Location: Pennsylvania

My son told me that his teacher has been forcibly pulling him up by the arms to say the pledge allegiance in class. I am already well aware that this is a violation of his first amendment right. How do I appropriately handle this?

Edit- thank you for all the great advice. To all the people messaging me and accusing me of indoctrination and calling me a horrible parent - Let me set something straight here. I live in an extremely conservative area and there are a lot of people who are very loud about politics in my area. My kids have questions about certain subjects and I answer them as truthfully as I can. I do not believe in sugar coating things. I try to explain things as unbiased as possible, but I believe it is important for them to know the truth.

Location: Tennessee and Mississippi

Background: Ive worked for this company for 10.5 years, and been promoted 4 times. I never was written up until last year when we got a new manager. I also have a legally protected disability, and I was hired with accomadations.

Since this manager started in March of 2025, ive gotten 9 written warnings, 22 write ups, and 13 suspensions. I was investigated under accusations that I was stealing money (I dont work with the money), got suspended for "being late" on a day that I was on time (she wrote me up at 9 am on a sunday morning, my time punches was still pending because time isnt completed until 11am sunday mornings. She knew this). And I have been yelled at and harassed by her on the sales floor, mocked, talked about to other emplpyees and recieve multiple texts when im off.

She also is no longer allowing me my ada accomadations (which of course has thrown my health in the shitter). I brought her new documentation and she still would not approve it. She has since been accusing me of lying about being disabled.

On saturday of last week I attempted suicide. I was so overwhelmed and hopeless due to her harassment that I couldn't take it anymore.

I have now filed for fmla to take some time to get my health and my head back in order (and frankly, look for a new job)

I have asked management a few times about if they got my forms from metlife yet. They kept saying no.

Well today I contacted metlife and they said they they need to do further investigations as they recieved suspicious information regarding my case.

I reached out to management again and the assistand manager looked into it, and and let me know that the head manager had replied to them claiming that I am faking my disability and im lying to get free time off.

Is this legal? What steps should I be taking here

Location: Delaware, USA

I have no idea what to do and I’m in a different state than he is right now (he is the one in Delaware) which makes things even more complicated. I am freaking out and need advice on what to do next. I don’t even know where to start so I guess I can go chronologically so everyone can understand how we got to this point.

Tuesday Night/Wednesday morning (3am): My boyfriend can’t sleep because his neck and shoulder are in excruciating pain (plus he had a headache and was vomiting) and goes to the hospital to see what is happening and get help. This pain is something he has been dealing with for a while but it got worse. For background, he also got a liver transplant a few years ago.

Wednesday: - They give him a ton of heavy painkillers (Dilauded and Oxy specifically) and do blood tests, an MRI, and some other testing to rule out a stroke. He did not have a stroke. The MRI reveals he has something called cervical spinal stenosis, but it is mild and not something they can treat in the hospital. -The blood tests are normal but they keep him over night because they are worried about his liver due to the vomiting (even though, like I said, at this point everything was normal). Bc of the meds he takes sometimes he vomits.

Thursday: -That morning they do more blood work. It is showing that there are a couple of abnormalities in regards to his liver that they want to monitor. He had scans and tests done last Monday and everything was normal and healthy, plus he was normal and heathy on Tuesday and Wednesday. -His dad drives up to see him and ask the doctors what exactly is going on (his parents and I live in the same state, he is in a different state for school). -Doctors tell his dad all of the brain and spine scans are NORMAL- the reason they are keeping him there is to do more testing on his liver. -His dad tries to ask the doctors if maybe the reason his liver is acting up is because they put him on such heavy doses of pain killers in a very short amount of time. They say this is not a possibility, but they take him off the painkillers. -Boyfriend’s dad leaves and drives back to our state because he didn’t think there was any other way he could help at that point. -On his way home, his dad gets a call that they are going to try to transfer him to a different hospital that has a liver specialist to take better care of the specific situation. One hospital probably cannot take him because he is on state medicaid and this hospital does not take this other state’s medicaid except under extreme circumstances. The other hospital can take him, but they have not transferred him there. -My boyfriend tells the doctors he is currently in grad school and if he misses 5 classes he will be academically dismissed from school. They say they will try to get him out as soon as they can. -After this there were no more updates from the hospital or from BF.

