There's a reason everyone loves some legal drama. It's got everything: Cheating spouses, vengeful lawyers, devious loopholes, and some jaw-dropping, last-minute courtroom revelations.
1. What A Heel!
In court one morning, the accused wore a pair of very unique custom-made red cowboy boots...that were stolen from the house he was accused of robbing. Yes, he wore them. To court. To plead not guilty. The prosecutor was laughing.
2. The Prescription Writing on the Wall
I was involved in a custody dispute. The dad alleged the mom was doing all sorts of things, and he should have the kid. The dad's attorney grilled the mom about texts she had sent where she was trying to sell prescription pills. She wouldn't admit it. It seemed like the dad's attorney moved on...until he came up with a brilliant trap.
He eventually ended with, "One more question. Where did you get the pills you were selling". Mom responds without thinking, "Oh, my doctor prescribed them".
3. Ableism In Effect
I was the plaintiff in a tribunal suing for wrongful termination. My representative says, “So you terminated him because he was ill"? The employer responds, “Yes”. My representative continues, “And he was ill because he's disabled"? Again, the employer says yes. “So you fired someone for being disabled"? The employer says, “Yes”.
4. Justice McServed
This woman wanted me to sue Mcdonald's because their employees beat up her son. He was trying to rob the place.
Wikimedia Commons, Michael Rivera
5. Snapshots Fired
I had a client once who started his divorce case by representing himself before hiring me to take over. I catch up with what's already gone down by asking my new client what he’s filed with the court. He slides an envelope across the table. I wish I'd never opened it. It’s a multitude of pictures of his overweight wife spread eagle with the camera three feet away showing everything.
Yes, the judge saw. And no, he wasn’t pleased. Apparently, this client had caught his wife sending these pictures to men on the internet.
6. The Customer Is Always Right
This lady got into a minor fender bender with a truck in a casino parking lot. My guy said she parked and went inside the casino for a few hours. At her deposition, she testified that she was so hurt that she went right home and to a hospital. So I asked if she was a frequent visitor of the casino, and if she had a rewards card.
She was happy to tell me she did, and she had gold status and showed me the card. This turned out to be her big mistake. I subpoenaed her rewards card's records, and it showed she was playing slots for hours after the accident.
7. I Haven’t Got You, Babe
I used to work in "baby daddy" court as a caseworker. This guy kept telling me, the mother of the child, and anyone who would listen that the baby was NOT his. When they went before the judge, the judge confirmed through DNA testing that he wasn't the dad. The dude turned around and ripped off his jacket. His undershirt said, "NOT THE FATHER"!
8. Spoiler Alert Will
Two sons of a really wealthy couple go to the family lawyer to have their recently deceased parents' will read out. The lawyer is super nervous because he has known them both since they were children...and he's about the reveal their darkest family secret. One son gets the entire inheritance, while the other gets nothing.
The explanation was that it should be passed through to blood relatives only. So that was the day that son found out he was adopted.
9. Well, I Guess He Walked Right Into That One...
My lawyer dad had a person come in and claim he couldn't walk because of some "injury" at work. At the time, my dad was skeptical so he hired a psychologist to do an examination on him, and she found out that something COULD be wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Jump to next week, my dad ends up with a video in his hands of the person WALKING down their driveway to take out the trash.
Busted. So my dad called them and told them "Hey come on in, we have a breakthrough in your case, and you can get some money for your injury". So the guy comes to his office, and he leaves him sitting in the lobby for almost an hour because my dad knows this guy is a jerk just trying to get money over nothing (which makes lawyers look bad).
So then my dad calls him into the meeting room and plays the video. The guy walked out.
10. No Parting Gift Like One Last Miff
Lawyer here. I thought I'd seen it all, but this vicious will proved me wrong: "To my wife I leave her lover and the knowledge that I was never the fool she thought me. To my son I leave the pleasure of working for a living—for 25 years, he thought the pleasure was all mine". Best diss ever.
11. A Love-Hate Relationship
My client was accused of not leaving this woman alone when she wanted no contact with him. He swore that they were dating, and she'd call the authorities when she got mad. She swore she wanted nothing to do with him. She had a photo on her phone of him sitting on her porch, to prove that he'd come around without her consent.
I asked permission from the judge to look at the photos before and after to get context. Lo and behold, she had hundreds of photos of him. Eating dinner with her, sitting on her couch—even wearing her undergarments. It was a glorious moment.
12. Salt Of The Earth
Lawyer here. I once amended a will for a doctor in which he disinherited his son by removing everything he had intended to bequeath and replacing it with a "manure spreader”. I didn't ask any questions because changing a will is an easy thing to do. But one day, that doctor will die, and his son will have essentially be told to "eat excrement".
13. Surprises Comes In Twos
My estate planning professor told us about a guy who had two families, neither of which knew about the other until it was time to read the man's will after he passed. This wasn't like a love child/mistress type scenario, both were nuclear multi-kid families. Both families showed up for what had to be one of the most awkward will readings in history.
I don't really know how he pulled it off, other than that he was away on "business" frequently.
14. That’s Just Wrong
My ex's brother helped his friend (he was friends with the couple, but clearly "chose" the guy) hide assets and wash cash in the six months leading up to a "Surprise, I'm divorcing you"! by the friend to his now-ex and deceased wife. But oh, it gets so much worse. He did this because she had just been diagnosed with cancer, and was not going to live.
He didn't see why "his money" should go to "her health care" when she was going to "die in a few years" anyway.
15. Feeling Bad For The Children
I’m an attorney and a foster parent, and my wife won’t sit next to me when we have to go to court for our kids because I usually have a running commentary on how inept the attorneys are. The judge for this type of case knows me and knows I’m an attorney, so he finds this entertaining. The last time we went in, there was one attorney, who is my FAVORITE, in the case before us.
Myself, the judge, and every other attorney hate her because she is oblivious, loud, and incompetent. So she stands up in this case and goes “Your honor, my client has only been found guilty of child endangerment in another county. I see no reason that this court should hold that against him when it comes to the custody of his children”. The judge did not agree.
16. Caught Red-Handed
I was reviewing the transcript of an interview with a child. The child made incriminating statements against my client. At one point, when discussing the allegations, the child used an odd word, but I didn't think much of it. A few days later, I was watching a video of the child interacting with their grandmother, who hates my client, from about a week before that interview. That’s when it all became so clear.
The grandmother used the exact same odd word in the exact context the child later used it. At that moment, it became clear that the child had been coached. It was the first real "ah ha!" moment of my career.
17. Mother Doesn’t Know Best
I'm 15, and my family is deeply religious. I respect that but sometimes, you know, I'm 15, and I have to, you know, rub one out. I try not to but like...I can't concentrate on anything else if I don't. And if I see a pretty girl, it'll get worse. It basically feels like sleeping to me, if I don't do it I can't function. I don’t know if I'm normal or not. I'm definitely ashamed of it.
But I'm not lying I promise. However, my mom doesn't believe me. My dad is out of the picture so I can't talk to him and ask him if this is a guy thing. Anyway, my mom has tried a lot of things to get me to stop. She took my door off, for example. She grounded me and stuff. I try to hide it so she gives up, but now she's come up with a horrific plan.
She decided to get some kind of device and put it on me so that I can't touch myself. She seemed serious and it wouldn't be out of character for her. She also does other weird things, like on Fridays we can't eat at all because of Jesus. I try to respect that but often times I go out on a bike ride and get food somewhere. Because, well, I get hungry. But then this took a twist.
I told my math teacher about my mother—and she got arrested. I got my 13-year-old brother after school yesterday and we went to see my math teacher. I didn't tell him all the details, but I told him my mother wanted to put a device on me to keep me from being intimate. At first he wanted to call our mom but that actually made my brother cry in fear so he didn't because I told him I'd run away and call the authorities if he did.
Still, he called a bunch of people, and about an hour later officers a bunch of other people showed up. Apparently they'd already been suspicious about our neighborhood. That’s when the lid on my family blew right off. Turns out, my mother has been doing things like burning us for punishment that are completely verboten and I honestly never really knew. They also found a stash of substances she apparently does with our preacher.
My mother wasn't home but all my other six siblings who are homeschooled were. Then they went down the street to where my mom and our preacher were and I don't know what happened but they took her in think for drugs and other stuff, but not the preacher. There were a bunch of people who talked to all of us and eventually they took us to a place where they said we'd stay for now.
I should have done this years ago, I feel really bad because I could have had my siblings taken better care of. I don't really know what's happening or going to happen, but the place I'm in now is way cleaner than I'm used to and we have clothes and stuff and food and we don't have to watch toddlers anymore. They weren't happy when they figured out stuff like the burns and that my 11- and 10-year-old sisters can't read at all.
They also weren't very happy with our house I could tell. I hope we don't have to go back.
18. Doggone It
So this couple has two dogs. My client tells me that she wants both dogs, and she won't have it any other way. She explains to me that the dogs love each other and NEED to be with one another. She is sobbing uncontrollably in my office, which is something I can normally deal with, but not in this case. She was beyond out of her mind crying.
I often use the Socratic method to explain things to people. First, I told her I love dogs (I do) and I totally understood her situation. I told her that it would really suck to break up my two dogs, so I understood her. Then I said, "But I have to ask you something. If you were a judge, and there were two dogs and two people, how would you divide them up?"
She realized what I was saying and she almost screamed, "Nooooo! You don't understand! They love each other and they can't be broken up!" I said, "I totally understand. I'm just asking you what you think YOU would do, if you were the judge...and there were TWO people and TWO dogs. How could the judge easily settle this matter?"
I was just trying to get her down to reality, so I could maybe figure out if she preferred one dog or if there was another way to settle this. Then she says: "Okay, I get it. Dogs are property. Even though they are my children, the law says they are property." That's right. At this point, I thought she had seen the proverbial light. I soon discovered how wrong I was.
"Okay, so then how about this: I will sell the dogs and that way, the court can't order me to give up the dogs. The dogs will be gone." Ugh. I said, "Ma'am, it sounds like you are saying that you are going to try to pull the wool over the judge’s eyes." I then continued, "I can't even entertain that notion. You think the judge hasn't seen this kind of stuff before? You think you're the only couple who has two dogs? Do you think this is an original idea? I'm not telling a judge that you sold the dogs."
I got her spouse served with the petition. Then she got her revenge: She fired me right before the trial and went in without an attorney. But she was in for a rude awakening. When she told the judge she sold the dogs, she actually thought he would just say, "Okay, well that's that." Instead, the judge said: "Who did you sell them to?"
Excuse me? "WHO DID YOU SELL THEM TO? I want a name and a telephone number. We can make the call right here, from the courtroom. I'm going to verify your story. I know you love these dogs very much, so I know you didn't give them to a stranger. Tell me who you sold the dogs to NOW." Oh gee whiz. She wasn't expecting that. I guess this judge has been a judge before!
Rather than have the judge call her accomplice, who was hiding the dogs and NOT expecting a judge to call, my ex-client admitted that it was a con. She crumbled under the judge's cross exam. The judge gave BOTH dogs to the respondent in the case. Full justice achieved, plus happy ending: Dogs get to stay together, and they surely would have been broken apart otherwise.
19. Nickel And Dime
I represented myself in small claims court. My lease had an exit clause that said if I fronted two months’ rent, they would work to lease my place and return any money that was unused. I checked with the office ahead of time, and they ensured me there was a waiting list for the units, so I gave them the two months and moved. This turned out to be a huge mistake.
They never returned a dime. I talked to the new tenant and confirmed they moved in a week later. In court, the judge was commenting on how he didn’t see anything explicitly saying they would return any unused rent, even though that intent was stated to me a few times. Dumbo from the leasing office piped in with “Your honor, in almost every case we can return some money, but in this case we didn’t have a tenant in the two months after he left.”
So she gave the case back to me and I presented the affidavit from the new tenant confirming the move-in date. Judge awarded me double what they owed. Turns out leasing office dumbos 1 and 2 thought they could lie to me and “return” my excess rent money to themselves. Protect yourself, people! Landlords are jerks.
20. Power Trip
I live in a small town in Wisconsin so law enforcement kind of knows everybody. But there’s this one officer who keeps pulling me over for the craziest and most asinine reasons, like I was too close to the curb or I stopped too close to the stop sign. He’s a young, attractive cop and I’m young and attractive as well, so I’m thinking he’s trying to flirt with me or something?
But the situations are so aggravating and the things he says and does seem like he’s intentionally trying to antagonize me so that I’ll say or do something out of anger and he’ll have an excuse to escalate the situation. But today he crossed the line. He pulled me over again under the guise that I wasn’t going the speed limit (it was 45 and I was going 50) and when he came to my car and said his usual stuff in the most condescending way, he said he had to search ME, not the car, because my car smelled funny.
My car smells like vanilla and I’ve never smoked anything in there so I know he was lying to me again. I told him that if he wants to search me he’ll have to get a female officer to do it, but he said if I don’t comply he’ll detain me. So I got out of the car. He told me to put my hands on my car so I did, and he just starts rubbing me up and down. Not even searching for anything, just rubbing me.
He went over my thighs twice, my lower back, and almost cupped my breasts. I was wearing a skin-tight skirt set, no pockets, and you could clearly see that I had nothing on me. I’m typing this like 30 minutes after it happened, I’m upset and angry and I feel violated. Is there any way I can get him in trouble for this? I have a GoPro in my car but I don’t know if it caught this on camera, as I didn’t check yet.
21. On The Record
It was my third month of practice, and I was in family law at the time. I was representing a mom in a petition for a restraining order against the boyfriend/dad. At issue in the broader case was child visitation, custody, support, etc., but today's hearing was just on the restraining order. We had pretty good facts but it was mostly based on the testimony of the parties.
My client was way more reputable as a witness, so I was feeling confident. 10 minutes before the hearing, my client shows up. I give her a last-minute prep on what to expect and then she says "I'm glad I'm going through with this. I can't deal with it anymore and he's just getting worse. To top it off, he left me a ranting voicemail on Saturday."
"You have your phone with you?" "Yes." We play the voicemail, and the recording shocked even me. It's a full two minutes of ex-boyfriend screaming stuff like, "I should have killed you when we were together," and, "You were always such a witch. I hope you burn in a fire." I didn't have time to ask her why the heck she hadn't said anything to me about the voicemail before the bailiff called our case.
We sit, and the judge asks if either side has additional evidence, and I ask for permission to play the voicemail. Ex-boyfriend, who didn't have an attorney, didn't object, so I played the whole nasty two-minute rant in open court. Judge goes, "We're going to take a brief recess before I issue my ruling. If the parties want to meet and confer in the hall, they are welcome to."
Boyfriend knew he was screwed. We settled the whole darn case then and there. My client got her wish list in terms of custody, supervised visitation, child support, plus the restraining order, to boot.
