Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 09/03/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey and Tom Peyton

Transcript

09/03/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey and Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of 580 WCHS, its employees,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: or WVRC Media.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: In our courts, all men are created equal.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: We're mass communicating.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Breaking rocks in a hot sun. Up on the lawn
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in a low.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: One.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: And a very pleasant good morning to you.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: You are listening to Ask the Lawyer on 580 WCHS,
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: the voice of Charleston. And in studio for you this morning,
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: it's double your pleasure. We have in studio Harvey and
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: Tom Payton from the Payton Law Firm online, paytonlawfirm.com, paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N.
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: Give you more contact information as we go along here today.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Been on the air here for years.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: You probably know that information already, but welcome back into
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: the studio once again.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Harvey, good morning. How are you doing this morning?
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I'm doing fine, Coop. Now, I've got to have one
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: thing I've got to take care of before we get started. Okay.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: dear Tom. Happy birthday to you. I usually call each
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: of the kids early on their birthday morning, but I
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: intentionally omitted it today because, hey, if you've got a
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: chance to embarrass your kid's On the air.
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: Why not?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Happy birthday, Tom. Why not? That would be the first
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: time we've ever done that on the radio, on WCHL.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: Nifty, nifty, and he is 50. I was really thinking
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: about it last night, and you knew I was going
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: to get blessed knowing a lot of people and have
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: good friends, and here comes the flood of Facebook birthdays
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: and texts and stuff. And I just thought, it just
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: makes you feel old. I think you need some legislation. Like,
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: I think after you're 21, you just, birthday's, celebrations to
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: just be prohibited. We just move on.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I don't disagree. That's a bad attitude, isn't it? I
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: don't know, man. It's neither here nor there. 50 didn't
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: bother me at all. 51, for whatever reason, hit me hard.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know why. 50 was like, eh, no big deal.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just 50.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: But for whatever reason, when I turned 51, it was like,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: I don't know. That one hit me pretty hard. Anytime
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: you get a new first number of the number.
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: I don't know.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you the middle numbers.
• 2:14
  Speaker 5: 75, that's old.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: 76 is elderly. Oh, I see what you're saying.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I'll be 77 in September. Think about, well, this month
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: on the 17th. That's hard to imagine. I mean, that's
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: like decrepit. I think I'll go buy myself a set
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: of crutches, maybe a walker. Or maybe I'll get one
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of those stickers and put it in my car and
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: park in better places at Kroger's.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: How about that?
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Well, for Dave Weekly, we've determined his retirement is going
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: to be a metal detector. So, I mean, if you
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: need to pick up one of those.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what, if I have much more surgery,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: I told the dermatologist the last time, I'm starting to
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: look like my ass. My torso looks like a jigsaw puzzle.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: It's going to get worse because I've got to go
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: back to Cleveland for another one here maybe in a
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: month or so. But, hey, before Tom takes over this show,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: which he is well prepared to do because he was
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: there yesterday at the Supreme Court when the emergency occurred,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: I want to get this out of the way. It
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: was Hoppy's commentary this morning. My picks for the Mountaineer football.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: All right, all right.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Here's one to start off at the top. I've thought
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: about this all summer. If Richie starts his second season
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: with a loss to an upstart Coastal Carolina team at home,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: the fans will be all over him. But that's what
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: I think is going to happen.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, you're picking an upset.
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: But they bounce back nicely against UT Martin, which has
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: a West Virginia connection. You know, a fellow named– Gordon, a.k.a.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Piggy Lambert, was recruited by a gentleman, Gene Corum, out
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: of McDowell County back in the early 60s to play
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: for the Mountaineers. And for whatever reason, probably because he
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: was ornery and about half nuts, I think, in school,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: he wasn't copacetic with the deacon, Jim Carlin, and ended
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: up moving over to UT Martin. And actually, he's a
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: member of the Sports Hall of Fame at UT Martin
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: and played on a team that won the Tangerine Bowl.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: He was drafted and played for the old— Well, for
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: the Denver Broncos in the old AFL back in the 60s.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Then he went on to become Gordon Lambert. Not Piggy,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: but Gordon Lambert was the county commissioner in McDowell County
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: for years and years. And a pretty good one, too.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: I mean, I didn't make the connection right off. Then
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: I thought, wait a minute.
