Coming up on this edition of Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, your hosts and managing partners at Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. We're going to get into listener questions. Again, listener questions coming up on the show. You're listening to Judica County Radio.
I'm Morgan Patrick. Each and every week, it's legalese. The discussion, we've got listener questions today. But before we dive in, gentlemen, how was the, I guess, the break?
We've been on break for a little bit. Yeah, I was going to say it's, it's 2025. Have a great day.
Happy New Year. I'm just just starting to get in the groove for 2025. Man, the I know I've said it before, and I'll say it every year, but I'm not a huge fan of all the holidays stacking up on each other. I really need to schedule. I need to go to work. And when you get on the holidays, the schedule is all messed up and it takes me forever to get back on my schedule. Just push your push your New Year's out to like July, man. You don't have to wait here.
To the calendar that the rest of the world does, man. I like continuity. But yeah, we have been on break. I don't think we've sat down together in a couple of weeks. So this is, we're going strong 2025. This is the highlight of my life, man. And I think we're going to kill it in 2025.
Some of the best radio shows to ever grace people's ear holes. Absolutely. I mean, I think we're going to have a great year. Are you guys resolution people? Or do you just kind of keep doing what you're doing and something happens and you just kind of change direction? Or do you have a plan? I made most of my resolutions, like in November, you know, guy was a big, big fat piece of crap, you know, and so I decided to change that pretty early. I'm just sticking with that one, man. So I didn't even stay up, man. I felt I didn't even stay up, like, to see the new year come in. That was one of getting sleep was one of my resolutions, man. I felt like I was going to have a good time.
Put that into effect a little bit early. You know, you look like a kind of guy that didn't stay up either. Josh, looking at your face right now. Yeah, I didn't used to, man. I was never a big stay up. Even when I was a younger man, I was never a big stay up. Welcome the new year.
But my wife and my kids are big. Let's stay up. And so I did. I said, like, literally, like 1202. And then I went to bed and then my boys and my wife stayed up and played some games. And but that was all I could do to stay up.
The 1201. Nothing fun happens that late at night once you get to a certain age. I think I mean, I think maybe I'm wrong. Well, I mean, just from my own personal experience on New Year's Eve day, last day of the month, our our our our great law enforcement in the area love them. But man, they were active. They were super active, like early in the day. I'm like, Come on. I mean, really? Yeah. But there were blue lights everywhere.
So everybody was, I guess, being safe, being careful. But yeah, it's it's crazy when you get to that time. And especially when you get a little bit longer in the tooth like me, you know, you get around you get around 10. And they're like, I'm ready.
I'm ready. But it's that one night when you kind of stay up past midnight. Well, and there's the there's the I can't really sleep late anymore, too. So I'm getting up around six, right? No matter when I go to bed, no matter what's going on, like I'm a I'm a roll out about six. So if I stay up to two, I'm only getting the four hours of sleep. But I'm not a doctor, Josh, but that's not enough. That's not going to keep me going, man.
I need 10. You know, some people need some people need some people need eight, nine to 10 hours of sleep. I don't know that the science supports that, man.
I think I think eight is a good baseline, maybe even like 7.5 10. Look, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a doctor. I was playing on radio for our radio listeners. We do hook up our studios are in different locations.
So we hook up virtually so we can see each other and play off the visual cues, which are guys are really good about doing. But I do notice I do notice we have a beard race going on between the attorneys. Josh, you have a well established.
I could be a double in a Civil War reenactment. That's very, that's very true. Young Santa Claus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, very young Santa Claus. And then and then, Joe, you you have made progress over the break. Yeah, that's what happens when I discovered that when I don't do anything to it, it just continues to grow, man. That's a scientific discovery I made.
And laziness, laziness. Yeah, I let it go until I go and see. Shout out to Mr. Oh, the Dominican barber, one of the best in the business. He's a great guy down in Clayton. Yeah, come see him. There may not be anybody better in the industry.
And he ain't got a lot to work with with me in terms of it, but he maximized what he's got, man. So shout out, Mr. He does good work.
It is great work. Josh, catch us up on the firm. Any any changes going on? Any new offices? We have a lot.
But again, I mean, you're flipping the calendar going into 2025. What's the latest on Whitaker and Hamer? I don't I don't know that we have anything new to report. You know, over the past couple years, we've added we know we've added a couple of new offices. And our goal is, you know, to serve the whole state of North Carolina, and we're slowly getting there. But we've got we've got some ideas for 2025 and have made some plans, but we'll we'll wait till everything pans out to kind of to kind of put that out there.
But right now, you know, our most recent office was the 40 42 Cleveland office. And so that's up and running. And that's and that's going going well and able to serve a lot of the clientele there and that part of Garner slash Clayton. So that's going pretty good.
So so that's that's that's we're still we're still we're still working on that right now. Yeah, it looks like you got some new swag. I mean, I don't know if that is. Is that a hoodie? It almost looks like a bathrobe without the opening in the front.
What's going on there? I don't know what you call this. I call it a sweater.
But this is Yeah, we do. I decided long ago that I don't really want to wear any like Nike or, you know, Reebok or, you know, anything I wear unless you're being Reebok out there. Nike to Reebok.
