Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 07/10/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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07/10/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five AD WHS
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Speaker 2: It's employees, or WVRC media.
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Speaker 3: You're listening to ask the lawyer five ADWCHS the voice
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Speaker 3: of Charles a little different. Open to the show this morning,
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Speaker 3: Tom here with us this morning.
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Speaker 4: Actually that's what you get to hear. If you call
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Speaker 4: our office then you have to be placed on hold.
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Speaker 3: That sounds real nice.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good, So probably I could just shut up
0:55
Speaker 4: and we can. Let we'll be a longer version. You
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Speaker 4: better be on whold didn't talk to me? No, That
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Speaker 4: is obviously Country Roads. But the rendition is, uh, that's
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Speaker 4: my brother in law, Brian Roberts. He he actually works
1:09
Speaker 4: for Union Mission, but he is a really good musician
1:12
Speaker 4: and gives guitar lessons and things like that. But that's
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Speaker 4: him playing a twelve string acoustic country rights.
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Speaker 3: And that sounds that sounds nice, There's no doubt about that.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean kind of getting ready for football season,
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Speaker 4: kind of dubtails into that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, very truely. I get you get everything hyped up
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Speaker 3: and ready to go. That's obviously Tom Payton. For the
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Speaker 3: Payton Law Firm. You can call us this morning if
1:32
Speaker 3: you have any questions. Threes are four three, four, five
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Speaker 3: fifty fifty eight. If you have any questions for the
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Speaker 3: Patent Law firm, you can put the power of Peyton
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Speaker 3: on your side today. Threes are four three, four five
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Speaker 3: fifty fifty eight, three four five fifty to fifty. You
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Speaker 3: can also text over any questions you have. Three es
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Speaker 3: are A four non, three, five, five zero or eight.
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Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm located at Nitro, West, Virginia. Peyton Law
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Speaker 3: Firm dot com p E y t O in Peyton
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Speaker 3: Law from dot com. We'll get you more information as
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Speaker 3: the show goes on today. How you've been, Tom, How
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Speaker 3: thing's going?
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Speaker 4: Ben Well? Ben Well, we had missed till last week.
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Speaker 4: I guess you're on vacation. Well deserved.
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Speaker 3: I'm sure get one every once in a while.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: Good, Now, we had a lot of flurry of US
2:03
Speaker 4: Supreme Court decisions before, so Matt and I talked about
2:05
Speaker 4: that some last week. We had on the local level
2:09
Speaker 4: this week, actually, I was in court yesterday for a
2:14
Speaker 4: kind of mundane de collection type matter with some interesting facts,
2:21
Speaker 4: and here came the cameras into the courtroom with oh,
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Speaker 4: this isn't can't be newsworthy. But it was the Gavin
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Speaker 4: Smith case. It's been actually reported here on your station
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Speaker 4: a couple of times, and so that was. I can't
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Speaker 4: remember the underlying facts because it's been a few years,
2:36
Speaker 4: but I think it was out towards Elkview and it
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Speaker 4: was a he might have been under eighteen when the
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Speaker 4: crimes or the almost as I mean, I think family
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Speaker 4: members were killed. He was convicted, I think of all
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Speaker 4: four counts. And it's it's interesting because I think Chris
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Speaker 4: was reporting it this morning and it was the judge
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Speaker 4: made an errant instruction to the jury, which which is
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Speaker 4: what the Western Supreme Court found. It got reversed, so
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Speaker 4: that yesterday was the first hearing back in the trial
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Speaker 4: court after his conviction was reversed. But doesn't mean he's
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Speaker 4: not guilty. They remanded it back for a new trial
3:15
Speaker 4: to do it differently. But and Judge Ballardi's on that case.
3:18
Speaker 4: It was before Judge Ballard, who I think is really
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Speaker 4: good judge here in Kanall County. But actually I read
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Speaker 4: the case when it came out, so even it was
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Speaker 4: an instruction to the jury that ultimately the Supreme Court
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Speaker 4: found shouldn't have been given, but it was also I mean,
3:33
Speaker 4: it was urged upon the court by the prosecuting attorney,
3:36
Speaker 4: and the court went with them. And I'm not sure
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Speaker 4: there was even a strenuous objection from defense council during
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Speaker 4: the trial. But some things, even if they aren't objected to,
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Speaker 4: or just what they call plane air, they're just it's
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Speaker 4: so severe and could have had such an effect on
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Speaker 4: the outcome of the trial that even if it wasn't
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Speaker 4: objected to by the other party, it infringes upon their
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Speaker 4: constitutional rights such that you need to address it despite
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Speaker 4: a lack of an objection. I mean, if you have
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Speaker 4: two competent attorneys there, assuming there's only two parties and
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Speaker 4: you know neither one objects to something, generally you can't
4:17
Speaker 4: argue the judge did something wrong later when you didn't
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Speaker 4: object to it during the trial. Obviously, However, the judge
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Speaker 4: is ultimately the gatekeeper, and if the two lawyers agree
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Speaker 4: on some kind of instruction it's illegal or unconstitutional, then
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Speaker 4: you know, the gatekeeper's got to say, hold up here,
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Speaker 4: and what happened in this case. So when you have
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Speaker 4: a criminal trial, with the exception of the mercy phase
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Speaker 4: of a first degree murder conviction in West Virginia, the
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Speaker 4: jury isn't informed of the possible sentences if they convict
4:54
Speaker 4: the person, So sentencing is entirely up to the court
4:58
Speaker 4: and normally happens if a person's convicted at a jury trial,
5:01
Speaker 4: then there might there'll be a sentencing hearing, and usually
5:04
Speaker 4: it's a couple of months down the road where the
5:06
Speaker 4: judge receives information about the defendant that was convicted and
5:09
Speaker 4: then decides what the sentence is within the parameters of
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Speaker 4: Western EU code. But I know it can be frustrating
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Speaker 4: as jurors because they now you can kind of see
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Speaker 4: from the jury form sometimes whether they are misdemeanors or
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Speaker 4: felonies because the way the jury instructions read and some
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Speaker 4: things are lesser included. So you might have a homicide,
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Speaker 4: for example, you might have the jury might have separate
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Speaker 4: choices first second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter. So
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Speaker 4: there's obviously as you go down the ladder, it doesn't
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Speaker 4: take much sense to understand this one's much less serious
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Speaker 4: than this one. But it can be frustrating for juriors.
