Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. It's the fall legal cleanup. What you've been putting off. We've got a number of listener questions we're going to get into. It's all coming up next.
This is Judica County. Winner career. Hamer presents Judica County. with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. Welcome into Judica County Radio.
Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, the power behind this program. They're practicing attorneys here in our great state of North Carolina. And they placed offices all over Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay Verena, down near Charlotte in Gastonia, and over at the coast, Moorhead City.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. We get into a lot of legal questions, and we're doing the fall cleanup. What you have been putting off, you need to go ahead and get started on some questions in and around that category. Before we dive into question number one, we always ask how the week was.
And Josh, you're first. And Joe, just jump in. All right, sounds great, man. Josh is going to take this whole time. I don't have any, you know, I try to have these big picture thoughts, and I don't have any from this past week, man.
I just. I worked. And it seems like when I wasn't working, I was either at high school football games. Watching football. And that was it.
That would have been the whole week. A lot of football, man. I think I might be off the college football for the rest of the season, though. I think I might be. How would you do that?
Are you possibly transitioning into the program?
Now he's just heard. Yeah, I love the NC State Vanderbilt, whatever. I love NC State. Nothing will make me stop loving NC State. But you only have so much energy to put towards.
Fandom, right? You can only be a fan of so many things, right? It takes energy. You gotta watch it, you gotta go through the highs and lows. I think I'm just, you know, I'm obviously very invested in certain high school football games because of the kids, right?
Right, yeah. And so that's usually Friday. It's a healthier use of your time, I feel like. Yeah, so Thursday, I'm usually at JV high school game. Friday, I'm at a varsity game.
Saturday morning, I'm really tired. I'm old, right? It takes a lot out of me just to go to. I didn't know that, man. Thank you.
That's a Saturday. I think I just have to make Saturday not about sports, right?
So I think I'm just checking out of college football completely. And then, you know, the kids love watching the Panthers and then of course the family. My family loves watching the Bills and uh I think that's all I got time for, man. I think I got to take, I got to get my Saturdays back. Yeah.
They can't be I can't be Sobbing, you know, weeping on Saturdays, man. I gotta ask you. Did you sob, man? Did you sobb? I didn't sob, man.
I think we heard most of Wolfpack Nation sobbing, and it's almost like Murphy's Law when we were growing up. If something bad was going to happen, it was going to happen. I want to rename it Wolfie's Law because it's just like if something bad's going to happen, I mean, the percentages of that happening were like, I mean, it's never happened before. Yeah. I've never seen anything like that.
Let's say 1,046 and 1 now is the record of teams leading with, what, 10 seconds left like that? Yeah. Run out of the back of the end zone, dude. We uh so this this uh Uh Yeah, I just can't do anything. We went down to the fairgrounds.
I love going down to the fairgrounds, man. There's always something going on at the fairgrounds. We went down there. There was the flea market. There was a home show.
There was a baseball card show. And that was a lot more relaxing for you. To invest in any cards. Yeah, we always end up getting something. But those are the nicest folks, man.
You go to a sports card trading show, those are like the nicest people you'll ever. They're trying to sell you something, Josh. Nah, they're nice folks. We went to the fairgrounds once, and they were just like giving my kids cards. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's just a bait. I mean, they're like, you walk in the building, they look at Josh, and they go, Here comes a sucker. Yeah, yeah, look at it. Look at this market. Look at this room.
Let's put out the second stuff. Let's not. If you go down to fairgrounds, the building's nice. There's a lot of cool things in the building. Talking about the Jim Graham building?
We're talking about which building?
Well, just the normal. What's the building that the normal building is? Oh, yeah, yeah, the one that's right up front. Yeah, I got you. But if you go outside, there's a guy outside.
So shout out to Mr. Jim, man. Mr. Jim's been there forever selling cards. But you gotta go visit Mr.
Jim next time you're out at the flea market, and uh, anyway. That was the point being, the couple hours we were out and about, that was much more. That was much That was a lot of fun compared to the rest of the day. And watching, yeah, watching all that stuff.
So I think I'm just checking out. I think for my mental health, college football is just not going to exist this year.
Okay. All right.
Well, how are you doing, Joe? Pretty good, man. I like college football. I think it's fun. I think it's g I'm going to keep watching it.
I'm not going to stop. Yeah. You're all in. I'm all in. Yeah.
Yep. Yep. And uh professional football is is fun again for North Carolinians, at least for a week.
Well, when we're taping this show, uh We did get news that uh Jackson Dart is apparently just a knee sprint. Oh, yeah, that's so good. Yeah, Giant Nation is. Or if you have Dart on your fantasy football team, you can kind of breathe a sigh of relief. It may take him a little bit to get back, but man, you hate seeing.
