Hart of the Issue: We’re Movin’ on Up

Posted on October 5, 2022 by The Dunmorean

By John M. Hart, III, Esq.

It’s finally Autumn, a time when our beautiful Northeastern Pennsylvania outdoors start to captivate its audience with its vibrant array of colors, its stunning collection of harvested pumpkins (are they fruit, squash or gourds?), and its cooler temperatures that invite flannel shirts, comfortable sweaters, and enticing firepits.

We tend to welcome the move from season-to-season in our neck of the woods because we have been raised to appreciate the change in climate throughout the years. It adds variation and, more importantly, tradition to our otherwise mundane routines.

Another type of move that is less welcomed is the physical moving of a location, in my instance, a business. Hart Law was established in 2013 immediately upon my passing the bar exam. We got our exam results on a Friday afternoon and on Monday morning, I was in a courtroom after I was given a file for a landlord/tenant dispute from a mentor of mine.

After my first case, I continued to advance my career in multiple areas of practice, in addition to landlord/tenant matters. Over the course of almost 10 years, I “hung my shingle” in downtown Scranton. But like the seasons that come and go throughout the year, it was time that I move on as well. It was time for a change to advance my footprint in the legal world.

As of October 2022, Hart Law has a new home. We have moved to 134 E. Grove Street in where-else but DUNMORE!

While we’re very excited about this move to a bigger, more individualized location, the move itself is less than thrilling. I’ve noticed that as I get older, the moves get worse and worse.

I’ll never forget the worst move I ever endured. Without question, moving out of my law school apartment was a memory I wish I could wipe from my history. Not only was it physically daunting, but it occurred during a time when I was mentally drained.

Timing was the issue. I had to move out of my apartment one da–as in 24 hours–after I finished the bar examination. After persevering through the 16-hour exam that spanned the course of two days, my brain could barely process simple math.

But fortunately, I had a brother-in-law and best friend take the drive down to Harrisburg with a box truck to help me move. Surprisingly, they still talk to me to this day. As I studied for the exam leading up to the morning of the test, I couldn’t even consider the idea of packing for a move out of my apartment. So that all had to wait until after the exam.

Not only did I have to move furniture, but I had to pack everything, drawers, closets, cabinets, cupboards, every nook and cranny, all in one night, because time was of the essence.

For reasons unbeknownst to me, my landlord (property management company to be more precise) would not budge when I asked for even one more day so I could move out properly, even given my current circumstances. This level of unreasonableness caused an even more frustrating process of packing/moving/cleaning that evening.

Once midnight rolled around, the good graces of my friends wore thin, and they had had enough. They filled the last available square foot of the box truck and left for Scranton. I had dozed off by then, only to awaken a half-hour later to find myself curled up on my dog’s bed, the only semblance of a piece of furniture that remained.

But then I sprung up, realizing that I still had to clean the apartment and continue to load up my SUV with remaining odds-and-ends. As the morning hours rolled by, I was down to my last box and realized it wouldn’t fit in my vehicle. It was filled with dispensable items, such as cleaning supplies and knickknacks, so they were gifted to my friends who lived next door to me. I left the surprise box on their patio table.

Once I got in my vehicle, my poor pup Killian barely fit on the seat. But being a trooper, he shared it with a box and a vacuum cleaner and enjoyed the ride back home.

Likewise, the move into our new office was difficult for several reasons. For one, I’m older, and I’m sure many of you know the hardships that come with age.

Another difference from my law school move is that my office was open for almost a decade in downtown Scranton. And I didn’t realize until this week how much stuff a man can accumulate over the course of a decade. But as the body weakens over the years, the mind strengthens, and I finally got smart and hired professional movers. And I’ll never do a move again without them!

The moving company did it all in a day. Desks, conference tables, couches, computers, bookcases, books (most legal research is done online so the books are more or less for aesthetics these days) were all carried out of Scranton and placed in the new home of Hart Law at 134 E. Grove Street. Our office is much bigger now as we intend to expand and become a landmark in this great neighborhood by Schultz Stadium.

As the move from law school back to Scranton was not my fondest memory, it was a necessary move to start my career as a lawyer. Now the move of my law office from Scranton to Dunmore marks another major milestone and is necessary to further advance my legal career.

While I hope none of you have to move anytime soon, I hope that if you do, it is less painful than my move from law school, and more fulfilling like my move to Dunmore. As mentioned earlier, my very first case was a landlord-tenant dispute and now years later, I still welcome a good fight in court whether you’re a landlord or a tenant who needs competent representation.

I certainly wanted to put up a legal fight against my landlord back in law school for not being reasonable during a monumental time of my life, but I put it behind me and focused on the future. Having said that, I can always conjure up that feeling and put it to good use when someone else finds themselves dealing with a landlord, or even a tenant, who is being unreasonable!

