Attorney Joe Pippen was a very much loved and respected member of the community and enjoyed serving the public by providing free legal advice on his radio show “Ask an Attorney” which was heard throughout the Tampa Bay area for 37 years.  Radio talk show host Bill Bunkley interviews Joe’s spouse, Beverly Pippen, on their years together and the difference Joe made in people’s lives. 

 

 

 

The Bill Bunkley hosts a radio show that brings you the latest in political and cultural news with a decidedly Christian worldview. FaithTalk 570 and 100.3 Tampa Bay 910 and 102.1 Lakeland; Monday-Friday, 4-5 p.m. on AM 930 The Answer; Fridays, 4-5 p.m. on AM 860 The Answer.  Also streaming on the web, your smartphone, or iHeartRadio.

You can listen to the segment of the Bill Bunkley show with Bev Pippen below or read the transcript of the segment further below.

 

Beverly Pippen and Bill Bunkley Live on WTBN

Discussing Attorney Joe Pippen

Bill Bunkley:

Welcome back, Bill Bunkley here with the Bill Bunkley Show. If you’re just tuning in, it’s a very special Friday afternoon here in the 4:00 hour, because we are looking back at the life of Joe Pippen. Joe was on the air with his radio program, Ask an Attorney, since way back in 1984. And we were honored to have the program on our stations first back in 2005. And then a little bit further, 2001 and 2005 all the way until today. And I want to tell you that we were shocked, but we have been praying for his wife, Bev, the family and friends. And I know that this was a very sudden situation for everyone. And so to have a chance to share a little bit, we are honored to have Mrs. Pippen with us this afternoon, and Bev is calling in. And Bev, first of all, thank you so much for spending a few moments with us.

Bev Pippen:

Thank you. It’s my honor.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, it goes without saying from our General Manager, Barb Yoder and Joe Weaver, and I know that you had a chance to chat with them on it all this week that, our overriding thoughts and prayers are with you. And we have really been impacted by your husband’s life and, of paramount this afternoon, that’s what we want you to know. And that’s what, hopefully, that you can feel because he was a very special guy to you. You chose him, he chose you, but very special to us. And just thank you for being with us at this tender moment.

Bev Pippen:

I’m so glad that I could be here. Thank you, Bill.

Bill Bunkley:

How did it all start between you and Joe? How did you guys meet?

Bev Pippen:

Oh, my gracious. It’s a funny story, because he likes to tell this unreal version of it. But he came to my high school, he’d gone there the year before, and then a new school opened up that he went that year in his junior year. And I had come into my high school as a freshman. And so at the end of my freshman year, there was a yearbook-signing sock hop we had…

Bill Bunkley:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

… back in 1964.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And I was 15 and he was 17. And he stared at me across the gym the entire night. I was with my girlfriends and my sorority sisters or whatever. And I didn’t know who he was. And so, lo and behold, the last song comes up and it’s a slow song. Here he comes across the gym and he asked me to dance with him and I was so rude. I just said, “No, thank you.” And he turned heel and walked away…

Bill Bunkley:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

… because I don’t think any girl had ever done that to him.

Bev Pippen:

But two months later, I was at the lake. He was a lifeguard. And I had heard in between that time that he was a good guy, he went to my friend’s church. He was a really good guy. He helped take care of his brother. And I saw a different part of him and I eased in on, I liked his personality.

Bev Pippen:

And about a week later, he asked me out and believe it or not, the anniversary of our first date was yesterday. It was August 5th, 1964.

Bill Bunkley:

Wow.

Bev Pippen:

Fifty-seven years ago was our first date.

Bill Bunkley:

Wow.

Bev Pippen:

And we dated that last year of his senior year and then four years of college. And then he got married. We got married December 20th, 1969. And he went into law school shortly thereafter. He worked a 40-hour day during the day…

Bill Bunkley:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

… and I would pack his lunch for his supper and he would go to law school at night.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And I worked for lawyers as a legal secretary during that time. And he also, at the same time, he was in law school, he went through OCS and became a Lieutenant in the Virginia Army National Guard.

Bill Bunkley:

All the way back to high school?

Bev Pippen:

Yeah.

Bill Bunkley:

A lot of those long-term relationships never certainly last all of these years, but that must be just a special, special place in your heart that you and he connected so closely and worked as a team all these years.

Bev Pippen:

It is incredible because when he started his law practice, I had not been a legal secretary in Florida, but I thought, well, who better to have your back? And I was working on interior design at the same time and I quit that to help him open up practice. And I started being his secretary up in a spare room upstairs in our house on a metal card table…

Bill Bunkley:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

… and chair on pillows, so I could sit up high enough on a very, very, old, not a Selectric, but a old IBM typewriter, in the days that we were doing four carbon copies and doing 13, 14 page trusts. And I had two little boys downstairs running around. And it was quite something. But we have that history that we built it from the ground up. And I’m so proud of him. He was my absolute, the love of my life. And he called me his dream girl.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bill Bunkley:

I want to follow up on one thing to what you can share and if you cannot share, I understand. But how about Joe Pippen the family kid? Just before he met you, you referenced that he took care of his brother. We don’t need to go into specifics, but I want to just share a little bit, because we’re talking about the man behind the name of Ask an Attorney. He was showing some leadership skills and responsibility skills way back then, didn’t he?

Bev Pippen:

Oh my word. He was so mature, so responsible. His brother was a special needs brother and he would feel such compassion for his parents. I remember the time that he slipped and fell on slick, wet grass and broke his arm. And he didn’t want to tell his mother because she was going to the YWCA and she never got out.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And he wasn’t going to say anything, but she finally found out that he had broken his arm. He was not going to tell her.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

He was the most giving person. His love language was acts of service. And he did that across the board without any regrets, any attitude. When he walked into the house at the end of the day, he was the same person here that he was that everyone else saw. Just the same kindness, loving, patient person. Just an incredible role model for me. Just incredible.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative). That’s awesome.

Bill Bunkley:

If you’re just joining us a very special edition on this Friday afternoon, the Bill Bunkley Show, a tribute to Joe Pippen who went home to be with the Lord. The host of Ask an Attorney, bright and early on Saturday mornings. Only the Lord knows how many people he was able to touch, whether they called in or when you’re talking about wills or trusts or probate, well, that’s a area of law, we’re all going to have to deal with it sometime. And just imagine all of the community good will that came out of his years and years. And I call that a ministry.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, let’s fast forward. We’re talking to Bev, Joe’s wife. We’re doing some reflections back on some of the private side that many never had a chance to get to know, just because of the fact that he was a radio personality to many people listening or even right now. So we got a couple of kids, he’s in law school, just so many things on the plate. So tell us about those years, because he still was a steady Eddie. He just had a weigh to balance a lot of things, carrying a lot of things on the plate. Talk about that.

Bev Pippen:

Well, he had incredible energy. It didn’t even look like frenetic energy, by any means, he just had this deep well of resources of energy with the same steady persona that he had. He could juggle. During the early years of his practice, he did a lot of public speaking, but he always had dinner with us and he’d go out for a quick hour or two for a speaking engagement and come right back home. Very involved with his kids, even as youngsters, he’d buy them those little action figures…

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

… and get in their room and play with them. And he would watch cartoons with them if he could get home early in the afternoon, but he’d go back out after dinner.

Bev Pippen:

He was definitely a family man, very balanced in that, but still loved public speaking. He loved his own form of marketing. He had such a gift from the Lord. It just fell out of his pores. He had ideas. He loved to promote. He loved to make people happy. He loved to serve people in the type of law he practiced. He didn’t want to have adversity. And so often law is, and can be, of course, but he wanted to help people.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And it was truly, truly his desire and his passion.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

His passion was to help people.

Bill Bunkley:

We got about three or four minutes left. How about back when he decided to go on the radio, he decided to write that weekly column? Could you tell us how that came about?

Bev Pippen:

Again, starting of the birth of the marketing thing, he thought writing articles. When we were in Maryland, he liked writing articles and he got a few published in the, I think it was the Daily Record, it was the legal newspaper in Baltimore. Liked doing that and started doing, in a local newspaper, I believe it was the Seminole Beacon, and we came up with a name, Ask an Attorney. And he would do this little article. I got the fun project of editing it. And so I did that and then he’d submit it. And all of a sudden, he had a bunch of those. And so he printed that first small book, Ask an Attorney.

Bev Pippen:

And then he decided to go radio, because he had been practicing the speaking, because when he was a young child, he had a stammering problem, and nobody ever fixed it. God fixed it.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative). Amen. Hmm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And so he worked on speaking. He did a lot of speaking and, one day, he went into 570 and he showed them the book and they said, “Well, we’ll give it a try.” I think they gave him a try and someone else hosted it. And then, all of a sudden, they had this big spot and they say, “You want this, you do it on your own.” And I was at home like a stage mother, nervous Nelly and listened to him do three hours by himself on a Sunday afternoon.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bev Pippen:

And from then on, he hit the ground running and he’s been on radio ever since.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, I tell you what, you being able to share, pulling back the curtain on your personal relationship, that just endears all of us, our audience more to your husband. And I just can’t tell you enough how all of those character traits and integrity just poured forth as he was sharing on the radio. And I just want to make sure that you know how much he was beloved here and by all the members of our community.

Bill Bunkley:

I know that you’re going to have Memorial Service next Wednesday at the First Baptist of Indian Rocks. But…

Bev Pippen:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bill Bunkley:

… it has been very, very special for you to share some of these intimate stories. And really, I know that Joe would be so pleased with your testimony. And I know that one day you’re looking forward to that opportunity for the reunion…

Bev Pippen:

Yes, indeed.

Bill Bunkley:

… because you will see him again.

Bev Pippen:

That is our hope. That is our joy, that gets us through the day.

Bill Bunkley:

Mm (affirmative).

Bill Bunkley:

Bev, my sister in Christ, thank you so much for being with us. And we’re praying for you…

Bev Pippen:

Thank you.

Bill Bunkley:

… praying for the family and God, I know he has already, but he will surround you with his presence and know that the saying of, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” was bestowed upon Joe when he was absent with the body present with the Lord and always hold on to that.

Bev Pippen:

I totally do. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Bill Bunkley:

Thanks for being with us.

Bev Pippen:

My pleasure. Thank you.

