Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 05/16/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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05/16/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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It's a twenty two on five eightychs the voice of Charleston. Good morning to
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yous to Thursday morning. And as the song tells us, that means it's
0:59
time for the pay Law firm in Nitro and Tom Payton's going to be with
1:03
us in just a couple of seconds. You heard the traffic update there,
1:07
and there's a big backup on I sixty four. A couple of places that
1:11
I think Tom ran into, but he's just a couple of moments away here
1:15
from the station, so he'll be in here in just a couple of seconds.
1:19
I want to remind you the phone number three oh four three four five
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fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
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Any questions about the law, you can send them our way. You
1:30
can do that off air to Ryan, our producer, or you could go
1:36
on air with Tom and he can answer your questions. Three oh four three
1:38
four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight
1:44
fifty eight. So Tom just a couple of minutes away here, So go
1:47
ahead and take our break and then we'll get Tom situated in the studio here
1:52
and be able to go on with the show. So stay tuned. This
1:56
is asked the expert with the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro, our number to
1:59
call three O four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight back in a moment on five eighty WCHS.
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This is Tom Payton, my father, Harvey and I are the Peyton
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count on us on your side. Peyton Law for me. Night, Joe,
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you got the got the double traffic whammy. More of Payton is here.
6:13
I thought I got over the first hurdle. They're doing it, so
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I'll give you a go ahead. Insiders traffic updates on I sixty four heading
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eastbound. So I come from the Tays Valley exit and they've ground up the
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right lane there, getting ready for some paving. So there when I went
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through, there was not a wreck there, but a lane was closed and
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all the entrance ramps are stop signs rather than yield signs right now overnight and
6:38
so it's pretty much a parking lot there. But you get through that squeeze
6:44
and then unfortunately there's another wreck. There might be two. I was actually
6:46
worried about. Is the cycling event done? Do it? No? No,
6:49
no, Sunday two doesn't affect Virginia Street I guess, so, well,
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no, there's another wreck. So if you once you get to approaching
6:58
the Virginia Street exit, before you get to the curve, it was a
7:00
dead stop. It took me twenty five minutes from there to get here,
7:03
So I apologize, but hopefully it'll get cleared up. But it's a little
7:09
just give yourself an extra half hour, so if you're trying to get to
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yeah, maybe a little longer than that. Yeah, it's a multi vehicle
7:15
wreck, like basically near the women and children split. Okay, right there,
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that makes sense. Yeah, that's why I was hitting it. So
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yeah, yeah, well, hey, welcome in. A couple of days
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after the election, and I know on you had you had talked about two
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Yeah, a couple of additionals. Can It's hard to get into it too
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much. And we actually I didn't emphasize it a lot. It's not quite
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as local but really important as the Intermediate Court of Appeals election too, and
7:43
so there we were proponents of Ryan White and he ended up winning winning the
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position of the Intermediate couurt Appeal. I can't remember how long a term that
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is, but this is the first I think ten Okay, it's a full
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time. So it's the first full term because that is a newer appellate court
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created, and the first three were apport of the staggered right right, So
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this is the first one to be elected for the ten year tournament. I
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think I've dealt with Ryan on a couple matters, business matters. For the
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most part, I found him very good to deal with. So was it
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on this school board or school board? Okay, that's what I thought,
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So you know, he's he's a ground level person. I think that'll be
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a good, good one. And then more locally, I guess we had
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the Putnam County races, which I feel like I have a little better base
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of knowledge than maybe some folks. And so Sarah we ere one the magistrate
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spot which we had. There were three candidates, the other two were men.
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I kind of think that maybe they split the I don't know how much
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gender has to do with elections anymore, but maybe they split that kind of
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male vote. And then she ended up winning by one hundred and eighty votes,
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so not a very big margin, but not real small either when you
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take into account how many votes were I think the other candidates that are on
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thirty five hundred. She had thirty seven hundred something like that, and they
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were in the other two candidates were close. There were only one hundred apart
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or so as well. And then we had the big what I thought was
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probably the most important one was Judge Dowers, the incumbent, was running against
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John Hoover, and we were, you know, pretty strong supporters of Judge
9:13
Dowers, just because we've got experience with him over and about a decade and
9:20
he's done a good job down there in Putnham County. Not even a lot
9:24
of the stuff we do, but he's really been heavy into these juvenile court
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and drug court and some statistics in Putnham County have increased substantially over the last
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few years, and you know, truemanty issues and things like that. If
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you can catch the drug issue early with the kids kids drug court, then
9:39
you can help resolve some of those problems. Maybe you got a chance at
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it anyway, So he won in a relative landslide basically, I think he
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had seventy eight hundred votes to thirty three some odd votes for the other candidates.
