Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 12/31/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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12/31/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Speaker 1: Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
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Speaker 1: the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
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Speaker 1: residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
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Speaker 1: Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
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Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
0:18
Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wcchs
0:22
Speaker 2: it's employees or WVRC Media.
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Speaker 3: Our courts oh created equal.
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Speaker 2: When mass come here to Kadon, I can rope.
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Speaker 4: And very pleasant Wednesday morning to you. You can put
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Speaker 4: the power of Paton on your side this morning as
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Speaker 4: we get ready to chug forward to twenty twenty six,
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Speaker 4: a special edition of I asked the lawyer with the
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Speaker 4: Peyton Law Firm, and Tom Peyton is in studio with
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Speaker 4: us this morning, Tom tod morning, how you doing this?
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Speaker 3: We're glad to be here. Hopefully nobody was waiting around here.
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Speaker 3: Larry Dawson talk about cars going to be batterly disappointed.
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Speaker 4: Larry will be on in two weeks and two weeks
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Speaker 4: we'll be a week from next Wednesday.
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Speaker 3: Good and Larry's one of my friends. He certainly defer
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Speaker 3: to him on all matters related to automobiles. No glad
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Speaker 3: to be here. Of course we're usually on Thursdays. Little
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Speaker 3: feels a little odd to be here on a Wednesday.
1:27
Speaker 3: But I was listening last week on Christmas Eve, and
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Speaker 3: of course Christmas hit on Thursday, and now New Year's
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Speaker 3: Day hits on Thursday. So we're not going to be
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Speaker 3: doing the show then. But there wasn't There wasn't an
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Speaker 3: ask the expert last week. So I just thought, well,
1:40
Speaker 3: if it's open to day, I'll come and bug the
1:42
Speaker 3: guys at the radio and maybe we'll have some listeners
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Speaker 3: out there, might have the day off or an opportunity
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Speaker 3: to listen, maybe get a little different audience on a Wednesday.
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Speaker 3: Probably not, but you never know.
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Speaker 4: Well, Holiday Wednesday, there's a couple of factors that go
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Speaker 4: in there, you know. And you know, you guys are
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Speaker 4: always have the Thursday of Thanksgiving off for the most
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Speaker 4: part because of the holly. They it wouldn't be right
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Speaker 4: to have yet another Thursday off. So yeah, we had
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Speaker 4: to correct the home.
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Speaker 3: We'll probably have some starving listeners out there. Exactly, there's
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Speaker 3: going to be three weeks before they get to hear
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Speaker 3: us talk again. But no, I enjoy doing it. So
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Speaker 3: I mean it's advertising, we pay for it, but I
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Speaker 3: think we do you know, serves the public sometimes if
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Speaker 3: folks listen in or absolutely gives them an opportunity to
2:22
Speaker 3: you know, we answer basic questions via email and phone calls,
2:26
Speaker 3: but it does get busy with litigation at the office,
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Speaker 3: so sometimes we can't get it things responded to that
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Speaker 3: aren't current clients as timely as we would like. But
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Speaker 3: this gives you an opportunity. If you got a burning
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Speaker 3: legal question, just maybe need some gentle information, you can
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Speaker 3: give us a call or send us the text. What
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Speaker 3: do we have the number that they can call in
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Speaker 3: if they for today?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, give us call threes or four three four
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Speaker 4: five fifty fifty eight three four five fifty to fifteen
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Speaker 4: if it's a call this morning. If you want text
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Speaker 4: over a question, you can do that as well. But man,
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Speaker 4: if you're not doing anything else to day, call us,
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Speaker 4: that's okay, you can do that. Threes are A four
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Speaker 4: three four five fifty to fifty. The text line number
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Speaker 4: is threes are four nine three five five zewers are
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Speaker 4: three zre a four non three five five zero zero
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Speaker 4: eight if you want to text us this morning.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so glad to be here. The really locally a
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Speaker 3: whole lot thing I saw in the in the local
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Speaker 3: headlines lately. Unfortunately it's had a really bad domestic violence
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Speaker 3: incident where a man shot his wife and she died.
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Speaker 3: And I think they had the preliminary hearing maybe this week.
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Speaker 3: Uh so that's I believe going up to the circuit
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Speaker 3: court now charged with murder. Terrible. I did see. I
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Speaker 3: think Jeff Jenkins here did a little article with somebody
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Speaker 3: from the maybe the Domestic Violence Coalition or an advocate
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Speaker 3: with the y w c A and and and the
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Speaker 3: title of the article was it didn't have to happen,
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Speaker 3: And it was sort of a layoff one to the
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Speaker 3: partly the judicial system about how they handle themestic violence
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Speaker 3: type issues. And and of course there's always more that
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Speaker 3: can be done. But and it was some talk about
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Speaker 3: well if we could have in some counties domestic violence
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Speaker 3: victims can appear remotely and that's the idea is that
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Speaker 3: that will help more victims report and follow through with
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Speaker 3: their cases of domestic violence. That may be the case.
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Speaker 3: I've done a lot of domestics over the years don't
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Speaker 3: do as many now. The we do do a little
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Speaker 3: work for legal aid. So legal aid is the if
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Speaker 3: you have a civil case, which a domestic violence protective
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Speaker 3: order case is, then on either side gets appointed counsel.
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Speaker 3: There's no threat of jail time. You don't have a
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Speaker 3: constitutional right to counsel when there's no threat of jail time.
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Speaker 3: But if you can't afford a lawyer in a domestic
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Speaker 3: case and you're a victim, you can conduct West Virginia
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Speaker 3: Legal Aid. And that's that's a service that's no charge
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Speaker 3: to the client if you qualify, and then they have
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Speaker 3: lawyers internally that will represent them. And that legal aid's
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Speaker 3: funded by donations, it's funded by some of the fees
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Speaker 3: that lawyers pay through the state bar, and then it's
5:29
Speaker 3: filtered through to legal Aid. I know Charleston has a location.
