Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 05/18/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
- 0:00Our area's most beautiful properties deserved the finest realtors. Meeks Realty Group. We
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- 0:46power of Beason on your side. The power of as It's a twenty two
- 0:57and good Thursday morning to you. Five ad w C H asked the voice
- 1:00of Charleston Jeff Jenkins with you and Tom Peyton to the Peyton Law Firm in
- 1:03Nitro. Give us a call line, Drope and any questions about the law.
- 1:07Three oh four three four or five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh
- 1:11four three four or five fifty eight fifty eight. Tom has rolled in from
- 1:18westward here from Hurricane Yeah, Harrican into into the Canal Valley smooth roll.
- 1:23Good morning. Yeah, glad to be here this morning. Yeah, traffic
- 1:26was nice, weather is getting warmer. That's right. We're gonna have a
- 1:30good day at least today and tomorrow. Yeah, I think tomorrow is going
- 1:33to be a great day. Yeah, that's a nice segue. You know,
- 1:34I think I mentioned before, but uh, you know, we try
- 1:38and get involved in the local community as much as we can afford to.
- 1:42Don't have a lot of extra time. But I'm this year and if they
- 1:46if they have me, probably this coming year. We run a fiscal year
- 1:51like starting in July. But I'm the president of the Dumont Troi County Y
- 1:55MCA down in Scott Deepa, which we're we're up and coming. We got
- 2:00some projects in the works, nice facilities. So a lot of people don't
- 2:04know about us down there. We don't have a very good sign on the
- 2:06road where actually if you can see Tays Corporate Center from the Interstate there,
- 2:10we're right kind of away from the interstate. From that, I think you
- 2:14can see our sign from the interstate a little bit, but then you got
- 2:15to go all the way around in front of the new Kroger and back towards
- 2:20the movie theater and then come out that direction. We're gonna get a new
- 2:23sign. We're working on it, just logistically need to get it put in.
- 2:27But you know, why does a lot of good things for the community
- 2:30too. And you know, we also have a camp that's out towards Winfield,
- 2:35out Church Camp Road where we host I don't know how many kids we
- 2:39normally have, but it's quite a few. It's a day camp all all.
- 2:45We have a lodge out there and it's all I don't think there's overnights,
- 2:49but you know, it helps parents when the kids are out of school
- 2:53in the summertime and it's out in the woods and they do multiple activities are
- 2:57swimming pool out there and that kind of thing. So good stuff happening there.
- 3:00But and then the thing about the y. We have a lot of
- 3:04programs for kids, you know, from flag football to soccer, that kind
- 3:09of thing. We also have a pre K facility, but we don't turn
- 3:14any kids away based on financial circumstances. So we have and there's some government
- 3:21benefits that can help with that too. There's a link program and things like
- 3:23that. But otherwise it's generally being being able to participate in the in the
- 3:28kind of athletic type programs. We have a what we call a scholarship program.
- 3:34So it's not a scholarship to go to pay that you go to college.
- 3:36It's it's a scholarship that helps us make up the gap financially when we
- 3:42have children that can't otherwise afford to participate in some of the YMCA's activities,
- 3:47because we're not going to turn any whether we raise enough money through scholarship or
- 3:52not, least as long as I'm in charge, and I think the current
- 3:54executive director, we're not going to turn any kids away because they're parents or
- 3:58if they're staying with grandparents, can't afford to get into the program, but
- 4:01to stay viable financially, and quite frankly, over the last ten years,
- 4:05you've you know, we're much more than a gym, but we are a
- 4:09gym. We are a fitness center too, and of course you've seen the
- 4:14Purple Palaces popping it all over the place, charging whatever they charge five dollars
- 4:18a month or something to go work out and in twenty four hour gems and
- 4:23things like that. So there's been competition over the last decade that really had
- 4:28never existed before, and it's certainly diminished some of our membership and made a
- 4:31little more difficult from a financial standpoint. Now we offer a lot more than
- 4:35just fitness center, and we have an indoor pool, we have a swim
- 4:39program, we have basketball court, and we're going to work on expanding some
- 4:45of those offerings too and physically and with the programs. So but to keep
- 4:51us operating financially, we got to do some fundraising throughout the year, and
- 4:57our biggest fundraiser by far is our annual golf event. And we're lucky to
- 5:02have a really good relationship with Sleepy Hollow Golf Clubs, so they coordinate with
- 5:09us. I think it benefits Sleepy Hollow as well. But they let us
- 5:13utilize the club on a Friday, and that event is tomorrow, and so
- 5:17it's a golf scramble EVA yeah good weather, Yeah, good brother. So
- 5:21that makes a big difference. So we're actually a little shorter on some teams.
