Welcome into Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, Practicing Attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick, and today's show: Crypto and Estate Planning, AI, and Practicing Law, an Anti-Squatter Bill. It's all coming up next. on Judica County Radio. Whitaker and Hamer present Judica County.
with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Haynan. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. And Whitaker and Hamer, the power behind this program.
They placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We are going to offer up complimentary consults on estate planning today on the program. And again, you're not paying for it and you're not obligated to become a client.
This is a great way to see if you are on track with your estate planning. You can call at any time, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. And of course, the website, WHO. Dot lawyer.
Josh. How's it going? Doing good? It's the pause. That was incredible.
Did you have to process what Morgan was asking? That was deep. No, it was. You got too many screens up this morning, so I was like looking at another screen while while Morgan was doing our our intro and uh Are you the kind of husband that when your wife starts talking, you pull out your smartphone and start looking at it? Don't we all?
I mean, doesn't everybody have the smartphone up all the time? Like, you gotta. You can't just watch TV. What, honey? What?
My middle son. He got his phone taken away. This week for something pretty minor, but you know, he doesn't have his phone this week. killing him. Killing them, the kids when they don't have their phones.
And then I think, like, what if I didn't have my phone for a week? Yeah. Be a real bummer, but when you were his age You didn't know what a phone was, man. Nah, man. I did know what a phone was.
It was in my kitchen. Yeah, it was the rotary phone in your kitchen. I remember we got a cordless where you could take it outside so I could go outside and shoot basketball and talk on the phone. I thought that was pretty. Your rich family had a cordless phone?
Yeah. Was this the big brick or was it just that uh I guess that radio wave one where you can just walk out within like 100 feet of the yeah, yeah, it was that. It was whatever you got from Radio Shack. Yeah, it was that's what it was. But I remember Radio Shack.
There's a dinosaur. You see that guy? There's a guy on social media, and he made himself a resume, and he was an executive at Radio Shack and Best Buy and Circuit City and all these places that don't exist anymore, so you can't. Confirm or deny. He had those.
I like that guy. I know you're just thinking, but I like that guy. He's thinking about stuff. But no, I just am excited because basketball's gearing up. I saw.
I think Duke just had an exhibition game, didn't they? Yeah, Duke played last night. They did. You didn't catch it? Did you watch it?
Yeah, yeah. What do you think? I didn't know it was on until afterwards. No, I watched it, man. They, um,.
I mean We'll see, man. We'll see. They honored Johnny Dawkins, didn't they? I think. Yeah, they did.
I mean, Johnny Dawkins, he came back, coaches UCF, and. The first half was a was a dog fight. UCF's got a mature team. They they returned zero points from last year, but it's the portal era, right?
So you go out and you get a bunch of dogs and they had a bunch of very athletic guys. Yeah, one point difference, like forty, thirty nine at half was still in. It was close at half. I think Duke ended up winning by upwards of twenty. My assessment of Duke's team.
It's not the full assessment because they had two. Two guys that will contribute, if not start, that did not play, Malik Brown and Saar, the incoming guy. Um. Cam Boozer is very good. I think he had 30 plus.
He's going to be. Very, very good. It's hard to say he'd beat Cooper Flag good. He honestly looks smoother offensively than Cooper Flag looked. He rebounds tenaciously, which I appreciate as a person.
That's all I can do on the basketball court is just push people out of the way and try to get rebounds.
So I really appreciated that. Um We'll see, man. We'll see. I think it'll be, I don't think they'll be as complete of a team as last year, but you never know, man. You never know.
in this era of basketball, how things will shake out. With all the turnovers. Joe, were you at the game? No, I just watched it. I watched it at home.
Yeah. So I'm guessing, again, I don't follow Duke very well or very adamantly. Are the Boozer Boys, are they anything like his dad? Because the dad was a beast. No, they're very good.
So, you know, Cam is the more touted of the two. He's taller. He's. He's an inside-outside type of dude. Like I said, he can grab rebounds.
He's very smooth offensively. He can shoot the three, but he can play inside. His brother's a point guard. He's a big point guard. I think his brother will be good.
I think he'll have more of an adjustment period. But Camboozer is ready to play immediately.
So Camboozer is needed. He's their dad, but who's who's the the mom was what? Lisa Leslie? Who was the mom? She was a basketball player too, wasn't she?
I don't remember your question. I thought the mom was a WNB, one of the. WNBA players who are really good. I can't remember. Let's see if I can tell you.
Let's see. Yeah, we'll find out. But Carlos, when he was at Duke, just absolute beast. They had like 15 years of just bruising power forwards that could play center. And that position doesn't seem to exist anymore.
Yeah, they don't. I mean, Duke actually, Patrick Gongba, is a. One of the closest things that Duke's had to a true post-player. And even he was shooting threes last night, so. I don't know, man.
I'm cautiously optimistic about the year of basketball for Duke. I think they will be very good. I don't, I mean, last year's team was kind of an anomaly. That was as good of a team as they've had. in a very long time.
So Um we'll see, man. Cautious optimism.