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So that one went well. So we have consistency there in Putnam County
9:56
for now. And then we have a new matterstate, but we were gonna
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have a new mattership one or another because the incumbent, Coylleen Brown had been
10:01
there for over twenty years, had retired from that position, I believe,
10:05
gone to the Parole Board. So that was an open seat there as well.
10:09
And the closest judicial race in kanal Can it was for the new seat
10:13
which maybe you know it's in Richard Lindsay and Eric Cantrell to you know,
10:18
I think one hundred and some votes there, right, that's interesting. I
10:20
think Eric ConTroll, I've dealt with him some. I believe he was assistant
10:22
prosecutor. Maybe still is good guy to work with from what I recall,
10:26
it's been a number of years. And then rich Lindsay, you know,
10:30
he's been in a law froom with his father for a number of years.
10:33
Pretty good name recognition. I thought around Charleston was in the Senate for a
10:37
term. Yeah, but I just didn't not be it not living in Kanawha
10:41
County and not getting outside the city a lot of times in knaw I didn't
10:45
see a whole lot of ads or signage for Eric Contrell, but he must
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have done some good, some groundwork or something. Because I kind of thought
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my prediction would have been Lindsay would probably win by more than he did,
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just because a name right, cognition and things like that. Probably a little
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better funded, but I don't know that for sure. So yeah, that
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was an interesting race. And then we had judge the only other that was
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a new spot, a new judge ship. And then the only other contested
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race in Kenall Kenny Circuit judge was Judge Bailey, Jennifer Bailey. He's been
11:16
there for like twenty years as well, and has done a good job.
11:20
She's been on some higher profile cases like the right to work case, I
11:24
believe, and some things. I went to the Supreme Court and she was
11:28
on the criminal case that Cassie Johnson. Okay, that's right. Yeah,
11:31
and Judge Bailey, I guess if they were to criticize her sometimes it's taken
11:35
her longer to make some of those decisions, but she's really smart and deliberate,
11:39
and so I didn't really see a problem with it in relation to this
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big important constitutional issues, in relation to statutes that are passed that affect the
11:50
entire state. So she ended up I think what Ashley Dean was running against
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her and I didn't see that she had some I guess I actually had some
11:56
kind of misdeem had some kind of over the top commercial at one point when
12:01
she was shooting guns on TV talking at the same time about being tough on
12:03
crime or something, which I think maybe got pulled, but anyway, got
12:07
her name out there. But I think just Bairey one pretty pretty handily in
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that one too, something like nineteen thousand votes to maybe eleven thousand some on.
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Now we have an interesting sitch in Tom Payton's with us. Lines are
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open. Any questions about the law three oh four three four five fifty eight
12:22
fifty eight, you got a property dispute, injured in an accident, anything
12:26
like that. Tom can answer your questions three oh four, three four five
12:30
fifty eight to fifty. I think Hop's going to get into this a little
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bit on talk line, but we've got there's a really close circuit yeah space
12:37
and Yeah, Raleigh County is interesting because you know, just over the years,
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I haven't had a whole lot in the circuit quarter. I'm actually going
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to Raleigh County after the hearing today, but it's a hearing before Judge volk
12:48
In at noon. They have three circuit judges right in the three maybe it's
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four. Well, I know Kirkpatrick Burns side both decided not to run for
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real reaction, right, And they've been judges there for like, those are
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the only judges I think I remember. I mean, I don't remember anybody
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else but them, So they've been there for quite some time. And so
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you had when you don't have incumbents, then you tend to get better races.
