Georgia General Practice Legal Questions

There are several options available to help you recover the loan you extended to your family members. One option is to file a lawsuit and seek a judgment, which can then be enforced to secure repayment. I recommend consulting with an attorney experienced in debt collection to guide you through this process.... Read More

There are a lot of factors at play here. The first question I would have is why exactly do you have power of attorney for your mother and what are the limits of it? Do you have it in writing or is it informal? Second, is your brother living in the house (or even partially owns the house), staying short term, or is he just an intrusive visitor? Third, it sounds like your mother wants to have continued contact with him. Is that true or is more exploitative than that? Fourth, how is your mother's health? How old is she and is she capable of taking care of herself or making her own decisions? There's a lot of nuance here.  Really unless your mother also wants him barred from the house or your mother is somehow incapable and not able to make her own decisions then you likely cannot do anything about it regardless of how frustrating he may be. If your mother is in agreement and wants him to not come back then the police can be called to instruct him to not come back. If she is incapable and being exploited by him then he may be able to be prosecuted for Exploitation of the Elderly of Disabled (provided she is over 65 or disabled). If you think she is being financially exploited by him you should think about contacting the police so they can look into it. Orders of protection can also be taken out if he is violent and there are forms for this you can get at the clerk's office in most counties for you to fill out if you think that is appropriate. But most situations would require your mother either being onboard with banning him from the house or would require her to be incapable of making her own decisions. ... Read More

I'm not sure why you would think that your former employer could not send you a letter asserting a claim for stolen property, but it can.  Obviously this doesn't mean that it will follow through on suing you, or that it will succeed if it does, but there's nothing wrong with the letter.... Read More

Although it is possible that GA law is different, there would be no legal requirement as to how long you must refrain from selling property after accepting a deposit.  It depends on what the contracting parties agree on.  Did you agree with the owner that he would hold the camper for a specified period of time?  If this term was not discussed, the law will generlaly imply a reasonable amount of time, but "reasonable" depends on the circumstances.... Read More

That depends on whether the state where you live has any basis to exercise jurisdiction over the Georgia attorney, which would depend on what contacts the attorney has with the state in which you live - does he/she do business in your state?  Advertise in your state?  Own property in your state?  Is he/she admitted to practice law in your state?  What, if anything, does the retainer agreement say about jurisdiction/venue?  Does it have an arbitration provision? Unless you're sure that your state can exercise jurisdiction over the attorney, you're safest bet is to sue in Georgia with a Georgia attorney.... Read More

Absent an explicit contract providing for it (to which you would need to be a party) you can't inherit your father's debt.  Any debt he leaves after his death will be paid by his estate, which will leave less for you to inherit, but you have no obligation to pay any debts which arenot covered by the estate's assets.... Read More

That's a tough question.  If you were never served, you are not subject to the court's jurisdiciton and theoretically could have any judgment entered against you vacated, and you may feel that you don't want to wake up the plaintiff to the problem by taking any action.  On the other hand, you're taking a chance that the plaintiff may have made some effort to serve you of which you are unaware, and that wehn push comes to shove, a court may hold that you were validly served and therefore a default judgment entered against you is enforceable.  If it were me, I probably would not want to take the chance, but I might wait untiil the statute of limitations has run.  Defamation claims generally have short limitations periods (I don't know what Georgia's is), and if you get the case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds after the statute of limitations has run, it will probably be too late for the plaintiff to sue you again.  Whether you choose to wait until the limitations period has run or not, you eventually would make a motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiciton; if jurisdiction is an issue other than just the service, you may be able to make a limited appearance just to contest jurisdiction, without appearing generally in the case.... Read More

Not legally, unless you have a prior contract giving you the right to do so.  If you sue him and obtain a judgment for the money he owes you and/or any damages you suffered from the assault, you can then avail yourself of legal remedies to collect on your judgment, including having his assets seized and sold to pay the judgment.  Of course, if he is avoiding arrest, I don't see how he is going to collect his stuff as, presumably, you would tell the police about any arrangements you made to return it, and they would be there to arrest him.... Read More

If you had an agreement with your son-in-law that you would now own the car, he should send you the money.  The insurance company, of course, is not party to the agreement and has no reason to believe that you are the owner, especially if the insurance remained in your son-in-law's name.  With regard to a claim against your son-in-law, if he should deny the agreement, you will have a difficult time proving it, as the facts could merely show that he allowed you to use the car while he was away, in exchange for your taking over payments, not that he sold it to you.  BTW both of these contracts, the one you claim to sell you the car, and the one your son-in-law may claim, to lease you the car while he was overseas, probably require a writing to be enforceable under the UCC (although the fact that you are family members may relax this requirement).  Thus, you may not be able to enforce a contract by which you purchased the car.  He may not be able to enforce a ocntract by which you leased the car, but since the car is now totalled, he doesn't have to.... Read More

Other than gifts in contemplation of marriage (i.e. engagement rings) and gifts in contemplation of death, neither of which seems to apply here, a gift is a gift.  You could have made it a conditional gift, by saying something like "I'm giving this to you to use as long as we stay together", but if your gift wasn't conditioned, the property is his.... Read More

Your father's estate can cash the check, through its legal representative (executor, administrator, etc.)  If you have not been appointed by a Court as the legal representative of your father's estate, you technically should not cash the check, especially if it is for a substantial amount and you are not your father's only heir.  If it is for a minimal amount, however, and you are either your father's sole heir or you share the proceeds with all other beneficiaries, then nobody will be hurt if you do cash it (assuming the bank lets you; if the bank is aware that your father has died, it will not let you cash the check), and you almost certainly won't get into any trouble.... Read More

The current age of consent in Georgia is 16.  Assuming you had no sexual relations with your girlfriend before she was 16 (if you had relations with her in other states, you may have to check the age of consent in those jurisdictions) and that she is not otherwise impaired, you should have no criminal liability.... Read More

You can sue the pet sitter for breach of contract and negligence, and possibly other causes of action, but you should look at your contract carefully.  It is likely to contain a limitation of liability clause which limits the pet sitter's liability to a small amount of money, for example the amount you paid the pet sitter.  In the jurisdictions where I practice most of the time, such limitations are generally enforceable if only negligence is involved, but not if there is intentional wrongdoing or reckessness involved, but I don't know if that is the law in Georgia.  Assuming no limitation of liability clause, or that it isn't enforceable, you may be able to recover some of the damages you claim, but some of them (money spent on an early flight, etc.) seem too remote to me, although a Judge may disagree. ... Read More

Seriously - were you hurt by the key? You swallowed it or placed in your mouth and became sick or were so sickened by the event that you threw up the consumed fries - did you go to the hospital? If the answer to all thos is no then I would focus on the manager being dishonest and make a complaint against her - maybe call the police to make a report but at the end of the day you might be entitled to some small amount of compensation for the abuse - I wouldn't much though... Read More

You are going to have to sue her to get the Jeep back. She is breaking your agreement, but because you signed over title to her, the situation is a bit messy. You are going to have to explain to the judge why you did that, and what exactly the agreement was. If she hasn't done anything with it yet, I would contact a lawyer right away. It may be that a letter or phone call from an attorney will be enough to make sure she doesn't follow through with the sale. ... Read More