Latest Articles in Law
Execution Warrants
An execution warrant, also known as a death warrant, is a legal document issued by a court or a relevant judicial authority that authorizes the enforcement of a death sentence.
Surrogacy Laws in the U.S.: A State-By-State Guide
Surrogacy has transformed the landscape of modern parenthood, providing families with countless opportunities to grow. Yet legal frameworks on surrogacy in the United States remain far from uniform.
How Does House Arrest Work and Who Qualifies for It?
The United States prison system manages over 1,000,000 inmates each year. In 2022, the prison population increased by 2% from the previous year to over 1,200,000 people.
Can You Drive Someone Else's Car Without Insurance? Here's What You Need to Know
Borrowing a car with the owner's permission is a practical solution that provides quick access to a vehicle. This option is often more convenient than renting a car, as it eliminates the associated hassle and costs.
What is a Commercial Driver's License (CDL) and Which Ones Do You Need for Your Career?
Navigating large vehicles presents more significant challenges than operating a standard car due to their size, weight, and handling characteristics.
What is a Warrant and Types of Warrants
A warrant is an authorization issued by a competent authority to undertake or execute a specific action. Warrants are useful for several purposes, including securing the arrest of an offender, conducting property or on-person searches, and obtaining evidence for trial.
Driving Without Insurance: Consequences, Penalties, and How to Avoid Violations
There are nearly 45,000 fatal motor accidents annually in the United States. In 2019, motor crashes cost Americans over $340 billion, resulting in 4.
Perjury Laws: Understanding the Seriousness of Lying Under Oath
Perjury simply means knowingly telling lies or half-truths in an official proceeding, such as in court, or an official document, such as an affidavit.
What is an Affidavit, and How is it Used in Legal Proceedings?
An affidavit is a document written by a person of sound mind attesting that what they have written is true to the best of their knowledge.
Fishing Regulations: Age Limits, License Requirements, and Consequences of Violations
Have you ever paused to consider why fishing frequently emerges as a popular recommendation when you express a desire for a new hobby to friends or family?
Same-Sex Marriage: Legal Rights, Supreme Court Ruling, and Global Progress
In recent years, same-sex marriage has received wider acceptance globally. As of 2024, nearly 40 countries have legalized same-sex marriage, with Greece and Estonia being some of the latest countries to do so.
Pet Ownership Laws and Statistics by State: Licensing, Breed Restrictions, and Responsibilities
Pet ownership has become a significant aspect of family life in the United States. In fact, 66% of Americans have at least one pet, and more than 90% of pet owners consider their pets part of the family.
Is Assault with a Deadly Weapon a Felony and How Much Time Can You Get for It?
Assault with a deadly weapon, also known as ADW, is the criminal act of attacking or threatening someone with a weapon or object that can cause them harm and is considered an aggravated type of assault in many U.S. states.
Self-Defense Laws: What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself Legally
Self-defense is a fundamental legal concept allowing individuals to use reasonable force to protect themselves or others from harm.
Trespassing Law: Civil Trespass vs. Criminal Trespassing and Legal Consequences
Trespassing is unauthorized entry onto someone else's property without their permission. It can occur on residential, commercial, or government property, and depending on the circumstances, the act can have civil and criminal consequences.
What Is Small Claims Court? Advice on the Small Claims Process
Small claims are a type of legal case handled less formally than many other cases and are heard by small claims courts. Generally, the procedures are simplified, allowing someone to represent themselves in a small claims case without hiring an attorney.
Statutory Rape and Minor Dating: Legal Framework and Risks
Statutory rape is a legal term used to refer to sexual activity between an adult and a person below the legal age of consent, regardless of whether the minor gives consent.
What Is the Romeo and Juliet Law: Legal Protections for Young Couples
When young people enter relationships, they often think of friendship and love rather than the age of consent. Understanding this legal concept is crucial when a significant age difference exists between the couple.