Bill Bunkley:

God bless.

Bev Pippen:

Thanks.

Bill Bunkley:

Well coming up, we’re going to have a chance to listen to a couple interactions with Joe and Dr. Ken Whitten about George Washington, Andrew Johnson, and a side of him when he said goodbye to our former General Manager, [Chris Gould 00:13:54]. That’s coming up in a moment. Don’t go away.

 

Attorney Joe Pippen was a very much loved and respected member of the community and enjoyed serving the public by providing free legal advice on his show “Ask an Attorney”.

First Airing in 1984, Joe Pippen had been hosting the continuous call-in Radio Show for 37 years.  We are deeply saddened by Joe’s passing and he will be greatly missed.

On Saturday, August 7^th @ 8AM, WTBN AM Radio 570 / 910 broadcast the final specially produced airing of “Ask an Attorney” featuring a retrospective taken from previously aired shows.  

You can hear the broadcast by clicking below or read the transcript of the program further below.

Joe Weaver:

Thank you for tuning in today for Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. For almost 40 years, this program has been heard all throughout the airways of Tampa bay and extending to several other markets covering most of Florida. All that time, the program has been hosted by attorney Joe Pippen. If you haven’t been made aware, I regret to inform you now that on July 29th, our friend Joe Pippen passed away. My name is Joe Weaver and for the next hour, we would like to spend some time remembering Joe and the very large contribution he made on the radio and to the real people that he was able to help along the way. The program was always about the callers, the opportunity to receive what was essentially free legal advice about the multitude of challenges listeners were facing over the many years was well taken advantage of.

And every week Joe was there to thoroughly, patiently and carefully try to work through whatever the issue of the day happened to be. If he didn’t know the exact answer, he’d tell you that. But pretty much always had a referral for someone that probably could find it for you. If you were already being represented by legal counsel and he was made aware, then he advised you that it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to be discussing the matter with you any further. However, more than anything, if you were unsure what to do, he would try to help you find the answer. And very oftentimes did so successfully. Of course, the law is a very broad and complicated universe of potential situations one might be trying to find answers about, but he gave it a shot for all who knocked on his radio door. And so, today we’re going to listen back to a variety of those exchanges, as well as other radio pieces he produced over a long career of answering your questions all about Florida law.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Hey, good morning. This is attorney Joe Pippen, and this is a special edition of Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law with attorney Joe Pippen and I’m glad to be your host this morning and the law office is open, as I like to say. A lot of my practice is in the area of estate planning, although we have other attorneys to do real estate and various other topics of law. I’ve been doing radio for a long, long time, and I’ve had many, many different types of questions. And if you have a question then regardless of what it is, I can probably at a minimum give you some direction on where to go. And most of the time I can answer the question.

Joe Weaver:

And the law office was open as he always liked to say and that clip that we just heard comes back from the mid-90s, as a lot of the material that we’re listening to today was actually extracted from cassette tapes of the radio programs that he did in the late 80s and 90s, and all the way through into the 2000s. But any of the years that the program was on the common thread is that he really could only prepare so much for each week’s program because he had no way of knowing the questions that the listeners of that program that week were going to be asking him.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Hey, you’re listening to Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. That is the fun of doing live radio by the way, because I can’t really prepare for a show. I mean, I prepare every week by practicing law and talking to lots of people and their circumstances and giving you advice and so forth. I have plenty of practice answering questions, even on the radio and in person, but I never really know what I’m going to be asked. I can prepare generally as I practice law and prepare myself to every day learning something often, and new circumstances and how to deal with them. But you never, I can’t prepare for the show. I can’t prepare for your question. I haven’t met you and I don’t know what you’re going to ask me yet.

Joe Weaver:

And that dynamic really set the radio show apart from others that you hear on a Saturday morning, because it wasn’t just a program that was helping people, but it was also pretty entertaining to listen to for those that weren’t calling in.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Let’s go to a Dinky, is it Dinky?

Dinky:

Dinky.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, how’d you get that name?

Dinky:

Dinky.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Dinky, okay. All right. Was that your birth name or is that a nickname?

Dinky:

Nickname.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right.

Dinky:

I have a question.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Okay.

Dinky:

Yeah, because I was dying to find somebody to help me.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, what’s your question?

Dinky:

The question is, is there any way I can sue somebody? I was sick because of allergy medication and I lost my job and I’m still sick until now. I’ve been going to doctors all the time, eye doctor. And then I wonder if there’s any way I can help them reimburse my expenses. But I went to two lawyers, but they said I cannot sue the pharmaceutical company because it’s only a generic medication. I don’t know what to do. Is there any way I can-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, you can call me and I’ll give you the name of a malpractice attorney that would sue in this case and maybe get a third opinion.

Dinky:

Yeah, I’ve been to two lawyers, but they declined it because they said it’s because it’s only a generic job, generic medicine.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I don’t think that’s a valid reason.

Dinky:

Really?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. There might be a history of this particular product causing injuries to a lot of people that have taken it. I don’t think just because it’s generic is a defense. Maybe talk to one other attorney and maybe it might be the value of the case was not worth taking, that might’ve been the real reason. But, I can get you to somebody else to at least talk to.

Dinky:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right?

Dinky:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Thanks for calling.

Dinky:

Thank you.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right Dinky, all right you have a good one.

Dinky:

You too.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Let’s go to John in Riverview.

John:

Good morning.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Good morning.

John:

I got a question about the will, but I really think I need to come in and sit down for a consultation.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, I’d be glad to do that. Probably the closest office we have for you would probably be Sun City Center. Do you have a question though?

John:

Yeah, I’ll go ahead and ask you. It may take a few minutes. But what I got is a brother that died 11 years ago and he had a girlfriend and she lived longer than him, and she just passed away. They had a piece of property with a trailer on it together. In the will, he’d owned property and he owned the trailer. He left the property to me, including the trailer. But now before she passed, she went and bought a new trailer and the new trailer’s in her name.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And what happened to the old trailer?

John:

The old trailer was junk. It went to the dump, I think.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Must have been a very big dumpster.

John:

Trailer graveyard, I suppose.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right.

John:

But anyways, now she had four children and they’re fighting me over the trailer and not wanting it. What happened is they let somebody live there. They had to put, well I’ll have to back up.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, the trailer would have been in her name, so it would have been in her estate.

John:

I don’t know if she made a will or not, but anyway-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

It doesn’t matter. The state makes one for you if you don’t make one yourself.

John:

Okay. In the meantime, she had to be put in a nursing home. Her sons and daughters let nephews stay in that trailer and they got up on the roof and punched holes all over the roof and the inside of it is trash. And now they’re telling me I’ve got to move the trailer off of the property.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Who is they?

John:

Her children.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, their children don’t have any authority over you. So, you still own the land. What’s the land worth?

John:

The taxes on it, it’s valued at 28,000.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I would write them a certified letter that they have to remove the trailer, that it belongs to them. It was in her name. If they don’t do it fairly soon, you’ll treat it as abandoned property and have the county come remove it and the county will probably sell it at auction or something, or have it condemned. But they can’t make you do anything. Where do they want you to move it?

John:

Because it ain’t no good.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

No where? Okay, so they want to abandon it?

John:

Exactly. And I don’t know where. The only place it can go is in the dumpster, that’s how bad it is.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Okay. Well, how much would it cost you to move it?

John:

Probably around five grand, from what I’ve heard from other people. I haven’t got a price yet.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Would a scrap metal person come want it for the value of the metal or anything?

John:

Well, I did that once before 15 years ago. These trailers today are made out of vinyl and the only metal left on the trailer now is the frame that it sits on. I done talked to three of them and none of them will go get it for the metal.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I see. All right, John when you come see me, since you said you wanted to, we can sit down and we can work out a little strategy to get rid of the property.

John:

Okay. Thanks.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Thank you. Let’s go to Stan. Good morning, Stan.

Stan:

Good morning. I’m wondering about going through small claims court procedures when you had an injury by a doctor during an operation.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Is the value of the damages less than $5,000?

Stan:

Yeah, because I’ve run out of the, practically ran out of the statute of limitations. An attorney would want six months or more to prepare the case because of its complexity. And so a normal trial would not be appropriate. So, I have to go through a small claims court by myself.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, sometimes an attorney can look at it and determine whether or not you have a case. And even though it might take time to prepare the case, once they filed the case and get it started, then you don’t have a statute of limitations problem.

Stan:

Well, I guess my question is have you had any experience with small claims court procedures like this? Because if this requires a full blown trial with expert testimony and medical-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, but see if you can have a full blown … the limit in small claims courts is $5,000.

Stan:

Right.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

So, I mean, if you have a full blown trial with medical testimony and expert witnesses and all that stuff, you’re going to spend more than 5,000 to get it.

Stan:

Well that’s what I was afraid of.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. So I mean, it really probably wouldn’t make sense.

Stan:

As far as I understand, even though you’d go through the small claims procedure, about the only difference between small claims and a normal civil suit is the fact that you don’t have a jury in the small claims situation. In other words, can you use medical records, written medical records as evidence in a small claims?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes, you can use whatever evidence you want.

Stan:

Do you have to have oral testimony of a medical expert?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

You don’t have to do anything. You do whatever you best can do to present your case. What I would do if I were you Stan, if you want to call my office tomorrow, I can refer somebody to you that can look at this and advise you of your rights. And if they think you have a case, they would probably take it. I don’t know how much time you have to file the suit, but if they have two, three, four weeks to look at it to determine whether or not, and a lot of times they can just determine it by talking to you at the first meeting. Then they take it to their committee and decide whether or not they want to pursue it.

Stan:

Yeah, that’d be helpful.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Well just call my office tomorrow and I’ll give you a name or two.

Stan:

Very good. Thank you. Your name, sir?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Joe Pippen.

Stan:

Pippen, very good. Oh, I’ve heard of you.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Okay.

Stan:

Thank you very much.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Bye-bye. Let’s go to Vivian

Vivian:

Yeah, so good morning.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Hey, how are you?

Vivian:

Good. Thanks for receiving my call. I am calling to find out what recourse do I have? I co-signed for a coworker to get a car and the car has been repossessed and the company called me to see that 21,700 is owing on it.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Are you obligated yourself on the note to buy the car?

Vivian:

I don’t understand what you mean.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

There was a loan to buy the car and you co-signed on the loan?

