PMCW Law

The Law Offices of  Phillips, McElyea, Carpenter & Welch, P.C . have the  best attorneys in the Lake of the Ozarks  area and a top notch support team to help you with most legal issues.  We want to feature the outstanding members of our firm via a series of Blogs where we ask some questions and get some insight on why they went into Law, learn about them as individuals, and feature what they do when they are not at work helping others.  We hope you enjoy this series, and we will feature a different team member every other week. Question - Why did you become a lawyer? Answer -   That is a good question because I almost didn’t become one.   I was in Forestry School at the University of Missouri scheduled to graduate in 1970 and it became apparent to most of us that there were no jobs in that field due to a recession that we were then going through.   I could have accepted a Fellowship in the Department of Plant Physiology (where I was working part time) but a Master’s Degree

The Law Offices of Phillips, McElyea, Carpenter & Welch, P.C. (1939 - present) Seventy five years is a long time and many things have changed over the years.  Our firm is celebrating this great milestone throughout 2014, but we have something special planned for this weekend at the Dogwood Festival.  We will be building a float with the theme of "Then and Now"! We have several elements of the float that will highlight our theme.  Attorney Charlie McElyea will be representing the "Then" days of our firm with legal secretary Clare Harris dressed as an old-fashioned secretary taking short hand.  The latter portion of the float will represent the "Now" period and will have Attorney Ron Carpenter's 13 year old granddaughter, Mary, dressed up as the modern, hip, and forward thinking attorney with all the modern technology.  Mary is a 4th generation descendent of our founder, Hugh Phillips. Ron Carpenter will be driving the float and t

The Lake of the Ozarks is a wonderful place to celebrate Easter and there are many events happening around our area.  The Law Offices of Phillips, McElyea, Carpenter, & Welch, P.C. want to share some details about Easter activities! Saturday Easter events: Versailles Area Chamber Community Easter Egg Hunt - More than 2000 plastic eggs were stuffed with candy for children to hunt at Good Shepherd Nursing Home. Time: 11am Plasce: Good Shepherd Nursing Home, 1101 W. Clay Rd, Versailles MO Contact: 573-378-4401 Pictures with the Easter Bunny - Photos with the Easter Bunny at Stonecrest Book & Toy at the indoor shopping center Time:  11am - 4pm Place:  Stonecrest Book & Toy, Stonecrest mall, Osage Beach MO Contact:  573-348-3106 Easter Egg Hunt at New Life Church of the Nazarene - Starting at 1:30pm, children up to 12 years old can venture on a quest to find more than 2000 candy and prize filled Easter eggs.  Children can also enjoy cotton candy, a phot

At Phillips, McElyea, Carpenter & Welch, P.C. our real estate lawyers have many years of experience in handling a wide variety of real estate problems and title issues. To better meet your real estate and title needs, we work closely with Phillips & McElyea Land Title, Inc. which provides complete title insurance, escrow and real estate closing services. Title Insurance Land Titling can be complicated and understanding Title insurance can be difficult.  When you purchase Real Estate, you are also purchasing the right to occupy and use the land.  There can be can be claims by others to the land, and the title may limit the usage of the land.  If you are not aware of these limitations or claims, you may not be able to use the land the way you want and this can cause you financial loss.  Title insurance is a protection against these type of problems. Phillips & McElyea Land Title, Inc ., helps provide peace of mind by conducting a thorough and extensive examinatio

Default Judgments defined A default judgment is a  judgment in favor of the plaintiff based on the failure of the defendant to respond to a law suit or appear in court.  This failure to respond or appear results in the court awarding a default judgment.  The default judgment is relief that is requested by the plaintiff. In other words, if someone files a lawsuit or other legal action against you and you do not respond, you are essentially "forfeiting" the case.  In a civil trial involving damages, the court will likely give the person filing the action the amount they are looking for.  This can be bad for you in several ways: 1) A judgment against you will most likely affect your credit report, and not in a good way! 2) You can have your wages garnished, affecting your employment. 3) You can have your bank account garnished. 4) If you don't have the judgment paid immediately, it earns interest.  This interest can cause the judgment amount to increase q