Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, it's all about legal questions, the missing easement surprise, the parent added one child to the account, the contractor who was paid in full, those are just a sampling of the questions we'll hit today. Judica County starts right now. Right. Whitaker and Hamer presents. Judica County.
with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hayman. Welcome into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And Whitaker and Hamer has offices all across our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to hit some legal questions. As we always do, we start off the show just catching up. Josh, how's the week? It was good.
It's good. Been good. I um I got a question for you guys though. Oh boy.
Well it's not a bad question. I just I've been d I've been taking like an informal poll. Like my I've got three boys. And we've played an awful lot of wiffle ball and and wiffle golf. But I'm finding a lot of people didn't grow up.
playing Wiffleball. Did you guys play Wiffleball growing up. Like a lot? Yeah, I played Wiffle. I mean, more than more than, yeah, like a normal.
Not in the l you don't play in the league or anything, but like you and your buddies play Wiffleball. Nah, not with my buddies really, man. It was more of a, I mean, school PE we would play every now and again. And to get somebody out and wiffle ball, you would peg 'em with it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I've I've I've played that. And uh kickball was pretty big back in the day, you know. Yeah.
Well, I you know, we So we've we always played wooffleball. Like you have a chair that's the strike zone, right? You got two teams of two or two teams of three. But we used to like play even into like high school, we'd play. And uh and it very f wiffle ball becomes very physical, right, the older You get.
Um But is it like MMA or something? Yeah, yeah, like there's some tackling. Wrestling each other? No, tackling? No.
You're trying to maim somebody, right? With the object. When we were in law school, we rented this farmhouse. Me and a couple other students lived in this farmhouse, and we had like a big once I had this big hedge. And so we set up a wiffle ball.
Uh park really, 'cause you had to hit a home run on that side of the outfield, you had to go over like a ten foot hedge.
So it was our green monster. And we would I mean, in law school, we'd be drinking and playing, right? But, you know, like, uh, I thought more people did that. And I've been taking an informal poll, and I feel like I've been wrong. You're wrong.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think people play wiffle ball. I don't know if they're getting inebriated in playing wiffle ball. There's a probe. That's happening. I think that's happening.
For sure. I think every sport. There's a variation where people are just getting inebriated and playing that sport. You know, so we used to always do that. And then now that when you know, every now and again, ESPN does the ESPN to Ocho, and they play like the weird sports.
And there's a professional, there's two, I think, competing professional. Wooffleball leagues. Oh, dude, they put everything on. They've got cornhole on. Is this how you tell us you're leaving the radio show?
Yeah, are you getting ready to go professional wiffleball? I don't think there's a lot of money in it, unfortunately. I don't think I can keep. There's a lot of money in this radio show, though. Thank God we've all been set for life on the back of this.
I don't think I can keep the kids fed with my professional wiffle ball salary. Your kids, your kids. You got some strong, strapping young men. Those kids could go. Two months and eat nothing, man.
And it's hardy. Hey, I've been at a sporting event at the local establishment that Josh has, and I've seen his kids at the feeding trough. Man, they can eat. Yeah.
They can put it away. They're not eating it. They can put it away. Dad taught them well. Yeah.
But then it made me think, it made me to that, so this all led me to two things. One, you know, a lot of people will have fundraisers like a bowling tournament or a kickball tournament. You know, Morgan mentioned kickball. Why not a wiffle ball tournament? Why not, man?
What's stopping you? I don't know. desire, I guess, together right now. I feel like I feel like we should have the Whitaker and Hamer annual Wuffleball and tournament. for blank charity.
Pick a good one. Invite other law firms. Yeah, yeah. Go head to head. I think we should start playing more sports against other law firms.
So, this brings me.
So, I also taught the kids. We used to do this in college all the time. Do you do you ever play Wilfrid Golf? Yeah.
No, never done that, man. I played that with real golf.
Well, real golf is great, but like sometimes. Have you tried wiffle golf? Yeah, you got the little wiffle golf balls, you take a wedge. And you just make up courses, you know, the pavement's the water, the gravel's the water. and you have to bang it off a tree or put it in a bucket.
No, no. See, I thought these were all normal things that everybody always did in college. And now you're discovering you're not normal. But the kids have a ball with it though. The kids love it.
Okay. Anyway. I was thinking about that and I was also thinking about how Two of the biggest movie, three of the biggest movies coming out this year. are all video game related. Mortal Kombat's about to come out again.
Street Fighter. Super Mario just had another game. And did you ever envision that when you were a kid playing Nintendo, that all of the video games that you played would eventually become. Video games. No, I think that was the dream, though, right?
As a kid, you wanted that. But what video game did you play growing up that you'd want to see as a movie that's not a movie? No, that's not a movie? That hasn't been made into a movie that you would want to see a movie because you're not going to pitch football. I want to jump in and just say Dinosaur Man here.
