therefore it is wrong for you to have to reveal anything about what you make.  Therefore, the government can levy the tax on income, but various forms and other revealing info should not be allowed.

Is this true?


texts: Does an adult with a legal guardian have the right to see who they want?

texts: For context- there is a family friend who has autism. This man used to live with his father, who was his legal guardian. Upon his father's death, a family member took over taking care of him. This person stopped taking care of him, and instead is letting two strangers live in the home, provided they take care of him. We are worried that these strangers are possibly abusing him, and have filed a complaint with the proper authorities. His legal guardian has said that they will no longer allow us to speak with him. My question is: Does this person have the right to stop him from speaking with us? This is in Kansas, in the USA. The autistic man is an adult.


texts: Does Parliament ratify Statutory Instruments made through the negative resolution procedure?

texts:
Some UK laws are passed through the negative resolution procedure, whereby the draft is laid and then this automatically becomes law unless there is an objection from the House.

Does this meet the definition of ratification, or is ratification an active, affirmative action, and the negative resolution procedure, passive?


texts: Are websites like r/WSB illegal due to market manipulaion?

texts:
Note: I am not invested in HTZ or GME. This is not investment advice and is in no way to be construed as investment advice.

Websites like r/wallstreetbets can cause herd investments in various stocks.
This is not unique to WSB and also exists anywhere stocks are discussed publicly (twitter has many accounts touting investment ideas).
Recent examples being Hertz and Gamestop:

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/hertz-stock-price-skyrockets-since-filing-bankruptcy-traders-global-holdings-2020-6-1029285231
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gamestop-stock-price-volatility/

Are the websites, and the advice they "appear" to give, illegal? Is this market manipulation or could one be accused by posting on these websites as a "market manipulator"?
Or, are the websites fully legal and are just "opinions" that others reading can construe in any way they want.
I am reminded of SEC vs Lebed:

https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/21/business/sec-says-teenager-had-after-school-hobby-online-stock-fraud.html
http://laweconomicscapital.com/2019/01/more-on-internet-stock-manipulations-sec-v-lebed-2000-revisited%EF%BB%BF/

Thank you for your interpretations

Edit Coincidentally, this article just came out:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-26/reddit-fueled-rallies-like-gamestop-s-defy-easy-crackdown-by-sec?srnd=premium


texts: In the US state of California, if someone feels an existing law gives excessive punishments or is unconstitutional, what can they do?


texts: Bodily Injury Claim Settlement after automobile accident?

texts:
My wife was in a car accident several months ago and a couple of our children were in the car with her.  One of them (who happens to be two years old) saw a doctor and our insurance agency has been wanting us to do a settlement for $500 (we think he's likely fine).

I am unfamiliar with the ins and outs of this. My concern is that

If I accept the settlement and later it turns out that he is hurt in
some way (maybe a chronic condition) that he is unable to
communicate to us we will have no recourse.
If we don't accept the settlement, that we
won't be able to approach them later if he does have some injury (I
do not know if there is a time limit for claiming bodily injury
after an accident).

Could someone please clear up my concerns:

In typical settlement agreements, if later medical expenses are incurred due to some unknown condition, is there any recourse?
Is there something akin to a statute of limitations with regard to how much time a person has to file a claim with regard to an injury (if it was not known at the time)?

We already have filed a claim (to pay for the doctor visit after the accident), which is why they want us to settle.


texts: Tier 2 Visa to Spouse Visa (UK) - claim income tax refund?

texts:
I am a UK citizen and my wife is on a Tier 2 General visa. We would like to apply for Spouse visa so that she is able to find work with other companies (her present visa is issued for a specific employer and would have to be re-applied for if she were to find work for another employer).
In depth reasoning:
If you leave the UK, you can claim your income tax back as you will not be remaining in the UK as a permanent resident. Before you are issued your UK passport, you are required to be living and working in the UK for 5 (or 6... not sure) years. If you leave, you get your tax back; if you choose to remain and apply for permanent residence, you can't.
Since my wife has been on her current visa (Tier 2 general) for its full duration (2 years), she could continue another 3 years and claim her passport. However, moving to a spouse visa causes this 'tally' to reset... meaning that she now has to build up her 5 years from year zero (as if she just arrived in the UK).
Since her 2 years on the Tier 2 General visa will not count toward her passport, we think that she can claim her income tax (otherwise those two years are simply lost and all the money she has paid in tax is for... nothing?!)
Question:
Are we able to claim an income tax refund?
Visa website - so that you know which visa I am talking about.