- 5:27You know, we get a lot of businesses that put teams in and
- 5:28sometimes when you have businesses move out of the area, then you have some
- 5:30waxing and waning on the number of teams you have participating. So We're actually
- 5:35down a few teams this year, so I think we got a few slots
- 5:39left for tomorrow. And we have a morning flight, so if you know
- 5:45you want to get done earlier, you got something to do in the afternoon,
- 5:47you can play in the morning or you have an afternoon flight that starts
- 5:50I think at one thirty, so you can get some business done in the
- 5:54morning and then come out and play. And then everybody that plays where you
- 5:59can pay separately if you want to come, we have a party on the
- 6:00patio. I think it's a disco theme this year, so if you want
- 6:04to put on your seventies gear and come come. I think it starts at
- 6:08six o'clock, so you can buy tickets separately for that. If you're not
- 6:11a golfer and and you know, Sleepy Hollow Golf Club is really nice.
- 6:15It's a private club though, so unless you go with a member or you
- 6:19have an event, you may not have the opportunity to play Sleepy Hollo Golf
- 6:24Club at least very often. So this is a good chance to get out
- 6:27and play the course. It scrambles formatt it's I think seven hundred and fifty
- 6:30dollars for a team so if you have four people don't want to play,
- 6:33you each put a couple hundred dollars in and come and play. But if
- 6:38you're interested, I'll look up the number here. I don't have it handy,
- 6:42but it's basically calling the Y and and I think they've got some slots
- 6:46left. So if anybody out there's lists and businesses, I actually think the
- 6:53number you can call three h four seven to five seven zero zero one six
- 7:00where you can go through Facebook. We have an event there, but it's
- 7:03going to be really good weather and it's gonna be a really nice day and
- 7:08I've tried to participate in it every year that we've we've had it, and
- 7:11so it's a it's a real fun time. Food and drinks are included,
- 7:15and then yeah, and every person on your team. So if you have
- 7:17four guys, for example, a lot of women golf in these days,
- 7:20but if you have four guys that are on the team or women, then
- 7:24you can bring your spouse. You get an extra ticket for the party that
- 7:28evening, which is not You'll have a DJ and food and drink included,
- 7:31Silent ox and that kind of thing on the patio behind, which is one
- 7:35of the best venues in the Try State, for if it's a nice evening
- 7:40weatherwise overlooking the golf course. So it's a great time, good opportunity,
- 7:45really good cause. So if you're out there listening, or maybe if you
- 7:47can't put a team in, you can do a whole sponsor or something that
- 7:51can probably whip up a sign to put out on the hole here even though
- 7:55it's you're in the deadline. But if anybody out there wants to play,
- 8:01give the Dumont Try County Y m c A a call and let's get some
- 8:05teams in there, because we are short by a couple of teams. And
- 8:07so this is again helping children during the summer I mean summer time. Any
- 8:13programs though, if you have a child, for example, if it costs
- 8:18x amount of dollars to participate in the flag football program or the basketball program
- 8:24or or something like that, then you know, we if if it appears
- 8:30that a child can't afford it or the parent and the parents got to put
- 8:33an application in so we can screen it out and make sure they qualify.
- 8:35But if they're indigent, then we're not going to turn them away. So
- 8:39this money essentially helps fill that gap in our revenue, right, man,
- 8:45revenue is tight because of all the competition that we've got just the way it
- 8:48is, and we we keep our dues reasonable as well for everyone. So
- 8:52they're considering all that you get out of the why our dudes are quite reasonable
- 8:58and competitive, can't You know? Some places are charging five or ten dollars
- 9:01a month to go work out. I guess at least for now. Sure
- 9:05they'll bump them up in the future once they get to that point. But
- 9:09you know, it's like in Taste Valley they got the oh, what is
- 9:13it, Planet Fitness or something. They're just right over there at Liberty Square
- 9:16or Putnam Village. So that's that's encroached towing our business a bit, but
- 9:22we're dealing with it. We're gonna overcome it, and we're just gonna improve
- 9:26our facility and what we offer and keep plowing on right, all right,
- 9:30you've heard it there from Tom and they just contact the y there in Taste
- 9:35Valley and get to fill those slots. It's a thirty one. This is
- 9:39five eight wchs. Tom Peyton's with US Payton Law Firm in Nitro. Our
- 9:43number and the lines are open. And a question is about the law three
- 9:46or four, three four or five fifty a fifty eight three oh four three
- 9:52four five fifty eight fifty eight. Yeah, so we're a little newspaper article
- 9:58here torn out about propelled by high prices, Americans holding onto their vehicles.
