Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 05/07/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
- 0:02Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wchs
- 0:06Speaker 1: it's employees or WVRC media.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Of course, Oh create equal, were nice, come here in
- 0:20Speaker 2: the kitty and rock up.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Well, you don't have to put you don't have to
- 0:29Speaker 3: break the law today. You can put the law on
- 0:31Speaker 3: your side in studio with us this morning. Tom Payton
- 0:34Speaker 3: is here from the patent law firm taking your phone
- 0:35Speaker 3: calls at three zero four three four five fifty fifty eight.
- 0:38Speaker 3: Three zero four, three four five fifty eight fifty is
- 0:40Speaker 3: our number if you want to give us a call
- 0:41Speaker 3: this morning. I'll get our other contact information out there
- 0:43Speaker 3: as the day goes along. But Tom, good morning, how
- 0:45Speaker 3: you doing this morning.
- 0:48Speaker 4: You don't want to be breaking the law today, But
- 0:53Speaker 4: you don't have to fight the law either, because you
- 0:55Speaker 4: can get the rest of the call and we can
- 0:56Speaker 4: educate you on the law with some information. And that's
- 1:00Speaker 4: we kind of preach that, you know. I try and
- 1:03Speaker 4: answer folks questions every day, questions not just on the
- 1:08Speaker 4: radio but around the office. If you I mean, I've
- 1:10Speaker 4: probably answered ten email inquiries with information this week, and
- 1:16Speaker 4: it's hard when you've been a lawyer for gosh, it's
- 1:20Speaker 4: twenty five years now, and of course grew up with
- 1:24Speaker 4: a father who was a litigator and lawyer, so it's
- 1:28Speaker 4: hard to kind of bring your mindset back out of
- 1:30Speaker 4: that and remember what you don't or what you didn't
- 1:35Speaker 4: know before you became a lawyer. And so try and
- 1:37Speaker 4: always kind of remember that when I'm educating people on
- 1:40Speaker 4: what the law is and helping them out. But certainly,
- 1:42Speaker 4: don't hesitate to give us a call, a text, or
- 1:45Speaker 4: if you're not comfortable talk on the radio or don't
- 1:47Speaker 4: have the opportunity and our time from here, don't hesitate
- 1:52Speaker 4: to send us an email through the website or give
- 1:54Speaker 4: us a call at the office so we can help you.
- 1:56Speaker 4: We'll be glad to do a lot of litigation. That's
- 2:00Speaker 4: what we like to do, and that's what we're good at. Frankly,
- 2:04Speaker 4: we like that and I both enjoyed trying cases to jury's.
- 2:08Speaker 1: It's kind of like.
- 2:11Speaker 4: It's not directly analogous, but it's it's kind of like practice, practice,
- 2:16Speaker 4: practice for a game, and then you get have your game,
- 2:19Speaker 4: and we usually perform pretty well. And that's what cases
- 2:24Speaker 4: settled for us too. You know, I think we've got
- 2:26Speaker 4: a reputation of a firm that's willing to go all
- 2:30Speaker 4: the way through a jury trial, and we've had a
- 2:33Speaker 4: lot of success doing it over the years, and that's
- 2:35Speaker 4: what ultimately, Unlike a sport where you have to play
- 2:39Speaker 4: the game at the end, as much as we like
- 2:43Speaker 4: trying cases, getting our clients satisfied as the number one goal, and.
- 2:49Speaker 1: And being prepared and.
- 2:53Speaker 4: Having prior history of performing well in jury trials gets
- 2:56Speaker 4: a case, get cases settled. Now, there's no these lawyers
- 3:00Speaker 4: commercials I don't know out of state a lot of
- 3:03Speaker 4: times about oh we call the insurance company, they're shaking
- 3:07Speaker 4: in their boots, and that's not how it really works, folks.
- 3:10Speaker 4: So if you hear that type commercial, i'd i'd run
- 3:13Speaker 4: from that firm because that's you know, insurance companies are
- 3:17Speaker 4: based on They operate on risk and financial numbers and
- 3:22Speaker 4: data and statistics for the most part.
- 3:25Speaker 1: And so there's no.
- 3:28Speaker 4: Law firm out there that you know, lets an insurance
- 3:30Speaker 4: company know they're representing somebody and the insurance company just
- 3:33Speaker 4: jumps and throws a bunch of money on the table.
- 3:35Speaker 1: That's that's puffery.
- 3:37Speaker 4: I would say, as far as advertising if not something worse,
- 3:43Speaker 4: but any event, if you've got an issue, any issue,
- 3:46Speaker 4: give us a call. As we talked about a little
- 3:48Speaker 4: bit last week. You know, we do a lot of
- 3:51Speaker 4: insurance work, meaning not working for insurance companies. But everyday
- 3:54Speaker 4: people get in the car accident, you're going to be
- 3:57Speaker 4: dealing with the other person's insurance company nine percent of
- 4:00Speaker 4: the time as opposed to the other person. And of
- 4:02Speaker 4: course if you've got to dispute with your own insurance carrier,
- 4:04Speaker 4: homeowner's insurance claim, life insurance claim, those are all right
- 4:10Speaker 4: in our wheelhouse. But at the same time, we do
- 4:13Speaker 4: everyday thing. So if you need some basic a state planning,
- 4:16Speaker 4: some deed work done, do a decent amount of so
- 4:19Speaker 4: security disability work, which is really important to people because
- 4:25Speaker 4: if you've ever been through that process, you know, unless
- 4:30Speaker 4: you had unfortunately a really really bad cancer or a
- 4:35Speaker 4: kidney disease or something terminal beyond those, there's a long
- 4:39Speaker 4: waiting period. It can be frustrating. You don't have any
- 4:41Speaker 4: income coming in during that waiting period, and normally you
- 4:45Speaker 4: only get one bite at the apple, one hearing before
- 4:48Speaker 4: a judge. A lot of times it's remotely these days,
- 4:51Speaker 4: but that hearing is extremely important. So if you're going
- 4:55Speaker 4: through that process, which you don't have to be a
- 4:56Speaker 4: law you can represent yourself in those so security disability case.
