Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 12/12/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
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- 0:53Speaker 5: This morning. Three zero four three four two eight one
- 0:55Speaker 5: three one three zero four three four two eight one
- 0:57Speaker 5: three one is our number this morning. If you want
- 0:59Speaker 5: to get a hold of Tom Peyton from the Payton
- 1:01Speaker 5: Law Froom online, Peyton law Froom dot com. P Y
- 1:03Speaker 5: t Inn Peyton Lawfirom dot com. Tom, Good morning, how
- 1:05Speaker 5: you doing this morning?
- 1:06Speaker 6: Great? How are you doing? Man?
- 1:07Speaker 5: I can't complain it's not quite as as wet outside
- 1:11Speaker 5: as it was yesterday. I don't mind the cold weather, but.
- 1:12Speaker 6: The little chill, you know, it is a I don't
- 1:15Speaker 6: haven't been doing my traffic report because it's gotten really
- 1:17Speaker 6: smooth getting yeah right, yeah, and you got the usual.
- 1:21Speaker 6: I think I could just you know, record and replay
- 1:23Speaker 6: between seven thirty and eight thirty. Uh, traffic is bogged
- 1:28Speaker 6: down Exit one fifty eight at the Virginia Street. Actually
- 1:31Speaker 6: it's the same thing every single morning. Every time. Actually
- 1:33Speaker 6: it was going pretty smooth. It just you know, you
- 1:35Speaker 6: get a little log jam there every single morning. I
- 1:37Speaker 6: will say, in the left lane as you're approaching Mantrass
- 1:40Speaker 6: heading east, there's like a patch of ice. Cool, so
- 1:43Speaker 6: the far left lane just watch out because my car actually,
- 1:45Speaker 6: you know, you feel almost like a hydroplane feeling, So
- 1:48Speaker 6: be careful out there. You got a you have a duty,
- 1:50Speaker 6: legal duty to drive reasonably under the circumstances, including weather, circumstance.
- 1:56Speaker 5: And four wheels slides as easily an ice as two wheels.
- 1:59Speaker 6: So it's just I'm all, well, drive and I still
- 2:01Speaker 6: moved a little bit, just a couple of inches, but
- 2:03Speaker 6: you could feel it. Hopefully, Uh, it'll just melt when
- 2:06Speaker 6: the sun gets up and that'll be the end of that.
- 2:08Speaker 5: But uh, there's always amazing in Michigan. When I lived
- 2:10Speaker 5: up there, that the first know of the year. Here's
- 2:12Speaker 5: people that's lived in this their entire lives for the
- 2:14Speaker 5: most part. You know, I wasn't native there, but most
- 2:16Speaker 5: people you assume are. And every morning the first snow storm,
- 2:19Speaker 5: ditch ditch ditch, that's just people in ditches. There is
- 2:21Speaker 5: like slow down, that four whel drive is not keeping
- 2:23Speaker 5: you on the road.
- 2:24Speaker 6: Well, they probably are having fun running through the ditches. Yeah,
- 2:26Speaker 6: I guess about plenty of snow. I know, glad to
- 2:29Speaker 6: be here today. A lot of news going around, kind
- 2:33Speaker 6: of a sports we got to talk, you know. Being
- 2:35Speaker 6: a basically a lifelong season excuse me, season ticket holder
- 2:39Speaker 6: at w UH, I was really thought we'd have a
- 2:43Speaker 6: coach secured before last night, but now we got Rich
- 2:45Speaker 6: Rodriguez coming back. So that's uh, you know, I'm on
- 2:49Speaker 6: I don't do social media other than Facebook, but you
- 2:51Speaker 6: get getting uh, opposite viewpoints from die I mean, I mean,
- 2:59Speaker 6: I don't know how many w fan groups and you
- 3:02Speaker 6: got people it's going all the way from I'm never
- 3:04Speaker 6: going to another game to this is the greatest, you know,
- 3:08Speaker 6: higher we could make and we'll see how it falls out.
- 3:11Speaker 6: It's a I'm I'm kind of excited about it. I
- 3:15Speaker 6: think it gives us. First of all, we've had Neil Brown,
- 3:18Speaker 6: who's it seems like an overall good guy but kind
- 3:21Speaker 6: of mild mannered person. I think we'd all generally agree
- 3:25Speaker 6: at least that's how he conveyed himself to the public.
- 3:28Speaker 6: And so now we have what I think we kind
- 3:30Speaker 6: of need right now, which is the opposite somebody with
- 3:32Speaker 6: a bunch of fire.
- 3:33Speaker 5: And rich tweeted last night when he when he announced
- 3:38Speaker 5: that he took the job, and he did his own
- 3:39Speaker 5: social media thing. The hashtack he used was hard edge
- 3:42Speaker 5: all right good. So you know, I think that if
- 3:43Speaker 5: that's indicative of what and if the team reflects the coach,
- 3:47Speaker 5: you could look at the Mountain, your team in the
- 3:48Speaker 5: last six years and say that team sort of reflects
- 3:50Speaker 5: Neil Brown, for good or bad. If you like what
- 3:53Speaker 5: rich Rod brings to the table, I'm ambivalent. I just
- 3:56Speaker 5: went what for you to win? So I mean, I
- 3:57Speaker 5: didn't really care who they hired. I just want him
- 3:58Speaker 5: to win.
- 3:59Speaker 6: It's football and altimate that's going to be the difference.
- 4:01Speaker 6: And obviously it is the difference because you see coaches
- 4:04Speaker 6: that have character issues, have problems leave programs, and then
- 4:09Speaker 6: if there's a probability they're going to be able to
- 4:13Speaker 6: invigorate a program and win games, they get hired back.
- 4:16Speaker 6: And that's kind of where we got. You know, when
- 4:19Speaker 6: Rich Rodriguez left in two thousand and seven after six
- 4:23Speaker 6: really good years, you know, I was angry like most
- 4:28Speaker 6: other not your fans, but it's because I still remember
- 4:31Speaker 6: the year before, being at our office Christmas party, and
- 4:34Speaker 6: it's looking on the TV and on the bottom line
- 4:36Speaker 6: of ESPN it said Rich Rodriguez to Alabama. And then
- 4:40Speaker 6: when he turned that job down, you know you really
- 4:43Speaker 6: just thought, you know, he's one of us, he's sticking around.
- 4:47Speaker 6: Then you had the opposite happened at the end of.
- 4:50Speaker 5: The dominoes that fell there though, like if what if
- 4:52Speaker 5: Rodriguez would have gone to Alabama? Could Eban have gone
- 4:55Speaker 5: to I mean, honestly, I mean you never know what
- 4:58Speaker 5: could have happened. So they hired Sabing instead of uh yeah,
- 5:01Speaker 5: from Michigan State. Yeah again, I was in Michigan when
- 5:03Speaker 5: it happened. Hired Hi from Michigan State. Absolutely.
