Elections, Social media, and the Fine Art of Muting Someone

Coming up on Judica County Radio this week, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm right here in North Carolina. We're going to get into elections, social media, and have you ever wanted to mute somebody? Yeah, we'll talk about muting people.

I'd love to have that control. That's all coming up next on Judica County Radio. Welcome in to Judica County Radio.

Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. Offices are located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick and each and every week it's legalese.

We get into some interesting topics. If you've got any situation you're dealing with on a legal standpoint and you need some consult time, we've got it for you. You can call Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. 800-659-1186.

That's 800-659-1186. We have complimentary consults that we release on the program each and every week. We'll get the subject matter of that coming up here shortly with the attorneys. So elections, social media, and muting people. That's what the tease was. So Josh, I'll let you take it away.

What exactly are we going to first? Well, I just, you know, we talked about the elections a little bit. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's always weird to me. You know, everybody gets so tribal up to the elections, right? You want your, your party to win. You, you know, you, you go vote and then everybody, I'm pretty sure everybody was glued to the TV, right?

We talked about that being up all night and seeing what's happening. And so then, then everybody's got to come together, right? That's the, that's the hard part. Everybody gets real separated.

In theory, in theory, we all come together and then everybody's got to come back together. Um, but, but, but so all I've been doing is, is, you know, social media, I've just been muting a lot of people, right? I go to, when I get on social media, I go to Facebook to see how your kids are doing. Yeah.

See if you went anywhere. Cool. You know, just, you know, I'm not looking for, uh, rants or diatribes. You got to keep up with Joe Hamer. I mean, you really got to stay on top of that.

What's he doing? Yeah. Um, so I, when I, when I, when I go to Facebook, it's usually, uh, I want some happy news. I don't, you know, I don't, I don't want anything terrible, but I've had to mute so many people on both sides of the aisle. You know, we, we, we definitely try to be nonpartisan here on this show for what we're doing.

We just want to talk to you about the law. Uh, but, uh, so that's what I've been doing. I've been muting people on social media, snoozing them, right? I think that's what you do on Facebook. You snooze them for 60 days. So I'm giving everybody like a 60 day cool down window. And then I'm gonna, I'm gonna come back to it, but, um, is that my, am I the only one who's doing that?

No, you're not the only one. And you don't know what you don't know until you actually it's in your face and think about how many friends, even family members, you weren't really sure of what their, um, allegiance was. And boy, I tell you election years, you find out and I'm kind of with you. I do the snooze. Um, and you can also, um, you can also, I guess it's unfollow, but stay friends. Um, and that is, that is a, that's a good way to kind of, especially if somebody is on, that's the coward's way out, man. Well, maybe I'm a little cowardly because I don't, I don't want to offend some of my friends just because I disagree with some, I go to their, I go straight to their house and I knock on the door.

We're done. I want you to understand why I'm doing this. I don't snooze anybody, man.

I'm not trying to live in an echo chamber. I'm trying to absorb every, uh, perspective, Josh, you know? Well, you know, I, I do that on, I do that on Joe mighty bad. And I go to, I go to social media, not to, to, to feel happy. I go to get clinically depressed.

I go to try to feel as bad about myself as possible. And then I'll use that for inspiration. That's, that's my, my goal. You know, my, my opinion, um, you know, my, my opinion, uh, on a lot of stuff is, um, like I said, I go to, I go to Twitter to get news and different perspectives, right? So X or whatever it is, I think you can, if you follow Twitter, they're not going to correct it.

It's okay. Twitter's fine. But you, you, that's where I go to get kind of a different side, you know, and I've been watching, uh, I'll flip between CNN and a couple of other things and then read my wall street journal. But Facebook, man, I just want to know how your kids are doing.

Are they involved in any sports, you know, high school reunion coming up? Like that's the stuff I want from, from Facebook. So I'm stoozing people, giving them a try, but I want you guys, I got this quote. It made me, it made me think of this quote I heard before, and I want you guys to guess who said this without Googling it. Don't Google it. So here's the quote it says, uh, and, and, and this is like the spirit of everybody coming back together.

Right? So it says, it says, watch out for each other, love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself, forgive your anger, forgive your guilt, your shame, your sadness, embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart. Who do you think said that? Mike Tyson said that. Close.

Jesus Christ said that close Barack Obama. No, no, no. That's Jim Henson. So if I ever, if I ever give you a quote, your first two guests, this should be Mr. Rogers and Jim Henson. Those are not Mike Tyson and Jesus Christ. Not the Simpsons. Simpsons would be a close third.

That's a good guess. Somebody in the Simpsons, right? Did you watch, did you watch the Tyson? I know you did.

I'm asking this. Everybody in the country watched the Tyson fight. Well, I gotta, I gotta say we tried to, but Netflix it bogged down. So many people were trying to get on and watch this thing, which apparently was a total sham circus. But, um, yeah, we, we tried to, but could not.

And we ended up getting updates. That was it. You watched it, Joe? Yeah, man. I watched it. I'm not proud. I watched it.