My favorite video games back in the day when you actually had to go to an arcade. Asteroids. Uh Space Invaders Um Gallagher. And I don't know if you can make those into movies. Sure.
You can make well Space Invaders was already It may not be good, but you could make it into a movie.
Well that movie Pixels had a Space Invaders component. Yeah, I don't think we can count that though.
So what y j what mo what video game that you played would you want to be a movie? Oh man, that's a tough question. I mean most of most of them I'm not quite as old as you, so um. I wasn't playing video games in the in the Great Depression, but uh So it it's Yeah. I feel like everything I played for the most part has been made into a movie of some sort.
Honestly. They've made a lot of video game movies, Josh. I don't think there's been as many as you think there's been. I think there's been fewer than you think. I think there's been more than you think there's been.
All right, well, there's a lot of people. Josh, answer your own question. Oh, I don't really have a good answer. I was really hoping you and Joseph would carry the day on that question. It just kills me that every movie I watch is based on a video game when I grew up or a comic book when I grew up.
I don't watch any other movies that weren't based on things that I consumed as a middle schooler. As a 50. But you want more original content, is what you're telling us. Is that. The moral I like this.
I'll continue with this until I die. I'm just saying. I think there's other things out there that haven't been made in the movies yet. I don't think you can go too far back because you can't go to like Atari. Because Pitfall doesn't work as a movie.
I don't know how good Asteroid. You can make anything. I mean th th You could, in theory, make anything into a movie. They just have to build a bunch of lore into it that doesn't exist, but that's doable. Again, it's not going to be good, but it's doable.
Well, like very doable.
So we I was just going to say, we've got some people tuning in, and they're like, is this a video game show? What is this show? I wish it was a video game show. This is Judica County Radio. It's legal, and the attorneys are going to get into some questions coming up on the program.
Let's tell them about the complimentary consults, Josh. Again, we offer these up each week. It's an opportunity in the area of estate planning, but also traffic. If you've been in an accident recently, don't know how to proceed. But just tell us about those consults.
Yeah, if you're listening to the radio show on the weekend or you've downloaded the podcast, you're listening to the podcast, you can give us a call, 919-772-7000. And we offer free consults for, we talk a lot about estate planning because most everybody needs help with their estate planning. And we also talk a lot about. Personal injury cases, car accident cases, truck accident, motorcycle accidents. Those are all under the umbrella of personal injury type cases.
And so if you've been in an accident, I would encourage you to give us a call. We're going to talk to you for free. We're going to kind of give you a good roadmap of how these things go, what the firm can do for you. But if you've been in a car accident, we have. Several attorneys here with 20, 30 years experience on both sides working for insurance companies, working for Personal injury attorneys, they've seen it from every angle.
And so we're really positioned well to help you get your maximum recovery in those types of cases.
So give us a call. If it's the weekend, we might not get to the phone, leave us a message. We'll reach out to you first thing. One of our paralegals, one of our intake specialists, will get you hooked up with the right attorney. And we'll meet with you for free.
All right, there you go. Consults are available. This is Judica County Radio. Whitaker and Hamer is the power behind the program. To grab one of those consults, call 919-77270000.
That's 919-7727000. You can also visit wh.lawyer. Got more Judica County legal questions coming up next. We are back. 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. Offices all over the state for you, for your convenience. Moorhead City down at the coast. Over near Charlotte in Gastonia, you got Fuquay Verena, Goldsboro, Clayton, Garner, Cleveland, and the Cap City.
Raleigh, North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to be on with the attorneys. We started off the conversation today: video games that could be turned into movies. Josh threw it at us.
And we hit a brick wall, pretty much. But I agree with Joe. Anything can be turned into a movie. Certainly, they are proving that. In Hollywood, but closing thoughts on video games that turned into movies, and then we'll get into some questions.
Was Legend of Zelda did that ever become a movie? Maybe that was common. It's common. I think that's coming either this year or next. 'Cause the G.I.
Joe movies, the transfer. I was just thinking about how many movies were based off toys, video games, and comic books, and there's a lot. Oh gosh, Marvel. Yeah.
I just D C, yeah. I uh I think that's all I think we're all just reliving our our sweet, sweet middle school years. uh at the movie theater anyway. Yeah, Josh is daydreaming at the office. I was just trying to think of the last movie that doesn't fit that category that I've seen.
in a movie theater. I think it was The Iron Claw and that was a wrestling based movie, so I don't know that. That was a dark movie. Oh, that was sad. Oh, my goodness.
Isn't that movie so sad? If you haven't seen it, go watch it. And you it's like three minutes, you'll cry. If that's what you're doing, you'll cry. No, no, the last three minutes.
Oh, I was like, geez, man, that's got to be a record. You didn't watch that? Iron Claw? Yeah.
