Will Harper Introduction

Transcript:

Intro Speaker: It’s time for KellyCanHelp hosted by Jeff Kelly, Attorney at Law with the law office of Jeffrey B. Kelly. And now here’s Jeff Kelly.

Jeff Kelly: Okay, people on the radio show today I want to take this opportunity to interview a really awesome attorney. My associate, Will Harper. Mr. Harper, thank you for coming onto the show for this interview. All right,

Will Harper: thank you for having me. I know you had to go down the depth chart to get to me.

Jeff Kelly: Not true. Not true. Okay. So will you specialize in bankruptcy with me? How many years have you been practicing law?

Will Harper: I’ve been practicing law for a total of coming up on six and a half years here, actually. And of the six and a half years about four have been in bankruptcy.

Jeff Kelly: Excellent. Excellent. Where did you go to law school?

Will Harper: I actually went to law school at the University of the Pacific in Sacramento, California.

Jeff Kelly: Now, why in the world did you pick California?

Will Harper: Well, I got waitlisted at the University of Georgia ended up not getting in. And I got into Georgia State, but I’m from the countryside and the idea of living in Atlanta for three years. Didn’t seem like a great idea to me. So I applied to other schools around the country. And figured if I got to spend three years somewhere, I might as well be near the redwoods.

Jeff Kelly: Now didn’t didn’t they give you an academic scholarship there as well?

Will Harper: Yeah, kinda. Yeah. That they. They’ve made it worth my while to go out there.

Jeff Kelly: That is impressive. I’m impressed. Yeah. Where’d you go? undergrad?

Will Harper: I went to undergrad right here in Rome, Georgia at Berry College.

Jeff Kelly: Awesome. Awesome. So when At what point in your life did you realize, hey, I want to be a lawyer.

Will Harper: Well, I started out at berry wanted to be a teacher. And I got all the way to the point where I was doing some student teaching or volunteer work at berry Elementary. And I quickly discovered that spending all day with children was a lot different than having your nieces and nephews for an hour or two. my nieces and nephews would misbehave. I can hand them right back to who that was responsible for him and say, No, no, I can’t do that when they’re when they’re there for eight hours. So I got to think and that was a philosophy major that nobody was going to pay me to philosophize. I tried that didn’t work. So I decided when I was 21, I was going to go to law school.

Jeff Kelly: Excellent. Excellent. I think I met you right about that time. You were over at seven hills church with Tyler.

Will Harper: That was right around that time.

Jeff Kelly: Yeah. How about that? That’s been a while ago.

Will Harper: I had a I had actually, I had lost a bet and dyed my hair blonde, if you remember.

Jeff Kelly: That is funny. Yeah, you know, I think I do remember that. You dyed your hair blonde. So it’s definitely on here now.

Will Harper: Yeah. I don’t question it anymore. I’m just glad it’s there.

Jeff Kelly: That’s funny. How’d you like being out in California?

Will Harper: So the part of California I was in Northern California is not that different from it’s not like going to a huge city Sacramento is about the size of maybe Jacksonville, Florida. And it was, it was not as bad of a transition as it could have been. I didn’t go to LA that would have been a culture shock for Southern country boy.

Jeff Kelly: So where are you originally from?

Will Harper: I’m originally from a little town on set east of Athens on 78 called rail Georgia. It’s got one little Blinky light. It’s in Wilkes County. But I grew up in Athens after the age of 10.

Jeff Kelly: Excellent, excellent. That’s why you’re a diehard Georgia Bulldog fan.

Will Harper: You used to be didn’t you? And then

Jeff Kelly: you became a Christian and converted

Will Harper: orange looks good on you. I guess.

Jeff Kelly: It’s been a rough decade. I’ll admit it Actually no. More than a decade. It’s been a rough 15

Will Harper: that creamsicle complexion.

Jeff Kelly: It’s been rough man. It’s been rough. But yeah, all my family are diehard Georgia Bulldog fans so it’s a win win for me because if Georgia is playing well they’re happy so I can be happy for him and if George’s in the in the dumps then there they are hilarious with their disappointment, so then I can laugh at him.

Jeff Kelly: But yeah,

Will Harper: but for those who don’t know have quite the decade to get used to it like you

Jeff Kelly: will will like to give me a very hard time about being a Tennessee fan that he’s been known to even change my screensavers to ridicule My poor school. So you have a very cool story about how you met your wife, would you mind telling that story?