texts: I'm being defamed on Facebook. Do I have a legal case?

texts:
I live in Maryland.

Over the past few months there is a guy on Facebook who has been openly lying about me.

He has repeatedly said that I have made threats against him, I have not.
He has repeatedly said that I am friends with Louis Farakhan, I have never had any contact with LK.
He said that I'm a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, I have never supported them in any way shape or form.

I have screenshots and evidence of all these false statements about me.
I know where this person lives (near me in Maryland). Do I have a legal case to sue for defamation and is it likely I would be awarded any significant damages?


texts: Can A Person Be Convicted For Impersonating A Medical Professional Through Text Messaging?

texts:
Given that there's Person A and Person B:
Let's say that Person B decides to play two pranks - maybe with the intent to cause emotional distress to Person A - both instances by pretending to be in a medical crisis and impersonating a medical professional.
Let's say the first prank involved Person B claiming that he/she was being taken away by an ambulance. Person B texts Person A the following:
1.) "Person A, this is Sean. I’m a paramedic with Person B right now. We put him/her on the gurney and he/she handed me his/her phone and told me to tell you he/she would be fine and he/she asked me to keep you updated if you wanted. He/she fainted and his/her BP is high but his/her vitals aside from that are strong and we are on the way to the hospital"
2.) “I am just a paramedic, I will hand his/her phone off to an ER doctor when we get there to update you periodically”
Let's say the second prank involved Person B claiming that he/she is admitting himself/herself to a psychiatric facility and needs to give his/her phone to one of the therapists there. Person B texts Person A the following:
1.) “Hello Person A, the is Allie. I am one of the therapists that will be working with Person B. We will update when he/she requests that we do so, and we will tell you only what he/she tells us to tell you."
2.) “Person B asked me to give you a generic update. We have done a thorough psych evaluation and he/she is currently marked as mentally unstable and at a high risk of self harm. He/she stoped talking about anything and hasn’t really said a word for the past few hours, did he/she ever tell you of any mental illnesses running in his/her family?”
Let's say - a month later - Person A is persistent with questions of whether this really happened and Person B eventually admits that it was all a joke.
Does Person B have legal grounds to press charges for any of this? Did any crime take place? Is Person B able to be convicted for impersonating through text messaging?


texts: Is an engagement letter the same as an approximate quote?

texts:
I needed some legal help from a law firm (in India), and visited them to ask them how much they charge. They said it's their billing department that decides that, and they'd get back in touch by email.

They replied back in a day by email asking what kind of help I need. I mentioned that I'd need to draft an agreement with a prospective client and wished to know approximately how much the law firm would charge for it, specifically mentioning "For now I'd just like to know the approximate charges for the above types of requirements, so that I could compare and decide which legal firm / lawyer would be appropriate, based on my requirements".

In response they've sent me an engagement letter where they typed my mobile number wrongly (they mentioned my name correctly, my email id correctly, but have put somebody else's mobile number), they've mentioned the background and scope of work, their hourly fees (which does not look reasonable to me), a clause for termination of the agreement etc. "The engagement will commence from execution of this Engagement Letter and will remain valid, subject to revision of professional fee annually. Either Party can terminate this engagement letter by providing a thirty days prior written notice. If due to unforeseen circumstances or for certain reasons, if any of the Parties wish to terminate the assignment while it is still in progress, the invoice will be for fees on the basis of time spent, as well as OPE, upto the date of communication of termination of engagement".

