Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 05/08/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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05/08/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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Speaker 4: And very fleas a good morning to you. You can put
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Speaker 4: give us a call. Three zero four three four two
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Speaker 4: eight three one. Threes are A four three four two
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Speaker 4: eight one three one, or actually you can call the
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Speaker 4: studio line this morning as well. Threes are four three
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Speaker 4: four five fifty fifty eight. Three es are a four
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Speaker 4: three four five fifty eight fifty eight. In studio with
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Speaker 4: me this morning is Tom Peyton from the Payton Law
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Speaker 4: Firm online Peyton Law Firm dot com. Peyton Law Firm
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Speaker 4: dot com. Tom, good morning, how you doing this morning.
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Speaker 5: I'm great, I'm great. I got the uh I'm in
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Speaker 5: studio shock right now. It's just uh the power Peyton
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Speaker 5: got a little more powerful this morning. The studio so
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Speaker 5: now it has that you know, the new car feeling,
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Speaker 5: you get like there's nothing like it. Oh yeah, and
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Speaker 5: uh believe me anyway. So that's that's the field. I have,
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Speaker 5: like the new car feeling this morning, and here it's
1:35
Speaker 5: the new studio, which I guess Dad's been it's been.
1:38
Speaker 5: I guess he's been in here the last couple of week.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, he was in here the last couple weeks, and
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Speaker 4: uh we got to uh we got to experience it.
1:43
Speaker 4: But yeah, absolutely we have the new studios that are uh,
1:46
Speaker 4: that are ready to go, and it feels a lot nicer.
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Speaker 4: This may not be our permanent home. There is actually
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Speaker 4: an even nicer one that's being prepped that might be
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Speaker 4: where we ultimately do the show from every single week,
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Speaker 4: but it will be one similar to this. This may
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Speaker 4: be a little bit bigger. Got this Oh yeah, yeah,
2:00
Speaker 4: everything's new. Yeah, ye everything's new. Headphones are They're all
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Speaker 4: really nice like here are Engineer Ken Tenant picked out
2:10
Speaker 4: those headphones and got him for us, and so that
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Speaker 4: was all his h that was all by his ear
2:13
Speaker 4: and he did a great job with it. As with
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Speaker 4: all of this stuff here. It's it's amazing. I don't
2:17
Speaker 4: know how many audio files that we have out there
2:19
Speaker 4: in the audience, but for me personally, where I live
2:21
Speaker 4: in an audio universe. Driving around now, whether it's on
2:24
Speaker 4: the AM signal or one of the f M signals
2:26
Speaker 4: here around Charleston and you're listening to Chris on the
2:29
Speaker 4: on the morning news, or you're listening to David a
2:31
Speaker 4: man in the afternoon, whoever, it is, sounds like they're
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Speaker 4: right in the car with you. I mean, we've we've
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Speaker 4: lost all of the the bad resolution that we have
2:39
Speaker 4: between various I mean we were over the course of
2:43
Speaker 4: years we had gone from from analog to UH to
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Speaker 4: digital and to cloud and streaming, all these different technologies
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Speaker 4: that were combined. That gives you a loss of quality.
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Speaker 4: No matter what you do, you can't help around it.
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Speaker 4: Now everything is from one single source with one single
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Speaker 4: outport for the most port. Software controls what goes to
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Speaker 4: what But that means that everything sounds pretty pristine once
3:01
Speaker 4: you get it's better in here.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so better to our listening.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it sounds way better my air tracks. I
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Speaker 4: can't believe you get kind of ear blind to these
3:10
Speaker 4: things over time when you've when you've gone through them
3:12
Speaker 4: for so long, and so now it's odd to me
3:15
Speaker 4: because it almost sounds like like like AI or something like.
3:20
Speaker 4: It sounds so good, like you can't believe that it's
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Speaker 4: that it's actually real. It's almost close.
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Speaker 6: You know.
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Speaker 5: We started, you know, in ninety nine, I guess we
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Speaker 5: were in the what I call the big studio, which
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Speaker 5: is still the main studio, I guess across the hall
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Speaker 5: from us. Yeah, we had I don't know, we had
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Speaker 5: at least three stations, maybe four four mics at one time,
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Speaker 5: and and then probably what ten years ago or so,
3:46
Speaker 5: maybe time all buns together for twenty five years, but uh,
3:51
Speaker 5: we moved to the little I think we've been in
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Speaker 5: the little studio then for ten years probably isn't that crazy? Yeah,
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Speaker 5: And it's just it gave you the old car feeling.
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Speaker 5: Yeah right, Yeah, everything still runs, but you hear squeaks
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Speaker 5: here and maybe you don't have the bells and whistles
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Speaker 5: that the newer generation of vehicles have. But it's great
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Speaker 5: to be here. I'm glad we're in here. Hopefully if
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Speaker 5: they give us an even more improved studio then it'll
4:16
Speaker 5: be great. Next thing, we need to get videos, so
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Speaker 5: nothing anybody really wants to see.
4:20
Speaker 4: We have that well, that's coming to I have Stephanie
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Speaker 4: working on that for us to get a lot video
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Speaker 4: up during our show. I think we might have a
4:28
Speaker 4: simulcast on like YouTube where you can go to our
4:29
Speaker 4: website and just click on it. We're figuring it out,
4:31
Speaker 4: but that's something we're going to have as well, so
4:32
Speaker 4: you can watch these live. And actually there's a there's
4:34
Speaker 4: a lot of there's a lot of folks, as we're
4:37
Speaker 4: finding out with Metro News TV that we have during
4:39
Speaker 4: the afternoon, there's folks that do like watching radio. I
4:41
Speaker 4: don't know. I mean, we make it more than just
4:44
Speaker 4: on the mic. You know, we have graphics and things
4:46
Speaker 4: that we roll in there, and it's kind of interesting
4:48
Speaker 4: sometimes to see the people that you hear on the radio.