It's what's in between my under the kids. They were no man Adidas. Oh, and Nike then Adidas. And this is like I think Adidas is gaining some ground. Under Armour is pretty big.
Yeah, my kids are all in the under. Anyway, I want I want my name on everything that I wear. There's an old Waylon Jennings song about that. But so yeah, I try to have different Whitaker and Hamer logoed apparel.
I've got thousands of Whitaker and Hamer shirts, man. Do we have a rule on? I mean, there's a particular person on the show that is now pimping for a certain private university that's kind of a royal blue. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's a that's my shirt. Yeah. And you're wearing a hat too. It's Yeah, it's isn't an official do cat. But it's a it's one that we can claim as a do cat.
So yeah, man, I don't know. These these two things match. That's the number one reason I put them on.
When I go out of the house, how's the low bar? But Gator Bowl go for you? How did you know? It's funny. It's funny as an avid sports better. And I do comb where I knew they were gonna lose, right?
Everybody knew that. But, uh, I didn't have any knowledge on that. On the game. I didn't pay attention to it.
I was very busy over the New Year's Morgan. And so I made an assumption and I was like, spread 17 and a half. I was like, I feel like no one's gonna play for Ole Miss. No one's gonna play. Yeah, they all did.
It turns out they all everybody played every single one of them. Yeah, private school versus the SEC private school versus the S. Look, you hate man, but Duke, they're throwing around that NIL money now. So I think they're throwing it around as hard as anybody. So we'll see what happens, Morgan. We'll have this conversation again in a couple of years. And I think the future looks about as bright as it can for Duke football, relatively speaking, you know, but I'll support him through thick and through thin, Morgan, because I'm very real like that.
And I don't turn my back on my team, even when they're getting destroyed in the Gator Bowl. So Morgan, I know, people who might be listening might not think that we're going to do anything productive today. But we this is a listener question show. So we have we have listener questions. So we're going to answer some questions that people asked of attorneys. And and so we do have some legal information. Maybe maybe even wisdom to to impart. So we are going to get there.
Why don't we preview what those questions are? And then also, if you could go into the complimentary consults that we do offer? Oh, yeah, anytime we do a show, you know, Morgan's going to give you our contact information. He does it at the breaks, and it'll do it again. But you know, if you contact us via the show, we will we will have a free console with you. And so we do that. We do that every show.
I think this is the first show of twenty twenty five. We'll do unlimited, unlimited free consults. If you if you call in, let's cap it at a billion.
Two thousand and one free consults. But yeah, call us during the show. Leave us a message. It's a it's a it's a line where you have to leave a message.
Leave your contact information. Our paralegals, our staff will reach out to you and get you on get you on the schedule. But so, yeah, we're definitely going to do that. And then today, as far as questions go, I've had a couple of people ask me, I've seen this question come up. You know, when we do estate planning for free consults. They ask why they need two different power of attorneys.
Right. So two different power of attorneys. And we we've talked about the power of attorneys before, but that was a unique perspective, like from somebody who doesn't practice law.
Why do I need why do I need two different power of attorneys? So we're going to answer that question. I'm trying to think what our other questions were. We have a we have a question where we have spouses who have separate spouses who are divorced, who had a property agreement where one of the spouses had a time limit to refinance and buy out the other spouse from joint real property and didn't do it. Right. So we've got a breach of of an order there and a divorce.
And so I thought that would be interesting to discuss, because that comes up a lot where someone hasn't fulfilled part of a divorce order in respect to real property. And what was our other question? That's a great question, man. We had three.
I hate to answer your question with a question, but I think I think we should just let it come to us naturally during the flow of the show. We already had it. We already had it set up. And I told Morgan and I don't remember.
That's not a very good man. I've got it in front of me. How how how do you file motion for default? Ah, yeah. So we had we had someone who kind of has been handling their own civil litigation.
Right. So they've they've got a case in civil court where the other side hasn't answered and they want to know how to file a motion for default judgments. I thought we talk about default judgments and that part of civil litigation today, since that question had come up, because I always figure if people are asking me these questions off the air, then certainly we have some listeners who probably have similar questions. So that's what we're going to talk about legal wise.
All right. So coming up on Judica County radio, we'll get into listener questions. Want to remind you that those complementary consults are available with Whitaker and Hamer law firm.
And again, you're leaving the checkbook at home. Call this number. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.
That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. And they will set you up with one of those complementary consults. Again, Whitaker and Hamer, the power behind Judica County radio offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City in the newest Cleveland office, the forty forty two office available for you as well. We're back with more Judica County radio right after this. We are back on Judica County radio, powered by Whitaker and Hamer law firm. Your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. They're the managing partners of the firm. They're practicing attorneys here in North Carolina offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick.
I get to play referee between the guys on the show. We also want to let you know there are complementary consults available with Whitaker and Hamer. All you got to do to claim one is call the number eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. We'll tell you more about those consults as we move through. Again, eight hundred six five nine one one eight six listener questions.
Josh, where are you going to start? All right. Well, so a question someone asked me, I can't remember where it was, but somebody asked me why they needed to power of attorneys.
Right. So an attorney had helped them with their estate plan or was talking to them about their estate plan. And in a normal estate plan, you'll have a will. Maybe you'll have a trust. Maybe you'll have a living will. There's some other associated documents, but usually you're going to have to power of attorneys. You're going to have a health care power of attorney and then you're going to have just a normal general power of attorney. Right.
