Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 05-02-24 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton
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- 0:00Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich the realtor makes real
- 0:04estate dreams a reality, whether it's residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to
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- 0:17this program do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five adwchs it's employees
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- 0:51good Morning is a twenty two and this is five ADWCHS the Voice of Charleston.
- 0:55Good Thursday Morning, T Jeff Jenkins with you at Harvey Peyton O the
- 0:58Peyton Law Firm in night at the star of our show. Any questions about
- 1:02the law, give us a call. Three oh four three four five fifty
- 1:06eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight Harvey,
- 1:11how you doing. I'm doing quite well now. As a matter of
- 1:14full disclosure to the listeners. Tom and I are the stars of the show
- 1:19because we buy the show. Well, yeah, that's yes, that is
- 1:23your show. It is indeed a form of advertising, although we find we've
- 1:29been doing it now for over twenty five years and find it quite quite enjoyable.
- 1:34You know, we get a lot of calls at the office. We
- 1:37see a lot of people who say, well, listen to you on the
- 1:38radio. I want to ask you a question, which we try to respond
- 1:44to as reasonably as you can, and you have to watch. You know.
- 1:46Some folks will call, well can they do that? Well, I
- 1:49can't tell you over the telephone what someone can do and can't do, because
- 1:53you're going to go tell that person. I talk to a lawyer and they
- 1:56say YadA, YadA, yadas. You know, at this point, if
- 2:00you want to hire us, you may have something that needs a lawyer.
- 2:02If you want to hire as you need to make an appointment and come on
- 2:05in. And most people understand that. But it has been an enjoyable experience.
- 2:09One of the things is it get gets me into Charleston a few days
- 2:15a month with an opportunity to go down to the courthouse which is quite enjoyable.
- 2:19The Knall County Courthouse, the old building, you know, the judicial
- 2:23annex. I guess they're preparing to do some major works like it. Well
- 2:25they're going to have to, because, like everything, that was a big
- 2:30fight to get that building. I mean I practiced law the first decade or
- 2:35so, trying cases in Kanaw County in the old courthouse where there were just
- 2:40almost like cardboard courtrooms set up. And then there was the old voters Registration
- 2:46building which is now the parking lot next door, and the old jail which
- 2:51now the front of the old jail is the fiduciary office. It was horrible.
- 2:54There were no rooms to meet with witnesses, for witnesses to sit other
- 2:59than just the no rooms to meet with a client, very small courtrooms,
- 3:05no security to all. I mean, it was just unworkable. And for
- 3:08whatever reason at that time, and I believe probably was the movement started in
- 3:15the late nineteen eighties, the judges in Kanlawa County I actually had, I
- 3:19believe, threatened to see or did I actually bring an action against the County
- 3:22Commission saying, you know, you've got a duty to provide adequate courtroom space,
- 3:29particularly after the judicial reorganization when they all became circuit judges, and so
- 3:35the building was built, you know, under a sort of form of compulsion.
- 3:38It's pretty well designed, but you know, there isn't really an information
- 3:44desk area in the front, so you walk through security and you go right
- 3:47into the lobby where people wait for hearings in magistrate court, which can be
- 3:52quite heated. You know, you've got witnesses, you've got parties on either
- 3:55side, for instance, up a little bit of organized chaos there at time.
- 4:00Well, it is and very slow elevators. That Originally there was you
- 4:03know, a food stand on the second floor outside the circuit clerk's office.
- 4:09That went away some time ago. I remember that, yes, well,
- 4:12mostly because of complaints from the employees. Not that the food was bad,
- 4:15but you know, if you're in there working in the circuit clerk's office,
- 4:18you don't want to smell a restaurant, I mean all day long. And
- 4:23then the grand jury room area was on the same floor the prosecutor's office.
- 4:30Well, the Supreme Court then said that they couldn't be used for that,
- 4:33so then that became some office space for the court administrator and they knew for
- 4:42the grand jury somewhere else, since grand jurors is supposed to be independent and
- 4:47not under too much influence from the prosecution. Then you know, you recall
- 4:51that the part of the first floor of the parking garage was taken for that's
- 4:58where the family courts or were, and those have been remodeled. It really
- 5:02isn't a lot of securities on one sally port in the back for to transport
- 5:10in and out of prisoners and for access by courthouse personnel and particularly the judges.
