Guides
Understand your situation first
Plain-English guides to what actually happens, what things cost, and what to do next — written independently.
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Can You Cancel a Contract After You Sign It?
As a general matter, no — you cannot cancel a contract after you sign it. No federal law gives buyers three days to undo…
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Do You Have to Let Police Search Your Car?
No — you can decline, and in a good many stops the car gets searched anyway. Whether you let police search your car settles…
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Do You Have to Answer Police Questions?
In most encounters the answer is no — you do not have to answer police questions, and the Fifth Amendment stands behind that. The…
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Can a Creditor Garnish Your Wages or Bank Account?
Yes, a creditor holding a judgment can reach both, but federal law treats the two places very differently. Money still sitting with your employer…
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Can a Debt Collector Call You at Work?
Yes, a debt collector may call you at work. “Can a debt collector call you at work?” has a blunt federal answer, and it…
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How to Dispute an Error on Your Credit Report
You dispute an error on your credit report by notifying the credit reporting agency. It then has 30 days to reinvestigate. That much is…
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Can a Car Be Repossessed Without Warning?
Yes — a car can be repossessed without warning, because no federal law requires a lender to notify you first. Under the Uniform Commercial…
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How Do Contingency Fees Actually Work?
Contingency fees let a client hire a lawyer without paying anything upfront. The fee itself is a percentage of whatever the case recovers, not…
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How Long Do You Have to File an Injury Claim?
The window to file an injury claim is not one number but fifty, and the spread is wide enough to matter: Tennessee and Kentucky…
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What to Do If Your Car Is Totaled
“Your car is totaled” is not a description of how it looks after a crash. It is the outcome of a threshold calculation, and…