- 5:01Speaker 4: But we and I think most other lawyers that do
- 5:03Speaker 4: that work, do those social scary disability cases on contingency fees.
- 5:07Speaker 4: So if you hire us and we accept the case,
- 5:13Speaker 4: we do not you do not owe us any money
- 5:15Speaker 4: for costs for experts or getting medical records, that kind
- 5:19Speaker 4: of thing, unless we prevail in the case. And federal
- 5:23Speaker 4: law actually such parameters for what lawyers can get paid
- 5:28Speaker 4: in so scared disability cases. It's a percentage twenty five
- 5:33Speaker 4: percent of only the back pay benefits, so you won't
- 5:35Speaker 4: have to keep paying your lawyer in the future as
- 5:37Speaker 4: you get your monthly benefit. But it's extremely important to folks,
- 5:42Speaker 4: and I have folks go through and maybe they go
- 5:46Speaker 4: their hearing or maybe have another lawyer that won't take
- 5:49Speaker 4: no for an answer, But then if they lose the
- 5:51Speaker 4: hearing they take, they tell them the client, no, we
- 5:53Speaker 4: can't appeal it. We've got a call coming in. I
- 5:56Speaker 4: think we have a call ringing over there. Yeah, let's
- 5:58Speaker 4: see if we have caller that's come on air, right,
- 6:00Speaker 4: away here. You're on the air this morning with Tom Pick.
- 6:02Speaker 3: Can go ahead. What's your first name?
- 6:05Speaker 5: Ry?
- 6:05Speaker 2: Hey?
- 6:05Speaker 5: Ryan?
- 6:06Speaker 3: What's your question this morning for Tom?
- 6:07Speaker 1: Good morning?
- 6:08Speaker 5: Ryan? Hey, good morning. Yes, I had a question about
- 6:12Speaker 5: I tried to contact or a good contact one of
- 6:14Speaker 5: my county commissioners there in Jackson County and this wholefuffle
- 6:20Speaker 5: with do all these data centers coming in everywhere and whatnot? Well,
- 6:27Speaker 5: they sign non disclosure agreements. So how is an elected
- 6:32Speaker 5: official can't explain what they're doing through their constituents. How
- 6:37Speaker 5: is that legal?
- 6:38Speaker 1: Right?
- 6:38Speaker 5: Obviously it's definitely not ethical, right, Well.
- 6:42Speaker 1: Maybe not? Yeah, I agree, I think my theory is.
- 6:47Speaker 4: And there are some there have been for years, some
- 6:50Speaker 4: exemptions to FOIA requests Freedom of Information Act requests for
- 6:55Speaker 4: economic development projects you may be referencing, and I frankly
- 7:00Speaker 4: I haven't had a chance to read the law closely, but.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Not I don't think it was this year. It could
- 7:08Speaker 1: have been this year or last year.
- 7:10Speaker 4: They passed some legislation, particularly geared I believe, towards data
- 7:15Speaker 4: centers that in essence strips any local control or influence
- 7:22Speaker 4: over you know, zoning and restricting where and how they
- 7:29Speaker 4: go in you'll see some of that type of those
- 7:34Speaker 4: approvals going through like the state level with the Deep
- 7:39Speaker 4: Department of Environmental Protection, but they the legislature's passed laws
- 7:46Speaker 4: basically permitting that process. Frustrates me because I'm a big
- 7:51Speaker 4: you know, the government is us in essence. I mean,
- 7:55Speaker 4: we elect the officials for the most part, or folks
- 7:59Speaker 4: get a pin pointed by folks that we elect. And
- 8:05Speaker 4: I'm like you, I think more sunshine the better, and
- 8:09Speaker 4: it you know, in many walks of life, silence breeds contempt.
- 8:15Speaker 1: I mean, it's not.
- 8:17Speaker 4: What you have to disclose, but what you should disclose
- 8:20Speaker 4: and what keeps the constituents informed. So I think it
- 8:23Speaker 4: just feeds mistrust for government. I've got a case right
- 8:28Speaker 4: now actually has a little It didn't when I took
- 8:30Speaker 4: the case on, but it does now have a little
- 8:33Speaker 4: connection to the data center that might be going in.
- 8:36Speaker 4: We've heard about the Google data center down in Putnam County,
- 8:39Speaker 4: and I know there's a lot there's a few well
- 8:42Speaker 4: I don't know, I haven't been to the meetings, but
- 8:43Speaker 4: there's a decent number of constituents down there, citizens that
- 8:46Speaker 4: are concerned about, you know, the data center. What's kinduch noise,
- 8:51Speaker 4: is it going to make how's it going to handle water?
- 8:53Speaker 4: Are there going to be other environmental concerns? And it's
- 8:56Speaker 4: it's literally right. The land they've purchased is right in
- 8:59Speaker 4: the town of Buffalo, which isn't a large town, but
- 9:02Speaker 4: it's got a lot of people that live right there
- 9:05Speaker 4: next to it, and folks who are going to County
- 9:08Speaker 4: Commission meetings and express and concern And I think for
- 9:11Speaker 4: the most part, the County Commission, as far as having
- 9:14Speaker 4: input or control over things they normally would have some
- 9:17Speaker 4: input and control over via planning or even the town,
- 9:22Speaker 4: their hands are tied and they really can't do a
- 9:24Speaker 4: whole lot because of the law the legislature passed. But
- 9:29Speaker 4: my case, it involves little intersection between the main road
- 9:34Speaker 4: Route sixty two through Buffalo and a little I think
- 9:39Speaker 4: it's a unlined road for the most part, eighteen mile
- 9:42Speaker 4: Creek Road, and their Department of Highways is trying to
- 9:45Speaker 4: take my client's front yards there at the beginning to
- 9:48Speaker 4: widen this road out. And normally and when DH wants
- 9:52Speaker 4: to do a road project, you really can't. I mean,
- 9:54Speaker 4: they've got traffic studies, they've got other data, local citizen
- 10:00Speaker 4: have complained about an issue with a road, it's extremely busy,
- 10:03Speaker 4: et cetera. In this case, it appears that they're widening
- 10:09Speaker 4: this road to help landowners that some of which have
- 10:14Speaker 4: now sold their property to the data center. And when
- 10:17Speaker 4: those same folks had the right in a deed to
- 10:19Speaker 4: build a really wide road for access themselves but decided
- 10:23Speaker 4: not to. Now that's been terminated that private right away
- 10:26Speaker 4: because of the purchase of the property from those folks.