- 5:14You know, in this day and ages, can't have judges walking around
- 5:17in and out of the courthouse. You hate to say it, but it's
- 5:20not secure and it's dangerous. Now. After that building was built in the
- 5:29late nineteen nineties, there was a movement in Putnam County to move out of
- 5:34the old courthouse there, which was even more inadequate than the Kanaal County old
- 5:40courthouse. It had one court room, was on the second floor, it
- 5:42was not handicapped accessible. When Putnam got two judges, the County Commission rented
- 5:49an abandoned post office building across the street in Winfield, and that's where Judge
- 5:54Spaulding held court when he was in Mason County, but still came to Putton
- 6:00County a couple of days a week to your cases. And when they switched
- 6:02and Judge Watt went to Mason County and Spaulding came to Putnam County, they
- 6:08switched and it was just the same thing. Had one really bad incident there
- 6:12where you know, a parent of a victim, not an alleged victim,
- 6:17but a victim of a sexual assault, just col Cox the perpetrator in a
- 6:27little handing room. They're about the courthouse where by the court room, right
- 6:32near Don Wright's office, and inadequate. So you know, we're in pretty
- 6:38good shape. And Puttenham still, although we've had some movement around, we
- 6:42still don't only have two judges three magistrates. I think our space is adequate.
- 6:46Now we've got a new law enforcement building that was built between the old
- 6:49courthouse and the judicial annexe first to the Sheriff's law enforcement, which is quite
- 6:55good. But keep in mind as we talk about this, if you're listening,
- 7:01early voting started yesterday statewide, and this morning I heard the announcement here
- 7:06about the places the whole court, like the fire department at the Saint's Public
- 7:13Library, Marmot Community Center, Help View, and the Voters Registration Office,
- 7:17the Girl Scout Office on the west side. Early voting, as Mike Warner
- 7:23said, I heard his public service announcement today on this station. Theod thing
- 7:27about early voting is you can go to any of these designated locations in Putnam
- 7:30County. It's in the old Courthouse building in the ceremonial court room on the
- 7:34second floor, or at Valley Park in sort of the Convention Meeting center down
- 7:40there. So unlike election day, where you have to seek out and find
- 7:45a particular precinct and vote, and there may be lighter or heavier voting that
- 7:50causes delays, early voting is a really good time. This is not absentee
- 7:55Valley. This is in person. You go in, you tell the person
- 7:59what vallot you want. Because it's the primary, you're going to get either
- 8:01a Democratic or a Republican party, and if you're an independent, you can
- 8:05vote in either primary, at least this year. I think perhaps the Republican
- 8:11Party has voted that in the next election cycle that will not let independence vote,
- 8:16and the efficacy of that we'll see down the road. I don't know.
- 8:20I think the purpose is to drive more people to register a Republican so
- 8:28that they can vote in the primary. I'm not sure that's going to work,
- 8:31but that's up to the party. That's up to an executive committee.
- 8:33But the important thing to remember, even though you're asking for a partisan ballot
- 8:37is there are non partisan races on the ballot. All of the judicial officers
- 8:43for the state of West Virginia are up for election this time in May,
- 8:48and there will be no general election runoff unless in a multi candidate judges race,
- 8:54if a candidate gets less than any candidate gets less than thirty you know,
- 9:01if you've got a five person race for one seat. And I'm not
- 9:05sure that's that's not the case here, it's not the case in Putnam.