Vivian:

Yes. So now I am wanting to know they said if they don’t get that much, I have to pay the difference.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah, well they can file a lawsuit against you for the difference. Get a judgment against you. You never hardly ever co-sign on any type of a loan for anybody.

Vivian:

I find that out now.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. Well, it’s a lesson that maybe other people can learn from, but you definitely don’t do it because then you become responsible and they always go find a way to go against the person with the most money.

Vivian:

Okay. Oh, I thought that maybe there would be some way I could get out of that.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

No, you’ve already signed the paper and papers is a contract. Contract has obligations, responsibilities that go with it and they’re not going to release you from that. So, you have to deal with it the best way you can. Contact them, tell them the circumstances, see if you can work something out.

Vivian:

Okay. Okay, so thank you for your advice.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Thank you.

Vivian:

Bye-bye.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

You’re listening to Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. I’m attorney Joe Pippen. And let’s go to Paul in Clearwater.

Paul:

Thanks for taking the call. We bought a house last year. The closing went well, no problems with it. And then as a result of pulling some permits to do some work, found out that a neighbor’s wall was three inches on our yard. To us, it’s not an issue. However, everybody being an expert is, “Oh, you need to take care of this immediately. It’s a problem.” Is it a problem, or not?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, what’s the question now? You’ve got neighbors-

Paul:

A neighbor put up a cement wall.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes?

Paul:

And it’s three inches on our property. And as a result of pulling permits, we found out after it was bought. I mean, nothing was brought at the closing table. The survey had been there. Just nothing was ever mentioned, even though it was on the survey when we bought the property. So the question is, is it an issue if we were to go and sell the house five years from now, or is it not an issue?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I would say it could be an issue, for sure. I think if the fence, the concrete fence is on your property, you could have it removed. They can either buy the property from you now. I mean, you could actually sell them three inches down the line for X number of dollars. The longer it stays there, the more they could claim adverse possession and possibly claim the property at some point. I think he needed to get things resolved in writing. You either accept it the way it is. Maybe they can pay you a little bit for the money or you could possibly make them tear down the fence. It’s on your property.

Paul:

Okay. So take care of it now before it is an issue?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah, I would.

Paul:

Okay. And you just call somebody like yourself to get that going?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. I have a real estate attorney who does nothing but real estate transactions and deals with matters like this, so I’m sure. Do you want to sell the three inches?

Paul:

It really doesn’t matter to us. We just want it to be a clear thing if we were to have to sell it someday.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah, the longer it sits there, the more that advantage is the other party.

Paul:

So we should probably just say it came as a result of pulling this, that we found out and we’d like to take care of it now?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes, I would.

Paul:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Let me ask you this. Let me back up just a few seconds. When you bought the property, the fence was already on your land, correct?

Paul:

Right. When we put in the purchase offer it wasn’t there.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

It wasn’t there.

Paul:

When we went to the closing table-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

It was there.

Paul:

… it was there. And on the survey that we had, that we looked at a couple months after buying it.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

The survey was done before or after the closing?

Paul:

The survey was done prior to the closing, but after the wall was put up. And so when we pulled some permits, we said, “Hey, it looks like the wall was on our property.” And the surveyor said, “Yep. Three inches exactly. It’s marked down there.”

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And did the survey show that?

Paul:

Yes, it did show it, but nobody-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Nobody noted or made a special issue out of it?

Paul:

Right.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, that’s interesting.

Paul:

And again, not being able to read surveys, I called the surveyor directly and just said, “Can I just ask you, is it truly on or not?” And he said, “Oh yeah, it’s on.” But he said you need to contact a lawyer.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And you represented at closing by a realtor and an attorney?

Paul:

Correct.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I see.

Paul:

I think it just got passed.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Did the attorney write the title insurance?

Paul:

I’d have to look up the title insurance.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah, there could possibly be a claim against the title company.

Paul:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Because they gave you a title policy, which is a warranty and a warranty deed.

Paul:

Right and we have that.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Guaranteed by the title policy that you have free and clear title to the whole property and you actually don’t.

Paul:

And we have the certificate, the deed, the booklet, everything all together that was put together by our real estate agent who’s been wonderful.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, you might go back to your attorney that did help you at the closing.

Paul:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And say, “Look, I paid for title insurance for free and clear title and here’s the problem with the fence on my property. It seems to me the attorney or the title company should have … I paid to help me assist to get a free and clear title on the whole property during closing. Somebody dropped the ball on this. What do you think and what should I do?” And ask the attorney that was involved in the closing to start with to help you.

Paul:

Great.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right.

Paul:

All right. Well that sounds good. Thank you so much for your help.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, no problem. Thank you.

Paul:

Have a great day.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Thank you. You too. You’re listening to Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. Let’s go to Haines City, Florida, and talk to Janet.

Janet:

My question is I was at my son’s house last week and my grandson was playing in their backyard with a few friends and the ball went into the neighbor’s yard. Now the neighbor has told them before that he doesn’t want the kids out back playing ball.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Out back in a yard that’s not his?

Janet:

That’s right. We got the ball returned by the police because he called the police on them. My question is, what recourse does he have if my grandson does play ball in the backyard and his ball does go into his yard?

Attorney Pippen:

But it didn’t do any damage.

Janet:

It didn’t do any damage. It just, it bounced off their fence and landed in his yard.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

What recourse does he have against you or the kids?

Janet:

Right.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, I don’t think he has much of anything if there’s no damage done.

Janet:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I mean, I don’t. I can’t think of a cause of action. I mean, there could be a trespass, but that’s really a stretch in the law to have a ball be a trespass violation.

Janet:

Right. The kids know not to try to go into the yard to get it.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

These are eight and nine-year-olds.

Janet:

They’re eight and nine-year-old kids.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

So they lose their ball.

Janet:

Yeah.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And he’s got a ball he doesn’t want. I mean, I don’t know. I can’t think of a cause of action the guy would have.

Janet:

Okay. Other than just calling the cops repeatedly, right?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

That’s it.

Janet:

Okay. That’s all I wanted to know.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Maybe we have some other listener out there has gone through this and there has been some cause of action of some type and they want to call in the, you can keep listening and I’d be glad to give them the microphone.

Janet:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right.

Janet:

Thank you very much.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. So we’ve got the ball in the neighbor’s yard and the mattress and the canal questions today. It’s really a hot show. You’re listening to Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. I’m not making light of anybody’s question. I mean, these are all, when you have a question in your mind, you want an answer and that is your right here and that’s why I’m here to help you and give you peace of mind. I’m glad to do that. I’ve had some questions in the past, like what can a movie theater do to me if I take my own candy in my pocketbook or purse to the movie theater and they catch me? I’ve had questions like that. One of my all time favorite questions, I guess, in this area of questions is a man called and wanted the gold out of his mother’s teeth and the funeral director wouldn’t oblige him. He wanted to know his rights that he had after his mother died to get the gold out of her teeth. I’ve had some great questions and I really enjoy them and enjoy helping people.

Joe Weaver:

And certainly that enjoyment was easy to hear every week during the Ask An Attorney Program: All About Florida Law. If you’re just joining us here today, it’s a tribute program to the life of Joe Pippen, and we’ve been listening to various caller conversations he had over the radio program over the many years, almost 40 years that the program was on in the Tampa Bay area and all across Florida. And while often the calls were on a variety of topics, as we’ve heard so far today, the one area where there was never any ambiguity was in the field of wills, trusts and probate, his area of expertise.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

What is a living trust? The most often asked question I get every week on my radio show, is probably is what is a living trust? All a living trust is, is a fancy will. A lot of people think it’s something else, but that’s really all it is. It’s a fancy will with some special features. The first special feature of a living trust is that it avoids probate. If you have a will, it’s going to go through probate. If you have a trust, it’s not. You have chosen to avoid probate through the use of a living trust. With a will your assets take often six to 14 months to go through probate. With a trust, since you’ve avoided probate, you’ve chosen a quick, a very fast distribution process, very much unlike probate. If you have a will, you’ve only planned for death. Wills do not deal with if you become incapacitated.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

If you have a living trust, you and your attorney have designed a guardianship plan built into the document. If you have a will, it becomes a public document upon death. With a trust, it can be a private affair, so no one knows what’s going on in your estate, who gets what and so forth. A living trust has four big advantages over a will. It avoids probate. It makes easy, fast and quick distribution of the estate upon death and gives you a guardianship plan. It arranges for privacy of your estate. For more information about this and many more legal subjects join me, attorney Joe Pippen, for Ask An Attorney.

Now, if a client comes in talking about the definition of a trust, at the same time, I think you should tell them about a will. And maybe some of the disadvantages of just having a will. You tell them that the cost of probate, you tell them the time and you quote your fee. I think if a client came in and said, “Give me something in writing as to what your probate fee would be,” I think that’d be a pretty sharp client. Actually, to get to the idea and something from you in writing about what your fee is going to be to handle the estate one day. Because we all know attorney fees vary from one attorney to another, a great deal on probate.

Tell them how long it’s going to take to probate. Tell them about the 90 day period and the notice of administration and most probates take at least six months, maybe sometimes up to a year. Tell them that they need a guardianship plan. 50% of Americans become incapacitated before they die. 50% of Americans need someone with either a power of attorney or some other instrument to do things for them and tell them that they want to plan for that, or they want to leave it in the hands of the guardianship court to make decisions, or do they want to be the boss? Do they want to plan it? You need to discuss all of these things. You need to discuss the privacy feature of wills versus trust. All of these things I think are important in estate planning for the client to have a good understanding of the differences that they have, the choices that they have.

Now, I know people from the radio shows that I do. I know people are confused about wills and trust and probate. I had a lady not too long ago, call in and wanted to know if she could probate her own will. I went on to explain to her that probate didn’t take place until after death and she still didn’t understand the answer. People have misunderstandings about all these things. I had a lady in my office two weeks ago that said, “Well, I solved the probate problem. My will’s not going to go through probate. I tore it up.” I mean, I had people come in and say that. They’ll ask questions like that on the radio. They’ll come in and make comments about that. There’s a big misunderstanding about estate planning. And I think your choice is to tell them what a trust is, to describe how it works, to tell them the difference between having a will and having a trust, and that is basically your job. If you’re in estate planning, that’s what you need to do. That’s what I think.

