Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 11/30/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton
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- 0:45Put the power of Paton on your side, the power of paying. It's
- 0:58a twenty two in this This is five eighty WCCHS the Voice of Charleston.
- 1:03Good Thursday morning to you Jeff Jenkins and Harvey Peyton of the Peyton Law Firm
- 1:07in Nitro. And the line is open any calls about the law. Harvey
- 1:11can answer those three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three
- 1:15oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Good morning sir, Good
- 1:19morning, Jeff. It was a beautiful Putnam County morning this morning down in
- 1:23Taye Valley and coming up through the bridge project there on I sixty four.
- 1:26We're moving closer and closer to completion here. I think in probably a month
- 1:33it'll be a straight shot. You'll lose that lane change because they had to
- 1:38rebuild the approach bridges on the Nitro side right. They built a new approach
- 1:44bridge which is what you drive on now go on westbound, and then the
- 1:51old two approach bridges they tore down one. They're rebuilding it once it's ready,
- 1:53then they'll put traffic on that near the other old approach bridge down it
- 1:59you know, looks like it's online. They say they're going to be finished
- 2:01next fall, and we look forward to it. More signs of growth in
- 2:05Putnam County and in Mason County. You know, we've got I talked day
- 2:09before yesterday to a client of mine who's also the sign of a long time
- 2:15and really good client of mine, who unfortunately he is a car bighter and
- 2:22you know, music, Thelioma's just a gift that keeps on giving after like
- 2:25thirty years out of the plant, and he's unfortunately lot with us. But
- 2:30he did invest in some real estate down in Mason County bought a farm from
- 2:32some cousins of mine, the Stanleys, just south of the Shade Farm.
- 2:38And apparently the interest is keen in that real estate, and for decades the
- 2:43interest in the real estate really beautiful farmland from like well Beech Hill all the
- 2:49way down to the mouth of the Kanaar River. It was mostly big time
- 2:53grain farmers from over to Ohio. They would lease the land grow soybeans mostly.
- 2:58And are you talking to Fraser's Buham side or the other side on the
- 3:01Round thirty five five side, Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some farming
- 3:06on the other side. Like oh, Tom Wiimson has a big farm spend
- 3:10in his family since eighteen eighty nine, seventeen eighty nine, his great great
- 3:16time it's like seven times great grandfathers was with George Washington Valley Forge. If
- 3:23he's going to sign on the front of his bars, his heritage farm's got
- 3:24a little the history and it's part of a land grant. They still have
- 3:28a couple thousand acres left and they do a lot of farming. But the
- 3:30big farming, you know with these boys from over in Ohio is on the
- 3:36like the south west side of the River, gorgeous, gorgeous drive if you
- 3:39don't have anything to do and you're you know, you're living a little scenic
- 3:45pastime and you're going towards Point Pleasant, or if you're going to Columbus or
- 3:49Cincinnata and you go down thirty five to Jackson, get off there at the
- 3:53Buffalo Bridge at Plinny and just take what's now called eight seventeen down to to
- 4:00Henderson and go across the Silver Bridge right there. I mean, there's no
- 4:02truck traffic now, and it's just a gorngeous drive. I did it hundreds
- 4:08of times when I was a little kid, because like my paternal grandmother was
- 4:13born down there on sixteen Occer. He's one of thirteen kids. And so
- 4:16I've got sittill cousins, remote cousins and people that I'm close to down in
- 4:23Mason County, which reminds me. I noticed on your events sheet that lays
- 4:28here on the table. I guess this Saturday, which is December the second,
- 4:34at the Clay Center, there is going to be a Sounds of Christmas
- 4:39concert, Right, that's a good thing. Western is Selphony seven point thirty.
- 4:44I don't know what the ticket sales are like but I'll tell you if
- 4:46you live in if you're in Putnam or Mason County or Jackson, there is
- 4:53a place in Galapolis, Ohio, which is right across the river. There.
