Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 12/28/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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12/28/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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on your side, the power of Paigen and Good Thursday Morning Too is eight
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twenty one on five eighty WCCHS The Voice of Charleston and I'm Jeff Jenkins with
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Tom Payton of the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three O four three four five
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fifty eight fifty eight three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
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Thanks for joining us the last Peyton's show of twenty twenty three, and Tom
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is on location, still basking in the glow of their victory in Charlotte last
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night. Am I right about that? Tom? You are right, you
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are right certainly basking in victory. Ever down here at ground here, everybody's
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just it's a good mood after a nice win like this. Good way to
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end the season for Mountaineer football and for the fans. Some reflections on it,
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of course, you know, if you get then THEO Pro football games,
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the stadiums are just a little better. I mean they look a little
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more for entertainment. And the Mountaineer fans certainly got it. They they were
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talking about a partisan crowd there on the sports a bit, and it certainly
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was. I would say probably ninety percent Mountaineer fans compared to North Carolina fans.
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I'm not sure what it looked like on TV, but it would basically
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like a home game for the Mountaineers, which I thought. One. I
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think it probably affected you and see a little bit. I mean it had
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to have been, if nothing else, a little disappointed since they're playing in
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their homes to state that they're outnumbered, uh nine ten percent in the fans.
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And too, I think it really lifted our players. I've played with
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a lot of energy and uh, it's a good way to end the season
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head on into the next year so we can beat Penn stayed at home during
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our opening game. I believe ye that yet. I'm not breaking that yet.
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But okay, that's the mood we have down here. Well what was
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it like? I mean, it sounded so loud and someone said after you
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know this the singing country ro I mean, just all it just sounded or
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sweet Caroline. It just sounded so loud the whole game. Yeah, I
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was, And of course I was sitting on the Mountaineer side on the lower
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level, but I understand so I wasn't able to see back up on the
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upper level on our side. But I think they opened up in the Mountaineer
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side of the stadium so they could have overflows from the top level and the
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other side. Of course, they're winning these fans at all above the North
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Carolina section. But yeah, good movie. You know you're singing country roads
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after the game, and it's a special feeling, especially to do at the
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end of this type season. And I picked them six and six. Dad,
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you know, give him credit again. He did pick eight and four,
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so he was small. I don't know. I think you picked him
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to win a Bowl game. So we'll give him some I said, his
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years of experience, he was a better predictor than I was. But you
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know, you got the North Carolina fans or players filtering off the field where
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everybody's got their arms around each other seeing country roads. I mean, it's
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a you know, I've had something the North Carolina players won't forget, and
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I learned them Mountaineer fans. So and it was really they organized it.
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Well, it's downtown. They blocked off about two blocks for the fans own,
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which of course again was almost all Mountaineer fans. So it was just
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been here for a bowl game. We make it again. Anybody out there
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listening to try and make the trip. I came down for it. We
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played Tennessee in the opening game a few years ago and it was it was
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nice then as well. Of course, we won that game right exactly,
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So so the pregame atmosphere, you got a sense that it was going to
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be pretty good. Oh yeah, I mean we were. We actually ahead
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of time, you can reserve spots in parking garages, so we were able
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to get a good spot in the parking garage that I had purchased ahead of
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time, and uh, you know, I had no idea what kind of
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atmosphere it was going to be. Walked a few blocks to a restaurant and
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just all Mountaineer fans. You can just probably saw a handful of tar Hill
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blue gear on the way over two blocks of walking. So yep, really
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good at us here a Mountaineers travel. You could tell them good at Green's
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postgame interview that you know, got head home for the players, and you
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know hopefully that you like to think it does. As a fan, you
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don't really know it's going to help the kid stay versus transfer somewhere else.
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Certainly can't hurt. Certainly can't hurt to have fans that travel like this.
