Noncompetes OJ Simpson Estate, and Estate Planning

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, FTC non-compete. The attorneys will discuss.

Also, O.J. Simpson recently passed away and his estate does not want to pay the civil judgment. An estate planning Q&A. It's all coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio.

Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. Managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, your law firm for life. They're also pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices conveniently located.

Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. We go back and forth on legalese each and every week.

But before we do that, gentlemen, welcome in. How was your week? So far, so good. I no complaints here.

Glad to be sitting down with you guys ready for some some top notch radio. How about you, Joseph? Yeah, man, it's been a good week. This is the highlight of it. But it's been a good week, man. I can't complain one bit either. I could if I dug deep, but I'm good, man.

So I'm not going to. Well, you know, before we get too far into the show, I always want to, you know, something we've been doing the past couple of weeks. If you haven't listened before, Joe and I were the managing partners over at Whitaker and Hamer, a law firm that practices statewide in North Carolina. And so what we've been doing at the beginning of every show here for the past couple of weeks is offering 10 10 free consults. We do a lot of estate planning at the firm, a lot of helping folks get their wills, trust, power of attorneys, things like that in order. And so, Morgan, if you'll give the number again, if you if you call in, we'll get you set up for a time to talk with one of us or one of our attorneys for free to see what you might need estate planning wise. We've been doing that for a couple of weeks, and we've really gotten a lot of folks calling in and getting a lot of folks squared away. So I think we should do that before we bore anybody too much.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So again, estate planning, very important. You want to leave your affairs in order. These are complimentary consults. We have 10 of them. Again, you'll meet with Whitaker and Hamer.

Sit down and you'll Hamer this out again. Free consult. Here's the number 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Again, that is a complimentary consult on estate planning. So make sure you have your affairs in order. And again, just a nice service to provide a lot of people very interested in this. And these are free consults.

800-659-1186. Josh. All right, so today we're gonna be talking about a lot of stuff. You know, we've got some me and Joe sit down and answer some Q&A on estate planning and different topics.

We also like to talk about things in the national news. We've talked about non-competes before here on the show. Joseph, what's a what's a non-compete? Yeah, so so a non-compete is essentially it's a legal agreement between an employer and an employee or someone that's working for them. That basically says that you can't go out and compete with me and do the same thing that you're doing for for my company or in whatever capacity you work for for me in.

You can't just go down the road and do it and and and compete with. So anyways, you know, non-competes, they're obviously a little bit controversial considering that the FTC's come out and you know, they're going to fundamentally change the way that they work. And so there are definitely some things about them that that that deserve a little more looking at.

But there's also some valid reasons why they're necessary. So I think we can really dive into the meat of what a non-compete is and and really pick it apart, you know. Well, we're also going to talk about so we're going to get into that. We're going to get in the nuts and bolts of what that at the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, what that means.

And I have clients that sit down with all the time, just sat down with somebody last week that had a non-compete that was thinking about going out on their own, but, you know, didn't know if they could, didn't know what they could do, who they could contact. And so we were kind of working through that. It was a couple of days before the FTC decision came down. So we'll talk about that. And then we're going to talk about the O.J. Simpson, right? O.J.

Simpson passed away. And when he did pass away, he, in theory, owed some money for that civil judgment that was very famous, right? The civil judgment in favor of, I can't remember their names now, Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. The relevant portion is the $33 million to the Goldman. So there's a judgment that's been out there since, I can't remember the original year the judgment was levied, like 97, I think, maybe.

Yeah, 97, 98. That was when the civil judgment was levied. And so we're going to talk about judgments in North Carolina, how you can collect on a civil judgment. The reason we're talking about is because since O.J. passed away, the executor of his estate or the attorney representing the executor of his estate has made it known that he intends for the Brown-Goldman judgment to get his look. I think he's walked those comments back since I read the original article. Yeah, they're one and the same.

The attorney is the executor, so he actually appointed the attorney. Yeah, exactly. So we're going to talk a little bit about judgments and how that would work in North Carolina. Some of our listeners may have judgments against them. Others may have judgments against other people that they're trying to collect on. This is a legal topic that we end up talking about a lot in the context of real estate and civil litigation. And if you sue somebody and you win, well, what can you do with that? Because an order from a judge is just a piece of paper.

So then there's things you have to do to collect on a judgment. And I don't think everybody knows. We get a lot of questions on that. So I figured it's a national news topic. We can talk about how that we can talk about the national news topic and we talk about how that would work out in North Carolina, because, as you know, me and Joseph were only licensed to be attorneys in North Carolina. So we always talk about North Carolina law. Judica County radio.

Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. And again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We will get more into the Federal Trade Commission's non compete ruling and also the O.J. Simpson estate case again passes away and the civil case is still out there and there's a lot of money owed.