- 10:29Speaker 4: And all I'm trying to do on behalf of my
- 10:32Speaker 4: clients is get like, why are you doing this project?
- 10:36Speaker 4: Department of Highways? Okay, it seems rather simple. Well, we're
- 10:41Speaker 4: just doing it because you know, they vaguely reference traffic
- 10:47Speaker 4: and things, but I've seen no traffic studies that justify it.
- 10:50Speaker 4: We've pushed them and pushed them to get this information.
- 10:53Speaker 4: Finally we got the court to order them to provide. Well,
- 10:58Speaker 4: here it is in a in a large federal report.
- 11:01Speaker 4: This this this project is going to get done, but
- 11:04Speaker 4: we still don't know why it was instigated in the
- 11:07Speaker 4: first place. You have these kind of government connected folks
- 11:12Speaker 4: like break Harry, who also sold a big swath of
- 11:17Speaker 4: this land for I think seven million dollars to the
- 11:19Speaker 4: Google Connected outfit. So I thought we were going to
- 11:24Speaker 4: get somewhere because recently the court specifically ordible you need
- 11:27Speaker 4: to go back and you know who requested this be
- 11:31Speaker 4: done in the first place, and there was a deadline
- 11:34Speaker 4: actually a Monday for the Department Highways to disclose this information.
- 11:38Speaker 4: Now instead of just disclosing it and telling me it
- 11:42Speaker 4: might be nothing, it might be perfectly legal and there's
- 11:45Speaker 4: nothing my client's can do about it.
- 11:47Speaker 1: But instead.
- 11:49Speaker 4: The doh lawyers told the judge and me yesterday that
- 11:53Speaker 4: all no, we're not going to abide bye order. We're
- 11:55Speaker 4: going to file a petition for rent a prohibition with
- 11:59Speaker 4: the Western Spring Appeals for the sole purpose of not
- 12:05Speaker 4: disclosing why they instigated who was involved in the instigation
- 12:12Speaker 4: of this project in the first place. It's not a
- 12:15Speaker 4: it's not newsworthy. I guess it's not coming here because
- 12:18Speaker 4: it's a small town of Buffalo, and it's you know,
- 12:21Speaker 4: we've done a lot of work for the people in
- 12:23Speaker 4: Buffalo over the years, and it's important to me, so
- 12:25Speaker 4: I put a lot of work into this one because
- 12:27Speaker 4: it doesn't mean anything to Dohs. When you start, you know,
- 12:29Speaker 4: people that have owned property for decades and you're gonna
- 12:34Speaker 4: cut out half their front yard. It's important to them,
- 12:36Speaker 4: And I think it's important for people to know why
- 12:39Speaker 4: are we doing this what seems like on its face
- 12:42Speaker 4: it's not necessary. Uh, And it seems like, uh, you know,
- 12:48Speaker 4: there's enough there. It just smells because there's government actors
- 12:53Speaker 4: involved in the property that the widening of this road
- 12:56Speaker 4: seems to be serving versus the public good. But I
- 13:01Speaker 4: can't even get doh too, you know, as opposed to
- 13:03Speaker 4: just abiding by the Circuit court order and looking into me,
- 13:08Speaker 4: I'm asking for things like, well, how does get started?
- 13:11Speaker 4: Other emails familiar with the governor's office and break herey,
- 13:14Speaker 4: because back when this was started, break herey. If you recall,
- 13:17Speaker 4: he was some kind of governor assistant or something and
- 13:22Speaker 4: it was a made up position. And you have other
- 13:28Speaker 4: members of the legislature that were all over the paperwork
- 13:33Speaker 4: on this, Roger Henshaw being one of them. I'm not
- 13:36Speaker 4: sure if he's involved in any longer, frankly, but why
- 13:40Speaker 4: not just tell us and so we'll see. So maybe
- 13:43Speaker 4: the Supreme courtill get a chance to weigh in on that. Obviously,
- 13:47Speaker 4: the Department of Highways thinks they have a good argument
- 13:50Speaker 4: to prevent the public from knowing information that I think
- 13:55Speaker 4: everyone should be automatically entitled to go back and look
- 13:58Speaker 4: at the emails, look at the data.
- 14:00Speaker 2: You know.
- 14:00Speaker 4: Normally, I think projects like this start because you know,
- 14:03Speaker 4: kind of commission or a town or a local group
- 14:06Speaker 4: of citizens has complained about a road issue or they're
- 14:09Speaker 4: having major problems. I don't see any of that here.
- 14:11Speaker 4: If that's the case, and that's the reason why this
- 14:14Speaker 4: project was started, then just tell us. But they don't
- 14:18Speaker 4: want to, and now they're going to you know, I
- 14:20Speaker 4: don't know how much. It's not an attorney general's that's
- 14:23Speaker 4: representing the state. It's a private law firm, So who
- 14:25Speaker 4: knows how much they're paying them to now take this
- 14:28Speaker 4: to the Supreme Court just to prevent the citizens from
- 14:31Speaker 4: knowing why you started this project. It's abhorrent to me,
- 14:36Speaker 4: But we're going to keep fighting the good fight on
- 14:37Speaker 4: that one and we'll see how it comes out.
- 14:39Speaker 3: We have another caller that's called in this morning. Thanks
- 14:42Speaker 3: a lot for your phone call. You can get in
- 14:43Speaker 3: this morning three zero four, three four five fifty to fifty.
