Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 03/27/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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03/27/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 4: three four two eight one three one three zero four
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Speaker 4: three threes are four three four two eight one three one.
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Speaker 4: Tom Peyton is in studio with us this morning from
1:02
Speaker 4: the Peyton Law Firm. On Ask the Lawyer, w c
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Speaker 4: HS the Voice of Charleston Tom, Good morning, how you
1:06
Speaker 4: doing this morning?
1:06
Speaker 6: I'm doing great. How are you doing Dale? Not too bad?
1:08
Speaker 4: Not too bad? It's uh uh, pretty nice day out there.
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Speaker 6: Not too bad to Charleston.
1:13
Speaker 7: They're doing a little pothole repairer there at the Virginia
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Speaker 7: Street Interstate bridge, so be prepared for a little blay.
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Speaker 7: Otherwise it was a smooth sailing end.
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Speaker 4: I always like to always like to see those mornings.
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Speaker 4: Like I said, if you want to put the power
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Speaker 4: of Peyton on your side this morning, you can. Threes
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Speaker 4: are a four three four five. Threes are four three,
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Speaker 4: four two eight one three one. Threes are a four three,
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Speaker 4: four two eight one three one. You can also text
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Speaker 4: in any questions you have. The threes are a four non,
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Speaker 4: three five, five zers or eight. Three Es are a
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Speaker 4: four none, three, five, five years or eight. The Payt
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Speaker 4: Law Firm, of course, located in Mitro, West Virginia. Peyton
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Speaker 4: Law Firm dot com. P e y tu Inn Peyton
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Speaker 4: Law Firm dot com.
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Speaker 7: That's right, since I was here last when you don't
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Speaker 7: have a new Mountaineer basketball coach.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, that bit of a harrowing search.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, you never know the inner workings.
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Speaker 7: I mean, I guess supposedly it wasn't our first first
1:56
Speaker 7: up candidate, but I don't know that that's true, but
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Speaker 7: it's what Ross Hodge or Hodges, and he coaches North
2:03
Speaker 7: Texas right now, it's actually still coaching them.
2:06
Speaker 6: I guess he's gonna finish out. They're in the n I.
2:10
Speaker 7: And still going. I'm not sure, maybe their quarterfinals or semifinals.
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Speaker 7: But I don't know anything about his style. I haven't
2:15
Speaker 7: watched any of their games. The Bright Spots. I mean,
2:20
Speaker 7: as we saw this year, with the transfer window being
2:24
Speaker 7: wide open, you know, doesn't you don't really necessarily have
2:26
Speaker 7: to have a rebuilding year. So hopefully we'll forget about
2:33
Speaker 7: Darien Devies as soon as the season starts next year.
2:36
Speaker 7: But the North text I did luck. They play in
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Speaker 7: the n I t against like University of California, Irvine,
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Speaker 7: like the next Tuesday at seven.
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Speaker 4: I think I think it's the I think it's their
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Speaker 4: final four. I think they want at the Elite their
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Speaker 4: version of the Elite eight. I think is the game
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Speaker 4: they won the other night against Oklahoma State.
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Speaker 7: I think, yes, they're in the semifinals, but you can
2:54
Speaker 7: watch them. I don't know what channel it's on, but
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Speaker 7: it's seven o'clock I think next Tuesday. So I'm gonna
2:58
Speaker 7: try and tune in and see what kind of I
3:00
Speaker 7: don't know anything about his style or he's.
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Speaker 6: Going to be pressing a lot. What kind of offense
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Speaker 6: he runs, that kind of thing.
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Speaker 4: Apparently tough defense. I see anything I've really heard so
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Speaker 4: far that that he doesn't have a lot of head
3:08
Speaker 4: coaching experience. But apparently the brand of the folks that
3:11
Speaker 4: he's the coaching tree, if you will, that he comes
3:13
Speaker 4: from was a tough defensive tree. Good.
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Speaker 7: Well, that's worked at West Virginia. That's when we've been
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Speaker 7: successful with Huggins, and really that was our key this year.
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Speaker 7: Our problem was offense and we just relied so heavily
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Speaker 7: on Javon Small after Tucker Devrees went out. But hopefully
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Speaker 7: we can keep I saw we've got a few guys
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Speaker 7: in the transfer portal, which doesn't mean and they announced
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Speaker 7: that before the new coach was officially announced. No, maybe
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Speaker 7: they knew which way the wind was blowing, and so
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Speaker 7: they left once they knew he was going.
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Speaker 6: To be the head coach.
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Speaker 7: Guys come back, he Ansbury, they went into transfer portal.
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Speaker 7: Power in the transfer portal, both really good players. Kenner
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Speaker 7: a guard that had a lot of kind of accolades
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Speaker 7: coming out of coming end, and I don't think you've
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Speaker 7: really performed that well this year, probably not as big
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Speaker 7: as a loss. But I think those are the three,
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Speaker 7: the only three that have announced transfer. Of course, Detective
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Speaker 7: Reason going with his dad to to Indiana.
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Speaker 6: But good, I'm glad we've got a coach. Didn't like
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Speaker 6: being in limbo.
