Judica County Radio: Voter Laws & new AI Show Intros

Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, your host, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, and Cassandra Nicholas, attorneys at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. We'll discuss voting laws, plus we have something exciting.

We've got more intro music created by Joe Hamer and AI. We'll play those for you coming up next on Judica County Radio. Welcome in to Judica County Radio. Your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, right here in North Carolina. They're practicing attorneys. Also joining us are our third host, Cassandra Nicholas, also an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer.

They have offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. And each and every week, it's always about legalese, the latest topics. I'm Morgan Patrick, and away we go. Josh, before we jump in, how was everybody's week? I'm tired of the rain, Morgan.

Too much rain. Yeah, and it's still, it's coming pretty much throughout the weekend. It's sunny outside right now, man. It looks great.

It looks fantastic. Teasing us. How did Morehead City fare with the tropical storm that came out of nowhere and drenched? It was here and there. We were in a tornado warning. There was actual spotted rotation, and I had never experienced a tornado warning in North Carolina before. It's really not as exciting as they are in North Dakota, where you have the town-wide sirens going off.

It's really dramatic. You can hear them from everywhere. You go to your basement.

Instead, my phone just got a little alert, and I proceeded to ignore it, and that probably wasn't. Well, tornadoes, tornadoes traditionally a lot bigger in the Dakotas, I'm guessing. They take it very seriously.

They definitely take it seriously, and they have basements to go to. I don't even know where to go. Yeah, when we have a tornado warning, I walk outside to see what's going on.

Get a better look at it, and then we have a designated closet that we would have to empty out before we got in there. Something really went down. I don't know what you got, Joe. What's your tornado warning? I go out there and try to ride that bad boy.

Try to see where it is and lasso it. So far, so good. No, I'm cool.

It is what it is, man. I let Jesus take the wheel. That's what I do. You got a basement, Joe?

No, I don't. I've got an interior room that's kind of like your closet that you go into. We got a basement, and it's brick, but there's a lot of junk down there. Why don't you just go there instead of the closet you have? I don't know.

I'll think about it. But it's a walkout basement, right? Does that even count? Yeah, I mean, I've got to walk outside to get to it.

Yeah. It did wash out the beaches here, too. The beach driving season started, which is my favorite, but the beaches are closed for the driving anyway because all the beaches are washed out. But we finally had a sunny weekend, so I did not drive on the beach, but I went to the beach.

I recommend it. Come visit the beach office. Well, you know, I missed a couple of weekends at the lake because it was just too rainy. So you only got so many. I follow these people that talk about how many summers you have with your kids, right, and try to boil it down. Like, you only got this many Saturdays, and you only got, you know, try to motivate myself to get out and do stuff, right? But you only got, what, like 16 weeks of summer, and I think we lost like four or five to rain.

Maybe more, you know? So my summer, I don't feel like I had my summer. I guess I'll get over it. What are you going to do about it? I feel like summer's been forever, man.

Like, I feel like it's been eternal, never-ending, and I'm ready for the cool weather and the scary movies, you know? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah.

Yeah, that didn't do it for you? No, we're knee-deep in high school football, so we got a, it's all, fall's all about high school football for us, so. And you guys play your games on Friday nights, is that right? Yeah, JV's on Thursday, usually, and Varsity's on Friday. I don't know if that's how every school does it.

I guess that's probably. That's how every school does it. That's pretty, that's university. You go to Texas, they have them on Saturdays, but, I mean, it's. Yeah, but I'm saying here.

That's how every school does it here. Well, we had a, we're having a competition. We want a new theme song, and Joseph has gotten really good at using the artificial intelligence, the AI, to create music, because none of us, I don't want to speak for Cassandra, but I think none of us would describe ourselves as musical. I don't think any of us are competent to play an instrument. I'm very musical, man. I don't know about what you're talking about. The, so we had two songs, we had two songs, little snippets last week, both kind of country, right, and I think the more country one won our informal poll.

We're going to do a formal poll this week, but our informal poll, meaning people who called in or people who just saw me on the street and talked to me, I think the more country one won. I think that was B. Okay, well, Joe, before we play our first sampling on the program today, it's alternate rock from the 2000s.

You got anything you want to say before we actually air it? Yeah, Cassandra specifically requested this and said she wanted an emo alt rock 2000 style anthem. And so that was the assignment. That was the robots assignment. All right, well, let's see how AI did.

Here is the alternate rock 2000s emo anthem. All right, so I didn't hear Josh. I didn't hear Josh or Joe mentioned in that, uh, that lead in.

It was just because we were, it was Josh and Joe Cassandra too. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I just want to emphasize this person, this robot who was singing this, he understood the assignment. He thinks Judica County is so beautiful that he's going to cry. And he sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in his robot life crying.

Sounds like a very angst, angst ridden individual. So I don't think we even need to go on. I think we've got our new one. I know how your vote.