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Speaker 4: And I've had criminal cases where you know, they ask
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Speaker 4: juriors right back questions, well, what will happen to the
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Speaker 4: defendant if we find him guilty of X versus why?
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Speaker 4: And the penalty or sentencing is not relevant for the
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Speaker 4: guilt face. So they're duty, generally is to just determine
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Speaker 4: whether the government has proven each and every element of
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Speaker 4: the crime charge beyond reasonable doubt, and there really isn't.
6:17
Speaker 4: Sometimes it comes into play because you have and I
6:20
Speaker 4: think maybe I forget how it came into context in
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Speaker 4: this case. But you know, if you have an informant
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Speaker 4: or a co defendant that's entered a plea agreement, well,
6:34
Speaker 4: and then they're testifying against your client against the defendant,
6:37
Speaker 4: naturally they've normally got some concessions to do that from
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Speaker 4: the prosecuting attorney from the state, so they might have
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Speaker 4: gotten their felony that would expose them to ten years
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Speaker 4: in prison reduced to a misdemeanor where the maximum penalty
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Speaker 4: is one year in jail. So if that's the deal
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Speaker 4: that Dale got and he's testifying against me, I certainly
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Speaker 4: want my lawyer to point out to the jury. Well, yeah,
7:03
Speaker 4: of course he's saying this, because look, if he didn't,
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Speaker 4: they were going to prosecute him for an offense where
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Speaker 4: he could be exposed to ten years in prison. So
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Speaker 4: don't believe what Dale says because he's motivated by his
7:15
Speaker 4: own self interest. If that original charge against you was
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Speaker 4: the same as the charge pending against me, obviously the
7:21
Speaker 4: jury then knows what the penalty is. I think that's
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Speaker 4: all appropriate. It's impeachment Evans. But in this case, the
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Speaker 4: prosecuting attorney basically asked the judge to inform the jury
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Speaker 4: about pro eligibility, which I think was different from adult.
7:40
Speaker 4: It was an adult case, but had been transferred from
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Speaker 4: a juvenile because he was a juvenile when the incident occurred,
7:45
Speaker 4: and so there's a little different rule there. I forget,
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Speaker 4: you get a little earlier shot at might get what
7:51
Speaker 4: is equivalent to mercy automatically actually meaning you get a
7:54
Speaker 4: chance for parole. But the judge ended up reading the
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Speaker 4: penalty potential to the jury and then they convicted him,
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Speaker 4: and so that's what the Western Supreme Court said was inappropriate.
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Speaker 4: Can't just be outright reading. I think maybe two different
8:12
Speaker 4: occasions read to the jury during the instruction phase what
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Speaker 4: the penalty would be potentially, and of course the prosecution
8:21
Speaker 4: wanted to spend that as well chance at parole no
8:26
Speaker 4: matter what you do, in hopes that the jury would say, well,
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Speaker 4: if we convict him, still has a chance to get out,
8:35
Speaker 4: So let's just convict him if we're on the line.
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Speaker 4: And that's what happened. So it's been sent by the
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Speaker 4: Westernian Supreme Court. This is a Western Supreme Court decision
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Speaker 4: said well that's inappropriate and remanded it back to the
8:46
Speaker 4: trial court. And so that's what it was. Really a
8:50
Speaker 4: procedural matter. Yesterday there was some media there, but I
8:53
Speaker 4: think Judge Baller just reset the trial for November and
8:56
Speaker 4: so we'll end up seeing second round of trial on
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Speaker 4: that one. Due to who the jury being informed of
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Speaker 4: the penalty potential penalty if they convicted the defendant in
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Speaker 4: that case, it's kind of wild.
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Speaker 3: I mean, that's a sort of an unforced error.
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Speaker 4: I guess. Yeah, it's an interesting situation because you you know,
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Speaker 4: I think there was some argument or implication from the
9:19
Speaker 4: defense about the penalty, you know, maybe being if you mentioned,
9:27
Speaker 4: as the defense lawyer, well you're going to send this
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Speaker 4: my client to prison for life if you do this
9:31
Speaker 4: or something like that, which is depending on the context.
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Speaker 4: There's a little borderline. So then you could see why
9:37
Speaker 4: the prosecuts will say, well, wait a minute, you need
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Speaker 4: to tell them since the defense brought this up and
9:42
Speaker 4: open the door. You need to make sure the jury
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Speaker 4: knows the real possibility, not not have them just thinking
9:50
Speaker 4: hopefully convict this claim the kid he's going to be
9:54
Speaker 4: in prison for the rest of his life, and that's
9:56
Speaker 4: not the case into this situation. So yeah, it came
9:59
Speaker 4: up in that type context.
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Speaker 3: It was.
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Speaker 4: A little bit of a close call, but I think
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Speaker 4: that Russian Supreme Court ultimately made the right decision and
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Speaker 4: then they'll go back and retry it and they won't
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Speaker 4: make that air this time around.
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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that's unfortunately you have to retry things. But
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Speaker 3: I guess when all things is considered, you want for
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Speaker 3: the law to be equally accessible to everyone and to
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Speaker 3: be consistent in everything, and if you have to redo
10:23
Speaker 3: something every once, in a while to make sure that
10:25
Speaker 3: that's the case. I guess that it's better to be
10:27
Speaker 3: in that era then, you know, to let things slip by.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, And we've talked about a lot lately here on
10:34
Speaker 4: the show to kind of the rule of law. And
10:36
Speaker 4: that's a good example of, well, you know, and I
10:39
Speaker 4: can't remember the facts. I think this is the one
10:42
Speaker 4: where maybe he had a girlfriend testified against him, not
10:47
Speaker 4: being intimately familiar with the facts, but I think it's
10:50
Speaker 4: kind of a given that he committed homicide, meaning he
10:54
Speaker 4: killed somebody or more than one person. It's more of
10:57
Speaker 4: a what level of hamas is premeditation level? Right? Premeditation
11:03
Speaker 4: for first degree you know, malice or crime of passion
11:09
Speaker 4: gets it down into maybe a manslaughter, voluntary involuntary manslaughter,
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Speaker 4: And it all has to do with the mental state.
