Spooky: Legal Horror Stories

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, we are going to talk legal. Horror stories. Ooh, spooky. That's next. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County.

with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayman. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina. That's where they practice law. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and way down on the coast at Moorhead City.

So, spanning the state of North Carolina, just for you. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We talk all different kinds of legal topics. You're going to have questions about your own situation.

We're going to offer up consults on estate planning. We'll need to have that in order.

So, again, remember, we'll give out the number, grab one of those complimentary estate planning appointments, 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. You can always visit the website, wh.lawyer. Gentlemen, legal horror stories we're going to get to, but first, How was the week, Josh? It's been It's been fine.

It's been fine. It's been like the past couple of weekends, man. A lot of. A lot of football. A lot of football.

It's a real exciting life you're living, man. You've really sold me on it. It's uh you know, I think I I think I told you guys before, but uh Yeah, I got two kids playing football who are really into and I like college football and then and then super into pro football. Do you see your wife before Christmas? Yeah, she watches the f she's watching the football with us for the most part.

She comes back right before Christmas, like a week before, in time to get presents. But hockey started. I haven't seen any hockey. I haven't watched any hockey. It's been baseball playoffs.

Football and work, and that's that's really all I've been doing, you know. Why no hockey, man? Your Carolina hurricanes are off to a blazing hot start. I'm not feeling it yet. I don't know if it's just because we're so into football, or I'm so.

You know, I'm a state fan and I'm very excited about college basketball. And so I've got all those dates on my calendar. November 3rd is when state opens up against Central. to sell out. to sell out.

Um I was listening to Will Wade the other day and He he sold me on He's the real deal. Yeah. I told, you know, as state fans, you don't want to get your hopes up, right? We're trained. Oh, please stop.

You always do. Your hopes are up. You don't want to get your hopes up. We're going to play it close to the vest this year. Bull, bull, bull, bull.

We're trained to be ready, to be ready for the letdown, right? Yeah. Undefeated season NCAA championship. That's what I'm expecting. Yeah, NC State's going to go away from the actual Wolfpack logo, the Wolf logo, and just go with Eeyore.

But that's Josh Josh Whitaker riding Eeyore. What is it? as the uh mascot. But I probably should be excited about hockey. Like, I haven't even read about the Hurricanes.

I don't know what they're, you know, I know they're not a bad team, but I don't know what they're supposed to do. I got nothing.

Well, I I can give you a little info there. They're favored to uh come out of the East. They're going to be one of the. Yeah, they're going to be one of the teams, and they have been one of the teams, but. The big you know, Achilles' heel.

is goaltending. And it's going to be that way this year. And if they are if they aren't good between the pipes, They'll probably win a lot of games, but when it counts. I don't know if they get through. Yeah.

So I got a good defeated season. Stanley champions. Yeah. do the same thing with them that that you do with state.

So But I'm excited. You know, we got tickets. We're going to go watch. I haven't been to a Panthers, Carolina Panthers game. I haven't been to a Carolina Panthers game in years.

like maybe approaching a decade. And we're going to go down there to watch the the Panthers Bills here in a couple of weekends, so that'll be fun. They can't be undefeated, but they're finishing the season with three losses, also winning the Super Bowl. I guess if they just play at home, right? That's the thing.

They're undefeated at home. They're playing They're playing I tell you, I'm a Panther. I care about the Panthers, Josh. I didn't abandon my hometown team. Because my wife likes the bills and the bills.

Sure. Because I'm not a quitter. And.

So I I can tell you, man, it's a lot more. The most deflating thing as a Panthers fan, like, even if you don't expect to win, like, having. being able to watch a game and it be competitive and you can at least enjoy it for 30 minutes of game time is a stark improvement.

So I'll take that. I was wondering the other day, like I've been watching so much sports because the kids like it, you know, and it's so easy to do. And I like sports too. I just. It doesn't take a lot of effort.

That's right. Yeah, you don't have to talk to your kids. You don't have to pay attention to 'em, you just Yeah. Watch the T V, son. We uh I wonder what people who don't watch as much sports, like, should I would I be hiking if my kids didn't really like watching sports?

I think they form real relationships with their children. They read a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta get on that.

I don't want any part of that. That lifestyle. That reading, hiking lifestyle. I don't want that, man. Yeah.

It's not what I imagined when I was. You get up on Saturdays, you go to the farmer's market, you know, you buy the fresh produce. Do some yard work.

Sounds like the first three months of a relationship, right? You're trying to pretend you like real things. Yes, it's bad. I can tell you, man, my kids don't like, they don't care about sports, they don't want to watch sports.

So they just. wander around while I'm watching 'em. Yeah. And I'll peek over there and make sure they're good. You know, I'll make sure they're still alive and Yeah, that's what you do.

Yeah, yeah. And then you spend that quality time with them after the fact. When the sports go off. Yeah, when the sports go off, you say, Daddy's recharged and he's ready to love you again. Dad Dad's ready to pay attention to you now, buddy.

Yeah. Yeah, and and Anyway, that's that's that's what I did. I don't know what Joseph did. Uh It's similar, man. I do I like sports.

