Latest / Chuck Douglas / Candidate For Probate Judge Chris Junga

Transcript

Candidate For Probate Judge Chris Junga · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Greetings, salutations, welcome my friends to another edition of the
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  Speaker 1: Power Hour on 610 WTV. And I'm Chuck Douglas, you
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  Speaker 1: know who you are, and we take it from there.
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  Speaker 1: We get one hour together, which means I talk really
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  Speaker 1: fast and you must listen even faster. My number 821-9886-821-WTVN, 1-800-610-WTVN.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: But you won't need those right now because I got
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  Speaker 1: a guest in the studio, actor Treat Williams. No, I'm
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  Speaker 1: just kidding. But he does, but he does resemble him.
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  Speaker 1: Quite a bit. Chris, it's Younga, but it's spelled Junga,
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  Speaker 1: so he likes Junga, but J. But it's not pronounced
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  Speaker 1: that way. And when he has a gavel in his hand,
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  Speaker 1: he'll make you say it the right way. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 1: he is trying to get your vote. Running for probate
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  Speaker 1: court judge here in Franklin County, Republican candidate. And hello,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for being here.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Chuck. Let me, I think I
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  Speaker 2: need to clear up the name.
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  Speaker 1: It's Younga. It's Younga. It's Younga.
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  Speaker 2: It's a Hungarian last name. I'm... I'm a blue-collar Hungarian
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  Speaker 2: guy from Toledo, Ohio, but I've lived in central Ohio
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  Speaker 2: for the past 26 years. I've practiced law here that
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  Speaker 2: entire time. So the name, yeah, it's pronounced Younga, but
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  Speaker 2: it's spelled J-U-N-G-A. And I'm running for judge. I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to get my message out there. Probate court's not always
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  Speaker 2: the most exciting court for individuals to talk about or
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  Speaker 2: go all the way down on their ballots. So I
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  Speaker 2: don't want any confusion. I don't want anybody looking for
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  Speaker 2: a why. So I'm letting people know that it's look
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  Speaker 2: for Junga for judge. It's, you know, I answer to both.
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  Speaker 2: That's what my first grade teacher called me and probably
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  Speaker 2: every teacher and professor I've had after that. So I
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  Speaker 2: answer to Junga, I answer to Junga. But if you're
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  Speaker 2: looking on the ballot, you're looking for how it is spelled,
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  Speaker 2: it's Junga.
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  Speaker 1: My second grade teacher was Fran Decker. When I was
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  Speaker 1: leaving first grade, then we had summer vacation and we
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  Speaker 1: came back and she had become married. And her new
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  Speaker 1: last name was Nadja Fizata. Oh, boy. Yeah, I was
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  Speaker 1: the only one who could spell it. So I got
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  Speaker 1: to go get the projector for the class all the time,
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  Speaker 1: which was nice. Had to be signed out. OK. So
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  Speaker 1: once I conquered Nadja Fizata, every other name was easy.
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  Speaker 1: Your time practicing law. Have you spent most in probate court?
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  Speaker 1: Is that the basis of your practice? Is that what
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  Speaker 1: got you familiar with the wants and the needs of
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  Speaker 1: the probate court?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I've done everything. If I have to classify
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  Speaker 2: the type of practice that I practice, I'm a trial attorney.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm the type of attorney who is in court
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  Speaker 2: all the time. I practice daily. I've practiced in courts
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  Speaker 2: in pretty much every court in Franklin County, as well
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  Speaker 2: as most courts in the surrounding counties. There's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of transactional attorneys. There's a lot of attorneys who sit
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  Speaker 2: behind a desk, do a lot of research, do a
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  Speaker 2: lot of paperwork. I am happy to be one of
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  Speaker 2: those attorneys who just are in the courtroom getting things done,
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  Speaker 2: I love trying cases. I love being in front of
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  Speaker 2: a jury. I've tried over 100 cases to verdict, and
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  Speaker 2: that's the work that I enjoy doing. I think you
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  Speaker 2: get a case, you get it done, you let justice
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  Speaker 2: get served, and you move on to the next case,
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  Speaker 2: and you make sure that things are done in a
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  Speaker 2: very approachable, very responsive way.