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Speaker 7: You know, we go try and go to the games
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Speaker 7: and have been season ticket holders for a while, so uh,
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Speaker 7: hopefully the Mountaineers will pick it up. On the legal front,
4:16
Speaker 7: we got really a lot going on on both the
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Speaker 7: national and the and the state level, and probably the
4:26
Speaker 7: of course I'll watched the national news and the and
4:29
Speaker 7: the goings on with the federal government, probably from a
4:32
Speaker 7: little different angle being an attorney and and and you know,
4:37
Speaker 7: it's been meant to be remiss if I didn't mention
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Speaker 7: it though, But this so we've got the federal system,
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Speaker 7: mays up is made up of district court judges. It's
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Speaker 7: kind of like the trial level courts, and then you
4:48
Speaker 7: have the circuit courts, which is an intermediate appellate court,
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Speaker 7: and then you have the Supreme Court. All of those
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Speaker 7: are appointments, lifetime appointments. So the idea of being you know,
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Speaker 7: like in Westvinia, we have elections and we went to
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Speaker 7: non partisan election of judges ten years ago and then
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Speaker 7: so the election is in May, it's during the primary
5:11
Speaker 7: because there's no there aren't primaries as we think about
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Speaker 7: because they're non partisan elections.
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Speaker 6: Now it's kind of been.
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Speaker 7: It's been, you know, they've allowed the Ethics Commission, I
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Speaker 7: think and the Ethical Rules for judicial candidates has allowed
5:29
Speaker 7: them to on their campaign trail then say what party
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Speaker 7: they're affiliated with, So if they think it will help them,
5:34
Speaker 7: then they just publicize it anyway. But when you go
5:36
Speaker 7: to the ballot, there's no R and D or independent
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Speaker 7: beside their name and they're elected, so, which I think
5:45
Speaker 7: is generally good. It's it's gotten. There's been so much money,
5:50
Speaker 7: like everything else, flooded into it, into these elections that
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Speaker 7: it's been borderline I think on some of these campaigns. Ethically,
5:58
Speaker 7: when you're talking about judges, you are supposed to be
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Speaker 7: neutral and not really. I mean, every case is different
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Speaker 7: and every every set of facts are certainly different, and
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Speaker 7: so to tip your hat on how you're going to
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Speaker 7: rule in certain issues before they ever come before the court,
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Speaker 7: I think is borderline improper. But in the judicial system
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Speaker 7: for the federal government. They've taken a different angle and
6:22
Speaker 7: they appoint judges, as we know, in their lifetime appointments,
6:26
Speaker 7: and the idea of being there is that they won't
6:30
Speaker 7: be there'll be a political arbiters of cases, so you know,
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Speaker 7: they're not worried about, for example, how will this reflects
6:40
Speaker 7: when I need to campaign against somebody else two years
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Speaker 7: from now, And so that's that's the idea. So what
6:49
Speaker 7: we've got now is, of course President Trump and his
6:53
Speaker 7: administration is I guess probably the the least harsht thing
6:57
Speaker 7: you could say is they're pushing the envelope on some
7:00
Speaker 7: laws to try and accomplish an agenda that he says
7:05
Speaker 7: was a mandate from the voters. I'm not quite confident
7:08
Speaker 7: a lot of what he's doing was not what was mandated.
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Speaker 6: By the voters. But what we've got are.
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Speaker 7: And this, you know, I've said it before, but you know,
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Speaker 7: you get there are checks and balances three branches of government,
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Speaker 7: and the judiciary interprets the law and make sure that
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Speaker 7: if there's action taken by the other branches that it's
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Speaker 7: in compliance with the constitution. And so what we've had
7:33
Speaker 7: lately are you know, not necessary, whether they're not outlier
7:39
Speaker 7: type of rulings by judges. It's just Trump's administration is
7:43
Speaker 7: pushing the envelope so far. I mean, arresting people that, well,
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Speaker 7: they may not be citizens like you and I are,
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Speaker 7: they're legally here in the country and so they have
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Speaker 7: rights under the US Constitution with just no due process.
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Speaker 7: Just it's kind of I think this administration can be
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Speaker 7: described as haphazard in a lot of different ways, from
8:04
Speaker 7: from just blanketly toise or making excuses while they're fired
8:08
Speaker 7: that aren't true. And so what we've got now, which
8:13
Speaker 7: is kind of scary to me, and I hope it
8:16
Speaker 7: gets cut off and hopefully the public will realize what's
8:19
Speaker 7: going on. But you know, you get a ruling from
8:21
Speaker 7: a federal judge that is not some off the wall ruling,
8:26
Speaker 7: and then we're getting calls for that judge to be impeached.
8:29
Speaker 7: And we even saw Chief Justice Roberts make a public
8:32
Speaker 7: statement which is very rare about you know, the proper
8:36
Speaker 7: remedy if you disagree with a ruling is the appellate process,
8:39
Speaker 7: and it's not to then call for impeachment of a judge,
8:44
Speaker 7: you know, not because they had some criminal conduct or
8:47
Speaker 7: something like that, but because you just don't like their ruling.
8:51
Speaker 7: And that's what we're seeing on the federal level. And
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Speaker 7: I've mentioned before it gets really dangerous when you have
9:00
Speaker 7: judges making rulings and then another branch just thumbing their
9:07
Speaker 7: nose at it and saying, well, that's just a mentioned
9:10
Speaker 7: an order, a piece of paper. It just says what
9:11
Speaker 7: we're supposed to do. But what's going to happen if
9:13
Speaker 7: we do it anyway? And there are ways to control
9:18
Speaker 7: behavior to a certain extent, but when we get an
9:21
Speaker 7: executive branch of.
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Speaker 6: The government start ignoring court orders, then the rule of
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Speaker 6: law is gone.
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Speaker 7: And that's scary to me because that's the framework, framework
9:33
Speaker 7: of our entire society. Now I'm not sure we've gotten
9:36
Speaker 7: there yet. There's a couple of cases up where, and
9:40
Speaker 7: one of them is the deportation you know, Judge innerd
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Speaker 7: inn order on a Saturday saying if there's even planes
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Speaker 7: in the air with these folks from the US being
9:53
Speaker 7: essentially shipped to another country, then they need to turn
9:55
Speaker 7: around and come back.