You know, I pay attention to the sports. My own kids are doing a lot of sports. I don't I have a lot more diversity in my kids' sporting activities. I don't just get to go straight football.

So uh My kids don't fall break right now though. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing, man. I think we need more of that. More fall breaks for the kids.

You should homeschool the kids. They'd be around you all the time. Yeah, I'm not going to do that. But it's a good suggestion. I've got to know.

We've got our 35 and up men's basketball team that I know everyone's huge fans of. And we advanced last night to the final four of the other old people teams. You've got your own YouTube channel, right, for your team? We should. We're going to work on that.

we're gonna work on that. But yeah, we had seven people, so I had to log a lot of minutes.

So that's tough. That's tough for me personally. Um I can I could play real well, man, for two and a half, three minutes. But if you, as soon as I hit that three-minute mark, man, it's a huge. It's a huge down like...

It's just tough, man.

Well, I think you ought to maybe Game plan around and use a hockey format where it's like a 30 to 45. 50 second over-the-wall line change in basketball. And then we go three-minute changes, but when you only have seven people, your hands are tied. Luckily, the team we played had five people. And they were also old, so.

You know, we had a distinct advantage with those extra two. I used to have a five. I used to, when I played in those leagues, I used to find the biggest, fattest guy on the other team, and that's who I would guard. After like five minutes, we would just lean on each other in the post, and no one would pass it to us because we were exhausted, you know? That's a plan.

That's a good plan. It's a plan that I can employ in some other leagues. Unfortunately, this league is devoid. I am that. I'm the only one.

That's the fat guy. That's just me. It's only me. I was going to say, I think Josh's his strategy came from he was probably watching the Nature channel and he saw how the Lions would go and pick the weaker and then try down the weaker and then take out the weaker and hey, I could do that in the middle of the morning. We walk over there to the jump ball and I just stare down the biggest, fattest guy like you and me.

And it's like, yeah, you lock eyes and you and they know, man. It's like grown-ups when they play a basketball game and Kevin James, yeah. That's that's my strategy.

Next thing we play is. You got a lot of former college talent, some D1 guys.

So we've got zero of those.

So we're going to get by on our hard work. Our hard work and our intelligence. That's what carries us. You'll have to shoot 100% from the field. And Joe, you got to learn this.

Joe, you got to learn this phrase. Nice shot. Oh, yeah. I'm very complimentary, man. There's a you learn through playing basketball for years, like, you learn the guys that.

If you get under their skin, like you rattle them, that they. Do like there's people that do worse. They get frazzled and they perform more poorly. And then there's ones that you do it to and they're just going to destroy you.

So I'm very strategic in how, like, I like to try to be so nice to someone that they don't want, they don't even want to try.

Well, I mean, at least first couple of minutes, feel it out, see if they're one or the other, and then go there. I do a lot of research, reconnaissance. You know, my. my read people skills from years of attorney work really pays off. On the court.

Alright, so we got uh we're getting close to Halloween.

So we were trying to Joe me and Joe were trying to think of a Halloween-themed radio show today, and we got somewhat close, but we've got We got some rapid fire. Halloween. Legal questions. That we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna answer In the category in the category of illegal horror stories, correct? I think that's what we're going for.

Yep. Yep. Cue the spooky music. If we could get some of that going, it's going to be terrifying. All right, so real quickly, Josh, just go over the complimentary consult estate planning, just so our listeners know what they're signing up for.

Yep, you call, you give us a call here at the firm, and we will give you a A no-obligation consult where we talk to you about your specific. Assets, your specific circumstances, and formulate a recommended. A state plan. And as part of that consult, we'll tell you what the estate plan would cost and how it would be implemented. And you can Choose to do that or not choose to do that, but you get to.

Uh bounce things off me and Joe. and uh and and just talk about your estate plan and we don't charge for that consult We can do it in person, by phone, by Zoom, whatever is easiest for you, but that gives us a chance to talk to you. kind of fill out what's going going on, give you some things to think about, and move on from there. All right, there you go. Complimentary consult estate planning available right now, 919-7727000.

That number again, 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. Judica County Radio. We're back after a short break.

We have legal horror stories coming up.

Next. Welcome back in. It's Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And they placed offices convenient for you across our state: Moorhead City down on the coast, Gastonia over near Charlotte, Kuquave Arena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Again, to help you with all your legal needs. And here on the program, we do offer up complimentary consults on estate planning. If you've been thinking about it, but you've been kicking the can down the road, now's an opportunity at no cost and no obligation. Grab one of these consults, 919-772-7000. See if your estate plan is in good order or get started on one.

919-772-7000. Visit the website, w8-277. Dot lawyer legal horror stories, Josh. Ooh.

Alright, so we get this list of rapid-fire Halloween-related horror stories, meaning somebody did something wrong, somebody didn't read the contract close enough.

So these are all things. Yeah. You would be wary of. And so the first one. These bounce around in all different kinds of legal arenas here.

But the first one is: what is the scariest mistake you've seen? In a North Carolina will, right? That's our first rapid-fire question. What is the scariest mistake you've seen in a North Carolina will? And I'll say this, Joe.

The ones that I've seen is when people Get married for the second time, right?