All right. So we want to go ahead. We'll, we'll do the heavy metal. I want to say the last one, uh, as we, uh, we get into segment number two, but, uh, here is the heavy metal. It's described as cheerful, alternative metal, hair metal. I like cheerful.

I like melodic chorus. Let's see. Let's see what this sounds like. All right. So best damn show in the entire world. I, I vote for that one.

I like, I think that's pretty rocking. Yeah. It's pretty good, man. Your brain will grow if you listen. Yeah. And we give that away for free, man.

Like HGH for the human brain, just listening. All right. So we're going to, we're going to save the last one that, uh, that Joe had prepared for us as we get into segment number two, but let's kind of preview what we're going to get into Josh. And again, you guys wanted to touch on because of the time of year voting laws. Well, yeah. And I asked, uh, asked her good friend chat GPT. I asked chat GPT, what would be a good, what would be good legal topic to discuss? And it rightly pointed out, Hey, everybody's about to start voting. You know, North Carolina has a lot of voting law discussion with ID requirements and things like that. And so I thought we would just really discuss what the, you know, the basic voting laws are in North Carolina. When, when, when can you vote? How can you vote?

What do you need to vote? Maybe, you know, talk about what's kind of controversial about, you know, requiring an ID and things like that. So that's what we're going to do today.

Just in general, just take a broad stroke, look at North Carolina voting laws. And before we hit the break, uh, remind everybody we do the consults with Whitaker and Hamer, and you've gotten some nice response from those. Yeah. Every show, what we, what we've kind of been doing every show, we offer five free consults and it's, it's not a hard sell. It's not a, it's not a tactic, but we enjoy, or I have enjoyed talking to listeners who call in and have kind of a legal issue.

And then, you know, we'll figure out some options for them. You know, if the firm can help by all means, we'll let you know what that costs or doesn't cost and how the firm can assist. And if the firm can't help, at least you've talked to an attorney and you kind of know what you're, what you're dealing with.

I think a lot of people get these legal problems and kind of just hold on to them and maybe put off dealing with them. And so we've, we've helped a lot of folks kind of, kind of get through or at least know what they they've got in front of them to, to, to deal with. And so we've been doing that and that's, that's, we've been working out pretty well. So yeah, if you call in and, and leave us some good contact information and what you're dealing with, we'll, we'll reach out and get you, get you a time to consult.

Okay. We've got the five complimentary consults. The number to call is 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Again, uh, those five complimentary consults are available.

800-659-1186. We've got more at Judica County Radio coming up on the other side with Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer and Cassandra Nicholas. And we have another, uh, lead in song, a show theme, uh, we'll play for you coming out of the break. We're back with more on Judica County Radio and it will be focused again on the voting laws. We are back on Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. Also joining us, Cassandra Nicholas, fellow attorney at Whitaker and Hamer. She's out of the Moorhead City office. I mentioned that because they've got offices almost everywhere.

Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia, and as I mentioned, Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick and it's always about, uh, just, uh, you know, the importance of getting legal advice. We get into the different topics. You've got a situation you're facing. Uh, you can always call Whitaker and Hamer. 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. And we do have five complimentary consults available.

Uh, just call and get signed up for those 800-659-1186. Well, we've been having some fun, uh, with doing some lead in music, some opens and, uh, and Joe's been all over this using AI and just a fantastic job. Just to kind of remind you, uh, here is the emo anthem that already Cassandra will do the snippet for you.

She has voted for this one. All right. That's the emo version. And now we have the metal version. All right. So, and right now I think that might be the leader in the clubhouse, but now we have, the only way to describe this would probably be Backstreet Boys meets the Wiggles.

We are back. That was rough. If that had played, if I was listening on the radio and that came on, I would have turned it.

I would have turned it up so loud that I'd probably have hearing damage. It had a little bit of Bee Gees to it too, man, almost, you know, and that, I just, I wonder, I think that's a great one. And, uh, the fact that the robot loves the show so much that if they can't have the show, they're going to end it all. I feel like that's as much commitment as you can have to the show. We're going to have to train our own AI model, like brand it.

So it really, you know, Whitaker and Hamer and Judica County is what it needs. And if it doesn't get it, it's, it's not going to make it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

It's like air to, to these robots lungs, man. So, so basically when we, we aired our country versions, you got feedback in person. We are asking, uh, that you throw us some feedback. You can call 800-659-1186 and vote for the emo version. You could vote for a heavy metal version, or you could vote for whatever we just heard, uh, which was Backstreet Boys and the Wiggles and maybe a little Bee Gees. K-pop vibes. Yeah.

K-pop's pretty good. You can vote for any of those. And obviously if you like the country ones from, uh, the prior show, you can, you can vote for that as well. So next up, we are going to talk about voting laws and, uh, Josh, take it away. Yeah.