- 14:45Speaker 3: Remember we'll go in to hold Q as soon as
- 14:47Speaker 3: you call in and we'll get you on the air
- 14:49Speaker 3: as soon as it's time a caller. You are on
- 14:51Speaker 3: the air, And now what's your first name?
- 14:53Speaker 2: Bob?
- 14:53Speaker 3: Hey, Bob, what are you doing this morning?
- 14:56Speaker 6: Done?
- 14:56Speaker 2: Well?
- 14:57Speaker 6: Tom? I wanted to ask a question concerning transfer on
- 15:03Speaker 6: death deeds. Sure, my daughter has suggested to us. I'm
- 15:10Speaker 6: eighty eight, my wife's eighty eight. We both have our
- 15:14Speaker 6: own wills, and as far as I know, neither one
- 15:20Speaker 6: of us is terminal right now. But she suggested we
- 15:25Speaker 6: do that. And I don't know the law, but I'm
- 15:29Speaker 6: thinking that that would be since we both have our
- 15:33Speaker 6: own will, it would be better to wait until one
- 15:37Speaker 6: of us survives the other and have the survivor get
- 15:42Speaker 6: a transfer on death deed. And I'll hang up and listen.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Okay, thanks for the call, Bob. Thanks Bob.
- 15:49Speaker 4: Yeah, we've had a lot of discussion about transferring death
- 15:51Speaker 4: deeds over the last few years. It was a it's
- 15:54Speaker 4: a deed that the legislature created I think in twenty
- 15:58Speaker 4: fifteen if I recall correct, and it's a really good
- 16:02Speaker 4: a state planning tool. So what a transfer on death
- 16:07Speaker 4: deed does you? Bob and his spouse would sign the deed,
- 16:12Speaker 4: it gets recorded, but it doesn't actually take effect until,
- 16:18Speaker 4: in essence, the last one of him and his wife
- 16:21Speaker 4: pass away. And there's language in the deed that says,
- 16:25Speaker 4: when we pass away, this property belongs to A and B.
- 16:30Speaker 4: Let's just say they have one daughter and that's who
- 16:32Speaker 4: they want to get it. And so in that deed
- 16:35Speaker 4: we can say who gets the property the moment you
- 16:37Speaker 4: pass away, who owns it. You can also put contingent
- 16:40Speaker 4: beneficiaries in the deed, so if that person had happened
- 16:43Speaker 4: to pass away before you, because unfortunately we can't predict
- 16:47Speaker 4: that and it doesn't always go in the order that
- 16:48Speaker 4: we want. But maybe more to the point for Bob's inquiry,
- 16:55Speaker 4: it's I would probably go ahead and do it now
- 16:58Speaker 4: if it makes sense for for Bob, as opposed to
- 17:01Speaker 4: waiting for one of them to pass away, because you
- 17:04Speaker 4: can't have tunnel vision on this. I mean, it's not
- 17:08Speaker 4: I get the cases when things don't go as expected,
- 17:11Speaker 4: you hear about them. So you know, Bob and his
- 17:12Speaker 4: spouse were in an automobile accent together and something happens
- 17:15Speaker 4: to them, or a fire, anything, you know, do they
- 17:18Speaker 4: pass quickly? Or when I'm as a you know, Alzheimer's
- 17:22Speaker 4: or a dimension in the future doesn't have the ability
- 17:24Speaker 4: to sign a transferring death deed. So there's there's no
- 17:27Speaker 4: harm in going ahead that I see in doing the
- 17:31Speaker 4: transferring death deed. Now now I will if a transferring
- 17:35Speaker 4: death deaed is not in place, I will will take
- 17:37Speaker 4: care of it. However, it will go through probate, and
- 17:42Speaker 4: probate's not it's not some it's not Darth Vader over
- 17:47Speaker 4: in the corner that you just have to avoid absolutely,
- 17:51Speaker 4: and especially in West Virginia, it's really not that complicated.
- 17:55Speaker 4: But when assets go through probate, there is a time
- 17:59Speaker 4: peer in a process where creditors can file claims against
- 18:02Speaker 4: your assets that go through the probate process. So when
- 18:06Speaker 4: it goes by your will, it is going through probate.
- 18:11Speaker 4: So transferring death deed generally prevents creditors from you making
- 18:17Speaker 4: claims to that property because it doesn't go through probate.
- 18:20Speaker 4: It's automatic the moment the last one of you passes away,
- 18:25Speaker 4: title passes to.
- 18:27Speaker 1: The new owner.
- 18:28Speaker 4: And in particular, people have concerns about, you know, if
- 18:32Speaker 4: they need to go into a nursing home and they
- 18:34Speaker 4: need to use medicaid, which is a welfare benefit to
- 18:37Speaker 4: pay for that care.
- 18:40Speaker 1: Normally.
- 18:41Speaker 4: Normally, if it's your home place, you know, nobody comes
- 18:45Speaker 4: in and takes your home while you're living. There's some
- 18:50Speaker 4: basic paperwork that can be completed, not really through the lawyer,
- 18:53Speaker 4: but during the application process for the Medicaid long term
- 18:57Speaker 4: care benefit that doesn't require you to liquidate your home
- 19:02Speaker 4: to pay for long term nursing home care. You get
- 19:07Speaker 4: an exemption for your home up to a certain value,
- 19:09Speaker 4: so you can retain that. So maybe even though you
- 19:11Speaker 4: have a two hundred thousand dollar home pay that's where
- 19:14Speaker 4: your mortgage is paid off free and clear, you can
- 19:16Speaker 4: still be eligible for Medicaid long term care or welfare benefit.