So you're married. And you have kids, that doesn't you know, that that marriage ends in like a divorce and then you you marry again, maybe even have some some kids with the the s the second wife. And you don't really ever do your your estate planning or you do an estate plan will, but you just do like everything to the surviving spouse, but In those blended family situations, I have seen on more than one occasion occasion where The the person passing away disinherits accidentally. Um Previous children. Or our current children, you know, you end up with a will that doesn't take into account.

the blended nature of the family and and That that Results in chaos because your will can be challenged. You know, it can be a real big mess depending on your assets and how they're allocated. But That's the biggest scary thing that I see because people will think they're being proactive, but. Um You gotta be careful about that. Yeah, anytime you see blended families, that's a real minefield for estate planning.

And it's a situation that definitely invites. uh a super close investigation and Uh you need to make sure that that You button up everything in that scenario because you could have a lot of unintended consequences and a lot of things that you don't expect. And anytime that you divorce, it's the same situation. You know, you get. We talked about the get it done later.

type of mentality that a lot of folks have and the longer that you go from that situation after divorce, the the more time that passes, the more things that change and the more that that minefield develops more and more pitfalls that you can fall into and and those unintended consequences.

So That's a good one, Josh. I am sufficiently spooked by that. That was terrifying. I think you can boil it down to to even more. You know, that's a That's a common situation, but that's, I guess, a little bit more complex.

I think you can go even simpler. And potentially the the scariest scenario that you can have With a will or a state plan in general is just improper execution of the documents, not meeting the statutory requirements to even be valid in the first place. And so w we see that, unfortunately, from time to time, where folks just don't The requirements aren't crazy, right? Like, you don't have to do a whole lot to make a will effective, but. You have to have in writing witnessed by two disinterested parties and If you don't have that, Then You're you're in a very spooky situation.

Well, we've seen too, you know, where people go, they actually go to an attorney or go somewhere and they get a will done.

So they have a nice. Typed up will, and they've got their witnesses, and then they start drawing on it, right? They start crossing things out or like pretty pictures on it. Yeah, I don't want Joseph to get that, and writing in some other stuff, and that doesn't work. You just make a huge mess.

Um I don't know if somebody told them that you can make changes to your Wittenwill and initial them or something, but that doesn't work at all. And so that's all kinds of. That's all kinds of crazy, and depending on The acids you die with. You know, it could really spiral into a big mess of unintended consequences. But yeah, if you're gonna, you need a will.

Do a will and do it the right way, and then don't draw on it later. Yeah, yeah, don't. Get a coloring book if you have a compulsion to just draw. Don't use your will. And if you do want to make changes to your will, it's important that you understand That any kind of changes that you want to make, they have the same requirements as the will itself.

So those changes need to be memorialized the same way. They've got to meet the statutory requirements, and if you don't do that, then you're going to have a very beautiful, colorful will. That's that's going to be Pretty much worthless. Other than for its artistic value. I don't know what kind of pictures you're drawing on it.

Maybe you're really good at drawing, and that may have some value. Was that a big thing? That they used to be a big thing a couple of years ago, right? The adult coloring books? Dude, is that still a thing?

Maybe for you, man. But uh. Yeah, no, I think that I think what do you mean adult, Josh? Yeah, what are we trying to do? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Just talking about like that 150-count flesh-colored marker set? Is that what that was for? The colored pencils. Yeah. Got a lot of flesh tones there, Josh.

Yeah, yeah, well, what do you have? Seventy different beiges. Yeah. Alright, I'm going to the next question. This next question comes up a lot.

So if you're I'm going to set the stage for this next question. If you're selling a house in North Carolina, there are certain things that you have to disclose. All right. There's certain things, there's certain disclosures you have to give to the potential buyers. Right.

And then there's a secondary thing where you have to give them any material facts. If you just had somebody inspect the roof and they said the roof is going to fail in the next six months, that's a material fact. And you most likely would have to disclose that to a buyer.

So, the point of the story is there's all kinds of things you have to disclose to a buyer. You can't just hide all these bad things that you know about and hope they don't. They don't figure it out, you can get sued for that. It's fraud.

So this question is a true or false question, which are the which are my favorite of all fifty fifty chance of nailing those. You remember, I can't remember what test I was taking a while ago, but there was this test, and they had. Maybe it was. I don't know. I can't remember.

Maybe I was doing some prepping to kill. Why on earth would you be taking a test at your body? I can't remember, man. I remember they had a multiple choice, and it was this answer, this answer. And they were telling you to choose the one that's the most correct.

Yeah, so they give you several correct answers, but you got to choose the most correct one. Yeah, I've seen that. What's up with that? I don't know, man. Why would they do that?

Can't you write somebody and get that fixed? Anyway. Good old true and false. True or false. You can be sued for a haunted house sale in North Carolina if you did not disclose payment.

paranormal activity. Fault. By God, Morgan, you're growing in your legal knowledge every single day.

Well, since paranormal activity is not real, you ain't wait, Joshua. Joshua. You that's the type of talk that gets you haunted. That's the exact type of thing. I get you a poltergeist.

I get you a poltergeist, and you're testing them there. But. That is false, Josh. I can say. That You have to disclose material facts, right?