Will Harper: Sure, so I was a junior at Berry College, this would be 2009. And I was working for the chaplains office and chapel services, and here in the same dad gum prayer requests every single time. And I got to thinking, you know, if people would try to, like, help people and help answer these, we wouldn’t hear the same ones every time. So I tried to make it my goal for a period of time to answer what I could or help where I could. And one time at one of the services, one of my fellow workers, Dave Thomas stood up and said there was a freshman whose family was going to be evicted from their apartments, unless they were able to catch up in a few months rent. And it was, it wasn’t that much money, really, I think it was about $1500. And I got to thinking, I know, most people at the college if everybody gave like $5, we would easily surpass that. So I went door to door through the dorms, trying to raise money for it. I got most of the way there. And I went back to the chaplains office and said, hey, I’ve got enough money, I think we can help out. And I called the number and told the student, it was a young lady that she could come and pick up the money that we’d raised for. And when she got there, she was really, really beautiful. So I kept her phone number. And it turns out, she needed a ride to the bank to deposit the money into her family’s account. And I don’t remember if I had anything to do, but I quickly found some free time to accommodate that. And we stopped at Shane’s Rib Shack on the way back. And guess sort of the rest is history.

Jeff Kelly: And you married her. I love it, man. That’s an awesome story

Will Harper: did I did

Jeff Kelly: I love that

Will Harper: the what I learned from that is sometimes when you try to be a blessing, you can be blessed. We did long distance for two years. When I was in California, and she was still a very,

Jeff Kelly: yeah, yeah. Wow. And you made it. That’s awesome. That’s an awesome.

Will Harper: you know, well, I had this like I had this little romantic romantic notion about that. Because I was like, you know, in World War Two, all these American men went overseas to fight in that war and some for sometimes for two or three years and all these women waited on them. So long distance isn’t that difficult. And then later, I found out that my grandfather’s first fiance had married someone else when he was in the Pacific kind of shattered my entire.

Jeff Kelly: Oh No, yeah, you’re you’re kind of a for those of those who don’t know, well as a genealogical expert, he can really dig up some cool stuff. And in addition to being a great lawyer, and you like history as well, right? Who’s your favorite historical figure?

Will Harper: Ah, I sort of go through phases, where I like different areas of history. And if I had to pick the person I liked the most. It would be Hannibal Barca. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with that, Hannibal Barca was a general for Carthage and Carthage was the big rival of Rome way before Rome was the empire that most people think of. And the cool thing about Hannibal is by the time he was 27 years old, he had led an army all the way across the Alps. Back in those days, it didn’t have roads, it had to actually walk and killed one out of every four Roman male citizens. It was just unspeakably brilliant what he did by the time he was 27.

Jeff Kelly: You’re kidding. I did not by the time he was 27, he killed 25% of the Roman male population?

Will Harper: Yes, it caused actually demographic and manpower issues with Rome for over 100 years afterwards. He decimated the middle class.

Jeff Kelly: Wow. You know, I’m surprised nobody has made like a really good movie out of that because I love Roman history. And all my kids know that story of of Hannibal taking he took elephants over the Alps, in the middle of winter. is just crazy. You know, invading mainland Rome, guess all odds with elephants But yeah, I love

Will Harper: Georgia. Well, you know, we barely get out here in Georgia, we’d get barely any snow and we can’t even drive cars on the interstate.

Jeff Kelly: There. Can you imagine take an elephant’s over the Alps? It would I think it really would be an incredible movie. I mean, like, like, even carved roads into like rock to change the angle so they could get the elephants over. I mean, it’s just unbelievable story. But yeah, I’m with you on that. He’s a amazing historical figure. Yeah, I could go on forever talking about Hannibal interesting. Well, hey, when you’re not practicing law, what do you like to do for fun?

Will Harper: I’ve got three German Shepherds. And that’s sort of sort of a full time job in and of itself. I ended up getting a German Shepherd when I went out to California so that way, no matter what, I would have someone who would love me. And he is now 10 years old. And he managed to get himself bitten by a brown recluse spider of all things the other day.

Jeff Kelly: Oh, man.

Will Harper: But he decided after I married Dana, that he really didn’t like Dana, that’s my wife. So we got her her own German Shepherd. And then we ended up with a third one that was unexpected. Kind of like my, my adopted dog here, and he’s my teddy bear Gizmo.

Jeff Kelly: That one was my fault. Sorry. Excellent, excellent. Well, hey, before we go here, we’ll You know, a lot of times I’ll have clients come in. And and sometimes I’ll just think, man, if only you had not done that, shoot, like, for example, taking money out of a 401k and paying off credit card debt. Bad move. Can you think of anything off the top of your head that you’d like to warn clients don’t do this if you’re thinking about it?

