Your Legal Rights and Your Case

Read this first, plainly: this page teaches the doors. It is not legal advice. A page cannot know your state, your facts, or your deadlines, and it cannot stand beside you in court. A lawyer does that — and free lawyers exist, and they are named on this page. Use this page to arrive at that lawyer's door already organized, because organized is how a person gets taken seriously.

If you are in danger right now, none of this page comes first: call 911.

The documents are organized the way life organizes the trouble: by situation. Find the block below that matches what is happening to you. Inside it stand the documents and the legal doors for that situation — each named with where it lives, and marked with how you can hold it: online (fill it out on the official site), print (put it on paper), or save (keep a copy in your files).

These are documents of your choice. Take the blocks for your situation, and from each block take what fits. Skip the rest without a second thought — a block that is not your situation is not your errand, and nobody here will tell you one single form is "the" form. More than one block may fit a hard season; that is normal, and they can run side by side.

One rule runs under all of them, and it is the Minister's records rule: keep the ORIGINAL, and file copies. A report you cannot find again is a door you have to knock on twice. And every document you file is also a record: filled, dated, and copied into your own files, errands stop being errands and start being your case — which is the last part of this page.

The phone numbers and doors that belong to these situations stand together in one directory on this page, right after the documents: Numbers to call for legal situations. The same numbers and documents stand side by side on the printable carry sheet on the Printables page — one sheet for your case file.

If your identity was taken

The documents and the doors:

• The FTC Identity Theft Report. Fill it out online at IdentityTheft.gov — the Federal Trade Commission's own door, free. It produces your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan, and banks, credit bureaus, and companies must take that report seriously by law. Online · Print · Save
• The police report — and its number. Made at your local police station or through its reporting line. The report number is a document of its own: the compensation program, the prosecutor, and every other door will ask for it. Write it at the top of your own log. Online or in person · Print · Save
• Your dispute letters to the credit bureaus and the companies. Written by you, one to each bureau (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and each company holding a fraudulent account: what is not yours, in facts, with a copy of your Identity Theft Report — sent certified mail, return receipt requested. And keep their written answers when they come; both halves are documents. Write · Print · Save
• Your state Attorney General complaint. Every state Attorney General has a consumer and privacy complaint form on its own official site. This is a choose-your-own-location door: take the form only from the official state site, and nowhere else. Online · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• Your FTC Identity Theft Report.
• The police report.
• Your dated evidence log.
• The dispute letters you sent the bureaus and companies and their written answers.
• The account statements that show the fraudulent accounts and charges — the harm, on the company's own paper.
• Your sworn statement (the pattern stands under "Tools that belong to every category," below).
• Your phone records, if calls or texts are part of the pattern — taught under Phone records, below.

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If someone you love is missing

The documents and the doors:

• The police report — and the case number. The first document, made the first day. The Missing Persons page teaches the first hours in order; this is the paper they produce. In person or online · Print · Save
• The NamUs entry. NamUs — at namus.gov — is the free, official national missing-persons system. The family can create the entry themselves: the person's information, photographs, and circumstances, in a record that law enforcement across the country can see. Online · Print a copy · Save
• Your state's missing-persons clearinghouse forms. Every state runs a clearinghouse; for a missing child it is the missing-children clearinghouse, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (1-800-THE-LOST) stands beside it. A choose-your-own-location door: your state's official site holds its forms. Online · Print · Save
• Your state Crime Victim Compensation application. Your state's own form, on its own official site — free to file. What it can cover stands in the money part of this page. Online · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• The police report and the case number.
• A printed copy of the NamUs record.
• Your timeline — last seen, when, where, who was there — written once, carefully, and kept unchanged.
• The photographs used, recent and clear, exactly as given to police.
• The flyer, if one was made.
• Your tip and call log — every call and every tip, with date, time, and who — including the phone statements behind it, taught under Phone records, below.
• Every letter and email with any agency, with its dates — sent and answered alike.

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If the case involves a taking or an attempted taking, the Missing Persons page now carries the immediate steps at When someone tries to take your child and the definitions, consequences, and verified cases at What kidnapping is — and what it costs.

If your ID, wallet, or purse was lost or stolen

The documents and the doors:

• The police report. Lost is reported; stolen is reported the same day — the Lost ID & Wallet page teaches the order. The report is what turns "I lost it" into a record nothing can argue with. In person or online · Print · Save
• The FTC report. If the wallet is being used — charges you did not make, accounts you did not open — the Identity Theft Report at IdentityTheft.gov is the document, and the identity block above is your situation too. For a scam that took the wallet's contents, the fraud report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Online · Print · Save
• Form SS-5 — the Social Security card application. The Social Security Administration's own form, from ssa.gov: it is how a replacement card is requested, free. Online · Print · Save
• The passport forms — DS-64 and DS-11. DS-64 reports a passport lost or stolen and cancels it so no one else can travel on it; DS-11 is the application for the new one, filed in person. Both live at the State Department's official site, travel.state.gov. DS-64 online or by form · DS-11 print and file in person · Save copies of both
• Your state RMV or DMV replacement form. The license or state ID replacement is your own state's form, at its official motor-vehicle site — many states take it online. Online · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• The police report.
• The bank and card cancellation letters — the written confirmations that you reported and the accounts were closed. Ask for them in writing; a phone call leaves no paper.
• The FTC report, if one was filed.
• Your replacement receipts and applications — every fee you paid to become yourself again on paper. Those fees are losses a court can count.