Yeah. I put, uh, I had 26 bucks left in DraftKings and I put all 26 bucks. I don't know why I did this.

I put all 26 bucks on a first round Tyson KO. That's the only chance he had, man. But, uh, his legs, man, his legs, it just made me real sad. When he came out, we, we, I was watching it with a big group and when he came out, um, it didn't look, it just didn't look like it was, he was like telling us with his face.

Like it wasn't going to go well. I went and played some, some video games in the other room and just checked in on it. Must be, it must be a nice luxury to have two rooms, Josh. But, um, so I lost my 26 bucks. I'm down to zero and in my DraftKings accounts, I'm out to make some tough decisions going forward.

Just sell one of your kids, man, and invest it. And you can buy them back once you hit the big one, you know? No, I had 20, I had 26 bucks. I bet 20 on that. And then I bet the rest of it, we went to watch the Hornets in Charlotte and, uh, they played Milwaukee and they went down to the wire and I put five bucks on the mellow ball getting over 30 points.

And he got like 28 points. I don't know how the biggest guys know it, man. They know what's going to happen. They keep getting me. It's kind of spooky.

It's kind of spooky how well they're, uh, they're just like, it's their job or something to be to be good at that. Um, well, today, today, Morgan, we're going to do, uh, we're going to do kind of a, an unofficial listener question show. We've got a couple of segments and we're going to talk about things. Uh, this is the kind of show where we talk about things that have come up in consults that we've had. So these are real people who came in and we changed the facts.

We're not given any names. You're not going to be able to, you know, we're not, we're not giving away any personal client information, but the general topics that came up, we kind of add to it and try to make it good for, for radio. Because again, these are real people who had these concerns. They came to consult with me or Joe or one of our attorneys and we were able to, you know, assist them. But I always figure if people have these questions in my day to day practice, there's other people out there in radio land who have these questions. And so, uh, that's the goal for today is to kind of work through some of these common, uh, questions that, that maybe we get. Now, each week, uh, we do the complimentary consults, um, kind of dive into that, uh, what the consults are going to involve this week.

Well, I think we're going to keep going. I think I like this, uh, this idea of this unlimited estate planning, uh, free consult. So if you call the show, if you con, if you, if you call the show and you leave a message, um, we will, uh, set you up within a consult with one of our attorneys to discuss estate planning, right? So that could be going over your current estate plan. That's kind of what we're going to talk about today a little bit. One of our segments is, uh, people who move out of state into North Carolina and they already have an estate plan.

What, what do we advise as attorneys when you move here from New York and all your documents are New York documents and you're coming down to North Carolina, or we can talk about changing your estate planner. If you don't have one in place, we'll talk to you about getting one in place. So I think we're going to do that. We're not going to limit it to five.

We're not going to limit it to 10. If you call in, uh, during the show, we're going to set you up with a free estate planning consult. All right, there you go. Here's the phone number to call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. These are complimentary consults about estate planning and just getting your affairs in order, uh, have confidence as you're moving towards, you know, retirement. And obviously, uh, you want to take care of the legacy part of this, make sure your family, uh, is going to be taken care of. So have that estate plan. It's a great roadmap for you. And this is a complimentary consult 800-659-1186.

That's 800-659-1186. We'll get more into estate planning and other issues. When we return, you're listening to Judica County radio. We are back on Judica County radio hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. They're practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. They've got offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Farina, Gastonia, and in Morehead city.

I'm Morgan Patrick. And each and every week it's legal ease. We get into the hot topics, but also give you an opportunity. If you've got a legal question you're facing and you can always call the firm 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. And we also have the complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you ever had questions about that, just the importance of having that estate plan, grab one of the consults, 800-659-1186. You're leaving the checkbook at home 800-659-1186.

Josh, back to you. Yeah. And just, just to follow up on that, you know, we, we had a, we had a good client, uh, pass away unexpectedly a few weeks ago. And, um, and, and he had, uh, an old estate plan, um, hadn't updated it in a while.

And, and, and, and it was good that he had one. Right. That's helpful. He, but, but he hadn't updated it in a while. And, and relationships change and people's relationships with spouses, ex-spouses, children, stepchildren, they change. Right. And so if you don't update your state, if you go 20 years and you don't update your estate plan. You could, you could have problems, you know, um, we talk about, um, we talk about what happens to family members.

If you pass away without a will, or you pass away and your assets aren't in a trust, how, you know, a surviving spouse or surviving children may not be able to access bank accounts. Right. They may not be able to sell or refinance mortgage, real property. And, and, and I don't know if you haven't seen it happen, you know, just imagine you don't have income, you know, for two or three months. Right. You don't, something happens to, to your spouse and you don't have income for a while.

What, what does that look like? Maybe you have enough in savings, right? Maybe it's not a big deal. Uh, but I think that's something you got to think about, you know, if you pass away, your affairs aren't in order and everything gets frozen up, uh, in the probate process.

What does, what does that look like for the people you leave behind? Maybe it's not a big deal. Maybe you've planned well, you're, you're, you're well off, but I think a lot of, there's a lot of people out there that can't go a couple of months without access to income. Right. The assets are there.