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But yeah, so when they converted the major judicial race or pretty much
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all judicial races to nonpartisans, so you don't have a primary, you don't
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have a general. The problem was, I guess because the law didn't first
13:28
have a runoff provision. You could have eight candidates. You know, maybe
13:31
somebody could win with like twenty some percent or something, and that's not really
13:35
voter satisfaction or it doesn't necessarily indicate approval that ever, you know, a
13:39
majority once that person elected. So that may have happened. And it was
13:43
this Supreme Court race. It was a Supreme Court race where somebody got a
13:46
pretty luck because there were a lot of candidates that might have been the wom
13:48
when Darrell McGraw ran, I can't recall for sure but yeah, there was
13:52
one before we had the runoff provision, but after we created the non part
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is an election where somebody got a fairly low percentage of the boat, maybe
14:03
below thirty percent. That's what it is, right, that's what it is
14:05
now. And so but they didn't have a runoff provision back then. So
14:09
then thereafter they modified the law and created a runoff provision. So the winning
14:15
candidate in these non parties and judicial races must get thirty percent. And those
14:20
races are normally and sometimes the primary. But it just operates as a general
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It's like school boards have. But the was I going with that? Okay,
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yeah, because they're gonna have there's two there are five candidates in that's
14:35
right. So again the Kirkpatrick r right, right, So the Kirkpatrick Races
14:39
says, what happened there is right now it looks like the winning candidate did
14:43
not get the thirty percent. And so I think as long as it stays
14:48
that way after the canvas, I think this will be the first time I
14:50
don't remember that run off I remember. I think this is the first right,
14:54
so ambition to see how that turns out. Now, I just understand
14:58
the runoff if it happens, will be in the general election in November,
15:01
so that'll be interesting. And that's to see how that statue comes into play.
15:05
And I think it's a it was a smart move when it went to
15:07
non partisan. I kind of I wasn't really in favor of it. I
15:11
don't like labels, but if you know somebody's Republican or Democrat, at least,
15:16
it gives you maybe an insight into their core thought process or politics at
15:22
least, and so when you go to non partisan, you don't have that.
15:24
Of course, it really hasn't played out because whichever political party, I
15:28
mean, which ever political party the candidacies is favored, you know, if
15:31
they're a member of that party, they're going to announce it anyway. So
15:33
it's kind of been a facade a little bit to say it's non partisan,
15:39
but it's worked out pretty well. And then I agree with the law about
15:43
thirty percent, because that's it's just too watered down. And this is back
15:48
to the attorney Rusty Wood and his dad's on the State Supreme Court. And
15:52
I think his vote total time was like twenty nine point two five percent.
15:56
I mean it was very close, and so I guess maybe the canvas could
16:00
change that maybe a little bit. But yeah, I'm not sure how close
16:03
because only the next highest vote getter gets to be in the runoff. And
16:07
I'm not sure how close the second Yeah, I was told I forget,
16:10
but it's pretty close. It was. Yeah, it was a couple of
16:11
percentage points. So that'll be interesting to see too on the canvas whether who
16:15
the runoff person will be. Yeah, yeah, if there is one right,
16:18
that percentage could change. I don't know what number of votes that would
16:22
be to get it to the What was entering interering about that Ralegh County races.
16:26
You had Kirkpatrick M. Burnside who said, you know, they weren't
16:29
running for real election opened up. There was only one candidate for the Burnside
16:33
and uh and and that was a lawmaker, Oh, Kirk Birby, Yeah,
16:37
Kirby, and so he was the only Candidate's good for that? Yeah,
16:41
and then they had five, you know, they had five further Yeah,
16:45
so you don't know what I mean, not being involved in politics down
16:48
there. I'm not sure what the process was in that regard, because you
16:53
think somebody would but that's the thing I mean, like conspiracy theory or strategically.
16:59
I mean, if you type of candidate could then I mean you'd have
17:02
to have one a lot of candidates in the race. You had to have
17:04
a lot of candidates, because I was talking about this, because unless you
17:07
had a humongous well, no, you'd you'd have to have more than two,
17:12
right, Yeah, you have to get thirty percent. I mean you
17:15
have to be spread out like it takes like five that's right, that's right.