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Car and street crimes — lured, followed, your drink drugged, an attempted abduction

The documents and the doors:

• The police report. For the lure on the car, the following, the drugged drink, the attempt — all of it, even when "nothing happened," because a pattern of reports is how a parking lot gets watched. In person or online · Print · Save
• The protective / restraining order application. From your court clerk, and free — there is no filing fee for protection. A victim advocate (Part 3) can sit with you and help you fill it out. You do not have to write it perfectly; you have to write it truly. Print · File in person · Save
• The hospital exam — and the records request. After a drugged drink or any assault, the exam at the hospital is care and evidence at once, and it is time-critical. The records are then requested in writing, in your name, and kept with the case file. In person · Written request · Save
• Your state Crime Victim Compensation application. Medical bills, counseling, lost wages — the money part of this page teaches what it reaches. Online · Print · Save
• The National Human Trafficking Hotline — 1-888-373-7888. Where trafficking is any part of what happened, the hotline is a door of its own — free, confidential, day and night — and where it makes referrals, keep the record of the call and the referral in your log, with the date and time. By phone · Log it · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• The police report.
• Your medical records and the hospital exam record.
• Photographs of injuries and of damage, dated and unedited.
• Witness names and how to reach them — anyone who saw any part of it.
• The venue's incident report — the bar's, the store's, the lot's own written account. Ask for a copy; it exists, and asking is your right.
• The 911 recording and the dispatch log. In many places these are public records, requested in writing — and ask early, because recordings are erased on schedules. The general court rules below carry this again, because it matters everywhere.
• Your phone records, where calls or texts circle the event — taught under Phone records, below.

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Electrical harm and a dangerous home

The documents and the doors:

• The CPSC product report. At SaferProducts.gov — the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's reporting door. This is the document for the dangerous device: the thermostat, the lock, the heater that shocked you — the Electrical page's teaching, made official. Your report is how recalls begin. Online · Print · Save
• The fire marshal / code-enforcement complaint. Your city or town's own complaint, in writing: the hazard, the address, the dates. Inspectors act on paper. Write · Print · Save
• The landlord written notice. Written by you, taught on the Electrical page: the date, the hazard described in facts (the shocking outlet, the decoy detector, the water on the wiring), what you are asking to be fixed, your signature — sent so delivery can be proved, and your copy kept. Written, never only spoken, because a spoken complaint leaves no paper. Write · Print · Save
• The insurance claim. Health insurance for the care; homeowner's or renter's insurance for the home and what was damaged. File even when you are unsure it is covered — a filed claim can be denied, but an unfiled one cannot be paid. Online or by phone · Print · Save
• Your state Crime Victim Compensation application — where a crime is part of it: a device tampered with, a shock meant to harm. The money part of this page teaches the program. Online · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• Your medical records, if you were shocked or harmed.
• The licensed electrician's written finding. Not a conversation — a writing, on the electrician's letterhead or invoice, saying what was found and why it was dangerous. Ask for it by name; it is the professional confirmation this page's last part teaches.
• The utility company's reports — what they found on their side of the meter, and what they did.
• The fire marshal or code inspector's report.
• Your CPSC report confirmation.
• Dated photographs of the device, the outlet, the panel — never altered. Work from copies; the originals stay as the camera made them.
• Your landlord notices with proof they were delivered — the certified-mail receipt is half the document.
• Repair bills and receipts.
• And the device itself, kept unplugged and untouched, the way the Electrical page teaches — the thing is a document too.