Like there's certain things that have to be disclosed. You don't disclose those, then you've got an issue potentially. But paranormal activity. Whether real or not. is not one of those material facts that you have to disclose.

And that And that that's a that's a thing for everybody listening. You know, if you're you know, if you're using a real estate agent to list and sell your property, that real estate agent should guide you along in in making those disclosures. But Even if you sell your house. Without a real estate agent, you sell it to some guy you've always known or some lady who lives down the block who wants to buy it. Like, you still have to make these disclosures, and you can still get sued if you, yeah, if you don't.

So, you know. I can tell you a personal anecdote. Our Clayton office, our beautiful historic. Office nestled in the heart of downtown Clayton, which is a much older building. It's got a lot of history.

It's had a lot of folks live in it over time. I talk to folks that we bought this office. When we buy this office, Josh, Three, four years back. Yeah, it's been good to us. We love it here.

But I talked to some folks that looked at it before us. And they were going to buy the office. And whoever it was that was walking them through told them. that there was a little boy, there was a ghost of a child in this office. And they didn't buy it because they literally did not.

Proceed with their purchase because of that. That's a true story. Let me ask a question since we're on this subject.

So, obviously, paranormal activity doesn't really happen, so you don't have to report that I'm playing with fire, bro.

So, but what if, what if, now people pass away all the time. And I'm sure that if someone you know, passes away in the house, that's not a big deal. But what if there's like a homicide? Yeah, I'll do yeah, that's where I was going next, too. I was gonna ask, do you have to disclose that?

Do you gotta d do you have to disclose that you're that you're selling a murder house, Josh? The answer to that question The answer to that question is actually also no. Um that that But But But if you're asked point blank, That question, and you have direct knowledge of the fact that it is a murder house and someone was murdered, you have to be truthful. And you have to disclose that. Yeah, you can't.

You can't hide the ball, but yeah, you don't have to disclose criminal activity like that. I think, was there a law about methouses? I can't remember. Yeah, methouses is different. Yeah, environmental stuff.

If it's an environmental issue, that's different. But if the person was cooking meth and and then murdered someone, the murder piece. You know, that's not only if you ask, yeah.

So I don't recommend that for the rest of the day. You get a good deal on a murder house. Yeah, I was going to say that maybe. Yeah, but I don't think if you're listing that property that you're coming out of the gate with, it's a murder house unless. Unless the person you're selling to is super weird and you feel like they're into that, in which case it's strategy.

It's all strategy. Don't murder someone in your bottom line is if you're asked, you have to disclose. Yeah, if you're asked. If you're asked and if you have actual knowledge about it and you say no. then you're you're talking about a a a fraud issue.

and you c you could have problems.

Alright, so we're gonna have we're gonna do another rapid fire question here. Um What's the one contract clause that's a total zombie clause that keeps coming back? to haunt people. Did you get that? Yeah, yeah, and and so To answer that question, uh I'd answer that that's that It's that automatic renewal clause that you see in a lot of contracts, where you have a set duration that this contract's going to exist, and then it's going to automatically renew for however long.

Uh In perpetuity, in the absence of notice otherwise. And so that's one that kind of just keeps coming back at you. Yeah, so I don't know if it still goes this way, but I know direct TV, if you had DirecTV, I don't have DirecTV anymore, but at one time I had DirecTV, and you got the NFL package. It would automatically renew whether you wanted it or not. Yeah.

Keeps coming back to call and cancel it. It's like 45 minutes on the phone and. Hopefully they cancel it. But yeah, automatic. I'm not a fan of automatic renewals.

We see a lot of those. Um In consumer agreements, you know, you see some in leases. I don't really want an automatic renewal in a lease, but Yeah, those keep coming back and locking you in. That's a good one. We are discussing again some legal horror stories.

A perfect time of year to have this and have this discussion. Want to remind you here on Judica County Radio, powered by, of course, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. We do have complimentary consults on estate planning. Just call this number 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000.

Grab one of those if you haven't gotten started on your estate planning. Great way to kick the tires there. WH.LAYE, another good way to get in touch with the firm, WH.lawyer, their website. We've got more Judica County coming up. Judica County Radio, your hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program, and their practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina.

They placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuv Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. If you've got a question you'd like approached and answered on our show, you can always email us questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com.

And also, complimentary consults on estate planning. We offer those during the course of this show. Simply call 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, WHO.

Dot lawyer. Josh. You know, I'm looking at this list of rapid-fire questions, and this next one, I don't know how it's spooky. I don't get the sp I'm gonna read it. Isn't this your list, man?

You had some help putting it together? I had some help. We got to talk to the listmaker on this one. I had a little help from ChatGPT and Grok. Which is an odd name for AI, I think.

Grop. Yeah. Super crop. Yeah. All right.

What's the stat? See, what's the statute of limitations for a personal injury claim? That's the question it gave me. How's that spooky? Three years from the date of injury, and I'll tell you how it's spooky, Josh.

It's spooky because. Uh I can't think of many things scarier than having a legitimate personal injury and a valid claim that you're entitled to recovery for. And you miss that statute of limitations, and then you lose the right to bring that claim. And then you're just. You can't do anything at that point.