And then. You know, Daniels for for the Commanders, uh the same elbow dislocated. That was rough, man. And then Caleb Williams went down. He thought he was dead and apparently hamstring strain.
Yeah, he's gonna be okay.
So Bears fans are. elated. But yeah, it's every week, man. It just seems like early on we've had a lot of key injuries. What, Puka for the Rams, he was out for the game on Monday night.
So it was. I think football. is a dangerous sport, man. I think I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Yeah. It's uh it's rough and tumble.
So I was going to say guys We d we all played, right, at some point. Football, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so how would you like to be? The Giants and your fullback, Ricard.
Yeah, did you see this? 300-pound guy. Yeah, 6'3, 300 pounds. I saw that last night. Run running run in front of what, Scatterboo?
I mean, that's just that's unfair. I was thinking the other day with my son, Michael, and I was sitting there and We should really come up with an over forty Tackle football league. No, we should not. They got them. They have them.
No, they don't. They a hundred percent do. They a hundred percent do. Have you not seen any of the TikTok videos? No, none of this.
Well, I've seen like the 38U football. No. And I'm telling you, it's out there. It's out there. It's sponsored by Emerge Ortho.
And people are killing themselves. Like, I mean, they're going as hard as you can possibly humanly go. It's insane. I have to look at the battle. I'm not making that up, man.
That's a real real thing. I need a 100% real thing. 50U tackle football. Yeah. Yeah.
The injured list has got to be longer than the roster, right? The injured list has to be. I don't know, man. I don't know. I spent some time doing the flag football back in my youth.
And um That was a lot of fun, man, but you you forget even flag how much it hurts, man. How painful of a sport it can be. Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. All right, so guys, we're going to take a short break, come back, and get into some of these legal questions. But, Josh, real quickly, can you go over?
The consults we have available, again, estate planning, possible personal injury case you're involved with. You've got questions. But talk about the consult, and we'll open some of those up. Yeah, we spend a lot of time on the show talking about a lot of different legal topics. You know, Whitaker and Hamer, we are a law firm here in North Carolina.
You want to talk to Joe and me about your estate plan? We don't charge you to talk, free consult. We don't charge you to talk about estate planning and trust and power of attorneys. And then if you've been in a car accident, personal injury, we don't charge you to talk about that, talk about your case, kind of help you value your case and kind of lay out what that kind of looks like.
So we do free consults here at the firm on estate planning and personal injury.
So yeah, give us a call and we can set that up for you. All right, here we go. Phone number to call is 919-7727000. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. And just say I'd like one of the consults, estate planning or personal injury case, 919-77270000.
You can also visit wh.lawyer. Again, a complimentary consult with the firm. No cost, no obligation, estate planning or personal injury. 919-772700000000000 7,000, or you can visit wh.lawyer. When we return on Judico County, we'll get into some legal questions.
Again, it's a fall legal cleanup. What we've been putting off, we need to go ahead and handle. And the first question is: Dad passed away and we haven't opened an estate. We'll get into that category. That's coming up next.
You're listening to Judico County Radio. We are back. It's Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your host. They're the practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.
They placed offices in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuque Verena, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City for your convenience. I'm Morgan Patrick. It's a pleasure to jump on. We're going to get into some legal questions. That fall legal cleanup we're talking about.
I want to remind you, too, complimentary consults, estate planning, or personal injury available at Whitaker and Hamer. You can call at any time and grab one: 919-7727000. You've been thinking about estate planning or maybe that you're involved with a personal injury case and you've got some questions. It's complimentary and no obligation. 919-77270000 or visit wh.lawyer.
All right, gentlemen, here's the first question: the category. Dad passes away, we haven't opened an estate.
So, my father passed away in August. We had a will naming me executor, but honestly, my brother and I haven't done anything with it yet. Dad didn't have much cash, but he did own his house outright, worth about $325,000, and an older pickup truck. The utilities and taxes are being paid from an account that was joint with my brother. We're thinking about selling the house before the end of the year.
Do I actually need to open an estate, or can my brother and I just sign whatever is needed when we find a buyer?
So You know, this situation happens a lot, right?
Someone passes away and They've done some estate planning, like our the dad here had a will. We know that he had some accounts, sounds like maybe some checking accounts, and the kids were owners. Um, and then he's got a truck, and he's and he's got a house here, and so um. He died in February, so it's been six months or so, seven months or so. And they're asking do they have to open an estate to to sell the house?
And And Joseph, what's the answer there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, you you should never assume that if you inherit property that you can just sell it because that's a That's the wrong assumption to make.
And that's not how it's going to work out. And. You know, it's different if you've got some kind of vesting that gives you. If you've got a joint interest in the property, there's right of survivorship if the property is owned by a trust. But assuming that.
