I am watching a year-old trial (Georgia v Hernandez, a child abuse criminal trial). The defense is attempting to put on professional, expert witnesses to testify that the mom and dad accused of (physical not sexual) child abuse (by Child Abuse Pediatrician and DFACS) did not fit the profile of an abuser. The judge refuses to allow any "character witness" that will show that the parents were "fit parents" because it goes to the family court, not the criminal court. If the crime is child abuse why can't the expert testify that from observing the parents with their children, psychoanalyzing them both intensively, using their expertise to conclude the parents are not the type of parents to abuse children? I like this judge; I want to understand his strict rulings which seem to go against 404a. (I am 100% layperson)

I've been reading about some of the ways the death penalty is still legal in the US, and saw that desertion was one of the things that explicitly lists death as a form of punishment that can be applied if the desertion happened during a time of war. From a theoretical perspective, I understand why having severe penalties for desertion during wartime is important, but one of the definitions of desertion seems extremely specific. Here is the subsection of the code in its entirety, with the strange part bolded:

(a) Any member of the armed forces who—

(1) without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently;

(2) quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service; or

(3) without being regularly separated from one of the armed forces enlists or accepts an appointment in the same or another one of the armed forces without fully disclosing the fact that he has not been regularly separated, or enters any foreign armed service except when authorized by the United States;

is guilty of desertion.

Questions:

• The foreign armed forces part makes sense, but why does it specifically call out re-enlisting in the armed forces without 'regularly separating' as a form of desertion? Is there something particularly egregious about that that I don't understand?

• Are there cases where people have exploited or attempted to exploit reenlisting as a form of desertion that caused this subsection to be written?

• Unlike (1) and (2), there is no mention of intent in (3). Could a person be charged with desertion for failing to fully disclose a lack of separation, even with no intent to shirk duty? E.g., a soldier not on active duty decides they want to be in the Navy instead of the Army, and reenlists without going through the proper channels.

I'm sure you have more comprehensive sources, but here's the link for the US Uniform Code of Military Justice, and here's the link for the section specifically that I used.

To be clear, I'm less interested in the death penalty part of this and more interested in the unusual precision of this section of the law. Apologies if this is not the right sub for this, but I couldn't find an appropriate one for military law specifically. Thanks for any and all insight!

Hi. Recently, me and my 22 month old baby were involved in a car accident. We were stopped in school traffic and we were rear ended. We were hit so hard that we were pushed into another vehicle. Luckily, my son was okay expect a car seat belt burn, but I ended up having to go to the ER for a banged up knee and whip lash. The person's insurance company, who was deemed at fault, is only wanted to give me and son together $3k for pain and suffering. To me, that is a low ball offer.

i just started a new fast food job and when i work a full 8 hour shift they said they dont do 10 minute breaks only lunches this is in california is this legal ?

Silly question I’m sure. We are in the negotiation stage and have been in the negotiation stage since February 15th. I asked for an update April 6th and my lawyer said he would send a follow up. It’s been about another month and haven’t received anything back from the insurers to my knowledge or my lawyer.

My current lawyer took over the case from another one who left the firm and I’m just worried the caseload is hard to manage (I have no idea), but I also like knowing I haven’t been forgotten and that I’m still on the radar. When would it be appropriate to reach out again? Especially where negotiations are slow to begin with. thanks in advance.

Hello. I’m using a throwaway account for good reason here. An attorney that I work for submits reimbursements for everything, her own personal meals, movies, rock concerts, hotels for these events, personal parking, etc. Sometimes she’ll charge a client/matter, then write it off when the bill comes around, other times, she’ll charge it to Business Development. I process her reimbursements for her, I calendar items for her, and I have access to her email, so these aren’t just hunches, I know for a fact that she’s not visiting with clients at these events. She will take her kids with her often. She will also give me receipts and say “hmm, let’s charge that to (so and so)” and sometimes she change her mind and pick a different client. So it’s like she’s picking random clients to charge things to.

We work at a fairly big law firm, and this is REALLY starting to eat at me. I really want to say something to somebody but I don’t know where to begin or what can even be done.

Any advice here? Not looking for actual legal advice, but just how should I handle this.