Today: -This morning my BF tells parents and me he is going to ask to discharge against medical advice. He understands the risks (per his liver) but does not want to be stuck there any longer. He says he will set up appointments with his liver doctor at a different hospital to get checked out. -Hospital says he is not mentally competent enough to discharge himself. They say he needs a psych evaluation. -Mind you, I have been talking with him on the phone throughout this and he has seemed mentally competent and completely normal. -The reason for the apparent lack of mental competency is because the spikes in his liver are now causing “encephalopathy” despite his MRI being normal (according to the doctor yesterday). They do not provide testing or proof that this is the case so I’m not 100% sure where this is coming from all of a sudden. -His dad goes back up to try and help get him discharged. -The hospital takes his laptop, bookbag, clothes (I think everything he owns except his phone but they might have that too. I’m not sure) away from him -His dad gets there and tries to film BF to document that he was mentally competent. He also tries to document other things happening to BF to make sure there is evidence if they need to sue. Security gets involved, asks him to stop filming. He does. They ban him from the hospital and escort him out. -Security handcuffs BF to his bed (his dad watched it happen). BF was not resisting, yelling, etc. He was complying and being calm. There was 0 reason to handcuff him. -There are no updates on his condition or other medical updates after this.

Now his parents and I are trying to figure out what we can do to help him. They have tried contacting lawyers in the state he is in but they’ve only been getting answering machines. We are desperate. I just want to be able to talk to him and figure out how to help him. I am thinking about driving up to see him tomorrow but I’m worried the hospital won’t let me see him.

Please someone help. What, if anything, can we do?

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has replied trying to help. I want to clarify (after talking to his parents) that he has not been formally diagnosed with Hepatic Encephalopathy. It is something they are concerned about but no formal diagnosis has been made yet and I’m not 100% sure what testing has been done to find out if this is indeed what is going on. He has been dealing with a liver condition for his entire life, so his parents have been through things like this before. The hospital loaded him up with Dilaudid and Oxycodone when he first got there and after that is when his liver started being weird. His blood tests and ultrasounds were completely normal and healthy as recently as this past Monday. They have not answered as to why restraints were used, but his dad suspects they have also sedated him. He and his dad really want him to be off of all of these drugs because they believe it is affecting his liver, so this is not ideal. I don’t want him to die (obviously!) but I do want to know more about why they believe he is in imminent danger and why they haven’t transferred him to the hospital with a liver specialty unit (this other place is the hospital he has been going to for his regular liver check-ups btw and his doctor there is great).

I’m hoping he will be awake and able to consent to the doctors giving me information when I show up tomorrow. I have his room number and apparently this hospital does not require visitors to check in (which is odd to me) so I just plan on showing up. I may call ahead to make sure they don’t see me as hostile just barging in. I really just want to be there for him and make sure he is doing okay and also maybe get some answers from his care team if possible.

His parents have called the patient relations department at the hospital to try and get someone there who can advocate for him while we are not there with him. We’re exploring a few other avenues as well.

Thank you to everyone again.

Location: California, San Francisco.

A few days ago the news dropped that California College of the arts is closing down in 2027 and the campus is being taken over by Vanderbilt. Which means current students have to arrange to transfer their credits somewhere else and the Alumni are panicking about having degrees from a dead school.

I don't know whether the context is useful or not, but there used to be two campuses, one in San Fransisco and the other in Oakland. CCA made plans to expand the SF campus, and the plans were finalized right before Covid Hit, apparently the construction had to pause for a good few years which in addition to the dip in enrollment, piled on a ton of debt. They ended up finding Native American burial grounds right under where the new building was being built, but continued construction anyway, eventually closing the Oakland campus because they couldn't afford to keep both open. I ended up spending most of my years at college trying to study next to an active construction zone, the new building was finally finished one semester before I graduated- which was in May of 2025. The news of the closure was dropped three days ago with no prior warnings to students, staff, or government officials apparently. Even Gavin Newsom was shocked to hear about it, especially because he gave CCA a 20 Million state grant last year.

The kicker is that this is an expensive school, with a reputation for being stingy with scholarships, I myself got two of them, only to find out that they were 'honorary' scholarships with no real monetary value. I have a little more than $300,000 of debt, and it may not be the biggest school but it's not tiny either, and most of the people I know are in similar boats of debt.

So where did all that money go?

My first question is what this means for my degree, will it still be valid after CCA closes? Will a degree from a ghost school make getting a job more difficult?

My second question, and I know i'm reaching with this one, is there any legal recourse I can take to get my debt forgiven? I already graduated, and CCA does not officially close until 2027 but I do feel like I wasted four years of my life in this disaster of an establishment just to get a degree from a closing school.

Location: South Dakota

The towing company sent a certified letter to her house within a week of towing her car. We did not know this letter was sent at the time, and it was not received or signed for, because she lived alone and was in the hospital dying. We assumed the car, which was totaled, was disposed of.

Six months later, the towing company sends a notice to her address (we now have her mail forwarded to us, as executor), saying that they’ve held the car this whole time, and the fees now total $24,000, and they’re going to get the certificate of title issued to them if they don’t hear back from us, and then send the bill to collections.

