Know your legal rights Protect yourself from common legal problems that can really cost you
Book - 2005
Saved in:
- Subjects
- Published
-
Chicago :
Dearborn Trade Pub
[2005]
- Language
- English
- Corporate Author
- Corporate Author
- Edition
- Third edition
- Item Description
- At head of title on cover: Kiplinger's.
- Physical Description
- xiv, 315 pages ; 23 cm
- Bibliography
- Includes index.
- ISBN
- 9781419517532
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Living With the Law
- How Do I Know That I Have a Legal Problem?
- A Civil Law Primer
- How Can I Prevent Legal Hassles in My Life?
- Remember the Golden Rule
- Choose Your Battles Carefully
- Get a Good Contract
- Alternatives to Going to Court
- Negotiation
- Mediation
- Arbitration
- If You Must Go to Court
- Small-Claims Court
- Small-Claims Court Limits
- Other Types of Courts
- Chapter 2. Your Lawyer
- What Is a Lawyer?
- Can I Act as My Own Lawyer?
- Locating a Lawyer
- The National Chains
- State and Local Bar Associations
- Beware the Ambulance Chasers
- Prepaid Legal Plans
- The Best Way to Find a Good Lawyer
- Prescreen by Telephone
- Interviewing a Prospect
- How You'll Pay
- If You Can't Afford a Lawyer
- If You're Not Satisfied with Your Lawyer
- Chapter 3. The Law and Your Finances
- Credit Is an Equal Opportunity
- How Do You Know You Are Being Discriminated Against?
- Equal Credit for Spouses
- What Lenders Must Tell You
- If You're Turned Down for Credit
- When a Lender Isn't Dealing Straight
- Credit Card Law
- Errors You Might Expect
- How to Dispute an Error
- What If Your Card Is Stolen?
- Defective Merchandise
- Now You're Really Mad
- Your Credit Record
- National Credit-Reporting Agencies
- Credit Problems
- Calling Off the Bill Collectors
- When Wages Are Garnished
- Credit Repair
- Can Creditors Seize My Car?
- What About My Home?
- No Need to Default on Government-Guaranteed Student Loans
- Some Common Consumer Problems
- Mail and Telephone Orders
- Kids and Mail-Order Clubs
- How Can I Protect Myself from Stolen Identity?
- Airline Woes
- Luggage Grief
- My Kids and My Cards
- When All Else Fails: Declaring Bankruptcy
- What Kind for You?
- Web-Wise Buying
- Your Rights as an Investor
- The Complaint and Arbitration Process
- Avoid Problems with Your Broker
- Tax Compliance
- Deadlines and Extensions
- Divorce and Exemptions for Dependents
- Making Amends for an Honest Error
- What If My Tax Preparer Goofs?
- How Long Can They Get Me?
- Reporting Tax Cheaters
- Taxpayers' Bill of Rights
- When an Audit Looms
- Life Insurance
- Choosing Beneficiaries
- Planning for an Uncommon Disaster
- Changing Your Beneficiaries
- The Subject of Suicide
- Chapter 4. Your Car
- Driving Is a Legal Privilege
- Legal Ages to Drive
- Driver's License Restrictions
- Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities
- License and Insurance Questions
- Americans Abroad
- Visitors to the U.S.
- Proving Your Identity
- Too Old to Drive
- But I'm Just Renting It
- Crash, Boom
- How You Can Lose Your License
- Registering Your Car
- Violations by Degree
- Driving While Intoxicated
- Reckless Driving
- Leaving the Scene of an Accident
- Your Rights Regarding Search and Seizure
- If the Police Stop You
- Unreasonable Search and Seizure
- Carrying a Weapon in Your Car
- Challenging a Citation
- When You're Away from Home
- In Case of an Accident
- You're the Witness
- You're a Good Samaritan
- States That Share What They Know
- Liability Insurance Is Legal Insurance
- Required and Suggested Limits
- Filling Gaps Left by Liability Insurance
- Collision Complications
- States Requiring Underinsured, Uninsured, or No-Fault Coverage
- More What-Ifs of Liability
- Your Car Is Stolen
- If You Lend Your Car
- Car Pooling and Driving Other People's Kids
- Extra Medical Coverage
- Someone Hits You and Has No Insurance
- Dealing With Your Auto Insurance Company
- Should I Pay for It Myself?
- What If You're Injured?
- Car Repairs You Don't Think You Should Have to Pay For
- Protect Yourself When Buying Used
- Look for the Buyer's Guide
- Warranties for Private Sales
- Chapter 5. Buying and Selling a Home
- Sorting Out Agents
- Hiring an Agent: Who Works for Whom?