- 9:09We did have a circumstance in Rawley County. You don't recall for an unfilled
- 9:16seat where they had five candidates for a circuit judge ship. Well, obviously,
- 9:20a person with twenty one percent of the vote is going to win a
- 9:24plurality at a five person race. So the legislature the amended that if there's
- 9:28a plurality, even though if it's less than thirty percent, thirty percent or
- 9:33less of the vote then the top two candidates are on the ballot and a
- 9:39non partisan race in November. But other than that exceptional circumstance, all of
- 9:43the judicial positions that we have two Supreme Court seats, they're uncontested. We
- 9:50have all the Circuit court seats. There are two contested Circuit Court seats in
- 9:54Kanawa County. One is an incumbent, Jennifer Bailey is got a challenger and
- 10:01the other is because there's a new seat there's an eighth judge. And the
- 10:05Puttnam County we have two judges, one one Incomb and Judge Stowers has a
- 10:09challenger. We just have to see how that comes out on election day.
- 10:13Then there's a I mean, I went to the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce
- 10:18candidate forum on Tuesday, and and I went with Ryan White, who's who's
- 10:24a candidate for the office of Intermediate Court of Appeals, and really smart people
- 10:35former sheriff, a county commissioner, another county commissioner, people work at the
- 10:39bank, and folks who are remembers of the Chamber who were there all had
- 10:45the same impression I did. This is almost an unheard of, an unknown
- 10:50race. We have not seen or heard anything about a candidate's forum or not
- 10:54much about interviews with these candidates. One lady is from Wheeling. Admittedly there's
- 11:00a geographic push pull there to get these candidates together, but two of the
- 11:05candidates are from Charleston. Ryan White is the person that I favor because I
- 11:09think he's well qualified. He is a business background, doing bond work for
- 11:15cities and counties and representing small business, and he is down. I think
- 11:20we're in business with Larry Pack who's now the Economy. I think Larry's sun
- 11:22is Ryan's treasurer. So it would seem to me that on the Intermediate Pellate
- 11:28Court, since we now have a business court at the CERC court level,
- 11:33that having someone with a pretty solid business back. I worked at Jackson Kelly
- 11:37right. You can't get a lot more sort of pro business than that.
- 11:43But it's a race. It's just not gotten a lot of push and it's
- 11:46a really important because there are only three judges on the Intermediate Court of Appeals,
- 11:50and initially they were appointed by the governor served two years, like two
- 11:56years, four years, six years staggered terms and Tom Scarr, who was
- 12:01the first staggered turn of expier, decided he didn't want to run again.
- 12:07And you know, I think Judge gar did a good job. I think
- 12:09it's just it's a taxing job and he's near retirement. But after but the
- 12:16person elected Dismay is going to serve ten years, so you're talking about a
- 12:20ten year term. On of court, it only has three judges. Two
- 12:28to one is a majority. Two to one wins in that case. So
- 12:31one see, it's like being a county commissioner. You know, you've only
- 12:33got to get one other ally to promote a policy or to decide a case.
- 12:39And so in that regard, it's even though the Supreme Court races are
- 12:43uncontested, they're important. Charlie Trump, I think is going to be an
- 12:46excellent Supreme Court justice. Excellent. The Yeah, anybun who's appointed to Philip
- 12:54vacancy, she's performed well. I think she's come to several Bar Association and
- 13:01state bar meetings and conferences that I've attended. I think she's quite well spoken,
- 13:07understands the workings of the court. They've seen to it at Kanaw County
- 13:11and now has e filing is in step, and they are working on getting
- 13:15a system in West Virginia like the PACER system, so that now we have
- 13:20E filing. We've had E filing for decades in the US district courts,
- 13:28and they also have in the district courts of systems of the public that's called
- 13:31PACER, so that if you are enrolled, you can go into a case
- 13:37and you can see everything that's been filed in the case, not just a
- 13:43current filing, not just a docket sheet, but you have the ability to
- 13:46scan and if you're not counsel in the cakes mean, you guys are in
- 13:50PACER because veterary. Yeah, I hope we can get it to circuit court
- 13:56because now I mean, even the electronic filing, you still have to go
- 13:58to the courthouse and to use a terminal. Well, the good thing about
- 14:01it is it makes the whole that makes the system more transparent, and the
- 14:03more people understand about the workings of the law, the more confidence they have
- 14:09in the system. There's no trick to this. I mean, it's people
- 14:11who are well educated and well trained and have experience in the practice of law
- 14:16who operate in an adversary system. You know what work you have to do,
- 14:22you know what facts you have to gather. You're looking for a judge
- 14:26who's non partisan and impartial. Politics has no place in either the campaign or
- 14:33in the courtroom. I believe I was an opponent of non partisan elections,
- 14:37but it wasn't popular on my side of the equation. I mean trial lawyers.