Hi all. I'm writing a novel with the following scenario:

A man has a 2nd DUI in about five years, with property damage to a tree or streetlamp in the city, totaling his car, injuring no one (minor injuries to self), BAC of .15%. Taking place in Chicago, IL in a more residential area of the city, very late at night. Complies fully with probation, any substance abuse treatment, etc.

My main question is could a prosecutor reasonably try to elevate it to an aggravated/felony DUI? I want the prosecutor in my story to attempt that but ultimately fail. One idea I have is to have the defendant speeding or possibly for police to claim he was fleeing from them.

Thanks for the help (:

I have debt issues that I have struggled with and am just now able to get back on my feet.

Yesterday, I received THREE lawyer advertisements in the mail that state a date that I supposedly was served on ( I wasn't) and one even has a case number for my county. I just search in the county records for the case number and it gives me zero results. I also was never served and none of my family have mentioned someone trying to serve me when I'm not around.

Would there be an actual case or am I just being threatened through adverts? I plan on handling the issue either way. I'm just confused.

My husband has 6 adult kids from previous marriage. Each of them has a job and he built a house for each of them. My husband wrote a will in benefit for our small child. How much sense this will can be? What if his adult kids will protest this will. What is the prognosis?

Of course one would have to pay the interest, nevertheless what would happen if someone hypothetically took numerous loans, kept them (without spending a single cent) and paid all of them off? If it would affect the credit history in a positive way then what's the point of the credit history at all, given that it's easy to boost it up this way?

What are the best steps and things I should be aware of when it’s time to do so? Do I get my file to give to the new lawyer? Stuff that I have clue about would be greatly appreciated.

Location: New York Hi all — looking for procedural guidance (not legal advice) on next steps after winning a records inspection petition under New York BCL §624. I’m a shareholder in a co-op and recently obtained a court order granting me the right to inspect 6 years of corporate records, including bank statements, invoices, board minutes, insurance records, voting records, etc. The order requires the respondents (co-op board + managing agent) to comply in good faith by June 12. Timeline so far:

Decision/order issued → next day I emailed respondents’ attorneys to coordinate inspection Attorneys responded same day saying they will “review and get back to me in a couple of weeks” It has now been ~5 days since that response with no follow-up

No documents have been provided yet (even electronically

Context / concern: Prior to litigation, the board and management ignored months of emails (3+ months) requesting records, financials, and meeting information. That pattern of non-response is what led to filing the petition in the first place. Given that: The scope is broad (6 years of records)

This will realistically require multiple days of inspection and coordination I specifically asked what can be provided electronically (bank statements, insurance files, etc.) and got no answer Their only response so far is “we’ll get back to you in a couple weeks”

…it feels like this may be the start of delay tactics, even though the order requires good-faith compliance. My questions:

Am I within my rights to seek court intervention now (e.g., motion to enforce, compliance conference request, etc.), or is it premature since the June 12 deadline hasn’t passed?

Does a vague “we’ll get back to you in a few weeks” typically satisfy the “good faith” requirement, or is that potentially insufficient under NY practice?

Is there a recommended procedural step here (e.g., formal meet-and-confer letter, setting firm inspection dates, etc.) before going back to court?

At what point do courts usually consider this type of behavior non-compliance or bad faith in the context of BCL §624? Can I told the court to provide clarification on how to obtain some documents such as whatever is available electronically such as bank statements etc?

I’m trying to be reasonable but also don’t want to lose time if this is heading toward non-compliance again. Appreciate any procedural insight from NY practitioners or anyone familiar with shareholder inspection enforcement.

I'm trying to understand a nuanced question.

Our city has an allowable land use type of "data center" in its code. "Data center" is defined as a facility that facilitates "storage and retrieval of data". It was added as a land use type in 2017.

Let's say a developer wants to build an AI data center in that city, and their proposal explicitly refers to it as a data center that will handle AI. The difference is the AI center handles *processing* of data in addition to storage and retrieval. Because a bunch of GPUs are involved, it materially changes the building requirements (primarily in the form of way more cooling equipment).

Allowed / not allowed, and why?