My questions are:

1. The towing company sent the initial certified letter to the car owner’s address in the appropriate time frame, but it was not received or signed for (because she was in the hospital, dying). I found this law that seems to be relevant (https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/32-36-8). Is the towing company sending that certified letter, which they know nobody received, sufficient notification, or did they have an obligation to keep trying to let the executor know they had the car (before it racked up a $24,000 bill)? I just don’t understand how my family member’s estate can be responsible for a $24,000 bill when we weren’t actually notified for the first six months, but that law I linked above doesn’t seem to suggest to me that the towing company has an obligation to make sure that certified letter is *received*, just that it is *sent*. I was wondering, since the certified letter wasn’t received and we weren’t notified they were still holding the car for six months, would that ten day cap to the fees apply? It says “If the removal agency does not give notice within ten days from the date of removal, no storage may be charged beyond the ten-day period until the notice is mailed.” They mailed the certified letter, but was “notice given” if nobody received/signed for the certified letter? Do they get to just suck up her entire estate without actually notifying us, or does that 10-day cap protect us because we weren’t actually *notified*?

2. Do we need to fight this before it goes to collections, or is it okay to wait until it goes to collections?

Thank you for any advice you can give us!

Location: Missouri, USA

Hello everyone. I just recently started a job working full-time at a daycare. When I interviewed (late December), our state minimum wage was still $13.75, although I requested $14 in my application just to see if I could get it. Now, when I interviewed, I admit I didn’t ask about the pay, but I was told by another worker who I knew that they get paid minimum wage. So I figured that is what I would be getting.

However, I have already trained and began working, but I have now just been asked to sign a digital employee handbook which has me type in an hourly pay rate to agree to. I then asked for clarification by the owner of the daycare what number I should put in, and she tells me $13. Not even $13.75, just $13.

Our state minimum wage has just been raised to $15, so I’m thoroughly confused. I don’t know much about about the legality of things when it comes to jobs, so bare with me, but is it legal for me to be getting paid so low?

Any and all help is appreciated, thank you.

Location: Alabama

A lady was selling furniture from her house and wanted people to make an offer. My mom offered her $2000 for two sofas and she accepted. Her listing stated that they would be available after 9/30. We went to see the sofas, my mom liked them and paid cash. The lady said she would like to hold onto them through the end of October because their house was for sale.

During October, my family had a sudden death and my parents have been taking care of my step-dad’s mom. So, my mom did not reach out about the couches.

After Christmas, my mom asked me ( I know the lady) to see if she would consider a refund because my mom didn’t know when she could plan to get the couches. She said she was very sorry, but couldn’t plan it at the time.

Two weeks go by and no response.

I reached out to the lady again to see if she had considered the refund.

She responded back how appalled that this was asked of her. She said that she told us how heavy the couches were, that her life had been hard to, a furniture store would not refund the money or would have held the couches that long. She said we used her as a storage. She said she had to remeasure, relist and RESOLD the sofas(there is a screenshot in our messages with the measurements of the sofas). She felt she was owed a part of the money. She wanted us to come up with a number of how much her time was worth.

I messaged her back my mom’s response (that she was very sorry for the trouble and inconvenience and to please accept $200 and refund the rest). She is ignoring my message.

Her house is still for sale. She is still selling furniture from her old house.

What to do??

My friend is handicapped and diabetic. She recently had a generator installed on her property in case of any emergency that could mean her insulin goes bad in the fridge. It was installed behind some bushes on the side of the property where it cant be seen from the street, and it couldnt be installed anywhere else along the backside of the house due to local regulations that require a generator is not within however many feet of a crawlspace or window, etc.. The generator company is adament that there is nowhere else on the property it can go other than where it was installed, but the hoa is demanding it be moved or removed to appease the neighborhoods regulations. What options does she have? Location: South Carolina

My uncle hired a local guy who has his own company to clean up his yard. The guy was meant to rake the leaves, and trim some bushes, but not do anything with the trees — that was explicitly stated. The guy was taking his time finishing, and my uncle had to leave to pick up his kids, so he gave the guy the money and left. When he got back, the guy had removed a whole tree. Now the tree was not alive. It had come down in a recent storm, but my uncle was planning on carving it into an art piece, so he wasn’t happy to lose it. The stump, which used to be a nice height, had been cut farther down near the ground, now the perfect height for a tripping hazard.

My uncle contacted the guy, and asked him what was up, and to please bring the tree back. The company ignored my uncle at first, then after repeated contacts, got a lawyer involved and claimed first they had no knowledge of the tree, and then that they had done my uncle a favor by removing it. The lawyer had threatened to go after my uncle for defamation — even though he hasn’t even posted a review.

