Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 09/03/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey and Tom Peyton

Transcript

09/03/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey and Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of 580 WCHS, its employees,
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Speaker 1: or WVRC Media.
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Speaker 2: In our courts, all men are created equal.
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Speaker 3: We're mass communicating.
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Speaker 1: Breaking rocks in a hot sun. Up on the lawn
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Speaker 1: in a low.
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Speaker 2: One.
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Speaker 1: And a very pleasant good morning to you.
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Speaker 4: You are listening to Ask the Lawyer on 580 WCHS,
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Speaker 4: the voice of Charleston. And in studio for you this morning,
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Speaker 4: it's double your pleasure. We have in studio Harvey and
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Speaker 4: Tom Payton from the Payton Law Firm online, paytonlawfirm.com, paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N.
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Speaker 4: Give you more contact information as we go along here today.
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Speaker 1: Been on the air here for years.
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Speaker 4: You probably know that information already, but welcome back into
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Speaker 4: the studio once again.
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Speaker 1: Harvey, good morning. How are you doing this morning?
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Speaker 3: I'm doing fine, Coop. Now, I've got to have one
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Speaker 3: thing I've got to take care of before we get started. Okay.
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Speaker 3: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday,
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Speaker 3: dear Tom. Happy birthday to you. I usually call each
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Speaker 3: of the kids early on their birthday morning, but I
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Speaker 3: intentionally omitted it today because, hey, if you've got a
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Speaker 3: chance to embarrass your kid's On the air.
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Speaker 5: Why not?
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Speaker 1: Happy birthday, Tom. Why not? That would be the first
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Speaker 1: time we've ever done that on the radio, on WCHL.
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Speaker 5: Nifty, nifty, and he is 50. I was really thinking
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Speaker 5: about it last night, and you knew I was going
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Speaker 5: to get blessed knowing a lot of people and have
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Speaker 5: good friends, and here comes the flood of Facebook birthdays
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Speaker 5: and texts and stuff. And I just thought, it just
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Speaker 5: makes you feel old. I think you need some legislation. Like,
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Speaker 5: I think after you're 21, you just, birthday's, celebrations to
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Speaker 5: just be prohibited. We just move on.
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Speaker 1: I don't disagree. That's a bad attitude, isn't it? I
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Speaker 1: don't know, man. It's neither here nor there. 50 didn't
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Speaker 1: bother me at all. 51, for whatever reason, hit me hard.
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Speaker 1: I don't know why. 50 was like, eh, no big deal.
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Speaker 1: I'm just 50.
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Speaker 4: But for whatever reason, when I turned 51, it was like,
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Speaker 4: I don't know. That one hit me pretty hard. Anytime
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Speaker 4: you get a new first number of the number.
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Speaker 5: I don't know.
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Speaker 3: I'll tell you the middle numbers.
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Speaker 5: 75, that's old.
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Speaker 1: 76 is elderly. Oh, I see what you're saying.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
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Speaker 3: I'll be 77 in September. Think about, well, this month
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Speaker 3: on the 17th. That's hard to imagine. I mean, that's
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Speaker 3: like decrepit. I think I'll go buy myself a set
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Speaker 3: of crutches, maybe a walker. Or maybe I'll get one
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Speaker 3: of those stickers and put it in my car and
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Speaker 3: park in better places at Kroger's.
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Speaker 5: How about that?
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Speaker 4: Well, for Dave Weekly, we've determined his retirement is going
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Speaker 4: to be a metal detector. So, I mean, if you
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Speaker 4: need to pick up one of those.
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Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you what, if I have much more surgery,
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Speaker 3: I told the dermatologist the last time, I'm starting to
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Speaker 3: look like my ass. My torso looks like a jigsaw puzzle.
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Speaker 3: It's going to get worse because I've got to go
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Speaker 3: back to Cleveland for another one here maybe in a
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Speaker 3: month or so. But, hey, before Tom takes over this show,
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Speaker 3: which he is well prepared to do because he was
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Speaker 3: there yesterday at the Supreme Court when the emergency occurred,
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Speaker 3: I want to get this out of the way. It
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Speaker 3: was Hoppy's commentary this morning. My picks for the Mountaineer football.
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Speaker 1: All right, all right.
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Speaker 3: Here's one to start off at the top. I've thought
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Speaker 3: about this all summer. If Richie starts his second season
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Speaker 3: with a loss to an upstart Coastal Carolina team at home,
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Speaker 3: the fans will be all over him. But that's what
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Speaker 3: I think is going to happen.
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Speaker 1: Oh, you're picking an upset.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: But they bounce back nicely against UT Martin, which has
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Speaker 3: a West Virginia connection. You know, a fellow named– Gordon, a.k.a.
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Speaker 3: Piggy Lambert, was recruited by a gentleman, Gene Corum, out
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Speaker 3: of McDowell County back in the early 60s to play
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Speaker 3: for the Mountaineers. And for whatever reason, probably because he
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Speaker 3: was ornery and about half nuts, I think, in school,
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Speaker 3: he wasn't copacetic with the deacon, Jim Carlin, and ended
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Speaker 3: up moving over to UT Martin. And actually, he's a
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Speaker 3: member of the Sports Hall of Fame at UT Martin
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Speaker 3: and played on a team that won the Tangerine Bowl.
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Speaker 3: He was drafted and played for the old— Well, for
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Speaker 3: the Denver Broncos in the old AFL back in the 60s.
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Speaker 3: Then he went on to become Gordon Lambert. Not Piggy,
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Speaker 3: but Gordon Lambert was the county commissioner in McDowell County
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Speaker 3: for years and years. And a pretty good one, too.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I didn't make the connection right off. Then
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Speaker 3: I thought, wait a minute.
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Speaker 5: Wait a minute.
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Speaker 3: That name sounds familiar. And he's from McDowell County. So
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Speaker 3: there's a connection there. Anyway, Virginia, I'm looking at that
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Speaker 3: as a key game. We're going to beat Virginia in Charlotte.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 5: Okay.
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Speaker 3: So that's. And after that, it's just road and away.
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Speaker 3: We can beat Oklahoma State at home. Iowa State on
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Speaker 3: the road is a loss. Arizona, Cincinnati at home are wins.