- 5:05Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:05Speaker 6: And then so after that you think, oh, he's going
- 5:07Speaker 6: to stick around, and then you just have the fallout
- 5:10Speaker 6: with the Pitt Loss and then him just you know,
- 5:15Speaker 6: it was all kinds of allegations of the minutia of
- 5:19Speaker 6: him moving to Michigan and whether it was some underhanded
- 5:21Speaker 6: things happened. And then actually we kind of got back.
- 5:24Speaker 6: In two thousand and seven, we were doing a blog
- 5:27Speaker 6: for WV Metro and it was a legal blog and
- 5:30Speaker 6: we did it for about a year. But that one
- 5:34Speaker 6: I did one around that time because if you recall,
- 5:37Speaker 6: Rich Rodriguez refused to pay he had a buyout clause
- 5:41Speaker 6: in his contract. And what it happened is after the
- 5:43Speaker 6: Alabama attempt to hire him, they renegotiated his contract and
- 5:50Speaker 6: extended it just like that. I think it finalized right
- 5:53Speaker 6: before football season started. And within that, I think at
- 5:57Speaker 6: the insistence of some red or large donors or at
- 6:00Speaker 6: least one they I think maybe doubled his buyout clause
- 6:04Speaker 6: or something. Anyway, it went to four million dollars, which
- 6:06Speaker 6: back in two thousand and seven was a heck of
- 6:08Speaker 6: a lot offty Yeah, yeah, And so he was balking
- 6:10Speaker 6: on it and saying he didn't need to pay it
- 6:12Speaker 6: and actually buyout clauses or what you would call liquidated damage.
- 6:18Speaker 6: His clauses are interesting, dynamic, and so that's what the
- 6:20Speaker 6: blog was about. Because you can't generally, you can't have
- 6:25Speaker 6: a quote penalty clause in a contract. So if you
- 6:27Speaker 6: come work for me, and you know you're making a
- 6:30Speaker 6: reasonable living and a regular employee, but we have an
- 6:34Speaker 6: employment contract, you know, we can't just say yeah, but
- 6:38Speaker 6: if you leave here and try and go work somewhere else,
- 6:41Speaker 6: or you quit, you got to pay me five hundred
- 6:43Speaker 6: thousand dollars. Let's say you were only getting paid fifty
- 6:45Speaker 6: thousand dollars a year or something like that. So generally
- 6:49Speaker 6: that type clause in a contract is void. It it's
- 6:52Speaker 6: deemed a penalty clause. It doesn't have any relation to
- 6:56Speaker 6: necessarily your value, your work, or what would happen to
- 7:01Speaker 6: my business if you unexpectedly quit. Now, those are generally void. However,
- 7:08Speaker 6: you can have liquidated damages clauses. And that's where in
- 7:13Speaker 6: our same situation, depending on what business we're in, and
- 7:16Speaker 6: that hypothetical I provided, perhaps if you leave, I am
- 7:20Speaker 6: putting a squeeze and there'll be financial consequences to me,
- 7:25Speaker 6: just like if a coach left at a higher level
- 7:27Speaker 6: program like West Virginia, it's going to cause some consequential damages.
- 7:32Speaker 6: There's going to be some damages that are incurred, some
- 7:35Speaker 6: financial consequences, maybe damage to goodwill and if that those
- 7:42Speaker 6: kind of damages are almost impossible to predict. But you
- 7:46Speaker 6: know there's going to be consequences, then the parties, generally,
- 7:49Speaker 6: if they're professional it's a commercial deal transaction, can agree
- 7:54Speaker 6: because we can't predict the damages for sure, we'll all disagree.
- 7:58Speaker 6: If this scenario happens, then you just pay us four
- 8:01Speaker 6: million dollars and that's a liquidated damages clause, and that
- 8:06Speaker 6: made sense in this situation. So my blog ultimately had
- 8:10Speaker 6: my opinion at the end, which was he's going to
- 8:12Speaker 6: end up having to pay this. And they were in court,
- 8:14Speaker 6: I think Tom Flawherty was representing the university and then
- 8:18Speaker 6: coach Rodriguez had somebody out of Ohio representing him and
- 8:22Speaker 6: it went around about a little bit, but it settled
- 8:25Speaker 6: within a year and he paid the full four million.
- 8:27Speaker 6: But it was interesting because you know he's going to Michigan.
- 8:30Speaker 6: They're involved in the lawsuit as well, because they've got
- 8:32Speaker 6: some kind of arrangement with Rodriguez to pay a part
- 8:35Speaker 6: of it if he has to, and pay his legal fees.
- 8:37Speaker 6: And so we actually got I guess, because it got
- 8:40Speaker 6: out on the internet. We got the Detroit Free Press
- 8:42Speaker 6: got a hold of our blog, and so that was
- 8:45Speaker 6: actually they're at it. It was some kind of editorial,
- 8:47Speaker 6: but it was critical that we didn't know what we're
- 8:50Speaker 6: talking about down here, including me some lawyer who said this,
- 8:53Speaker 6: And so I got some satisfaction when only a few
- 8:56Speaker 6: months later it wasn't a court ruling, but it was.
- 8:59Speaker 6: This attlement involved paying one hundred percent of the buyout,
- 9:04Speaker 6: maybe with a slightly different uh time for anyone installment
- 9:07Speaker 6: payments versus four million dollars all at one time. So
- 9:11Speaker 6: he ended up having to pay it, which wasn't any
- 9:15Speaker 6: I thought it was a pretty easy prediction to make.
- 9:17Speaker 6: He actually entered the same type of clause I think,
- 9:21Speaker 6: in the same amount with his new contract at Michigan,
- 9:24Speaker 6: so it's kind of hard to argue it's not enforceable.
- 9:26Speaker 6: And then he had some other verbal you know, claiming
- 9:29Speaker 6: that there was some verbal representations made to him that
- 9:32Speaker 6: weren't in his contract.
- 9:32Speaker 5: What if he used his buy out at Michigan ultimately
- 9:34Speaker 5: to make good his his penalty at WPU, because I
- 9:37Speaker 5: think they had to pay.
- 9:39Speaker 6: Yeah, I think he may have paid it all by then.
- 9:41Speaker 6: It was like a two or three year probably payout time.
- 9:45Speaker 6: But uh but yeah, I don't know that he had
- 9:47Speaker 6: to Well that's right, so they I don't know what
- 9:49Speaker 6: they bought him out for. And of course he's had
- 9:51Speaker 6: some character issues, you know, went to after that, was
- 9:54Speaker 6: an analyst for a while. One went to Arizona and
- 9:58Speaker 6: did pretty well there for a number of year and
- 10:00Speaker 6: had a.
- 10:00Speaker 5: One of their only two ten win seasons in the history.
- 10:03Speaker 6: Of program personnel scandal, bad judgment. Then he I still
- 10:08Speaker 6: I think he was offensive coordinator for Old Mess at
- 10:10Speaker 6: one point. And yeah, but he was up in the booth, Yeah,
- 10:13Speaker 6: and they had a camera up there and he's having
- 10:15Speaker 6: one of his temper tantrums, literally tearing up the booth.