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Speaker 3: I think they're spread throughout the state. But I, you know,
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Speaker 3: just to help because I know how to do it.
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Speaker 3: I volunteer if they are overbooked and there's a case
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Speaker 3: pending in Putnam County or Lincoln. Sometimes they'll call on
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Speaker 3: me and see if I'm willing to handle a case
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Speaker 3: for legal aid, and you just do it pro bono
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Speaker 3: and and so I do get involved in some domestic
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Speaker 3: cases like that. But what I really thought, over my
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Speaker 3: twenty some years of doing this, there are certain psychological
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Speaker 3: underlays of victims of long term domestic violence that I
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Speaker 3: don't think it's I don't know if I would say
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Speaker 3: it's not the court system's job. But it's also a
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Speaker 3: very difficult dynamic to ever overcome in a court system
6:26
Speaker 3: versus some other type of social service. But I think
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Speaker 3: what I can speak to is the court system because
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Speaker 3: I've been involved in it. And if you're out there
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Speaker 3: and you are a victim of domestic violence in some form,
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Speaker 3: and it doesn't have to be physical, it can be
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Speaker 3: a threat of physical or other behavior that would put
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Speaker 3: a reasonable person in fear for their safety. There are
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Speaker 3: mechanisms in the court system now for help where you
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Speaker 3: can get out of a home or away from the perpetrator,
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Speaker 3: even for a short period of time. Call nine one one,
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Speaker 3: and there is an expart a process through magistrates where
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Speaker 3: you can go the other person's not even told about it.
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Speaker 3: The perpetrator and the magistrate will hear what you have
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Speaker 3: to say, and if they say, well that's not enough
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Speaker 3: for domestic violence, I just deny it, and nobody should
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Speaker 3: know you were ever at the courthouse to handle it.
7:26
Speaker 3: And generally there's a manis there's supposed to be a
7:28
Speaker 3: master don't call in every county twenty four hours for
7:31
Speaker 3: emergencies like that. They rotate so that somebody is always
7:35
Speaker 3: on call. But when you go through that process, if
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Speaker 3: what you write down and then swear to from the
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Speaker 3: magistrate is sufficient for a civil domestic violence protective what
7:48
Speaker 3: are not a criminal case? Criminals different that has to
7:50
Speaker 3: be prosecuted by law enforcement ultimately with the assistance of
7:55
Speaker 3: the victim. But on a civil case, it you know,
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Speaker 3: the conduct doesn't have to be as severe as would
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Speaker 3: be necessary to constitute a crime. So there's you know, well,
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Speaker 3: it's not going to be he didn't do enough or
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Speaker 3: she didn't do enough to be real domestic violence because
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Speaker 3: they didn't hit me or something like that. That's not
8:13
Speaker 3: it's very broad description. If there's a family or household
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Speaker 3: member that's behaving in a way that would put a
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Speaker 3: reasonable person in fear for their safety, and family and
8:25
Speaker 3: household members also described in that statue very very broadly.
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Speaker 3: Dating formerly dating. I mean, it's such a anybody you
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Speaker 3: would conceive that could be considered reasonably as a family
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Speaker 3: member is pretty much defined as one in that statue.
8:41
Speaker 3: So don't be too concerned that it's a you're not
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Speaker 3: married to them, so it's not domestic, or you weren't married.
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Speaker 3: You know, all that will be worked up by the magistrate.
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Speaker 3: But you go there. Ex party X party is just
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Speaker 3: legal term for one side of the others. The opponent,
8:56
Speaker 3: so to speak, is not there, and you fill out
8:59
Speaker 3: a petition, the master finds that it's sufficient, right, then
9:03
Speaker 3: they'll send the sheriff out to serve the person. And
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Speaker 3: it's a restraining order. Keeps them from having contact, keep
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Speaker 3: them from having possession of firearms. It can award custody
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Speaker 3: of children. It can remove them from the home and
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Speaker 3: prohibit them from coming back. So a victim could wait
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Speaker 3: with law enforcement somewhere or a victim's advocate while law
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Speaker 3: enforcement goes and serves this restraining order, and they'll give
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Speaker 3: the person minutes usually, but the perpetray will be forced
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Speaker 3: to pack up their personal things and leave and go
9:42
Speaker 3: somewhere else and don't come back. And so that now
9:46
Speaker 3: then obviously they've got a right to be heard, because
9:50
Speaker 3: they haven't had their side of the story told, so
9:54
Speaker 3: then there's a hearing and follow up. Usually it's supposed
9:56
Speaker 3: to be what it's supposed to be within ten business
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Speaker 3: days of that magestic court ruling, and that's up in
10:00
Speaker 3: the or over in the family court, and then you
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Speaker 3: go and testify. But and that's where you might want
10:08
Speaker 3: to hire a lawyer if you have one, or you
10:10
Speaker 3: can afford one, or not call legal aid. But those
10:16
Speaker 3: you know, for lawyers that it's easy for me to
10:19
Speaker 3: say because I've been doing it a long time, But
10:21
Speaker 3: those hearings usually are you know, when they're conducted by
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Speaker 3: the family court, it's it's not as formal as like
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Speaker 3: you see a jury trial or that kind of thing. Normally,
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Speaker 3: you just kind of you tell what happened to you
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Speaker 3: and you can be cross examined if the other person
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Speaker 3: has a lawyer, if they want to ask you some
10:38
Speaker 3: questions and vice versa. But my experience has been if
10:43
Speaker 3: if there's evidence of some domestic violence as described in
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Speaker 3: the statue, then the judges will grant them and then
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Speaker 3: that restraining order stays in place for normally one hundred
10:55
Speaker 3: and eighty days, and then it can be automatically extended
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Speaker 3: a little bit longer, but that's it's pretty easy, at
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Speaker 3: least functionally to go get help if you're a victim
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Speaker 3: of domestic violence in West Virginia, and then there's always
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Speaker 3: more that can be done. But I think, you know,
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Speaker 3: I thought say it didn't have to happen in this
11:19
Speaker 3: particular case, and sort of put some blame or fault
11:22
Speaker 3: on the court system. I thought was a bit unfair
11:25
Speaker 3: there in this situation. And I only know what I
11:28
Speaker 3: read in the headlines and the news articles. But apparently
11:33
Speaker 3: they'd been to court in twenty twenty one because there'd
11:37
Speaker 3: been a gun displayed by the husband. I don't know
11:39
Speaker 3: what happened with that case. Then he was charged with
11:43
Speaker 3: domestic violence criminal I think last spring, and they'd served
11:48
Speaker 3: him with the warrant not too long ago. And I
11:52
Speaker 3: believe it's mandated by statute when bond is set for
11:55
Speaker 3: a person charged with domestic violence. Of course, the personal
12:01
Speaker 3: recognisance was where you sign your name saying if I
12:03
Speaker 3: don't show up, I owe X amount of dollars, but
12:05
Speaker 3: you swear you'll come back, or you post some money
12:08
Speaker 3: that you'll abide by the terms of your bond. But
12:10
Speaker 3: in domestic violence cases I believe it's mandated for the
12:14
Speaker 3: magistrate to check a box. And one of the conditions
12:17
Speaker 3: of your bond is to have no direct or indirect
12:20
Speaker 3: contact with the victim, so that he was on that bond,
12:24
Speaker 3: this this person, but somehow they're back in the house
12:31
Speaker 3: together and hanging out with each other. And it just
12:36
Speaker 3: made you know whether the wife should have been notified
12:42
Speaker 3: of that provision or could have obviously inquired about it.