Well, we were very heavy on the Duke there. How state looking. Oh, I haven't seen, you know, I haven't seen, I know they have a couple of preseason. matchups. I got tickets for the third, the first game against Central, but I think they'll be, you know.
I think it'll be pretty good, but I haven't seen them in action yet. They should be good, they should be markedly improved. I'm sure Carolina will be terrible, right? That's what I was thinking. Carolina should do that.
Don't ask me. Don't ask me about the heels. I kind of feel like college basketball has turned into fantasy football waiver wire time because players change all over the place. That's true, man. That's something you got to deal with.
I just saw on the way to the way in this morning, I just saw Louisville signed a. signed a guard or a guard committed to Louisville who just played in the G League last year. Yeah, it's a weird seems very different. Yeah, it's a very different thing. Probably making more money than Louisville.
Yeah, probably. Sizable probably. All right, well, we are going to talk about the law today. And like Morgan said, the things that I talk about on this show are things that people are asking me in consults, right? And so, usually, that's what I use this show for.
If people are asking me these questions in consults, I assume other people have these questions. And some of these things we've touched on before, but I want to spend a segment talking about currency. Crypto in estate planning. And how the law treats crypto, you know, Bitcoin and Ethereum and all the others. Um And how people who have heavy holdings, you know, in crypto, how their estate plan.
looks. And so we're going to spend some time talking about that. We're gonna spend a segment just talking about. Uh AI. you know artificial intelligence all these all these uh All these uh AI uh and how it affects the practice of law.
And what experts are talking about, how that will affect lawyers in the future. And so that's a every industry is kind of having to take a look at that. And so I wanted to take a look at that, what that means coming down the line. And then. In North Carolina, our legislature recently passed an anti-squatter bill.
Bill, which is a great legal tool. Um to get people who aren't supposed to be In rental property, or it doesn't even have to be rental property, but people who have squatted. In real estate, and who aren't supposed to be there, and don't have any legal right to be there, how to get them out quicker. Than in the eviction process, or anyway. But we're going to talk about how that was treated, a squatter.
Was treated under North Carolina law before, and how they're treated now under this new law. Um But all all all interesting things today.
So Josh, real quickly as we get ready to hit our first break, walk us through exactly the complimentary consult on estate planning. Obviously, this is one of the wheelhouses for Whitaker and Hamer, but very important to have your estate plan in order. A lot of people don't. Yeah, and that's one of the things here at the firm. We spend a lot of time while we practice several different areas, we spend a lot of time helping folks with estate planning, trust administration, probate matters.
And so these consults, as part of the radio show, if you give us a call and tell us you're listening to the radio show, we'll do a free Estate planning consult for you.
So you'll get to sit down with one of our attorneys by phone, Zoom. In person at one of our offices across the state of North Carolina. You'll get to spend some time with us for free so we can give you our opinion. On what your estate plan. Should look like.
And so that's kind of individualized estate plan. And again, like you said, Morgan, we don't charge for that. That's a free consult. We will tell you how much everything costs if you want to go forward. We're very transparent.
And uh that way you'll know. And um You'll have some information, if nothing else. All right. Complimentary consults available. Call this number, 919-772-7000.
Again, in and around estate planning, 919-772-7000. That's no cost. No obligation to become a client, but you can go over prices. And if you want to move forward, you certainly can. 919-772-7000.
You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. Really nice resource for you, wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County coming up. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Offices placed for your convenience, Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquave Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Absolute pleasure to jump on. Talk about different legal topics in and around the law in the state of North Carolina, things you might be dealing with. But just remember: always have a consult.
Make sure that you have an attorney working with you on some of these issues.
Now, the first one, Josh, you brought it up: crypto and estate planning. Crypto has become a really, really big thing, and it's kind of gotten into a lot of different aspects of our lives. Yeah, we have a lot of clients who, you know, 20 years ago. Uh, you'd sit down with someone, a family, to talk about estate planning. And they'd have their home, maybe they'd have some rental properties, they'd have their 401ks, some investment accounts, and the law.
Was really set up to deal with that, you know, real property. uh personal property um And that was kind of the asset classes. We talk about life insurance, we talk about those kind of things. And now, you know, 20 years later, We talk with some people where all their assets are basically crypto. Um I know, Joe, you see that a lot too.
Just the newer generation is more comfortable with crypto, and that's an asset that's gaining a lot of value. Yeah, for sure, man. And that's something that as time goes on, barring some kind of. Super strange, unanticipated correction, you know, you're only going to see more of that.
So it is not uncommon. And you you're a Bitcoin millionaire, aren't you, Josh? Isn't that what I've heard? No, no, I'm not. I was not smart enough.
I have some crypto, but I was not smart enough to get in when my brother and everybody else was telling me to do it a long time ago. I'm just not smart enough. That's my problem. Yeah, if only I were let's clarify for the listeners. As to the law, there's no one smarter.
A genius intellect when it comes to the law.