11:16
Speaker 4: And so I think that's really the argument there is
11:19
Speaker 4: you think, well, some some person mayn now you know,
11:25
Speaker 4: kills two three people. I think they're family members, maybe brutally. Ah, well,
11:32
Speaker 4: why should we were about giving him a new trial? And
11:34
Speaker 4: that's a good example of where because you have to
11:37
Speaker 4: apply the rule of law to everyone, whether they're you know,
11:42
Speaker 4: horrible people or the greatest person on earth. And that's
11:47
Speaker 4: that's that's what we have talked about a little bit
11:49
Speaker 4: on this national level, where the executive branch is just
11:54
Speaker 4: labeling people as as you know, gang members, et cetera,
11:57
Speaker 4: et cetera, and then using that as a excuse to
12:00
Speaker 4: to basically deny any and all due process of law,
12:03
Speaker 4: which is dangerous when you start picking who to apply
12:09
Speaker 4: it to and who not to. And there's a lot
12:11
Speaker 4: of other examples.
12:11
Speaker 3: If you're not vetting labels, pretty soon a label might
12:13
Speaker 3: to attach itself to someone.
12:16
Speaker 4: And you know it will, and it just has to
12:20
Speaker 4: be applied universally. But that's this is and we'll see
12:23
Speaker 4: what happens on the retrial this one, but it's an
12:27
Speaker 4: example of where you know, you hate to see resources
12:30
Speaker 4: used again, but that's that's the way it goes, and
12:33
Speaker 4: that's that's how the rule of law, you know, protects everybody.
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Speaker 3: I can't remember. I know that Harvey was talking about
12:40
Speaker 3: this when I did her show with him a few
12:41
Speaker 3: weeks ago. I missed the show last week, of course,
12:44
Speaker 3: and I can't remember exactly when the response came, but
12:46
Speaker 3: I thought it was interesting. Harvey talked a lot about
12:48
Speaker 3: Judge Acres and the reprimand that she got it, that
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Speaker 3: she and then she yeah, then she and then she
12:55
Speaker 3: responded to it, which I don't know if that's unusual
12:57
Speaker 3: or not by but in reading it, I thought that
12:59
Speaker 3: it was I don't know how I could put respect
13:02
Speaker 3: the fact she's sticking by her guns, and I think
13:03
Speaker 3: she brings up some really good points.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, Judge Sweeney's doing the same thing now, he's followed
13:07
Speaker 4: suit this week. He was the other one that was
13:09
Speaker 4: so uh, frequency of that happening one. Generally, those are
13:14
Speaker 4: confidential proceedings unless there's more than an admonishment, which is
13:19
Speaker 4: all there was here, meaning like you know, it was
13:22
Speaker 4: in an order, but it was you know, I shouldn't
13:25
Speaker 4: do that, don't do it again basically.
13:27
Speaker 3: Basically basically just calling somebody else internally.
13:32
Speaker 4: Ramifications via suspension or anything like that. And but I
13:38
Speaker 4: mean somewhat, the confidentiality of that process is held by
13:44
Speaker 4: the respondent, which would be the judges here, and so
13:46
Speaker 4: they've they've publicized their objections. So I would say normally
13:52
Speaker 4: on admonishments, but the same thing can happen to attorneys,
13:56
Speaker 4: not just judges, as they just just move on they
13:59
Speaker 4: just move on. And so this one is a little
14:01
Speaker 4: different because both judges feel really strongly about their cause.
14:06
Speaker 4: And I think what Judge akers said, at least in part,
14:11
Speaker 4: is that I didn't say anything publicly about the case
14:15
Speaker 4: that wasn't already said publicly from the bench when she's
14:18
Speaker 4: making rulings and hearing arguments, or that she's put in
14:21
Speaker 4: her orders at her public record. Then she I think
14:25
Speaker 4: she had gave some background during an interview here just
14:28
Speaker 4: about her experiences as a prosecutor and some of the
14:32
Speaker 4: hurdles and problems with the abuse neglect system and the
14:36
Speaker 4: foster care system for children here. So we'll see how
14:39
Speaker 4: that plays out. It will go to a panel, I
14:42
Speaker 4: believe now, and then ultimately can go to the westerns
14:45
Speaker 4: Supreme Court to decide. I don't think it'll ever be
14:50
Speaker 4: anything more than an admonishment one way or another. But
14:55
Speaker 4: it was really you know, it's kind of a reading
14:59
Speaker 4: the admonishment or at least what was in the media
15:01
Speaker 4: about it. It was a real soft one. Yeah, we
15:05
Speaker 4: understand that why the judge wanted to do this and
15:08
Speaker 4: commend you know, the intentions for example, but you can't
15:12
Speaker 4: talk publicly about depending case and and some other technical things.
15:17
Speaker 4: So I don't know whether it'll hold or not, but
15:22
Speaker 4: sure she didn't accept it and she has a right
15:23
Speaker 4: to appeal it, and that's what she's done.
15:26
Speaker 3: I have no idea, and this is complete conjecture, but
15:28
Speaker 3: if someone wanted the conversation to become public on something
15:31
Speaker 3: like this, this could be one route to make it public.
15:33
Speaker 3: You know, that's true. That like if that I don't
15:36
Speaker 3: know that it was that it is. I have no idea,
15:38
Speaker 3: but if you wanted the discussion to try to stay
15:41
Speaker 3: in the headlines a little bit, for people to be
15:42
Speaker 3: aware of it and stuff like that, one way to
15:44
Speaker 3: do it.
