TV Host: Welcome back to WDEF News 12. It is time for some free legal advice and all you have to do is give us a call. The phone number is 756-1212 again 756-1212 is attorney Gary Massey joining us this morning. He is here to answer any questions that you may have. We are going to take that number and put it at the bottom left hand corner of your television screen and in case you come up with a question feel free to call us. Phone lines are open. Again, 756-1212. As always we appreciate it when you stop by.
Gary: Thanks for having me.
TV Host: Now of course every morning we are talking about traffic here and we have talked about his before, but I think it is always a friendly reminder that when you’re in an accident no matter the severity of that accident, a fender bender or even worse, what are those steps that you need to take to make sure the insurance gets the right information and so it doesn’t come really to you? What are some things that we can do?
Gary: One of the first things you want to make sure you do is you want to make sure you give the police officer who is investigating the accident a clear and basic description of exactly what happened. You want to make sure he understands where you were, where the other car was and if there is anybody around, if there was anybody who saw the accident then try to make sure you get their name and number, because so many times people don’t’ want to get involved or they are standing there and they say do you need me and the police officer says no I don’t need you, well you should get their name and number if they saw what happened. Obviously keep records of everything. Try to get the other parties insurance information at the scene. Sometimes that can be difficult to get. If you need to go to the doctor, go to the doctor soon.
TV Host: Of course one of the great things now is take as many photographs as you can because you have got the cell phone. Ya know, why not?
Gary: Great point. Especially where the cars are on the road. If you can get to show where they are at or when they stopped, that is very helpful, not just the damage.
TV Host: Ok we are going to go to our callers now. Angela is our first one. Good morning to you Angela.
Angela: Good morning.
Gary: Hi.
Angela: I have a quick question. Me and my husband bought a house back in 07 and we bought it directly from the builder and in February we found a brick in our pipe. It was stopping up our plumbing and it cost over $1000.00 to fix that. Is that something we can sue on and get our money back?
Gary: Well it possibly is. Usually you have one year from the date that you close on a house. You have a warranty that lasts one year and if you don’t find the defect in that time it’s usually too late, but if it is a hidden defect, if it is latent or something like that then you might. You might have trouble over a thousand dollars. I would have hoped you would have talked to the builder when you found the brick and maybe let him fix it. A lot of times builders will work with you on that kind of thing. It is the kind of thing to investigate further. You might be able to but it might be a long shot.
TV Host: Our next phone caller is Robert. Good morning to you Robert. (pause) I think we lost Robert so we are going to move onto Roy. Once again the phone number is 756-1212. Good morning to you Roy.
Roy: Yes I want to ask you a question on…if I’m married to a woman and she run off and left me what can I do about that. I mean she has got mental problems and I can’t help her. What can I do? Do I need to get an attorney or what on that?
Gary: Did you say you were married?
Roy: Yes I was married to her for about a year and she started running around and everything else and took off and left me and causing me a lot of problems. Do I need to get an attorney or what?
Gary: You would probably be better off getting an attorney and filing for divorce if she is going around with other people. You can have certain liability, it is possible that she can be running up credit in your name or you could be liable for her medical bills and things like that so you probably want to get at least a legal separation if not a divorce. You can do that by yourself, but it is a lot easier usually even cheaper to do it with an attorney. You usually get a better outcome as well so that would be my advice.
TV Host: Our next phone caller is Chuck. Good morning to you.
Chuck: Gary I filed a 13 in February of this year and I was court ordered to pay so much into the court system. I had a part time job and I lost it so I have been able to make payments but not like the court ordered. Is there a chance on a dismissal on that?
Gary: Yes there is a chance of dismissal if you don’t make the bankruptcy payments according to your plan that you had confirmed with the court. They have a right to dismiss your case. Usually they will give you a chance to make up those payments if your income goes back up so that you are able to make what you were making before.
There is also the possibility of modifying your plan to reflect your current income but chances are you may have to give up property if you are trying to save a house or trying to save a car and you don’t have enough income to cover the secured payment on that you are really between a rock and a hard place. You have either got to make up those payments or change something else so that the money you are able to pay into the plan will pay off according to the plan. You only have five years and decreases in income pose a lot of problems.
TV Host: Joyce is joining us now. Good morning to you Joyce.
Joyce: There is a member that took out a serious warrant on me. They came Thursday; Hamilton County police came and locked me up. This is about the church and I had just gotten the other warrant expunged but TBI didn’t expunge that and they said I had to wait for that. What the pastor did to me and then a member said I’d been stalking her for years and (fade out)
Gary: Well Ma’am I really think it may be time to find a different place to go to church.
TV Host: Alright we are going to move on to Joe. (pause) Hi Joe, are you there?
Joe: Yes Hi.
TV Host: Go for it.
Joe: It’s about probate.
Gary: OK
Joe: If my mother died and left a will, I was the trustee, there are four of us in it. One that was in it went to a lawyer and didn’t have the original will. They wrote me for the original will and I didn’t get a chance to answer it before they refused my sister. She went to another attorney and this attorney went to the probate and had a judge name an administrator out of their law firm. Is that legal?
Gary: It is legal. You can go to the court and petition the court to appoint an administrator and the court can do that, but you can now come back and file a new petition or a motion to substitute the administrator to admit the will to probate. If you are appointed the trustee or the administrator of the estate then the court could appoint you and replace the current administrator with you but you have to get the court to do that and you have to do these things fairly quickly. You can’t let a probate sit around for a long time.
TV Host: Some great questions coming in but unfortunately we are running out of time. We are going to put the information on the screen. Attorney Gary Massey, located at Massey & Associates, P.C. at 1024 ML King Blvd. Call [firm-number] or look him up on the web at masseyattorneys.com and there is a look at his website. You can also go online and submit your question as well. I appreciate you stopping by.
Gary: My pleasure.
Gary Massey, Jr., is a well-known courtroom advocate practicing law in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Gary is a native of Tennessee who began practicing law in 1998. He graduated from Cumberland School of Law where he was ranked in the top 3% of his class and was an editor of the Cumberland Law Review.
