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What Is a California Stop? There are lots of different rules that a driver has to follow while on the road. Failing to follow any of them can easily earn a person a ticket. Still, there are a ton of different laws, making it easy to...

16 March, 2020 /

Is That Baby Photo Going to Get You Into Trouble? All parents, especially first-time parents, love to take photos of their babies. They don’t care how many photos they have of their child, they want more. On top of that, they don’t want to just hoard...

16 March, 2020 /

What Are California’s Child Abuse Laws? Parenting a child isn’t an easy undertaking and isn’t something that should be stepped into lightly. Sometimes kids misbehave and need to be punished in order to learn that what they did was wrong. However, how a child is punished...

09 March, 2020 /

What Are Mandatory Reporting Laws? Child abuse is a very serious offense that most people do not ignore. As soon as it is discovered that someone has hurt or abused a child, the authorities will be alerted. Then the accused person will be arrested and face...

09 March, 2020 /
What Are California’s Laws on Domestic Violence

What Are California’s Laws on Domestic Violence?

When a person is interacting with someone that they care about and love, they typically want what is best for them. After all, they love that person. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. Sometimes the people that someone cares about most hurts them for no good reason, and it wasn’t an accident. Loved ones attacking and hurting one another is more than just shocking and mentally damaging, it is also illegal. This is illegal within the state of California, just like it is illegal to attack anyone.

California’s Domestic Violence Laws

There are two laws within the state of California that layout what counts as domestic violence and what kind of penalties a person will face for committing the crime. The two laws are California Penal Codes (PC) 234(e)(1) and 273.5. PC 234(e)(1) is known as the state’s Domestic Battery Law. Under this law, it is a crime for a person to willfully and unlawfully touch a certain person in a harmful or offensive way. The type of people that are included in this are:
  • A person’s spouse or former spouse.
  • A person’s cohabitant or former cohabitant.
  • A person’s fiancé(e) or former fiancé(e).
  • A person’s significant other or ex-significant other.
  • The parent of a person’s child.
23 February, 2020 /
Are You a Pubber?

Are You a Phubber?

Technology is everywhere these days. No matter where a person goes anymore, they can count on technology being there with them. This is largely due to cellphones. Over the past two decades, cellphones have become more and more advanced, allowing their users to do more and more things. Nowadays, smart phones allow a person to do just about anything they want whenever they want. This little feat can be pretty great in some instances, and a bit harmful in others. Smart phones and everything that they offer can be very addicting. They can be so addicting, that people can end up ignoring those around them for the tiny little screen in their hand. This has become a real problem, with damaging psychological effects.

What Is Phubbing and How Does It Effects People?

Phubbing is a word that a lot of people have probably never heard of despite the fact that is was first used in 2012. Most people deal with phubbing daily, and it can actually be quite damaging to their relationships. Phubbing, a combination of phone snubbing, is the act of snubbing a conversation with someone in person in favor of something else on a phone. Pretty much everyone has experienced phubbing before, whether someone did it to them or they did it to someone else. Anyone who has experienced it before can attest to the fact that it isn’t pleasant. Being phubbed makes a person feel like they have been rejected, excluded and/or are unimportant to the person they are conversing with. Studies have shown that phubbing can lead to a lot of problems in relationships, no matter the type of relationship. A few different studies have found that phubbing can lead to decreased feelings of satisfaction within a marriage and increased chances of experiencing depression. If adults are more likely to feel depressed due to phubbing, then the same is definitely true for children who are phubbed. Yet another study has found that children who feel like they are ignored by their parents are more likely to be depressed than those kids who had their parent’s undivided attention. Everyone wants to feel like they belong, to feel like they’ve been heard, and to have some aspect of control. However, being phubbed negatively affects all of that and can damage a person’s self-esteem. This is especially true for children, which is why it is so important for parents to pay attention to their kids.

Do You Phub Others?