15:45
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a that's that's true. And uh, you know,
15:49
Speaker 4: the judges may feel like they were incorrectly admonished, and
15:52
Speaker 4: they may also feel like this isn't an issue that
15:56
Speaker 4: should just end with that admonishment. And so obviously we're
15:59
Speaker 4: talking about it, and we wouldn't be talking about it
16:02
Speaker 4: today if they hadn't filed their objection. And it's an
16:04
Speaker 4: important issue. You remember going back this is you know,
16:07
Speaker 4: there were kids being foster children or children that had
16:10
Speaker 4: been removed from a home due to abuse and neglect
16:12
Speaker 4: being housed in like a four h camp. I've heard
16:16
Speaker 4: hotel rooms, I've heard the Department of Human Service offices,
16:22
Speaker 4: and jud j Acer's had a republic hearing. It was streamed.
16:25
Speaker 4: Actually it wasn't in the particular abuse and neglect case,
16:28
Speaker 4: but that's where the I think the secretary of the
16:32
Speaker 4: Department of Human Services appeared, or at least counsel on
16:34
Speaker 4: behalf of that person, and ju Jacer's suggested. I think
16:39
Speaker 4: they all ended up agreeing to appoint a lawyer to
16:40
Speaker 4: kind of oversee generally the care of children or at
16:44
Speaker 4: least the temporary care of children when they were removed
16:46
Speaker 4: from the home. They're as a as a specifically in
16:51
Speaker 4: code and generally in practice. You know, if you're accused
16:56
Speaker 4: of abuse and neglect of your child by the government
16:58
Speaker 4: and they remove your child, supposed to look to kinship
17:02
Speaker 4: placement with your family members first, and family members get priority,
17:06
Speaker 4: And of course oftentimes there aren't family members available equipped
17:10
Speaker 4: to care for children. But there's also been cases where
17:16
Speaker 4: Child Protective Services doesn't make much of an effort to
17:18
Speaker 4: find kinship placement, and once a child is placed somewhere else,
17:21
Speaker 4: it can be a bear to get them back in
17:22
Speaker 4: with the family. I mean, I've intervened on multiple cases
17:26
Speaker 4: over the last ten years on behalf of grandparents who
17:29
Speaker 4: hire me because they felt like they weren't considered at
17:34
Speaker 4: all or radically considered replacement. Now their grandkids are with
17:37
Speaker 4: folks who have no relation to the parties, and it's
17:41
Speaker 4: you know, the court system wheels of justice grind slowly,
17:44
Speaker 4: even in abuse neglects. Sometimes the rules say there's cases
17:47
Speaker 4: are supposed to move quickly, but you know, you file
17:52
Speaker 4: something trying to get those children back to the grandparents,
17:54
Speaker 4: it might be well likely it'll be months and months
17:57
Speaker 4: and months and months, and by then the kids have
18:00
Speaker 4: been staying somewhere else and you have other problems about
18:03
Speaker 4: uprooting them and that kind of thing. So it just
18:05
Speaker 4: it kind of builds on itself. It's not but hopefully
18:09
Speaker 4: with the attention it's been getting. And give credit to
18:13
Speaker 4: these two judges, even if their orders or or perhaps
18:17
Speaker 4: their behavior was pushing the limit on their jurisdiction or
18:22
Speaker 4: their ability to speak publicly, I think it will, you know,
18:27
Speaker 4: keep the cause on the forefront, and that's what sometimes
18:31
Speaker 4: gets politicians to do something about it. And you know,
18:36
Speaker 4: in this past session there was some conversation about whether
18:38
Speaker 4: they need to do a study, and I think the
18:40
Speaker 4: new secretary of the Department Human Services, so we don't
18:43
Speaker 4: need to study. We know what we need to do.
18:44
Speaker 4: We just need to do it and we'll see if
18:47
Speaker 4: that actually happens here for the next year or two.
18:49
Speaker 3: It's an interesting story, there's no doubt about that. A
18:51
Speaker 3: lot of things going on. You can put the power
18:52
Speaker 3: paint on yours out this when we're talking about things
18:54
Speaker 3: kind of in a general perspective, some things that are
18:56
Speaker 3: in the headlines. But if you have something specific to you,
18:58
Speaker 3: a question that you would like to have answer it to,
19:00
Speaker 3: situation you'd want addressed, you can give Tom Payton a
19:02
Speaker 3: call this morning. Give us a call three zero four
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Speaker 3: It's twenty two top of the hours. Go and take
19:23
Speaker 3: our break. We'll take our break right now. Come back
19:24
Speaker 3: after this with more from with Tom Payton from the
19:26
Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm online Peyton Lawfirm dot com, Peyton Lawfirm
19:29
Speaker 3: dot com. Their phone numbers three zer a four seven, five,
19:31
Speaker 3: five fifty five fifty six three zero four seven five
19:34
Speaker 3: five fifty five to fifty six, located in Nitro, West Ridginia.
19:37
Speaker 3: Will take a break and be back right after this.
19:38
Speaker 3: You're listening to Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Payton on
19:40
Speaker 3: five eight W or with Tom Payton on five ed
19:42
Speaker 3: WCHS The Voice of Charleston.
19:44
Speaker 5: Why do people trust Peyton Law Firm for personal injury
19:47
Speaker 5: claims in West Virginia?
19:49
Speaker 4: Simple?
19:50
Speaker 5: Tom and Harvey are from here, They live here and
19:52
Speaker 5: they're proud of it.
19:54
Speaker 4: If you've been.
19:54
Speaker 5: Hurt and you want no nonsense representation that gets results,
19:58
Speaker 5: you want the Peyton Law Firm. Don't let insurance companies
20:01
Speaker 5: take advantage of you. Call three zero, four seven, five
20:05
Speaker 5: five fifty five fifty six today for a free consultation.
20:09
Speaker 5: Discover more at Peyton Law Firm dot com.
20:13
Speaker 4: The latest and news talking sports when five ADWCHS has
20:16
Speaker 4: brought to you by Jarrett Construction.
