Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer, law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, going to tackle car accident, personal injury questions. These are scenarios from around the state. And again, we'll answer those coming up on the program. That's all next on Judica County. Whitaker and Hamer presents Judica County.
With Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Welcome in to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They have offices located around our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque, Verena, Gastonia, and down on the coast at Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We'll get into different topics today, and we'll also give you an opportunity for a complimentary consult in and around estate planning. But also, if you've been in a car accident and you've got questions, what do I do now? What are the next steps?
One of those complimentary consults can be for you as well. We'll tell you how to get those as we move through the program. And before we get into car accidents/slash personal injury listener questions, guys, let's just jump in. Josh, how was the week? It's it's been fine.
The week has been fine. Morgan, you know, I was sitting here thinking about, you know, every day, every day when I come into work, I don't know, you know, I don't know what other people do when they come into work. When I come into work, the first part of my day is pretty much just getting through The waves of emails That comes in, right? Just emails upon emails upon emails all day long with the emails. At the end of the day, the emails.
Emails at night before I go to bed. We're old enough, Morgan maybe not Joseph, so much. But we can remember what it was like before Email. How did I remember what it was like before you know, man? I'm not a toddler, lived many years with no email.
But how glor like did you just Like before you could just email anybody randomly any time of the day. For night. What did you do? I don't answer emails, man. Answering the emails, man.
You just leave people in mystery, just never respond. They really appreciate that. And I try. I try to answer all the emails, you know. And I didn't have it, so I didn't have an email address.
My first email address was when I got to college, NC State. I got an email address. I was like, hey, this is crazy, this thing, this email. And uh I was thinking about the worst part of work, right? What's the worst part of day-to-day work?
Because I like being a lawyer. I like the people I work with. I like where I work, obviously. And obviously. I mean, if I didn't, me and Joe are the ones that have to change it, right?
If I just dreaded coming into work, it's up to us. It's not like. Anyway. I don't remember where I was going with this anymore.
Well what was life like emails? Yeah, pre-email. What was it like? I mean, call me. I'll pick up the phone, you know?
Yeah. Maybe. No, I think back in the day, you could just turn it off, but there was also that looming. Um just question that was hanging in the air, what's going to be there when you get to work? uh on a Monday.
Uh now email is On your smartphone, you can see it. It's almost. you want to leave it alone. And a quick story, I I work with a group out of Seattle. And they were joking around, and they said, Morgan, do you have a Gmail account?
And I'm like, Yeah. And I do, I've had it for years. And he goes, Well, what. You know, I like to clear out my my inbox every single day.
So I have maybe 10 or 15 emails a day that I really you know, I either hold on to or or I get rid of, and I'm like, um. I haven't really looked at mine, but I'll take a look.
So I pulled up my Gmail. I had 55,000. Emails. In your personal email. Yeah, but I'm not sure.
Not a lot of them were unread, but it absolutely drove my Seattle people crazy. They're like, oh my, how do you sleep at night? 55,000 emails? And I'm like, I don't worry about it, I don't look at them.
Well, it's not a work junk. If you had 5,000. If you had 55,000 work emails, personally, yeah, who cares? Who cares? Who cares about that?
But I r I but yeah, and with it being on your your smartphone, you know, like I remember I got my first phone in, um my first cellphone in law school and it was a it was a flip phone, you know. And but but but when email first started, there was no You didn't have that sense of urgency. If someone emailed you, it was like a letter. Right, it's like somebody mailing you a letter, like, I'll get back to you when I get back to you, you know. But now email so fast, and you can't just I don't know.
That's bothered me today is Avalanches of email. Think about it, take it back even farther to before cell phones, man. You know, what are you talking about? I was just talking about. Do you remember what it was like before emails?
Think about what it was like before cell phones. Like, it's the, you just keep going back in time. It was relaxing. It was, I agree. I don't disagree with that.
I mean, no one could track you down. You left. You were gone. That's right. Yep.
Now I did, you know, I talked about this before, but I did have a pager before my cell phone, so you could page me if it was an emergency. Yeah. But I had to find. I didn't have a cell phone, so I had to find a payphone if you paged me. A landline.
Yeah, I mean, it's. Yeah, that was gold back then. I remember. You know, when I was in high school, the young lady that I was seeing was long distance because it was on the other side of the county.
So you called her after, what, 10? No, no. My parents are like, look, you get one call, one call, that's it. And it can only last this long. It can't be.
And I'm like.
So I I I remember the landline days.
So it was cool when you got a call though. Yeah. Back when you could prank call people, man. The um I don't know. That's just bothered me today.
And the other thing that bothered me is before we got on the before we got on the air today, I needed something to drink. And I'm up here on the third floor, and I had ran down the second floor, and the water cooler was empty, so I had to go to the sink.
So I got water out of the sink, which is fine. I'm not fancy. Is it fine? Yeah, yeah, I'm not fancy. Water all the sinks fine.
Tap water, you okay? But somebody had just been running hot water.
So I got back up here, got on the radio. I just said it was super warm. How gross is that? Just super warm. That's gross.