Unsplash
22. Family Means Love
Hi, so my life is falling apart. A few weeks ago, my father and my stepmother perished in a car accident. They have been married for seven years, and my stepmother had a daughter from a previous marriage who is eight years old. I love her unconditionally as if she were my own sister and I would fight tooth and nail to keep her safe. She has no immediate family other than her father in the area, so he was going to receive full custody of her.
Except this guy is an enormous jerk. The reason my stepmother left him is because he was abusive, although she never reported it, and the reason he was abusive was because my stepsister was born and he didn't want a child. As a result, he has never cared about her, never asked to see her, and has never wanted anything to do with her…until now, that is.
I was at home with my stepsister a few days ago and he knocked on the door. I opened it and we had a really ugly conversation about what was going to happen to my stepsister now that her mother and my father were gone. I told him that if he did end up having custody I would want to be seeing her as often as possible as I consider her my family. His reply stunned me.
He told me, verbatim, "That's not gonna happen, son. I don't want my daughter spending time with half caste blood." He's referring to the fact that my father is mixed race, and that I am too as a result. I slammed the door. I was absolutely livid. But then I got to work. I got a family lawyer who was one of the most kind and helpful people I've ever met in my life.
I told her the circumstances of my stepmom and dad’s passing through tears and sobbing, and then she told me she'd do everything she possibly could to help me. After my stepsister’s bio dad was informed that I would be trying to get full custody, he basically folded within hours. The lawyer told me that it wouldn't have mattered anyway, though.
She said that because he hadn't visited her for such an extended period of time that it was considered "abandonment" in the eyes of the law, and the likelihood of him specifically getting custody was unlikely because of this. After her bio dad said he didn't want my stepsister, I then spent weeks and weeks filing out the right papers and seeing the right people.
I've never signed so many things in my entire life. Because my stepsister had no biological family other than her dad, I was given custody on a silver platter, according to my lawyer. Her bio dad didn't ask for visitation rights, and it appears he didn't even care in the first place, he just wanted my stepsister for no reason other than to further upset me.
Yesterday, I signed the last piece of paper that confirmed that I had 100% custody of my stepsister. After I signed, we both cried and cried for hours. We're both working on processing what happened to her mom and my dad. As I write this, she's asleep next to me with her head on my shoulder. The past two months have hands down been the worst of my entire life.
I consider meeting my stepsister the best thing that's ever happened to me, and adopting her is the single best decision I've ever made. These events have made me realize that family isn't just DNA-based, it's actionable investments in the life of someone you love. I hope you all lead wonderful lives. Give your loved ones a big hug for me.
23. Time Confusion
Not a lawyer, but I represented myself against an employer who terminated me. I spent hours upon hours, day after day, preparing for this case. I printed out e-mails, recorded telephone calls, mountains of evidence. I wore my best suit and, nervous as all heck, showed up ready to plead my case. When I get there, my former employer opens with, "We terminated (my name) for truancy. He was supposed to report to work after his doctor's appointment, but did not show up until 3 PM."
There's an awkward silence. The judge says, "But in your written statement, you claim he didn't report to work until 12PM. In the timecard you presented to me, it shows that he reported to work at 10:30 AM." More silence. I won.
24. A Bird Of A Different Feather
To make a long story short, I’m a late 20-something living in Oregon. I had a pretty intense goth phase as a tween that I thought I had grown out of. A couple months ago, I was watching a nature program on our local station about crows. The program mentioned that if you feed and befriend them, crows will bring you small gifts. My emo phase came back full force.
I figured that I was laid off and had lots of time, so why not make some crow friends. My plan worked way too well. The resident five crows in my neighborhood have turned into an army of 15 strong. At first my neighbors didn’t mind and enjoyed it. They're mostly elderly and most were in a bird watching club anyway. They thought the fact that I had crows following me around whenever I go outside was funny.
Lately, though, the crows have started defending me. My neighbor came over for a chat and the crows started diving at her. They would not stop until she left my yard. They didn’t make physical contact with her, but they got very close. Honest question: Am I liable if these crows injure someone, since I fed them? I obviously can’t control the crows.
I would rather them not attack my neighbors. But since I technically created this nuisance, could I be financially on the hook for any injuries? To be clear, they're not aggressive 100% of the time. If just the neighbors are out they are friendly normal crows. They only get aggressive when someone gets close to me or my property. Honestly, what have I done?
25. Strings Attached
I worked as head bartender for a local restaurant for a number of years, and there was a regular customer who was there very frequently. I interacted with this customer frequently, too. They tipped exclusively in scratch tickets and specifically called to ask for my schedule, asked me out on multiple occasions, et cetera. Probably about 40 years my senior.
Then I won something from the scratch ticket that wasn't five or 10 dollars; the final amount after taxes was about three months’ salary for me, and I was making good money. I specifically didn't tell the customer, not because I thought they wouldn't want it but because I didn't want them feeling like I owed them something or that I should be thankful towards them.
I did tell a co-worker, and it got to the customer through the grapevine. The next time I came in, he congratulated me, and asked me a question that sent a shiver down my spine. He asked how we wanted to split it. I sternly told him that it was my tip and long story short, he went to my manager, who took his side. I actually quit since I had been planning to anyway since I'm about to finish school. But that wasn't the end.
My manager then GAVE THIS GUY MY EMAIL and he (the customer) emailed me saying that if I didn't agree to give him 50% of the winnings he'd take court action. Do I need to worry about taking his threat seriously? Is there anything I can or should do to protect myself? I'm assuming this is a bluff but I want to have my bases covered.
26. Rebutting In
I had a client who, despite being a large man, had been domestically mistreated by his much smaller wife throughout their marriage. After the divorce, she turned her anger on their son. He ran away one day to live with his dad, and we filed to restrict his ex's parenting time and ask for a permanent modification to the custody agreement.
At the permanent hearing, she denied hurting the child or my client in front of the child, said she never threatened anyone ever, and that she never made disparaging remarks about my client in front of their son, either. But there was one big thing she didn’t know, and couldn’t tell her attorney. My client had recorded multiple instances of her doing all of these things.
So I called my client back up for rebuttal right after her testimony and played an audio recording of her screaming at my client, threatening to break his face in, and calling him a loser, all while the child could be heard in the background begging her to stop. I looked over at the other attorney and she had her face in her hands. We won.
27. Sleepaway Camp
I am 16 years and two months old. My parents believe I am a disaster and unruly child, but they are delusional parents. My mother has bipolar disorder and does not take her meds regularly and I'm sure my father has undiagnosed mental health problems as well. They have been wanting to send me to a camp for troubled teenagers for a while, and two people recently came to take me without me knowing.
I thought they were kidnapping me. I screamed and my brother who was at home (but wasn't supposed to be) took my father's gun and threatened to kill them. That was when they told us who they are and why they are here. We called the authorities but they did nothing after they talked to our parents. I do not trust my parents anymore and I want to get emancipated. I don't think my parents will object; they will be happy to get rid of me.
28. The Wrong Place, The Right Time
I was prosecuting a convenience store owner for luring a young girl, who regularly came into the store, back to a part of the store to grope, fondle, and kiss her. However, it was the only section of the store without surveillance camera coverage. They were in the backroom for about two minutes and 17 seconds, per the time stamp on the videos.
Of the many arguments the defense put on, one was that there was no way there was enough time for anything to happen. I knew just how to shut this down. In my rebuttal on closing, I asked the jury to imagine what could happen in the room in that amount of time, and I asked them to all close their eyes while I timed out 2 minutes and 17 seconds on my watch, in silence.
After about 60 seconds, two of the jurors started crying. Knew it was going to be guilty right then.
29. Money Back Guaranteed
Years ago, I had to do something at an outlet mall in a bad part of town. It took me about 20 minutes and then I found that my car had been towed. Ubered to the tow yard, and the giant sign says “cash only.” Had to call another Uber, drive to the ATM and back, and pay them $300-some bucks. Got a horrible hand-written receipt that, believe it or not, was itemized.
I went home, Googled, found that they violated the law in three separate ways: They towed illegally, illegally refused to accept credit cards, and had multiple charges that the law called “unreasonable.” So I got my revenge. I took them to small claims court. The judge began by asking the tow yard owner about his relationship with the property owner and how the decision was made to tow my car.
"Oh," the slimy tow truck dude answered, "My cousin works there, if he says tow, I tow. It's a hundred percent fine!” The judge's eyebrows begin to rise. "But," the dude continued, "BUT what I detest the most, your honor, is this JERK claiming I don't take credit cards. I'm a businessman! I take credit cards all the time! He's a low life who does not have any credit cards, that's why he wanted to pay cash!"
I was having a "HOLD IT" overload, and the judge saw me smiling and hopping in my seat and patting my manila folder of receipts. "Do you actually not have any credit or debit cards?" the judge asked me. I pulled out my wallet and showed him, and then I pulled out the clincher. It was a time-stamped photo of the "CASH ONLY" sign I took the day of, and another one I took the morning of the hearing.
The guy mumbled something like, "Okay, you got me there" and then had nothing but, "Huh, I didn't know that" when the judge asked him about the legality of each unreasonable itemized charge. Anyway, each violation pays double the total tow charge, and since there were three, that's how I made $1,800 on a $300 investment.
Pexels
30. An Underdog Victory
I work as an insurance lawyer. One of my firm's partners, as happens sometimes, handed me a small case for our client, and told me to resolve it. Our insured, a man of around 75, was driving his car in the left lane of a four-lane road. The defendant, a lady who had been involved in a grisly murder as an accomplice about 15 years ago, was in the right lane.
The lady side-swiped our insured's vehicle, causing like $4,000 in damages. At the scene, our client said that he was just driving, and then he was side-swiped. The defendant said, "I don't know what happened, officer." The lawsuit was about six or seven months old when I got it, and the partner who was initially handling the case had spoken with the old man on two occasions and sent him a letter.
When I received the file, trial was a few weeks away, so I printed out the pictures of the vehicle, sent a subpoena to the officer, and tried to call the insured. I got a busy signal, so I put the file away. A few days later, I got a call from the officer who filed the report. Her words started a chain reaction of disaster. She said, "I'm not going to make it to court because I'm off on the court date."
"Alright, well, when are you available?" I asked. She paused, then said, “The report is hearsay. You don't need me anyway." "Ma'am, what I need you for is not hearsay. I'll reset this for a date that you are available for." That wasn't helpful. I called the defense attorney, and we pushed the trial out about a month and half.
I issued a new subpoena on the officer. I tried to call our insured again. I got a busy signal. Out of options and ideas, I pulled up our data software and looked up our client...that’s when I made a disturbing discovery. He’d passed the previous month. I'd never had this happen before, so I called the insurance adjuster handling this claim and told them, "Hey, I hate to tell you this, but our client is no longer alive.”
I then talked to the partner who had handed me the case. Instead of dropping the whole thing, he came up with a diabolical plan. He suggested that we fake it. I'd go to court, call the defendant as my witness, call the officer to discuss the scene, then get pictures of the vehicle into evidence using the insurance adjuster, who could also testify to damages.
The insurance adjuster is willing to try, but about a week later, I get a call from the officer, bailing on being a witness again. I really wanted to call her sergeant and complain, but it wasn't worth the trouble. So, now at trial, it's going to be the insurance adjuster and I. We'll probably lose since I have practically zero evidence against the defendant now.
Suddenly, I get a phone call that changes everything. It’s from the defense attorney. On the spot, they suddenly agree to pay the claim in full. I never told that attorney that my client wasn’t even alive anymore, but some day I kind of want to tell him he paid out a ton of money to a ghost.
31. Skeletons In The Closet
I’m 16 and I have good reason to think my mom and dad aren't my real parents. I had a much older sister who completed suicide when I was six and she was 26. All of her stuff is in the basement in boxes. I don't remember too much about her honestly and it makes me sad sometimes. My parents don't talk much about her.
There's also a painting in our house that she painted. It's a very nice painting of a swamp, and it's my favorite thing. Anyway, one day I decided to go looking through all of her stuff, mostly for more pictures. What I found was a bunch of notebooks of writing she did, mostly poetry. I felt weird reading them at first because they were mostly about her depression…then I read a story that cut me to the bone.
I read this one that was about how she had a baby and someone took him away. It's really short and I didn't really understand it, like a lot of it seemed metaphorical I guess is the word. Anyways, I asked my mom if she ever had a baby and my mom was really weird about it. She wanted to know why I would ask that. I said I just found some stuff in the basement and was curious.
She got mad at me and told me not to snoop and said she didn't have kids. Then I started thinking about it. I am the spitting image of my sister but I don't look like my mom or dad. I casually asked my mom to see my birth certificate the next day and she got mad again and wouldn't let me see it.
32. Everyone Uses This Phone Number?
I went to a sporting goods store, and they asked me for my phone number when I was paying. I was in a bad mood and didn’t want to fight with the clerk, so I told them our local area code and 555-1212, which is the old number for directory assistance. The clerk accepted it and I left. When I checked my receipt I had a huge number of loyalty points—because apparently, a ton of other people did the same thing.
I knew exactly what to do. I called the office the next day and switched the “account” to my new address. A half-dozen times over the next few years, I went and got free stuff with all the points that I kept racking up as one of their most loyal customers.
33. Keep An Open Mind
My mom and stepdad are really into "new age" science and beliefs. I've never agreed with them on this but didn't know how extreme it was. Recently, they have become involved in an extremely weird "support group." I say that in quotes because I have no clue who they are. When I'm around they never mention any group names or what "organization" they work for or are a part of.
Because of this, I have not had much luck finding out stuff as "new age cult" gives too many results to look into. This Monday, my mom and stepdad sat me and my four siblings down. They told us that we will be moving at the end of the month to a more "stable" location within a spiritual community. Oh, and that's just the start. According to them, they plan to pull all five of us out of school here and enroll us in their "mind awakening" school wherever we move.
I tried to get anything out of them but they refused to talk to me at all about it. According to them, because I’m still a child in "mind, body, and spirit,” I need to listen to them not ask questions. I’m 16. I've actually been freaking out since then and have been trying to get advice but I've been unable to. They cut off the internet, phone, and TV and they have been keeping a laser focus on me and my siblings since then.
I'm currently at a friend’s house and this is the only way I've actually got access to the internet. This seems like a cult 100% to me. Last night they had three people come and talk to me and my siblings, and what they told us was absolutely crazy. I was talked to alone by an old man who told me about how my mind is "closed" and that I will slowly learn to open it as my parents have and that the "leaders" will love to meet me and put me in their programs.
I need to know what I can do here. My dad has shared custody of me but I’ve had no contact with him since they told us. He is supposed to have a call with me every night but my mom claims he's been "informed" and supports this 100%. I tried calling him this morning but he didn't answer. He lives in another state so it's kind of hard to get into contact with him outside of phone and email.