The problem with phubbing is that for many people, it has become second nature. They might not even realize that they are doing it. In fact, some people may even pride themselves on their ability to “multitask” and carry on two conversations at once. However, multitasking is never as good as it sounds. In the end, a person only puts a fraction of their effort into multitasked tasks versus if they had done each one individually. Some clear signs that a person is a phubber include:
  • Multitasking conversations.
  • Bringing phones out at the table or at social gatherings.
  • Needing to check the phone at every meal.
23 February, 2020 /
What Are California’s Laws on Fighting in Public?

What Are California’s Laws on Fighting in Public?

For the most part, people are able to go about their day without much confrontation. In most instances, people would rather things go smoothly than get into a fight. Unfortunately, there are still times when fights will arise. Often times, they occur because one, or both, of the parties involved is not in their usual state of mind. Maybe one person is having a bad day, or the other has been drinking. In those instances, the people are much easier to anger, and harder to calm down. What everyone needs to remember is that getting into a fight in public can have a lot of negative consequences. Aside from all of the physical injuries, a person could also get into legal trouble too.

Don’t Disturb the Peace

Fights are no fun, and can be very dangerous for everyone involved. This is why there are several laws against fighting here in California. If a person allows themselves to get caught up in a brawl, they could face several different charges. The first charge that a person may face for fighting in public is under California Penal Code (PC) 415, which is the state’s disturbing the peace law. Under this law, it is illegal for a person to disturb someone else with loud music, offensive words, or by starting a fight. A few examples of breaking this law include:
  • Pointing a speaker at a neighbor’s house and playing loud music with the intent of annoying them.
  • Using offensive words or racial slurs to provoke another individual.
  • Starting a fight with another person while in a public place.
23 February, 2020 /
What Are the Laws on Marijuana in California?

What Are the Laws on Marijuana in California?

It seems like just yesterday that the usage of marijuana was illegal here in California. However, Californians voted to make marijuana usage legal in the state back in 2016, and the recreational use of marijuana became legal January 1st, 2018. This change allowed a whole lot of people to use marijuana without having to worry about getting into trouble with the law or needing it for medical reasons. While this legal change has been in effect for 2 years now, there is still the occasional bit of confusion for some people on what is and isn’t legal. For instance, some people don’t know how much marijuana they are allowed to grow, or how much they can have on their person at one time.

The State’s Marijuana Possession Law

California has several different laws that describe what is and isn’t legal in regards to marijuana. For instance, when it comes to possession of marijuana, Health and Safety Code (HS) 11357 states how much a person can carry on them. Under this law, people over the age of 21 are allowed to hold 28.5 grams or less of marijuana. That’s just a little more than an ounce. Under this law, a person is also allowed to carry up to 8 grams of concentrated cannabis. A person breaks this law when they:
  • Are under 21.
  • Possess more than 28.5 grams
  • Possess marijuana on the grounds of a K-12.
23 February, 2020 /

When Should You Report Suspicious Activity? The goal of law enforcement officers is to ensure that people follow the law and to keep people safe. Unfortunately, they can’t do anything unless they see the act or someone informs them of it. This is why law enforcement...

11 February, 2020 /
What Counts as Stalking in California?

What Counts as Stalking in California?

In healthy relationships, there is an equal amount of love and adoration from both parties involved. Unfortunately, not every relationship is a healthy one. There are a lot of one-sided relationships out there that are not good for either parties involved. What can be incredibly upsetting, and even scary, is when a person is way more into a person than that person is in to them. In extreme cases, the person who is infatuated with the other could become a stalker. Having a stalker can be truly terrifying and can cause a person fear for their own safety. Due to this fact, the act of stalking someone is illegal here in the state of California. Anyone caught stalking another person will face legal consequences.