17:18
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean or four, yeah, or
17:22
four? I guess I do it. And then that's presuming you don't have
17:26
right ends and stuff like that. But yeah, I think I'm not the
17:30
best mathematician, but it seems like you'd have to have four candidates right right
17:33
to get It's dangerous doing math live on the air. It's not a good
17:37
thing. I'm not doing it. Three or four three four five fifty eight
17:41
fifty eight number to call three h four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
17:45
We've had touched some on the Trump trial here and there now, and
17:52
actually, you know, wo'd be interesting to see whether Trump presents any witnesses.
17:55
I mean, whatever you said in the media about testifying or telling the
17:56
judge and no criminal defendant has to make that decision until it's time for them
18:02
to present their case. In chief mean, the prosecutor or the government's done
18:06
presenting evidence and they are indicating I think maybe this Cohen did. They they
18:11
have one or two more witnesses and Michael Coman's still on standing or he might
18:15
be the last witness I can't remember. Yeah, he's being cross example again.
18:18
I'm no, I'm no fan of Donald Trump, mostly for his borish
18:22
behavior, but uh the uh yeah, this one's been interesting because, as
18:30
I said a few weeks ago, I don't know if there's a whole lot
18:32
of factual disputes. I mean, I guess there's a dispute did he actually
18:34
have intercourse with Stormy Daniels? But I'm thinking whether he did or didn't,
18:40
I'm not sure. That's kind of a red herring factor. I was the
18:44
prosecutor trying to get off that because if the jury's trying to figure out whether
18:48
that really happened or not, I don't know that's ever how that's proven beyond
18:51
a reasonable doubt other than they were in the same place at the same time
18:55
and then her testimony. But you know, all this conduct, they've got
19:00
to go back and connect a lot of dots to show that it that payoff
19:04
was made. I mean, clearly a payment was made to her or someone
19:08
on her behalf to keep her from telling a story to the public, and
19:14
that happened. I mean, there's no question about that. Then it appears
19:17
at this point that Donald Trump was involved in that transaction. There's been a
19:21
good bit of evidence he had actual knowledge what was going on. Okay,
19:23
so that happened. Well, so what I mean, why is that illegal?
19:27
So then you've got to connect more dots and say, well, because
19:30
he was in an election and this was actually a payment to help his campaign,
19:36
and then that's why he was doing this weird work with cash and trying
19:41
to kind of keep it off the books or gray in the books, and
19:45
all that was to help in his election, and then it wasn't reported as
19:48
a campaign contribution or expenditure. And it's just a lot, a lot to
19:53
connect for jurors. And when you're trying to prove the case, the more
19:56
dots you've got to connect, the more like it is you won't make it
20:00
to the end. And to get to that beyond a reasonable doubt, it
20:03
seems like there's a lot of connecting the dots. Also when you you know
20:08
these these witnesses that they're putting on for the prosecutor, which we knew,
20:11
and the prosecutor tried to soften it at the beginning of the case. But
20:15
I mean, they're the as a defense law, you just start seething and
20:19
drooling when you when they get on the stand, because like, how often
20:22
do you get a witness who, on Jilly the same subject matter was convicted
20:26
of perjury. I mean, it just don't. You don't get to cross
20:27
examine somebody with that very often, and you usually think, Wow, that's
20:30
gonna be great, and then you've got Stormy Daniels and it's just not.
20:34
They're not credible witnesses at period. And if if they're relying on the jury
20:38
believing those folks, they're going to have trouble getting the conviction. I'm I'm
20:42
leaning towards not guilty here on all the way. All right, let's go
20:45
to Ray on the line with Tom Payton. Ray, thanks for calling in.
20:48
Go ahead. I can't comprehend them bends down on Donald Trump like they
20:57
are when you take Bill Clinton, done Bass, all of them been actually
21:03
same situation. But man hammer him into the ground. Yeah, and I
21:07
guess you know, I see it, think Chris, I was fairly young
21:11
when the Bill Clinton thing happened. I look back. I mean I was
21:12
in high school or well, I guessuated high school in ninety four, So
21:15
what was that ninety six when it came out with Lewinsky and stuff, and
21:18
you were in undergrad That's right, That's right, so you pay attention and
21:22
all that. But and now I look back on that, you know,
21:26
I think, well, that's I would say the same thing about him.