The problem:
Firstly, since these people didn't even type my mobile number correctly, I'm uneasy about them drafting a legal agreement for me, where I wanted each and every clause to be thoroughly checked. I'm not confident of them being thorough.
How do I tell them that I do not need their services? Does their sending of an engagement letter mean that I pay them for their time of drafting the letter? I wasn't expecting an engagement letter. I was expecting something like an ordinary email which said something like "this is our approximate hourly fee".


texts: How is the limit of the Fifth Amendment enforced?

texts:
What prevents someone from pleading the Fifth Amendment, even if they don't necessarily have something that would incriminate themselves if they answered? Does the opposition have to prove that nothing they say could incriminate themselves to remove the protection? Does the witness have to reveal something to the judge to enforce the protection?

Additionally, who knows what random law they might have broken, and might admit to if they testify? Can someone plead the fifth on those grounds?


texts: Why would a landlord put the following in a residential rental agreement?

texts:
I saw the following in a rental agreement:

  Legal Proceedings: Landlord and Tenant agree that any action or
  proceeding arising out of or in any way connected with this agreement,
  regardless of whether such claim is based on contract, tort or other
  legal theory, shall be heard by a court sitting without a jury and
  thus Tenant hereby waives all rights to a trial by jury.

This was written by a property management company. My guess is that they want:

To avoid a jury that might be personally prejudiced against landlords or property management companies.
An economic advantage in court. The Landlord presumably can afford better lawyers than the Tenant, so they want the Tenant to have no advantage.
The jury might find the rental agreement confusing, so they might misunderstand the problem, whereas a judge would be better able to decide because of their legal background.

Is this a good intuition? Are there other reasons they would put that clause in a residential rental agreement?


texts: UK leasehold house - Can I challenge a no pets clause?

texts:
I'm planning to buy a leasehold house (not a flat) in the UK. The lease has an unambiguous no pets clause. I have a dog.

The house is part of an apartment complex but has its own entrance separate from the rest of the building. The lease was originally written for the flats in the complex (where a ban on dogs might be considered reasonable) but the same lease was used for the four houses that were added later.

The dog is very small, does not bark or shed, have no access to the shared areas of the complex and will be indoors all the time. Basically, no one will ever know I have a dog unless they peek in the windows or see me carrying her to the car.

My question is whether the no pets clause would be enforceable if I were to challenge it in court. If there is no hope, I will obviously make other arrangements but if there is a reasonable chance that I would be successful, I would like to proceed with the purchase and contact the landlord with this information


texts: Do I Need a Privacy Policy if I only request a username and password

texts: I have a website that you need an account to access. The signup process is very simple and all you need is a username and password. There is nothing stopping the user from entering a username having nothing to do with them. They could enter whatever they want and be 100% anonymous. Another thing is I am putting an app using the same login system in the app store. In the app store review guidelines it says you must have a privacy policy if you offer even a free subscription? Does that include a login in my scenario where it is only a username and password?


texts: USA: Do 911/PD phone operators have a 'duty to rescue'?

texts:
As I understand it: 'duty to rescue' does not generally exist for regular citizens in the USA. (Some exceptions apply!)
Let's say I'm in Europe and I call the general inquiry phone number of a local (city) police department in the United States to report a suicidal individual local to them. Do any of the following entities have a 'duty to rescue' in the following situations?:

Police officers answering the phone.
Non-police officer employees answering phones at a (local?) PD.
The dispatch operators that #1 and #2 connect me to.
The dispatch operators I get when I dial 911 while being in the USA myself.
The legal entities of either the police department or the emergency services dispatch (or other involved party?)

Note: I have tried to keep this question as narrow/focused as possible. Let me know if there's any issues with the question. I'm not familiar with law all that much.


texts: What to do with Grandad's Top Secret documents

texts: He worked for the US government and left behind some documents that might be actually important. What's the proper procedure here, do we destroy everything or is there somewhere we should take these?


texts: Does not following a religion "to the letter" disqualify you from protection of religious freedom?

texts:
I could probably come up with a logical argument as to why individual religious beliefs and patterns of behavior should be protected in the same way as those which belong to a "recognized" religion, but I'm wondering what kind of case law exists on the issue. I'll separate this into two questions.