- 10:03That's something Larry Dawson talked about yesterday and I did the show yesterday and he
- 10:07left that for you too. He wanted, he wanted, I haven't no
- 10:13chance to read it. Was the tenor of it that you know, pre
- 10:15end vehicles are more expensive these days, yes, twenty average of twenty nine
- 10:18thousand dollars. Okay, So that's interesting because you know we you know,
- 10:26property damage cases when you have cars that are you know, we do.
- 10:31And you see all the ads from lawyers for if you've been seriously injured or
- 10:35somebody killed. Obviously that's the part of the case that is the meat of
- 10:39the case for the for the client usually and for the lawyers of course,
- 10:43um, because that's where, um, you have the most significant damages.
- 10:48But frankly, a lot of people that cost at the beginning when they have
- 10:50an injury, if it's not a catastrophic injury, but still significant, they're
- 10:56concerned about their car, and I've heard and you are a certain law that
- 11:00will sign people up. And then when they asked try and ask questions about
- 11:03what about my car? How do I get a rental? I would they
- 11:05just say, well, we don't handle that part of the case. And
- 11:07then they just I've had people then call me and try and get me to
- 11:11help, which I'll I'm nice, so I give them some tips. But
- 11:13it's like, you know, we I usually will facilitate the property damaged part
- 11:20of the claim if we handled the bodily injury part of your claim as well.
- 11:24And because it can be confusing, but so if you are in an
- 11:28automobile accident and your car's damaged, first of all, what is a total
- 11:33vehicle in West Virginia. So the regulations, I think in statute even says
- 11:39that if if the cost to repair your vehicle is seventy percent or more of
- 11:46the value of the vehicle prior to the wreck, so you take what was
- 11:50the fair market value of the vehicle prior to the wreck. So if you've
- 11:52got ten thousand dollars car and it's interrec and it costs seventy five hundred dollars
- 11:58to repair the vehicle, and it's going to be a total loss. So
- 12:03what are your options there? Well, of course you can sign the title
- 12:07over and you sign a power of attorney and the insurance company comes and gets
- 12:11the vehicle, and then they own it and they have to salvage it.
- 12:15It's either reissue with a salvage title or it's just demo somewhere and they give
- 12:20you a check, right, yes, what they have? Well, yeah,
- 12:24at some point. So then generally you are entitled to know if this
- 12:31all depends on whether somebody else calls the accident or whether it's just your fault
- 12:37or no one's fault, a single vehicle accident, a gear runs out in
- 12:39front of you or whatever. But if it's somebody else's fault, their insurance
- 12:45companies should be adjusting the claim and they should give you money or authorize a
- 12:50rental from the time essentially of the accident until they get you that check for
- 12:58your total loss. Now, a lot of people really like their car,
- 13:03and if you're if you're handy, or you're a mechanic, or you in
- 13:05cement a mechanic, you want to keep your car, it's tailed you have
- 13:07that option. You can tell the insurance company I want to retain that vehicle.
- 13:13And then what they do under the scenario I gave instead of getting,
- 13:16and what you're intitled to get is fair market value of your vehicle before the
- 13:20accident, plus five percent as far as the total loss amount. So and
- 13:26my scenario, let's just say it was ten thousand dollars, the insurance company
- 13:33will figure out some salvage value I forget. It's usually some really small percent
- 13:37of the fair market value, seven percent or five percent. And so then
- 13:41when they if you want to keep the vehicle, you can you can go,
- 13:45but you got to go get it. I'll tell you are you're gonna
- 13:48go run up storage fees. Then they'll just deduct the salvage value from your
- 13:54total loss payment. So if you got a thousand dollars so IgE value,
- 14:00then you're only going to get nine thousand dollars from the insurance company settlement.
