Judica County Radio: Olympic Controversy, and Abortion Law Change in NC

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, well, we're going to talk about the controversy at the Olympics. There are a couple of fine points we'll get to. And the abortion law in North Carolina is changing.

We'll get into that discussion. And again, it's all legalese coming up on Judica County Radio. Your hosts Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer and we'll have Cassandra Nicholas with us as well. Attorneys at Whitaker and Hamer. That's all coming up next on Judica County Radio.

Judica County with Joshua Whitaker and Joseph Hamer. And again, there's a lot going on. We're going to talk about a controversy at the Olympics. There are several of those.

Maybe the biggest one. They're five hours ahead of us. So everything that's been done, we already kind of know about it before it gets televised.

But again, abortion law in North Carolina is changing. We'll get to that as well. But Josh, first and foremost, welcome in. Cassandra, welcome. How was the week, guys? Well, you know, you know, Morgan, so far, so good. So far, so good.

That's that's what I've got to. I've been I've been studying, you know, I get the way my schedule works is I usually I don't stay up too late. I go to bed pretty early.

And I wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What's what's pretty early? Well, my kids, I'm not taking my kids to school right now. So pretty early right now is like, you know, 1030 ish.

Yeah, that's, you know. And so I'll get up around six or six thirty and kind of got a routine. And and I go I usually don't eat lunch, like I'll eat a good breakfast.

I don't eat lunch. I get to like I get about now. We're in the studio at three o'clock.

Right. I get to about now. And my body starts shutting down on me for some reason. This is this is the time of day where my body wants wants to rest. Now, I got to ask and I think it's perfectly OK. Do you do you ever hit that wall and say, you know what, I need a 20 minute nap?

I don't. I was a very good napper in college and law school. Very good at taking naps because I'd work weird hours. But I've been I've been listening to this guy who he talks about this four hour thing, like you work for four hours at a time and you take a break, you take a nap, you go work out, then you work four hours. Focus on something else. Yeah.

Yeah. And he does like three, four hour sets right of work during the day. But he takes a lot of naps. I don't think this guy has kids or anything either.

You know, that probably helps him. OK, well, let's let's ask Cassandra again. Same question. What are your what are your sleeping habits? And I know that there are certain factors in your life that will will change it since you're a young mom.

But yeah. What's your bedtime? It varies pretty much every other night. My husband and I swap kid duty every other night, so I'll stay up late and watch what I want on TV on the night that I don't ask the kiddo. So that's and by late, I mean like 11 on the night with the kiddo.

It's like 10. And then I have to get up multiple times during the night. You know, my my kids are out of school, so I don't have to get up and get them to school. My wife will usually pick them up. I usually drop them off. That's kind of how we split it up. But they want to stay up to all hours of the night.

You know, they have no reason to go to bed at all. And so I'll try to hang with them till I can't anymore. But but that's that's I guess that's coming to an end. My kids will go back to school in a couple of weeks and I'll be back to normal. But I got to start I got to start working out or doing something. I got to break up the day somehow. I really don't want to work out very much, but I got to there's got to be something in there and I don't think my brain will let me take a nap.

But I'm trying to figure that out. Well, I'm officially old and I will admit it right around nine thirty. I take the four one, two, three, four Pomeranians out to do their nightly. And then I am inside and prepping, you know, the palms for their night. And then I kid you not, if I'm not in bed by 10, something's weird. And then if I'm here's the best part and I should say maybe not the best part. But if I'm out doing something right around 10 o'clock, I'm like, man, I could really I could go to sleep right now.

If somebody if somebody made me. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You tuck the Pomeranians in. Well, we have two of them with us.

And so the other the other two are with, you know, Michelle's boys. But it is, you know, it's an absolute pleasure to have them. And but it just goes to show you that, you know, as you get a little bit older, you know, priorities change. My kids are older and now it's kind of a puppy thing. But yeah, I get up. I'm kind of like you, Josh.

I get up really, really early, make the coffee, take care of what I need to take care of, have a little moment to myself. And then it's chaos for the rest of the day. And so that's pretty much that's pretty much life. It is.