And apparently that group is not willing to pay or they want to pay as little as possible. We'll talk more about that. There'll be some estate planning, Q and A. And as always, we're offering up 10 complimentary consults that's free on estate planning. So if you have any questions about estate planning, maybe you need to get started on it.

Maybe you're in the middle of something and you need a second opinion, grab one of these consults. They're complimentary. Again, 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

That'll grab you one. And again, just a reminder, Whitaker and Hamer conveniently located really all over the place. Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. We're back with more Judica County radio right after this. Welcome back into Judica County radio, your host are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And remember Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life. Offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. And we have estate planning consults.

And we have 10 of them and they are complimentary. And you can sign up at any time by calling 800-659-1186. Get a better handle on what's going on with your estate. And obviously you want to leave to your heirs.

Estate planning is the way to go. 800-659-1186 to grab one of those consults. So we're talking about in this portion of the program, uh, the Federal Trade Commission non-compete, but also the OJ Simpson case. Now he recently passed away and there's a civil judgment that's still out there and they are going to fight against that. They don't want to give any money back.

So, uh, guys take it away. Well, you know, we, we had started talking about the Federal Trade Commission and, uh, the Federal Trade Commission can issue rulings on things that affect business, uh, commerce nationwide. Um, and so they came out with a decision, uh, banning, uh, the use of non-competes in most situations, not all situations there. It's still allowable for some high level executive CEO, CFO types.

Um, but for the most part, uh, banning them. And so North Carolina, uh, we were talking about it earlier, North Carolina is a right to work state. Non-competes are not favored by the courts, right? So a court will enforce up until this past week, uh, courts would enforce a non-compete agreement between you and your employer, but only if the terms are reasonable. Um, that's kind of, and it's, there's, there's a re there's, reasonable is a big piece, right? But there's also various elements that have to be met. Cause like you said, the court disfavors these agreements and, uh, for good reason, right?

Because you're messing, anytime you're messing with someone's livelihood and their ability to go out and do something, especially if it's something that they've gotten good at and, you know, developed a career in, you should hesitate to say you can't do this anymore. You know, within X proximity to, to where we are now. So, um, but like you said, Josh, there's, there's, they're going away largely in some ways, but they're staying in place for senior level executives, which is essentially defined as anyone who earns more than $151,000 annually. That's also in what would be, they say a policy making position, and I'm sure there's going to have to be some, some fleshing out of, of all of those terms, but it sounds like essentially what the FTC is doing and saying, you know, we, we recognize a need for these, these agreements, which we can dive into why there is a need for them in some situations in a little bit, but they're not really fair as to just a normal everyday employee.

Yeah. And, and so just to be clear, the federal trade commission has handed down this ruling that gets published in the, in the federal register. And then there's 120 day period where, uh, it can be challenged. Um, and I'm sure, I'm sure it will be, uh, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.

Cause we have seen these things. Uh, there's other things you can do. I think now it's kind of the FTC's point, like just not allowing someone let's say I, um, I sell, uh, I sell a product, right? I sell a, you do haircuts, you get haircuts. I like that one better haircuts.

All right. So I give haircuts. I build up a big following.

I'm, I'm not a 10 99. I'm a w two I've signed this non-compete, but I want to go across the street where I can make more money. Of course, all my people are going to follow me there. I know what we do for marketing and things like that. So my employer obviously doesn't want to lose me. Um, and sometimes they'd have you sign a non-compete and a non-compete can be enforced.

If it's, if it's reasonable, reasonable is usually reasonable in time to up to two years and, uh, geography and geography depends on the industry and what you're selling, what you're doing, but 25 miles, I would think, uh, for something like that. So that would really limit me, um, on what I wanted to do. And so wiping that out would be a huge advantage for the people, right? Power to the people. Power to the people, man. And I'm going to be the devil's advocate here because again, you gotta, you know, we like to look at both sides of the equation.

So we are on the people's side cause we are people, but yeah, we're going to look at the man side of this too. Right. And so, uh, you know, there's valid reasons for why someone would potentially want a non-compete in place, because if you have a situation like you as Josh, the hair cutter, right. And, um, say you come in and say that this business you're working for spends thousands and thousands of dollars to advertise you and to help you gain these clients. And they teach you all of their proprietary methods. They want to make sure you're not going to go out and, and you know, as soon as you've got that book of business open up across the street and take it from them essentially.

Um, which, which is a, is a valid reason. Well, what the FTC did too, is they said, okay, non-competes, we don't, we don't like non-competes. We want to, we want to make those illegal.

We want to make them, but they didn't say anything about non-solicitation clauses and non-disclosure clauses. Right. And so we think that's right. Yeah. Those will probably just get beefed up now. And so if you have a job that's going to be like a salesman type job, but you know, they're going to make it so that you can't call on the same clients. You can't recruit employees if you have knowledge of systems and things like that.

