On The Way To The Courthouse
Proper estate planning is a matter of trust
My recent column about estate planning documents generated several questions and comments about revocable trusts (sometimes called “living” trusts). Here is a quick summary of how these trusts work. Since the federal estate tax exemption is so high now — over $11 million per person — trusts are not just for citizens of great wealth. Why is ... Read More
That Thing We Fear
JANET AND I RECENTLY enjoyed a small gathering among friends in Winston--Salem. By chance, three of the invited husbands are from West Virginia, including me. We talked about our growing up days, among other things, and the comments our parents would say to us to make us mind them. A spouse asked: “What was that place your mother used to ... Read More
A Taxing Point of View
THE CONVERSATION with this young attorney was taxing to say the least. He was well-educated, with a lot going for him. He had a master’s degree in tax law and a solid academic record. He was a good-looking kid with an engaging presence. At least when he would stop complaining. He had run through associate’s positions with three fine ... Read More
Early Decision
Most every parent of high school seniors knows and covets the phrase “Early Decision.” If one of your children thoughtfully narrows their college search, applies for that college’s early admission program and is accepted, the exhilarating and sometimes exasperating search for the college of your child’s dreams can be over before the first ... Read More
The Eyewitness. And What We Should Consider About Our Own Opinions
One of the most surprising truths concerning the trial of a lawsuit is about eyewitness testimony. It is often one of the most unreliable forms of evidence there is. But how can a witness who is there to see the event in question be unreliable? Most of us who watch the movie channels know about the eyewitnesses defense attorney Joe ... Read More
Last Train
Some of my fraternity brothers and I were studying that night for mid-terms in Alderman Library at UVA when we got the news. Ken Craft came in to tell us that the train delivering the casket of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in WWII and the first post-WWII president we remembered, was making an engine-switch stop at the ... Read More
What I Learned from the Widow’s Mite
As some of you know, I have been privileged to write a monthly column on North Carolina law for the Winston-Salem Journal for many years. Its purpose in part is to simplify and explain key laws and legal concepts that affect people’s lives, and from time to time to distill into plain English as may be appropriate many of the whys, wherefores ... Read More
What I Learned From Gomer Pyle – The Art Of Being Grateful
Most every television market in the South provides a steady stream of the old black and white Andy Griffith shows. Part of this is regional pride and the sheer entertainment of them, but deep at the heart of them is a series of enduring value stories as well. Which include honesty, kindness, sensitivity to the sometimes-wobbly self-esteem of ... Read More
Mickey Mouse Law— How We Can Harness the Real Magic of the Magic Kingdom in What We Do
Prequel to On the Way to the Courthouse My Courthouse pieces are sent to a wide circle of friends and other readers. One of those readers asked me to submit a piece for a podcast series with which he is associated, Luck and Opportunity. I am pleased a six-minute piece I wrote on Perseverance and Luck was selected and recorded by their ... Read More
What We Have in Common with the World’s Smartest Person
One of the smartest people in the world in our lifetime was Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple. He was a brilliant and driven leader who had the innate ability to see around life’s corner and see matters before others saw them, and who seemingly had the ability to bend life itself. Steve Jobs was diagnosed with a serious form of ... Read More
Choosing the Harder Right Over the Easier Wrong
When I was in high school the city where I grew up had been given a real deal on a nine-hole golf course that was owned and operated by a country club in the heart of the city. The course was in a very nice and established neighborhood. The club was going to build a course in another part of the county where there was room for an ... Read More
You and the Law
You and the Law: Send Mike Wells a Question Mondays at 6 p.m. on WTOB Attorney Mike Wells of Wells Law practices in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, elder law planning, complex civil litigation, workers’ compensation, personal injury and fiduciary litigation. He has more than 40 years of experience, leads ... Read More
What I Learned from the Dog and the Skunk
One of the most valuable lessons I learned about being a lawyer I learned before I started law school. I worked as a runner for a law firm in college. One of the lawyers was particularly bright, and he was well regarded for his intellect. He had graduated number one in his class at a top ten law school. And he had the ego to go along ... Read More
Beware of what you “know.” Sometimes it “just ain’t so”
Will Rogers (among others) is credited with saying it’s not the things we know that are the problem. It’s what we think we know “that just ain’t so.” Daniel Kahneman, a brilliant analyst and psychology professor at Princeton, later won a Nobel Prize for his scientific validation of this insight. It turns out the brain takes a few facts and ... Read More
Shed the virus. Wash Your Hands of Old Hurt, Anger
The best legal problems, we often underscore in this column, are the ones which never occur. When we plan, the law can help us avoid many pitfalls. There is another insight which is like unto it: Legal remedies cannot solve what are at the heart personal relationship challenges. The law did not create these problems, and it is not able to ... Read More