You just can't do anything with them because you haven't put your estate plan together. You haven't planned properly, but this segment and Joe, I know you see this a lot. I'll let you speak to this, but this segment, we get a lot of people. We're very lucky in North Carolina that people want to come here.

That's very important. There's a lot of places where people don't want to go and they have, they have a whole subset of problems because people don't want to go there. In North Carolina, we have good problems because people want to come here and we have to make sure there's enough houses and things like that. But we have a lot of people moving here from California, New York, states where requirements for statutory requirements for POAs, powers of attorneys, living wills.

Whills are different from North Carolina. And so we see a lot of those people and they come in and ask us, are my documents still effective? Do I need, do I need to update?

And I'll go ahead and say, yes, you need to update. But, but Joe, you see that a lot too, I know. Yeah, man, we live in a, we live in a popular place and everybody's so pumped to move here. I mean, every way we see a lot of transplants, we're fortunate enough to do a lot of real estate closings as well, you know? So we see a good number of people that are moving to the area. And I would agree with you, Josh, that this is a super popular place. I like to believe that's because we're here. Yes.

Yes. And that's the number one draw for these folks. But but yeah, man, we sit down, we sit down with a lot of folks who come in and who who have existing estate plans, but they are from different states. And so we're, you know, everybody's in the business of making money to some extent. But, you know, I when I sit down with somebody who's got an existing estate plan, I'm not coming from the perspective of I need to sell this person something different. Because, again, if you've paid for a perfectly good estate plan and it's valid and it has no issues, then, you know, we're going to tell you that.

And even though we do these free consults, we're still going to be straight up with you and we're not going to lead you astray just to make a quick buck off of preparing some documents for you. But but at the same time, it is important to understand that there are some different states have different statutes. And so you could be in a situation where your your will is substantively valid in the state of North Carolina if prepared elsewhere. But there could be some statutory references to the laws of that other state that kind of conflict with what we have here.

So that's that's one of the things we always want you to be aware of. But at the same time, that's not to say that any out-of-state will is going to immediately be deemed invalid. You can still probate an out-of-state will with a few additional steps. And those steps, just generally speaking, are going to be you you may need some kind of additional evidence, like an addendum to the application for probate. And you might even need an affidavit from an attorney that's in that jurisdiction that says this will apply, comply with the state's laws at the time it was signed. But, you know, there's also a distinction between just a run of the mill individual's estate plan and a person that's in the military that has a military will.

Yeah. So so the comment on the military stuff, if you're in the military, there are federal statutes. So if you if you if you have a power of attorney, we call them military power of attorneys.

There's a specific form. You've got a military will. There's federal statutes that say, hey, this is good anywhere and everywhere. And the state laws don't don't matter.

Right. So if you're in the military, you don't really have a lot to worry about. Besides, you know, if you do if you do if you exit the military, you probably are going to want to get everything updated.

But you don't really have to worry about that as much. But if you're if you're moving here from New York to be closer to your kids and you've got, you know, wills and power of attorneys in New York, they're going to have New York statutory references. So like Joe said, they may be valid, but they're not going to be as powerful in North Carolina as a North Carolina power of attorney or a North Carolina will. And like Joe said, there's some extra steps.

So a lot of times our advice is going to be, yeah, you need to redo it. Do you legally have to read? I mean, it will legally probably accomplish what you want to accomplish. But your executor probably will have far less power if you probate your New York will down here in North Carolina. Your power of attorneys will have statutory references that just kind of don't don't do anything down here. So if you're if you're moving down here to live here and this is going to be where you reside, this is going to be where you own most of your property. Usually you're going to want to get that revised if you're going to have residences in multiple states.

Right. If you're going to spend six months in New York and six months down here in North Carolina and you're going to own property in both states, we're probably going to talk to you about a trust, something that kind of is in a state specific trust or more universal. Most states have very similar laws on trust.

And so that's one way. If you're going to reside in multiple states, we start talking about getting getting things into a trust. And that'll just be easier to manage than, you know, probating wills that have references to different states. But yeah, but piggybacking off of that, Josh, I think it's important for everybody to understand, you know, you could have a perfectly valid, you know, trust that's universal in the sense that it's good any state that you go to. But your estate plan encompasses more than just that trust.

Right. So you're going to have a will that works in conjunction with that trust. You're going to still need the POA. So there's a there's a chance that, you know, we might look at your estate plan and modify a piece of it and then keep another piece in place, just depending on what your needs are. Yeah, but I guess the summation here is the state where you reside, where you own real property. And usually most people don't don't own a lot of people will own rental houses and things like that. But most people, they own they own their house.

And so wherever you reside ends up controlling a lot of the references in your estate plan. But yeah, like Joe says, we can we can pick to, you know, if you're still able to sign. Right. We meet with some people that aren't really able to sign new docs. Right. You know, they've gotten they've had some law, some dementia or or something like that.