Non-disclosure. And so I think you're going to see those get really beefed up. Um, and if they're beefed up enough, that kind of does become a non, a non-compete in a way.

Yeah, exactly. Or you're going to look at a situation where you're going to see a ton of litigation of those issues because naturally, like look at a situation where someone leaves a business and the clients like that person. And then the clients were, you know, they're, it's just a sticky, it's going to be a sticky situation where we're probably going to see some more things kind of naturally develop through litigation and otherwise. I think, I think what you'll see with the FTC backdrop is that, uh, that, that courts will look for some, some good, good reasoning behind having this and beyond having to enforce this. I think courts, uh, already didn't like non-competes. I don't think they'll, you know, they'll understand trade secrets, right? If you're, if you're employed onto a level where you've obtained trade secrets, client list, I think courts will continue to protect those without much of a problem. But, um, you know, there's tons of non-competes out there.

So a lot of people are going to be, they're finally going to be free once the 120 days pass, assuming this doesn't get challenged, I'm sure they'll put in more caveats on, uh, on letting some of them stand. But it's a, it's a big deal to me. I wasn't paying attention to it. It came out of nowhere. I saw that report. I was like, ah, that's crazy.

Cause I hadn't been following. That was crazy, man. It's just like, I just talked to someone like a week ago about it and it's like, just wait 120 days, right? Well, that's what it is. I mean, Josh, you, you had, uh, you had a client come in and ask you about it. It's out there. You put it out into the universe and then boom, you get the ruling.

You did this, man. I feel like we need more trade secrets as a law firm. I don't think we've got enough.

We'll have to work on that. You know, and non-competes, we've said this before on the show when we've talked about them, non-competes for licensed professionals were already, uh, disfavored or not legal in North Carolina, whatever you want to look at. But like attorneys don't sign non-competes. Um, doctors don't sign non-competes. Like a lot of licensed, it's not good for the economy, uh, to take, uh, in theory, people may not agree with this, right? But take an attorney or a doctor out of the economy or make them move to another state to, to comply with a non-compete. So for a lot of folks, non-competes haven't been allowed for a long time. So this is a, is a, is a good thing. I think it's a good thing. We got to keep our employees the old fashioned way, the threat of physical force, the, uh, good, good pay and benefits.

I was going to say, I was going to say for a job well done, treat them like family. That's right. That's right.

But, um, but anyway, so that's the FT. I wanted to talk about that because I thought that was just big news at a, at a, at a nowhere. And a lot of people who listen to this show may have non-competes right.

Or you may know someone who has a, has a non-compete. And, uh, so watching this story is going to be a, be a big deal. Um, so I thought that was important, but I do want to take a moment, Morgan, you know, we're, we're talking about some national news and how it can affect us locally. Uh, but we do, we do on our show, we get a lot of calls from folks about estate planning. Cause we do spend a lot of time where I spend a lot of time today talking about estate planning, but we, we often spend a lot of time talking about estate planning. We've had a lot of listeners calls over the past couple of weeks, uh, to sit down with us for free to talk about their estate plan, uh, updating an estate plan, seeing if they're ready for a trust, even if they have an old, uh, estate plan.

So updating. And so, uh, if you guys give us a call, we'll get you in our system. We'll get you set up for a time to talk to an attorney for free. Uh, we're going to do 10 of those. We've been doing five. I think this week we're going to do 10 of those, try to get everybody, uh, in who calls. So we're, we're trying to, um, so we're trying to do this week. All right. Yeah. We got this goal to do a, have everyone on earth, have an estate plan. And this is towards that through Whitaker and Hamer.

I mean, it works out. All right. So again, we've got 10 complimentary consults on estate planning with Whitaker and Hamer call this number and grab one right now, 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Again, estate planning, very important. If you don't have one, this is your opportunity.

If you do have one, need a second opinion, you can get that as well. Call 800-659-1186, 800-659-1186. When we return on Judica County radio, we've got question and answer.

It's coming up next. Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia, and Morehead city. And the gentlemen are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And the motto is your law firm for life, Whitaker and Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. We are right in the middle of a question and answer program. So Josh, where are we heading next?

Well, before we get to our next mystery question, I was going to, I was going to comment on that. You know, we use that slogan for the law firm, your law firm for life, because the way that we set up our firm, we're predominantly in smaller towns. We do have a Raleigh office and, and, and, but we set up our, we set up our firm to be able to help someone through, through anything that might come up in like a normal person's life.

Right. So we've got our folks who help with traffic and criminal, you know, if that kind of thing comes up for you, we've got our estate planning folks that we talk about a lot. We've got our real estate folks. We've got our litigation folks.