Yeah, that's pretty spooky, man. A lot of people don't really, I don't think, realize what the statute of limitations are. But yeah, like Joe said, you get in a car accident, you get hurt, you have to file your lawsuit if you're going to seek damages from the party at fault. You have to file your lawsuit. No later than three years after the date of the accident, and so that sounds like a lot of time.

But if you're really hurting a personal injury, a lot of times you don't want to file until you know the full extent of your injuries. Are you going to recover fully? Are you going to need certain care for the rest of your life?

So, a lot of times, on personal injuries where there's real uh you know real intense injury You're kind of waiting to figure out. the extent of those injuries. That's a three-year sound. And there's a reason for that, too, right? Like, every personal injury case.

At some level, it is based off of quantifiable damages. And so if you've got ongoing treatment. If you've got an injury that we don't exactly know the full extent of. There's a There are You could have Additional monetary damages that you want to make sure are accounted for.

So you can't pull the trigger too early. On that claim. But I think that the main takeaway from this very, and it is spooky, man, I'm going to. Dispute you and say that it's a very spooky idea. It's making sure that you're in discussion with your attorney.

well in advance and and they can they can advise you They'll know when the statute of limitations runs. They'll know the best strategic way to approach things and Uh that's that's the best piece of advice to avoid that spooky, spooky pitfall. Yeah, a personal injury is one of those times. You know, I usually try to be pretty honest with folks. Like, you know, I would hire an attorney to handle this.

I'd be like, well, you're probably okay on your own unless something crazy happens. You know, so I try to be honest with people. But if you're severely injured in a personal injury case, like it's, it's worth. The time and energy to retain an attorney. I know we have a couple, we've had Aaron on the show, we have a couple of attorneys here at the firm who focus their practice on personal injury and.

They do some good work for folks who have really been injured. But yes, three years.

Now, the lawsuit can go on for a long time, right?

So, three years is just when you file the lawsuit. You still have the lawsuit and discovery and potentially a trial and an expert.

So, it can stretch on for much longer than that. But you kind of got to. gotta kind of do that within three years.

So that's uh That's a semi-spooky legal question. Very spooky, man. 10 out of 10, spooky. This next one. What is the creepiest real estate dispute?

What's the creepiest real estate dispute you've encountered in North Carolina? I've had a couple that kind of revolve around Cemeteries. Mm. Yeah. So cemeteries, what do you do if properties get developed and How do you move bodies and relocate graves and whoever?

Is that a service you offer as the attorney, Josh? You'll go out there and move the bodies for people? Is that what you're advertising here? Just for a small hourly fee, yeah. Yeah.

The. But that comes up a lot. You know, you have a lot of farms where people were buried on their farm, and there's, you know, then it gets abandoned, and you have all these abandoned graves all throughout North Carolina. There's statutes. On what you have to do, who you have to contact, how you have to handle, you know, if you discover an abandoned cemetery on property you're developing or whatever.

And then certain people have the rights to visit. That cemetery, right?

So, if that's somebody's great-great-great-grandfather, they have an easement to access. uh those things and so I think cemeteries, that's the biggest, creepiest thing I see with real estate disputes.

Well, and I was going to say this, guys. We've been in this area, obviously, most of our lives, and you see how the development has just exploded in the last 20 years. And you see these large neighborhoods going up. But if you go in some of the neighborhoods, they have fenced off areas that are. Cemeteries.

And then they've left them alone. They've left them there. It's very hard. I mean, I haven't seen it happen in a long time, but you know, here I spend most of my time in kind of the Raleigh area and the surrounding Wake County area. But you don't see that a lot where people are being buried.

on their on their property. You get cremated, right? You could be sprinkled wherever you want to get it sprinkled. Yeah, yeah. Um where are we sprinkling you?

Give us a heads up. Yeah, definitely like mixed in with some cigar ash. Yeah, I think that's a great plan. But um but yeah, if you want to be buried and that's you know the the more the more you know this is a real big problem and like parts of Europe that people have been living in forever is like it's very hard to find a place to bury your body. It's almost cremation by necessity.

Yeah. 'Cause there ain't a lot of open land to Bury bodies, but that's that's the creepiest real estate, and that's happened, that's happened a lot for us. We run into cemeteries a lot, like churches. Close down and want to sell their property, and they got a big cemetery that has to be dealt with. I'll give you another one that's not, I don't know if spooky is the right word, but a rising trend that has developed is.

just the fraudulent fake sellers listing property, you know, trying to to perpetrate fraud that way. And and we've we ha it's it we've never experienced it. uh because we we do a lot of things to prevent it, but There's definitely been cases in North Carolina of individuals selling property just completely fraudulently. It wasn't theirs at any point. Everything was forged.

And so I I think that would qualify as creep, right? These are creeps that are doing this, so we could call that creepy, you know?

Well you got the folks who try to lease, they find abandoned property and they try to lease it even though they don't own it. Yeah, that too. That's another one. Yeah, you got that too. Very good.

Sketch folks out there, man. Yep. Sketching it up for everybody. All right, what's this next question? This next question is going to be.

Um Name one North Carolina law that's a nightmare for small business owners. You know, Yeah. You gave me this list, so I've got the answer to this question. And I guess I kind of can agree with it, but. The answer is it's it's North Carolina's strict annual reporting requirements for LLCs and It's not the most, it's not the craziest requirement, right?