Yeah. So we had it, we had some fun today, but, uh, voting laws in North Carolina, um, just like any other state kind of governs how and when you can vote. And, um, so I figured we'd talk about that and the, the big thing, the big news story, uh, was whether or not to require, uh, an ID, right? That's going, it's going around and, uh, every state seems to be struggling with, uh, that requirement. Cause historically, uh, most states are concerned. You don't want to put any obstructions between a voter and their ability to vote. That's a constitutional right to vote. And of course, you know, in, in the United States, we have a long history of, of, uh, different groups trying to keep other groups from voting, poll taxes, just landowners.

Uh, you know, you've got this, you've got this long history. And so we're, we kind of, I think as a nation, we're sensitive to restrictions on people getting to the polls, but now it's so easy for folks to fraudulently. Oh, I won't say so easy. I'll just say it, it happens where folks, uh, maybe cast votes and since ID is not required and certain things are not required, the concern is now that it's too easy for people to vote and it's too easy to take advantage of the system. Um, and so you've got these two things competing and they kind of clash when it comes to talking about what are we going to require for someone to cast their vote and, uh, the two sides don't have a lot of room to compromise, but in North Carolina, it's the law. Now, you know, there was a law passed to require a voter ID. Governor Cooper vetoed it. It was overridden. And so this year when you show up to vote, you're going to need an ID and there's different IDs that can be used.

Um, I was just looking at that list this morning. So of course, a driver's license or a, you know, a state issued ID or a passport are going to be required before you cast your vote. And if you show up and you don't have those, your, um, you're going to be what we call a provisional vote cast.

But Joe, I don't know if you followed any of this, you know, I didn't, Josh, actually, um, I did read your notes in preparation for this topic. And, uh, yes, like you said, man, the prevent you, you will have a provisional ballot cast subject to the verification of your identity. And, and, and then, and a lot of that's not defined, you know, that, that part of the process is not something that's really known to us. Like basically if you show up at the polls and you're, and you're not registered, we don't do, North Carolina doesn't do same day voter registration, uh, the day of, the day of voting. Um, so if you're not registered or they can't confirm your identity, you're going to cast what's called a provisional ballot, which sets is supposed to be set aside and, and people have to figure out later.

And usually there's not enough provisional ballots to change the outcome of an election. So I don't, you know, I don't know exactly what, what happens with those, but the big thing in North Carolina, at least you'll need an ID to vote. And that's new.

Yeah, that is new. Um, they have put some safeguards in place for folks, um, where that is a financial barrier. There are free voter IDs available in North Carolina, but you have to get it before the end of the early voting period. Um, so there, there are some safeguards in place in North Carolina that some other states don't have. Um, and then I know you were talking about registration.

That's a really important part in North Carolina. We're going to give our public service announcement right now that the deadline to register to vote is October 11th, 25 days before the election. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Rock the vote. The, uh, registration attempt in North Carolina got rejected.

Uh, I am successfully registered now. They had a trick question on the registration form at the DMV and asked like what states I had previously been registered to vote in and what states I had voted in. And in theory, they thought those two lists should match, but I don't know if any of our listeners care at this point that I'm from, that I'm from North Dakota. And I'm going to say it every everybody cares, man. I get people all the time.

I get listeners that reach out and they're like, where's Cassandra from again? Can you make sure she mentions it? It's the only state that does not require voter registration. Um, so North Carolina got very confused about that and rejected my application. Did you have to submit a new one or was there like an appeal? Yeah, I had to actually like send a paper one with an explanation.

I, yeah. And, you know, it's, it's interesting how like these two, you know, um, we, we, we, we need to safeguard our elections and I guess some steps could be taken on the back end, maybe to make things more transparent and quiet. Uh, voter concerns that, that maybe everything's not above board or there's been some fraudulent votes cast and, and the ID seems like a good compromise between the two sides, but there are a large, there, there is a large portion of North Carolinians who won't know problems. Like you, you show up, you're going to vote. And, um, it's interesting to see how this will affect, you know, you, they worry that some people won't even go to the polls cause they know that they don't have an ID and they didn't get one. I tell you what, if I didn't have one, if I didn't have to have a driver's license to drive, I would never have any form of identification ever.

Right. Cause I don't, I don't fly anywhere. So my passport's expired.

I wouldn't have a driver. I wouldn't go to the DMV for anything. I didn't have to go to a DMV for, so a lot of people that argue that having to get a state certified ID to vote will prevent some people from voting. I think that's a fine argument. I think that that will happen because people like me who, if I didn't have to have one to do, Are you admitting to being a sovereign citizen? That's been in the news too. We should talk about that.

We'll have to talk about that. Um, next week, our good friends, the sovereign citizens popped up again and made the, made the news for filing fraudulent deeds and mortgages. And that's always something to talk about, but no, we'll have to see how the voter ID works. And then do we get the same number of people turning out? Do we get less people?