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Speaker 5: Visit Jerrettdashconstruction dot com for more information.
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Speaker 1: Time Right on Budget, call on Jerit's.
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Speaker 2: Construction plan for a secure future with retire Right Radio
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Speaker 2: joined John Burdett from Fourth Avenue Financial. Every Monday morning
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Speaker 2: at eight twenty on five ADWCHS. Get expert insights and
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Speaker 2: strategies to make the most of your retirement. Tune in
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Speaker 2: and retire with confidence.
21:06
Speaker 3: A little bit more nice version of Country Roads. We
21:08
Speaker 3: just starting your commercial too, so this is a real
21:10
Speaker 3: West version.
21:10
Speaker 2: You know.
21:11
Speaker 3: It takes a temperature down just a little bit. Not
21:12
Speaker 3: bad at all.
21:13
Speaker 4: I got to give Brian some credit. He's really good.
21:16
Speaker 4: I've known Bron since I was a kid, and if
21:19
Speaker 4: you need guitar lessons, look up Brian Roberts. He actually
21:22
Speaker 4: his my nephew, Logan. His son is a really good musician.
21:25
Speaker 4: He's just graduated from Saint Holman's High School. He plays
21:27
Speaker 4: a good harmonica, which I can identify with because I
21:31
Speaker 4: can't play any instruments, but I can blow into it.
21:34
Speaker 5: Her mind.
21:34
Speaker 3: I love harmonica. It may not sound great, but you
21:37
Speaker 3: could almost trick yourself into thinking that you're doing something good.
21:40
Speaker 4: I play a little of the drums in junior high,
21:43
Speaker 4: but that that was short lived because we didn't have
21:46
Speaker 4: a studio. And when you're playing the drum set in
21:49
Speaker 4: your parents' bassment, it doesn't go very far. Uh, there's
21:54
Speaker 4: only a finite window in which you're allowed to play
21:57
Speaker 4: because it rattles the entire house. And that was the
22:00
Speaker 4: end of that.
22:00
Speaker 3: But I was such a nerd well I guess it
22:02
Speaker 3: was like five twenty six years ago now when the
22:05
Speaker 3: first prequel, The Phantom Menace came out. For Star Wars,
22:08
Speaker 3: I taught myself to play Star Wars on the harmonica,
22:11
Speaker 3: and as I was standing in line, I was like
22:12
Speaker 3: performing the Star Wars theme the anything I.
22:15
Speaker 4: Knew how to play.
22:16
Speaker 3: But I would do that over and over and everybody
22:18
Speaker 3: relatively liked it at the time. I played it for
22:20
Speaker 3: my daughter a couple of weeks ago, and she was
22:22
Speaker 3: blown away. She's like, I didn't know you knew how
22:23
Speaker 3: to play any instruments. I was like, I don't. I
22:25
Speaker 3: knew how to play this song right, A ticular one.
22:28
Speaker 4: Just get one down.
22:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the only thing I know how to do.
22:30
Speaker 3: I'm glad you were impressed, though kid pressed the party.
22:32
Speaker 4: Hey, So just talking about what Peyton Law Firm does
22:34
Speaker 4: a little bit other than talk on the radio. Do
22:39
Speaker 4: a lot of things for kind of everyday people. Deeds,
22:43
Speaker 4: Will's Bill's State planning, so security disability, we're doing a
22:47
Speaker 4: decent amount of so security disability, do some criminal defense.
22:50
Speaker 4: If you have any issue, you can give us a call.
22:52
Speaker 4: If we can't help you, pretty well connected, we can
22:55
Speaker 4: get you to or connected with a lawyer or a
22:58
Speaker 4: law firm that handles the type of issue that you have.
23:01
Speaker 4: But kind of our bread and butter and what we
23:05
Speaker 4: like to do a lot is civil litigation, and generally
23:07
Speaker 4: it's for sometimes small businesses, but mostly regular people consumers
23:12
Speaker 4: that have issues after being in an automobile accident or
23:15
Speaker 4: maybe have an insurance claim denied. And we do an
23:19
Speaker 4: awful lot of that. What we're actually what's kind of
23:21
Speaker 4: filtering through now, which we've touched upon a little bit,
23:25
Speaker 4: wasn't as much maybe in the Treil scenario. But you know,
23:27
Speaker 4: back in April we had that really heavy hailstorm. I
23:33
Speaker 4: was driving it and I thought somebody was shooting at
23:34
Speaker 4: my vehicle at first, and those were they were golf
23:37
Speaker 4: ball sized hailstones, and see you had a lot of damage.
23:42
Speaker 4: And what I generally saw at the beginning was was
23:46
Speaker 4: really pretty decent behavior by automobile and homeowners insurance company
23:53
Speaker 4: adjusters to get in here and try and adjust these claims.
23:57
Speaker 4: And what they do a lot of times, especially when
23:59
Speaker 4: you need to get funds quickly, is the adjuster will,
24:03
Speaker 4: depending on the company, they'll assess your damage, don't They
24:07
Speaker 4: don't really hire normally a contractor somebody who will actually
24:12
Speaker 4: do the work to come out and give you a
24:14
Speaker 4: claim value. They'll come in verify via pictures, et cetera.
24:20
Speaker 4: Actually sometimes for minor damage claims, now you can take
24:23
Speaker 4: pictures on your phone and upload it and the insurance
24:25
Speaker 4: company will use that and they use kind of national
24:29
Speaker 4: standard type labor rates and material rates, which sometimes are good.
24:37
Speaker 4: I mean it might be you might get more than
24:39
Speaker 4: it costs you to actually get the repair. A lot
24:41
Speaker 4: of times it's not enough or you find other damage later.
24:45
Speaker 4: And now that where you know, that happened in mid April.
24:47
Speaker 4: I think now we're going to get into July starting
24:50
Speaker 4: to get the calls where you know, hey, my insurance
24:54
Speaker 4: company paid me five thousand dollars. But I'm going to
24:57
Speaker 4: all these hailstorm vehicle repair places and it's they're saying
25:02
Speaker 4: it's going to be ten thousand dollars to fix my vehicle.