So you're talking generally outside of the practice of law specifically that you are not smarter. Yeah, okay. I just want to make sure, you know. You know, back, I don't know if you did this back in the day, but back in the day when you play Sims, the computer game, you play Sims. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Alright, so when I when I was in college, we would We we would replicate ourselves. Right as Sims, except we made ourselves really, really... Dome. Yeah. I don't know if you did that.
Yeah, I did all kinds of social experiments, man. Isn't the point of doing it? But we did it one time. We did it one time, and one of my roommates we made really dumb. Yeah.
And he. he caught himself on fire cooking one day in the in the Sims game, right? And he died. He burned himself to death. Because we were all too dumb to put him out.
Yeah, you couldn't even figure out how to stop it.
So it was sad. I hope you had a virtual estate plan. That's right. But if I was going to make myself as a sim My law smartness, 10. 10 out of 10.
Right. Um crypto smartness early on. Yeah. zero. It's way more.
It's way more expensive.
So, anyway, we have a lot of people come in where the majority of their assets are in crypto. And the law is catching up. The law is usually slow to react to. trends for better or worse. Um But you know, North Carolina does have a couple of laws on the books that have to do with internet access once someone's passed away and what their executors can do, their fiduciaries can do for them.
But crypto, depending on how you store your crypto, how you acquired your crypto. I think one of the biggest concerns is getting keys and information. Which you usually want to keep private, right? That's the, if there is a downside to crypto, is that how easily it can be stolen. Right, if the information If you do it the wrong way, it could be very, very difficult, if not impossible, to steal.
if you take the right steps. But Yeah, if you if you don't Then Yeah, it's very, very much subject to getting gone from you.
So the biggest thing is if you have crypto assets, the biggest thing getting them to the next generation is something that most people are really bad at. It's writing. writing things down. In a way where, you know, if something happens to you or you're incapacitated, you're in a coma or you've passed away, your fiduciaries, right, your power of attorney, your executor, um. They know One, they know about crypto.
They know how to handle it. They know where to. find out about it, they're educated on it. Where they have the information to access it, right? And a lot of that depends on if you're using like a Coinbase or if you've got like a cold wallet, like whatever, however, you're gonna store your crypto.
If you were to drop dead tomorrow or get in a car accident in a coma, How do your fiduciaries get access to that? And I think that that raises a broader point that applies to more than just crypto. Like, obviously, it's applicable to crypto. But You could have the most well-crafted estate plan in the world. And There is a practical element of your fiduciaries have to be able to identify.
Everything that you've got. They have to know where your accounts are. They have to know who to contact. There's a second level of the estate plan that. You know, we as your attorney may not be able to help you with.
And it's that data gathering piece and making sure that you've compiled all this information for your fiduciary so they know exactly. who to talk to everything that you've got. And that's kind of an ongoing obligation for you because you could acquire all kinds of things, set up new accounts after you come and sit down with us. And so it's important to make sure that you're getting all that information to where.
someone can access it. Going back to crypto specifically, Josh, I think there's. There's an important distinction to draw between Custodial and non-custodial wallets, essentially.
So there are certain uh uh the the custodial side of things, you you're dealing with a provider that has terms of service, and you know, you may log into that account, and so Tho most of these providers are with the times and and they will talk to fiduciaries.
So Just like a bank would talk to you if you were an executor of an estate. These these folks If you've done the right things and you've structured your estate plan properly, you Even if you don't have All of the information, which hopefully you do, but if you don't, they'll still work with you and you could potentially get access to these accounts. Non-custodial wallets or keys, those are that might be a situation where you just got a physical USB stick, for example, that has your crypto on it or has the ability to access it. And that's something that you. You've got to make sure that whoever your fiduciary is can access that.
It needs to be.
Somewhere safe.
somewhere that you can find. You know, you hear the st the the horror story of the person who had ten thousand bitcoin. On a floppy disk, and they throw it in a landfill, and it's just gone forever. You know, if you can't find that thing, then you'll never, it's just gone, it's lost.
So, and I saw that's a good point. I saw, you know, like I think the Coinbases of the world, you know, if you're, if you're, if your crypto holdings are with someone like that, they have their own. Like, if you have a 401k, you're going to set up who the beneficiary is after you pass away. That's going to be a non-probate asset that investment. And a lot of the bigger.
Um A lot of the bigger outfits like Coinbase are kind of trending that way, where you, when you open your account, you tell it who is going to be the beneficiary after you pass away. And so I think a lot of it's going that route. But, you know, if you're, if you're in the cold. The cold wallet, that's kind of like, in my mind, that's like having bars of gold or bars of silver. You got to make sure you protect it.
Because you have personal control over it, but you also need to know if you drop dead tomorrow, does someone know where it is and how to get it so they can distribute it, you know? And that applies to. Like I said, that's broader than just crypto, but especially. In the case of crypto, if you've got If you have a non-custodial wallet that's that's off, you know, off the grid, kind of, you've got to make sure. Not only that.
Someone can access it, but that they know whatever seed phrase or code, whatever they need. All the information they need to actually access that asset. They've got to have it, or else it's worthless and you've wasted. A lot of time, a lot it's a very tragic story, man. Makes me sad to think about the folks that's happened to.