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Surveillance — bugs, taps, hidden cameras, trackers, WiFi sensing

The documents and the doors:

• The police report. A found camera, a tracker on the car, a tap — a crime report, made even when the device cannot yet be proved, because the report starts the record everything else hangs on. In person or online · Print · Save
• The FCC complaint. At consumercomplaints.fcc.gov — the Federal Communications Commission's consumer door, for problems carried over phone and communications lines and services. Free, online, and the company complained about must answer. Online · Print · Save
• Your state Attorney General privacy complaint. The Attorney General's office is the state's privacy door in most states — its own form, on the official state site only. Online · Print · Save
• The protective / restraining order application. Where the watcher is a person — a partner, an ex, a landlord who will not stop — the court's order to stay away and stop is a document too, free from the court clerk. Print · File in person · Save
• The phone-company line-check request. Ask your carrier to test your line for a tap, and ask for the request and the result in writing. Write the date of the ask in your log either way — an ask they refuse is also a record. Write (your request) · Print · Save
• The civil-privacy doors. Watching a person in private is a civil wrong as well as a crime — the Van Dusen case in Part 5 walked through both doors. The tracks are explained in Part 3; the first paper is often the cease-and-desist letter under "Tools that belong to every category," below — and a working builder for that letter stands under Write your own documents, below. Write · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• Photographs of any device in place — where it was found, before anyone touches it. A device photographed in your hand proves you own a device; a device photographed hidden above a bed proves a crime.
• The professional sweep (TSCM) written report, if a sweep was done — the licensed finding, signed.
• Your router and device logs, and screenshots — with dates. A screenshot without a date is a picture; with a date, it is evidence.
• The phone company's line-test result, in writing.
• The police report.
• Your leak log — what was known that only your home or your phone could have told, when it surfaced, and who repeated it. The Electrical page teaches this log; it is often the strongest paper in a surveillance case, because it is the pattern itself.
• Your phone records — the statement pattern behind the contact. Taught under Phone records, below.

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Scams connected to any of these

The documents and the doors:

• The FTC fraud and scam report. At ReportFraud.ftc.gov. For scams, stalkerware sellers, and companies that wronged you. Your report joins the pattern the FTC acts on — it is how the SpyFone case on this page began. Online · Print · Save
• Your state Attorney General consumer complaint. The state's own form, on its official site. The FTC sees the nation's pattern; the Attorney General can act inside your state. Online · Print · Save
• The IC3 report. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, at ic3.gov — the door for crime carried over the internet: the phishing, the cloned account, the online extortion. Online · Print · Save

Documents you need for court in this situation:

Tick each one as you gather it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.

• The FTC and IC3 reports.
• The original messages and emails, preserved whole — the full thread, the full headers where you can keep them. Screenshots alone are weak; the originals in your own account are the document.
• Receipts and payment records — every dollar, with its date and where it went.
• Your bank records for the same days.
• Your phone records, where the scam arrived by call or text — taught under Phone records, below.

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Tools that belong to every category

Three documents are not tied to one situation — they belong to all of them, and they stand here once instead of seven times:

• Your sworn statement (affidavit). Your own account, written by you or with help: facts only — what happened, when, where, who was there — in date order, ending with the words that you swear it is true, your signature, and the date. A notary can witness your signature (banks and libraries often have one, sometimes free): notarization does not make a statement true — it proves the signature is yours, which is what makes the paper strong. Keep the original; file copies. Write · Print · Save
• The cease-and-desist / do-not-contact letter. Written by you: your name and the date; who they are; the exact conduct, stated in facts; the words "stop contacting me" or "stop this conduct," plainly; that you are keeping a copy and sending it certified mail, return receipt requested, so their signature becomes your proof they received it. Facts only, no threats beyond the lawful ones ("I will report this to the police and pursue my legal remedies"). Keep the original and the receipt forever. Write · Print · Save
• The small-claims court filing. Your own court's forms, from the court clerk's office or the court's official site — never a paid forms site. Small claims is the people's court track: smaller money, plainer process, built for a person without a lawyer. The clerk can tell you the fee and the form; many courts waive the fee for people who cannot pay — ask. Print · File in person · Save

Two of these three patterns are also working builders on this page — the cease-and-desist letter and the sworn statement — together with the landlord written notice from the Electrical category: Write your own documents, right below. You type, the document composes itself, and you print it or save it from your own device.

Three of the documents on this page are patterns you write yourself: the cease-and-desist / do-not-contact letter, the landlord written notice, and the sworn statement. The builders below turn each pattern into a working document. You type in the plain fields; the document composes itself, live, as you type, in the clean copy under each builder. Then Print it — the print button prints only the composed document, nothing else on this page — or Save it, which downloads the document as a text file onto your own device.

Everything stays on your device. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere — there is no account, no upload, and no copy kept by this app. The fields are held in this page's memory only: when you leave this page, what you typed here is gone — print or save it first.

One rule for all three, the Minister's records rule: file copies in your vault — keep the ORIGINAL. The door stands here: My Vault. And the standing truth of this page: these are patterns, taught plainly — they are not legal advice, and a free lawyer (Part 3, step 7) can read yours before you send it.

Builder 1 — Cease-and-desist / do-not-contact letter

Written by you, to the person or company whose conduct must stop. Facts only — what they did, with dates. No threats beyond the lawful ones. Send the finished letter certified mail, return receipt requested, so their signature becomes your proof they received it, and keep your copy and the receipt forever.

Everything stays on your device; nothing is transmitted. When you leave this page, what you typed here is gone — print or save it first.