- 19:21Speaker 4: Welfare has negative connotations, but that just means it's not
- 19:25Speaker 4: based on you paying tax over the years or be
- 19:27Speaker 4: invested in any type of benefit. If you financially qualify,
- 19:32Speaker 4: you qualify, so you can't have very much money in
- 19:34Speaker 4: the bank, and you can't own other investment property and
- 19:37Speaker 4: things like that, but your home is generally exempt from
- 19:39Speaker 4: that calculation. So then folks feel like, well, I want
- 19:43Speaker 4: to be able to pass at least my home down
- 19:45Speaker 4: to my children for example, and a transfer on death
- 19:48Speaker 4: deed is a tool that can help you do that
- 19:54Speaker 4: because even though they don't come take your home while
- 19:57Speaker 4: you're living, there is a process called a state recovery
- 19:59Speaker 4: that can and happen where when you pass, then the
- 20:02Speaker 4: government can come back and place a lien on your home,
- 20:07Speaker 4: you know, for the value the care the government paid
- 20:09Speaker 4: for you in a nursing home. So it doesn't it
- 20:12Speaker 4: becomes you think of a lean as like it's like
- 20:14Speaker 4: a mortgage or something that they would place on it,
- 20:16Speaker 4: and then your children will have to deal with that
- 20:19Speaker 4: if your property goes by the will. Generally that can
- 20:21Speaker 4: be prevented right now via these transfermed death deeds. So
- 20:26Speaker 4: if the only and on it TRANSFERM death deed, you're
- 20:31Speaker 4: not giving up any ownership interest in it when you
- 20:33Speaker 4: sign it as the owner, the parent somebody in Bob's position.
- 20:36Speaker 4: So if you change your mind, you have a child
- 20:39Speaker 4: that goes bad or whatever, you can just do another
- 20:43Speaker 4: TRANSFERM death deed or even revoke the one you already did,
- 20:47Speaker 4: either changing the beneficiaries or reverting it to the way
- 20:49Speaker 4: it was before and so, and you don't need you know,
- 20:54Speaker 4: your beneficiaries permission, or they don't even need to know
- 20:56Speaker 4: about it. Although the deed's recorded, it's a public record,
- 20:59Speaker 4: so it's an excellent tool in that regard and used
- 21:03Speaker 4: to see people do things like parents would need property
- 21:06Speaker 4: their kids but reserve a life estate. That was a
- 21:10Speaker 4: pretty popular state planning tool before transferring death eaeds. I
- 21:13Speaker 4: haven't drafted one of those, maybe one or two for
- 21:15Speaker 4: some particular factual scenarios since they started allowing transformed death
- 21:21Speaker 4: deaeds because I mean, I don't want to give up
- 21:24Speaker 4: my property and put my kids on there, because then
- 21:26Speaker 4: when you reserve a life estate, you can't borrow against it,
- 21:29Speaker 4: you can't sell it. You could potentially be subject to
- 21:31Speaker 4: your kid's creditors claims even while you're living when you
- 21:35Speaker 4: reserve a life estate, So the transferm death needs a
- 21:37Speaker 4: way to go. Another reason maybe not to do it,
- 21:40Speaker 4: and I don't think it applies in Bob's case. But
- 21:42Speaker 4: if you're trying to do something complicated with your property
- 21:45Speaker 4: multiple beneficiaries, maybe some part of the sale of the
- 21:49Speaker 4: home should go and trust because you have a disabled
- 21:51Speaker 4: child or some other reason you want somebody to manage
- 21:55Speaker 4: the funds and a trust, then you really got to
- 21:58Speaker 4: go through a will because you can only do so
- 22:00Speaker 4: much in the transform death y. But if you have
- 22:03Speaker 4: two adult children and you want them to get your
- 22:06Speaker 4: home when you pass away, you can do it for
- 22:08Speaker 4: other property, not just your home.
- 22:11Speaker 1: But it doesn't have that.
- 22:13Speaker 4: Same Medicaid benefit because you don't get exemptions. You're going
- 22:16Speaker 4: to have to probably liquid at your other land if
- 22:18Speaker 4: you need to pay for your nursing home care before
- 22:21Speaker 4: you get on Medicaid. But other than that, it's an
- 22:24Speaker 4: excellent estate planning to one if anybody. If you want
- 22:27Speaker 4: to transform death deed, just call the office. We normally
- 22:31Speaker 4: don't need an in person appointment. Me Dad or our
- 22:35Speaker 4: staff will have a short conversation, make sure you understand
- 22:38Speaker 4: what it is. Pretty much every county we can access
- 22:44Speaker 4: deeds via our online accounts now, so literally you call,
- 22:48Speaker 4: tell us you want it done. We go over you
- 22:51Speaker 4: know who do you want to be your beneficiaries? Do
- 22:52Speaker 4: you want a contingent beneficiary in case something happens to
- 22:55Speaker 4: that person before.
- 22:56Speaker 1: You we draft the deed.
- 22:59Speaker 4: How busy we allre you so we can get it
- 23:00Speaker 4: done fairly quickly, within ten business days, maybe a couple
- 23:04Speaker 4: of weeks. Then we just leave it out front of
- 23:07Speaker 4: our office and we're all notedy. So you stop by
- 23:10Speaker 4: your convenience and sign it and give us a check
- 23:15Speaker 4: for the recording fee that the clerk charges. We record
- 23:17Speaker 4: it for you and it's all done. Pretty simple process.
- 23:20Speaker 3: It's pretty simple. Can't can't get much better than that.
- 23:22Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm. If you're looking to maybe get some
- 23:24Speaker 3: help on this or other issues, it's one line Paytent
- 23:26Speaker 3: Lawfirm dot com. P e y T you in Payton
- 23:28Speaker 3: Law Firm dot com. Phone number three zero four seven
- 23:30Speaker 3: five five fifty five fifty six. Three zero four seven
- 23:32Speaker 3: five five fifty five fifty six is the number you
- 23:34Speaker 3: can call for the next fifteen minutes or so. You
- 23:36Speaker 3: can call Tom here if you have questions. We've already
- 23:39Speaker 3: had several listeners do that this morning, and you can
- 23:41Speaker 3: get in on the action. Three zero four three four
- 23:43Speaker 3: five fifty eight fifty eight. Three four five fifty eight
- 23:45Speaker 3: fifty eight is a number that you can get in here.