All right, let’s go to Eddie in Tampa.

Eddie:

Hi there Joe?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Good morning.

Eddie:

Good morning, sir. I have a question. Can you explain the basic difference between a trust and a power of attorney, please?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Sure. A living trust is just a fancy will. A living trust or a will are going to have instructions about who’s going to take over upon death and pay the bills and make the distribution according to your instructions. Power of attorney is so someone has the power, our power of attorney right now has 106 different powers and the powers are of anything you could do. There’s the power listed for someone else to do of your choice, to be able to help you if you can’t do it. The power of attorney, unlike a will and trust, kick into effect upon death. Power of attorney kicks in to effect as soon as you sign it and it’s void upon death. The power of attorney, of course, doesn’t have any distribution language. It doesn’t have any instructions on what to do with assets upon death.

Eddie:

Got it. Got it. Okay. All right, sir. thank you very much.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right.

Eddie:

Have an awesome day.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Do you have a will or a trust? Yeah, do you have a will or a trust?

Eddie:

Actually, I have a will and I also have a power of attorney form executed. I was just wondering.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, your will take place upon death, your instructions and your power of attorney gives them, someone the power to act in your behalf while you’re living. Power of attorney should be updated, by the way, about every three or four years to keep current dates on them.

Eddie:

Really?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes, ma’am.

Eddie:

I have to update it. Oki doki sir. I appreciate your interest.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Thanks Eddie. Thanks for calling.

Eddie:

Have a great day.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. You too. All right, let’s go to Charlie calling. Yes, Charlie, what can I do for you?

Charlie:

The question is, I have a living will with my three kids.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

You have a living trust?

Charlie:

A living will. A living trust, I’m sorry yeah. Not a living trust, no. What do you call them?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

A last will and testament?

Charlie:

A last will and testament, right. A percentage on the separation of the property. Now, somebody has advised me to register the property with the homestead state, the same way for the county.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. You can do a lady bird deed or a life estate deed. You can do that.

Charlie:

So this way they don’t have to go to probate, am I right?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes, you can do it that way. I usually, when I’m discussing this with clients, we can discuss that if they have a question about it. I do think a living trust is a better way to plan, because with a living trust, you can, the successor trustee can deal with the property better while you’re living. Whereas, a life estate deed, nothing really happens until you pass away on the transfer. But things might need to be done while you’re living for your benefit.

Charlie:

I see. But I mean, homestead doesn’t change if I do that, right?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

No, either way. There’s no change in the homestead status.

Charlie:

Good enough. Thank you so much. Have a good week then.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, thank you Charlie. All right, let’s go to Winifred in Bradenton.

Winifred:

Hello?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes, what can I do for you?

Winifred:

Yes. I have a will, which I made probably five years ago, where my oldest daughter and my youngest daughter are both executors on the will. But my daughter, my oldest daughter died in December. I know she would, I’m leaving my estate to my children. I was wondering what is the simplest way to make her son, since he’s like a son to me, make her husband part of my will. What is the simplest way to do that?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, just to a new, either do a codicil to the will or a new will. We charge the same thing for a codicil or a new will, which is 125.

Winifred:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

So we just do a new document that names whoever you want to be as your beneficiary, if you want to name your deceased daughter’s, I’m very sorry about your daughter. But if you want to name your deceased daughter’s husband as a beneficiary, then you just have to either change the existing document or do a new document.

Winifred:

Okay.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

If you came to me, for example, during that conversation, I’d be glad to do a new will for you. But I’d also want to discuss with you the advantages you might have in considering a living trust to avoid probate.

Winifred:

I don’t know whether I would have … isn’t there a dollar amount that you have to reach to go to probate?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

No, not really because any size estate goes through a probate and the minimum probate fee is $2,500 that we charge and there’s about a six or $700 out-of-pocket cost. You’re into over $3,000 to do a probate, even on a very small estate. And you can avoid that with a trust and we have a package fee, a flat fee for a trust package is like 695. And that includes the trust, the deed, the power of attorney, the living will, healthcare surrogate living will is you get a whole new package of all the documents you need for the flat fee.

Winifred:

For the flat fee of what, 695?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes ma’am.

Winifred:

Yeah, that sounds like that’s a better way to go.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, that’s what most of my clients do. Maybe not everybody, but that’s what most of my clients do. It’s just a fancy will that avoids probate.

Winifred:

Okay. Okay. Well, that sounds very good. Do you have offices here in Bradington?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I have offices in Sun City Center, which most of my Bradington clients come there. We have a office also in Lakewood Ranch, but I don’t go to that office, but I do have another, a very experienced attorney that goes to that office.

Winifred:

Okay and their fees are the same?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes.

Winifred:

Bye now.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Let’s go to Rick calling from Florida. Hey Rick.

Rick:

Hey Joe. Good morning.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Rick, what city are you calling from?

Rick:

I actually live in Stuart, Florida.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. What can we do for you?

Rick:

Well, I wanted to lady bird deed my primary residence to my son, who’s my only heir, and to basically remove the asset from my name and avoid probate when I expire. My only question is in doing so, am I able to change that or say, if I wanted to five years from now roll it back into my name or put it into a trust?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah. I had a conversation with a client exactly along these lines yesterday. And here’s what I told the client. Yes, you can do a lady bird deed. Yes, you can name your son as a beneficiary of your property on the deed. Yes, you can change the deed at any time. You could cancel that deed or change that deed and name someone else. You can do whatever you want to do. You could sell the property before you die. You can do whatever you want to do with the lady bird deed and the lady bird deed does avoid probate.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Is there perhaps an alternative and a better way to do this? And my answer is yes. I would prefer, me, I would not do a lady bird deed. I would do a living trust, put the property into a living trust. You can always amend or change the trust. The trust has a beneficiary. The better part to me is that if I have a stroke or become incapacitated, that the successor trustee that I choose can now come in and take over and manage that property and do whatever’s needed to be done with it while I’m living. A lady bird deed, nothing really happens until you die.

Rick:

Question.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yes?

Rick:

As far as say, when I get older and I want to qualify for government benefits, if I put it in the living trust, is that considered an asset in my name?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

The homestead in Florida is a non-accountable asset. The homestead does not count as an asset at all and it’s protected from creditors. The homestead has really no impact on qualifying for Medicaid. If all you had was a homestead, you would qualify for Medicaid, the house could still be left to your son, free from the claim, so the nursing home or medical.

Rick:

What about, Joe, I’m sorry. What about a second home, like if I had a investment property?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

A second home can also be treated as exempt if it’s a rental home or perhaps it’s in another state and you put the home up for sale. There’s a way that we can orchestrate around also protecting the second home in Medicaid planning. I have a full-time Medicaid attorney on staff. That’s all he does is Medicaid. He probably works 50, 60 hours a week, helping people reposition assets, qualify for Medicaid. We can usually qualify a person for Medicaid in maybe 60 days and protect, move assets around. The power of attorneys that we do authorize the movement into non-accountable exempt categories. And also he and I have written a little book on asset protection and Medicaid. If anyone wants that, it’s $20 and they can send in for it and I’ll give out my contact information several times during the show.

Rick:

Great. Can I ask one more question?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Sure.

Rick:

Okay. This whole idea came about because of divorce and my wife and the simplest way to quiet claimed properties into my name was my doing the lady bird deed on both the primary homesteaded property and income property.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

So your wife signed a deed to you?

Rick:

Correct.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

But it’s a lady bird deed?

Rick:

Right, yeah. Correct. I want to have her sign a lady bird deed into quit claim and-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

It would just be a quick, yeah it would just be a quit claim deed from her to you though.

Rick:

Correct.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

A lady bird deed doesn’t really come into that transfer during the divorce usually.

Rick:

Well, it would be, I would probably quit claim it and then lady bird it.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Or consider putting it in a trust. I would suggest you at least consider that and have a conversation with an attorney about that.

Rick:

There you go. Thank you Joe, for your time.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. Thank you.

Joe Weaver:

And indeed, Joe Pippen was always so generous with his time as we’ve heard here this morning. Some of the, I mean a small sample of the many caller interactions he had over an almost 40 year radio career. As today, we pay tribute to the life of Joe Pippen on the radio. And this next piece was actually a special presentation that was done all the way back in 2006. It was a deviation from the regular format that we’ve been hearing so far today, which is the callers bringing the questions to him and then him being able to answer their questions, either directly, particularly in the area of wills, trust, probate, but outside of that as well. But this episode was special in the sense that instead of answering the questions over the phone, this was answering questions that people had emailed him and joining him on his broadcast was his wife Beverly. And so here’s a sample of what that program sounded like.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Hello everyone, it’s Ask An Attorney: All About Florida Law. I’m attorney Joe Pippen. Welcome to the show. This is a special show today. For the first time in 22 years, I have my wife in as a cohost and she said that if Dr Phil’s wife can come in and help him that she’s going to come help me once. So welcome to the show, Beverly.

Beverly:

Thank you, Joe.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right. We’ve been married for 37 years and have a couple of kids and she’s really helped me a lot in my legal career. It’s really great to have her here today. And Beverly what’s the first question?

Beverly:

All right. It’s from Henry, from Haines City. He is asking, “Why does my will have to go through probate? It already leaves everything to my son.”

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, a lot of people ask me that question and I’d like to give a little example in my answer to that question. The answer is that when you die with a will and you die with something in your name, the asset’s in the name of a deceased person. And if the asset is in the name of the deceased person, the only way you can get it out is with a court order. That whole process is called probate. The example I like to give, and I had this question just the other day, also, when I was speaking at a seminar. And I said, “Listen, if you die and your son takes your will to the bank, and there’s a bank account in your name, and now you’re deceased and your son takes it to the bank and says here’s my dad’s will. Here’s the death certificate. Here’s my ID. You can see the will leaves everything to me, give me the money. Is the bank going to do that?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And the man says, “Well, yeah.” I was speaking at a group of about 300 people and I said, “Okay, well, let me ask you this. How many people in the room of the 300 people think the bank’s going to give them money?” And nobody raised their hand. This man was just very headstrong in the fact that the bank should give him the money because his dad left it to him in a will and it says that. So I said, “Listen, sir, I said you could come to my office today to make a will. And you could leave everything to your son. You could come to my office next week and make another will that leaves everything to your girlfriend.”