This is just this property was solely owned by the the father, then Yeah, you're gonna you're you're gonna have to open an estate to get that taken care of. Yeah, you you know This gets confusing for folks, and we have a lot of people who go down to the clerk's office. And the clerks are not allowed to give legal advice, and they try to help people the best they can. And it gets confusing because real property is not a As we would say, it is not a probate asset, right? Real property is not part of the estate.
But it Passes through the estate and it's subject to the estate.
So, real property is not a probate asset, and people will tell you that, and the clerks will tell you that, and that's 100% true. But if you're gonna do anything with that real property in the two years after the dad's death here, you're gonna have to open up an estate and you're gonna have to give notice to creditors. And also, here, They they have a will. And the will doesn't do anything, right? I have a signed, executed will.
I drop dead tomorrow. That will doesn't do anything automatically. That will is just a piece of paper until you take it down to the clerk's office and the clerk accepts it. And probates it. Says, yes, this is witnessed properly, this is a goodwill.
We're going to accept it as Josh's last will and testament, and we're going to probate the will. We're going to open up an estate, right? Until that happens, the will is meaningless. The will has no legal meaning. And so, you know, the quick answer here is: to sell the house, they're going to have to open an estate.
It's only been seven or eight months. They need to give notice to creditors. The house isn't technically part of the estate, but it's subject to the will being probated. Ownership is subject to, and then creditors coming up because creditors, let's say the father had a bunch of medical bills, right? And you open up an estate, those medical bills, those creditors, are going to try to pull any asset into the estate they can.
The real property can be pulled in. Um but anyway. If I was this guy, I would just schedule a consult with an attorney and just lay everything out so the attorney could advise. The other thing to point out here is that pickup truck, if they're going to do anything with that pickup truck, sell it, it's got to get retitled at the DMV, and the DMV is not going to retitle it. without an estate being opened, right?
personal property like vehicles. They go through their probate assets, they go through the estate, and so here. And maybe they don't do anything with the old truck, right? Maybe it just sits riding in a barn for 50 years, but you're not doing anything with that truck without opening up an estate. DMV is not going to transfer title.
Any other way.
So, their question is: Are they going to have to open an estate? Yes. If they're going to deal with those assets, they're going to have to open up an estate. All right, we got time for another quick one, and here's the category: We started a business on a handshake.
So here's the question: My best friend and I started a landscaping company in January of last year. Or actually, this year, we formed an LLC online and each put in $15,000, but that's about as far as we went legally. There's no operating agreement. We now have six employees, three trucks, and about $250,000 in annual revenue. The money sitting in a business account currently.
We're still getting along, but his wife has started helping with the books, and we're disagreeing about how much each of us can take out of the business. What should we have in writing before this becomes a real problem?
Well, you know. There's a lot we could get into. You know, on this question, we try to keep everything like uh, it may not always sound like it, but what here on the show, we try to look at everything at like a real top level, just kind of a real. overview um And this happens all the time, man. People.
Start businesses on a handshake with someone they know or a friend or a relative, and you don't know if the business is going to be successful or not.
So, people don't want to invest. You know, too much into it at the beginning. Attorneys can get somewhat expensive, I guess, depending on what you're asking them to do. But You know, your operating agreement, your LLC, your operating agreement is the agreement between you and the other owners. That's what it is.
So, if me and Joe and Morgan had a business and we started an LLC, we filed the articles down at the Secretary of State's office. The articles don't do much. They get the name reserved. They tell the general public that this LLC has been created. But that's all it does.
Um The operating agreement is the contract between you and all the other owners on how you're going to operate the business. Um And if you don't have that, you feel blind. Yeah, you're just stuck with the base North Carolina statutes that are out there that govern. that that relationship and um So the operating agreement's pretty important, you know, especially You know, they've worked hard on this business. It's doing good.
Um they've got they've got a good business here. And so the things that aren't really You know, they haven't. The operating agreement changes things like there's two owners here. If they disagree on something, they're deadlocked. What do you do?
in a deadlock situation.
So the operating agreement would say like Hey, we trust my buddy's uncle, so he's gonna, you know, he's gonna decide, or we're gonna hire an attorney who'll break the deadlock. You know, you'll have a procedure for deadlocks. Which is a super You know, that's one of the more common situations you're going to see in a two-member LLC where you don't have a you know, y you can't have a majority vote unless everybody's in agreement. Yeah. And then and there's other things too.
So what if his best friend becomes disabled and can't actively participate in the business but is still due 50% of the profits? What if one of the partners wants to sell their fifty percent interest? You address all these things in an operating agreement so you can plan and you know what's going to happen in that situation, because otherwise you don't know. And you're just subject to the basic statutes that are there. And ideally, you do this prior, but.
You know, uh it the sooner the better for these folks. Yeah, starting a business with a friend. You need to make sure you're dotting the I's and crossing the T's. And we're going to get into more questions coming up on the other side. Want to remind you that there are complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer available, estate planning, personal injury facing that?