- 10:18Speaker 6: You know, I think that's been six seven years ago
- 10:21Speaker 6: or maybe longer, but you know, it's been seventeen years.
- 10:25Speaker 6: The man's sixty one years old right now. I think
- 10:28Speaker 6: somebody with he understands that kind of underdog mentality that
- 10:33Speaker 6: when w plays with that, we tend to do well,
- 10:35Speaker 6: we have to play with a chip on our shoulder,
- 10:37Speaker 6: and I think he understands that being from here, and
- 10:39Speaker 6: he can kind of incorporate that better maybe than Neil
- 10:42Speaker 6: Brown was able to do. And I think he also
- 10:45Speaker 6: has a even though things have changed a lot, and
- 10:49Speaker 6: since it's kind of a new thing his type of
- 10:51Speaker 6: offense in the early two thousands, he still has a
- 10:54Speaker 6: pretty dynamic offensive scheme. And I think that hopefully in
- 10:58Speaker 6: the new era of wide open transfer portal, we'll be
- 11:02Speaker 6: able to get some recruit to his scheme. Yeah, really
- 11:04Speaker 6: talented players maybe for at least the skill positions. And
- 11:07Speaker 6: then and you know, over the last even this year,
- 11:12Speaker 6: going into it, you know that there was some limitation
- 11:15Speaker 6: and what we were going to be able to do
- 11:16Speaker 6: with Neil Brown. I think this gives us a you know,
- 11:19Speaker 6: it's as a season ticket holder, I'm more excited going
- 11:21Speaker 6: into this year with this higher than I would have
- 11:24Speaker 6: been or or have been going into seasons with Neil Brown.
- 11:28Speaker 6: So we'll hope. He's sixty one years old definitely shakes
- 11:31Speaker 6: the cage. So he's obviously still a fiery coach and
- 11:34Speaker 6: a fiery personality. You would think in seventeen eighteen years
- 11:37Speaker 6: that and being sixty one years of age, perhaps some
- 11:41Speaker 6: maturity and maybe a little better judgment.
- 11:46Speaker 5: It's really off the field stuff that I hope he
- 11:48Speaker 5: has better judgment. I don't really care as long as
- 11:50Speaker 5: somebody's not tearing up a press box. I don't really
- 11:51Speaker 5: care if somebody shows a motion on the sidelines, as
- 11:53Speaker 5: long as they're not getting into players or anything like that,
- 11:55Speaker 5: that's right. Yeah, But I don't want to see. I
- 11:57Speaker 5: don't want to hear any of the personnel stuff. It's interesting.
- 11:59Speaker 5: I can't disclose all of it, but I was I
- 12:01Speaker 5: did see with my eyes a thread from a former
- 12:04Speaker 5: prominent w player under Rich Rodriguez, and I think a
- 12:07Speaker 5: lot of that era players and stuff like that were
- 12:09Speaker 5: making a huge push for him to come back. I
- 12:10Speaker 5: think there might be like a delineation between people that
- 12:14Speaker 5: started to become Mountaineer fans around that time as far
- 12:16Speaker 5: as age and stuff goes. Maybe people that go back
- 12:18Speaker 5: a little further as far as their thoughts on Rich Rod.
- 12:21Speaker 5: But it was an interesting thread in that this person
- 12:23Speaker 5: was making this, this former player was making the point
- 12:27Speaker 5: that under the way that college football is today, this
- 12:30Speaker 5: is the only high that West Virginia could make where
- 12:32Speaker 5: the guy could come in. He doesn't ask to have
- 12:34Speaker 5: to ask where the best place is to eat r
- 12:35Speaker 5: he doesn't have to ask directions to get around town.
- 12:37Speaker 5: He doesn't have to do any of that stuff. He's
- 12:38Speaker 5: ready to go to work the transfer portal basically the
- 12:41Speaker 5: moment he hits the ground. He doesn't have to learn
- 12:43Speaker 5: any of the other.
- 12:43Speaker 6: Stuff that's right, and he knows the lay of the
- 12:47Speaker 6: land as far as fans and things around here. And
- 12:52Speaker 6: and I haven't heard the details. I heard rumor, but
- 12:54Speaker 6: I mean, I think is the financial package he's getting
- 12:57Speaker 6: is pretty reasonable to w I think maybe some horse
- 13:00Speaker 6: trading there about getting some more money to get an
- 13:03Speaker 6: NL and get players or something. But I think it's
- 13:05Speaker 6: not some astronomical amount that they needed.
- 13:08Speaker 5: To pay and something that's interesting today. And I don't
- 13:11Speaker 5: know from a legal standpoint if if this is interesting
- 13:13Speaker 5: to you, I guess that it's completely above board. But
- 13:15Speaker 5: it's just odd when you have somebody that's a celebrity
- 13:17Speaker 5: like Pat McAfee who's out there talking about throwing money
- 13:19Speaker 5: into the NIL trust and everything, the insinuation because rich
- 13:23Speaker 5: Rod was his guy. The insinuation being maybe it would
- 13:26Speaker 5: be a little more if his guy got hired, you know.
- 13:28Speaker 5: I mean, that's a wild place that we're in right now.
- 13:31Speaker 6: Yeah, it is now. I didn't I saw some headlines,
- 13:33Speaker 6: but I didn't see the Pat McAfee show or hear
- 13:35Speaker 6: it or read articles about it. But I saw he
- 13:37Speaker 6: was kind of pushing for that, and I think he's man.
- 13:40Speaker 6: There's a couple of really maybe really big donors that
- 13:42Speaker 6: wanted Rich rod back. I'm not sure he was our
- 13:45Speaker 6: first choice. I mean it took longer I thought probably
- 13:47Speaker 6: we'd have.
- 13:48Speaker 5: I think the Penn State guy might have been the
- 13:49Speaker 5: first choice.
- 13:50Speaker 6: Yeah, he turned it down. I he turned it down
- 13:52Speaker 6: late last week. I think I was Readingenn State articles. Yeah,
- 13:55Speaker 6: but you know, getting an assistant again like we did
- 13:58Speaker 6: like well, I guess we got a head coach last
- 14:00Speaker 6: time from Troy, but high end assistance good. But you
- 14:02Speaker 6: still don't like I have a I have a more
- 14:05Speaker 6: of a comfort level with I trust Rich Rodriguez. Won't
- 14:10Speaker 6: you know that he will control his behavior on like
- 14:13Speaker 6: person lsus and things like that in a way that
- 14:17Speaker 6: will be better than what he's done over the years.
- 14:19Speaker 6: And if you can put that kind of character stuff aside.
- 14:22Speaker 6: I mean, I think he's he's going to build a
- 14:24Speaker 6: lot of excitement and be the best fit probably for
- 14:27Speaker 6: the Mountaineers. So we'll be real interesting to see because
- 14:30Speaker 6: with the transfer portal, we'll see what, you know, who
- 14:33Speaker 6: got in it, who's going to come back and stay,
- 14:34Speaker 6: and who he can get.