- 14:41So well, we know that Democrats tend to be more favorable to plaintiffs
- 14:46and working folks and Republicans. But that's gone, and it's a good thing.
- 14:50Because take Jim Holiday, one of the best judges we ever had in
- 14:54West Virginia. Of course, he was in Patnam and we've been a really
- 14:58non partisan sort of county for decades. We've had Republican office holders, Democrat
- 15:03office holders, independents. Now there are more Republicans than Democrats in county wide
- 15:11offices. But hey, that'll ebb and flow because we look for good people.
- 15:16I mean that Jim Holly would have had trouble getting elected. He was
- 15:18from Logan County originally, well his Republican he probably couldn't have gotten elected.
- 15:22Now that just wouldn't be right. So think about that if you're listening,
- 15:28pay attention to those their school boards. But then there's every magistrate, every
- 15:33circuit judge, two Supreme Court seats, which are really important, but they're
- 15:39uncontested. But then this race for the Intermediate Appellate Court, you're going to
- 15:43decide who is going to sit on that court for the next ten years.
- 15:46Now, I said, I'm not making this an advertisement for Ryan White,
- 15:50and he's forty five years old. He's well educated and well qualified. Because
- 15:54the race has sort of been overlooked, I don't think we really know much
- 15:58of out the other candidates. Michael Schultz is yeah. I know Michael Schultz,
- 16:04ye, but I do not know him. I've never had any Dinners
- 16:07attorney. And that's the lady mccardinal Elgiam McCardell, who was the Republican party
- 16:14chair you know. And I don't know Elda mccardial. I mean, Wheeling
- 16:17is a very nice town. I do know. I actually listened to her
- 16:22speak on a copy show a couple of times, and I was really kind
- 16:25of surprised she was a lawyer, to tell you the truth. I mean,
- 16:26but I think I think this. You know, she was in a
- 16:30partisan position as a state Republican chairman, so perhaps some of her comments were
- 16:37with her partisan hat on as opposed to her I haven't qualified to be a
- 16:41judge hat right. I mean, so you get people the benefit of the
- 16:45doubt. You never imply evil motives. Let's take our break, Carvey,
- 16:48and then we're going to take a caller called in with a question that I've
- 16:52got this, and also or you can call our producer if you don't want
- 16:57to be on the air. A lot of people are doing a given question
- 17:00and different fures. Yeah. Three oh four, three four five fifty eight
- 17:03fifty eight three oh four, three four, five fifty fifty back with Harvey
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- 18:17dot Com. Put the power of Peyton on the side. We have the
- 18:23court room experience of such you need. We never give up. We're prepared
- 18:30to fight for your rights when you need action. Count on us. What
- 18:38the power of Payton on your side? The power it's a forty and this
- 18:45is five. They need you EHS. The Voice of Charleston Jeff Jenkins with
- 18:48you and Harvey Peyton and the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. And the number
- 18:51to call here is three O four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
- 18:55O four three four five fifty eight fifty to be on the earth, Harvey,
- 18:57any questions about the law, or you can give me information to our
- 19:02producer. He'll pass along like this caller did. Here's the question, Harvey,
- 19:06with all the political ads happening, wasn't there an ethics code that says
- 19:08law enforcement can't appear in political ads? If so, then why is the
- 19:12Putnam County shaff for someone saying they are part of the Putnam County Sheriff appearing
- 19:17at political ads in Putnam County. Well, it is the Putnam County Sheriff
- 19:21because matter of full disclosure, I mean Bobby Agelson, I consider it my
- 19:25friend of mine. I mean we don't socialize. But he was the chief
- 19:26of police in Nitro and I knew him quite well. Then ran a really
- 19:33good department. He was a police officer in the city of Charles, the
- 19:34retired detective. Retired detective, and you know he won a county wide race.