- 14:03But eventually you'll get your car back. Now it will have a salvage title,
- 14:09so you know that's noted on the title that the car has basically been
- 14:11totaled in the past. So if you do that, you're going to have
- 14:16trouble ever selling it to anybody else. But if you think you can fix
- 14:20it, for example, and get it roadworthy and pass inspection, and you
- 14:22like your car, you do have the option of keeping your vehicle. Doesn't
- 14:28happen very often, but I've had it happened a number of times over the
- 14:31years, so that occurs. But back to what Larry was talking about,
- 14:37and so normally people are really upset when they have a total loss because a
- 14:41lot of people like their car. Maybe they've owned it since it was new,
- 14:46or they've taken really good care of it, and it might be a
- 14:48little bit older, but it's their car. So they aren't happy when you
- 14:54tell them what fair market value is and they might have to go out and
- 14:56now borrow money to purchase another car, and when they did, had this
- 15:01one paid off. But that's not you're not entitled to compensation really for the
- 15:07fact you may have to borrow money to get a new car, because the
- 15:11ideas you're, well, you're getting a new car and you're getting what you
- 15:13pay for night hopefully you can use the money that came in from your total
- 15:16loss to pay a down payment or something. But people aren't happy with you
- 15:22know, the fact that somebody else calls this accident and now all I'm getting
- 15:26is right. Yeah, you get an older car, you want to get
- 15:28four grand for it. Now, what I've seen over the last really since
- 15:33the pandemic, very unusual folks are getting I guess the best example is you've
- 15:41got a fairly new vehicle that's a couple of years old, two, three,
- 15:46four years old. I've had a few cases where my clients have had
- 15:50total losses and the fair market value payment, even before you had the five
- 15:56percent, is they're getting paid for their total loss more than they paid for
- 15:58the brand new vehicle. When we get back this, okay, take a
- 16:02call. Okay, yeah, okay. Bart is on the line with Tom
- 16:04Peyton. Bart, thank you, you're in the air. Go ahead.
- 16:07Hey, mister Peyton, I may have this is a bad connection. I
- 16:14can't. I can't do that. I'm sorry. I'll try to call back.
- 16:18Okay. You sounds okay to us. Yeah, you're clear on our
- 16:21end. Okay, all right. So if he calls back, all right,
- 16:23so wow, okay, so say that again, that last statement again.
- 16:27So like, for example, I have a client that had a Tesla.
- 16:32It's a little bit different because electric cars are getting more popular. But
- 16:36let's say they paid and this is not real numbers, but their car was
- 16:41totaled and it was clearly the other person's fault. In fact, if you
- 16:44do have a Tesla, and now I don't know about other vehicles, but
- 16:45you know there's black box data and a lot of vehicles, but you got
- 16:48to have an expert go download it. And it doesn't Tesla's have cameras all
- 16:53over him. So in this particular case, it was a traffic light somebody,
- 16:59somebody ran a red light, but it was my client or the other
- 17:02person. And I've had those cases where it's he said. She said,
- 17:04right, Well, the good thing about the Tesla, when there's a crash
- 17:07event, it records like twenty seconds back or something. All cameras on all
- 17:12sides. There's even one that points inside the cab or the passenger compartment,
- 17:18but you can turn that off for privacy reasons. I didn't see that in
- 17:21this scenario, but you can see this particular person driving straight, light is
- 17:26green, never turns yellow and then wham hit by the other person. So
- 17:30solve that controversy if the other driver is going to claim they had a green
- 17:33light, Now unless the traffic light green both ways, which rarely have ever
- 17:38had right, So we're gonna go back to Barny. We got Bart again.
- 17:41Yeah, we could hear you Bart clear on our end. Yeah,
- 17:42go ahead, Bart, go ahead, bark yes or what I speak.
- 17:47I was out here as an echo. But anyway, mister Payton, this
- 17:52may be a taboo question for you. Recently, I m I'll just say
- 17:57I had hired a well known divorce attorney here in the valley and I just
- 18:03left to put that and halfway through the divorce, the attorney of representing me
- 18:08they either left a firm h either voluntarily or anyway. I didn't have a
- 18:15lawyer, so the lawyer that replaced this lawyer and left. They said they
- 18:22had no records of my financial statements and whatnot, so I had to supply
- 18:27all them again. And then they doubled. They charged me once again for
- 18:32all the financial um as they went over the records to determine this and that
- 18:40and that. So my so the bill essentially doubled, and I just thought,
- 18:48who who would you report? Who would you contact about an attorney you
- 18:52think that may have overcharged you or what happened? Is there or is there
- 18:56an avenue for that? Yes to us? For me? Yes, can
- 19:00you hear me. Okay, yeah, okay, So there is an avenue
- 19:04for that. You can contact the state Bar. I think it's through the
- 19:07State Bar. Versus there's a Lawyer Dismay Accountcil, which is the kind of
- 19:12ethics overseer for lawyers on ethics issues. But I believe it's through the State
- 19:15Bar we have which I'm on the board of the State Bar now and I've
- 19:19dealt something with this issue. But there's a there's a legal dispute type of
- 19:27you can file a complaint if you have a legal fee dispute, and the
- 19:32state Bar will then refer it out like Dad's done a couple of them for
- 19:36the state Bar. They'll he'll he volunteers to do it, and so if
- 19:38there's a fee dispute, they'll send it to him and he'll try and yeah,
- 19:42come up with a resolution between the lawyer and the former client. So
- 19:47yeah, contact the state bar. And then if you think you've been overcharged
- 19:52or you didn't get paid you know, in that sneer, I'm not sure,
- 19:56I mean, whether it would be an issue with your former lawyer or
- 20:00the versus the lawyers that you continued with. I understand what you're saying.