Now, if it was coffee, it'd be delicious, right? It'd be just the right temperature for coffee. But just plain water disgusting. Yeah, I'm disgusted for you, man. And I don't have any other water up here.
I got to drink it if I need water. That's just a lot of things that are bothering me today. You know what else bothered me today? Oh, wow. There's a lot going on here, man.
So I was coming in, I was listening to the radio. And you know, um. Every time that song comes on, what's the song Vanilla Ice Sampled? David Bowie. Pressure, under pressure.
Under pressure.
So, when you hear the first couple of bars of that song, like I always think it's vanilla ice. And it's never vanilla ice, it's always David Bowie. Oh, done, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
So, what you get disappointed by that? I get disappointed when it's not vanilla ice. Yeah, that's sad. Yeah. Uh definitely I song.
It came out when I was sixth grade. Good song, man. There's a lot about nostalgia for you. Both vanilla eyes. Both vanilla eyes.
You guys can poop on vanilla ice if you want to, but in the sixth grade, man. Vanilla ice was the jam. Yeah. So, I always get a little disappointed and turn it immediately when I figure out it's not vanilla ice. Did you have a vanilla ice haircut?
Yes. I did not. I did not I had a vanilla ice tape though.
So I got the tape. Right.
So I got the tape in middle school. In lieu of the haircut you got the tape. That's right. I supported him financially. And and and once I got into you know, once I got into high school and I could drive, I had a bunch of tapes just in the car, right?
And the vanilla ice tape got in the car. and one of my friends found it. and they really hated vanilla ice, 'cause there's people out there who really hate vanilla ice, and that's fine. That's okay, I understand. But he grabbed my tape.
And he was like, What are you doing with this? Like it was You know, heroin. He was like, Why is this in here? I was like, I don't know, man. I just like a mom finding drugs in your sock drawer.
And he took it out. I was in my car. He was leaning in the window. I remember this vividly. He took it out of my car, he showed it to me.
He's like, I don't like this. And he put it under his foot and he cracked it in half and threw it in the woods. Oh, wow. Wow. He was very angry.
And you made the decision to become a lawyer at that moment? No, no. I was like, okay, maybe. Maybe I need to think about what I'm doing. All right, if this angers him so badly.
He was a good friend. He really made you until you sue him. Introspective. No. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, you know?
That's the three things that made me angry today. That's all I got. All right, Josh. Josh started off the program fantastically. Joe, you got anything to compete with that?
I don't know that I do, man. I might just sit this one out. I think he's covered. I've already got it all out of my system. I'm going to go to the system.
Everything, so I don't even know where to go from here, honestly.
Well, we've touched a lot of bases there. Vanilla Ice uncovered, a nerve with Josh. All right, so Judica County Radio: here's the deal. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning, but also if you've been in a car accident, we're going to. To spend a lot of time on some scenarios from listener questions around the country on car accidents/slash personal injury.
We're going to do that today. But if you're in that situation and you don't know what to do, what steps to take, you can grab a consult as well and come in and talk about it. And it's no cost, no obligation. 919-77270000. It's 919-77270000.
You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. And again, Whitaker and Hamer, the power behind this program. They have offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verinic, Estonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. Again, grab a complimentary consult in and around estate planning or if you've been in an auto accident and you need to know what are the next steps.
919-77270000. It's 919-7727000. Or visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more coming up on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio.
You're locked in to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, and they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Again, offices placed for your convenience in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. If you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to address on a future broadcast, just send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com.
And again, during the course of the program, complimentary consults in and around estate planning, very important. But also, if you've been in an auto accident, you don't know what steps to take, what do you do next? You can grab one of the consults as well, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. Or visit the website, wh.lawyer, good resource for you there as well.
So we're going to get into car accidents/slash/personal injury questions scenarios from the state of North Carolina. But before we do that, Josh has another soapbox issue. What is it, Josh? I don't know if I have another soapbox issue. I think I got that out of my system.
I just wanted to remind people that if you bet on sports If you're a person who's comfortable with that, who enjoys that. There's still time to bet on the Hornets. I already told you, Joseph. I don't know if you got on that train. I told you, man.
I've been on that train. No, no, no, no, no. I told you. Yeah, I don't know that's 100% accurate, man. But, yes, I'm on that train.
I'm riding it till the wheels come off.
Sol man. Not just they're a very good team, man. It's a very refreshing team. Beautiful thing. I mean, how long has it been?
I remember when I was in the dorm room.
So that would have been my freshman year at State. I remember when the The Hornets had already traded LJ. And they traded morning because the owner didn't have any money, couldn't pay him. Traded morning. And I don't know that I've seen a good Hornets team since.
morning got traded. That'd have been like 1996, 1997.
So we've been in exile, Hornets fans, we've been in exile for like thirty years. It's been a long time, man. Because I don't really remember the Baron Davis teams. Glenn Rice was real good. He was fun to watch.
That was probably late 90s. Early 2000s, but it's been a long time. But if you I think a lot of Hornets fans are coming out of retirement. You know, like, not bandwagon. I mean, you can only take.