Um, you know, so closings, wills, uh, traffic tickets, you know, contracts. If you ever get an auto accident, we've got our personal injury guy with us. And so you got it covered.

You got to cut. That's, that's our goal. There's some things that may happen to you that, that we can help you with. And normally we, we have the resources and we know a lot of other firms in that area. And we'll still give you, we'll give you moral support.

That's right. Well, well, but we're, we're here to help, you know, the, I was in a consult earlier. I was in a console earlier today where this is like the fourth or fifth time that I've, you know, had a chance to help this guy and his family would just kind of things that a normal family, uh, would kind of go through. And so, you know, that's kind of why we, we do that. And that's why I kind of, when me and Joe sit down and answer these mystery questions, we kind of got a broad base, uh, to, to kind of, to kind of talk about these things.

Cause we, we see a lot of stuff, you know, we, we see a lot of things and we, and we deal with a lot of things. And so, um, we spent the last segment talking about basically the probate process and how it can be avoided in a lot of, you know, sometimes there's things you can't avoid, but you can usually, uh, draft your, draft your way around of, uh, the probate process with a good estate plan. And this isn't a state question too. Uh, this is our, this is our mystery question for this segment, but, um, the question is how do I ensure that my kids don't get their entire inheritance when they turn 18?

Right. So this, this question asker is, is, is thinking about an estate plan. And his question is basically like, he doesn't want his kids at the age of 18 to get a bunch of money or assets, uh, dumped on them, which sounds like a good problem to have if you're 18. But if you're the person leaving them those assets, that's a, that's a nightmare to think about your 18 year old, no matter how responsible they are. Uh, you don't want, you know, $2 million in a house, like dropped into your 18 year olds, uh, lap without some kind of guidance or, or what have you, because 18 year olds don't have a lot of experience and they make bad decisions sometimes. Sometimes they do, man.

Not always, but a lot of times they do. I just wanted to say, you know, we're, we're doing some recording and I got you on my screen. It's all I can see is you.

And, um, I like the angle of your camera better than mine, man. It makes your head look very important, um, and regal. And I feel like, I feel like you're, it looks big too, man. But like, I know that's just an optical illusion. I think it'd make a good statue, man. Like a big, just your head, not your body. Just like a full, full size statue of just your head. I don't know what to tell you, man.

I also want you to set up my camera next time. Cause I'm not digging how my head looks. It looks too small. It looks like it's too dainty, but yours solid as a rock. Powerful, powerful. Very powerful. Chiseled.

Chiseled. We're talking about 18 year olds in mansions. Isn't that what we were doing? Well, I was going to tell you the story, you know, when I got to NC state, you know, I got to NC state as an 18 year old fresh out of high school. And I don't know if they can still do this. I hope they don't do this, but you know, you basically were moving in and, and at the bottom of my dorm, there were all these people set up like vendors. And so they, you know, I don't remember what they are, but I remember one of them was offering you credit cards.

Ah, that's a killer hustle, man. Yeah. And so I was like, well, I've never, I had never had a credit card, you know, I, you know, this was back in the day. I did have a debit card, right? So I could go to an ATM machine, but back then you couldn't, it was, it was just an ATM card, right?

Like then it wasn't, you probably don't remember those days. Yeah, I do. I do. Did they have a talk with you? Did they like sit you down? The college sits you down and talk to you about not ruining your credit?

No. Barton college did that ahead of the curve, baby. That's why it's the number one, uh, learning institution in America for 200 years running. What's the, what's the mascot over there? It's a bulldog. Oh, all right.

Yeah. Not a normal bulldog either. A sturdy, amazing bulldog.

I don't know exactly the breed, but by goodness. Oh man. So I was like, all right, I guess I could use a credit card. I'm a student, right?

I don't, you know, and I was working in what happened. It's free money, right? Basically. So they approved me at this, at this, this was, I guess the internet was just around. This was the beginning of the internet. You had to, you had to dial into it though.

Yeah. It's a $25,000 credit limit. They're like, here you go, Josh.

Here's a, here's a credit card, $25,000. They knew you were good for it. They knew you had it in you. And I was, uh, I had that credit card for a long time, man. Did you, did you blow it out? I didn't blow it out. I was very responsible. I was very responsible with it because, uh, scared of it. I was scared of it. But, uh, anyway, 18 year old Josh did not need a $25,000 line of credit. 18 year old Josh is like 42 year old anybody else though.

You got a lot of maturity. So, but, uh, I hope they still don't do that. I wonder if they do that now. I would imagine they do. I would imagine they do.