There are many cases where an individual practices a form of Christianity which is different from a generally agreed upon profile of the religion. For instance, essentially no Christian follows the idea that women are not allowed to speak in Church. It seems common for the layperson to argue that such "hypocrisy" precludes a person from being protected by the first amendment. What does the case law say on this?
Related to this, if a person happens to have an individual religious belief which again differs from the general profile of what is considered to be Christianity, is that belief still protected?

It would seem that protection of religion would be on an individual basis. In other words, so long as a person holds a specific religious belief or follows a specific religious pattern of behavior, then regardless of what religion with which the person identifies, the person would be protected in the exact same way as if the person somehow managed to "perfectly" match an expected profile of a given religion.


texts: Where can I find references for UK rental/tenancy law?

texts:
I'm moving out of my flat and my letting agent insists I give them the keys before they do the check out inspection.

I'm really uncomfortable with that - I've had landlords and agents try to keep my deposit before so I want to be there with the person so we can both sign off on the inspection.

I want to check what the legal position on this is, because I've always been present for the inspection before and thought that was normal, but I can't find any reliable sources of information.

Where can I find what the legal arrangement for property inspection is? This information has to be somewhere.


texts: Sentiment Analysis on Persons, Companies, Things

texts:
Are there any laws against applying sentiment analysis on people, places, or things using open source data? How about data only found on my network (proprietary user opinion of other people, places, things).

For example, could a website publish a sentiment score (positive, negative, neutral) of a public servant (say a politician or judge) or private citizen (like myself) or public figure (athlete, actress, etc)?

Does such a sentiment "score" break any liable laws or raise any other issues you can think of?


texts: Can a tenant force their building management to let the tenant access their apartment's electricity meter?

texts:
I rent an apartment in a building with several units. All electricity meters are behind a locked door.
My electricity provider asks me to provide readings from my meter every three months, and I used to do so in the past. At first I had a key to the meters, and later when the locks were replaced with numerical ones every resident was given the passcode.
Recently, the locks to the doors have been changed yet again, and I have neither the key nor the passcode. I have contacted the company that manages building maintenance (which is not my landlord or letting agency) and they have confirmed that they are the ones who replaced the locks, but they refuse to give me access to the meters.
Their best offer was to instruct the cleaner who comes every two weeks to take a picture of the meter and email it to me, but I feel this is inadequate. I would prefer to get a reading from the meter whenever I need it, without having to wait. In addition, when this happened in the past I was given a picture from the wrong meter and as a result I feel I cannot rely on them.
If I cannot give a reading to the provider in time, my bill will be based on a guess of how much electricity they expect me to have used. I would very much prefer to continue giving them accurate readings in time.
Is the management company's refusal to give me access to the meter reasonable? Can I force them to allow me access?
Research on legality
While researching this matter I came across this website: https://mocopa.org.uk . My electricity provider is among those who have signed the agreement, which states that when a meter is installed or moved,

The location must be accessible to the Customer so they can read their meter

while "the Customer" is defined as

a person to whom a Supplier proposes to supply or for the time being supplies electricity through an Exit Point (as such term is defined in the Use of System Agreement).

I am not a lawyer so I cannot tell if "the Customer" is me in this case or the management company, but if it is myself then it seems the provider might be in breach of this agreement by allowing a third party (the management company) to restrict access.
I contacted the provider (without specifically mentioning MOCOPA, however) and they claimed that the matter is between me and the management company.


texts: Under what circumstances is the writ of mandamus normally used?

texts:
Currently the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia are pursuing a case against the President of the United States regarding alleged violations of the emoluments clause.

As described by Justice Department:

  The Solicitor General of the United States has authorized the filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit of a petition for writ of mandamus against this Court’s orders declining to dismiss the case and to certify an interlocutory appeal, as well as an application for a stay of District Court proceedings pending resolution of the mandamus petition.