The Von Air? I did, but I was saying I didn't cry after three minutes, so that's what was confusing. But at the end, man. It was sad. Yeah.
It was sad. A little dusty. It got a little dusty in the movie theater the last couple of minutes there. It wasn't a particularly happy film. I won't tell you that.
It doesn't lift you up. No, you don't have to uplifting. You don't walk out of the movie theater ready to tackle the world. You uh, no, you need some personal time. Very accurate there.
I guess we should talk about something legal. Legal? Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. All right, I'm going to hit you with this question.
Here it is: category: the missing easement surprise. Here's the question: I bought 20 acres in rural North Carolina to build a home. After closing I learn the only driveway crosses my neighbor's land. And there's no recorded easement in my deed or title policy. The neighbor says I can use it for now, but once I start construction, He's locking a gate.
Do I have any rights here? I mean The short answer is is is probably. We get this call. A lot, right? And and so when you're when you're buying property, This is one of the many reasons to have an attorney involved.
Who knows what they're doing in your closing, right? Because if you. Right, Morgan, you got a hundred acres. uh out in the country and I decided to buy it from you. This is what this is the.
We shouldn't have a handshake deal, and then you just give me a deed, and I give you money, and then we walk our separate ways. Uh because an attorney Is going to do a title search and make sure, one Morgan, you own the property, right? Yeah.
So that's the first thing we do. We're going to make sure your seller actually owns the property. The property is you're getting is the property that you're getting is the property that you thought you were getting, right? And that you have access to the property.
So, here in our fact pattern, We've got someone who's purchased 20 acres and after closing finds out their only access. to a to a public road. is an easement. And um That's what you want. You know, in a perfect world, you want...
You know, if your property that you buy is on a highway or a public road, then you have access to your property. Access is a big deal for real estate attorneys. If you're not on a public road, Then you access the public road via a private road, an easement. And so an attorney is going to search that easement to make sure. It's good.
You have you have deeded plaided access. uh to a main road 'cause you you you don't want to buy property that's landlocked. That's our That's the term real estate attorneys use when you don't have access. You're landlocked. And you know what landlocked property is worth?
I would think it would be less. Yeah.
Virtually nothing. Very little. Yeah, virtually nothing. Yeah.
What value is a property that you can't access? And maybe as technology advances and We can drone ourselves on this project. I was going to say helicopter pad. But yeah, it's worth virtually nothing. Because, again, if you can't get to it.
Um and another problem is if uh assuming that you're trying to get any type of financing You know, there's no lender that's going to insure that or that's going to give you money to purchase that property.
So we're not going to be able to get that property title insurance, and lenders are not going to loan you money on property. A conventional lender, any lender, is not really going to loan you. property that they can't get title insurance on because they don't want to Foreclose on you if you don't pay and get the property that's that's landlocked, and so here. I think on our facts we have to assume Yeah, he's saying he doesn't have a recorded easement with his deed. and his title pod policy does not ensure access.
So He doesn't have access. And so, you know, the courts. In North Carolina, there's a lot of statutes, there's a lot of what we call common law. They don't You know, they don't want you to not have access.
So, there's all kinds of different things that you can sue your neighbor for.
So, in this situation, our potential client here would want to retain an attorney to sue. Uh his neighbor. For all kinds of things, right? Easement by necessity, prescriptive easement. Uh, cart path, prior use.
There's all kinds of things that you can sue for. Basically, you're asking the court, say, Hey, I should have access. It wasn't done the right way. Um and in courts generally will give you I think that's safe to say, right? Courts will generally want to give you access.
They want to, yeah, that's the better way to say it, right? They want to give you access. If you can prove the things that you need to prove. Um courts want they don't want you to be landlocked. And they will usually give you access, but it may not be the access you want.
So, in this situation, They're going to assume you don't have access any other way, right?
So we got 20 acres here. And we can't use the existing driveway to get to the public road. But if we, like if the back acre through all the woods, if it touches a public road, we can't sue to use this guy's easement because the court's going to be like, well, you have access. You're just gonna have to clear eight acres of trees. to use it and that's your problem, right?
Yeah.
They're not just going to give you the nice driveway of, they're not going to let you use your neighbor's driveway if you have access some other way. It's just inconvenient or expensive or hasn't been used before. That's not the court's. Problem. And so when we meet with you, that's one of the first things we ask you.
We look at the property. We gotta make sure you don't have access any other way. Because then you're just wasting your time. You need to spend your money on. building a new driveway.
and not on attorneys' fees. Um So that's always important. Um But but here, assuming that you have no access any other way, You're going to sue everybody between you and the road. And try to get an easement that way. And that's litigation.
Litigation is never. cheap, so it's nice to know about it beforehand. It's a very unpleasant surprise when uh When somebody locks the gate further up a private road because they don't like what you're doing Um And those are some of the most contentious things that we deal with, right? Like, that's a. That's never a good situation, man, dealing with someone who feels like you're coming on their property.