I'm an NC State fan. You can only take so much Bad. Right, before you have to before you have to Separate yourself from it and take a take a break. And I think a lot of Hornets fans. 'Cause I was not a Bobcats fan.
I didn't accept the Bobcat. You're not a monster. Yeah. I think a lot of Hornets, we had to take a break. You know, for personal, personal reasons.
Long hibernation. That's right. But now it's if you haven't been watching, I've been watching the past couple of years because my kids really got me back into watching pro basketball. You can come out now. It's safe.
And if you you know, if you were a fan back in the day, you don't even have to be a bandwagon fan, you're just you can come back now. Just be a fan, period. Yeah. And gamble as much money as you can afford. Yeah.
That's my professional legal advice: gamble as much money as you can afford on the Hornets. Yes. I couldn't agree with you more.
So the show, two out of three. Um big Hornets fans.
So uh There you go. And watch two out of three of us? Yeah. You don't like the Hornets, Morgan? You're from here.
What are you going to do? Isn't this your home? Not an NBA fan. Still, never happen. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but I'm less and less and less of a college basketball fan with the state of.
You know, and football too. I mean, it's just it's become pro sports. And yeah, it's just not as interesting. The kids don't stay, they bounce around. That's the college side.
The NBA, I've. I've never really kinda I don't know. Very little gaps. Very little defense and let's score over 130 points. But even back in like 89 when we got the Hornets, 88, 89, you didn't that didn't get you going.
Nah. Get the juices flowing. Mm-mm. No. I agree with that approach when the Hornets were bad.
But but now they're good You know, I disagree wholeheartedly. Yeah, you're requesting me to jump on a bandwagon. Yeah, basically, basically, yes. Yeah, it would be for Morgan if you were never a fan. Cause it's a it's tough, man.
It's tough to be a fan of a really bad Team, you can't just watch that over and over. No, you can't. Like the Panthers. Hello.
Sorry. The Panthers for so long, like, it got hard. I mean. You just go out and mow your yard on Sundays or something. You can't just watch.
You don't like pain? I'm a Dallas fan, so I'm really in touch with Pennsylvania. But Dallas is usually at least in the conversation for the playoffs. They might not. first half of the season.
Yeah, well that's something. Yeah, it is something. You got that. I do. I do.
Hey, let's get into some of these questions.
So, again, we're going to go car accidents/slash/personal injury questions. These are scenarios. And we've also talked about how to handle it in the state of North Carolina.
So, here's the category for number one. He admitted it was his fault, so I don't need a lawyer, right?
So, here it is. I was rear-ended at a stoplight in Raleigh. The other driver immediately said, I am so sorry, this was completely my fault. The police report also says he was distracted. His insurance company is already offering me $3,500 for medical bills and inconvenience.
Should I just take it?
Well, we're, you know, this question is a little misleading because we're, you know, we're always going to want to talk to you about your injuries. And kind of talk to you about what happened.
So it'd be almost impossible for any North Carolina attorney to answer. This question, you know, here at the firm. We've got a lot of attorneys who have worked. On both sides, right?
So they've represented insurance companies, right?
Some law firms, all they do is insurance. We call it insurance defense. And so we've got a lot of attorneys who've spent considerable decades with insurance defense firms who know all the tricks of the trade. On the insurance side, and they've come over and they work for us now.
So now they represent the injured. You know, against insurance defense lawyers, insurance defense companies, but. Um Here we'd have to talk. We'd have to talk. We'd have to have a free consultation with this gentleman.
And um Look at the police report, talk to them about what happened. You know, the important thing to take away from this question, I think, Joseph, and you know about this, is we're a. Our state. Every state is different as far as negligence. Negligence is what happens if you're negligent driving a car and you cause an accident.
That's what you get sued for. You get sued for negligence. Hey, you were negligent. You ran a stop sign. You weren't paying attention.
You were looking at your phone. You caused this accident, and our client was injured. You get sued for negligence. And in our state, we are a contributory. Uh uh contributory negligence state.
And Joseph, tell the people what that is. Yeah, so when you're a state that follows pure contributory negligence, you could have a situation where if you're even 1% at fault, you might be barred from recovery.
So That's right. It comes up a lot. You might hear this, or you might have heard this. You had the last clear chance to to to swerve. and and avoid the accident.
And so a lot of times they'll try to prove, the insurance companies will try to prove, like, hey, you could have avoided this at the last minute. Um or if you are negligent in any way, um they can they can say you get you get zero. And so it's very important when we talk to you to find out more about the accident, find out what happened. Uh see what the police say, see if anybody got a ticket. You know, if it's a serious enough accident, there's experts who go out and look at skid marks and things and reconstruct.
The accident, right?
So, if there was, that has that has to be a very serious accident where there's injuries, but uh. Here, we're not gonna be able to answer this person's question because we really need to talk to this person and see what's going on. $33,500 for medical bills and inconvenience, depending on the facts. Maybe that's a good. offer.
3,500, not 33.
So 3,500.
Okay. Yeah, so I mean, that might be okay. You know, I would imagine if it's the insurance company's first offer, it's not okay, right? The first offer is never usually. almost in any any context.