- 23:47Speaker 3: No text messages yet this morning. Usually we have some
- 23:49Speaker 3: text messages, so you can do that as well. Three
- 23:51Speaker 3: zero four non three five five zero zero eight three
- 23:53Speaker 3: zero four nine three five five zero zero eight.
- 23:56Speaker 1: Let's do this.
- 23:56Speaker 3: Let's go ahead and take our break when we come back.
- 23:58Speaker 3: Then we'll have a clear landing for the rest to
- 24:00Speaker 3: the show to take your phone calls and tackle your issues.
- 24:03Speaker 3: If you have any of those, you can give us
- 24:03Speaker 3: a call three zero four three four five fifty eight
- 24:06Speaker 3: fifty eight. You're listening to Ask the Lawyer this morning.
- 24:08Speaker 3: Tom Payton is here from the Paton Law Firm in Nitro,
- 24:10Speaker 3: West Virginia. Online Payton Lawfirm dot com. That's Payton Lawfirm
- 24:14Speaker 3: dot com. P E Y T O N. We'll take
- 24:16Speaker 3: a break and be back right after this. You're asking too.
- 24:18Speaker 3: You're listening to the law He're on five eight w
- 24:21Speaker 3: c HS, The Voice of Charleston.
- 24:22Speaker 7: I'm doctor Stephen Eschiner, Eagle Scale Army Colonel, emergency physician
- 24:27Speaker 7: and a father of six, including four by adoption. Because
- 24:30Speaker 7: in West Virginia we take care of our own. I've
- 24:33Speaker 7: spent my life serving in uniform, in the er and
- 24:36Speaker 7: on the farm. Now I'm ready to serve in the
- 24:38Speaker 7: State Senate, fighting for better healthcare, real jobs, and the
- 24:42Speaker 7: conservative values that make West Virginia home. I'm doctor Stephen Eshnauer,
- 24:47Speaker 7: proven conservative, ready to.
- 24:49Speaker 3: Serve, paid for by Eshenhower.
- 24:50Speaker 1: First Senate.
- 24:51Speaker 8: I'm Lance Wheeler, and I'm the conservative Republican running for
- 24:54Speaker 8: the West Virginia State Senate. I'll fight for stronger schools
- 24:57Speaker 8: with more choices so our students can succeed, stand for
- 25:00Speaker 8: safer communities with support of our law enforcement and first
- 25:03Speaker 8: responders who protect us every day. And as a proven
- 25:06Speaker 8: job creator, I'll work to bring high paying jobs, smaller government,
- 25:09Speaker 8: and push for lower taxes so families can keep more
- 25:12Speaker 8: of what they earnt. It's time for proven conservative leadership
- 25:15Speaker 8: for West Virginia, for families, for you. I'm Lance Wheeler,
- 25:19Speaker 8: and I asked for your vote on May twelfth. Paid
- 25:21Speaker 8: for by Wheeler for State Senate.
- 25:36Speaker 3: It is forty eight minutes past the hour. You're listening
- 25:39Speaker 3: to five ADWCHS the Voice of Charleston. This is Ask
- 25:43Speaker 3: the Lawyer. Tom Payton from the Payton Law Firm is
- 25:45Speaker 3: in studio with us this morning. You can give us
- 25:47Speaker 3: a call this morning three zero four three four five
- 25:49Speaker 3: fifty eight three zero four three four five fifty eight
- 25:51Speaker 3: fifty eight. You can put the law on your side
- 25:53Speaker 3: at Peyton Law Firm can help you out this morning
- 25:55Speaker 3: with any questions that you have with the law. And
- 25:57Speaker 3: we've had some callers already this morning. You can get
- 25:59Speaker 3: in that Q as well at three four five fifty
- 26:01Speaker 3: to fifty eight. You can text three zero four nine
- 26:03Speaker 3: three five five zero's a rate yeah up.
- 26:07Speaker 1: First callers question.
- 26:08Speaker 4: So I was looking at the code just to refresh
- 26:11Speaker 4: my recollection, and it was I don't know if it
- 26:15Speaker 4: was this year or last year's bill, but there's an
- 26:19Speaker 4: Economic Development Act of nineteen eighty five that was a mended.
- 26:22Speaker 4: It's questioning code. Section five B is in boy dash
- 26:25Speaker 4: two dash twenty one lowercase A, and it it has
- 26:32Speaker 4: a bunch of information about while data centers are so important,
- 26:36Speaker 4: even referencing something about China becoming the world leader in
- 26:40Speaker 4: data centers or something maybe that's.
- 26:43Speaker 1: A threat.
- 26:45Speaker 4: But more importantly has a record keeping section and it
- 26:50Speaker 4: says that any information provided by a data center pursue
- 26:54Speaker 4: it to this section, which is relating to you know,
- 26:57Speaker 4: applications and Department of Commerce like that that is identified
- 27:03Speaker 4: by the data center as confidential business information. So I
- 27:06Speaker 4: will be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. So
- 27:10Speaker 4: that's uh, that's why the first color is frustrated, and
- 27:16Speaker 4: that's probably why the County Commission cannot talk about certain
- 27:21Speaker 4: aspects of a perspective data center, which it.
- 27:26Speaker 3: Feels a little odd, right, I mean, I don't I
- 27:27Speaker 3: don't really know. I don't have any experience like it.
- 27:29Speaker 3: It feels odd.
- 27:30Speaker 1: I don't like it.
- 27:30Speaker 4: I mean, there's certainly that you know, you're talking about
- 27:36Speaker 4: economic development, there are certain certain but that's something been
- 27:41Speaker 4: on the books for year decades. You know, if there's
- 27:44Speaker 4: if there's certain development uh negotiations or dealings, you know
- 27:50Speaker 4: when they're almost conceptual, those are exempt from for you
- 27:54Speaker 4: because there might still be negotiations going on about the
- 27:59Speaker 4: purchase of private land, for example, and you know, maybe
- 28:02Speaker 4: that there might be inside information disclosed and exploring that
- 28:09Speaker 4: to government officials that shouldn't be disclosed to the public
- 28:12Speaker 4: because there's still negotiations going on about purchasing and things
- 28:17Speaker 4: like that.