So a power of attorney and health care power of attorney in some states, sometimes you'll see a combined form that that covers both. You don't usually see that North Carolina. Why do you think that is, Joseph? Well, I can tell you, my brother and the state and the great state of North Carolina, maybe the greatest state that there is.
Maybe if I could if I could say that myself, I'm a big fan. You know, these that you have to power of attorneys because they do very different things. Right. You've we have we have split these two things up to where we have a general a general power of attorney, which covers, you know, essentially everything where you can grant somebody the authority to be your attorney, in fact, and act. If you grant them enough authority, essentially just like they were you, they can do everything that you could do. Transacting business, you know, dealing with accounts, conveying real property.
The list goes on. But but that general power of attorney doesn't extend to any kind of health care decisions, any decisions about your medical treatment, anything like that. So we have a second power of attorney, which we call our health care power of attorney, which which is it.
It falls under that umbrella of doing all the health related things that you need. So they're very distinct. And I don't know exactly the logic behind why it was done that way.
I would assume it's because those are two very different things. And you see a lot of folks that don't want to grant, you know, they may want to grant somebody some limited authority over their person, but not over their their health. So by keeping them separate, you know, it gives you more freedom of choice. And then going into the choice piece of this more, you know, you've got a lot of choice to dictate exactly what authority you delegate or what authority you keep back. So these power of attorneys are very, very flexible in terms of what you can do with them.
Yeah. Well, you know, the I think the first the first reason there's two is because North Carolina has the power of attorneys are the reason you can have a power of attorney is because there's North Carolina statute that allows it. And so there is a statute for your regular power of attorney. And then there's a statute that authorizes you to have a health care power of attorney. So there's two different statutes that that that grant these documents. I think that's probably the biggest reason why why they're two different documents, two different statutes authorize them.
And the statutes give some forms and what it's supposed to look like. But I think like what Joe said, I think the other good reason is because you might not have the same fiduciaries. Right. So, you know, for for me, you know, my my general power of attorney, I'm probably going to name my wife to be my fiduciary, to be my attorney, in fact, to be my agent, to act if I can't act for myself. Right. But my backup, you know, if she's not available to do, it might be someone different than I would say on like a health care power of attorney.
Right. So let's say on a regular power of attorney, somebody's going to handle my day to day business affairs, write checks, pay my mortgages, you know, that kind of power of attorney. My wife will be the first one. If she can't do it, I might name an attorney or a CPA or Joseph, a business partner or somebody else. Do it.
Do me pick me. Right. But on the health care power of attorney, where I'm appointing someone to take care of, make health decisions for me, if I can't make my health care decisions. My wife might be first, but my secondary might be like a living parent or a child over 18.
I really like Joseph, but I might not put him in a position to make health care decisions for me if my wife can't. So another reason that these documents are two separate documents is because you have different fiduciaries acting on those documents. They come into play different different times, you know.
And so I thought that would be another another good reason why they're they're better off being two different documents. That's pretty pretty sound logic, man. I would be honest with you.
That's a thorough, thorough analysis. But I would say you tell you tell us. Yeah.
And I'll tell you, too. You know, one of the things we do when we do an estate plan for folks is you're going to sit down with us. You're going to sign everything in front of a notary and in front of witnesses and you're going to leave with your original document set.
Right. So you're going to leave with your original will, your original trust, your original power of attorneys. We keep copies and we're going to we're going to email you copies. But somebody had a you know, I had a I had a friend who had a kind of a medical emergency a couple of weeks ago, and they made a point to tell me it was very handy to have those electronic copies in your Dropbox or your email or somewhere you can get to it on your phone. Because when medical emergencies happen, you don't usually have your originals on you. And so copies of power of attorneys can be pretty handy, too, especially like a health care power of attorney, a living will.
Like if you have those available on your phone where you can get them to a treating physician really quick. They mentioned that was pretty handy to have because it doesn't work for everything. Right. When if you if you pass away and someone needs a will, they want your original will. They don't want a copy.
But a health care power of attorney, things like that. Copies are almost as good as originals, especially in emergencies. Right. Yep. Is your friend OK? Yeah. They were out of state. They were out of state traveling and just had like an allergic reaction, but they had to go to they had to go to a hospital.
And so having that health care POA on their phone was was came in handy because they asked for it. That's what you that's what you get for having friends other than me and Morgan, man. You know, I I find if you keep your circle super small, like you guys, you two are my literally my only friends.
That's right. That's how loyal I am. Other people come up to me and they're like, hey, you seem nice. You want to be friends. And I'm like, no, no, no. Like, listen, man, sir, I'd love to do it. But if I give you my friend energy, I won't have enough for Josh and Morgan on Tuesday mornings. So the that's how much I care, man. And I'll make you guys both my everything power of attorney. All right.
Leave me in the will say in there. But, well, no, I think that's and I have seen some. You know, we we a lot of people I think we talked about this on one of our more recent shows, like a lot of people who move here from out of state.
We review their documents, their state planning documents to see what might work in North Carolina, what might not. And I can't remember what state it was from, but I did see one that had everything combined into one one big, lengthy POA. And I didn't like it. I didn't like it. But that's not the norm.