So we're kind of stuck with what what we have and we can get by. But if you have the option and you have the the ability to sign new new estate docs or restated docs or you know, you definitely want to bring them in compliance to wherever you live. And that's me and Joe just practice in North Carolina. But if you move from North Carolina to a new state, it's just something you're going to you're going to want to do. Just as a matter of course, I would say, yeah, I'd recommend everybody, anyone who's moving to the area, which is everybody on the planet Earth, it seems like I would recommend you guys, you know, whether it's us or somebody else. Even if you if you don't have an estate plan, obviously come in, sit down, let's talk about it. But if you do and it's from out of state, come in, sit down, let's talk about it. And you may be good.

You may need no changes, but it's important to to make sure that you've got everything the way you want it, because that's the entire point of having the estate plan in the first place. We are about to take a break real quickly. Josh or Joe coming up in our next segment, just tease it, what we're going to continue to talk about or get into.

And then, of course, I'll give more information on the consults. Well, we've talked about our next topic. We've talked about it on the show.

It's come up in different listener questions. But I want to talk about holding real property, the ways you can hold real property in a specific the rights you have. Like Morgan, I use this example earlier on when we were talking off the air. But if me and Morgan own property together as tenants in common, what does that mean?

What do we have the right to do or not do? And so I've seen that come up a time or two over the past week. So I figured we'd talk about that.

All right. We will dive in on that. Coming up on the other side of the break, want to remind you, you're tuned to Judica County Radio. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They've got offices everywhere for your convenience.

Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. And we have the complementary consults in and around estate planning. If you have not started, you've been thinking about it. This is a great opportunity. If you kind of dip your toe into that estate planning pool, simply call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186 and secure one of those complementary consults in and around estate planning. Again, we're going to talk about holding property as tenants in common. So if Josh and Joe own property or I own property with Josh or you know how that goes.

We'll talk about that coming up on the other side of the break. You're listening to Judica County Radio. Judica County Radio hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. Managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina.

They've got offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick and each and every week it's legalese conversation and we have consults. These are complementary in and around estate planning. All you have to do is call 800-659-1186. If you haven't started the estate planning process, this is a great opportunity for you to kind of dive into it. It is complementary or if you're in the middle of something, maybe you need a second opinion. You've got an estate plan, but you're a little bit concerned. 800-659-1186, grab one of those complementary consults.

You're leaving the checkbook at home. Josh, back to you. Yeah.

So I've had this come up more than more than more than a couple of times over the past couple of weeks. But people, you know, in real property, when we talk about real property, we're talking about land, we're talking about houses. That's what we're talking about when we talk about real property.

And real property, when you own it with another person, there's several different ways you can own it, right? And so the default is, right, me and Morgan decided we're going to buy a nice little three-story townhouse. Congratulations to you guys.

I'm glad you guys are taking your relationship to the next level. So we're going to buy ourselves a nice little three-story townhouse. And so we put on the deed, Josh and Morgan, we own it. Without any other language, the North Carolina laws are going to say you guys own that real property as tenants in common, right?

And so that means a couple of things. And what it means on the top level is we own that townhouse, I own 100% of it, and he owns 100% of it. My example of a townhouse is not going to work. So I'm going to go ahead and change it to 10 acres of land.

That relationship didn't last. Me and Morgan decide we're going to, we're going to, we found a good deal on 10 acres of raw land, undeveloped land. And make sure it's, it's raw, man.

And we're going to, we're going to develop it as kind of a side project. That's what me and Morgan have decided. We haven't told Joe about it. We don't want him to feel bad. Don't worry, man. I'm watching your Facebook to get depressed. Don't have to be looking at it so hard, man. And as soon as I see you guys holding hands in front of your ranch, my heart's going to break. Let's unfollow Joe.

I'll snooze him for a little while, but all right. So we buy 10 acres on the deed. We're not real smart about it. We should probably put it in an LLC if we're going to develop it, but we don't have time for that. We make some bad choices and it's just me and Morgan.

We're on there, right? And so a lot of people kind of like, okay, well, if you and Morgan own there, Morgan owns half and you own half. No, there's, there's kind of a legal fiction that I own a hundred percent of it and I have a right to a hundred percent of it. And Morgan has a right to a hundred percent of it. It hasn't been divided. A lot of people, they get confused.

They do. They like, you know, a lot of people will inherit property, right? So let's say, you know, Joe and your, your sibling, you inherit property. A lot of people inherit property, so they, you inherit 10 acres. You're like, okay, well, I got five acres and my sibling has five acres. Well, that's not the way it works. Um, you know, Joe would own all 10 acres and his sibling would own all 10 acres and they have to use it together. And the practical, the practical effect of that, that a lot of folks get confused by is, you know, it's, it's this undivided interest. And like you, you touched on it, Josh, but what that means is neither of you can do anything with this property without the other person.

No, you can't. You can't deal with half of it because again, you both own the whole. So you guys both have to participate in any kind of any, anything that you're doing with it. Well, I would think, and again, to use this term, average Joe, sorry, Joe.