9:58
Speaker 6: Then there's some.
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Speaker 7: Video evidence and other evidence that well that didn't the
10:04
Speaker 7: planes that were in the air maybe even took off
10:06
Speaker 7: after that order was entered more in violation of the
10:11
Speaker 7: court order. There wasn't a miscommunication or something. So now
10:13
Speaker 7: we're seeing the fallout from that. Of course, this judge
10:16
Speaker 7: is getting railed in social media and I think are
10:23
Speaker 7: oligarch that's partially running the government Elon Musk, because if
10:27
Speaker 7: I'm not mistaken, he's donated like maxim campaign contributions. If
10:32
Speaker 7: members of Congress will introduce articles of impeachment for judges
10:39
Speaker 7: who make decisions that he disagrees with, which is I mean,
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Speaker 7: that's really close to a quid pro quote type.
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Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know what kind of circus that is,
10:47
Speaker 4: but that's I mean, in my estimation, that's really.
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Speaker 6: Well, we'll see.
10:52
Speaker 7: So what the judge is trying to do is figure out,
10:53
Speaker 7: did you know if you have a you can have
10:55
Speaker 7: a it's contempt normal, folks, if you have a court
10:59
Speaker 7: order and you're ordered not to go into neighbor's property
11:02
Speaker 7: or you're not in order to some conduct that has
11:05
Speaker 7: to stop, and then or you're order to pay something
11:08
Speaker 7: like a fine or child support something like that, and
11:13
Speaker 7: then you or sign something it judge says you got
11:15
Speaker 7: to sign this deed because this proper now belongs to
11:18
Speaker 7: them by law, and you refuse to do it, then
11:20
Speaker 7: you can be held in contempt. But generally contempt is
11:26
Speaker 7: not where a person accidentally violates the order but they
11:30
Speaker 7: didn't know about the terms of the order, maybe the
11:33
Speaker 7: order wasn't clear or something like that. Contempt is really
11:36
Speaker 7: reserved for you know, the order said this, you knew it,
11:40
Speaker 7: and you just violated it, and then you can be
11:42
Speaker 7: subject to fines even incarceration until the contempt is purged.
11:47
Speaker 7: So what the judge down in I remember the New
11:50
Speaker 7: York judge New Jersey were done and can't remember which
11:53
Speaker 7: jurisdiction it's in, but trying to figure out and it's
11:57
Speaker 7: kind of a cladal matter because the case is proceeded
12:00
Speaker 7: on on the main issues of whatether these deportations and
12:04
Speaker 7: detentions can occur without any basic due process. But the
12:13
Speaker 7: the the judges trying to figure out whether the Trump
12:22
Speaker 7: administration or their officials knew the court order and then
12:25
Speaker 7: violated intentionally. And now we've got this game. It's kind
12:28
Speaker 7: of interesting to watch actually where yeah, you think maybe
12:33
Speaker 7: they did. There's been some illusion by the US attorney
12:35
Speaker 7: that well, that was just an order from the bench
12:37
Speaker 7: we didn't have the written order yet, or maybe there
12:40
Speaker 7: was something different in the written order. So when the
12:42
Speaker 7: judge rules, you go to a hearing sometimes, or the
12:45
Speaker 7: judges rules and says we're gonna have a written order later.
12:48
Speaker 7: But in my experience, the order from the bench, I
12:51
Speaker 7: meaning when the judge says this is my order, even
12:54
Speaker 7: though the written document may not come out for a day,
12:57
Speaker 7: you have to abide by that order from the bench.
13:01
Speaker 7: And so there's been some excuse by the US attorneys
13:03
Speaker 7: well that we didn't have the written order yet, so
13:04
Speaker 7: that wasn't then it's just a moving target. They're kind
13:07
Speaker 7: of making up I think the most recent like they
13:11
Speaker 7: haven't turned over even to the court to look at
13:14
Speaker 7: what they call in camera, any of the flight logs
13:18
Speaker 7: or particular timing on those deportations. And now they're shifting
13:22
Speaker 7: and I think making other excuses about how it it's
13:25
Speaker 7: a national security Everything seems to be a national security
13:28
Speaker 7: matter all of a sudden, and so we'll see how
13:32
Speaker 7: that plays out because they're the administration is now dodging.
13:37
Speaker 7: They don't want to turn over the facts of when
13:39
Speaker 7: things happened, and so we'll see how that falls out.
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Speaker 6: That's one of the judges.
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Speaker 7: That's being targeted for impeachment and you know this personal
13:50
Speaker 7: attacks via whatever kind of social media they're using to
13:54
Speaker 7: bad mouth judges just because I mean, this is not
13:58
Speaker 7: some crazy ruling. I mean, it's it was, it's reasonable
14:03
Speaker 7: based on the situation.
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Speaker 4: It's not field well, and the judge was.
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Speaker 7: Really it's very common to it's very common with particular
14:12
Speaker 7: types of cases to have kind of an initial restraining
14:16
Speaker 7: order or preliminary injunction type order to maintain status quo.
