#not legal advice

[kittyoverlord]

Criminal Law Basics incoming:

This is why the standard for proving guilt in a criminal court is Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. There is a ton of discussion regarding what Reasonable Doubt is*, but in general it is the highest burdan of proof that exists in the US Justice system. When creating this standard of proof, the idea was that circumstantial evidence and/or a lack of evidence can be twisted to imply guilt, which would lead to more innocent people being unfairly prosecuted. In theory, the prosecutor has the burden of proof because we should be absolutely certain the the person that we're sending to jail/prison/death is actually guilty. Defense attorneys spend a lot of time working on the best ways to describe reasonable doubt to a jury to help increase the chances of a not guilty verdict.

In this instance, it would be up to the prosecutor to show evidence that the Loam's received this money, it is not the Loam's responsibility (via their attorney**) to provide evidence that they did not receive the money. Sklonda's argument would be likely focus on the prosecutors and cops failing to meet this standard by not providing this key piece of evidence.

Also, I know this is done for story purposes, but this is all flagrant disregard for attorney client privilege, which doesn't go away just because the client died.

*We actually just got a ton of cases back from an appeal decision that determined that judges in our state were using an incorrect analogy to describe reasonable doubt to jurors. On that basis a lot of cases have to be re-tried because the jury wasn't applying the correct standard. That's how important this is.

**Another interesting legal fact, if both of the Loams were being charged with the same crime, they would not both get the same attorney. They would be what is known as co-defendents, and at least where I work, one of them would wind up with a private attorney who is paid for by the state due to the public defender's office having a conflict of interest. This is basically because in theory the best defense for either one of them may be to blame the other one, and so one attorney cannot act in the best interest for both of them. If they both got their own attorney and decided to work together to prove both of their innocence, that's totally fine, but there would be more of a process to ensure that no impropriety was going on. Again, I know this is for story purposes, but just a little fun fact from your local public defender - admin assistant.

[chiefmuffin]

Be happy

Be gay

Do crime

[alexandramrobertson]

Governments litigating badly

I just rewatched the Due South season 2 episode “We Are the Eggmen”. While this episode is a lot of fun, it's legally absurd. The Canadian government wouldn't respond to a lawsuit by immediately handing over millions of dollars when their employee claimed it was fraudulent. Instead, they would:

Retain local counsel. Cloutier probably isn’t a personal injury defence lawyer and even if he is, he’s not called to the bar in Illinois. He would be instructing local lawyers from behind a desk in Ottawa.

Deny responsibility for Fraser's actions. He wasn't on duty, so he's not our problem.

Dispute jurisdiction. We have diplomatic immunity. If you want to sue us, you'd better do it in Canada, where we appoint the judges, the damages awards are peanuts, and you'll owe us big if you lose.

Hire a private investigator to investigate Fraser's fraud theory.

Demand a mountain of documents. You're asking for ten milion dollars? We'll need twenty years of financials and medical records for every sniffle and scraped knee you've had in your entire life. If any pre-existing condition might have caused your current condition, they'll argue it did.

Claim the driver caused the accident. Actually, sir, you were the one who was drunk, weren't you?

Drag their heels and delay, delay, delay.

Realism sure is less fun, isn’t it?

I'd also forgotten that Fraser pretends to electrocute himself while unlocking the door. It's a big step for him and Thatcher since until this point the only person we’ve seen him joking around with is Ray. And of course this is after lying (badly) to help her earlier in the episode.

Your mask is slipping, Fraser. You’re smitten.

[embervoices]

Another very long thread on Bluesky, this one about how to prioritize deportation issues. There is both significant political/legal analysis and useful reality checking here.

If you have concerns for yourself, family, or other members of your communities about being deported from the US, this may help you focus your risk assessment.

It's 40 entries long. Once again, I have taken screen shots of only a couple, and have copied the whole thread over in text below the cut.

Matt Cameron ‪@mattcameron.bsky.social‬ November 19, 2024

1/ HOW TO TRIAGE AN IMMIGRATION EMERGENCY

As someone who has been defending non-citizens in deportation proceedings since 2006, I am here to tell you that we know exactly who Trump's top targets will be, & how we can try to protect them NOW.