I made a mistake because the man was sitting next to his wife, but his question was could his son, if he left everything to his son. I played with that a little bit and had some fun with it. But, he realized that his son could not get the money from the bank and they wouldn’t release it. Just because you leave everything in a will, your will upon death goes through probate. the reason why is because it’s in the name of a deceased person.

Beverly:

Okay. Susan from Largo wants to know, “I want to omit one of my children from receiving anything. Can she contest my will?”

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, unfortunately, anybody can sue anybody and anybody can contest anything. A child has a right to contest the will and they might say they were forgotten. Usually in a will, I’ll put language that I’ve omitted so-and-so for personal reasons. It’s hard to contest that. A lot of people come in and they want to actually name a reason. I’m going to have a reason I’m omitting my daughter because I already gave her money, or they have some reason they have and that reason can be contested. I just say usually, yes, you can omit people. You just say I’ve omitted them for personal reasons, so they have the right to contest, yes. The most common reasons to contest a will, number one is undue influence. Number two is incompetence.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Undue influence is a big issue people don’t think about. Probably not a week goes by that people don’t come to my office and they bring in mother or father with them. Mother or father might be slightly incapacitated, incompetent, early stages of Alzheimer’s or something. A lot of times the child will start talking and the child will try to dictate the terms of what the parent’s trying to do. And if it favors that child at all, then I just stop the proceeding. Say, “Look, parent has to come back by themselves. You can’t be here. This favors you. I don’t want to hear anymore. This wouldn’t work in court. Somebody can contest this and when it’s undue influence.” You can do it, but I’d be very careful. And when you go to the attorney’s office, you don’t go with an interested party that’s going to benefit more. That’s the answer.

Beverly:

Okay, good. This is from Joe, from Sun City Center. “My wife is going into a nursing home and the bill is $6,000 a month. What assets will I be able to keep?”

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, that’s a common question we get all the time is what can we do to get government benefits? And when you’re paying six, seven, $8,000 a month, we see sometimes it doesn’t take long for the estate to disappear very quickly. So there are several ways to look at this situation. One is can an attorney rearrange assets, get them all set up in proper columns so that the assets are all exempt. Therefore, the spouse in this case could qualify for Medicaid. Well, one of my attorneys does that all, that’s what he’s chosen to do is help people get government benefits. What he does is he knows the state of Florida is created by statute, many exempt categories and exempt assets. And what he does is just help people rearrange their assets to get them all in those exempt categories, so they qualify for Medicaid.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

For example, a spouse that’s in the community, we’ll call that person the community spouse. In this case, the husband, his home is exempt regardless of the value. He also can keep $99,000 plus a car and plus prepaid funeral expenses and a few other small things like that. He can keep they’re non-accountable. The rest of the assets are accountable and would normally disqualify the wife. What we do is to take all those assets that are accountable, that would disqualify the spouse, and we put them in either a special category. One special category is a Medicaid annuity. One is a personal service contract. So, there are various things that we can do. We could pay down the home so that the cash in the mortgage account that’s accountable, otherwise would be non-accountable. We can prepay things. We can do funeral accounts. We can create special needs contracts. We can do lots of different things, so the spouse can automatically qualify for Medicaid, thereby preserving the estate for the community spouse and other family members.

Beverly:

Okay. Judy from Lakeland wants to know, “My children are spendthrifts and wasteful with money. What can I do to prevent them from spending inheritance too quickly?”

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, a lot of people have that concern, unfortunately, and a lot of … it takes some children longer to grow up than others. what we do is we talk about that to see how old the children are. And again, I’m at a little bit of a disadvantage because I can’t ask her how old the children are. What I would do with the minor child most often is suggest, when you have a 10 or a 12-year-old, for example, you don’t know how they’re going to turn out, how responsible they’re going to be, what type of jobs they’re going to have, what type of citizens they’re going to be in the community. How wise they are with money. None of those things do you know, really at 10 or 12. You might have a clue, but you don’t really know for sure.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Normally with a 10 or 12-year-old, what we would do is to suggest something like give them income, starting at 21. Give them a third of the principal at 25. Give them the other half of the principal at 35 and the balance of the principal at 45. You give the trustee tremendous discretion during that time period, to be able to spend money for college education, maintenance, wellbeing, cost of living, just normal living things. You give the trustee discretion to pay for all of those. So, you have a good plan and then if they’re at 10 or 12 now, and you can take a look every three or four years, and you can modify the time periods as much as you want.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

If you have adult children that are 25, 30, 35, and you see that they’re wasteful, not productive, not earning money, and the money they do get they’re wasteful and don’t use it wisely. And you don’t want your inheritance to go along those same lines, then what you can do is to just spread it out, like in an early example I gave with a spendthrift. You could say, you could pick a time period depending on the size of your estate. And the time period could be, I want to give it over 20 years. Give them 1/20th, 1/19th, 1/18th, 1/17th, 1/16th and just spread out their distribution over a 20 year period.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Some people give them income only on the larger estates until they get to be 60, and then start the 20 year period at 60 on the principal. It really just depends on the circumstances on this case. And if this person was in my office, I would ask them a series of questions and we could probably nail down the perfect plan for them. Yeah, but right now it’s just too many unknowns, then to give the general information that I just gave. I hope that was helpful.

Joe Weaver:

And being helpful has been the hallmark of the Ask An Attorney Program. There, we just had a chance to hear some excerpts from the email show that he did with his wife, Beverly, all the way back in 2006. And it would be impossible to play every interaction he had and every call or answer over the course of almost 40 years on the radio. And as we close out this tribute program, one more caller with a unique set of challenges that Joe handled in his usual patient matter.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Let’s go to a LInd in Clearwater.

LInd:

Hello? Good morning, sir.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Hey, how are you?

LInd:

Oh, I’m fine. Thank you for taking the call. Here’s the thing, if you have somebody in your home that you’re living with, but really not living with, they’re just a boarder. And they are taken to court for something their dog did, their dog bit another dog, and then they have your name on the suit to come to small claims court, but you’re not really living with this person, they’re just really a boarder. Are you responsible under the Florida statutes for their liabilities and expenses? It’s probably a bit muddy that, but-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

If you didn’t own the dog.

LInd:

No, it’s not my dog. It’s nothing to do with me, but the dog was living in my house with this person and really separate bedrooms. Wasn’t really living with the person, just more or less a boarder. But the thing is the court, the thing that’s come from court has my name on it, as well as the other person’s.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, actually, if you’ve been served papers, you’re going to have to go to court and defend yourself.

LInd:

Right.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Your defense would be that it’s not your dog.

LInd:

Right.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And I think an attorney would probably have to see how the lawsuit, what the lawsuit-

LInd:

It’s a small claims court.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Yeah, but you were served papers and there’s words in that petition against you. So an attorney would have to review what that petition says to see what your defense would be.

LInd:

I see.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I mean, the petition might even state that it’s your dog. I don’t know.

LInd:

Yeah, but it’s not.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

I know. I know. Right, so you would go defend yourself and prove that it’s not your dog. And then if that’s all the petition states that was your dog and that dog did damage to another dog and you defend yourself simply by saying it’s not your dog, which then the petition’s not true. So you could easily prove that.

LInd:

Yes. Now, if there was some liability against the person, would I be responsible for that, because they were living in my home?

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Again, an attorney is going to have to review the petition to see what you’re charged with.

LInd:

I see, yeah.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

It’s all based on what the petition says.

LInd:

Yeah, well, it’s a small claims court. They lady’s a very old lady and she said, this dog bit her dog and it was in a dog park where it says you enter at your own risk. That’s the sign on the dog park. It says enter dogs enter-

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, so the injury didn’t even happen on your property?

LInd:

No, no.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Okay. Well, if you didn’t own the dog and the injury didn’t happen on your property, I can’t see really where you’d have any liability. But again, an attorney would have to see what the petition says.

LInd:

I see. Okay, thank you very much sir.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

All right, thank you.

LInd:

I love your program.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Well, thank you very much.

LInd:

Okay, cheerio.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Cheerio.

Joe Weaver:

Again, we thank you for joining us today for this tribute to a great friend who we’ll dearly miss, Brother Joe Pippen. If you’d like to learn more about his life or hear some audio archives of his many programs over the years, go to the website, attypip.com. Again, that’s attypip.com. Have a wonderful day.

Announcer 1:

The preceding is sponsored by the law offices of Joe Pippen. Learn more by visiting www.attypip.com.

 

A TRIBUTE TO “ASK AN ATTORNEY”

on WTBN AM 570 Radio with Bill Bunkley Hosting

IN LOVING MEMORY OF ATTORNEY JOSEPH PIPPEN

Joe Pippen passed away on Thursday, July 29, 2021. He was a very much loved and respected member of the community and enjoyed serving the public by providing free legal advice on his show “Ask an Attorney”.

First Airing in 1984, Joe Pippen had been hosting the continuous call-in Radio Show for 37 years. We are deeply saddened with Joe’s passing and he will be greatly missed.

Just click below to hear the broadcast or read the transcript of the program further below.

Bill Bunkley:

Welcome back, Bill Bunkley here with the Buckley’s show a very special edition this afternoon from your Watchman on the wall. I want to first welcome in all of our family, this joining us on our news. Talk to answer stations this afternoon, both on am eight 60 Tampa bay, as well as am nine 30 Sarasota and Bradenton. The course our faith talk family, but with am five 70 in all of the various ways that you’re able to tune into our programming. And I’m talking about Salem radio, all of our platforms here in west central Florida that are joining us this afternoon. This is going to be a special hour of the bill Lee’s show, and it’s not going to be the type of hour that you’ll find often on our program. But when the events warrant it and there is honor to whom honor is due.

That’s when we’re going to take a timeout and we’re going to do as a Christ follower or what I believe the Lord would have us to do. First of all, today, it will be a tribute to someone that we all loved here at Salem communications, Tampa. That was our name way back. When, when Joe Pippin host of ask an attorney, he moved his radio show here to this new startup right here in the bay area. Well, that was in 1984. And that was actually not 1984, but 1984 is when Joe began his weekly radio show. And by the way, think about that. Now I call it 38, some call it 37, but nonetheless 38 years on the radio and Joe pipit with ask an attorney, it was the longest running radio show in these parts. And I tell you what that’s saying a lot.