The first offer is never usually really good, but um Yeah, the insurance company is in this situation. The insurance company wants to get you dealt with. quickly and their first offer is always going to be low You know, an attorney would come in and, like, have you finished treating, right? What are your injuries? Have you seen that?
And that's the big thing. I think you hit the nail on the head right there. Like. That's a big thing in in in personal injury cases is y you can't fully quantify the value of a case until treatment's completed. Um so Yeah, keep that keep that in mind because you don't know the extent of your injuries until you know the extent of your injuries.
You know, we you know And we talk to people all the time who've just had an accident, right? Just had an accident. Maybe they were hurt bad enough where they went to the ER to get some x-rays and get checked out. And we're meeting with them four or five days after. And they're still sore, or they need to go follow up, and they may already have an offer from the insurance company because the insurance company wants this done, closed, out of the way.
And you gotta see the extent of your injuries. You have three years to file a lawsuit, you have three years to. Work with an insurance adjuster or a law firm to kind of get everything settled. That's the big thing on personal injury. You know, don't.
Talk to an attorney, right? For us, it's a free consult. You're going to talk to our. Very experienced attorneys. and they're going to give you their opinion free of charge.
Right.
And you know, you can. Retain the firm and work with the firm, or you can take that information and do whatever you want to with it. There's not many parts of life. There's not many. things in life where you can go talk to someone who has 30, 40, 50, 60 years of experience.
get their opinion for free. And then you know, do what do what you want. And so, um, That's what I would suggest to this person is talk to an attorney. Maybe that 3500 is fair. Uh it's hard to tell, but it probably isn't fair.
Um That's not a good answer to that question. That's a good answer. Yeah, I wanted to jump back in and say, you said three years. Josh, explain that.
So they have time. I mean, they can't procrastinate, but they do have some time to kind of bring this all together. Yeah, so in North Carolina, there's a statute of limitations for a lot of things, right? There's a maximum amount of time you have before you file a lawsuit to enforce your rights. And for a lot of things, it's three years.
And so if you're in a car accident that you survive. Right, so if you're in a car accident and you survive the accident, you have three years from the date of the accident. to file a lawsuit against the folks who who hit you. You don't always want to, just because you have three years, like you said, Morgan, right? Three years sounds like a ton of time.
But if you're treating and life's coming at you fast, three years go by really quick. We've had a lot of people who call us. And they don't have that much time left in that three years. And you really want to get with an attorney earlier on. Um Than than that, but you have three years from the date of an accident to file a lawsuit.
That doesn't mean you wait till the last day. And then call an attorney. Like hey, I need to file lawsuit today. You need to get with an attorney sooner than that, but. Yeah.
I say that just to say there is some pressure to get it taken care of. There's not. But it's not like, yeah, it's not deathly urgent immediately. You've got time.
So I can't believe it's already March. March matches, man. I feel like it was just January. ACC tournament right around the corner. All right, so we are in car accidents/slash personal injury listener scenarios from around our great state.
We've talked about this one already: admitting that they were at fault for the accident.
So, do I need a lawyer? And again, you heard the attorney say it's always good to consult, have that conversation, and you've got that three-year window, and you don't want to wait until the last part of that three years.
So, if you're out there and something like this has happened, a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer is available. 919-7727000. You're not paying for it, you're not obligated to become a client, but you're going to get information back. 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. We've got more questions coming up in and around car accidents and personal injury. Again, these are from around the state. These are scenarios from listeners that they've gone through these things, and we'll talk about them coming up next. You're listening to Judica County Radio.
Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, putting offices all over the state for your convenience. Right here in the cap, Raleigh, you got Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, and over on the coast, Moorhead City. And if you've got a question you'd like the attorneys to address on a future program, just send it to us. Questions at JudicaCounty Radio.com. That's questions at judicacountyradio.com.
I'm Morgan Patrick, and pleasure to jump on. We are hitting car accident personal injury question scenarios from around the state and how to handle them in the state of North Carolina.
So, this next scenario, guys, I didn't go to the hospital. Did I ruin my case?
So, here it is: I was in a wreck on When I-40, I felt shaken up but didn't go to the hospital. Three days later, my neck and back started hurting pretty badly. The insurance adjuster is saying I must not have been injured since I didn't go by ambulance. I feel like all the answers to these questions are: hey, you should really talk to an attorney. An attorney's going to ask you a lot of follow-up questions that would make this make more sense.
But Yeah, this, you know, you haven't ruined your case, right? In this situation, you didn't take the ambulance. You know, if you're in a crash, it's bad enough. You know, the you know, the officers are going to come out there, and you know, uh, EMS will be out there, and they might offer to take you to the hospital or, um, you know, depending on what your injuries are. Um but yeah, if you if you If you're fine at the time, you're fine at the time, you know.
And soft tissue injuries, right? That's what they call when you haven't broken a bone or you're not. You don't have lacerations, you're not. You're not all beat up. You can still have You know, it usually takes a day or so, but people get really, really sore after accidents.