But North Carolina, I think North Carolina, as far as legally, as far as laws on the books, like we're. I think we're ahead of most states in how to treat, you know, electronic assets or, you know, Non-fungible assets. You know, the law has a lot of terms for stuff like that. But I think we're kind of. The other thing I would point out, the other thing I had on my sheet here.
When you have, you know, we talk about. Will versus a trust, right?
So you can just have a will. And that will get probated when you're passed away, and there's an estate file opened downtown at the courthouse for you. And a clerk has to approve distributions, and that's all public record. And a lot of times with these crypto assets, You want to make sure you have this is one of those situations where you want to make sure you have a trust. You know, me and Joe talk about how trust takes things out of probate.
Get you out of that will, get you out of going downtown to the clerk's office. A trust is just private. And your trustee, whoever you appoint to be the trustee after you pass away, they're going to deal with the assets in your trust. And you can be as specific as you want to. In the trust, that's not going to be a public record.
Um And I think in the crypto sphere I think that's useful to have that privacy to shield. the assets, any information about the assets, where the assets are going. You know, a lot of folks who are in crypto like the fact that crypto is kind of off the grid. Um, And if you want to keep it private, If you have a lot of crypto assets, my recommendation to you as part of your estate plan is going to be to have a trust and to get those things into trust so you're not. You're keeping them out of the public.
You know, sphere and keeping everything private. And I think that's kind of important too. A lot of folks that I talk to. Who have mostly crypto assets, that's very important. to them.
That's on the top of their list is keeping things private. and not having that information just out in in the public. We are going to take a short break. You're locked in to Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program. They're also practicing attorneys here in the state of North Carolina, just finishing up that discussion on crypto and estate planning.
Very important stuff. We are going to take that break and come back on the other side. AI and practicing law. That is coming up next. You're listening to Judica County Radio.
Want to remind you there are complimentary consults available for estate planning. Call us now, 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. No cost to it, and there's no obligation to become a client. You can get an idea if you are on the right track with your estate planning or you can get the ball rolling.
919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. That's wh. We're back with more at Judica County right after this. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys talking about a lot of different topics today. I want to remind you, too, there are complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've been thinking about it and haven't started, this is a great opportunity for you to kick the tires.
If you've got questions about your current estate plan, again, jump in here, grab one of these complimentary appointments, 919-772-7000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, WH.lawyer. Already on the show today, crypto and estate planning. And now we move to AI and practicing of law.
And first and foremost, Josh, what kind of drew you to this? I mean, everybody's talking about AI. Oh, you know, Joseph and I. Play with AI. a lot.
You know, we've done that here on the show. We've had shows where AI generates our core. questions that we answer. We've had Uh Joe made us a lot of theme songs with uh AI I'm I'm literally AI right now. That's right.
Me and Joe no longer exists. I just created an avatar so I could work more. Joe's playing pickup basketball somewhere, and this is the AI version of it. The Morning Times play. I was going to say a very bright, articulate version of Joe today.
And uh I know I know Joseph you've been playing a lot with the the A app video generators lately right Oh yeah man, it's. It's scary. It's honestly scary, man. It's uh we are not far. I mean, for a lot of people, we're probably already there to just completely not having any idea what's real and what's not.
Um Exponential growth in the area of all AI, really. Like, even the music stuff, you know, we. It it was not even that many months ago we were playing around with it. And since then. you would be amazed.
The Amount of just improvement and how much better it's gotten. It's crazy, man. And that's how it happens, right? It learns, it grows. you know, at an exponential rate.
And I it's crazy to think about where we'll be Not too long from now. Yeah, yeah, a year from now. You know, I got to thinking about it. I've always used it as kind of a toy, and then I use it now instead of like a Google search, right? I use, I use, I use.
I use it for that, and then I'll have it take a look at documents or pick certain things out of documents or. you know, do like a Grammar check, you know, I think we've kind of used it for that. You know, there's real legitimate. AI tools that are being marketed towards attorneys, right?
So there's a. There's AI that's geared to writing letters, or AI geared to trying to help you do some research. And I think if you look industry-wide, There's a real concern that junior-level attorneys, attorneys who do a lot of research for bigger firms, a lot of drafting for bigger firms, that AI in the very near future may muscle those. position th those positions may not exist. Because research gets consolidated, saves clients money.
It's not there yet. You can't. There's been plenty of attorneys that have been disbarred. for trying to use chat GPT to write things that go to judges and You know, AI just makes stuff up right now, you know, if you're not like looking behind it. But.
You know, I started looking at this because my kids are, I've got kids in high school, right, who are thinking about what to do. with with their careers and and what to study. And so I really was looking at, you know, what jobs AI will potentially eliminate Sooner than later. And specifically, I was looking in the in in law and it was You know, some research paralegals, junior-level attorneys. I don't think attorneys in general.
Or You know. gonna be replaced. By by AI. I don't have a lot of other marketable skills, man. Look, man, I'm really good at unclogging drain lines and uh and things like that, so maybe that's what I'm doing.
