Kentucky General Practice Legal Questions

If he wants to come for a visit, then he needs to apply for a visitor B visa at the US consulate in Nigeria. A visitor visa cannot be used to come into the United States with the intention of getting married. If you are intending to get married, you can  apply for a fiancée visa for him, if you have physically met within the last two years. Alternatively, you can get married anywhere in the world and then you can sponsor him for a spousal visa to be processed at the US consulate overseas.... Read More

Yes, although you have no obligation to pay unauthorized charges on your credit card (I'm assuming that you did not authorize this person to use your card), just as you have no obligation to honor a forged check, and thus should have no damages.  If for some reason you do have to pay those charges, you can sue to recover what you pay.  Either way, you can press criiminal charges against the thief.  ... Read More

In a criminal case, the government prosecutes and seeks to punish a person (or entity) for a crime he or she committed which (although only one person may be the victim) is considered to be an offense against society as a whole, and the case generally does not involve a question of recovery by the victim; generally, the victim has to bring a civil case in order to recover damages.  In order to convict the defendant, the prosecution has the burden of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. A civil case is a private dispute between individuals or entities, and involves private wrongs committed by one against the other.  The idea, usually, is not to punish (although punitive damages are sometimes awarded for some types of claims) but to make the injured party whole by awarding him/her/it damages, and/or equitable relief (any relief other than money, for example an injunction requiring someone to stop using a name which infringes another's trademark, is equitable).  The party claiming to have been wronged generally has the burden of proving his/her/its claim by a preponderance of the evidence, not beyond a reasonably doubt. Criminal and civil cases are not mutually exclusive; the same facts can give rise to both.  If you recall, OJ Simpson was acquitted in the criminal case brought against  him for allegedly murdering his ex-wife and Mr. Goldman, but was found liable in the civil suit for wrongful death brought be Mr. Goldman's parents.  He did not go to jail (for that offense), but was required to pay a large amount of damages for wrongful death.  In the criminal case, OJ could not be convicted unless proven guilty beyond a reasonably doubt; in the civil case, the Goldmans only had to prove their wrongful death claim by a preponderance of the evidence. The claim you describe above could give rise to both a criminal complaint for theft, and a civil claim for conversion.  That doesn't mean that either one would succeed; I don't know what your niece's side of the story is.  The local police and prosecutor may be declining to prosecute because they think the case is too weak to give them a good shot to prove your niece's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  They may think (I"m just speculating) that this is more of a family dispute than a criminal matter in which the government should get involved.... Read More

When you say that he lacks the capacity to sell the time share, do you mean that he is no longer mentally competent to enter into contracts?  If so, did he suffer from this disability when he entered into the time share agreement?  It could be a basis for invalidating the agreement.  If he became imcompetent after entering into the agreement, you (or perhaps a sibling) can start a proceeding to have him declared incompetent and yourself placed in charge of  his affairs.  Then you can sell it on your behalf. If you didn't mean that your father is mentally incompetent, in what other way is he restricted from selling the time share?  If the time share agreement prohibits him from selling the time share under any circumstances, that provision may very well be void as what is known as an unreasonably restriction on alienation. As you can see from the above, my recommendation would be to sell the time share. If your father is mentally competenet, it just doesn't make sense to me that he could be prevented from doing so, but perhaps I'm not aware of some crucial fact.  If he really can't sell the time share, and he can't sublet either, and he can't pay for it, he may have to consider filing a bankruptcy petition.... Read More

Since you don't mention any kind of underhanded way by which the employee got your number, presumably you had provided that number to the bank, and/or it was publicly available.  You also don't mention any restrictions you had placed on the use of that number, for example telling the bank that they could not text you.  Nor do you mention anything objectionable about content of the text, i.e. you don't say that it was threatening or sexually harassing.  Assuming all of the above to be true, I see nothing wrong with the bank employee texting you about business you had with the bank.... Read More