Grab one of the consults, 919-7727000, 919-7727000, or visit wh.lawyer. Judica County returns right after this. Mm. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina offices. They placed them everywhere for your convenience.
Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuqua Verena, over near Charlotte in Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, hitting some legal questions, the fall legal cleanup category.
Next up, guys, is: I've been ignoring the HOA fines. That's the category. Here's the question: Our HOA sent a violation notice in May because of a shed we built behind our house. We think the shed complies with the covenants.
So we basically ignored the information that was being sent to us. They held some type of hearing that we didn't attend, and then they started assessing fines. It's now we are into September, and they are claiming we owe more than $6,000 and threatening a lien against us. If the original violation wasn't legitimate, can we just challenge everything now? This is.
You know, this is one of those situations where we're not going to have enough information to really to really you know advise this uh this this person and uh But ignoring things, we all get busy. Like, I'm too busy for college football now, right? That's what I was talking about earlier. I'm just too busy taking pay your HOA fines, right? But yeah, if someone, if your HOA sends you a letter in the mail, schedules a hearing date, tells you of a violation, and you just blow all that off, and you blow off the letters about the fines, you're not doing good, right?
You're starting off, you're starting off real bad. And. Mu I will say this, most HOAs, even the ones that strictly enforce You know, their rules. Most HOAs don't really want to. Fine you, right?
I mean, these are your neighbors. They want the rules enforced, and fines is the only way they can do it, right?
So, usually, most HOAs give you. Every opportunity to avoid the fawn, correct the violation. That's not true across the board, obviously, but most of the time it is. Um especially with the smaller smaller HOA.
So here They've had, you know, they had our guy says, I've been ignoring them. I didn't go to the hearing, I didn't remedy the violation. I owe six thousand bucks. Ignoring is no good. It's a bad spot.
Yeah. Not the right play. You know, if I was this guy, I would go to an attorney and say this was the violation. It was a maybe it was a misunderstanding and he just didn't clear it up. But someone, whether it's him or an attorney, is going to have to go to the HOA and kind of figure out what's been happening.
And, you know, the HOA may be willing to let go some of those funds. The HOA may have done something that's actionable. Maybe he could file a suit against his HOA. That's probably going to cost more than $6,000. you know, at this point.
Um So this one this one is just I guess a lesson in Don't ignore this stuff. You know, we're all busy. Everybody's busy. You want to have a day that's similar to Josh Whitaker's day where he swore off college football forever. Get a $20 HOA fine for not mowing your grass and then ignore it to the point where it's a $10,000 lien that they're foreclosing on, which is a thing that does occur.
Yeah, and we've seen HOAs that are unreasonable, right? We've seen HOAs that are fighting people for stuff that maybe they shouldn't find for, but that's usually not the case. And usually they want to work with you.
So, here, if I was this guy, I would go talk to an attorney, and there's probably some kind of middle ground everybody can reach, I would think, short of a lawsuit. Yeah, as much as some people loathe the HOA, don't ignore the HOA if you get a million dollars. They got a lot of power, man. They do. They do.
All right.
Complimentary consult Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning or personal injury. You can call at any time, 919-7727000. 919-7727000 or visit wh.lawyer. We've got more legal questions coming up on the other side. Part of our fall cleanup series that's coming up next.
Um We're back on Judica County, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, located right here in North Carolina, and that's exactly where they practice law. They placed offices all over our great state, down at the coast, Moorhead City, over near Charlotte in Gastonia, but also right here in the Triangle area: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, and Fuquay Verena. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys, hit these different questions. And again, we're doing more of a fall cleanup.
Stop putting things off. These questions are coming up, and the category next is the contractor has been coming, and I do air quotes next week, and that's been since June.
So here's the question: We paid a contractor $38,000 toward a $65,000 kitchen renovation. He demolished the kitchen, did some electricity. Electrical work and then basically poof disappeared. Every couple of weeks, he texts us that he'll be back on Monday. It's now almost three months.
We've been afraid to fire him. Because the contract says we're responsible for damages if we terminate without cause. At what point? Do we stop waiting?
Well You know, the thing that I noticed in this question, right?
So we get a lot of these questions here, right, on the show. We get a lot of questions about. contractors and um You know, remodeling the kitchen or building a, you know, a deck or, you know, whatever it is. But Here the good thing is there's a contract. All right, in our question, they mentioned that they're afraid to fire him because the contract says we're responsible.
for damages if we terminate without cause. And so we've got a written contract that governs this relationship. And so that's, I mean, that's good news, right? A lot of these, we don't have a. Contract.
Um So so that's good. Cool. The operative issue, you know, the operative Part of Terminating and having to pay damages is without cause. This seems without this is the thing. What is cause?