Your full name Your mailing address (as it should appear on the letter) Date of this letter (for example: November 5, 2026) Name of the person or company this letter is to Their mailing address The conduct, in facts — what was done, and on what dates What must stop — say it plainly (for example: all calls, texts, and visits to my home)

Print this letter Save this letter as a text file

File copies in your vault — keep the ORIGINAL. Open My Vault

Your finished letter stands in the clean copy directly below, ready to print or save.

Builder 2 — Landlord written notice

Written by you, to your landlord, about a hazard in your home — the shocking outlet, the decoy detector, the water on the wiring. Written, never only spoken, because a spoken complaint leaves no paper. Send it so delivery can be proved — certified mail, return receipt requested, or hand delivery with a witness — and keep your copy with the proof of delivery; together they are half the document a court will ask for.

Everything stays on your device; nothing is transmitted. When you leave this page, what you typed here is gone — print or save it first.

Your full name (the tenant) The property address — street, unit, city, state Landlord's name Landlord's mailing address Date of this notice (for example: November 5, 2026) Date you first noticed the hazard The hazard, described in facts — what it is, where it is, what it does What you are asking to be fixed or done

Print this notice Save this notice as a text file

File copies in your vault — keep the ORIGINAL. Open My Vault

Your finished notice stands in the clean copy directly below, ready to print or save. The signature lines print with it — sign the original by hand after printing.

Builder 3 — Sworn statement / affidavit pattern

Your own account, written by you or with help: facts only — what happened, when, where, who was there — in date order. No opinions about what it means, no guesses: on the stand and on this paper alike, "I don't know" is a complete answer when it is true. The statement ends with the words that you swear it is true, your signature, and the date.

About notarization: a notary is an official witness for signatures. Banks, libraries, and shipping stores often have one, sometimes free. You sign the statement in front of the notary, show identification, and the notary completes the block at the bottom of the composed document. Notarization does not make a statement true — it proves the signature is yours, which is what makes the paper strong. Sign nothing before you reach the notary: an early signature cannot be witnessed after the fact.

Everything stays on your device; nothing is transmitted. When you leave this page, what you typed here is gone — print or save it first.

Your full name Date of this statement (for example: November 5, 2026) Where you are signing — city and state (used in the notary block) Your statement of facts — what happened, when, where, and who was there, in date order

Print this statement Save this statement as a text file

File copies in your vault — keep the ORIGINAL. Open My Vault

Your finished statement stands in the clean copy directly below, ready to print or save — with its signature line and the notary block printed beneath it.

Phone records — the paper your phone company keeps

Several court lists above name your phone records. Here is what they are, taught once, plainly.

Your itemized phone bill is an official document. The carrier's statement lists the numbers on your line with the calls and the texts coming in and going out — each with its date, its time, and how long the call lasted. Read across a month of statements and one more fact stands up: how many times the same number called. Your own records are yours to get: sign in to your carrier account and download the statements — they usually reach back many months — or ask the carrier for them, free or for a small fee.

Count the pattern, and write the count in your log. Same number, how many times, how long each time, on which dates. Nobody has to take your word for the harassment, the stalking, the contact before and after an event — the company wrote it down at the time, and frequency plus duration is often the proof itself.

Preserve your phone's own logs whole. The call log and the message threads on the phone itself, saved unedited. Screenshots alone are weak — a screenshot can be cropped to say anything — so keep the phone and the original threads; they are the document the screenshots only point to.

And the honest line, because this page does not promise what the law does not give: the statement — numbers, times, durations — is what you can obtain for your own line. The content of someone else's calls and texts is a different thing in law: it comes only through the court process — a subpoena or a court order, usually through a lawyer or through law enforcement. Your lawyer asks; the court orders; the carrier answers the court. That is the road, and it is a real one — it simply does not start at the carrier's counter.

Your phone can also be checked for the other half of this story — forwarding set in secret, a cloned number, control from another device. Those checks live on the Electrical page, in Your phone — checks, cloning, and control.

Rules for every court list on this page

• Bring the ORIGINALS, and two copies — one for the court, one for the other side. Part 4 below teaches the case file they travel in.
• Never edit an original. Not a photo, not a document, not a thread. Copies are for working, marking, and handing out; originals stay exactly as they were made.
• A document made at the time weighs more than a memory written later. The log entry from that night, the letter sent that week, the report filed that day — courts trust paper that was made while it was happening. This is why this app teaches you to write things down as you go.
• If a record exists somewhere, it can often be requested — 911 calls, dispatch logs, body cameras, a store's video of the same night. Ask for it in writing, and ask early: recordings are erased on schedules, and a record requested after its erasure date is a record that no longer exists.