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Speaker 4: But people do like that, so we like to give
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Speaker 4: the as many levels as possible.
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Speaker 5: They like to put a face to a voice, if
4:56
Speaker 5: nothing else, out of curiosity, because I get a lot
4:58
Speaker 5: of people that come in the office and you know, oh,
5:01
Speaker 5: I wonder what you look like. And I really like
5:04
Speaker 5: it when they say, oh, you're much younger than I thought,
5:06
Speaker 5: which is quite the compliment.
5:08
Speaker 4: But uh.
5:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, So glad to be here. Lots going on, and
5:14
Speaker 5: the really kind of the national news and trickled down
5:17
Speaker 5: to the local level, kind of political related stuff. Really
5:23
Speaker 5: thinking about cars, and I was trying to give some
5:25
Speaker 5: practical information for folks. You know, I got stuck or
5:30
Speaker 5: was driving in the hailstorm that occurred. It's probably been
5:34
Speaker 5: three weeks now down. I don't know if it got
5:36
Speaker 5: into Charleston really that bad, but we I was on
5:40
Speaker 5: Tees Valley Road and Hurricane and it was I thought
5:43
Speaker 5: somebody was shooting at my vehicle. It's crazy, and I
5:46
Speaker 5: know that I saw haillballs that were as big as
5:49
Speaker 5: golf balls, uh look like baseballs hitting the windshield and
5:56
Speaker 5: tried to escape and get under some cover, but it
5:58
Speaker 5: was impossible because everybody was doing the same thing. But
6:01
Speaker 5: now we deal with the fallout and you know what
6:05
Speaker 5: what happens. You have coverage for that, obviously, it's it's
6:09
Speaker 5: it's not another person's fault. So you have to look
6:13
Speaker 5: generally to your own insurance coverage falls under comprehensive for
6:19
Speaker 5: your automobile coverage. Of course, we had a we have
6:21
Speaker 5: a homeowner's claim for us as well, busted up our
6:26
Speaker 5: We have vinyl sighting and and we have pretty much
6:29
Speaker 5: the whole roof is shot. The you know, I've seen
6:36
Speaker 5: some ads at least one from a lawyer helping wanting
6:39
Speaker 5: to help with these claims, just some practical advice. So
6:43
Speaker 5: I think generally, when you're dealing with your own insurance company,
6:48
Speaker 5: meaning it's not deal over ended me and I'm going
6:50
Speaker 5: after or trying to get compensation from Dale's Insure, that's
6:54
Speaker 5: a little different because they're, oh, they're governed by some regulations,
6:58
Speaker 5: they're not on your side, and they don't have the
7:03
Speaker 5: same duties to you that your own insurance company has. Really,
7:06
Speaker 5: when you're dealing with your own insurance company, unless there's
7:12
Speaker 5: some unique twist or complication, or you just have a
7:16
Speaker 5: real communication problem, you should be able to handle those
7:19
Speaker 5: claims initially on your own. My insurance sent an adjuster
7:27
Speaker 5: to the office to look at my vehicle. I had
7:30
Speaker 5: still driving the old five year old Tesla, but it
7:33
Speaker 5: has a solid the last one panel roof. And actually
7:37
Speaker 5: I didn't realize it had been damaged and the hails
7:39
Speaker 5: tormed that. My son came in from cars was sitting
7:41
Speaker 5: in the back and looked up and said, oh, your
7:43
Speaker 5: car really was damaged. Well, I guess a hail. Piece
7:47
Speaker 5: of hail had hit the back part of the roof
7:49
Speaker 5: where it's covered by the upholstery or something, and the
7:53
Speaker 5: joint there, so you couldn't see from the inside when
7:55
Speaker 5: you look up where it hit, but it had spiderwebbed
7:57
Speaker 5: all the way across the roof. But unsure it came.
8:00
Speaker 5: And then what they do. You don't have to take
8:04
Speaker 5: your vehicle to a repair shop for an estimate. They'll
8:09
Speaker 5: come and look at your vehicle and then they have
8:11
Speaker 5: a essentially an insurance industry way to itemize and calculate
8:18
Speaker 5: damages based on what the adjuster on site sees and
8:23
Speaker 5: you get that amount and generally they'll just send you
8:26
Speaker 5: a check. They can't require you to go to in
8:28
Speaker 5: particular repair shop. Normally, they can't require you to actually
8:33
Speaker 5: get the repairs done. The only warning there is if
8:39
Speaker 5: you if you have a loan against your home or
8:43
Speaker 5: a loan against your vehicle, then as a part of
8:47
Speaker 5: that policy, because you're home and your car stand as collateral,
8:53
Speaker 5: that's the security. If you don't pay your loan, your
8:57
Speaker 5: lender is listed as an additional insurance on the policy,
9:02
Speaker 5: so be prepared. Normally they're going to issue you your
9:06
Speaker 5: check that will also bear your lender's name, and so
9:09
Speaker 5: if it's a local bank, like I got a home
9:12
Speaker 5: equity line of zero balance, but they still put my
9:15
Speaker 5: local bank lender on the check. But well, we can
9:18
Speaker 5: run right down the street and talk to the bank
9:20
Speaker 5: officer and they can look at the US when they
9:22
Speaker 5: just endorse the back of the check and then we
9:24
Speaker 5: can deposit it. But you have what a lot of
9:25
Speaker 5: people have, national or even international lenders that are rather large,
9:30
Speaker 5: So be prepared that you may not be able to
9:32
Speaker 5: go and just deposit that check when you get it.