- 14:36Speaker 5: And generally speaking, and I don't mean this to just
- 14:38Speaker 5: from what I've observed doing eleven years of a sports
- 14:41Speaker 5: talk show in the afternoon, and people that that that
- 14:44Speaker 5: weigh on these different things. The folks that say that
- 14:47Speaker 5: they're so mad that they're not going to support the
- 14:48Speaker 5: team anymore because they didn't like rich Rod, They'll they'll
- 14:50Speaker 5: be there. I mean, ultimately speaking, they'll be there. And
- 14:52Speaker 5: in fact, there's gonna be an aspect of wanting to
- 14:55Speaker 5: watch to see if he fails first and then if
- 14:57Speaker 5: the team starts playing, well, you're going to watch anyway.
- 14:58Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, that's the thing with high end college
- 15:00Speaker 6: football winning generally. I mean I've seen a lot. I
- 15:05Speaker 6: can think of multiple coaches in basketball and football who
- 15:08Speaker 6: have had as bad or worst character type issues, personnel issues,
- 15:15Speaker 6: and it just takes a little bit of time and
- 15:16Speaker 6: then they're hired right back at other sometimes major universities,
- 15:20Speaker 6: or usually they go through the same type process that
- 15:23Speaker 6: Rich Rodriguez has gone through, which go back and be
- 15:27Speaker 6: an assistant, then eventually work your way up to a
- 15:29Speaker 6: head coach at a smaller school and then then you know,
- 15:34Speaker 6: you get your second. If it appears that you have
- 15:36Speaker 6: a good chance of winning a lot of games, then
- 15:40Speaker 6: not much seems to stop these large universities from hiring
- 15:43Speaker 6: these coaches back again. And so you know, I but
- 15:47Speaker 6: I had the same you know, if it was twenty ten,
- 15:51Speaker 6: I would have been absolutely against it. But now being
- 15:55Speaker 6: seventeen years time cures some things. And uh, and I
- 15:58Speaker 6: just hope he's matured. And I think with that if
- 16:01Speaker 6: he has, and I think he's a great fit for us.
- 16:03Speaker 6: So I'm looking forward to next season.
- 16:04Speaker 5: One thing is that's for sure, if he gets West
- 16:06Speaker 5: Virginia anywhere near like a conference championship or ranked in
- 16:09Speaker 5: the top fifteen or something like that, suddenly Westvirgiana is
- 16:11Speaker 5: going to be everywhere again, because that's gonna be a
- 16:13Speaker 5: huge national story. You're going to see interviews with like
- 16:15Speaker 5: Pat White, nohen Schmidt everywhere. I mean, it's like, if
- 16:18Speaker 5: he actually does well, it will be good for the
- 16:19Speaker 5: university just because of the momentum of that type of
- 16:22Speaker 5: media story.
- 16:23Speaker 6: That's right, And now you have you know, back when
- 16:26Speaker 6: you know, the twenty seven season, you had to finish
- 16:28Speaker 6: one or two and then of course it's been four
- 16:31Speaker 6: the last few years.
- 16:32Speaker 5: But now twelve, we've been sixteen with the playoff.
- 16:35Speaker 6: Yeah, and they might go yeah, they might go more
- 16:38Speaker 6: than twelve.
- 16:39Speaker 5: You know, right, they are going to sixteen, you know, oh,
- 16:40Speaker 5: they eventually I think two year or something like that.
- 16:42Speaker 6: Yeah, So, I mean, you have a lot of opportunity there.
- 16:44Speaker 6: You don't have to play in essence perfect, a perfect season,
- 16:48Speaker 6: which is almost what we had to do or get lucky,
- 16:51Speaker 6: you know, the right dominoes have to fall to.
- 16:52Speaker 5: If you've got a loss or two to get your back,
- 16:54Speaker 5: you lose that pick game. Today, you're still in the conversations,
- 16:56Speaker 5: you're making the plays.
- 16:57Speaker 6: In there, and actually you just got to win your
- 17:00Speaker 6: conference and you're in so you know, normally, unless something
- 17:03Speaker 6: weird happens in these other conferences. Ever, take the Big
- 17:06Speaker 6: twelves champion as far as rankings, but yeah, it's gonna
- 17:09Speaker 6: be gonna be good. Hopefully we won't be doing any
- 17:11Speaker 6: legal analysis on his contractor it comes soon, but it
- 17:15Speaker 6: was interesting one back then.
- 17:16Speaker 5: So there's so much stuff going on and we're just
- 17:18Speaker 5: talking this morning. Tom and Harvey both like to talk
- 17:21Speaker 5: a little bit about local sports from a w An
- 17:23Speaker 5: Marshall and UH, and of course we're we always like
- 17:26Speaker 5: having those conversations. However, if you do have a legal
- 17:28Speaker 5: question this morning, we're you know, if you want to,
- 17:30Speaker 5: I guess spit something about w View, but more on
- 17:33Speaker 5: the legal side of things, you can give us a
- 17:34Speaker 5: call this morning. Three zero four three four two eight
- 17:35Speaker 5: one three one three four two eight one three one.
- 17:37Speaker 5: Just I asked to speak to the expert, and we'll
- 17:39Speaker 5: get you back to UH to Ryan who can get
- 17:42Speaker 5: you on the ERA with Tom Payton. Three zero four
- 17:44Speaker 5: three four two eight one three one is a number
- 17:46Speaker 5: that you can call. And that's and that story is.
- 17:48Speaker 5: Whatever you think about rich Rod, It's maybe not a
- 17:51Speaker 5: feel good story, but it's at least there's not really
- 17:53Speaker 5: any bad connotations to that story. Right now, there's a
- 17:56Speaker 5: lot of other stuff going on in the state that's
- 17:57Speaker 5: kind of wild right now. The UH, the delegate in
- 18:01Speaker 5: waiting that yeah, he's not going to make it.
- 18:04Speaker 6: I heard that Jeff Jenkins talking about that on the
- 18:08Speaker 6: news this morning, and so we have a I guess
- 18:11Speaker 6: he's he was elected but hasn't been sworn in yet,
- 18:14Speaker 6: but maybe he was had some meetings already in preparation
- 18:18Speaker 6: for the for the legislative session coming out. But it's
- 18:21Speaker 6: a Joe DeSoto. I think he's up from Martinsburg, I believe,
- 18:26Speaker 6: but I guess overnight or yesterday. I think the arrest
- 18:29Speaker 6: was after midnight maybe, And this is anecdotal, meaning I
- 18:34Speaker 6: haven't seen the criminal complaint, but apparently he's making some
- 18:39Speaker 6: kind of threats allegedly against some other members of the legislature,
- 18:43Speaker 6: and so I don't know what happened during their meetings
- 18:45Speaker 6: and whatnot, but it was it was serious enough threats
- 18:50Speaker 6: that he was arrested, and I think as much he
- 18:55Speaker 6: was on So when you you can go to the
- 18:56Speaker 6: Regional Jail, it's actually the Department of Corrections web site
- 19:00Speaker 6: now because the Regional Jail authority is gone. It's all
- 19:02Speaker 6: into the Department of Corrections. But you can see what's
- 19:04Speaker 6: called daily admissions there. I know a lot of people
- 19:07Speaker 6: go to mugshots dot Com and stuff like that, but
- 19:09Speaker 6: you can It's just one of the tabs I click
- 19:12Speaker 6: every morning for various reasons to see who's and I
- 19:14Speaker 6: click on Western Regional in South Central regional, but you
- 19:17Speaker 6: can see who has been arrested sent to the local
- 19:23Speaker 6: regional jail. There are no county jails anymore. There are
- 19:26Speaker 6: all these regional jails and who has not posted bond yet,
- 19:29Speaker 6: and they're generally their picture unless there's a problem with
- 19:32Speaker 6: the website and some basic information about the charges what
- 19:36Speaker 6: county misdemeanor, felony, pre trial, they will show up there
- 19:40Speaker 6: in the daily admissions section. You don't search their name.