- 4:56When you get off the Silver Bridge, you take a left and takes
- 4:59you right down on gal Police. First of all, they had one of
- 5:01the great light shows that I've ever seen. I think it would probably rival
- 5:06what's over here at Gilmart Park, although that certainly is a fantastic show here
- 5:11at Charleston. And there's an old opera house, the Aerial Opera House,
- 5:15that was rebuilt and reconditioned by the citizens of volunteers in gal Police maybe fifteen
- 5:21twenty years ago. They got a bequest from another citizen to help endow the
- 5:27operations. And they host the Ohio Valley Symphony Orchestra the OVS, which is
- 5:34really good. It's like a forty five p they're professional musicians, they're just
- 5:39like the people that play in fact, some of them play in the Charleston
- 5:42Symphony Orchestra. Larry Griss's wife plays in the High Valley Symphony Orchestra. And
- 5:46their Christmas show is Saturday night as well, so you can if you want
- 5:54a little experience. Leave before dark, drive down thirty five eight seventeen,
- 6:00beautiful scenery, get over there to gall Police in time to see the light
- 6:02show, walk around the square and if you can get a ticket going into
- 6:09the Christmas show. We're going down. There's me and Jen and oh my
- 6:16daughter's son in law and I think both of her kids. And then we've
- 6:19got I got some extra tickets, but I'm going to hang on to them
- 6:23in case anybody else decides. It's a really great, great place, great
- 6:26time gal Police is. It's always had a little sense of prosperity that you
- 6:32don't find or haven't found on the West Virginia side in a long time.
- 6:36You know, when the Silver Bridge fell back in the fall of sixty seven
- 6:46and then the new road was built. The bridge was built, was built
- 6:48on the other side of the river. It just took a point pleasant out
- 6:53of the loop. You know, it's arout. Thirty five goes across the
- 6:56road to Dayton and it you know, if you go up to turn up
- 7:00the river, there was no bridge to get back into town. So if
- 7:03you wanted to go to point where you had to want to go there to
- 7:05get there, you just was in the place he went through, and it's
- 7:09taking a long time, but Mason County's on the rebound. I used to
- 7:13do a lot of business in Mason County because the circuits were the same,
- 7:15and still do a good bit of business in Mason County. They have,
- 7:19in my estimation, the best public servant that I know to ever have served
- 7:26the people in West Virginia. And John Musgrave he's the development director down there
- 7:30there. John was the Farmer's Home Administration director. He was the director of
- 7:34that. Look get this, he was the director of the West Virginia Lottery
- 7:38Commission for like twenty years and no scandal. Nobody went to prison, nobody
- 7:43got caught cheating. They made a lot of money, they helped fund the
- 7:46place with no controversy and those scandal he retired. Now he's development director.
- 7:50And see what's happening in Mason County when you get a good, solid citizen
- 7:54who works hard and has the people's interest only at heart, and new corps
- 7:59and get the other place up at the TNT and it's going to get better.
- 8:03I mean it's the contacts that my friends are getting, like in Henderson,
- 8:07from a company like Marriott to build a new hotel while on the West
- 8:11Virginia side. Hey, because they see business from Newport, So we'll see.
- 8:16It's not been a very busy week in the law. You know,
- 8:20you follow a week of Thanksgiving, this is the time when things generally slow
- 8:24down a bit. Now from the standpoint of accident and injury claims, auto
- 8:28accidents and other things. People, you know, there is sort of a
- 8:31push to turn setle cases by the end of the year. The adjusters like
- 8:35to close out files and sometimes the classes call and say, hey, listen,
- 8:39I can give a little bit on this claim because I need some money.
- 8:41And it used to be in the old days. That's what happened.
- 8:45And you kind of took it easy for January and worked really hard for a
- 8:48couple of months. You can pay your income taxes in April, and then
- 8:52everybody went on vacation in the summertime. You hit it a lick from September
- 8:56through November to get ready for Christmas. Now with the emails and computers,
- 9:01it's go, go go. But now if you go go go to the
- 9:03knack Aandy courthouse, they are going to be at least seven and soon to
- 9:07be eight people who are authorized to pack heat in the courthouse. I guess
- 9:11an order was entered by Judge Selango yesterday. She's the chief judge, but
- 9:16she didn't enter it on her own. I mean, they had a conference
- 9:18of the judges and they agreed that they would authorize themselves to carry firearms,
- 9:26kind of surprising us. Certain when that came out yesterday, I hadn't heard
- 9:30anything go to it. I hadn't heard anything leaning up doubt. You never
- 9:33know what goes on, right, I mean, we hadn't heard about any
- 9:35overt threats or overt actions taken within the courthouse that posed the risk to the
- 9:45circuit judge. But again, you don't know. I mean, people who
- 9:50are involved in security don't tell you everything they know about threats to security because
- 9:56if you knew, then you're telling people how you detect their plans from misconduct.