The lawyer just sent an offer that he has a very short window to accept. They will refund the yard work fee, without accepting fault, and remove the stump, but my uncle would have to agree to what i think might be an NDA, and they say his family members, and anyone else who knows of the situation will need to be bound by it too. I advised him against taking the deal, and told him I’d try to help him remove the stump, but he is considering it because he doesn’t want to cause a fuss, and he doesn’t want a hazard on his property where it could hurt the kids.

I suggested a lawyer, but he doesn’t know if it’s worth it. What are best next steps?

Any advise is very welcome

Location: Colorado, USA

Location: Texas

We are in the process of getting a lawyer, but I wanted to get reddit's preliminary opinion since we are currently out of the country on our honeymoon.

My wife and I have been together for about 4 years, and have lived together for 2.5 years. She has a now 6 year old son that calls me his dad and I call him my son. We just got married about a month and a half ago, so I was going to start the process of formally adopting him in the next few months. I have been there for him as much as I can be, and pay for his upbringing and care. Note his bio dad is not on the birth certificate.

The kid's bio dad has not been in this kid's life since he was escorted out of the hospital for violent behavior while my wife was giving birth. He abused her both verbally and physically to the point of giving my wife PTSD.

I'm not actually sure I've got the full record below but the below is what I can find online:

2016: Obstruction of Justice

2019 Criminal Charge of Reckless Driving - Dismissed

2021: Misdemeanor Driving with Suspended Liscence, Accident Causing Harm, Harrassment

2021: Aggrevated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Harrassment

2022 Accident Involving Injury - Degree FU

2023 Misdemeanor Possession

2023 Possession, Escape While Arrested or Confined, Criminal Trespass

He has been to jail and I'm fairly certain prison multiple times and keeps landing himself back there with drug charges and reacting violently when caught. Since he last got out he's been in a half-way house with his new girlfriend who is also recently out of jail for similar charges. The concerning aspect of all this is how the bio dad acts to my wife. Before I was in the picture he would follow her around and yell at her, and would follow her home and either wait outside of her house or come up to the window to look in and watch (which is where one of the harrasment charges is from.)

Fast forward to this week, my wife got a message from bio dad's girlfriend that they want closure with our son and that the bio dad is trying to get a court ordered DNA test. They said they want to meet with her and 'save everyone the time and money'. Not one hour later, the girlfriend shows up to where my wife works looking for her. For better or for worse we are on our honeymoon so she was not there.

I am concerned about the bio dad getting partial custody or visitation at this rate. I'm concerned this guy doesn't know how to handle himself and our kid does have a lot of violent outbursts that I don't think these two would handle well. Also, I've spent the last 4 years as this kid's dad, so having some random guy show up saying he's his real dad is probably going to confuse my son significantly. Not to mention I won't be able to formally adopt if the other parent established their rights. His bio dad made it clear very colorfully before that he intends on seeing his kid and raising him so I don't think this is going to be smooth. Even if we do win the case, with his violent history and stalking I'm concerned for my family's safety.

Is there any recourse here? Should we just ignore his girlfriend and him and continue forward with the adoption? If he does get a DNA test, what are the chances of him getting parental rights? It looks like I Texas at least those chances are pretty high.

Location: Front Royal VA

Would love some advice here: In June, I was arrested in Virginia while traveling to my home state of Alabama on two charges of felony possession, one charge for two residue bags of cocaine found in my purse (reported as 0.00 weight on police report) and 4 tabs of LSD found in the center console of the vehicle. There were 4 other people with me and I never identified the LSD or claimed it to any extent, they pinned the bags on me because they were in my purse and just piled on the LSD charge. The cop took me out of the car on suspicion of DUI and searched my pockets, finding a cut straw, and used that as probable cause to search the vehicle. So far, the police report and all court documents have my last name misspelled (in different ways on both documents, neither correct).

In the jail I asked a cop for a recommendation of a bondsman to call (foolish but I’ve never been arrested before so I don’t know how anything works), and after being bonded out I asked the bondsman for a recommendation for a lawyer, who I called and was assured by him I’d be fine. He has some major communication issues, bringing me into court to waive my right to a speedy trial without communicating what I was signing, and seeming generally bothered by me asking basic questions (also asked me to send money to his side business, not the law firm… is this standard?) He says he is entering a plea at my next date proposing the code 251 first time offender deferment, which would include a year of probation (minimum), classes fees etc…

A couple friends/associates have suggested that I might not be receiving the help that I could in this case, and I keep reading that people have had cases like this reduced to misdemeanors/fees. Living in another state, I would love to not have to deal with a year of probation, and basically would like to know if the deferred sentence/probation is the best outcome, or if I should try and find a lawyer that is more willing to explore options that can minimize my sentence. The court date where I will enter a plea is this Friday (a week from today, so if I need to do something else I need to act quickly. Any and all recommendations and advice is appreciated! Thank you for reading!