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Speaker 3: We're not going to beat TCU and Texas Tech and
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Speaker 3: Fort Worth and Lubbock. I just don't think it's in
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Speaker 3: us in those venues. Two losses, then come home to
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Speaker 3: beat Kansas and Houston. But go back out to Salt
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Speaker 3: Lake for a loss to Utah, which puts us at
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Speaker 3: 7-5 with the With the crucial game being, of course,
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Speaker 3: it's like a WLWL with Coastal and Virginia. If they
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Speaker 3: win both those games, it's a really big season. They're
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Speaker 3: going to lose one of them. You're talking about 7-5
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Speaker 3: or 6-6. That's what I'm kind of seeing, a non-losing season, 6-6,
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Speaker 3: 7-5 at tops.
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Speaker 5: So there you go.
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Speaker 3: I'm going to keep this sheet until the end of
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Speaker 3: the year, and we'll review it.
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Speaker 2: All right.
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Speaker 1: That works. Tom, did you have yours too?
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Speaker 5: Yeah. I was a little more optimistic. I was way
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Speaker 5: too optimistic last year.
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Speaker 1: I remember that one.
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Speaker 5: I remember last year. I definitely predicted with my heart,
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Speaker 5: not my head, last year.
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Speaker 1: Hey, we're all fans.
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Speaker 5: Maybe I'm doing the same thing this year. I mean,
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Speaker 5: I just can't help it. So anyway, I don't think
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Speaker 5: we're going to lose to Coastal Carolina this weekend. It's
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Speaker 5: Pat White, Jersey Retirement Day, the White Owl. I think
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Speaker 5: everybody will be pumped up. And, you know, I kind
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Speaker 5: of read the news feeds a bit on those Sunbelt
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Speaker 5: Conference teams because I'm a Marshall fan too. And Coastal
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Speaker 5: is not. they've had really good seasons over the last
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Speaker 5: few years, but they're not, I don't think they're one
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Speaker 5: predicted in the top, top, uh, two or three. Rebuilding
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Speaker 5: a little bit.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 5: And of course you never know with transfers, anything can happen,
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Speaker 5: but I think the Mountaineers are going there and take
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Speaker 5: care of business. Fans will be pumped and, and it'll
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Speaker 5: work out. Um, so I don't, you know, having the
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Speaker 5: Pat White deal opening game, uh, I don't think you're
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Speaker 5: going to see W overlooking coastal Carolina, which I think
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Speaker 5: is what would probably be required for us to lose
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Speaker 5: to them the majority of the time. And then, UT Martin,
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Speaker 5: smaller school, playing at home. Got to win that one. UVA,
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Speaker 5: we play them in the neutral site down in Charlotte.
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Speaker 5: So we'll have a good– I would suspect if I
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Speaker 5: was a betting man, Mountaineer fans will outnumber the UVA fans.
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Speaker 5: But UVA is pretty good this year. They're underranked. I
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Speaker 5: think they played– they might have played one of the
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Speaker 5: early games last weekend and did well. So I think
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Speaker 5: we'll probably go down on that one. Oklahoma State's way down.
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Speaker 5: Got a new coach rebuilding. We're going to beat them.
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Speaker 5: Play them at home. I think we can go to
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Speaker 5: Iowa State. They got a new coach, too. Remember, their
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Speaker 5: coach went to Penn State. Who Marshall plays that day, actually,
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Speaker 5: in Happy Valley. So I think we'll pull one off
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Speaker 5: at Iowa State. You know, I got this little run there.
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Speaker 5: I think Arizona's going to be down a bit. We
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Speaker 5: can beat them at home. I think we'll beat Cincinnati
7:26
Speaker 5: at home. And I actually have a– TCU got beat.
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Speaker 5: They played the game in Dublin in Ireland, I think,
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Speaker 5: last week and got beat. Didn't look great. They got
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Speaker 5: some turmoil in the locker room there. They had a
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Speaker 5: guy dismissed for fighting another player and hurting him, actually.
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Speaker 5: So I think we can go down to TCU and
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Speaker 5: get a win. So we'll be rolling then. One loss
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Speaker 5: so far for me. But then you run into Texas Tech,
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Speaker 5: and they've got that, I think it's an oil tycoon
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Speaker 5: that just funds their NIL money to the hilt. So
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Speaker 5: they've got tons of talent, and their ranking reflects it.
8:02
Speaker 5: So I don't think we can go down there and
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Speaker 5: beat Texas Tech. So I'd say we lose that one.
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Speaker 5: Kansas at home, say we'll win that one, and then
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Speaker 5: I think we limp in a little bit. We've got
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Speaker 5: Houston at home and Utah away. I'm thinking those are
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Speaker 5: both L's. Rich Rod hasn't done that great at the
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Speaker 5: very end of the season in his most recent tours
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Speaker 5: here in Morgantown. But all that being said, that brings
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Speaker 5: us out 8-4. I think most people would be satisfied
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Speaker 5: with that.
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Speaker 1: I think people would be over the moon for 8-4.
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Speaker 5: The tilt is Virginia.
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Speaker 3: I mean, I kind of.
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Speaker 5: I don't know. We've played well generally down in Charlotte
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Speaker 5: in those games, whether it was a bowl game against
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Speaker 5: UNC or we've played, I think, a couple of these
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Speaker 5: early season games. We played Tennessee down there the last
8:46
Speaker 5: early season. Yeah, we beat Tennessee, beat UNC in a
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Speaker 5: bowl game down there. We do well. We have a
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Speaker 5: lot of fans in Charlotte, so I think it'll be
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Speaker 5: not like a home game, but I suspect it'll be nice.
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Speaker 5: So you get that win, but still I think if
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Speaker 5: you do, you might, I mean, that TCU game's a toss-up,
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Speaker 5: so I'm looking at, I'm looking at eight and four and, and, uh,
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Speaker 5: so we'll see how it comes out. I'll keep my
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Speaker 5: sheet of paper too. And we'll kind of monitor it
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Speaker 5: as we go along, but, uh, looking forward to football
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Speaker 5: season starting.