21:26
I mean, so I don't know what the caller is referencing with me necessarily,
21:30
but I mean no, I mean I think when I go back and
21:34
know what the facts are now with Bill Clinton and reread it, I mean
21:37
I would never vote for him for president. I just I think he was
21:41
a policy wise great for the most part. And then of course he's an
21:45
excellent I mean Bill Clinton is is eloquent and a great communicator, and that's
21:49
a lot of what politics is to a certain extent. I mean, he
21:55
made up for so much with that. But and it's you got a different
21:57
thing. I mean, what would Bill Clinton do? Twitter was out there,
22:00
you know, or George Bush. You know, so who knows,
22:03
But I guess to me, I see a pretty clear distinction, and we've
22:10
almost become tolerant of it or have a you know, we just have a
22:17
tolerance of it now that we wouldn't have had before twenty sixteen. About this
22:19
behavior where you just make fun of people about their characteristics that are out of
22:23
their control, well, I don't like that because I feel like that's bullying.
22:26
And I feel like when you're in a position of power, like somebody
22:30
running for president who has a lot of money or a lawyer or whatever,
22:33
to in public bully people and make fun of people for having a disability or
22:41
whatever, for some physical characteristic that many times there's completely out of their control
22:48
and marginalize them like that, and that kind of thing. I just don't.
22:52
I can't stand that type behavior. And I don't know whether if,
22:56
even if I agree with the majority of his policies, I could ever stomach
22:59
loading for Donald Trump. And of course it depends on who's on the other
23:00
side, and I'm certainly a mount of registered Democrat. I was actually thinking
23:04
about switching to Independent because Putnam County, you don't get a whole lot to
23:07
vote on in the primaries. But now I guess they're gonna I wouldn't have
23:11
a choice after what next year in West Virginia to vote in a Republican if
23:17
Yep, they're not going to take independence at least that's that's that's their s
23:19
That may change, right, they can, they can go back and revisit.
23:22
Yeah, and it's just strategy, I guess. Yeah. Let me
23:26
so, you say, Tom that is listening to the testimony, and you
23:30
got Cohen up there, you've got the Stormy dangers as a defense attorney,
23:33
You're or whatever name isn't Stormy Damas, Yeah, Reford somebody, right,
23:37
Yeah, but you're going to you're going to emphasize that. Well, that's
23:41
what they're they're still going with Michael Cohen's cross examination and the problem, I
23:44
mean, the prosecutors has to sit there and take it. You can't do
23:45
anything the man Cohen was tweeting or whatever you call it stuff during the trial
23:52
about you know, hoping Donald Trump goes to prison, I mean personal vendetta
23:56
type things. Uh, you know, that's what they're They're looking to show
24:00
he's motivated to say something, and he's motivated to say something that's not true,
24:04
and so jury, you can't rely on his testimony for anything for the
24:07
prosecutor. And then you got, you know, a pornography star who she's
24:15
been all over social media too, and then she's both her and Michael Cohen
24:18
have exploited the situation or profited off the situation, this via multiple media deals
24:26
and celebrity and things like that. So to me, it's a I think
24:32
jurors will just kind of say, well, this is more that, this
24:33
is why are we here? I mean, this is like goofy, Now
24:37
there's those core facts still seem to be true, but ken, I mean,
24:41
is it all going to get swept up in these terrible, incredible witnesses
24:45
for the prosecutor and just go out the window because the juris still have to
24:49
go back and ignore all of this intangible stuff and try and connect all those
24:56
dots and I I mean, or maybe the they just they could say,
25:02
you know, you lie down with dogs who wake up with fleas and he's
25:06
he's just another one of them, a liar too and schemer, and find
25:10
him guilty. But I doubt that because I think most years a little more
25:15
analytical about it when they get back there and they know people are watching him,
25:19
and they take juris tend to take the beyond a reasonable doubt standard very
25:22
seriously, and they're told to. I mean when they're given jury instructions,
25:26
they're told over and over again, you know you must it's your duty to
25:29
find him not guilty. If the government didn't prove every element of the crime
25:33
beyond a reasonable doubt, it's not really whether he's When somebody's feeld not guilty,
25:37
they aren't necessarily innocent, meaning they didn't commit a wrongdoing. It just
25:40
means the state wasn't able to prove each element of the crime beyond a reasonable
25:45
doubt. And yeah, I mean I would right now, I'm thinking not
25:48
guilty. Now. I'll bet that the defense doesn't put Donald Trump on the
25:55
stand. They may not call any witnesses. I'm not sure what they would
25:59
want to call to rebut them. Now, they could call some witnesses,
26:02
perhaps to attack the prosecution's witnesses credibility even more. If they've got somebody else
26:07
saying Michael Cohen, oh there's a new light told now, or it's Toormy
26:10
Daniels, then they might bring a witness in rebuttal for that, but otherwise
26:14
I'm not sure they need to be presenting any witnesses. And I with what
26:17
I've seen, I wouldn't put my Donald Trump on the stand. I mean,
26:21
it all depends on the client. But as we've seen in his non
26:25
jury trial, he's he's not something I think you could a purse a client.