Cause is arguably going to be dictated by the contract. And assuming it's a decent contract, it's not going to be that hard to figure out what what what Constitutes cause in this case. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm sure delay I'm sure unreasonable delay you would hope. is is in there.
Right? Because anytime, so anytime you have a contract between two people, whatever it's for. uh and they talk about termination without cause. They they usually tell you what for for cause. They'll give you like a list or they'll kind of you know, but but they'll there's usually a provision in there where you have to give the other party notice.
That you're holding them, you know, you're, you know, you haven't been out here in three months. If you're not here next week, we're going to terminate four calls: the cause being. you know, the doll the dollar. And usually, in these kind of contracts, once you give official notice. Whether that's an email, whether that's a letter, that's FedEx, what what you know, whatever it is, you got to give usually have to give written notice that the other you are going to hold the ol other party in breach and for what reasons.
And then usually those contracts give the other party we call it a chance to cure.
So if they send him a letter and be like, look, it's been three months. If you're not out here by, you know Next Monday. We're going to move forward, hire an attorney, terminate this with calls, look for our deposit back. And the other party can can Has an opportunity to cure, right?
So I think that's what this question here is doing: hey, we got a contract. The terms of the contract govern the relationship, so we need to read the contract. But hopefully. You know, the contract has a provision like like that. But um, where uh if if I if I text you and say I'm coming on Monday, I can do that indefinitely for all time.
In perpetuity. Yeah. Didn't say which Monday. It didn't say which Monday. Yeah, if we're gonna really get down to brass tacks here.
Questions. Again, these are in our fall legal cleanup. These questions happen legally all the time, and you may have something that's close to this. But certainly, take everything with a grain of salt. Your situation is unique to you.
Make sure you have your own consult. And again, we have complimentary consults with Whitaker and Hamer in and around estate planning and a personal injury case. If you're facing it, just call us 919-7727000 and grab one, 919-7727000. You can also visit the website. Great resource for you, wh.lawyer.
All right, next category: ex-wife is still my life insurance beneficiary.
So here's the question. I got divorced in March of last year after 14 years of marriage. We divided everything in our separation agreement, and I updated my will. Last week, I realized my ex-wife is still listed as the beneficiary on a $500,000 life insurance policy and an old retirement account. My will leaves everything to my two children.
Does the divorce automatically take my ex off of these accounts? Uh no. No, yeah. Right, you know, there's some laws in North Carolina that will take an ex-spouse out of a will under certain circumstances if your will doesn't get updated, you know. But life insurance is a private contract.
Your retirement account is a contract. These are non-probate items. They pass according to the instructions that you've provided the life insurance company or your bank.
So the the the answer is is Is no. And that's one of the reasons, you know, this is kind of stuff we all put off. Like, everybody does it, right? Everybody's busy. These are the kind of things that are easy to put off because you're not thinking about them every day.
But yeah, if you get divorced and, you know. Usually, there's a, you know, if you have attorneys involved, there's an order. You guys have already agreed, you don't have to keep this life insurance policy. This is what, you know. But if a spouse is supposed to, a next spouse is supposed to come off, you have to manually.
Do that. It's pretty easy to do. Um You know, change those beneficiaries. But yeah, you gotta do it. Yeah, I think a lot of people just forget.
Yeah. I mean, it's a hectic time, and you're just...
Some of you are Distraught, or maybe happy to get through that process, but you kind of forget about things. Unless you're the type that's just, that's your number one priority: to prevent your ex-spouse from getting anything. And that's the first thing you do. You're. You know, at least when we have an estate planning, like if you call and you want an estate planning consult with us, I usually send you a questionnaire so I can get some basic information.
I don't like our consults to be, I don't like the first 20 minutes of our consults to be me getting information from you. There are certain things I need to do to be able to give you advice. Like I need to know if you have kids. Are those kids under 18? You know, what assets do you have?
Do you own an interest in a company?
So I have, you know, I don't bury you in questions, but I like to see that ahead of time so I can look at it. And then when I sit down to talk to you, I already know. Those things, and we can go right into talking about my concerns, estate planning. Maybe I can ask some follow-up questions, right? We have plenty of a state where we ask, Do you have life insurance?
You know, who are the beneficiaries? And there's a lot of people who have just acquired life insurance over the years. And they don't think about it again after they Get it, right? It gets automatically drafted out of your account. You don't think about it again.
And so that comes up a lot when I talk to people. I remember talking to somebody, they had like six or seven policies because they had bought them at different times in their lives. And his parents were beneficiaries on some of them, an ex-spouse was on some of them, some of them had the kids. And so figuring all that out actually took time and energy. Yeah, you gotta get those updated.
Something like that happens.
Well, an opportunity to grab one of our consults at Whitaker and Hamer. If you've got situations like that that you're a little bit concerned about, one, check the beneficiaries, but certainly really get that estate plan in order. And if you don't have one, opportunity to have a consult about it, no cost, no obligation.