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Speaker 1: It'll be interesting.
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Speaker 6: Yeah.
9:16
Speaker 1: It's always nice.
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Speaker 4: Uh, this time of year, the baseball season is still, uh,
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Speaker 4: in the pennant races and football season is getting started
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Speaker 4: and there's a lot of things going on.
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Speaker 1: Good time of year for sports. There's no doubt.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 5: So, and also what was starting up, uh, this week
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Speaker 5: was the, uh, West Virginia Supreme court of appeals fall term,
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Speaker 5: which is, um, you know, they work all year round.
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Speaker 5: You'll have opinions issued in the summer, not quite as many,
9:38
Speaker 5: but you don't have any, there's no oral argument in
9:40
Speaker 5: the summertime. And then they take a break usually around Thanksgiving,
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Speaker 5: maybe early December and come back in the, what they
9:47
Speaker 5: call the fall term in January. So yesterday was the
9:51
Speaker 5: opening of the court and, um, meant a little more
9:53
Speaker 5: to me this time because I actually had an oral
9:55
Speaker 5: argument set for mid morning yesterday. Um, an older criminal case,
10:02
Speaker 5: but some interesting search and seizure issues. So I was
10:05
Speaker 5: all ready to go. I do a decent amount of
10:08
Speaker 5: appellate work, but you don't get to go argue your
10:11
Speaker 5: case very often. I don't know what the percentage is
10:13
Speaker 5: where they allow you to come and argue. A lot
10:15
Speaker 5: of times they'll just decide them on briefs. And so
10:18
Speaker 5: it's been a few years since I've been up there
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Speaker 5: and had an opportunity to argue. So I'm really looking
10:21
Speaker 5: forward to it. Then I pulled in, parked. To have
10:26
Speaker 5: the Supreme Court offices, like administrative offices now are in
10:30
Speaker 5: Kanawha City in the judicial building, but they still hear
10:34
Speaker 5: cases in the Capitol building in the, this would be
10:38
Speaker 5: the East wing. So going in and going through the
10:41
Speaker 5: first security, I heard some sirens behind me. I thought,
10:43
Speaker 5: oh gosh, fire trucks pulling down here and security guys said, well, yeah,
10:46
Speaker 5: they got to, some kind of medical emergency upstairs at
10:49
Speaker 5: the court. I was like, oh, really? Okay. So I
10:50
Speaker 5: went on up the elevator and the security fellow there
10:56
Speaker 5: at the top, you do double security. You go into Capitol,
10:59
Speaker 5: then you do it again when you go into the
11:01
Speaker 5: courtroom for argument and ushered all, ushered me and said,
11:03
Speaker 5: go in there. I said, okay. And this little room
11:05
Speaker 5: with lawyers packed in, what's going on? And I had
11:10
Speaker 5: a justice that had a medical emergency. And so I
11:13
Speaker 5: wasn't in the courtroom to see it, but it was,
11:15
Speaker 5: It was Justice Wooten. He's a little bit older. I
11:17
Speaker 5: think Justice Wooten's probably early 80s, I think. Might be 82.
11:21
Speaker 5: But apparently had a, just kind of went pale and
11:25
Speaker 5: passed out during an argument. Still sitting in his chair,
11:28
Speaker 5: but it was emergency and serious. And so the emergency
11:32
Speaker 5: personnel came in and, you know, of course I hung
11:34
Speaker 5: around until the clerk came out and talked to us
11:37
Speaker 5: about 10 minutes later and canceled all the oral arguments
11:40
Speaker 5: for the day. But by the time I left, Justice
11:42
Speaker 5: Wooten was conscious and breathing and And that's what the
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Speaker 5: clerk conveyed to us anyhow. And then last night, actually late, uh,
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Speaker 5: he has a brother that's a lawyer in the Southern
11:52
Speaker 5: part of the state, John Wooten. He's, uh, does work
11:54
Speaker 5: similar to what we do. And we're in an email
11:56
Speaker 5: group and he indicated that it was just dehydration. Uh,
12:01
Speaker 5: and he's, uh, been rehydrated, recuperated, and he's, uh, ready
12:05
Speaker 5: to get back to work. So that's great news to
12:07
Speaker 5: hear for justice Wooten. Cause he's a, he's a good
12:10
Speaker 5: one in my opinion. So anyway, I'll get to go
12:12
Speaker 5: back and argue another day, but that was the, uh,
12:15
Speaker 5: a lowdown from the Supreme Court. I think they got
12:17
Speaker 5: one argument in, but they had a little ceremony set
12:20
Speaker 5: at the end of the day to kind of note
12:24
Speaker 5: the opening of the fall term of court, and that
12:27
Speaker 5: was all canceled, of course. But the good news is
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Speaker 5: Justice Wooten's going to be fine. He's, I think, back
12:33
Speaker 5: on his feet and ready to hear cases.
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Speaker 3: That sort of segues a little bit into another thing
12:41
Speaker 3: we've spoken about several times on the air. The Peyton
12:44
Speaker 3: Law Firm We're in Nitro. We're at the corner of
12:49
Speaker 3: 28th Street and 1st Avenue. It's only about 20 minutes
12:51
Speaker 3: from downtown Charleston, and we're from Hurricane, 10 minutes, 15 from.
12:56
Speaker 5: Taze Valley, Poco. We have a lot.
12:58
Speaker 3: A lot of our clientele is focused in Putnam County,
13:02
Speaker 3: Western Kanawha County, Jackson, Cabell, Lincoln, and a lot of
13:08
Speaker 3: folks who live in Mason County because Tom is licensed
13:11
Speaker 3: to practice in Ohio. who do work also in Meigs
13:15
Speaker 3: and Jackson and Gallia County, Ohio, up to Columbus. Tom
13:18
Speaker 3: and I tried a big railroad case up in federal
13:21
Speaker 3: court in Columbus a few years ago and did quite well.
13:25
Speaker 3: And as a part of that case, Tom, on an
13:28
Speaker 3: appellate basis, went down to the Sixth Circuit Federal Court
13:31
Speaker 3: of Appeals in Cincinnati and argued that case, which had
13:35
Speaker 3: been wrongfully dismissed by one of the judges based on
13:38
Speaker 3: a theory of the nature of the injury, which was
13:44
Speaker 3: a carpal tunnel hand injury to a railroad track worker
13:47
Speaker 3: and got it reversed and sent it back for trial.
