Trump Colorado Arguments, Hawaii, & Taylor Swift plus Q&A

Coming up on Judica County Radio today, we've got a lot to get to.

Of course, we've got our host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind the program. Oral arguments in Colorado about, yes, former President Donald Trump, will he be on the ballot? And Hawaiian Supreme Court, they've got a big decision.

And Taylor Swift is in the news and it doesn't have anything to do with football. That's all coming up on Judica County Radio. Welcome in to Judica County Radio. Your host are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind this program.

They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. It's always about legalese. We're going to hit the hot topics. We're going to have question and answer.

There's going to be a lot on this show, so don't go anywhere. Now, if you're interested, you can go to www.judicacountyradio.com. If you're facing a legal situation and you've got questions, you can always call Whitaker and Hamer, 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact number and briefly what the call's about, and they'll be in touch with you, 800-659-1186. You can also email your questions to the show, info at judicacounty.com. We'll get to them on a future broadcast. So, Josh, Joe, let's take this away.

I think we're going to start, well, first of all, our hellos, and then we're going to go out to Colorado, I think. You know, we thought we'd keep it a little more topical this week, and so there's always good legal tidbits in the news. One of the reasons we started this show a long, long time ago was to talk about these legal news items. You know, me and Joseph, we don't always feel these legal topics get discussed the proper way when you're watching the nightly news or if you still read the newspaper in the newspaper. So anyway, we like to dissect them, talk about them.

You'll remember me and Joe are pretty apolitical when you say Joseph. Yes, that's exactly what I would say. So we present these a lot of times not coming from any particular angle, just as attorneys.

You know, again, if this came in front of me in my office as a consult, just kind of how we would look at it. And the first thing I wanted to look at this week is something that was big news here recently, but you may remember, Joseph, a couple of states through different mechanisms have decided that Donald Trump shouldn't be on their state ballot for election as president. Do you see all that? Yeah, man, I saw people are really mad at Donald Trump, I think.

That's what I saw. Have you heard that? Yeah, I've heard some mutterings, you know, we talked about that. Yeah, he's a controversial, I think he's a controversial figure. There's not many people who have no opinion on former president Donald Trump, right? Yeah, I did hear that. People either really, really like him or really, really dislike him.

And there doesn't seem to be a lot of in between. But anyway, a couple of states, Colorado is the one that we're going to talk about. Colorado decided to pull him from the ballot under, I always have to pull this up to make sure I don't tell you you're wrong, under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. And I'm going to read that real quick, at least the parts that matter. But that part of the Constitution says that no person shall be a senator or representative of Congress or elector of president and vice president or hold any office under the United States or under any state having previously taken an oath. I'm paraphrasing now to get to the part that we need, and shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same. Right.

So the theory here is that if you've taken an oath to serve the country in elected office or military or whatever it has been, and you participate in an insurrection or rebellion, you would not then be eligible for office again. Right. That's what that's saying. Yeah, I think you did a great job. You did a great job reading.

You got a real skill, man. You should rewrite the Constitution in your own words. And obviously that came into play some, you know, during the Civil War, you know, but anyway, Colorado has decided to say that, you know, President, former President Trump, because of whatever you think happened January 6th, should not appear on that state's ballot. So they made a decision at the state level to prevent Trump from even appearing as a person that you could vote for for president. And the Colorado Supreme Court agreed with the actions of the state of Colorado. And so, as of our recording, Trump was not on the ballot in Colorado. That ended up going to the U.S. Supreme Court, and oral arguments were this past week, and they were interesting.

So let me ask you this, just from an outside looking in and non-legally's mind, you guys are in that field. What options, again, we are in the middle, we're Switzerland, we're just talking about this, but what options does former President Trump have if he's booted off the ballot, if he has any, or is he done? Well, it was a decision by the Colorado State Supreme Court, so those decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that's kind of what happened. But this is the end of the line right here, so this is it.

And I think to kind of answer a version of your question, Morgan, there's a few options. They could disqualify Trump, they could basically affirm that ruling and disqualify him. They could say that it's a political question, that it's not really one for the courts to answer, it's one that legislators should answer.

Or they could keep him on the ballot and strike it down. But this is it, man. You get to the Supreme Court and it's kind of like, that's the end of the line for you in terms of relief. And I think it's important, this isn't, sorry my computer's about to die here. This isn't something that happens every day, this isn't a normal thing. This thing has only happened once, maybe once, maybe twice, I can't remember, where this has been used, and it's been used on a federal level. It's the U.S. Constitution, and this is a state kind of taking this into their own and trying to do this. And it doesn't sit well with me, I don't like anything like this that could be misused when you start setting a precedent for pulling off people off a ballot that people in your state might want to vote for.