Well, it's right now, 919-7727000. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. And just say estate planning, consult, and they will sign you up for that. It is complimentary. 919-7727000.
And you're not obligated to become a client. And guess what? They're not obligated to take you as a client. This is a great way to see if it's a good fit. And if you want to roll forward, you certainly can.
Both sides, that is. And you can also go to the website, treat that as a resource, wh.lawyer. That's wh.lawyer. We've got more Judica County coming up with Josh and Joe. And it's all about legal questions, kind of that fall cleanup.
We're in the middle of it. The next category, it's an odd lead-in, but here it is. Moms. Will was written when I was 12. Hmm, I wonder what the question's going to be.
You're going to have to tune in to find out. You're listening to Judah County Radio. We are back on Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina and managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, the power behind this program.
And office is placed across our great state for your convenience right here in Raleigh, as well as Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucwave Arena, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Want to remind you too during the course of the show or at any time, grab one of our complimentary consults on estate planning or maybe a personal injury case you're facing and you've got some questions. Just call the number and request it.
919-77270000. Complimentary means leave the checkbook at home: 919-77270000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyers.
So I said right before we went to commercial break, mom's will was written when I was 12, and I left you hanging there.
So here's the question: My mother, aged 68, keeps saying she already has a will. I finally took a look at it, and it was signed back in 1999. I think Prince wrote a song about that. It names my grandfather as executor, but he's been deceased for 15 years. It also says my inheritance should be held in trust.
Until I'm twenty-five.
Well, I'm now thirty-nine with two children of my own. Is this will still valid, or does it expire after a certain amount of time?
Well, there's you know, there's a lot to talk about there. You know, wills don't expire, right? You can, if I signed a will when I was legally of age, right?
So, I'm say I was 18 and I did a will. A lot of kids do that these days when they're going off to college. They'll do POAs and they'll do wills. Let's say that's the only will I ever got, and I died when I was 99 years old. That will's still a good will.
Now, some of the things might not be very accurate some of the provisions, right? But um And there's some things that can change along the way, but wheels don't. stop being valid. Dude, hey, 99 was a good year, man. 1999 was 27 years ago.
It was great, man. Probably some great wills drafted just based off of the general vibes in society, you know? Yeah. So that will back in 1999 is still good. He mentions that his mother appointed his grandfather as executor and he's passed, right?
So the clerk, there's other heirs can apply to be the executor. The executor problem can be handled fairly easy, so that's not a big deal. And it said, obviously, it was made when he was 12, right?
So it wanted everything held in trust until he's 25.
Now he's 39, so there won't be a trust, right? The trust only springs into existence. That's a testamentary trust. It only exists if he was 24 when his mom died. There would have been a trust for one year.
Under the terms of the will, but he's 39, so he's just going to get his. His inheritance outright, no trust.
So those are all. Those are all easy things to do. You know, assets can change. In a perfect world, the mom would have reviewed this will at some point and probably updated it, maybe made provisions for the grandchildren. um updated the executor.
But this will doesn't fail because it's twenty seven years old. Yeah. Next question up, guys.
Next category, I should say: the fence is four feet onto my property. Here's the question: My neighbors replaced their fence this past spring. We didn't think much about it until we had our property surveyed for a detached garage. The surveyor says about 80 feet of their new fence is three to four feet inside our property line. The neighbor says the old fence was in the same location for at least 20 years, and therefore that strip.
Belongs to him now. Is this true? Uh I mean, no, it's not. It's not true, you know. Um In North Carolina.
There's a there's a legal theory. Right, a legal avenue called adverse possession, right? And basically, if I Control this property, even if it's yours, if I control it in such a way as to meet these. uh prerequisites than you know after you know After a certain amount of time, I can go to court and try to argue that I now own this property. It's called adverse possession.
So here, That's what the neighbor is saying. Like, hey, my fence was there for 20 years. You know, I've adversely possessed this property, and it's not an automatic thing that happens, right? You have to go to court and you have to prove six things that are kind of hard to prove in this kind of situation, a neighbor situation where your property is, you know, you live close together here.
So the history, the history matters. You know, did someone own it? Who owned the property before him? There's a lot of things an attorney would look at.
So, know the neighbor saying that. The strip belongs to him is false. That's not. True. He may have an adverse possession claim.
But he has to file a lawsuit. He has to prove some things. That's not a that's not a it doesn't automatically happen. Yeah. There's elements that that have to be met.
Yeah, and uh and honestly and again Normally, you know, In a perfect world, you get along with your neighbors, right? I know that doesn't always happen. That's not always in the cards. That's not how it works a lot. But.