12:45
Speaker 3: I know in Putnam County we through the prosecutor's office
12:48
Speaker 3: and in the sheriff's office, they have a pretty active
12:51
Speaker 3: victims kind of liaison type folks that are employed just
12:58
Speaker 3: for that reason, and they do a good job, don't
13:00
Speaker 3: This was Kenall County and I don't I don't know.
13:02
Speaker 3: It's a bigger county. It can be a little bit different.
13:04
Speaker 3: But at the same time, you know, if he was
13:10
Speaker 3: near her, one call to the sheriff saying no, this
13:15
Speaker 3: he's got he's on bond and he's near me, they
13:16
Speaker 3: would likely come arrest him and revoke his bond and
13:20
Speaker 3: he would spend some time in jail, or his bond
13:22
Speaker 3: conditions would be modified somehow to alter his behavior. Now,
13:25
Speaker 3: this may have been one of those cases where there's
13:28
Speaker 3: just a long term bad relationship that involves domestic violence
13:34
Speaker 3: and it just becomes like an echo chamber and it's
13:37
Speaker 3: hard to get victims out of that situation.
13:41
Speaker 4: Sometimes that's that's where the law works so well with
13:44
Speaker 4: other advocacy groups, like what we were talking about, because
13:47
Speaker 4: what you need to do is break the cycle of
13:48
Speaker 4: abuse there. I'm not an expert in this, but but
13:51
Speaker 4: I've done enough interviews to know that this is a
13:54
Speaker 4: pretty classic example of somebody who basically can't quit the abuse.
13:58
Speaker 4: You know, more than likely, I mean, keep on gravitating
14:02
Speaker 4: back to that abusive relationship.
14:04
Speaker 5: That's right.
14:04
Speaker 3: I struggle.
14:05
Speaker 2: You know, you get.
14:07
Speaker 3: Even on the cases where I volunteer to do for
14:09
Speaker 3: legal aid, sometimes you'll get to the hearing and my
14:12
Speaker 3: client who's in those cases, there is always the victim
14:17
Speaker 3: I want to drop it by the time we get
14:18
Speaker 3: to the hearing, and all you can do. I mean,
14:20
Speaker 3: they're adults and they're competent, and I counsel them on.
14:26
Speaker 3: You know, you need to keep this in place. This
14:28
Speaker 3: is there's a pattern here, and it's better for everybody,
14:32
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, and but altimately they got to
14:35
Speaker 3: make their own decision at that point, and it does
14:38
Speaker 3: you know, it's frustrating, uh and you hate to see it,
14:41
Speaker 3: and you know, there there's a whole array of things.
14:47
Speaker 3: I mean, anybody in real life that's had long term
14:51
Speaker 3: relationships knows that they're not always a smooth road, and
14:56
Speaker 3: so there are one off incidents that can happen to people,
14:58
Speaker 3: and then sometimes the system gets used for that and
15:01
Speaker 3: maybe it just needs to be dropped because it wasn't
15:03
Speaker 3: really really putting somebody in true fear for their safety.
15:08
Speaker 3: But the system with the ability to go ex party
15:12
Speaker 3: like that, you know, in a safe manner without telling
15:16
Speaker 3: the other party, is really geared towards the true kind
15:21
Speaker 3: of chronic domestic violence situations, or or someone so aggressive
15:26
Speaker 3: they might track a person and you know, trying you know,
15:30
Speaker 3: if they're notified of the initial hearing, they'll come and
15:33
Speaker 3: try and intimidate the other party or something like that,
15:36
Speaker 3: which is where you get into the remote attendance I think.
15:38
Speaker 2: But I.
15:41
Speaker 3: Don't know how much that would help is going to
15:43
Speaker 3: help ultimately, It certainly wouldn't hurt, but but that's you know,
15:48
Speaker 3: I kind of want to get that out there as
15:49
Speaker 3: a PSA. Hopefully nobody's you know, in that situation, and
15:52
Speaker 3: we hate it, but it's the reality and it happens sometimes.
15:56
Speaker 3: But there are, at least through the court system, there
15:59
Speaker 3: are there are avenues for relief that as far as
16:03
Speaker 3: the court system goes, are pretty easily accessible from a
16:09
Speaker 3: functional standpoint. And so that is out there, and that
16:12
Speaker 3: is available, and you do have the potential ability to
16:17
Speaker 3: get counsel even if you can't afford counsel through the
16:20
Speaker 3: Western legal aid system.