And once you go follow up, you can figure out that maybe you've done some damage. It's just not broken bones. It's not stuff that's immediately evident.
So, a lot of people will have soft tissue injuries and then they'll go follow up with a doctor because. You know, we had an attorney here. I remember we had an attorney here in our office who got rear-ended on his way to the office, and he's not a personal injury attorney. And, you know, he was like, oh, I need to get back to work. And everybody was walking around.
They changed their information. The cop came out, wrote a report. Everybody left, and he worked the rest of the day, came to work the next day, and then two days later, he was like, I'm gonna have to go to the... The doctor, because his neck was killing him, you know, and uh, you know, and that's just the way it works. And Joe, I know you see that.
You're not always immediately Hurt. Yeah, I think anybody who's been in a in a car accident could attest. to the fact that, you know, adrenaline Is a crazy thing, right? And you touched on it, soft tissue injuries, a lot of times they can. Take a little while to fully manifest, so you can feel okay.
You don't even have to have been in a car accident to know that. You could be a 35 and up men's basketball league player and step wrong. And the next day, you're in a lot of trouble. Wear a weighted vest and walk around a paved path around a lake and apex. That was so specific.
That was incredibly specific. You could show up a couple of days later going, wow, I'm a little sore.
Well, I would never do that.
So we're safe. I find that my layer of fat that I have over my body serves as a weighted vest. And that way I'm walking around with one 100% of the time. And you're being proactive. You are all about protection.
I've got a thin layer of blubber that surrounds my whole body and protects me. But it's heavy, man. It's heavy. And it looks good on you, too, man. It really does.
I've been meaning to tell you that it works for you.
So, soft, you don't have to go to the ambulance to have a good case.
Now, if you're injured enough where you feel like you need immediate medical attention, by all means, I mean, I'm telling you not to take an ambulance, but you haven't ruined your case. But this person just needs to talk to an attorney. The insurance company does have a lot of tactics, right? They have a lot of things that they try to make it seem like you're not that hurt. Because they don't want to pay you money, right?
The insurance company is not out to give you. The maximum amount of money they can, they're out to give you the least amount of money that they can. And that's just what they do. That is their business, right? Like it, hate it.
Whatever it is, insurance companies' business model is to pay out as little as possible in claims, all claims. And uh And that helps their bottom line. And so you just have to know that going in. It's just like when you buy a car. The car salesman wants to sell you that car for as much as possible because that's how they make money.
It's just a negotiation and it's just the way it is.
So, anyway, that's what I would say to that person. Probably, you know, talk to an attorney, see what's going on, see what treatment you have, see what you bid. We always want to know if somebody's diagnosed you with an injury. What have you been diagnosed with? Have you missed work?
We always want these bits of information.
So, that's what we would do there. Judica County Radio, we are tackling, again, personal injury car accident scenarios. If they were placed in the state of North Carolina, letting Josh and Joe take their attorney expertise to these questions. And again, they are scenarios. If you've got a scenario similar or something close to this and you need some guidance, there's a complimentary consult that awaits you at Whitaker and Hamer, 919-77270000.
It's 919-7727000. No cost, no obligation. You can also visit WHO. That's w h. Dot Lawyer.
All right, another question for you, gentlemen. The other driver, here's the category: the other driver has no insurance.
So here it is. I was hit by someone who didn't have insurance. I only have basic liability coverage. Am I just out of luck here?
Well No, not real. I mean, I guess maybe, but in North Carolina, most people. have you know uninsured underinsured Uh Motorists coverage. Usually, when you get your policy, your insurance folks are going to ask you if you want it. Doesn't cost very much.
You have to, I think most insurance companies make you initial or sign something if you reject that coverage. Um But most people have that. And so if you're in a car accident with somebody who's uninsured, your insurance. uh will will will usually have coverage for for you. Um So that's, you know, if you're signing up for insurance anytime soon, don't reject that coverage.
You want uninsured, underinsured coverage if you don't have it. But there again, you know.
So, your insurance company, you would start a dialogue with your own insurance company. And they're going to, you know, it's really weird because they're your insurance company, you pay for that coverage, they still want to pay you the least amount of money. possible. That's still their business model. Right, so you get it's the same process, you get an adjuster.
The adjuster is going to ask you all the questions that the other driver's insurance company would have asked you. You're still going to have to prove your damages. It's all it's all the same, except now it's your insurance company. Um You know, if that person rejected underinsured. our uninsured coverage then Then you got to look, it's not great, right?
If you don't have an insurance in place, then you're stuck. You've got to sue. The driver. And I can tell you. I can tell you.
Uh not having insurance is is not a good indicator of a very uh Wealthy plaintiff or a defendant rather for a lawsuit. You know, that's not, it shouldn't give you the warm fuzzies about, you know, oh, this person is definitely going to have money. I can recover and take care of these injuries. You're typically looking at what we would call a judgment-proof defendant, right?
Someone who a judgment, you know, you can, they don't have property for it to attach to. They don't have money to pay you.