- 19:44Speaker 6: You just see everybody that's been arrested and sent to
- 19:48Speaker 6: jail after midnight but has not posted bond yet. So
- 19:51Speaker 6: I think he was up on maybe it's the Eastern
- 19:54Speaker 6: Regional Jail website overnight. Now I understand he's not up
- 19:58Speaker 6: there any longer. So that means he's probably being uh
- 20:03Speaker 6: sent before a magistrate. They do a lot of those
- 20:05Speaker 6: remotely now through closed circuit television. But that initial arraignment
- 20:11Speaker 6: is where the mage will set a bond amount, and
- 20:14Speaker 6: so they they maybe it's something where he they've transported
- 20:16Speaker 6: him out of the jail physically and or maybe they
- 20:19Speaker 6: set a bond it's low and they know he's he's
- 20:21Speaker 6: getting out it's imminent, or somebody's got severe mental health problems.
- 20:26Speaker 6: Sometimes they can be sent to a mental health facility.
- 20:29Speaker 6: Because I'm not sure about this when it seems a
- 20:32Speaker 6: little based on the story we're here, it's it's it's
- 20:36Speaker 6: a little maybe there's some mental health issues there or
- 20:38Speaker 6: something like that going on. But yeah, I think there
- 20:40Speaker 6: was another member of the legislature who, like, I mean,
- 20:43Speaker 6: the threat was so real that there was action taken too.
- 20:46Speaker 6: Terroistic threats of family and things like that. Yeah, and
- 20:49Speaker 6: it's you got to be you know, I've had some
- 20:51Speaker 6: cases like that. We've had some well, yeah, there are
- 20:55Speaker 6: there are there's a terroristic threat statute. I don't know
- 20:57Speaker 6: how long it's been there. It's it may have been
- 20:59Speaker 6: something that was after like nine eleven and that kind
- 21:01Speaker 6: of thing. But like especially for young people or kids
- 21:05Speaker 6: who just willy nilly stuff on social media and things
- 21:08Speaker 6: like that. But if you I mean, I've had cases
- 21:10Speaker 6: where a large company that's uh, maybe frustrating to deal
- 21:14Speaker 6: with if you have an issue. I've had clients call
- 21:19Speaker 6: and make you know, I'm glad Dad and and hang
- 21:24Speaker 6: up on them. Now, I know from talking to that
- 21:27Speaker 6: client where I think from talking to them that they
- 21:29Speaker 6: were never really going to take any action. But you
- 21:32Speaker 6: say that on a phone call and it's recorded where
- 21:34Speaker 6: you know, I'd like to come down there and just
- 21:37Speaker 6: blow up your buildings. You know, that can be a
- 21:39Speaker 6: criminal charge. That can be a felony. So you know,
- 21:43Speaker 6: you just have to be real careful. Now if it's
- 21:45Speaker 6: if it's in jest and it's obvious, then it's not.
- 21:48Speaker 6: I mean, some of there's some intent element there, but
- 21:52Speaker 6: but yeah, that's that's you know, it doesn't take a
- 21:55Speaker 6: whole lot for you to say or type if that's
- 21:58Speaker 6: the case used to be, you could there was, so
- 22:00Speaker 6: there still are. There's some like stalking type harassment criminal statutes.
- 22:05Speaker 6: But then they've got this terroristic threats one now and
- 22:08Speaker 6: it's it's I forget what takes that from a misdemeanor
- 22:12Speaker 6: to felony. There's definitely a threash, but it can be
- 22:14Speaker 6: a felony because I've had it. I mean that situation
- 22:16Speaker 6: I just went through, I mean that was a felony
- 22:19Speaker 6: charge and it got worked out. But in my client's
- 22:22Speaker 6: thing was while I was never really going to do anything. Yeah,
- 22:24Speaker 6: but when the call was recorded and there was you know,
- 22:28Speaker 6: the tone with which this person was speaking certainly could
- 22:33Speaker 6: have been viewed as this is a real threat. This
- 22:35Speaker 6: isn't just somebody popping off. It's blowing off some steam,
- 22:39Speaker 6: for example, And so you got to be I don't
- 22:42Speaker 6: know if you have to be careful, just don't do
- 22:43Speaker 6: stuff like that.
- 22:44Speaker 5: We had a situation where a caller called in here
- 22:47Speaker 5: and it got elevated to harassment. I actually had to
- 22:51Speaker 5: testify in the case because the guy was calling in here.
- 22:55Speaker 5: It was harassing with sort of implied threats but not
- 22:58Speaker 5: any direct threats. Never got up to that level of
- 23:01Speaker 5: like terroristic threats or anything like that, but it was harassment.
- 23:03Speaker 5: He got ultimately convicted, and then I think he got
- 23:05Speaker 5: let out because whatever.
- 23:06Speaker 6: Genterally the phone harassment statue, that's I think that's always
- 23:11Speaker 6: a misdemeanor if it's under that statute, not to the
- 23:13Speaker 6: point of terroristic threats. So that would be like calling
- 23:16Speaker 6: somebody really for the purpose, no other purpose than to harass.
- 23:20Speaker 6: And that can be not just messages left or what said.
- 23:24Speaker 5: It can be the number of calls forty seven times
- 23:25Speaker 5: in eighty minutes.
- 23:26Speaker 6: Yeah, for example, Yeah, you know, I've had I've had
- 23:30Speaker 6: a case where you hear the swatting thing these days.
- 23:34Speaker 6: That's where some person reports to the police, like and
- 23:38Speaker 6: even though you're not doing anything wrong, they would say, oh,
- 23:41Speaker 6: there's a hostage situation in Dale's house or something, and
- 23:45Speaker 6: then the swat team shows up and you know, nothing
- 23:47Speaker 6: ever really happened. I had, you know, I've had at
- 23:49Speaker 6: least one over the year. It's been a long time
- 23:51Speaker 6: ago where somebody was just playing a joke, like I
- 23:54Speaker 6: think they put an ad out or something, so somebody
- 23:56Speaker 6: was selling X, Y and Z, and it was just
- 23:59Speaker 6: made up and they said it was a joke. But
- 24:01Speaker 6: the person that was the was getting all kinds of calls,
- 24:04Speaker 6: and so that was the I think we worked that.