- 19:41Our politics are different, but again it's Putnham county. So that doesn't
- 19:45make a lot of difference, and I certainly don't support his candidate for governor.
- 19:51But he's an elected official and law enforce. A sheriff is not exclusively
- 19:55a law enforcement officer. He's also the tax collector and the treasurer for the
- 20:00county, and he's not a civil service The distinction is, I understand it,
- 20:04and I'm not often involved pre election in litigation relative to election law.
- 20:12I have been involved in a lot of election contests. But a civil service
- 20:17police officer, deputy sheriff whose subject to civil service, a municipal police officer,
- 20:23even the chief of police, they're all subject to they're appointed, they're
- 20:27subject to civil service rules. State troopers are prohibited by law from engaging in
- 20:33any political activity. That does not apply to the sheriff. I think either
- 20:40the sheriff or chief Johnny Ruffer is he's not sheriff Mike Ruthophy, Yeah,
- 20:45but he appears in a commercial for Judge Baty, right, So that's the
- 20:48distinction. They're not civil service police officers who are prohibited by law from engaging
- 20:52in political activity, nor are they state troopers who are prohibited by statute.
- 20:56I believe from any political activity. He's an elect official and therefore he has
- 21:02the ability to speak as he chooses. Three or four three four five fifty
- 21:07eight fifty the number three oh four three four five fifty fifty. What do
- 21:11you think, Harvey, that app that adding a new judge which they still
- 21:15have to make room for in a couple of new magistrates in kandall country.
- 21:18I mean, how especially on the judge on the judicial front, how will
- 21:22that help the case load? I think I'm still help it tremendously. Kanawha
- 21:26County. I think it's a bit of a bad rap. I mean,
- 21:30I'll have to say, I prefer in the three main counties where I practiced
- 21:37in state court, Mason, Putnam, Kanah. If I can find a
- 21:41way to file a case in Putnam County, I will because we have two
- 21:45judges judges excuse me, it's a smaller courthouse and you can get access more
- 21:52quickly. Kanaha County is overcrowded. The judges are overworked, the magistrates are
- 21:57overworked. Their facilities are not good. The magistrates courts, in particular,
- 22:03their clerk's office is crammed in there on the first floor. You've got a
- 22:07terrible situation about courtrooms. I would think that having an eight eighth judge in
- 22:14Kanawha County will We'll make it a twelve and a half percent improvement. It
- 22:21would certainly have to. Now, none of the folks who are running for
- 22:26that judge ship that I've seen, have any judicial experience, but experiences a
- 22:33dear school. But fools learn from the other. I mean, they are
- 22:37all seasoned attorneys. I know rich Lindsay is the only one that I know
- 22:41who's running. I mean, he's been an attorney for decades. I know
- 22:45him. I know he was in the State Senate. I know his father,
- 22:48mother. It's a job you grow into and you have to have some
- 22:52training. The Supreme Court doesn't just let neophyte lawyers who are or like the
- 23:00judges, just jump down into the bench. The Supreme Court has some requirements
- 23:03before you take especially, they send them out to Reno, Nevada, to
- 23:07the judicial school so you can learn the basics of how to be a judge.
- 23:11The hardest thing to do is a judge. I would think, if
- 23:15you've been a lawyer and actually practiced, is keeping your nose out of a
- 23:18trial as you sit there and they think and I was bothing with judges like
- 23:25Hobby Spalding, Jim Holiday, Clarence Watt, they all tried lawsuits, they
- 23:30were all prosecutors, and all three of them said, you know, the
- 23:33ardest thing to do is just have to bite your tonguecause you're up on the
- 23:36bench and say, well, ask this, ask this. But you can't
- 23:40really do it when you're a judge, and you can't and you really cannot
- 23:45speak out and interject yourself into the trial because that may get the jury the
- 23:48idea that you're picking aside. And so it's really difficult to do. And
- 23:52of course the other thing you think about it about a judge. You think
- 23:59about my cousin, Vinny. You know, what did you say? What
- 24:07are you talking? When you think about a trial court, whether it's trying
- 24:10a murder case or a robbery case, you don't think about a boundary line
- 24:15dispute. You don't think about a contestant adoption, you don't think about abuse
- 24:19and neglect, things that you know, appeals and domestic cases, things that
- 24:26are just utterly got exciting wrong. For occupation, there's a lot, you're
- 24:33not kidding, but it's the work. It has to be done. It's
- 24:36like the making sausage, you know, and you may be involved in one
- 24:40high visibility case and I think it's probably as tiring for the judge as it
- 24:47is for the lawyers, because you have to know something about both sides of
- 24:49the case if you're trying a lawsuit, and you have to be really careful
- 24:55not to interject yourself into the case to give the jury an idea one with
- 25:00the other. And you know, deciding whether a person is worthy of belief
- 25:07or trust, it's hard to do when you have to make the call.