Technology. I don't know, man. As these robots grow in their capacity to unclog things, you might. you might be in trouble for your hobby. you might have an AI-powered robot, you know?
Yeah, no, I think that's. I mean Yeah, have you ever seen the Jetsons? I'm familiar with it. Are you familiar? Yeah.
Yeah. We were supposed to have flying cars by the year two thousand because of the Jetsons. I think we're one million percent getting legit in-home robots well before we'll have flying cars. That's my bold prediction. I want an AI-powered robot that just goes around the boundary of my property.
Monitoring for incursions, stopping any trespassers. That's what I want. I like that. I could see possibly some form of drone. AI controlled that would could absolutely patrol property.
And maybe eventually these drones get to the size where there is some form of human transport. I would I would My interest would be how do you control that? How do you keep people safe in the skies? How high is this going to be? I mean, there are a lot of different question marks, but I think it's coming, guys.
Give me one of them robot dogs. Give me one of them robot dogs that can just roam. My property doesn't pee on your floor. It's a big positive. The uh But no, that's a that's a big thing, you know, and I I think kids today looking at you know at career paths You kind of have to take that in consideration.
What is, you know, because I think what will happen is you'll see AI. eliminate kind of entry level Jobs in different fields. You know, I guess right now you're seeing it a lot for the programmers, right? The computer programmers are taking a big hit. That job market is not an active one for a lot of people who went to school to.
you know, smart people who went to school to code and and and so but um Not so much of a risk right now, I think, for law. I think right now, what it's being marketed as is a tool. to help attorneys do research and cut down if you're paying an attorney hourly. And he can, his research time or her research time can go from four hours to one hour with the help of some AI. Tools that the firm has.
You know, that's a, it's a good thing. Right now, it's a good thing. Until they have these AI robots who can go to court, you know. It's a supplement, right? Like, it's just a supplemental tool.
And uh Yeah, and if anything, like you said, man, there's a right way to use it and a wrong way to use it. And there's some attorneys who have used it the wrong way. And, like you said, have been disbarred as a result of that. And there's plenty that have used it the right way as a supplement. if it's used appropriately.
It's a good thing for the client because it it can cut down on those billable hours and time spent. Yeah, I can't remember the state it was, but an attorney had a case before, like, the. Supreme Court of that state. And that's one thing attorneys do when we're representing a client. We're in court.
If we have like a motion hearing coming up or a trial, we'll prepare a brief, which is just, you know, talking about cases that's been before that court that have kind of decided in our favor. And we, you know, we write basically our argument down and all of our supporting evidence, and we turn it into the court. And this attorney didn't even read it, right? Just told Chat GPT or whatever to draft a brief. And it just made up court cases that never happened.
It was all and so when the judge read it, he was like, What is this? And that attorney got disbarred.
So it's definitely, yeah, there's definitely an aid right now. And I think a lot of kids in school, that's how they're being trained to use it. You know, like. Like back when back in my day, the internet was new, right? When I was coming through school, we had to use the learn the internet, not to.
write papers for us or or whatever, but to you just use it as an additional Um A research tool. Yeah, it's a research tool. Yeah. And uh and some people used it the right way, right?
Some people used it the wrong way, but it's uh it's just a tool. But it's it's it's it's interesting, especially if you have young children who are trying to figure out what they're good at, what they want to study or not study, right? Just something to keep in mind because it's changing so quickly. I saw We're talking about the AI videos, right? And so they get flooded onto TikTok and Instagram.
And I was flipping through, and surprisingly, I have a lot of wrestling content on my shocker. But I had one where someone was taking historical figures and making them wrestlers, right? Yeah, there was one. I'll get a lot of those too, man. Yeah, there was one where MLK came out into like a WWE wrestling ring as a good guy and gets cheered and he turns bad.
You know, he turns. He turns heel in.
So they were making all these good Abraham Lincoln like went badge, you know. That's good stuff, man. It's funny. It is. It is fun to look at.
I mean, how how How else would it go for Martin Luther King? I mean, he was all about peaceful protests. That's not going to go over in a wrestling Venue. No, no. That's not what you want from your ring.
You can make it work, man. You could make that gimmick work. You come to the ring. They could come to the ring and refuse to fight anyone. You just lay down and turn the other cheek, man.
That's right. It could go somewhere. Anything can work if you if you come at it the right way.
So. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, just getting off that discussion: AI and practicing of law. And AI is here, not going anywhere, and it is kind of seeping into all aspects of our lives.
So just be aware of it and obviously use it as a positive tool as you move forward.
Now, complimentary consults when it pertains to estate planning. We have those for you with our friends here at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, the number to call is 919-7727000. That's 919-77270000. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer.
And just say, hey, I want a complimentary consult on estate planning, and they'll sign you up. 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer.com.com. That's wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County coming up.
Anti-squatter bill. That's up next. That's in the crosshairs on Judica County. We are back on Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.