Every number named anywhere in this app, in one place — so the number that goes with your situation stands one tap from its documents above. Every number here was checked against its agency's own official source when this page was built. Numbers do change: if a number ever fails, do not hunt for another one on a search page or an advertisement — go to the agency's official website, typed in by you, and take the number there. A wrong number in a hard moment is a scammer's favorite door; the official site is the guard against it.

Some doors belong to your state, and no honest page can print one state's number as if it were everyone's. Those rows are marked choose your own location: they name the door, and your state's official site holds your number.

Every number in this directory is a United States number. If you are outside the United States, your own country has doors of the same kinds — an emergency number, a crisis line, an identity-theft door — under its own numbers. On a mobile phone, 112 reaches emergency services in most countries: it is the worldwide mobile emergency number, part of the GSM standard mobile phones follow, and the call is often passed straight to the local emergency number. The country picker on the Start Where You Are page and the Help & Access page shows your own country's emergency number. And for a free crisis line in your own country, Find A Helpline lists verified lines in more than 150 countries.

Your situation	Who	Phone or door
Danger happening now	Emergency services	911 — call first; everything else on this page comes after safety
A person in crisis — thoughts of suicide, a mind at the edge	988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline	988 — call or text, free, day and night
Your identity was taken	Federal Trade Commission (FTC)	1-877-438-4338 (1-877-ID-THEFT) · online at IdentityTheft.gov
A scam or fraud — not identity theft	Federal Trade Commission (FTC)	Online at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
A problem carried over phone or communication lines — a tap, a carrier, a communications service	FCC Consumer Complaint Center	1-888-225-5322 (1-888-CALL-FCC) · online at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov
A dangerous product or device in your home	U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)	1-800-638-2772 · online at SaferProducts.gov
A crime carried over the internet	FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)	Online at ic3.gov — and your local FBI field office stands in the FBI's own directory at fbi.gov (choose your own location)
A missing or exploited child	National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)	1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
Human trafficking — you, or someone you see	National Human Trafficking Hotline	1-888-373-7888 · or text HELP or INFO to 233733
Violence or control at home	National Domestic Violence Hotline	1-800-799-7233 (1-800-799-SAFE) · online at thehotline.org
A child abused, neglected, or unsafe — including a child traveling alone in danger	Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline	1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-CHILD) — call or text; its counselors route you to your own state's child-welfare hotline (DCF / CPS) (choose your own location)
Your own state's child-abuse and neglect hotline	Your state's child protective agency (DCF / CPS)	Your state's number stands in the Child Welfare Information Gateway's state directory at childwelfare.gov (choose your own location)
Trouble with the screening itself at an airport	TSA Contact Center	1-866-289-9673 · online at tsa.gov
Flagged trip after trip — or denied boarding — by a record that is not yours	DHS TRIP (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program)	Online at dhs.gov/trip — free; it issues the Redress Control Number for future bookings
Records or treatment at a port of entry	CBP INFO Center	1-877-227-5511 (1-877-CBP-5511) · online at cbp.gov
A child taken across a border · a passport alert for your child (CPIAP) · help for a citizen abroad	U.S. Department of State — Office of Children's Issues and Overseas Citizens Services	1-888-407-4747 (from the United States and Canada) · online at travel.state.gov
A complaint your state must hear — consumer, privacy, a company in your state	Your state Attorney General	Your Attorney General's complaint form stands on your state's official Attorney General site (choose your own location)
Money that exists for victims, in your state	Your state Crime Victim Compensation program	Your state's application stands on its official state site (choose your own location) — free to apply
Free legal help	Legal Aid, through LawHelp.org	Online at LawHelp.org — it routes you to your own state's legal aid (choose your own location)
Local help of every kind — shelter, food, transport, a ride to court	2-1-1	Dial 2-1-1 — free, day and night

Carry this directory on paper too: the Printables page holds the carry sheet — Legal Situations: Who to Call, What Documents to Bring — with these numbers beside the document lists, made for your case file. And on the Travel page, the doors these numbers serve stand in the flagged, No Fly, and children parts.

Tick each one as you finish it. The ticks are remembered only on this device, in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere. The same checklist prints from the Printables page, for a paper copy to work from.

• Report made, and the number saved. Police report filed; the report number written at the top of your log and on your case file's first page.
• Evidence logged and backed up. Your dated log is current, and a second copy of it — and of your photos and papers — lives somewhere safe that only you control.
• Medical records requested — if you were harmed. Every visit, every bill, in writing, kept with the case file. (If you were not harmed, this one is already done.)
• Documents filled out, with their dates. Each form from Part 1 that fits your situation, filed — and the date you filed it written beside its name in your log.
• Compensation application sent. Your state Crime Victim Compensation application is in — before your state's deadline, not after.
• The legal help call made. Legal Aid, the bar referral, a victim advocate, or a law-school clinic — one real call, made and logged, even if the answer is a waiting list.
• Court dates in the calendar. Every date, written in two places, with what you must bring written beside it.
• Copies filed in your own vault. Originals in one safe place, copies in the case file, and nothing important existing in only one copy anywhere.