25:04
Speaker 4: And so what you generally do in that occasion is
25:08
Speaker 4: in that situation is you get that good inestiment in writing,
25:11
Speaker 4: get it to your own insurance company and ask for
25:14
Speaker 4: a supplemental payment because minus the deductible, those policies generally
25:20
Speaker 4: got to pay you enough to get your property.
25:23
Speaker 3: I've done that before. It wasn't really that hard, shouldn't be, Yeah, But.
25:28
Speaker 4: Now I'm getting a lot of calls where insurance companies
25:32
Speaker 4: after that initial payment are not following up. They're not communicating.
25:36
Speaker 4: And if you have so where we can step in.
25:40
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't. I don't generally think you need
25:42
Speaker 4: a lawyer just to have your own insurance claim like that.
25:45
Speaker 4: You really shouldn't have to pay an attorney for that.
25:47
Speaker 4: There isn't a mechanism to get the insurance company to
25:49
Speaker 4: pay a lawyer to help you leed through the initial
25:52
Speaker 4: claim process. However, if you get to the point where
25:56
Speaker 4: the situation I just laid out, and you've sent a
26:00
Speaker 4: reasonable estimate to your insurance company and they're refusing, not
26:05
Speaker 4: responding at all, or denying that extra payment to you.
26:10
Speaker 4: That's when you can give us a call or an
26:12
Speaker 4: email and we'll see if it's something we can help
26:14
Speaker 4: with because they're in essence denying your claim at that point,
26:17
Speaker 4: and when your own insurance company denies your claim, then
26:21
Speaker 4: there's an opportunity, depending on the facts of the case,
26:24
Speaker 4: where we might be able to help you on a
26:26
Speaker 4: contingency fee basis, which is how we handle most all
26:28
Speaker 4: of our civil cases. You know, you see addual no
26:33
Speaker 4: fee unless we win. Well, that's that's not something that
26:36
Speaker 4: law firm's doing, that's anything special. That's how every pretty
26:39
Speaker 4: much law firm handles injury cases, and we're no different.
26:44
Speaker 4: So depending on the facts, if you get into that situation,
26:47
Speaker 4: feel free to send us an email or maybe give
26:49
Speaker 4: us a call, and we'll look at the estimates in
26:51
Speaker 4: the fact situation and if it's something we can help
26:53
Speaker 4: you with. A lot of times we'll do those on
26:54
Speaker 4: contingency fee where there's you know, no cost or risk
26:57
Speaker 4: to the client. And if it turns out well, the
27:01
Speaker 4: insurance company was right, it wasn't caused by heal damage
27:05
Speaker 4: or that estimate was not legitimate or whatever, then you
27:08
Speaker 4: don't know us any fee, and you don't know us
27:10
Speaker 4: anything for any cost we've outlaid to try and work
27:14
Speaker 4: on the claim. But when you get in that situation
27:16
Speaker 4: in West Virginia, as opposed to the initial claim process
27:19
Speaker 4: where you're just going through the claim process and submitting
27:23
Speaker 4: it with your own insurance company, where you don't get
27:25
Speaker 4: your lawyer's fees paid if you have the luxury of
27:28
Speaker 4: hiring a lawyer to help you do all that paperwork.
27:31
Speaker 4: If your insurance company denies your claim, then there is
27:34
Speaker 4: an opportunity if we're able to prevail, that the insurance
27:39
Speaker 4: company has to pay the lawyer fees and maybe something
27:43
Speaker 4: for a delay in payment, the aggravation and convenience of it.
27:46
Speaker 4: So that allows us to, in the appropriate case, handle
27:50
Speaker 4: it in such a fashion that if you win, you're
27:54
Speaker 4: not getting you know, the thousand dollars extra you needed
27:57
Speaker 4: to do your repair and then paying your lawyer a
27:59
Speaker 4: third out, You're getting enough that hopefully you can get
28:04
Speaker 4: your lawyer paid, and then you still have enough leftover
28:08
Speaker 4: potentially more to get your repairs done. So it's just
28:13
Speaker 4: those initial payments seem to be going through pretty well.
28:18
Speaker 4: Wasn't having a whole lot of calls then now we'ren't
28:21
Speaker 4: starting to hear a decent number of situations where insurance
28:27
Speaker 4: companies are not responding to these requests for supplemental payments.
28:30
Speaker 4: And you, in most circumstances, are entitled to get enough
28:35
Speaker 4: money to get the actual repairs done, not what your
28:38
Speaker 4: insurance company through some computer programs that it would cost
28:41
Speaker 4: to get it done.
28:42
Speaker 3: And I guess in this case, a potential client or
28:45
Speaker 3: someone who's the insurance company's client, really shouldn't let the
28:49
Speaker 3: clock run out on this. If they feel you know,
28:52
Speaker 3: badgered and getting their the remainder of their paperwork or
28:55
Speaker 3: whatever they need to continue to get the rest of
28:58
Speaker 3: their payment, don't give up. I mean, if you're entitled
29:00
Speaker 3: the money, you should really pursue that and you move
29:03
Speaker 3: on and just eat it.
29:04
Speaker 4: I mean, that's obviously what a lot of people do
29:08
Speaker 4: because it's a hassle, and.
29:09
Speaker 3: They might count maybe that's that's right.
29:10
Speaker 4: There might be some statistics out there that says, if
29:15
Speaker 4: you know, we blow this person off for two months,
29:16
Speaker 4: they'll just go away. That the point of hiring our
29:20
Speaker 4: office in that situation, or in line of a bill accident,
29:24
Speaker 4: if you've been hurt or family member's been hurt and
29:25
Speaker 4: you're in that situation. Is so that you don't have
29:29
Speaker 4: to be out there in the black hole not knowing
29:32
Speaker 4: what you're doing. Once we step in and we're representing
29:36
Speaker 4: a person on an injury claim or an insurance claim
29:39
Speaker 4: like we've been talking about, in most circumstances, and certainly
29:43
Speaker 4: by default, once we let them know we represent you,
29:46
Speaker 4: the insurance company is prohibited from direct contact with our clients.