- 20:03Because when a divorce case starts out, you got to fut to even get
- 20:07started. You have to fill out a financial statement that's pretty detailed. You
- 20:11might have to fill out a parenting plan and stuff like that and stuff you've
- 20:14got to and it's a decent amount of work. So if you have to
- 20:15go back and rework all that, then uh, certainly, you know,
- 20:21I guess the new lawyers think, well, we got to go and spend
- 20:22our time on it. But you know what happened with well, this was
- 20:26a lawyer through the same firm. Okay, yeah, yeah, don't that's
- 20:30not great. You know, I'd like to think they would accommodated you if
- 20:33they I mean, unless they're saying we don't have evidence that there was ever
- 20:37any work done. But they did. They did say that, And then
- 20:41as I was going back through my old emails, I had found where I
- 20:45had set them all the financial statements that they had. So yeah, I
- 20:49mean, I'm not the lawyer on that one, so I can't really comment
- 20:52on the on the details, and uh, I would like, you know,
- 20:55i'd like to think you'd have some accommodation there. But if you want
- 20:59to dispute the fee, contact the state bar and then they probably have you
- 21:07have to fill out some kind of form and then I believe the process then
- 21:11as if there's any legitimacy to it at all, they'll refer it out to
- 21:15an independent attorney who's agreed to take a look at it and see if there's
- 21:19some way to resolve the fee dispute. And sometimes there's just you know,
- 21:25it can be more of a mediation where not technically, but it's you know,
- 21:30trying to work out the differences and get something resolved. But yeah,
- 21:33that's I mean, you can also, I mean just follow lawsuit and say,
- 21:37well, you know, they overcharge me or something, or I didn't
- 21:40get what I paid for, But that's not then you got to pay money
- 21:44yourself, and you're fighting an uphill battle because of course the lawyers can represent
- 21:47themselves and uh, but yeah, that's the whole point of the mechanism there
- 21:51is to and if you've got a lawyer that's been disbarred or something, there's
- 21:55even a small fund to help recoup some fees if if somebody's you know,
- 22:00if laws has run off or gone a wall or something. But yeah,
- 22:03if they're still around and they can be reached, then that's a good way
- 22:08to do it. Contact the state bar and tell him you have a fee
- 22:12dispute, and then there is an administrative mechanism to try and resolve that for
- 22:17you. Okay, Bart, Well do you think it? Do you think
- 22:19it would be a good practice In the meantime, if I go ahead and
- 22:23pay the remainder of the bill before I file my complaint or launched, or
- 22:27I ask for an investigation or what app Um, I don't know. It
- 22:30depends are they still representing you? Are they still representing you? I mean,
- 22:37that's you're gonna get in the You're gonna get in the now. Once
- 22:40a lawyers in a case, they can't just bail out of it, like
- 22:42if it's a case that's going on, You've got to get permission from the
- 22:45court to be able to withdraw as a lawyer in a pending case like a
- 22:48divorce case, until you get to some stopping point like there's a final order
- 22:52or something. So but yeah, when my our lawyer left the case,
- 22:57I didn't even know it until my act or now x Calby, I guess
- 23:02her lawyer knew before my I did. Well, yeah, they probably fought
- 23:06he probably felt he or she probably felt a motion to withdraw his counsel or
- 23:10if it's the same from handle. Sometimes they can just substitute in the new
- 23:12lawyer of record. But that's unfortunate. It sounds like a lack of communication.
- 23:18I always try, especially in divorce cases, to make sure my clients
- 23:22are well aware of what's going on, because it's not that great when you're
- 23:27soon to be ex spouse is letting you know what's going on in your case
- 23:32before your lawyer tells you. And I've had that happened in the past sometimes
- 23:36when there's been some ex party things filing on their side and they don't tell
- 23:38me, and I explained to the client where they didn't tell me it was
- 23:41going on, and then I have to address that with the other attorney.
- 23:45But in any event, I can't really tell you whether to I mean,
- 23:48if they did the work and you owe the build, then I will I
- 23:52will say this. I don't think that. I don't think depending on what
- 23:59they're build language looks like that paying it to so they won't come out to
- 24:03you for the fee or paying it so they'll continue represent you. I don't
- 24:07think that prejudice is your right to still move forward with your feet dispute,
- 24:12you might notify them when you pay it that you know, I still have
- 24:15a dispute because of that other issue, and I reserve my right to dispute
- 24:21that to make sure it's not considered. You agree with everything that's happened in
- 24:26relation to the fee, But so, I mean, that's all I can
- 24:30really say on that without doing a complete analysis. Thank you Bart, Thank
- 24:36you Glad, Glad Tom could help. It's eight forty six. We're gonna
- 24:38take a break, and the lines are open. Three or four three four
- 24:41five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty
- 24:47eight. Tom Peyton at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro is with us.
