16 Odd Situations That Left People Looking for Very Specific Legal Advice
Daniel Bonfiglio
Published
10/16/2024
in
wtf
Sometimes you just need some legal advice, but not everyone knows a lawyer, or can afford legal fees. That's what the r/legaladvice subreddit is for, but boy do the people on there get themselves into some weird situations.
Here are 16 people who were asking some interesting, and oddly specific legal questions.
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1. My boyfriend died and his family is stealing everything.
My boyfriend died unexpectedly two months ago and left a will stating my son and I are to inherit his entire estate. Biggest assets are his house, five cars, and 2 motorcycles. I have the only copy of the will, and a court clerk verified it to be legal and valid.
He didn't have a relationship with his family due to an abusive childhood, but his parents don't believe he had a will and feel like they're entitled to everything.
They've already gone to his house and removed all of the cars/bikes to store at their house. They've also taken his laptop and have been using my dead boyfriend's Facebook profile to start listing his smaller property items for sale (furniture, etc).
The probate hearing is scheduled for Aug 26th, and I was under the impression it's illegal to touch anything or remove anything until someone has been assigned to inherit the estate. What are my legal options to get his vehicles back, and collect on anything they've already sold off? -
2. My highschool, (Virginia), just announced all bathrooms are off limits for the rest of the semester.
I’m a senior. I’m on my period. I’m actively bleeding in my school chair while typing this. The only accessible bathroom is in the office, and we aren’t allowed to bring any bags in there. If we’re in a stall for more than five minutes, it’s considered “suspicious behavior,” and they have the right to search us. The office is ten minutes away from any core classrooms because of how my school is organized. I shouldn’t have to miss 20 MINUTES of class to use the bathroom.
I don’t vape, I don’t loiter, I use the bathroom normally. I am small, I have a small bladder. I drink water all 8 hours of my school day. If it isn’t obvious, I’m fuming. Others shouldn’t have to pay the price and suffer. I’m not going to comply, I have nothing to hide. What can I do? I really have to pee while writing this, and walking to the other side of the school is too risky. -
3. Three police broke into my bedroom at 3am. Can I file a complaint and how?
I’m not sure if this is the right place for this but tonight I, (24M), was on a second date with a nice girl, (22F), who still lives with her mother. We ended up staying up late together and falling asleep for a little, that is until I woke up to my door flying open, three flashlights in my face and a voice yelling “LAPD!” I immediately get out of bed, still dazed, confused, half asleep, not even realizing that this woman is still in my bed. They ask and confirm my identity, ask if my date is in my room with me which I confirm, and then they tell me her mom is downstairs waiting for her because she got worried about her not answering her phone. I walk my date out to find three more police officers waiting for us, so six total. Not one word was spoken to me. Feels a bit extra for the situation especially given the reality of us just having fell asleep. I, as far as I’m concerned, have a squeaky clean record too. No reason for concern that I would’ve done something horrible to this woman. Can I report this at all? Was this legal? -
4. My sister sold magic cards. Now the card shop says they’re counterfeit.
So my sister decided to sell her Magic The Gathering cards and the shop quoted her a total of 42,000 USD for the lot. Many were from the 90’s and were quite valuable. Now, the shop says they’ve determined they were counterfeit and refuse to pay or give the cards back. They have yet to provide substantial proof that they were fake.
From my understanding, they have no legal grounds to hold the property. Obviously it would be illegal for my sister to sell potentially fake cards, but we want to have them tested by an independent party to the sale.
We do have reason to believe they may be real. The card shop just so happened to have listed the same cards for sale on their website after receiving my sister’s lot of cards. This could be a coincidence, but something rubs me the wrong way. Any advice would be appreciated! -
5. School made child do a “bra-lift.”
My 7th grade daughter was taken to the principal’s office. Once there the principal told my daughter she had suspicions of her vaping. She had asked my daughter several questions, one being “have you ever vaped?” My daughter answered yes. “Is your mother aware?” My daughter answered yes. (Yes I was aware that she had vaped in the past and no I was not allowing her to vape.) “Have you ever vaped on school premises?” My daughter answered no. She had my daughter dump out her backpack and nothing was found. Then the principal (alone with my daughter) made my daughter do a bra lift and shake her bra to prove nothing was in there.
My issue is that the school never notified me after the search. And I do not feel the bra lift was necessary and was illegal. -
6. Do I need to call the cops right now?
I am out of town with a group of families that all have wrestling kids. We all share big air bnb’s and most times parents will send their kids with us even if they can’t. One of the 14-year-olds has just come up to me and said that he can't sleep here tonight because he is uncomfortable and scared of one of the other dads who is pretty drunk because he just got in his bed and was tickling his feet and “wrestling” with him. What the heck do I do? The dad in question is drunk and currently passed out.