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  Speaker 1: What– I want to phrase this correctly because I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to sound depressing. Is a probate court something everybody
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  Speaker 1: is going to need? It is. And it's how do
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  Speaker 1: you spin that in a bright way? I mean, let's
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  Speaker 1: make the court where you die something better. But that's
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  Speaker 1: basically that coming down to wills and estates and so forth.
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  Speaker 1: That is the bulk of what happens there. That is
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  Speaker 1: the bulk of what happens.
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  Speaker 2: The court, about 85 percent of what the court does
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  Speaker 2: is like you said, it assists people who are trying
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  Speaker 2: to distribute property after a loved one passes away. Now,
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  Speaker 2: there's a number of other things that the court does.
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  Speaker 2: It handles guardianships, which is also an emotional, sometimes tough
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  Speaker 2: spot for people to be in. It's when individuals need
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  Speaker 2: someone to step in, and if they can't take care
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  Speaker 2: of their own financial needs or their own medical decisions,
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  Speaker 2: you need a guardian to step in. Sometimes people aren't
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  Speaker 2: lucky enough to have family, and the court has to
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  Speaker 2: appoint a guardian to take care of that and look
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  Speaker 2: after people. The probate court does do adoptions. That's usually
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  Speaker 2: a happy thing. But to go back to the bulk
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  Speaker 2: of what we do, A lot of times we are
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  Speaker 2: dealing with very sad moments in people's lives. We're dealing
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  Speaker 2: with people who are grieving, people who are trying to
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  Speaker 2: settle in a state of a loved one, perhaps sell
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  Speaker 2: a childhood home, transfer property. This is something that I've
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  Speaker 2: had a lot of experience in. But most recently, well,
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  Speaker 2: not that recently, but about a year ago, I actually
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  Speaker 2: lost my father. Before that, about nine months before that,
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  Speaker 2: I lost my grandmother, his mother. and then his younger brother,
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  Speaker 2: my uncle. So I spent a lot of time in
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  Speaker 2: probate court. As I mentioned before, I'm from Toledo. My
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  Speaker 2: family members still lived up there. So this was a
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  Speaker 2: practice that this probate practice was taking place in Lucas County.
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  Speaker 2: And I'll tell you, as much as I was grieving
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  Speaker 2: and it was a very stressful time for me, I
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  Speaker 2: generally have, well, I've represented clients in probate court. This
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  Speaker 2: is really the first time that I was essentially the client.
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  Speaker 2: I was the grieving family member. So it hit different
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  Speaker 2: for me. But I'll tell you, I give credit for
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  Speaker 2: Lucas County Probate Court. They did everything right. It was
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  Speaker 2: quick and easy. It was responsive. I got done what
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  Speaker 2: I needed to get done. And if there's a time
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  Speaker 2: when things aren't that rosy in your life, you kind
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  Speaker 2: of want to avoid bureaucracy. And if you could get
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  Speaker 2: through that If you can make those things happen quickly,
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  Speaker 2: that's going to be the positive. That's going to be
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  Speaker 2: the positive thing that's going to take place. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what I want to bring to to Franklin County, because unfortunately,
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  Speaker 2: Franklin County doesn't work as Lucas County did. And a
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  Speaker 2: lot of folks don't have the same positive experience that
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  Speaker 2: I did in a different court.