What Is Disorderly Conduct and What Are Its Charges and Punishments?
Disorderly conduct is a legal term used to refer to actions that disrupt public order or disturb the peace, such as using offensive language in public or fighting.
Traveling with pocket knives and what types of knives are illegal in foreign countries?
Pocket knives have been a significant part of human history for several centuries. They serve different purposes, from hunting to cooking and self-defense.
What Is Probate Court and How Does It Work?
The probate court has competence in administering decedents' assets, such as financial investments, real estate, and bank accounts.
Why Every Adult Needs a Will and What the Legal Requirements Are
Creating a death will is essential for anyone with assets, as it ensures that your assets go to the people you choose. This is particularly important if you are in a second marriage and have children from a previous relationship.
Real Property: Types and Legal Aspects
Property implies the lawful right of use, control, and disposal, which an entity or individual may legally exercise over things, objects, or land.
Trustee, What Is Their Role In A Bankruptcy Case?
Bankruptcy is the status of a debtor who has been pronounced unable to pay or meet their debt obligations by a judicial process.
Tort Law: What It Is and How It Works, With Examples
All torts primarily involve one person causing harm to another party, but the details or specifics can differ from case to case.
What Is a Subpoena and What Happens If You Ignore a Subpoena
Getting subpoenaed is a stressful but necessary experience. The legal system relies on various testimonies and court records to reach a fair conclusion, and subpoenas ensure the right people are present to provide context.
What Is Encumbrances in Real Estate and Management Tips
First-time homebuyers have a lot to worry about. Disregarding the struggling real estate market, they must learn about things like adjustable-rate mortgages, closing costs, and potential homeowner associations.
What Are Sunshine Laws: Purpose and Examples
Sunshine Laws promote transparency and accountability in government and certain business operations. The name comes from their role as a bright light that clearly displays the proceedings and reasonings behind decisions.
Guide to Removing a Cosigner from Your Car Loan
Co-signing is a way for prospective buyers to purchase a vehicle via a loan, especially if their credit is less than perfect.
VIN Country Codes of the Vehicles
Vehicle Identification Numbers are a 17-digit code assigned to all vehicles showing significant information on the car. They were initially made mandatory for all vehicles in 1980 by the International Organization for Standardization.
What are My Rights When Being Stopped by Police
In a society where interactions with law enforcement are a common and risky reality, understanding one's rights during such encounters is paramount.
What is an Abandoned Vehicle and How to Get a Title For It?
Abandoned vehicles pose a unique challenge for communities. These vehicles create safety risks, affect property values, and attract unwanted criminal activity.
Everything You Need to Know About the Criminal Justice System
Although criminal justice is firmly in the legal category, it's inextricably tied to moral and social issues. There are unceasing discussions over rehabilitation, policing, racial profiling, and mass incarceration and their impact on society.
Definition & Features of Court Hearing
There's a lot of confusion regarding the exact distinctions between a court hearing and a complete trial. Media lawyers often refer to all casual court appearances as hearings but don't clearly define the process.
What is Intellectual Property?
Intellectual property law refers to legal practice that protects the intellectual and creative work rights of individuals and entities.
Capital Punishment Laws in the U.S.
The death penalty; the topic has sparked countless debates, emotions, and controversies throughout history. It is a subject that raises questions about justice, morality, and the power of the state to determine life or death.
Full Guide to Student Loan Bankruptcy
Student loans are considered nonpriority debts though one may still have difficulty discharging them according to Chapter 7 or 13 of bankruptcy laws.
Lawyer vs Attorney: What Is the Difference?
With such similar names, many wonder – what is the difference between a lawyer and an attorney? Is there a difference between a lawyer and an attorney, or are the terms interchangeable?
Arranged Marriage vs Love Marriage: What's the Difference?
Arranged marriage has received fresh attention in recent years as people seek different ways to find permanent partnerships. While love weddings have long been the norm in many cultures, planned marriages are on the rise.