Is there precedent for this type of use of the writ of mandamus?  Under what circumstances is this normally used?


texts: To what extent can a spouse assist in a legal case?

texts:
My spouse has been named in a statement of offence by a municipal court. If found guilty, the charge would result in a fine that would ultimately affect us both. I was, in fact, witness to the event (she wasn't even there) but due to certain registration paperwork she was the person named in the offence.

I am not a lawyer, but I do have a better grasp of the relevant law than she does, and I'm better at expressing myself in stressful situations. To what extent can I aid in the case? Obviously we'll be discussing things in private, at what point would it become "legal advice"? If we are talking to certain parties (prosecution, judge, witnesses, etc.) can I do any of the talking? (obviously she would be present and consenting).

The costs involved don't warrant hiring a lawyer, and we can't afford one even if we wanted to.


texts: Admissibility of Police Notes in Maryland

texts: In the state of Maryland, an insurance company is denying the notes of a police officer regarding who is at fault for a car crash.  His notes are being denied by the company on the grounds that he did not witness the crash happen or obtain a written statement from the drivers involved.  Are police notes disputable on these grounds?  Is this an example of an "arbitrary or capricious reason" for denying a claim?


texts: What types of recourse do I have against people who contact my employers about thing I have of Facebook?

texts:
I made a factual statement about mathematics on Facebook. A group of people took exception to what I said and decided that they would contact my employer because they thought it made me unfit to be a math tutor.

If you grant that my statement was in fact factual (I am not interested in discussing the putative factuality of the statement), what kind of recourse do I have against these people if their actions have negative consequences?

I am trying to be broad as possible, because I already feel that they have done me wrong, but I realize that they may be fully within their rights to express their discontent about me with my employer. However, it is possible that their actions constitute something that may be covered under certain harassment statutes. I am just wondering if that might be possible.

I understand that soaking publicly on the internet does carry risk, but I was checking whether something that I thought Rose to the level of ethical malice Rose to the level of legal malice. Now, it seems like it doesn't.


texts: What constitutes publishing offensive material?

texts:
Recently an article was published in my local newspaper (Bedford, UK) saying a man had been charged with publishing offensive material. A quick Google search suggested that the definition for this is "anything likely to cause offence" which sounds horribly vague to me.

The case in question involved the man writing fiction on the Internet.

What limits are there to this?
If it's just fiction, and obviously fiction, does that mean he was essentially charged with the crime of thinking differently?
There is a myriad of online fiction already on the Internet. Should we be charging people who write mature fiction in general, or does it have to contain some specific themes in order to qualify?
Do other countries have different rules?


texts: Catherine Middleton topless pictures ruling - why €100k in damages?

texts:
As currently reported in the press, Catherine Middleton (the Duchess of Cambridge) sued the French magazine Closer for publishing topless photos of her sun-bathing, and she and her husband were awarded €100,000 in damages by a court in Paris. She originally asked for up to €1.5 million.

While I find it highly reprehensible to take and publish photos of someone in a private situation, I am suprised at the amount of damages, both the original claim and the award.

While having (semi-)nude pictures of oneself being published is demeaning and humiliating, no permanent damage was done, so I would have expected a lower amount,  To give some context, even for serious injuries, such as lost limbs, the damages awarded for pain and suffering (pretium doloris) are usually five-digit Euro sums. For example, in this case the victim of a traffic accident was paralyzed and was awarded €40,000 for pain and suffering (Souffrances endurées / pretium doloris).

Now, granted, in cases with physical injuries the total award is usually much larger then just the award for pain and suffering, because there are also huge costs to cover (medical bills, loss of income, cost of building alteration etc.) - but in the case of the Catherine Middleton there are no such damages, as far as I can see. So:

Under which law(s) and for what type of damage did the court the sum of €100,000? Was it only for emotional pain and suffering?
Why is the amount so high compared to the sums awarded for life-changing injuries? Does it include punitive damages?