14:19
Speaker 7: So like, let's keep these folks in the country until
14:21
Speaker 7: we figure this out, for example, because once they're I mean,
14:25
Speaker 7: they're not going to be brought back if their rights
14:28
Speaker 7: have been violated or they're wrongfully deported, it's probably too
14:30
Speaker 7: late once they get to El Salvador wherever they were
14:34
Speaker 7: being sent. So you know, it's not a ruling on
14:38
Speaker 7: the final merits. It's hey, there's good cause for these
14:42
Speaker 7: folks cases. They've got some serious issues. Let's maintain status
14:46
Speaker 7: quo while we get finality. But it looks like which
14:52
Speaker 7: we can't the judge hasn't been able to pin it
14:53
Speaker 7: down yet that the administration says, well, too bad, we
14:57
Speaker 7: don't have to listen to you, we're gonna keep these
14:59
Speaker 7: planes and so that that's kind of a It doesn't
15:03
Speaker 7: affect most of our citizensry and certainly people in West
15:09
Speaker 7: Virginia directly, but we've got to really keep an eye
15:12
Speaker 7: out for things like that, because you start having one
15:16
Speaker 7: branch just ignoring court orders, then what's the rule of law?
15:21
Speaker 7: I mean at that point, I mean, that's what keeps.
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Speaker 4: Only mine in Detroit near the Detroit area, whose neighbor
15:27
Speaker 4: just vanished a green card holder, like a legal green
15:30
Speaker 4: card holder, and they just vanished, and they're they're trying
15:32
Speaker 4: to figure out what happened, and they don't know for
15:33
Speaker 4: sure that they were picked up or anything, but there's
15:35
Speaker 4: been sweeps in the area. And I mean, the guy
15:37
Speaker 4: was here legally, that he did everything right to be here,
15:40
Speaker 4: and so kind of interesting. I don't want to go
15:42
Speaker 4: too far down this, but I was in you talking
15:44
Speaker 4: about this. It made me wonder when we talk about
15:46
Speaker 4: the exertion that's that's put on judges and things like that.
15:50
Speaker 4: And we'll move on after this. I was just curious
15:53
Speaker 4: to talk about the administration at very least because say,
15:56
Speaker 4: maybe not known for its nuance in interpreting law and
15:59
Speaker 4: different things like that, the big Supreme Court ruling a
16:02
Speaker 4: cup last year when it comes to basically presidential immunity,
16:06
Speaker 4: where in the context of being president, however, you interpret that, well,
16:11
Speaker 4: if you don't interpret it with nuance, generally you think
16:13
Speaker 4: that you're above the law. And if judges perceive a
16:18
Speaker 4: president who's above a law, who has foot soldiers who
16:21
Speaker 4: will invade a capital for him, who he would then
16:24
Speaker 4: in turn pardon if they got arrested for anything, is
16:27
Speaker 4: that like a problem? Sure?
16:29
Speaker 7: And here's another interesting one that it's kind of lost
16:33
Speaker 7: some steam because I think it's in maybe the briefing
16:36
Speaker 7: stage or something.
16:37
Speaker 6: But so.
16:40
Speaker 7: Half hazard is kind of the theme you can use
16:42
Speaker 7: for this entire administration. Like I think government, federal government's
16:46
Speaker 7: too big. Who likes waste, fraud and abuse? No? But
16:50
Speaker 7: everybody would say, well, no, none of us want waste,
16:52
Speaker 7: fraud and abuse.
16:53
Speaker 6: How do you get make it better? I mean, I don't.
16:56
Speaker 7: The way they're doing it is half hazardly in my opinion.
17:00
Speaker 7: But January sixth pardon order.
17:06
Speaker 6: Is really haphazardly written.
17:09
Speaker 7: It doesn't clearly limit the pardons or the commutation of
17:14
Speaker 7: sentences to those crimes that specifically were based on the
17:21
Speaker 7: conduct that happened on January sixth, So now that's been
17:26
Speaker 7: that was the clear intent of it, I think based
17:29
Speaker 7: on contexts. And so all of those folks who were
17:33
Speaker 7: convicted either had their sentences commuted so if they were
17:38
Speaker 7: serving jail time, they get out, or they were just
17:39
Speaker 7: completely pardoned, which is if their convictions never happened. So
17:43
Speaker 7: we saw some fallout from that because what happened was
17:45
Speaker 7: they would go you know, it took time these these
17:48
Speaker 7: Chares's not like they arrested people on site for the
17:51
Speaker 7: most part, so these charges kind of fell in every time,
17:54
Speaker 7: and then you've got to go and get search warrants
17:56
Speaker 7: or arrest warrants and bring the folks to court. So
18:01
Speaker 7: what happened is when they go to arrest these folks
18:06
Speaker 7: they're legally on their premises, well, then they find other
18:08
Speaker 7: evidence of crimes when they're there, like oh, now, Billy Bob,
18:13
Speaker 7: we went here to execute this arrest warrant. In his
18:15
Speaker 7: house were three firearms and he's a convicted felon or
18:19
Speaker 7: has a domestic violence offense, so that's another offense for
18:23
Speaker 7: a legal possession of firearms. We've had there's one, maybe
18:27
Speaker 7: two at least that I'm aware of, where they went
18:29
Speaker 7: in and to arrest someone and found, for example, when
18:34
Speaker 7: they searched their computer via a valid search warrant, child pornography.
18:38
Speaker 7: So the defense lawyers, of course, not only they've argued
18:46
Speaker 7: that the pardon order from President Trump doesn't just pardon
18:55
Speaker 7: their clients from the conduct that happened on January sixth,
19:00
Speaker 7: it's any crime of which they were charged or convicted
19:04
Speaker 7: related there too. And I think that's the kind of
19:06
Speaker 7: language from the order related to or something like that.