What were you doing back in 1984, that it gave you an idea of how long and committed Joe has been to this community. And if you don’t know Thursday a week ago Joe was with his lovely wife, Bev, and they were spending some time away on a little vacation time and Joe collapsed and there were folks right there. They tried to revive him, but the Lord said, well, Hey, thanks for everybody chipping in. But as time for time for me to bring him home. And so Joe went home to be with the Lord. And I wanna tell you that when the word reached us here at the station, I mean, it was universally greeted with just stunned disbelief. And as we began to get our arms around what had happened we began to realize what an impact Joe had had.

Now, if you’ve been with us for the last few years, depending whether on news talk stations or on our answers stations, you know, when eight o’clock on Saturday morning roll around, it was your opportunity. If something popped up in your life, if there was an event that you wondered, I wonder what my legal position might be on this. You know, you know, that you could always pick up the phone and make that first call to figure out what path you needed to follow. And that was because you were going to ask an attorney and that was Joe Pippin. Now remember that Joe was recognized his expertise. Now he was expert in so many areas of the law to share with us on Saturday mornings, but his expertise was in Florida. It was in Florida estate planning. He was an estate planning attorney and he established his practice back in 1982, but in 1984, he began his weekly radio show.

And he also authored a weekly law column. Now let’s fast forward to 2001 that’s the time when we were Salem communications, but in 2001 is when the ask an attorney program became one of the first two shows here on Salem communications. And of course, today we’re all under the umbrella of this Salem media group. And there was two new stations, am five 70 WTN and am nine 10 with our transmitter plant city, w T w D then about a few years later in 2005, we had an opportunity and there were two more stations that we picked up for our platforms here in west central Florida. And then we introduced our news talk, answer stations, and one was, am eight 60 WEG UL. And of course the other one was, am nine 30 w LSS, Bradenton, Sarasota. And guess what?

The legacy that’s left here is that a ask an attorney was one of the early programs on all of those platforms. And that’s why we’re here today. So we’re going to have a special salute to Joe. And we got a special tree at the bottom of the hour that Bev has precious wife is going to be with us. And you know, Joe just didn’t give advice on the air. He really cared about the folks that were calling it, and he cared about the people in his community. He was devoted to his Lord and savior Jesus Christ, biblical principles were very important to him. In fact, you’re going to get to hear one of my favorite programs that Joe ever did, and that is his, it was known as the trial of Jesus gel Pippin walking us through. And you’re going to hear that on this afternoon’s program, you’re also going to hear a couple of conversations with senior pastor Ottawa Baptist church, Dr. Ken Whitten topics on George Washington and Andrew Johnson. But what I want to do is just to kind of get into our discussion today because Joe worked in the areas of wills and trusts and probate. We got a clip here and it was a clip having to do with what is a living trust. So we’re going to do a little education, Joe style here, as well as we give him honor and tribute. And then we come back, we got our first special guest to talk about his relationship with Joe PIP and let’s listen in

Attorney Joe Pippen:

What is it living trust? The most often asked question I get every week on my radio show is probably is what is a living trust? All a living trust is, is a fancy will. A lot of people think it’s something else, but that’s really all it is. It’s a fancy will with some special features. The first special feature of a living trust is that it avoids probate. If you have a will, it’s going to go through probate. If you have a trust, it’s not, you have chosen to avoid probate through the use of a living trust with a will your assets take often six to 14 months to go through probate with a trust. Since you’ve avoided probate, you’ve chosen a quick and very fast distribution process, very much unlike probate. If you have a will, you’ve only planned for death. Wills do not deal with if you become incapacitated. If you have a living trust, you and your attorney have designed a guardianship plan built into the document. If you have a, will, it becomes a public document upon death with a trust. It can be a private affair. So no one knows what’s going on in your state who gets what and so forth. So our living trust has four big advantages over a will. It avoids probate. It makes easy, fast and quick distribution of the estate upon death. And it gives you a guardianship plan and it arranges for privacy of your state.

Bill Bunkley

Well, before we get to someone very special, and that is Joe Weaver, my very good friend, our very good friend of everyone here at the station who is operation manager and program director. I wanted to list let you listen in, and we’ll take you back to the early nineties because wills trusts and probate. But I tell you what that was Joe Pippins bell. That is just his backyard. That was his specialty. Let’s listen into a clip on this as well. And by the way, do you have your will up to date? Have you got your trust ready to go? Let’s listen in to the great advice from ask an attorney.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Now, if a client comes in and talking about the definition of a trust at the same time, I think you should tell them about a will and maybe some of the disadvantages of just having a, will you tell them that the cost of probate, you tell them the time in quote your fee? I think if a client came in and said, give me something in writing as to what your probate fee would be. I think that’d be a pretty sharp client actually, to get to the idea and something from you and writing about what your fees going to be to handle the estate one day, because we all know attorney fees vary from one attorney to another, a great deal on probate, Tom, how long it’s going to take to probate, tell them about the 90 day period and a notice of administration that most probates take at least six months, maybe sometimes up to a year, tell them that they need a guardianship plan.

You know, 50% of Americans become incapacitated before they die. 50% of American’s needs need someone with either a power of attorney or some other instrument to do things for them and tell them that they want to plan for that, or they want to leave it in the hands of the guardianship court to make decisions, or do they want to be the boss? Do they want to plan it? You need to discuss all of these things. You need to discuss the privacy feature of, of wills versus trust. All of these things I think are important in a state planning for the client to have a good understanding of the, of the differences that, that they have, the choices that they have. Now. I know people from the radio shows that I do. I know people are confused about wills and trusts and probate. I had a lady not too long ago, call in and wanted to know if she could probate her own will. And I went on to explain to her that probate didn’t take place until after death. And she still didn’t understand the answer. So people have misunderstandings about all these things. We had a lady in my office two weeks ago that said, well, I solved the probate problem. My Well’s not going to go through probate. I tore it up.

I mean, I had people come in and say that the last question is like that on the radio they’ll make, come in and make comments about that. There’s a big misunderstanding about estate planning. And I think your choice is to tell them what a trust is to describe how it works, to tell them the difference between having a will and having a trust and a that is basically your job. If you’re an estate planning, that’s what you need to do. That’s what I think.

Bill Bunkley:

I just had to chuckle because you may have known the answer to that question, but what I was really taking in was how gentle and how clear in layman’s language that Joe Pippin would talk to is week after week. And by the way, a lot of people knew that they could go to our website and always download the podcast to make sure they got it right. Was someone that worked very close with Joe Pippin through his years, many years here at the Salem radio here in Tampa, Salem media group, Joe Weaver is our operations manager and program director. We got about a couple of minutes left and we can come back. But your thoughts about our good friend, Joe Pippin and his service to the community and to our listeners,

Joe Weaver:

I don’t even know if he took the entirety of this hour. I could adequately my full, you know, thoughts on that question. You know, what Joe’s impact was on the community? I think he probably touched more people while, you know, he was here giving his advice over the air for all of those almost 40 years. He did this in the Tampa bay area than, than he even knew. And I, I hope that when he, when he did arrive you know, on the other side that he got maybe some insight as to how many of those people, that the work cause it was, it was, it was incredibly volumous and, and he had an impact on my life as well. He was one of the first folks that I worked with when I started working here, which I’ve been now with the company for 15 great years.

I I’ve been blessed to be a part of this company. And that whole time I’ve been blessed to be you know, knowing and working with Joe Pippin and w among so many of the things that you can say about the man is he, I mean, you, you alluded to it a moment ago. He was, he was very compassionate. He was very empathetic. He was extraordinarily patient. I can’t tell you how many times I’m listening on the air to somebody going through a problem that was complicated and where I may have, you know, lost my patients along the way he never did. He was always just as, as, as patient. And, and he also put himself in the position of the person seeking that advice and really trying to, you know, to help them figure out what they’re trying to get through. And it was sincere. That’s, that’s the biggest thing with Joe is it was always sincere. None of it was contrived. And like I say, I could go on for a long time talking about, about all of those things, but whatever, when you, what you heard on the air from him every, every Saturday morning, that’s who he was.

Bill Bunkley:

I want to tell you why Joe just really hit it on the head. What was it like working with Joe Pippin? When we come back, Brian elk will weigh in, plus the trial of Jesus I’m bill blankly. We’ll be right back

We’re back. Bill Bunkley here for a very special edition of the bill bunk show. We are talking about someone who made quite an impression all across west central Florida, and his name was Joe Pippin, and he passed away. And all the way back in 1984, he began his radio program, asked an attorney and only the Lord knows how many people got that first bit of advice from a very, quite frankly, gentle caring individual who really knew how to listen. Well about a couple of Saturdays ago was the last time that Joe was with us doing a live show. And Brian echo was the producer. And of course, Brian is in the line of many, many producers had the blessings to work with Mr. Pippin. And so could you give me an idea about your reflection, not only when you heard the news, but your thoughts to the many mornings bright and early you were working with Joe. And he had a great disposition early in the morning where some of us are just kind of grumpy.

Brian Echo:

You know, Joe has so much energy coming in on Saturday morning, more than me, you know, and I, I got up early every Saturday to get ready to do my shift here with, with all the shows that we have on Saturday. But Joe was just had so much energy. You know, I learned so much from Joe every week. You know, I didn’t go to law school, obviously I’m here producing your show, but I felt like I went to law school with Joe because every week you would hear him give out the advice. And it was sometimes it was legal advice, and sometimes it was life advice. And, and I, I treasure that. And I was shocked, you know, and saddened the cycle. All of us, all of us are, and I’m going to miss coming in on Saturday morning and seeing Joe, he was the first person I saw on Saturday mornings, and I’m going to miss that. And I just, my thoughts and prayers are with Bev and the family. And it’s going to be different tomorrow morning coming in here. But I can’t say enough good things about them

Bill Bunkley:

By the way, be sure to tune in at eight o’clock, we’ll have a special tribute more clips in the morning. And you don’t want to miss that because everything that our staff has been working on here going through what years and years, 38 years worth of material it’s more than the best of it is all great advice worth listening to now. I want to go to something that’s one of my favorites and every Easter you may have tuned in. And Joe did a special legal analysis about the trial of Jesus. And we’ve got an excerpt. And by the way, I have it from a good source. That being Joe Weaver, that as long as he’s here, we’re going to be airing this every year at Easter is very special. So just how mistreated was Jesus. You know, Joe was a Christ follower. That’s one of the reasons why he just had that, that glow of the Lord eight o’clock on Saturday mornings, but let’s just listen in, as he tried to explain all the injustices that were done against Jesus on that fateful night, in the morning,

Attorney Joe Pippen:

To do the trial of Jesus every year on the radio, you have to ask yourself, how can the most innocent person that ever walked this earth be convicted, condemned, and executed crucified? How could the, what are the set of circumstances? What are the set of facts that led to the crucifixion? Jesus Christ went through six trials. And if you count the trial before the people, as a trial, if he went through seven trials, he went through seven trials and I’m going to go through all of the trials with you, but he went through seven trials in a matter of 12 hours. And the end result, we all know he was guilty. He was crucified. Fellows are guilty of, but we’ve got to talk about that too is the most fascinating trial. It, I, as an attorney, loved Redis trial. I love to study this trial.

