What are some things that many people think/believe are illegal but are actually legal?

Updated Feb 25

When I was 18 years old, I moved out of my mother’s home, without asking her permission. Upon moving out, I immediately traveled a little over a thousand kilometers away (to an area with better job prospects). Men don’t care about this, but I have encountered women who perceived this as an underage child “running away”.

Legally changing your name. People do this all the time, by court petition. Reasons can include pronunciation, immigrants adapting to a new language/culture, children getting a new surname, and even just because the person felt like it. I have encountered adults who refused to believe this.

Another female-biased area is employment. I have encountered grown women who refused to believe that:

An employer can assign you to work more than eight hours in a day.

An employer can pay you on a commission or piecework basis, without any hourly rate.

An employer can monitor your productivity, and fire you if the dollar value of your work is lower than your wage.

An employer can make you redundant (laid off) because company revenue is down, stores or facilities are shut down, or for whatever reason the number of job positions has been reduced.

In an “at-will” jurisdiction, an employer can fire you for any reason, or just because they feel like it.

Some people don’t understand laws concerning freedom of speech.

Some people think it is illegal for an undercover police officer to lie when asked about his/her job, even in a life-threatening situation.

Some people fail to understand that, there are legal means for a person to permanently move from one country to another (i.e. they think immigrants are tourists).

Some people don’t understand the difference between an infraction, a criminal offense, and a civil tort.

A lot of this kind of thing just comes down to, “I’ve never heard of it, and I don’t like it, so it must be illegal”.

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