I have a legal answer for this OP. Would you re-open the thread?

About This Message Board
1

This thread Can I have someone move my $ if I end up in the hospital? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board was closed because Gary “Wombat” Robson deemed the OPer was asking for advice on how to commit fraud.

I can address the OPer’s follow-up post with a completely legal suggestion. Would the mods consider re-opening the thread so that I may post my suggestion?

This is what I propose:
Posted by threecrowscawing (post #4)
“Just wondering if there’s a way to sidestep the instant financial ruin that a week long stay in the hospital would wreak.” Emphasis is mine.

My response: "Most hospitals aren’t going to demand you turn over all your cash and liquidate your assets in order to pay your bill. You can work with their finance department to set up a re-payment plan. Also, you might want to consider consulting an insurance agent about using some of your savings to get ‘major medical’ insurance. This would cover events such as accidents.

Also, talk to an insurance agent about pooling your resources with your other self-employed friends to see if you all can get some sort of medical coverage."

If my suggestion is deemed a no-go, I will respect the mods’ decisions.

Thanks for your time!

2

Well, the OP’s not banned (yet?) so I suppose you could just send that advice via PM rather than re-opening a contentious thread . . .

3

Well, there you go. *Instant *financial ruin? We should all be so lucky.

4

It wouldn’t be fraud to move you money out of your bank account either. Silly closing.

5

True, however, the suggestion I wished to make could be useful to other people reading the thread who are pondering the same question.

6

The Master Himself had no problemmo about giving money laundering advice:

Cecil Adams: Money Laundering Crash Course

So watz the big deal about the OP at issue here?

7

Perhaps this is not strictly on topic but senior citizens actually have advisers to help do this all the time. For example, my wife’s grandmothers family broke up a ranch worth several million into gifts of property to the grand kids and great grand kids. The family lived on the property just as they had before for several years after the distribution.

8

Here’s a bigger question: why is a non-lawyer moderator determining what is and isn’t illegal? you admit that layperson’s legal advice is not worth much, so why do you hand it out yourselves? Why not, you know, let a lawyer determine the illegality?

(And if we, for some reason, have not lawyer mods, then get some. If you are going to be closing threads about illegality, you need someone who actually knows what is and isn’t legal.)

9

Wouldn’t we need a separate legal moderator for each of the fifty states, since I’m pretty sure we would be hard-pressed to find one that has passed the Bar in all of them?

10

I closed the thread because the OP was specifically asking how to conceal assets to avoid payment of debt. In the United States, that’s considered fraud. If you can’t pay your debts, there are ways to deal with the situation legally. Hiding money isn’t one of them.

We do have a moderator that is an attorney. As Czarcasm noted, however, that mod isn’t licensed to practice in all 50 states, much less outside of the United States. This particular case is so cut-and-dried in my opinion that I didn’t run it by him.

Is there anyone here arguing that the question in that OP was not fraud? Because I’d like to hear that argument.

11

I suppose a better way for the OP to have phrased it would have been: if I move my money out of my bank account, what would a hospital do to obtain payment?

This makes me thankful that I live in the UK and can have virtually any medical service for free.

12

It has been pointed out before that the legal obligation CL has towards Cecil and his columns has a different standing that posts by users on the board. CL is responsible for what Cecil says and is okay with that as part of the nature of the business. But if random Joe Poster gets CL in hot water over something, they would not be very happy. Dealing with what Cecil says is part of their job, dealing with what we say not so much.

13

I can’t speak to the OPer’s original intent in starting his thread and this thread is not meant as an apologia of his OP. Nor is this thread meant to criticize Gary “Wombat” Robinson’s moderating in toto. I am unfamiliar with the OPer’s posting history and recognize that there may be circumstances of which I am unaware that factored into Gary “Wombat” Robinson’s decision to close the thread.

I can speak only to:
my reaction to, and interpretation of, the OP and his statement in Post #4 (quoted above);
my reason for wanting to re-open the thread;
my opinion that the thread did not necessarily require being closed as quickly as it was.

I found the OP to be poorly worded and unclear. At first reading, it seemed as though the OPer was asking for advice on how to conceal assests so as to evade a legal debt. However, rereading it along with the OPer’s follow-up post seemed to indicate that the OPer was looking to avoid having to liquidate his entire savings to satisfy the debt, but was not necessarily looking to evade the debt (“…sidestep the instant financial ruin…”).

Was the OPer reassuring the SDMB in his Post #4 that he was not looking to evade the debt or was he back-pedalling from that position? I have no way of knowing. However, I decided that if I took the statements in the OP and Post #4 at their face value (without assuming malicious intent but instead assuming the OP was written poorly) it was possible give an answer that some who are facing a similar situation might find useful.

The response I wished to give was in the spirit of this excerpt from FAQ - Rules for Posting at the Straight Dope Message Boards - Post #5: “How to get around the law: Discussions about legal methods (avoidance) are acceptable; discussions about illegal methods (evasion) are not. Again, see the Registration Agreement.”* (FAQ - Rules for Posting at the Straight Dope Message Boards - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board) Emphasis is mine.
*Relevant excerpt from the Registration Agreement: “You agree not to post material that in our opinion encourages activity that is illegal in the U.S.” (SDMB registration agreement as of 12/29/2008 - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board)

What I wanted to advise was ways to avoid “immediate” financial ruin when confronted by a large hospital bill that would also satisfy the debt. Whether this answer pleased the OPer was immaterial to me. In the spirit of fighting ignorance, I only hoped my answer might be helpful to other readers.

Thus, since the OP was so poorly written (IMO) as to be confusing about the OPer’s intent, an automatic assumption that a request for illegal methods on the part of the OPer was not warranted. Also, since it was possible to give an answer that did not violate either the Registration Agreement or the “Rules for Posting…” it was not necessary to close the thread as quickly as it was.

Not everyone has good writing skills. I think we can avoid many a misunderstanding if, when we read a post that upon first reading seems to be inappropriate, we ask the poster to clarify their intent/meaning.

Thanks for hearing me out. Regards,

14

My apologies to Gary “Wombat” RobSON. :smack: I reported the post for correction. :o