But here, you know, my recommendation would be like, look. You can, you know, if you didn't even notice that the fence was this, you guys can come together and sign like an encroachment agreement. Basically, you can say you can acknowledge the encroachment. Like, look, your fence is there, as long as it's in good repair. It can stay there.
If you ever replace the fence again, you got to put it where it's supposed to go. And so you can acknowledge the encroachment and allow it to stay. The neighbor can waive any adverse possession rights he may have acquired in the property, and then the fence gets to stay where it is. And that usually makes everybody happy. Um You know, and then and then you don't have to like feud with your your neighbor, you know.
Or get involved in litigation over four feet.
So that's kind of what I would hope would happen in this situation. A lot of people. Uh you know, they kind of get they dig their feet in and they're like no Um and that's fine too. But here we usually try to see if there's some kind of middle ground everybody can. Can hold on to.
Okay. All right.
Well, we're going to hit one more real quick, and this is from the category of Josh Whitaker, possibly has a lead foot. Here is the category. I missed court on my speeding ticket.
So here's the question. I got a speeding ticket back in May for $78. Miles an hour in a 55. I completely forgot about the court date because I was traveling for work. I recently received something in the mail mentioning failure to appear and my driver's license.
I haven't been pulled over since. Can I just pay the original ticket online and make this disappear? No. I mean, again, the short answer, I feel like we're getting a lot of yes-no questions. You should go through just 100 questions, just yes, no.
No elaboration. True, false. Yes, no, no. Once you miss court, you got to, you know, you got to, you got to fix it. You know, you can't just pay the ticket.
You're probably going to want to get an attorney involved. Attorneys don't charge. I mean, back when I was growing up, you got a speeding ticket. You were going to spend a lot of money with an attorney to go handle that speeding ticket. I think capitalism has brought that price down.
Attorneys don't usually charge very much. I mean, it's. Again, no one wants to pay an attorney when they don't have to. But if you get a speeding ticket... I mean Yeah him.
You know, an attorney can show up for you. You don't have to go to court on most speeding tickets. An attorney is going to get it solved. Quickly, you know, you don't have to worry about missing court. But here, you've missed court, you can't just pay it.
And attorneys would tell you not to pay it anyway, right? Even if this guy hadn't missed court, if you pay it, you're going to get some points. If you go to an attorney, attorneys usually have kind of strategies, know the counties they practice in, and maybe can avoid driver's license points, insurance points. But a failure to appear is no laughing matter, and you've got to take that seriously because there's probably an order out for his arrest. Right, this guy asking the question: nothing's happened yet, but what would happen if you get pulled over is you could get arrested for failure to appear, yeah.
Which is bad. Yeah, you don't want that. You don't want that to happen. All right, complimentary consult Whitaker and Hamer: Estate planning or personal injury in that category. You can call at any time, 919-7727000.
That's 919-7727000. You can also visit the website, wh.lawyer. We've got more questions. Our fall legal cleanup. These are questions we're handling for you today.
You're listening to Judica County Radio. We're back after this. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your host, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices placed all over the state for your convenience: Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fucuva Arena, down near Charlotte and Gastonia, and over at the coast, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
Pleasure to jump on with the attorneys. Just hitting some fall legal cleanup questions. And here's the next category, guys. I was hurt in January, but I wanted to finish treatment. Here's the question: I was rear-ended back in January of this year.
The other driver's insurance company accepted responsibility and has been calling me every few weeks. I've had physical therapy, I've had injections, and may need another procedure. I haven't hired an attorney because I thought. I should finish the treatment first. The adjuster recently told me they'd like to wrap this up.
Am I hurting myself by waiting?
So you know if you get in a car accident And you're injured. Right. You you know, usually your your attorney Everything, every circumstance is different, right? Every case is different, but usually. Your attorney is going to advise you.
to finish treating. Right. You either if you if you if If you have a a permanent injury, That's different, right? If you get hurt in a fashion where you're always going to have this back issue, or you're always going to have problems, that's a different. Conversation for your attorney, but here.
Usually, your attorney is going to want you to finish treatment. You have. Right, we talk about a statute of limitations, right? On most cases in North Carolina, you have a certain amount of time to file a lawsuit, and if you don't do it, You're forever barred from bringing the potential claim, right? It's called a statute of limitations.
So, in a personal injury in a car accident, the statute of limitations is three years.
So you have three years to file. A lawsuit against the other driver. That's who you'd be suing, right? You'd be suing the driver that hit him. And it's great the other insurance company has been checking in.
They're not your friend, right? You know, if you meet with an attorney or you hire an attorney, the attorney is going to tell you don't talk to the other insurance company. No good's going to come from it, right? Um So, the answer is the question: Am I hurting myself by waiting? No.
No. If it's an injury that you're going to overcome, that you're going to get back to pretty close to 100%. Normally, attorneys will want you to finish treatment, finish all your physical therapy. see what everything feels like they're gonna they're gonna want you to finish so Um I d I don't think That they're hurting themselves.