26:30
You might be able to catch up very well to not to tell him
26:33
what to say, but to how to behave on the stand, and like,
26:37
don't fight with the other lawyer. And he is what he is.
26:40
Everybody knows that anyway, So I guess you could say, well, the
26:41
jurors already know how he is, so yeah, he's coming. He's doing
26:45
his own running away and no matter what his lawyers say, no matter what
26:48
his lawyers say. In a criminal case, the judge has to address the
26:52
criminal defendant directly. Now the lawyer will be there, but say, you
26:56
know, mister Trump, now's the time. You have a right to testify
27:00
on your own behalf. If you do, then your subject to cross examination.
27:06
And of course your testimony must be within the bounds of the rules of
27:08
evidence. But you've got to And then he gets to make the decision whether
27:17
he testifies not, and the judge will tell me if you stand silent,
27:18
the jury will be told that the fact you didn't testify absolutely cannot be used
27:22
against you. They can't even consider it, can't even think about it.
27:26
Now, well they do. I don't know, but I think jurors usually
27:30
take that pretty seriously because I'd say a signified eighty percent of cases criminal defense
27:33
never testify. And so but because the judge will address Donald Trump personally,
27:41
probably an open court, well, mister Trump will have to respond back whether
27:47
he's going to testify or not. What are the conversations you have had?
27:49
And I'm not viotling attorney client privilege here, but have you ever had a
27:55
representing someone who wants to testify and you advise them? No, I've never
28:02
had I've never had somebody say, well, Tom, mister Peyton says,
28:06
I advises me not to, but I'm going to anyway. Now. I
28:08
have had a case one time where we debated it during a pretty serious criminal
28:12
trial, and our team and the client all agreed that he would not testify.
28:18
And I still think that was a good decision because what he couldn't understand.
28:23
There was some debate because he could understand well, yes, you're gonna
28:26
be able to tell the jury what you want to hear, but you want
28:29
them to hear, but you're gonna get cross examined, and we know there's
28:30
ten different things that prosecut's gonna ask you, and if you answer honestly,
28:34
it's all stuff we don't want the jury to hear. So you kind of
28:37
weigh that and decided not to. Now then the guy ended up getting convicted,
28:42
and he of course surmised that, well, if I would have just
28:47
told them what really happened, I wouldn't I would have been found not guilty.
28:49
And of course that's not actually not true, but it's Monday morning quarterbacking,
28:53
and he was sentenced to more than a decade in prison, so of
28:57
course he's actually that when he found out what's called a habeas corpus after he
29:03
was in prison, and they led some kind of ineffective assistants a counsel which
29:07
failed against me, but I ended up having to go testify about that scenario.
29:10
He waived attorney client privilege as to me and him, and then I
29:12
had to testify, and his new lawyer across examined me, and the prosecutor
29:17
did too, and that kind of thing, and there was nothing right.
29:18
We behaved appropriately and I did the best we could for and you can only
29:23
do so much sometimes eight fifty two. We got a couple of minutes here,
29:26
Tom Payton and Peyton Law from a night er three or four, three
29:30
four, five fifty eight fifty. You guys do a lot of accident injury
29:33
cases. Yeah, that's a lot of what we did. I was going
29:36
to ask you, when is how soon? How is there a time life
29:40
if someone was injured in an accident? I mean how, I mean,
29:44
is there what should they do? I should call? Well, first of
29:47
all, if you have any kind of serious injury, you think there's a
29:51
problem where some something else might have caused somebody else's fault or something like that,
29:55
then I mean, you know, you can call as soon as you
29:59
feel comfortable calling, I guess would be the answer. If you're going through
30:02
a traumatic event, I don't need to be calling the lawyer right off,
30:04
but as soon as you're comfortable. But it is important, I mean,
30:07
at least make that call. Because well, I'll give you an example.