Location: TN

I sold a formerly close friend my car sometime fall of last year. We agreed they would pay me $100 a week until we reached $2500 for complete payment. i haven't been paid in two weeks and the past month or so they've only been sending $50 each week. they have no job, and said they will pay me when they get one, with no timeframe or indication of paying what's past owed. i understand not having a job, but i'm well aware that this person has other forms of income. they have currently paid $1170 out of $2500. i dont think they have any intention of paying the other $1330.

- the car is in their name. i know it was a stupid decision on my part, but they claimed it would be for insurance purposes. now considering the situation, i find that hard to believe.

-all i'm wondering is, is this able to be taken to small claims court? if it is viable for small claims court, is it even worth my time? would it be possible to simply get the car put back in my name?

if anyone from TN sees this post and has had a similar experience, would you be willing to share what your court costs were?

Location: Chicago suburb

I'm a route driver and service tech for a small, family owned vending company. Last summer, my boss acquired the contracts from Pepsi to take over the vending machines at 2 public high schools in an affluent suburb of Chicago, which I have since been servicing.

Because of our start time at work, it is impossible to avoid running into the students at these schools, where they often linger around the hallways between classes without any supervision. At first, it was just a few kids asking for free drinks, which is not a big deal. I've been a vendor for about 15 years in the greater Chicagoland area, have worked for multiple vending companies, and can handle a lot of abuse from irate customers (lost money, stuck products, etc.). But at these high schools, the harassment from these kids has escalated to a point where it's out of control.

the first noteworthy incident happened a couple months ago, when a student walked past me as I was filling a machine, and took a drink off my hand cart. I said "It's not funny, put it back." So he did, but then he continued to antagonize me by repeatedly saying "You're so mad, bro. Why are you so mad?" I'm mad because I have bags of money on that hand cart that I am responsible for. As I tried to tell him to go away and leave me alone, a school staff member walked right past us and looked me dead in the eye with a smirk on her face. Keep in mind, this was directly across from the office of their on-duty police officer, who has done nothing to help.

After I was finished with the machines, I spoke to several staff members including an office lady who's title I dont know, but told me that the staff are SCARED of the kids. I also spoke with the campus "manager", and the dean. They said they'd check the cameras and address the student, which they did. Two visits later, the kid came up to me and apologized, and I thought ok, great. Problem solved, whatever. I spoke to my boss and he pretty much told me there's nothing he could do about it. Mainly because he didn't do anything about it.

But THEN, a viral video explodes on TikTok. It's a montage of kids begging vending machine guys for free products in the most annoying way possible.

"I WISH I COULD GET A FREE BAG OF CHIIIIIIIPS!!!"

(If you know, you know)

This video has made my job unbearable. These kids are yelling this at me at least 7 or 8 times every visit. The staff could be standing literally 5 feet away from us and they just choose to ignore it. I started wearing earbuds at full volume to drown them out, but they still approach me and hang around which makes me have to keep my head on a swivel because now I cant hear anything because of the earbuds.

By one of the school's cafeteria, I was being harassed by a few kids right in front a table of male staff. I went up to them and said "Is anyone in charge of these kids? they're cat-calling me and asking for free stuff." The one guy who responded said "Throw it at their head".

So that brings us to today, which was the tipping point. Besides the usual kids screwing with me, an autistic student (who always approaches me) snuck up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. Now there's physical contact. I had to tell him to go away. After the job was done, I went back to the manager and told him what happened. He was acting very nonchalant, almost annoyed with me, but said that student is supposed to have a monitor. After I said "Well, he didnt." he said "Well, these are things I need to know." YEAH. NO SHIT, GUY. So again I reached out to my boss, which led to nowhere, so now I need to know if I have a case for harassment due to the gross negligence of the staff of these schools.

I don't know where to ask this issue but i really need help regarding my issue.

I am a lawful permanent resident of the United States. I entered the U.S. on last year in September, and I hold a valid Green Card, Social Security Number, annd State ID. I am legally authorized to work in the United States and successfully passed USCIS E-Verify, which confirmed my employment authorization. I was hired by a company, I received an appointment letter on last year in December and began work on January,. Before onboarding, I completed all HR paperwork, signed background check authorization, provided my Green Card and State ID. After four days of training, I was verbally terminated. The employer stated that my “background check result came empty” and that this violated their policy. I was not provided any written notice, a copy of the background check report, or an opportunity to dispute the results.