9:37
Speaker 5: And every lender is different, so they they generally, if
9:40
Speaker 5: you read the fine print, like when you're mortgage, they
9:42
Speaker 5: have lender controls a lot of the options you have,
9:45
Speaker 5: and sometimes they'll you know, mandate that you certify particular
9:50
Speaker 5: contractors going to complete the work, and you don't just
9:53
Speaker 5: you know, if you get one hundred thousand dollars settlement
9:56
Speaker 5: check for hail damage to your house and and the
10:01
Speaker 5: lender just endorses it and you de pause it, you
10:03
Speaker 5: could run off with the money and never do the repairs,
10:06
Speaker 5: which diminishes the value of their collateral that they have
10:10
Speaker 5: as security that they'll either get paid or they can
10:13
Speaker 5: sell your home and foreclosure and get paid, So be
10:16
Speaker 5: prepared for that. Most of them, I think have automated
10:21
Speaker 5: ways to do it now, or you take a picture
10:22
Speaker 5: of the check and maybe they electronically sign it and
10:24
Speaker 5: pay it back. I think motor vehicle lenders generally will
10:28
Speaker 5: just allow you to deposit the money. It's a little
10:30
Speaker 5: different than a home but once that insurance adjuster sets
10:37
Speaker 5: an amount, they'll give you an estimate. But you'll notice
10:40
Speaker 5: it's based on national Like I got one on my
10:44
Speaker 5: Tesla roof and it had a forty two percent deduction
10:47
Speaker 5: from the National Association of Glass Society or Servicers, and
10:52
Speaker 5: I thought, well why, so I got with minds said well,
10:55
Speaker 5: that's the system does a forty two percent deduct from
10:59
Speaker 5: the nation from the norm for our geographic region, which
11:02
Speaker 5: I got no further explanations. Yeah, but here's you know,
11:06
Speaker 5: so that's that's from my Although I had pock marks
11:09
Speaker 5: all over my vehicle, every panel was damaged. I gotta
11:12
Speaker 5: get a new I don't have an engine in the Tesla,
11:15
Speaker 5: so it's a front trunk, so I gotta get a
11:17
Speaker 5: new trunk lid basically, but the you know, my solution
11:25
Speaker 5: to the hiteamized part about the roof was, well, I'm
11:27
Speaker 5: just gonna get with Tesla and see what it costs
11:30
Speaker 5: to replace the glass labor as well. I may have
11:34
Speaker 5: to take it to the Tesla location in Columbus because
11:36
Speaker 5: I think there's gotta be some calibrations once they do it.
11:39
Speaker 5: I'm not sure any of the local vendors can even
11:41
Speaker 5: do a full Tesla roof butt in that situation. I'll
11:45
Speaker 5: get the estimate from Tesla, and then I'll send it
11:48
Speaker 5: to my insurance company, and if it's the actual that
11:52
Speaker 5: essentially is the actual cost to repair, which I'm entitled to.
11:56
Speaker 5: So I would then ask my insurance company, Hey, you
12:00
Speaker 5: said my glass was one thousand dollars to repair, but
12:04
Speaker 5: it's actually seventeen hundred, for example, Then I expect my
12:07
Speaker 5: insurance company to send me another check or seven hundred dollars,
12:11
Speaker 5: and when they send you the first check, well, the
12:13
Speaker 5: first payment, it's not you don't sign a release or
12:16
Speaker 5: anything saying you know that's satisfaction in full at least
12:20
Speaker 5: you I don't know that they can even require you
12:22
Speaker 5: to do that. So you make a supplemental claim and
12:25
Speaker 5: then they should send you the difference. Now, all that
12:28
Speaker 5: generally should be able to handle on your own without
12:31
Speaker 5: hiring an attorney, and if you hire an attorney to
12:33
Speaker 5: help you with that process, and of course your local
12:36
Speaker 5: agents should help too, which I think is why it's
12:38
Speaker 5: valuable to have a local agent. I mean, they're essentially salespeople,
12:42
Speaker 5: but they can help you with the basics of a
12:47
Speaker 5: claim process. If you decide to hire a lawyer when
12:52
Speaker 5: there's no real denial of the claim, then you have
12:56
Speaker 5: to pay the lawyer, So be prepared to go in
12:58
Speaker 5: the whole sum there. If you're paying a lawyer to
13:00
Speaker 5: help fill out the paperwork. Now, what can an office
13:04
Speaker 5: like us do to help with that situation? So let's
13:06
Speaker 5: take my scenario. I send my repair bill what it
13:10
Speaker 5: will actually cost to get my Tesla roof fixed, and
13:13
Speaker 5: my insurance says, no, we're you know, sorry, this is
13:18
Speaker 5: what we pay for your region, and this is all
13:21
Speaker 5: you're going to get. Okay, well, I do well, I
13:24
Speaker 5: can move on, do nothing, or I can talk to
13:27
Speaker 5: a lawyer. And in that scenario, that's the kind of
13:31
Speaker 5: case where you would probably want to contact us and
13:35
Speaker 5: see if we can help you. When at least as
13:38
Speaker 5: the lost ends right now in West Virginia, if we're
13:40
Speaker 5: in that scenario, so it's only a seven hundred dollars
13:43
Speaker 5: difference in my hypothetical, well, how can I get a
13:45
Speaker 5: lawyer for that? I mean, some lawyers are charging four
13:48
Speaker 5: hundred dollars an hour to do work. But the law
13:53
Speaker 5: in West Virginia says that if you have to, if
13:57
Speaker 5: you're insured denies a claim which at this point in
13:59
Speaker 5: my it have been denied, and you hire a lawyer
14:03
Speaker 5: and they fight on your behalf or represent you and
14:09
Speaker 5: substantially prevail in the claim, which you can argue what
14:13
Speaker 5: substantially prevail means. Those are legal terms. But you know,
14:16
Speaker 5: if you get paid close to what you asked as
14:19
Speaker 5: a result of hiring a lawyer, then generally your insurance
14:23
Speaker 5: company has to pay your lawyer's fees as well, So
14:25
Speaker 5: that gives you in that scenario, is why the law
14:28
Speaker 5: is that way. Otherwise, if you have claims property damage
14:33
Speaker 5: claims where you have those smaller differences like that, maybe
14:38
Speaker 5: even a couple thousand dollars, it would make no sense
14:42
Speaker 5: for any law firm to handle that on a contingency
14:44
Speaker 5: fee where they only get paid, for example, a percentage
14:47
Speaker 5: based on what's recovered. Because those type property damaged claims
14:50
Speaker 5: against your own insurance company are really they're limited to
14:55
Speaker 5: the cost of repair or replacements that there's no way
14:59
Speaker 5: to get more if if it's a seven hundred dollars
15:02
Speaker 5: difference in my hypothetical, obviously if a lawyer did that
15:05
Speaker 5: case for a one third, it would I mean eat
15:07
Speaker 5: that up and just opening the file and end up
15:10
Speaker 5: working for ten cents an hour or something like that.