Notes:

Unfortunately, while there are many reports in the press, I could not find any that gives details as to the legal aspects, nor could I find the court judgement anywhere.
I realize that the judgement was for a total of €190,000, because the court also imposed criminal fines, but I am not asking about these fines.


texts:
Injunctions (judicial orders that prevent a party from beginning or continuing an action that infringes on the rights of another) in the U.S. are typically either permanent or preliminary--the distinction being that the former is a post-trial object.

Preliminary injunctions frequently have requirements (undue hardship, irreparable injury, etc.) similar to that of permanent injunctions and are often given for the express purpose of maintaining the status quo prior to an eventual trial.

Many small claims courts do not make equitable remedies available, including injunctions.  My question is structural: when the eventual damage is predicted to be small, what preventive recourse is available to stop a party from beginning an infringement?

Made-up examples:

Party A to a commonly held driveway intends to tear up a portion of the pavement to create additional parking for A's exclusive use despite lack of consent from other owners
Party A to a commonly held pavilion improves the property by enclosing it without consent of the other owners and then bills all owners


texts: Is there USA trademark or copyright law regarding using word titles seen on youtube to create their own logo?  For example, if the title of a YouTube Video was "Avocado Sunrise" could one use those words to create their own logo for their own video promotion to be "Avocado Sunrise" but look different? Would an additional word need to included to be more unique?


texts:
Does discovery have to proceed step-wise, or is it possible (or even routine) to combine the discovery process whenever possible?  Here's a hypothetical example of what I mean:

I am suing an employer for discriminatory hiring practices against black candidates.  Let us assume there is no question of law, but merely questions of facts.  I might pursue the following discovery strategy:

Request for admission: Do you discriminate against black candidates
in your hiring processes?  If not, then:
Interrogatory: How many black applicants have you had for openings in the last year, and to how many of those did you extend offers of employment?  If the answer is that you don't know, then:
Request for Production: Produce all job applications you collected in the last year, and I'll figure it out.

The "step-wise* approach involves filing/serving each one of these on the opposing party, waiting for their response, and then (depending on the response) serving the next.  Obviously in more complicated cases this could result in a lot of back and forth.

The "efficient" approach would be to serve all three as a single request, essentially as I wrote them here.  Is this allowed?  Common?  Ill-advised?


texts: Is it legal to write and sell Instructions on how to play board games?

texts:
For every board game that I am learning, I am writing 1-3 page instructions about the game and how to set up the game and play it.

Having 3 page summary of instructions (as opposed to 20 pages) makes it easy to return back to the game later and to quickly lookup a rule.

I plan to:

sell game instructions online for a few dollars
compose game instructions using my own words
briefly refer to names of characters, cards and game components as part of instructions
take pictures of certain board elements and add it to the game overview

Does any of the above require me to seek permission from the owner of the game copyright / trademark?

How can I minimize or avoid infringing on copyright or trademark?


texts: Do schools have a choice in punishing students who participate in a coordinated protest walkout?

texts:
There is going to be a National School Walkout on March 14 and several other days in the United States.

Can schools legally allowed to punish or discipline to an extent different from what is defined by their policies, just because it is a protest/walkout or that it agrees with their political opinions?

In this situation, my school is a public government school.


texts: Can I sue the U.S. Post Office for delivering Certified Mail that was open?

texts:
A couple of days ago, I went to my local post office and mailed a large envelope with paperwork inside of it and I had addressed it to me and my home address. The reason I did this was to do a 'poor man's patent' in which I could prove at a later date that I came up with an inventive idea/invention before a certain date.

When I was at the post office I had removed the plastic film from the envelopment to expose the sticky strip and then I closed the envelope and then firmly pushed the flap of the envelope against the body of the envelope and I did this several times to make sure that it was sealed. I then took the envelope to the counter and the post office representative put the postage stamp on it and also put a Certified Mail label on the envelope.

Well, when I removed the envelope from my mail box today, the flap of the envelope was open and there was no Certified Mail label on the envelope. This makes me believe that my envelope was tampered with. The odd thing about it is that when I pushed the open flap back down onto the envelope, waited a minute, and then pulled up on the flap, it was stuck to the envelope and would not budge.