So with all of that said, just like the change of seasons, we appreciate this move and hope you all do, too. We’re in, we’re open, and we’re ready to service all of Dunmore’s legal needs.

Hart of the Issue: Legal Lore from the Great Outdoors

Posted on June 1, 2022 by The Dunmorean

Ever since I was a little kid, I was fascinated, actually virtually obsessed, with camping. Being outdoors, particularly camping overnight, is an incredible experience.

There’s no arguing that I love the finer things in life. I pay close attention to detail in so many things, often to my wife’s chagrin. I worry about how I plate dinner every night and immediately grab a towel when I spill a drop of sauce on the plate where it clearly doesn’t belong. But at the same time, there’s a lot to be said about surrendering yourself to the outdoors and forgetting about all the amenities that you are accustomed to (besides collecting some awesome gear that you just have to have.)

I have vivid memories of sitting in science class in seventh grade, just planning a camping trip in my head. The impending trip outdoors consumed me. Even then, I knew I wanted to be an attorney, so my level of attention to seventh grade science was… well… minimally sufficient. I used to sneak Cabela’s magazines into class to look at the latest gear the big outfitters had to offer.

But a typical camping trip back then went as follows: Big time hype to get out there, live off the land, essentially recreate My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, (a favorite book of mine during my childhood), and at the start of the trip, it would live up to the hype.

Then nighttime came and you suddenly realized that you were underprepared for the inexplicable frigid night that ensued. By sunrise–and the sun is what woke you up regardless of whether you had other plans in mind–you were so cold, you dreaded the thought of leaving your tent to… umm… relieve yourself.

But I tend to remember only the good and have a unique capability of forgetting the bad. So, as I grew older, my love for camping remained and I continued to camp. Mind you, as a child, we only dreamed of someday owning a camper. That was essentially a major goal in life. I continued to camp and continued to wake up miserable and often full of regret. It was a tent-camping trip up to Maine in 2018 that was the last straw.

I went to visit my wife’s extended family for the first time, and we stayed at a campground close to their homes. I had a tent I could’ve only dreamed of owning back in seventh grade. I learned the benefits of a cot over an air mattress (highly recommended) and was well equipped.

And then I experienced rainfall overnight that I never knew was possible. I figured I was safe from the elements but even with the cots, I woke up soaked. Why? Because my dogs were on the tent floor, apparently sitting in an impromptu river that formed straight through the base of the tent. The dogs kept jumping up onto the cot, and I couldn’t blame them.

To make matters worse, the temperatures of rural northern Maine defied all logic and were scorching. At the time, I had my old trusty Suburban which I thought would outlive me. Unfortunately, the AC didn’t outlive that trip. So, I couldn’t even find reprieve in the truck while waiting for the tent to dry out the next day in the blazing sun.

That was my last camping trip in a tent because my wife agreed it was time to make my childhood dreams come true. So, just months after that fateful camping trip, we treated ourselves to a camper–a travel trailer to be exact. And my love for camping has never been stronger.

I estimate that I spent a solid six weeks researching the world of recreational vehicles, including travel trailers, coaches, 5th wheels, and pop-ups. I researched so much that my wife had no questions when we started looking through Facebook marketplace for the one. And sure enough, we found our home on wheels just weeks before we got married.

I often heard that buying an RV was like buying a motorcycle. First you will get something small and then you’ll never be satisfied and will want to keep upgrading. That adage held true for a motorcycle and that whole experience is for a different article. But I learned from that mistake and wanted to get a camper that I was just slightly uneasy with towing behind my ol’ trusty Suburban.

And so began our vacations on wheels. But before our inaugural voyage, which was our minimoon to the Finger lakes after our wedding, we decided it would be best to give it a test run to work out the kinks. (If you ever need reassurance that you found the right woman to marry, take her camping and have her assist you with the sewage pipes. And my beautiful bride slid right under the camper no questions asked to hook up our plumbing… a real keeper.)

So, our test run was unique in that we learned that there’s a whole different community of people out there–camper people. I believe this holds true with any hobby you get involved in, which is why I enjoy numerous hobbies. I find it fascinating to see the diversity in culture throughout hobby enthusiasts.

When you start a new hobby, like camping, you get to experience a whole new echelon of individuals, and you obtain another view on life. But meeting new people is the driving force of this culture. When you walk around a campground after backing a camper into your spot (on the first try), there’s a sense of comradery without the awkward “getting to know you phase” because you’re all on the same page. You’re all there for the same reason.