Um, it is, it really is an experiment. There's already several lawsuits filed to try to get this law off the books or change it, how it's applied. But, uh, but yeah, when you go vote, they will ask you for your ID. And that's not what North Carolinians are used to. Judica County radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm are your hosts along with Cassandra Nicholas, fellow attorney at Whitaker and Hamer. We have been discussing, uh, voting laws in the state of North Carolina. Coming up, we have an encore edition of question and answer right here on Judica County radio.

And then we're back to wrap it up a little bit later in the program. Want to remind you, uh, the free consults, there are five complimentary consults available. If you've got a legal question, something you're facing, you can get a consult 800-659-1186.

That's 800-659-1186. We're back with that encore Q and A right after this. You're listening to an encore presentation of question and answer here on Judica County radio. Welcome back into Judica County radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Again, offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead city. Again, Whitaker and Hamer, your law firm for life.

I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. If you have a legal situation you're facing, you got questions you need answers to, you can always call Whitaker and Hamer. The number's 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact info briefly what the call's about and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And again, we always say this and we mean it. We want your emails.

You can email your questions to the show info at judicacounty.com and we are focusing in on family law questions this show. So Josh, Joe, take it away. During the break, I did some thinking. Some soul searching. I did. I was in deep thought. I was thinking about our... I could see it in your face.

I didn't want to interrupt you. The Christmas special, you know, I went with Christmas vacation. We were talking about favorite Christmas movie slash special slash anything on video. Yeah.

Yeah. And I went Christmas vacation, but I regret that because I don't think... I think far and away the best Christmas movie slash special slash cartoon is the Muppet.

It's Christmas Carol. You're all about the Muppets, man. Yeah, Muppets are good. Muppets are good.

I like Charlie Brown's Christmas. I like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Peanuts are good. You get Michael... Michael Caine's performance. He gave us like a grade A performance with the Muppets. Yeah. Yeah. I ain't got a problem with the Muppets, man. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've got an issue with the Muppets.

That's good. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you that's the best thing I've ever seen Christmas related. But you've seen it.

Yeah. But again, it's not my thing. I've seen it, but it's not like it stuck with me, man.

Like I saw it and then I kept on living my life. I felt like Michael Caine gave like an Oscar worthy Scrooge performance. Michael Caine's Michael Caine. Like it's Michael Caine. And Scrooge is good too.

Scrooge is way up there. Yeah. Yeah.

Especially for the adults out there. They love that movie. I love that movie. And that usually comes like later for some reason.

That's not like, you know, you think I L fronted like nine times a day. Scrooge usually shows up like 10 days till Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you on that, man.

So as attorneys, where do you where do you fall on Die Hard? A lot of people feel like Die Hard's a Christmas movie. It's not a Christmas movie, man.

Not really. I've never seen it. What? You haven't seen Die Hard? No, we'll come back to that. You never seen any Die Hards?

Nah. You ever seen Under Siege? I've seen the Under Siege. Yeah, I've seen Under Siege. Yeah, you're a Steven Seagal guy.

I see it. Die Hard to me, I've tried to watch it at Christmas time and like make it a Christmas movie and it just doesn't do it for me. And it's because I think you can enjoy that movie at any time, man. Any time of the year, it's going to be just as enjoyable to you as opposed to like if to me, if I watch a Christmas movie like at the wrong time of the year, man, it's like it's weird.

It gives me the but Die Hard I could watch in like March and it's fine, man. Yeah, you can say Yippie-ki-yay and feel good about it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

For sure. It's well, anyway, family law. That's what we've been talking about.

We've been talking about family law. You haven't seen Die Hard, man. I've never seen Die Hard. I've seen a lot of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and that's. Yeah, they reference it a lot. Yeah, they reference it a lot. You just don't like Bruce Willis?

I saw that Bob's Burgers where they reenact it and do like a kid's play, so I feel like I got the gist of it. You don't like you don't like Bruce Willis that much? Not a Bruce Willis guy? Well, I'm trying to think. I don't think I've just seen a lot of I don't think I've seen a lot of Bruce Willis movies, really.

I'm trying to think of something else that I could ask you about. Bruce Willis-wise, because obviously he's been in a ton of movies. I was in the Dead People one. Yeah, he's in Sixth Sense. I saw that one. That was a good movie. The Dead People one. Very different than his role in Die Hard, obviously.

A lot different. Fifth Element. Seen that one? No. Okay. All right. Never mind, man. Never mind.

So Die Hard? That's nuts. So Family Law. Last segment we had Taylor, one of the attorneys at our firm, join us to talk about child custody in North Carolina in general and just how that kind of works. Kind of give us an overarching answer to a lot of questions that we get. And we get a ton of questions on post-separation support, alimony, and child support. Those are all three different things that happen at three different times for three different reasons. So it causes a lot of questions.