- 10:00And I'll work around it. But whatever the reason, it doesn't mean
- 10:03the judges will carry you again. But they certainly can in the courthouse,
- 10:09even though other than law enforcement, firearms are restricted to any other personnel there.
- 10:16I mean some might have it, can still carry already, they just
- 10:18couldn't carry it in the courthouse, right, right, right, I mean
- 10:20it's the governmental building and discovered by an order of the county Commission. That's
- 10:24one of those sensitive spots. I mean, it's a duchess. It's not
- 10:30the general public. Certainly, guns have no place other than the hands of
- 10:35law enforcement at a courthouse. I can tell you I've been practicing law for
- 10:39almost fifty years, will be fifty years in May, and I've seen some
- 10:43pretty dagone heated exchanges and confrontations between families. Listen, you get somebody who
- 10:52charged with the murder or some form of homicide, and you get that whether
- 10:58maybe the claim is self defense or justification. So you've got one family with
- 11:01heat and who've got hot blood about one side of the case, and the
- 11:03other folks have lost someone who's dear to them, And you know, they
- 11:07get in there and start testifying, and they're sitting on opposite sides of the
- 11:11island the courtroom, and they all get together in that little hallway out front.
- 11:13I mean, if you allow guns in the courthouse, somebody gonna get
- 11:18shot. I mean that fights breakout. I mean they do call security for
- 11:22fistfights. I mean I saw one in Putnam County right outside the courthouse door.
- 11:28I mean right outside the courtroom door in the hallway. John Wright was
- 11:33the circuit clerk, and you could go out the side of the old courtroom
- 11:35and right into Don's office. There was a little balcony there because you're gone
- 11:41down the back steps. And it involved an assault on a teenage girl allegation
- 11:48where the purported perpetrator and I remember the family just boom putting up together right
- 11:54there in that small space, and it was bad. You know, I
- 11:58thought somebody was going to get ran off the balcony fall. So, you
- 12:03know, for whatever reason, I don't see that it's a good thing or
- 12:07a bad thing. It's just sort of neutral. But it was like,
- 12:09I'm like you, I was sort of surprised when I saw it because there
- 12:11wasn't any lead up or anything in the paper about well the judges feel this,
- 12:16or they go out to the County Commission and ask that. I'm sure
- 12:20they probably did acquire the County Commission, but at least informally. Let me
- 12:24ask you this, Harvey Harvey Payton's with us of the Peyton Law Firmer Nitro.
- 12:28It's a thirty three the number to call three or four three four five
- 12:31fifty eight fifty eight three or four, three, four five, fifty eight,
- 12:35fifty eight. I was reminded of this again because I have a friend,
- 12:39a couple of friends really are kind of going through this where a parent
- 12:45has gotten sick been sick pretty quickly, health is deteriorating. Decisions have to
- 12:52be made, whether home care or assisted living or you know those type of
- 12:56things. And fortunately, families don't get it. There's not agreement, you
- 13:03know what. I mean. It can get and I know you've dealt with
- 13:07a lot. I mean, it can get into sharp things, things are
- 13:09said, and I mean it's just ruins. It ruins families. Sometimes it
- 13:13gets children of odds. I mean, who's uh, you know, you
- 13:18get the situation where one family member, usually a daughter who's here close to
- 13:24a mom or dad who's sort of that duties devaulted upon. Well maybe you've
- 13:28got another sibling who lives in North Carolina or d C or out west as
- 13:33well. I don't agree with that. Well, okay, then you come
- 13:37here, Well I don't agree with what you're doing. Then there can be
- 13:41allegations of financial mismanagement oftentimes as results. Now, if the if the parent
- 13:50or the person who's facing disability has taken the step to good a lawyer and
- 13:58get themselves a valid, well written, professionally done and properly executed, durable
- 14:03general power of attorney. They can name the person that they want they want
- 14:09to take care of their affairs, and those documents are inviolid, even though
- 14:11the person made that later become disabled. And some siblings says, well,
- 14:16I saw what mom would want. Well, that's what she said she wanted.
- 14:20Well, but she's she's demented. Well, that's why she did this
- 14:22in case she became demented. She wants susy to take care of her.