I'm not a big fan. And like I said, oral arguments for today and the justices seem to all kind of, which is weird, seem to all, if you just read, a lot of times in oral arguments for folks who watch the U.S. Supreme Court, you kind of read their body language and the questions they're asking and you try to figure out, there's been no vote yet, we expect a decision imminently, because time is of the essence as they say. But I don't think the U.S. Supreme Court's going to agree that Colorado as a state deciding who should be on their ballot for a national office, a federal office, I don't know, I just don't think that's going to fly. Yeah, and you saw the justices all, you know, everybody had a lot of scrutiny for this and really pondered the implications, because you're looking at a scenario potentially where everyone's going to try to keep folks off the ballot, both sides.

That's how it is when you've got such clearly drawn lines, you know, as we do in politics. Well, it's going to be obviously a very hot button issue as we move towards election dates. And I mean, having one state kind of step up and do this, I mean, it's going to make a lot of headlines, but at the same time, everybody feels like he's going to be somewhere. He's going to be around.

He is going to be an option. So I guess moving forward, how does that work in a political election if, per se, Colorado says he's off? Well, I think the Supreme Court's going to, I think, again, they could surprise us, but we're just basing this off oral arguments. There has been no vote.

There's been no order issued. But I think the Supreme Court's going to stomp this out, you know, you know, this is not something the state can do. And, you know, I don't know, it's hard until you're convicted. It's hard to say that you participated in an insurrection or rebellion.

Those aren't words we throw around easily. That's something you have to be convicted of. And, you know, it's just a weird story, and it's weird that the state of Colorado did that, and then their Supreme Court upheld it. Because I think anybody with any kind of legal know-how, any kind of legal knowledge suspected that this was probably going to get batted down, you know. Well, we will keep an eye on it. I want to remind you, too, you're locked in to Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm are your hosts. And, again, they're the managing partners. And this is about if you've got any legal situation that you're facing, you can always contact Whitaker and Hamer. They have offices conveniently located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and Moorhead City. The number to call is 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information, briefly what the call's about, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. Again, that number, 800-659-1186. You can also email your questions to info at judicacounty.com.

That's info at judicacounty.com. We'll answer those questions on a future program. We have more legalese coming up.

There's a Hawaiian Supreme Court ruling. We'll talk about that. And also, Taylor Swift is making headlines outside of football. And we have a beard debate on the show. We're all bearded.

One is more enhanced than the others. But we're going to talk about the beard status of Judica County Radio when we return. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm are your hosts. And again, the power behind this program. Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, your law firm for life.

They have offices conveniently located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. Again, the attorneys go back and forth on so many different legal topics. You may have a situation that you're facing. You may have questions you need answers to. Well, I have a phone number for you. You can call it at any time and get some information. 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information, briefly what the call's about, and an attorney will return your call. 800-659-1186. You can also email your questions to info at judicacounty.com.

That's info at judicacounty.com. I jokingly mentioned our beards. Part of our show, and again, we're on the radio, but we are YouTube, social media. There are going to be clips all over the place of our three beautiful faces. And I haven't seen you guys in a while. And Josh, you have been growing your beard. Joe, you have really caught up well. Your beard is really filling in. And I was actually a little bit, not offended, but I didn't feel like I rated well because Josh complimented me when we finally hooked up our video today that I had a nice mustache. So, Morgan, thank you for hitting on me.

I want to start off with that. I haven't been hit on any today, man. And coming from you, that's probably the best thing that's happened to me in weeks. Well, married men and men in committed relationships, we don't get hit on that much, so I'll throw it all away for you, Morgan.

I'm glad I could help you there. But I mean, Josh mentioned it earlier in the program. I mean, he's got a Civil War reenactment beard going on.

Why would you hide in that thing, man? I mean, look at that thing. That is a nice looking beard. You know, it doesn't take a lot of effort for me to grow a beard. So this is just me. I try to trim it up once every week or so, and I've missed a couple of weeks in a row.

And it's gotten a little long. But no, I like the mustache. So you're doing the whole thing? I can only really see the mustache. Oh, I see it on the sides. You got the gray on the chin. I'm kind of white on the chin, so it doesn't look as deep. And a lot of people have mistaken for just the mustache because a couple years ago, I went Ted Lasso, grew the full beard, shaved it down to a mustache, and I pulled off a pretty good Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso for Halloween. But I like that. I mean, if I do the mustache, though, it's gonna get I think it'll get old a little quick. I like having the full facial hair. Michelle, not so much, but I like it. You know, I don't know that I like the beard so much as I like just not shaving. I love not shaving. That's what I love. But I'll trim mine up a little bit, bring it back down to more respectable attorney levels here. Well, Joe, speaking of tights, I mean, that is a well groomed facial frock you've got going on there. Yeah.

You know, yes, I can take I can take no credit for it because I don't do this, man. It takes a team of professionals to do this. We just had the barbershop.