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  Speaker 1: What's at the top of the list? I know there's
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  Speaker 1: got to be one spark item that you say I
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  Speaker 1: get elected is the first thing we're taking on. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 2: The first thing I'm going to take on is the
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  Speaker 2: magistrate help desk. So in every court, every probate court
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  Speaker 2: in Ohio, and what it used to be also in
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  Speaker 2: Franklin County, you would have magistrates. The probate court sits
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  Speaker 2: on its own island and kind of does, because the
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  Speaker 2: work it does is so specialized, it has a staff
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  Speaker 2: of 57 individuals and seven magistrates. Those magistrates step in
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  Speaker 2: like any other magistrate in a court and can fill
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  Speaker 2: in for the judge and hear contested matters. But for
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  Speaker 2: the most part, what the bonus of having all those
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  Speaker 2: magistrates are is to have them available and to have
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  Speaker 2: them available to talk to people who come in and
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  Speaker 2: need some direction. So they can't give legal advice, but
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  Speaker 2: they can point folks in the right direction. A lot
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  Speaker 2: of what probate does is very form driven. And as
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  Speaker 2: you would be not surprised, there's a lot of forms
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  Speaker 2: and some look very similar to others. And if you
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  Speaker 2: file the wrong form, Sometimes that process gets rejected and
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  Speaker 2: you've got to start all over. That can add four
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  Speaker 2: or five weeks to what you're trying to get done.
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  Speaker 2: That shouldn't happen. Other courts utilize the self-help desk. You
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  Speaker 2: go in. I always say this because my father, I
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  Speaker 2: grew up, he worked in the grocery industry, and it
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  Speaker 2: used to work a lot like a deli counter. You go,
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  Speaker 2: you grab a number from the little spinny thing, you
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  Speaker 2: get a piece of paper, magistrate calls your number, you
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  Speaker 2: get to sit down, explain what you're trying to do,
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  Speaker 2: and the process gets rejected. you get to walk through
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  Speaker 2: the process in a very one-on-one, very personal level. That
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  Speaker 2: takes place, took place in Lucas County, takes place in
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  Speaker 2: other counties, used to take place here in Franklin County.
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  Speaker 2: Went away with COVID. Like a lot of things, it
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  Speaker 2: didn't come back. People stopped showing up. People were less available.
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  Speaker 2: Now you walk in, there's an email to send a
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  Speaker 2: message to, there's a basket to put a piece of
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  Speaker 2: paper in, but you don't get that kind of personal
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  Speaker 2: treatment that you used to, that you should. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what I'm bringing back day one.
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  Speaker 1: Is probate court, I mean, unless you got it, Like
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  Speaker 1: a contested estate or something like that. Is probate court
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  Speaker 1: generally where people just come in of their own accord
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  Speaker 1: and deal with the court system or is it more
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  Speaker 1: likely you're going to have an attorney do that? I
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  Speaker 1: mean is the interaction there between the court and the
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  Speaker 1: individual basically?
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  Speaker 2: I would say probate court represents the highest percentage of
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  Speaker 2: individuals coming in what we say pro se or without
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  Speaker 2: having an attorney just representing themselves. And the fact of
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  Speaker 2: the matter of that is, as an attorney, I should
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  Speaker 2: never really advise anybody to not have an attorney with
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  Speaker 2: you in court, but I'm sure my colleagues would be
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  Speaker 2: upset by that. But a lot of times it's just
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  Speaker 2: a cost-effectiveness of what you're trying to do. Let me
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  Speaker 2: give you an example. There's a lot of ways to
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  Speaker 2: transfer property without going to probate court, and any trust
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  Speaker 2: in states attorney is going to show you how to
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  Speaker 2: do that. You can look that up, and that will
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  Speaker 2: sometimes make matters worse. move smoother if you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to have the court involved. But there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: times where you can't necessarily do that, whether that be
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  Speaker 2: an account that you couldn't put a beneficiary on, whether
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  Speaker 2: that be a car that you can't transfer the title
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  Speaker 2: with a beneficiary. So the court does need to step
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  Speaker 2: in and administer that transfer. A lot of times you're
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  Speaker 2: dealing with something, and in my case, my dad had
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  Speaker 2: a 2005 Dodge Avenger that wasn't worth a whole lot,
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  Speaker 2: So I don't see why anybody would hire an attorney
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  Speaker 2: and pay a couple thousand dollars just to deal with
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  Speaker 2: a car that maybe that's the value of the car, $ 1, 000
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  Speaker 2: or $ 800. You may have a bank account with not
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  Speaker 2: that much money in it. And again, if nobody is
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  Speaker 2: contesting it, if this isn't an issue that you're going
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  Speaker 2: to have a trial on or contested hearings and it's
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  Speaker 2: just a matter of processing the document so you can
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  Speaker 2: get yourself to the bank or to the real estate agent,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of times you don't need an attorney. And
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  Speaker 2: people know that. And people come to probate court hoping
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  Speaker 2: that they can take care of themselves. Unfortunately, I've talked
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  Speaker 2: to a lot of people on the campaign trail who
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  Speaker 2: said that they just gave up on a car or
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  Speaker 2: bank account that had $ 500, 000 in it because they couldn't
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  Speaker 2: get through probate. Nobody was there. It wasn't very helpful.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't responsive. And they didn't feel it was worth
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  Speaker 2: hiring attorney to walk them through. Uh, that's got to end. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: you gotta be helpful and responsive and help people be
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  Speaker 2: able to navigate the court and navigate the court in
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  Speaker 2: a very efficient.