They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, placing offices all over our great state for your convenience down on the coast at Moorhead City, over near Charlotte at Gastonia, Fewquave Arena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Raleigh, Cleveland. It's all available to you. Again, we have complimentary consults on estate planning this week.
So call right now and secure one: 919-77270000. That's 919-7727,000. No cost, meaning leave the checkbook at home. No obligation. You're not required to become a client.
WH.LAYE, another good resource for you. You can check it out there at wh.lawyer. I'm Morgan Patrick. A pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We've talked about So far, crypto and estate planning, AI, and the practicing of law.
And now we get to one of the latest bills from the state house, anti-squatter bill, Josh. Yeah, this is something that was passed this. Summer, right. And it was in response to, you know, there was like a national. Anyway, I remember I've seen a lot of videos in different states where you go away on vacation.
somebody you don't know. gets into your house and starts living there and in certain states In certain states, not North Carolina, there's something called squatters' rights. which is amazing to me. I don't fully comprehend Why would a state endeavor to protect someone in that situation? But, um,.
They did. And so you'd have these Terrible nightmare stories of people who went away for like a You know, extended vacation and come back to their house, and someone's living there. and they call the cops and the cops won't kick 'em out. You have to go through the eviction process, and every state's a little different with how that works. And so, there's these horror stories where people are out of their house for like six months while they get these people who have no right to be there.
Out of their house, you know, so it's called squatter's rights. And so, I guess, in response, Well, before we talk about what North Carolina did, Joe, I mean, I guess let's talk about what If that situation happened to you, it's not something that happens a lot, right? But say you and your family work hard, you can go on a two-week vacation. You go away. You don't have cameras at your house, you don't know what's going on, people get in there.
and you come back and someone's living in your house. I'm just fantasizing about a two-week vacation, man. I know. What would that be like? What a beautiful thing it would be.
Unfortunately. My law partner works me. To the bone every day, and that's just not in the cards for me. But I tell you what it would do, Josh, and this may surprise you, it would make me very sad. And I would step one would be, I think, sadness.
I think step two, shortly after sadness, would be. Seething anger and rage. Yeah. Yeah. I think those, yeah, and I, uh, Bubbling Rage.
Bubbling Rage. And um. I think it would be a very difficult situation for me to handle in a a peaceful manner and uh Yeah, but I think Yeah, so North Carolina before before the statute there was two ways to go about it. you would you would call Your local authorities, whether that's the sheriff where you live, or the city police, or whoever it would be, and they would have their own ways that they handle certain situations. Let's say you were that kind of person who goes to Europe for four weeks and you come back, someone's in there, they're getting mail at your residence.
They say they have a right to be there, you say they don't.
Sometimes the officers wouldn't. wouldn't do anything 'cause the officers wouldn't know who was right and who was wrong. And if you were in one of those situations and the police would not Charge them with trespass or get them out of the house, and your only option was to do an eviction. Right, where you file an eviction complaint down at the clerk's office, and then you get a court date. Um You know, even if the squatters lose the eviction, they could appeal it to district court.
What an air ticket. It could take a long time, right? And in North Carolina, this doesn't seem to happen a lot. I think most of the local police have the ability to kind of deal with it under the current North Carolina law structure, but it's a thing that happens. And so, in response, North Carolina got a bill signed into law this summer called the Anti-Squatters Bill.
where if someone write if they're not on the deed If they have literally no right to be there, they're just trespassers who have done enough to keep the police from taking them out of the house.
Now, all you have to do is file an affidavit, right?
So there's a form that you file. that that says all these things. These people have no right to be here. They don't have a lease. I don't know who they are.
They haven't paid rent. They're not on the deed. You answer all these questions and you file the affidavit with the clerk's office. This is going to give the sheriff department uh you know in whatever county you live in the power to just go in and get people out It kind of puts the burden on The squatter. Like right now, in this situation, the burden would be on the property owner.
To prove the squatter shouldn't be there. Which is insane, right? Yeah, and this law kind of flips it to the way it probably should have been all along, right? Is now. We get the people out of there, and then after the fact, the squatters, if they think they have a right to be there, they can file to prove they should be there.
Yeah, I think a lot of these squatters' laws in favor of squatters' rights come from Tenants, right? You're trying to protect tenants from bad landlords. I think that's where they all. kind of come from.
So in your New York City, that's a valid that's a valid public interest type of thing that we want to protect. And That's a very important consideration.
So So good that's good. You don't love all laws, Josh. You've been pretty clear about it. There's some that you're not a huge fan of, right? Yeah.
I think you can get behind that one. I think you can get behind the the anti-squatter law as well. You know, I I said on the show I'd I'd never run I d I don't want to ever hold Any kind of public office, but if I did run for public office, I'd have a few things that I would promise to do, and that would be it, right? I would do those. Those things that nothing more And nothing less.
And so, like, getting Super Bowl Monday, a national holiday is one of them. All right. That's one of the things I would do. But I have this list that on my list, one of them is getting rid of a law. Every day.
Yeah, every day. Every day. Every day I'm in office, I'm going to get rid of one law. It can be a law from like eighteen sixty eight, but uh every day The less laws we have, I think the better off we'd be. Anyway, I like this log.