16:22
Speaker 4: So those things you have questions where there's all kinds
16:24
Speaker 4: of resources online and everything that you can check out
16:25
Speaker 4: for that. And if you're in one of those situations,
16:27
Speaker 4: you need to and and just as a as sort
16:31
Speaker 4: of a PSA attached to that, when you put the
16:32
Speaker 4: mechanisms of law in your favor, you also have to
16:37
Speaker 4: participate in that. So, for example, if somebody is violating
16:41
Speaker 4: an order and being around your space, then you need
16:43
Speaker 4: to execute that and call the authority and make sure
16:46
Speaker 4: that you are using that to your advantage. Sure, you know,
16:48
Speaker 4: not all this time we'll let you stay because you
16:50
Speaker 4: seem to be in a good mood or whatever. That
16:51
Speaker 4: that's going to kneecap the entire thing.
16:54
Speaker 3: Right, And you know, it's all cyclical. Yeah, most people
16:58
Speaker 3: that are abusers aren't abusers all the time. In fact,
17:01
Speaker 3: what I see a lot of is really bad behavior,
17:05
Speaker 3: sometimes physical abuse, and then all I'm so sorry, and
17:08
Speaker 3: then it it's just a cycle that that happens over
17:10
Speaker 3: and ever again. But the court, I mean, the court
17:12
Speaker 3: system can only do so much, and there does need
17:15
Speaker 3: to be some cooperation from the victim. And you know,
17:19
Speaker 3: if there's a criminal charges up to the prosecutor I
17:21
Speaker 3: know in Putnam Counting, unless there's a serious evidentiary issue
17:25
Speaker 3: just because of a victim who initially complained and it
17:28
Speaker 3: resulted in a criminal charge, comes back and says I
17:30
Speaker 3: want this dropped. They have a general policy not to
17:34
Speaker 3: drop those. It's got to be evidence based for some reason,
17:37
Speaker 3: like well maybe we you know, the evidence is wrong,
17:40
Speaker 3: there's not enough evidence. But they once it's filed, the
17:44
Speaker 3: prosecutor tries to keep the victims motivated because they just
17:47
Speaker 3: don't drop because drop the case because the victim says
17:51
Speaker 3: they want it dropped. And having an uncooperative victim also
17:55
Speaker 3: makes prosecution more difficult, of course, but they can issue
17:59
Speaker 3: supena is and things like that. But certainly you're right.
18:03
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a lot of cogs to that will,
18:06
Speaker 3: and one of them is at least some participation and
18:10
Speaker 3: cooperation in the court process or it's not going to work.
18:14
Speaker 3: And of course there's a lot of underlying social and
18:18
Speaker 3: psychological reasons that victims don't end up cooperating. But it's
18:23
Speaker 3: at the same time, there's only so much a prosecuting
18:25
Speaker 3: attorney can do if they won't come to court and
18:27
Speaker 3: they won't say what happened. And all you can do
18:31
Speaker 3: is try and provide protection and then and what the
18:35
Speaker 3: best you.
18:35
Speaker 4: Can hopeful the results for you have that. It's always
18:38
Speaker 4: a tough situation and you hate to think about those
18:40
Speaker 4: sort of things, but the avenues are there that are available.
18:43
Speaker 2: You just have to try to be aware.
18:45
Speaker 4: Of it, and there are folks that can help you
18:47
Speaker 4: get out of a bad situation. If that's the case,
18:48
Speaker 4: let's go and do this. We're already at our halfway points,
18:51
Speaker 4: so we can take our break now and kind of
18:52
Speaker 4: reset when we come back. So if you want to
18:53
Speaker 4: give us a call, you're one welcome to any questions.
18:55
Speaker 4: You can put the power of Payton on your side
18:56
Speaker 4: today and give us call three zero four three four
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Speaker 4: five fifty eight fifty eight. No, it's right before the holiday.
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Speaker 4: So I have any questions you have, maybe something that
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Speaker 4: you're looking to tackle once the new year rolls around,
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Speaker 4: or other questions, just give us a call. Three zero
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Speaker 4: four three four five fifty fifty eight is our number.
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Speaker 4: You can text three zero four non three five five
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Speaker 4: zero zero eight. We'll take a break and be back
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Speaker 4: right after this. You're listening to Ask the Lawyer with
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Speaker 4: President of the West Virginia Hospital Association, Jim Kaufman joins us,
19:56
Speaker 4: it's really a great opportunity.
19:57
Speaker 5: I got to give kudo to Dick Goafner and his
19:59
Speaker 5: later working with everybody to get the application. As you've noted,
20:03
Speaker 5: we got more than Walmart's dopple what we to guarantee
20:05
Speaker 5: under this full health transformation program, which really has a
20:08
Speaker 5: great opportunity to help us to prove access across the
20:11
Speaker 5: Mountain State.
20:12
Speaker 2: Metro New's Talk Line with Dave and TJ weekday mornings
20:16
Speaker 2: from ten oh six till noon on this Metro News station.
20:29
Speaker 4: Here listening to ask the lawyer. Tom Payton is in
20:32
Speaker 4: the studio with us this morning, three zero four three
20:34
Speaker 4: four five fifty fifty eight. By the way, based on
20:36
Speaker 4: our previous conversation that we were having with domestic abuse, UH,
20:41
Speaker 4: the National Domestic Abuse Hotline is one eight hundred seven
20:45
Speaker 4: seventy two thirty three one eight seven seventy two thirty three.
20:49
Speaker 4: So if you find yourself in one of those situations,
20:51
Speaker 4: of course the Paython Law Froom can help you out
20:52
Speaker 4: from a legal standpoint, but a lot of times you
20:54
Speaker 4: need advocacy and other help to get out of those situations.