What is Commercial Real Estate?
Every year, the real estate sector becomes more competitive. It is getting more difficult to find a decent deal when acquiring real estate, both residential and commercial.
What is a Health Savings Account and How Does it Work?
Health insurance can be difficult to understand. Deductibles, copays, drug coverage, and types of plans get complicated. Health savings accounts are part of the mix: they're ways to put money aside for medical expenses.
How to Get a Business License
It takes a specific type of person to run a small business. It takes a courageous person who is both a problem-solver and a potential instigator.
What is Inheritance Tax?
The death of a family member is difficult. Apart from grief, a person may feel suffocated by impending obligations. While some obligations are easily completed ("Yes, Aunt Deborah, you can have the set of pans"), other commissions require assistance.
What is Reverse Mortgage and How Does it Work?
When you buy a home, you agree to a mortgage; a reverse mortgage allows homeowners to receive fast-access money, placing a lien on a portion of a home's equity.
Is It Possible to Get Married Without a Marriage License?
You'll need a marriage license if you're heading to Vegas or Hawaii for your nuptial. Marriage licenses are more than optional forms; they're necessary for legitimate marriages.
How To Change Your Name After Marriage
A key life milestone is getting married. Discovering how to change your name after marriage is often seen as a way to symbolize a couple's union because it is the beginning of a new adventure with their spouse.
Home Appraisal vs Assessment
In recent years, the practice of investors purchasing houses, renovating them, and then reselling them for a profit, commonly known as "flipping houses," has grown in popularity.
Credit Score: Definition, Score Ranges, and Checking It
It's important to know about and understand your credit score, but it's not something you need to check every day. Credit reporting agencies Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax calculate your credit score and provide access to it for qualified businesses.
Complete Guide to Social Security Tax, Calculation, and Reporting
In 2022 over 66 million Americans received social security benefits each month; of those Americans, 46. 7 million were retirees, while the remaining 19.
Getting a Business Loan with Bad Credit
Every entrepreneur will face a day when they need financial auxiliary; a lucky few will end up making deals on television shows like the UK's Dragon's Den or Shark Tank.
Transforming Healthcare Through Data Transparency
I am Thomas Joseph Njee, a senior attending the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (GSMST) who is 17 years old.
Full Guide on Skip Tracing
No situation is what it seems on the outside; contractors, freelancers, and service providers know this adage too well. In the best circumstances, you provide a service and are compensated through one or multiple payments.
Why Does the Supreme Court Have Nine Justices?
The United States government is designed as a three-legged stool, with the chief executive (President), legislative, and judicial branches providing checks and balances on each other.
What Is the Hearsay Rule, and What Are the Exceptions to It?
Courtroom dramas typically separate lawyers into two groups — the lawyers that object to everything and the lawyers with fewer lines than the bailiff.
7 Things That Could Happen If You Don't Pay Parking Tickets
Parking tickets are more than mere annoyances that stack up when you overstay brunch with your friends or sneak into a resident-only zone to volunteer at the library.
How to Find Out if a Property Has a Lien on It
A lien is an obligation to pay a debt. Liens may be voluntary or involuntary. Typical types of liens are bank loans for autos and mortgages for homes.
How Often Can You File for Bankruptcy?
For those uninitiated in bankruptcy, debt, and legal terms, bankruptcy refers to "a clean restart. " Bankruptcy records are a simple and highly effective way for people to combat their expansive debts.
How to Get a Business License in 5 Steps
Business licenses are a requirement in most cities and states when you start a new enterprise. These legal documents ensure that your company meets the minimum standards established by the city, state, and federal governments for the transactions you plan to do.
How Long Do Points Stay on Your Driving Record?
A person's driving record is a summary of their activities behind the wheel. A driving record shows how long they've been driving, whether they've had any speeding tickets or other legal issues, and includes records of accidents.