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: Wait a minute.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: That name sounds familiar. And he's from McDowell County. So
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: there's a connection there. Anyway, Virginia, I'm looking at that
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: as a key game. We're going to beat Virginia in Charlotte.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Okay.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: So that's. And after that, it's just road and away.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: We can beat Oklahoma State at home. Iowa State on
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: the road is a loss. Arizona, Cincinnati at home are wins.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: We're not going to beat TCU and Texas Tech and
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Fort Worth and Lubbock. I just don't think it's in
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: us in those venues. Two losses, then come home to
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: beat Kansas and Houston. But go back out to Salt
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: Lake for a loss to Utah, which puts us at
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: 7-5 with the With the crucial game being, of course,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: it's like a WLWL with Coastal and Virginia. If they
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: win both those games, it's a really big season. They're
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: going to lose one of them. You're talking about 7-5
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: or 6-6. That's what I'm kind of seeing, a non-losing season, 6-6,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: 7-5 at tops.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: So there you go.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: I'm going to keep this sheet until the end of
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: the year, and we'll review it.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: That works. Tom, did you have yours too?
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I was a little more optimistic. I was way
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: too optimistic last year.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I remember that one.
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: I remember last year. I definitely predicted with my heart,
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: not my head, last year.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Hey, we're all fans.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: Maybe I'm doing the same thing this year. I mean,
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: I just can't help it. So anyway, I don't think
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: we're going to lose to Coastal Carolina this weekend. It's
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: Pat White, Jersey Retirement Day, the White Owl. I think
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: everybody will be pumped up. And, you know, I kind
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: of read the news feeds a bit on those Sunbelt
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: Conference teams because I'm a Marshall fan too. And Coastal
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: is not. they've had really good seasons over the last
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: few years, but they're not, I don't think they're one
• 6:15
  Speaker 5: predicted in the top, top, uh, two or three. Rebuilding
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: a little bit.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: And of course you never know with transfers, anything can happen,
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: but I think the Mountaineers are going there and take
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: care of business. Fans will be pumped and, and it'll
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: work out. Um, so I don't, you know, having the
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: Pat White deal opening game, uh, I don't think you're
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: going to see W overlooking coastal Carolina, which I think
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: is what would probably be required for us to lose
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: to them the majority of the time. And then, UT Martin,
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: smaller school, playing at home. Got to win that one. UVA,
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: we play them in the neutral site down in Charlotte.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: So we'll have a good– I would suspect if I
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: was a betting man, Mountaineer fans will outnumber the UVA fans.
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: But UVA is pretty good this year. They're underranked. I
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: think they played– they might have played one of the
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: early games last weekend and did well. So I think
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: we'll probably go down on that one. Oklahoma State's way down.
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: Got a new coach rebuilding. We're going to beat them.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: Play them at home. I think we can go to
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Iowa State. They got a new coach, too. Remember, their
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: coach went to Penn State. Who Marshall plays that day, actually,
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: in Happy Valley. So I think we'll pull one off
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: at Iowa State. You know, I got this little run there.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: I think Arizona's going to be down a bit. We
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: can beat them at home. I think we'll beat Cincinnati
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: at home. And I actually have a– TCU got beat.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: They played the game in Dublin in Ireland, I think,
• 7:35
  Speaker 5: last week and got beat. Didn't look great. They got
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: some turmoil in the locker room there. They had a
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: guy dismissed for fighting another player and hurting him, actually.
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: So I think we can go down to TCU and
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: get a win. So we'll be rolling then. One loss
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: so far for me. But then you run into Texas Tech,
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: and they've got that, I think it's an oil tycoon
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: that just funds their NIL money to the hilt. So
• 7:59
  Speaker 5: they've got tons of talent, and their ranking reflects it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: So I don't think we can go down there and
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: beat Texas Tech. So I'd say we lose that one.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: Kansas at home, say we'll win that one, and then
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: I think we limp in a little bit. We've got
• 8:12
  Speaker 5: Houston at home and Utah away. I'm thinking those are
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: both L's. Rich Rod hasn't done that great at the
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: very end of the season in his most recent tours
• 8:20
  Speaker 5: here in Morgantown. But all that being said, that brings
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: us out 8-4. I think most people would be satisfied
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: with that.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I think people would be over the moon for 8-4.
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: The tilt is Virginia.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of.
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: I don't know. We've played well generally down in Charlotte
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: in those games, whether it was a bowl game against
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: UNC or we've played, I think, a couple of these
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: early season games. We played Tennessee down there the last
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: early season. Yeah, we beat Tennessee, beat UNC in a
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: bowl game down there. We do well. We have a
• 8:52
  Speaker 5: lot of fans in Charlotte, so I think it'll be
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: not like a home game, but I suspect it'll be nice.