1. Safety first. Before paperwork: are you safe tonight? If not, 911, a shelter through 2-1-1, or the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) come before every step below. A case can wait a day; a person cannot.
2. Log and preserve. Write down what happened — date, time, place, facts — while it is fresh. Photograph what you found in place. And the standing rule from the Safety and Electrical pages: a device you found — a camera, a bug, a tracker — is not touched, not moved, not confronted over. It is evidence now.
3. Report to the police, and get the number. In person where you can. Bring your log. Ask for the report number before you leave, and write it down yourself even if they promise a copy later.
4. Report to the other doors for your situation. From Part 1: the FTC for identity theft and scams, the FCC for communications problems, the CPSC for the dangerous device, your Attorney General for consumer and privacy wrongs. Each report is dated paper behind you.
5. Medical care, and the records. If you were harmed — shocked, drugged, injured, or made ill — get care, say plainly at the desk what happened, and request the records. Medical paper written by someone else is among the strongest evidence a case can hold.
6. Apply for victim compensation. Your state's program (Part 6). Do it early — states set time limits, and a late application can be closed for lateness alone.
7. Get free legal help. Legal Aid — find your local office through LawHelp.org. Your state bar's lawyer referral service. The victim advocates in your prosecutor's office — they work for victims, free, whether or not you ever testify. And law-school legal clinics, where supervised students take real cases free. Call more than one door; lists move.
8. Choose the track — and know who carries it. Criminal: the state prosecutes; you are the victim and witness; it costs you nothing and you do not control it. Civil: you sue for money and orders; you carry it, with legal aid or a contingency lawyer beside you. Small claims: the civil track's plain room — smaller amounts, built for people representing themselves. Protective order: the court's order to stay away and stop — fast, free, and separate from both. Tracks can run at the same time; the Van Dusen case in Part 5 ran two of them.
9. Build the case file. Part 4 below. One folder, in order, before anyone asks you for it.
10. Court day. Part 4 below. Arrive early, bring the file, and tell the truth in date order. That is the whole job — and it is enough.

Your case file, in order

• One page on top: your summary — who you are, what happened in five lines, what you are asking for.
• The timeline: every event in date order, one line each, drawn from your log.
• The log itself, complete — the dated record you wrote as things happened.
• Every official paper: reports with their numbers, agency letters, company responses, the certified-mail receipts.
• Photos — printed, with the date each was taken written on the back or below it.
• Medical records and bills, if you were harmed.
• Witness names — anyone who saw or heard any part of it, with how to reach them.

Bring the originals, and two copies — one for the court, one for the other side. Dress plainly and comfortably. Speak to the judge, not to the other side; answer the question that was asked, and then stop.

On the stand, the whole teaching is short

• Tell facts, in date order, the way your log holds them.
• "I don't know" is a complete answer when it is true. So is "I don't remember." Never guess — a guessed answer that turns out wrong damages true ones.
• Never argue with the other side or their lawyer. Answer, pause, and let your side do the arguing.
• If you did not hear or understand a question, say so and ask for it again. That is your right, every time.

The victim impact statement

In a criminal case, after a conviction and before sentencing, the victim is usually given the chance to speak or write to the court about what the crime cost — in money, in health, in sleep, in safety at home. It is not evidence; it is your account of the harm, in your own words, and judges read them. Write it plainly, keep it factual, and keep a copy — it belongs in your file too.

What to expect, honestly

Cases move slowly. Hearings get postponed — the word is continuance — and a postponement is normal, not a loss and not a sign about your case. You may wait hours for minutes in the room. Keep every court paper forever in your own files: cases have long tails, and paper outlasts memory.

The honest line: this page prepares a person. It does not replace a lawyer, and it does not promise an outcome. The free lawyers stand in Part 3, step 7 — use them.

Every case in this section is real, and each was checked against the court's own opinion, the agency's own record, or established reporting before it was placed here. A short card for each: what happened, what was decided, and what it means for a person today.

Katz v. United States — 1967 (wiretapping)

What happened: Federal agents suspected Charles Katz of sending gambling bets by phone across state lines. Without a warrant, they attached a listening device to the outside of a public phone booth and recorded his calls — nobody broke in, nobody entered anything.

What the Supreme Court decided: For Katz, 7 to 1. The Fourth Amendment, the Court wrote, "protects people, not places." Listening electronically to a conversation a person reasonably expected to be private is a search — and a search without a warrant is unconstitutional. His conviction was overturned.

What it means for you: A bug or a tap is not made lawful by being clever or staying outside the walls. Electronic listening into private life is a search under the Constitution, and the "reasonable expectation of privacy" born in this case is the test courts still use.