It takes painstaking hours. It was yesterday, man. But my barber, my barber is a wizard, man. Like he's one of the he's one of the goats, as they would say.

Well, guys, I want to take a minute. It seems like I have a theory that that Taylor Swift is getting to near like early 80s Michael Jackson levels of popularity. Like like, oh, yeah, because you can't she's in you know, she's in football. She's in every kind of news story that comes out, it seems like. And so the only thing I can compare that to in my life was like Michael Jackson about about the time Thriller came out. You could have any nothing happened without it touching Michael Jackson's career somehow, it seemed like. But but Taylor Swift was in the news twice over the past couple of weeks. Both of them kind of kind of led into two possible legal action.

And so the first one I was going to bring up is, you know, Taylor Swift being very successful, has several at least two private jets. That's what I took from the news. Yeah. She got two more than half.

Right. She's two up on us. I was I was I was on the impression she had one, but she had she probably has to certainly she can afford to.

I think she has to. And if you guys know anything, I don't know if you're on Twitter or X. There's all these people out there because the private jet, the public airplanes, like the way they move around, all that information is public. And if you know how to look that stuff up, that's you can tell where people are going. You know, when NC State or Carolina or Alabama or somebody's hiring a football coach, the plane trackers get on there and figure out where coaches are flying. It's all public information, you know? And so Taylor Swift's private jet's no different.

There's a guy on Twitter and that's what he does. He tells you she's leaving Malibu and flying to New York and they track her jet. That's made her angry or the people around her angry.

You never know if it's the actual celebrity or just the people around them. But she threatened to sue. They sent this guy a cease and desist, accused him of stalking and and harassing her.

And Joseph, I was interested what you thought about that. Yeah, man. You think that's stalking and harassing? What do you think about that?

It's it's funny, man, because I don't know that it's tech. There's an element of it that is very stalkish and harassment ish. Right.

And I wouldn't want that to happen to me. You know, it's you know, but at the same time. I mean, she's a public figure. Exactly.

You know, there's an element of that. Right. She has fame.

People are going to want to know what she's doing. And if you took like six hundred flights a day, Josh, you know, in coach section on these airlines, someone could technically do the same thing to you. Right. Yeah. These these these you can't.

Yeah. So anyways, where's Josh going? It's different for me because I'm really out of my house or the office.

I'm either in my office or the house or back in. I wouldn't love it. I wouldn't love it if it was happening to me. And luckily, nobody knows when I'm on my private jet as I keep it very private. But so this is.

But yeah, I don't know that it amounts to you know, I don't know that it's actionable. So this is a college kid who runs this ex-account that just tracks her tracks her jet. So she's her, you know, I'm sure her big, you know, her big law firm that represents her said send him the stalking, harassing letter, cease and desist.

And he's kind of batted it down. He's he's taking the position like, hey, this is public information. Anybody could do this. Just happens to be me, which is the position I would take.

I would like to see them try to sue this kid because there'd be a lot of people stepping up to represent him. And yeah, I don't I don't think she has much of a leg to stand on there, you know, but I was going to bring up just really quick. You know, a couple of weeks back, I don't know if you guys saw this story, but there was a there was a I don't know how you would. There was a guy who creates A.I. I'm just going to call it pornography. I don't know what else to call it, but explicit images.

Yeah. And so so a guy who was able to do that, who knew how to use A.I. to do that, created a lot of explicit images of Taylor Swift. And they made the rounds on social media, got shared, you know, a lot.

And I think since then, social media has kind of been able to control the distribution of these illegally created images of Taylor Swift. And she's threatened to sue on that. Now, that's a different ballgame there, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a different ballgame. And that's a tough like it's tough, right? Like I feel like it's like a wildfire, you know, like it's good one. Yeah, it's it's it's going to spread.

You know, there's that's almost something that, you know, there needs to be some kind of criminal legislation quickly because that's a new thing. Right. And that's going to think about the possibilities.

Well, I think it's just like anything else. You know, you know, back in the old days, people would try to take Adobe and you'd have folks that would try to create that type of content, take celebrities and create fake nudes and things like that. But you're talking night and day, man, as far as compared to what it was. Right. It is. But there's still that's still like that's illegal now. Right. You know, that's illegal now.

If she were to sue, of course, finding these people, these people are not in the U.S. and you got to, you know, get an IT expert to figure out where these things started and who they came from. And but but and you're talking about a nuance, too. And it's not I don't know how much of a nuance it is, but but the distinction between taking existing images of somebody and then A.I. just generating, you know.

And so I don't know if there's any kind of a legal distinction there, but I don't think it would hurt to have specific targeted legislation specifically for this. There's probably stuff that there's implications we can't even think of regarding something like this is just because of how quickly it. Oh, yeah. It's like it's not going to get any it's going to be more and more common. Right.

It's not going to get any better on it on its own. But but, you know, I was going to entitle this segment. Sometimes Taylor Swift's right. Sometimes she's wrong.