- 14:26And that solves that. Now, it doesn't solve it as far as the
- 14:31social issue of in her family relationships. And I tell people that all the
- 14:35time. You know, the law doesn't have a cure for every social ill.
- 14:37We can address the legallet it's how you deal with your siblings. My
- 14:41advices deal with them as a business. If you're trying those to try a
- 14:46peas, the peas are hanged by those that try to please and some people
- 14:50are just not making them happy. We're going to take a call from Judge
- 14:52Douglas. He might have something to say say about about the guns in the
- 14:56courthouse. Judge, Good morning, how you doing? Wanting good felicitations gentlemen
- 15:01on the holidays and seasons. Greetings. Uh Harvey, I just want to
- 15:05make another point too, if I may, can y'all hear me. Hey,
- 15:09yeah, you sound good? Yeah, okay. I just want to
- 15:13make another point about Judge Selango's order. When I received yesterday, my first
- 15:18thought was that, uh, you know who has more emotive and emotional issues
- 15:26than family court judges. You know, we have things where we take away
- 15:31or cases where we take away children, We split retirements, we sell marital
- 15:37homes, we award alimony, And I'd be hard pressed to think of any
- 15:43more situation as is potentially dangerous to any judge than family court judges in Kanalla
- 15:48County. The circuit judges have controlled secure parking, They have private interests to
- 15:56the court outs which we don't. And nevertheless, we were not mentioned in
- 16:02the administrative order. And I'm saying this not so much. I don't have
- 16:07a position one way or another where we should carry or shouldn't carry. But
- 16:11the point of it is, we and the masters for that matter, were
- 16:14not even included or even mentioned this administrative order. And I thought, gosh,
- 16:18the if family court judges have at least an equal or greater right to
- 16:22be protected to considering type of cases we have. I know the circuit judges
- 16:27have criminal cases, but we have people that are good people, usually acting
- 16:33acting out in emotional manners, and that presents a threat to the family court
- 16:38judges, which should you know. I'm one of the five, and I'm
- 16:41very concerned about that. I don't care now. The thing that popped into
- 16:47my mind when I heard the orders or what about magistrates, I'll be honest,
- 16:51I didn't at the top of mind, wasn't family court judges because I
- 16:53just assumed that the order would cover all, you know, courts of record
- 16:59judges. But does so if we get back to the point of the contents
- 17:04of the administrative order, do these circuit judges, I mean, as chief
- 17:08judge, Does Judge Solango have any supervisory or administrative control over the family coorder?
- 17:15Is that vested exclusively in the Supreme Court? I don't know. I
- 17:19think what I believe within the building, it's still the chief Circuit judge has
- 17:26authority administratively. Of course, we control the areas in where we're situated now.
- 17:33But it just bothered me that the order just says, you know,
- 17:37circuit judges and then reiterates the two thousand and more in order. I think
- 17:41it was March twenty sixth that says nobody can carry other than the circuit judges
- 17:45and law enforcement personnel, and also our bailiff's un armed. The last time
- 17:49I looked, the circ court judges bails were armed or had some type of
- 17:52arm And yeah, I mean, we've all had threats over child cuts,
- 18:00the issues, alimonies and different things like that. And the only thing I
- 18:03can think of that caused this harvey was that there was a notification went out
- 18:10I think it was Monday about a pre Thanksgiving threat by some individual about the
- 18:15X. I don't know how it came about. I don't know how it
- 18:18was at tech that I don't want to know for the reason you said earlier
- 18:22that there would tip somebody off how these things were discovered. Well maybe,
- 18:25And then again, Judge, it could be. I mean, I've had
- 18:30a couple of cases in front of Judge slang Oh dealt with her when she
- 18:33was in the prosecutor's office more often than I've seen her as a circuit judge.
- 18:37You know, Acres is over there too. She was a former prosecutor.