So, uh,. I think it goes back to the original point. You're buying property, get an attorney for the title search. And if you get a great deal on landlocked acreage, be very careful there. That's right.
We're going to take a short break, come back, got more legal questions. You're listening to Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, Practicing Attorneys here in North Carolina. Complimentary consult available, estate planning, personal injury. Got questions? Grab one of the consults: 919-77270000.
919-7727000 or visit the website, wh.lawyer. That's wh. We're back right after this. Um We are back. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina.
That's exactly where they practice law. Offices placed for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're going to hit some legal questions.
Want to remind you: we have complimentary consults in and around estate planning or personal injury. If you've got questions, grab one of the consults at any time. 919-77270000. No costs, no obligation. 919-7727000 or visit the website wh.lawyer.
A little bit of a sprint on this question, guys. The parent category: the parent added one child to the account. Here's the question: My mother had three children, but added only my sister to her checking account. before she died to help pay the bills. There was one hundred forty K in the account at death.
My sister says it passes to her alone and they will and the will doesn't matter. Is that correct? That's correct. It sounds like mom loved one kid much more than she loved the other couple.
So, this happens a lot. And what they've done, they've done this the wrong way. You know. what they what they should do. is they they should have had the one With the one child, the sister here.
Appointed as a power of attorney, right? It should have had a power of attorney. And then that sister could have helped pay the bills, could have done anything the mother could have done for herself. Um But but if they add her to the account, then it becomes a joint account. And when the mother died, that money, the banks with a death certificate, is just going to write that check to the sister.
And the sister may take that money and then distribute it if she so. Feels like it's kind of the wrong way to do it, but she doesn't have to. I've seen plenty of these situations where the sister decides that's her money. That's what her mom intended. And you know, she was the one helping out and and she's entitled to it.
And And there ain't a lot you can do about it, you know? You know, if you've got something in writing or, you know, something showing the mom's intent was really not to gift it. to the sister, but a lot of times that kind of evidence doesn't really exist. And that's an uphill battle, man. That's a difficult argument to make.
And here, 140,000 split three ways. My math's not very good. What is that? It's shy of fifty. Yeah.
So like forty three. Yeah, and the forties. Um you know, litigating that thing is going to be A lot, you know, it's going to be a lot. It's going to, there's a lot of litigation fees to litigate that. And attorneys should tell you ahead of time: like, hey, your sister's got a really strong argument.
I'm not sure that we're going to be successful.
So instead of being out $43,000, you could be out $43,000 plus litigation fees. But a lot of times people, you know. Haven't spoken to an attorney. Maybe there's not enough time to speak to an attorney. Maybe the mother was really going downhill and did this.
Maybe out of desperation, but the thing to do would have made the sister. A power of attorney. And uh that way when the mother died, the 140 would go to all the kids, not just the Not just the sister. That's bad. That's bad estate planning, that's what that is.
Well, and it just leads into the consults that we offer up. If you've got questions about maybe. A topic that's in this category, estate planning, you can grab one of those consults simply by calling 919-7727000. Get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. No cost, no obligation.
Ask these questions, get some answers back. 919-7727000. Again, 919-77270000. Also, if there's a personal injury case and you've got questions on how to proceed, you can also grab a consult, 919-77270000. 919-7727000.
You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County, more legal questions coming up on the other side. We're back right after this. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners. Whitaker and Hamer law firm, located right here in North Carolina, where they practice law, and they placed offices across our great state: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verena.
Gastonia and Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. There's going to be an opportunity for a complimentary consult in and around estate planning or a personal injury case you've got questions about. Grab one of the consults at any time, 919-77270000.
That's 919-77270000. Just leave some contact information, they'll get back in touch with you. Set up that consult. Again, you can also go to wh.lawyer. We are in the middle of legal questions.
Next one up, guys. The contractor who was paid in full category, here's the question. I paid my general contractor in full to renovate my kitchen. Two months later, I got noticed that a cabinet supplier filed a lien because the contractor never paid them. Can they come after my house?
You know, before we get to that question, I was thinking, you know, we were spending some time earlier on talking about video games and things like that, video games being made into the movies. What What if we created Joseph, what if we created a video game? Like a state planning the video game. I think it would sell billions of copies and could be set for life, man. You know, there's a.
There's an old, I'm sure I assume everyone has seen it, but there's an old Simpsons where Bart. Wants this video game that comes out called Bone Storm. Did you say it's popular? It's like the Christmas, it's one of the Christmas Simpsons. I assume you've seen it.
I haven't seen it, but I trust your assessment that it's great.