I'm at a friend’s house because I was able to leave the house for the first time in a week this morning after I told my parents I wanted to go to the park, but came here and told my friend everything. Her parents are not home but she's trying to call them and I plan to stay here tonight if I can. My parents have forbid me from using the internet because it's "full of lies from them."
I'm so lost right now it makes me sick. I do not want to go with them to this obvious compound. I also will be going and buying a burner phone tomorrow and withdrawing all my money from the bank.
34. Get It Off Your Chest
I battled breast cancer about a year and a half ago. Fortunately, I didn't need chemotherapy or radiation because surgery successfully removed all the tumors. I still have occasional check-ups and screenings that require me to miss work. Sadly, a co-worker in another department is still undergoing treatment after surgery couldn't remove her cancer entirely.
I opted not to have breast reconstruction, so I returned to work after about 3 1/2 weeks. On my left side, there's no breast tissue, just a flat scar. On the right side, I have only a small amount of breast tissue, about 55% of what I originally had, due to a lumpectomy.
Recently, my co-workers and immediate supervisor have been discussing my breast cancer because I had to miss a crucial meeting for an MRI and bone scan. I had received approval from my manager and HR for the time off. However, my co-worker and supervisor are now spreading rumors, suggesting that I didn't really have breast cancer because I returned to work relatively quickly. When I found out, it felt like a punch in the gut.
To conceal the changes in my appearance, I wear a prosthetic at work. They argue that most people with cancer take extended leaves and I seem fine. They even mentioned seeing me at a store after an oncology appointment, assuming I looked perfectly healthy.
It's important to note that my appointments are not for chemotherapy but for check-ups and blood draws. While they can be emotionally draining, I feel physically well. The situation became so uncomfortable that I began to fear scheduling appointments because I knew returning to work would be challenging. My manager and HR have consistently been supportive, but the issue mainly lies with my supervisor and co-workers.
I have upcoming surgery to address some scarring and tidy up the remaining tissue now that I've been cancer-free for over a year. I mentioned this to my supervisor, who responded dismissively with, "The cancer thing again." Last week, I overheard my co-workers in the adjacent office talking about me, suggesting I was deceiving everyone and didn't deserve a raise due to my supposed lack of cancer.
I made a regrettable decision in my frustration. I walked over to their office, lifted my shirt and prosthetic bra, revealing the scars on my chest. I covered my remaining 55% of the breast with my hand but showed the scars. I expressed my anger and returned to my desk. This happened on a Friday afternoon at 3:30 pm, and I left at 4:30 as usual. Since then, no one has mentioned it. Now it's Monday, and I'm concerned. Over the weekend, I realized it was a mistake. I should have gone to HR about the gossip. I've seen my manager, but they haven't said anything, and my supervisor remains silent. The co-workers who were gossiping haven't spoken either. Those who weren't involved are acting normally.
To resolve this situation, I'm unsure of my next steps. What should I do to address this mistake? What can I expect from my colleagues and supervisors?
35. Lies Don’t Pay
A friend of mine was an attorney in New York for a while. He was defending a guy who was asleep in the backseat of his car while intoxicated and a NYS Trooper detained him. On the stand, the Trooper testified that he visually saw "the key in the ignition." My friend gave him like three chances to walk it back. "Are you sure, Trooper, that you actually saw the key IN the ignition?" The guy wouldn’t back down.
"Yes, counselor..." That's when my buddy dropped the hammer. "You are aware that my client drives a Toyota Prius?" BAM. My buddy moved for immediate dismissal, and the DA didn't argue. Case dismissed. Nothing happened to the Trooper. As to WHY the Trooper did this? Promotions & Overtime. Imagine you're running the entire New York State of officers. You have about 5,000 Troopers—what metric do you use to gauge how effectively they're performing their tasks?
For the most part, Troopers ride alone. So Trooper #1 drives around all day on his shift and issues zero tickets. Trooper #2 manages to issue, say, five tickets a day and makes an arrest four times a month? You're going to assume that Trooper #2 is "doing his job." An "aggressive" officer is one who has a lot of tickets and so forth.
Also, court appearances are almost always on overtime. Officers’ unions are very specific about overtime pay rates and when they apply. If you're an "effective" Trooper and you write lots of tickets, you're going to be in court a LOT at 1.5 your hourly rate, sometimes 2.0 your hourly rate, depending. So it pays them to be like this.
36. Famous For The Wrong Reasons
My butthole has been a location on Facebook since 2012 and I can't get it removed. I wish this was fake but it's not. The first thing you see when you type in my full name on Google is "Original Poster's Butthole.” This page was created in 2012, and I was only 15 at the time. I have reported it a million times, and even asked friends to report it. It's humiliating.
I tried requesting the name change of the page and reported it under every option possible. Facebook says it doesn't violate terms. I tried claiming it as my business since at the bottom of the page it claims to be automatically generated off interest of the topic, and it wouldn't let me claim it. It was never a business. I was a child. I feel so hopeless.
37. Let It Go
Five years ago, I was stalked for six months by a guy I knew less than a month as an actual person. We dated very briefly; I broke things off and things seemed amicable…until he started showing up outside my house and demanding I be with him or else. He had decided that he was a good man and he deserved a chance. He threatened that if he didn't get a chance, he'd kill me or hopefully I’d kill myself.
After six months of daily threats, 10+ reports, multiple restraining order attempts, moving, and getting rid of all social media, he found me anyway and kicked my door in at midnight. Suddenly, my world spun out of control. I shot him in the chest in self-defense, and he was finally sentenced and went behind bars. I thought I was done with him. I was so, so wrong.
I guess he was on parole for about four months after his release recently because I immediately started receiving messages and comments from him afterward; he just picked right back up where he left off. I contacted the parole board and they said he was released from supervision a few days before. I have contacted the authorities and was approved for a restraining order but of course they haven’t been able to serve it.
They said they can’t prove the messages are from him despite him using his name, posting his pictures, and literally commenting my name and talking about the shooting in the comment replies. The detective is waiting for a subpoena to prove it’s him. I am documenting every bit of harassment of course…but I am just...exhausted. I am so incredibly frustrated with the lack of help available and closed doors there are for people being stalked.
38. A Friend In Need
Last month, a friend of mine began to cross a flooded river in his car with me in it. I jumped out because I'd been caught on a flooded causeway before. I now have a letter from his lawyer asking for damages because the car was washed off the causeway and written off. I'm pretty sure this is a case of my (probably ex) friend being an idiot on a lawyer's letterhead or not telling his lawyer the whole story.
When I'm in the middle of it, it feels a lot different though. Early in November, we went to pick up car parts after work that my friend I'll call Aaron (because his name's Aaron and I think he's being an idiot) had bought on eBay. We had to go through some back roads to get to the property and picked it up and all was well. It'd been raining for part of the day but really picked up when we were loading the parts.
We got to a causeway we'd passed only an hour before, but it was now covered in what looked like half a meter of water and we stopped. I'd been navigating and knew we could back up and take another much longer route, even though the highway was just a bit on the other side of the causeway. There was no way I'd go through the water as it looked, because I'd been caught on a causeway 20 years ago in less water and had my car pushed off into the river.
I didn't want to risk it. I didn't lose that car but it was one of the scariest moments of my life. I said we had to turn back and could take a different road and that it would take us via a bridge over the same river. Aaron decided to push on and started moving and I panicked and got straight out. It was FAR more water than I'd had to go through when I nearly lost my car and life before.
Aaron didn't even get halfway across before the water pushed his car off the side, rolled it completely over, and it ended upright on the bank downstream. He was EXTREMELY lucky not to drown, and I ran down and helped him out. Immediately he was aggressive and combative because he said with my weight in the car he'd have made it across.
The car is commodore wagon with a couple hundred kg of eBay parts in the back, so it's not like I'd have made much difference. We phoned for help and the river went down within an hour and we made it across the causeway by foot. We haven't spoken since and he's avoided me in places we usually go. But on Friday I received a letter from a lawyer I know is real in our town, but it sounds like it was written by my friend.
It's asking for $50k for the car and personal damages because I made the car unsafe by getting out. It was a 1997 commodore, maybe worth $1,500 on a good day. I think he's being a jerk.
39. Semantics In The Court
I am not a lawyer, but I witnessed a pathologist win a case in court by destroying the defense's credibility. The question was over whether or not carbon monoxide could have caused certain signs of death in an individual, but the defense didn't study their chemistry very well and kept asking the pathologist whether "carbon dioxide" could have caused these signs.
After thoroughly frustrating the defense by answering his questions "incorrectly," the pathologist said very loudly, "OH I'm sorry, did you mean carbon monoxide? Because that's a completely different thing." Completely destroyed the defense's credibility in front of the jury. They were done after that. So, I guess the opposing counsel screwed himself by not picking up a book.
40. You Get What You Give
I’m not sure what to do. Earlier today, my neighbor came pounding on my door shouting at me. When I finally got him to stop yelling, I found out that he was flying his drone in my backyard again and this time my dog finally managed to catch it and destroy it. He claims this was a $900 drone and I had to pay him right then and there. I refused and closed the door in his face.
A couple of hours later, an officer showed up to retrieve the drone. It was still in my yard, but my dog completely ignored it once it stopped buzzing. The officer asked about the situation. He said the neighbor called them, stating that I refused him access to my yard to get it. That's not true, he never asked. I'm worried the neighbor will try to press charges against me for the destruction of property or sue me.
He has a history of flying his drone low over my yard to tease my dog. I have asked him to stop several times, which he always refuses, telling me that I don't own the air above my yard. I have called the authorities to complain once before, as he was doing "fly bys" over my dog and getting very close to hitting him. The authorities didn't say he couldn't fly it in my yard but did ask him to stop doing so in order to avoid conflict. That only seemed to egg him on.
41. Too Close For Comfort
Background: my mom worked at a very small hospital in a very small town for 30+ years and is close to most of the doctors, nurses, and office workers, not only in the hospital but around the whole town as well. My GP, who I have seen since I was ~10 years old, is one of the people my mother is close with. I moved away for college when I was 18 but continued seeing him due to just not wanting to mess with finding a new GP and my mom wanting me to continue seeing him, since I've seen him half my life. This was an incredible mistake.
I get routine blood work done to measure how my liver is doing as well as monitor the levels of a certain medication I take to make sure that I'm not getting too little/too much. The results of this information or the fact that I have those tests done isn't a big secret I want to keep, they don't really mean anything unless I were to become sick and they don't test for information, like say illicit drugs.
The first time I had this work done, I hadn't been to that doctor in a while to really remember if this had happened in the past, but they called my mom with my results. They even told her specifics, like what my liver enzymes were and what the medication level was. Again, it's not like to my mother this is anything I want to hide, but it was a little concerning that she got the call and I never received any call about my results.
I go in for these monthly, so the next month that I went I told the woman working in the lab of the office that I wanted to update my information to make sure I got the results. I thought also since I had been seeing this doctor since I was 10, I probably had never given them my phone number. A few days later, it happened again.
My mother again got the call and called to tell me my results; I again got no call from the office. Once again, not a big deal, but since this happened when I explicitly gave my phone number in place of my mother's, I was a little ticked off that I wasn't called again. I chose to wait until my next lab work to say anything again anyway. At this visit, I had both lab work and an appointment to get a refill on birth control.
My doctor asked me to do a pregnancy test in with this blood work due to me running out of said birth control a few days earlier. I wasn't worried that I was pregnant, but I knew that now it was serious time to make them stop calling my mom with my results. I asked the lady drawing my blood to confirm my phone number to see if it even got put in last time.
It did, so on my way out I stopped to talk to the women who always work in the office/at the desk and tell them explicitly that I and I alone want to be called for my results, not my mother. They nonchalantly agreed and I asked them to check my phone number on the system they use in the office, and it was there. I happened to be visiting in town during this time and staying with my mom, who, you guessed it, got the phone call right in front of me telling her my results, including the negative pregnancy test. That’s when my mom BLEW UP at me.
She starts asking why I needed to take a pregnancy test, even though I didn't think this was a big deal especially since it was negative. That all blew over, but at this point I was so mad that she kept getting this information. I ended up getting into it with my mom, telling her that that was a direct breach of HIPAA and she knows it after working in a hospital.
She laughed it off and said something about the doctor knowing me since I was born, her being friends with the office ladies and the doctor, and the one that hit me the most: "It's not a big deal, I'm your mom!" Since then, I've been getting my lab work done elsewhere. To no surprise, there are no issues. I don't really know what to do here. Since I cut ties with that doctor, I no longer have personal problems with this, but I don’t want him to do it to anyone else.
42. The Foster Sister
My family did foster care for a few years, and we fell in love with the last girl we took in—now my younger sister. She was required to keep in regular touch with her emotionally and physically abusive birth mom, the intention being for them to eventually reunite. This woman was a nightmare come to life. Every single time they interacted, she'd spend the duration painstakingly shredding my sister's self-confidence.
My parents worked hard to establish a strong rapport and a supportive environment, and she blossomed under their care. She's one of the most resilient people I know. When the state tried to return her to her mom, she didn't want to go, so my parents sued (I think? Don't really know all the legal details) for guardianship.
This seemed like it would be an uphill battle; here we were, a family of random people trying to "steal" a kid from her rightful mom. We were really afraid that she would have to go back, and that her terrible family would systematically undo all the hard work she'd done rebuilding her self-esteem. Fortunately, her dumb mom decided to represent herself at the guardianship hearing.
I wasn't in the room, but I heard the audio recording later on, and it's incredible how thoroughly this woman shot herself in the foot. Some highlights: She kept trying to testify while cross-examining people, e.g., "Would it surprise you to learn that blah blah blah?" The judge called her out for this like six separate times and she just kept doing it. She would admit to various incidents of emotional torment, but then try to argue that it was all justified because her daughter was being difficult. She'd ask witnesses, for example, "And wouldn't you be angry if your daughter did XYZ? Yes or no?"
My personal favorite and the best example of her proving our case: "It is absolutely not true that I hit my daughter with a wooden spoon! I only tried and missed. I'll prove it, I can show you the mark it left in the doorframe." Needless to say, we won guardianship. My sister never has to see that awful woman again unless she darn well pleases.
43. Everything Has A Price
So my parents are heavily Mormon and we just recently had a tithing settlement, and when they asked me if I had paid my tithing I told them no. They then asked me if I had a plan to “fix” that and I told them that I worked too hard just to give that money away. Anyways so afterward, my mom, who is my account co-owner as I am under 18, decided to take 10% of my bank account out and refuses to give it back.