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: So you get that win, but still I think if
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: you do, you might, I mean, that TCU game's a toss-up,
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: so I'm looking at, I'm looking at eight and four and, and, uh,
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: so we'll see how it comes out. I'll keep my
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: sheet of paper too. And we'll kind of monitor it
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: as we go along, but, uh, looking forward to football
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: season starting.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: It'll be interesting.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: It's always nice.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: Uh, this time of year, the baseball season is still, uh,
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: in the pennant races and football season is getting started
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: and there's a lot of things going on.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: Good time of year for sports. There's no doubt.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: So, and also what was starting up, uh, this week
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: was the, uh, West Virginia Supreme court of appeals fall term,
• 9:34
  Speaker 5: which is, um, you know, they work all year round.
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: You'll have opinions issued in the summer, not quite as many,
• 9:38
  Speaker 5: but you don't have any, there's no oral argument in
• 9:40
  Speaker 5: the summertime. And then they take a break usually around Thanksgiving,
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: maybe early December and come back in the, what they
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: call the fall term in January. So yesterday was the
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: opening of the court and, um, meant a little more
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: to me this time because I actually had an oral
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: argument set for mid morning yesterday. Um, an older criminal case,
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: but some interesting search and seizure issues. So I was
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: all ready to go. I do a decent amount of
• 10:08
  Speaker 5: appellate work, but you don't get to go argue your
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: case very often. I don't know what the percentage is
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: where they allow you to come and argue. A lot
• 10:15
  Speaker 5: of times they'll just decide them on briefs. And so
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: it's been a few years since I've been up there
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: and had an opportunity to argue. So I'm really looking
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: forward to it. Then I pulled in, parked. To have
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: the Supreme Court offices, like administrative offices now are in
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: Kanawha City in the judicial building, but they still hear
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: cases in the Capitol building in the, this would be
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: the East wing. So going in and going through the
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: first security, I heard some sirens behind me. I thought,
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: oh gosh, fire trucks pulling down here and security guys said, well, yeah,
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: they got to, some kind of medical emergency upstairs at
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: the court. I was like, oh, really? Okay. So I
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: went on up the elevator and the security fellow there
• 10:56
  Speaker 5: at the top, you do double security. You go into Capitol,
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: then you do it again when you go into the
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: courtroom for argument and ushered all, ushered me and said,
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: go in there. I said, okay. And this little room
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: with lawyers packed in, what's going on? And I had
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: a justice that had a medical emergency. And so I
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: wasn't in the courtroom to see it, but it was,
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: It was Justice Wooten. He's a little bit older. I
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: think Justice Wooten's probably early 80s, I think. Might be 82.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: But apparently had a, just kind of went pale and
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: passed out during an argument. Still sitting in his chair,
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: but it was emergency and serious. And so the emergency
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: personnel came in and, you know, of course I hung
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: around until the clerk came out and talked to us
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: about 10 minutes later and canceled all the oral arguments
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: for the day. But by the time I left, Justice
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Wooten was conscious and breathing and And that's what the
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: clerk conveyed to us anyhow. And then last night, actually late, uh,
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: he has a brother that's a lawyer in the Southern
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: part of the state, John Wooten. He's, uh, does work
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: similar to what we do. And we're in an email
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: group and he indicated that it was just dehydration. Uh,
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: and he's, uh, been rehydrated, recuperated, and he's, uh, ready
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: to get back to work. So that's great news to
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: hear for justice Wooten. Cause he's a, he's a good
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: one in my opinion. So anyway, I'll get to go
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: back and argue another day, but that was the, uh,
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: a lowdown from the Supreme Court. I think they got
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: one argument in, but they had a little ceremony set
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day to kind of note
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: the opening of the fall term of court, and that
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: was all canceled, of course. But the good news is
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: Justice Wooten's going to be fine. He's, I think, back
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: on his feet and ready to hear cases.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: That sort of segues a little bit into another thing
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: we've spoken about several times on the air. The Peyton
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Law Firm We're in Nitro. We're at the corner of
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: 28th Street and 1st Avenue. It's only about 20 minutes
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: from downtown Charleston, and we're from Hurricane, 10 minutes, 15 from.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: Taze Valley, Poco. We have a lot.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: A lot of our clientele is focused in Putnam County,
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Western Kanawha County, Jackson, Cabell, Lincoln, and a lot of
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: folks who live in Mason County because Tom is licensed
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: to practice in Ohio. who do work also in Meigs
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: and Jackson and Gallia County, Ohio, up to Columbus. Tom
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: and I tried a big railroad case up in federal
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: court in Columbus a few years ago and did quite well.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: And as a part of that case, Tom, on an
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: appellate basis, went down to the Sixth Circuit Federal Court
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: of Appeals in Cincinnati and argued that case, which had
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: been wrongfully dismissed by one of the judges based on
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: a theory of the nature of the injury, which was