That's not me. You know, the average Joe is going to think if it's 10 acres and it's the two people, you just split it right down the middle. And you can't do that. Like you can get with your sibling and you can say, you know what, I'm gonna build a house on, I want to build a house on five acres and you can get a surveyor to come in there and survey it. And then you can cross, we call it cross deeds, right? But I would have to deed my interest in the five acres, uh, to Morgan and Morgan have to deed the, his, you know, his interest in the other five acres to me.

And so you can definitely get to that point. Uh, but if you're dealing with someone who's unreasonable, right, that happens, right. You know, you hear property with siblings, it happens. And, and, you know, one sibling goes out there and tries to put like a mobile home on there, tries to get a surveyor to go ahead and split it up.

Well, the other sibling doesn't have to participate, right? You own a hundred percent, all 10 acres, unless you come to some other agreement. Or if you're, you know, if me and Morgan can't agree, you know, we've talked about this before, petition to partition, right? So if you're stuck as a tenant in common owner, uh, with someone else you can't agree on, you can petition the court to split the property, 10 acres, right?

The court would come in there and if it can be split, uh, fairly to each party, they'll do that, or they'll, you can force a sale. Um, but, but that's, that's just, I see people get confused on that all the time. And, and like one, one owner will kind of maybe hold the other owner hostage or want to kind of drive the train. And, and that's not the way it works. It's, it's like launching a nuclear missile, right?

You both have keys and you both have to turn the keys to do it. Yep. Yep. That's right, man.

And so you, you touched on one of the main points of confusion. So the other, the other big distinction between this type of property ownership and other types of property ownership in the state is the fact that tenants in common have no right of survivorship in the sense that if one of the tenants in common passes, the other party that owns that property doesn't automatically absorb their interest. That interest is going to pass to their heirs, whoever that may be. And so, you know, you could be looking at a situation where you own in, in the situation of, of you and Morgan's happy, uh, platonic friendship. Uh, you know, Morgan passes his a hundred percent undivided interest. Isn't coming to Josh.

Why did I pass? I mean, Josh pass. I think, I think you guys got in this fight over the property and your heart was broken and you just couldn't take it. And, um, and so it's going to pass to, you know, that that's not going to pass the Josh is going to pass to Morgan's heirs. Uh, so again, big distinction between owning property with, with survivorship rights versus this tenants in common. Yeah. And there's, there there's other ways you can own property.

We've talked about it before. If you're, if you're married, you own as tenants by the entirety, you can own property as joint tennis with right of survivorship. You can have just a life estate, so you can use the property while you're alive and, um, all different kinds of ways you hold probably. But if you inherit property, you usually inherited as, as tenants in common.

And, uh, and, and, and that can be easy if you get along, if you, if you don't get along, it can, it can kind of be difficult. Um, so when you're doing your estate planning, right, when you're thinking about, okay, I've got this property, I've got this property. Sometimes leaving it to all of your kids, if they don't get along, might be problematic, right?

You know, you can, you can have, uh, you can instruct your executor to sell it. Uh, you can try to split it up before you, before you pass away so that, you know, the kids, if they don't get along, don't have to, don't have to work together, you know, but, um, I met with one guy a long time ago and he had a piece of valuable property. And he purposely left it to the kids. So they'd have to work together after he was gone, right? He, he knew they didn't really get along, but he was like, no, this is worth a lot. So they're all have to come to the table and talk.

So he purposely, I can't recommend that, but he purposely left, uh, that piece undone. So they'd have to, they'd have to at least talk to each other. Now, Josh, can I ask, can I ask a question on top of that now, has that situation evolved at all or is it still, I mean, that hasn't come to fruition yet. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. But people have all kinds of things they want to take care of in their estate, you know, and, and, um, uh, but, but thinking about thinking about what the next, the folks you leave behind, what they actually have to do to kind of get on with their lives.

Right. Cause we're all going to die. It's going to happen by God, Josh, we're all, we're alert.

We're all going to die. And not to, not to plan for it properly is really kind of a disservice to the people that you'll leave behind. Cause they'll have to do something, right? They're not going to sit and let a house waste away.

Usually you do see that every now and again. Um, but, but anyway, that's just something to think about if you just leave a piece of property to your three kids who don't get along, what does, what does that look like? What are they going to end up doing? You know, so something to think about again, we, we talk about it each and every week, just different legalese issues that can pop up and talking about dividing property and how that's going to work. If you have an estate plan, obviously a few less headaches, but you know, making sure you're taking those steps, you can do that. We have complimentary consults, uh, with Whitaker and Hamer, all you've got to do. And again, it's about estate planning. So if you've got some questions, jump on this number, 800-659-1186. You're leaving the checkbook at home again, a complimentary consult on estate planning, 800-659-1186. You're listening to 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 just a reminder, they have offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City. Again, 800-659-1186 for those complimentary consults on estate planning, that's 800-659-1186. We've got more listener questions coming up on the other side.

We are back on Judica County Radio, your hosts, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind this program. Again, they are practicing attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. They've got offices everywhere, Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Morehead City.

And that's for your convenience. We have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got any questions there, if you haven't started or maybe you've got a current estate plan, maybe needs a second look, you can always grab one of these complimentary consults. 800-659-1186, that's 800-659-1186.