This isn’t right, so I planned to slowly, over the next few days, withdraw the money over time. But then it got ridiculous. Turns out, my dad is sick of my mom overspending so he did two things. He’s stopped paying tithing himself AND swapped my mom’s credit card for a debit card. My mom took my money to pay off tithing for him and she gave me roughly $200 back.
She said she’ll give me the rest back and that she’s still disappointed in me for not paying my tithing. Still, it doesn’t sound like I’m getting my money back any time soon. Both my parents are in a significant amount of debt, and my parents fought a lot yesterday apparently. My mom spent almost $10,000 on stuff for the past month or so.
My dad has started making cuts in our budget to fix this, tithing being one of them. I’m still following through with taking my money and putting it in a place where my parents can’t touch it. Just in case they get any ideas.
44. You Can Always Do More
I am a 16-year-old Junior in high school and work part-time at a gym. I generally open the gym on weekends at 7 am, and am alone in the building until our housekeeping staff comes in at 8:00. It starts out slow as members come in, and usually picks up around 9 when our Sales staff and General Manager come in. The gym is a two-story facility.
Earlier this morning around 8ish, I was approached by another member who stated there was a woman in the locker room downstairs who was laying on a bench shaking and presumably having a seizure. So I RUN downstairs to the locker room, and sure enough, there is a woman shaking uncontrollably, but breathing. I had my cell phone with me and immediately called 9-1-1.
I stayed on the phone with the dispatcher while waiting for the EMTs and paramedics, who arrived about five minutes later. The dispatcher stated I should absolutely NOT try to perform CPR/First Aid (I am licensed) or move her, only to hold onto her to make sure she did not fall off the bench. The EMTs manage to revive her, and she gets wheeled out of the gym and to the hospital.
I'd say we were in the locker room for about 20 minutes trying to convince her to go—she was VERY stubborn. There was a personal trainer who was there to help me and for whom I am EXTREMELY grateful. I filled out an Incident report and filed it with our GM when he came in. We have had concerns with this member before, as she has health issues.
The thing is, I have absolutely no idea how long she was suffering from a seizure. It looked as if she was in the midst of changing into gym gear when it happened. She checked in shortly after 7:15 am. I just received a text message from my GM and she is now threatening to sue us for her seizure. Can she come after me personally?? As I said, I have no idea how long she was in that state for and I am terrified.
45. Fighting Like Cats And Dogs
We live in the city limits of Wake county Raleigh NC where there are strict leash laws. Our new neighbors moved in next door about six months ago and have two large Labradors who are let out the back door into the open yards each day and night. One of their dogs is very sweet and well-behaved, while the other is rather aggressive and will charge at people and other dogs.
We have asked them multiple times to walk their dogs on leashes and explained about the city leash laws of our state and county, but they refuse to keep them on leashes. Two months ago, one of their labs charged at myself and my small beagle from across the yard. The next few seconds still make me so furious. The dog’s owner just sat there and watched as I tried to fight off her dog while picking up my beagle.
The dog bit my arm enough to draw blood, and I kicked her dog to get it to stop and back off from its attack. The owner then went into a rage over me doing this and the next day filed a complaint against me. That backfired because they contacted me for my side of the story and ended up charging the neighbor a $250 violation. I didn't file an animal control report because my bite wasn't that bad and I thought the fine would set them straight.
Also, it's not the dog’s fault her owner is an idiot. They continued to let their dogs run free and we have multiple videos of them letting their dogs run free and of the aggressive dog running onto our porch and throwing her body against our glass door, trying to get at our dogs inside our house. Last month, I confronted our neighbor with the multiple videos and told her she needed to walk them on leashes and we were no longer willing to be afraid to use our back porch or walk our dogs anymore.
I told her this was the last time we'd be nicely asking her and next time we'd call animal control. Fast forward to six days ago, when I woke up to a nightmare. It was the sound of one of my dogs, for lack of better term, screaming. I jumped out of bed and ran into the yard where my sister and one of my beagles were being attacked by her dog. AGAIN.
My sister had curled around our dog and was being repeatedly bitten by the neighbors’ dog. I tackled the neighbors’ dog and (not proud to say as a lifelong animal lover) proceed to grab the dog by her neck and force her to the ground by her neck and shove her head into the ground while practically sitting on the dog to control her.
The neighbor finally got her dog inside. The results were my dog had a huge chunk ripped out of her throat, multiple rips in both ears, six broken teeth on her bottom jaw, a shattered front paw and a broken arm, and multiple bites to her face and rib cage. My dog needed all broken teeth removed, pins in her arm and paw, dozens of stitches, and a skin graft (had no idea they could do this for dogs) to close the hole in her neck.
My sister needed 38 stitches from the bites she received, I ended up with 29 stitches from bites I received, and all three of us are on a plethora of antibiotics and follow-up care including rabies shots for my sister and me because her dog had no current shots. Those shots are not pleasant in any way. Our combined medical/vet bills are 29k with still needing follow-up visits for all of us over the next few months.
My neighbor is refusing to pay anything at all and claims she's not at fault because our yard isn't fenced. She's also claiming she's going to sue us because apparently I broke two of her dog’s ribs when I tackled her to the ground. I cleared out my savings account to make the basic payments to save my dog’s life and don't have any more money to hire a lawyer.
We can hardly afford the co-pays on our insurance to get our rabies treatments and prescriptions filled. I filed to get an advance on my pay but it can take up to two weeks to go through and I was served with a court summons today for injuries to her dog and her pain and suffering from the trauma of her hurt pet. The claim also states that I intentionally caused harm to her pet and used unnecessary force to subdue her pet.
I'm a 4'10 female and my sister is a 4' 8 female. Her dog is almost as big as I am. I really don't know where to start or how to deal with this. I feel like we have a solid case due to the videos and the paperwork from the first time she tried to blame us. I also have messages that span her time as our neighbor via the Nextdoor app where she admits to walking her pets off-leash and her refusal to stop because it's "her house."
With not many other options, we took drastic measures. We each submitted a police report. The officer called animal control and viewed it as a good use of their weekend emergency service because the neighbor did not/could not provide proof of a rabies shot and is viewed as a public health risk and no one can confirm the dog’s aggression isn't attributed to that.
That's probably not the case but city law requires all dogs within city limits to be registered with the city and up to date on all shots. The officer suggested that we take our dogs and cars and leave the neighborhood between 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm or until we receive a follow-up call from animal control. He also suggested we call our homeowners’ insurance after we were done at the station and had a report to give them.
They took photos of our injuries and said we need to take pictures of our dog once we got home. We already took photos of ourselves and dog last night, but they wanted their own to file with the report. We asked about getting a protection or restraining order but he said it would be very hard to do because we'd have the burden of proof showing that she maliciously and intentionally used her dog to harm us.
My boyfriend went out this morning and bought two cameras and a stack of SD cards. He has one set up to look out over our back yard and one looking out to where we park our cars and front porch. This lady is still letting her dogs run out free after the attack and we can get that on video. My sister, dogs, and I are going to spend the night at my boyfriend’s house tonight just so we can stay clear of the crazy neighbor. But we went further than that.
We messaged most of the neighbors on our row and a few of them have had bad experiences and are willing to write statements. The kicker is the family directly behind us has a teenage son who took a VIDEO on his phone of the big attack! The neighbor dog had tried to attack her son’s cat while he was on the back porch once, so when her son heard the yelling he whipped out his phone.
I haven't seen it yet but his mother said they'll gladly turn it over to our lawyer and write statements.
46. A Friend In Need
My client was riding his motorcycle on a relatively calm street when this guy exited his garage, without looking, and ran over him. In the deposition, the guy brought a witness who was with him at the time in the passenger seat. The whole time, the witness maintained that my client was driving too fast and that there was no time to brake the car.
I asked him the same question a few times in different ways, making him tell the story again. In the fourth telling, he was already a bit frustrated and let it slip: “—Look, I’ve already told you. We were exiting the garage and, as soon as I sat up from getting my cell phone from the car’s carpet—” “—Wait. So you didn’t even see the crash?”
There was no coming back from that.
47. Squatter’s Rights
I just moved and it was just me and a couple of friends unloading, so we left some things on the street next to the moving truck while we did heavier items like desks, shelves, etc. as a team. I came out after bringing in some more boxes (I had been gone roughly 15 minutes) to find a guy had loaded my couch into the bed of his truck. I ran up to him and explained I own the couch.
He said since it was on the street corner, it’s public property and he’s within his rights to take it. He drove off before I could block his car. I did get his license plate and went to the station make a report, but they asked me if it was in fact on the curb. I said it was, but it was also pretty obviously next to a moving truck, and it was wrapped up and surrounded by boxes.
They didn’t say anything that inspired hope. The couch has been in the family for three generations now and while it probably isn’t worth more than a few hundred bucks, it is sentimentally priceless.
48. Sometimes, Urine Need Of A Lawyer
I once won a case about the possession and transport of human urine in order to fool a urine screen. I had a client who was caught with a little container of alleged urine that he may or may not have been about to use to mess up a drug screen. Since he hadn't messed with a drug screen or actually tried to mess with one yet, he couldn't be charged with that.
So instead, he was charged with trying to transport human urine with the intent to fool a urine screening test. This led to the most bizarre moment of my entire career. I got to argue that 1) the prosecution hadn't proven it was human urine (they hadn't tested it) and 2) they deprived us of the opportunity to test it because the officer poured it out before giving the container back to the client.
My client could literally testify it wasn't human urine and his testimony was the closest anyone had to the truth. Since it wasn’t proven to be human urine, and he wasn’t actually caught doing anything with it, they had to let him go. This trial was a golden moment in my career.
49. Soup Surprise
I’m currently on vacation visiting family for Christmas. I’m a vegan by choice, but I am also allergic to red meat. I was bitten by a “lone star tick,” which caused me to develop a severe allergy to meat. My family makes fun of me for being vegan, though I cook for myself for all meals and don’t mention it much at all. Anyway, I guess some of my extended family didn’t know the severity of my allergy because my younger cousin chopped up steak (extremely finely I guess) and put it in my butternut squash soup.
Shortly after I ate some of my soup, an awful feeling crept over me. I couldn’t breathe and was breaking out in hives. I woke up in the hospital on Christmas Day, as my mom called an ambulance when she saw my face was swelling. My cousin didn’t say sorry when I started breaking out in hives. He started laughing and told me what he had done.
I woke up to a text from him saying “stop overreacting, you need protein” with a picture of a slaughtered cow. His parents aren’t very well off, but my God do I want to pursue him in court.
50. Hold Please
A former Air BnB guest put a hold on my mail for everyone at my address and has been paying to hold the mail for two months. It’s kind of a genius revenge tactic, but the ones who suffered the most are my new renters. One guy has a thyroid problem and had to repurchase $500 in meds. A lot of people missed paychecks or credit cards. One lady missed the receipt of a Death Certificate.
We thought someone was taking the mail from the mailbox at first, but then we started watching the mailman just skip over the house every day and some "test" mail didn't move. So I tried calling the USPS and that got me nowhere. Going down in person was the only way to do this I guess. Turns out, some lady who we'd kicked out for being nasty, attracting bugs, and breaking furniture was mad or something or maybe using my address like a personal PO Box?
Who knows. The post office was really nice about it though and gave me back all my mail. Still, how could this have happened? Surely this can't be legal. I got copies of her hold requests too as proof it was her. She hadn't lived there in two weeks when she put in the first one.
51. A Dog Eat Dog World
I filed the lawsuit in January. We exchanged "discovery" over the next few months, and I filed a motion for summary judgment, meaning I'm asking the court to let me win the case without a jury because the case is so obvious. Right before I file this motion, I figure, let's review the discovery materials and see if there's anything I missed.
And what do you know, the other side made a massive mistake on literally just the fourth out of 100+ questions that I asked. It's a dog bite case, and every single time I asked about the bite, the response says something along the lines of, "We admit to this and that, but we deny that our dog was involved in any dog attack." Just one moment won me the whole case.
Question 4 asks whether they admit that their dog was not leashed on the day it bit my client, and they simply answer, "Admit." Meaning, they admit their dog was not leashed, AND they admit that their dog was the one that bit my client. That was the ONE thing that was genuinely in dispute. They tried to argue at the hearing that it was a mistake and they only meant to admit to the lack of a leash.
Nonetheless, the judge held them to their word, most likely because the other evidence made it clear it could only have been their dog, anyway.
52. The Surprise Admission
I am a lawyer who defends a state from injury claims. There was a claim where there was a dispute as to the value of a state employee's injury. We went to trial to argue the extent of the injury. When the employee takes the stand and is under direct examination by her attorney, she is unable to answer basic questions about her name and address.
Everyone just thought it was nerves, but eventually, the dark truth came out. The employee confesses that she is a convicted felon and she took her sister's identity to obtain the state job. Judge's jaw hits the floor and the employee's attorney just keeps going through his examination like nothing happened. The judge stopped him and had the court reporter read back the testimony.
The employee's attorney was still oblivious to what happened. The judge recommended the employee drop her case and quit her job immediately. The employee's attorney wanted to keep going, the judge then told him that his client will drop her case and quit. Case was dropped and she quit that afternoon.
53. Clear Out
Tonight when my husband got home from work, he told me devastating news. He informed me that he wants a divorce and will be leaving until it's done. This is not a huge surprise honestly, as ever since our daughter was born we've just not been getting along. What is a surprise is its suddenness. I've been a stay-at-home mom since our daughter was born two years ago, it just didn't make sense to work and spend 90% of what I made on daycare. But worse was to come.
So in talking to him before he was finished packing, he told me, "Good luck with the mortgage and bills, I've taken MY money out of our bank account and turned off your card on MY credit." Again, I would say I was shocked, but I really am not. He's very mean when he's angry and never has seemed to connect with his daughter. He wanted a boy and from the day we got the word we were having a daughter he's been distant.
I obviously need an attorney. I logged into our bank account, and sure enough, it's at $5. I don't see how he can just leave us with nothing all of the sudden, and not enough for me to defend myself.
54. Airing The Dirty Laundry
I moved into my apartment at the start of January, and since then I have been convinced that someone was taking my underwear. Every floor has a pair of washer/dryer units, and since moving in I have had almost a dozen different things just disappear from the washer or dryer. The laundry room is so tiny that there is nowhere to sit, aside from sitting on top of one of the machines, so it makes it very hard to wait and see what’s happening.
Two weeks ago, I went and bought a bunch of new things, and when I went to go remove stuff from the washer, I noticed that several things I had just bought went missing. Armed with this and the fact it was early Saturday morning, I went to our landlord and she was able to tell me during the 35 minutes of washing, the only person who entered was my next-door neighbor’s son.
Now at this point, I was furious and confronted the parents. The parents called me a liar, and basically told me off. They absolutely refused to believe me. Yet since confronting them I had nothing go missing for a while. But today I put laundry in and started cleaning my unit. When I went to go drop trash off, I checked the laundry—and witnessed a shocking sight.