So this video, The Simpsons, this episode of The Simpsons, it came out around the time Mortal Kombat came out, right? Mortal Kombat, if you remember when it came out. Had blood in the game, it was kind of violent. A lot of parents' groups rallied against it. And this was the same time as a bone storm.
Was basically a bloody video game, and so Marge would not buy it for part, right? Couldn't have it, too bloody.
Okay. Bart ends up shoplifting the video game and gets caught. That's the whole thing, right? And then he. And then at the end Bone Storm's not even that good of a game, but Marge, he redeems himself.
Marge gets him Bone Storm, was going to get him Bone Storm for Christmas, but she forgot the name of the video game. And so she just asked the guy at the video game store what little kids would like and he gave her Lee Covino's putting challenge. And so I feel like an estate planning video game would be even less exciting than. Lee Carvelo's putting challenge, which is a very bad video game if you watch the Maybe for your kids, man, my kids love estate planning. I do.
I don't know. I kinda like the putting game. I don't know. Yeah, the putting putting game sounds good, the the estate planning uh video game. I don't know about that one, man.
When I was growing up, when I was growing up. The golf games weren't very popular. I know Tiger Woods and EA sports kind of changed that at the turn of the century, but like in the 80s and 90s, no one was. begging for A golf game. They have a lot of technology to give you a great experience, man.
I think we had a golf game on the Commodore 64, if I remember correctly. It wasn't good. It wasn't worth writing home about. But I'm going to start on this premise because I don't know what an estate planning video game looks like. But if we could get one going and it's just you sitting with someone in a room.
Yep, and you're talking about their family dying and um We're just asking you questions. How do you spell your middle child's name? It looks like a normal Tuesday for you, man. That's how we move to the power of attorney section of that. Yeah, that's the second level.
That's the thing, man. We hook the kids on the estate planning with the video games, and then when they grow up, they're going to come back to us for estate planning. That's a guerrilla marketing tactic. That's right. We won't see the benefit for 25 to 30 years.
We start them young. Yeah.
I don't think that's going to work, Josh. I might be dead. By the time it starts working, but it'll but you better have your estate plan in order. But you'll have a fantastic estate plan in order. Then it can be a movie, right?
Then after it's been a video game and these kids grew up with the video games, then the Whitaker and Hamer. I don't know which would be worse.
So now now you hit something that that I that I want to chime in on. Who would if if if it was turned into a movie, if you did an estate planning video game that was turned into a movie, who would play Josh? from current actors and who would play Joe. Josh is chanting Tatum all day. Wow.
I was thinking Jack Black. I was like, Can't we fit Jack Black into this vehicle somehow? Oh, he could totally, man. He could be there. He could be there.
De Niro would be a good job looker. What about Joe? What about Joe? Maybe, I don't know, Brad Pitt? Yeah, I get that a lot.
Yeah, I get that. From my mom. You asked us a question earlier, Morgan. I've forgotten the question. I did.
The contractor who was paid in full, and then the train went off the tracks when Josh started talking about video games and estate planning.
So here it is. I paid my contractor in full to renovate my kitchen. Two months later, I got noticed that a cabinet supplier filed a lien against my contractor who never paid them. Can they come and get my house?
So lean law in North Carolina is very fact specific. And and it and it changed a lot. Right in two back in 2008, when the housing market kind of crashed, we had a hundred years of lean law. And um You know, a lot of builders in 08, a lot of builders went out of business, a lot of builders had incomplete projects, a lot of sub-contractors who haven't been paid. And so there's been some noticeable changes to.
Lean law. Uh since 2008. A lot of this depends on Very specific. Facts. But first of all, you don't pay your general contractor in full.
No reputable general contractor is going to ask you to pay them in full. before the jobs Done. Yeah.
You know, most general contractors. who are doing projects at your house, they are going to need an initial deposit. of some kind to get started. And then there should be kind of graduated payments, as you know, depending on the project. You know, you would set, like, once this is done, we'll pay the, you know, you agree to an overall price, but.
Payment should be over time as things are done. And so here. You know, paying a general contractor in full to renovate your kitchen is usually not a Great idea. Yeah, it's not a fantastic recommendation. Because you don't have any leverage.
Um To make sure the job gets finished, and I'm not even saying general contractors are a A bad bad guys, necessarily. There's a lot of very reputable, very good general contractors. We represent a lot of them. But. Yeah.
There's something mentally like once you've been fully paid for a job, I think it just affects you mentally. And as the consumer, you don't have much leverage.
So there should be payment after certain benchmarks are met, certain things are done. There should be at least a simple contract in place. That you can kind of refer to. But here in the fact pattern, could a cabinet supplier file a lien? Possibly.
If they were dealing with a general contractor and they never dealt with you personally, The general contractor has signed a lien waiver when he got full pavement. They might have to look to the general contractor instead of you, but It's still not a situation you want to find yourself in. But we have a lot of people come in because they've had a lien file on their property. And we have to talk about that because there's nothing stopping. You know, I tell this Joe when I'm in litigation consults.