I think most states have them kind of kind of split up. If you don't like it, I don't like it, man, because that's how good of a friend I am, too. Man, I'll agree with you blindly for everything you say. I'll agree with without question, man. But remember, you got to get your POAs, you got to get your power of attorneys in place while you are competent, because they are supposed to come into play when you are incompetent and you can no longer make your own decisions.
Right. So if you don't have your power of attorneys done and something happens where you cannot make your own decisions, it's too late to get them and you're stuck going. We talk about this going to someone's got to go down to the courthouse, file a petition to become your guardian, get in front of a judge. It's a very tedious process.
Getting a power of attorney is a very easy process. So if you don't have your POAs in place. Hey, it's 2025. Make it a resolution. Yeah. Go back in time and make your New Year's resolution to complete your robust and comprehensive estate plan, hopefully with the law firm of Whitaker and Hamer. Yeah, we we talk about being proactive as opposed to reactive. You're not going to be able to reactive if you don't have the power of attorney. So, again, opportunity to get on the schedule when you talk about 2025 and make sure you're getting these things done.
Make sure you have the the two separate powers of attorney. And again, we've been going over why you need them. There's an opportunity for a complimentary consult with Whitaker and Hamer. All you've got to do is call the number eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.
That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six. That'll line you up for one of those complimentary consults. And as Josh and Joe alluded to, it's unlimited. It's like an endless buffet. We're doing a billion of them. Yes. And that sounds crazy. But but get in while you can. Because we're very popular. Yeah, very, very popular. And again, they have offices located everywhere.
The firm, Whitaker and Hamer, Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. And again, folks, it's always legalese here on the program. We do have a lot of fun with the conversation, but this is very serious stuff. Make sure you're being proactive with your planning when it comes to, again, powers of attorney. Again, call eight hundred six five nine one one eight six.
That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six for a complimentary consult. We've got more at Judica County Radio coming up next. 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 they've placed offices convenient for you in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Moorhead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. My pleasure. Each and every week, go back and forth with Josh and Joe. It's all legalese. We let them handle that. But we do have a lot of fun on the program.
But a very serious subject getting you ready as you move through life and again, working with a law firm and making sure you've got all your I's dotted in your T's crossed. And here on the program, we do offer up the complimentary consult. You can call at any time. Eight hundred six five nine one one eight six. That's eight hundred six five nine eleven eighty six.
Leave your contact information briefly what the call's about. And an attorney with Whitaker and Hamer will be in touch to set up one of those complimentary consults. All right, Joe, we're starting with you. Yeah. You know, Josh, I saw I like to pay close attention to the the attorney news and awards.
That's one of my hobbies, obviously. And I saw that you you were recognized in the North Carolina Lawyer's Power List, man. That's what I don't know exactly what that is. I assume it has something to do with lawyers with great physical strength and physique. Is that what it is? Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what it is.
No, the yeah. No, we were we were honored to be included North Carolina Lawyer's Weekly. That's a newspaper that goes out to lawyers. It reports on cases and things happening that we lawyers like to pay attention to. And they have what they call a power list that they put together and they have a real estate law power list. And so they included me for the third year in a row.
So they announced that here at the end of last year. And so that was was honored to be on that list again. And I like what it's called. I like the power. Yeah, the power list. I want to see.
Awesome, man. That's true. Joe said strength and physique. We all have to go. All the lawyers are going to be on it. We have to go bench.
We have to go bench and what's your pitch goes to someone who's not not powerful enough to make the list. You know, it feels good to at least know someone who's on it. I think you got to get a good 20 years in before you think so. Yeah, I think I'm creeping on you, man.
But no, man. Congratulations to you. It's a it's a great honor. Some would say it's the highest honor bestowed upon a person in life on Earth. So rising tide lifts all boats. So the firm is doing well. Twenty twenty five is off to a rousing start for you. Right.
Right. It's a great photo of you, too, man. I'm sitting here. I can't I cannot stop looking at it. I'm trying to stop looking at it.
I think that's just the website. No, man. Your eyes, your eyes are hypnotizing. And it's like I can't explain it, Josh. The congratulations, teen idol. I appreciate it. Yeah.
You're Jonathan Taylor Thomas for for people who grew up in the lawyers. And yeah, exactly. Yeah.
All right. So next listener question that we've got, we're going to do. So we we're going to try to twenty twenty five. I'm going to try to answer more family law questions because we get an awful lot of divorce, custody, alimony, separation agreement style questions. And and so I'm going to make an effort to try to answer more of those this year when we do these listener question question segments.
And this is this is one of them. It's a very specific question. But basically, these folks who asked this question, we've got we'll just say it's the we'll say it's the husband. So we got a spouse who is divorced.
Right. So they've already been separated. They already figured out custody.
All that's been solved there. They are divorced and they have a divorce order where they were both on title to a house. And let's say the husband has agreed to buy out, refinance or come up with the money one way or the other and buy out the. We'll just say the wife, the other spouse in this scenario. And I was supposed to do it within two years of the divorce order.
All right. So we're five years down the road in this fact pattern. And the wife's coming to us and saying, hey, he was supposed to do this within two years. He didn't. He may have a good reason.