I think there's some confusion out there in the general public about when child support is awarded, what they look at versus what they look at for post-separation support, which is the time you're separated before you can get a divorce in North Carolina. And obviously after divorce, there's alimony conversations. So three different things. We get a lot of questions. And again, we went back to Taylor to ask her about this and then get some explanation on how those are calculated.

Just again, a good general knowledge base to start maybe asking more complex questions. But here's what Taylor told us. All right, Taylor, I got another one for you. All right. All right. Another listener question based in Family Law.

And again, I'm taking a listener question and I'm kind of boiling it down to a general question that might be more helpful for folks who might be listening. But the general question I have for you, we all have heard in the movies, you hear alimony, right? You hear about alimony after a divorce in North Carolina. Of course, you have to be separated for a year and a day to get a divorce. And during that time, you're separated. In theory, you're living apart from your spouse. You've made a decision to separate.

You guys are living separate and you have a year and a day of that separation period. And so North Carolina, we have something called post separation support. And so our question today is what is post separation support? How does that work? That's the gist of the question.

All right. Well, post separation support is essentially money given by a supporting spouse to a dependent spouse during that year long separation. It's money that's kind of given for immediate access, immediate resources to make sure somebody is not left destitute during the separation period. And post separation support terminates once alimony is decided. So whether it's alimony is denied or alimony is granted, either way, once alimony is decided, post separation support ends.

Follow up question then, how is post separation support determined? So post separation support is determined kind of similar to alimony. You have to have one spouse that is the supporting spouse, which typically is the one that was the primary breadwinner during the marriage. You have the other spouse who was dependent upon them, which means they relied on that person's income for their livelihood. And the supporting spouse has to have the ability to pay. So that's the one you see attack the most is whether or not the supporting spouse actually has the ability to pay.

Sure. But that's kind of the framework of how post separation support is determined and how you can even make a claim. You've got to have at least those three things, and then it's a matter of how much you're actually entitled to based off of how much the supporting spouse makes. How is that?

Well, going into a lot of detail, but how is that? Let's assume the judge is able to determine the breadwinning spouse, the dependent spouse. Let's say it's determined that the breadwinning spouse has the ability to pay. Is there like a spreadsheet or an equation? How do you figure out what that amount of money will be?

So there's not an exact equation. There is an exact calculator for child support, but not for post separation support in alimony. So what the court has everybody do is what's called a financial affidavit. And it kind of is a breakdown of what the expenses were during the marriage and what your expenses are now. And it's a way for the court to figure out, OK, if you need this money, how much in the red are you? Like, how much are you behind every month and how much of a surplus does the supporting spouse have that can help contribute to you being in the red?

So it's not an exact calculation, but that's essentially how we try to figure it out is based off of your financial affidavits and how much the bills are. And I think this is important, too, because you were telling this earlier, but we're talking about a lot of different things. So it's important to remember that post arrest, post separation support, any money for child support and then alimony once divorced, those are all three separate things that get determined at separate times.

Correct. So post separation support alimony, you kind of see go hand in hand because once alimony is decided, post separation support ends, it kind of merges into alimony. But child support is completely separate and usually child support is deducted first. You want to make sure the kids get the money they need first. So if child support decided to be a certain amount and after that amount, you have no money left for alimony.

Well, then you might not be required to pay alimony anymore. But those are three separate claims. And I think for our listeners, we just want to make sure that's clear, because sometimes they do merge, merge in your mind because it's money coming out of your paycheck.

But there are three separate claims. Well, Taylor, I think that's a good answer. I appreciate it. No problem. All right.

So Taylor did a good job laying that down for us. The difference between child support, post separation support and alimony, all three different things. It's just like anything else to, you know, you and your spouse or your soon to be ex spouse can can agree, just like like me and Joseph, we can agree on on anything we want to agree on.

And that's always the best. You're not always getting along. Obviously, you're in the middle of separating or divorce or you're not always getting along. You're maybe not always dealing with the most, you know, people at their their most reasonable. But you leave it to a judge, you're going to get what the judge wants you to get, according to guidelines in North Carolina, or, you know, you can negotiate and try to try to come to some separation agreement. All these things can be agreed to. When you say, Joseph, it's one of the we always talk about trying to keep the way I always look at it is trying to keep the government out of my personal affairs to the extent that you're able to. Sometimes it's not your call.

Yeah, keep them off your lawn, man, if you can. We talk about that in state, we talk we talk about that in a state planning, right? Every aspect of life, like the less governmental interference you have is generally going to be better, right? You know, as an yeah, yeah. As an attorney, you know, when we represent anybody in any area, we're trying to make everything easy for you, especially for doing planning. We're trying to to get you out of having, you know, anytime you have to go in front of a judge, even though there's guidelines, you don't know exactly what that judge is going to do. You know, if you agree to things ahead of time, you'll you'll know what to expect. You know what you're working with. And like I said, going to court's no fun, right?