19:10
Speaker 7: So the defense lawyers, criminal defense lawyers are arguing that, well,
19:14
Speaker 7: when they wouldn't have been at my client's house to
19:19
Speaker 7: seize this contraband or see this child pornography, but for
19:24
Speaker 7: the January sixth investigation and incident, so therefore they should
19:28
Speaker 7: be pardoned for these other crimes that other than that
19:32
Speaker 7: have no relation to January sixth whatsoever. And so initially
19:38
Speaker 7: the US attorneys on those cases pushed back and said, no, no, no,
19:42
Speaker 7: that was never the intent. These cases can't be dismissed
19:48
Speaker 7: based on the pardon order, and in a haphazard minor,
19:54
Speaker 7: within like two weeks later, all of a sudden for
19:57
Speaker 7: particular crimes. In that situation, the US Attorney switches gears
20:03
Speaker 7: and from the administration somewhere they were directed to take
20:06
Speaker 7: the opposite positions. So then they take the position that
20:09
Speaker 7: person should be pardoned. Now, you know, prosecutions shouldn't be
20:16
Speaker 7: based on politics, and so the judge on those cases
20:22
Speaker 7: and well, you know, I understand what your position is now,
20:25
Speaker 7: federal government, but I have to go by the language
20:29
Speaker 7: and the part in order. And you're telling me the
20:31
Speaker 7: intent was axed, but two weeks ago you told me
20:34
Speaker 7: the intent was why. And I can't make read this language,
20:37
Speaker 7: just make some unreasonable interpretation of it.
20:40
Speaker 6: And so that's that's being litigated. We'll see where it goes.
20:42
Speaker 7: The problem is when a lot of what I see
20:45
Speaker 7: are these kind of like very broad sweeping statements, but
20:48
Speaker 7: when you get behind facts, they don't hold up. Just
20:50
Speaker 7: like all these you know, purported gang members that they've deported, Well,
20:56
Speaker 7: it appears that maybe folks with f folks with like
21:01
Speaker 7: crown tattoos were just lumped in as members of a gang,
21:04
Speaker 7: but may have no connection to this gang whatsoever, but
21:06
Speaker 7: they get no due process according to the to the
21:11
Speaker 7: federal government. On their on their deportations. So we'll see
21:15
Speaker 7: how the uh, those January sixth cases come out. I mean,
21:19
Speaker 7: I can't imagine that. I mean, the court may have
21:23
Speaker 7: no choice but to dismiss charges if somebody has already
21:26
Speaker 7: been convicted. It's different if the US attorney says they
21:29
Speaker 7: refuse to prosecute, for example. But what they've done and
21:33
Speaker 7: what the judge is trying to figure out, there's there's
21:36
Speaker 7: hypocrisy in their position, not just that they changed positions,
21:39
Speaker 7: but it feels like it's a completely political move because,
21:46
Speaker 7: for example, they the US government will take the position that, well,
21:50
Speaker 7: when they went in and found this person's guns in there,
21:53
Speaker 7: even though he possessed them illegally. Uh, those we agree with.
21:58
Speaker 7: The pardoner order was meant to encompass. It was very
22:01
Speaker 7: broad of it to encompass anything related to the January sixth.
22:05
Speaker 7: So when they were in there for a arrest warrant
22:07
Speaker 7: based on the January sixth conduct and then found these
22:09
Speaker 7: firearms that were illegally possessed, that's related to So those
22:13
Speaker 7: cases should be dismissed or those folks pardoned. Okay, that's
22:17
Speaker 7: a general concept that should apply then universally. But it's
22:21
Speaker 7: not being because, of course the defendants who are charged
22:26
Speaker 7: with professional of child pornography, the US Attorney's taken the
22:31
Speaker 7: opposite stance, But they're just not really taking any action
22:36
Speaker 7: to have those cases dismissed. And so it's completely contradictory
22:39
Speaker 7: and looks like they're just picking and choosing. I mean,
22:44
Speaker 7: you know, firearms is a political topic, and of course
22:48
Speaker 7: I don't think any politician wants to appear or be
22:54
Speaker 7: smeared as being soft on child sex crimes. Mean, it's
22:58
Speaker 7: some of the most heinous conduct you can imagine, and
23:01
Speaker 7: so but if you look at it on a policy level,
23:05
Speaker 7: black and white level, from prosecutions you've got, you know,
23:09
Speaker 7: basically they're just politically picking which ones they want to
23:14
Speaker 7: give relief to based on this, what I think is
23:17
Speaker 7: just a real stretch of that presidential pardon or commutation order.
23:23
Speaker 7: But the it's kind of mundane.
23:25
Speaker 6: But if you I mean, when you.
23:26
Speaker 7: Read it, it's just terribly it was just broad haphazardly done.
23:29
Speaker 7: Looks like somebody put it together in one evening, and
23:32
Speaker 7: it's just it's difficult to interpret. I mean, they could
23:34
Speaker 7: have worded it. In fact, you would think a few
23:37
Speaker 7: laggers in a room could figure out if they maybe.
23:40
Speaker 6: They did it broadly on purpose.
23:41
Speaker 4: Let's want to say that's the point, right.
23:43
Speaker 7: I mean, that's you think, maybe in competence, but maybe
23:46
Speaker 7: the broad nature of it was designed. I think that
23:50
Speaker 7: may be giving them too much credit, but maybe it
23:52
Speaker 7: was designed so that there could be flexibility in their
23:55
Speaker 7: prosecutions later, so they can interpret it. I don't think so.