15:13
Speaker 5: So the idea of being when when you buy your
15:16
Speaker 5: own insurance, you don't buy a fight with your insurance company.
15:18
Speaker 5: They have a duty to act in good faith and
15:20
Speaker 5: treat you fairly when it's your own insurance company, and
15:24
Speaker 5: if they deny a claim, then we've handled who knows,
15:28
Speaker 5: probably one hundred claims like that over the years, And
15:31
Speaker 5: of course I analyze it. I got to figure out
15:33
Speaker 5: whether you have a legitimate claim or every case is different,
15:37
Speaker 5: but if you get in that situation, that's the case
15:40
Speaker 5: we might consider taking, and we would you know, the
15:45
Speaker 5: goal would be for us to prevail so that you
15:47
Speaker 5: ultimately get what you need to get your vehicle repaired
15:50
Speaker 5: or part replaced, but then you also get a sum
15:53
Speaker 5: on top of that that fully covers what your lawyer's
15:58
Speaker 5: fees and maybe get you something extra depending on what
16:01
Speaker 5: type of behavior you're in, insurance carrier engaged in.
16:08
Speaker 4: And these things are very important to be able to
16:10
Speaker 4: this hell damage. I mean, everybody has it, so there's
16:12
Speaker 4: gonna be some time that's going to take in place
16:14
Speaker 4: for this process to play out and things like that,
16:16
Speaker 4: but you can if you made sure you're protecting yourself
16:18
Speaker 4: on the front end with the insurance and things like that,
16:20
Speaker 4: you can get this to I mean, it's a process,
16:23
Speaker 4: but you can get it to play out correctly for
16:24
Speaker 4: you so you can get your vehicle fixed or whatever
16:26
Speaker 4: it might be. That stuff. It's incredible the amount of
16:29
Speaker 4: damage that it can do and just how pervasive it
16:31
Speaker 4: can be on your vehicle. It could take a relatively
16:34
Speaker 4: you know, cards some pretty good shape and all of
16:35
Speaker 4: that old and come close to totally in the dang
16:37
Speaker 4: thing because because there's so much damage that could go
16:39
Speaker 4: into it.
16:40
Speaker 5: I had some concern about mine because every panel was
16:42
Speaker 5: damaged and then the glass roof was damaged. And it's
16:44
Speaker 5: a five year old Tesla. And I haven't run a
16:48
Speaker 5: blue book on a Tesla here recently, but I'm sure
16:51
Speaker 5: the value has gone down in the in the Doze
16:56
Speaker 5: realm here with Elon Musk, I mean, I know a
16:58
Speaker 5: lot of people have I know people who have sold
17:01
Speaker 5: their Teslas for political reasons basically since the first of
17:06
Speaker 5: the year. So I don't know what the value, but
17:08
Speaker 5: your vehicle in West Virginia, I don't know about other states,
17:12
Speaker 5: but if the cost to repair your vehicle is seventy
17:17
Speaker 5: equal seventy percent or more of the value of your
17:20
Speaker 5: vehicle before the damage gently has to be totaled. And
17:25
Speaker 5: actually mother in law, she has an older vehicle. I
17:28
Speaker 5: think it's a two thousand and eight Ford, and they
17:31
Speaker 5: ultimately ended up totaling it because every panel was damaged.
17:35
Speaker 5: I don't know that she had a shattered glass, but
17:39
Speaker 5: once it hits that seventy percent mark, they gently have
17:41
Speaker 5: to total it. She likes her car. She's going to
17:44
Speaker 5: keep her car. You're allowed to keep your car even
17:46
Speaker 5: though it's totaled. Now, say they're going to pay you
17:50
Speaker 5: five thousand dollars for your vehicle. Sometimes they'll do maybe
17:53
Speaker 5: there's a toe costs in there too. They pay on
17:56
Speaker 5: top of the total loss. They'll deduct a little bit
17:59
Speaker 5: what they pay it normally as a salvage value, because
18:02
Speaker 5: theoretically a total car has a salvage value in your
18:06
Speaker 5: in essence buying it back from the insurance company, so
18:09
Speaker 5: you get a little bit less, but you can keep
18:11
Speaker 5: your vehicle. You do have to fill out paperwork, normally
18:14
Speaker 5: a power of attorney that lets the UH and send
18:16
Speaker 5: the title end to your insurance company. They filter it
18:19
Speaker 5: through d m V, but it'll come back into your
18:21
Speaker 5: name at some point. It'll just have the title will
18:25
Speaker 5: have the word salvage or reconstructed on it, and that
18:29
Speaker 5: makes it very difficult. You can't really borrow against it
18:33
Speaker 5: very well.