20:57
Speaker 4: So if you're looking for some guidance and you're in
20:59
Speaker 4: a situation with domestic violence. That hotline number is one
21:02
Speaker 4: one hundred and seven nine nine seventy two thirty three.
21:04
Speaker 4: I should get that out there.
21:05
Speaker 3: Sure, And you can always, you know, call our office
21:07
Speaker 3: or send us an email and you know, I can
21:09
Speaker 3: give you the same type information or maybe walk you
21:11
Speaker 3: through the process if you can't don't want to hire us,
21:15
Speaker 3: or you can't for some reason.
21:16
Speaker 4: But uh, seven five five fifty fifty six, that's the
21:19
Speaker 4: bation offront threes are four seven five five fifty five
21:21
Speaker 4: fifty six seven five five fifty five fifty six.
21:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, we always try and help and it you know,
21:26
Speaker 3: our office is closing at noon today and then we'm
21:30
Speaker 3: gonna be open Friday. Now it is a state holiday
21:35
Speaker 3: starting at noon today, and then the governor also gave
21:39
Speaker 3: state employees off Friday as well. And then Chief Justice
21:43
Speaker 3: woot you know the Supreme Court employees are I mean,
21:46
Speaker 3: there's state employees, but they're not under the purview of
21:49
Speaker 3: the governor. So the Justice woot and followed suit. So
21:54
Speaker 3: courts will be closed midway through today and then Friday. However,
22:00
Speaker 3: there is discretion with local judges and matters just I
22:04
Speaker 3: mean because things may be scheduled for Friday. So if
22:06
Speaker 3: you have a hearing set or something, you might want
22:09
Speaker 3: to make some calls this morning and make sure firm
22:12
Speaker 3: whether your hearing is going to take place or not.
22:14
Speaker 3: They are allowed to conduct hearings on you know, sensitive
22:17
Speaker 3: matters or time time matters. Even though the courthouse may
22:20
Speaker 3: be closed, they'll let you in, so you might want
22:22
Speaker 3: to make a call there.
22:24
Speaker 4: Now, one of my great secrets every year, not really secrets,
22:27
Speaker 4: but one of my sort of hidden truths, is that
22:29
Speaker 4: one of my favorite dates every year is approximately January fifth,
22:33
Speaker 4: and simply because it's when things kind of get back
22:35
Speaker 4: to normal, right, It's like their vacations are over, holidays
22:38
Speaker 4: are over, like you like. Frankly, I'm looking forward to
22:40
Speaker 4: a five day work week. I have five days of
22:42
Speaker 4: work I need to do regardless of how many days
22:44
Speaker 4: I actually work. So having two days offering a week
22:46
Speaker 4: sounds great, but also means you have to do five
22:48
Speaker 4: days of work in three days.
22:49
Speaker 3: And that being said, like we I let the staff
22:51
Speaker 3: off last Friday. Of course I was there. I met
22:53
Speaker 3: with a client, worked the entire day, but got some
22:57
Speaker 3: things done. But if you know when when we say
23:00
Speaker 3: the law office is closed, that's really the staff. If
23:03
Speaker 3: you need assistance from us, you can call the office
23:07
Speaker 3: and be surprised I might be there and I answer
23:08
Speaker 3: when I'm there. So otherwise, we do have a system
23:13
Speaker 3: where you can you can tap you know, voicemail for
23:16
Speaker 3: Tom and it's a it's you know, Internet provided phones,
23:20
Speaker 3: and it actually sends me a voice file via email
23:23
Speaker 3: when I get an email left for me, so I
23:26
Speaker 3: can get that message anytime through my cell phone, because
23:30
Speaker 3: of course get my emails on my iPhone and then
23:35
Speaker 3: I always check emails and if it's something I can
23:38
Speaker 3: respond to out of regular hours or it's an emergency
23:43
Speaker 3: and I see it, then we'll get back with you.
23:45
Speaker 3: So just because our office is closed doesn't mean we're
23:48
Speaker 3: not doing business. That's just the way we do it
23:51
Speaker 3: at our office. And either Dad or I will will respond.
23:55
Speaker 3: So if you have an issued during hours in which
23:57
Speaker 3: we say our office is closed, don't hesitate to go ahead,
23:59
Speaker 3: wile on in your mind to either email or give
24:02
Speaker 3: us a call and then leave a voicemail and we'll
24:05
Speaker 3: hear it and we'll get back to you just as
24:10
Speaker 3: soon as we can. I was looking it's been a
24:15
Speaker 3: good year at Peyton Law Firm. Most years are unless
24:20
Speaker 3: we have some kind of traumatic event or somebody gets sick,
24:24
Speaker 3: and we haven't had that this year, and we've had
24:27
Speaker 3: all the same staff members that work at our office
24:30
Speaker 3: have been there all year and they're still there today.
24:33
Speaker 3: So that's that's good. And you know, you judge, how
24:37
Speaker 3: do you judge, but it's been a good year or not.
24:38
Speaker 3: As a law firm, I don't know. I don't think
24:41
Speaker 3: it's it's always good to make more money. And in
24:46
Speaker 3: the nature of what we do, which is not just
24:48
Speaker 3: billing ours, that's not what we do very well at
24:52
Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm. Frankly, a lot of our cases are
24:54
Speaker 3: contingency fee, meaning we only get paid if we are
24:58
Speaker 3: resolve an injury or a death case or an insurance
25:02
Speaker 3: type case in your favor. Then there's a you know,
25:04
Speaker 3: we get paid a percentage, and no one can control
25:09
Speaker 3: when somebody is the victim of a traumatic unexpected event,
25:13
Speaker 3: and nobody can control how many those folks call us
25:17
Speaker 3: and how many those cases settled during a year. So
25:19
Speaker 3: it's very cyclical income wise, and so you know, obviously
25:25
Speaker 3: money's money and people in various cases I have said, well,
25:28
Speaker 3: money doesn't matter, but ultimately in the end, in our society,
25:32
Speaker 3: it matters to some extent anyway, one way or another.