- 25:12There's no anonymity in being a judge. Someone comes before you and they're there
- 25:18and they testify a particular way about an issue you have to decide, and
- 25:22another person testifies about that issue, and you have to sit there and decide
- 25:32that one of them is wrong and may not be telling the truth. Now,
- 25:34that's just a hard thing to do mentally. And sentencing, I have
- 25:40seen a couple of judges literally break down and sentencing people because when I saw
- 25:48one in Putnam County, the defendant was indeed a pitiful, sympathetic person with
- 25:59a degree of disability not sufficient to relieve him of criminal responsibility, but to
- 26:04see him as a person who had been sort of cast aside by society,
- 26:10sort of the flotsam, and he committed a henosik to kill a man with
- 26:15a knife as a home invaser was trying to break into the man's house.
- 26:21The man came out and he was elderly, gentlely got in a fight and
- 26:23he stabbed him. And you know, the only sentence available after the jury
- 26:30learned the case's life in prison without the possibility of parole. And yeah,
- 26:40he just looking and think, well, was that just I don't know.
- 26:44I mean, but you're a jidge. You're legally bound. You have to
- 26:47do that. You have to perform your duty, just like the court the
- 26:52legal case that broke this morning. County commissioners in Jefferson County have to perform
- 26:57their duty. Now we know, because it's not a story that's been really
- 27:03germane here, because Jefferson County is about as far as you can get from
- 27:06here and still be in West Virginia. Actually it is as far as you
- 27:08get still be in West Virginia. But it's Hoppey Kerchible's home county. And
- 27:14I know that he personally looked followed the case of the two county commissioners who
- 27:18refused to come to work because they have a different setup in Jefferson County.
- 27:23They have five, they have a county council. I'm not sure that may
- 27:29have been an accommodation made to Jefferson County. There was only a couple of
- 27:33counties that had that Preston County at one time when I was doing it,
- 27:36but then they changed. Yeah, they had eight at one point, and
- 27:38I think it had something to do with the election that was held, the
- 27:44referendum on statehood during the Civil War, and how you would accommodate those counties.
- 27:49They needed a deal. Yeah, one one commissioner resigned in Jefferson County,
- 27:56so I left four. The commission went through the legal process to name
- 28:03a replacement that two of the commissioners weren't satisfied with because the County Republican Executive
- 28:11Committee did not name one of the people they wanted on the commission. Well,
- 28:17you get a chance to have a fair shot at it. You don't
- 28:18get a lot guaranteed to Wednesday and said we're saw going to come to meetings
- 28:22unless you do what we want to do, we will not come to meetings,
- 28:26and you cannot have a quorum, So the county couldn't award grants,
- 28:30they couldn't let out for bids, they couldn't do a lot of sign contracts.
- 28:34Yes, yes, I couldn't do a lot of things. They just
- 28:37simply refused and tell A judge ordered them after about four months to go back
- 28:42to work. But during that seriod of time they collected their salary, so
- 28:47I think they got what they deserved. I haven't read the opinion, but
- 28:49I know that judge Reader from Putnam County was on the three judge panel and
- 28:53the standard to remove it, and I liked it. Official it's clear and
- 28:56convincing evidence, not a preponderance, now, not beyond a reasonable doubt,
- 29:02but clear and convincing, which is a level above just probability, that they
- 29:07neglected their duties and for that reason should be removed. And they were removed.