So that's, I think the point of that is don't opt out of the underinsured coverage because it's important. I think that's something attorneys think. Obviously, it's our business to think about it, but I don't think the average person. Thinks about that, right? You could have, you could be in a car accident, get horrific injuries, have the best attorney who ever lived.
That could get you a $28 million judgment against the people that hit you. But those people don't have Assets. And they don't have $28 million, and they don't have insurance, and you don't have insurance, you're never getting that $28. Million dollars, right? You know, um, and so attorneys are real good at that.
Like, would they have insurance? Do you have underinsured? What's your policy limits? And attorneys are really good at figuring out what insurance is out there. Um But then if you have to start looking at the actual because once the insurance is exhausted, if there is no insurance or the insurance is exhausted, you have to look at, okay, the person that hit you, what do they have?
What could we get from them in a lawsuit? A lot of times, you know, Steve Jobs hasn't hit you with his automobile, right?
So, you know. You don't always get defendants that are if you're gonna get hit by somebody though. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, maybe an Elon Musk or Steve Jobs. I would imagine they they have drivers.
They don't drive themselves. I imagine they don't. Yeah, their drivers get paid well. And their drivers are an agent of them, so we're going to sue them too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They're still going to get to them. We're lawyers, man. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha. All right.
Protect yourself. Remember that every year when you go to renew your insurance or talk to your insurance agent or however you do it, go online, whatever you do. Don't, yeah, get the get the uninsured, underinsured coverage. It's really not that much more expensive. And I've seen that save a lot of folks, right?
It's a because you don't know who's out there driving these days. And. Yeah. It's worth the conversation. Again, complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer.
If you've been in a car accident, there's personal injury involved, certainly have that conversation. Grab a consult by calling 919-772-7000. That's 919-772-7000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer, get information there, get signed up there as well. Again, this complimentary consult, you're not paying for it, and you're not obligated to become a client.
It's a fact-finding mission for you. 919-772-7000. We're going to continue with the car accident/slash personal injury listener scenarios coming up on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio. We are back on Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, and their practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
They have offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Berena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. We get into these legal questions. We're doing scenarios in and around a personal injury and car accident. And if you've got some questions in that area, maybe you've been in an accident and you haven't taken any steps yet, you've got a little bit of a window.
We'll talk about that as well. But you can grab one of the Compared Cults, 919-77270000. That's 919-7727000. You can also visit wh.lawyer, grab one of those consults. No cost, no obligation.
Now, if you've got a question, you'd like the attorney. Attorneys to address on a future program. You can send it to us: questions at judicacountyradio.com. That's questions at. JudicaCountyRadio.com.
All right, so we're into these scenarios/slash questions. Here's the next one. The insurance company recorded me is the category.
So the driver, the other driver's insurance company, called. and asked for a recorded statement. I gave one. Later I realized I said, and I quote, I guess I could have reacted faster, end quote. Did I just hurt my case?
Look, I'm gonna I'm going to tell you something. You know, we're all here on the radio show. We're all born and raised in the South.
Okay. That's my understanding. That would be correct. Yep.
Okay. Yep.
So when you're born and raised in the South, I think there's this you know we we Or taut. to to be nice, right? And it you know, we're taught to be cordial. We talk to people. We wave to people when we're driving, right?
We have this. Uh we always back in the day we don't do it anymore, but like you know, always answered the phone, right? You did not answer the phone like we do now. Yeah. But there's this there's this there's this thing, I think it's baked into us.
Where If you're not guilty of anything, right? If you're not, if you hadn't done anything wrong. You should be able to talk about it, right? You know, if the cops ask you questions, or your school principal asks you questions, or the judge asks you questions.
Well, the judge is a bad example. You got to answer the judge. Yeah, come on, man. Yeah. You don't have a choice at that point.
But we talk to people: like, hey, I didn't do anything wrong, you don't have anything on me. I'll give you a statement, I'll talk to you, I'll talk to the cops, you know. But that's such a bad frame of mind to go into anything with. And so. We're talking here about talking to the insurance company, right?
The insurance company has reached out. To you, and they wanna know what happened. And you're like, yeah, that guy hit me, I'll talk to you, right? Never talk to the insurance company. Right?
Never talk to never talk to anybody. Who doesn't Represent you. That's the first thing we do. If you come in and you retain our firm, any insurance company, the other driver, witnesses, they're going to talk to us. not you.
And that doesn't maybe sound that important, I guess, when we say it, crucially important, right? Very important. You don't understand that when you when you just talk, you'll sometimes just say things that make perfect sense in your brain, but taken out of context. That can be used against you, and this is a perfect example.
So, this person, the other insurance company, called him, he talked to him. Why wouldn't I talk to him? It wasn't my fault. I want to go ahead and get this taken care of. Um but you say something like I guess I could have reacted faster That potentially could hurt you.
They're not going to let that go. They're going to bring that up. You're going to have to explain that away. Why did you say that? Or you say I just gotten off the phone, or you know, I, you know.
I'm not from this area. And I was kind of looking at the instructions to make sure I was, you know, there's all kinds of things you can say that seem innocent. And harmless until somebody who's not acting in your best interest can use against you. And that goes into, you know, if you're charged with a crime, like that goes into a lot of different things. uh that that lawyer's handle.