Right. Interest rates went way up. Maybe he needed to refinance and didn't qualify for a refinance, doesn't have the money, had other expenses. So the husband could have all kinds of good reasons, valid reasons. Well, valid is not the right word, but real reasons why he hasn't done it. But it's been five years.
He's supposed to do it in two years. Hasn't done it. They're both still entitled together. She's still on the mortgage. That's the situation. She's coming to us, Joseph, and she's saying, what what can I do about this? What do you think about that?
I like to ask you these questions cold just to see how you like. It's law school. Give me that. You gave us the fact pattern.
I want you to give it back to me one more time in a concise, simplified sense. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
We could do that. We got we got a divorce couple. Yep. Both on title to the marital property. Both on the mortgage. Both on the mortgage.
Both on the title. Husband. They got a divorce. They got an order.
Yep. Husband was supposed to refi- buy her out one way or the other. In two years for, let's say, let's say 100 grand. And he hasn't done it for five years down the road now. So not only has it done it in two years, he hasn't done it in five years. And so the wife has come to us in this scenario and said, what am I going to do about this?
Fantastic job, Josh. And the answer to that question is, is his husband's getting sued, brother. Husband's getting sued in a court of law.
My brother. That's yeah. I mean, because he's he's breached the agreement and the order and arguably he's in contempt, right? Is that not what it is? Yeah. Yeah. You're in contempt of a judge's order.
You've you've breached it now. Again, a judge can do a lot of things. A judge can't make somebody qualify for a mortgage if they don't. Right. If the guy's unemployed, doesn't have any money, there are certain things that, you know, you can't you can't get blood from a turnip. Right. So, yeah, you can sue for breach contempt. Right. But another thing you can do if you don't think if you don't think the spouse is going to be able to do it, no matter what.
Like if you know the spouse is just purposely not doing it because they're waiting for a lower interest rate or they're there, they could they could do it and they just aren't going to do it. And that's probably the way to go. Right. You sue them for breach because, you know, they can do it.
They just have it. If the husband maybe is unemployed or can't pay his other bills and can't qualify, then you probably don't want to sue him to compel him to do it. If you know that he can't. What you probably might want to do is you could still do. We've talked about it a lot. Right.
The petition for partition, the good old fashioned petition for partition. Yeah. And and that's not it's not the funnest process in the world. You know, it's not the most fun time. But sometimes you get into a situation and this this applies here, but it can apply to any situation where you've got joint ownership. It doesn't matter if you're married to the person. You know, we see situations all the time where you've got siblings who inherited property together or friends that went in and purchased property together. And if things go south in that arrangement, any time that you've got joint ownership and you've got an undivided ownership interest and one of those parties won't play ball.
You know, the other person, no matter how much they want to do something without court intervention, they cannot compel the other owner to do a single thing. And so if you get into that situation, again, we're going back to court essentially. Right.
We're going back to court and we are we're suing. And, you know, depending on how that goes, man, it can there can be a lot of uncertainty involved in it. So it's not ideal, but sometimes you got no other option. Yeah. And in that and that situation, you probably wouldn't. And so, yeah, you're going to petition the court to sell the property so you can get your whatever was agreed to. I think in our scenario, I said one hundred thousand dollars.
Right. So, yeah, you basically forced a sale. That's how you can liquidate that asset and comply with the order. So it just depends if the husband's purposely not doing it, but could probably breach of the agreements which you go for.
If the husband just can't do it, then I would just ask the court to sell the property and get your money out that way. But that happened. That happens a lot. And that happened a lot when interest rates started going back up. You had all these orders where people had a year or two years or three years to refinance and buy out the other spouse.
And interest rates went through the roof and nobody wanted to refinance. Yeah, it's a bitter pill to swallow, man. That is a bitter pill to swallow when you have to not only get divorced and go through all of the pain of the divorce, but you've got to lose that two point eight five rate that you locked in. That's right. I'd say that's worse. That's worse than that. I feel like there's a lot of people that probably that's a powerful aphrodisiac, man.
There's a lot of folks who probably thugged it out a little bit longer. They're just waiting for that day when the rates drop, man, and they're coming home and they're going to go get milk and they're never coming back, brother. That's right.
That's the move officially that we've got our clients on. I thought it was cigarettes. You've got to get a pack of cigarettes. It's either or, man. You can't have cigarettes and not drink a little bit of milk after, right? Isn't that the way it goes?
I heard the doctor's orders is if you drink a half gallon of milk after you smoke a cigarette, all the negative impact of the cigarette is wiped out completely. And you get a right to sleep? Yeah, you get a right to sleep forever. Judica County Radio, your hosts are Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. Again, practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
Office is located Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay, Verina, Gastonia, and in Moorhead City. Complimentary consult available. If you've got an issue you need to talk about, they can certainly make that happen. 800-659-1186.
We have unlimited consults this week with the flip of the calendar into 2025. 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about, and an attorney will be in touch with you with one of those complimentary consults. 800-659-1186. We're back with more Judica County Radio listener questions right after this.
Music. Judica County Radio, hosted by Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer, managing partners Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm. They're practicing attorneys here in 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. Each and every week it's legalese. This week we're into listener questions. Also, we have unlimited complimentary consults. So grab one of these if you've got any questions legally that you're facing, and you can certainly get some answers. Call 800-659-1186.