Right. And so I think she's really wrong on this private jet thing. But I felt for her when this happened to her.

I was like that, you know, that's unfair that that would happen to a person that, you know, because millions and millions and millions of people saw these images. And but but yeah, there were there were two that was two legal kind of topics that that kind of involved her just in just a week or so. So I mean, and that's outside the world of football.

Obviously, we know that relationship with the Kansas City tight end, Travis Kelsey. Just a funny story from a couple of weeks ago when we were out watching some of the earlier games in the playoffs. I was kind of shocked. We went to a an establishment to watch the game and sit down and it was crowded. And our waiter sat us and he goes, are you in to watch the games? And I'm like, yeah, we are. We are. We're excited about his. Me, too. I'm such a.

And I went, oh, OK. And so he was not a football fan, but was watching football because of Taylor Swift's involvement. And I tell you, the numbers don't lie, guys. I mean, more people are tuned in or have tuned into the NFL since she has started the relationship with Travis Kelsey and been at these games during the during the regular season and through the playoffs and and obviously through the Super Bowl. But it really is amazing. There is a phenomenon there. And I agree with you, Josh, what you said earlier about. We haven't really seen a pop figure like this since Michael Jackson, where I mean, she really moves the media. Yeah.

Everything she touches one way or the other kind of goes up. But let's vote. Are we Swifties? Are we Swifties? Joe, you're Swifty.

I'm swiftly going to answer. No, I'm not. I don't. I respect what she's done, man. I can respect her talent like I don't hate her. I don't hate on her. But I'm not I mean, she's not my like I'm not in her demographic. Really, that it's not your what she produces.

All our music is not right. I can I can appreciate it. You know, I got it. I got I can respect the artist in the part of that. All right.

So we are up against the break. We will take that Judica County radio. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, your hosts. Again, remember your law firm for life. They have offices located.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. You've got a legal situation you're facing. You can call the firm.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Got any questions? An attorney will return that phone call.

Just leave your contact information briefly. What the call is about. You can also email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com.

And we'll get to those on a future broadcast. We'll have more Judica County coming up. Welcome back into Judica County radio.

Your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're attorneys. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm. And again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.

Offices located conveniently for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. Each and every week the attorneys go back and forth on legal topics.

So we are hitting question and answer on real estate today. If you've got a legal situation you're facing, you can always call Whitaker and Hamer. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your contact information briefly. What the call's about. An attorney will be in touch with you.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Or email your questions to the show. We'll answer it on a future broadcast. It's info at Judica County dot com.

That's info at Judica County dot com. Again, Q&A, real estate, the focus. Josh. Yeah. Yeah. We had some we had we had a real estate question before the break, but we're going to we're going to move into something else.

We might come back to real estate. But this next one, this guy, this guy asking this question, I'm trying to boil it down because it's like a paragraph. But basically, this guy was in a car accident.

Right. He was in a car accident. The parties couldn't settle. He was not at fault. He was injured significantly or severely. And they ended up going to trial.

Right. Because that's what happens. You're in an accident. Sometimes you try to meet, you know, there's a mediation and there's a whole process to try to settle a personal injury claim. A lot of times they won't settle. And so you have to prepare for and go to trial. So this one went to trial. I got one, a judgment. It doesn't have an amount here. I must say it was a million bucks.

And he's basically asking now what? So he won. He won the trial. The insurance company was on the hook for a small amount. Let's say really small, let's say thirty thousand dollars. He gets a judgment against the driver that hit him for a million dollars. That driver has insurance, but not enough to cover it. So that insurance company just turns over what they owe.

And his question is now what? And so basically this could be any situation where you have a judgment against somebody. It's nice when there's insurance there to cover it. A lot of times that's what personal injury attorneys are looking for. They're looking for insurance coverage. So sometimes you sue people and they're what we call judgment proof, meaning you can get a 50 million dollar judgment against a defendant, but that defendant may be judgment proof.

What does that mean, Joe? What does it mean when somebody is judgment proof? So, yeah, basically, if you're judgment proof, it just means that there's nothing for you own, nothing that a judgment could attach to.

Right? So you don't have real property that a lien could be placed on. You don't have, there's just no way for you to realize any value from this judgment. So you could have an infinite, a 10 billion dollar judgment against somebody, but it's only as good and as valuable as the person that the judgment is against.

Yeah. This, you know, when we have folks who move, you know, me and Joe, it's a good time to remind you that we're only licensed to practice in North Carolina. So we're always talking about North Carolina law. But when people move here from other states like Florida and Texas and New York, they ask me questions at closing about what do they need? What do they need to do to set this up as a homestead? They ask about homestead exceptions. And in some states you can exempt your residence from a judgment. That's what that's what a homestead exception here in North Carolina.