It is. I mentioned this last week. I started I started watching this guy on TikTok. I couldn't remember his name last week, though, but his name is Uncle Pappy. All right.

So if you don't know who Uncle Pappy is, I can share some. Yeah, I did. I did.

I figured out how to share from TikTok. So I was pretty proud of myself. But you got to check him out, though. He's got a really good attitude on life.

And like I talked about last week, he's he's the guy who's always like sitting in the lake drinking coffee, talking about how you're beating yourself up no matter what. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I saw that.

I follow you. I was waiting for an alligator to come out of the lily pads. Yeah. And take him out. Well, he talks about that. He's he's got there's an alligator in there and it kind of leaves him alone.

But he's one of his TikToks. Talk about that. But but but well, if you made it this far, we're we're attorneys. We talk about legal issues. We talk about legal news. We talk about changes in statutes. We talk about, you know, services we provide for our clients. And we talked about it yet, Morgan, but we are still doing if you call in and leave us information, we're still doing our our free consults for listeners.

Yeah. Whitaker and Hamer. Again, the power behind this program. That's where you can find Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners. Also, Cassandra Nicholas is their fellow attorney.

Again, offices located, Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia and Moorhead City. And these free consults, again, 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.

A lot of the calls have come in for consults about estate planning. Again, they're there for you and they are complementary. So take advantage and grab one. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Now, I understand we're going to start with the Olympics. Is that correct? Absolutely.

That's right. So controversy, controversy at the Olympics. My biggest controversy just off the top of my head is it's a five hour difference there in Paris.

And, you know, they had some interesting moments in the opening ceremonies. I kind of enjoyed it. I missed the big controversy at the end, maybe because I'd fallen asleep.

I don't know if it was after 10 o'clock. I definitely didn't see it. But they've had some rumblings at the Olympics. But this is pretty typical. Wherever the Olympics is held, there's going to be some kind of controversy. Well, absolutely. I'll tell you, I have not.

You should know this going in. I have not watched any of the Olympics since. Nineteen ninety two. I watched I watched the dream team when they showed it on regular TV, because that's the year they try to put the dream team on pay per view.

And you had to get the triple had a name, the triple package. You had to pay for it to see the good USA dream team basketball games. So since nineteen ninety two, I probably watched less than. I was in a bar yesterday and they had women's basketball on, but I would say I probably watched less than three hours of the Olympics since nineteen ninety two.

Sandra, what about you? I've watched at least three hours this week. I like that they're five hours ahead because they're basically on all of the hours I'm awake. So I've I've just been clicking between the different things that are on.

I have YouTube TV, so it's like cable. But so I've been flipping between men's and women's gymnastics, singles and doubles table tennis, some swimming. Oh, the women's skateboarding was really fun to watch. It was just teenage girls and gold and silver were both 14 year old girls from Japan and they were amazing. Tony Hawk was there watching them and and reading about them as well. You're missing out, Josh.

Yeah, I saw somebody I think it was ice tea. I saw somebody tweet about breakdancing like this is the first year breakdancing is an Olympic sport. That's probably worth watching. I'd watch that. And I'll probably see I'll probably see like a basketball game before it's all said.

But it'll probably be over before I figure it out. Yeah. I mean, they're trying to figure out ways to draw more eyes to the Olympics. You know, the the French Olympic Committee, you know, they went all out for the opening ceremony and we talked about this off air. There was a lot of CGI. There was some controversy. Cassandra, you were saying with the ticket purchases for watching the opening ceremony, because if you were in person, you didn't get to see a lot of what what happened.

Yeah, absolutely. The CGI was attached to like little sensors that were put on the boats. But sensors are not very exciting to watch in person. So these folks paid exorbitant amounts, thousands of dollars for these in-person seats to watch the opening ceremonies.

They're on the banks of the river. So the things passing them are not very close to them anyway. And then there's there's nothing on them. Some of them, they could be Olympians just waving at them.