Leave your name and contact information and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch with you about that complimentary consult on estate planning. Again, it's 800-659-1186. Josh? I've got a listener question and it's kind of paraphrased and put together from a conversation I had with a friend. But we're going to shift gears. We've been talking about estate planning, how to hold real property, what to do with inherited real property. So we're going to kind of shift gears to civil litigation. And Joseph, if someone asks you to define civil litigation as a practice area, how would you define that to someone who's not an attorney? We're suing somebody, baby. That's it.

That's my simple explanation. We are suing someone. So civil litigation is anything that you wind up in court for, you get sued for breach of contract, you sue somebody because they messed up your car, you sue somebody because of a car accident. There's all kinds of things that go into this civil litigation, a lot of contract law, business law, things like that. So I had a friend who was getting sued. This was out of state.

This isn't something I could help him with. That would have been a much easier conversation. But he was getting sued and he had been served, right? So there's a plaintiff, there's somebody who filed a complaint in Superior Court and he got served with the complaint.

He had 30 days to answer the complaint. Civil litigation had been commenced, right? And he met with several attorneys in the state where he was from. They were happy to consult with him and kind of say, hey, this is the process.

This is what your – it sounds like your defenses would be. But none of them were willing to represent him on that matter. One attorney had said they didn't have time. One attorney just kind of refused to, just said, I'm happy to consult with you, but this isn't something I'm willing to take on. And so attorneys, that made me think, you know, we've talked about before how attorneys get paid on different matters, how to hire an attorney. Like a lot of people have never had to hire an attorney before. And so we get compared to doctors a lot and kind of other professional outfits, right?

But we're a little different than doctors, right? An attorney does not have to ever take your case. I mean they have to be upfront with you, right? Like I'm not going to take it. But an attorney does not have to take things, right?

And I think that kind of surprised my buddy when I was talking to him. He had a really hard time finding an attorney that would represent him on this answer, this complaint form, help him through discovery, help him negotiate it. So every attorney is not built the same. Attorneys don't, you know, it's not like a doctor finds you suffering on the side of the road. The doctor might help you no matter what, right?

Attorneys are not the same, right? You don't do that? You don't go out on the road looking for people to represent? No, no, I haven't done that lately. I stopped.

I stopped doing that. I go out with my backpack of law books every day, man. Just looking for somebody. Just waiting.

Yeah, just waiting. Because attorneys, like we don't have to take your case, right? And we'll talk to you about it. Like if you consult with us and, you know, we'll tell you what you need to do, what you need to be aware of. We need to, there's things that we are required to tell you. But attorneys, you know, we, I was about to say we only have 40 hours a week. We work more than 40 hours. But we only have a certain amount of time every week and we may not, once we consult with you and get into the meat of what you need, we may not be able to help you. But we help you more often than not.

Yeah, we do it. But he was really surprised. He was struggling and he didn't know an attorney in that state where he needed an attorney. So he was just having to Google and call. Didn't get like a personal reference. But, you know, every attorney has their own practice areas, what they feel comfortable taking and not taking.

But I think I think that just surprised him. And that made me think about how we talk about, you know, when we talk about estate planning consults, you know, we're going to talk to you and advise you. Do you need this?

Do you not need this? If you come in for a civil litigation consult, I'm going to look at what's going on and give you my suggestions. And if you want to retain us, you know, we'll talk about what that cost and things like that. But yeah, I think if you it's just people compare it to medical and if you if you get an appointment with a doctor and he might think you need to see a specialist or he might prescribe you medication. But a lot of times doctors are just going to tell you to take it easy.

Right. You know, he'll give you like some next steps and an attorney will be like, hey, I'm not going to take this on. I might be able to recommend somebody else, you know, that kind of thing.

But just a just a difference I've never really I never really thought about. So I was talking to my buddy about that. Yeah, it's interesting because I would think the same thing if I had if I had a legal question, I would probably seek out a firm that I'm familiar with, maybe just only in name like a Whitaker and Hamer. And I guess, Josh, when you were putting this together, you and Joe, did you did you just evolve into kind of the areas where you do a lot of the heavy lifting as far as the legal part of this? Did you have that kind of plan or did it just happen that way?

I'd say it kind of happened that way, man. I mean, we you know, the law is broad, right? Like there's there's so many different subsets and there's so many things and it's impossible for any one person to be super proficient in every aspect of the law. You've still got semi general practitioner type of folks who who do a little bit of everything. But I mean, there's there's certain nooks and crannies that you got to really hone in on to really do them effectively. And so for us, you know, we've got things that are in our wheelhouse and we've got things that aren't. And we try to build you know, we tried to build a very talented team of attorneys that covered a very broad area of these practice areas. And so for the things that we've got good folks and we feel confident about, you know, we're we're in there no problem.

But if it's something that's outside of the scope of what we really know, we're not going to do a disservice to anybody. So I'd say it's a it's a combination of intentionally understanding our strengths and kind of building into it as we added more folks. But it's also it's also kind of happened organically as well.