- 24:05Speaker 6: They may have been dismissed because it was indirect, but
- 24:08Speaker 6: I mean, the the ad this person placed basically was
- 24:14Speaker 6: portraying a deal on a good that was being sold
- 24:18Speaker 6: that was a really really really good deal and they
- 24:21Speaker 6: weren't really selling anything. So then they were flooded with
- 24:23Speaker 6: all kinds of calls and communications about the item that
- 24:27Speaker 6: was especially for sale, which was all just a facade
- 24:30Speaker 6: and made up and h that's kind of borderline. It
- 24:32Speaker 6: was it a joke? Was it to harass and and
- 24:36Speaker 6: I don't know, I mean intense in somebody's mind, but
- 24:40Speaker 6: the person who was the subject of it didn't think
- 24:41Speaker 6: it was a joke.
- 24:42Speaker 5: What's kind of frightening. Is one of the first swatting
- 24:44Speaker 5: situations I was made aware of. It was years and
- 24:46Speaker 5: years ago now, but I think it it actually ended
- 24:49Speaker 5: up in there being either a injury or a fatality
- 24:52Speaker 5: in it from where the the unit from the police
- 24:55Speaker 5: thought that there was something going on here and there
- 24:57Speaker 5: was a breach into the home and then somebody tried
- 25:00Speaker 5: to retaliate and they ended up getting shot. It was
- 25:02Speaker 5: like this whole thing and then it almost became more
- 25:05Speaker 5: popular after that. It's like people weren't like, we better
- 25:07Speaker 5: not do this because of the unintended consequences. People are like, oh,
- 25:10Speaker 5: maybe somebody will get shot if we sure.
- 25:11Speaker 6: I mean, that's just dangerous, yea. And I don't know
- 25:14Speaker 6: if there's a there's I don't know if there's a
- 25:16Speaker 6: criminal statute for quote swatting, but there certainly are criminal
- 25:19Speaker 6: statutes in West Virginia for false reporting of an emergency. Yes,
- 25:23Speaker 6: I haven't had one of those. I've had some misdemeanors
- 25:26Speaker 6: that were not swatting type cases. It was something more minor.
- 25:30Speaker 6: Maybe there's a wreck and somebody calls in something that
- 25:32Speaker 6: wasn't true about how the wreck happened or something like that.
- 25:35Speaker 6: But I assume there's some felony element to that. But
- 25:37Speaker 6: that most people that do complicated swatting that I've seen,
- 25:41Speaker 6: it's very different. They do it in a way it's
- 25:43Speaker 6: just like these fraud calls or emails you yet it's
- 25:45Speaker 6: they do it in a way that's very difficult to
- 25:48Speaker 6: track the fact they were the one who notified long.
- 25:51Speaker 5: Like the bomb threats here in West Virginia a few
- 25:53Speaker 5: months ago to the school. I mean that was out
- 25:55Speaker 5: of statu I think, or they thought it was. And
- 25:57Speaker 5: you just can't figure out who it is is because
- 26:00Speaker 5: of their ability to mask where they're calling from or
- 26:04Speaker 5: where they're emailing from, and that kind of thing.
- 26:05Speaker 6: And take a little break.
- 26:06Speaker 5: Yeah, let's goad and take a break. If you want
- 26:07Speaker 5: to control the conversation within. Tom's have been dropping all
- 26:10Speaker 5: kinds of knowledge and things this morning. But if you
- 26:12Speaker 5: want to turn it towards a legal issue that you
- 26:15Speaker 5: have a question that you have, or maybe a loved
- 26:16Speaker 5: one that you're in a conversation and they don't have
- 26:18Speaker 5: a chance to call this morning. You can make that
- 26:19Speaker 5: call on their place. You can give us a call
- 26:21Speaker 5: three zero four three four two eight one three one.
- 26:22Speaker 5: You can also send over a text message to three
- 26:24Speaker 5: zero four non three five five zero zero eight. Three
- 26:26Speaker 5: zero four non three five five zero zero eight is
- 26:29Speaker 5: the number that you can text in to as well.
- 26:32Speaker 5: We'll ahead and take a break and we'll be back
- 26:33Speaker 5: after this. You're listening to Ask the Lawyer with Tom
- 26:35Speaker 5: Payton from the Payton Law Firm Payton Lawfirm dot com
- 26:37Speaker 5: on five ADWCCHS the Voice of Charleston.
- 26:41Speaker 6: Hey, West Virginia need extra defense this season.
- 26:45Speaker 5: Don't win. Respiratory illness slow you down.
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- 26:55Speaker 3: So you can celebrate safely, get closer with confidence, and
- 27:00Speaker 3: never miss a moment.
- 27:02Speaker 2: Breathe easy, West Virginia. Find out how by going to.
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- 27:41Speaker 3: Put the bow Baby on the side.
- 27:45Speaker 4: We have the court room experience. I set your need,
- 27:49Speaker 4: we never give up. We're prepared to fight for your rights.
- 27:55Speaker 4: When you need action, count on us on your side.
- 28:06Speaker 5: You can put the power of Payton on your side
- 28:08Speaker 5: this morning. Three zero, four, three, four, five or threes
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- 28:15Speaker 5: zero zero eight threes are A four non three five,
- 28:17Speaker 5: five zeros or eight. Understand our switchboard is a little
- 28:19Speaker 5: busy this morning, so keep on trying to get through.
- 28:22Speaker 5: Uh we are a little short staffed on the answering,
- 28:24Speaker 5: so keep on trying to get through and we'll get
- 28:26Speaker 5: to you three zero four three four two eight one
- 28:27Speaker 5: three one, or if not, you can text over a
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- 28:31Speaker 5: zero eight. The Paytent Law firm located online Paytonlaw Firm
- 28:33Speaker 5: dot Comment's if with a p E Y T O
- 28:35Speaker 5: in Payton Law Firm dot com. Their phone number three
- 28:37Speaker 5: are A four seven five five fifty five fifty six.
- 28:39Speaker 6: Yeah, but you can't get through on the radio. I
- 28:40Speaker 6: know we've had some some of the lines bogged up
- 28:42Speaker 6: over the over the years. I've heard some people comment,
- 28:44Speaker 6: but feel free to send us some message through the
- 28:46Speaker 6: website or give us a call. Website emails are are
- 28:50Speaker 6: a little bit easier for us to get back to
- 28:52Speaker 6: you if you just need some general information. But like
- 28:54Speaker 6: I say every week, we don't start the clicker and
- 28:56Speaker 6: start charging your money just to answer some basic questions,
- 29:00Speaker 6: give you some basic information, and just to reiterate, reiterate
- 29:03Speaker 6: what we do, because we've been talking about a lot
- 29:05Speaker 6: of wide range of things this morning, and we do
- 29:07Speaker 6: do some criminal defense, pretty selective with it, but our
- 29:10Speaker 6: bread and butter's civil litigation, meaning we're trial ers.