18:33
Speaker 4: Some people try to hide it when they try to
18:35
Speaker 4: sell it in the aftermarket. You'll see like people will
18:37
Speaker 4: find salvage titles later down the line or whatever. That's
18:39
Speaker 4: why I try to hide it's it's it's disappointing.
18:42
Speaker 5: But if it's just hailstorm body damage, you know, you
18:46
Speaker 5: just explain that and you can even show your insurance
18:48
Speaker 5: information to a potential purchaser, then it's that's that should
18:53
Speaker 5: affect the market value significantly less than if you had
18:56
Speaker 5: transmission problems or you know, something with the mecanic components
19:01
Speaker 5: of the vehicle where it might stop operating.
19:03
Speaker 4: So years ago, I've worked for an enterprise rental car
19:07
Speaker 4: and i was a manager for him in Michigan, And
19:09
Speaker 4: of course in Michigan we would get these hellstorms quite often,
19:12
Speaker 4: and the like the Mondays after a weekend healthstorm would
19:15
Speaker 4: always be super busy because everybody would have contacted their
19:17
Speaker 4: insurance company. The insurance going to be like, hey, take
19:19
Speaker 4: your car to XYZ body shop. They would take an
19:21
Speaker 4: XYB body shop, and they would expect to be able
19:23
Speaker 4: to get in because they have rental car coverage. When
19:25
Speaker 4: they're insurance, they would get into a rental car. And
19:27
Speaker 4: so there was a lot of that kind of damage
19:29
Speaker 4: that you would see that was done there. And I've
19:32
Speaker 4: seen and this really doesn't have to do with a
19:35
Speaker 4: legal matter, but just an observation about this insurance relationship.
19:37
Speaker 4: You see with totaled and cars that get totaled. Sometimes
19:40
Speaker 4: I have great empathy for people that have maybe worked
19:43
Speaker 4: to pay an off a car, and then down the road,
19:46
Speaker 4: after it's been paid off for a while, they get
19:48
Speaker 4: into an accident. The car ends up getting totalled, and
19:50
Speaker 4: there's nothing that that person can then do because the
19:52
Speaker 4: amount of the that they're going to get from their
19:54
Speaker 4: insurance company isn't gonna be enough for them to buy
19:56
Speaker 4: a new car that they've already worked towards paying off
19:59
Speaker 4: that was their car. Are they took care of, you know,
20:00
Speaker 4: whatever it might be. That could really be an unfortunate
20:02
Speaker 4: situation for some people.
20:03
Speaker 5: Yeah, most and a lot of course, most of the
20:06
Speaker 5: automobile accident cases we handle involved bodily injury. Yeah, but
20:10
Speaker 5: we we if it's just a matter of communicating and
20:14
Speaker 5: doing some legwork, we try and facilitate the property damaged claim.
20:18
Speaker 5: And I can tell you a lot of people call
20:19
Speaker 5: us they haven't even got into the controversy with the
20:23
Speaker 5: other person's insurance about their injury claim. They're frustrated because
20:28
Speaker 5: they like their car. Now it's going to be total
20:30
Speaker 5: right now it's got damage, and and that's that's frustration.
20:34
Speaker 5: We do the best we can. We're constrained by the
20:36
Speaker 5: law because you generally when your car is totaled, you
20:39
Speaker 5: get the fair market value. You'll get a rental and
20:42
Speaker 5: you're entitled to a rental until they send you the check.
20:45
Speaker 5: But and you get like six percent added for sales
20:49
Speaker 5: tax or transfer tax. But that's pretty well you get.
20:53
Speaker 5: And that is many times not satisfactory to people that
20:59
Speaker 5: like the car that they'd been driving. So feel a
21:02
Speaker 5: lot of frustration there. But you talk about the number
21:04
Speaker 5: of claims, you know, the gesture, I had had been
21:07
Speaker 5: in town from Texas for since the hailstorm, and he
21:10
Speaker 5: didn't come to my office until like last week to
21:12
Speaker 5: check out my car. And he's I guess he's living
21:15
Speaker 5: in a hotel room or something lies up here and
21:17
Speaker 5: he's adjusting back to back pretty much all day long. Now,
21:21
Speaker 5: if you do have, you know, communication problems with your ensure,
21:26
Speaker 5: he can't get a hold of them. They're not responding
21:29
Speaker 5: to you, but they haven't actually denied a claim yet.
21:31
Speaker 5: That's where contact the Western Insurance Commissioner's office can be
21:36
Speaker 5: important because they are really good about facilitating communication. They're
21:40
Speaker 5: not necessarily going to most of the time go to
21:42
Speaker 5: bat for you. If there's a denied claim between you
21:45
Speaker 5: and your insure or if there's some you know, legitimate dispute,
21:52
Speaker 5: They're probably not going to fill a lawsuit on your
21:55
Speaker 5: behalf unless it's a serial bad behavior by the particular insurre.
21:59
Speaker 5: But if you can't yet communication, then that's an excellent
22:03
Speaker 5: way to motivate the insurer to make sure they hear
22:06
Speaker 5: what you're saying. Is to conduct the Western Insurance Commissioner's office,
22:08
Speaker 5: you can fill out a complain online. I think you
22:11
Speaker 5: probably have to submit something versus a call, but they
22:14
Speaker 5: el send a letter out to insure and normally that
22:16
Speaker 5: gets the communication going right quick.
22:20
Speaker 4: You can put the power Payton on your side this morning.
22:22
Speaker 4: Tom Payton is here from the Faith In Law Firm.
22:23
Speaker 4: Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
22:25
Speaker 4: is our number. Three zero four three four five fifty
22:27
Speaker 4: eight fifty eight. You can give us a call this morning.