24:01
Speaker 7: But it's worded very poorly. I mean, it could have
24:02
Speaker 7: easily been. What I thought, without reading it technically, was
24:07
Speaker 7: that you know, these are pardons in commutation just for
24:10
Speaker 7: crimes the underlying conduct of which happened on January sixth,
24:16
Speaker 7: or with a plan for the January sixth issue, not
24:20
Speaker 7: some fallout later. That basically has very little relation. Certainly,
24:26
Speaker 7: culpability has no relation to the January sixth. Just happens
24:29
Speaker 7: to be that law enforcement was lawfully there and able
24:32
Speaker 7: to seize evidence based on what happened on January sixth.
24:35
Speaker 7: So I thought, you know that that got some steam
24:39
Speaker 7: at the beginning because the judge was pressing the US
24:41
Speaker 7: attorney on and they didn't really have answers for a
24:43
Speaker 7: lot of things. And so we'll see how those come out.
24:45
Speaker 7: I thought it was kind of a creative argument by
24:48
Speaker 7: the defense lawyers, but now it's getting legs, and so
24:50
Speaker 7: we'll see how those come out. The administrations you are
24:52
Speaker 7: going to have to probably change their position and just
24:57
Speaker 7: you know, say all of them are connected, even really
25:00
Speaker 7: heinous crimes that we don't want to be and so
25:02
Speaker 7: they all get pardoned or dismissed, or they'll back off
25:05
Speaker 7: that interpretation and just say no, that we agree the
25:10
Speaker 7: executive order didn't apply to these kind of outlier things
25:14
Speaker 7: that have just a very thin line connection to January sixth.
25:17
Speaker 6: So we'll we'll follow those and see.
25:19
Speaker 4: I know there's been a lot of even after the fact,
25:22
Speaker 4: there's been a lot of activity among those in January
25:25
Speaker 4: sixth about being re arrested for different things.
25:27
Speaker 7: And it's yeah, I mean, well, I mean a lot
25:28
Speaker 7: of them are have problems. I mean, they had criminal histories,
25:31
Speaker 7: and so you're gonna you're gonna have that. But but
25:34
Speaker 7: just to this, this very broad interpretation of the very
25:37
Speaker 7: broad language is interesting, and that you know, there's taking
25:41
Speaker 7: a clear position before a judge that's X and then
25:45
Speaker 7: just completely flipping two weeks later to a different position
25:49
Speaker 7: is got and the judge is a little bit of
25:51
Speaker 7: a gatekeeper there. I mean, the US attorney is. When
25:54
Speaker 7: you're a prosecutor, it's different. I mean, you're an advocate
25:58
Speaker 7: for the generally, but you also have a heightened duty
26:02
Speaker 7: to you know, be just. I mean, there's there's something
26:06
Speaker 7: to that. With the prosecut you're not just representing it.
26:08
Speaker 7: You're not representing a client like a human. Where you generally,
26:12
Speaker 7: unless it's unethical or you disagree completely with the strategy,
26:15
Speaker 7: you take the directive from your climb what their outcomes are.
26:18
Speaker 7: But when you're a prosecutor, there's different ethical rules that
26:21
Speaker 7: require much more than that. And so I mean we've
26:24
Speaker 7: seen some prosecutors, actually US attorneys resign and instead of
26:27
Speaker 7: taking action they were re directed to take.
26:29
Speaker 4: So if we localize this a little bit, and we'll
26:31
Speaker 4: take a break here, and if you want to talk
26:32
Speaker 4: about this when we come back, you're welcome to gives
26:33
Speaker 4: a call threes or a four three four two eight
26:35
Speaker 4: one three one. Not necessarily this unless you just want to.
26:37
Speaker 4: But any legal issue that you might have on your
26:39
Speaker 4: mind that the Peyton Law Froom can help you with,
26:41
Speaker 4: but with what you guys do on a daily basis,
26:43
Speaker 4: something like this, it can be applied because you talk
26:46
Speaker 4: about the loose language that was around this, and I
26:50
Speaker 4: think what we're seeing is very clearly an example of
26:53
Speaker 4: someone taking a bad faith argument and making it seriously
26:55
Speaker 4: because the language doesn't restrict them from making a bad
26:57
Speaker 4: faith argument.
26:58
Speaker 6: Ser Oh yeah me.
26:59
Speaker 7: I thought it was a creative argument by the defense lawyers.
27:02
Speaker 7: I thought, well, this won't get anywhere, and I don't
27:06
Speaker 7: think it would have gotten anywhere if the US Attorney
27:08
Speaker 7: would have held strong in their position that this, no
27:12
Speaker 7: matter how ambiguous are abroad, this executive order is on
27:16
Speaker 7: these pardons for January sixth. It was never intended to
27:19
Speaker 7: apply to these cases that really don't have any relation
27:22
Speaker 7: to the culpal conduct, has no relation to the January sixth.
27:27
Speaker 7: And that was their position at first, and I think
27:29
Speaker 7: if that would have been their uniform position they stuck
27:31
Speaker 7: with it, that'd be the end of it, because the
27:33
Speaker 7: judge would go along with that. But now that they've
27:35
Speaker 7: switched positions and in essence agreed with the defendants Council.
27:41
Speaker 7: Unless it's a crime that the administration doesn't want to
27:45
Speaker 7: be viewed as being lenient toward, like child pornography, and
27:51
Speaker 7: so that's that's to just blatantly switch positions based on
27:58
Speaker 7: politics for a US at.
27:59
Speaker 6: Turn these offices. It's pretty serious and we.