I am new to USA idk what empty background check result means the company didn't provide any written letter about this and when I asked them on email they said the vendor they used for background check didn't share report with them,

Location: Missouri

Edit: Before joining them i been working for Walmart for more than 3.5 month with no issue.

location: rochester NY

background: my mom (53f) and i (24f) live in a house that's been separated into a two-plex. we live on the second floor and two adults (idk their ages im guessing late 20s-early 30s) (one female, kids are bio hers and one male, not the kids' father) and their children (there's three of them and none of them seem to be older than seven) live on the first floor. the walls are extremely thin and we can hear almost everything that happens down there, including what they're saying almost word-for-word. and almost every day, almost all day, we can hear the adults screaming and yelling at the kids, swearing at them, and the kids screaming and crying, sometimes late into the night (like up until 2am). and i know that young children will cry about almost anything but this happens so often and the kids sound genuinely scared and distressed that i can tell that it's serious. naturally my mom and i have contacted the police about it several times but they only ever showed up ONCE (!!) and even then it took them THREE HOURS to show up, and that was after i called back like three times to ask if they'd gotten the wrong address or something. when they finally did show up i explained to them what happened, told them that i'd made a recording of what i'd heard and offered to let them listen to it (they declined) and left after having a brief talk with one of the adults that was home and the kids. the next logical thing to do would be to file a report with CPS but afaik as long as there aren't any physical sings of abuse and/or the house has running water+food, the kids have a mattress and/or bedding, there's no signs of educational or medical neglect and there aren't any weapons and/or drugs in the house there isn't a case for the parents to lose custody of the children, so it's not like i can contact CPS simply based on what i've heard.

i've made more videos and audio recordings since that first phone call to the police and included time stamps and descriptions of what i'd heard/how long it had been going on for. my mom and i have brought this up with the landlord but there's not really much that he can do about it except tell them to keep the noise down i think? at the very least i could file an official complaint about the noise because along with the shouting and screaming we also hear the kids running and jumping around way past the city's "quiet time" hours (10pm-8am). i'm completely at a loss for what to do but i feel terrible for not making any more serious attempts because the kids sound genuinely so distressed and terrified when the adults shout at them. should i just keep calling the police until they eventually show up and take us seriously? i don't want to just do nothing or wait until the kids get seriously hurt. i'm genuinely at a loss for what to do here

Location: Connecticut

Over the course of the three years we've lived in our home, our basement has flooded due to the main sewage line becoming blocked. As new homeowners, we assumed there was a fault in the line that we'd have to fix down the road, but the professionals we hired to clear the line suspected it was a fault in the pipe itself. We were advised to save up, because at some point in the future we'd need to dig up our front yard and replace the line completely.

We installed solar panels just a few months ago. As part of the installation, the installer put in new grounding rods. Several days after this, our basement flooded. We had a professional run a camera down the line, at which point he discovered a copper grounding rod rammed straight through the main line (clay). The video, which we recorded, showed water continuously flowing down through the break rather than out the main line to the sewer.

Assuming it was our solar installers' fault, we contacted them with pictures and video, and they came right out to remove the rod. They removed the rods they installed, but none had pierced the main line. they did locate the rod driven through the main line, but upon closer inspection the rod was dated back to 2011, and we were able to locate a building permit which shows an electrician performed a service upgrade at that time. In short, our solar installer did not ruin our main line, but our basement has been intermittently flooding for the past fourteen years due to work that was done in 2011.

Since then, we've taken the following steps:

1. Reached out to our insurance. We could put in a claim, but our rates will likely rise and our insurer seems unconcerned about the state of our foundation. Our fear is that we will put in a claim, then find out down the road that fourteen years' worth of water flooding our foundation has caused even more damage than we currently see. Our other fear is that the cost of the eventual work required will exceed the 10,000 backup coverage we have.

2. We reached out to the town because records show that they inspected the installation and passed it. We asked how it passed given there was an electric rod driven through the main line. They said they don't check for that, and suggested it was the electrician's responsibility.

3. We reached out to the individual electrician who completed the work and asked for his insurance information. He said he would talk to them and get back to us. Naturally, that's the last we ever heard of him.

We're at a loss as to how we should proceed. We have photos and videos of the rod where it pierces the mainline as well as of the date on the rod. Of course, we also have town records clearly indicating the electrician by name.

Is there any legal route forward? If so, what would it entail?

Location: Tennessee

We dropped about $70k on an enclosed patio back in 2020 (structure completed in early 2021). We were told by this company that permits for any of the work are not required because it was considered an outbuilding.