I usually give this talk several times around Easter time. It is the most, it’s the most enjoyable for all you could ever read a bell. Why was Jesus on trial? Whatever made them arrest him and put him on trial? Well, Jesus was a threat to the high priest. Jesus was a big threat to the high praise, to his teaching. The countryside, there were huge crowds. He was preaching wisdom. He was drawing support away from the high priest and they injured him. They couldn’t stand it. He was getting their people support in the Bible and the Matthew chapter 26 verses two and three. I’ll just tell you these. And I’ll tell you what they say. Mark 14, verse one, Luke 22 dash two. Tell you that the high priest conspired against this man named Jason was teaching wisdom, roaming the countryside. He was healing people. He was speeding.

The 4,000 prior to that, he had raised someone from the dead. He was going around saying that he was the Messiah. So the priest envied him and they had to do something about this man named Jesus was still also just prior to the Passover. Jesus cleansed the temple that, what does that mean? Jesus went into the temple. The temple had become more of a commercial adventure. The people had come from all over selling their animals, selling their goods, and they were doing this inside the temple, the high priest controlled what they called the money changers. Now what happened was that anyone who wanted to do business in the temple had to exchange their money for temple money. And the exchange rate was something else from the high priests were making a great deal of money. During the time of Passover on the exchange rate, if you will, Jesus went into the temple and chased out the moneychangers.

He chased out the vendors. He chased out the people selling things. So again, he was doing something that angered the high priest and between death and preaching and healing, raising the dead and all of these things. They conspired against him. Again, Matthew 26 verses two and three of mark 14 one Luke 22 chapter two, verse two. They say that the high priest met together to conspire against Jesus to kill him. And that’s exactly what happened. Let’s go to the arrest. Let me go through this first. There was, let me compare to the law. There’s some, there are many differences in the law back in and the law today, but a lot of the law back then is the same law today. Let me explain. The Romans had the law of the 12 tables. There were 120 sections of law in the 12 tables. 87 of those sections are the exact law we have today.

A lot of our law came from the Roman law. So what happened? There are a lot of differences though. I need to tell you about one of the things was back in those days, you had to have an airtight case and they were not accept hearsay. That would not allow any hearsay evidence before the court. At that time, they would also. Now today’s law. There’s a law. There are many, so many hearsay exceptions to the law that there’s might as well not be lost sometimes. So there’s a difference between back then, there were much stricter back then on what evidence could be presented to the court, the court back then the Jewish court said that there could be no circumstantial evidence. You had to have hard cold facts on someone to present at a trial. There could be no circumstantial evidence. There’s rarely are case in today’s law that doesn’t allow circumstantial evidence for the court then would not accept the evidence from a conspiratorial.

They would not accept it. You had to have cold, hard facts. One person conspiring against someone would, could not get anywhere in the Jewish court system. Back then, back then, as today, you have the right to have an attorney. In fact, you had to have someone represent you back in those days. Someone had to represent you. And if the Jewish court, which was made up of 23, scribes, 23, chief priests, 23 elders, and the high priest, 70 members all voted against you. All 70 people voted against you. Then you were acquitted because one of those 70 people had to represent you in a unanimous verdict was an acquittal. Believe it or not, that was a big difference in the law. The law would not accept self-testimony. You cannot make a voluntary confession back in those days. It could not be used against you. And those are the big differences in many of our laws are the same.

Bill Bunkley:

We’re going to have a Bev pivot with us in just a moment Pippin. And I got to bring in Joe real quick. We got about a minute. You know, that’s one of our favorite programs here. Speak to that because it really gains the attention, whether you’re a follower or not about this person of Jesus Christ.

Joe Weaver:

Joe came on the air every Saturday morning at eight. And for every Easter that I have been a part of what we do here at Salem. His instructions to me every, every year was on that the Easter weekend, it was always the, I’m not doing my program. I want you to play the trial of Jesus, which we just heard the version. That was a portion of it, that he was giving a speech to a church crowd. And then there’s a longer version that is kind of goes the entire 50 minutes. That as you mentioned earlier, that’s going to continue to be a tradition for us because it was, it’s very instructive. It’s also, I think the only version that I’ve ever heard done, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody kind of go through step-by-step and the longer version really kind of goes through everything that was done. And you could hear there that it was really something that he was passionate about. It was really in his heart as everything that he talked about was, and the one thing we haven’t even mentioned here, but I just need to say, as we kind of head into break here, he was also a great Patriots. Not necessarily left-right paradigm, but just he loved his country and he loved his countrymen that were in it. So I can’t say enough about that, but yes, trial of Jesus, very special.

Bill Bunkley:

We have a Mrs. Pippin, Bev Pippin coming up next show share. We’ll be right back.

Welcome back, Bill Bunkley here with the bill monthly show, if you’re just tuning in, it’s a, it’s a very special Friday afternoon here in the four o’clock hour. And because we are looking back at the life of a jump him, you know, Joe was on the air with his radio program, ask an attorney since way back in 1,984. And we were honored to have the program on our stations first back in 2005. And then you know, and then a little bit further 2001 and 2005 all the way until today. And I want to tell you that we were shocked, but we have been for his wife, Bev, the family and friends. And I know that this was a very sudden situation for everyone. And so to have a chance to share a little bit, we are honored to have Mrs. Pepin, whether it’s this afternoon and Bev is calling in and Bev. First of all, thank you so much for spending a few moments with us.

Bev Pippen:

I am honored to be here Bill.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, it goes without saying from our general manager Barb Yoder and Joe Weaver. And I know that you had a chance to chat with them on and all this week that our overriding thoughts and prayers are with you. And we have really been impacted by your husband’s life and of paramount this afternoon. That’s what we want you to know. And that’s what hopefully that you can feel because he was a very special guy to you. You chose him, he chose you, but very special to us. And, and just thank you for being with us at this tender.

Bev Pippen:

I’m so glad that I could, I could be here. Thank you, bill.

Bill Bunkley:

How did it all start between you and Joe? How did you guys meet?

Bev Pippen:

Oh, my gracious. He was it’s a funny story, cause he likes to tell this unreal version of it, but he came to my high school. He’d gone there the year before. And then the new school opened up that he went that year to his, in his junior year. And I had come into my high school as a freshmen. And so at the end of my freshman year, there was a yearbook signing doc cup. We had back in 1964 and I was this teen and he was 17. And he stared at me across the gym the entire night I was with my girlfriends and, and my sorority sisters or whatever. And I didn’t know who he was. And so lo and behold, the last song comes up and it’s a slow song. And I hear he comes across the gym and he asked me to dance with him and I was so rude.

I just said, no, thank you. And he turns heel and walked away because I don’t think any girl had ever done that to him. But two months later I was at the lake. He was a lifeguard. And I had heard in between that time that he was a good guy, he went to my friend’s church. He was a really good guy. He helped take care of his brother and I saw a different part of him. And I sort of eased in on, I liked his personality. And about, about a week later, he asked me out and believe it or not, our first date was the anniversary of our first date was yesterday. It was August 5th, 1960 4, 57 years ago was our first date. And we dated that last year of his senior year and then four years of college. And then we got married. We got, we got on December 20th, 1969. And he went into law school shortly thereafter. He worked a 40 hour day during the day and I was packaged lunch for his supper and he would go to law school at night. And I worked for, for lawyers as a legal secretary during that time. And he also, at the same time, he was in law school. He went through OCS and became a Lieutenant in the Virginia army national guard

Bill Bunkley:

All the way back to high school. You know a lot of those long-term relationships never certainly last all of these years, but that must be just a special, special place in your heart that you and he connected so closely and worked as a team all these years.

Bev Pippen:

It is incredible because when he started his law practice, I had not been a legal secretary in Florida, but I thought, well, who better to have your back? And I was working on interior design at the same time, and I quit that to help him open up practice. And I started being his secretary up in a spare room upstairs in our house on a, on a metal card table chair on pillows. So I could sit up high enough on a very, very old Donna Selectric, but an old IBM typewriter. And the days that we were doing four carbon copies and doing 13, 14 page trust, and I had two little boys downstairs running around and it was quite something, but we have that history that we built it from the ground up. And I’m so proud of him. He was my absolute love of my life. And he called me his dream girl.

Bill Bunkley:

Hm. I want to follow up on one thing to what you can share and if you cannot share, I understand. But how about Joe Pippin, the, the family kid just before he met you, you referenced that he took care of his brother. We don’t need to go into specifics, but I want to just share a little bit, because we’re talking about the man behind the name of ask an attorney. And so he was showing some leadership skills and responsibility skills way back then, didn’t he?

Bev Pippen:

Oh, my word. He was so much so and mature sole responsible. His brother was a special needs brother and he would feel such compassion for his parents. I remember the time that he, he slipped and fell on slick, wet grass and broke his arm. And he didn’t want to tell his mother because she was going to the YWCA and she never got out and he wasn’t going to say anything, but she finally found out that he had broken his arm. He was not going to tell her he was the most giving person. His love language is, is, was acts of service. And he, he did that across the board without any regret, any attitude. When he walked in to the house at the end of the day, he was the same person here that he was that everyone else saw just the same kindness, loving, patient person. Just an incredible role model for me, just incredible.