22:29
Speaker 4: Wee can get you one in the air. We need
22:30
Speaker 4: to take a break right now. When we come back,
22:31
Speaker 4: we still have plenty more of we want to talk about.
22:32
Speaker 4: I have a follow up question for you, Tom, for
22:34
Speaker 4: a topic that you're that Harvey took on last week
22:37
Speaker 4: and it has to do with disability in retirement, disability
22:42
Speaker 4: and retirement. So we want to talk about that maybe
22:44
Speaker 4: a little bit. When we come back. You can get
22:46
Speaker 4: in as well. Give us a call three zero four
22:47
Speaker 4: three four five fifty eight fifty eight. We'll take a
22:48
Speaker 4: break and be back right after this. So you're listening
22:50
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24:21
Speaker 4: And good morning. Once again, you could put the power
24:23
Speaker 4: of paton on your side. This morning, we have callers
24:25
Speaker 4: waiting on line. This go ahead and go live on
24:27
Speaker 4: the air. Uh, go ahead, caller, you're on the air.
24:30
Speaker 4: What's your first name?
24:33
Speaker 6: DNA?
24:36
Speaker 5: All right, lead, how can we help you this morning?
24:38
Speaker 5: Thanks for calling?
24:40
Speaker 6: Night, Good morning, Good morning. I had I hired a
24:44
Speaker 6: contractor to do some foundation repair. I did, unfortunately, end
24:50
Speaker 6: up paying the contractor a large sum of money due
24:53
Speaker 6: to I was out of town and I was under
24:56
Speaker 6: the assumption that he was completing the work. One my
25:01
Speaker 6: question is why is there something I can do? I
25:06
Speaker 6: was told to go ahead and foil a civil suit
25:09
Speaker 6: because of the amount of money. But two is there
25:13
Speaker 6: not something that we can do with the contractors board.
25:17
Speaker 6: Why is the contractors Board giving these people contractors license
25:23
Speaker 6: when they're ripping people off and not doing the work
25:25
Speaker 6: and taking money. And this gentleman is he's done this
25:30
Speaker 6: multiple times, I'm spend thirty jail multiple times. Why is
25:34
Speaker 6: he still getting his contractor's license.
25:37
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's unfortunately, I hear that quite a bit. When
25:42
Speaker 5: you're talking about residential, even some smaller commercial contractors, it's
25:48
Speaker 5: very difficult to vet them to make sure you don't
25:52
Speaker 5: have problems. And unfortunately, the folks who are willing to
25:57
Speaker 5: behave like that are very good salespeople at the same time.
26:01
Speaker 5: But you can follow a complaint with the Western Contractor's
26:04
Speaker 5: Licensing Board. I've not been through that process. I don't
26:07
Speaker 5: know what it takes. The standard is to get their
26:10
Speaker 5: license revoked. I will tell you that first step. If
26:16
Speaker 5: it's not a controversy about workmanship, like you literally paid
26:21
Speaker 5: this person, let's say five grand, they don't do the work,
26:27
Speaker 5: they don't deliver materials, they run off, they will not respond,
26:31
Speaker 5: or they continue to delay you over and over again
26:34
Speaker 5: by responding sporadically or saying the show up on a
26:38
Speaker 5: certain day, and then they don't. First thing you do
26:40
Speaker 5: is call law enforcement, especially if it's if it's a
26:46
Speaker 5: practice of this contractor to behave this way that shows intent,
26:51
Speaker 5: and if there's evidence there that they extracted funds from
26:57
Speaker 5: you and didn't do any work based on false pretenses,
27:01
Speaker 5: then law enforcement can charge them with a crime obtaining
27:05
Speaker 5: under false pretenses, maybe some other crimes as well, and
27:09
Speaker 5: that way you get the heavy hand of the criminal
27:12
Speaker 5: justice system to help you collect your debt because if
27:17
Speaker 5: they can prove, first of all, the prosecutor, prosecutor will
27:21
Speaker 5: prosecute the claim or the case, so you don't have
27:24
Speaker 5: to hire a lawyer to do it. And then as
27:27
Speaker 5: a part of that process, as a victim, you're entitled
27:31
Speaker 5: to restitution, which is essentially a remedy as a part
27:36
Speaker 5: of the criminal conviction where you can get paid back
27:38
Speaker 5: any out of pocket losses. And where that's important is
27:42
Speaker 5: folks that behave like this rarely have cash sitting around
27:45
Speaker 5: in a bank. They rarely have insurance that would cover
27:48
Speaker 5: this type of claim. Oftentimes they title assets in a
27:53
Speaker 5: way that it's difficult to track it back to them
27:56
Speaker 5: personally or to their company, and all of that takes
28:01
Speaker 5: if you hire your own lawyer, it's going to take
28:04
Speaker 5: time and probably your money to try and prosecute a
28:08
Speaker 5: civil case. So if you can get law enforcement now
28:11
Speaker 5: it's law enforcements discretion. You know, if the sheriff won't
28:15
Speaker 5: or a deputy won't take action, you can conduct the
28:17
Speaker 5: state police. They both have jurisdiction throughout the county. If
28:21
Speaker 5: it's in a municipality, then you can contact your municipal
28:24
Speaker 5: police and see if they'll take action. Sometimes just getting
28:28
Speaker 5: an officer if they're willing to go interview the contractor
28:32
Speaker 5: will motivate that contractor to go ahead and pay you
28:34
Speaker 5: back your money, so you can move on. But as
28:37
Speaker 5: long as you keep track of the criminal case. If
28:39
Speaker 5: they foil a charge against him or her, then sometimes
28:44
Speaker 5: they'll get probation for example, but one of the terms
28:47
Speaker 5: of their probation is that they've got to pay you back,
28:50
Speaker 5: and I might set a payment plan that the contractor
28:52
Speaker 5: or the defendant can afford. But if they don't pay you,
28:56
Speaker 5: then they can go to jail. As opposed to your
29:00
Speaker 5: civil case that it sounds like you've already filed, which
29:02
Speaker 5: you can file a civil action. Master courts now have
29:05
Speaker 5: jurisdiction up to ten thousand dollars. You know, mattertates mostly
29:10
Speaker 5: aren't lawyers, so you kind of get common sense analysis there,
29:16
Speaker 5: I would say, without overwhelming legal jargon. And so you
29:20
Speaker 5: can file those on your own. They have forms you
29:21
Speaker 5: can fill out just and then you usually get it
29:24
Speaker 5: resolved in one or two hearings now and see, okay,
29:31
Speaker 5: So you'd have to file that in circuit court, which
29:33
Speaker 5: you can also represent yourself. It's just much more difficult
29:36
Speaker 5: because they don't really have forms that facilitate that. And
29:41
Speaker 5: you know, I've handled multitude of cases like this over
29:44
Speaker 5: the years. It just depends on each case. Most lawyers
29:48
Speaker 5: don't take those on contingency fee, but it depends on
29:50
Speaker 5: the contractor, so you end up having to pay your lawyer.