NOT LEGAL ADVICE but here's what we know about priorities

2/ 🔴 CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS 🔴

Anyone who is not a naturalized US citizen who has been convicted of anything more serious than driving without a license should consult with a qualified crimmigration lawyer NOW. Like, right now.

3/ The fed definition of "conviction" is broader than any state's. If you entered a plea w/probation or a fine, ICE is allowed to treat it as a conviction EVEN IF THE CASE WAS DISMISSED.

And the smallest stuff that no local DA actually cares about can matter. Even petty shoplifting is deportable.

4/ I have represented far too many people with permanent residence (aka "greencards") in deportation proceedings who thought they were safe from immigration consequences because their cases were "dismissed." (FYI they're most typically detained coming back in through the airport after intl travel.)

5/ If you have been in the US as a permanent resident for the past 5 yrs w/a record and not arrested during that time, talk to an attorney about applying for citizenship. (If you intend to stay here permanently, that is. No worries if you're making plans to gtfo, we get it.)

6/ 🔴 RECENT DEPORTATION ORDERS 🔴 Anyone who has received an order of deportation (incl. from missing court) is at high risk, but especially so w/in 5-10 yrs. This is especially true if you are now on a regular check-in schedule with ICE. Keep checking in--but also check in w/a good lawyer

7/ 🔴 RECENT STUDENT VISA OVERSTAYS 🔴 Yes, Elon Musk got away with it in the '90s--but those were very different times. These cases have been a special priority since 9/11. Anyone who is now out of status after overstaying an F1/J1 visa (esp within the past 5-10 yrs) should consult with a lawyer now.

8/ 🟡 #TPS/#DACA 🟡 Trump already tried to cancel Temporary Protected Status & Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and although courts (mostly) stopped him before they aren't safe now. This won't happen overnight and you should be given a chance to see a judge, but you need a plan NOW.

9/ 🟡 ANY HISTORY OF FRAUD/MISREPRESENTATION If you know that you or the adult who brought you here was less than truthful--or made something up--to gain your current immigration status (including citizenship), you should be sure to talk to a lawyer about that. Might be ok, but you should know

10/ 🟡 OPEN CASE IN IMMIGRATION COURT So long as you aren't arrested for a crime you should expect to be allowed to remain in the US while your deportation proceedings are pending. But you should know that Trump will try to accelerate the timeline for your case. Be sure you have a lawyer & a plan.

11/ 🟡 RECENT ARRIVALS / CHNV PAROLEES🟡 Anyone who entered the US during the Biden administration should expect to be a higher priority than other undocumented people without arrest records, whether or not they are in immigration court right now. This includes #CHNV parolees. Talk to a lawyer.

12/ RE: CATEGORIZATION FYI my assessments here are drawn from dealing w/ICE through 4 administrations (incl. Trump 1.0) as well as what he has explicitly promised to do in his 2024 campaign. He is coming in w/limited resources, and we'll have time to reassess as they get & deploy more

13/ Remember that "mass deportation" does not necessarily mean squads of armed officers/soldiers going door-to-door checking papers. Not saying it couldn't come to that, but we don't have anywhere NEAR the infrastructure for that yet and we'd have some time to see it coming.

14/ For the immediate future, "mass deportation" really just means strict and uncompromising enforcement of existing law through known means by ICE working in cooperation with state/local authorities. They only have ~37K beds w/their current contracts and will need time to build more.

15/ We should take the threats to deploy military/Natl Guard very seriously. But that will take time to ramp up, and the more immediate threat is cooperation with local law enforcement--which is already fully legal under INA 287(g) w/many programs already in place

16/ Imm courts are already packed well beyond capacity & take yrs to issue final orders. Of course they'll subvert & even shred due process but it is our sworn duty as lawyers to put ourselves between the shredder & our clients. "lol RIP due process" ain't it, friends. Fight or get out of the way

17/ As of today 2/3 of the entire federal judiciary was not appointed by Trump. It could all go the way of the 5th Cir in a few yrs, but we still have hundreds of good people on the bench. And sure, their orders are just paper. But they mean something. Make them tell us to our faces that they don't.