Will Harper: Yes, title pawns to vehicles. That is unfortunately, the one of the most difficult debts to reorganize. Title pawns have a lot of special privileges under Georgia law. You are better off pawning your kidney pawning a toe. Just don’t pawn your car.

Jeff Kelly: Yeah, you know, I man, that’s a good one. I’m glad you brought that up. Because there’s a reason they’re against the law. And I think 37 states, it’s not legal. But for some reason, they are legal here in Georgia. And you’re right. I hate it when somebody has a title one and we can’t, we can’t help them in a chapter 13. I hate that.

Will Harper: One little, little known fact that big orange tea at the University of Tennessee, it’s because they actually pawn to the university and have it managed to pay it back yet.

Jeff Kelly: I knew you’d have to get a Tennessee joke in there somehow. I knew it had to go. Any any predictions for the college playoffs? What do you think?

Will Harper: You know, this this year has been so weird. The Pac 12 has played what four or five games Ohio State’s played four or five. I think whoever wins this is going to have a big asterisk next to it. But I’m anticipating Alabama versus Clemson for for the bragging rights.

Jeff Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent. All right. Well, well, Hey, thanks for coming on the show today. And I look forward to getting this out to all of our future clients. And you have a good one. We’ll see you buddy.

Will Harper: Take care.

Jeff Kelly: Hello, this is Jeff Kelly. And in the next part of today’s show, I just want to give a few updates about chapter 13 and COVID. And I just want to emphasize to people, anybody out there who is considering filing and you’re worried about COVID we can actually do everything virtually right now, which means that you never have to come to the office. We can review your file. With you With a program called zoom, we can do a screen share. And we can have you sign the documents using a program called DocuSign. And even your court hearing right now Right now they’re all the court hearings are being done virtually as well. And it’s a lot more efficient than the old system. So you can actually get your case filed and attend your court hearing, without ever leaving your house.

Jeff Kelly: So what is chapter 13? Why would somebody want to file it? Well, Chapter 13 is a consolidation of all your debts while you’re in chapter 13. Nobody can sue you. Nobody can call you, nobody can harass you, you get full protection from the court. Chapter 13 is a great tool for stopping garnishments, stopping the foreclosure of your home, stopping the repossession of your car. So here’s how it can possibly work for you.

Jeff Kelly: Let’s sayyou owe six months on your house. And now the mortgage company is saying they’re going to foreclose. Well, Chapter 13 basically says stop or no foreclosure is going to take place here. Instead, we’re going to take this six months that we’re behind on and we’re going to pay them back over time. wonderful tool for stopping a foreclosure is a wonderful tool for somebody who’s been out of work. And now they’re back at work, they just can’t come up with all the money tomorrow. Same thing for a car, you know, if the cars about get about to get repossessed, because we’ve missed so many payments, but now we’re back at work now we would can make payments to the creditor just won’t work with us. Chapter 13 stops the repossession of your car. So it is a great, great, wonderful tool. And, you know, I want to talk real quick about some situations where it might not work. You know, if somebody’s unemployed, and they have no source of income, but they want to stop the foreclosure of their house. Chapter 13 is not going to help, there’s got to be enough income to cover future expenses. Plus pay that little extra to stop the foreclosure. So it’s not really a good tool for unemployed people, usually someone who has no income coming in and they they just need to clear the backs of all their debt. They’re going to file what’s called a chapter 7. And in a chapter 7, we just wipe out everything that’s gone.

Jeff Kelly: I’ve written a book on both chapter 13 and chapter 7. And if you go to my website, www.Kellycanhelp.com, you can download a free copy, we’ll email it to you. And we’ve got some a few hard copies here at the office left. So if you call and you you you’re like one we’ll give you a free one while supplies last.

Jeff Kelly: Another situation that unfortunately, it comes up a lot is you know, can we save a car that has a title pawn on it? And the answer is most of them? No. The reason is because your your title transfers to the title pawn company as soon as you miss your payment. So title pawns are awful, there’s a reason they are outlawed and banned in like 37 different states. I would encourage everybody don’t get a title pawn under any, any any circumstances at all, don’t do it. It’s just not a good idea.

Jeff Kelly: So, to recap, if you’ve got a foreclosure or if you’re facing a repossession, someone’s trying to garnish your wages, give us a call. It’s a free consultation. It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us. Very, very good idea to talk to an attorney to explore your options. Don’t go out and borrow against your 401k to try to get out of a tough spot your 401k is a protected asset. Nobody can touch it, it is protected from your creditors. If you are in a tough situation and you’re thinking about borrowing against your 401k to get out of it. Please come sit down with us first before you do it just to explore your options. never hurts to explore. Yes, so definitely, definitely take advantage of a free consultation know about your rights and download that FREE copy. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. I want to wish everybody a wonderful Merry Christmas. And but if you need to reach out to set up your free consult, you can give us a call at 706-295-0030. Again, that phone number is 706-295-0030 and please check out my website www.Kellycanhelp.com and if you’d like podcasts. We’ve got some old radio episodes plus some additional materials. At www.Kellybankruptcy.com. Hope you guys have a good one. Thank you.