- How They're Paid
- If You're the Buyer
- Buyer What-Ifs with Agents
- Hire Your Own Buyer's Broker
- The Risk of Representing Yourself
- If You're the Seller
- If You're Being Transferred
- What If You Found the Buyer Early On?
- Your Liability for Misrepresentation
- Telling the Truth about a House
- Buyers' and Sellers' Questions
- Exclusions Old and New
- His-and-Her Tax Breaks
- Divvying Up the Profit
- Counting the Years
- Exclusions on Inherited Property
- If the Seller Dies
- Cooling Off on a Time-Share
- Keep Track of Your Home's Cost Basis
- If You Have a Beef with Your Agent-or Vice Versa
- Discrimination Against Buyers
- The Rules for Real Estate Professionals
- What to Do in the Face of Discrimination
- A Good Purchase Contract
- Protecting the Buyer's Interest
- Safeguard Your Deposit
- The Ratified Contract
- Breaking a Contract to Buy or Sell
- Getting Good Title to Your New Home
- Title Search and Title Insurance
- When Title Problems Arise before Closing
- What Title Searches Will Turn Up
- Who Owns What?
- Lien on Me
- The Act of Settlement
- What Buyers Should Know
- Title Documents You'll See at Closing
- Special Considerations for Homebuyers
- What You'll Pay at Closing
- Homeowners Associations
- You're Buying a New Home
- You're Buying a Condo
- Condo Documents You Should Receive
- You're Buying a Co-op
- Buying a Manufactured Home
- Co-op Documents to Study before You Buy
- Tax Considerations for Sellers
- Temporary Regulations
- Chapter 6. Your Home and the Law
- The Rules of Homeownership: How Serious Are They?
- What If You Can't Live with One of the Rules?
- What If the Association Lets You Down?
- Defending Yourself, Your Home, and Your Family
- Homeowners Insurance: A Legal Safety Net
- Use It to Protect Your Property
- What's a Nuisance?
- Use It to Cover Your Liability
- If You Need Extra Liability Protection
- What-Ifs of Liability
- The Perils of Pools
- A Negligent Neighbor
- A Rat's Nest Next Door
- A Dog-Eat-Dog World
- When You're the Bartender
- Shoveling Your Sidewalks
- Crime at Home
- When You Volunteer
- Home Building, Repair, and Contract Work
- Licensed, Bonded, and Insured to Build
- Protect Yourself with a Good Contract
- Withholding Payment
- How Does a Warranty Help Protect You?
- What If Your Builder or Contractor Goes Bankrupt?
- Household Help
- Employee or Independent Contractor?
- If You Ignore the Law
- The Taxes You Must Pay
- A Caretaker Tip
- Is Your Employee Legal?
- Paperwork for Household Employers
- If Your Employee Is Injured
- When You Become the Landlord
- The Landlord's Obligations
- Finding Renters
- Drawing Up a Good Rental Contract
- An Effective Inspection
- Dealing With a Bad Tenant
- If You Are the Tenant
- Getting Your Landlord's Attention
- Protection for Renters
- What If You Want to Break Your Lease?
- If Your Landlord Wants to Evict You
- Chapter 7. Your Workplace Rights and Retirement
- Getting Hired
- Off-Limit Interview Questions
- If You Are Asked Illegal Questions
- How Private Is Your E-mail?
- Noncompete Clauses
- Confidentiality Agreements
- Discrimination on the Job
- Filing a Claim of Discrimination
- Laws That Protect You at Work
- Your State's Role
- Sexual Orientation
- Your Right to Sue
- Stopping Sexual Harassment
- Sexual Favoritism
- Indirect Harassment
- What If It Has Happened to You?
- Getting Fired
- What You Can Do
- The Americans With Disabilities Act
- What Qualifies as a Disability?
- How It Works
- Employer Accommodations
- The Family and Medical Leave Act
- Limits to the Law
- How It Works
- Insurance While You're on Leave
- State and Individual Variations
- Your Benefits: Pension and Social Security
- Your Pension Rights
- Defined-Contribution and Defined-Benefit Plans
- Becoming a Member of a Pension Plan
- If You Stop Working Temporarily
- If You Become Disabled
- Where Does a Spouse Figure In?
- If You Work Past Normal Retirement Age
- Social Security
- When You Retire
- What Counts as Disability
- Who Gets Social Security If You Die?
- If You Work After You Retire
- Nonworking Spouses and Two-Earner Couples
- When Surviving Spouses Remarry
- Appealing a Disability Claim
- Checking on Your Benefit
- What's the Most Common Error?