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Well, it certainly feels good today after uh and gives you some momentum,
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as you mentioned, heading into the next year. That's right, and Neil
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Brown's got to be flying pretty high. The only thing I would say after
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the that Bowl game yesterday is it won't bother me if I don't see another
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jar of Duke's mayo for about six months. So well, they they really
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they really pour it on. I mean, I mean, pardon the punt,
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but they really do pour it on. Don't take the sponsorship. Wow,
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they do. Yeah, it's all over the state. I mean they
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pushed push and push it and uh. And of course then Neil Neil Brown
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got doubt in it after the game yesterday, and so it's I like Mayo,
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but that's a little much. Hey, we got a call, Tom,
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We got a call. Yeah, so time's on the phone. We
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also have a called Bob in Charleston. Bob, you're on with Tom Payton.
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Go ahead. Doesn't have anything to do with all I guess the game
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last night. But one of my son's friends in Charlotte was at the game
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sent him a picture on the phone that was of Dana Holgerson wearing mountaineer years
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supposedly at the game. Please tell me that that picture was a created then,
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that Dana Holgerson really wasn't there. I didn't see Dana Holgerson there.
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I can attempt that I did not see him be if if he was out
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where the cameras could get on him. They never put him up on the
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big screen, which might have happened if Dana Holgerson was there wearing a mountain
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here. Yeah, I think that was I think you're right, Bob,
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I think your guess is right. I think that's a I generated. Okay,
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thanks a lot, And I didn't hear any I didn't hear any scuttle
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butt about that after the game when we were walking out with the thousands of
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fans. I think probably would have I would have seen on social media as
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my guess, but who knows what. I wouldn't blame him. Hey he
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got he got one of the victories over the Mountain, one of the victories.
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Well, you think if the Mountainers could have won that game, what
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a season it would have been. So I still think they they're going to
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be on the edge, teetering on top twenty five when the final poll comes
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out. So great season, everybody had been a good new heading for next
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year, and uh, just a good way to top off o the year
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for Mountaineer football. Tom Payton is here Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. Three
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h four three four five fifty eight fifty is the number. Three oh four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Tom down in Charlotte for the Mountaineer
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victory before making his way back to West Virginia. Hate. I mean,
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we're just a couple of days away. I heard on the morning news this
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morning it really just kind of hit you. You know, well, now
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it's probably less less than ninety hours from the end of the year, right,
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and we turned the calendar here in a couple of days. Yeah,
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another successful year at Peyton Law Firm. I think we you know, how
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do you adjust success and what we do? Well, you know, I
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think we've helped a lot of people this year, and you think about what
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we do as a lawyer's civil litigation, you know, we we solve people's
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problems and ultimately without sorts of violence or the criminal law, and so uh,
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you know, we've sold a lot of problems over the last year and
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helped people, and then we'll play on being there again next year. And
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so uh for those who listen or don't listen regularly, don't know what we
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do. You know, bread and butter, what we do an awful lot
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of civil litigation on the plaine of side of the consumer side, meaning normal
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normally ordinary people, small businesses. If you've been hurt physically, for example,
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I don't go accident or a or a fall, or financially, if
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you've been gotten this year was an insurance company not making the payment or to
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claim something to that effect, that's probably the majority of our business. But
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we also do deeds, wills, so scary disability claims and a variety of
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other general matters. So we're going to plannel continuing that on into the future.