18/ Easy to say it's all futile & he'll just do whatever he's going to do. But saying that whenever someone points out that we still have something resembling the rule of law only helps make it that much more true. I'm not naive, but nothing is inevitable. I want to know I did something. Don't you?

19/ Anyway. Back to triage mode. The following are marked 🟢 not because they are entirely "safe" but because they are unquestionably low priority and/or much more effort for a regime which is determined to carry out a massive shock & awe campaign under (and this is important) current circumstances

20/ 🟢 PENDING ASYLUM APPLICATIONS 🟢 Applications pending with the Asylum Office are taking ~9 yrs to process rn. Based on past precedent, we can expect the new regime to cut whatever corners it can to rush those. But FWIW the current asylum corps are dedicated professionals w/a strong union.

21/ Obviously I'm not assuming that the Asylum Office or any other institution can be counted on to hold the line. I'm only saying that USCIS is not ICE and has better guardrails up front, leaving it that much harder to degrade. USCIS is truly the immigration deep state, Schedule F or not

21/ 🟢 PENDING IMMEDIATE RELATIVE VISAS/PROVISIONAL WAIVERS

Marriage interviews will get tougher & everything will have more scrutiny, but otherwise visa petition from a spouse/adult child won't change. (Trump didn't touch 601A waivers & I've never heard that proposed, but it's something to watch)

22/ 🟢 UNDOCUMENTED FOR MORE 4+ YRS W/NO ARREST RECORD

This is the most populated of my categories, but given current & projected resources the average undocumented person should not be living in daily fear. I know that's not what the headlines would suggest, so some context:

23/ The categories in red and yellow above represent millions of people in themselves, and (w/exception of DACA) are much easier to justify both to his base & anyone else who could otherwise be persuaded that mass deportation is bad. They are also, generally speaking, the easiest to target & find.

24/ Pls don't take me to be promising here that mass random sweeps of random undocumented people aren't going to happen. They haven't in 70 yrs--but again, not naive. Just pure logistics here: targeted workplace raids are already hard to plan. Random home raids would be FAR harder, and much messier.

25/ 🟡 WORKPLACE RAIDS: Biden hasn't been doing them, but every President before him did. I fully expect those to come back. I couldn't really think of a priority category for that, but I guess it would be "anyone working in a place with a substantial undocumented workforce." Expect them.

26/ Employment-based raids are great PR because they can claim to be protecting US jobs and punishing employers who rely on undocumented labor. They are also much cleaner & simpler than dragging people out of their homes and pulling them away from their kids. Cold facts here.

27/ The "raids" Trump wants you to be afraid of--fascist "papers please" home invasions--could very well be in our future, but it will take the full infrastructure of camps + military + expedited removal/Alien Enemies Act. (And maybe judicial blessing, but let's assume that will optional by then)

28/ Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can: we can be clear-eyed about these fascist horrors as the expected end point while also recognizing that this will have to be a ramp-up. MASSIVE funding/infrastructure + acclimating the public to other large immigration enforcement actions

29/ Trump has spent most of this year especially laying the groundwork for major actions against "migrant crime." So I would expect him to deliver on that by going hard on anyone with anything resembling a criminal record first so that everyone associates these ops with "crime."

30/ Regular, massive, visible immigration enforcement operations have never been a part of modern American life. Not like this, at least. Having followed his rhetoric pretty closely this campaign, I fully expect that the plan is to numb the public to them by associating "deportation" with "crime"

31/ They could just lie & call everyone a "criminal." But there are already at least 100K people just off the top with deportable criminal records (mostly minor, but still), and any number of stories in there that they can exploit for headlines. The Nazis did this to Jews way ahead of death camps

32/ This is also the path of least resistance bc they already have so many people with record-based deportation orders checking in with ICE. They know where they live, or at least where they have been recently. It's the lowest-hanging enforcement fruit there is

33/ Anyway, all of this is to say that we have time to (1) try to help those with records which could potentially be mitigated for their protection & (2) to rally for/around our undocumented neighbors before it gets BAD. Not a lot of time, but time well beyond January. Let's not waste a day of it.