- 18:42She knows how risks risky things are. You've got Carry Webster, her
- 18:45brother was chief of police. Well, we also got Abraham Lady. She
- 18:51worked in the prosecutor's office for Ronald Logan Kety. So maybe it's just an
- 18:53oversight. I would think I agree with you that that the friction points in
- 19:00uh family court are just as heated and just as dangerous, and they're long
- 19:07standing. I mean for years later people. I mean when I was practicing
- 19:11divorce law, years later, people of their families, and they might have
- 19:15reconciled somewhat with the other side, but not with the judge or not with
- 19:18the lawyer usually. And I didn't understand it too, because Judge Kenneth Baller
- 19:22is a former family court judge for a number of years. Oh yeah,
- 19:26I do that one time, and he should know that too. But I'm
- 19:29not blaming him. I'm not blaming Judge Slango. But I hope it's an
- 19:32oversight, and I hope there'll be an a mendered order would come out that
- 19:34we keep supposed to the court justice keep supposed to. Thank you, Jim,
- 19:37We appreciate it, all right, Thank you. M Yeah, that's
- 19:41Family Court judge Jim Doug Jim, good guy, been around a long time.
- 19:44I had. I mean, it just skipped my mind because I first
- 19:48thought about the magistrates. You know, these magistrates are there and they're on
- 19:52duty, uh twenty four hours a day. There's somebody in there. And
- 19:56honestly, now, the security at the Court court House it's not bad given
- 20:00the restraints of the building. Now they built that full year onto the front
- 20:06and put the metal detector and they pretty well control. That's a good friend
- 20:14of mine Whittington that works down there on the east be Chief Police Dunbar Earl.
- 20:21But they don't have an information desk, which is another issue. You
- 20:23know, people will come in and they'll stop and ask the security officers who
- 20:27are trying to scan people and look through their bags for directions on how to
- 20:33get here and there. And I always thought, well, they've got a
- 20:36person sitting over in the old courthouse in the hallway when you walk in,
- 20:40but nobody in the judicial annex and always questions and I know, I think
- 20:45I've talked to a couple of the security officers says, well, it does
- 20:48worry us because if you're distracted, it doesn't take a crook long to figure
- 20:52out I can send somebody through this line and have them start asking questions about
- 20:57where I'm supposed to go to where I'm supposed to be in an animated fashion,
- 21:00somebody can just slip by. Before the security was there. I know,
- 21:04it wasn't always there. Before it was there. Do you just walk
- 21:07right in where master court is? Oh yeah, yeah, he's walk right
- 21:11in the front door. Well listen and they We didn't have any security in
- 21:15the old Putnam County court House, and that was up through the nineties.
- 21:19Now, as soon as the new building was built, we did get security,
- 21:23and we had a retired state trooper in charge of security, and it
- 21:26was you know, so it was scan cards to get in and out,
- 21:30and it's a metal detector at the only accessible door. It was only within
- 21:34the last I'm thinking probably fifteen years that secured entrances were established at the Mason
- 21:41County Courthouse. I think about that the courthouse in the whole region which was
- 21:48subject to a terrorist attack. I mean, a man went in there to
- 21:52see his wife who was confined, and on a Sunday afternoon when the sheriff
- 21:57was there and a couple of troopers and a troop before o' high and he
- 22:00had a satchel with him and a shotgun he got to drop on the sheriff,
- 22:04come back into the cell block, fired a shotgun into the suitcases full
- 22:07of dynamite, blew the jail up. I mean, you can still see
- 22:11the cracks in the walls in the courthouse. And even after that, it
- 22:18was you could go in either side of the building or the downstairs. There
- 22:21were three separate public interests. Just walk in and you could actually take a
- 22:26rite and go back past where the family court is now and walk into the
- 22:30jail that's been remedied. Sure, yeah, yeah, and now I remember
- 22:36I'm worked for years in Montgay County. Yeah, you just walk in and
- 22:40walk upstairs and everything, and you hate to think that those days are passed,
- 22:42but those days are passed. And we've had a smaller population, but
- 22:48we do have a higher incidence of gun ownership gun carrying than most places in
- 22:53the country. And when there's friction, and how many times do you hear
- 22:57about enter, that's how people get killed. It's domestic relationships, family relationships,
- 23:04neighborhood relationships. It's seldom that strangerer on stranger murders are quite quite uncommon.
- 23:11It was interesting to Judge say, we're going to take a break after
- 23:12this, but he said, sounds like there was a pre Thanksgiving threat there.