Family court is just like any other type of court. It's not it's it's it's a last resort, in my opinion. It's there and it's it's necessary. Sometimes there's nothing you can do if the other side is unreasonable.

But, you know, we we try to hit knowing it's a necessary evil is the thing that has to happen, but trying to plan around it and avoid it is always going to be, you know, a good attorney's part of a good attorney's advice. I think it's a tough subject. And, you know, they I remember back when we were engaged before we got married, we had meetings with Catholic priests.

We talked about percentages of divorce, how many marriages ended up in divorce, having those types of conversations. And, you know, you hear it all the time. I mean, it's a fifty five.

I mean, I don't know what the exact number is right now. You guys probably might know the number, but it's over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce at some point. So it's a family law is a big, big deal. I know that, you know, listeners out there like, wow, wow, family law, really?

I go, yeah, yeah, it's very, very important. If you've got questions in and around family law and you've got you need some answers, you can always call Whitaker and Hamer. The number is 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about. Again, any legalese and they'll have an attorney return that call and give you some answers to those questions. You can also email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com and we'll answer them on a future broadcast. All right. We'll take a short break.

We're back on the other side. You're listening to an encore presentation of question and answer here on Judica County Radio. Welcome back into Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina, and offices conveniently located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and down at the coast, Moorhead City. If you've got a legal situation you're facing and you need answers to those questions, you can always call the firm. 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186.

Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about. And again, an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch and you can email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com. That's info at Judica County dot com. And we will answer those questions on a future program.

It will be anonymous, but you will get your information that way. All right. Our hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer.

I'm Morgan Patrick, consumer advocate. I chuckle because we are now in the course of our recording. We're doing video, too. You're not seeing that on the radio, but I am seeing what looks like Gandalf with a red toboggan on. Nice, nice, nice look. Young Santa Claus.

Look how I'm going for. So that is, yeah, Joseph has taken a I don't know what you call them, but they go on the back of seats. They give the seat like a Christmassy look. But he is taking that and converted it to a large hat. Yeah, you got to have a big head to pull this off, man. Very luckily, I've got a jacket. It looks good. It's almost like a Jawa from Star Wars. It's warm to me, and it's very warm.

Like, I feel like my brain, you know, and I've got so much power to answer these these listener questions. Very, very, very festive. Yes, I'm only one festive. You guys have nothing Christmas on, man.

You know, you strike me. Joshua is the type of person whose favorite holiday is like St. Patrick's Day or something like that. Man, you know, I do like St. Patrick's Day. It is quite a fun that you mentioned it. I think I have to revert back to Thanksgiving. I think Thanksgiving is probably my favorite.

Yeah, because it leads because because it lets you know, Christmas is right around the corner. Well, I don't mind. I don't mind helping. I'm not going to say I do all the cooking by any means or even like a half the cooking, but I enjoy cooking. Right. And then, yeah, family gets together. It's one day. No one's really usually at least around my my way traveling too much. And I like getting right back to work, man.

I don't like a lot of work. And what about number two, then number two Christmas? No. Yes.

It would have to be like what's left? What's Halloween? You got Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, New Year's Eve, you know, New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve. Yeah, Christmas is definitely a close second to Thanksgiving, I would think. So Thanksgiving, huh? Thanksgiving's good, man. I can it's like one it's like one era for me, man. I can't even say they're inseparable. It's like starts with Thanksgiving and it ends with Christmas.

And then there's a dark period of depression. I do think Thanksgiving and Christmas should be spread out. So like Thanksgiving is like maybe like right before the summertime. Yeah. Yeah. They are too close.

Way too close. It's too much time off. Too many people completely like I don't have that ability. There's no I can't just check out like that or, you know, things would go to go to crap.

But but some people really do manage to save up their vacation. Yeah. Completely check out. We should do, man. Just check out.

Let the robots run the show. And we just go off somewhere. But it's you know, I just saw it behind you. So the way we're set up, I can see out of I can see in the downtown Garner and there's train tracks right there and a train just went by. But it didn't have Polar Express.

No, I wish I wish. Another good movie. Another good movie by the way. It creeped me out.

Tom Hanks playing like every role, basically. They were here as carrying tanks. Oh, so instead of cars, it was carrying tanks.

I'm assuming is a normal thing. Christmas tanks on their way to Fort Liberty, no doubt. Santa, I would like an actual tank for real legitimate.

Please give me a tank. That's what I'm going to pull up to the studio in next week. All right. Well, we've been we've been focusing on family law listener questions today.

And our next listener question, I got to pull it up. Hey, what did you cook for Thanksgiving? I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to derail you. We did. You know, I don't want to we I want what did you specifically cook? Brisket. Yes. That's nice.

Brisket. Yeah. The good thing about smoking stuff the day before is you can wrap it up. Yep. And you let it rest. And then if something like I like we had we had an oven mishap like 15 years ago.

Right. And our oven filament burned out and you couldn't replace it. We're like halfway through a turkey.