- Chapter 8. Your Medical Rights
- Your Rights as a Patient
- Your Rights as a Patient
- Taking Action
- Your Right to Treatment-Without Discrimination
- If You Need an Ambulance
- Your Right to Emergency Treatment
- Getting Health Insurance Coverage
- Preexisting Conditions
- Reproductive Rights
- Minors and Contraception
- Your Right to Informed Consent
- Giving Legal Consent
- If You Can't Make Your Own Decisions
- Making Your Wishes Known in Advance
- Medical Records: Access and Privacy
- The Big Brother of Medical Records
- Who Else Can Know?
- What Doctors Must Report
- The Need to Know
- Medical Malpractice
- Finding the Right Lawyer
- What You Can Hope to Accomplish
- Is It Malpractice? And Then What?
- A Time Limit for Complaint
- The Power of Attorney
- Before It's Too Late
- Durable or Springing Durable Power of Attorney
- Health Care Power of Attorney
- How to Confer Power of Attorney
- If You Change Your Mind
- Seeking Legal Guardianship of Your Loved One
- Legal Tools That Give You Control at the End
- Health Care Power of Attorney
- A Living Will
- Help for Elders
- Help Your Family Help You
- If You Leave No Instructions
- The Right to Die
- Medicare
- A Summary of Coverage
- If Your Claim Is Denied
- Acting on Your Parents' Behalf
- Chapter 9. Marriage and Other Personal Partnerships
- Marriage
- Timing Your Wedding
- Who May Marry Whom?
- The Legal How-Tos of Marrying
- The IRS and Your Marriage
- Business Beforehand: Property, Debt, Wills, and Insurance
- Prenuptial Agreements
- Changing Your Name
- Your Personal Paper Trail
- Remarriage
- Living Together
- State Your Terms
- Taxes and Living Together
- Benefit Rights for Unmarried and Same-Sex Partners
- Common-Law Marriages
- Lovers and Infectious Disease
- Domestic Violence
- Chapter 10. Ending a Marriage
- Annulment: An Easy Way Out?
- Separation: Often a First Step
- A Nonlegal Separation
- A Legal Separation
- Divorce
- Does It Matter Whose Fault It Is?
- Divorce Reality
- Do-It-Yourself Divorce?
- How the Process Works
- Mediation
- Dividing the Property
- Community vs. Non-Community-Property States
- Retirement Benefits?
- Division of Debt
- Alimony
- Types of Alimony
- Palimony
- Protecting Your Settlement
- Taxes and Alimony
- Child Custody
- Preventing a Worst-Case Custody Situation
- Pay Up or Pay
- The Rights of Grandparents
- Child Support
- Chapter 11. Parenthood
- Parenthood-by Law
- What About Corporal Punishment?
- Child Abuse
- Punishment at School
- Education
- Liability for Your Child
- The Car
- A Gun
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Can My Child Bring Suit Against Me?
- Paternity Actions
- Ways to Become a Parent
- Artificial Insemination: Who Is the Parent?
- Surrogate Motherhood
- Adoption
- Ways to Adopt: Agency, Private or Independent, Stepparent, or International
- Child Care
- Day Care Away from Home
- Hiring In-Home Help
- Legal Protection
- Hiring an Au Pair
- Baby-Sitters from Abroad
- Hiring an Alien Worker
- Establishing Guardians for Your Kids
- Chapter 12. Your Estate
- Marriage, Joint Ownership, and Estate Planning
- The Downside of Joint Ownership
- Who Should Own What?
- Ownership in Community-Property States
- Where There's a Will, There's a Way
- What Will Pass Along without a Will
- What You Give Up without a Will
- How the State Will Divide Your Property
- Making a Good Will
- Do-It-Yourself?
- What Doesn't Count as a Will
- The Bare Bones of a Will
- Getting Help
- Decisions You Must Make
- Choose Your Executor
- How Large Is Your Estate?
- Choose Your Children's Guardian
- Name Your Beneficiaries
- Where to Keep a Will?
- Changing a Will
- Disinheriting Someone
- Good Reasons to Change Your Will
- What's Probate?
- Simplified Probate
- Probating of Larger Estates
- Assets That Avoid Probate
- Estate Planning: Give Uncle Sam Just His Due
- How Much You Can Leave Tax-Free
- Federal Tax Basics
- Your State's Share
- For Larger Estates
- What Trusts Can and Can't Do for You
- The Personal Side of Trusts
- A Dependent Parent
- An Inheritance Installment Plan
- Easing the Burden of Guardianship
- Providing for Children from Your First Marriage
- Living Trusts and the Myths about Them
- An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust
- An Alternative to a Trust for Your Kids
- Tax Compliance at the End
- When You're the Executor
- When the Time Comes
- Contesting a Will
- Appendix
- Requirements for Becoming a U.S. Citizen
- Serving on a Jury
- What If You're Arrested?
- When You're the Victim
- Passport Information
- Entering Canada as a Tourist
- Entering Mexico as a Tourist
- New Rules for Entering the United States
- Index