Like, it's not the hardest thing to have to do to meet. the state of North Carolina's requirements and Do that annual reporting every year, but I'll tell you, man, there's folks that it turns them off from the idea of forming an LLC just because they don't want to have to deal with it every year. Yeah, it's kinda it's kind of a weird you know wasn't always a law and I know it Back in the day, you form an LLC and then you never deal with the Secretary of State's office again. You didn't have to update your information. You could.

uh but you didn't have to and and so I think in a part this was to Make people have to give updated information, and also so that like LLCs just didn't exist forever, even if they weren't being used. But there is a law now where, if you have an LLC or a corporation in North Carolina every year, you have to file an annual statement. And you have to tell the Secretary of State if the information they have is still accurate, or you have to update it. And then they get you for two hundred bucks. Right.

That's uh That's $200 a year, which is fine if you only have one LLC, but a lot of people have, you know, not a lot of people, but there are people that have a lot of LLCs and. Anyway, it's something you don't think about, and if you don't do it, they're going to dissolve you. They're going to give you a couple of warnings and then they'll administratively dissolve you. And if your LLC owns real property or owns assets, getting that reinstated is is kind of a pain in the butt. Yeah.

That is scary, man. scared me. Pain in the butt. I hope you're doing that for our small business. I got it.

I got it under control. All right, all right. I was going to say you guys aren't that small.

Well, you know. Maybe. Medium size, medium size, officers across the state helping the state of North Carolina. We're gigantic. No.

Um True True or okay, this is a good one. True or false? You like it because it's true or false, man. True or false, man. You know it or you don't.

And if you don't know what's one of those multiple choice ones where it's pick the best answer, that's what I want. True or false? In North Carolina. North Carolina recognizes verbal contracts as binding. in most cases.

I'd say true for the very most part. True-ish. It's true-ish because there's certain things, you know. Real property, you've got the statute of frauds that requires any agreement to be in writing. But as to most things, yeah, verbal agreements are perfectly fine.

Yeah, if it's not real property, if it's not a lease, if you're not buying a house, not buying an interest in real property, that has to be in writing, with specific things in writing. Like Joe said, there's a st'all a statute of fraud.

So if me and you have a handshake agreement, I'm gonna let you buy this house for $250. You can't sue me for that because that's a verbal contract for real property that was supposed to be in writing. But short of a real property interest, a verbal contract can be a. A good old handshake agreement can stand, and your problem is. Usually there's only two people involved and it's your word against theirs and you guys might not have flushed out all the terms.

A lot of he said she said, she said. He said. He said she said.

So, suing on a verbal contract's not always the easiest thing to do. Um But you could. Yeah. True. Judica County Radio, we're going to take a short break.

We'll be back on the other side. We'll talk more about these legal horror stories, the rapid-fire questions we are throwing at the attorneys. Again, those attorneys are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your hosts of Judica County, managing partners of the firm Whitaker and Hamer, and they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And as we mentioned, the medium-sized business has offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Complimentary consults available on estate planning.

Just call us 919-772-7000. We'll get you signed up for that: 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. More Judica County coming up. Back on Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind the program.

They're also practicing attorneys. Here in North Carolina, offices placed in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fugua Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. And here on the program, we do offer complimentary consults on estate planning. If you ever had any questions, been thinking about it, been kicking the can down the road, now's your opportunity to get started on it. No cost, no obligation.

919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. You can also check it out: wh.lawyer, find all the information there as well. Dot lawyer. Josh.

All right. Rapid fire Halloween questions. legal questions continues And I've got a different an I've got multiple answers for this one, Joseph, but Name one North Carolina Law. Just one. That feels like it comes out of a horror movie.

Uh the obvious answer to that is that is North Carolina's adverse possession law. Uh where we're you know, after a period of time. you, through meeting certain requirements, can claim property as your own. And the a court will enforce that. Yeah, it's it's kind of it's kind of crazy.

Um That's adverse possession.

So, if you meet certain requirements, you occupy. or use real property. and you do it for 20 years in a day. You could. in theory, adversely possess, That property.

So you would.

Somebody else's property, maybe they don't live in the state. You fence it in, you raise cattle on it, you build a house on it. For 20 years in a day, then you could go to court. And if you can prove all the elements of adverse possession, a court, a judge could order. that you're the owner of that property.

And I remember when I learned that in law school, I was like, man, that can't happen very often. It happens. Yeah, it happens. And I was like, 20 years is a long time. It ain't a long time.

20 years is not a long time. No, it's not. And you see this come up like when people who don't live in North Carolina inherit property that they never. visit, you know, and and uh I don't know. 20 years can go by really quick.

I don't think a lot of people realize you could just lose property. And the law is meant to make sure. properties being used. And it's just not sitting. But I'm surprised you don't see more challenges to that because that's been the law for a long time.

And there are situations where it's. It it It h helps. it it makes the justified choice and it and it It does what Should happen, right? Like, it's not like that's just being used to screw people over constantly. Um But But yeah, it's a thing, man.

And like you said, you touched on it. There's a legal principle. The law. Does not like property to sit. It doesn't like to restrict and restrain.