And what do you do, man? You lose a turkey. Yeah, it's tough. Like we it's like you can go get another turkey at that point. Right.

And you're not going to you're not going to fix your fix your oven. So so I get real paranoid now if we're going to host an event, we usually smoke something the day before. Good idea. And if we're doing turkey or ham the day of, you know, if something goes wrong.

Hey, man, I'm still sitting on this brisket. Yeah. Yeah. That's a veteran move, man. We've given a lot of like we don't give a veteran move after a catastrophe. We got to have a backup plan.

That's a great plan. Like you had to go through some hard times to learn that. And you're giving us that knowledge now.

So we don't have to have the same suffering. And you don't. And if you have too much food, like, you know, you just you just got brisket and turkey. Yeah. Oh, God, I've got all this brisket.

What am I going to do? Yeah. The how about you guys? I got a lot of stuff, man. I cook some some some mac and cheese, some cookies, some delicious. I made iced oatmeal cookies like the kind you would buy from the store over there. Homemade. Unbelievable, man.

It's the best thing. Maybe the best thing I've ever made. And what else did I make, man? I made more than that. Sweet potato casserole.

Smoked the turkey. Just a lot of stuff, man. And, you know, you know, I'm I'm eating a lot.

I'm trying to get my mass up. You've told me that. Yeah. Man, I jump started on Thanksgiving. Like I easily took six to seven years off of my I was I was down. Was I in Clayton? I can't remember where I was, but I ran into somebody and I guess they had like, have you seen how gigantic?

We need to do an intervention. He asked me how he asked me if you were still doing ice baths. I guess he had I guess he had heard that. Really? Yeah. And I guess I was like, you know, I don't I don't think Joseph's on the ice bath.

No, man. This body's not fit in an ice bath. Ice cream bath.

Yeah. Ice cream. Ice cream.

So good. Look, man, I'm telling you, I don't use I don't use a scale. I don't I don't ever weigh myself. You just go by feel. I feel you put it on your you put on your party dress. If it fits great. Right.

That's awesome. And my clothes are getting pretty, pretty snug. It was about to be a problem.

I don't know, man. People may like that. People may enjoy seeing more of you busted out of the scene. And I cut out doing too much lunch, man. It was lunch that was getting me.

So I cut out lunch and I've been doing that for a couple of weeks. And that seems to be I got these things, man. I don't know if you've heard of them. They're called cinnamon rolls. Have you heard of those? Yeah. Is that your thing? I've been trying everything's my thing, man.

It's a slippery slope for me. I have like one bite of a cinnamon roll and then it's like, well, might as well die tomorrow. The whole tray, everything, anything and everything, man.

How about you, Morgan? You do a lot of cooking Thanksgiving. Well, your role or do you get to step by? No, it's a little bit of a different setup because, you know, my better half is vegetarian. And I also spend Thanksgiving with my folks. They're up in the mountains. So I run up the hill and spend the day with my parents. And usually that that includes stopping off at the Daniel Boone Inn in Boone and they do Thanksgiving to go.

So there's less hassle. My folks, you know, just let them relax and enjoy some good old country cooking for Thanksgiving. And, you know, hats off to the Daniel Boone Inn, man. They're open all the time.

They do a ton of business. Isn't that place haunted? Yeah, it's one of it's one of the haunted places in Boone. There's several, but I shouldn't say several. There are probably hundreds. Shut up Daniel Boone Inn, man.

It's just good food. Have you seen have you guys seen any more of the child ghosts? Yeah, in the Clayton office?

No, man. I thought I heard him this morning. I walked in pretty early, but it was just somebody like dumping trash outside. I can't remember. So our Clayton office is I always called it the yellow house in Clayton, but that's our Clayton office.

That's where we it is yellow. Was it a document? Is it documented ghost or you guys? Is it a documented ghost in this office? Yeah, we've talked about it on the radio show.

That's documented, right? So we didn't bring the ghost hunters or anything out to do like a EKG or whatever they do to figure out if there's a ghost there. But yeah, it's it's definitely haunted. You seem like you got lost in thought.

It's jealous. Your office doesn't have a ghost. No, no. Our office is let's say the Garner office was built in what? Oh, one and the Raleigh office was built in the 90s.

You got to have some kind of tragedy. Now we're you know, we're in Shady's today and Shady's was built like 1908. This place is definitely and it was a prison too.

It was a it was a courthouse and I had to at the bathrooms where the holding cells, right? Yes, sir. This place is. Yeah.

Well, some nights here in the dark and it's going to get it's going to be a little iffy, a little bit iffy. So Judica County radio question. Yeah, we were just saying, Morgan, we did make it to our questions. I'll have to do it next. We'll do that.

All right. Judica County radio. We'll take a short break and we'll wrap up the show on the other side. Listen, if you have a legal situation that you are facing and you need answers to those 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 info briefly what the call is about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And you can email your questions to the show info at Judica County dot com. And we will answer those questions on a future broadcast.