Kyllo v. United States — 2001 (sensing a home with technology)

What happened: Federal agents suspected Danny Kyllo was growing marijuana in his home. From a car across the street, they aimed a thermal imager at the house to read the heat coming from inside — no entry, no contact, nothing touched.

What the Supreme Court decided: For Kyllo, 5 to 4. When the government uses a device not in general public use to learn details of a home that would otherwise have required physically going inside, that is a search — and a search of a home without a warrant is presumptively unreasonable.

What it means for you: The law already knows the shape of the newest problem: technology that sees into a home without entering it. This case is the closest standing principle for sensing technologies the courts have not yet taken up — including the one below.

WiFi sensing — no case yet, stated plainly

The Electrical page teaches how WiFi waves can be used to follow a person's movement through walls. Hear this exactly: no court case has decided WiFi sensing yet. There is no ruling to quote, and this page will not pretend there is. The nearest standing ground is Kyllo above — a home, a sensing technology, details learned without entry — and the honest work for now is the same as everywhere in this app: document, report, and keep the pattern, because cases are built from records, and the first case on any new technology is somebody's well-kept file.

Carpenter v. United States — 2018 (location tracking records)

What happened: Investigating a string of robberies, the government obtained Timothy Carpenter's cell-site location records from his phone companies without a warrant — 127 days of records, 12,898 location points, a map of his movements averaging 101 points a day.

What the Supreme Court decided: For Carpenter, 5 to 4. A person keeps a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements. The government generally needs a warrant to obtain historical location records covering seven days or more — the fact that a company holds the records does not strip them of protection.

What it means for you: Long-term tracking records about you are constitutionally protected paper. Tracking is not a small thing in the law's eyes — it is a search, and it has rules.

Riley v. California — 2014 (searching a phone)

What happened: David Riley was arrested at a traffic stop, and police searched the digital contents of the smartphone taken from his pocket — no warrant — and used what they found to charge him with more crimes.

What the Supreme Court decided: For Riley, unanimously. Police generally may not search the digital information on a cell phone seized from an arrested person without a warrant. A phone holds, in the Court's words, "the privacies of life" — it is not treated like a cigarette pack in a pocket.

What it means for you: Even the police, holding your actual phone in their hand after a lawful arrest, need a judge's warrant to look inside it. Your phone's contents are private in law, not only in feeling.

The FTC and SpyFone — 2021 (the stalkerware ban)

What happened: Support King LLC, doing business as SpyFone, sold an app that secretly harvested the location, messages, photos, and online activity of the person whose phone carried it — marketed as monitoring, used by stalkers and abusers — and then left the stolen data exposed through careless security.

What the Federal Trade Commission did: In 2021, the FTC banned Support King and its CEO, Scott Zuckerman, from the surveillance business entirely — the first ban of its kind against a stalkerware maker. The company was ordered to delete all the data it had illegally collected, and to notify the people whose devices had been secretly watched.

What it means for you: Secret-tracking tools are not a gray area that nobody polices. Selling them can end a company, and the door that started it is one named in Part 1: a report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

The landlord with the cameras in the smoke detector — Maryland, 2013–2017

What happened: Dennis Van Dusen, a Chevy Chase landlord, hid motion-activated cameras — one inside a smoke detector, one in a wall socket — in a tenant's bedroom, recording day and night to a computer in his own quarters. A tenant discovered the camera in the smoke detector above her bed.

What came of it: Both tracks, the way Part 3 teaches them. Criminal: he pleaded guilty in 2013 to three counts of criminal surveillance in a private place, and was sentenced to three years, suspended, with five years of probation and a $2,500 fine. Civil: the tenant sued, and a jury awarded her $456,288 in compensatory damages and $371,400 in punitive damages — about $828,000 in all — and Maryland's appeals court upheld the judgment in 2017.

What it means for you: A hidden camera in a rental is a crime and a case. The criminal door and the money door are separate doors, and a victim may walk through both.

Stephanie's Law — New York, 2001–2003

What happened: Stephanie Fuller's landlord hid a tiny camera in the smoke detector above her bed and secretly videotaped her in her own bedroom.

What came of it: Under New York law as it then stood, he could only be charged with a minor offense — and in 2003 he received probation, community service, and a small fine. The weakness of that outcome moved the state itself: New York passed "Stephanie's Law" in 2003, creating the crime of unlawful surveillance — a felony carrying up to seven years in prison.

What it means for you: A case can matter beyond its own ending. A documented wrong, pressed through every door, is sometimes the thing that changes the law for the next person — which is one more reason the record you keep is never wasted.

One more honesty note — drugged drinks

People ask whether there are famous "drugged drink" cases. Stated plainly: drugging a drink is rarely charged under its own name. Prosecutors usually charge the same conduct as assault, attempted kidnapping, or related crimes under each state's own laws, depending on what was done and what followed. The Safety page's rule stands: hospital and testing fast, because the proof leaves the body in hours — that speed is what gives any of those charges their evidence.