Again, complimentary, leaving the checkbook at home. 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly what the call is about, and an attorney will be in touch to set up one of those complimentary consults. Again, 800-659-1186. Gentlemen? So what we had next is, and the question that got asked of me was, somebody was asking me, how do they get a default judgment?
Right. So they were basically asking me, how do they file a motion for default judgment? What is a default judgment?
How does that go? So this ends up being a civil litigation question, and we've talked about civil litigation before, we've talked about you can litigate in small claims, you can litigate in district court, superior court, federal court. There's all different types of venues for civil litigation, but everything kind of goes the same general way. You know, it starts with the aggrieved party filing some sort of complaint saying, hey, this is what happened, this is what I think I'm entitled to, here are my legal claims.
And then you have to serve it on the other party, right? So you're the plaintiff, you have to serve it on the defendant, whether that defendant's a company or an individual, there's rules on how you have to serve it. Sheriff, certified mail, whatever, they've got to get served with it, and that service starts a clock, right? So once I get a copy of your complaint, it's been served to me properly, I get 30 days to respond to it.
Most places you got 30 days, you can get an extension with the clerk for 60, but you got 30 days to answer it. And let's say Joe's suing me, and I get served with the complaint, I got 30 days to answer, let's say I forget about it, I don't do it for whatever reason. That can be a default, right? Right, right, that's it.
You're right, that is correct. The definition of default, that's it, right? You don't respond in time. And by default, the person bringing the claim is going to win, because there's no response. And if you don't respond, you've got no defense, that's it.
That's right, if you don't respond, you're in default, and then there's still steps you have to take, which is I think what this person's questions were, like me not answering is not good, I'm technically in default, but you have to get the court to recognize my default, right? That's right, there's a time parameter, right? So there's a time parameter that has to be met, because the legal system is built on the backbone of fairness and justice, and it's supposed to be just and fair to both parties.
So it's not some unknown mystery date that you have to respond by. Everything is some certain and set in stone, and if you fail to meet that, then that's when you get into that period of default. And like you said, Josh, it doesn't happen automatically. If you sue somebody and then you forget about it, the court isn't going to push that forward without some intervention from you. But once you get to that point, it's really just a filing of a motion for default, that's what it is. Simply put, you file and ask the court to enter a default judgment against the party you're bringing the claim against. Yeah, so you'll file that motion, that's what spurs the court along.
You'll be like, hey look, Josh hasn't answered, it's been 80 days now, Josh hasn't answered. I'm making a motion for the clerk to enter default, so the clerk will review the complaint, the clerk will review the service. Make sure there's good service, if there is, the clerk will say alright, you've defaulted. That's only step one of getting a default judgment, right? So then you have to file a motion for a default judgment. And depending on what you're asking the court to enter as far as the judgment goes, there's kind of two different ways.
There's a some certain, right? So if Joseph has a contract with me and I was supposed to give him 10 grand and I didn't do it, he can just ask the clerk to say, alright, you see here, Josh was supposed to pay me 10 grand. He didn't, he defaulted, I want a default judgment against Josh for 10 grand.
And in theory, you would get it. But if the court has to figure out what I'm owed, if it's not that clear, if you're asking for something that's not specifically set up, a specific amount of some certain, you've got to go before a judge and you still have to say, hey I think Josh owes me 100 grand because me and him had this business deal and it wasn't in writing and this is how much I put in and this is what he should have paid me out. Like if you've got that kind of fact pattern, a judge is still going to have to listen to it and he or she would enter in the default judgment. So getting a default judgment is not as easy as maybe it sounds for folks. It's easier than fully litigating against a person who's like actively engaged.
But yeah, it's not like you just walk down there and slap a sheet of paper on the judge's desk and it's rubber stamped, you know. But it's far closer to that than it is to the alternative of like really digging your heels in and diving into some complex civil litigation against somebody who's actively defending. Yeah, civil litigation is, it's never, you know, sometimes it's the only way to go forward. Sometimes the other party doesn't give you, can't negotiate, doesn't have money.
Like, you know, sometimes it's the only path forward. But it's, you know, we try to avoid it when possible because legal fees of course add up. But yeah, if the party doesn't answer, they're in default and a default judgment can be entered. And then once you have a judgment against somebody, we've talked about that before on the show and I'm sure we'll talk about it again at some point. But you got to enforce that judgment, right? A judge can give you a judgment for $100,000 against somebody, but you still got to go get the $100,000 by way of enforcing the judgment against the defendant's assets. And that's not always easy.
A lot of defendants file bankruptcy and that makes it a little bit difficult and all kinds of roadblocks and things that, you know, you can't get $100,000 from somebody who doesn't have $100,000 to give you. That's right. You can't something something from a turnip, isn't that a thing? That's right. And then a thing that you old people say, Josh?
This is probably like five or six, we'll have to, yeah. Can't get blood from a turnip, water from a stone. Can't get water from a, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I like that one. I like that one.
I think that's what I'm going to do as I get older in these game consoles. I'm not going to like talk about facts with people. I'm just going to say like- Just say sayings? Yeah.