The free conveyance of property. And there's a lot of things out there designed to prevent that from happening. And this being. one example of that. The one that I thought about when so that name a North Carolina law that feels like it came out of a horror movie.

The Slayer Statute. That's what I thought about the Slayer Statute. That's one that essentially. And you can build this into your estate plan, and it's something that a lot of times we do. And it basically just says that if someone murders you and they are a beneficiary, of of your estate that they can't take.

So you can't just kill somebody to get Menendez Brothers style. I don't recommend that. I don't recommend murdering someone. to to speed up taking from their estate plan. I I say you just let 'em live and go out the old fashioned way.

Yeah, yeah. So that that comes in, you see that. Those are those are usually cases that make the news, right? Because it's a kid or a wife or somebody murdering their husband or vice versa. And They would stand to inherit all this property, and a slater statute's going to prevent that.

Um So, you can't just go killing your family members and inheriting their property. No, you can't. Nope. If you thought that was an option. Yep.

You know, I like old, uh, old. I like old baseball cards, basketball cards. Did you murder someone to get them? Is that where this is going?

Okay. No, it's not where this is going.

So there's 1990, the 1990 Hoops. Set that was a basketball card set, right?

Okay. You guys know that? 1990? I remember the year 1990. Hoops was a dead giveaway.

Basketball. Hoops. Yeah, basketball card set. Hoops. Yeah.

So there, you know, hula hooping thing. You know, Mark Jackson played for the Knicks, coach. Coaches somewhere, Timberwolves, maybe? I can't remember. No, no, no.

Is he still coaching? I thought he was in the media. I can't remember. Anyway. Famous dude.

So he had his card, and his card, he's like making this bounce pass. But behind him, in the front row, are the Meninda's brothers. And they had just killed Their father and are using his tickets. To go to a basketball game.

So it's like Mark Jackson. Third year card, which should have the value of a nickel. Is actually worth some money because right behind him is the Menendez brothers. Yeah. That's a fact, that's a real thing that happened.

Uh I didn't doubt you, man. Oh, you doubted me. No, man. It's a very specific thing to make up, and. And I have actually heard that from independent sources.

So he's a broadcaster now. He's not coaching. But uh But he is still in the space.

So Yeah. All right, let's see if we got another question here. Um Can a business partner. A lot of these revolve around like a. We hadn't gotten to them all because I've been skipping over them.

But a lot of these relate to business partnerships, right?

So you go and you start a business with somebody, maybe it's a partnership, an LLC, a corporation. Uh can a business partner partner in North Carolina become a quote unquote legal vampire. Draining your assets, right?

So you're in business with somebody. And the the fundamental Thought about a business is you and so me and Joe, we come together, we're gonna form a law firm. And we put in a certain amount of money to fund it, and maybe we borrow some money, but we get together. And the whole purpose of a business is you know what you stand to lose, right? We you know, we both put in this much money.

If we run out of this money, then we're we're bankrupt. But you don't you don't lose everything you own. That's the point of starting a business, to give yourself some protection. Against other claims and what have you. And so, Joseph, how can a business partner outside of that kind of drain your non business assets, your personal assets?

Well, well, depending on the nature of your business. Like if you're in any kind of business where you have a fiduciary duty and a responsibility to your clientele, Uh and And your business partner breaches that duty, or does really anything that's going to incur liability for your organization? And in that sense, they can 100%. Cause you a lot of problems and cause you a lot of financial harm in that scenario. And that's not to say that you can't pursue some kind of action against them if they're doing it independently, but it's your business, right?

Like, and if your business is on the hook. then you're on the hook in a lot of ways, and so they can cause you a lot of problems. Be careful about who you go into business with. Yeah, yeah. It's like a marriage.

That's what I tell my kids. Like, you're, you're, you tell your sons that you're married to me. Is that what you tell them? Yeah. And they're confused.

And they're confused. Yeah. But yeah, if you go into business with someone, you are married to them, and it's important to have an agreement on how you get out of a business. When I sit down with a lot of business folks who are just going in, Um That's one of the things we do is talk about All right, in our agreement, what's the exit strategy? You know, what if Yeah, what if This partner wants to sell.

You know, his interest, how can he do that? Do you get a chance? Do you get a right of first refusal? Do you get a chance to match that? What happens if one of the partners files bankruptcy?

You know, you think about all the bad things that could happen because you don't want to get stuck when a bad thing happens and not being able to deal with it. But um Yeah, you can definitely get your your business partner. And there was a It's all allegations, but there was an attorney here locally who has been alleged to have violated his fiduciary duty to clients by taking some money being held in in trust. And that happens across the country that's an attorney breaching Their fiduciary obligation to their clients, and so that's not fun. Um and it's a problem for the for the business and if you again if you are a co-owner of that business it's going to be a problem for you.

100%. All right, let me find another one of these. It's a big long list. I'm kind of skipping around to the ones I like. Why don't we take a short break, come back, and we'll wrap up with a couple of questions.

Josh, you go ahead and pick those out. But we are talking about, again, legal horror stories in and around the theme of Halloween, and we've gotten into some good ones. The opportunity to get on the calendar with Josh, Joe, and their entire team at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm through an estate planning consult. This is complimentary, and you can call 919-77270000 and pick up one of those. Again, you're not paying for it, and there's no obligation to become a client.