28:01
Speaker 7: All ought to It's not really down on our ground
28:04
Speaker 7: level here in West Virginia, but you know, when I
28:06
Speaker 7: that's the kind of thing I'm watching on the on
28:08
Speaker 7: the on the federal level and hoping we can get
28:12
Speaker 7: past this hump and normalize a little bit here and
28:14
Speaker 7: realize there's just I'm not seeing a whole lot of
28:17
Speaker 7: checks and balances from uh, the legislative branch over the
28:21
Speaker 7: executive branch at this point, because the political power the
28:24
Speaker 7: executive branch has and so we have to rely on
28:27
Speaker 7: the judicial branch, which is fine unless we start having
28:33
Speaker 7: other branches ignoring their orders and that that can't happen.
28:37
Speaker 7: And hopefully it doesn't get any farther and this gets
28:40
Speaker 7: pulled back. But this constant call for impeachment of judges
28:44
Speaker 7: just because you don't like their decision is that's dangerous.
28:47
Speaker 7: And then having oligarchs, you know, basically making maximum contribution
28:52
Speaker 7: campaign contributions to the congressman that or women that will
28:55
Speaker 7: introduce these articles is just for my level, it's kind
28:58
Speaker 7: of it's dangerous.
29:00
Speaker 4: If you want to get into a race and unset
29:02
Speaker 4: an incumbent who maybe has an ethical stand against something
29:05
Speaker 4: like this, you know where to get funded. Now, that's right, real, easily, real, easily.
29:08
Speaker 4: Let's take a break when we come back. Your questions
29:10
Speaker 4: for Tom Peyton from the Peyton Law Firm. If you
29:12
Speaker 4: have any questions about any of the stuff we talked
29:13
Speaker 4: about this morning, but maybe more specifically, anything that you
29:16
Speaker 4: can do to put the power of patent on your side,
29:17
Speaker 4: give us a call this morning. Three zerre a four
29:19
Speaker 4: three four two eight one three one. Threes are A
29:21
Speaker 4: four three four two eight one three one. That's Tom Payton.
29:23
Speaker 4: This is Ask the Lawyer every Thursday at eight twenty
29:26
Speaker 4: right here on five eight wchs the Voice of Charleston.
29:27
Speaker 4: We'll take a break and be back right after this.
29:30
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Speaker 4: the program. Three zero four three four two eight one
31:02
Speaker 4: three one three zero four three four two eight one
31:04
Speaker 4: three one. You could put the power of paton on
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Speaker 4: your side this morning. Don't get caught with sloppy contract language.
31:08
Speaker 4: That's what I was trying to get to. That could
31:09
Speaker 4: happen to anyone. It doesn't have to be in the
31:11
Speaker 4: federal government, doesn't have to be federal judges. You could
31:13
Speaker 4: be a victim of sloppy contract language. Maybe somebody used
31:16
Speaker 4: AI to to try to make hold an agreement that
31:19
Speaker 4: you're in. Put the power of patent on your side
31:21
Speaker 4: and make sure that that you're covered from all anguls.
31:23
Speaker 7: Yeah, but that stuff out there to the ground level, yeah, venue,
31:26
Speaker 7: So just you know, I know, we have a lot
31:29
Speaker 7: of kind of loyal listeners or regular listeners.
31:31
Speaker 6: I guess you would say, no, what we do, but
31:32
Speaker 6: just politics is just.
31:36
Speaker 7: A conversation piece for today, and it is connected to
31:38
Speaker 7: the law. But we do mostly civil litigations. So if
31:42
Speaker 7: you've been hurt insurance company denies a claim, even hurt
31:45
Speaker 7: an automobile, accent or in some other manner, then that's
31:49
Speaker 7: that's probably our bread and butter. But we also do
31:52
Speaker 7: some property laws, some state administration, social security, disability, a
31:58
Speaker 7: lot of other things we do, you know, don't work
32:00
Speaker 7: for insurance companies, don't really do work for big corporations
32:04
Speaker 7: things like that. We do do some small business work
32:07
Speaker 7: of different kinds and so yes, if you have a
32:13
Speaker 7: you need least drafted, or you have a real estate
32:16
Speaker 7: transaction and you need some legal assistance, that's the kind
32:19
Speaker 7: of thing we can do. And actually, going back to
32:21
Speaker 7: your point, the biggest, probably one of the biggest problematic
32:26
Speaker 7: areas of haphazard drafting, and it's not done intentionally, I
32:32
Speaker 7: don't think, but as when people try and do their
32:34
Speaker 7: own estate planning. That's a really good example of like
32:38
Speaker 7: you take Trump's order resolution will. It is effective, I
32:42
Speaker 7: mean it goes into place, he signed it, adopted whatever,
32:47
Speaker 7: and then you got to deal with the language and
32:49
Speaker 7: so wills in West Virginia, you know a couple of
32:52
Speaker 7: different ways. You can have what it's called a will,
32:54
Speaker 7: which is a document that effectively distributes your property when
32:57
Speaker 7: you pass away. You can have a holographic will where
33:00
Speaker 7: you you don't have to have witnesses, you handwright the
33:03
Speaker 7: entire document. It's clearly a will and it's signed by you.
33:07
Speaker 7: That can be a will in West Virginia. Do not
33:09
Speaker 7: advise doing that period, That's that's not a good thing
33:11
Speaker 7: to do. You can also get you know, forms and
33:14
Speaker 7: things where you don't get meaningful legal advice. But the
33:18
Speaker 7: forums have the spots for the witnesses, so you end
33:21
Speaker 7: up having folks sign it, you know, two witnesses watching
33:25
Speaker 7: you sign the document.
33:26
Speaker 6: And so when the.
33:28
Speaker 7: Time comes it is a will in West Virginia, so
33:31
Speaker 7: it has to be admitted to probate, and then everybody
33:35
Speaker 7: goes by the will. Now, what you have and where
33:38
Speaker 7: I get into this estate litigation of good bet is
33:40
Speaker 7: when folks draft their own wills and you.