But that's kind of the extent of it. And they paid so much for them without knowing that was going to be the case. Now, did you get to see and I know Josh didn't, but Cassandra, did you watch any of the opening ceremony? I didn't. I've watched clips since, but I wasn't watching live or anything. I was watching it and I knew it was going to be interesting when they showed a caricature that was supposed to be Marie Antoinette and she was holding her head. Oh, yeah, I did see that. I saw that on the news.

And singing. And I was like, wow, they're really taking it to the next level. And the torchbearer in the opening ceremonies kind of resembled. And since you're a video game person, Josh, the assassin, whatever the video game is. Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed resembled the Assassin's Creed was anonymous with the face, but ran through the rooftops and alleyways of Paris as he's bringing the torch to its final destination. So they I mean, they were trying to kind of spice it up a little bit and they went a little too far for a lot of people. I mean, the controversy as well regarding some of the final scenes of the opening ceremonies regarding what some folks have interpreted to be the Last Supper. Those folks do seem like they were upset by that. It seems like the explanations afterwards make sense that that's not necessarily what they were trying to do. It makes more sense what they're explaining that it's Greek gods with a feast. Like this is the Olympics. That's more logically connected. Right. It's a form of art.

And, you know, obviously France is and especially Paris is known for that. And it's a it's a big part of the opening ceremony. But again, controversy with the Olympics. Now, listen, we have a lot to get to. We are going to talk about the latest on the abortion law in North Carolina changing. That's coming up on the other side. We want to remind you, we do have the consults available.

They are complementary. All you've got to do is call. If you've got any questions, legal questions that you're facing and you need some answers, grab one of these consults. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. That'll get you in touch with Whitaker and Hamer. Grab one of those consults. They're complementary. Again, Whitaker and Hamer. The power behind this program. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back on the other side. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Welcome back into Judica County Radio again, powered by Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. That's where you can find our hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They are the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Also joining us on the program, Cassandra Nicholas, fellow attorney at Whitaker and Hamer. Again, Joe on assignment in the early portion of the show.

We'll see if he can join us a little bit later. If you have a situation, we've got these free consults and I say situation, a legal situation. You've got questions.

You can always grab one of these free consults with Whitaker and Hamer. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six.

You've got to secure one of those free again, assessments, consults. Again, there are five of them. They're complimentary. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Josh, take it away. All right, Morgan. Well, I thought we talked about it on the show before. We obviously talked about the Supreme Court ruling that kind of changed the way we look at abortion and abortion laws in North Carolina.

And we haven't really made it back to it. And I noticed since Vice President Harris became the Democratic nominee, I noticed that everyone was talking about abortion as kind of a big issue, which which it is in this election. But I see it talked about kind of in a way that is inaccurate.

I feel like, you know, depending on where you we talk about where you get your news from and and depending on where you get your news from. I'm not sure I'm not sure everybody fully understands, which is fine if you're not an attorney and you don't read Supreme Court opinions. You know, I'm not I'm not sure that it always makes sense. It certainly is not something that always made sense to me before I went to law school. But but before this year, the law of the land was was Roe v. Wade.

And that was a and Cassandra, you can correct me if I misspeak because I didn't review it today or anything. But the law of the land had been that the Supreme Court decided that there was a constitutional right. So if someone wanted to have an abortion and then the Supreme Court kind of put in their own guidelines, you know, they tried to look at medical experts that gave reports to the court back then and they kind of talked about trimesters and it was OK during certain time periods. And then over the years, people would bring certain things to the court where states might be trying to do something that the courts might not like in restricting a woman's right to an abortion. And so the court would have these, you know, kind of change the timeline or say you can do this, but you can't do this.

And this limits access and this doesn't. And so there's all these court cases after Roe v. Wade that kind of try to better define this right to abortion. And then, of course, the most recent ruling and Cassandra, I can't I don't even have the name in front of me. What was do you know offhand what the most recent ruling was? Oh, I've got it.

I've got it right here. So Dobbs v. Jackson, women's health. That's I can't believe I forgot the name of the case. But so Dobbs v. Jackson came back and the court did change precedents. And they said, hey, this isn't a constitutional right. They didn't say it was illegal.