13:51
Speaker 3: And we've been there, you know, if I make it
13:54
Speaker 3: till May the 17th, 2027, and I think I will,
13:59
Speaker 3: I'll have practiced law in NITRO for 50 years. I've
14:03
Speaker 3: been practicing law 52 years now. Tom now, he's 50
14:06
Speaker 3: years old. He used to say the best lawyer under
14:08
Speaker 3: 50 in West Virginia. So now I'm going to say
14:11
Speaker 3: the best 50-year-old lawyer in the state. And he's been
14:15
Speaker 3: there with me. We've been working together for 26 years,
14:18
Speaker 3: 25 years, going on 26. That makes a big difference.
14:22
Speaker 3: When you start talking about, well, what lawyer am I
14:24
Speaker 3: going to use? Since I started practicing law in the mid-' 70s, early-' 70s,
14:31
Speaker 3: the idea of lawyer advertising had its advent with the
14:35
Speaker 3: idea that it would help consumers learn about the cost
14:41
Speaker 3: and effect of things that they needed every day. It
14:45
Speaker 3: came out of a divorce case, the case that the
14:47
Speaker 3: Supreme Court of the United States decided allowing lawyer advertising,
14:52
Speaker 3: but it has morphed into only, almost, the pursuit of
15:00
Speaker 3: personal injury claims and nationwide. So you are constantly bombarded.
15:06
Speaker 3: And I say that when I'm like, My good friends,
15:11
Speaker 3: Rob Campbell, Steve Farmer, Bobby Warner, Ben Salango. I mean,
15:17
Speaker 3: we all know those folks because we all practice law
15:19
Speaker 3: together and do about the same thing. And God bless them.
15:23
Speaker 3: They're here. They live here. They work here. We hope
15:26
Speaker 3: you would consider us at Peyton Law Firm at least
15:29
Speaker 3: an equal. But when you see somebody who says, I've
15:33
Speaker 3: been here for 30 years to help you, that's just
15:35
Speaker 3: not true. Here means here. And so go to the
15:39
Speaker 3: Supreme Court, go to our website and look at the
15:42
Speaker 3: number of cases that both Tom and I have argued
15:45
Speaker 3: before or presented to the Supreme Court of Appeals of
15:48
Speaker 3: West Virginia. And it's a lengthy list. Plus, there are
15:53
Speaker 3: not many people who've won cases in the Court of
15:55
Speaker 3: Appeals in the Sixth Circuit from around here either. And
15:58
Speaker 3: so when you get a lawyer and you think, well,
16:00
Speaker 3: we want somebody that won't take no for an answer
16:03
Speaker 3: and will fight to the end, I would say you
16:05
Speaker 3: better be getting somebody who, when you walk up there
16:08
Speaker 3: to the Supreme Court, first of all, they know you.
16:12
Speaker 3: They listen to you because they respect what we do
16:15
Speaker 3: and they know we tell the truth. They know we're
16:19
Speaker 3: not gypsies or empty suits that fly in here in
16:22
Speaker 3: some private plane and just sing a spiel. And that's
16:25
Speaker 3: why you're better off. I just think people are better
16:27
Speaker 3: off and we're proud of it. I'll brag about it.
16:30
Speaker 3: You know, he said, well, you must lose some cases
16:32
Speaker 3: if you go The Supreme Court, well, that's true, but
16:34
Speaker 3: we don't quit, period. And more than half of them,
16:38
Speaker 3: we won. Now, you can't win them all. And some
16:41
Speaker 3: of them are just, you know, you're appealing because some
16:46
Speaker 3: people just deserve to be sued and they should not
16:48
Speaker 3: get off. But that's my little spiel for the day
16:51
Speaker 3: about appellate practice. I'm not sure I'll be arguing any
16:55
Speaker 3: more cases in front of the Supreme Court. The last
16:56
Speaker 3: time I was there, I argued two back-to-back, one of
17:01
Speaker 3: which said, a big precedent in the area of the
17:07
Speaker 3: state law and the rights of a surviving spouse when
17:10
Speaker 3: a person dies in test state. So we're proud of it.
17:17
Speaker 3: Look at our website, paytonlawfirm.com. And while you're there looking
17:20
Speaker 3: at that, which I believe is an impressive record, just
17:23
Speaker 3: send an email through to either me or Ty. If
17:25
Speaker 3: you use the tab, it just comes to me or Tom.
17:29
Speaker 3: And we try and return those. It's really as good
17:31
Speaker 3: or better than making a phone call because we can
17:32
Speaker 3: return them anytime. And with that, again, after having said once,
17:37
Speaker 3: I'll stop talking. I'm saying again I'll stop talking.
17:40
Speaker 4: One of the things that strikes me just– I've mentioned
17:43
Speaker 4: this before on the show. And I know different attorneys
17:45
Speaker 4: have different views of the movie My Cousin Vinny. But
17:47
Speaker 4: the one thing that I think that it relates when
17:49
Speaker 4: we talk about– practicing law here in West Virginia. And
17:52
Speaker 4: that movie, if you remember Joe Pesci's character, Vinny, he
17:55
Speaker 4: never got anywhere locally with the court systems until he
17:58
Speaker 4: learned the local, the people and the pace of where
18:02
Speaker 4: he was and where he was arguing the case and
18:04
Speaker 4: the judge and some of the people that were involved
18:06
Speaker 4: in it and things like that. Why go through all
18:08
Speaker 4: that mess and trying to convert your national attorney into
18:11
Speaker 4: somebody who understands your local land when you have Your
18:14
Speaker 4: person right here. You have the person that knows how
18:17
Speaker 4: to make grits right here at home. You don't have
18:20
Speaker 4: to worry about trying to get somebody from New York
18:23
Speaker 4: City or somewhere to figure that thing out when you
18:25
Speaker 4: get here.
18:26
Speaker 1: Florida or Texas. Exactly.
18:28
Speaker 5: Then he had Marissa Tomei.