- 28:17Speaker 1: But I think that should be a limited exception, not
- 28:22Speaker 1: the rule.
- 28:22Speaker 4: But I mean, that's we've got the legislature we've got
- 28:26Speaker 4: because that's who we've elected. And so if you want
- 28:28Speaker 4: to change that, you got to go to the polls,
- 28:31Speaker 4: which we all know from the flood of commercials this
- 28:34Speaker 4: week and last week and the week before that, now
- 28:36Speaker 4: is the time I think we're getting kind of low
- 28:39Speaker 4: we're going to get low voter turn out on the primary.
- 28:41Speaker 4: It's an off yr election. And but there's some important
- 28:45Speaker 4: I mean, you got there's judicial race. Judicial races like
- 28:52Speaker 4: Intermediate Quarter of Appeals, Supreme Quarter of Appeals of West Virginia.
- 28:56Speaker 4: Those are non partis of now. So this is the election.
- 28:59Speaker 4: So if you and that's really important, I mean, they
- 29:03Speaker 4: they I've got two Supreme Court justice spots up for election.
- 29:09Speaker 4: And you know, as I think most people know, once
- 29:11Speaker 4: you get to the West Vinia Supreme Court, that's the
- 29:13Speaker 4: end of the line. So whatever they however, the Supreme
- 29:17Speaker 4: Court interprets the law and rules that's going to govern
- 29:20Speaker 4: everybody in the state. So it's it's kind of out
- 29:23Speaker 4: there because you know, probably I don't know, zero point
- 29:26Speaker 4: one percent of the population will ever have a case
- 29:27Speaker 4: actually go to the Western Supreme Court of Appeals. But
- 29:30Speaker 4: it's a little more important than that because the way
- 29:32Speaker 4: in which they rule in other cases, if you get
- 29:34Speaker 4: in a situation where that law applies or set of
- 29:38Speaker 4: facts are similar to a Supreme Court decision, that you're
- 29:41Speaker 4: you're going to have to go by that decision, whether
- 29:44Speaker 4: you like it or not.
- 29:46Speaker 1: So pretty important because you've got local school boards.
- 29:49Speaker 4: Are non Yeah, they're non partisan, so they're they're up
- 29:53Speaker 4: for election as well, so it's still pretty important election.
- 29:58Speaker 4: And then because I'm affiliated, so I'm in Putnam County,
- 30:01Speaker 4: so I'll go and vote in the Democratic primary because
- 30:04Speaker 4: they'll let me if you're I think this year might
- 30:09Speaker 4: be the first year or maybe last year where I
- 30:11Speaker 4: think you have to be registered Republican to vote.
- 30:13Speaker 1: This is the first year in a Republican primary.
- 30:15Speaker 4: And of course Putnam County is most of the hotly
- 30:20Speaker 4: contested primary races for the legislature are on the Republican side,
- 30:26Speaker 4: so I'll miss out on being able to vote h there,
- 30:30Speaker 4: But get out and vote. It's you know, it's hard
- 30:32Speaker 4: hard to complain if you don't get out and exercise
- 30:36Speaker 4: you're right to vote. So and you got you know,
- 30:38Speaker 4: early voting. I know in Putnam it used to be
- 30:40Speaker 4: early voting was always at the courthouse, which it's convenient
- 30:43Speaker 4: for me because I'm down there going to court. But
- 30:45Speaker 4: now they have other at least one I know, Valley Park.
- 30:47Speaker 4: You can go and vote early I believe as well,
- 30:50Speaker 4: maybe through Saturday. So there's really no excuse not to
- 30:54Speaker 4: vote when they have early voting as accessible as it is,
- 30:56Speaker 4: and it just takes five minutes when you go in.
- 30:58Speaker 3: I think Hopey had a commentary earlier the week, maybe
- 31:00Speaker 3: on Monday, where he kind of crunched the numbers a
- 31:03Speaker 3: little bit and it wasn't anything hard to get. He
- 31:06Speaker 3: just basically took columns of numbers from voting numbers and
- 31:10Speaker 3: population of the state, age, voting eligible, people that aren't registered,
- 31:16Speaker 3: and so forth. And it's something really extremely small, less
- 31:20Speaker 3: than twenty percent of the states, and that I think
- 31:23Speaker 3: was less than that. It's a tiny percentage of the
- 31:25Speaker 3: state's population voting population that actually decide the people that
- 31:30Speaker 3: hold office. And it's really when you think about the
- 31:34Speaker 3: amount of people that could vote, that are legally allowed
- 31:37Speaker 3: to vote, the amount of people that actually do vote,
- 31:40Speaker 3: it is a huge gap between those things, and so
- 31:42Speaker 3: you really wonder what will of the people are actually
- 31:45Speaker 3: being reflected. I mean, nothing you can do about it.
- 31:47Speaker 3: Voting is the way that it works, man. You got
- 31:49Speaker 3: to get out.
- 31:50Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
- 31:50Speaker 4: And Chris, I try and back myself out of it
- 31:54Speaker 4: because I'm practice law, and I read the Supreme Court
- 31:57Speaker 4: decisions and their inimity Court of Appeals decisions, and you know,
- 32:00Speaker 4: deal with circuit judges who are also elected, and well,
- 32:05Speaker 4: if there's contested circuit judge positions, they're going to be
- 32:10Speaker 4: elected as well next week. So but I think it's hard,
- 32:16Speaker 4: you know, and I go into the about sometimes I
- 32:19Speaker 4: don't know anything about a race. Sometimes I don't know
- 32:21Speaker 4: anything about the candidates because I haven't researched that particular.
- 32:23Speaker 4: When you talk about executive committees and things like that,
- 32:26Speaker 4: you elect that, you know how that affects your everyday life.