Yeah, it depends on, not at Barton College. No, there's only like 42 kids moving in, so I don't think you're going to really kill the game there. But, uh, but no, an 18 year old does not need that. And that again, and we kind of harp on this, this is something you can, you can solve easily meeting with your attorney. Cause you can, you can create a trust, right? You know, and God forbid something happens to me when, when my kids are younger, you know, um, you can have all kinds of, you know, there's, we talk about all different kinds of trust. There's all these different trusts you can have, but, but you can draft a trust that will take care of that. That will say, Hey, you know, if, if I pass away and my kid's 18, I don't want my kid, you know, you can appoint a trustee, right? Your, your attorney, a friend, a spouse, a professional, right? A banker, a investment person.

Anybody you want. And they can, you can say, Hey, support my kid, you know, make sure he's got health insurance, make sure he's got a place to live, pay his rent. If that's something you can afford to do. Um, but you know, manage these assets for him, make sure he's got these things, pay his tuition, right? If you're, you know, not everybody can, can do set up this kind of trust, obviously, but, but you can, and then say, Hey, give him this much when he's 25. Give him this when he's 30 disperse it when he's, but you can do whatever you want to do, or you can keep it trust his entire life.

Yeah. You know, mine's going to say my kid gets no money until he can dunk a basketball. He's got to be able to 360 dunk a basketball between the legs.

What if you had like a, what if one of your kids grows up to be like four 11? And then he's going to have to do a lot of plyometrics leg exercises. Um, they got those, they got those shoes. You remember the shoes, those were you like platform, but the reverse platforms, they get your calves jacked.

Jump shoes. Yeah. Point being if the kid wants to eat and not starve, he's 360 dunking a basketball between his legs.

There's no negotiation on that. The, um, but yeah, there's, there's, there's all kinds of ways you can do it. There's all kinds of ways you can safeguard it, you know, and, and some people have to have adult children who make bad decisions. So we're talking about an 18 year old who may even make good decisions. You're just worried about it cause they don't have the wisdom of, of age and they haven't, there's stuff they just haven't learned at that age.

And can't learn. Uh, but you know, some people have adult children that they're concerned about. Well, there's some people and, and there's a, there's just adult children who are idiots.

I think it's fair to say there's some just, just dumb, poor decision-making moronic adults. Um, but then there's also people who have like legitimate developmental disabilities and that's a concern as well, right? Because you have a lot, you know, some folks have adult children that they've taken care of. Um, and that's a concern too. So then you get into the area where you start discussing special needs trust and, um, and again, there's, I think the point is that there's a vehicle for any type of situation like that, that you want to account for with proper estate planning. And there's, and there's folks too, who have adult children who maybe have married people, like maybe they trust their adult children perfectly fine, but they have married, uh, you know, taken as a spouse, someone that you don't trust as much.

You're somebody who's displayed bad and there, and there's, and there's ways to try to keep things not being marital property and trying to keep things where they only benefit your heir and not necessarily their spouse or, or, or someone, someone else. So this is all, this is all something that can be done. This is all something that can be worked on.

People do it every day. It just takes time and, uh, and, and, you know, energy to, to get it set up. We talk about, um, trusts and wills and powers of attorney. And I mean, it's a, it's like you said, Josh, it does take time, but so worth it to kind of sit down and, and map out how you want things to go. Uh, especially, I mean, again, you think about what if scenarios, and if you pass away without one, uh, it's going to be an issue, uh, for, uh, those that are left behind. So having that estate plan, having that, uh, you know, things in writing, uh, it's just a good way to go.

All right, we are going to take a short break. We're going to have more questions coming up on the other side. Judah County radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners and pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. Of course, you can find them at Whitaker and Hamer law firm, uh, your law firm for life offices in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. If you've got a legal situation that you're facing, maybe you've got a question you need an answer to. You can always call Whitaker and Hamer, 800-659-1186, leave your contact information briefly what that call's about, and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can email your questions to the show info at judicacounty.com.

Welcome back into Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners and pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. You can find them at Whitaker and Hamer law firm.

Their names are on the building. Your law firm for life office is located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city. If you have a situation you're facing, a legal question you have, and you need an answer, you can always call the firm for assistance. 800-659-1186, that's 800-659-1186, leave your contact information briefly what the call's about, and an attorney will be calling you back.

And you can also email your questions to the show info at judicacounty.com. Gentlemen. All right. So we had a lot of, we get a lot of estate planning questions. Yeah, man, there's people dying everywhere. I think it's just happening. It's just the way it's got.

All over the world, man. It's not a new thing. I think it's been since the beginning of time, the people have been dying. Apparently it's like super safe to be alive now. People don't feel that way because like you hear about terrible, tragic things. But I think if you look at the course of history, I think we're in a pretty good time for living. You see the average lifespan of an American is like going down.

It's probably because of Nana's sweets would be my guess. Josh, I did not see that. Where did you see that? I would assume that we're living longer because we're eating healthier and exercising. I saw it.