18:30
Speaker 3: Exactly.
18:30
Speaker 1: Exactly. I mean, yeah.
18:32
Speaker 4: You've got your dad. What is a grit? That's the
18:37
Speaker 4: greatest line of the movie. Exactly true. So what else
18:41
Speaker 4: is going on? You guys want to go and take
18:43
Speaker 4: a break, then we'll come back and kind of reset?
18:44
Speaker 5: Sure, that sounds good.
18:45
Speaker 1: Okay, let's do that.
18:46
Speaker 4: If you have any questions for the Payton Law Firm,
18:48
Speaker 4: you're welcome to give us a call. This is the
18:49
Speaker 4: time to call in, 304-345-5858, 345-5858. You can text in
18:50
Speaker 4: your questions. Folks love to do that, 304-935-5008, 304-935-5008. More
18:52
Speaker 4: information about the Payton Law Firm online, paytonlawfirm.com, P-E-Y-T-O-N, paytonlawfirm.com
18:54
Speaker 4: in Nitro, West Virginia. We'll give you the rest of
19:06
Speaker 4: that contact information when we come back. You're listening to
19:08
Speaker 4: Ask the Lawyer on 580 WCHS, The Voice of Charleston.
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20:40
Speaker 1: You're listening to The Voice of Charleston, 580 WCHS. I'm
20:43
Speaker 1: Dale Cooper. Thanks for tuning in to Ask the Lawyer.
20:45
Speaker 1: It is Thursday.
20:46
Speaker 4: That means the Payton Law Firm is in studio with
20:48
Speaker 4: us this morning. And welcoming into the studio this morning,
20:50
Speaker 4: it is double your pleasure. We have Tom and Harvey
20:52
Speaker 4: Payton in studio this morning, taking your phone calls at 304-345-5858, 345-5858.
20:56
Speaker 4: You can text 304-935-5008. While we were on break, Bob
21:02
Speaker 4: has called in this morning from Pocatello. He has a
21:04
Speaker 4: questions for the Payton Law Firm.
21:05
Speaker 1: Bob, good morning. How are you doing this morning?
21:07
Speaker 2: Well, I just called to ask a favor. I'm blind now.
21:11
Speaker 2: I can't watch TV anymore. And I just wondered if
21:14
Speaker 2: you guys know where on the radio dial you can
21:17
Speaker 2: find WVU football broadcast.
21:24
Speaker 4: In the Charleston area, it's– what is it? It's 90–
21:27
Speaker 4: I thought it was 100.
21:29
Speaker 5: 101.9, I think, or something like that. 101.9 or 100.5.
21:30
Speaker 5: I'll tell you that since– Western Radio Corporation doesn't do
21:38
Speaker 5: it anymore. Honestly, Bob, I've tried to listen to it
21:40
Speaker 5: on the radio and their signal isn't great depending on
21:43
Speaker 5: where you are. I don't know about out in Pocatello.
21:46
Speaker 2: Well, I just tried it and I can't get a
21:49
Speaker 2: thing on 100.9.
21:51
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the problem. I don't know what the deal
21:54
Speaker 5: is with the signal or the frequency, but I've had
21:56
Speaker 5: the same issue. One thing you could try, maybe get
22:01
Speaker 5: some help, but you can download an app like a
22:05
Speaker 5: tune in app or something like that. And then it
22:07
Speaker 5: will come through the internet. And then that is a
22:13
Speaker 5: downside of that. You get these commercials that don't have
22:15
Speaker 5: any relate. They're not local commercials necessarily, but you can
22:19
Speaker 5: download like the tune in app. That's what I do
22:21
Speaker 5: actually get five 80 on my Tesla because I don't
22:23
Speaker 5: have an AM tuner. So I use the tune in
22:25
Speaker 5: app and sometimes I hear these borderline offensive lawyer commercial.
22:30
Speaker 5: I thought, who's that person? Well, it's nobody around here.
22:32
Speaker 5: Cause they, When you do streaming, there's some local commercials,
22:37
Speaker 5: but you get spots of nationally-based advertisers. But you might
22:44
Speaker 5: try that, Bob. You can go into the TuneIn app.
22:47
Speaker 5: If you can download it on some device that has internet,
22:50
Speaker 5: that's the way I've been listening when I need to.
22:55
Speaker 5: And you might give that a try. If you get somebody,
22:57
Speaker 5: maybe they can help you out. But it is 100%. Nine,
23:01
Speaker 5: I think.
23:01
Speaker 4: I think that the Mountaineers have an app themselves that
23:04
Speaker 4: you can just download and hit like listen. And I
23:07
Speaker 4: think it'll take you to a game feed. I know, Bob,
23:10
Speaker 4: that this might this all apps and stuff like that.
23:13
Speaker 4: As far as over the air goes, as of today,
23:18
Speaker 4: I can't I can't help you. Any other station locally,
23:21
Speaker 4: except for except for the one that's had it for
23:23
Speaker 4: a while throughout the rest of the state. Some of
23:25
Speaker 4: our other companies, some of our other stations have actually
23:28
Speaker 4: recaptured Mountaineer Sports. And unfortunately in Charleston, I can't help
23:31
Speaker 4: you out yet, but that is something in other parts
23:34
Speaker 4: of the states that's being addressed.
23:36
Speaker 3: What is the closest station affiliate that is carrying– is
23:40
Speaker 3: it Parkersburg?
23:41
Speaker 4: Well, we don't have an official station in Parkersburg for that.
23:44
Speaker 4: I don't know if you could get it in there.
23:46
Speaker 4: And I'm not sure if– I'm not positive of the
23:48
Speaker 4: Learfield streaming agreements– If you can hear it from– because
23:52
Speaker 4: if you could just get the– if you could just
23:54
Speaker 4: listen to AJR on air, I mean, you can– like,
23:56
Speaker 4: AJR is going to be the flagship of our mouth
23:58
Speaker 4: and ear coverage.
23:58
Speaker 5: That's what I was going to say. If you go
23:59
Speaker 5: in the streaming tune-in, normally, unless there's some kind of
24:02
Speaker 5: blockout or something, normally, if you go in the tune-in
24:05
Speaker 5: app or another app that allows you to get radio stations,
24:08
Speaker 5: then you can choose.
