Rachel Lea Hunter

I grew up Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I lived most of my life. I moved to North Carolina to be closer to family and have lived here 13 years.

In 2009, I began private practice concentrating in the areas of debt resolution/negotiation, estate planning and probate.

University of Pittsburgh

Law Degree

Carnegie Mellon University

Chemistry

1981 - 1983

Chatham College

Chemistry

1979 - 1981

Honors: Freshman Chemistry Award Nominee for Truman Scholarship & Morehouse Scholarship

Attorney

Merritt, Flebotte, Wilson, Webb & Caruso, PLLC

2001 - 2009

Worked at a laws firm providing legal services to members of a legal service plan. Duties included preparation of wills and powers of attorney and counseling clients on a variety of issues. Also prepared federal and state civil and criminal appeals.

Deputy Judicial Law Clerk

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

1998 - 2000

Served as deputy judicial law clerk. Drafted legal opinions and memoranda for intermediate appellate court. Work was comprised of criminal, family, general civil and estate cases.

Judicial Law Clerk

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

1990 - 1997

Served as judicial law clerk. Drafted legal opinions and memoranda for intermediate appellate court. Work was comprised of criminal, family, general civil and estate cases. Supervised legal interns,

Judicial Law Clerk

Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County

1988 - 1990

Served as judicial law clerk. Drafted legal opinions and memoranda for the trial court. ALso served as county law librarian and oversaw publishing of cases in local county reporter.

Georgia State Bar

Member

2002 - Current

Georgia

Since 2002

North Carolina

Since 2002

Pennsylvania

Since 1988

Q. My father in law is going to sign the property deed over to us do we need an attorney for this and what forms do we need

July 12, 2014

A: You need a real estate attorney. There are no forms unless you are thinking of using a quit claim deed form that you buy at an office supply store or legal forms place on the internet.

Don't be cheap and think you will save a few bucks because if something does not go right then you will end up costing yourself way more in legal fees to get a mess cleared up. Go to a real estate lawyer and have a proper deed prepared. Deeds are not all that expensive.

However, some issues arise. While its swell that your father-in-law wants to give you property, there are gift tax consequences for him if the property is over $13,500 in value. If the land is highly appreciated in value, there might also be a capital gains issue. Also, will he be needing Medicaid any time in the next 5 years? If so, there are consequences there as well. I think your father-in-law needs to sit down with a Medicaid or estate planning lawyer and see what the best way will be for him to transfer the piece of land to you so as to avoid tax and other consequences. ... Read More

Q. I have a 2 and 1/2 year old son. Is it illegal to have my son around my boyfriend who I've been with for a yr now?

July 12, 2014

A: Its not illegal unless there is a court order specifically mentioning that your child is not to be around your boyfriend (for example, if he is a child abuser, your ex may understandably not want his child exposed to that kind of person).

You really need to discuss this with your divorce/child custody attorney. Custody and support are 2 entirely different things. Being around your boyfriend is only going to relate to child custody. Child support is based on who has possession of the child. Your ex probably does not want to pay you any child support and may be seeking custody so he will not have to pay or not have to pay as much. As part of the custody battle, he may seek to use the fact that you have a boyfriend as a possible issue why he should have custody. Maybe he will try to argue you are not a fit mother because you have this boyfriend or maybe he will try to argue that the boyfriend is unsavory or maybe he will argue that he just does not want his child exposed to this individual. I don't know but you must be prepared to counter these arguments so if you do not already have a family law attorney you may need one. ... Read More

Q. If I have been defrauded by a website from London, England do I have any recourse to get my monies back?

July 12, 2014

A: How do you know the website is in London, England? It could be anywhere in the world and making it look like Lon don, England.

In theory, yes, you might be able to recover your money, but in practical terms, the answer is you probably will not.

If the criminal is in a foreign country, it will be very difficult to find the person and the US government is not likely to help too much. You post no details of the crime, but these financial crimes come of Africa or other foreign countries. The criminals take the money and then move on. They are hard to trace and find.

And the amount of money involved does not make it viable to pursue them. How much did you lose? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

Try filing a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx.

If the person really is in the US then criminal charges can be brought against them and restitution ordered as part of sentencing or you will be able to sue them civilly.

Good luck. ... Read More