Yeah, just say colloquialisms and metaphors and- I like that. This is a lot like, I don't know. You got to give a spoiler alert for one of the billion people that take us up on our free console to offer. Because you're getting into the details of what it's going to look like, man. And I like for people to be surprised they're in their console. It's like they keep them on their toes. I'm going to give you, I'm just going to read like an Aesop's fable to you. That's what I'm going to do. This is a lot like the crows trying to get water out of the bottle, you know.
Yeah. Well, how about this, Josh? Kind of walk us through. We've got listeners out there that they hear us talking about the complimentary consult all the time. Give us some examples of what you can use that complimentary consult for. I'll tell you the most popular call that we get on the radio show is for estate planning. And that consult is a pretty involved consult.
You know, we get information from you. You talk to one of our attorneys about what you want your estate plan to be, what you're trying to prepare for, how many kids do you have, you know, how does your small business run, who owns that. You know, that's the most popular consult we get from speaking with you on the radio. The firm does a lot of different things. You know, we've got our family law attorneys and our civil litigation attorneys and our real estate attorneys and our personal injury attorneys.
Right. And we, you know, just like you see, we talk about this, the attorneys who advertise on TV, they're usually advertising for personal injury, like motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, you know, car accidents. So we have we have those people to call in.
But I think by far our most popular call from the radio show is the podcast is estate planning. But until after this one, whenever the most popular call becomes, how do I get one of those? Whatever we call it that Josh is wearing today. You got one of these two, man.
What do you call this? I got one of those, man. It don't work for me, man. I don't got the right neck to make it work. Your neck. It comes out of that V. It comes out of that V like it looks like a bathrobe. It looks great, man. And you see the whole thing. I got patches on my elbow. Oh, my God, man.
Practical. But but yes, we do. But it can be anything.
And usually we try to talk to you and try to figure out a path forward for you. And it may not be something you're right. Attorneys aren't always free. Right. We talk about that, too.
How attorneys charge for different things in different kind of cases. And and so what we we talk to a lot of folks and kind of get them on the straight and narrow as as my grandma would say. There's another phrase for you.
The straight and narrow. All right. Well, we have the consults.
They are complementary. They are limitless. A billion, please.
If we don't put that cap on there, man, we'll be here all year. You're saying you're going to stop at a billion, but you could really do more than that. Right. All right. Yes, you could.
All right. Complimentary consult available. All you got to do is call 800-659-1186, 800-659-1186. Great example of what you could use this for would be estate planning.
Again, that's a popular one. 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information briefly what you need to consult about. And an attorney will be in touch with you. Again, Whitaker and Hamer law firm, the power behind Judica County. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fewquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. And Josh and Joe, of course, managing partners of the firm and practicing attorneys here in North Carolina.
I'm Morgan Patrick. We're going to take a short break. And it's the final segment of the show. It's almost like the mystery box, the grab bag.
We don't know what's in it, but you don't want to miss it. You're locked into Judica County radio. Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer managing partners. Whitaker and Hamer law firm are your hosts. They are practicing attorneys here in North Carolina. And the firm has placed offices in these communities for your convenience.
Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, 4042, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fewquay, Verina, Gastonia and in Morehead City. I'm Morgan Patrick. And again, we go back and forth on legalese, different topics, what's going on in the attorney's lives as we enter into a new campaign, the new year. We also offer up the consults.
Again, a very popular one. These are complimentary is about estate planning. And to grab one of the consults again, unlimited number available this week. You can call 800-659-1186. That's 800-659-1186. Leave your contact information and an attorney will be in touch with you about that complimentary consult.
800-659-1186. Josh. You know, Joseph, me and the boys, my boys are all into like sports cards, baseball cards, football cards. And so we've been watching the Panthers, right? And so the Panthers have shown some signs of life. The Carolina Panthers. That's right. Not the Pitt Panthers. Not the Florida Panthers. No.
But we've taken it upon ourselves to, we want to pick up some investments. Yeah, Bryce Young. Yeah. Get on that train now, man. Never. I think that's the one of the most miraculous turnarounds of a player that we may ever see in our lifetime. Dead in the water. Cast aside by the world.
No hope to none. He's really good, man. He's legitimately really, really good. Like, I think you've got to be very excited as a Panthers fan.
I am a Panthers fan and I am very excited. I'm not a turncoat that doesn't support my own hometown team. I'm not naming any names. I don't know. You must be talking about Morgan. I don't know who you're talking about.
I don't know, man. I've heard you talk about the Bills a lot. I've heard that a lot. Well, I'm married. It's by marriage. Yeah, we've talked this entire show about how voluntary marriage is, man, and what you can do about it.
So there's no excuse, brother. We've been getting on the eBay and I don't need any competition for this, but we've been getting on the eBay and buying up some Bryce Young rookie cards that we intend to sell next year when they're double, triple, quadruple in value. Nice. So that's my investment.
We don't usually give investment advice. Yeah. That's me and my kids.
We're doubling down on Bryce Young. That's sound investment advice, man. And I thank you for that.
You know, I thank you for that. And if you're one of the billion people that can enjoy one of the free consults that we've offered, you too could get personal, very great advice for whatever your situation is, just like this. Yeah, no matter what you come to me for, I'm going to tell you a fable and I'm going to be like, what do you think about Bryce Young? Or which sport card to pick up next. Yeah, you want to buy some Bryce Young like I'm on the street?