I discovered our neighbors’ son, red-handed, going through the dryer I was using. I again confronted the parents, and they immediately started screaming at me for targeting their son, and threatened to call the authorities on me for harassing their son. They also threatened to sue me for "slandering" their son by implying he is a pervert.
55. Ring The Alarm
So this past Friday, our entire apartment building was evacuated after a "bum-like person" (landlady's words) broke into the building and busted a gas pipe at around midnight. We COMPLETELY slept through it. I found out about it the next night at work (which is nearby) when my co-worker asked where my boyfriend and I were the night before during the gas leak.
He filled me in on what had happened and that everyone was outside the building, and that there were fire trucks, works.Just afterward, a fire marshal inspected our alarm that's connected to the building and said it needed to be replaced because it doesn’t work. It has yet to be replaced and when my boyfriend confronted our landlady about it via text, she refused to give us a copy of the order for our replacement alarm.
She also blamed us for not hearing the commotion and waking up (I sleep with ear plugs and my boyfriend is a heavy sleeper), didn't apologize, and told us if we don't feel comfortable she'd make arrangements for us to move out. All we asked for was the alarm for our unit. Luckily neither we nor our cats are hurt or anything, but if the gas leak had been any more serious we could've been in trouble.
My boyfriend's dad is a real estate agent and the first thing he cited was the law that landlords need to have an evacuation plan for all tenants and units. I dislike confrontation and feel like we were too harsh in our texts, but c’mon. My dad is telling me to report the landlady to the tenant tribunal or the fire department.
56. The Cat’s Out Of The Bag
I went out of town for five days and a co-worker offered to check on my four cats while I was away. I came home to find they had no food or water and their litter box hadn't been cleaned in days. My oldest girl was in really bad shape, and she couldn't move her back legs at all. I thought she just fell down the stairs and broke her back.
I took her to the ICU and the doctor ran a lot of tests. They revealed my worst fear. The doctor explained to me that nothing was broken. She was actually extremely dehydrated, likely due to not having access to water in days. This caused a previously unknown/undiagnosed diabetic episode, which sent her into shock. She suffered for two days in the ICU before the doctor told me she was only getting worse and a decision had to be made.
There was nothing they could do and she was terrified and suffering. I stayed by her side as they euthanized her. That was about three days ago. My heart is in pieces. There is no signed document of my friend agreeing to watch my cats, but I have text messages of when I tried to check in on them, then 42 messages in the morning and another four hours worth of messages from this friend trying to blame me for not reminding her and not telling her about an undiagnosed condition, and even blaming me for trusting her.
I know I'm angry and grieving. But because of what this person did, my cat suffered for days until I had to let her go. I want to take her to court.
57. Nuts To That
My son’s school is completely ignoring his allergy to peanuts. This has been an ongoing issue since the second day of school, where he was given peanut butter crackers. We sort of brushed it off as a new school year, new students, teachers a bit frazzled dealing with first graders, no real big deal. His allergy isn't really severe but still not fun to deal with and can potentially become life-threatening.
We had already informed the school of his allergy before the year started and even talked directly to the teacher about it because the default snack during the day if no other parents brought in a snack is peanut butter crackers. We even offered to purchase a special alternative for him, but they said it was unnecessary as they have other alternatives.
So we figured the issue was over…when a few weeks later it happened again. This time they claimed he grabbed another student’s snack and ran off to eat it before they could stop him. Now, my little one can be a little bit of a hard-head and I can potentially see this happening, so again we talked to him about peanuts and how dangerous they are to him.
He continued to adamantly deny doing that and said Mrs. gave them to him. We then decide a meeting with the principal is in order, not to blame the teacher or accuse her of lying but to hopefully get this under control. Again a few weeks of no more issues, then it happened again. When I heard their story, I was immediately suspicious.
Once again the story is "he grabbed it and ran off and ate the whole package before we caught him." Okay, so a six-year-old managed to grab an unopened package of crackers, elude a teacher and an aide, and eat the whole package before he's caught? Twice? He's crying and swearing to us he was given them, and after so many incidents we have to start believing him.
Another meeting with the principal and teacher gives us a "Do not worry! This won't happen again." We have another long sit down with our son to explain that even if it's given to you, ask to make sure it doesn't have peanuts or other nuts in it. Then, the very next school day (the meeting was on Friday) he's given another snack of peanut butter crackers, but this time he asks if there is nuts in it and THEN he's given the alternative.
We figure it kind of sucks that the kid has to be the adult right here but at the end of the day he's learning to ask about nuts. We send an email to the principal detailing the issue and say that the next stop is the school board if he is given peanuts again. We get a response back: "If he's asking now, what's the problem? He should have known to ask to begin with. We are teachers not parents."
We had no issues for a while until this week. Some parent brought in PB&J sandwiches for snack time and he was given one. He forgot to ask about nuts but thought "it was only in the crackers." And that's not all. We find out the parent WAS aware of a nut allergy in the class (it's on the parent snack sheet) and brought in just a jelly one that was made separate from the peanut butter ones.
He was not given this one. We spent a day at the hospital. We've had endless talks with him about nuts and do our best to teach him, but some of the blame has to be on the teachers here, right? Do schools not have an obligation to deal with allergies? The school lunch seems to have zero issues with this and has never given him a nut when there are several things on the menu rotation that contain them. He gets a special tray that was nowhere near any nuts.
58. Check The Footage
My dad is a lawyer. It's happened several times that the defendant submits or provides video evidence of assault or unlawful detainment, but assumes it will go unnoticed in 50+ hours of footage. My dad watches everything. He got a multimillion-dollar settlement from a major casino after pointing out a moment that proved to be video doctoring.
There was a car one too...He had a bunch of recordings and found a spot in the recording, submitted by the other side, where they are discussing what they need to show and how they will prove it. He played the recording in court as a surprise. They had nothing to say and he won after like four days of back and forth. I believe you have to get to a point where that evidence would come up, that's why he couldn't start there.
My dad is awesome.
59. Absent Mom
I will probably consult with a lawyer in the near future. I have a daughter (13) with an ex who was not in her life. We were young, in our early 20s, when she was born. My ex wasn't ready to give up her life and be a mom yet, so I assumed full custody. She had another child when our daughter was nine and never spoke to our daughter again or really acknowledged her.
I remarried as well and my wife has been an amazing stepmom to my daughter. My daughter was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. I made sure to let my ex know of course and sent periodic updates. She didn't visit or call and basically, things went on as normal. In December 2019, it became apparent that her fight was drawing to a close and there was nothing anyone could do.
I sent the following email: "Jess, I want to let you know that we got the results of E's scan today. The cancer has spread significantly with several new growths and no change to the old sites. At this time, doctors are advising that treatment is unlikely to be successful and we would be better off providing her with comfort care instead.
She will be a lot more comfortable and be allowed to go home, which she really wants. L, the doctors, and I have all talked to her as well as child life. She has agreed that it's time to come home. She is being discharged tomorrow to hospice at home. As always, she would love to see/hear from you." She replied to that email a short time later with "Thank you for the update."
She didn't call or reach out to our daughter at all. After coming home from the hospital, my daughter asked me to mail a letter and to send an email she'd written to her mother. I don't know what the letter or email said but I know that neither one was replied to. In January, our daughter passed. I sent the following emails: "Jess, I wish I didn't have to write this email. Our sweet E passed her sleep. It was very peaceful. I will send another email with funeral details. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need anything."
And then I sent one about the funeral. This is the important part of that email: "Jess, In addition, we have decided on cremation. Please let me know if you would like any of her ashes. I can even get them made into jewelry or put in an urn for you and have it shipped if that's easier for you." She replied to that one thanking me and telling me she would rather not have the ashes and that I could do what I liked with them.
We did. We gave some to my mother, had some turned into jewelry for my wife and three younger girls, I kept some, and we buried some in a few of her favorite places. At this point, the only ashes that physically exist are mine, my mother's, and my wife and daughters'. Fast forward to the end of February, and I get an email from my ex stating that she'd had a change of heart and asking if she could have some of our daughter's ashes.
I told her that unfortunately, we didn't have any "left,” but that my wife offered to send her the necklace she had made. She declined and did seem a little offended that we'd offered but it was all we had to give. A few days ago, I received a notice that she was suing me for emotional damages for "failing to offer her our shared child's cremains" and "offering a used necklace" and some other nonsense.
I'm going to be honest: I feel like the only person who is being emotionally damaged here is me. I'm dealing with a huge devastating loss of my first child, my best buddy, my constant companion while also dealing with the stress of two young kids who don't understand AND a brand new baby. I feel like I've been nothing but nice and communicative to her and this is what I get for it?
I'm angry, I'm tired, and I'm frustrated. Realistically, I don't even have the emotional energy to fight it and I'm seriously considering throwing some money at it and hoping it goes away.
60. Tree Confusion
Ooh, I've got one. I was about five years old when this happened, but my parents explained it years later. There were a series of trees on the sidewalk in front of each house on the street. Although the one in front of my parent’s house was not part of our yard, the tree was owned by my parents and they were responsible for it. Some guy "tripped" over a branch and was "seriously injured." He came after my parents for all of the money.
The dude showed up with a mountain of evidence. Hospital bills, psychologist testimonials, a photo montage of his slow and painful recovery, etc. Apparently, his lawyer brandished this stuff like a bat before court. My parents' lawyer thought he had a good case. Until the first day of court, when the opposing counsel walked over with a picture and asked, "Is this your tree?"
My parents looked at the photo in disbelief. "No...That's actually not our tree." The opposing counsel repeated the question. It went back and forth a few times until my parents' lawyer incredulously produced a picture of their tree, which was, even to the untrained eye, a completely different tree. At that point, the opposing counsel whirled around and started screaming at his client, "YOU SAID THAT WAS THEIR TREE!"
Case summarily dismissed. My parents walked out in shock, came home, and bought me ice cream. All's well that ends well.
61. One Weird Morning
This has been a really weird morning. I have a five-year-old who stays with me during the weekends. He sleeps all night without any issues, except for the very rare nightmare or sleep talking. Last night, he was the happiest little kid in the world because we put up our Christmas tree. I put him to bed around 9 pm and watched some movies with my fiancée, who lives with me.
Around 3 am, I got sleepy and went to join her in bed. She gets up around 4:30 am to go to work and leaves around 5 am. At 6:30 am, I am awoken by a single low knocking sound. I get up, all sleepy, thinking it’s my kid jumping on the bed. As I exit my room, my heart nearly stopped. I am greeted by four officers staring me down across the hallway.
I don’t immediately register what is going on and wonder if I should serve them a drink. One officer asks me who I am, to which I reply with my full name and ask what is going on. He continues his interrogation, asking if I live with a woman. Fear slowly starts to creep up to me, because I start thinking she was in an accident. I answer that I live with my girlfriend.
The officer asks me if I have a son, to which I reply yes. He asks me where he is. At this point, I lean over the wall and I see my door busted open. I am thinking someone hurt my fiancée and took my kid, so I look at the office, turn, and head down the corridor to his room. I slowly open it, fearing the worst. I see my son in bed, still tucked in and looking at me as if nothing happened.
I come back down the hallway and tell the officer, "He is there, what is going on!?" They tell me to step out into the dining room. I put my hands up as I walk past them. Two officers walk into my room and check inside. I sit at the table and the officer sits next to me as another watches over us. I look to the door and there’s the lady that guards the complex I live in with another lady I have never seen before just peeking into my home.
The officer questioning me tells me someone heard a child crying and called the authorities. He says they got there at 5 am, which would mean they got there just as my fiancée left for work. He claims they called at my door for an hour and a half and no one answered, then they heard “detonations” inside and decided to storm in. They never went outside my window to call me, which would have done the trick.
My apartment has weird acoustics and I cannot hear knocking in the living room from my room. He asks me why I didn’t hear him and I told him I must have been deeply asleep. He asks if I am under the influence and I say I just went to bed late. The officer gives me a case number and tells me to give that to administration so they can fix the door, and they leave.
As the officers leave, I could hear them talking with one of the ladies, who was saying the child was crying too hard for it to be nothing. The cop told her there was no evidence of wrongdoing, and she just couldn’t believe it. I asked my son if he was crying and he said yes. I asked him why, and his reply was totally nonsensical. He said the fan stopped working...
So now I am sitting in an apartment with my son and a broken front door. I fear when I go outside I'll be judged by my neighbors as the child-beater or worse. I have been trying to understand the timeline of events. I went to bed at 3 am and my fiancée got up at 4:30, then left at 5. If the officers got there at 5 am as they claim, then the call must have happened around 3:00-4:30.
My son must have stopped crying before my fiancée got up and didn’t resume his crying for the rest of the night. The officers get here at 5 and hang outside my door until 6:30 when they hear the "detonations," NOT a crying child. My son had no signs of having been crying and he even stood next to me on his own during the questioning. What the heck?
62. Lovely Landlord
My parents were being sued by their landlord, and parents had a countersuit against him. Parents were moving across country and found this house to rent. They did a walkthrough, looks great. Landlord wants first, last, security, and $1,500 because they had a dog and two cats. Fine. It was somewhere in the $8,000-9,000 range, no big deal for them.
They are set to move in on a Monday, so my mom flies in on Saturday, to do one final look over, sign the contract, and get the key. Perfect, they are now the tenants. Monday, they arrive and the house is freaking trashed. Like seriously, I can barely explain how horrible it was. The landlord has moved a bunch of his stuff into the garage, shed, and one of the bedrooms.
There's poop in the toilet, pee on the floor, garbage laying everywhere, and used condoms. I can't really do this justice, but my mom took pictures and videos, throughout the entire house. She calls the landlord and tells him that they are not moving in with the house in this condition. He tells her to clean the house, and he'll buy the first tank of oil for the house (it was empty). He tells her to do it, or he's keeping all the money for breach of contract. A lot of back and forth happens, and tons of harassing texts and phone calls from him.
Court day comes, and everyone's ready to submit their evidence in front of the judge. Parents have photos, texts, the contract, videos. Landlord only has the contract. But his contract is different than my parents. He's included a section that states they permit him access to the house for his storage needs, and that tenant is responsible for all on-site clean-up and maintenance after accepting the key.
The best part was that the date of the signatures on his contract was the date they moved in, not the date my mom flew in and signed. Judge tells the landlord he's a special level of stupid, and then their final remarks were about how disrespectful the landlord was to show up in shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, and flip flops in his courtroom.
He never paid a dime, then claimed bankruptcy, and started a business under a different name. Two years later, I went to his house, let out all but 19psi from all his tires, and superglued the caps on the valve stems.