How to Transfer Property After Death Without Will
Unless a family has gone through a member's death before, there's very little chance anyone will anticipate the process. Not only are there seemingly endless barriers, but there is also little guidance unless deliberately searched out.
How to Trademark Your Business Name
A trademark can be one of the most valuable tools a business has. The right trademark strengthens brand recognition while preventing competitors from profiting off your intellectual properties (IP).
How to Adopt a Child in the US?
How to Adopt a Child Adoption is the legal process that gives legal guardianship over another to a legal adult; usually, adoption occurs between a child and their adoptive parents.
What to do When Pulled Over by Police
There are More Drivers Today than Ever Before As of 2020, there were more than 228 million drivers on the roads of the US. At the same time, a reported 32 million drivers are pulled over annually on the streets.
How to Check a Car's History
Finding your car's history is essential to buying or selling a vehicle for several reasons. Certain aspects of your vehicle history can determine your car's actual value, how much insurance you will pay each month, and whether or not a seller is attempting to scam you.
The Different Types of Prisoners in the US
From state-run penitentiaries to hidden detainment camps, numerous facilities hold various types of prisoners worldwide. While all prisoners are being held against their will, each type comes with its own level of security, length of incarceration, and cause for detainment.
What is a Ban the Box Law?
"Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Check yes or no." Thirty-seven states across the US comply with Ban the Box (BTB) law policies.
Personal Assets vs Business Assets
It's essential to keep business from becoming too personal when protecting your assets. Being "relaxed" with handling assets can lead to audits, investigations, missed opportunities for tax deductions, and other headaches.
What Happens in a Juvenile Detention Center?
With over 250,000 young offenders tried, sentenced, or incarcerated every year in the United States, juvenile detention centers serve as a way station detainees are held within before being moved to a more permanent facility.
What are Traffic Violations?
Whenever a driver violates any law related to vehicle operation, they've committed a traffic violation. There are a number of different types and classifications for traffic violations, each with their own penalties.
When Can a Misdemeanor Be Expunged?
Having a misdemeanor on your record can hinder your search for gainful employment, but it doesn't have to. Misdemeanors can be expunged, as long as a set number of years has passed since your sentencing, deferred adjudication, probation, or parole.
What States Still Have the Three Strikes Law
The Three Strikes Law is a name for a widely adopted zero-tolerance law applied against repeat offenders. At least 24 states enacted some version of this law in hopes of reducing violent crime that spiked in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
How Bankruptcy Affects Credit Reports
There are many reasons people acquire debts. Some people fall into debt through irresponsible spending, others through life emergencies, and others through unexpected life changes, such as loss of employment, illness, or natural disaster.
Famous Celebrities In Jail: Four Famous Cases
While some celebrities may think they are above the law, the fact is many of Hollywood's finest have ended up in handcuffs. There are numerous celebrities in jail with significant criminal records; in some cases, they'll be there for quite a long time.
List of Jobs That Require a License
One universal concept that people generally acknowledge is the desire to receive good quality work for their money. You want to get the quality that you pay for.
Types of Real Estate and Property
Property is a general word to use since there are multiple classifications of real estate: houses, apartments, land, offices, factories, warehouses, and others.
Am I Going Bankrupt? 5 Common Warning Signs You Should Look For
Despite the common belief that corporations file most bankruptcies, 97% of all bankruptcies are filed by individuals. Bankruptcy is a very real threat to your financial well-being and can destroy your credit rating for years.
How to Find Out About A Person's Death
In our busy lives, it is easy to lose touch with friends and even family members. You might find yourself curious to learn what they have been up to or even if anyone in the family has passed away.
Does a Speeding Ticket Affect My Insurance & Driving Record?
No one likes getting a speeding ticket, but did you know even a simple speeding ticket can impact your driving record and other things like insurance?
Court Records Reveal the Real Story
It's no surprise that the news is filled with bias, opinion, and often speculation based entirely on fiction rather than facts.