You don't really have a homestead exception. You have statutes that reserve a certain amount of equity in your home, a certain amount of equity in a vehicle, certain personal effects. So the statutes automatically protect some of your more basic property from the execution of a judgment protected in a bankruptcy, that kind of thing. And so when we go out to serve our million dollar judgment on this defendant, he's got to have something in he's got to own something in excess of what's protected by statute. And a lot of people don't own anything in excess of what's protected by statute. You know, if you have an extra if you have a super fancy car, a lot of the equity in that car, if you have any is not going to be protected.

If you have a big house, you know, only a certain amount of equity is protected. And so this lien, this judgment lien can attach to everything you own that's not protected by the North Carolina Exemptions statute. So that's what judgment proof means. Like I can try to collect on this judgment and the sheriff will go out there, not be able to find anything to sell.

You know, you can use a judgment to foreclose on real property, but there has to be real property that's not exempt for you to be able to do that. And so there's a lot of protections against a debtor to a certain extent. And so a lot of times personal injury attorneys will look at that.

They'll say, OK, this is all the insurance that's available, but we know these folks own this or they own that. But that is that's what's next. And then the other thing that could be next is it could be appealed.

Right. You know, if you if you go to Superior Court in Wake County and you lose, you might have an appealable issue. And you can go to the North Carolina Court of Appeals if you have an appealable issue. So that's the other thing that could happen.

You either have to go and start collecting this judgment or in a certain amount of time, the defendant can appeal it to the court of appeals. I think that answers this guy's question. What happens now? Yeah, you're welcome, guy. That's a good answer, man. Well, I got to I got to I lost my my next question.

So you were in the zone on that one, man. Like if you never answered another question like that's your I feel like a slam dunk. I feel like it's a walk off for a walk off question.

Yeah, it's a walk off we should do. I mean, we should do that more, man. Get better and better at answering the same question every week, man. All right. About I'm about to my next question here. All right.

Well, I'll do this. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer. And again, offices conveniently located for you.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and Morehead City. And their their motto, your law firm for life, Whitaker and Hamer. If you've got a legal situation that you're facing, look, we get it.

It can be frustrating. You can get answers to your questions by calling Whitaker and Hamer 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact info briefly what the call's about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. We are in the middle of question and answer, doing some real estate, doing a car accident question there. What's up next, Josh? I got the next question I have. I'm going to bounce back to real estate because the next question is a private road question. And we just talked about an easement. Usually easements. Another word for those in the in the vernacular is a private road. Right. An access easement. And so here we've got someone who who has access. That's not the issue.

So they've gotten over that issue. They have access to a main road versus a private road. But their question is maintenance. And so they're basically asking, hey, we purchased a home. Several homes in the cul-de-sac share a private road.

There is no maintenance agreement. How do we go about maintaining the private road? And so that actually comes up quite a bit. Joe, you probably see that a lot. Yeah, I see it a good amount, man.

A good amount. And it's it's one of those things. And, you know, kind of the piggyback on that private road maintenance agreement issue. You've also got a lot of people don't understand that when when a new subdivision is developed around these parts, the roads aren't automatically made public.

Right. Like you're going to the plat of the subdivision is going to be the dedication of those roads to become public. But for them to be accepted, there's various things that have to happen. And there are standards that must be met for the NC DOT or whatever municipality is going to be maintaining these roads to accept them. So there's also going to be a component in those situations where a road is going to ultimately be public.

But it's the same concept. You need an agreement in place dictating how the maintenance of that that road is going to take place. So you're going to set forth who's responsible for it, whether it's an individual, whether it's a developer, whether it's a group of people. And the more firmly and the more, you know, the more well spelled out you can talk about the obligations of each person and what they're going to do and what they're going to owe and what the maintenance obligation is going to be, the better.

Yeah. A lot of these when I think about private maintenance, private road, in my mind, I'm thinking about a country road that comes off like, you know, a highway, like off Highway 401 and not a not a planned subdivision, kind of like family land. It's been sold over the years. And so it wasn't created with a purpose of other people coming in. And so you end up with a situation where you might have access, which is what a closing attorney is concerned about. They want to make sure you have access if you go buy this property.

But the closing attorney is not very concerned about maintenance. But when that comes up, you know, everybody does have an obligation for for maintenance. But how are you going to enforce it?

How are you getting everybody to chip in? And this is a big problem. You know, we have some clients up in the mountains and this is always a big problem in the mountains because a lot of those mountain roads see some pretty bad weather and they have to be some of those mountain roads are scary as gravel mountain roads. Yeah, man, they're scary, dude. They're scared to drive on.

There's bears. And they have to be maintained and they have to be maintained that that can be kind of costly. And so most most homeowners get together and figure it out. There's always one homeowner who doesn't want to doesn't want to or isn't able to contribute and you kind of have to figure that out. But but hopefully there's a recorded maintenance agreement, you know, and that's something you can ask about.

