Douglas M. Gierhart, Attorney at Law

01/21/2026

So let's continue to talk about scammers. Scammers are after everyone including lawyers. Sometimes it's money they are after and sometimes they just want personal information. So what type of things can help safeguard you from them?

A web browser with good safeguards is a must. I use Brave browser. It was designed with cybersecurity as it's primary concern. It's free and easy to use just like other browsers. It's benefits are it's built-ins like shields that are able to detect bad or fake websites. Some websites are built to be able to phish (pronounced fish) for your information. Some websites sell your personal information and that is the major source of income for the website.

Anti-virus is also important. MacAfee anti-virus is available on a lot of computers when you buy them but MacAfee is notorious for selling your information. It doesn't make a lot of sense to protect your identity and turn around and sell it. My son recommends Bitdefender which has been great at my law office. I can scan my computer and it tells me where it saved me by preventing me to access a website and tells me if I have some type of malware or virus that it has captured and quarantined. I highly recommend it.

Another type of issue is clicking on a faked urgent notice pop up. Did you read that urgent? It is that sense of urgency that causes our hearts to race and click on it. DON'T!!! It is the same thing we talked about weeks ago in phone calls. Think before you click! Is this from my anti-virus program? Did I ever subscribe to monitoring of any kind?

Learn, learn, learn so you can help yourself and your parents. Until next time.

01/05/2026

Good day everyone. I hope you had great holiday celebrations with your families. I want to pick up the issue of scams and how we can help our parents and how you can protect yourselves.

You need to learn a few things about scams. Resources are really abundant on the web. But like with anything you have to look to the reliable sources.

So let's begin there. If someone calls and says they have a warrant for your arrest and you need to pay them in crypto-currency, I already know that's a scam but you may not. So find out where the warrant is out of and hang up and call that agency. For example, if they say they are from the Sheriff's department, hang up immediately and call the Sheriff's department and ask them if they have a warrant for your arrest. The scammer on the other end won't like it and will try to stop you, but hang up on them, that is the best defense, check the source!

Most scammers get people to respond because of a sense of emergency like the warrant or another I heard about is a family member has been arrested while on vacation and needs bail money; so hang up and call your relative. If you get a call from someone pretending the be the IRS or Social Security saying they have a warrant, hang up. The US Marshall's service is usually who serves arrest warrants for the federal government. And if all else fails say I have to call my lawyer and I will get back with you and hang up.

Finally, the best thing you can do is silence unknown callers on your cell phone or your parents' cell phones. If you are unsure how to do that, stop by my office at 15803 NE 23rd Street & I will be glad to help.

Next week I hope to post my first video to further assist you in staying ahead of the scammers.

Call now to connect with business.

12/14/2025

Scams are real and close to home.

I had another scam case come into the office on Friday. They were an elderly couple, whom I would call my friends. They are each in their 80's and smart.

They had called her Thursday evening. He said he was with the Social Security Administration (red flag) and he wanted to know if she had made a recent purchase for $900 (red flag). She said no and he said he would take care of it but she would need to make a report to the FBI. It seemed legit at the time. She freely gave her personal identification and then her financial information. After finishing with her he asked to talk with her husband. He said he thought he was doing the right thing. He gave his personal identification and even his balance in his checking account. He said he thought he was doing the right thing. They weren't pressuring him. They were doing an investigation after all.

However, the next morning neither felt right about it. They called their financial adviser and came by the bank to talk with them. Then they came and talked with me. They were fortunate, they informed everyone early and didn't lose anything. But their identities are compromised.

As I talked with them I was furious again. How can these scammers think they are doing a great job; scamming the vulnerable?

I made a report with the FBI and the IRC. I did a reverse lookup check of the phone number; the number came back as a Washington D.C. number but to a private individual, not the Social Security Administration. The number had been spoofed. I tthen got her them the numbers of each credit bureau to do a credit freeze.

I asked if I could look at her phone. I changed the setting to block
unknown numbers. I then gave them a referral to have someone come by and fix her computer with a more protective browser and some really good anti-virus. He would also be able to load the same anti-virus on her phone for extra protection.

This was a couple from here in Choctaw. I spent 2 hours with them getting them protected and reported.

Please, talk about scams with your parents and learn some things to help yourself and them. The problem is real and happens around us.

Do you need assistance? Call me (405) 347-1410

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12/07/2025

I started last week to talk about protecting your parents from scams and identity theft. We started by saying prepare by talking with your parents about this issue. Sometimes our parents are very private and don't want to talk about their finances. But tell them about people who have lost money because the family didn't talk about it. Remember, failure to talk about it is a failure to plan. If you fail to plan you will be so far behind if something hits and you could wind up talking with your mom or dad and all of the sudden you're like Steve Harvey.

So also, prepare by talking with OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS. Do you get along with your siblings? I don't know but communicate about this so your mom or dad isn't taken advantage of. Discuss the need to have someone watching their bank and financial accounts and preferably more than one person. Take turns looking at their bank account.

I give this advice of sharing the load because in the last two years I have had both a guardianship and a probate where the siblings trusted a single brother or sister to take care of mom or dad & when things happened it was too late! Remember this person that is taking advantage of your mom or dad could be one of their brothers or sisters.

If you have a good relationship with your brothers and sisters, great! Ask each other if they had anything unusual happen in their conversation with dad. You might learn that he has asked to borrow money from each of you and it raised a red flag, because dad had plenty of money.

So remember prepare and discuss this issue with both parents and siblings or other family members. You don't want to be talking with mom or dad and all of the sudden . . .