- 24:49Lines are open three or four three four five fifty a fifty eight Back in
- 24:52a moment oh five eighty wuhs. If you want a lawyer who has no
- 24:56nonsense, hard working and equipped with years of successful experience, you want the
- 25:02Peyton Law Firm. Let Tom and Harvey put the power of Peyton to work
- 25:06for you. If someone has injured you or a family member, contact the
- 25:10Peyton Law Firm before it's too late. Stay ahead of the game by calling
- 25:12Peyton Law Firm three oh four seven five five fifty five fifty six or online
- 25:18at Peyton Law Firm dot com. Again, the number to call is three
- 25:22oh four seven five five fifty five fifty six. Hi, everyone, this
- 25:26is Danny Jones here to tell you that if you're looking for a place to
- 25:30buy or sell a vehicle, stop into Larry Dawson's at six. Personally,
- 25:33I've known Larry for over forty years and have bought multiple cars from him.
- 25:37Even if you sight unseen and have been pleased with everyone, there's some of
- 25:41the best people in the business and you can trust Larry and the crew to
- 25:45get you in the ride that you desire. I did visit Larry Dawsons dot
- 25:49com or go to four eighteen First Avenue, pen Larry Dawson's place to go
- 25:53is in Nitro. Put the boer Peyton on the side. We have the
- 26:02courtroom experience of such a need. We never give up. We prepared to
- 26:08fight for your rights. When you need action, count on us the power
- 26:18of Peyton on your side. It's the power of Paton. It's a forty
- 26:25eight on five eighths the voice of Charleston Jeff Jenkins with Tom Peyton and the
- 26:30Peyton Law Firm in night troph it's Thursday morning. That means the Peyton Law
- 26:33Firm is here, and Thomas here and Don is on the line. Don's
- 26:37called in to ask Tom a question. Don, go ahead, good morning,
- 26:41you're on the air. Ahead, Good morning, Tom, Good morning
- 26:42gone. Just a quick question. First, squatter's right? Whoever come up
- 26:47with this? I don't understand it at all? But anyway, my question
- 26:52is we've had squatters and we've served the eviction notice. We went to the
- 26:56magistrate, got the eviction notice, they served it, and now we're wa't
- 27:00want to judge to sign off before we can do anything. But in the
- 27:03meantime, the two squatters have been incarcerated. Now what can I do with
- 27:08their belongings and their two pit bulls that they left? Okay, so there's
- 27:15a lot to unwrap it there. So first of all, you got I
- 27:18don't think you're so. There's adverse possession, which some people talk about squatters
- 27:22rights. That's where somebody's using property that by deed on paper is owned by
- 27:29somebody else, and they occupy it for ten years or more without any agreement,
- 27:33almost like their trespassers. But nobody files a lawsuit to remove them,
- 27:37and then they can gain ownership with a property that way. That's very complicated.
- 27:41Had a case like that I talked about a few weeks ago. It
- 27:42went all the way to a jury trial. I think what you're talking about,
- 27:47and that's you can't have an agreement, so like a tenant can never
- 27:49become owner adverse possession. I think what you're talking about is like and it's
- 27:56the laws. It's a little gray, but I mean, you let somebody
- 28:00move in property without any agreement. That so there's two ways to get somebody
- 28:03out of a piece of property that's moved in initially by agreement or consent,
- 28:08even implied consent. Then you can if you have a kind of a formal
- 28:14lease, then you file what's called a petition for wrongful occupation of residential rental
- 28:18property. That's the conventional eviction process. And of course you filed a magistrict
- 28:25chord as long as you're not asking for back rent and excess of ten grains.