- 23:17Maybe because it sounds like there's a reason for the order. Okay,
- 23:21all right, we're going to take a break. Harvey's with us, Harvey
- 23:22Payton or the Paytent Law Firm in Nitro. Any questions about the law and
- 23:27Harvey can answer them. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
- 23:30lines are open. Call us now three oh four three four five fifty eight
- 23:36fifty eight Back in the moment on five eight WCHS. Brace yourself for the
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- 24:38power on the side. We have a courtroom experience such you need. We
- 24:47never give up. We're prepared to fight for your rights. When you need
- 24:53action, count on us. Put the power on your side. Eight forty
- 25:10seven five aby w c HS The Voice of Charleston Harvey Payton's here with the
- 25:14Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
- 25:18three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight nitro. Looking good for
- 25:22Christmas. I'm assuming they're pricient, but there Christmas praise this Saturday night.
- 25:29Christmas pread is this Saturday. There are some decorations out at the riding our
- 25:33park. We have a whole group of really great small merchants there in Nitro.
- 25:37Mars Jewelers is the mainstay of the commercial community. You've got Tamar's Letter
- 25:44Antique Mal there on twenty first Street. Greatest collection literally of old records.
- 25:51Yeah overlaid eyes on. I mean, I'm kind of like a Texas swing
- 25:56of fiicionado and he I mean he's got Texas swing albums. I mean,
- 26:00it's just incredible. You across the street to Elizabeth Attic, you can get
- 26:03a nice meal at Catherine's or at Shima's. Saying. Nitro is a place
- 26:07and the Nitro Saint Albans sort of a little complex the Twin Cities. You
- 26:11know, there's a new bakery, suitet shop. It's in Nitro, but
- 26:15it's just on the Nitrous side of the Saint Albans Nitro Bridge and a new
- 26:19building I think that was built by a Nitro business man. If you across
- 26:26into Saint Albans, of course you had old main Plaza and the Mayor's get
- 26:29along really well. All the cities get along. We have cooperative agreements on
- 26:32fire trucks and used to have a big rivalry in football until this year when
- 26:37Nitro put it on Saint Albans like eighty six to six, which that's one
- 26:41of those things that it's almost like at domestic dispute that will not be forgotten
- 26:45by the people in Saint Albans for a long long time. So and actually
- 26:49our we haven't put our Christmas decorations up at the office. We will this
- 26:53week and you know, moving towards Christmas. As I said, though,
- 26:57it's pretty much year round now with the law business and our business of course
- 27:02primarily car wrecks. I mean, that's just the bread and butter of our
- 27:07firm. We had automobile accidents involving the standard vehicles or trucks or ATVs or
- 27:12motorcycles. You know, people fall and hurt themselves because somebody's negligent, somebody
- 27:18leaves grease on the floor or water on a floor. People try to deal
- 27:22with their own insurance company over a loss one of those going right now,
- 27:26They say, well, we don't have any coverage on this. I just
- 27:30settled one here this week where we had to arm wrestle about coverage under a
- 27:33policy. It was a title insurance policy, you know, which is notoriously
- 27:40bad insurance. You know, you're paying their payout under title insurance is less
- 27:42than one percent in claims, and the agent the rights it gets eighty percent
- 27:47or sixty five percent of the premium for writing the policy, and the company
- 27:51keeps the rest. You can imagine, there just aren't that many disputes.
- 27:53And that's what we do. You know, we represent folks who and we're
- 27:59really good at it too. I'll say that if you've got an issue and
- 28:02you live in Cross Lanes, Dunbar, Nitro, Saint Albans or anywhere in
- 28:07Patnam County, or in Mason County or Jackson County or Lincoln and you're looking
- 28:11and I don't want to step on the toes my good friend Joey Stevens down
- 28:15in Hamlin. I mean, let's draw the line there. I'm not not
- 28:19but you know, if you're looking for somebody to handle an injury case or
- 28:22a claim where you think you've suffered a loss, you're not going to do
- 28:26any better than the Peyton Law Firm, period. And you'll see me,
- 28:32or you'll see Tom, or you'll see a member of our staff who's been
- 28:34there and been in the business ten plus years. They know what they're doing,
- 28:38We know where the courthouse is. We know how to deal with and
- 28:42obtain information, how to interview witnesses, and courtrooms. All we go in
- 28:47courtrooms a lot a lot now people, And that's not a big selling point
- 28:51to folks who have claims because say, look, I don't want to go
- 28:52to court. Well, look, the only way you're going to settle your
- 28:56claim is we've got to look at the ultimate outcome in this case. He
- 29:00said, If it means we have to go to court, that's what we
- 29:02have to do. We'll do everything we can to develop this case resolve it
- 29:06in a matter of the satisfactory with you short of a court room. But
- 29:10I can't tell you that you won't have to go to court if you run
- 29:11into some I mean I had a case down in Putnham County years ago.