If you're buying a home on a private road, your closing attorney is going to make sure you have good access. That's something you watch out for bears. Watch out for bears. Watch out for bears, man, you know, but but maintenance is sometimes a good question to ask because that's yeah, that's that's that's that's a question that can kind of dangle. Yeah.

Yeah, you don't want to have those questions dangling. All right, Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer. They're your hosts. They're also the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They have offices almost in every corner. They're kind of like Starbucks or McDonald's.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and Morehead City. Again, Whitaker and Hamer, the motto, your law firm for life. If you've got a legal question you're facing, you need some answers. You can always call the firm.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your contact info briefly what the call's about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. Again, the number eight hundred six five nine one one eight six and you can always email your questions to the radio show. We'll answer them on a future broadcast info at Judica County dot com.

When we return, we've got more question and answer with Josh and Joe. Welcome back in to Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Of course, Whitaker and Hamer, the power behind this program, they have offices located conveniently for you.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. If you've got a legal situation you're facing, you can always call the firm and get some answers to those questions. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

Eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave your contact information briefly what the call's about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can email your questions to the show. We'll answer them on a future broadcast info at Judica County dot com.

Josh, take it away. You know, when we do this, when we sit around and answer these questions, we hope it's useful. I think the hope is it's entertaining and useful, but at least at the very least useful. And we take these questions as they come.

And some of them are more interesting than others. But anyway, with that said, here's the first question I got out of our pile here is how do you get your court case continued? All right. That's the question. How do you get your court case continued? And they're not telling us what kind of case it is. So we're going to have to go through a couple of cases here. But how do you get your court case continued? You walk in. Front kick to the door, bam, smack it open, storm in. No, it's a you know, you're you go and you ask for a continuous man.

That's really it. And like you said there, the court is going to have leniency in some situations. And they're going to be less lenient than others.

And they're going to look at a variety of factors. And, you know, if this is your if this is the first time you've come to court, it's a minor infraction or offense, assuming this is some kind of a criminal matter. You're likely to get a continuance fairly easily, right? Yeah, I think in traffic, I think in traffic court, you know, small claims court, maybe some district court, you know, it's it's it's easier to get a continuance. And like you said, at least once, at least when maybe several times, right? Like there's traffic tickets that you may be able to get several continuances on that you might have to be.

You might have to give a reason, you know, and an attorney would you know, if you're if you've got an attorney, you're going to let the attorney know ahead of time. The attorney can probably do more than you can walking in the day. But there's the court understands and there's some things built in.

Now, it's hard to do without actually being there. Yeah. So you've already made the trip down and but that being said, but once you move up to like Superior Court, Court of Appeals, continuances are doled out easily. No, you're going to you're going to need a fairly compelling reason, especially after that initial continuance, if you get that.

Yeah. So, you know, when you're when they're setting stuff, Superior Court is very regimented. Things get set for mediation. They get set for trial. And, you know, the courts just aren't going to move that because I inconveniences, you know, once you get to the Superior Court level, you've got witnesses, you've got jurors, you've got, you know, attorneys, you've got parties and usually a lot's riding on it.

And it's not as as easy to move. And so you should always be ready to deal with a case when it's scheduled, because it's, you know, things happen. People go, you know, have to go to the hospital.

You have health, you have you have things. But, you know, the dog eating your homework kind of stuff is not going to go over very well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's true. And has it ever worked for anything in the history of things? I think I knew somebody.

I think I knew somebody whose dog actually did chew up their homework. Yeah. I don't know if it worked.

Even if they did, like, did it work? I mean, I feel like that's the most tragic thing that can happen to you. Like if that genuinely happens to you and you have to give that as a legitimate reason, you're gonna have a tough time. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Anyways.

All right. So that question was easy enough. That's a good question. But I remember, you know, I've seen people in traffic court, you know, which is designed, you know, for folks without attorneys. And you get to talk to the judge, get to talk to the ADA. But I've seen people, you know, yeah, like on their eighth continuance, you know, or whatever.

And sometimes you're waiting for something else to happen. But that's that's definitely not the rule. That's the that's the exception, I would think. Yeah.

Anything over those very like the super lowly infractions in traffic court. And yeah, you're going to need a fairly compelling reason, most likely. All right. Next question I got here is, can you sue a veterinarian for malpractice? That's the next question I got.

Yeah, brother. You can you can sue a veterinarian for negligence. You can technically sue anyone for anything.

I mean, you may not win. But that didn't stop you from suing them, man. So you can you can sue a veterinarian or a lot of different people for for negligence. Right. That's not performing their duties up to the normal standard of care. And so if they do something wrong, you know, I've seen where some veterinarians have you sign some waivers. Right. Where, you know, kind of like a kind of like a doctor, you go in for surgery, you're going to sign a waiver.