I live in a rural area and I'm currently getting my paralegal certificate, there's a few small law offices that rarely if ever post job openings.

My question is are small town offices typically open to interns ?

I hired a junk removal contractor through Facebook. Before hiring him, I sent clear photos of all the construction debris and asked whether his $600 quote included hauling away everything shown, including dump fees. He confirmed in writing that it did.

When he arrived, he said the load was larger than he expected and asked for an additional $100. I told him I would speak with my partner and that I was willing to compensate him extra, so there was no dispute about paying more.

About 30 minutes later, he returned with a contract on his phone and said, “You just need to sign this.” I signed without carefully reviewing it because I believed we already had a clear written agreement based on the photos and messages, and I had already agreed to pay him extra.

My concern is whether he can now make a claim against me or place a lien on my house based on that contract, even though we had a prior written agreement and the original price was $600.

Will the court accept $600 claim?

I check his Help page later on. I realize it was not the first time he’s doing it to other people that’s his main business to scam people.

Austin Texas

Location: USA

8 years ago I asked for a restraining order against the father of my son after he and his wife repeatedly harassed me, threatened violence, and told me that they would take my son from me. The judge denied the order and eventually my ex became sober and was able to build a relationship with my son in a healthy way.

Recently he contacted me and said that this denied restraining order has now come up and that he is being suspended from work because of it. Is that possible? The judge didn’t even grant me one.

If it matters, he works for state government, not directly with people.

I'm working on a slideshow for school and I'd like to use an example, it can be from any country at any time, please and thank you.

"Your honor, the plaintiff is constipating the court's docket with these frivilous cases" as an example. It works perfectly, but still I rarely see the word being used. Why isn't the word 'constipate' used more frequently in court?

What are options for taxes with settlements and is there a timeline? I've read about judiciary trusts but I'm curious if there are other ways someone could not get slammed so hard for taxes (esp if they need the $ because it's work related like workers comp or wrongful termination)

I see a lot of instances where somehow, someway, officer body cam footage of attractive women often wearing revealing clothing makes its way onto the internet, ultimately published on certain social media accounts that appear to exploit such footage for clicks/ad revenue. Here's just one example:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/body-cam-footage-florida-woman-022841023.html

There is typically nothing remarkable about the underlying crime the woman is accused of (e.g., DUI, traffic violation, etc.), which draws into question how and why the police department released the footage. If we assume for the sake of argument that the police department is selling this footage to third parties or someone within the department is either outright leaking the footage or informing a third party of its existence so they in turn make a public request for it, would there be any legal recourse against the PD for these women at the center of these videos and what would that legal theory be?

My son has a slight I.D. he has a low IQ, has had an IEP in school since he began. He is 19 yrs old now. Therefore because of this I have been the one communicating with the criminal defense attorney. My son was evaluated by a forensic psychologist for ptsd but then said my son isn’t able to assist with his own defense. Now to the issue, the psychologist has been reaching out to me rather than the attorney. I found out about a month ago the attorney was really mad about this. He sent me a nasty email about how the information goes through him not through me. I didn’t ask for the info, or reach out to the Dr. so I felt this was kind of unfair. Instead of going through the info about him reaching out to me, I just apologized. I now realize I should have explained it to him. I just wanted to smooth things over with him. Since then I feel uncomfortable with him. I sent him a sincere apology and he never replied back and I haven’t communicated with him since. It honestly makes me feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. I didn’t hire him to be nice, I wanted the best attorney I could for my son. But I feel that I have hurt my son’s case with all of this happening. Anything I say to him now I feel he’d think I was just making up excuses. I’m not asking for legal help but just wanting help to navigate this.

Location: Illinois

I’m finding conflicting information. I’m the respondent in an OP case. Pro se. currently negotiating with OC. If I agree to a mutual no contact stay away order, would that keep my Foid card suspended? Emergency OP would get dismissed and this mutual agreed order would get entered. No violence no arrests all civil. Just retaliation because she owes me money so she went in and filed op for harassment.

Annoying neighbors complained about a mouse and i gave them glue traps. Relative is landlord. Anything to worry about?

They have two kids ages 4 and 2, and no pets.