And I would imagine I'm just going to add a little something to that. I would imagine that you develop over the course of years a pretty good referral network. So if there's another firm that you guys would recommend in a certain area and vice versa, they would do the same thing. Yeah, I think we I think we have, you know, over the years, you know, the firm has been around for more than 20 years and or 20 years at this point. But yeah, definitely have a definitely know a lot of the attorneys in the area, what they handle, what they don't handle. And so if we ever meet with somebody who has an issue that doesn't fall under our purview, we we do have good options or where you where you can go where you can look for help. But, you know, when we when we started the firm, you know, it's funny you mentioned this, Morgan, but we were doing an interview for Attorney at Law magazine.

That's a real magazine that attorneys get called Attorney at Law magazine. But we're doing an interview and that same question came up is like, you know what, because every firm's kind of got their thing like right. This is how we got started.

This is what we but when we started this, our goal was to be able to take care of like your average family, like kind of throughout the course of that family's life. Right. So we were like, well, you need to be able to do real estate because everybody's buying a house refinancing.

He locks. We have a lot of self-employed clients of business law, contract law, civil litigation kind of came into play. Everybody needs an estate plan. Right. So we started you know, we built that side of the practice estate planning. And then there's a state admin trust admin for after you're gone for for your kids, you know, and you know, we family law. Right. It's something everybody wants a divorce.

Yeah. So family law is something that that we that we kind of put into place. But that's been our goal is to be a law firm that can help the average family kind of as that family, you know, kind of kind of grows up and matures. And so that's kind of been our goal. Yeah, to be somewhat factual. Not everybody wants a divorce.

Oh, percentages are north of 50 now. I remember back when, you know, I was was, you know, first married. That's one of the conversations you have if you marry into the Catholic faith, which I did. Oh, they have the conversation about, you know, marriage and how it's not always this this primrose path.

And they're going to be some struggles. But they talked about the divorce percentages. And at that point, I think it was 55 percent.

And that was gosh, that was 30 years ago. So it literally is a 50 50 proposition. But not everybody is. We can we can pump those numbers up, man, with a little bit more time. We can get those numbers sky high. We want everybody to get along. Well, listen, we're going to take one final break.

We'll be back on the other side and we'll wrap up the show. But we want to remind you, too, that we have the complimentary consults in and around estate planning. If you've got any questions. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Just ask for one of those consults. Leave your name, your contact information.

An attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch with you again. That number. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Judica County radio. One more segment to go again. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your hosts. They are the managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer law firm, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And the offices are in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. And for a complimentary consult in and around estate planning, call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

We're back to wrap it up right after this. Judica County radio, your host, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners, Whitaker and Hamer law firm. The power behind this program. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They have offices conveniently located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. And each and every week, it's always conversation in and around legal topics. And we also have complimentary consults in and around estate planning. So if you've been thinking about it, haven't started, this is a great opportunity. If you would like to have maybe your estate plan looked over, this is another opportunity for you.

These are complimentary. Grab a consult by calling eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. That's eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. Leave your name, contact information and an attorney will get in touch with you. And of course, say, hey, I'd like to look into one of those complimentary consults in and around estate planning.

Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. We are on the home stretch. Josh, take it away. Yeah. And the consults, you know, there are no there are no obligations. So, you know, an estate planning consult, just to just to kind of let you know how they how they go. You know, we we request some information from you.

Right. So if you call us, we're going to reach back out to you. We're going to get your email. We're going to get your cell phone number. We're going to put you in our system. We're going to reach out to you and kind of figure out some things about you. Do you have kids?

What do you what do you own? Right. So a bunch of yes, no questions. We're not trying to tie you up for too long, but we're going to get all that information so that our attorneys, before they talk to you, kind of know what you got.

Right. You know, kind of know what you're what you're going to be asking, what you know, what you're going to need. And then we'll talk to you. I had somebody complain one time. They didn't want to give us any information before they talked to us. And I was like, well, if you want to make our time together, very productive, our free time together that we're giving you, that information that we're asking you for socials, we're not asking you for that information. But if you got four kids and you don't like one of them, I want to know that ahead of time.

Right. If you got no kids and you're thinking about leaving money to charity, I want to know about that, because it kind of frames our conversation if I can have that basic information ahead of time. You know, that person you just described sounds like the type of person whose kids probably don't like them. Honestly, Josh, if I'm if I'm being straight up with you. So well, but we like we like to know that ahead of time. You know, are we I can look at your assets and feel like, you know, if you're going to need a trust, we're going to need to talk about that. But but all kinds of things that we can talk about. And so that's that's why we do that. But then we'll talk and then we'll make our recommendations and you can say, hey, that sounds good.

What does that cost? And we'll tell you or you can say, I don't like that, Josh. No, you can say I don't like that, Joe. Well, yeah, no one's telling no one's telling me no. Nice try, man. Thousand percent success rate.

But we'll do you one better, man. We're going to tell you what it's going to cost before you even come in the door. You know, the thing was when we designed our estate planning process, a lot of people get frustrated with attorneys due to a lack of transparency. You know, there's there's a lot of folks who who hear a number for an hourly fee.