- 29:11Book gone. I mean it was immediate too. When that order came
- 29:15down. That's oh yeah, it's self execute. Yeah, they're done and
- 29:18they're gone. I mean I saw that happen in a trial in Putnham County.
- 29:22We had a county commissioner who was I think it was an innocent mistake
- 29:26on his part. But he owned a construction company that did some public utility
- 29:32work for one of the public service districts in the county. And then in
- 29:36his Cedus County Commissioner he voted to approve some of the funding. Well,
- 29:42that was the defaulcation and he was tried. Jerry Cook was the judge from
- 29:47Boone County that came up to try the case. The verdict was rendered that
- 29:51he had had a lawful conflict and he said, you know right, you're
- 29:53removed from office because the conviction in the misdemeanor criminal case was a disqualifying and
- 30:00just you're gone today. So they're they're gone now. There's a promise of
- 30:07an appeal. But we'll see how that is. One of those folks I
- 30:11think is running for a statewide office and the other one may just go back
- 30:15and there's going to be a vacancy. Just run for the office again.
- 30:21I mean, if you won the last time. I remember that's what happened
- 30:23down in Tennessee. The three members of the Tennessee House were removed for making
- 30:30a sort of a demonstration on the floor of the House and they okay,
- 30:36there's a vacancy. Special election has to bel they is filed for office and
- 30:40were re elected. So the price suspect that's what will happen in Jefferson County.
- 30:44If the people have supporters, this will solidify it one way or the
- 30:47other. I mean, it's one of those sort of trumpean things doing a
- 30:51bad thing and being convicted. You can either hurt or help right. Sometimes
- 30:56you're a victim three or four three four five fifty fifty three or four three
- 31:00four five fifty fifty. So the Painton Law Firm, as you like to
- 31:03say, and I like the like this phrase you use, you practice law
- 31:07at sea level. We do do we do. Indeed, the law is
- 31:11often written and courts often function in an ivory tower setting, detached and removed
- 31:18from the sea level, where folks live, work and have problems. And
- 31:22our law firm we don't fly around in a private jet. And we're not
- 31:27the biggest law firm in the world. And we are two people who are
- 31:36really smart and who really do a good job in court, who represent our
- 31:41clients, all of whom are either individuals or some small business folks. People
- 31:48who have been injured in an auto accident, they've had a loss, somebody
- 31:52was killed, they've suffered a loss because an insurance company won't pay a legitimate
- 31:57claim and a bank has done him in on some sort of a loane transaction.
- 32:04So you can come and talk to us, right, and either me
- 32:09or Tom oldest boy, both of whom have been in practice for a considerable
- 32:17period of time. Me fifty years, him twenty three years. Gratulations on
- 32:22your recent recognition of the fifty years. Yeah, well if you stay around.
- 32:25You know, John Houston had a great line in the movie Chinatown when
- 32:30he played the villain and they said, well, how how come here respectably?
- 32:34He said, well, I'm respectable because old buildings and old prostitutes all
- 32:38look better with age, and I'm old. That's that was my answer.
- 32:44I've got the John Houston excuse. They give you awards to make sure you
- 32:47retire. It's like going to a funeral to make sure the guy's dead.
- 32:52Right, they give you an award, say you're okay, you can be
- 32:55the small for you can be the solo practitioner of the year. Now go
- 33:00away that it's fun send off. But no, that's true. We are
- 33:06our practice. I've worked, got out of law school, worked in Elkins
- 33:10for seventy four and seventy five. A real soft spot in my heart for
- 33:15Elkins. They're really on the upswing. Now build a new big convention center
- 33:19there. Oh yeah, yeah. The Tiger Hotel has been red on the
- 33:22hotel. We did the hotel. Now they've got a I guess a Branson
- 33:25type show place down in Beverly. We're going up. My wife and are
- 33:29going up in June for a couple of days to take it in. And
- 33:31then I worked with another lawyer here in Charleston, but I was a subordinate
- 33:37and that's like three years of working for somebody else that'said I'm not cut out
- 33:39for this, And so I have been a solo practitioner for forty seven or
- 33:45a small farm. I worked with three other lawyers, then two, and
- 33:46then now it's just one other. And so we know the type of problems
- 33:52that people have walk on our doors. Not just be on your cell phone
- 33:58and send a text to some law firm based in Florida that's the biggest in
- 34:00the world, and tell them about your case and they can email you the
- 34:04document to sign and you can email it back and then they can put a
- 34:07little e transfer some money into your bank account. Now that's the way you
- 34:12want to be treated when you have a problem that may affect the rest of
- 34:17your life and may end up in the future having problems that you haven't foreseen.