919-77270000. You can also visit the website WHAT. Dot lawyer. We're back with more closing up the Judica County Radio Show right after this. Final segment, Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

They placed offices across the state for you: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to go back and forth with the attorneys. And of course, it is this week Legal Horror Stories. And we've got time for maybe one or two more, Josh.

Yeah, I found what I liked because this might happen to a lot of folks, you know, sometimes. You have to deal with uh with debt collectors. Right? Debt collectors are Agencies that really just try to collect debt. They buy.

Debt that other, you know, other folks can't collect, and they try to pester you or use the legal system into getting you to pay this debt, which may be real debt, maybe it's not real debt. They don't know. They're not the original maker.

So, this would be like: you see this a lot. You know, if you have like a credit card you don't pay. They might refer that to debt collectors or something else you didn't pay for. And then the debt collector may be paid. I don't know, Joe.

We'll say the debt's $1,000. and whoever owned that debt originally couldn't collect it from you. For whatever reason, maybe it's not legitimate, maybe you don't really owe it, it's just on their books. But they sell that debt for 50 bucks to a debt collector and the debt collector hopes to get that thousand dollars out of it. Um But Can a phantom It's in quotation marks because it's Halloween.

Can a phantom debt collector legally haunt you in North Carolina after the statute of limitations?

So. We talked about the statute of limitations for personal injury. Uh, debt would be from a breach of contract, right? You had a contract with somebody, and they either didn't do what they were supposed to do, or you didn't pay them for something they did do. And so, we have a breach of contract claim.

Joseph, what's the statute of limitations for a breach of contract claim? You got three years. Three years. three year comes up a lot.

So you could get sued for that for up to three years.

So let's say DirecTV auto renewed my um your NFL package. My NFL package and I called them to tell them to cancel it and they didn't and they started charging me. It's like I'm not paying that, right? I'm not paying that. But on their books they have a debt.

And DirecTV can't collect it. This is all fictional. I don't even know if DirecTV does this. But, um,. They could sell that debt, For pennies on the dollar to a debt collection agency who would then.

Call you. and try to make you feel real bad about not paying your debt, possibly sue you. There's a lot of ways around debt collection agencies, but some of them are very aggressive. I don't know if you've ever heard some of those calls, someone will just yell at you. Yeah.

I like the making you feel bad. Like, Concrete. I need this money. Be a good deck collector. That's.

But yeah, so they got there's a three-year statute of limitation. That doesn't mean that's the time they could sue you. for it. But they can still bug you about it in year four, hoping that you'll just pay it voluntarily. Yeah, they could still try to do things.

And again,. The fact that they have no actual legal basis to bring a claim against you isn't gonna that doesn't stop some folks. From still making that attempt. And I mean, they could potentially try to bring a suit against you, and you've got to raise that as an affirmative defense.

So. they could still haunt you in the sense of they could they could still get on your nerves. That's what haunting really is, right? Just something getting on your nerves ultimately at the end of the day. I can't remember.

We had some, I don't know, advertising agreement or something, and then it didn't work out.

So we. We canceled it. I can't remember what it was, but they sold, and we didn't even owe them any money. But they had something on their books and it got sold three or four times. And so by the time it got to a deck collection agency, it was like a hundred bucks.

And they started calling the law firm for the You law firm, you need to pay this hundred dollars. I was like, You realize you're calling a law firm. You know, like, It's not just some guy on the Yeah, I was like, we're not giving you this money. You know, please stop calling us. And they eventually did.

But if you don't know what your rights are, right? And a debt collector is like blowing you up on your cell phone. Of course, nowadays, who answers the phone if you don't know who it is? I can tell you who doesn't. And that's me.

Yeah. Well, and you guys have brought up a really good point, and we're right at the end of the show. But I mean, think about senior citizens that are out there that get these constant texts on their smartphone that they owe this money and that money, and it looks like a legit source, and they click on a link, and it's over. I mean, their information's gone. I mean, the scams that are out there, it's very concerning for the senior citizens.

Well, you know, I talk I talk to my parents a lot, because if you're raised in the South, You always answered the phone. You didn't care who it was. You answered the phone. You responded to people, you know, you didn't just ignore it, was rude. Right?

And that's really baked into a lot of people. It is. And my parents, I think, have finally. Got them like, hey, look, if somebody calls you on your cell phone and that contact's not in your phone, don't answer it. Yeah.

You know, let them leave a message. That might be the best advice we've given today. You listen to the message and you decide if it's important enough. Like. But yeah, if you're not in my phone I'm not picking it up.

You can call me at the office and leave a message. And you're going to have a tough time then, too, unless you're very important. Unless you're a listener of the show, in which case, yeah. That's right, you need to say that up front. That's right.

We're a listener, and they'll take your call. All right, guys, another great show. Again, legal horror stories. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning with Whitaker and Hamer. Simply call 919-77270000.

That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. For Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, Practicing Attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the next Judici County Radio.

Next week. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina.

Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature, and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney, licensed in the state in which you live, has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at jmw at mwhlaw.lawyer.