So, after setting up our camper for the first time, a couple directly to the right of us invited us over for dinner. They didn’t even know our names yet, but immediately provided hospitality with open arms. And aside from having a great burger, I inadvertently got new clients. They had mentioned how they purchased a vacant property at tax sale to ultimately be used to park their camper. They figured it was a done deal because the county sold them the property. And I had to be the bearer of bad news to inform them that the county only sells the interest in the property that the county holds, and nothing more.

As my wife and I kept using our camper for subsequent trips, we met numerous people along the way. And through these encounters, there were countless legal issues that I was able to assist fellow campers with. And given that I am a general practitioner, the range of legal issues that can be implicated with a camper spread throughout all areas of my practice, such as real estate, (should I sell my house and tour the country in an RV?), estate planning (who gets my RV when I go?), contract disputes (I bought a camper that wasn’t what I paid for), criminal law (I was a struggling high school chemistry teacher who discovered that I had a knack for cooking narcotics in my RV but the cops came a knockin’!), and personal injury, which has a whole area of legal implications, particularly involving unique insurance issues, catastrophic collisions, and even contentious property damage disputes.

Owning a camper is a seventh grader’s dream come true. It’s a wonderful way to get away from it all. It’s an incredible way to create memories with your family and RV sales are at an all-time high. If you find yourself about to start this new hobby and join this culture, remember that there can be a plethora of associated legal issues, and Hart Law can handle just about all of them.

Hart of the Issue: Will It Matter?

Posted on May 3, 2022 by The Dunmorean

By John M. Hart, III, Esq.

At the end of April last year my life changed forever, yet again. As we get older, many of us are fortunate to experience incredible milestones. For me, I’ve been lucky to encounter several. My chosen educational path has provided me with many events to celebrate, including college and law school graduations, simply enduring through the bar exam, and finally passing the bar. Through my faith, I received the prerequisite sacraments, all accompanied with a party. But then things got real.

In October of 2018, I finally was able to solidify a date to celebrate as an anniversary with my wife instead of constantly trying to determine which was the most important date of our relationship (first time we met, first time we went on a “date”, first time we made our relationship Facebook official, etc.). On October 5, 2018, all those immaterial dates were fortunately shadowed by our nuptials, and another milestone went in the books.

But getting married was different. This milestone changes you because it’s no longer about just you, like every event before it. Now you share a moment in time with someone else and your obligations shift. After October 2018, my life wasn’t my own– I had to make decisions that would affect both myself and my wife.

And then on April 29, 2021, my son was born, and that event really put my life’s decisions into perspective. The moment my wife bestowed upon me and this world our beautiful boy, another milestone came and changed my life–again different from previous milestones–in that it wasn’t just about me but about my very own family.

As an estate attorney, these are important events because they constantly remind us that our decisions in life don’t just affect us but also the one’s we love. It may or may not come as a surprise, but most people do not have a will. This isn’t because they don’t need one. Rather, it’s usually because they don’t realize when they should get one.

Are you married? Do you have kids? Do you own a home? Do you have assets? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, then yes… you should have a will.

The problem is that even the thought of a will is by its very nature, morbid. Nobody wants to think about the end. I know I don’t. But the truth of the matter is that we need to think ahead. And a will is a tool that helps our loved ones once we’re gone.

It can be seen as an utmost sign of selflessness. It can be used to help our family. And for those who live for spite, it can be used to stick it to some people after you’re gone! Regardless of your individual reason(s) for needing, or even wanting a will, it boils down to you being the one who gets to make all of the decisions.

Passing away without a will takes your wishes, if any, out of the equation. Instead, your estate is left to be decided by the laws of intestacy– in other words, statutes. And if you have children, and don’t have a will, it gets even worse. You end up leaving your family with a disaster of a knot to untangle, and if any argument ensues (and they often do) over who gets the children, it can be decided by a stranger.

The good news is that it really isn’t difficult to get a will. Sure, it’s one of the most important documents in your life, or I suppose afterlife, if we’re being sticklers, but it doesn’t have to be a huge burden to get one. And believe it or not, Pennsylvania arguably has the most laxed requirements for creating a valid will throughout the country.

There are some interesting cases throughout the jurisprudence to decide whether or not a writing was in fact, a valid will. One interesting case that comes to mind from my law school days involved a farmer who got into an accident and was pinned between his tractor. When he realized he might not make it, (and he didn’t), he took out his pocketknife and carved his testamentary wishes into the fender of his tractor. In that matter, the courts determined that his intent was indisputable, and they recognized the carved words as his dying wishes.

But if you’re reading this article, then you’re most likely not stuck behind a tractor. Don’t leave your family with the burden of litigating what your wishes were after you’re gone. Simply contact Hart Law, and we’ll send you our Estate Planning Questionnaire, and we’ll be in touch. Because yes… it will matter.