25:35
Speaker 3: But I kind of think about it, you know, how
25:37
Speaker 3: have we how have we contributed to our local community?
25:40
Speaker 3: How have we helped people? And you know, we don't
25:45
Speaker 3: spend a lot of money. We're gonna do some a
25:47
Speaker 3: little more. I got some billboard sprinkled here there. We're
25:49
Speaker 3: gonna do a little more next year. No massive statewide
25:53
Speaker 3: billboard campaigns, no massive television campaigns. Our deal here with
25:58
Speaker 3: the radio is annual. And and Shawn, your salesman, you know,
26:02
Speaker 3: twisted my arm and got me three years, so you'll
26:05
Speaker 3: deal with us for at least one more year, every
26:07
Speaker 3: every Thursday. But we do put a lot of our
26:13
Speaker 3: resources that we might put into mass marketing or advertising
26:17
Speaker 3: to try and I mean everybody out there listening, you know,
26:20
Speaker 3: you don't see a whole lot of ads about will
26:22
Speaker 3: help you with your boundary dispute or will help you
26:25
Speaker 3: with your everyday issues like deeds and basic of state planning.
26:29
Speaker 3: And it doesn't take a genius to figure out, well,
26:30
Speaker 3: wondering while the ads are about death cases or truck
26:35
Speaker 3: accidents or because that's where there's a potential to make
26:40
Speaker 3: a significant amount of money, and that's fine. We do
26:45
Speaker 3: a lot of those cases civil litigation type cases, and
26:48
Speaker 3: we enjoy them because we like trying cases to juries
26:50
Speaker 3: and we've had a lot of success in front of
26:52
Speaker 3: juries and that helps you get cases settled in the
26:54
Speaker 3: long run. But we also try and steer maybe some
26:58
Speaker 3: of the dollars that we could use for that type
27:00
Speaker 3: mass advertising to local community. You know, we sponsor a
27:04
Speaker 3: lot of things in the local community, the YMCA. We
27:06
Speaker 3: also participate actively on local nonprofit boards and things like that,
27:11
Speaker 3: and there's no quid pro quo there, but we hope
27:16
Speaker 3: that people at least in our neck of the woods
27:19
Speaker 3: see that, respect that and trust us and have faith
27:25
Speaker 3: that will do a good job if we represent them,
27:27
Speaker 3: and then we get some reciprocation from folks and if
27:33
Speaker 3: they have hopefully not. But if you have a friend
27:37
Speaker 3: or family member that gets hurt in an accident, or
27:40
Speaker 3: somebody's killed, or it's a diagnosis of mesothelioma, which is
27:44
Speaker 3: just an awful, pretty much universally terminal type of lung
27:49
Speaker 3: cancer caused by nothing but asbestos exposure, that you consider
27:54
Speaker 3: us and give us a call, because we do a
27:57
Speaker 3: good job and we care and we're very hands on
28:00
Speaker 3: with your case. You don't get shuffled. We don't have
28:03
Speaker 3: associates at our office right now. I might one day.
28:05
Speaker 3: Nothing wrong with it, but you know, we're pretty selective
28:07
Speaker 3: on the cases that we handle, and and we know
28:12
Speaker 3: the facts really well, we know the law really well,
28:14
Speaker 3: and we do really well. Jolly in front of jury's.
28:16
Speaker 3: Nobody wins every case. Any lart claims they've never lost
28:20
Speaker 3: a case in front of a jury either hasn't tried
28:22
Speaker 3: any real cases, or their line, because you can't win
28:29
Speaker 3: every case in front of jury's.
28:31
Speaker 4: I remember reading an article about it was something I
28:34
Speaker 4: can't remember. It was something that politically connected, I think,
28:36
Speaker 4: but there was an attorney at the center of the
28:38
Speaker 4: thing and the attorneys. One of his big things was like,
28:41
Speaker 4: I never lost a case, believe me on this. So
28:43
Speaker 4: somebody finally did some due diligence on who this guy was.
28:45
Speaker 4: I can't It wasn't even a prominent name. It was
28:47
Speaker 4: just an article, kind of nerdy one that I kind
28:49
Speaker 4: of got into. But anyway, it ended up that, yeah,
28:51
Speaker 4: the guy never lost a case. He tried one and
28:53
Speaker 4: it was relatively low stakes, and he won, and he
28:56
Speaker 4: basically retired from the court room after that. Never lost
28:58
Speaker 4: a case easy.
29:00
Speaker 3: It's not like most things in life, which you learn
29:03
Speaker 3: with experience. There's not a whole lot of things that
29:06
Speaker 3: are in real life maybe sports, but in real life, uh, business,
29:12
Speaker 3: et cetera, where there's a clear quote winner and loser.
29:16
Speaker 3: So when you say, you know, what if you had
29:20
Speaker 3: what if you know, some insurance company offered your client
29:25
Speaker 3: five hundred thousand dollars to settle and they, with your advice,
29:28
Speaker 3: refused that and took it to a jury. Well, nobody
29:31
Speaker 3: knows what that settlement offer was. It's not admissible, it's
29:34
Speaker 3: generally private. And then you you win at trial, the
29:38
Speaker 3: jury awards your client three hundred thousand dollars. Is that
29:42
Speaker 3: a win?
29:42
Speaker 5: Right?
29:42
Speaker 4: Right?
29:43
Speaker 2: You could couch it as a win, right.
29:44
Speaker 3: Well they did, Yeah, But it's just there's a lot
29:47
Speaker 3: of dynamics to cases, and and you know, there's just
29:53
Speaker 3: to say win or lose, and a lot of them
29:55
Speaker 3: is not really a fair way to assess them anyway.