All right. We're going to take that short break here and we'll be back on the other side with more Judica County. We are back on Judica County radio. Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They're your hosts. Also joining us on the program, fellow attorney from Whitaker and Hamer, Cassandra Nicholas.

I'm Morgan Patrick. And it's always legalese. The discussion. And we also offer up those consults.

They're complementary. We've got five of them for our radio listeners. So if you've got a legal situation, a question, you can get those answered.

You can get that consult. Eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. We have been talking about voting laws in the early portion of the show. And of course, you just heard some Q&A, but we also debuted three new potential show opens.

And again, just so Cassandra can get her groove on down in Moorhead City, she is a big fan of the emo anthem. All right. There you go. And we have the heavy metal anthem. Let me make sure that we get to the beginning of this one. All right.

That's the heavy metal and then the whatever this is. Make sure I've got it. I feel like I'm like the fourth member of the Wiggles. So but anyway, those and again, you can always call us and put your vote in for the anthem that you like, that we may start beginning every show with and we might maybe we alternate them. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Josh, let's wrap it up. Yeah. You know, I was going to add to our discussion. You know, there's other ways you can vote, right?

We got we talked about we talked about I.D. because that's been a big story in North Carolina. But of course, you can vote. You can still vote by mail. You can still request your absentee ballot.

Those things go out soon if they I know they were making some changes because Robert Kennedy's coming off or whatever. And there was some some discussion before the the court system. But so you still request your absentee voting. You can you know, that has to be witnessed.

Right. So when you have an absentee ballot, you have to request it. It's mailed to you.

You sign it has to be witnessed and then you got to return it. It's got to be received by Election Day. There's early voting. Early voting is the only way I can vote.

I just pick like the random slowest day and then just stop by and do the early voting. Early voting is great. But of course, you can vote up until Election Day. You know, if you're if you're a convicted felon, you can't vote while you're serving your your sentence. But once your time's done or what have you, your your voting rights should be restored.

I've never really liked that law. I think, you know, everybody should vote. Whether you're you know, if you're in prison or you're doing time or you're you're out, I think everybody should be able to vote. And you can run for office from prison.

So that's possible. You should definitely be able to vote from prison. Yes, I definitely I've never been a fan of that. I think everybody should be able to vote no matter what what your what your status is. If you're a citizen, you should you should vote. But not everybody agrees. How would you feel about online voting?

It's not up for it's not anywhere close in the U.S. But there are a lot of countries that do have online voting. Like, obviously, you need to have really secure software. But that might be even better at verifying who you are than someone just looking at an idea in person.

And, you know, Joe, Joe, we're here at the show, we like to use artificial intelligence for good. But I just watched this big presentation on, you know, because we do a lot of real estate transactionals. Attorneys are kind of a gatekeeper from from fraud a lot of times. We have all these systems in place to prevent fraud. But fraudsters are getting really good. And especially if the fraudster is another nation. Right.

If you're if it's if it's, you know, China or Iran or, you know, I yeah, I don't know. I would love it. That would be awesome to be able to do it that way, because then you get what our participation would go way up. You know, yeah, the countries with it have really high participation rates and high like anecdotal like engagement rates with their political process.

And how much they think their vote matters, things like that. That would be nice to have. Oh, that would be great if you didn't have to go anywhere. You didn't really have to have poll workers.

You didn't have to have it staffed. Yeah. The concerns I understand are so high right now with especially with the power of foreign governments acting to actually try to undermine something like that. Yeah, I'm in that camp now where I feel like we need to all we need to go back to the Stone Age and we all need to like a written ballot that somebody is counting. I think, you know, the everybody just suspects fraud so heavily these days by kind of what the parties are putting out there and then not getting good information. When people have questions about the integrity of the system, I don't think their questions are really getting answered.

And so I just I think people just kind of run with the narrative, like we may not have that much fraud in our election system, but it certainly it certainly seems like a lot of people believe that. And if you don't take action to kind of quell that, then, you know, we get and we get into some problem areas. But anyway, that's Morgan. That's the current state of voting law in North Carolina. The big thing is when you go this year, you're going to need your ID.

Yeah. Make sure you take your ID. Great show. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm are your hosts. Cassandra Nicholas, fellow attorney at Whitaker and Hamer, joining us from the Moorhead City office. Want to remind you, too, we have those complimentary consults. If you've got a legal situation, you've got some questions and you just want some answers, you can certainly grab one of these consults. Call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. And they'll sign you up for one of those. Just say, hey, I'd like one of the complimentary consults. Meet with the attorneys.

800-659-1186. And a quick reminder, you can find Whitaker and Hamer almost everywhere. Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. Well, for the attorneys, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, Cassandra Nicholas, I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see on the radio next week. 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 MWHLaw.lawyer.