Jeff Kelly: Hello, this is Jeff Kelly. And in the next part of today’s show, I just want to get a few updates about chapter 13, and COVID. And I just want to emphasize to people, anybody out there who is considering filing and you’re worried about COVID, we can actually do everything virtually right now, which means that you never have to come to the office, we can review your file.

Jeff Kelly:: With you With a program called zoom, we can do a screen share. And we can have you sign the documents using a program called DocuSign. And even your court hearing right, right now they’re all the court hearings are being done virtually as well. And it’s a lot more efficient than the old system. So you can actually get your case filed and attend your court hearing without ever leaving your house. So what is chapter 13? Why would somebody want to file it? Well, Chapter 13 is a consolidation of all your debts while you’re in chapter 13. Nobody can sue you. Nobody can call you. Nobody can harass you, you get full protection from the court. Chapter 13 is a great tool for stopping garnishments, stopping the foreclosure of your home, stopping the repossession of your car. So here’s how it can possibly work for you. Let’s say you owe six months on your house. And now the mortgage company is saying they’re going to foreclose. Well, Chapter 13 basically says stop when No, no foreclosure is going to take place here. Instead, we’re going to take this six months that we’re behind on and we’re going to pay them back over time. wonderful tool for stopping a foreclosure is a wonderful tool for somebody who’s been out of work. And now they’re back at work, they just can’t come up with all the money tomorrow. Same thing for a car, you know, the cars about get about to get repossessed, because we’ve missed so many payments, but now we’re back at work now we would can make payments to the creditor just won’t work with us. Chapter 13 stops the repossession of your car. So it is a great, great, wonderful tool. And, you know, I want to talk real quick about some situations where it might not work. You know, if somebody is unemployed, and they have no source of income, but they want to stop the foreclosure of their house, Chapter 13 is not going to help there’s got to be enough income to cover future expenses. Plus pay that little extra to stop the foreclosure. So it’s not really a good tool for unemployed people, usually someone who has no income coming in and they they just need to clear the backs of all their debt. They’re gonna file what’s called a chapter 7. And in chapter 7, we just wipe out everything that’s gone.

Jeff Kelly: I’d written a book on both chapter 13 and chapter seven. And if you go to my website, www Kellycanhelp.com you can download a free copy, we’ll email it to you and we’ve got some a few hard copies here at the office left. So if you call and you you you’d like one we’ll give you a free one while supplies lasts.

Jeff Kelly: Another situation that unfortunately, it comes up a lot is you know, can we save a car that has a title pawn on it? And the answer is most of the time? No. The reason is because your your title transfers to the title pawn company as soon as you miss your payment. So title pawns are awful. There’s a reason they are outlawed and banned in like 37 different states. I would encourage everybody don’t get a title pawn under any, any any circumstances at all. Don’t do it. It’s just not a good idea.

Jeff Kelly: So, to recap, if you’ve got a foreclosure if you’re facing a repossession, someone’s trying to garnish your wages, give us a call. It’s a free consultation. It doesn’t cost anything to talk to us. Very, very good idea to talk to an attorney to explore your options. Don’t go out and borrow against your 401k to try to get out of a tough spot your 401k is a protected asset. Nobody can touch it, it is protected from your creditors. If you are in a tough situation and you’re thinking about borrowing against your 401k to get out of it, please come sit down with us first before you do it just to explore your options. never hurts to explore.

Jeff Kelly:: Yes, so definitely, definitely take advantage of a free consultation, know about your rights, and download that FREE copy. Thank you guys so much for tuning in today. I want to wish everybody have a wonderful Merry Christmas. And but if you need to reach out to set up your free console, you can give us a call at 706-295-0030 again, that phone number is 706-295-0030 and please check out my website www.Kellycanhelp.com and if you’d like podcasts. We’ve got some old radio episodes plus some additional materials at www.Kellybankruptcy.com. Hope you guys have a good one. Thank you.

Outro Speaker: you been listening to KellyCanHelp with Jeff Kelly reached out to the law office of Jeffrey B Kelly today by phone 706-295-0030 in Rome or visit Kellycanhelp.com.