4:37am add-on: Some of the other parents that are here are suggesting we just let it go. Main reason is because it'll ruin the whole weekend. And 2, they say this dad was so out of it he may have thought it was his own son and that he was just tickling and wrestling around with him in the least “inappropriate” way.
5:15am EDIT. Parents were called right before he broke this to me! Parents don’t want the cops involved and don’t want to press charges.
5:18am EDIT- a report has been filed with Safesport, the governing body of minor athletes abuse and prevention.
FINAL EDIT - Cops were contacted early morning Friday and have launched an investigation. -
7. Bank texted my husband when I tried to open my own account.
My husband has many accounts at a US bank. I do not. I am not on any of his accounts, I am not connected at all. My name is not on any of them. I was depositing some items for my husband last week in the drive through and decided to ask how to open my own checking account in my name. I made an appointment with a banker with the lady in the drive thru and gave her my personal email and phone number.
The day of my appointment. this morning, my husband got a text from them to finish my paperwork online. ON HIS PHONE. He had no idea I was opening an account. This is not ok. I didn’t care that he knew… but what if I DID care? What if I were an abused wife and was trying to get away and make a plan? This concerns me and I cannot get in touch with anyone corporate or above the bank branch to inform them. This seems like a breach in banking privacy policy. -
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10. On holiday, bouncer in the US tears up EU passport thinking it’s fake.
Bouncer tore up my (22 F) EU (Swedish) passport because he thought that it was fake, he told me I sound American, (which I do, I speak English fluently with an American accent because I went to an American international school), and because I look underage apparently. -
11. A child drowned when I was at the lake.
I went to the lake recently with some friends, and while we were there, a child drowned.
I responded to screams when I heard them and recovered his body from the bottom of the lake as fast as I could.
After getting his body, I performed CPR until he started breathing again. He was sent to the hospital, but I do not believe he woke up.
My question is, should I take any steps to protect myself legally? I did everything that I could to save him, but he was underwater for a long time. Can I be held liable if he doesn’t survive?
EDIT: I received a text today that said that the child is awake and sitting up and speaking. He seems to be doing well. -
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14. My school’s prom changed the rules for attending after selling hundreds of tickets, no refunds.
My school prom changed the rules for attending after most of the students already bought their tickets. The new rules were that you could not have more than 4 absences in the school year and 12 tardies. Almost everybody can not attend now. The students are mad and the school is saying no refunds to tickets already sold. Tickets were 65 each and 100 for couples. Over 240 tickets have been sold prior to the new rules. Is there any legal action our parents can take?
Update: I took the advice that you guys left in the comments. I notified my parents and friends to tell their parents. Enough parents complained and they ended up keeping their rules and offering refunds at first but then once everybody got their refunds they realized that they had sold basically no tickets so they removed the rules all together and now everybody can attend prom. Thank you guys for the advice. -
15. Therapist reached out to me asking me to forgive my abuser.
Is this legal? I find it extremely unethical at least. My abuser/ex's therapist reached out to me via email, (assuming she got my email from my ex), to send me quotes on forgiveness. She also told me that my ex is unable to move on and would spend the rest of their life making it up to me.
I have moved out of state and moved on with my life. I have asked my ex to stop contacting me and I have not responded to any attempts in contact. I feel like the therapist crossed a line here and should be reported in some way for doing this. Is there any legal ground or complaint that can be filed for misconduct? -
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19. Hospital gave a funeral home my information, husband was told I was dead.
As I'm typing this, I'm still very much alive.
My husband received a phone call on Wednesday while he was on a job site from a funeral home - he was told "sorry for the loss of your wife."
I immediately called the funeral home and they apologized - the hospital had given them the wrong person's information. I tried contacting the hospital and was sent to 'records' who obviously couldn't help me as the funeral home had spoken to 'a nurse.'
As I've discussed it with friends, some of them have encouraged me to contact a lawyer - are they correct? What type of lawyer should I search out? -
20. I'm 17. Is it legal for my parents to put key locks on every door to keep me from leaving the house?
I'm 17 years old and I live in California. About a month ago my parents put locks on every door that require a key only they have. They did this because I was supposedly going out too much but now they abuse it. And sometimes she leaves me home alone with the door locked so if there were a fire I’d be trapped. I feel trapped and I feel like I don't have rights as a human. Is this okay? -
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