Stalking Explained

Being stalked by someone can be very upsetting, even traumatizing, which is why it is illegal to stalk someone in California. Penal Code (PC) 646.9 defines stalking as: “Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety, or the safety of his or her immediate family is guilty of the crime of stalking.” That is a whole lot of legal speak that can be a bit confusing, so let’s break it down a little bit.
  • Willfully – For something to be considered stalking, a person has to willfully choose to commit the act, which means he or she did it one purpose.
  • Maliciously – Maliciously means that the person intentionally did a wrongful act with the intent of disturbing, annoying, or injuring the other person.
  • Harassment – Harassment means acting in a way that annoys, alarms, torments, or terrorizes another individual.
  • Credible Threat – A credible threat is one that the threatened individual would have reason to believe the person could carry out, and therefore causes the victim to fear for their safety, or the safety of their immediate family. The threat can be made verbally, in writing, or electronically.
  • Immediate Family – Means spouses, children, siblings, parents, grandparents, or any person who lives in the same house as the person in question.
11 February, 2020 /
Tips for Dealing with Door to Door Scams

Tips for Dealing with Door to Door Scams

For most people, the safest and most relaxing place to be is within the walls of their own home. There, they are isolated from the rest of the world in safety. They can rest easy and recharge before having to venture outside once again. When someone intrudes on the space it can be a bit upsetting. This is especially true if the intruder is up to no good. In today’s modern world, a lot of scammers have taken to the internet to trick and con people. Most people are aware of this fact. However, some scammers out there prefer to stick to more old fashioned methods. Door to door scams do still occur and it is important for people to be aware of this fact. Since there are so many different scams out there, it is important for a person to learn to spot the warning signs of something being a scam. This way, no matter what type of scam they might be dealing with, they will be able to recognize the con for what it is and avoid it.

Preferred Targets for Scams

When it comes to door to door scams, there is one age group that falls victim to it more than all the others. People over the age of 60 are more likely to be targeted by, and fall victim to, these types of scams. This is due to the fact that Baby Boomers were raised to be more trusting of people and polite towards everyone. They are also the main age group that is home during the day. These are traits that scammers love to exploit in order to get their foot in the door. When a scammer comes to the door, someone in this age group is more likely to answer the door to an unexpected guest. Meanwhile, people in later generations are more likely to ignore the knock at the door if they weren’t expecting anyone. Similarly, Baby Boomers are less likely to close the door on someone once they begin talking to them. Other generations have no problems closing the door in someone’s face.

Common Scams and Warning Signs

There are primarily two types of door to door scams that a person needs to be wary of:
  • Someone ‘selling’ a product or service.
  • Someone distracting the person so an accomplice can break into the house.
09 February, 2020 /
California Laws on Sexting and Revenge Porn

California Laws on Sexting and Revenge Porn

When two people are together in a relationship, things are bound to get intimate. Couples can get up to all sorts of things behind closed doors, and for the most part, that is okay. Most states are fine with whatever romantic things couples do to express their love for one another. Only a few states have issues with certain private matters. Luckily for couples, no one in their right mind enforces those particular laws. Still there are things that could be done between two people that could get someone into trouble. For instance, if someone were to send a risqué text to the wrong person, such as a minor. Another example would be if private images of an ex were posted online out of anger over a breakup. Either of these acts could get a person into some very serious legal trouble.

California Sexting Laws

A lot of people out there like to have pictures on their phones, or other devices, of their significant other. Some people like to have images that are a little more intimate. They may even send risqué texts back and forth to one another. This kind of communication is referred to as sexting. The act of sexting itself is not illegal. However, what is illegal engaging in any sort of sexual conduct with a minor. If a person were to accidentally send a sexual message to the wrong person, they could get into very serious trouble. If a person were to purposefully engage in that sort of behavior with a minor, then things would be even worse. Depending on what happens, a person could be charged with a few different laws:
  • Possession or Control of Matter Depicting a Minor Engaged in Sexual Conduct.
  • Sexual Exploitation of a Child.
  • Harmful Matter Sent with the Intent to Seduce a Minor.
  • Sending, Distributing, Printing, or Possessing Material Depicting Sexual Conduct by a Minor.
09 February, 2020 /