24:09
Speaker 2: Right.
24:09
Speaker 5: You can choose WAJR, for example.
24:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, WAJR, which is the flagship now of– it's not
24:15
Speaker 3: available here in Charleston, but– An arrangement has been made
24:19
Speaker 3: with many of the affiliates of Western Radio Corporation and AJR,
24:23
Speaker 3: which was the flagship station of the old Mountaineer Sports.
24:28
Speaker 3: So you're going to get Caridi and you're going to
24:30
Speaker 3: get the other parts of the team. I don't think
24:34
Speaker 3: Hoppy's on there anymore. But this will be my advice.
24:38
Speaker 3: It's a little bit, if you have an iPhone or
24:40
Speaker 3: an iPad or any sort of a digital device, download the...
24:47
Speaker 3: tune-in app and look for WAJR, that's the very best
24:50
Speaker 3: chance to get it. Because I agree with you, the
24:51
Speaker 3: signal here on the stations that have had it is terrible.
24:55
Speaker 3: I can't get it.
24:56
Speaker 5: And we hope that'll change here in the next couple years.
25:00
Speaker 5: Maybe that's what we're keeping our fingers crossed for. So
25:05
Speaker 5: we'll get back and get some good signal. I guess
25:07
Speaker 5: the broadcast content will probably mostly remain the same, except
25:10
Speaker 5: for maybe the pre-game, post-game will change with the Western
25:13
Speaker 5: Radio Corporation broadcasting, but.
25:16
Speaker 4: Bob, if you continue to have any problems, you've given
25:19
Speaker 4: me a call before. Feel free to give me a
25:21
Speaker 4: call here at the station, and I'll try to help
25:22
Speaker 4: you out getting through to find a solution that works
25:25
Speaker 4: out for you. If you have any problems, if you
25:27
Speaker 4: can't get to any of those solutions that we talked about,
25:29
Speaker 4: I'll try to do some other research here. Give me
25:31
Speaker 4: a call back here at the station anytime, Bob, and
25:33
Speaker 4: I'll be glad to help you out.
25:34
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, and I'm sorry for the interruption.
25:38
Speaker 1: Hey, no problem at all. We appreciate you calling in.
25:39
Speaker 1: Thanks a bunch, Bob.
25:41
Speaker 4: That leaves the phone line open for you. If you
25:43
Speaker 4: want to give us a call, you can talk to
25:44
Speaker 4: the Payton Law Firm, 304-345-5858, 304-345-5858. Sure. There's nothing wrong
25:50
Speaker 4: with calling and talking about Mountaineer football.
25:52
Speaker 1: Hey, you opened up the show talking about predictions. That's
25:54
Speaker 1: all right.
25:54
Speaker 5: That's right. Yeah, I kind of hit on this from
25:58
Speaker 5: time to time. One of the things that I do
26:01
Speaker 5: a decent amount of, I don't do– I'm fairly selective
26:03
Speaker 5: in them, meaning I don't just turn out thousands of them,
26:08
Speaker 5: which is what I think You see some law firms do,
26:11
Speaker 5: but social security disability claims just had one yesterday. Um,
26:15
Speaker 5: did it remotely. So actually have a, had a judge
26:19
Speaker 5: from New Hampshire, Manchester, Manchester, uh, New Hampshire was on the,
26:23
Speaker 5: on the, uh, on the call, which is fine. I didn't,
26:27
Speaker 5: I wasn't familiar with her and each judge has kind
26:29
Speaker 5: of has their own style. So you got to feel
26:31
Speaker 5: them out. And, uh, she was thorough, but this, you know,
26:35
Speaker 5: I was just looking at the timeframes on that case.
26:38
Speaker 5: My client had, uh, last worked in 2023 she couldn't
26:42
Speaker 5: didn't have the ability to work after that and had
26:46
Speaker 5: a pretty good work history just kind of bounced around
26:48
Speaker 5: like a lot of folks do when they end up
26:50
Speaker 5: having mental or physical health problems and interferes with consistent
26:56
Speaker 5: work but you know she she was lucky enough her
27:00
Speaker 5: I think her mother lived in nitro and and so
27:03
Speaker 5: she was able to reside with her mom who doesn't
27:05
Speaker 5: have significant income but at least she had a bed
27:09
Speaker 5: to sleep in but Just to emphasize, anybody out there
27:12
Speaker 5: that is not able to work for mental or physical
27:17
Speaker 5: reasons and you think it might last 12 months or more,
27:21
Speaker 5: really emphasize get to the Social Security office and file
27:24
Speaker 5: your application because it just takes– it's always been kind
27:28
Speaker 5: of a long wait. I think over the last– maybe
27:31
Speaker 5: since pandemic, it's just gotten worse. So you're not going
27:35
Speaker 5: to have– unless you're lucky enough to have a family
27:37
Speaker 5: member that has some income– or a place to provide
27:40
Speaker 5: you shelter, when you become disabled from work, probably 98%
27:47
Speaker 5: of the time, you are not going to get your
27:51
Speaker 5: benefits at least until you have a hearing. And there's
27:53
Speaker 5: multiple levels of appeal before you get to a hearing.
27:55
Speaker 5: So you're going to be waiting potentially two years, potentially
28:00
Speaker 5: more than that, to have your hearing date. So I really,
28:03
Speaker 5: and then I suggest, and You know, people are afraid, well,
28:09
Speaker 5: I don't know how to do the application. Well, the
28:10
Speaker 5: application process, which I don't normally participate in or rarely do,
28:16
Speaker 5: isn't much more than you call the Social Security office.
28:18
Speaker 5: I think they're doing them by phone for the most part.
28:20
Speaker 5: And all they really do is do some information gathering.
28:23
Speaker 5: They're verifying your Social Security number, date of birth, when
28:26
Speaker 5: you last couldn't work, just what you say your problems
28:29
Speaker 5: are about why you can't work. They don't make a
28:31
Speaker 5: decision on the phone on the call. So it's not,
28:34
Speaker 5: can't really screw it up. And if you, If there's
28:37
Speaker 5: a technical problem with it, we can always amend it later.