Bill Bunkley:

Awesome. If you’re just joining us a very special edition on this Friday afternoon, the bill bunk show attribute to Joe Pippin who went home to be with the Lord. The host of ask an attorney bright and early on Saturday mornings, only the Lord knows how many people he was able to touch, whether they called in, or, you know, when you’re talking about wills or trusts or probate, well, that’s an area of law. We’re all going to have to deal with it sometime. And just imagine all of the community Goodwill that came out of his years and years. And I call that a ministry. Well, let’s fast forward. We’re talking to Bev. And Joe’s wife doing some reflections back on some of the, the private side that many never had a chance to get to know, just because of the fact that he was a radio personality to many people listening or even right now. So we got the couple of kids he’s in law school. Things are just it’s just so many things on the plate. So tell us about those years because he still was sorta like a steady Eddie. He just, he just had to wait a sort of a balance, a lot of things, carrying a lot of things on the plate. Talk about that.

Bev Pippen:

Well, he had incredible energy. It didn’t look, even look like frenetic energy by any means. He just had this deep well of resources of energy with the same steady persona that he had. He could juggle, he would, during the early years of his practice, he did a lot of public speaking, but he always had dinner with us and he’d go out for a quick hour or two for a speaking engagement and come right back home. Very involved with his kids, even as youngsters, he bought him those little action figures and get in their room and, and play with them. And he would watch cartoons with them if he could get home early in the afternoon, but he’d go back out after dinner. He was definitely a family man, very balanced in that, but still loved, loved public speaking. He, he loved his own form of marketing. He had such a gift from the Lord. It just, just kind of fell out of his pores. Like he had ideas he loved to promote. He loved to make people happy. He loved to serve people in the type of law. He practiced. He didn’t want to have adversity. And so often law is and can be of course, but he wanted to help people. And it was truly, truly his desire and his, his passion, his passion was to help people.

Bill Bunkley:

You’ve got about three or four minutes left. How about back when he decided to go on the radio, he decided to write that weekly column. Could you tell us how that came about?

Bev Pippen:

Again, that sort of starting of the birth of the marketing thing. He thought writing articles when we were in Maryland, he liked writing articles and having, he got a few published in the, I think it was the daily record. It was the legal newspaper in Baltimore. Liked doing that and started doing and a local newspaper. I believe it was a Seminole Beacon. And we came up with a name, ask an attorney and he would do this little article. And he, I got the, I got the fun project of etiquette editor yet. And so I did that. And then he submitted and all of a sudden he had a bunch of those. And so he printed that first small book, ask an attorney and then it decided to go radio. Cause he had practiced. He he’d been, he’d been practicing the speaking because when he was a young child, he had a stammering problem or horrible and nobody ever fixed it.

God fixed it. And so he worked on speaking. And so then, so he, he did a lot of speaking and one day he went into five 70 and eight showed them the book and they said, well, yeah, we’ll give it a try. So they, I think they gave him a try and someone else hosted it. And then all of a sudden they had the big spot and they say, you want this? Do you do it on your own? And I was at home like a stage mother, nervous Nelly, and listened to him, do three hours by himself on a Sunday afternoon. And from then on, he hit the ground running and he’s been on radio ever since.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, I tell you what you being able to share sort of pulling back the curtain on your personal relationship and that just endears all of us, our audience more to your husband. And I just can’t tell you enough how all of those character tree traits and the integrity just poured forth as he was sharing on the radio. And I just want to make sure that you know how much he was beloved here and by all the members of our community I know that you’re going to have Memorial service next Wednesday at the first Baptist of Indian rocks, but it has been very, very special for you to share some of these intimate stories. And really, I know that Joe would be so pleased with your testimony. And I know that one day you’re looking forward to that opportunity for the reunion because you will see him again.

Bev Pippen:

That is our hope.  That is our joy.  That is what gets us through the day.

Bill Bunkley:

Bev, my sister in Christ. Thank you so much for being with us. And we’re praying for you praying for the family and God, I know he has already, but he will surround you with his presence and know that the, the saying of well done good and faithful servant was bestowed upon Joe when he was absent with the body present with the Lord and always hold on to that.

Bev Pippen:

I totally do. Thank you so much. Thank you so

Bill Bunkley:

Much. Thanks for being with us. God, bless what coming up. We’re going to have a chance to listen to a couple interactions with Joe and Dr. Ken Whitten about George Washington, Andrew Johnson, and a side of him. When he said goodbye to our former general manager, Chris goal, that’s coming up in a moment. Don’t go away.

Bill Bunkley:

All right. Let’s get right back to the final moments of the bill. Buckley’s show a special tribute to someone that we’re going to miss deeply. And that is Joe Pippin. The host of ask an attorney and a couple of final passages clips I wanted you to hear before we have to sign off on this four o’clock hour. The first is when a conversation on his show with my pastor Dr. Ken Whitten, Ottawa Baptist church, senior pastor, and I know pastor Ken and Joe were, were close and had a special relationship as well as Joe had with a lot of folks in his home church. And just all around the area, a discussion on George Washington, I thought this might be fun to listen in. Let’s go into that clip.

Dr. Ken Whitten:

So he asked me the question, do I believe George Washington was perfect? I’d say absolutely not, but do I believe that George Washington knew the Lord and savior Jesus Christ as his personal savior? And do I expect to see him in heaven? I would say absolutely so,

Attorney Joe Pippen:

But you know let’s look at something else that George Washington road, and I think this will tell everyone that he knew he wasn’t perfect. And this is from a book that Tim LaHaye rub, he quoted he says George Washington said this, or wrote this. I beseech thee. My sins remove them from the presence as far as the east is from the west. And except of me for the merits of their son, Jesus Christ. And when I come into that temple and compass their alter, my prayers may come before thee as incense. And as now was hear me calling upon and my prayers also gave me the grace to hear the calling on me in their word. That is, it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation, and peace to the saving of my soul in the day of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I have sinned and have done very wickedly, be merciful to me. Oh God. And pardon me for Jesus Christ. Say that I might know my sins are forgiven by his death and passion. Now, if George Washington prayed that and said that and wrote that there’s not much doubt in my mind with everything else that I’ve read, even though it’s hard to look back and read something that people have wrote, because there are other things in here that, that weren’t of that nature, but it just, you can see it. You can see the light shining through those words right there.

 

Dr. Ken Whitten:

Absolutely.

Bill Bunkley:

And there’s another clip we won’t be able to get to talking about Andrew Johnson back in 2008 with his conversation with Dr. Ken Whitten. Well, the last side of Joe, I want to share with you was back in 2011, when our general manager, Chris cool, that got promoted to national vice president for programming for Faith Talk, Joe had a chance to say goodbye to him, and this really reflects the heart. Let’s listen in.

Attorney Joe Pippen:

Thank you so much. It’s a real pleasure to to be on today and just want to tell Chris from someone who’s been with Salem since day one, since they came to Tampa, and I always say BC, I was there before Chris, but, but it’s been a real pleasure to work with Chris over the years and just thank him for his great leadership. I mean, I was there when the station was being built and came from the oldest of the other station they were using. And we had a lot of growing pains in lots of different ways. And just to see Chris work his way through all that, and just turn this into a great, great success has been just a real pleasure to be along his side. And I’ve enjoyed his friendship and going out with him and Michelle once in a while, and just seeing all the things that he has done and just like what he just did. I’m getting the mayor to agree to a pass was appreciate H and H just awesome. Awesome. Awesome. But I want to thank you. It’s just really been great working with you. Happy birthday, by the way. Congratulations on your promotion. I just know you, you’re just going to do great things ahead in your life.

Chris:

Well, listen, thank you, Joe. And you, you have been so faithful. You, you were here before I arrived and, and you’ve been with us and stuck with us all the way along with your great program on Saturday mornings, asked an attorney, you know, to live the longest running radio program, I think in the, in the entire city. And you’ve blessed us with kind of using us as an anchor point. We’re grateful for that, but Mo, but more than that, Joe, I’ve gotten to know your heart and your heart for people, the services you provide to the local church and the local pastor, and, and you’ve a heart to want to help people. And that’s what I appreciate most about you is that your radio program is, is really not about generating, you know, leads per se, in terms of generating business.

You really do want to help people. And as you answer questions, and I believe me, I’ve heard all kinds of crazy questions on your program. I listen almost every week and you do such a great job of answering and helping. And that question often helps many, many other people. And so for your 25 plus years of blessing our city, let me be the one that says thank you to you for your faithfulness, to our community and you and Bev and your family. It’s been a blessing to know you, and of course, we’ll stay in touch. And I look forward to giving you a tour of the Reagan library when you, when you come out to visit us.

 

Attorney Joe Pippen:

And I was glad I didn’t have to follow a pastor Witten. He’s been on this show with me. We did we did a 4th of July show with him about this great Christian nation we live in, and I’ve got to meet so many pastors that have been on the show. I usually try to do a special show during the holidays, and it’s just, just been a pleasure to be able to have that platform, to tell people the story and just have ’em Salem right there with me along the way. And just, it’s been a, it’s been a great support, right? From Salem and new Christen.

Chris:

Appreciate it. Well, thanks, Joe. And thanks again, keep up the good work. And I look forward to hearing great things about your, not just your practice, but your, you know, your ministry and, and continue to lift up and help pastors and people. And I know God’s going to bless you for it. Thank you so much. Okay. God bless you, Joe.

Bill Bunkley:

Well, I’ll tell you what that was the Bill Bunkley show years ago, and you can tell the legacy lives on. I hope you’ve enjoyed our look back to the life of Joe Pippin and by the way, if he could come back and do his show one more time tomorrow, I’d like to think of being titled as this attorney about the face to face encounter with the Lord of creation. He would want you to know Jesus Christ. We’ll be right back

A TRIBUTE TO ATTORNEY JOE PIPPEN FROM

CTN HOMEKEEPERS TELEVISION SHOW

Arthelene Rippy, the host of the television show “HomeKeepers” on CTN, Christian Television Network, has put together a special memory tribute in honor of Attorney Joe Pippen’s years served as a Christian Attorney in the community as he reached out to help others in his 40 years of law practice, 1981-2021.

Joseph F. Pippen

In Loving Memory 1947-2021

Law Offices of Joseph F. Pippen

You can hear more of Attorney Pippen doing his “Ask An Attorney” radio interviews on Medicaid Planning and Elder Law issues.