But you don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah. Well, again, the judge, you mentioned that, but. Yeah, if you're in court and a judge asks you a question. Generally speaking, yeah, you don't have to.
And. I take it a step further, and it's rarely going to be to your benefit. Like, there's rarely going to be a beneficial outcome from you doing it at that point. You know, you can always. get the information to who needs the information.
But Again. Do it the right way, consult with an attorney, make sure you understand the deal. Let me ask a question, guys.
So if you do get a call, let's say, and you've been in this accident and the insurance company calls you, how do you politely get off the phone?
Well, that's the thing. You don't have to do it politely. We think you have to be polite because we've been raised in the South and groomed to have all these manners, but there is no polite, you don't have to be polite at all. You can hang up. You know, politeness is no, they don't care if you're polite or not, they're not going to be polite to you.
Um You know, you could just, you could just say, I don't want to give a recorded statement. You know, if you, if you feel like you have to say anything, just say, hey, I'm going to go meet with an attorney. I don't want to give a recorded statement at this time. Or you can just hang up. That was nice.
That was polite. I like that. That's good. Yeah. Yeah.
You don't have to be polite.
Well, that's how these scammers take advantage of people, right? These scammers who just call you and then pretend to be the. The electric company about to shut off your power, pretend like you're somebody's in jail and they need to raise like people. They get people on the phone and people can't get off the phone 'cause they're either being polite or they're They're you know, they yeah anyway. You don't have to be I'm here to tell you as a Southerner You don't have to be polite.
That's right. If somebody's got an adverse interest, if they're talking to you and they have an adverse interest in you, right? You don't have to talk to them. Unless it's a judge. Or you know, you just you don't have to talk to people.
Yeah, especially if they're not your friends. If they're not being, you know, anyway.
So this person But they'd given their future attorney a hurdle. that we have to deal with. And um That's that question.
So, we are hitting car accidents/slash personal injury listener scenarios out there for the state of North Carolina. We're going to get to another one. I want to remind you: you might be in this situation. Maybe you've been in an accident, you don't know the steps you need to be taking. You can certainly get a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer by calling 919-77270000.
That's 919-77270000. There's no obligation to this call. Again, there's no price tag on this call. This is for you to get information. Again, WH.lawyer, another great place to go and get signed up for those.
Again, complimentary consult, no obligation, 919-7727000 or WH.lawyer. All right, so here's the next one, guys. I was a passenger. in a car accident. Can I file a claim?
So I was riding in my friend's car when we were hit. Both drivers blame each other. Can I make a claim? Yeah. It's still gonna be the same process.
You're gonna have to figure out who was at fault, who caused the accident. Was your friend? Was it the other driver? If your friend's at fault, your friend, your family member, whoever you were riding with, if it's their fault. You're suing them.
You're suing your friend, man. Yep.
Right? You know, um. And it happens, it happens a lot because there's insurance coverage there. And the insurance coverage, they don't care if you were, you know, as a passenger, you're rarely. I guess it could happen, but if you're a passenger, you rarely have caused the accident, you're not going to be at fault.
And if you don't really care who's going to be responsible for your injuries, it's the same calculus as. a regular accident and you just have to figure out who's Who's at fault, or sue them both and let them figure it out. But somebody's going to be liable for your injuries unless you somehow cause the accident. By distracting the driver or something like that. There you go.
There's a fact pattern for it. I mean, I had never seen that come up, but I'm sure that has happened. Tickling the driver, I'm sure. Yeah, I saw um I followed a lot of these guys, these comedians on Twitter or X or whatever. And so there's this joke, Twitter, where they'll just fire these jokes out and they'll have like a theme.
And one day, the theme between all these comedians was. Uh, my grandfather died doing it's kind of morbid, I guess, but it was like my grandfather died, or my friend died doing what he loved, and then they would just fill in the rest of the sentence. That would be the joke, right? My friend died doing what he loved, and then they would fill out what he loved. And this one guy put uh Finding out if gang members were ticklish.
That's how he always makes me laugh. But. Yeah, if you were tickling the driver, you very well may be at fault. You might be getting sued by both drivers, right? Um.
But yeah, a passenger can file a claim. Same calculus, as long as the passenger did somehow. cause it, you know, which I've never seen but could happen. All right, coochie coochie coo.
Okay, we have complimentary consults. If you've been in an auto accident, don't know what steps to take, and you've got some questions, you can grab one of these consults right now. No cost, no obligation, 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. Also, you can visit the website wh.lawyer, get in touch with Whitaker and Hamer that way.
Again, 919-77270000 and w.lawyer, get one of those complimentary, no obligation consults. We've got one more segment coming up with Tudica County. Stay tuned. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, right here in North Carolina. That's where they practice law.
They place offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. And today, talking about the auto accident, something you've been in, possibly, and there's a personal injury possibly, and you don't know how to proceed. We have comprehensive consults with Whitaker and Hamer, and you can come in and talk about it at no cost, no obligation. 919-77270000. It's 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. A lot of good questions today. We're going to end with this one. And again, it's a scenario. And here it is.