28:40
Speaker 5: But I always really encourage folks to, one, apply early
28:43
Speaker 5: if you think you're going to have a long-term disability
28:45
Speaker 5: from work. It doesn't cost anything. You can always just
28:50
Speaker 5: dismiss it if you get better and are able to
28:52
Speaker 5: go back to work or you find a job that
28:53
Speaker 5: will accommodate you. But get it filed because you're basically
28:59
Speaker 5: getting in line. I mean, I've had some cases I
29:02
Speaker 5: thought were really, really strong cases, and they still required
29:05
Speaker 5: us to get all the way to a hearing level
29:07
Speaker 5: before we get benefits. So get in there and get
29:11
Speaker 5: your application put in. It's really easy. I don't know,
29:15
Speaker 5: maybe a half an hour on the phone, just providing
29:18
Speaker 5: some basic information. And don't be disappointed because most likely
29:21
Speaker 5: you're going to get denied. And you'll get that letter
29:23
Speaker 5: usually 30, 60 days down the line. That's when you
29:26
Speaker 5: give us a call. And then we take over the
29:30
Speaker 5: appeal process. And all these are done through our office.
29:33
Speaker 5: And I think universally, the lawyers that handle these type
29:37
Speaker 5: disability claims, are all contingency fees. So if you call
29:41
Speaker 5: our office, I kind of screen it out. What's your issue?
29:44
Speaker 5: We might meet in person so I can feel out
29:47
Speaker 5: what kind of chance I think we got to win
29:48
Speaker 5: in the case. But if we take it and something
29:51
Speaker 5: goes bad, we don't get paid and you don't pay
29:53
Speaker 5: us anything. So it's kind of no harm, no foul.
29:57
Speaker 5: If you get a lawyer that's competent, but you want
30:00
Speaker 5: somebody that's going to pay attention to your case and
30:01
Speaker 5: not be a number. And that's, that's what we do.
30:06
Speaker 5: We have, I probably have a dozen social security disability
30:10
Speaker 5: cases pending at any one time, but we pay close
30:12
Speaker 5: attention to them and you can't win all of them,
30:14
Speaker 5: but you know, you want to, you have one hearing.
30:18
Speaker 5: Normally you don't get two bites at the apple. You
30:20
Speaker 5: lose that hearing. Yeah. You can appeal, which is difficult.
30:22
Speaker 5: We've done it. We want appeals, but it's hard and
30:25
Speaker 5: you can't just go back and reapply and have a
30:26
Speaker 5: hearing and all the same issues again. So that one
30:29
Speaker 5: hearing is important. So you want to get your lawyer
30:31
Speaker 5: early when you get denied. I've had so many people call. One,
30:36
Speaker 5: they go through the hearing themselves. They didn't think they
30:38
Speaker 5: needed a lawyer. Then they lost. And then, you know,
30:41
Speaker 5: our hands are kind of tied at that point. Or
30:43
Speaker 5: I've had other people call who have different lawyers who
30:47
Speaker 5: might claim they don't take no for an answer, but
30:49
Speaker 5: then they refuse to do an appeal for them. And so, well,
30:51
Speaker 5: we can't take over for that law firm at that point.
30:55
Speaker 5: So it's just, You don't think about that a lot.
30:59
Speaker 5: You don't see a lot of advertising for it. There's
31:01
Speaker 5: a few firms that do, but those claims are so
31:04
Speaker 5: important because if you, I mean, you might not be
31:08
Speaker 5: able to work or you might not be employable, but
31:10
Speaker 5: that doesn't mean you're automatically going to get social security
31:12
Speaker 5: disability awarded to you. And so you got to make
31:14
Speaker 5: sure you're prepared and ready to roll because if you
31:18
Speaker 5: lose that hearing, it doesn't mean you can go back
31:20
Speaker 5: to work. I mean, you can't work. So at least
31:23
Speaker 5: on a full-time basis, then you're stuck and you might
31:26
Speaker 5: live the rest of your life without having any real
31:28
Speaker 5: source of income. So they're, they're really important cases. So
31:31
Speaker 5: I just, you know, I've had the hearings seem to
31:34
Speaker 5: come in waves and we've had four or five here
31:36
Speaker 5: in the last few weeks. And I know we want
31:39
Speaker 5: a couple of them because judge said it on the,
31:41
Speaker 5: on the line, but you know, we, we walk you
31:43
Speaker 5: through the process and prepare you for the hearing to
31:46
Speaker 5: try and make the whole process more comfortable. Cause a
31:48
Speaker 5: lot of physical things, one thing usually that's accompanied by pain,
31:53
Speaker 5: which is distracting and you don't like dealing with, you know,
31:57
Speaker 5: I kind of, Like if you ever had bad toothache,
32:00
Speaker 5: it's hard to do anything else because you're just concentrating
32:03
Speaker 5: on your tooth hurting all the time. So dealing with
32:07
Speaker 5: lawyers and the public and things difficult. Then I got
32:09
Speaker 5: to like clients with mental health issues that, you know, depression,
32:13
Speaker 5: anxiety type issues that makes interaction difficult. But that's part
32:16
Speaker 5: of what we do, I think, is try and provide
32:19
Speaker 5: a comfortability to the process and let folks know how
32:22
Speaker 5: it works. And it's not a, it's a frustrating process
32:26
Speaker 5: because you're, I mean, the client knows they're disabled and
32:29
Speaker 5: they can't work, but, you know, you got some technical
32:32
Speaker 5: requirements and jumping through these hoops that oftentimes in a
32:34
Speaker 5: system where you've paid into it for 20, 30 years
32:38
Speaker 5: through your taxes and withholdings and can be frustrating. But anyhow,
32:45
Speaker 5: I try to do that every so often on the
32:48
Speaker 5: radio just to let people know how it works and
32:51
Speaker 5: make sure they are attuned to the fact it doesn't
32:53
Speaker 5: cost anything, it's easy to file, and you shouldn't hesitate
32:55
Speaker 5: to do it. It doesn't hurt you. You just withdraw
32:57
Speaker 5: it if you're able to go back to work. You're
32:58
Speaker 5: not declaring you're permanently disabled when you file that application.