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: a carpal tunnel hand injury to a railroad track worker
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: and got it reversed and sent it back for trial.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: And we've been there, you know, if I make it
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: till May the 17th, 2027, and I think I will,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: I'll have practiced law in NITRO for 50 years. I've
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: been practicing law 52 years now. Tom now, he's 50
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: years old. He used to say the best lawyer under
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: 50 in West Virginia. So now I'm going to say
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: the best 50-year-old lawyer in the state. And he's been
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: there with me. We've been working together for 26 years,
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: 25 years, going on 26. That makes a big difference.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: When you start talking about, well, what lawyer am I
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: going to use? Since I started practicing law in the mid-' 70s, early-' 70s,
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: the idea of lawyer advertising had its advent with the
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: idea that it would help consumers learn about the cost
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: and effect of things that they needed every day. It
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: came out of a divorce case, the case that the
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Supreme Court of the United States decided allowing lawyer advertising,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: but it has morphed into only, almost, the pursuit of
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: personal injury claims and nationwide. So you are constantly bombarded.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: And I say that when I'm like, My good friends,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Rob Campbell, Steve Farmer, Bobby Warner, Ben Salango. I mean,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: we all know those folks because we all practice law
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: together and do about the same thing. And God bless them.
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: They're here. They live here. They work here. We hope
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: you would consider us at Peyton Law Firm at least
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: an equal. But when you see somebody who says, I've
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: been here for 30 years to help you, that's just
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: not true. Here means here. And so go to the
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Supreme Court, go to our website and look at the
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: number of cases that both Tom and I have argued
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: before or presented to the Supreme Court of Appeals of
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: West Virginia. And it's a lengthy list. Plus, there are
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: not many people who've won cases in the Court of
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Appeals in the Sixth Circuit from around here either. And
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: so when you get a lawyer and you think, well,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: we want somebody that won't take no for an answer
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: and will fight to the end, I would say you
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: better be getting somebody who, when you walk up there
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: to the Supreme Court, first of all, they know you.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: They listen to you because they respect what we do
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: and they know we tell the truth. They know we're
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: not gypsies or empty suits that fly in here in
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: some private plane and just sing a spiel. And that's
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: why you're better off. I just think people are better
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: off and we're proud of it. I'll brag about it.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: You know, he said, well, you must lose some cases
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: if you go The Supreme Court, well, that's true, but
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: we don't quit, period. And more than half of them,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: we won. Now, you can't win them all. And some
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: of them are just, you know, you're appealing because some
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: people just deserve to be sued and they should not
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: get off. But that's my little spiel for the day
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: about appellate practice. I'm not sure I'll be arguing any
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: more cases in front of the Supreme Court. The last
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: time I was there, I argued two back-to-back, one of
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: which said, a big precedent in the area of the
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: state law and the rights of a surviving spouse when
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: a person dies in test state. So we're proud of it.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: Look at our website, paytonlawfirm.com. And while you're there looking
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: at that, which I believe is an impressive record, just
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: send an email through to either me or Ty. If
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: you use the tab, it just comes to me or Tom.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: And we try and return those. It's really as good
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: or better than making a phone call because we can
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: return them anytime. And with that, again, after having said once,
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: I'll stop talking. I'm saying again I'll stop talking.
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: One of the things that strikes me just– I've mentioned
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: this before on the show. And I know different attorneys
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: have different views of the movie My Cousin Vinny. But
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: the one thing that I think that it relates when
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: we talk about– practicing law here in West Virginia. And
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: that movie, if you remember Joe Pesci's character, Vinny, he
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: never got anywhere locally with the court systems until he
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: learned the local, the people and the pace of where
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: he was and where he was arguing the case and
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: the judge and some of the people that were involved
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: in it and things like that. Why go through all
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: that mess and trying to convert your national attorney into
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: somebody who understands your local land when you have Your
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: person right here. You have the person that knows how
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: to make grits right here at home. You don't have
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: to worry about trying to get somebody from New York
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: City or somewhere to figure that thing out when you
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: get here.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Florida or Texas. Exactly.
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: Then he had Marissa Tomei.
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Exactly.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Exactly. I mean, yeah.
• 18:32
  Speaker 4: You've got your dad. What is a grit? That's the
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: greatest line of the movie. Exactly true. So what else
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: is going on? You guys want to go and take
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: a break, then we'll come back and kind of reset?