29:54
Speaker 5: And so there's consistently in these type cases. A remind folks,
30:00
Speaker 5: there's three types to the three aspects to the case
30:03
Speaker 5: you have liability. One is the contractor at fault? Two
30:07
Speaker 5: what are your damages? What does the contractor owe you?
30:09
Speaker 5: And the third part is what people forget about quite often,
30:12
Speaker 5: which is can you collect that amount? Because when you
30:15
Speaker 5: win a case, you get a judgment order, which is
30:17
Speaker 5: an order from a court saying that he or she
30:20
Speaker 5: owes you twenty thousand dollars, for example, what do you
30:23
Speaker 5: do with that? There's no atm at the courthouse where
30:25
Speaker 5: you put it in and spits out your twenty grand,
30:28
Speaker 5: So then you've got to go try and collect. And
30:30
Speaker 5: you know, there's some simple things that can be done,
30:32
Speaker 5: putting leans on any property they own, and you can
30:37
Speaker 5: garners wages, but you know a contractor doesn't normally get
30:40
Speaker 5: wages from an employer. You can attach bank accounts and
30:44
Speaker 5: do some other things to try and collect, but all
30:46
Speaker 5: of that can be quite complicated, and if you have
30:49
Speaker 5: a lawyer, it's going to you know, the collection part
30:52
Speaker 5: can take as much time or more than the proving
30:56
Speaker 5: he owes you the money part, So it's it can
30:58
Speaker 5: be very frustrating. And you know, I don't know a
31:04
Speaker 5: surefire away to vet a contractor for a residential job.
31:07
Speaker 5: You know, getting references, maybe a credit report, something like
31:12
Speaker 5: that is try and do your homework, but none of
31:15
Speaker 5: it's fail safe because I've had folks sorely disappointed by
31:19
Speaker 5: a contractor who is highly recommended by friends or acquaintances.
31:23
Speaker 5: So it's just one of those risks that you take now.
31:26
Speaker 5: At the same time, don't pay any money. I mean
31:31
Speaker 5: pay in stages, pay as work gets completed. If they're
31:34
Speaker 5: asking you to pay a large deposit up front, be
31:37
Speaker 5: very wary. If they say they need it because they
31:40
Speaker 5: need to get the materials on site. Perhaps you can
31:42
Speaker 5: direct purchase those from the vendor versus just writing a
31:45
Speaker 5: check to the contractor. It's happened to the best. I mean,
31:50
Speaker 5: I have a family member that had the same thing happened.
31:52
Speaker 5: We eventually got the money back, and of course I
31:55
Speaker 5: assisted as a very close family member to me. But
31:59
Speaker 5: you know, paid X amount of dollars and then because
32:02
Speaker 5: the contractor asked for it and they never came back again.
32:04
Speaker 5: They wouldn't return calls, wouldn't answer letters, that kind of thing.
32:08
Speaker 5: So you're not in a great situation. If if it's
32:13
Speaker 5: within a year of the time it occurred, well it
32:16
Speaker 5: might be a felony. So there isn't really a statute
32:18
Speaker 5: of limitations on that in West Virginia. I would I
32:20
Speaker 5: would encourage you to try and contact the law enforcement
32:23
Speaker 5: and see if you can get them to take some action.
32:25
Speaker 5: If it's a serial violator of consumer protection laws, then
32:31
Speaker 5: you could also follow a complaint with the Western Attorney
32:33
Speaker 5: General's Office. Now, they generally just try to mediate some
32:36
Speaker 5: resolution and then if it's a if it's a one
32:38
Speaker 5: off deal, they don't have a lot of complaints on
32:41
Speaker 5: this contractor they'll probably end up telling you need to
32:43
Speaker 5: hire your own lawyer if they can't reach some agreement.
32:47
Speaker 6: I've a contacted the Attorney General and we have already
32:52
Speaker 6: established that he was he is to pay me back
32:57
Speaker 6: the money and we've set up the payment plan and
33:00
Speaker 6: he never fallowed through with the payment plan, right theory,
33:04
Speaker 6: you know, admitted to his guilt. He's done this in Morgantown.
33:08
Speaker 6: He's done this in Clarksburg. He's had multiple multiple cases
33:13
Speaker 6: filed against him.
33:15
Speaker 5: If that's the case, then it might you know, the
33:17
Speaker 5: insurance the Attorney General's Office may take. They can sue him,
33:21
Speaker 5: and they don't rarely, if ever, have I seen him
33:25
Speaker 5: do it where you have you know, if this was
33:26
Speaker 5: a one off deal. But if you're saying there's been
33:28
Speaker 5: multiple complaints, you might fall up with Attorney general one.