30:10
I'm going this hearing I'm going to today in federal court. It's a products
30:14
libe. It's a automobile case where there's an allegation on our side that the
30:18
airbag didn't deploy, for example, and the person unfortunately that was an accident,
30:23
passed away although sometime after the accident, but the widow didn't retain us
30:30
until way late. And so when you have a claim that an airbag should
30:36
have deployed that didn't, for example, it's really important you get right in
30:38
there. You got to preserve where's the vehicle. Let's good. For example,
30:42
we've had total vehicles sitting in our parking lot in the office had to
30:47
be towed there and put down for years because it was evidence in a case,
30:51
and you have to preserve it. So in this particular case, we
30:55
we're in a more difficult position just because we got in it so much later,
30:59
and the evidence isn't isn't necessarily available anymore or not the way it's not
31:03
available in the form we would like it. And so that's a good example
31:07
where if there's something there and you got somebody seriously hurt, call early because
31:11
you know what's happened is maybe is that vehicle could have been totaled. Then
31:15
it's auctioned and who knows where it is? It could be anywhere in the
31:18
world. I mean, you don't know when it's been that long, so
31:22
you know, it's good to get some information. I had had a couple
31:23
people call last week, you know, family member just in an automobile accident,
31:27
asking about how to handle the medical bills at the beginning and things like
31:30
that. So there's no harm in giving us the callers in this emails.
31:33
That happens just so you're on the right path. And that call last week
31:37
ended, you know, they were hoping that their son just had to be
31:40
checked out, got some scans and it was fine, and if that's the
31:41
case, then they won't need to retain us to resolve it. But something
31:45
that can be confusing for the accident victim. Oh yeah, it's really well,
31:48
it's real confusing, and you get contradictory information because it's not your fault,
31:53
let's presumed. And so you go to the hospital and you think,
31:56
well, why why am I having to put this on my health insurance or
32:00
why am I even responsible for this? And a lot of times hospital billing
32:04
clerks they kind of roll with that because they the hospital too, would like
32:07
to get paid their full bill from the person who caused the accident, because
32:10
if your health insurance pays, they're going to probably get a heck of a
32:15
lot less. But the problem is you may get a settlement from that other
32:21
person's insurance, but it might be a year, two years down the line,
32:23
and so the hospital is not going to sit around and just wait.
32:27
They're going to start trying to collect those bills from my client. So,
32:30
even though it's kuindter intuitive, for example, you want to make sure your
32:32
health insurance is used and all the bills are processed through health insurance, and
32:37
then sometimes you have some coverage on your own automate will policy that will pay
32:42
those bills right off the bat, or where you can get some money early
32:45
on. And so that's the kind of thing we can kind of give you
32:47
some direction on. And then if there's an issue about, for example,
32:51
whose fault it was, how the accident happened, whether there's an issue with
32:55
the crashworthiness of the vehicle that you or your family member were in, meaning
32:59
whether had a proper airbag deployment or seat belt or seatback, then those are
33:05
all things that it's really important to get ahold of an attorney rather quickly,
33:12
just to make sure the evidence is preserved and you know, go out and
33:15
maybe talk to witnesses and physical evidence. Some of it disappears, most of
33:19
it over time if you don't take action to preserve it. There's black box,
33:22
but you think of black box when you think of the airplanes that crash
33:25
and stuff. But there's the same there's event data recorder modules inside most well
33:30
almost all, I think, probably newer vehicles. But you can't just go
33:35
in and it's not like a laptop be going you have to have an expert
33:37
go in extract that data. It's complicated. Then they have to interpret it,
33:42
but it can tell some really important things about the activity of your vehicle
33:46
and perhaps the other person's vehicle. Right before the accident. Usually runs about
33:51
five seconds up to the point of impact, and you can see which way
33:53
the stream roll was turned, break depressed speed, deceleration, acceleration, those
34:01
type things. So you know, and if you don't take care of that
34:06
at the beginning, and the car's TOTLD, your insurance company or some insurance
34:08
company buys it, salvag is it and who knows where it is, they
34:12
don't have any inherent duty to get the black box data out there for you.