Here's what's trending. Thanks for talking to me about your life-altering issue, and I see that you're crying your eyes out, but would you be interested in one of these Bryce Young rookie cards? I got to move. I got to move a lot of these Bryce Young rookie cards ASAP. And Josh just opens up his Blazer lapel. Yeah, I like that. He opens it up, man.
Yeah, he's got them all taped in there. I got Bryce Young here. I got this OG Bryce Young. Like I'm selling watches in like a Looney Tunes cartoon. This consult's free, lady. I need to make this money back that I'm losing by sitting down with you. So please, purchase this card. So nobody do that.
Nobody compete with us on eBay. We're trying to corner the market on the Bryce Youngs and the Chuba cards. Yeah, Chuba, Chuba. Get in on a Jetavion Sanders too while you're at it, man. Yeah, I need to look at him. I'm just going to...
The Panthers are going to be good, man. I can see it in your eyes. You don't believe.
You don't believe in it. You let your kids be Bills fans primarily. I can't stop them, man. Have you tried beating them? No, not yet.
Last resort. Wouldn't advise that. Mikey's big now, man.
I think you'd have a tough time. I think Mikey's at the age where he can just look you in the eyes and say, no, dad. Wait, wait, wait. How old is Mikey and how big is Mikey? Mikey's 15.
Oh, wow. And he's about my size. I think he's getting about 6 foot, 250, 260. So he's getting up there. Hopes to play for the Panthers or the Bills one day. Could Mikey beat you in sports right now today? Probably.
Some sports. Man, it's got to be tough, man, for you. I know that day will come for me, but I hope it's when I'm wheelchair bound.
And my kids can actually beat me in a sport. Well, it happens. It happens to all of us. It's coming. It's coming. I can see it coming, man. But you got to, what is that? I always see that meme where it's like the only guy who's truly rooting for you to be better than him is your dad. And that's true, man.
That's what I want. But you can't just let them have it, man. You can't give it to them.
You got to make them work for them. Yeah, you don't want to set the wrong example, man. My dad had a friend when I was probably like 9 years old. He came over and he played me in basketball. And he was a grown, a fully grown man, man, mid 30s. He wore him out?
No, I was like 8. And he was backing me down, knocking me to the ground. Like, I'm talking 100%. He played as hard as he could. He destroyed me. And I've been waiting for the moment, man. I want to make sure, like I want to do it when he's the equivalent of an 8-year-old boy. Like when he's like borderline going into a nursing home. And that's when I want to come and catch him, take him to the court.
And it's going to be the same thing. No mercy. Full blown. And maybe that's how he goes out. Maybe he goes out on his shield, man. Hey, he's a warrior.
That's a way, it's a good, give him a good death getting back down in the basketball game. I can picture this. You're out with the wife, the family. Hey, honey, why are we stopping by the rest home? Why are we doing this? You mind your business. Tell my son to pull his phone out and film this. Why did you place a portable basketball goal in the parking lot of this rest home?
What's going on? Yeah, that guy played as hard as anyone has ever played, man. He could have played 20% of that and still won.
But he gave it his all. That's what I do when I trick the kids into playing Mario Kart or like James Bond on the 64. I trick them into playing that and then it's absolutely no mercy. Yeah, you can't, man. You can't give them false hope and cloud their mind. You can't do it, man. It's not good for the kids.
That's some more free life advice that you could give. This obviously scarred you. This is... No, man. I just, this guy. You can't let it go.
This guy. Well, I can't. I got to get my get back, man. I got to get my get back. Yeah, it stuck with me as a moment, man.
I'm telling you, it stuck with me. You feel helpless as a young boy just getting abused at a basketball game. Look, at any time after I was like 14 years old, I could have got my get back, man. I could have got him. But I've been waiting. I want to wait until he's at his weakest state, kind of like I was, man. And then it's going to be like, hey, sir.
I don't know, 30-year-old versus an eight-year-old. Can I take him outside real quick? What a volunteer at the home. I'm here to check out this guy from your home. Yeah, I'm his grandson, and I'm just taking him right down to the park.
And we'll be right back. He's wearing slippers. I mean, come on, at least give him some lace-up. I'm not even taking him out of his wheelchair, man.
I'm just crossing him up right there. Judica County Radio, Josh Whitaker, Joe Hamer, Managing Partners, Whitaker and Hamer Law Firm, Practicing Attorneys here in the great state of North Carolina. They've got offices located in Raleigh, Garner, Cleveland, Clayton, Goldsboro, Fuquay-Varina, Gastonia, and Moorhead City. They have the complimentary consults.
Unlimited number this week, so jump on this right now. Call 800-659-1186, 800-659-1186. Again, leave your contact information, briefly what the call is about, and they'll line up that complimentary consult for you. Again, having an estate plan is a great example.
Maybe you don't. This would be an opportunity to get rolling on it, 800-659-1186. Well, another edition of Judica County Radio is in the books for Josh Whitaker and Joe Hamer. I'm Morgan Patrick. We'll see you on the radio real soon. 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 this show, you can direct such inquiry to Joshua Whitaker at JMW at mwhlaw.lawyer.
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