29:58
Speaker 3: It plays well in advertise and that kind of thing,
30:01
Speaker 3: but it's it's much more complicated than that, but we
30:05
Speaker 3: you know, we have a very good track record in
30:09
Speaker 3: performing well in front of jury's, both you know, in
30:12
Speaker 3: civil cases. And I will say that with Dad and
30:17
Speaker 3: I both and we try of course bad practice law
30:21
Speaker 3: for I don't know, twenty some years before I got
30:24
Speaker 3: out and joined him, but since I've been licensed to practice,
30:28
Speaker 3: then we've co chaired multiple jury trials, both of us trying.
30:32
Speaker 3: And maybe he'll do a little cross exam of one,
30:34
Speaker 3: or I'll do opening, he'll do closing. I will say that,
30:39
Speaker 3: you know, I think in all of those civil cases
30:41
Speaker 3: we've tried, even in cases that were you know, I
30:44
Speaker 3: thought maybe should have settled or were very difficult, we
30:47
Speaker 3: have I think generally prevailed and almost universally in those
30:51
Speaker 3: type cases. But now i've tried cases before and so
30:55
Speaker 3: as Dad, that we've had results that are not what
30:57
Speaker 3: we wanted. But I think because we don't sit together
31:00
Speaker 3: in all trials, I mean, we'll try them individually. But
31:02
Speaker 3: I think, you know, there's probably seven to ten civil
31:07
Speaker 3: cases we've tried together. We both participated in some form
31:11
Speaker 3: as kind of father son Peyton team, and I do
31:14
Speaker 3: think we have prevailed in every one of those civil cases,
31:20
Speaker 3: meaning we've gotten a result that was better than offered
31:26
Speaker 3: prior to trial.
31:27
Speaker 4: One thing I wanted to you mentioned a moment ago
31:29
Speaker 4: about you and Harvey's how you relate to the community,
31:36
Speaker 4: and there's something to be said for and you guys
31:38
Speaker 4: obviously do it the right way. And this is just
31:40
Speaker 4: the end of the years, and what as well be
31:44
Speaker 4: observation about these sorts of things. I've seen a lot
31:46
Speaker 4: of I've been you know, I've been manager of a
31:49
Speaker 4: lot of different companies. I've ran promotional departments, I've ran
31:52
Speaker 4: a business side of things with marketing and stuff. And
31:55
Speaker 4: you hear a lot of people say, we need to
31:56
Speaker 4: find ways to engage the community. You know that. A
31:59
Speaker 4: lot of people say that. You know a lot of
32:00
Speaker 4: people say, well, we can build trust by building a
32:03
Speaker 4: foundation in the community that people are going to relate to.
32:06
Speaker 2: It's absolutely true.
32:07
Speaker 4: How many people actually take the time to do it
32:09
Speaker 4: from a from a legitimate standpoint very few. A lot
32:12
Speaker 4: of people will throw marketing dollars at it and be like, oh,
32:14
Speaker 4: you know, we're part of the community. We're part of
32:16
Speaker 4: the community. We're part of the community. But people that
32:17
Speaker 4: actually live what they say very few and far between.
32:20
Speaker 4: You guys do that, and I think that authenticity is
32:22
Speaker 4: what comes through. A lot of people can pretend to
32:24
Speaker 4: be part of the community, you guys actually are.
32:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, we get to. If you've ever served on boards
32:28
Speaker 3: with that or I, then we're trying to be pretty
32:30
Speaker 3: active on there, not just a fly on the wall.
32:34
Speaker 3: Some people like that, some people don't. But you know,
32:36
Speaker 3: you just feel like, as as members of the community
32:39
Speaker 3: that are professionals, lawyers, a lot of experience doing everyday things,
32:42
Speaker 3: that we can contribute something and you do sacrifice your
32:47
Speaker 3: time to do it. That's the big sacrifice, your personal
32:50
Speaker 3: time to do it. And it's it doesn't it isn't
32:53
Speaker 3: necessarily a quid pro quo for income results at our business,
32:57
Speaker 3: but that's just what we feel like we need to do.
33:00
Speaker 3: And that was actually you know, basic deed work, basic
33:05
Speaker 3: of state planning, helping people. You know, you don't know
33:09
Speaker 3: when you're going to be in a car wreck, you
33:11
Speaker 3: don't know when you're going to get an awful diagnosis
33:14
Speaker 3: like mesothelioma. But every day people need help with certain things,
33:20
Speaker 3: real estate questions, estate planning questions, how to handle a
33:23
Speaker 3: basic state administration process. If you have a friend or
33:27
Speaker 3: family member pass away and you need to help with that.
33:29
Speaker 3: And I was just looking, you know, I do kind
33:32
Speaker 3: of an end of the year review at the office,
33:34
Speaker 3: and so I looked at I've got our cases kind
33:38
Speaker 3: of categorized in a state planning and real estate, and
33:41
Speaker 3: in this last year we helped it looks like over
33:48
Speaker 3: three hundred different three hundred people Oh wow, doing basic
33:52
Speaker 3: of state planning and deed work. And it's a variety
33:54
Speaker 3: of things from loan closings to transferring death deeds to wills,
33:58
Speaker 3: the power of attorneys and that type thing. So that's
34:02
Speaker 3: pretty significant for a two lawyer office with you know,
34:08
Speaker 3: four or five significant support staff paralegals, et cetera. So
34:16
Speaker 3: you feel like we fill a gap in the community
34:18
Speaker 3: on those type things because it just I think you
34:21
Speaker 3: see folks go to law school and a lot of
34:24
Speaker 3: them come out, and you know, there are folks that
34:27
Speaker 3: do like doing real estate, but I think the majority
34:29
Speaker 3: of my geared towards they want to go to those
34:31
Speaker 3: firms that are they see the billboards for it, where
34:33
Speaker 3: they want to go work for the firms that are
34:35
Speaker 3: big corporate firms where you're working for insurance companies or
34:39
Speaker 3: big business and you work your way up the lighter
34:42
Speaker 3: to maybe potentially have your name on the letterhead as
34:45
Speaker 3: an equity member partner in a firm. And so you know,
34:51
Speaker 3: there is a gap there, I think for good competent
34:54
Speaker 3: counsel to handle these kind of everyday matters for people.