Case sources, checked at the time this page was built: the opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court in Katz (389 U.S. 347), Kyllo (533 U.S. 27), Carpenter (585 U.S. 296), and Riley (573 U.S. 373); the Federal Trade Commission's case record against Support King LLC (SpyFone), FTC File No. 192 3003 (2021); the Maryland Court of Special Appeals proceedings and reporting in the Van Dusen case (2013–2017); and the New York State Assembly's record on Stephanie's Law (2003).

Crime takes money as surely as it takes peace: hospital bills, missed work, a home that has to be left. Money help for victims exists, and most victims never learn of it. Here are the doors — with the honest line first: these are doors, not guaranteed outcomes. Every program has its own rules, and anyone who promises you money is selling something.

• State Crime Victim Compensation — the first door. Every state runs a victim compensation program, supported in part by federal funds under the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA). It can pay for medical bills, counseling, and lost wages; for funeral costs when a family is burying someone; and in many states for emergency relocation and even crime-scene cleanup. Three things to know: it usually requires a police report; it has a time limit for applying — your state sets it, and it is the deadline on this page that matters most; and it is not a lawsuit — it does not wait for an arrest or a conviction. Your state's program and its own application form are found through your state government or the federal Office for Victims of Crime's directory. Applying is free.
• Restitution. When a criminal case ends in conviction, the court can order the person who harmed you to pay your losses back. Restitution is not automatic — tell the prosecutor and the victim advocate your losses, in writing, with the bills, early. That paper is what the judge orders from.
• A civil lawsuit. The money door from Part 3: you sue for what the harm cost — damages, in the law's word. Legal Aid carries some civil cases free. Other lawyers work on contingency: they take a share of what is recovered, only if you win, and nothing up front — ask any lawyer, in the first conversation, exactly how they are paid.
• Insurance. Health insurance for the medical care; homeowner's or renter's insurance sometimes reaches further than people expect — stolen property, and in some policies more. File the claim even when you are unsure it is covered; a filed claim can be denied, but an unfiled one cannot be paid.
• The hospital's own help. Hospitals run financial assistance programs, and bills can be reduced or forgiven for people without insurance or money — you have to ask the billing office and apply. The Help page teaches the same door for care generally; it applies here too.
• 2-1-1, for the immediate things. Food, shelter, a ride to court, a bill that cannot wait — dial 2-1-1, free and confidential, for the local help that exists near you today.

Everything in this app — the log, the sweep, the records, the reports — ends here. Proof is not one dramatic piece of evidence. Proof is a pattern, built in order, and each layer below is a layer you already know how to make:

• The log, written at the time. Entries made when things happened — dated, timed, factual — are the backbone. Courts trust records made in the moment far more than memories retold a year later. That is why this app teaches the log on page after page: it was always headed here.
• Originals, untouched. The found device left where it was. The photo unedited. The letter unmarked. In plain words, this is chain of custody: who held the thing, where it was kept, since when — unbroken, so no one can claim it was tampered with. Every hand that touches evidence should be a hand you can name.
• Official paper. Report numbers. Medical records. Agency and company responses. Paper written by people whose job is records — police, doctors, inspectors — carries weight your own word alone cannot, which is exactly why Part 1's documents matter.
• Professional confirmation. The licensed sweep report that names the device found. The electrician's written finding about the thermostat. The phone company's line test. When a licensed professional signs their name to your suspicion, it stops being only your suspicion.
• Corroboration. A second person who saw it too. A photo with its date inside it. A camera somewhere else — a neighbor's, a store's — that saw the same night from another angle. One account can be doubted; three independent ones agreeing are a pattern.

And the honest limit, because this section must end true: suspicion opens doors — it is enough to report, enough to act, enough to protect yourself today. Documented patterns are what win cases. Where the proof is not there yet, the answer is not to give up and it is not to invent: it is to keep logging, keep copies, and keep going. Nothing closed. The pattern builds as long as you do.

If a checkpoint or a port keeps stopping you — extra screening trip after trip, a name that is not yours carrying flags that stop you — the travel doors stand on Travel Safety and Your Identity: what a flag looks like, what to do in the room, and the fix doors after the trip, including DHS TRIP and the Redress Control Number you put on future bookings so the flag stops following you. A contested search of a phone at the border is argued afterward, in writing, through the doors on this page and with a lawyer — the travel page teaches the facts, this page carries the fight.

Free doors for this section: free legal help through Legal Aid (find yours at LawHelp.org, or dial 2-1-1); your state's Crime Victim Compensation program, free to apply to; free court forms and self-help centers at many courts — ask the clerk's office. No one here can promise an outcome; these doors are the real ones.

Shared for learning only from the named official source. Programs change — check the source before you apply. Applying is always free.