Right. That's something they didn't do. They didn't say that women can't have the right to abortion. But what they did do is they say, hey, as far as a constitutional right, we don't we don't find that.

So that was a big change. And depending on what that did was throw it back to the states. So now it's up to the states to decide for themselves whether they will or will not recognize a right to abortion in their state and to what extent.

Yeah. And so that's what the courts did. The courts. You can argue why they did it. You can you can maybe not like how it came up to them. You can you can not like maybe some of the Supreme Court justices that that played into this.

So you can look at it from those angles. But the Supreme Court basically did leave it to the federal government. Congress could make a law. Right.

Congress could make a law saying, you know, what was it? You remember the Simpsons where the two aliens are running for president? Do you ever see that one?

King and King. You got to watch that one. That's a classic.

Ding. Second segment, probably five minutes in. We have a Simpson reference.

I love it. So it's it was during was a Dole versus Clinton. So it was during the election where Dole and Clinton ran against each other. And the two aliens from the Simpsons is a king. And anyway, the two aliens, they come down and they take over.

They do body doubles. Right. And they take over Clinton. You had to have seen this.

What year was that for me? So that one alien takes over Dole and one alien takes over Clinton, and then they're kind of still running against each other. And the goal is one of us will be the president. Right. So they go through the election. They get right before the election that people find out, like they get unmasked. Right. These are just two aliens. And they were like, well, you start to vote for one of us. What are you going to do? You know, it's a two party system.

You're stuck with us or whatever. But when they were one of them was Dole and they were campaigning and they said. I can't remember the quote. He said, abortions for all. He was trying to get everybody to applaud.

Right. And he said, oh, abortions for all. And he got booed. And he was like, abortions for some.

And he got booed. You have to watch it. I've not done any service and I don't remember why I brought it up. So the 1996 Clinton election, I was in kindergarten. I knew it. I knew it. I was going to guess playpen.

I was going to guess playpen maybe. Well, I remember it. My my teacher printed out pictures of both candidates faces and stuck them to the white board and had us each go put our like tally mark under the person we voted for. And I voted for Clinton as a five year old. I don't know why the point. I think the point of my story was abortion has always been a complicated issue. It will remain a complication is a complicated issue. And it seems like there aren't many people who are ambivalent to that issue. That is either a an issue that they strongly support or that's an issue they strongly oppose. And so I feel like the campaign is now is getting that that issue is coming to the forefront. And, you know, Harris is using that as a as a as she should write as a as a rallying cry for folks who support her. The Trump side does a little is a little worse on their messaging on how they stand on on abortion or not abortion.

But yeah, that was the whole point. You know, and there's some current law. There's some current things going on in North Carolina.

We're going to talk about. But right now it's up to the states or the or the Congress to go ahead and legislate like, hey, this is what's legal in regards to abortion. This isn't right. So the president can't really do that on their own. Like whoever it is, whoever the president is, they're going to be able to do anything about it. They'll either, you know, they can support legislation, but Congress or on a local level until there's something from Congress, states will determine who can get an abortion and when.

And I thought it'd be interesting, Cassandra, after you brought that up is, well, what's the current state of law in North Carolina? I do like that you specifically brought up regarding Congress having the right to legislate. Like we could have a federal law about this and a bazillion other things that have fallen to the courts to deal with because Congress has not legislated on those issues.

But that is always an option. Congress can, you know, sit down, do their jobs and create laws about these these hot button issues rather than leaving it to courts. But in North Carolina, there are state Congress did pass a law that restricted abortion to only before 12 weeks, except in exceptional circumstances.

The kind of standard ones are the health of the mother, rape, incest. So that's the current state of the law in North Carolina. But there were some like ambiguities in that law that worked their way up in our court system. So we do have a brand new ruling just yesterday regarding that law in North Carolina. So there's kind of two parts to that. Did you read about it?

Yeah, I did it. It's it was the article that I read said something about, you know, whether there was a law that was being reviewed that said it had to be and what in the hospital versus outpatients. That was a part of it, too.