I tell people, because people are trying to. Figure out if they can be sued, right? This is what happened. Did I do anything wrong? Can they sue me?
And so, a lot of times I'll sit down with people and we'll go over the facts because litigation is always fact-heavy. We need a time line. We need to know when you talk to this person, when you talk to that person.
So we might go through everything. And I was like, hey, I don't think you did anything wrong. Like, I don't think you're in breach here. I don't think you committed any fraud. I don't think there's any unfair and deceptive trade practices.
But just 'cause I say that doesn't mean anybody can sue anybody. Morgan could sue me tomorrow for something that he perceives I did wrong. And he should. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be liable. And that means I have to defend a lawsuit.
And that's money, right? But anybody can sue anybody for any reason. And if it's uh You know, if they're just trying to harass you, there's things that you can do, but. The point being, anybody can file, you know, anybody who does work on your house can file a lien if they think they're owed more money. And if you don't have something in writing, well, this is what I agreed to pay, and this is what I paid, and this is how I paid it, then.
that lean may have some legs. But liens are very subcontractor liens are very short term. We're talking, you know, 120 days, 180 days. They're not good forever. I can't file a lien on Morgan's house and it's good for 30 years.
You know, it's a short-term. uh way to document Money owed.
So, there's a lot you can do to it. And we have a lot of people call us. They filed a lien. I'm afraid they're going to file a lien. Should I file a lien?
So, it comes up a lot. Probably not super exciting for the radio, but it's a thing that'd make a great video game. The giant contractor video game. Yeah, and you don't even do work. You just you just i people don't pay you and you have to go put liens, so you just go stand at the courthouse and press buttons.
To talk to the clerk, tantalizing right now, as far as video games. Hey, we're going to take a short break. We do have complimentary consults in and around estate planning, personal injury, possibly got some questions in that category. Grab one of the consults, 919-77270000. It's 919-7727000.
That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. Just leave some contact information. They'll be back with you and they will set up that complimentary consult. You can also go to the website wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer.
Got more legal questions coming up on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio. 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, and they practice law right here in North Carolina.
Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque, Verina, Gastonia. And in Moorhead City, I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're doing legal questions this week, and you may find maybe a question in a category that you need to deal with.
Well, grab one of the consults in and around estate planning or personal injury. Again, no cost, no obligation with Whitaker and Hamer, 919-7727000. That's 919-7727000. If you've just got general questions about your situation, call them 919-7727000 or visit the website, wh.lawyer. All right, gentlemen, next question up: the category, the inherited house.
with one sibling still living in the house. Here's the question. Our father died leaving his home equally to me and my brother. My brother moved in, changed the locks, and has lived there rent-free for 18 months. He refuses to sell or buy me out.
What can I do? You know, I think we're on to something. Um. with these real life. Style video games, you know, my kids.
I don't think I'm making this up. I really think one of my kids was on Steam playing a video game where they were mowing a yard. Yeah, they got that. They got the power watching simulator. Yeah.
Yeah.
The thing's popular. Popular with the kids these days.
So yeah. They'd love the Follow Lead video game.
So I had to power watch the house. this weekend. It wasn't a lot of fun. You didn't enjoy that? I mean, it's nice to be outside.
It was hot. It was Saturday. Saturday was a hot.
So you're you're outside power washing your house, sweating in the heat, and your kids inside in the AC playing a video game. Where he power washes house. Like, how do you even find that video game? Like, when we were kids, there weren't that many video games out. Like, you would know, like.
Hey, my friend just got Legend of Zelda. You'd be like, ooh. Or, you know, you gotta I remember getting it I remember getting Nintendo Power in the mail and Nintendo Power would tell me about the new Nintendo games, right? But how do you how do you find out that there's a Power Washington game, much less download it and play it? Advertising, man.
Advertising. That's it. That's your answer. Simple.
Well, I really now, I really believe in our... Estate planning. I guess it could be like a legal video game that has several different missions. Estate planning can be the first mission.
Okay. And then once you succeed there, I don't know who the last boss is. Anyway. So here's our. You're definitely on to something, man.
We'll keep workshopping that off the record. I'm going to create some like. balloon diagrams and thoughts and try to connect them. See what happens. Of course I have no I can't code anything and we have to go to Claude, right?
AI could code it for us. Yeah, yeah, Claude can do it all. We're fine. Make it happen. It'll be okay.
Yeah.
All right, so the question we're going to ask us: our father died leaving his home equally to me and my brother.
So the father has passed away. I'm going to say there was a will. The will left everything to the two sons, me and my brother. My brother moved in, changed the locks. That's not nice, and has lived there rent-free for 18 months.