- 29:14Speaker 2: So we.
- 29:16Speaker 6: Handle cases mostly consumer oriented cases meaning consumer meaning kind
- 29:20Speaker 6: of everyday people work, so we don't. We do small
- 29:24Speaker 6: business work, but we don't do big represent interests of
- 29:29Speaker 6: big corporations or big insurance companies because we're always on
- 29:32Speaker 6: the other side of those scenarios. But if you've had
- 29:36Speaker 6: somebody in an automobile accident, if we had somebody come
- 29:39Speaker 6: in last week that had unfortunately a spouse had passed away,
- 29:44Speaker 6: and then one of these insurance life insurance companies tries
- 29:47Speaker 6: to deny the claim after the fact. We handle a
- 29:49Speaker 6: decent number of those. So if you have a dispute
- 29:51Speaker 6: with an insurance company, auto insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance,
- 29:56Speaker 6: those are what we do a lot of, and we
- 29:58Speaker 6: do a really good job that. We also do all
- 30:01Speaker 6: kinds of other civil litigations, get some of state issues,
- 30:04Speaker 6: a state litigation, boundary issues, property issues, things like that.
- 30:08Speaker 6: So if you have any of those issues, we just
- 30:10Speaker 6: ask you to think about us and give us a
- 30:11Speaker 6: call and maybe we can help you out. At the
- 30:14Speaker 6: same time, we try and help people, so we do
- 30:17Speaker 6: state planning deeds. Actually have today I've got it's a
- 30:21Speaker 6: good example of what we do. So I'm leaving here
- 30:22Speaker 6: and going to do a soci security disability hearing, which
- 30:24Speaker 6: we're all by telephones. I'll go back to my office
- 30:27Speaker 6: and do that. And we we don't do thousands of
- 30:30Speaker 6: sub security disability cases, but we usually have a handful
- 30:32Speaker 6: going at any one time, and that allows us to
- 30:34Speaker 6: really pay attention and keep track and make sure we're
- 30:37Speaker 6: getting the case prepared the absolute best you can. Because
- 30:41Speaker 6: if you've applied for security disability, generally, well almost universally,
- 30:46Speaker 6: you don't get it when you apply. Then you've got
- 30:48Speaker 6: to ask for a reconsideration. Then you got to ask
- 30:50Speaker 6: for a hearing, and that whole process can take easily
- 30:54Speaker 6: two years from the time you apply, and unfortunately, during
- 30:57Speaker 6: that timeframe, the nature of a disability out location is
- 31:00Speaker 6: you're not working that entire time, and so, uh, those
- 31:03Speaker 6: hearings are extremely important for the clients and so we
- 31:08Speaker 6: like to be fully prepared and then you know, if
- 31:10Speaker 6: we win. Those are contingency feeds too. So if you
- 31:13Speaker 6: have a security disability case, actually and you're trying to
- 31:16Speaker 6: you can do them on your own, but if you
- 31:20Speaker 6: want to hire a lawyer, at least, the way we
- 31:23Speaker 6: do it at our office is you know, it's contingency fees.
- 31:25Speaker 6: So if the case goes through and we don't win
- 31:27Speaker 6: the claim, then you don't pay us anything for our time,
- 31:30Speaker 6: well for any cost that we've advanced to work the
- 31:32Speaker 6: case up. The good thing is if you do win
- 31:35Speaker 6: your claim, then you do get a backpay award, so
- 31:37Speaker 6: you can basically take there's a five month for disability
- 31:42Speaker 6: insurance benefits. There's a you got to knock off five
- 31:45Speaker 6: months of your back pay, but otherwise they basically pay
- 31:47Speaker 6: you a lump sum for each month that you had
- 31:50Speaker 6: to wait to get your disability, depending on how far
- 31:52Speaker 6: back the Sociecurity Administration finds that you were disabled. But
- 31:55Speaker 6: that's how the lawyer gets paid. So it'd be a
- 31:57Speaker 6: percentage of the back pay, and it's cap at a
- 32:00Speaker 6: certain amount under federal law. So if you if you
- 32:03Speaker 6: have a two hundred thousand dollars, well see the biggest one.
- 32:05Speaker 6: I've had probably around one hundred and fifty thousand back pay,
- 32:08Speaker 6: and that was a unique case because it went way
- 32:10Speaker 6: way back. But for example, the fee wouldn't be you know,
- 32:15Speaker 6: it's twenty five thousand, it's twenty five percent or x
- 32:19Speaker 6: amount of dollars capped at a certain amount, so it's
- 32:22Speaker 6: it's you know, I wouldn't go into unless you have
- 32:26Speaker 6: tried to hire a lawyer and they're not. You can't
- 32:28Speaker 6: find a lawyer to represent you. I would never go
- 32:30Speaker 6: into a soci security hearing or do the appeal process
- 32:34Speaker 6: without having an attorney at my side that I felt
- 32:38Speaker 6: trusted and felt confident and confident in the application process.
- 32:44Speaker 6: I always have folks just do it on their own,
- 32:45Speaker 6: because if you know, lightning strikes and they happen to
- 32:48Speaker 6: approve you on your application because it's nothing really tricky
- 32:50Speaker 6: about the application. They do them mostly by phone. Now,
- 32:53Speaker 6: you call the local office, they'll set an appointment. You're
- 32:56Speaker 6: basically given some history of what your ailment's are that
- 33:00Speaker 6: you believe keep you from working full time, and you
- 33:02Speaker 6: tell them where you're going to the doctor and that
- 33:04Speaker 6: kind of thing. And then they're supposed to do some
- 33:06Speaker 6: medical records gathering for you. But they don't do a
- 33:09Speaker 6: very good job. And they I mean, I'm thinking all
- 33:13Speaker 6: the years off had people go just to apply on
- 33:15Speaker 6: their own. I mean, it might be one thousand, maybe
- 33:17Speaker 6: two or three have been approved on the first application.
- 33:22Speaker 6: But I always tell folks to try it because there's
- 33:24Speaker 6: no reason to pay a lawyer a percentage of some
- 33:27Speaker 6: back pay at the beginning, when there's no real trick
- 33:29Speaker 6: to doing the application. Now after that, there are fairly
- 33:31Speaker 6: strict timeframes for requesting every consideration of that decision and
- 33:35Speaker 6: then ultimately requesting a hearing. So that's when you need.