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: Sure, that sounds good.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's do that.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: If you have any questions for the Payton Law Firm,
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: you're welcome to give us a call. This is the
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: time to call in, 304-345-5858, 345-5858. You can text in
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: your questions. Folks love to do that, 304-935-5008, 304-935-5008. More
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: information about the Payton Law Firm online, paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N, paytonlawfirm.com
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: in Nitro, West Virginia. We'll give you the rest of
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: that contact information when we come back. You're listening to
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: Ask the Lawyer on 580 WCHS, The Voice of Charleston.
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: Every road leads somewhere. And the road to auto loans,
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: it leads to Member's Choice, West Virginia Federal Credit Union.
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: With rates as low as 5.25%, in terms up to
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: 75 months, you'll get competitive financing and longer-term options for
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: lower payments on new, used, and refinanced vehicles. So go local.
• 19:31
  Speaker 7: Go MCWV. Learn more at MembersChoiceWV.com. Loans are subject to
• 19:37
  Speaker 7: credit approval. Additional restrictions may apply.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: The Husson's Pizza Special for September. A large 18-inch pepperoni
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: pizza and an order of meatballs for only $ 24.
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: 99.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: Visit your nearest Husson's for dine-in, pickup, or delivery.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Order now at hussonspizza.com.
• 19:56
  Speaker 6: What if the market drops after you retire? What if
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: healthcare costs continue to rise? What if you outlive your savings?
• 20:02
  Speaker 6: If these questions keep you up at night, you're not alone,
• 20:04
  Speaker 6: and you don't have to figure it out alone. I'm
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: John Burdett with 4th Avenue Financial, and I specialize in
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: retirement income planning. Let's turn your what-ifs into a plan
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: you can count on. Schedule your free consultation today at 4thAvenueFinancial. com.
• 20:18
  Speaker 6: Fourth Avenue Financial, retirement done right.
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: Security is offered through Jenny McCall Financial Incorporated, member FINRA, SIPC.
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: Advisory services offered through Jenny McCall Advisors Incorporated.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: You're listening to The Voice of Charleston, 580 WCHS. I'm
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Dale Cooper. Thanks for tuning in to Ask the Lawyer.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: It is Thursday.
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: That means the Payton Law Firm is in studio with
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: us this morning. And welcoming into the studio this morning,
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: it is double your pleasure. We have Tom and Harvey
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: Payton in studio this morning, taking your phone calls at 304-345-5858, 345-5858.
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: You can text 304-935-5008. While we were on break, Bob
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: has called in this morning from Pocatello. He has a
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: questions for the Payton Law Firm.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Bob, good morning. How are you doing this morning?
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I just called to ask a favor. I'm blind now.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: I can't watch TV anymore. And I just wondered if
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: you guys know where on the radio dial you can
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: find WVU football broadcast.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: In the Charleston area, it's– what is it? It's 90–
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: I thought it was 100.
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: 101.9, I think, or something like that. 101.9 or 100.5.
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: I'll tell you that since– Western Radio Corporation doesn't do
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: it anymore. Honestly, Bob, I've tried to listen to it
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: on the radio and their signal isn't great depending on
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: where you are. I don't know about out in Pocatello.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Well, I just tried it and I can't get a
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: thing on 100.9.
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the problem. I don't know what the deal
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: is with the signal or the frequency, but I've had
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: the same issue. One thing you could try, maybe get
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: some help, but you can download an app like a
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: tune in app or something like that. And then it
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: will come through the internet. And then that is a
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: downside of that. You get these commercials that don't have
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: any relate. They're not local commercials necessarily, but you can
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: download like the tune in app. That's what I do
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: actually get five 80 on my Tesla because I don't
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: have an AM tuner. So I use the tune in
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: app and sometimes I hear these borderline offensive lawyer commercial.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: I thought, who's that person? Well, it's nobody around here.
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: Cause they, When you do streaming, there's some local commercials,
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: but you get spots of nationally-based advertisers. But you might
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: try that, Bob. You can go into the TuneIn app.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: If you can download it on some device that has internet,
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: that's the way I've been listening when I need to.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: And you might give that a try. If you get somebody,
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: maybe they can help you out. But it is 100%. Nine,
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: I think.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: I think that the Mountaineers have an app themselves that
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: you can just download and hit like listen. And I
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: think it'll take you to a game feed. I know, Bob,
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: that this might this all apps and stuff like that.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: As far as over the air goes, as of today,
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: I can't I can't help you. Any other station locally,
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: except for except for the one that's had it for
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: a while throughout the rest of the state. Some of
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: our other companies, some of our other stations have actually
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: recaptured Mountaineer Sports. And unfortunately in Charleston, I can't help
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: you out yet, but that is something in other parts
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: of the states that's being addressed.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: What is the closest station affiliate that is carrying– is
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: it Parkersburg?