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And if you have any issue in that regard, don't hesitate to give
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us a call, call right now, or give us to call at the
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office commediately located on First Avenue in Nitro. Just probably maybe you don't run
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into traffic, maybe fifteen minutes from Charleston and thirty minutes probably thirty five minutes
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from Huntington. So you know, looking forward, je just to continuing the
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same thing we've been doing on the radio as well for twenty almost I should
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be almost twenty five years, probably coming up this next year. So yeah,
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it's amazing. You know. I was thinking, Tom, you know,
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just yesterday, I mean, there are a number of wrecks, and
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I was thinking, you know, you hope most people having sure sometimes they
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don't. Sometimes they don't have enough coverage. I wouldn't say if you're in
9:54
if you're in a serious automobile accident or if you're you know, in your
9:58
wreck, and there's some you know, so it's probably good as the driver
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or as the person who might be injured, or maybe you think it's a
10:05
minor injury. It's you probably don't want to jump to any conclusions as oh,
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I'm not that you know what I mean. I mean, it's probably
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not a bad idea to call sure well whether you've First of all, it's
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if you have just a property damage issue, you can certainly give us a
10:20
call. A lot of those. I'll tell you. If you have a
10:22
property damage meeting somebody, some other person's insurance company won't communicate with you about
10:28
your rental car or getting it repaired. Looking answer those general questions, you
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can also file complaints with the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office, and they're pretty active
10:37
and good about getting communication issues resolved with the other side. But if you
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have any type of injury at all from the accident, you're hurt, you're
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hurting, that's when it's a little more critical to give us a call potentially,
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because even if we don't ultimately represent you, we can still in the
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right direction. Here's how you want to handle your health insurance. Here's what
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you know you might have under your own amabile insurance, and how that coordinates
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with the person's insurance, who was who was at fault? But if you've
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been hurt, you were offender, but hurt significantly. You know, we
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hope it's our office, but you really ought to conduct a lawyer rather quickly
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because there can be evidentiary issues that need to be addressed. I have a
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case right now, for example, where there is a dispute about who caused
11:22
the actor was at a crossing. Well, we jumped in fairly early on
11:26
and got what they call the data recorder or you know, black box data
11:31
off the vehicle our client was driving. And so if we wouldn't have got
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in there early enough, for example, that car could be salvaged, auctioned
11:39
and who knows where, and the other person's vehicle you need to secure it.
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In that particular case I was referencing, for example, we identified the
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other person's insurance to preserve the vehicle by letters. Well they didn't. It
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got sold and ultimately crushed, and the black box data was not available from
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that vehicle. So how do you handle that? We did what we could,
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So now we have a separate claim against the insurance company who are what
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they call exfoliating or not preserving the evidence. We've heard some of that in
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the jail cases that have Fay were to preserve emails, things like that same
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type process in that claim. But there are so many examples where you could
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use a lawyer's help at the beginning if you're hurt or you're hurt bad,
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and so you really shouldn't hesitate to call. And of course we'd never charge
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for initial consultations in any type of matter. Certainly you're not going to pay
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us on an injury type claim anyway unless we have a formal agreement and we
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get a recovery on your behalf. But yeah, those early calls can be
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real critical. If you're hurt significantly or have a fam number hurts significantly,
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you know it right off the bat. I mean, I would just urge
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folks to conduct the lawyers possible, just not that you have to hire them
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necessarily, but you need to get proper information and then potentially you need to
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take some action to preserve the evidence. Tom, there's a lot of things
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that happen with that too. I mean, you've got damaged vehicle, you're
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hurt, you've got doctor bills, you've got you know, another vehicle that
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might be involved. I mean a lot I can just see how that stuff
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would pile up on an individual and you need some help to navigate get through
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that. Well, it certainly does, and you haven't done it for so
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long it's hard to bring my mind out of the equation. But you know,
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nobody likes trying to wade through business or any particular matter when you're not
13:37
sure what you're doing. And so we've done it for so long that we
13:41
know what we're doing. But yes, what I'll try and tell my clients
13:43
is, you know, when we get a case like that where somebody seriously
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injured in an autogo accident, they need to concentrate on trying to get better
13:52
health wise, and then we worry about the rest. So we think our
13:56
office is pretty easy to deal with for our clients, and so when they
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hire us, it allows them to deal with us and not deal with an
14:03
insurance adjuster and some unknown field, and we coordinate help with their health insurance
14:07
benefits versus their autobil in terms of befets and those kinds of things. That
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way, hopefully it can ease our client's mind and they can concentrate on getting
14:16
the medical treatment they need to try and try and get better. Because that's
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that's the ultimate goal for the for the client and the the Again, the
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easiest way to do that you can email, you can call, you could
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drop by. There's three there's three good options there. Yeah. They go
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to our website and then Pydon Law Firm dot com and you can submit an
14:37
email there and it will come right to my computer and to ad computer.