Where there's risk attendant with any creature surgery, just like there are for any human surgery. Yeah. And, you know, the the law looks at dogs and cats. I mean, their personal property. Right. They're the same as a car. Are they the same as the car? Yeah, I guess they would be the same as any personal property. So it's it's not a it's not a human. So it's not like a medical malpractice. But it's you know, they screw up your dog.

Now, what's the value of a dog? I feel like we've talked about that before, too. Yeah, we talked.

Yes. Have we? Are you doing the radio show? Did we get into the conversation about if another person's dog bites you like they're like it's. Yeah, we've talked about dog bites for sure. We talked. Yeah, we talked about dog bites.

Speaking of which, man, as an aside. Yeah. There's apparently a wild, wild pack of dogs terrorizing.

Barbara Mill Road area of Clayton. That's always crazy to hear that. No, I haven't heard that heard that they're attacking. They're killing like other people's pets and stuff. They're at large to this day. Now, are we are we sure their dogs or could they be coyotes? It's a ragtag group of dogs.

Like whoever seen him has described them. It's like six dogs and they're all different breeds. And they're like, it's not like just all of one aggressive dog. It's like six random dogs that have just formed a gang. And they're terrorizing the community. It seems like that would be an easy enough thing to stop after the first.

You would think so. Tell it to these dogs that are still at large, though. So they might have been hurt, I guess, or they just think they're getting animals to this point. But you don't want to get rolled up on by the the gang, the sixth street posse of dogs. You know, that's kind of crazy. That's like that should be like a anti Disney movie.

These dogs. Yeah, it's like what was the what was the movie where the dog and the cat and they're all friends. It's an incredible journey or something. Homeward bound. Is that what it is? Well, there's two homeward bounds.

And you've got I could actually tell you a lot about these movies. They run away from home. They actually know they don't run away from home.

They get taken like that anyways. They form a group. They don't form or they are in a group. They're a part of a family from the jump, Josh.

And so they they. OK, well, I was thinking about that, that movie, except they're not good. They're not good dogs. So it's the opposite of homeward bound. They run into some rough characters and homeward bound.

The dogs do. You never seen Homeward Bound, man. I think I had to read the book. I'm pretty sure you've got I know the dog.

I know the animals names, but the actors. I think you got Michael J. Fox. That's the first one at both of them. There's two. And maybe there's more.

I know of two. You got Michael J. Fox. And you got I'm pretty sure you have Sally Field as the cat Sassy, the flying nut. I don't know who plays Shadow. Shadow is the old, wise golden retriever. Does he die? I think he's almost I think he's going to die. And then I think he just doesn't.

Anyways, I want to look at who that actor. They usually kill. That's very important. They usually kill off an animal in one of those movies. Yeah. They pretend like they're going to. And then they. Yeah. Disney is usually the mother. The mother usually passes away in some form or fashion. Homeward Bound.

The Incredible Journey is the I didn't know that had a subtitle, but it does. Let's see. Judica County radio. I'm going to Josh Whitaker. Joe Hamer, managing partners at the firm Whitaker and Hamer.

The power behind this program. You law firm for life offices. Conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. Couple of ways you can get in touch with the firm. If you've got any legal questions, you can certainly email the show info at Judica County Dotcom will answer the question on the future broadcast info at Judica County Dotcom. If you need something a little bit quicker, you can always call the firm. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. We've got more questions and of course, some antics between Josh and Joe. That's all coming up in our final segment of Judica County radio.

We're back right after this. Welcome back into Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer here to wrap up the program. They're managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City.

I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. Remember, if you've got a legal situation that you're facing and you've got questions, you can call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Get in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com and we will answer those questions on a future broadcast. All right, fellas, we are going to wrap this up.

I believe we're going to go to Hawaii for a little bit and then we'll we'll sum sum up our program. I was going to ask you guys who among the three of us. I know I got a concealed carry. Do you guys have a concealed carry?

I do not. But we have started having conversations about maybe getting into the firearms. I mean, it's just, you know, for we live out in a rural area and we're thinking about maybe having something, having a gun safe. Sure.

What if a bear? I carry a sword and carry a sword. Yeah.

So you don't need any kind of permits for that, really? No, no. I check the check. Well, you know, we talked a lot about in 2022. We talked a lot about New York state rifle versus Bruin, which was the Supreme Court case that the Supreme Court kind of said, like, hey, we've got we all have a constitutionally protected right to carry firearms. And it kind of threw some shade at the states that have a very difficult concealed carry permit process. In New York's in that case, it was pointed where it was almost impossible for like a normal person to get a concealed carry permit.