Jarhead Law, and What We Can Learn from It
It started with a phone call. I was asked some years ago to host a weekly pro bono local legal call-in show for a radio station on a Sunday afternoon from 3-4 pm to fulfill the station’s required public service FCC requirement. The questions of the callers were generally straightforward, such as when can you trim limbs of a neighbor’s tree ... Read More
All Alone Together
All of us would agree we live in decidedly different times than we have experienced before. Never in our lifetimes have so many people been so uncertain about so many things, and literally so afraid. Read More
COVID-19 Response
UPDATED 6.3.2020: Office Procedures During COVID-19 As of June 1, 2020, we are meeting with clients at the Wells Law office. We have adopted the following procedures for our lawyers, paralegals and staff who are working in our office. We also will require clients to observe the same precautions. Please do not come to our office without ... Read More
Plowing to the Mark
The first lawyer I ever heard my father speak of was Andy Blair. Mr. Blair was a hard working lawyer who had climbed his way up from his small town roots. My father admired hard work as much as most any other virtue, and he had deep admiration for this lawyer who had come so far through his own grit and determination. But when I was in ... Read More
The Last Valentine’s Gift
The Last Valentine’s Gift Forty years ago this month, my mother gave to my three siblings and me the last Valentine’s gifts we would ever receive from her. Cancer was diagnosed shortly after Thanksgiving, and our mother was in the last battle of her life, a battle she would lose one month later. But as a devoted mother of four, she chose ... Read More
Pay yourself in 2020: Write off judgments on that internal ledger
I have been asked literally thousands of questions about the law through several venues over the years. Some of these questions are about legal judgments on the official courthouse book of record. But the answers about courthouse judgments may surprise you. I had a business client years ago which had appropriate protections on the money ... Read More
The Most Important Opinion Of John Roberts
THE MOST IMPORTANT OPINION OF JOHN ROBERTS Chief Justice John Roberts has written many legal opinions for our nation's most influential court of law. But his most important opinion may be about his insights concerning what really matters in the court of life. Chief Justice Roberts was asked to give the commencement address at his son's ... Read More
What Would Your Mama Say?—The value of civility
WHAT WOULD YOUR MAMA SAY? It was Pete Sparks' idea. Pete Sparks lived down the street from me when I was just a boy. He was a year older than me, so he of course knew a lot of things. One of which was the way to get to the Valley Bell,where one could get an ice cream cone for five cents. The problem was you had to cross West ... Read More
On the Way to the Courthouse: Character Arc Law
Over the last several years Mike Wells has written nearly 200 “On the Way to the Courthouse” pieces. Many of them are published in various state and local publications as well, including the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly, the Winston-Salem Journal, the North Carolina State Bar Quarterly, and the Clemmons Courier. Selections of them have also ... Read More
The Fine Art of Learning to Say No
Friends, Following is a piece about the importance of learning to say No from time to time in our busy lives. I am pleased that it was published by the NC State Bar in the North Carolina State Bar Journal (Fall 2019), which is sent to all the lawyers in our state. While the piece is geared towards lawyers, its central theme—guard your ... Read More
On the Way to the Courthouse: The Law of the Letter
Over the last several years our firm has written nearly 200 “On the Way to the Courthouse” pieces, which are reflections of partner, Mike Wells. Many of them are published in various state and local publications as well, including North Carolina Lawyers Weekly and the Clemmons Courier. A number of them have also been recorded for the ... Read More
Shakespeare Law: Take the Tide and Face the Devil You Fear
You know the Devil Brothers, don’t you? They know you. When you come to that fork in the road on a major decision you have to choose: do you stick with the devil you know, with all of its known challenges, or do you choose the devil you don’t know, the one you dread to see coming most of all, and step out into the unknown of something ... Read More
The Noble Function of Constructive Criticism and the Contrary Point of View
Studies tell us our process for making important decisions could be improved, and sometimes in some significant ways. Many wrong choices could become better choices if we did a more disciplined job of handicapping true facts, and we learned to value largely irrelevant facts to tasks not at all. A healthy exchange in which an opposite ... Read More
The Worst Pet of All
Most of us have a favorite pet, especially pets we had as children. Cushman was a big brown boxer we had when I was a very young boy. The older kids in our neighborhood, Chris Cortney, Tommy and Ricky Dickerson next door, and the Corey brothers kept their distance when my protector was with me. He slept at the foot of my bed, and every ... Read More
A Perfect Halloween Strategy – The Value of a Plan
She was way ahead of me on this one, as older sisters often are with their little brothers. Halloween has always been a great time for children. The best part for me as a child was the stash of candy you collected. For a period of time, your mom indulged you having some candy from your bag that normally you would never be allowed to ... Read More