I speak for yourself. I saw an article comparing us to Europe and they separated it out by the amount of money you made a year. So is your lifespan with what you make per year compared to the same person in Europe? And we were we were lower than Europe and declining against them. So I don't know if that was an overall decline or we were just losing ground.

They were living longer or something. Bunch of nerds over there, man. Other than our listeners that are there, I know we have dozens.

But all the rest of them are nerds. All right. All right. Our mystery question. Our mystery question is a family law mystery question, mystery question. And our family law mystery question is I've served. So this person, I'm going to I'm going to clean up this question a little bit. There's more it's going to make it dirtier, man. I think you should just muddle it up even more.

This person has down. This person has been separated in North Carolina. You have to be separated from your spouse for a year before you can you can file for divorce. That's how it is not sounds like you've been doing research. That is how it is.

It's not like that in New York and California and some other places. But in North Carolina, we have this statutory mandatory separation period. And so you have to be separated. So this person has been separated a year. They filed for divorce. They have served their spouse, but their spouse is not responding to the to the divorce complaint.

They want to know what they can what they can do. So their spouse has been served, has not responded, has not answered, is not going to appear in court. And they're they they're doing this without an attorney. An attorney knows the answer to this very quickly. But they're asking. That's their question.

What can I do? I want to be divorced. I've gotten him served or her. I don't know. I don't know the sex here.

Them, them. And and so that that's our family law question. And so that's.

How would you answer that question? I got lost, man, because because I mean, I'm a child, basically, and you start talking about he served his wife. And so I just think of you got served and I see this man coming up to his estranged spouse and just breakdancing in front of her.

And you're like, she doesn't serve him back. And so I've just been thinking about that for like the last. I've been running that through my head. Yes. Some guy just like spinning around like a turtle while his wife's like crying.

You're leaving me. You know, it'd be cool if there was like a process server that did that. You know, yeah. The server.

Yeah. The server. Why does he have that cardboard? What's he going to do with that? He throws it down. Yeah, I love that, man.

He just breakdances for like 15 minutes and gets up and it's like he says, you've been served. By the way. Yeah. Yeah.

God, I love that, man. How much did you pay for that service? Extra. A lot.

A whole lot extra. I tell you, it's way better than like a sheriff unless it's a unless it's a dancing sheriff. Well, you think people a lot of people don't want to get served.

And so they avoid getting served. And if there was going to be some entertainment, it's going to be your guard's going to be down. You're not getting away from that. You might be onto something here. You might be onto something.

A billion dollar idea. What what's the movie? What you got served is the movie.

Is that you're going to be your question. What is the movie where people get served? It's called. What's the what's the movie where the guy is a process or it's like that's not like what the movie is about. Pineapple Express. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

He doesn't dance. But you got served crossover movie with maybe with Pineapple Express. Yeah, I think that's I think it's gold, man.

Solid gold. But yeah. So anyways, that's all I've been thinking about ever since you said it. Well, this this is this is what we call an absolute divorce.

So you have a right to get if you've been separated a year and you get the other person served like you're you're done. That's it. No fault. You don't have to have an issue. You don't have to have a reason.

You just do it. There may be some other issues that maybe go unresolved or come up later on how assets are split or, you know, or things like that. If there's some some not clarity there. Custody. Right. Child custody. That's still a thing. But as far as getting divorced, you can get that granted, even if the other side doesn't answer.

So it's easier if they don't answer, actually. So and like you said, custody. If they're on that Josh Whitaker, two kids or a kid every two years plan, then yeah, for sure, man.

You're gonna have some custody to work out. I saw I saw a video of it was Michael Keaton. You know how much I love we talked about Mike.

Yeah, of course. But he's it's a I don't know. He's got a roundtable. I hadn't seen the whole discussion, but he's he's got some other famous people around him.

It's this round table, like one of those actors on actors type of things. But he's talking about his he's given like his advice and his advice was, you know, hang out with your kids. You know, like as long as you can, whenever you can. Like, you'll never regret it. You'll lose jobs. You know, you'll lose friends. You'll you'll get new jobs.

You get new friends. But he's like, hang out with your kids as long as you can, as much as you can. I was like, man, Michael Keaton.

I was like, I couldn't have liked you anymore to begin with. Yeah, it's good advice, man. I try to do it, man. I try to do when I can. I tell you, this is my this is my Michael Keaton-esque advice. If you got a lot of kids, man, try to get some try to get some one on one time with each other.

Yeah, that's what I recommend. Can be tough. Yeah, it can be tough, man. It can't because there's a lot of them. For me, there's several of them.

Sure. So you really got to work on the scheduling. It helps me in extracurriculars. That's what that's what does it. So that's usually the time, whatever different extracurricular thing they do, you take them to it.