14:41
And if you don't get a response from a there so just read email could
14:43
have gone to junk mail. We also have a chat button on our website
14:48
too if you prefer Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and you can get to us
14:52
that way always. You can stop by the office twenty oh one First Avenue.
14:56
If we're there, we'll come out and and chat if we can give
15:00
you some information, help you out, and then give us a call.
15:03
Our office number is three zero four seven five five five five five six,
15:07
and we're essentially available twenty four hours a day. If you have an emergency
15:11
situation, you can leave a voicemail that will ultimately get to my stellular phone
15:18
in case we need to take some action in off hours. Tom Payton with
15:24
the Peyton Law Firm is with us and number to call three oh four three
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four five fifty eight fifty eight three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty
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eight to Tom on the phone today, but the lines are open. Three
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oh four, three four five fifty eight fifty eighty questions about the law.
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never give up. We're prepared to fight for your what when you need action
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count on us? What the power of Payson on your side? The power
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of me? It's a thirty eight on five ABWHS the voice for Charleston,
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last Thursday morning of twenty twenty three, and Tom Payton is here at the
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Peyton Law Firm in Nitro, like the Peytons are every Thursday morning of every
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year for about twenty five years. And the number to CAUs three or four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Question for Tom three oh four three
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four five fifty eight fifty times in the Charlotte area after the Mountaineer's victory last
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night, and Tom, if you look on social media about every other post
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our pictures from that stadium last night. Yeah, I'll have to check in
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too if I can see a picture of the Mountaineers side of the stadium,
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because it had to been it almost at a lower level. Was there weren't
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very many seats empty. It was almost completely full, so I assume they
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had a good lot of folks on the on the upper day. But yeah,
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it was impressive. You know, I was speaking Jeff as we go
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into the first year, when you talk about New Year's resolutions and things to
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do for the for the new year, and you know, although we do
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a lot of civil litigation, we also do an awful lot of a state
18:17
planning. And if you have you know, high work, you know where
18:21
you have to deal with federal estate pack which isn't nine option of our clients,
18:25
then I can talk with you and coordinate with a lawyer that does that
18:29
type work. But if you need any type of regular estate planning, our
18:33
office can handle it and kind of bring it up because you know, I
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don't know how many wills I probably get a thousand wills or more this year,
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We're do an awful lot of them, but also get a lot of
18:45
questions after the fact when folks have passed away and unfortunately didn't get a will
18:48
done, and I hear things like, well, he just thought it would
18:52
go to this person, or he told me that so and so wanted to
18:57
have this, So you know, both those are statements I hear after the
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fact that's there problems. So you know, if you're out there and thinking
19:06
about getting some mistake planning done, in particular, I would say, in
19:11
particular if you have a blended family where there are step children, for example,
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I've had multiple cases this year alone, or situations I guess you would
19:22
say, Jeff, where for example, my husband and wife lived together,
19:27
maybe it's their second marriage. They have Let's say the wife has the deed
19:33
in her name because she owned it before they got married, but they've lived
19:36
there for thirty years. Well, she has children that are not as a
19:42
result of the marriage with their current husband. She passes away without a will,
19:47
what happens to the house, Well, she intended to transfer it to
19:52
her husband if she passed away first, maybe, but if she didn't do
19:56
a will, Jeff, then that gets that asked that is divided between children
20:02
and the surviving spouse. So I hear that a lot, and usually I'm
20:07
trying to clean up the mess afterward. But that's a good example because there
20:11
is everybody has a will. It's made by the legislatures. So if you
20:14
pass away without a will, the legislature says where your property goes. And
20:18
so if you've got everybody should have a will generally, even if it doesn't
20:25
necessarily change where your property ultimately passes. But there are things in a will
20:30
that can help in the process. But in particular, if you have a
20:33
mixedperily with step children, then you really need to think about getting some basic
20:40
a state planning done. And if somebody out there wants to get some estate
20:42
planning done through our office, yet it's a pretty simple process. They contact
20:45
the office, they can email or call. My staff sets them for an
20:48
initial appointment, no initial upfront fees. So then you come in and we
20:53
discuss your plan, and then we'll have you come back one other time to
21:00
keep the documents and and I'll quite a feed during the during the first meeting,
21:03
so there's no surprises and you know that innationial appointment probably takes an hour,
21:10
and then going back in to sign may take another hour. So it's
21:14
really not an arduous process and I think the feeds are reasonable. So as
21:18
we head into the new year, it's just one of those things that we
21:22
all put off because you don't have to do it, and you don't think
21:26
about that down the line of how it will affect others if you don't get
21:29
your estate planning done. But it can and it's real and things don't just
21:33
happen the way you want if you don't take act to control them. It's
21:38
you know, it's something to think about going into the into the next year,
21:42
and we can certainly help with that. Tom. Do you see when
21:45
you go through you said you did a thousand this year? Probably do you?