63. It’s My House Now
My girlfriend and I rushed into moving in together, and after two weeks of living together we realized it wasn't going to work. She agreed to move out by the end of February...but now she refuses to leave. I have one bedroom in my apartment, and I am tired of sleeping on my couch. But wait, it gets worse. Lately, she has started denying me entry into my own unit.
She uses the deadbolt on the inside and pretends to not hear me. Last night when I came home around 11 pm, I discovered I couldn't get into my apartment as she had bolted it. After pounding and calling for an hour, she started screaming at me to go away. I ended up calling the authorities, who after talking to her briefly told me to go find somewhere else to stay for the night and said I needed to leave.
I slept all of last night in my car. This morning, after she left for work, I removed the deadbolt from my door. Oh, and the piece de resistance. I also discovered a complete and utter stranger sleeping in my living room, along with another girl passed out in my bed. After I kicked them out, my ex came home and told me I have no right to kick out her guests.
She called the authorities again and the officer said it was a civil issue. Tonight I have a late shift again, and I guarantee you the same thing is going to happen. What am I supposed to do?
64. The Letter Of The Law
I was the client in this case. In my divorce trial, my ex-wife has spent about two hours explaining to the court what a jerk I was and all the horrible things I had done to her and my children, claiming that I was unfit to be a parent. Two solid hours...Lie upon lie. Just six months earlier? My wife had snuck into my house—she's the one who moved out—and went on my computer to type me a love letter.
"Oh, you're so wonderful! You're such an amazing father, a great provider, and a great husband! You've done so much for the community. Please don't leave me!!! " That's the gist of it. Well, she didn't print it or sign, it was just a file on my computer left on the screen for me to find. So our challenge, after all her testimony to the contrary, was to get her to admit she wrote this letter. I told my attorney—ask her! She won't be able to lie if she's sworn in.
Plus, I thought she was going to feel incredibly guilty about all these lies. So...he handed her a printout. He had one too. He started reading it, then he asked her to continue the reading. She started to cry. He asked her, “Do you remember writing this letter?” Her face was shriveling. She looked at her attorney and said, "I'm sorry Sandy.” This is what actually did her in.
Then she looked at the courtroom and said "Yes, I wrote this." There was silence for a few moments. Then the judge said, "Attorneys—in my chambers! Now!" My attorney told me later: "The judge understood that when your wife said, 'I'm sorry Sandy,' that meant that her attorney was aware this letter MIGHT be brought up and that she had instructed her client to lie."
The judge was F U R I O U S. Back in the courtroom, my attorney went down the list lie by lie. Did he really do this? Did he really do that? When you say he was doing this, wasn't it really that? Etc. Then he had her read the entire letter again. After that, my divorce went from me being 1/2 inch away from losing all custody to getting full custody. Made for TV or what?
65. Lady Luck Failed To Testify That Day
A woman backed out her car directly into a truck in a casino parking lot but luckily it was just a little fender bender damage. My client, the truck driver, said she parked and went inside the casino for a few hours. At her deposition, she testified that she was so hurt that she went right home and to a hospital. I asked if she was a frequent visitor of casino, and if she had a rewards card.
She was happy to tell me that not only did she have a rewards card, she had gold status. I subpoenaed her rewards cards records. She played slots for hours after the accident.
66. Back To The Wall
Three nights ago, my parents and I got in a huge fight. I am not a Christian, while they are extreme bible thumpers. I am bisexual, and they believe I'm going to be burning in hell. I was forced to come out of the closet due to blackmail reasons, and my parents promptly kicked me out. I managed to get my dogs and my keys, took my car, and left.
We just moved to this state so I have no friends. My siblings all have the same beliefs as my parents. My related family is all thousands of miles away. Last night, my parents cut off my phone plan and told me they're kicking me off of their insurance. Right now I am on my own with my two large dogs, a pit bull and an American bulldog, sleeping in my car.
My parents forced me to quit my job last week so I could focus more on school. Last night I checked my bank account. My parents drained the 1k savings I had in it. It is completely empty. I'm just scared and don't know where to turn. I primarily want to be able to take care of my dogs. I do not want to give them up but I'm not sure how much longer I can without neglecting them.
67. It’s Easier To Ask For Forgiveness, Rather Than Permission
I was mediating a divorce in Virginia that got a little ugly and complicated. The female spouse was cheating on her well-off male spouse. The man found out and started the divorce proceedings. Because the woman had been caught cheating, she would get no spousal support. She did however find out about her own little loophole.
There’s a concept called condonation, which means if you sleep with someone after knowing they committed adultery, you have forgiven them and can get spousal support. Well, one night of text messages and a few photos later, forgiveness was achieved. The wife received a lucrative spousal settlement based on the new information.
68. Always Grieving
At the company where my mother works, in the human resources department, her assistant found a loophole that the overtime reports didn't flag bereavement hours, no matter the hours...She stole half a million dollars over three years as a part-time employee making $18 an hour. She finally got caught by my mom, because of a random comment she made that raised an eyebrow.
Shutterstock
69. Ensured To Be Screwed Over
My client's house burned down from an explosion in the fuel oil tank. It was clearly the oil maintenance company's fault, but his homeowner’s insurance still refused to pay out, citing a ridiculous technicality. Essentially, the policy covered damage caused by the oil heater, but they claimed that because the storage tank exploded, they didn't need to pay.
During a deposition with the claims adjuster, I asked how she came to the conclusion that the storage tank was not a part, or at least connected to, the heater. She states that she relied on her "expert witness" who was an engineer. Little did she know, I checked this person's background. He had zero engineering experience.
As you might know, you don't get attorney's fees in most cases. However, you do when an insurance company denies your claim in "bad faith.” Her little admission cost the company about 500k in fees, on top of the original claim for 1.2 million. Kaboom, lady.
70. No Visitors Allowed
My sister and I have a strained relationship with our mother and have not had contact with her for months. Our mother took it upon herself to show up to my niece's school to have lunch with her and brought her a slushy to drink, without my sister's knowledge or permission. My niece told my sister about it when she got home. My sister called the school and come to find out, our mother is not on the list at all for anything.
So they allowed a stranger into the school and allowed this person to give a drink to a five-year-old all without my sister's knowledge. The principal is calling my sister later and so far they are trying to make it seem like it's not a big deal, but we feel differently. The only thing I can think for her to do is maybe call the school board. They risked my niece's safety and I think they need to realize the gravity of the situation.
71. Pet Chickens
Not an attorney, but I did an internship at the city's attorney's office one summer (which lead to not wanting to be an attorney). A man was suing the city for evicting him from a public housing development. Claims he doesn't speak English and forced the city to hire an interpreter for the hearing. City says he was evicted because he was raising chickens in the apartment.
His attorney insists that's absurd; no one would do that. Pushes for proof the chickens were his client's. Judge wasn't convinced about the proof. Everything looks like it is going well for the guy until it comes up that the chickens were given to a farm for slaughter. Guy jumps up and starts yelling, "Give me my chickens back!" in English. Judge starts laughing. Attorneys start laughing. Case is dismissed.
72. Bait And Switch
So I put a gaming computer on layaway with Walmart a few weeks ago so I could make payments versus $1,000+ at once. I finally paid it off brought it home, and the motherboard was cracked. So I returned it, and unfortunately, they said that amount was too much for a gift card (as I was going to immediately buy a new one) but since my mom has a Walmart debit card they said it would be available to me immediately.
Well, it immediately locked her account for fraud, so we called the Walmart money people and they said all we needed to do was submit the receipt as proof. We did and called back and the lady said that the receipt wasn’t good enough?? She said that it had a “different balance” on all the receipts but that’s because it was layaway and I made payments!
She told my mother the account may never be unlocked as we did not have sufficient proof? I’m totally distraught, I’m a college student and I don’t have extra funds and this was something I worked hard for.
73. V For Vendetta
I’m not a lawyer, but I am a very observant girlfriend. My boyfriend’s car was involved in an accident. He was parked in an area where, during certain hours, you were not permitted to park as it would block semis from being able to maneuver to deliver goods to a steel plant. A girl backed her vehicle into the driver’s side door of his Ford Fusion.
The authorities were called for insurance purposes, and my boyfriend states that it appeared the officer and the girl knew each other, as they were on a first-name basis. He received a parking ticket. It took forever for the insurance companies to sort it out because she didn’t think she was at fault because he was parked illegally.
However, that doesn’t matter to the case. If you hit someone’s car, you’re not going to get off scot-free, so she ended up having to pay for his deductible. And this is where the ordeal began. The local PD, who obviously did know the girl, started straight-up harassing us. My boyfriend received a piece of mail from our magistrate stating he failed to pay a parking ticket.
He was just going to pay it. I looked over the paperwork, though, and found that the vehicle they identified was traded in before the ticket was issued. The ticket indicated a white Toyota Tundra, but the license plate block was not filed out. It was signed, but you could not make out the badge number. We had traded his Toyota Tundra in for a Ford Fusion in December.
The ticket was written in February of the following year. I was furious. So I gather all the evidence for him, and he went before the magistrate. The officer testified that he saw a white Toyota Tundra illegally parked at a certain location that had a parking time restriction and that it was owned by my boyfriend when he ran the tags.
I should note that my boyfriend had had several parking tickets while he owned the Toyota Tundra. That’s our guess on how he got just enough info to write the ticket. My boyfriend presented his evidence and the judge dismissed the case. The judge was heard saying to the officer that he would like to speak to him afterward, and he chastised him for wasting the court’s time. The officer later told my boyfriend that if he had contacted him, they could have “taken care of it” outside of getting the magistrate involved.
Needless to say, we haven’t had an issue since.
74. The Overachiever
While I was at university, I figured out I could weasel in an extra degree by overloading more than once a semester. Typically, you took five credits each semester, and if you were in good standing, you could take an extra one. You’d make it a total of six classes, or 12 credits per year. I figured, by trial and error, that I could overload more than that.
For example, the Dean of Science gave me permission to overload. I could then go to the Dean of Socials to overload again. The computers never picked it up. So for three years, I overloaded, collecting up to 9 credits each semester. By the time I finished my fourth year, I had a stand-alone BA. I got that on top of another HBA and BSc. Then, they figured out my plan.
The university tried to demand I pay, but nothing in the course calendar or rules said what I had done was wrong. They changed it the rules the following year.
75. You’re Not In Good Hands
I just started work for the first time since having my daughter two years ago. I left her at a daycare with a group size of 11 and three care providers. On the second day, I got the scare of my life. I was driving and saw her walking down the street several blocks from the daycare with a woman I had never seen before, truly never.
I jumped out and asked what was going on, and the woman said she’d found my daughter a block away walking in the middle of the road. She said was taking her to the station—I have no reason to doubt the woman’s intentions because there was a station on this road. I drove my daughter back to the daycare and the caregivers were unaware she was even missing.
I was in such a state of shock and panic thinking of everything that could have happened to my daughter if she had not been discovered by a Good Samaritan. I just calmly asked questions, gathered information, wrote it all down, and sent it in an email to the owner to get a timestamp and confirmation of the events, as well as notify them we would be withdrawing her.
This occurred last week and I have yet to receive a response from them, despite the seriousness of the situation. I would like to know if I can take action against them for endangering my daughter and if I can alert the other parents as to what occurred so they can keep their little ones safe, without opening myself up to slander charges.
76. Think Of The Children
I get my daughter every other weekend. She’s nine years old and her mother bought her a cell phone, obviously to keep tabs on my daughter. This weekend, we were watching a movie when I got a text from my ex-wife asking to speak to my daughter. Now, I don’t attach myself to my phone (unless I’m working) and I got the text about 30 minutes after it came through.
When I saw it, I told my daughter that her mom wants to speak to her and I also texted my ex, saying that we were watching a movie but that I told our daughter that she wants to talk. The movie ended around 9:10 pm and I had my daughter go shower/brush teeth/go to bed. I told her I’d be up to tuck her in. I went into my daughter's room at about 9:40 and she was on the phone with her mother.
Her mother was SCREAMING into the phone “YOU TELL HIM SCREW YOU!” I took the phone from my daughter and I said to my ex-wife that she was acting very inappropriately and that if she has a problem with me she should bring it up with me, not our daughter. She yelled at me about not allowing our daughter to use her phone, which isn’t true at all.
I asked her to calm down and to keep in mind the effect her words are having on our daughter. My ex was furious and was breathing heavily, obviously biting her tongue. I handed the phone back to my daughter, and said loudly enough for my ex-wife to hear “Daddy is going to leave the room now, please don’t stay on the phone long, it’s way past your bedtime.”
I had to get my stepson to bed anyway. I walked by my daughter’s room maybe 10/15 minutes later and she’s repeating “I’m sorry” into the phone. I fought my instinct to take that phone away because of the torment my daughter was experiencing. I walked downstairs to do some chores and distract myself from my anger. It wasn’t until 10:50 that my daughter came downstairs. She had obviously been crying and was exhausted.
I sat with her in her room, prayed with her, and tried to talk to her about what happened. She was really upset and wouldn’t speak much. I hugged her. My daughter told me there were 11 missed calls from her mother and that her mother said she was just worried about her. I’m sick of my limited time with my daughter being questioned. Divorce is hard enough on children, and I think my ex-wife is making it a lot harder on my daughter than it needs to be.
77. A Work Of Art
My boyfriend’s sister-in-law mistreated and over-medicated her autistic child, so I called Child Protective services on her months ago. I was living up there near his family and long story short, when I drove home for the holidays, it was just supposed to be a short trip but all hell broke loose and my boyfriend quickly packed everything we owned and followed me down a few days later.
However, he forgot this one painting that has been in the family for over 100 years that my grandfather gave to me before he passed 14 years ago. Well, my sister-in-law and her husband then sent me a video. Its contents made me rage. It was them setting the painting on fire and saying, “this is for calling CPS, witch.” They’re both clearly seen in the video and called it a priceless painting.
This was literally my most prized possession and my heart is in so many pieces because my grandfather gave it to me so long ago. I would give everything I own just to get it back.
78. Fight Fire With Fire
I have been accused of a litany of perversions, some against children, because of the way I dress. My neighbor is so adamant about all of this she's got me a bit worried. About a month ago, I moved in with my sister and her boyfriend into a neighborhood that's mostly families. I didn't expect any trouble. My first introduction to this woman, let's call her Karen, was my first week here.
I went to check the mail and I wasn't wearing a bra. I had on a baggy t shirt and basketball shorts, though. Karen is one of those Southern women who spend all day in their yards, pretending to garden, but are really spying on their neighbors. You know the type. She waved at me and I waved back, trying to be pleasant. She came at me, I thought to make a proper introduction, or whatever, but she started lecturing me about not having on a bra.