29:50
Speaker 4: So everything goes through our office and we take it over,
29:53
Speaker 4: and all you have to do is deal with me
29:56
Speaker 4: and our staff. And I think we're pretty easy to
29:58
Speaker 4: deal with. I'm got to provide some inform me. We
30:00
Speaker 4: need some help with some information. Obviously, the clients are
30:02
Speaker 4: the ones that know the facts, but we handle it
30:05
Speaker 4: all from there, and generally it's, you know, let's talk
30:07
Speaker 4: about what our goal is here and then hopefully we
30:10
Speaker 4: achieve that for the client and call them and say
30:13
Speaker 4: here's what you know we can get for a settlement offer,
30:16
Speaker 4: and then they decide whether to take it. But you
30:17
Speaker 4: don't have to deal with these adjusters that just like
30:23
Speaker 4: any professionals good and bad insurance adjusters. And what you
30:26
Speaker 4: see a lot today though, is some of these insurance
30:29
Speaker 4: companies are so big you're dealing with AI a lot,
30:32
Speaker 4: so you have no real human on the other end,
30:35
Speaker 4: or you're dealing with humans, but you may not be
30:39
Speaker 4: able to tell, but I can tell that they're really
30:43
Speaker 4: just reading off some computer screen at bullet points. When
30:45
Speaker 4: you talk for three minutes about a subject matter that
30:49
Speaker 4: I know is important to the claim because I'm a
30:51
Speaker 4: lawyer and I'm going to file a lawsuit over it,
30:53
Speaker 4: and these are the facts that are important, and you
30:55
Speaker 4: stop talking and the adjuster acts as if they never
30:58
Speaker 4: heard you and ask some other question or ask you
31:00
Speaker 4: the same question about information you just they're just not
31:07
Speaker 4: really a trained insurance adjuster. They're just somebody reading a
31:09
Speaker 4: screen and talking points. And most people have experienced that
31:13
Speaker 4: with lots of different industries now that have call centers
31:17
Speaker 4: that that handle things, and which I heard a commercial
31:20
Speaker 4: from a different lawyer this morning here about they have
31:22
Speaker 4: a twenty four hour call center, and I thought, well,
31:24
Speaker 4: that's interesting. We don't have a call center. We if
31:27
Speaker 4: you if you have an issue or an automobile accident,
31:30
Speaker 4: you call us or email us. We call you back
31:32
Speaker 4: like the actual lawyers, and we get that those emails
31:36
Speaker 4: essentially twenty four hours a day come to Dad and
31:40
Speaker 4: I and if it's you know, we can't answer them
31:42
Speaker 4: all on the weekends or of the evening. But if
31:44
Speaker 4: it is a true emergency issue, then we we try
31:48
Speaker 4: and give you a call on the weekend, and we
31:50
Speaker 4: have we give We don't just gather, uh, you know,
31:53
Speaker 4: the basic facts and then spew them out to the
31:56
Speaker 4: lawyer wherever they are. You know, we we give you
31:59
Speaker 4: meetingful information back, not just taking name, phone number, general,
32:04
Speaker 4: what's the content of your issue? All right, We'll have
32:06
Speaker 4: a lawyer call you who may or may not even
32:08
Speaker 4: be licensed in this state. We give you like real
32:12
Speaker 4: information like that you can use and here's what you
32:14
Speaker 4: need to do, and here's what you need to be
32:15
Speaker 4: careful for. And then so I think that's that's really
32:20
Speaker 4: an advantage you get with our firm them and a
32:23
Speaker 4: lot of other probably local firms do that we're just
32:24
Speaker 4: getting in undated with mass advertising campaigns from from spokespeople
32:29
Speaker 4: lawyers that probably I don't know if they've ever even
32:32
Speaker 4: visited West Virginia. Think about thereas the separation there. You know,
32:35
Speaker 4: if somebody calls a place that has a call center,
32:37
Speaker 4: and then somebody who's probably doesn't have any real legal
32:41
Speaker 4: knowledge of any kind, is just verbatim kind of writing
32:43
Speaker 4: down words that they're hearing without any intuition to what
32:47
Speaker 4: those words may mean, just to pass on a message
32:49
Speaker 4: to someone who knows what gets lost in translation in
32:51
Speaker 4: that and how that gets treads down the line and
32:54
Speaker 4: saying like, you get an automobile accident where you might
32:57
Speaker 4: have a question about who had the right away or something,
33:00
Speaker 4: so you call a call center law firm and you're
33:04
Speaker 4: trying to tell them about how you were trying to
33:06
Speaker 4: pull out of Canall Terrace on you're out sixty on
33:10
Speaker 4: the west side of Saint Aubans. Well, they have no
33:13
Speaker 4: they've never been there, probably looking at a satellite view
33:17
Speaker 4: of it because they are a call centers. So I've
33:20
Speaker 4: driven that intersection thousand times, and I know, you know
33:24
Speaker 4: where you can see and where you can't see, and
33:26
Speaker 4: you go underneath the train trestle on the road, and
33:30
Speaker 4: then you got you know, you got to yield and
33:32
Speaker 4: or any of the You can take that same example
33:34
Speaker 4: to enter the busy intersect of course, and the ones
33:37
Speaker 4: at Nitro. I'm real familiar right there, and it's much
33:39
Speaker 4: better now other than the depth there on the interstate.
33:41
Speaker 4: But that's an example of where it's like, oh yeah, well,
33:44
Speaker 4: let's we better go out there and take a picture
33:46
Speaker 4: of this because I want to see the lay of
33:49
Speaker 4: the land now, because this guy's going to say or
33:51
Speaker 4: this person they couldn't see this or that, and we
33:54
Speaker 4: need to take pictures now because we want to see
33:56
Speaker 4: how the vegetation is at the time of the accident.