Can I sue the U.S. Post Office for delivering this envelope opened and without a Certified Mail label?


texts: Can Stack Exchange's down-voting system be considered online bullying?

texts:
From what I understand, bullying happens when someone is harmed through an online system that puts them in contact with other users, sometimes masking their identities.
From Wikipedia:

Cyberbullying is defined in legal glossaries as

actions that use information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group, that is intended to harm another or others.

use of communication technologies for the intention of harming another person

use of Internet service and mobile technologies such as web pages and discussion groups as well as instant messaging or SMS text messaging with the intention of harming another person.

From "Cyber Bullying Law & Legal Definition":

Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include communications that seek to intimidate, control, manipulate, put down, falsely discredit, or humiliate the recipient. The actions are deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior intended to harm another.

As such, could the "downvote" button, which is a major "feature" of the SE website, be considered a bullying tool?
It allows people to collectively, but in a hidden manner, criticise the work and input of a single user (instead of discussing with them to tell them they disagree).
This can in turn create a situations in which someone can feel like a group of people is against them, or voted down their content in order to harm them, or do not want to communicate their reasons to them (feeling of domination and exclusion can be reinforced if the person downvoted, as is often the case for a new user without "privileges").
The intent behind each downvote is not clear, and some users could downvote in order to harm if they wanted, this is a possibility and privilege given to them.
Or a user who believes they have been harmed by a down vote could claim the downvotes were made out of hatred since downvotes can be done without justification.
To summarise, could a bullying case involving a new user who got his question downvoted stand in court?
NOTE: I couldn't find "cyber-bullying" and "online-crime" or any related tags in there but feel free to add them if needed.


texts: Re: "Our mass infringement", is LearnHub doing anything illegal?

texts:
On meta ELU, there's a question: Mass infringement of our copyright, which goes on about how some SE sites are being "scraped"; cut and pasted with no attribution, to sites such as LearnHub.org.

From what I gather, their site hurriedly put up: Question is already asked and answered on Stackexchange.com and shared under Creative Commons - Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Is that enough to fulfill their legal obligation? Was it ever required, or is LearnHub just crossing their T's and dotting their I's?

I must admit, my eyes glazed over reading this and this, my take-away being that it's not even required here legally, that's just our site rules.


texts: Refused Financing for new car loan due to charge off from bankruptcy 11 years ago

texts:
State of Michigan
My wife filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy 10 yrs ago and one of the debts was with Ford Motor Credit.
She has good Credit now and I have okay credit. We wanted to purchase a Ford automobile from a ford dealer and we were told they wont finance her due to a $9,500.00 charge off from the bankruptcy. I was told by the sales men that Ford doesn't forgive charge offs very well.
My question is... can they use that to keep us from getting a loan legally? I thought when a debtor is relived of debt, it all goes away form the records and cant be used against you in the future


texts: What is the purpose of this "Rule of construction" in a bill (H.R. 720)?

texts:
I'm reading the text of bill "H.R. 720: Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2017" as it was introduced on Jan 30, 2017 at govtrack.us.
Sec. 2. (b) reads

Rule of construction.--
Nothing in this Act or an amendment made by this Act shall be construed to bar or impede the assertion or development of new claims, defenses, or remedies under Federal, State, or local laws, including civil rights laws, or under the Constitution of the United States.

My questions are

What's the intention of this part of the bill?
Without this text, how might someone construe the Act to bar or impede the assertion or development of new claims, defenses, or remedies?


texts: Is price discrimination based on age legal in the EU?

texts:
Article 21(1) of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights states that:

  Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour,
  ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or
  belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national
  minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation shall
  be prohibited.

Recently while travelling in an EU country, I used a swimming pool. The pool had a discounted rate for students. One party in my group tried to obtain the student discount but was refused as it was only available for students aged 25 or younger.

This seems to me to be a clear case of discrimination based on age. Effectively, students who are 26+ are charged a different rate to students who are up to 25.