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Well, we don't have an official station in Parkersburg for that.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you could get it in there.
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: And I'm not sure if– I'm not positive of the
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: Learfield streaming agreements– If you can hear it from– because
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: if you could just get the– if you could just
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: listen to AJR on air, I mean, you can– like,
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: AJR is going to be the flagship of our mouth
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: and ear coverage.
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: That's what I was going to say. If you go
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: in the streaming tune-in, normally, unless there's some kind of
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: blockout or something, normally, if you go in the tune-in
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: app or another app that allows you to get radio stations,
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: then you can choose.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: You can choose WAJR, for example.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, WAJR, which is the flagship now of– it's not
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: available here in Charleston, but– An arrangement has been made
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: with many of the affiliates of Western Radio Corporation and AJR,
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: which was the flagship station of the old Mountaineer Sports.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: So you're going to get Caridi and you're going to
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: get the other parts of the team. I don't think
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Hoppy's on there anymore. But this will be my advice.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: It's a little bit, if you have an iPhone or
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: an iPad or any sort of a digital device, download the...
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: tune-in app and look for WAJR, that's the very best
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: chance to get it. Because I agree with you, the
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: signal here on the stations that have had it is terrible.
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I can't get it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: And we hope that'll change here in the next couple years.
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: Maybe that's what we're keeping our fingers crossed for. So
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: we'll get back and get some good signal. I guess
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: the broadcast content will probably mostly remain the same, except
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: for maybe the pre-game, post-game will change with the Western
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: Radio Corporation broadcasting, but.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: Bob, if you continue to have any problems, you've given
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: me a call before. Feel free to give me a
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: call here at the station, and I'll try to help
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: you out getting through to find a solution that works
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: out for you. If you have any problems, if you
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: can't get to any of those solutions that we talked about,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: I'll try to do some other research here. Give me
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: a call back here at the station anytime, Bob, and
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: I'll be glad to help you out.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it, and I'm sorry for the interruption.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Hey, no problem at all. We appreciate you calling in.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks a bunch, Bob.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: That leaves the phone line open for you. If you
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: want to give us a call, you can talk to
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: the Payton Law Firm, 304-345-5858, 304-345-5858. Sure. There's nothing wrong
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: with calling and talking about Mountaineer football.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Hey, you opened up the show talking about predictions. That's
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: all right.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: That's right. Yeah, I kind of hit on this from
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: time to time. One of the things that I do
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: a decent amount of, I don't do– I'm fairly selective
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: in them, meaning I don't just turn out thousands of them,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: which is what I think You see some law firms do,
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: but social security disability claims just had one yesterday. Um,
• 26:15
  Speaker 5: did it remotely. So actually have a, had a judge
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: from New Hampshire, Manchester, Manchester, uh, New Hampshire was on the,
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: on the, uh, on the call, which is fine. I didn't,
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: I wasn't familiar with her and each judge has kind
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: of has their own style. So you got to feel
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: them out. And, uh, she was thorough, but this, you know,
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: I was just looking at the timeframes on that case.
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: My client had, uh, last worked in 2023 she couldn't
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: didn't have the ability to work after that and had
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: a pretty good work history just kind of bounced around
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: like a lot of folks do when they end up
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: having mental or physical health problems and interferes with consistent
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: work but you know she she was lucky enough her
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: I think her mother lived in nitro and and so
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: she was able to reside with her mom who doesn't
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: have significant income but at least she had a bed
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: to sleep in but Just to emphasize, anybody out there
• 27:12
  Speaker 5: that is not able to work for mental or physical
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: reasons and you think it might last 12 months or more,
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: really emphasize get to the Social Security office and file
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: your application because it just takes– it's always been kind
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: of a long wait. I think over the last– maybe
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: since pandemic, it's just gotten worse. So you're not going
• 27:35
  Speaker 5: to have– unless you're lucky enough to have a family
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: member that has some income– or a place to provide
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: you shelter, when you become disabled from work, probably 98%
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: of the time, you are not going to get your
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: benefits at least until you have a hearing. And there's
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: multiple levels of appeal before you get to a hearing.
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: So you're going to be waiting potentially two years, potentially
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: more than that, to have your hearing date. So I really,
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: and then I suggest, and You know, people are afraid, well,
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: I don't know how to do the application. Well, the
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: application process, which I don't normally participate in or rarely do,
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: isn't much more than you call the Social Security office.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: I think they're doing them by phone for the most part.