- 33:38Speaker 6: Once you get that denial, let or you need to
- 33:39Speaker 6: contact an attorney and take it from there. And we
- 33:42Speaker 6: do a good bit of those cases and do a
- 33:44Speaker 6: pretty good job. You can't win every security case, but
- 33:48Speaker 6: that's something we do that we really don't talk about
- 33:51Speaker 6: a whole lot. And then so I'm doing that at
- 33:52Speaker 6: ten then going down to the courthouse in Putnam County
- 33:54Speaker 6: and we got some estate litigation, a will contest case,
- 33:58Speaker 6: So we'll see how that one turns out. It's got
- 34:02Speaker 6: a lot of dynamics to it. But we I've probably
- 34:04Speaker 6: got three or four will contest cases going right now
- 34:07Speaker 6: that type of litigation. And we've talked about this, I
- 34:10Speaker 6: think last week, but almost universally, but there are exceptions,
- 34:14Speaker 6: but a lot of those cases are people trying to
- 34:16Speaker 6: do their own estate planning, handwriting their own wills or
- 34:18Speaker 6: getting forms or maybe somebody saw a will a lawyer
- 34:22Speaker 6: drafted so they have somebody draft up a new one
- 34:24Speaker 6: that's not a lawyer, and that's fine, and it may
- 34:27Speaker 6: constitute a will, it may have the right number of witnesses,
- 34:30Speaker 6: it may be written in a way that it is
- 34:32Speaker 6: a will in West Virginia. The problem is what is
- 34:34Speaker 6: it say and can that be put into effect? And
- 34:36Speaker 6: doesn't make sense or is it so ambiguous that you're
- 34:39Speaker 6: just getting your heirs into lawsuits anyway after the fact. So,
- 34:43Speaker 6: at least at our office, I think my opinion is
- 34:45Speaker 6: our fees are very reasonable to do some basic estate
- 34:48Speaker 6: planning as far as wills and maybe power of attorneys,
- 34:51Speaker 6: and so I would be real cautious about trying to
- 34:55Speaker 6: do those things on your own. And there's certain people
- 34:57Speaker 6: they won't see lawyers, they won't they do anything, and
- 34:59Speaker 6: then they just do it themselves, or they think the
- 35:02Speaker 6: fees just astronomical and they you really can't afford a lawyer.
- 35:04Speaker 6: But you'd be.
- 35:05Speaker 5: Surprised lot those people don't actually check. They just assume
- 35:07Speaker 5: that it's going to be that's right, or they.
- 35:09Speaker 6: Just don't want to go see a lawyer. And I
- 35:10Speaker 6: understand that we try and make it as comfortable as
- 35:13Speaker 6: possible for folks that are not too nervous coming yet.
- 35:15Speaker 5: But the one thing I'll just say on that is
- 35:16Speaker 5: that the lawless for everyone.
- 35:17Speaker 6: The law.
- 35:18Speaker 5: The law isn't just for lawyers. If you're with with
- 35:20Speaker 5: some of them with the state planning, that's something where
- 35:22Speaker 5: you're where you want to make sure that you have
- 35:23Speaker 5: everything covered when you're when you're dealing with something trying
- 35:26Speaker 5: to get your security, or if you're in litigation with
- 35:27Speaker 5: someone else who has representation. You're at a disadvantage if
- 35:31Speaker 5: you're trying to access the law without actually knowing the
- 35:33Speaker 5: law well. And people may not think that, but you
- 35:35Speaker 5: really need that help you do.
- 35:36Speaker 6: And the other thing about wills is I don't think
- 35:38Speaker 6: about it as much because I've done thousands of wills
- 35:40Speaker 6: over the years and it's it's but it does you know,
- 35:44Speaker 6: that's a lot of people just don't like to think
- 35:46Speaker 6: about that because it's the end of life for whatever is. Yes,
- 35:50Speaker 6: I mean, and I've had folks, you know, I you
- 35:53Speaker 6: try and be sensitive to it when you notice it,
- 35:55Speaker 6: because I've definitely had folks in my office that are
- 35:57Speaker 6: real upset that they're even doing this because they just
- 36:00Speaker 6: can't they don't want to think about that. And that's
- 36:03Speaker 6: understandable too. But at the same time, it's it's, uh,
- 36:06Speaker 6: we're all gonna need a will one day, and and
- 36:09Speaker 6: so it's a good job, good good idea to try
- 36:11Speaker 6: and just kind of get it taken care of. It's
- 36:13Speaker 6: not too late to do one until it's too late.
- 36:15Speaker 6: And always do a will as long as you're competent.
- 36:18Speaker 6: Uh and and you're there in time.
- 36:20Speaker 5: And it's really a favorite to your survivors too, That's
- 36:23Speaker 5: that's true.
- 36:23Speaker 6: It depends on the situation. But in our office is
- 36:25Speaker 6: real simple. You come in for the first appointment. Uh.
- 36:27Speaker 6: If you can't travel, we'll make some other arrangements to
- 36:30Speaker 6: do it by phone or something like that. At least
- 36:32Speaker 6: the consultation. The first appointment usually takes anywhere from a
- 36:35Speaker 6: half hour to maybe an hour, and then you come
- 36:37Speaker 6: back one more time about the same amount of amount
- 36:40Speaker 6: of time there in our office. And and most people
- 36:43Speaker 6: leave that we're nervous coming in or or hesitant saying, oh,
- 36:46Speaker 6: that wasn't that bad and uh and and that's I
- 36:49Speaker 6: hear that an awful lot. So but so on all
- 36:53Speaker 6: those issues, we just ask you to consider our office
- 36:55Speaker 6: if you need some legal work done and give us
- 36:57Speaker 6: a call and uh and uh we do a really
- 36:59Speaker 6: good jo on those litigation cases.
- 37:01Speaker 5: It's the Payton Law Firm twenty eight oh one, First
- 37:03Speaker 5: Avenue in Nitro, West Virginia. They're fun number three zero
- 37:06Speaker 5: four seven five five fifty five fifty six three zero four,
- 37:09Speaker 5: seven five, five fifty five to fifty six. Also online
- 37:11Speaker 5: Payton Lawfirm dot com, Payton Lawfirm dot com, p E
- 37:14Speaker 5: Y t O N. Payton Lawfirm dot com seven five,
- 37:16Speaker 5: five fifty five fifty six. Tom as always hugely informative,
- 37:21Speaker 5: show a lot of information out there. Folks can catch
- 37:23Speaker 5: out on the podcast at WCHS network dot com here
- 37:25Speaker 5: in about an hour or so.
- 37:26Speaker 6: Tom.
- 37:27Speaker 5: Really appreciate your Tom picks.
- 37:28Speaker 6: Yeah, I love doing it. Hopefully to be back here
- 37:30Speaker 6: next Thursday.
- 37:31Speaker 5: We'll see you back here next Thursday. Year or Harvey.
- 37:33Speaker 5: Have a great day, every one day. Balance up next
- 37:35Speaker 5: on five eighty Live. I'll be back this afternoon at
- 37:36Speaker 5: three or six with Dave Weekly on hotline. Have a
- 37:39Speaker 5: great day everyone On five eighty w c HS The
- 37:41Speaker 5: Voice of Charleston.
- 37:46Speaker 2: W c HS A W two four three d r
- 37:48Speaker 2: F M Charleston W two A three A Q Cross
- 37:50Speaker 2: lanes at WVRC Media Station. We're proud to live here too,