34/ I am not including (nearly all) naturalized/naturalborn citizens on my triage list because they are so far from anything I can recognize as danger relative to anyone else. That's how triage works! I follow this stuff like most of the rest of Boston follows sports, so watch this space I guess

35/ N.B.: when I say "nearly all" naturalized citizens, I will drop a 🟢 for anyone who knows or suspects they natz'd [naturalized] through anything resembling suspicious/fraudulent means and a very small class of adoptees (esp AAPI). You probably already know who you are, but talk to a lawyer

36/ Finally: the purpose of this triage list is reasonable risk assessment based on everything I know about where we have been and where we expect to go. My office is being flooded with worried people, and I am trying to be realistic along the lines above. You can be too. Please don't spread fear.

37/ Sure, "cruelty is the point"--that's all too true. Far too many of our fellow citizens will delight in the horrors to come. But that's only half of it when it comes to "mass deportation." Fear--and its amplification & multiplication--is also the point. And they can't do that without us.

38/ If you have appreciated this clear-eyed antidote to despair, please join me and Thomas Smith (@seriouspod.bsky.social) for more on Opening Arguments (@openargs.bsky.social).

We've got a great show coming Monday on how you can help stop mass deportation in your community today!

39/ VERY IMPORTANT: we need to quickly normalize the idea that immigrants are people who make mistakes and resist the hard-right labeling of anyone who has ever been arrested as a "criminal." People are far more beautiful and complicated than that

40/ One more very important action item! Along with finding a lawyer you can trust, one thing anyone who was not born a US citizen can do now is FOIA a digitized copy of their complete immigration file. It will take a few months to come in but it is free and easy here:

myaccount.uscis.gov/sign-in

[havinganormalone]

Hey listen. Listen. This is important.

The police are not experts on the law. NEVER trust what they say when it comes to legal matters.

Even IF they are well meaning (they aren't) they will tell you stuff that is straight up incorrect. I had an officer tell me that there was nothing they could do about an ex threatening to out me as trans to my family the first time I talked to the police about him posting revenge porn. The second time, another officer told me that was a hate crime and could be something additional he was charged with. Which one was correct? I'm not gonna find out by talking to the police. THEY DON'T FUCKING KNOW.

The police did not study law. Do not trust them to understand it. Get a lawyer.

[chantylay]

Oh hey, I actually work in landlord tenant law. Absolutely do contact the city for an inspection if you have an issue like this and keep meticulous copies of your conversations with your landlord (get things in writing). Landlords must keep your apartment in good condition (including things like the plumbing) and if they do not fix it you can take legal action (and potentially withhold rent but you should talk to a lawyer if you are gonna do that. How to go about that without getting dragged to court for non-payment of rent is a complicated subject).

This AI knows what’s up

[alexandramrobertson]

"Isn't that entrapment?"

Why Fraser is jumping to conclusions

It’s me, your friendly neighbourhood legally trained Canadian. Here to tell you law stuff that is just for fun and definitely not legal advice.

The Due South fandom remember the moment in the pilot movie, when Fraser meets Ray and calls him out for trying to entrap a garment buyer into buying stolen merchandise.

The problem is, while he could be right, Fraser didn't have enough information to make that call.

What is entrapment?

Let’s look at Canadian law, because it’s what I know and what Fraser would know (unless he studied Illinois law on the plane).

In Canada, entrapment occurs when:

(a) the authorities provide an opportunity to persons to commit an offence without reasonable suspicion or acting mala fides, or, (b) having a reasonable suspicion or acting in the course of a bona fide inquiry, they go beyond providing an opportunity and induce the commission of an offence.  R. v. Mack, [1988] 2 SCR 903

Let's call these "Category A" and "Category B" entrapment.

Fraser didn't know enough

Fraser can't know whether Ray's operation is Category A entrapment because he doesn't know whether Ray has reasonable suspicion or what his motives are. He may have guessed that Ray doesn't have reasonable suspicion based on his inference that the prisoner is not really a garment buyer, but he hasn't said that yet.