Yeah, yeah. The more traditional setting for abortions in the last several decades has been in a clinic setting rather than in a hospital. But this law says that after 12 weeks, if you do, if a woman were to fall under those exceptional circumstances where an abortion is allowed, it would have to be done in a hospital. And the judge did uphold that part of the law. So that is now the current law of the land in North Carolina.

The other part of it is a little bit less exciting to talk about on the radio. But it was just an ambiguity that said doctors looking to perform an abortion before the 12 weeks would have to determine where the pregnancy was in the body. But the judge struck that down saying that was really ambiguous, very hard to follow.

So that's not the law of the land in North Carolina. Yeah. So and again, the point of us bringing this up is that, you know, we have a national election for a president and a president can do a lot of things. And the abortion issue has become a very it's always an issue, but it's become on the forefront. And it puzzles me because the president can't really do a lot about abortion.

Right. I mean, they can appoint Supreme Court justices if one comes open. You know, the president can do things like that. But this really is an issue that should be for anybody running for Congress. That should be an issue because some people in Congress can do something about it. So anyway, I just thought that was interesting that it's becoming such a big issue on the presidential side when the president is the one person who can do the very I won't say the least government. Yeah.

The president can do more about it than I can, but not not not much more. Right. So anyway, I just found that I thought it was an interesting how that was coming up. Well, and it's it's an issue that moves the needle and it is an election year. So you're going to get a lot of eyeballs, a lot of ears when the abortion comes up. And that is that's exactly what they want to have this type of discussion. But again, there's an opportunity, you know, each and every week here on Judica County radio.

If you've got a situation that you're facing, it's a legal situation. You've got questions. You need answers. We have five complimentary consults and these consults again, no cost. All you've got to do is call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

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And then we will sum it all up for you coming up a little bit later. But you're listening to Judica County radio. Welcome back into Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, their 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, Varina, 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 judicacounty.com.

That's info at judicacounty.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 until you have to prepare for and go to trial. So this one went to trial. Our guy won 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. So 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 fifty million dollar judgment against a defendant, but that defendant may be judgment proof.

What does that mean, Joe? What does it mean when somebody's 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 ten 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 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 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, exemption 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.

But 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 I walk off for so 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.

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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 NCDOT 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, a 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. Those gravel mountain roads. Yeah, man, they're scary, dude.

They're scary to drive on. There's bears and they have to be maintained and they have to be maintained. And 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, 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 host. 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 Dotcom. 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 Dotcom.

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 in 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 offensive, assuming this is some kind of a criminal matter. You're likely to 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.

Now, 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 and 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. Right.

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 aren't 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 that 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, that's 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 that question was easy enough. Good question. But I remember, you know, I've I've seen people in traffic court, you know, which is designed, you know, for folks without it, 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 anything, 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. And, you know, 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? Mm hmm. I feel like we've talked about that before, too. Yeah, we talked.

Yes. Have we? Are you doing the radio show? Do 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 and the statute.

Speaking of which, man, as an aside. Yeah. There's apparently a wild, wild pack of dogs terrorizing Barbour Mill Road area of Clayton. That's always crazy to hear that.

No, I haven't heard that. I 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 they're dogs or could they be coyotes? Oh, 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 he 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. Right. These dogs.

Yeah. It's like what was the what was the movie where the dog and the cat and they're all friends. 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.

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 may be except they're not good. They're not good dogs. It's the opposite of homeward bound. They run into some rough characters and homeward bound.

The dogs do. You've 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 the both of them. There's two. He's 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. I don't know who plays shadow shadows.

The old wise golden retriever. I think the actor is 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. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners at the firm Whitaker and Hamer. The power behind this program, your law firm for life offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia and in Morehead 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 judicacounty.com will answer the question on the future broadcast. Info at judicacounty.com. 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 hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Cassandra Nicholas also joining us from Whitaker and Hamer law firm from the Morehead City office. And speaking of offices, they're also located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina and Gastonia. We do have the five complimentary consults. We hope you enjoyed the question and answer portions of the show. We're here to wrap it up.

The consults, you can grab one at any time. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. There are five of them.