33:03
Speaker 4: Just real quick, one question I had about this, and
33:05
Speaker 4: this is something I was following earlier in the year,
33:06
Speaker 4: and I'm not sure how prevalent it's going to be,
33:10
Speaker 4: or I guess it was last year, but there was
33:12
Speaker 4: all the talk about saving money in government and cutting
33:15
Speaker 4: back on programs and different things like that. My understanding is,
33:17
Speaker 4: and I know it was going forward at least through
33:20
Speaker 4: the good portion of this year, that A lot of
33:22
Speaker 4: our decisions in this space when it comes to like
33:25
Speaker 4: disability and also with Medicare and things along– or Medicaid
33:30
Speaker 4: and things along those lines, there's going to be an
33:31
Speaker 4: AI element to it now where some of the scoring
33:34
Speaker 4: and decisions and things like that are going to have
33:36
Speaker 4: an AI layer to it. So there's not as much
33:39
Speaker 4: human interaction to it. It doesn't sound like honestly that
33:41
Speaker 4: it's going to change much from your end though because
33:43
Speaker 4: they're all denied initially anyway for the most part.
33:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, and it feels like you get AI spitting out
33:48
Speaker 5: information because when you see those initial denial letters– many
33:51
Speaker 5: of them read saying, well, you can hear, see, you know,
33:55
Speaker 5: move around. So therefore you can, you can work. And
33:59
Speaker 5: so now I'll tell you, like the case I had yesterday,
34:02
Speaker 5: there were, we'd gathered and submitted over 7,000 pages of
34:06
Speaker 5: medical records and documents into the file. And it's all
34:08
Speaker 5: electronic now, which is great, but it does make me wonder,
34:12
Speaker 5: you know, the judges are busy. That's why there's a,
34:14
Speaker 5: it takes so long. It's one of the reasons why.
34:17
Speaker 5: And it did make me wonder if the, The judge
34:20
Speaker 5: was pretty keen about finding the right documents and the
34:24
Speaker 5: important ones in the 7,000 pages in the file. And
34:27
Speaker 5: I wondered if AI isn't analyzing those and maybe providing
34:31
Speaker 5: them to the administrative law judge normally. And I think
34:34
Speaker 5: currently each administrative law judge would have their own law clerk,
34:38
Speaker 5: a lawyer that would help them work up the file, analyze,
34:43
Speaker 5: and sometimes help write the final opinion. So I don't know. Yeah,
34:48
Speaker 5: there's certainly been some cutbacks. And actually, standards have gotten
34:52
Speaker 5: a little more difficult in the first round of the
34:54
Speaker 5: Trump administration. They changed some rules that, for example, it
35:00
Speaker 5: used to be if your treating physician wrote a real
35:03
Speaker 5: thorough letter and that treating physician had treated you for
35:06
Speaker 5: a long period of time, the theory was or the
35:08
Speaker 5: rule was, well, they know you better than anybody else.
35:12
Speaker 5: Whether it's their opinion you're disabled or not isn't the key,
35:14
Speaker 5: but if they have a detailed letter, which we have
35:16
Speaker 5: a questionnaire for treating physicians that talk about how long
35:20
Speaker 5: you can stay and sit and activities, capacities during a workday,
35:24
Speaker 5: that used to be almost controlled. And if you had
35:26
Speaker 5: a good thorough one, the judge, if they didn't go
35:29
Speaker 5: along with that, they had to really set it out. Well,
35:31
Speaker 5: that rule was changed in the first round of the
35:33
Speaker 5: Trump administration. Now they don't even have to– if they
35:36
Speaker 5: ignore that or don't give it consideration, they don't even
35:38
Speaker 5: have to say why. And it's mandated that they don't
35:41
Speaker 5: give it any more weight or credibility than, say, the
35:47
Speaker 5: doctor you see for 15 minutes that Social Security sends
35:49
Speaker 5: you to, which I think is a bad change in
35:51
Speaker 5: the law. But it is what it is. And that's
35:54
Speaker 5: what we have to deal with. So, yeah, there's been
35:57
Speaker 5: multiple changes over the last few years, really just making
36:01
Speaker 5: the claims more difficult. Now, so many of them are denied.
36:06
Speaker 5: Maybe if AI will decide, maybe it will get better.
36:07
Speaker 5: I don't know. They tend to. From my experience, AI
36:10
Speaker 5: wants to suit the person entering the data. So, of course,
36:13
Speaker 5: the claimant probably wouldn't be entering the data. It would
36:15
Speaker 5: be a Social Security Administration worker.
36:18
Speaker 3: You know, just a minute to say, based on what
36:21
Speaker 3: Tom says, we have– you know, we've been representing everyday
36:25
Speaker 3: people for a cumulative total of about 78 years now.
36:30
Speaker 3: And there are still those– I hear it expressed constantly,
36:33
Speaker 3: even on– Some of these stations that, well, there are
36:37
Speaker 3: just a lot of people here who don't want to work. Listen,
36:42
Speaker 3: Social Security disability, the standard for disability is extremely high.
36:48
Speaker 3: You need to be judged by an independent judge to
36:51
Speaker 3: be totally capable of performing any substantial gainful activity at
36:57
Speaker 3: any job available in significant numbers, either in the state
37:01
Speaker 3: or national economy. Now, that's a high standard. We have 60,000
37:07
Speaker 3: people right now in West Virginia who, during their work lives,
37:11
Speaker 3: have suffered sufficient mental or physical problems beyond disability. Now,
37:16
Speaker 3: that's not people who just don't want to work, period.
37:20
Speaker 3: And we represent the people in the little White Houses,
37:22
Speaker 3: not the people in the ivory towers who look down
37:26
Speaker 3: on them. Peyton Lawford.
37:27
Speaker 5: That's right.
37:28
Speaker 4: Peyton Law Firm, PeytonLawFirm.com. Every Thursday right here on 580 WCHS,
37:32
Speaker 4: The Voice of Charleston.
37:33
Speaker 1: Peyton Law Firm, 304-755-5556, 304-755-5556. Have a great day, everyone,
37:34
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37:36
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