It was creepy and weird. I am not at all well-endowed, I go without frequently and so far, no one seems to pick up on it, but not Karen. Karen urged me to think of her children and Jesus, who was always watching, and my parents (bless their hearts) she knows they raised me better than this. It was so goddarn weird, I felt like laughing in her face, but I didn't want there to be any issues so I said I'd be more diligent in the future and Karen went about her business.
Well, wearing a bra wasn't good enough for Karen, y'all, oh no. Not only is blasting my nips lewd, so are regular women's shorts and any form-fitting type of bottoms even if they cover my sinful legs. Karen seems to have an issue with the lower half of my body. While my breasts are small and humble, I am "aesthetic" from the waist down.
The second time Karen confronted me, her brood was playing in the street, and any semblance of pleasantness was gone. She threatened to call the authorities on me for indecent exposure in front of her children, insinuated I got off on arousing her tween boys, called me a hussy, a Jezebel, and said that I needed Jesus. Because I was wearing jean shorts.
We live in a nice area, lots of woods, by lakes and parks and I like to go out for walks, but it seems every time I step foot out of my door, there’s Karen making snide remarks or gossiping with other bored housewives. It's getting annoying. So I got my revenge. I got dressed up in my skimpiest daisy dukes that barely cover my butt and give me legit camel toe, plus I wore a half shirt with no bra on and my abs exposed to check the mail (I do not regularly dress like this).
I must have been quite a sight to Karen, who immediately stormed over once she spotted me, nearly knocking over her lawn chair she stood up so fast. She started laying into me. I just stood there letting her bump her gums for a minute, then I said, "You can stop the games, Karen. I see the way you look at me, I know you want me."
Her face went beet red and she stammered out, "I'll pray for you." Then scurried away. Actually went inside her house.
79. The Crooked Lawyer
I am not an attorney, but my boyfriend is, and this tale took place a few years ago in NYC...thus, here is The Tale of (throws dust in campfire) of "The Crooked Lawyer." While looking up this guy's information, it became clear that he was a real jerk. A local paper described him as “a con artist,” and he preyed on unsuspecting victims, took out loans in their name, and falsified information.
Then he’d take off with most of his victim's money. Somehow, he’d avoided justice up until this point...until my boyfriend came along! My boyfriend moved to NYC from a state in the South. Freshly out of law school and riddled with student debt, he found a low-paying personal injury firm and settled in. Since money was tight, he found a roommate on Craigslist named Julie.
Julie is a feisty Latina, and my boyfriend is pretty much Wonder Bread, but they hit it off very well. My boyfriend would go to Julie's job after work (she was a bartender) and they developed a very strong friendship.
During this time, Julie meets a server, named Luis. They hit it off and begin dating. My boyfriend clicks with Luis, and they become a trio. Late nights, nodding off on the subway platform, my boyfriend being taken to Latin clubs...they become the best of friends. Something that will play a role in this tale is that both Julie and Luis (and their families) are in the USA undocumented.
So, Julie and Luis are getting serious, but they don't have a lot of money, so they move in with Luis' elderly parents. My boyfriend finds another place to live and they all still keep in touch. During all of this, Luis' dad had suffered an injury at work. He lost part of his finger and had hired a personal injury attorney—AKA the “Crooked Lawyer” of this story.
Apparently, Luis' dad was supposed to receive a $100k settlement, but some time had passed and still no update. Since Luis and his family didn’t speak English, Julie called Luis' father's insurance and asked about the status of the settlement. Their answer gave her instant goosebumps. The insurance said, "Oh, the settlement's already been paid out....?"
That's when Julie called my boyfriend and freaked out. Apparently this "personal injury" attorney had a history of being an ambulance chaser, and sought out undocumented clients. He held that over them and took their settlement money for himself, knowing that no one would pursue him and risk deportation. While there had been reports of this scumbag, the guy had been getting away with this kind of thing for years.
So, my boyfriend tells Julie to tell the lawyer that she knows what's up. Apparently this guy thought his clients were too stupid to seek retribution. The crooked lawyer then told Julie that he would return the money if she dropped her complaint against him. Still, my boyfriend was livid at this guy taking advantage of people—so he decided to get payback.
He told Julie to record all of her conversations with the lawyer and keep records of any type of contact. During their meetings, the jerk tried to bribe Julie into keeping quiet about his scam. She plays along, meets up with him a few times, always recording interactions and "getting money from him." With evidence in place, my boyfriend took everything he had to the NYS Supreme Court.
He told them that he was representing Luis's dad. While on trial, my boyfriend learned that people had filed reports against the other lawyer for years but nobody ever gave a darn until he became involved. It turned out that the guy had taken over $400,000 from clients over the years. It was a long trial, with my boyfriend representing Luis' dad and him having to testify, even though he was terrified that he'd get kicked out of the country.
The crooked lawyer knew my boyfriend had reported him, and he would glare at him from the stand. Long story short, the jerk pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft, among other things. He was also stripped of his ability to practice law and was sentenced to seven years behind bars. And this story has an even better happy ending.
My boyfriend is now the Godfather to Julie and Luis' son. Luis' dad moved back to his native country and bought a beautiful house. All of crooked lawyer’s victims got their money back through the Lawyer's Fund for Client Protection.
80. Friends In High Places
I'm a family lawyer, and I was in court representing the mother of two young kids. The dad was representing himself, as was Grandma, with whom the kids were staying for several months while my client finished a college program. Dad took issue with this arrangement, despite being unable to take care of the kids himself because of a disability.
At our first appearance, the judge suggested something that everyone actually agreed to. I was the only lawyer there, so I was tasked with drafting the order. I sent copies to Dad and Grandma, asking them to let me know if they remembered the agreement differently, or if they are okay with my wording. The wheels started to come off immediately.
When he gets the order, Dad calls me right away. He says that he takes issue with my lack of professionalism (no explanation of what he means by that, but okay) and he doesn't consent to the wording of the order. He doesn't suggest alternate wording, though. And then he took it up a notch. He says that my draft has violated his human rights (again, no idea what he's talking about) and he will be forwarding this to the Human Rights Commission, who will be his lawyers from here on out (uh, they won't).
I decide not to point out that that's not how this works, and just go with a, "Thanks for letting me know." I point out that the Family Court Rules require me to file the order within a certain amount of time, which is rapidly running out. I ask him when I can expect the HRC to contact me (obviously they won't). Dad tells me that they usually take 3-6 months to deal with things.
I tell him "Okay, well I'm just going to write the court a letter explaining this, so the judge is in the loop." I write the letter, explaining briefly what has happened. I say that I'm unfamiliar with the HRC getting involved in Family Court cases (they don't), and particularly in the drafting of orders (ditto). But this was all an ingenious plan.
I point out that I'm hesitant to file the order since Dad has said he was going to consult counsel, so "I await direction from the Court.” This is actually code for: You see the crazy I’m dealing with? Can you help me out here, Your Honor? The Court office calls me the next day and asks me to send them the draft order, so the judge can look at it.
The day after that, I'm in front of that judge on an unrelated case, and she says, "Oh, and I signed that order from the other case. If he doesn't like it, he can appeal." Mic dropped.
81. The Roofer
I am a former Insurance Investigator. We were at a hearing before the WCB. I had something like 18 hours of video spread over a two-week period of a claimant doing roofing work. The problem, for me, was that the video didn't get a clear face shot. Normally what we liked to do was get in close, show the face for a positive identification, and then zoom out.
Bonus if the claimant was wearing distinctive clothing that could easily be tied to him. Because of where this guy lived, all I could do was show someone who matched his description getting out of a truck registered to him every morning. He wore a hat, he had a beard, and he had neither at the hearing.
So, the company lawyer is prepping me and basically letting me know to be on point because the claimant's attorney is almost certainly going to challenge the fact that it is his client in the video. If the video got tossed, the case was lost. About two minutes into the hearing, the claimant's attorney agrees to stipulate to the fact that it is his client in all of the video. All of it. Our attorney was shocked. That was pretty much the only leg he had to stand on.
The claimant attorney was incredibly smug right after this like it was no big deal. Evidently, his strategy was to show that his client wasn't really a professional roofer since he was doing the roof the wrong way. He tried to get me to answer questions about roofing, I refused as it was beyond the scope of my work. And he just wouldn't let it go.
After about an hour of back and forth over this the judge finally said, "Counselor, it doesn't matter if your client is doing the work well. What matters is that he has stated, numerous times and under oath, that he cannot work. Whether he's doing it for free, for cash, or for fun has no bearing on the fact that he's doing roofing work while collecting compensation benefits which he was awarded because he couldn't do roofing work."
The guy lost and had to repay a bunch of benefits. After a few of those hearings I began formulating a list of lawyers I would never hire and ones I would absolutely want on my side.
82. Water Under The Bridge
My girlfriend is a type-1 diabetic and has a heart condition called dysautonomia where her doctor requires her to drink above 120 ounces of water a day. Sometimes she can get dizzy and fall over, however only for a couple of seconds. My girlfriend isn't a quitter, she is very outgoing and won't use her conditions in the wrong way. She's also only 16. But one day, she got a phone call from her manager explaining that she will most likely be fired.
She told her that she should be able to go four hours without water and said she isn't entitled to water while working. She's job hunting now and quitting soon.
83. Know Thyself
This was a custody case I was prosecuting. The dad went on about how he has changed his life around and worked through the AA program. I asked him what step he was on, and he proudly proclaimed, “Three.” I then asked him what step three is, and he had no idea. I then asked him what step two was. Again, no idea. Parental rights terminated.
84. The Virtue Of Honesty
I was involved in a pretty messy custody case. The other party was a mess and had kept the child from my client for weeks. He was playing lots of stupid games and kept requesting continuances. I requested a drug test, which the judge ordered. However, guy showed up, stood in front of the toilet for literally 2 hours, and claimed he couldn’t pee.
I was representing the plaintiff, so the burden was on me. I called multiple witnesses who testified to the defendant’s substance use. So, opposing counsel decides to call their client for direct examination and asks, “You don’t use crack or coke right?” That's a very stupid question for many reasons. Especially considering what his client did during his test.
However, I fully expected the defendant to just lie and say he was clean. After the question, there was a really long pause and then the guy said, “Yes, I do both of those.” My head almost exploded. I didn’t ask any questions on cross-examination because I didn’t want to muddy the waters. I won, and the child is doing great.
85. Canceling Cancellation Policies
I travel a lot, but because of that, I usually risk tons of money canceling hotel reservations at the last second. Instead of accepting the penalty for canceling at the last minute, I move my reservation to three days later...Then, I call back after some time has passed so I can fully cancel my reservation at no charge.
86. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
I was eating at a diner with some friends at 3 am, and the guy in the booth next to us started coughing and gagging. I realized he was choking and went to help him, since I had Heimlich training at my place of work. The guy managed to get the thing out and it flew across the booth. He looked really angry, paid his bill, and left. I felt like a little hero the rest of the dinner and then just kind of forgot about it. Until the most ridiculous thing happened.
Today I got a letter from a lawyer saying that I’m getting sued for battery. They said I bruised a rib when I did this. I have no clue how this guy figured out who I am. I thought I helped the guy seeing as he probably would have choked without help.
87. Heart-Stopping Problem
I should first and foremost say that this happened about 10 years ago, so at this point, I doubt it's possible to do anything about the situation. When I was 16, my mom was driving me to a friend's house when her defibrillator started shocking her repeatedly every few seconds. She thought it was just doing its job, until the shocking continued where it surpassed 40 shocks at 600 volts.
This led to severe heart damage and required multiple open-heart surgeries to fix. It turned out that the wires that connected to her box malfunctioned and were sending signals that her heartbeat was off. It could be some form of PTSD I suffered from seeing my mom nearly die in my arms, but her defibrillator almost triggered again today and it brought back those memories.
She told me that her and my dad tried to pinpoint who was responsible (the company who made the wires, the defibrillator company, etc.) but all of the doctors she saw denied responsibility. I feel like she suffered so much and was given absolutely zero compensation for what happened. It makes me furious knowing how much pain she went through and nothing was done about it.
88. Buckle ‘Em If You’ve Got ‘Em
I had a case here in Hawaii that got thrown out. My client got pulled over because the officer saw that she had way too many passengers in the car. Then they noticed that she was inebriated. Open and shut case. Well, in Hawaii, there's no law defining the maximum number of passengers you can have in a private vehicle.
So, the issue then became that all the extra passengers weren't wearing seatbelts. This failed also, because the law only says that every available seatbelt needs to be in use. If you have six passengers and only five seatbelts, there's nothing at all wrong about the sixth being unrestrained. There was nothing the judge could do about the extra passengers.
Since there was no probable cause to pull her over in the first place, even though she was indefensibly intoxicated, the whole thing got thrown out. Hawaii has some very counterintuitive laws. If your truck has seats installed in the bed, your passengers must be buckled up. If not, they can just party back there. People regularly ride down the freeway in truck beds while sitting in lawn chairs.
89. But Why Sue The Dentists?
I was doing some research for a case when I was a law student and found something wild. What happened was this: A man sued the College of Dental Surgeons (among others) for “persecuting him” and interfering in his ability to live as a “genetic Martian.” The plaintiff claimed that he had been cloned from space debris NASA found in the 1960s.
He claimed he had a genetic test to prove this, but it had been doctored by the CIA as part of the conspiracy against him. Well, naturally, this claim raises the concern that the plaintiff was bonkers, but there was no evidence (aside from his bizarre claims). In court, the case was handled in two ways. First, they decided that the case was patently frivolous and vexatious because it was absurd. But the second part was so crazy, my jaw dropped.
The judge held that only a “person” could commence an action in Ontario. The Rules of Civil Procedure define a “person” to be either a human being or a corporation. The plaintiff’s whole case was based on him being a Martian. If he was not a Martian, his case had no merit. If he was a Martian, he lacked standing to commence a lawsuit in Ontario!
In short, we now have precedent that Martians cannot sue in Ontario.
90. Sticky Situation
I currently have a restraining order against me, and turns out the girl who has the restraining order against me just got hired at the company I work for. I know this because I’ve seen her in the lobby of the building. She has told me that if I don’t leave the job she will call the authorities on me. I probably won’t be able to get another job at this time, especially with my background.
91. Me And My Big Mouth
We had no evidence that the woman who slammed into my stopped car going 85mph wasn’t sober…until she indignantly admitted it on tape in her deposition. She busted into my deposition and demanded she go first because I was a “lying witch.” She then excitedly told my lawyer that the report was wrong because it said she was coming from the movie theater when she was actually coming from her friend’s bar.
“Did you have anything to drink at your friend's bar?” “Of course.” “How many drinks” “I dunno, they just keep my glass full.” “Did you take any medicine that day?” “Methadone and low blood pressure medicine.” “I see.” The officers had refused to breathalyzer her at the scene because her husband was a fire-fighter who they knew personally.