Fraser may have assumed Ray had reasonable suspicion but crossed the line into Category B entrapment (inducing the offence). But Fraser probably didn't see enough of the conversation to make that call.

He's just jumping to conclusions and being condescending about it. In another country where he doesn’t know the law. No wonder Ray is annoyed.

[marloboros]

this might be the stupidest ask you ever receive, but. have you seen the Lincoln lawyer, and do you think it is somewhat realistic? Obviously, I know that some things are insane, it’s a tv show after all. But like, the arguments they make, the cases? Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, I really recommend it, it’s absolute gold. I love lawyer tv shows so much.

i haven't seen the show, sorry! it's been on my to-watch list for a while—my dad went through a phase where he wouldn't stop talking about it. i don't have too much time to watch tv these days, but maybe over the winter break i'll check it out!

[explodingice]

Guys, gals, and nonbinary pals

Lend me your ear-ussy

If you feel like the next four years your life may be in danger might I recommend

Buying a gun

With this quick and easy lifehack you can turn any would be "your body my choice" motherfuckers into fertalizer

*legal disclaimer I'm not advocating for murder,just proactive self defense. Stay safe cuties ;3*

[chantylay]

Related note since the seccond person was talking about evictions: another good legal doctrine in the category of squatters rights to keep in mind is adverse possession. If you fix up an abandoned property and tell people it's your home, the legal owner of the property only has so long (please note that this period may be up to ten years depending on your state) to report you and request your removal from the property. If they fail to do so a court may declare you the rightful owner. After all, the person whose name was on the deed left it to rot.

If they do report you, they still have to go through the legal eviction stuff. It's a slightly different set of proceedures from non-paying or lease violating renters, but you still have protections against harrassment (please find out if your local area has pro bono housing law programs as you may be able to get a free lawyer to help with that case).

Mostly this doctrine is used by neighbors who have fences in the wrong place to claim small parts of an other person's yard or such the like. But it is possible to legally take over property from a negligent and absentee owner.

[necarion]

My client: "Anyway, Judge, that's why I think you should go suck a dick."

Judge: "Did you just tell me to -"

Me, going into desperate damage control: "Objection, your honor, hearsay!"

[aridotdash]

Legal hack: donate blood before your hearing so the judge has to be nice to you

[elderinternetresurrection]

All real people are public domain characters. Including famous people. Don't have allegorical tech bro characters. Name your character Elon Musk. Allegory is for cowards. Dante was right.

[wordswithwordsworth]

Fun fact:

Silly is synonymous with fun and interesting! Some people will try to tell you otherwise! So you should fix this by applying clown makeup to them!

PSA:

1. If you are not silly, it is vital you become silly

2. If you are silly, you must stay silly

2. If you used to be silly but have stopped, you must make all efforts to return to silliness

[gamerwoman3d]

Hello! I have a question, is it stealing when you credit the original poster even if there was not a watermark? I have been accused of stealing and I don't know what to do.

To my knowledge they have not mentioned anything about reposting and they have not been active for months. I am overthinking, please help...

Anon 🐈‍⬛

Hi, 🐈‍⬛️ !

TL:DR - Message the artist directly and move the posts to "Post Privately" until decisions are made.

Extended answer below the cut.

I'm coming at this ask from a place of compassion because I wanna make sure you feel okay by the end of the answer. Step one, deep breath and chill. It isn't the end of the world, and you are not a bad person. Bad people won't even bother asking if they did something wrong - because they legitimately do not care. So breathe in, you're gonna be fihe.

Judging by the number of asshole billionaires on the planet, I think it's safe to say that it's only stealing if you get caught. Otherwise it's arguably "Archival purposes."

However if you want to smooth things over with your accuser, begin by moving the post in question to "private." This stops it from being available for use outside your own blog. You can still archive it that way using a python script at a later date, but also it prevents *you* from accidentally distributing something that is not yours to distribute.