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: And all they really do is do some information gathering.
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: They're verifying your Social Security number, date of birth, when
• 28:26
  Speaker 5: you last couldn't work, just what you say your problems
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: are about why you can't work. They don't make a
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: decision on the phone on the call. So it's not,
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: can't really screw it up. And if you, If there's
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: a technical problem with it, we can always amend it later.
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: But I always really encourage folks to, one, apply early
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: if you think you're going to have a long-term disability
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: from work. It doesn't cost anything. You can always just
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: dismiss it if you get better and are able to
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: go back to work or you find a job that
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: will accommodate you. But get it filed because you're basically
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: getting in line. I mean, I've had some cases I
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: thought were really, really strong cases, and they still required
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: us to get all the way to a hearing level
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: before we get benefits. So get in there and get
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: your application put in. It's really easy. I don't know,
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: maybe a half an hour on the phone, just providing
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: some basic information. And don't be disappointed because most likely
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: you're going to get denied. And you'll get that letter
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: usually 30, 60 days down the line. That's when you
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: give us a call. And then we take over the
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: appeal process. And all these are done through our office.
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: And I think universally, the lawyers that handle these type
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: disability claims, are all contingency fees. So if you call
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: our office, I kind of screen it out. What's your issue?
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: We might meet in person so I can feel out
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: what kind of chance I think we got to win
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: in the case. But if we take it and something
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: goes bad, we don't get paid and you don't pay
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: us anything. So it's kind of no harm, no foul.
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: If you get a lawyer that's competent, but you want
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: somebody that's going to pay attention to your case and
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: not be a number. And that's, that's what we do.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: We have, I probably have a dozen social security disability
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: cases pending at any one time, but we pay close
• 30:12
  Speaker 5: attention to them and you can't win all of them,
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: but you know, you want to, you have one hearing.
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: Normally you don't get two bites at the apple. You
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: lose that hearing. Yeah. You can appeal, which is difficult.
• 30:22
  Speaker 5: We've done it. We want appeals, but it's hard and
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: you can't just go back and reapply and have a
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: hearing and all the same issues again. So that one
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: hearing is important. So you want to get your lawyer
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: early when you get denied. I've had so many people call. One,
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: they go through the hearing themselves. They didn't think they
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: needed a lawyer. Then they lost. And then, you know,
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: our hands are kind of tied at that point. Or
• 30:43
  Speaker 5: I've had other people call who have different lawyers who
• 30:47
  Speaker 5: might claim they don't take no for an answer, but
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: then they refuse to do an appeal for them. And so, well,
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: we can't take over for that law firm at that point.
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: So it's just, You don't think about that a lot.
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: You don't see a lot of advertising for it. There's
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: a few firms that do, but those claims are so
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: important because if you, I mean, you might not be
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: able to work or you might not be employable, but
• 31:10
  Speaker 5: that doesn't mean you're automatically going to get social security
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: disability awarded to you. And so you got to make
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: sure you're prepared and ready to roll because if you
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: lose that hearing, it doesn't mean you can go back
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: to work. I mean, you can't work. So at least
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: on a full-time basis, then you're stuck and you might
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: live the rest of your life without having any real
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: source of income. So they're, they're really important cases. So
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: I just, you know, I've had the hearings seem to
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: come in waves and we've had four or five here
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: in the last few weeks. And I know we want
• 31:39
  Speaker 5: a couple of them because judge said it on the,
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: on the line, but you know, we, we walk you
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: through the process and prepare you for the hearing to
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: try and make the whole process more comfortable. Cause a
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: lot of physical things, one thing usually that's accompanied by pain,
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: which is distracting and you don't like dealing with, you know,
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: I kind of, Like if you ever had bad toothache,
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: it's hard to do anything else because you're just concentrating
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: on your tooth hurting all the time. So dealing with
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: lawyers and the public and things difficult. Then I got
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: to like clients with mental health issues that, you know, depression,
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: anxiety type issues that makes interaction difficult. But that's part
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: of what we do, I think, is try and provide
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: a comfortability to the process and let folks know how
• 32:22
  Speaker 5: it works. And it's not a, it's a frustrating process
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: because you're, I mean, the client knows they're disabled and
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: they can't work, but, you know, you got some technical
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: requirements and jumping through these hoops that oftentimes in a
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: system where you've paid into it for 20, 30 years
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: through your taxes and withholdings and can be frustrating. But anyhow,
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: I try to do that every so often on the
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: radio just to let people know how it works and
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: make sure they are attuned to the fact it doesn't
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: cost anything, it's easy to file, and you shouldn't hesitate
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: to do it. It doesn't hurt you. You just withdraw
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: it if you're able to go back to work. You're
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: not declaring you're permanently disabled when you file that application.