Now, if you're two and a half years down the road, you're getting close to three years. That's a whole different conversation. Because now, do you have permanent injuries? Should we get a disability rating? It changes the attorney's strategy and the valuation of the case because you don't want to be filing the last day.
Two years, 364 days later. You don't want to push it that far. But here, I think he's all right.
Next question up.
Next category: we're going to move to four siblings, one mountain house, zero agreement. All right, that's the category. Here is the question: Our parents left a mountain cabin equally to four kids. It has been five years. One sister uses it almost every weekend.
One wants to Airbnb it. I want to keep it for family vacations, and our brother wants to share just a share of the money. We've all been splitting taxes and insurance, but now he says he'll file something in court if we don't buy him out. Can one owner really force the rest of us to sell? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. That's another. They can't. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, we've talked about it on the show. There's a statute that would allow one owner of property to file a petition to partition. Yeah, because you don't, the law won't allow you to be trapped, right?
You know, so here it sounds like, again, like the parties could come together and agree to something, right? The parties could come together and say, look, well, Airbnb it, I can still take my family vacation there and we'll buy out the one guy who wants to be bought out. If you know, you can do that, you can buy his one-fourth interest. Um And then everybody can, you know, property, you know, management agreement or put the property in an LLC and have an operating agreement.
So the siblings that want to keep it could probably work out their differences and find a way to keep it and then buy out the person who wants to be bought out. But if they don't, the one person who wants to sell, Can go down and the court will order a sale, you know, and it's just gone. And so you have to take that very seriously. Um 'Cause that is uh that's what's gonna happen.
So, it's not like you outvoted him three to one and there's nothing he can do about it. He can blow it all up. And so, in this situation, again, I would encourage everybody to see if a buyout's an opportunity on the table, and if they can buy him out, they can agree to how to manage the property and manage the asset in a fair way. Probably work through this. Yeah, it's family.
Families always get along. All right, so here's the final category. We had a baby and still haven't done our wills.
So here is the question. My wife and I had our first child back in February of this year. We're both 32. We own a house, each have life insurance through work, and have about $150K combined in retirement accounts. We keep saying we're going to make wills but haven't gotten around to it.
It's called estate planning. If something happened to both of us tomorrow, would our parents automatically get our daughter and manage her money? You cannot count on that automatically occurring. Yeah, yeah, n you know, nothing If you haven't put an estate plan in place, nothing happens. Automatically.
It could work out that way. Yeah, you might you might get there, but the court's gonna be involved. The court is gonna be involved. Exactly. Yeah, and there's going to be, you know, there's going to be a court official, depending on where you're at, a judge or a clerk.
They're going to have a hearing. On who the children should be with, and if, like, the grandparents in this case, like, if they're if they've got health problems or they've got something like that, you know, the kids could end up.
Somewhere else. You know, it's not automatic. And that's the scary thing. That's the. Number one reason people do estate planning is they have A kid.
Some people are fond, like people can figure out what to do with my assets. That's their problem. I'll be dead. But once you have a kid, You really do have to. Tell the world how you want your kid cared for when you're gone.
That can be, you know, who the guardian's gonna be. Right, who's going to take care of them? You can put that in your will. You can put it, you know, you can put a trust together who's going to manage the assets. You can get real detailed.
How are they going to manage the assets? When is the, you know, someone else can manage the assets. If you're very well off and you have a lot of assets, you may want a more professional type person to be the trustee of the trust for the support of your kids. Yeah, you definitely can't count on... what you want to happen.
Automatically happening in this situation. It's like Joe said, you may get there. It may end up that way, but it's going to be a real bumpy ride until you get there. Um A lot of stress and a lot of legwork that could otherwise have been prevented.
Well, I have enjoyed the fall cleanup. These are a lot of questions from different areas, but certainly, you know, estate planning, that is something that a number of these questions have kind of Touched on and an opportunity for you if you're out there and you might be in a similar situation, but you haven't really started the estate planning process, this would be a good opportunity. It's a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer and just come on in and talk about your logistics and how you want things done. Stop procrastinating and kicking the can down the road, especially with an opportunity that comes with no cost and you're not obligated to become a client. You certainly can become a client, but again, this is an opportunity for you to really kind of get the ball rolling.
Call the number 919-77270000. That's 919-77270000 and grab one of those complimentary consults. And also, if you're facing a personal injury case and you've got a bunch of questions, you don't know which step to take next, grab one of the consults as well, 919-7727000, 919-7727000. You can also visit the website wh.lawyer, which is a website where you can treat. It is a resource for you.
That's wh.lawyer. Well, looky, looky, another edition of Judica County Radio is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. Guys, we'll see you on the radio next week. Oh yeah, yeah.
John Blue. 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.