That's a good one. They're not all bad. I wouldn't get rid of this one. This one sounds pretty okay to me, you know?
So you have an avenue. Um If you kind of run into that situation, but you do, you know, it's a balancing act, you want to protect tenants. From unscrupulous landlords, but people should also be able to decide who's gonna be in their property and who isn't. Yeah, but also in North Carolina, this kind of favors landowners, which I like. Um But they're working on that.
The affidavits aren't available yet.
Sometime this month, the court, you know, the law got passed. But the court system still has to prepare for it, and so they're drafting these forms that people will have access to and uh So anyway, if you find yourself in that situation, it's not something that happens a lot. Um But uh the North Carolina legislature addressed it. And it got a lot, you know, it got people from both sides of the party. The governor signed it in, so it wasn't a.
When you get that bipartisan support, man, you know, you're doing something right. Do you get. Yeah, you get bipartisan support now. You're you're killing it. It's got to be something everybody, I mean, well, how many things can you think of that everybody agrees on, you know?
I think everybody would agree that they like Uh they like your phrasing, unscrupulous landlord. I like that. I think that's gonna actually be my Halloween costume this year. I'm gonna go as an unscrupulous landlord. Big mustache.
You gotta have one of those big cartoon mustaches. I'm working on that. I'm gonna I'm I'm I'm yeah. I'm working on it.
Next time you see me. I'll have made a week's progress in my unscrupulous landlord mustache. Man. Halloween's coming up real quick, isn't it? It is, man.
You got to get your costume in order. It's soon.
Next one. Did you do any like adult costumes that we can talk about on the air that really rocked or really went well or went went went over well, I should say? I think, Joe, I've seen a picture of you as the ultimate warrior. Yep, I did that one. I did that one.
That was a hit. That was back when my body looked a lot different than it looks now. I would be. I don't know what kind of warrior I would be now if I did that. It would not be ultimate.
Hmm. The unscrupulous warrior, maybe. The unscrupulous couch warrior. I've done that one. I've done a few, man.
It's tough. The kids, as the kids. get into it, you know, especially when you have a lot of them, like we do. There's a lot of planning that goes into their costumes. Not a whole lot of energy left over.
to come up with your own.
So I've only got one left who does the costumes. My youngest still does that. The other ones don't want any part of it. You guys haven't been roped, right? I was going to say, you guys haven't been roped into the adult Halloween parties?
I'm pretty salty outside of the radio show, so I don't. I've done. You're salty on the radio show. What's a young? I feel like you do that when you're a younger man, like in your early adult days.
And then you have a period of not doing it, and then maybe. Maybe you come back to it. Maybe you're going to enter that like you have an encore where you do it. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, mine well mine were all sports themes as an adult young adult, as Joe has pointed out, uh, when the kids were younger and we'd have have people over.
So I went as a NASCAR driver, had an actual driving suit from uh Michael Waltrup. That's legit. Um uh had a neighbor that was a trainer with the hurricanes. And he brought me an NHL uniform. Nice.
Nondescript, no player, but I had all the padding, everything, and literally walked into the party with that thing. And that was a big hit, but it was very hot. Very hot. Wouldn't recommend that. And then, you know, the goofy ones, like designated driver, just dressed up like I normally do on weekends to go play golf and carried my driver around, stuff like that.
I like that, man. That's way cooler than anything I did. Obviously, that hit home. Yeah. All right, listen, we'll take a short break, come back, and we'll wrap up the show.
I want to remind you: Judica County Radio is powered by Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and the complimentary consult on estate planning ongoing during the course of this show. All you got to do is call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit wh.lawyer, get signed up there. Again, there's no cost to this, there's no obligation to become a client, but it's a great way to see if you're on track with your estate planning or maybe get the ball rolling on it if you haven't done so already.
919-77270000. That's 919-77270000 or WH. Don Lawyer. We'll wrap up another edition of Judica County Radio coming up. on the other side.
We are back on Judica County Radio. Final segment. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer are your hosts at the Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They've got offices conveniently placed all around the state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucwave Arena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City.
And again, we have complimentary consults on estate planning. You can call 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, which is a great resource for you: wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer.
Josh. You know, this show we try to talk about new stuff. Right. We're getting older. We're very current.
And hip. But we're trying to stay hip. I was going to say, we're hip. We are. We're trying to stay hip.
We're trying to stay hip. Maybe you're trying, Morgan and I. Our succeed. We are very hip. It's a consensus.
But we talked about crypto. That's a real hip thing to talk about. We talked about squatting is a hip. I still think it's funny. I saw an NBA commercial the other day.
Do you see there's a commercial where they talk about AI doing something? Alan Iverson. And it's Alan Iverson. Alan Iverson comes in in like a doctor's coat and. It still makes me laugh.
Alan Iverson, you yeah, you used to be very hip, so Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a long time ago. That was a long time ago, man. Long time ago. Those were the days, brother.