Are there any other EU laws or cases which would suggest that such a pricing structure is legal?


texts: Does HIPAA apply to independent doctor with no links to Medicare or other medical organization?

texts:
When I spoke with my family doctor he was under the impression that HIPAA privacy rules applied to EVERY doctor or health care provider. Also a professor who teaches classes for emergency medical responders said the same thing.

HIPAA law says this:

  42 USC 1320d-1: General requirements for adoption of standards
   a) Applicability: Any standard adopted under this part shall apply, in whole or in part, to the following persons:

  A health plan.
  A health care clearinghouse.
  A health care provider who transmits any health information in electronic
  form in connection with a transaction referred to in section 1320d–2(a)(1) of this title.

HIPAA Administrative Simplification Regulation Text expands it to associates:

  § 160.102 Applicability.

  (a) Except as otherwise provided, the standards, requirements, and implementation specifications adopted under this subchapter
  apply to the following entities:

  A health plan.
  A health care clearinghouse.
  A health care provider who transmits any health information in electronic form in connection with a transaction covered by this subchapter.

  (b) Where provided, the standards, requirements, and implementation specifications adopted under this subchapter apply to a business associate.

It seems clear that this DOES NOT apply to my doctor. He has no contract with Medicare or any other health care organization (cannot be called a business associate). He does not transmit PHI (Private Health Information) in electronic form. He does not take insurance. HIPAA only regulates those who send information electronically. It does not regulate everyone.

This situation may be rare in our modern world but it happens. So who is wrong: me or the doctor?


texts: Illinois stay at home and visitation time

texts: Currently Illinois is on a stay at home order based on current conditions with covid19. My sons (who has asthma) biological father decided to still go on vacation to Florida.  The day he gets back he is supposed to have a 6 hour visit with my son.  Am I legally able to deny the visitation in order to make sure my son stays healthy?


texts: How will Trump ban TikTok? And are there any restrictions on these mechanisms being arbitrarily applied to other companies?

texts:
Whats happening?
Recently, the Trump administration has announced their intention to ban the popular social media application TikTok. The Trump administration claims this is on the grounds of national security, accusing TikTok of being an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok denies these claims and counters with statistics of American ownership/employment. As a result, TikTok is currently in a fire sale mode in the financial markets - with potential buyers being Microsoft amongst other tech giants.
How will he do this?
What specific legal mechanisms will the Trump administration use to enforce this ban?
Are there any restrictions?
What conditions must be met in order for the executive branch of the government to employ these mechanisms? Can these mechanisms be arbitrarily leveraged by the current/future President? Do these same laws apply to domestic companies?
Would it be plausible for these same legislative mechanisms to be used in the future for the purpose of selecting winners/losers in the tech industry at the personal discretion of the President?
For example: banning Twitter on the grounds of national security and force it to sell to another domestic platform that is more aligned with the president's world view?


texts: What's the difference between the use of terms "decree" and "decision"?

texts:
I have heard that "decree" is only used in the presidential level (Presidential Decree) while in the lower agencies we use "decision", e.g. 'decision of the Minister', 'decision of the Head of People's Consultative Council', 'decision of the Governor of Bank of Indonesia', etc. Is that true? Can't find the academical explanation about it.

What's the difference?


texts:
This may seem very off topic, but sadly it isn't.

There is currently a prominent flat earther in the UK who has decided to write a paper to be peer reviewed, which would turn science on its head in the education system.

He even crowd funded over £2000 to pay for his course to do this:

https://www.gofundme.com/fe-in-the-education-system

Given that knowledge gained through the scientific method by definition must be falsifiable, what can this man possibly gain from doing this? Would any law review group take this even remotely seriously?


texts:
First time poster in this forum so apologies if I am not framing this question correctly. If I am in the wrong forum or you require more information please just ask before downvoting.

I am wondering about the process of implementing a feature request system for my app.
However I am wary of taking an idea from a user and then being sued by them saying that their ideas form part of my intellectual property.

What kind of legal disclaimer etc would I need to implement to prevent this being an issue?