They told her to go home, sober up, and go to the hospital later. I heard the whole thing but had no proof until she handed it to me. They settled same day.
92. The Burden Of Proof Is Heavy
Had a client who was a truck driver. He got various penal infractions for issues with his truck. Several thousand dollars in fines basically. Anyway, the evidence is pretty damning. Lots of pictures showing defects, a detailed description by the traffic control officer, and so on. However, to find him guilty the prosecutor has to prove that the vehicle he was driving a heavy vehicle.
The law says that a “heavy vehicle” has a gross vehicle weight rating of 4,500 kg or more. The traffic control officer had not listed the weight of the vehicle in his report. There were pictures of it (it was clearly an 18-wheel truck) in the report, but no weight was written anywhere. The prosecution hadn't proven the weight of the vehicle per the definition of "heavy vehicle."
The pictures don't prove the numerical weight, just the shape of the vehicle. It could have been a very small 18-wheeler. The judge had no choice but to acquit him because all of the infractions he had received were for a "heavy vehicle" operator, so he can't be guilty if they can't prove he was operating a heavy vehicle.
93. Going Above And Beyond
My wife had surgery recently to remove a kidney stone. While she was in surgery, the doctor noticed a small buildup of scar tissue related to the childbirth she had a few months before. He called in a gynecologist and she removed the scar tissue. This was explained to me after her surgery was over, while she was in the recovery room. But this was actually very bad news.
Insurance covered the kidney stone removal but did not cover the removal of scar tissue. The bill for that procedure by itself is $4,000. That procedure was never in the scope of the original surgery, neither of us consented to having it done, and it was not medically necessary or related to the kidney stone removal. Do we have a case to make this $4,000 go away?
94. Car Trouble
I recently came back from college and I couldn't get a parking decal from my property manager's office since they're closed currently. However, I was able to get into contact with someone and was given an online permit to prove that my car can park there. This is an official permit that I paid for and doesn't expire for months. However, my car gets towed EVERY time at 2 am and I have to pay the driver $60 every morning despite showing him my decal.
He says although the decal is official, the head of my HOA who lives in my neighborhood keeps reporting my car to get it towed and once he gets the order I have to pay him to get my car back. As much as I hate to be this person, I am the only Black person in my community and this guy has made it clear that he doesn't like my family living there and had always given us a hard time since he moved in three years ago, even though my family has lived here for over 23 years.
I have no idea how to contact HOA or the property manager as my mother deals with them, and every time the car was getting towed except the last time, she was the one to catch them and pay. I will be contacting the HOA with her when she gets home and will try and contact the property manager. My neighbor is a jerk and I will also be speaking to him personally when I get home.
95. There’s Free Wi-Fi!
There was this airline that I flew once that had inflight Wi-Fi, but you had to pay a ton to use it. However, if you chose to use their entertainment system, you wouldn’t have to pay. Well, I wasn’t about to let them rip me off. The thing is, you had to download their app to use their entertainment system, and to download their app you have to go to the App Store, so they let you use Wi-Fi to download the app and redirect you to their page in the App Store.
I just left the App Store and continued to browse whatever I wanted with the connection they provided me to download the app, but instead, I did whatever I wanted. Free full-speed inflight internet was so great. The last time I flew with them though this didn’t work, so I guess they corrected this bug. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
96. A Little Dusty
I had a woman with an expensive fur coat who claimed that the laundromat ruined it. It was a bit ruined, but the laundromat said that the stains were already there. The judge ordered an expert opinion—and it revealed so much more than we bargained for. The coat had traces of drugs all over it. They raided her place where they found her husband’s big stash of drugs. She should have just taken the stains.
97. Joy Ride Gone Wrong
So I dropped my Subaru WRX off to be serviced at a third-party service center. They called me to tell me my car was ready for pick up. When I arrived today, I waited around two hours while they were getting my car ready for pickup…to finally be told that they accidentally gave it to another customer. They offered a rental car for the meantime until they can get it back, which they said would hopefully be in the next few days. But that’s not what happened at all.
I called the authorities and the employees got mad and stressed out immediately. Turns out one of the managers took it for a joyride and wrecked it, which they admitted to. I still have not seen it but I was told the damage was extensive and that I would be held liable for payment to fix part of it. At this point, I’m going to get a lawyer involved.
I shouldn't have to pay for anything they have messed up on. Even if they offer to cover fixing it, I’m a little uneasy about that. Now that it has been in a collision it has much less value and could be prone to future problems. They said if I didn't get lawyers involved they would cut me a deal, but I’m really not having that. Not to mention, they have been lying to me for hours.
At this point, I am pressing charges against them for theft, and I have filed official complaints with the Motor Vehicle Dealer Board and the Office of the Attorney General Consumer Protection Section, and I will be suing for an undisclosed but reasonably high amount.
98. Get OUT
I think my boyfriend has been secretly drugging me for a while now and is gaslighting me. I know this is going to be hard to explain, but I have been having gaps in memory that I have been explaining away as being tired, or overworked, or whatever else. I was going to ask my boyfriend about it, since he is a doctor, but then I started to notice one chilling thing.
This seems to happen when I go on dates with him. I know it must be crazy, but I have woken up with dried…stuff…on my breasts several times with no memory of the night before. I know it’s him, too. The first time it happened was when we were drinking and I wrote it off as too much to drink. But then there were a few times when I KNOW we were not drinking.
I decided to break up with him over it…only to suddenly find myself on a date with him a few days later. I had not yet had the conversation to break up with him, but planned on it next time I talked with him. I remember being at the restaurant, but nothing before that. My car and his car was in the parking lot too so I was confused. I decided to play along when he asked me to come back to his place.
After three days at his place I remembered everything so I was starting to trust him again. I was going to ask him about my memory issues when he randomly pointed to these red bumps on my thigh and said I should be treating those sores. I had completely forgotten they were there. These little red bumps that look like needle injections that got infected. I got so freaked out he mentioned them that I decided to leave.
The next day he came over to “Check on me” and I remember waking up in bed with no memories. Then today he met me for lunch saying we had agreed to meet. I never agreed to meet with him and would never want to now. He does this all the time, saying we agreed to do something I have no memory of. I am sick and tired of it and want him punished.
This has started to affect my work life as well as I start to get paranoid when I see a boss walk into a room after making eye contact with me. I get paranoid that they are about to fire me. My friends also state I have been acting strangely and out of character. I have even begun to lose sleep and sleepwalk when I do. Is there a way to have blood work done to see what kind of drug he is using on me?
99. The Art Of Misdirection
You remember those cards at McDonald’s that you put the stickers from the coffee on, and you get a free drink every seven drinks? Well, my father would fill out the card with the stickers, go through the drive-thru, tell them that he had the card for the free coffee, order something else, then talk to them a little bit. It was all a part of his plan.
He would pay for the food he ordered, the drive-through person would say bye, and he’d drive away. They never asked for the card. And if they did, he’d give it to them, simple as that. He’d take the sticker from his free drink and put it on another card. I remember he had a stash of about a dozen of those cards, completely filled out.
He did this every morning and would eventually meet everyone that worked there and would have casual conversations with them to distract them from the free drink even further. Being the teen in the passenger seat, I would have conversations with everyone, and they would ask me questions about school. It really just goes to show how far you can get with a little distraction.
100. Thinking Outside The Box
I worked in family law in California for like two years before deciding I would be much, much happier if I changed career paths. In California, the obligation to pay spousal support (alimony) ends when the recipient begins cohabitation with a new romantic partner. This one guy came into our offices one day. To be fair, he was positively getting screwed by sending half his monthly payments in as alimony.
He told us he was aware of the rule about cohabitation and wanted me to argue his “point” in court. What was his point? You see, his ex was a narcissist. She was in love with, and had begun cohabitation, with herself. Her presence in her apartment should count the same as if there were a romantic partner there. He was bordering on begging me to take his money. I refused.
101. A Fatal Mistake
I once had a client who was a nurse that had administered a fatal injection and ended the life of a baby. It was a long story, but I got her off any charges of negligence despite being very disturbed by what had happened. It happened many years ago, but this case will stay with me forever. Here is the full story, for all of you who might be interested.
It was after hours in a small rural hospital. They were understaffed and under-equipped. In the pediatric ward, a baby was very ill with gastroenteritis and hadn't responded to weeks of treatment. The baby was losing weight despite everything. There was no doctor on the pediatric ward that night, or, in fact, in the entire hospital.
When the lab phoned the baby's blood work results in to the nurse on duty, she said that the baby was going to pass soon if he didn't receive urgent treatment. The nurse phoned the doctor on the telephone. He wasn't supposed to go in that day, having already worked long hours that day. He was just supposed to be available for phone calls.
The doc gave instructions for a sister to give the baby an ampoule of potassium chloride. She wrote down the instructions. But the doctor made a fatal mistake. They didn't specify that it should be given orally, which was what was meant. But because the doc specified that a sister must give it, the nurse assumed that it should be an injection, as she herself wasn't qualified to give injections but a nursing sister would have been.
The nurse called the sister from the maternity ward and asked her to come by and carry out the instruction. She explained the urgency. The sister was very busy in the maternity ward, but came to the pediatric ward and gave the injection. The baby passed from immediate cardiac arrest. The partners in my firm didn't want to touch the case, as they thought it was impossible to win.
But in our law, negligence has a specific definition. I won the case for the nursing sister by arguing that my client was trying her best, with only the instructions and resources at hand, under circumstances where she had been told the patient would pass very soon if the treatment wasn't given. She was an amazingly dedicated person and what happened had completely devastated her.
It was to the point where she wanted to quit nursing. I hope she changed her mind after that. There is one other point, though. The one good thing that came out of this tragic event was that I mentioned to a local Rotary Club member that the hospital in question desperately needed some telemedicine equipment, knowing that the club had such a project.
Shortly after that, they were able to make a donation of equipment to the hospital. I even coincidentally saw that doctor in passing years afterward and the doctor was so grateful for that equipment. It definitely changed the situation and made it far less likely that a tragedy like this one would ever again be repeated at that hospital.
Pexels
102. Invasion of Privacy
Not a lawyer, but I took my brother-in-law's landlord to small claims court (He's on SSI and I'm his conservator). We sued her for over $4,000 after she just decided she didn't like him and changed the locks on his apartment door. She also stuffed all of his belongings into trash bags and dragged them out to the curb. This was all done the day after she cashed his rent check.
It all started because she was letting herself into his apartment with no notice and was going through his stuff while he was gone. When I found out about this, I told him to let her know that was NOT okay. He did, and that's why she kicked him out. I'm very organized, and presented the judge with a folder containing photos, receipts, short videos on DVD and the sheriff call logs, as well as a concise timeline of events.
The landlord showed up with her son and countersued for the exact same amount we were suing them for. Claiming that the apartment was trashed, there were holes in the walls and they would have to repair everything before being able to rent again. During the hearing, the judge asked for evidence of the damage to the room.
The son whipped out his cell phone and showed a video panning and walking around the room. The video showed my BIL's apartment obviously still being lived in (his stuff was all still there) and no visible damage, but there were a lot of posters and things hung on the walls. When the judge looked at the video he asked, "Where is the damage?" The son replied, "You can't see it. It's behind all of the posters."
The judge frowned and looked at the video again, and then said, "Did you take this video when he was still living there at this time?" The son replied, "Yes." This was the clincher, the judge then asked, "Did you ask his permission to enter the apartment to take this video?" Silence. We were awarded the full amount.
103. Not A Lucky Divorce
This woman won $1.3million in a lottery pool and filed for divorce 11 days later. She never mentioned her lottery winnings to her husband. She also did not disclose the proceeds during the divorce. She would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for a letter that arrived at their former marital residence over two years after the divorce…
The letter was an offer to buy out her lottery annuity with a lump sum payment. The husband promptly lawyered up and the family court awarded 100% of the prize proceeds to him.
104. A Good Foundation
So, I do a lot of insurance work, and I try cases of all kinds, large and small. I had a small case, over about $2,600, from where a contractor drove into a retaining wall at this lady's house and damaged it. He wouldn't fix it, and, after like eight months, the homeowner allowed her insurance company—my client—to have it fixed and then sent the bill to the contractor.
Surprise surprise, the contractor wouldn't pay. There was lots of squabbling between my client and the contractor's insurance company, who offered less than $500 on a $2,600 bill. We had a trial to settle it. I brought our claims adjuster and the homeowner. The defense attorney brought the contractor and an adjuster from the contractor's insurance company.
Everything goes fine with questioning the homeowner, who was a sweet, middle-aged woman. She, like most people, knows nothing about the finer points of masonry. Then, we get to my claims adjuster. He says, "Well, we paid $2,600 to have this fixed, but I'm not an expert on masonry." However, he also discussed how estimates on masonry were made.
I close my proof. Next, the contractor gets up on the stand. They go over what exactly happened with the retaining wall. Then, he testifies that he "knows for a fact" that the $2,600 invoice includes overhead and profit and accuses my client of "running a scam." The judge strikes the answer. I look down at the estimate for repair and grin from ear to ear.
It says, in bold print, "This amount does not include overhead or profit." I look at the invoice. It's the same amount as the estimate. This guy is lying through his teeth—and I’m going to catch him. On cross examination, I show the contractor the invoice. "Sir, this is a $2,600 invoice for repair, correct." "Yes." Then I show him the estimate.
"Sir, this is a $2,600 estimate for the same repairs, correct?" "Yes." "They're the same amount, correct?" "Yes." "Does the estimate say it does not include profit or overhead?" "Uh..." "Does it?" "Yes." "Didn't you just testify that you knew for a fact that the estimate included overhead?" "I don't know." "What don't you know?"
At this point, the contractor is furious and beats his hand on the stand. "It doesn't include overhead and profit, does it?" "I guess not." "But you said it did, right?" I pass the witness. But I wasn’t done yet. Next, the defense attorney calls the contractor's insurance company's adjuster. He testifies about how much he thought it should cost, like $500.00.
I cross-examine him. "How did you make this estimate?" "I put the numbers into a computer program." "How do you know what numbers to put in?" "Uh..." "Are you a contractor?" "No." "Are you an expert in masonry?" "No." "Have you ever worked in construction?" "No." "And the computer programs spits out what you put in?" "Yes."
"And you can just put in whatever numbers you want?" "Yes." "And it makes an estimate based on the numbers you pick?" "Yes." "But you don't know anything about masonry?" "No." The adjuster just testified that he made up the estimate. Defense closes proof. And the judge takes the matter under advisement. So let’s recap all this glory.
The contractor lied and was discredited, and the adjuster for the contractor admitted he just made everything up. We got $1,000 out of the trial. Less than half of what we sought but double what the defendant argued it should be. It was a win in my book.
Unsplash
#/media/File:Las_Vegas_slot_machines.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}