I already posted about it on Facebook.
So here's what happened. After the wreck, I posted. on Facebook that I was lucky to walk away. A week later I started having major back pain and went to a specialist. Can that post on social media hurt me?
Well, I think the first thing everybody needs to know if you don't know it already Your social media is just out there, right? Unless you have it locked down and you got it private, I'm here to tell you. Everybody's looking at your social media, right? Like if you're applying for a job, they're looking at your social media. If you're involved in a lawsuit or a negotiation, like I routinely look at people's.
social media, if they're gonna be a defendant or um You know, insurance companies are looking at your social media. Workers' comp insurance companies are looking at your everybody's looking at your social media. Um so lock it up. Right? Make it private.
And then still, that's not foolproof. But, um,. Just know that's out there when you put it out there. It's really it's really out there And um You know, here, can this hurt me potentially, right? I think a good attorney can easily work around something like that, but I do it.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why? I've had people apply for jobs, like attorneys, and I go look at their social media. I'm like, who is this crazy person applying for this job?
You know? And, uh, I don't I don't know why in 2026 'Cause that's the year it is, twenty twenty six. People haven't figured that out. You figured that out, Morgan. You're out you're not out there putting crazy stuff on your social media.
No, I mean, I look at social media as a way for family and friends to kind of keep up with each other. It's like a Christmas letter. It's like a fancy Christmas letter. I like that. It's like a Christmas card.
I thought it was for disclosing the most intimate personal details of your life to strangers. That's what I've always used it for.
Some people treat it that way. Yes. I think that's a really good use case for it. The. I got, I was just, I didn't get mad at my wife.
My wife posted this, this picture of me back in the day. It was just like we were at the beach or whatever. You don't really think about it. And, you know, I'm at the beach, right? I don't have a shirt on.
I'm at the beach. Oh, man. Can we get this picture? But then I told her, I was like, you just put my nipples out there on social media, right? My nipples are just out there in social media land.
Everyone's got them. Every listener. Got two of them. Every listener of some show is furiously Googling now. Josh Whitaker nipples.
Josh Whitaker nipples. Get something back there, not wanting to look at it. Yeah, yeah. I don't even want to see that. They're my nipples.
The. All right, yeah, so don't put it out there. It, this, you know. Be careful what you're putting out there. A skilled attorney, this isn't going to probably slow them down, but it ain't good.
You know. No, no. It's not good.
So, guys, let's walk through. All right, so somebody's out there, they've been in an accident, it's in that three-year window. Um Okay. When you grab one of these consults, how are you going to start the consult off? I mean, what are questions you're going to ask, that kind of thing, so they kind of get a feel, lay of the land before they grab one of these consults?
Well, you know, when we do it, we want to know, you know, a lot of things, and they are all kind of common sense, I guess, but we want to know about the accident. Who was driving? What time of day was it? Where were we at? What did the other people do?
Is there an accident report? Do we know if the other drivers received a ticket? When's their first court date? We want to know about the accident. That's step one, because we want to know if there's liability.
Right, because if it's your fault, then we have to have a different conversation, but if it's not your fault, then we're like, okay.
So we have to figure out liability first. Number two is we have to figure out, okay, we're probably meeting with you pretty soon after the accident, right? In a perfect world. And so we're going to ask: okay, what happened? Did you go, like we talked about, did you go to the hospital?
Have you been to the chiropractor? Have you been to Ortho? Like, what's going on? You know, have you missed work? And that's kind of where we start because we really need to figure out liability, and then we need to figure out your injury.
And then, once we figured out your injury, and sometimes we haven't figured out your injury, sometimes we have to get you places so we can figure out exactly what your injury is. Um, but what's your injury? How does this get treated? How long does it take to get treated? Do you have permanent Damage, right?
Because that happens a lot of time. We have a lot of folks who have things that aren't going to get cleared up in three years, right? You're not going to finish treating before you have to deal with your claim. And so the nature of your injury, how it will be treated. We're going to ask you questions about your insurance, right?
We always want to see insurance policies, things like that.
So, part of our job as attorneys is to figure out what. coverage. is out there that might benefit you, you know. And so, those are all kind of the beginning questions that we ask. We have to put all that together and then kind of build your file.
Um But that's that's kinda where we that's kind of where we start.
Well, and again, you're out there, something's happened, you've been an offender bender, you don't know, and it could be worse than an offender bender, you just don't know the next steps to take. This is an opportunity for you. It's a complimentary, no-obligation consult to see if you're on track with your case, if you have a case. Again, 919-77270000 is the number to call. That's 919-777.
7727000. No cost to this consult. There's no obligation to this consult, but it's a good way for you to get information back on your situation. 919-77270000. Again, and Josh and Joe just gave you, you know, kind of what you need to bring to that consult as far as information, and you can move on from there if you want to.
919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer GoodResource for you. You can sign up there as well. Another edition of Judica County Radio in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick.
We will see you on the radio next week. Yeah. 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.