34:57
Speaker 3: And we could say, well, we just don't do that,
34:59
Speaker 3: or we don't know how to do that. We only
35:02
Speaker 3: do injury work or serious injuries, and and we could
35:05
Speaker 3: steer all of our extra money towards advertising for that.
35:09
Speaker 3: But that's just not the and there's nothing wrong with that,
35:12
Speaker 3: it's just not the the mode of operation that we've adopted.
35:15
Speaker 3: So I'm pretty proud of what we've done in the
35:20
Speaker 3: last year, and hopefully we've helped the community, and we'll
35:25
Speaker 3: look forward to continuing to do the same thing in
35:27
Speaker 3: the in the year to come. Hopefully we can get
35:31
Speaker 3: The only thing disappointed this year is just this animosity
35:35
Speaker 3: and political rhetoric everybody. I hope that it cools down,
35:40
Speaker 3: no matter what side everybody's on, because.
35:45
Speaker 4: You know what I did for the month of December,
35:46
Speaker 4: I completely because I'm not I'm not part of the
35:49
Speaker 4: news programs here, you know, I do the entertainment show
35:51
Speaker 4: at three o'clock, so that's a three hour show. I
35:54
Speaker 4: have to do this show. But during my because I
35:56
Speaker 4: had vacations, a lot of vacations in the end of
35:58
Speaker 4: November and December, had two weeks in a relatively short
36:01
Speaker 4: amount of time. I checked out completely from all news,
36:04
Speaker 4: stopped watching the news. I haven't been on social media
36:07
Speaker 4: other than for work related things in weeks now, and
36:09
Speaker 4: I've developed like three or four little hobbies that I
36:13
Speaker 4: do again around the house. I started reading again. I
36:15
Speaker 4: did that a couple of years ago. Where I used
36:16
Speaker 4: to be a like literally I read a book or
36:19
Speaker 4: two a week. Back when I own a bookstore, I'd
36:21
Speaker 4: read one hundred books a year easy. I got way
36:23
Speaker 4: out of that in the last decade of my life,
36:26
Speaker 4: and so I went back to reading a lot. So, man,
36:29
Speaker 4: I'm out of the news, I'm out of social media,
36:31
Speaker 4: I said, at home, and I read. I have a
36:33
Speaker 4: couple other projects I do I do with my daughter.
36:35
Speaker 3: I feel like you're out of the know though you
36:37
Speaker 3: don't know what.
36:38
Speaker 2: A little bit.
36:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, honestly I do. But man, right now, I mean,
36:41
Speaker 4: and it may not last long. I'm not saying that
36:43
Speaker 4: it's a change in my life. But for the end
36:44
Speaker 4: of twenty twenty five, it's what I needed to do.
36:46
Speaker 4: And so although I feel a little bit disconnected from things,
36:49
Speaker 4: I'm surprised when someone's like, hey, did you hear about this,
36:51
Speaker 4: I'll be like, actually, I didn't. You know.
36:55
Speaker 3: I've conditioned myself to I mean, I I pretty much
36:59
Speaker 3: have to stay on it and read it. I hear
37:00
Speaker 3: you understand, because of different things I do, including my
37:04
Speaker 3: business course, I have different from maybe ten years ago.
37:08
Speaker 3: At this point, I just am not reactionary it almost
37:11
Speaker 3: any I always take a deep breath or wait a
37:16
Speaker 3: while before you decide to comment or reply to something,
37:20
Speaker 3: and it's difficult sometimes, but at this point it's so
37:22
Speaker 3: much information, almost overload. I've I've been able to just
37:26
Speaker 3: stop myself from reacting and getting into this rhetoric. And
37:29
Speaker 3: what I do worry about is the misinformation out there
37:33
Speaker 3: AI and things it's getting. I thought I was good
37:38
Speaker 3: at it about figuring out what is real and what isn't.
37:40
Speaker 3: It's almost impossible now.
37:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's there's Like even six months ago, I felt
37:45
Speaker 4: like there's a lot of cues that you can, like,
37:47
Speaker 4: if you were read in on it, you could kind
37:48
Speaker 4: of figure this stuff out now.
37:49
Speaker 3: Good for addressive agency to address that from the government.
37:53
Speaker 3: It just needs to be massive and dedicated. So by
37:55
Speaker 3: the time, well listen, I want to think all the
37:58
Speaker 3: listeners are regular Thursday list there's maybe got some mini
38:00
Speaker 3: wins on Wednesday, and uh, we're looking forward to twenty
38:04
Speaker 3: twenty six of Peyton Law Firm and planning on being
38:06
Speaker 3: here every single Wednesday et scept Thanksgiving.
38:09
Speaker 4: That's right, every Thursday, but Thanksgiving the Peyton Law Firm,
38:12
Speaker 4: Payton Lawfirm dot com, Peyton Lawfirm dot com and Nitro
38:14
Speaker 4: West Virginia seven five five fifty five fifty six three
38:17
Speaker 4: zero four seven five five fifty five fifty six seven
38:19
Speaker 4: five five fifty five fifty six. Happy New Year to
38:22
Speaker 4: you and your dad.
38:23
Speaker 2: Happy New Year, Dad, appreciate it.
38:24
Speaker 3: Tom.
38:25
Speaker 4: Have a gret day, everyone day. Allan's coming out next
38:26
Speaker 4: on five eighty Live. He'll be back at noon for Miday.
38:30
Speaker 4: I'll be back this afternoon at three oh six on
38:31
Speaker 4: the hotline. Have a great day. Everyone. Listening to five
38:33
Speaker 4: at EWCCHSBRE The Voice of Charleston.
38:39
Speaker 2: Five ad w C HSA M ninety six point five
38:42
Speaker 2: an Charleston one oh four point five Cross Lanes l
38:45
Speaker 2: UVRC Media Station. We're proud to live here too,