33:32
Speaker 5: Make sure they know he's not complying with the agreed
33:35
Speaker 5: upon payment plan. All that's not a judgment from a court.
33:37
Speaker 5: So when he when he violates that, you know, your
33:41
Speaker 5: only recourse if the attorney general or law enforcement won't
33:44
Speaker 5: take actions to is to file your own civil suit
33:46
Speaker 5: to try and get a judgment and try and collect
33:48
Speaker 5: it yourself. But based on what you're telling me, your
33:50
Speaker 5: chance of actually recovering money from him is going to
33:53
Speaker 5: be probably very slim without the assistance of law enforcement
33:59
Speaker 5: or the Attorney general's office, because it sounds like he
34:01
Speaker 5: owes multiple parties money. But if that's the case, sometimes
34:07
Speaker 5: you can get the attorney general to sue them and
34:08
Speaker 5: they'll they can sue to revoke their conductor's license, they
34:11
Speaker 5: can sue for damages, and that's good because you know
34:16
Speaker 5: you got essentially a lawyer working for you that you're
34:20
Speaker 5: not having to pay out of pocket.
34:23
Speaker 6: So my first steps would be to go ahead and
34:25
Speaker 6: contact the law enforcement and what would I what would
34:29
Speaker 6: I say to the law enforcement?
34:31
Speaker 5: So essentially, you know it's got to be a crime
34:34
Speaker 5: or they're not going to if it's just a civil dispute,
34:36
Speaker 5: which most crimes can be a civil dispute. But think
34:40
Speaker 5: about criminal intent. So if he represented something to you
34:45
Speaker 5: that ended up being a lie, and as a result
34:48
Speaker 5: of that, representation misrepresentation. You gave him money and you
34:52
Speaker 5: never got anything in exchange for it, that could be
34:55
Speaker 5: the crime of obtaining under false pretenses. And that's I
35:00
Speaker 5: know where you would go with law enforcement. They're not
35:01
Speaker 5: going to help you collect a civil debt. I wouldn't
35:04
Speaker 5: worry about telling them about what happened with the attorney
35:06
Speaker 5: general necessarily, But if you have some evidence like texts, emails, voicemails,
35:10
Speaker 5: or witnesses, or even just a written contract where he
35:15
Speaker 5: promised to do something, extracted money from you and then
35:18
Speaker 5: never did the work, that's sufficient for law enforcement too,
35:22
Speaker 5: at a minimum, investigate and potentially foul criminal charges against him.
35:25
Speaker 5: Now it's officers discretion whether they take action, so you
35:28
Speaker 5: can't make them. You know, oftentimes when this comes up,
35:33
Speaker 5: especially if it's not framed correctly, the law enforcement officer
35:36
Speaker 5: will say, well, it's a civil matter. You got to
35:38
Speaker 5: go to civil court, and if they do, then you
35:41
Speaker 5: know you can't make them take action. But you know,
35:45
Speaker 5: I would always try that first, because that's the heavy
35:48
Speaker 5: hand that can actually get you paid, which is the
35:51
Speaker 5: bottom line. As frustrating as it is, it's a financial issue,
35:55
Speaker 5: and if you can get most or all of your
35:57
Speaker 5: money back, that's what you're looking to do.
36:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, right, we appreciate your phone call this morning
36:05
Speaker 4: for that that. I know that's a complicated matter that
36:08
Speaker 4: it takes a lot to get through.
36:09
Speaker 5: I mean, right, that's a very common I mean, people
36:12
Speaker 5: feel bad about it. You know, you feel kind of
36:14
Speaker 5: duped and you just got to be real careful about
36:17
Speaker 5: paying lump sums out when work hasn't been completed or
36:20
Speaker 5: supplies haven't been delivered. You should be very wary of that,
36:24
Speaker 5: paying stages. Make sure you see progress being made. And
36:30
Speaker 5: that's really the best you can do on on residential
36:33
Speaker 5: or even private commercial deal. You know, government jobs are bonded,
36:37
Speaker 5: so there's bonds out there, surety bonds to ensure that
36:40
Speaker 5: the work has performed correctly. But you can't I don't.
36:43
Speaker 5: I'm not aware that you can really get that in
36:45
Speaker 5: a residential job.
36:47
Speaker 4: It's a good information. As always, you put the power
36:50
Speaker 4: of paithon on your side this morning, and you can
36:51
Speaker 4: do that every Thursday morning at eight twenty right here
36:54
Speaker 4: on five ad w CCHS for Ask the Law your
36:56
Speaker 4: more information online the Paython Law Firm on Payton Lawfirm
36:59
Speaker 4: dot com. Paython Law from dot Com P E Y
37:01
Speaker 4: t O and Payton Law from dot Com located First
37:04
Speaker 4: Avenue and Nitro, West Virginia. Their phone number three zero
37:06
Speaker 4: four seven five five fifty five fifty six three zero
37:09
Speaker 4: four seven five five fifty five fifty six seven five
37:11
Speaker 4: five fifty five fifty six. Tom, that's going to do
37:13
Speaker 4: it for us today. A good phone call, good discussion
37:15
Speaker 4: and appreciate your Tom as always sounds.
37:17
Speaker 5: Good yet sound like we might have had a call
37:18
Speaker 5: it didn't get through. But if anybody didn't get through,
37:20
Speaker 5: you can always send us an email or give us
37:21
Speaker 5: a call at the office. Our answer questions there to
37:25
Speaker 5: the extent I can fit it in just like we
37:27
Speaker 5: do here on the rate.
37:28
Speaker 4: That is Tom Payton from the Payton Law from Dave
37:30
Speaker 4: Allen and five E D Love is up next. Have
37:32
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