Practice. My kids, you know, we're watching the Hornets, and the Hornets have a player named Trey Mann, and Trey Mann kind of wears the AI-length shorts. He kind of wears like a throwback. Style uniform to like the late 90s, you know? Remember Muggsy Bogues when he was at Wake?
You remember that? I mean, his shorts basically mid-shin, and he was like five. Two, five, three? I mean, he had he had a I mean The shorts were ridiculous. I I remember I wore really long shorts.
I was actually on this was I was on your team, Josh. You were my coach. And I wore these really long shorts, and one of the kids' moms in the stands started making fun of me, saying I was wearing capris. And it really hurt my feelings. But it fueled, and I think I destroyed her kid that game and just completely dominated after that.
That's why you should have. Thanks. Capri this. Yeah. But my kids That's throwback, right?
That's throwback for them. That looks normal to me. Like, nothing else looks normal. You know, if you your shorts are too short, then I assume you you played in like the 60s and the 70s, right? Yeah.
There's a balance. There's a balance to achieve. With shorts. You know. But I think that's funny.
They like his uniform. It's throwback. I think it's like when I was growing up, you had certain girls that would wear the bell bottoms from the 70s. That was the throwback.
Now the throwback's long athletic shorts. Yep. Yep. Which are comfortable, man. They are comfortable, man.
They are comfortable. I live almost my entire non-attorney life in basketball shorts.
Something about putting on the longer shorts makes you feel like you can play basketball better, too. It does. It's like a psychological edge that you get. It makes you lighter so you can jump. It does, man.
It really does. It does. I agree with that. The. Can you still buy Reebok pumps?
Do they still make a pump shoe? Does anybody make a pump shoe? Let's see. Reebok was taken over by Shaq and AI, correct? They they they are They own it now.
So I would imagine that You can still buy pump shoes. If you're looking for the original Reebok pump technology, they are available now through Reebok.
So, yeah. There you go, man. Yep. Huh. Interesting.
Sounds like you got the first piece of your sports theme Halloween costume. I was going to say that looks like a purchase face where you can see each other virtually and Josh is like, I'm going to buy something. I'm going to do some rock. I'm going to take a break from work and do some research today. My middle schooler needs new shoes for basketball tryouts, so maybe I'll steer him towards these pumps.
That could be what he's missing today, you know. That could be the thing that he's missing to take his game. You send him out there with Reebok pumps. And shorts that are so short or so long that they just almost drag the ground. And you won't even have to try out.
He'll just look at it. Yeah, the coach will be like, save your energy, brother. You save your energy. I've seen enough. That's the first pick on the middle school draft.
I like that. Are we still going to do our middle school fantasy basketball league this year? I didn't know if that was going to be a thing. No, we should do that. We'd have to do a lot of homework.
I'm taking your kid first pick. That would be kind of creepy. You guys show up at middle school games and do a draft. I'm going to be there. Who goes on every play?
Yeah. I'm taking the under every game. That's how you have to back, you know. Everybody's in a fantasy league now, right? Everybody does fantasy football, fantasy basketball, fantasy hockey.
Back in the day, before the internet, If you were in a fantasy league, your commissioner had to get the newspaper. You get the box scores. Add everything up. Send an email. with with who won and who, you know.
You don't have to do that. That's too much work. And people would do it.
Now you're commissioner of the league, you don't do anything. I don't do anything. Yeah, you do have a lot. You give us a. You have a lot of authority and you give us a lot of confidence.
You hear our complaints. Yeah. You hear Morgan's complaints specifically. Yeah. Yeah.
But anyway, we're trying to stick current. Crypto, AI, we talked about a brand new anti-squatters law. This show was 100% fresh material. It's an incredible show. On the if I say so myself.
of the of the of the legal community here. We're on the we're on the Top level. Yeah, I like that, man. Yeah, we talked Halloween outfits. We did.
Haven't gotten into Halloween candy, but that's coming, man. We got to have some conversations. Yeah, we got to save that for the that's next week. Right. 60 minutes next week, all Halloween games.
We're doing an eight-hour show next week. Yeah. All right. Well, opportunity to grab one of our complimentary consults on estate planning is right now. Call this number: 919-772-7000.
That's 919-772-7000. Just leave your contact information. An attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch and they'll line you up with one of those complimentary consults on estate planning. You're not paying for it, you're not agreeing to become a client. This is a great way to see if you're on track.
You can also go to the website wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. Again, Judica County Radio already today, crypto and estate planning. It's something that it's not really the wave of the future. It's happening right now.
AI and practicing of law, there's a lot of that around in all different industries.
So be aware of it. And then the anti-squatter bill for the state of North Carolina that has been discussed today as well. All right, another edition of Judica County Radio is in the books for our hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing. Taxing attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Want to remind you that we've placed offices all over the state for your convenience right here in the capital city of Raleigh. We also have Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verina, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City. Complimentary consult on estate planning, just call 919-7727000. They'll sign you up. 919-77270000.
You can always visit the website, WHO. Dot lawyer. Another edition of Judith County in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan. We'll see you on the 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.