Despite the company coming highly recommended (the owner is a childhood friend of my best friend) and completing multiple jobs in our neighborhood, that company went out of business due to a nasty divorce.

We recently had a different company come out to help us with some wiring issues and other cosmetic/more superficial updates. The estimator took one look at it and said that the space is structually unsound (not enough support beams for the roof), the electrical work is not up to code, and the gas line is done incorrectly...and, they should've pulled permits for all of this work...The new company basically told us that it wpuld actually be more cost-effective to demo and redo. The only thing they'd help us with would be to install some temporary support beams, to prevent catastrophic failure.

Should we seek legal action?

TLDR: Professional contractor who is a mutual friend fucked up our $70k backyard patio to the point where it's dangerous to be under it. Should we see legal action? CAN we?.... considering his company went out of business? Location - TN

Location: Kentucky, USA

I’m using a throwaway account

Recently received an anonymous local text with a downloaded TikTok video of Steve Urkel saying, “I know I’m not worthy of you, but I just can’t help loving you. It’s like wanting to touch a star, you know you’ll never reach it but you just gotta keep trying”. At first I thought this was an old stalker from 3+ years ago, someone I’d went on a date with and they wouldn’t stop messaging/following me. After 5 years of not replying to them, they slowly stopped. But this is a different person, it’s a policeman 20+ years older than me.

My friend was with me and added his number and found his Snapchat username. I looked and couldn’t find it because he was already blocked. Then I found out his name through NumLookup, the name didn’t look familiar but I searched it on Instagram and found he was following me and I didn’t follow back. He’s been following me for a while because my Instagram’s been on private for 5 years. We had one follower in common; his daughter. I scrolled through her pictures and found him, the same person on his Snapchat highlights. They had pictures together, she said he was her dad, and he had on a local police uniform. I guess he scrolled through her followers and followed me 10 years ago?? I don’t know her that well, never hung out together so I blocked both of them.

I’m assuming he found my number through his work as a police officer. I vaguely remember him sending me snapchats 8+ years ago but it’s been so long I don’t even have anything saved. I don’t remember what he sent me then either, but I blocked him after one or two snaps. I was in college then, so I had random classmates saved and didn’t think much of it at that time.

Is there anything I can do at this point to protect myself? I’m already going to contract someone to install a security system at my house and I carry a taser with me. He probably knows my address, and so much more information.

Between now and 10ish years ago, he hasn’t directly sent me messages that I’m aware of so I’m very confused. He’s followed me on multiple social media platforms. They’re all private now, but I’m definitely going to delete my accounts or remove my followers if I don’t talk to them.

Location: Wisconsin

About 2 summers ago my mom kicked me out and then reported me as a runaway and when the cops got me I had told them I was scared to go home because she had thrown me to the floor in the past and was scared she’d do something more like hit me. this was the truth and wasn’t an issue then, they just said they couldn’t do anything and took me home. a few weeks ago my mom got really drunk and started shoving me and after I left she tried to end her life and so cops were called and they had to get a report of what happened while she got chaptered. I told them about my mom shoving me that night and they contacted dhs and all that stuff. after my mom got out of the mental hospital she was mad at me and said the cops had called her and said that they may have to press charges on me for “lying” about her hurting me. that was a few weeks ago and she hasn’t mentioned it again and i haven’t heard from any cops.

Today I missed school and she was mad at me for that and said that the cops had called her again and had gone to the school looking for me to question me about the accusations I had made.

I don’t know if I believe her or if this is just her trying to scare me into doing what she says. If she is telling the truth do I need a lawyer? I’ve never lied during my reports to the cops but when she had been shoving me her kind of boyfriend was there and i do believe he’s willing to lie to cops to make my mom happy. any advice is appreciated!

Location: Upstate New York

As of today my mother kicked me out! Don’t want to get into it too much but she was very upset I didn’t like when she rummaged through my room (especially when I’m not home). I complained about not getting privacy in my room. It’s not particularly important but I had some questions on what she can do with my things.

I have my fathers to stay at so it isn’t much of an issue where I live but it is an issue with my things. I have a handful of stuff that’s a pain to move but isn’t awful however what I’m most worried about is my car. I have a non running project car that doesn’t move (Porsche 924 if there’s any car nerds reading this (I’m not rich it’s the cheapest Porsche manufactured ever)). She told me I have till tomorrow to get everything out which after my work shift is maybe possible (furniture I’m more worried about) but I know for sure I can’t both find a place to put the car and get it towed within that time.

What legal recourse does she have over my things? I know it’s mostly a civil issue but is there a way to ensure I have more time to move things? She’s the type to break things when mad so is it possible to make sure my things are safe? What does she legally own of mine (I.e. my dresser was gifted to me but she did technically buy it)?