Distribution is the key word here. Taking something that an internet artist gave you/made available to you and using that thing for personal purposes only isn't Distribution, it's consumption. Giving that thing to others so that others can use it, IS distribution.

Some folks get mad if you redistribute their Intellectual Property [I.P.] without their consent/without a licence/without an agreement. Some don't. The only way to know for sure is to contact the artist - not the accuser.

If the accuser IS the artist, move their art posts to "Post Privately," inform them that the posts were removed, and ask them if there is anything you can do going forward to support them. Then just negotiate from there, every artist is different and may ask for different stuff. You are not obligated to do anything to support them, just try not to cause them injury [by for example illegąlly redistributing imagery that they charge a lot of $$$ to unlock on Patreon].

If the accuser is not the artist, reach out to the actual artist. You may even find the permissions you need in their pinned post [mine for example is in pinned and about pages at the end.]

In any case, don't lose sleep over it. Nothing on this hellsite is worth losing sleep over.

Also, all you can do is your best. If you reach out to the original artist and they don't respond in 2, 3 months, then... I'm not really sure they're using art as a career path anyway? Or if they are, they/their team is being a bit irresponsible for not replying.

And legally in the USA anyway they have to actually give you, in writing, a cease and desist letter, before they can take any further action. And if you DO desist [by putting posts private/removing posts] then there's not much else they can do to you at that point.

All that being said, I'm NOT a lawyer. And this is NOT LEGAL ADVICE. I hope it goes well for you. Promise it ain't the end of the world though.

If the person accusing you is not the artist, and you have permission from the artist to post the work... then tell the accuser that you took the necessary steps to ensure the artist wasn't injured by your post, and ask them to leave you alone.

If you haven't heard from the artist or the permissions are in limbo, tell the accuser you are waiting from a response from the artist. You can also ask the accuser for updated contact information for the artist, and if they cannot provide that info... then question wtf are they doing trying to represent them?

Permissions summary: YOU HAVE MY EXPRESSED PERMISSION TO USE ANY SCREENSHOTS, GIFS, ASSETS OR CONTENT THAT I HAVE MADE OF THE GAME MK1 [MORTAL KOMBAT 1 (2023)]. EVERYONE has my enthusiastic consent. You don't have to make something I *enjoy* with those assets. You're under no obligation to please me with your content, even if it's made with bits of my content. Enjoy yourselves, go wild! Any MK1 screenshots or gifs that I make can be used for your fanworks as long as you have the legal rights to do so. [I'm pretty sure you all have the legal right to make any fanart/icons/reposts/headers/photo edits/collages/parody that you like, but I do not know every single law for every country. You're on your own to research whether you'd get in trouble for SubScorp art in Indonesia or the PRC or Alabama or wherever you are where all the rules get weird. But as long as you're not getting punished for using my MK1 gameplay in your work, go nuts! You have my permission to use the assets I've made from the game.]

[roguehr]

Drafting a new cannabis policy, let's get into it.

With few exceptions (mostly heavily regulated industries- check your local laws) employees in the private sector are protected from discrimination based on legal (you gotta be 21) recreational cannabis use during their own time, off the employers premises and without use of company equipment (sorry, you can't hot box the company truck).

This includes at hiring, most companies have stopped testing for cannabis all together. It's illegal in NYC.

If you live in a state without legal weed you are SOL.

What about medical?

That's a bit more complicated but in general it should be treated like any other mind-altering prescription.

What about post-accident or reasonable suspicion testing?

This is where they're going to get you. Best practice is to use a cheek swab to narrow the window of use. It's not required so you still may get sent for a piss test, pop hot, and get fired.

Consider getting a med card to bolster a wrongful terminated suit.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the courts.

How can you protect yourself?

Get a medical card. Even in a recreationally legal state. Doing so will guarantee your privacy at hiring. If you test positive on a pre-employment test the medical review office will reach out to you to confirm if you have an Rx, if you do they'll return the results as negative to your employer.

Read the company policy.

During the interview process its totally appropriate to ask “what is the onboarding process?”. If the recruiter seems cool you can ask them more directly (OVER THE PHONE. Don't put that shit in writing)