You talk to them like, hey, I'm your dad. You remember? It's good to see you, buddy. It's good to see you. You've gotten so big. No, I see.

I live with my children. That was a joke. I love them very much.

I know all their names. I feel like we've got easy mystery questions today. Yeah, I feel like we've gotten some fact patterns in the past that were real. Yeah, we need the easy ones every now and then. We need a day. I came into this sluggish from and I'm recovered.

Well, my body is a machine and it's taken the sugar from Nana's treats and it's just completely processed it down into fuel. So I'm fueled up. I'm ready to go, man.

I could do two more of these shows easily with super hard mystery questions if need be. So dig deeper in your hat, man. Well, we only got where I'm assuming we're coming up against the break. And I don't even know that we answer that one. I don't even care.

I still feel good about it. Morgan, we got time for another one or we need to. I'm going to call it. We've got time. I think I think we have time. Why don't we go ahead and do that? And and again. Yeah. Just throw it out there. The funny thing is, is we got the camera now.

So when you make your your looks like it used to be, it's just now everyone's like, well, what does he not know? You know, I lied to you, Morgan. I haven't picked the mystery. He's not got another mystery lined up.

OK, well, then we will take our next break. Judica County radio will pause Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They are feverishly working on our next couple of questions at the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.

The power behind this program. And they are practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. Again, the motto, your law firm for life. Whitaker and Hamer offices located Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City.

If you have a legal situation that you are facing, you need some answers to your questions. You can always call Whitaker and Hamer. 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. And you can always go the email route and send your questions to info at Judica County dot com. That's info at Judica County dot com.

We're back right after this. Welcome back in to Judica County radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer law firm right here in North Carolina. And they are practicing attorneys here in the state. And Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life. We're also offering up those consults. They're complimentary on estate planning.

If you've got any questions, you can always call and book an appointment. And it is complimentary. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Whitaker and Hamer, they are conveniently located with offices in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. Josh and Joe, we are here to wrap it up.

So what you got? Well, we haven't had a chance yet to really dive into it. But I thought the you know, with O.J. Simpson passing away and having his estate opened.

Right. That's what happens, right? You pass away. And if you haven't put everything into a trust, if you don't have your estate plan in order, you end up having to open up an estate. And that looks like what's going to happen for for our friend O.J.

I don't know how much money will be in the estate. I don't know what his assets are, but I didn't realize you guys were friends, man. I've read a lot.

I've read a lot. My wife. You said our friend O.J. I feel like maybe an acquaintance for me. My good friend, my very good friend.

No, I don't know. My best friend, O.J. Simpson, the godfather of my children. My wife is constantly watching O.J. Simpson documentaries. I don't know how many are out there. She's watching one the other day.

Are you serious? She's trying to crack the case. She's watching every O.J. The all of them. Now, my wife's originally from Buffalo. Obviously, O.J.

Simpson played for the Bills is a big deal up in Buffalo. Of course, she was she's about my age, roughly. So that makes sense.

Yeah. But but just like I don't know, a lot of I hear a lot of folks are kind of addicted to the crime dramas and the murder documentaries and all that stuff. And my wife certainly falls in that category. Your wife's addicted to O.J. Simpson. But anyway, I tease her because I'm an attorney.

And, you know, if you're an attorney, you try to believe in the integrity of the court system, you candor to the court. O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.

So I always tease her. I'm like, oh, well, O.J. Simpson's not guilty of anything.

He was found not guilty. That makes you very angry because all these documentaries, of course, have convinced her that it leads to a nice home life, doesn't it, Josh? But now she's she was showing my oldest son one of one of the documentaries. And I was just kind of teasing her about that.

Anywho, the legal aspect that's interesting at this point is that he was found civilly liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. It's Goldman, right? And that what you guys told me? Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. To the tune of what, Joe? What's the size of this judgment? Thirty three million or so with with interest today. They said it's like one hundred and fifteen million. Huge judgment against O.J.

Simpson. And I think that was the state of California. And so North Carolina, just to just to kind of put it in our terms in North Carolina. Do you sue if you sue a guy for something like that and you get it will say you get a judgment for one hundred thousand dollars.

There is daily interest that's added on that. That judgment's good for 10 years. Usually in North Carolina, you can renew it for another 10 years. I don't know what the laws are in California, but, you know, in North Carolina, a judgment gets 20 years old. Plus, it's very hard to to collect.

And so I'm assuming the rules are the laws are a little bit different over there in California. But the way it works is you open up an estate, you pass away, you open up an estate, any asset that is in probate. That means it's not in a trust. It's not in a in a you're not on title with a spouse or you're not jointly holding title with someone else. You got to list all your assets in your in your estate that are probate and a creditor like the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman can file a claim in your estate.