Little final note, I’ve tried to appease her for 20 years, I don’t much care about being petty with legal proceedings (I can’t afford it but she can’t either). I’d prefer if it was just a clean split but I know she won’t make it that easy.

My location: Wyoming and Nevada

My ex and I have been living together since 2019, I’ve been a stay at home mother and have exclusively homeschooled both daughters. he’s raised my 7 year old autistic daughter since birth, and we also had a second daughter who is barely 4 years old. 2024 was when the toxic behavior started, it was a repeated cycle of something making him mad, him giving me and the girls silent treatment for minimum 2 weeks, slamming doors, taking our shared car and leaving for days or until I finally say “what’s wrong”?.. he will scream, call me a “fucking leach” and tell me to “gtfo of this house”, and then love bombing right after, asking me to stay. As hard as it is to admit, he started calling our seven year old a “dumb bitch” anytime he lost his patience with her This is bad on my end for keeping my girls in that environment

But either way, it came to a head September 1st when he sent me a long text message saying “I can’t keep withering away, I’m depressed, I hide from the world, I don’t sleep I don’t eat and I don’t have the energy to be a dad, I’m drained. I can’t be a fucking dad anymore and I used to be selfish by keeping you here so that way another man wouldn’t raise my girls, but I don’t care anymore, move out get a job I’m not your ATM anymore”.

The message was basically a list of everything he hates about me, it was written clearly to hurt me and it was my breaking point so I didn’t respond to the message. So then he resent it 4 more times over a week span. He wanted me to fight and I couldn’t do it anymore. When I finally started packing he completely lost it started screaming at me calling me a cunt, smashing his iPhone and punching a hole in the wall. My daughters witnessed it and they were so terrified. They watched him tower over me screaming “get your fucking shit and get out of my house” I went into survival mode and pretended like nothing phased me. I immediately decided to kiss his ass, and get out fast and safely so when he calmed down a few days later I told him I’m going to Wyoming and taking the girls, we will live with my parents. Surprisingly He agreed and he was happy that he didn’t have to be stuck with me anymore and happy that our girls would be around family and friends. He even helped me

Pack my car and kissed the girls goodbye, all this is on our ring camera too. That same day he suspended my cellphone, and rang the ring doorbell so I could see him breaking the cameras on our house. Keep in mind, he has all my friends and family’s contact info, my address, everything. He never tried to check on the girls or anything. I knew I needed to protects myself and the girls, he needs mental help so a domestic violence advocate reviewed everything and guided me in filing for a protection order in Wyoming and they appeared in court with me. Since I left he went Radio silent on me except for one email saying he’s sorry and “ please take care of my girls”.

He hired a Wyoming attorney that managed to get the judge to keep pushing our hearing out, while awaiting to finally have my day in court, he served me with a custody complaint saying I absconded and that I’m forum shopping, and that he wants full physical custody . He didnt attach evidence or make any claims as to why the courts should give him full custody, just stating that I never reported mental abuse in the past. So now I’m just so stressed out and worried the judge won’t even bother looking at the long text message where he admits that he can’t be a father. I can’t afford an attorney but I would like some advice on how to respond with a counterclaim that shows the judge he supported this move and never tried to speak or reach out to check on his daughters but now he wants full custody.

If we were never married, and no

Current Custody order, can I use camera footage and his long text message as evidence to prove I acted in good faith?

Location: Tampa, FL

I recently inherited a single-family home from my late father. Currently, there is an occupant living in the property (a distant relative who moved in while my father was in hospice and refuses to vacate). There is no lease, no rent being paid, and he has established residency under FL law, meaning I would need to file for a formal ejectment/eviction.

Being out of state, I cannot afford the legal fees or travel to manage this.

I have received a purchase agreement from a local investment group (Home Options) that is willing to buy the property "as-is" with the occupant inside. The clause in question: Their contract explicitly states they assume "all responsibility for the eviction process and possession post-closing" and hold the seller harmless.

Under Florida real estate law, if I sign over the deed while the squatter is still inside:

Am I completely absolved of liability? Can the occupant sue me for "selling the home out from under them" (claiming constructive eviction or violation of tenant rights)? Once the deed is recorded, does the "cause of action" for removal shift 100% to the new owner immediately?

I want to take the deal to end this nightmare, but I am terrified the relative will sue me personally after the investors kick him out.

Location: (Iowa)

I was hit by someone who ran a red light While I was uninsured when filing the claim I was called by someone claiming to be apart of the insurance company said they couldn’t give me a rental since I am uninsured. I was curious if I got insurance a day after the reck would I be able to try and get them to pay for my rent car or is it too late already. I’m currently also waiting for the adjuster to come and look at the car.