- 34:22I can't imagine that's what people want, but that's what you're going to
- 34:25get with the Payton Law Firm. We stand behind our work too. If
- 34:32someone comes in five years later says I've got a question about what you did,
- 34:36well, come on, let's talk about it and see what you know.
- 34:37If it turns out, well, maybe we didn't cut the mustard on
- 34:40this one, I'll make it right with you. I mean, that's just
- 34:43the way it is. It's the kind of service you get when you deal
- 34:45one on one with people. I saw Larry Dawson yesterday. Larry's not doing
- 34:50much car business now, but like Larry always said, you know these car
- 34:52deals online, get involved and then you'll find out, well, the paint's
- 34:58not right, or it's not as the shape as you said, it's never
- 35:00going to work out right. But if you go see Larry and his car
- 35:04dealership, he can look at you in the eye and say, well,
- 35:06here's what I can give you for this car, and here's why. If
- 35:08you come down to the Peyton Law Firm. We'll look at in the eye
- 35:10and say, if you higher rise, we'll work as hard as we can
- 35:14for you to get you as close to we can as we can to where
- 35:17you want to be, keeping in mind sometimes it maybe cost you more to
- 35:22get there than you want to pay, and that's your decision to me.
- 35:25But that's one of the things I really like about our office, really like
- 35:30And you know, of course Putnam County is our primary well, Putnam County
- 35:36in western Canalk County, Cross Lane, Saint Albans, Dunbar, Tornado,
- 35:39Brown's Creek, Lick Skillett. That's my oldest though I grew up in an
- 35:45area that was generally known as LyX Skillett. Think about that. That implies
- 35:52a particular degree of hunger during the depression. I think we fella used to
- 35:58tell me a nitro when you could smell bacon cooking anywhere on one of the
- 36:01blocks of Nitra in the thirties, that people kids just gathered around because their
- 36:06mom would say says, if you can get some of that grease and bring
- 36:08it home, we'll make them gravy. But I suspect that was the same
- 36:14way up Cabin Creek too, and Hugh's's Creek and Kelly's Creek. You know
- 36:20one thing we probably don't have much time in a minute, all right,
- 36:22well in a minute, I'm not going to I want to go into this
- 36:23perhaps next week. But there's a lot of fraud that's going on. I
- 36:28mean, it's just endemic. And I was talking to the folks at the
- 36:30bank and they actually now have a shack list that they go through with their
- 36:36customers. Here's things you need to watch out for. I'll go through this
- 36:38hopefully if I'm here next week or we can do this. But if you
- 36:43have suffered a loss and feel yourself in need of a lawyer, certainly television
- 36:47advertising is an important thing. I don't know that it's the basis to make
- 36:52it a very important decision. It may affect your life and your families.
- 36:57But you can call us five fifty five fifty six, you can send us
- 37:01an email at Peyton Lawfirm dot com. You can stop by the office and
- 37:06talk to me or Tom. We'll give you an honest, straightforward evaluation of
- 37:10what your situation is as we see it, and what we can do to
- 37:15help you is We're here to help you and what's going to be involved and
- 37:20you can decide based upon that who you want to be your life. Maybe
- 37:24somebody else. But if you give us a look, I would think go
- 37:30like what you see eight oh one First Avenue in Nightbrill, West, Prjina
- 37:32and or email Peyton Lawfirm dot com. It goes directly to