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: Just real quick, one question I had about this, and
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: this is something I was following earlier in the year,
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: and I'm not sure how prevalent it's going to be,
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: or I guess it was last year, but there was
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: all the talk about saving money in government and cutting
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: back on programs and different things like that. My understanding is,
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: and I know it was going forward at least through
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: the good portion of this year, that A lot of
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: our decisions in this space when it comes to like
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: disability and also with Medicare and things along– or Medicaid
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: and things along those lines, there's going to be an
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: AI element to it now where some of the scoring
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: and decisions and things like that are going to have
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: an AI layer to it. So there's not as much
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: human interaction to it. It doesn't sound like honestly that
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: it's going to change much from your end though because
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: they're all denied initially anyway for the most part.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and it feels like you get AI spitting out
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: information because when you see those initial denial letters– many
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: of them read saying, well, you can hear, see, you know,
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: move around. So therefore you can, you can work. And
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: so now I'll tell you, like the case I had yesterday,
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: there were, we'd gathered and submitted over 7,000 pages of
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: medical records and documents into the file. And it's all
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: electronic now, which is great, but it does make me wonder,
• 34:12
  Speaker 5: you know, the judges are busy. That's why there's a,
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: it takes so long. It's one of the reasons why.
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: And it did make me wonder if the, The judge
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: was pretty keen about finding the right documents and the
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: important ones in the 7,000 pages in the file. And
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: I wondered if AI isn't analyzing those and maybe providing
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: them to the administrative law judge normally. And I think
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: currently each administrative law judge would have their own law clerk,
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: a lawyer that would help them work up the file, analyze,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: and sometimes help write the final opinion. So I don't know. Yeah,
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: there's certainly been some cutbacks. And actually, standards have gotten
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: a little more difficult in the first round of the
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: Trump administration. They changed some rules that, for example, it
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: used to be if your treating physician wrote a real
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: thorough letter and that treating physician had treated you for
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: a long period of time, the theory was or the
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: rule was, well, they know you better than anybody else.
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: Whether it's their opinion you're disabled or not isn't the key,
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: but if they have a detailed letter, which we have
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: a questionnaire for treating physicians that talk about how long
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: you can stay and sit and activities, capacities during a workday,
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: that used to be almost controlled. And if you had
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: a good thorough one, the judge, if they didn't go
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: along with that, they had to really set it out. Well,
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: that rule was changed in the first round of the
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: Trump administration. Now they don't even have to– if they
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: ignore that or don't give it consideration, they don't even
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: have to say why. And it's mandated that they don't
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: give it any more weight or credibility than, say, the
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: doctor you see for 15 minutes that Social Security sends
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: you to, which I think is a bad change in
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: the law. But it is what it is. And that's
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: what we have to deal with. So, yeah, there's been
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: multiple changes over the last few years, really just making
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: the claims more difficult. Now, so many of them are denied.
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: Maybe if AI will decide, maybe it will get better.
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: I don't know. They tend to. From my experience, AI
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: wants to suit the person entering the data. So, of course,
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: the claimant probably wouldn't be entering the data. It would
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: be a Social Security Administration worker.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: You know, just a minute to say, based on what
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: Tom says, we have– you know, we've been representing everyday
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: people for a cumulative total of about 78 years now.
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: And there are still those– I hear it expressed constantly,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: even on– Some of these stations that, well, there are
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: just a lot of people here who don't want to work. Listen,
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: Social Security disability, the standard for disability is extremely high.
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: You need to be judged by an independent judge to
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: be totally capable of performing any substantial gainful activity at
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: any job available in significant numbers, either in the state
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: or national economy. Now, that's a high standard. We have 60,000
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: people right now in West Virginia who, during their work lives,
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: have suffered sufficient mental or physical problems beyond disability. Now,
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: that's not people who just don't want to work, period.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: And we represent the people in the little White Houses,
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: not the people in the ivory towers who look down
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: on them. Peyton Lawford.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: That's right.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Peyton Law Firm, PeytonLawFirm.com. Every Thursday right here on 580 WCHS,
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: The Voice of Charleston.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Peyton Law Firm, 304-755-5556, 304-755-5556. Have a great day, everyone,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: listening to 580 WCHS. 580 WCHS AM, 96.5 FM Charleston, 104.5 Crosslanes,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: a WVRC media station. We're proud to live here, too.