The process was just that daunting. And so that's kind of where the Supreme Court stands. There's been a couple other cases where this Supreme Court is very pro Second Amendment. And they made that clear. And so what caught my eye was there was a case again, we're talking about the state Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Right. So we we talk about the state system and the federal system and how they're different. And anyway, this is the the Hawaii state Supreme Court had a rule, had a case before them where someone was convicted of carrying a concealed weapon without a without a permit, because in Hawaii you can get a permit apparently. But Hawaii decided that they did not they're they're not going to agree with the U.S. Supreme Court stance on this. They've said that the spirit of Hawaii conflicts with the Supreme Court's current interpretation of of concealed carry. So they this is a state Supreme Court. Why this is news is this is a state Supreme Court kind of going off the rails a little bit and going outside of guidance. Earlier in the show, we talked about Colorado State Supreme Court leaving Trump off the ballot, deciding to leave Trump off the ballot. But they didn't really go against any precedent.

That was just this just kind of a fuzzy area. No one really talks about or legislates here. Hawaii kind of went off the rails a little bit, kind of went against went against the grain here. So I imagine the Supreme Court will get this one in and squash it real quick, because that's what happens, right? The Supreme Court tries to keep everybody in line. But again, I thought that was I thought that was that was a good contrast.

Right. What the Colorado Supreme Court did earlier in the show versus what the Hawaii Supreme Court did, just kind of shows you how the states can kind of go their own way. But there's there's consequences eventually before the Supreme Court. You have to justify why you went off the rails a little bit. Doesn't always work out for you when they come for my swords. You're fine with the gun.

My first protest with a gun. But I also want to tell you, you know, today in today's show, we answered some some listener questions. We try to pull some topical things out the news. But me and Joe, we are the managing partners of the law firm of Whitaker and Hamer. We have seven offices across the state. We have our family law attorneys, our personal injury attorneys, business law attorneys, estate planning attorneys, estate admin attorneys.

Basically, for most folks, if you have a brush in with the law, you got something going on at the courthouse. You need some advice. We can help you with just about anything that comes up. And the reason we do this show is that that you that you know about us, you know, that we're here. We spend a lot of our time thinking about all things legal.

That's kind of what runs our runs our lives. And whether it's in person or by phone or by Zoom, you can consult with us and we can be helpful. I feel confident we can help each and every one of you with any legal problems that you have going on right now.

And I would just want to jump into Josh and Joe, you can both comment on this. But the firm itself, Whitaker and Hamer, give us a brief history, because, I mean, it's you guys have really grown this firm. I mean, you have offices pretty much blanketing the state.

That doesn't just happen by happenstance. I mean, you guys really have worked very hard at finding the right attorneys, getting them in these offices to help help everybody. Yeah. So the firm started in 2004. So we're coming up on our 20th year as a firm. But that's always been our goal.

Our goal from the very beginning was, you know, I always think about my family growing up and somebody got a speeding ticket or needed a will. Or, you know, my dad was self-employed. If you get sued right or any issue that comes up, like we wanted to be your go to.

Right. That's that's how we fashioned the firm. Like, we're your attorneys and we can be your law firm for life. We use that a lot. But we what we mean that because we have attorneys that can help with a bunch of different situations. And these these attorneys are handpicked. You know, we approach them.

We we bring them into practice with me and Joseph. And again, you know, Gastonia, Moorhead City, Raleigh, Clayton, Garner, Goldsboro. We've kind of stationed our offices to to to cover the state. And we have clients that operate statewide. And so that's always been important to us to have good attorneys. We have great staff. Very, very, very lucky to have the people, the minds that we we have under under one roof. And we a lot of times will do that for clients while clients have things going on that take two, three, four of us to kind of lend our expertise, our knowledge to to get them through an issue or to get them through litigation. And it's just we can really put forth a really professional lineup of folks who can help you.

Yeah. Teamwork to make the dream work. I mean, that's that's what it's all about. Making sure your legal ease are covered. And again, folks, it's always about getting your questions answered. And we're here on the program, Judica County Radio. Yes, we have some fun, but we also hit some legal topics.

And you're going to have questions about your own legal situation and you can get those answered. You can call the firm. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

Again, that's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave the contact information briefly what the call is about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch and you can email the show and send us a question. We'll answer on a future broadcast info at Judica County dot com.

You heard a little bit about the roster of attorneys at Whitaker and Hamer. Now, it's not true that if you're a male attorney working with Whitaker and Hamer, you don't have to have facial hair. Correct. You can be clean shaven.

Is that correct? Yeah. We prefer no hair on your face. Eyebrows.

We just completely want you to look like a creature, man, because we want you to be so aerodynamic when you practice the law. Oh, that's good stuff. Judica County radio guys.

Another edition in the books. I can't wait to our next broadcast coming up again. Judica County radio and you can find Whitaker and Hamer. So many offices.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. They want to work with you again. Your law firm for life.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about and an attorney will be in touch. And again, email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com. Another edition of Judica County radio in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan.

We'll see 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 the show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at J.M.W. at M.W.H. Law Lawyer.