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  Speaker 1: Quick way. Now, and what, what happened to them? Is
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  Speaker 1: that just go into the Cleveland Browns new stadium or what,
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  Speaker 1: what happens to that money?
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  Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I, I believe I, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: could go, uh, certain unclaimed funds. It can go to
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  Speaker 2: the bank. Um, A lot of times that money is
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  Speaker 2: just kind of gone. People just say, well, you know what?
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  Speaker 2: It's not worth my while.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. I hate to see anybody work. Don't walk
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  Speaker 1: away from a dollar in this life if you have
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  Speaker 1: that option. I asked you what the spark was that
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  Speaker 1: we got to fix. What about something in the Franklin
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  Speaker 1: County Probate Court that is going well that you think
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  Speaker 1: needs to propagate itself and be done more often that
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  Speaker 1: you don't think should change but just expand?
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  Speaker 2: You know, the probate court does have a number of
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  Speaker 2: self-help outreach type programs. I think these are important. I
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  Speaker 2: was meeting with a number of groups. I was meeting
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  Speaker 2: with the Fraternal Order of Police. I was meeting with
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  Speaker 2: some groups that have expressed that they do enjoy having
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  Speaker 2: probate court reach out and talk to their members and
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  Speaker 2: give them some advice, some guidance on how things work
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  Speaker 2: and how to plan for, you know, nobody likes to
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  Speaker 2: plan for the loss of a loved one. But if
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  Speaker 2: you do plan ahead. Things do generally run smoother. And
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  Speaker 2: probate court has certain programs in place where they've done
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  Speaker 2: this type of outreach. I think that can be expanded,
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  Speaker 2: and I'd certainly like to keep up what they have.
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  Speaker 1: And grow on it. Okay. All right. Anything that makes
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  Speaker 1: the process easier. I don't have a problem necessarily thinking
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  Speaker 1: about the eventual demise that faces everyone. Leaving the people
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  Speaker 1: behind that have to deal with it, That's something nobody
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  Speaker 1: wants to do. And probate court, again, is where you've
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  Speaker 1: got to sort through all those inheritances and assets and
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  Speaker 1: distributions and so forth. Is there something that is done
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  Speaker 1: within the probate court system that is not death-related, not adoption-related,
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  Speaker 1: and people would be surprised to find out, oh, that's
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  Speaker 1: a probate issue?
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  Speaker 2: There's a few things. There's a lot of– there's– again,
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  Speaker 2: probate is somewhat of just a little– potpourri of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of different things where some are related and some aren't.
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  Speaker 2: I think you'd be surprised to learn that. I think
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  Speaker 2: a lot of people would be surprised to learn that
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  Speaker 2: that's where you go for any type of public record corrections,
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  Speaker 2: corrections on a birth certificate, corrections on a marriage certificate,
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  Speaker 2: matters like that.
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  Speaker 1: You did taught me something right there because I had
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  Speaker 1: no idea. His name is Chris Junga for the sake
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  Speaker 1: of making it evident on the ballot. As you go
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  Speaker 1: out to vote, he is running for Franklin County probate judge.