What Is The Difference Between Robbery vs Burglary?
Many people confuse the two words robbery and burglary and assume they are the same thing. However, it's essential to understand that there are some key differences between robbery and burglary from a legal standpoint.
Clean Driving Record: Definition, Explanation, & Details
Chances are you have heard the phrase "clean driving record," but perhaps you aren't exactly sure what it means. Continue reading to learn all about driving records, what they are, how they can affect you, and what is a clean driving record.
8 Things You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements
If you possess any type of wealth and are considering marriage, you need to know all you can about prenuptial agreements and how they can save you a fortune down the road if your marriage doesn't last.
Understanding The Difference Between Annulment And Divorce
Marriages or civil unions typically end in one of two ways, divorce or annulment. Many people don't understand the difference between annulment vs.
Getting a Copy of Your Birth Certificate
What is a Birth Certificate? A birth certificate is an official government-issued record of a person's birth. A birth record is one of various vital records that are documents certified by the local government (city/town/county) and printed on special paper with a raised seal for authenticity.
What Happens When You File for Bankruptcy?
No one plans to get into financial trouble. However, things happen in life, and sometimes you end up with more debt than you can handle, and you have to make tough choices.
Are Death Certificates Public Record?
A death record is the official recording of a person's demise. It usually includes the date of death, time, location of their death, and the cause of death.
How Do Misdemeanors Affect a Background Report?
Any infraction of the law, regardless of how minor, can have far-reaching consequences in your life. If you do something that earns you a misdemeanor, you need to understand how that may affect you going forward.
Compliance and Privacy Laws in the U.S.
Although the United States does not have a federal law like the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there are plenty of state laws and compliance regulations that guide businesses and individuals to handle data and personal privacy.
What Is a Complete Background Report & What Can It Reveal?
If you wanted to find out about a total stranger or someone you knew, you used to have to either visit dozens of government agencies and offices for public records or hire a private investigator to dig deep into someone's past for you.
Does Medical Marijuana Card Show Up on Background Check?
Legalized marijuana is a controversial subject for many. States vary widely in their position on legalized marijuana, even for medicinal purposes.
All About Non-Disclosure Agreements
If you have a job or business, you have probably heard about a non-disclosure agreement, but not everyone knows what they are and what they do.
Role of CCTV Camera Systems and How They Function
These days our world is overrun with video devices, and you can't go anywhere without electronic eyes following your every move.
Do Warrants Show Up On Background Checks?
Everyone has heard the word warrant, and most of us understand what an arrest warrant is, but did you know that there are other types too, and some can show up in a background check?
Using Public Records in My Future Career as an Attorney
My name is Elizabeth A. Braatz. I am currently a junior at Western Oregon University where I am majoring in Criminal Justice (CJ) with a minor in Legal Studies.
A Guide to Public Records Laws: Sources and Exceptions
Public records laws are in place to ensure that the public has access to all forms of government and how they operate. However, these laws vary quite a bit and can be confusing, especially if you are trying to locate public records.
What is Expungement and How to Get It?
Many states allow your criminal record to show up in public records. Total strangers, family, and friends could have immediate access to it at any time.
What Information Does an FBI Background Check Show?
Many law-abiding citizens have FBI background checks done all the time for various reasons. But have you ever wondered what is included in an FBI background check?
How to Find Out If Someone is in Jail?
There are dozens of reasons you might want to find out if someone is in jail. In addition, there are a few different ways you can do it.
Can Someone Audio or Video Record You Without Your Permission
We have become a video-happy country with just about every event being videotaped and posted online for the world to see. The question is, in this video-centric world, is it even legal to video or audiotape someone without their consent?
George Floyd Protest, BLM Movement, and The Consequences
At least 10,000 people have been arrested across the United States amid the ongoing demonstrations demanding justice for George Floyd, the unarmed black man who died on May 25th in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota while being restrained and pleading "Please, I cannot breathe.