- 28:27There was no rent okay, so and never no formal or even verbal
- 28:33lease agreement. Then you got to file a different form basically called unlawful detainer
- 28:38in magistrate court and I've learned you got to do one or the other because
- 28:42I've had a magistrate try and claim I filed the quote form that was wrongful
- 28:47occupation and residential rental property when I should have filed the other forum, and
- 28:49then she dismissed my eviction. But I appealed it and got it reversed because
- 28:56you know, it's just semantics. It's just two different forms, and it's
- 28:59the same process. You're gonna make sure if you depends on what's counting,
- 29:02you're in. But you want to foul the quote unlawful detainer complaint if there
- 29:04was never any real lease agreement, and then the magistrate will handle it,
- 29:10and then we're not having no luck there. We've done did all the stuff
- 29:14through the magistrate and then they were supposed to wait for a judge to sign
- 29:17off, and they had done been served before they were incarcerated. Well,
- 29:21you serve them with the I mean, it's a it's a lawsuit, it's
- 29:23just a summary preceding men. You get a real quick hearing compared to other
- 29:26lawsuits that might drag out for a year. So you serve them with the
- 29:30unlawful detainer complaint. The sheriff serves them. It's not eviction notice. I
- 29:34mean it's a you should have already notified them to get out informally before then
- 29:38you didn't have away, Okay. So then they get served with a lawsuit
- 29:42which says, hey, unlawful detainer is essentially like I've asked these folks that
- 29:48are living on my property. I've asked them to leave. They won't leave
- 29:52or unlawfully detaining my property, and so you serve them with that. They
- 29:55can find answer or they can show up at court. I think they could
- 29:57even ask for a jury trialing or some circum stances. And then these people
- 30:02would just they wouldn't do nothing like that. They just okay. But then
- 30:06you get to the point where if they don't show up, you win by
- 30:07default, probably because they never appeared. Assuming you know what you're claiming is
- 30:12the least bit plausible, then the magistrate will enter an order. It's a
- 30:17little form order saying that you're granted possession in ten days or something like that,
- 30:22and you get a rid of possession later and the sheriff can come and
- 30:25remove them from the property. Now, I don't know why you're waiting for
- 30:27a judge if it's different than a magistrate. That sounds like somebody may have
- 30:32appealed or something, because it really should. There was no no appeal,
- 30:34but we've talked to the magistrate got a office several times that they said it
- 30:38was waiting for a judge to sign off, which well, I'm not understand.
- 30:42And then what there's a there's a there's a disconnect there because now you
- 30:47can call magistrates judges, and in federal system they're magistrate judges, but it's
- 30:51different like most magistrates in like them are not lawyers in West Virginia. It
- 30:56doesn't mean they're not qualified, but they have power to sign the rid of
- 30:59possession and you have the sheriff go remove folks. Now if they're already left
- 31:03the property, you just want to get an order giving you possession just to
- 31:07protect yourself. Then you can go in and well that's it. It depends.
- 31:14First of all, if you've got animals there that I mean, I
- 31:18don't know you called a humane officer. If you got pit bulls in there,
- 31:21we don't know who's taken care of them. If nobody's in there,
- 31:22you need to call it. We've already called them like five times. Well
- 31:27I don't have called them, and yeah, nobody's can take them. I
- 31:32mean, can you get them and just take them to the human you know,
- 31:34I don't know. I'm not no, I'm not going to get around
- 31:37but all right, well, I mean I don't I don't want to.
- 31:40I mean there's options there. Probably, you know, we need to discuss
- 31:42a little more detail. I didn't mean you talk about Bannon personal property.
- 31:45It all depends on its value. How you do it. I mean there's
- 31:48some there's some. If you know, if you have high value items like
- 31:53there's nothing like that, well then I don't know, right, so you
- 31:57have to make a decision based on reasonable that's like do you I mean,
- 32:04if you have something has any decent value, you've got some duties to store
- 32:07it and give them notice and give them time to get it. And then
- 32:09maybe even if you can't afford to storey anymore, even sell it and retain
- 32:13the money somewhere and give them so much time to come back after it.
- 32:16Then you can you set it to unclaimed property with the States and then they
- 32:22can come out and get it later. If you're talking about some clothes and
- 32:24stuff, I'd probably have a different opinion, But you know, okay,
- 32:29it just it just depends. But I don't know what you do about that.
- 32:31I mean, you know, you got host feeding the dogs. I
- 32:36mean, there's nobody in there, and I don't know why. It's gonna
- 32:37be animal cruelty at some point. Well the animals are outside chained up.
- 32:43Well that's not even better. You know it's gonna get hot. Yeah,
- 32:46yeah. Let me let me ask you this. Let me ask you this
- 32:50real quick. How does this happen in the first place? If you don't
- 32:52mind me asking how, I don't mind that. Okay, My wife's mother
- 32:57passed and now she's executive of the property, and they let the sister move
- 33:04in just because she had no place off to stay. Well, in the
- 33:07meantime, her daughter and her wife come down from Pennsylvania to stay just for
- 33:14a few days. Well, they got in there and they would never leave,
- 33:19and they were they were abusing the parents, and they were tearing up
- 33:22the place, busting up windows, and they won't leave. But now they're
- 33:29incarcerated, and I don't know what to do with their belongings. All right,
- 33:32if you want to call me at the office, we can. I
- 33:35can give a little more direction, probably better off the radio. And then
- 33:38um, well, that's a real comments that's an unlawful to tunor situation.