Again, take advantage of this. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Again, if you've got a legal situation, a question you need answered, call Whitaker and Hamer.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Get signed up for one of those complimentary consults. Josh, take it away. Morgan, I tell you, I tell you, my oldest, my 15 year old, he got his he got his permit today. Oh, my goodness. That is such a rite of passage, not only for him, but how are you doing? Oh, I'm fine. I'm going to let him drive the old truck, you know, around the neighborhood for a while.

And I'm sure he'll do fine. But guess how long he was at the DMV today to get his permit? I'm going to guess, knowing what I know, seeing the lines that I see, I'm going to guess three and a half hours. So they caught they they told him he could come in early to take the take the test. They called ahead. He didn't have an appointment, but he told him to come in and he'd get in and he got in. He took his test and he waited for four and a half hours to actually get to the desk and get everything printed and do all that stuff. And I just thought that was crazy.

I remember going in like after school. Sure. Yeah.

You were like it was like 15 minutes, you know, and. Yeah. All right.

Cassandra's probably got a good story. Oh, yeah. The DMV in my hometown there.

All right. Remind people remind people of the hometown. Wapaton, North Dakota, at least at that time, I think it's still the case, does not have a permanent DMV office. There are traveling DMV people that would come to our town for half a day every other Thursday for the senior citizens. So you had to go during that four hour window by some. But it was really quick.

All they brought with them. They brought a card like an ID printing machine. So you'd get your driver's license immediately or permit immediately then. Back then, I got my permit and my license when I was 14, which was exciting. That's not the case anymore. They threatened to make me use a booster seat for my driving.

Tie blocks of wood on the bottom of your feet so you could reach the pedals. I wonder how I wonder I've had to make an appointment. I missed it, though, but I made an appointment and I had to go to like I think I was like Aberdeen or something. I had to make an appointment to go to because you can't get to get appointments in Raleigh or. But, you know, as as the general public, like, I don't know where it went so wrong.

I don't know. I'm not blaming anybody for service at the DMV kind of getting to a point where it's going to take a whole day. Like if you're going to go, that's your that's your day. You know, I don't know how we got here. How bad does it have to get before like we just revolt? You know, it's just like I'm not going to go to the DMV because I don't have a full day to go to the DMV. Yeah, I in my two cents on this, they just don't have enough employees to handle the flow. They also, you know, it's such a I don't know, people are just upset and they don't like waiting. They take it out on the employees. It's not their fault.

Oh, yeah, not at all. You know, and I see this happen in a lot of different businesses. We all just need to be a little bit kinder and understand, like your son who spent four and a half hours at the DMV. You got to just chalk off that time. That's it's going to take time until they figure out the employee situation. You have more bodies.

They just don't have it. So, you know, make an appointment. But understand, you're going to have to wait and just be kinder to each other. Yeah, but you still have to make an appointment like eight months out, you know, like I'm not that kind of guy. Like my my driver's license was expired for like nine months before I figured out it was expired.

You know, and I can't plan I can't plan that kind of thing that far ahead of time. So, well, I mean, every time we've ever done anything when it comes to the DMV, we have searched out the different offices that have the least amount of traffic. And if we have to drive like you did to Aberdeen, that's what you end up doing. I'm in the Fuquay, Holly Springs area.

And your is a good place to go. That's going to change, obviously, because the population growth is absolutely insane in that part of the state right now. And you see it in Garner.

I'm sure you're maybe you're not seeing it in Morehead City, Cassandra. But I mean, we're starting to just bust at the seams. So the long lines are going to continue. And with that being said, I was going to say, yeah, move towards more. Anyway, get out of here.

Move towards Morehead City. Well, with that being said, we want to remind you, we have the consults available. They're free, complimentary.

There are five of them. If you've got any questions about a legal situation that you're facing, maybe you've got some estate planning questions. You can grab one of these consults. 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Again, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, Managing Partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm.

The power behind this program. They're your hosts. They're pricing attorneys here in North Carolina. And big thank you to Cassandra Nicholas for joining us on the program. Again, also an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer. For Josh and Cassandra and Joe, who's on assignment, I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio next week. about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at JMW at MWH law lawyer.