34:17
So if you don't tell them to preserve it, or you don't secure
34:21
that vehicle, you could lose that evidence forever. And in most cases,
34:25
like an average rear end case, it probably doesn't make any difference. But
34:29
if you've got a controversy about you had the right away, or whether somebody
34:32
was going too fast or red light green light type controversy, those type things
34:37
you really need to get on right quick and get a hold of an attorney,
34:42
but certainly don't hesitate. The call or reach out. Email is great.
34:45
You can go to our website Paytonlawfirm dot com and that doesn't go to
34:49
any type of can service. That comes right to our computers and we try
34:52
and respond the same day or the next day. You can give us a
34:55
call. You can stop buy the office right there on First Avenue, Nitro
35:00
looking. We had covered from our storm damage there a month ago, and
35:05
we don't have the garden out back. We do have the Martin Nest.
35:07
Know if there's any bird I have some Burder friends. I didn't realize how
35:10
valuable that was to have Martin's come to your little Birder hotel, but apparently
35:15
that's a big thing for birders. I still have that in the back.
35:17
But yeah, stop by or give us a call, or go through the
35:20
website, and I guess if you've been in an accident, we just asked
35:22
that you consider us. We do a really good job with with trial work.
35:28
A lot of times Dad and I'll go try them together and kind of
35:30
divide up the trial. And we've got a really good track record doing that.
35:32
Nobody ever wins every case, or if they do, they don't try
35:36
any real cases because if you if you try any cases at all, you're
35:40
not gonna win every case. Now there are multiple cases where it's a gray
35:44
area. You don't really when lawyers say all win them all, well,
35:46
I mean, how do you know if your client's only convicted of a misdemeanor
35:50
but he was charged with four or five felonies, is that a win?
35:52
Yeah? I don't know. Ask the client he had one of those recent
35:57
I did. Yeah, yeah, and he's in jail. But I mean,
36:00
I thought it was a pretty good result. I would rather have him
36:02
be not guilty on all charges. But I'm sure he's and we did a
36:07
good job. It had deputies that were shot and things like that, but
36:09
I'm sure he's not happy sitting in jail. So whether he sees that as
36:13
a good result or not right now, I don't know. I think in
36:15
the future he will. But what you can promise is hard work. That's
36:20
right, hard work, communication, good staff, reliable and you know,
36:25
going to a trial or getting ready for a trial, it's a competition in
36:29
a way. It's an adversarial process. So you've got to think about who
36:32
do you want your side, Who can you trust, who really will put
36:35
in the work, Who's going to pay attention to my case? You know,
36:37
I'm going to have to you know, right now, at least,
36:40
we don't have any associate lawyers, so you're only going to deal with lawyers
36:44
that have been practicing law for decades and don't We aren't a paper mill where
36:51
we just get ten thousand, you know, mass litigation type cases and we
36:55
you call my office and you're a current client. You know, we know
36:58
who you are, and we know by your case, and that's the way
37:00
it always has been and will be. So that's kind of what you get
37:04
with us versus the biggest law firm in the world or or whatever. And
37:07
if it's something we can't handle or we don't feel comfortable getting into We'll help
37:10
connect you with another attorney and maybe help you out there, especially if you
37:14
see some of these ads on TVs about TV about products that are problems.
37:17
Give us a call and then we can help you decipher whether you really have
37:22
a claim or not, and maybe help you with that claim as well.
37:23
All right, Paytonlawfirm dot com, Paytlawfirm dot com or seven five five five
37:28
five five six three or four seven five five five five five six get seeing
37:32
you you too, jee Okay, Tom Payton, Payton Law Firm, and
37:36
Nitro. ABC News is next. This is five eighty double U c HS
37:47
five eighths at six point five FM, Charleston at one O four point five
37:52
Cross Lanes wl UVRC Media Station. We are proud to live here too,