He refuses to sell or buy me out. What can I do? And week after week, We keep getting the same question asked in different ways. But he's kind of forced you into a corner, so what's the only thing you can do, Joseph? Resort to the legal process, my brother.
That's petition. That's what you do. It's a petition to partition. You have to file a petition to partition, man. That's the only way to go about it in this scenario.
If you own property, you own real property, this isn't personal property, this isn't an automobile or a tractor or an airplane or a double wide or an RV. This is if you own real property. with another person That's not your spouse. Mm-hmm. That's important.
Yeah, it's very important. You can. Petition the court to either divide the property, right?
So if it's 20 acres, like in our earlier question, if it's 20 acres, The court may be able to partition it and say, okay, well, you keep 10 acres and your brother keeps 10 acres. Right. But if they can't, if the property is small, can't reasonably be partitioned. The court's gonna order it sold. and it's going to split the proceeds from the sale.
And so that's your leverage in that situation, right? If someone's doing what the brother here is doing, not letting you in property that you own half of, not paying rent, just living there. Can evict. Cops aren't going to do anything that's not criminal, right? The brother is a co-owner, right?
So, no eviction, no trespass, no cops. You're.
Soul Leverage is you file a petition to partition, and that's tough to do without an attorney. And you want to definitely talk to an attorney about what that looks like. Um But that's that's it. That's all you can do. It's either that or you just let it Let it happen.
And you know, that's it. Yeah.
Maybe the threat of that action will get your brother in this situation saying, hey, I've retained an attorney. I'm going to have to move forward with a petition to partition. If we can't get this solved, this is what I want to happen by this date. And then maybe the brother comes to his senses and says, okay, we can work together. I don't want to have to go through this proceeding.
But that may not happen, and you're just stuck petition to partition, you know. And there's pros and cons that, depending on the facts, you would talk to your attorney about. Let's jump to our next question, guys. The revoked license domino effect is the category. Here's the question.
I got pulled over for a broken taillight and found out my license was revoked over an old failure to appear from years ago. I've been driving daily for work.
Now I've been charged. What should I fix first? Yeah.
Anytime you're in this scenario, right, that we know you get a traffic ticket, first of all, you have to deal with it. You know, a lot of times, if you hire an attorney, the attorney can make the appearance for you. can tell you what's going to happen, can advise you of any insurance points. You know, but traffic temples tickets are usually pretty simple to handle.
Now, if you get. A million of 'em. It's going to get more difficult to handle, but if you just get the occasional speeding ticket or what have you, those can be dealt with. Traffic matters get Infinitely more difficult if you fail to appear on a ticket, right? You get a ticket, you don't hire an attorney, you don't appear.
You don't think about it, you think it's gone, it's not gone, it's on your record. Eventually your driver's license is going to get revoked. Right, you can have a five over, very minimal speeding ticket, right? You don't handle it. Failure to appear, eventually, your driver's license is going to get revoked.
And then, when you get pulled over and get a, we call them a DWL LR, a driving license revoked. That's a misdemeanor, right? We're not at citation level, we're not at infraction level, now you're getting a misdemeanor.
So, if you got pulled over for that, then you probably got another, say, you got pulled over for speeding, you get another speeding ticket, and now you got a DWLR. And The only way you can fix it is you gotta go back and figure out why it got revoked. which is usually a missed ticket. And you gotta fix the missed ticket. Right.
And that usually involves an attorney to to some extent. But if you don't fix it, it's just it just snowballs. And we've seen folks who, for you know, a myriad of reasons have not taken care of the first ticket. And then they've got like 10 things after it that have complicated it. And an attorney has to go back to the first thing.
and start fixing things, paying court cost. Getting PJCs and kind of come up to current to get your license reinstated, and it's a pain. Um So I know we all get real busy. And um It's just something you have to do. Can't let a traffic ticket just go.
I notice it doesn't matter if it's out of state anymore, right? You get a traffic ticket on your way to New York, get a traffic ticket in Virginia.
South Carolina, eventually it's going to catch up with your North Carolina license and you're going to get. Revoked. And that's a problem because if you get pulled over for a DWLR, the officer could technically arrest you for it. A lot of times they don't. But um you know, it's a serious charge that you have to deal with.
Today, we are hitting some legal questions today on Judica County. We're going to take a short break, come back, and we'll wrap this up. Try to hit two more, at least two more questions.
So, again, if you've got a situation in and around estate planning, maybe you've got some questions there or a personal injury case and you don't know how to proceed, grab one of our consults simply by calling 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. But when you call, just some general information, they'll call you back and they'll set up that appointment. Again, it is no cost, no obligation.
Consult on estate planning or personal injury case that you are facing. 919-77270000 or visit the website w.lawyer. We're back to wrap up Judica County this week. 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, the power behind the program. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Huquai Marina, Gastonia, and down at the coast. Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We're hitting legal questions today, and we also have complimentary consults in and around estate planning or a personal injury case you're facing. Grab one of those consults by calling 919-7727000, 919-77270000. That'll get you in touch. You can also visit the website WHATS.