21:49
Is there a palpable relief in most of these cases when people get that
21:53
done, I mean just in it in general, they're glad it's done.
21:57
Yes, Usually it's you know, you can check that one off your bucket
22:00
list because it's just something on your mind that you need to get done.
22:03
And but like it's done. Yesn't a lot of you hear a lot of
22:08
well that wasn't so bad? Or I'm glad I got that taken care of
22:11
and and it really isn't and it's you know you can I never know.
22:18
We can't quote it exactly until you come in and meet. But our fees
22:21
are reasonable and so you know you're you're not going to spend an arm and
22:26
a leg to get some basic of state planning done. And you know they're
22:30
dealing with the lawyer a little bit, which we try to make as comfortable
22:34
for folks as possible when they come into our office. Then it's it's it's
22:38
a pretty easy process and you don't need to bring anything when you first come
22:41
in. That's what we get asked as well, except for some idea of
22:45
who you want to get your property. And I generally try and draft wheels
22:52
just exactly the way folks want things done. But sometimes we have conversations about
22:56
better ways to do things. But ultimately it's it's about the client's plan and
23:02
where they want their property to go when they pass away, and our goal
23:03
is to get a will done effectively, so it's legal, so you know
23:07
it's not subject to any valid challenge. And two to use language that makes
23:12
it an ease to interpret after the fact. Because words do matter in those
23:18
documents obviously, right, and that's you know, people don't think about that.
23:25
Folks will draft their own wills. I feel a lot of these forms
23:27
picked up at local office supply stores or off the internet. And what actually
23:33
is problematic is a lot of times they are valid wills because folks follow the
23:38
form language in order to have the proper number of witnesses within the language they
23:45
use in the document is the problem, because not having years of experience envisioning
23:51
or seeing how this will play out. Sometimes the language needs a court ruling
23:57
just to interpret what they meant. And so I discourage first of all,
24:03
you don't get any legal advice with forms like that, and if you're going
24:08
to go through the trouble to get a form or pay something on the internet,
24:12
you really should, you know, wait and try and get a formal
24:15
appointment with an attorney. But but we see a lot of what i'll call
24:19
self help wills. Folks do their own wills, and then I usually see
24:25
them after the fact because we're in litigation about the languagees and the wills,
24:27
and so it's sometimes caused more of a problem than kind of helped. Having
24:33
a well done at all, but I would Yeah, well, I'm saying,
24:37
so you can help someone who's never had a will, but you can
24:41
also help someone that maybe they maybe have some doubts about the way maybe theirs
24:45
is and you can take a look at it. Sure, yeah, that's
24:48
right. And if they a lot of times the hot folks come in for
24:52
the first appointment and they think, because you know, one of their beneficiaries
24:56
and their will passed away or maybe their primary executive, have a new will
25:00
done, and the fact that when you read the language, it's still getting
25:04
done the plan that they want because there were contingencies in their initial will.