They have no clue how many hours it's going to take. And it ends up costing way more than they anticipated. So we built this from the ground up with the concept of there's going to be no surprises. It's going to be you're you're paying a fee. You're going to understand what that fee is ahead of time. And we're going to talk about exactly what it's going to entail. And everyone's expectations are going to be set in stone before we move forward.

Yes. This isn't you know, we always say these are these aren't shakedowns. This is we're going to talk to you about what we think that that you need, give you some options. And then, like like Joe said, our pricing is not a secret. It's not going to sneak up on you.

You'll know what it is. And if we can help you. Great.

I would love to love to have you as kind of lifetime clients of the firm. If we can't help you, you're not ready or whatever. So be it. You'll still have that knowledge, right? Well, you'll have the knowledge that we we gave you our advice anyway. And and yeah, the people ask me about that. I think a lot of people maybe get intimidated because we are requesting some information. So I just wanted people to know why we're doing that. And it's not as simple, you know, as you know, as much as I'd like to sit down and talk to you. If I know these things ahead of time, our time together can be very productive. And I'm not fact finding. I'm not asking questions.

I already know these things that you can input into our system in a few minutes. Right. So we try to make it easy. And you're a lot like doctors, guys. I mean, if they come in and sit down with you, what they share with you is between you and them.

I mean, it's not going anywhere else. That's right. That's right.

That's right. I am your closest confidant in life. And you can tell me anything.

I was thinking about this while we were while we were at break, Joseph, what so far? So sports betting has been legal in North Carolina. What is your worst bet? Your worst bet? And like worst bet, like the dumbest thing I've bet on or worst cowboys make the most the most money I've lost? Well, I would say the like I should have known better. Tyson was not going to knock anybody once you saw that fight. Like, obviously, that wasn't I mean, yeah, I don't want to say it was fixed, but it wasn't. I got this thing, Josh called it called my gut and and I go with it, you know, and it's not always right.

So it's led me to some stinkers before. Yeah, I bet on the Tyson fight. I bet I bet the over and I won that bet, Josh. So if you to consulted with me, if you would have been so busy being in your two rooms and you'd ask me, I could have told you that was the safe bet. Is the over on the Tyson fight? And I don't know, man, I I take fliers sometimes because I hate I like betting on plus odds.

Right. Which are, you know, the underdog. So there are a lot of times I take some bad bets if I have any kind of a feeling about it. So I'd have to give you like 200.

And we don't have enough time for that. I'm I'm still up over my lifetime betting. I'm still I'm still up, but I've definitely I've definitely had a bad run. But now if you guys just let it ride, have you cashed out? Have you done any of that? Or you just kind of keep the bank?

What do you do? I've cashed out. I've cashed out.

If I hit a certain point, I cash out and then but don't mistake that to think that I've actually made any money because I've I've cashed back in on more than one occasion. So, yeah, it's it's just so it's so easy to do. You know, like I if I'm at a game. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. The magic is in the air, man. The magic's in the air. There's no way this team can lose.

I'm here. The well, we got I got to get I got to get in. I haven't been following the hurricanes as much this year and they've been doing really good. I got to get you could have made some money. You bet on the hurricanes, man. Hockey betting. I just never seem to figure out hockey betting and baseball betting. I can't I can't figure it out, man. I can't get good at it. I feel like I wish I could bet on my kids at 12 and under hockey, man.

I'd make a killing. I got my I got my finger on the pulse of that league, brother. Telling you, man, telling you if I can make some bets on high school football, you know.

Oh, yeah. I know what's going on. A little pool going right here, man. Nobody has to know. You know, we're going to have a show here shortly where we have to announce that our children have been banned from all sports. I love it, man. More family time, brother.

What could be better than that? We will wrap it up. Judica County radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. Managing partners Whitaker and Hamer law firm.

The power behind this program. Again, they're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. They've got offices located for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Varina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. Again, it's a pretty safe bet that they've got an office pretty close to you. So check them out. We also have a complimentary consults.

State planning is the focus. Got any questions there? And again, you're not agreeing to become a client.

Josh has pointed that out. So as Joe, this is an opportunity for you to kind of get to know them. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. And they'll get to know your situation. Again, in and around estate planning for one of those complimentary consults. Please call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. And when you do leave your name and contact information and what that call is about, obviously the estate planning consult and an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch. Again, call the number eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.

That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six for that complimentary consult. Another edition of Judica County radio is in the books for Josh and Joe. I'm Morgan.

We'll see on the radio next week. Judica County is hosted by attorneys licensed to practice law in North Carolina. Some of the guests appearing on this podcast may be licensed North Carolina attorneys. Discussion on this podcast is meant to be general in nature and in no way should the discussion be interpreted as legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered once an attorney licensed in the state in which you live has the opportunity to discuss the facts of your case with you. The attorneys appearing on this podcast are speaking in generalities about the law in North Carolina and how these laws affect the average North Carolinian. If you have any questions about the content of the show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at JMW at MWH Law Lawyer.