- 29:17I was actually not quite a successful businessman in Putnham County at the time.
- 29:19He was in high school. At school, bus hit his car and severely
- 29:23fractured his lay. Well, what are you going to do? They got
- 29:27some lawyers, and they got this expert from Northwestern University that wrote the book
- 29:32on accident reconstruction, and he said, well, this is what happened.
- 29:36We'll off of you five thousand dollars. Little boy, he had about fifty
- 29:37thousand dollars in medical bills. The dead worked out of the Union Halls Electricians
- 29:41said, well, you can't do that, but you know it's not good
- 29:47liability. Let's get up talk about somewhere around thirty forty grand. Nut.
- 29:51Well, the jury sought the other way and they laid the pole on him
- 29:53for about four hundred grand. Because once you got to looking at it,
- 29:59you can see exactly what happened. I mean, Frank Miines was the deputy.
- 30:03The fellow relied in his opinion on the position of the cars after the
- 30:07collision. Well, you can easily account for that, and it conformed exactly
- 30:11with what my clients said. So we've been we have, we've been doing
- 30:15it quite a bit. I just say, sometimes you have to go.
- 30:17Nobody wants to go to court. Nobody wants to get involved in a lawsuit.
- 30:21If they do, they're flawed because the last thing you want is a
- 30:25lawsuit. You want to avoid litigation as much as possible. But you can't
- 30:29get a lawyer who's afraid of it. If you need a lawyer who's well
- 30:33versed in it. And because the way you develop a case is developed,
- 30:36like you're going to go to trial and you have to think about, well,
- 30:37what question am I going to ask this person at a trial? What
- 30:41am I going to say to this jury in my opening statement? What about
- 30:44how am I going to And that's a ball and I'll say about that because
- 30:48I've got things that I little techniques that I use that I'm not going to
- 30:51tell anybody else. I mean, want I tell you one. Because these
- 30:55guys are big on power points. Why we get this power point about my
- 31:00here's how spinal injury works. We got these pictures. This was a travelers
- 31:04me anyways. And here's what I've got. I've got a model of a
- 31:10spine, a professionally made medical model of a human spine with nerve endings.
- 31:14I said, now, I like to get that and stand in front of
- 31:17a jury, because you know who they're looking at when I do that,
- 31:19They're looking at me. They're not looking up there at the screen and hearing
- 31:26some distracted voice telling what to do. If you can't be friends with the
- 31:30jury, they're not going to do you any good, period. And we're
- 31:33really good at being friends with the jury. So you're so what you and
- 31:37Tom do, just your request to the listeners or to people in the area,
- 31:41just give you a call. Sure there's still a question, Yeah,
- 31:42right now. I can't tell anybody who to hire or who not to hire.
- 31:47I mean, I said it repeatedly. We have a number of attorneys
- 31:52in West Virginia who advertise aggressively on television, and that's their prerogative. But
- 32:01they are West Virginia attorneys. They're part of our brethren. They's part of
- 32:05their subject to the same sort of restraints on conduct and motive to perform that
- 32:12we are. You know, if you live here and you work here,
- 32:15no matter how the business comes in, you feel compelled as a resident.
- 32:17I mean, I was in Fort Myers, Florida, riding from the hotel
- 32:22to the arena to see the Mountaineers playing. There's this like four story building
- 32:27in Fort Myers, M and M and the largest international law firm in the
- 32:30world. Okay, well in West Virginia. I think they have one room,
- 32:37maybe two rooms, and one lawyer in the little in the little disclaimer
- 32:42that says your case will be handled by a lawyer who's admitted to practice in
- 32:46West Virginia. The lawyer who made this ad is not a West Virginia lawyer
- 32:51right. So now, why do you want a fool with that? When
- 32:52you've got plenty of go and you've got the best lawyers in Putnam Mason Capbell
- 32:55County and this part of the state and in southeast to high right here,
- 33:00why not come and hire us? So that's my stick. And if you
- 33:04want to get in touch with us, Peyton Law Firm dot com, you
- 33:07can use your I p i EP in what is individual electric device whenever they
- 33:13call them or go online and it gives you a website and that way we
- 33:17can answer them any hour the day or night, uh or call and if
- 33:22we're not there to talk to you, well, we try and return every
- 33:23call every day. We do our best, but sometimes there might be a
- 33:28couple of days. Most people understand that it's pretty amazing to me when you
- 33:34call someone and say, oh, well, thank you so much for calling
- 33:36me back as well, that's what you're supposed to do, right, I
- 33:37mean, somebody thinks enough of you as a lawyer to call you and offer
- 33:43to turn over their problems to you. Why wouldn't you think enough of them
- 33:46to call them back. Even if you call them back and say I can't
- 33:49take your case, you'd call them back. It's not like high school dating.