25:08
But yeah, if you've drafted your own will, you know, you just
25:15
really look into formally getting a proper will done because it's I don't generally review
25:21
wills that people draft themselves to give us the stamp of approval. I usually
25:26
deal with them after the fact when there's a problem or an issue. It's
25:30
just one of those things. You might be your own will and it might
25:33
be fine. But because wills are in essence, they operate like a deed
25:38
when you pass away to your land, the particular language you use can cause
25:44
significant problems personal property, easy or mondy because it can be divided up when
25:49
you start talking about interest in land and causing a you know, maybe a
25:55
permanent blemish on the title or who owns the property or what the conditions of
25:59
the property are. You're probably going to send your beneficiaries are coming members to
26:04
court after you pass away. And that's another and that's another particular era of
26:07
expertise you guys do, because though just like an I'm a bill accident,
26:11
you've got a lot of things with injuries. I mean, you got a
26:14
lot of things kind of heading to you just to try to entangle these estates.
26:18
I know, you do a lot of that that can be that can
26:22
be very interesting. Yeah, we get a lot of a state litigation.
26:26
And the other thing about airship property, which is kind of a generic term
26:33
or legal term, but you know, airshipially just one person's passed away and
26:37
then maybe another person's passed away, and and so every time somebody passes away,
26:44
the branches oftentimes grow out bigger, and it's more people you've got to
26:48
coordinate to get the property. They're sold or transferred to. One particular runner,
26:53
we had one this year that actually just finalized. We probably had twenty
27:00
five different owners. You know, somebody had lived there in the family for
27:04
twenty years. Nobody had to borrow against it, nobody had to sell it,
27:08
so it had just kept passing down between hers. And of course this
27:15
one person passes away that has, for example, a one third interest in
27:18
it, then that interest can pass to who knows how many people, depending
27:23
on their marital status and how many children they have and what state they live
27:27
in. So that's another airship property can always be resolved if there's unknown heirs
27:37
or so many owners that they can't get along. But again, if it
27:42
gets branched out to too many folks, everybody's going to end up in court,
27:45
because that's the only ultimate way to resolve a title problem where you can't
27:51
find hers or can't secure an agreement amongst multiple owners. So if you can
27:56
get a proper will done and I understand how that works, then you'll you'll
28:02
resolve that problem. But that's a good example of I mean, we have
28:07
a couple of them right now where the airship has branched out so far that
28:11
they're just there's no way to find all the potentil owners and will end up
28:15
having to get a court to what they call quiet title and publish notice.
28:19
It's just going to cost the estate thirty CE filing fees and aggravation for all
28:27
the owners, all of which could have been resolved with some basic state planning.
28:33
Tom Paigon's with this Peyton Law firm in Nitro. The numbers three oh
28:36
four three four five fifty eight fifty three oh four, three four five fifty
28:41
eight fifty eight. We have a text question, Tom, some we'll give
28:45
that to you, okay. From the text question, if someone is concerned
28:51
about lack of care that contributed to decline of a patient at a care facility,
28:56
what steps should they take just in case there's a future action at the
28:59
miss of the Mishandling or at Mishandling. Well, I think first of all,
29:04
you need to report them to a regulatory agency so O Fly Officer of
29:11
Health Facility Licensure and Certification. I believe it's still the entity that regulates some
29:17
care homes. You could also call Adult Protective Services. Now if you you've
29:25
got to be careful if they're if you're talking about a potential claim, uh,
29:29
you know, generally, Jeff. The Statute of Limitations for cases injury
29:33
cases in West Virginia almost universally two years the legislature did en after what they
29:38
called tort reform. We're limiting everyday folks access to the courts in cases against
29:45
nursing homes to one year. So everyone should be careful about that, and
29:49
certainly if you if you have a serious problem and there's there's Nursing home cases
29:56
are really akin almost to medical malpractice cases, so you generally, almost with
30:00
that exception, need to have an expert witness and gather evidence fairly early on
30:06
as far as pictures and that kind of thing. Depends on the issue that's