- 32:31Speaker 4: Most people maybe it doesn't. So but you just think
- 32:34Speaker 4: about the everyday person who's not constantly hows a job
- 32:38Speaker 4: that involves being in the mix and in the know
- 32:40Speaker 4: and having to read the news and maybe working you know,
- 32:44Speaker 4: four tens a week at a labor intensive job.
- 32:46Speaker 3: You know, there.
- 32:48Speaker 4: They are they going to spend the time to sit
- 32:50Speaker 4: down and research the candidate, and it's just kind of hard. So,
- 32:53Speaker 4: you know, I can see where folks, if you just
- 32:56Speaker 4: aren't in the know, you'd be less inclined to go
- 33:00Speaker 4: and exercise you're right to vote. But nowadays with computers, smartphones,
- 33:04Speaker 4: social media, I mean, you could spend a half an
- 33:06Speaker 4: hour and kind of read what the candidates are about
- 33:10Speaker 4: I strongly suggest you don't rely on.
- 33:12Speaker 1: These goofy.
- 33:14Speaker 4: Inflammatory commercials largely funded by these out of states.
- 33:17Speaker 3: Yeah, there's websites that go and do a great job
- 33:20Speaker 3: at lining up candidate issues and their own words, so
- 33:23Speaker 3: you don't have to do it like they'll they'll poll candidates,
- 33:24Speaker 3: they'll put all the information out there. Vote smart. There's
- 33:26Speaker 3: a tons of a ton of them out there where
- 33:28Speaker 3: you can go and just get the information. You don't
- 33:29Speaker 3: have to you don't have to listen to the commercials.
- 33:31Speaker 1: That's right. So man, it's they're important.
- 33:34Speaker 4: I mean, actually that kind of dovetails into We had
- 33:37Speaker 4: a I was going to talk about last week, but
- 33:39Speaker 4: we we had to really I'm not sure it's that
- 33:44Speaker 4: significant for West Virginia, but the Voting Rights Act decided
- 33:51Speaker 4: by the US Supreme Court last Wednesday, So it's it's
- 33:54Speaker 4: kind of convoluted. And see if I can break it
- 33:56Speaker 4: down in it so that the Voting Rights Act, I
- 33:59Speaker 4: think was that you know and acted in nineteen sixty five.
- 34:03Speaker 4: You know, back in the sixties and maybe into the seventies,
- 34:08Speaker 4: there were actually like real roadblocks for minorities to vote.
- 34:13Speaker 1: I mean, you know, express provisions that made it very
- 34:19Speaker 1: difficult or impossible.
- 34:21Speaker 4: Obviously, over the decades we've improved as a society significantly there.
- 34:26Speaker 4: But the Voting Rights Act, before the decision last Wednesday, permitted,
- 34:34Speaker 4: or maybe even directed that what we call gerrymandering or
- 34:40Speaker 4: the deciding of voting districts. You know, some of them
- 34:43Speaker 4: needed to be set in a way so that, for example,
- 34:46Speaker 4: African Americans who had been disenfranchised in the past would
- 34:52Speaker 4: have a voting block that would allow them to get
- 34:56Speaker 4: representation in Congress, for example. And if there was an
- 35:04Speaker 4: allegation that there had been jerry mandering conducted that was
- 35:11Speaker 4: aimed to prevent that, or that was the effect of
- 35:16Speaker 4: the redrawing of voting districts, then that could result in
- 35:21Speaker 4: that redrawing of the district being deemed a violation of
- 35:26Speaker 4: the Voting Rights Act. So Louisiana was in this case
- 35:30Speaker 4: at the US Supreme Court and they had drawn two
- 35:34Speaker 4: different districts that had majority minorities voters, and that was
- 35:44Speaker 4: challenged in the US Supreme Court. I think Justice Alito
- 35:48Speaker 4: drafted the opinion, said, well, it's we've just are in
- 35:51Speaker 4: a different place now, and you know this this thing
- 35:56Speaker 4: about the result or the effects of a redistrict is
- 36:00Speaker 4: not the proper test. It's you have to prove specific
- 36:04Speaker 4: intent to discriminate against let's say, African Americans in order
- 36:09Speaker 4: to win the case, which is a but things like
- 36:14Speaker 4: partisan jerrymandering is there's nothing wrong with that. So when
- 36:17Speaker 4: you know intent is in, it's a mental state. So
- 36:22Speaker 4: it make that standard that they've now mandated largely makes
- 36:28Speaker 4: it impossible to challenge.
- 36:29Speaker 1: And you think, no big deal. But now in the
- 36:33Speaker 1: last week, you think, what did that Voting Rights Act?
- 36:36Speaker 4: Well? Do well, maybe not much, But in the last
- 36:39Speaker 4: week we're seeing multiple multiple multiple states now just jumping
- 36:44Speaker 4: on the opportunity of redistrict.
- 36:45Speaker 3: We're trying to recall Louise Annason governor.
- 36:47Speaker 1: To jerry mander.
- 36:49Speaker 4: So we're learning what that Voting Rights Act did help
- 36:53Speaker 4: with because we're seeing, you know, once it was overturned
- 36:57Speaker 4: in essence signific again jerrymandering too. Now that they don't
- 37:01Speaker 4: have that limitation. So we'll we'll see how the fallout comes.
- 37:04Speaker 4: I mean, Congress could correct that to a certain extent,
- 37:08Speaker 4: but they probably won't. We'll just have to wait and see.
- 37:11Speaker 3: Best The Peyton Lawfirm dot com that's Harvey or that's
- 37:13Speaker 3: Tom Payton this morning. Seven five five fifty five fifty
- 37:15Speaker 3: six seven five five fifty five fifty six Nitro West Virginia,
- 37:18Speaker 3: Peyton Lawfirm dot com. Have a great day, everyone, one
- 37:20Speaker 3: five ADWCHS The Voice for Charles Dady, w c HSAI,
- 37:26Speaker 3: W two four three d r F M Charlestown, W
- 37:29Speaker 3: two eight three HU Cross Lanes, a WVRC media station.
- 37:33Speaker 5: We're proud to live here too,