33:42
Speaker 6: Never really know why.
33:43
Speaker 7: I mean, I've had cases that where folks have used
33:45
Speaker 7: me as their attorney from time to time, for example
33:47
Speaker 7: where Peyton Law firm, and then all of a sudden
33:49
Speaker 7: they pass away and they try to do their own
33:51
Speaker 7: will for some reason or or people just don't want
33:54
Speaker 7: to go see lawyers and that kind of thing. But
33:56
Speaker 7: what we're left with and what the families left with
33:58
Speaker 7: after is trying to interpret this language. And that's where
34:03
Speaker 7: I think folks that do their own wills end up
34:05
Speaker 7: running into a lot of problems.
34:06
Speaker 6: Two areas.
34:07
Speaker 7: One, a will doesn't necessarily handle all of your assets.
34:10
Speaker 7: There's other ways in which assets can be transferred when
34:13
Speaker 7: you pass away, depending on how you have things titled
34:15
Speaker 7: and things like that, And folks don't know that so
34:16
Speaker 7: they draft wills thinking without counsel, thinking it's taken care
34:20
Speaker 7: of asset X, Y and Z, when it's really not,
34:23
Speaker 7: and it goes to somebody else who might not do
34:26
Speaker 7: what that person really wanted to have done with it.
34:29
Speaker 7: And then the other problem you have is language used
34:32
Speaker 7: by a non lawyer when they do their own will.
34:35
Speaker 7: But the problem is they don't understand practically how that
34:39
Speaker 7: plays out later after they pass. I mean, they're not
34:42
Speaker 7: there to tell everybody, oh, let me clarify this, so
34:45
Speaker 7: everybody's left trying to piece the puzzle together. If you
34:48
Speaker 7: use ambiguous language or language that you know is subject
34:53
Speaker 7: to more than one reasonable interpretation, which often if everybody
34:56
Speaker 7: doesn't agree, then you end up in court, which just
34:59
Speaker 7: costs everybody more money. So that when you come to
35:03
Speaker 7: us to have your have your estate planning done and
35:06
Speaker 7: you don't like even if you want your will quite
35:09
Speaker 7: updated or something, we're still going to go through our
35:11
Speaker 7: consultation process to make sure that you understand how things
35:14
Speaker 7: work and I get a clear understanding of what your
35:16
Speaker 7: intent is. And then, having done this for decades, you
35:21
Speaker 7: know I generally know what language to use, because not
35:26
Speaker 7: only do with draft wheels we do the estate administration,
35:28
Speaker 7: We do property disputes, so I know, you know we're
35:32
Speaker 7: going to try and do what you want to have
35:34
Speaker 7: done with your property. But we also will use language
35:38
Speaker 7: that allows third parties that aren't in your mind to
35:41
Speaker 7: read this document and then put into effect what you wanted.
35:44
Speaker 7: And that's really important to make sure you get it
35:46
Speaker 7: worded correctly. You know, whether somebody wants a life of
35:49
Speaker 7: state or gets a life of state and property, what
35:51
Speaker 7: the terms are. Maybe there's a trust needed in the will,
35:56
Speaker 7: things like that is what you get when you hire
35:59
Speaker 7: our office. Verse is going to whatever form company there
36:02
Speaker 7: is out there who gives you legal information but not advice.
36:05
Speaker 7: Or if you try and just handwrite your own document,
36:10
Speaker 7: you may succeed in drafting a will, you may not
36:14
Speaker 7: succeed in accomplishing one of the main purposes of good
36:18
Speaker 7: estate planning, which is making it easier on your family
36:22
Speaker 7: when the time comes, so they don't have to fight
36:25
Speaker 7: about what you meant and that kind of thing. So yeah,
36:30
Speaker 7: so that's in the case that we talked about with
36:33
Speaker 7: January sixth. It's almost like somebody did their own work
36:36
Speaker 7: without legal consultation, and now we've got to fall out
36:38
Speaker 7: where there's more.
36:38
Speaker 6: Than one interpretation. That's where we are.
36:42
Speaker 7: But if you want to talk to us outside the ready,
36:44
Speaker 7: you can send an email to our website that doesn't go.
36:47
Speaker 6: To some caned or answering service.
36:49
Speaker 7: It goes right to my email and Dad's email and
36:52
Speaker 7: try and respond the same day. No charge for any
36:54
Speaker 7: initial consultations. If you're in the Nitraya, you can just
36:57
Speaker 7: stop buy a twenty doos one First Avenue Main Drag.
37:00
Speaker 7: If we're available, we'll talk to these staffs. Always available
37:03
Speaker 7: between eight and five and regular Monday through Fridays, and
37:06
Speaker 7: it's got a pretty good longevity with our staff, so
37:09
Speaker 7: they can answer basic questions and tell you the layla
37:12
Speaker 7: and they can't give legally twice. But or you can
37:14
Speaker 7: give us a call at three or four seven five
37:17
Speaker 7: five five five five six. Most of what we do
37:20
Speaker 7: when we take cases is contingency fee, and uh, if
37:23
Speaker 7: we're gonna charge an l E rate, we're gonna tell
37:25
Speaker 7: you before we do it.
37:26
Speaker 6: Initial consultations are all six.
37:28
Speaker 7: Most of what we do when we take cases this
37:30
Speaker 7: contingency fee, and UH, if we're gonna charge an l
37:33
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37:35
Speaker 6: Initial consultations are always free. That's great stuff.
37:38
Speaker 4: Tom paid for the Peyton Law Firm, Payton Lawfirm dot com,
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37:44
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