33:58
Speaker 4: We don't want to have pictures from next year when
34:01
Speaker 4: it might have been trimmed away and there's a different
34:03
Speaker 4: line of site. You know. Just that's the one of
34:06
Speaker 4: a myriad of examples of what you get from conducting
34:09
Speaker 4: us first the Walmart law firms that probably know nothing
34:13
Speaker 4: about our local area, right and especially with technology, you know,
34:18
Speaker 4: we we have the resources to handle just about any
34:21
Speaker 4: type of case, certainly individual cases like that you get
34:24
Speaker 4: into mass litigation, class actions, we we do those, and
34:28
Speaker 4: we often act as local kind of liaison council, but
34:31
Speaker 4: those are fairly specialized, so sometimes we refer those out
34:34
Speaker 4: to co council and then we co counsel with them,
34:36
Speaker 4: but it still allows you to deal with us on
34:37
Speaker 4: those claims you might see advertised on TV. We do
34:42
Speaker 4: a lot to extend their avail. They're they're here any longer.
34:45
Speaker 4: A mesothelioma claims. Those are the asbestos cancer claims, really
34:50
Speaker 4: sad claims. But but if you if you have a
34:52
Speaker 4: family member that's been diagnosed with mesothelioma, UH got to
34:56
Speaker 4: give us a call. We work with national counsel on that,
34:59
Speaker 4: but we do a really good job of fact gathering
35:02
Speaker 4: locally and so we can help you there. And then
35:04
Speaker 4: if you have questions, you can call us and not
35:06
Speaker 4: call some firm that has ten thousand different clients with
35:11
Speaker 4: exactly the same issue.
35:13
Speaker 3: It's just such a difference having someone local that has
35:15
Speaker 3: to lay the land. Those are the people, those the clerks,
35:17
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, it's just a completely different thing
35:19
Speaker 3: when you're dealing with someone who's local. You mentioned the
35:21
Speaker 3: class action lawsuits. We have a couple of two minutes
35:23
Speaker 3: left in the program, and I thought I would just
35:24
Speaker 3: ask you because I get these on occasion where you'll
35:27
Speaker 3: get notifications that if you use such and such service
35:30
Speaker 3: between these times that you may be do some compensation them.
35:34
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago, one of the credit unions
35:36
Speaker 3: lost all kinds of data and they gave people like
35:39
Speaker 3: free credit monitoring for a couple of years and things
35:41
Speaker 3: along those lines. And so you get offered these things,
35:43
Speaker 3: and then you know, you hear there's always like somebody
35:45
Speaker 3: on you know, one line or somebody like don't take
35:47
Speaker 3: those settlements because it keeps you from being able to
35:49
Speaker 3: to fall that line. Who's going to do that?
35:51
Speaker 4: You can, first of all, I mean on on more
35:54
Speaker 4: of a local level. You've had some class actions about
35:57
Speaker 4: you remember the water contamination right we had that down
35:59
Speaker 4: bar leak. A lot of people are getting those so
36:01
Speaker 4: you have a right to opt out of a class
36:04
Speaker 4: action settlement. But the purpose of class actions are to
36:08
Speaker 4: you know, group similarly situated people together and kind of
36:12
Speaker 4: have one point person or one or two as the
36:15
Speaker 4: clients and then get a global resolution because if you
36:19
Speaker 4: tried to handle individual claims, there aren't damages sufficient to
36:24
Speaker 4: have an individual claim. Like you, if we've got to
36:27
Speaker 4: prove the water company has failed to maintain their lines appropriately.
36:32
Speaker 4: And my client is Dale and he was inconvenience because
36:36
Speaker 4: he didn't have water for a week that you're damaged,
36:40
Speaker 4: But what compensation are you entitled to and is that
36:46
Speaker 4: sufficient for an individual claim? We're gonna have to pay
36:48
Speaker 4: experts and things like that. That's going to come out
36:50
Speaker 4: of what your settlement is. So you group them all together.
36:53
Speaker 4: So generally on those big national ones you opting out
36:58
Speaker 4: isn't a realistic option. Local ones, if it's significant, sometimes
37:02
Speaker 4: it makes sense to opt out, And you got to
37:04
Speaker 4: watch when you get those little cards. Sometimes you do
37:06
Speaker 4: have to fill out some basic information. It's almost all
37:08
Speaker 4: on the web now. You can get on a website
37:10
Speaker 4: they send you to and fill out a questionnaire and
37:12
Speaker 4: as long as it's legitimate, it doesn't hurt to do that.
37:14
Speaker 4: You don't want to wave you're right, But because of
37:17
Speaker 4: what I just said, sometimes what you end up getting
37:19
Speaker 4: isn't satisfactory when you're a member of a class, but
37:23
Speaker 4: you don't have any choice.
37:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Facebook owes me like six dollars from
37:27
Speaker 3: something from several years ago. I so I haven't seen it.
37:29
Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm going to expect that six dollars. Well,
37:31
Speaker 3: let's see what happens.
37:31
Speaker 4: Maybe you'll be involved as a member of a class action.
37:34
Speaker 3: So I think that's what it was. They said that
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Speaker 3: I can offend to it, and I did.
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Speaker 4: We'll fall up with the Climate Administrator. They do take
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Speaker 4: a long time to filter through and they're unpredictable.
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Speaker 3: Payton Law Firm, Peue Law Firm, dot Com threes are
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Speaker 3: A four seven, five, five fifty five to fifty six seven, five,
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Speaker 3: fifty five to fifty six in Nitro, West Virginia. Tom
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Speaker 3: will see you back here next week.
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Speaker 4: Sounds good.
37:51
Speaker 3: Have a great day everyone. You're listening to five ADWCHS.
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Speaker 3: Dave Allen is up next. I'm back this afternoon with
37:56
Speaker 3: Dave Weekly at three or six. Have a great day everyone.
37:58
Speaker 3: On five adw CHS. We are the way to.
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Speaker 2: Charleston five a d w C h S A M
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Speaker 2: ninety six point five at the Charleston one oh four
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Speaker 2: point five Cross Lane w VRC Media Station.
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Speaker 4: We're proud to live here to