11/29/2025

Over the last month I have on more than one occasion talked with a client who has come to discuss how to help their parent who has been the victim of a scam. As I talk with the client about their mom or dad, I am both heartbroken and angry. I am heartbroken that a vulnerable person has been taken advantage of by some lowlife. How can you even think this is a way to make a living? I can't get my mind around it. I am so angry with the criminal who is doing this I wish I could hunt them down and prosecute them on the spot. Or maybe something else.

Because I have had more than one encounter I think a series of posts might help in educating the community in general.

The first post is about preparation. You have to prepare yourself. Do you know what types of scams are out there? If not then learn. Talking to your mom or dad about it now deals with the now not when they have memory issues; that's another post. But you can't discuss this with your parents unless you know what to talk about and how to talk about it. I will talk about different types of scams here to get you headed in the right direction.

Secondly, get basic tech knowledge becasue your parent is probably not tech literate or tech saavy. That means knowing what software can help protect them if they get online, knowing how to look at their bank account and financials accounts quickly & what to look for. Don't wait before . . .

09/01/2025

Important to understand merging when driving

08/30/2025

Today’s post is a note is about credit identity protection. Whenever you get the option when you use your credit or debit card, use the tap feature. The capture algorithm is reconfigured every few seconds to protect your data. As a result, it is much harder to steal your private information .

07/05/2025

Here’s a story of the cuts the Trump has taken to a program intended to help students struggling with their mental health.

Beth Wallis, Sierra Pfeifer At Friend Public School in central Oklahom

02/24/2025

Good Monday afternoon. At least that is what time it is when I write this. We witnessed a chaotic week weatherwise last week and another chaotic week last couple of weeks because of DOGE cuts.

My heart goes out to the numerous civil servants who are being put in a very difficult place because of their immediate termination without relief. Just fired! They have lost financial security because of a lost job. And others have seen unannounced closing of restaurants and other businesses where they work that suddenly shut their doors because they restaurants can't make ends meet, much less a profit.

Those that are in this situation have to figure out how to move forward. If you don't know where to start - begin looking for a job. Begin figuring out how to manage your finances. The most important thing in managing your finances is figuring out what are your needs. There are only 4 needs - food, housing, transportation, and clothing. You have assistance through local churches, the Eastern Oklahoma County Resource Center, among others. Start locating those resources. Be intentional about what you will need. You may certainly be in shock. Please ask for help if you need mental health assistance. Please ask friends for help if you are frozen in fear and do not be ashamed.

If you are in need of help learning how to budget, please call me & I will help at no cost.

However, in the worst case scenario, please contact me for bankruptcy assistance. I am here to help!!

Praying for strength and perseverance for all.

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02/12/2025

Hello, one & all. I am going to post about bankruptcy for 2 or 3 of these posts. I have not talked about bankruptcy as a service that I provide because when I opened my office again in 2023, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with this service because it used to be extremely time consuming for me and my clients. I purchased the newest bankruptcy software and am extremely pleased with how well it works! It has a portal for my clients to upload documents, which makes it much easier for me and less clutter in their files. Using the portal makes it much easier for my clients to work through requested information I will need.

A few things have changed with how bankruptcies are filed, managed and heard, especially since I started practicing in the Bankruptcy Court in 1986.

Filing is now electronic, as opposed to a decade ago when files had to be taken to the Bankruptcy Court in downtown Oklahoma City. Since 2020, 341 hearings, also known as the First Meeting of Creditors, are now accomplished through Zoom meetings. This saves both me and my clients time and the stress of going downtown and locating a parking in busy Oklahoma City. I really like these changes!!

So if you are in need of an attorney familiar with bankruptcy practice please come and see me, because I am the only attorney in eastern Oklahoma County that provides this service.

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01/27/2025

Wow, Happy New Year!! I haven't written since last year.

However, let's continue talking about probate.

I talked about a lost will in my last post and before that about the probate process itself and it's three different stages.

While most probates are time consuming and can be costly there are types of probate that are less expensive & time consuming; one being a Summary Administration.

In most probates there are built in time constraints for notice to run before the Petition is heard, there is a delay to do a Notice to Creditors and before the Hearing of the Final Account. This gets even longer if property needs to be sold in the probate to pay creditors and the cost of the probate itself. In a Summary Administration these notices are combined and shorten the time to complete.

However, there are caveats, which is common in the law, describing the how. Under the law presently, Summary Administration can occur if the decedent has been dead for 5 years or more, or the estate is valued under $200,000.

A process is very similar when the surviving spouse is the personal representative.

If you have other questions, please feel free to call me.

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12/20/2024

I began to write about probate several weeks ago. I want to continue on in that vein today. Probate is the process of putting the estate of a person who has died into the hands of his or her heirs.

If the person who died left a will the original must be presented to the court for admission to the process of probate. If the original is not found it can produce problems; especially in dysfunctional family settings. This really isn't pleasant to think about but taking positive steps to retaining the original are extremely important.

Here is the reason, if the original will cannot be found, the law of the State of Oklahoma and many states, is that the deceased has destroyed or revoked the will. That means the wishes of the deceased are not before the court as set forth in the document.

There could be several reasons for the inability to locate the will - 1) the deceased did revoke it, 2) the will was accidentally destroyed, lost, or suppressed by someone that didn't like what the will said, or 3) someone intentionally destroyed it that didn't like what the will said. So even though there are other possible reasons the law says it believes the deceased revoked it.

Consequently, if you have a will keep it safe at all times in a place that you know and keep track of its safety. This is why it is commonly placed in a safe deposit box at a bank or in a fireproof safe at home.

With that being said, Merry Christmas!! Happy New Year!!! Enjoy family and be kind and merciful, because we are all imperfect.

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