Dot lawyer.
Next question up, guys. We'll hit them real quick. The will signed in the hospital is the category. Here's the question: My aunt changed her will two days before passing away, heavily medicated in the hospital, cutting out two nephews and leaving everything to a neighbor who drove her to appointments. Is this valid?
Well, that's a fine question, and that would be a good addition to our to our video game here. Yeah.
Um Let me look. I gotta look at the facts of the question here again to really. You get a So my aunt changed her will two days before passing while heavily medicated in the hospital. Cutting out two nephews and leaving everything to a neighbor.
Okay, so anytime. This is probably a contestable will, right? You can do anything you want to. With your assets when you die, right? I could decide I don't want my kids, can't disinherit a spouse.
So, I should put that up there. If you're married, you can try, but you can't really disinherit a spouse. But if I decided I wanted to disinherit my kids, Or my grandkids You can do that. But in North Carolina, you know, usually you state in your will that you're doing that on purpose. And a lot of times you'll even put the intent you know, why you did that.
in the will.
So it's it's We attorneys call it a statement of disinheritance.
So here you got a couple of problems because one, Um One here is it's it's You know, if when you disinherit your natural heirs, your kids, which is what the ant did here. That's a big red flag. Mm-hmm. Right. Those kids, just by that alone, if there's not a statement of disinheritance explaining why.
This wills. This wheel's already probably pretty prime for a caveat, a wheel contest.
Now you add in the fact that She made it two days before she passed away, which in theory means she wasn't doing really well. And then you can't sign anything when you're you know when you're medicated to a certain Extent, you're not competent to sign anything.
So this will. you know, it's probably not The best, right?
So I would say it's contestable. It's not automatically invalid, it's still valid on its face.
So the the um The neighbor can take it downtown and get it probated. The clerk's probably going to accept it if it meets the minimum requirements. And if the nephews don't file a will contest, a caveat proceeding. That's going to be effective, right?
So it's up to the nephews here to file that proceeding. But I think there's a lot of issues here with capacity, you know, was was the aunt Capable of signing a will in this condition.
Some medical records would probably show when she's on medication, you know, that that would make her. Not competent. And then undue influence, right? This neighbor has full control. Like a lot of times, when folks get a little bit older and they can't drive.
And they can't get where they need it, they're depending on one neighbor or one family member to get them around. A lot of times, the opportunity. for undue influence. exists. Where That person, you know, the aunt in our situation might feel pressured to leave everything to the person that's helping them survive.
Um But there's a lot to talk about. These will caveats. These are very fact-specific. Um But but it happens and uh this one This one's probably pretty actionable. I think an attorney would probably take the nephew's case.
based on the limited amount of information we have here. Legal questions. We got time for one more, guys, and let's hit this one. The deed to the trust that was never recorded. Here's the question.
My parents signed a deed transferring their house into their trust but never recorded it. My father passed away. Is the house in the trust?
Well, it's not, yeah. Yeah, it's not the answer there. I was kind of thinking, you know, we've got to sign deeds.
So when we get this fact pattern, a lot of times we don't have. A sign deed. It's never been Recorded, and that has some meaning that we won't dive into here, but we do have a signed deed, it's just never been recorded. Um This may be We may be able to salvage the situation depending on the facts, right? We talk about, when we talk about estate planning, we talk about your revocable living trust being like this magic bucket.
And anything you put in this bucket, avoids probate. The deed to the house being recorded down at the courthouse. That's how you put property into this trust, into this magic bucket. And here that didn't happen. But a lot of times we don't have a signed deed, so I think there's an argument to be made here.
I think we might be able to get this one in the trust, but it's. Problematic is, I think, the best way to describe this. There's no yes, no, maybe. I think this is a problematic situation. There may be a good way out depending on.
what the what the air who the heirs are Um It takes a lot of talking about this. A lot of fun. And the best solution is. Just record your deed, right? You know, that's it.
That is the simple solution. Yeah.
Um Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, take the appropriate legal steps. And speaking of appropriate legal steps, maybe you've got some questions in and around estate planning, maybe a personal injury case you're involved with and you don't know what steps to take, you can grab one of our complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer. Meet with one of their attorneys. Again, no cost, no obligation. 919-77270000.
That's 919-77270000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer. When you call, just leave a brief message, some contact information, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. 919-7727000, the number to call. And again, it's all about making sure you're headed down the right legal path.
And if you've got questions in estate planning or personal injury, this is your opportunity. 919-77270000 or visit the website wh.lawyer. Another edition of Judica County Radio is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. Managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. I'm Morgan Patrick, just reminding you: have a great week.
We will 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.