30:08
happening. But it doesn't hurt to contact a lawyer if you have a family
30:15
member with an injury or something serious from a care home and see if they
30:21
need to get started on it. At that point, you know, experienced
30:26
lawyer that's handled nursing home cases can probably give you some some advice right off
30:33
the bat in regard to preserving evidence and whether you have a claim. But
30:36
again, don't hesitate to contact contact us. We don't do a lot of
30:38
nursing home cases. We do some. We work with other lawyers that handle
30:41
them all the time, and so if we get a case like that where
30:47
be our bread and butter, will help you secure an attorney. It won't
30:49
cost you any additional funds to grit through us to help find an attorney that's
30:55
experienced in that area. Eight fifty two. Again the lines are open through
30:59
or fourth three four fifty fifty eight three four three four five fifty fifty time
31:03
Peyton, the Peyton Law Firm is with us. Time. When you were
31:07
last live in the studio with us in the studio here we talked about those
31:11
Trump ballot cases. So those are moving on, were starting to pop up
31:17
in other states. Here in West Virginia, the case got dismissed. Judge
31:21
Berger said that the plaintiff there had no standing. Yeah, I think I'd
31:26
referenced that actually on the show earlier that day, because other states have dismissed
31:30
the same types of cases. So and you know, clos can say what
31:33
was dismiss So I won. But a dismissal or any ruling based on standing
31:41
isn't really a ruling on the merit. So you know, Judge Burger didn't
31:45
decide the ultimate issue. She this was I believe the West Virginia case was
31:51
filed by somebody that has maybe only a loose connection to West Virginia, might
31:59
be one of kind of serial filer. He's just filing among different states,
32:01
a legend he's going to be some kind of candidate, and so in essence,
32:06
she found that he didn't have the qualifications to be a proper planeiff in
32:12
that type case. Now can another planeff filed the same type claim. I
32:19
didn't read Judge Burger's order. There might be some guidance in it about who
32:22
would potentially have standing for this type of challenge. Apparently the Colorado Supreme Court,
32:28
the state court didn't see any problem with standing, but I know a
32:30
lot of other courts have. So we'll see if this is not a dismissal
32:35
that resolves the issue in West Virginia. So it would not surprise me to
32:39
see another case or two filed, especially in light of I mean, a
32:45
case could be filed essentially mirroring the ruling in the Colorado Supreme Court, and
32:50
then you know, we'll see that that ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court,
32:54
though, to be clear, is not binding on any court in Western Virginia.
32:59
So you know, somebody, an attorney or a party can use the
33:02
ruling from Colorado in their argument and say, hey, West Virginia courts,
33:07
you should go along with this reasoning because it makes sense, but it doesn't
33:10
have any controlling effect. I mean, the courts of must you could make
33:14
a completely opposite ruling on the merits and then you can go the other direction.
33:20
But that one's going to head to the Supreme Court, I would say,
33:22
rather quickly on the fast track, probably this spring. So it'll be
33:27
interesting to see how that turns out. But yeah, talking politics, I'm
33:30
sure based on his his mode of operation this campaign, I think that ruling
33:37
will probably ultimately game boats for former President Trump in my opinion. Now,
33:44
could the Burger ruling on the standing and I don't know if the man who's
33:50
the plaintive in this would, but he could you appeal that could be appealed,
33:52
I guess right, yeah, yeah, he could appeal to the it's
33:57
a ruling basically on a jurisdictional matter and have jurisdiction over this because there's not
34:04
proper qualification for the planet, and he can appeal that ruling to the Fourth
34:07
Circuit, and then of course you could feal from there to the Supreme Court,
34:14
but it would be only on the standing issue and would not be on
34:16
if he appeals, for example, to the Fourth Circuit, they could say,
34:20
now we think he has standing, they'll just send it back to Burger
34:22
for more litigation and then a decision on a different ground. So they're not
34:27
going to, you know, for example, adopt this Colorado Supreme Court's ultimate
34:31
conclusions. If this person appeals to the Fourth Circuit. And I don't know
34:37
whether he will or not, He's filed these type cases I believe in other
34:39
states, so I'm not sure what his uh, how far he takes in
34:44
this The case is dismissed based on standing, but it can certainly be appealed.