Obviously, that's what they would they would do here. And that claim has to be paid before the estate can be closed, before probate assets can pass to heirs. And we were talking about it because the executor of O.J. 's state said he was going to do everything possible not to pay that judgment.

But everything possible is not really there's not really much possible, which is why I thought it was an odd statement. And he's going to say, no, as I'm there, as he's writing the check, I would imagine O.J. Simpson doesn't strike me. He's probably a lot of things, but he doesn't strike me, at least at this part in his life, as as I feel like he would have thought about.

All right. When I his assets and I figured at this point, I don't know what O.J. Simpson's assets consist of. Yeah, I think I think I read that he put him in a trust this year, like he put everything into trust that just this year.

Yeah, just this year. So so it's kind of confusing. I feel like there's got to be some legal nuance with the law there that's different from here. But but yeah, you know, you better watch.

You got to talk nice about O.J., man, because you'll go home and you'll have problems. That's what I've learned today through this. I held out.

I held out hope. I don't know if you know this, but they're remaking. My favorite movie growing up was Naked Gun. Yes. Yep.

Yep. They're remaking a Naked Gun. And if you're familiar with the Naked Guns, O.J. Simpson was a big part of the Naked Guns and he was hysterical.

All right. If you just you don't know anything else and you're just watching and enjoying Naked Gun, O.J. Simpson was very funny. His character was very funny. And of course, of course, not everybody who was in the original, I believe almost everybody that was a main character has passed. And so they're making a new one where Liam Liam Neeson is going to be the Frank Drebin. I think they said Pam Anderson is going to be the I think you're correct. I heard you're correct. Yeah.

When she had been anything in a long time. So I'm very excited. But I held out hope that O.J. Simpson may would make a cameo and he didn't revive. Yeah.

But it's going to have to be a hologram O.J. now. But he's he's the only one.

It's like when they brought Star Wars back, he had to look at who was alive to make cameos. Right. Yeah. And like I'm a big fan of the old night court, new night court.

Not as good. But I watched it because they brought Ra's on and John Larroquette. But anyway, I'm going to hold out hope that they film some sort of cameo. I doubt it happened. You know, but we're weird Al Yank was in Naked Gun and he's still alive. What's true.

It wasn't a big role. It was very funny. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, the same man.

And they can say Naked Gun. Thirty three and a third. Who was the lady that was in there? It was like a Playboy playmate. Priscilla Presley. She's still alive.

Priscilla Presley is still alive. Yeah. Yeah. Huh.

Seventy eight years young, brother. So she could be in there. She could make a cameo. She could. She could, man.

She's had some work done recently. But I think like all I think all the bad guys are done. Right.

Picture. I think all the bad guys have passed away. I'd be I'd be curious. They're probably all gone, man. Naked Gun. Thirty three and a third is our best bet for anyway. Yeah.

For getting some holdovers. I don't think O.J. Simpson made it into the into the final cut. That was the whole point.

Yeah. I don't think he's going to be in it either. Now, Josh, can I ask you so. So your wife with this fixation on O.J. being from Buffalo, had she ever met O.J. Simpson like I don't think it's a fan. No, I don't think so. OK, well, I got I got to meet him one time and this was when he had moved to Florida, left California, moved to Florida, vowing to still look for the killers.

Sure. We were down for a wedding and and I was at a golf course and we were making the turn and he was in the bar. And it was the creepiest feeling ever.

Just the presence of that person. And he was standing right next to me at the bar. He goes, hey, how you doing? I was like, I didn't say anything. I just nodded.

I just nodded and backed away. Well, Chris, Chris Rock has a has a bit that he does because he's met O.J. Simpson a couple of times. Dave Chappelle, too. Yeah, it's very funny.

You should look those up one day if you're ever bored. But you should do it. You should recreate it right now. I'm not going to do that. I don't think I could. I don't think I'm ready.

And I need some I need some prep time to do that. But but anyway, we'll see what happens with that. That's one of the things that's one of the stories I just watch, because I'm curious how those kind of things work out and how the law governs. You know, I think everybody wants, you know, Goldman and Brown to get their judgment, to get some money.

And and it's surprising to me that they haven't really gotten that much already. And they will say that's my trust. Trust are very powerful. Estate planning is very important.

You may not have a hundred million dollar judgment against you, but there's things you can definitely prepare for. Judica County radio, we are offering up again, 10 complimentary consults on estate planning. All you have to do is call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. Leave the contact information. You'll they'll be in touch with you for those free consults on estate planning. Another edition of Judica County radio is in the books. Just a reminder, Josh and Joe managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina and they have offices conveniently located for you. Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. And if you're facing something legally and you need some questions answered, you can always call the firm.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. And other additions 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 JMW at MWH Law Lawyer.