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Over on Personal Finance & Money we sometimes get questions that are fundamentally legal questions rather than personal finance questions.

We've recently discussed our criteria for closing these as off-topic. Migration to Law might be an option in some cases, but obviously we'd want them to be welcome.

Typically the questions are quite specific. https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/49181/sister-in-house is one recent example:

I live in CA. I co own a house with my sisters. The older sister is living in the house in Texas and won't speak to us so cooperation is not a solution. How do we get her out of the house so we can sell it? Will the local law help? Do we need a lawyer? We have the deed in all 3 of our names.

I'm aware there's been some debate about specific requests for legal advice, both recently on meta and previously on Area 51.

Are you able to define what would make a question suitable for migration at this point? Otherwise I think we should probably default to not doing so.

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2 Answers 2

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At the moment, the criteria for on-topic questions seems to be:

  • Questions about the law

Other than the usual "too-broad or opinion-based" questions, you shouldn't ask questions that:

  • Require attention from a legal professional
    • This means your example is probably off-topic. However, if it were phrased impersonally it might be acceptable.
  • You will act on based solely on the information you receive here

That's kind of the only concrete criteria I've seen so far, but maybe others have seen other conditions for questions.

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If the only reason the question was closed in PF was that it was off topic because it was asking about the law, then it is a candidate for Migration. If it is a bad question regardless of where it is ask then it is not a candidate for migration.

If the question is borderline then put some effort into cleaning it up and improving the question BEFORE migrating the question.

I do not mind, and I do not think others do either, the occasional migrated question that was a good question but still off topic here. But I hate seeing bad questions that should never have been migrated regardless of its topicality.

TL;DR;

Only migrate Good questions and there will be no problems.

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  • That's really the point of my question - what are law.se's criteria for a good question, thinking specifically about the kinds of questions we see on money.se? Jun 23, 2015 at 16:39
  • @Ganesh Sittarnpalam - They are the same as any SE Really. Imagine the question was on topic on your SE. Is it one you would upvote and answer if you could? Then it is probably a good question. If not then why would you want to saddle someone else with the trash?
    – Chad
    Jun 23, 2015 at 16:47
  • @Chad The thing is, I get the feeling that not all of the above questions would be welcomed here.
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 8:47
  • @jimsug - The 2 linked questions are fine IMO. Now imagine the same quted question asked as just "How can I kick my sister out of our home?" There is not enough information there and its not a good question. If you reworked to ask "How do I get money from my sisters account?" It would not be a good question on PF and it would not be a good question here. But If you said I am in cali and my sister is in a coma and needs a surgery but we need to get the money from her account. What do I need to do to get the PoA to with draw the funds? that is a good question
    – Chad
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:14
  • I must be missing it, because I don't see questions linked, only the quoted one
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:16
  • @jimsug there is one in the comments of the question
    – Chad
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:17
  • Right, I see. I got confused because you mentioned two. The quoted one is definitely not fine imo
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:20
  • @jimsug - I do not see why. There is a pretty simple answer here. The sister has her name on the deed. There is little they can do right now. We can explain why that matters.
    – Chad
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:27
  • I see. I would hesitate and advise caution, because this person is likely to act on advice we give unless instructed otherwise. We may not have all of the material facts available to us, and rushing to judgement on a matter like this could be a grave error. Which house does the asker co-own, the one on CA or TX? Are they joint tenants or tenants-in-common? If they are tenants-in-common, do they all own equal shares? These are all questions the question does not address. I believe the community thus far has tended to close questions phrased in such a way, as I mentioned in my above post...
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:33
  • ... However, if it were to be migrated, it would need more than just my opinion on it to be closed, so you could be reasonably secure in attempting to answer it. But the very first thing I'd be doing upon migration is asking those questions, if I intended to answer it.
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:34
  • (The question in the comment has been asked here by the op, and answered.)
    – jimsug
    Jun 24, 2015 at 14:37

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