34:47
But if he were to prevail, it comes back and then to the
34:51
Burger has another opportunity to rule on the merit. Let's take a Tom,
34:54
let's take a quick call. We got a call from Alexander. Alexander and
34:59
charl in your home with Tom. Go ahead, Hey, good morning.
35:02
Hey, Yeah, I want to an attorney. Tom. Their quick question,
35:07
how many cases have you dealt with when wills have been presented without other
35:14
siblings knowledge, with parents who have dementia and you know, power of attorney
35:21
and all that stuff to block out other siblings. Yeah, it's difficult,
35:27
you know, as a lawyer, we try and screen out, you know,
35:30
folks that have mental health issues that don't allow them to know to give
35:37
some mind basically for a legal term. But you can't always and so like
35:42
you know, the way I do my will execution is nobody is in the
35:45
room but me and the client and the witnesses which are from office. So
35:47
family members don't come in. One child wants it in when there are multiple
35:52
children, So I try and make sure that we're doing what the client wants
35:57
and not what some other family member wants. But we deal with that an
36:00
awful lot. And if somebody certainly has dementia where they don't they can't identify
36:05
their family members, they can't identify their property and understand those concepts of who
36:09
will get it when they passed away, then they really shouldn't be doing a
36:13
will. Now that that again, if somebody has the proper number of witnesses
36:16
fills out a form per person has to sign it, then we usually deal
36:21
with that after the fact in litigation. But difficult, and can't emphasize enough
36:24
getting durable power of attorney's done because once that allows a family member or a
36:30
friend to handle your finances if you get dementia. But once you get dementia,
36:37
you can't do a power of attorney because you don't have the capacity to
36:40
do it. Then everyone ends up in court. But we deal with that
36:44
an awful lot if they're complicated situations, because whether somebody is quote confident or
36:49
not is not a black and white analysis, and there's gray areas. I
36:52
mean, somebody might be confident to understand a deed and I want Johnny to
36:57
have my land, but maybe not be compt to understand some other type of
37:01
more complex legal situation. So those are difficult, difficult issues, and unfortunately,
37:08
as we all get older, many of us are going to have to
37:12
deal with it. But we've got consult on that type issue probably multiple times
37:16
a week with folks that just has some general questions but another reason to get
37:21
some basic estate playing done early on. Once you get times of dementia or
37:28
I get so far, then it's too late, and you know, it's
37:30
a difficult time for family members in the first place, let alone having to
37:34
hire lawyers to go to court and get the court system involved in what should
37:39
usually be just private financial family matters. Thank you, Alexander Okay, Tom,
37:44
we're going to cut you loose. Have a safe trip back and we'll
37:47
see you in twenty twenty four. Good show this morning. Thanks Jeff all
37:52
right, Tom Payton and the Painton Law Firm and Nitro again. The way
37:54
to contact the Payton Law Firm and Knight. You've got three ways to do
37:57
it. Emails a great way. Emails only go to Tom and Harvey.
38:00
That's Peytonlawfirm dot com. Peytonlawfirm dot com. You can also stop by the
38:07
office. Stop by the office in person there in Niro, wonderful beautiful office
38:12
on first Avenue in Niger, right across right along the main drag there in
38:16
Niro. Oh crawl or call them seven five five five five five six.
38:20
That's three oh four seven five five fifty five fifty six. And we'll talk
38:24
to the Peytons in the new year. Thanks for listening this morning. Stay
38:28
tuned coming up, ABC News and then we'll have local news and five D
38:31
Live with Dave Allen. All of that next here on five eight WCCHS.
38:36
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