- 33:53It's a serious business. So and this, I mean, we're people
- 34:00walk around, we drive. I mean, there are lawsuits, there are
- 34:01things that happen. I mean, that's just yeah. I mean, well
- 34:06it was an accident. Well, of course it was an accident. Accidents
- 34:09happened because someone makes a mistake. It's not punitive. I mean, you
- 34:15know, if someone's gonna have their head turn and run a stop sign,
- 34:20it happens in life. Somebody is going to say, well, I'm not
- 34:24going to put salt on that sidewalk right now. I'll go val'll get it
- 34:29later. Well, unfortunately someone falls or breaks an egg, breaks an arm.
- 34:35Someone says, well, I won't hurt to just send one text about
- 34:37something at the store without pulling off the road. And then there's and so
- 34:42when someone does something that a reasonable prudent person would not do, or does
- 34:47not do something that a reasonable prudent person would do, and as a result
- 34:52of that action or inaction, you're hurt. The law has a remedy.
- 34:58It's called a tort. You can bring a claim. Generately, there's insurance
- 35:01that covers your damages and injuries. And it pays the lawyer's fees for the
- 35:05person who acted or didn't act and hurt you. If you have an insurance
- 35:09policy and the insurance company won't pay you, that's a breach of their contract
- 35:14because they've contracted to pay you. And if you sue them for breach of
- 35:17that contract, they pay you if you'll win what they should have under the
- 35:22contract. Plus it pays some damages for the inconvenience of having to sue somebody
- 35:29to get what you'd already paid for, Plus pay your lawyer's fees and all
- 35:31your expenses. So but those are the things that you need to talk to
- 35:36lawyers that are adept at doing this to explain to you and answer all your
- 35:39questions. And if you go talk to a lawyer, don't be afraid to
- 35:43ask them a bunch of questions. Now, one of the questions people says,
- 35:45well, what's my case worth it is, well, I can't tell
- 35:47you that. I can tell you that the equities appear to be on your
- 35:51side. It looks like you've got a serious injury, but we don't know
- 35:53yet. Are you going to be able to get back to work. If
- 35:57you can go back to work, is it going to be on a limited
- 36:00basis. Is there some sort of long term treatment you're going to have to
- 36:02have. We've got to look into all those things. Then we need to
- 36:06look and see, Well, we know how the accident happened. One car
- 36:09turned left in front of you. Well, but we're going to have to
- 36:14find out where that person been. Where were they going? Were they on
- 36:16the job, where they making the delivery their employer but using their own personal
- 36:21vehicle, which would make their employer responsible through the agency theory. So there's
- 36:25more insurance coverage here. Had they been to a tavern? You know?
- 36:30One of the most effective arguments I've heard and I've made, are you start
- 36:37the timeline. Well, it's four o'clock in the afternoon and Jim is home
- 36:44watching the television. Bob is at the Hilltop bar drinking. That's what his
- 36:51credit card said. Oh, we just have a little bit of time,
- 36:53right, Well, I want to take credit for eight and four. Let
- 36:55me say this my prediction. My prediction in August was that the Mountaineers would
- 37:00win eight games. That's right. I was off. I thought they would
- 37:02lose the TCU and lose the Baylor on the road and beat Oklahoma State and
- 37:10beat Houston, be Houston. Yeah, okay, so I was off on
- 37:13too, but the records are saying, keep Neil Brown, hold on to
- 37:15the talent. We got to get this, get the mountain or the cutty
- 37:20roads. Trust here, you're not hold the talent. We're looking for great
- 37:22things next year. Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and you can you can go
- 37:25to Peton Lawfirm dot com or call seven five five five five five six seven
- 37:30five five five five five six. Indeed, that's right, fifty five fifty
- 37:34six okay. And ABC News is next. This is five eighty w c HS