- 33:43You let somebody move in just gratuitously, but once they're in there for it,
- 33:49you know, you can't get the sheriff just to remove them as trespassers
- 33:52because they got their belongings in there and they've made it kind of a residence.
- 33:54So then you got to go through courts. There's that line between.
- 33:58You know, if somebody just comes in your property, you call the sheriff.
- 34:00If they won't leave, that's a trespassing and they'll either be trudge criminally
- 34:04or the sheriff will tell them to get out or make them get off.
- 34:06But once people have kind of set up shop, I guess you would say
- 34:10residents almost, then you got to basically go through the court system at that
- 34:14point, and it can become them. Then then you're lucky at it and
- 34:16shut because if they show up and say, well, Mama will promise that
- 34:21I would own this or something. Once you have ownership issues, even ones
- 34:24that I view as frivolous claims and the matter just don't have jurisdiction anymore,
- 34:29then you get bumped up to circuit court, where it's not forms to do
- 34:31things. And you know, if you need a lawyer, who's gonna cost
- 34:34your money. So you just gotta be real careful about, you know,
- 34:37letting people move in like that. That's gonna continue to happen because everybody's nice.
- 34:43You want to accommodate folks. You just gotta be better off get now
- 34:45if you have. If you're in that situation and even a family member,
- 34:49a friend wants to move in, you're better off putting something in writing to
- 34:51formalize it. That way, they're always just a tenant, and if you
- 34:55have to remove them, it's clear that they're not. It's not some least
- 34:59to own and it's not some ownership, right, you know. I guess
- 35:01the big the big news on that front, and a whole different thank you
- 35:07deal is the Tiger Woods thing going on right now. Yeah, where his
- 35:08girlfriend is is suing him for thirty million dollars saying that because they broke up,
- 35:14right, I guess ex girlfriend right, So now he's being sued by
- 35:16her saying, well, he promised that I could live there for at least
- 35:21eleven years or something. She only made it five. So she wants thirty
- 35:23million dollars, which would be the cost to rent the same thirty thousand square
- 35:27foot home somewhere else. So interesting, So with don give Tom mccault the
- 35:34office seventy five five fifty five fifty six, right three or four seven fifty
- 35:37five fifty six, we can spend a few minutes. I can give you
- 35:39some guidance on the property. It's it's just very factual dependent. And then
- 35:45dogs just got a practical issue. I mean, I guess eventually the humane
- 35:49officer would have to come and put both fans out there. They just have
- 35:52you know, there's a there's a there's a sec that of folks that really
- 35:55adore pit bulls, and uh, I'm sure if you put something on Facebook
- 35:59you would have somebody come willing to help with those dogs. We got a
- 36:02minute left here, time, Hey, all right, So anyway, I
- 36:06was I was talking about the Tesla story earlier, but take out a little
- 36:08bit further. So let's say that person bought their Tesla for thirty five thousand
- 36:12dollars. A year and a half later, it gets totalled, insurance companies
- 36:16paying them fifty thousand dollars for the car. Now, never in my career,
- 36:21and I'd had that even with non Tesla's pre owned vehicles like that are
- 36:22getting high prices that I know what Larry's talking about here on high value,
- 36:28and so it's just weird. For the first twenty years of my practice,
- 36:31I never saw that you're getting paid much less. You know, minute you
- 36:36drive a car off a lot, it's worth less than it was when you
- 36:38just bought it new. Well, it hasn't been the same case with all
- 36:42vehicles over the last two or three years, so it's kind of interesting to
- 36:45see how that shifted. But yeah, if you have an issue, legal
- 36:47issue, and you didn't get a chance to call the radio, or you
- 36:50get somebody particularly hurt in an automobile accident, or you're fighting an insurance company
- 36:54on a claim, then give us a call at the office three or four,
- 37:00five, five, five six. You can always stop by and we'll
- 37:02help if we can. Twenty to one First Avenue, and then our website's
- 37:07a great place to go Peyton Lawfirm dot com. It's p E Y T
- 37:10O N and you can submit an email right through there and it goes right
- 37:14to me and two Dad's computer and we'll respond personally. Okay, Tom,
- 37:17good to see you you two Okay, don't forget the fundraiser for the y
- 37:21down in Putnam County. Contact them if you want to get it. Yeah,
- 37:23contact us now. We got a few spots left. Sleepy Hall is
- 37:27a great venue. Okay, all right, ABC News is next. This
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