Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 06/04/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton

Transcript

06/04/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

0:00
Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
0:02
Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eighty wchs
0:06
Speaker 1: it's employees or WVRC media of courts.
0:11
Speaker 2: Oh created equal.
0:18
Speaker 3: When nass come here in a cake y can rock top.
0:29
Speaker 4: Well, you don't have to fight the law this morning.
0:31
Speaker 4: You can put it on your side. Payton Law Firm
0:33
Speaker 4: is in the studio. I don't mean Tom or Harvey.
0:36
Speaker 4: I mean Tom and Harvey this morning. That's right, Tom
0:39
Speaker 4: and Harvey, Payton studio this morning. Your phone calls at
0:41
Speaker 4: threes are A four three four, five, fifty eight fifty eight,
0:43
Speaker 4: three four, five fifty eight fifty eight. Text threes are
0:45
Speaker 4: A four non three five fives years or eight from
0:47
Speaker 4: the Payton Law Firm. Harvey and Tom, Good morning. How
0:49
Speaker 4: are you doing this morning?
0:51
Speaker 2: Well, I'm doing quite well. I think it's a beautiful morning.
0:54
Speaker 2: I actually drove in by coming up Route sixty this morning,
0:58
Speaker 2: got off the Interstate atro and came up through town,
1:02
Speaker 2: crossed the bridge into my old hometown Saint Albans, and
1:04
Speaker 2: then up sixty. Just because after yesterday's quagmire on the interstate,
1:09
Speaker 2: I thought I'm not going to take my chances. It
1:11
Speaker 2: happened to me last week. You know, there was a
1:15
Speaker 2: traffic stop at the Montrose Bridge. That's right, Yeah, and
1:19
Speaker 2: you know your ground to a halt somewhere between the
1:21
Speaker 2: Institute the interchanged dounebar. But I'm doing fine and actually
1:24
Speaker 2: pulled into the uh tried to pull in the lot,
1:26
Speaker 2: and Tom was right behind me.
1:27
Speaker 5: Hello, Tom, Hey, So maybe that Uh yeah, we'd never
1:31
Speaker 5: done both of us and this dad's been doing it,
1:33
Speaker 5: I think twenty seven years. I've been doing it twenty
1:34
Speaker 5: five years. And we never had both of us here
1:36
Speaker 5: at the same time. So I thought we'd we were
1:39
Speaker 5: both available, we'd do double.
1:40
Speaker 3: Troubles in the streams.
1:41
Speaker 4: This morning.
1:42
Speaker 3: I like it a lot.
1:42
Speaker 5: No, I took a different Maybe this says something about us.
1:45
Speaker 5: I took the chance, and I stayed on I sixty
1:47
Speaker 5: four this morning. So yeah, they've got the for anybody
1:52
Speaker 5: coming into Charleston. Uh, just a little delay. They still
1:55
Speaker 5: have the right lane closed where the tanker truck. I
1:57
Speaker 5: guess it's spilled. I don't remember the chemical, but they're
2:00
Speaker 5: still doing some clean up. So you get pretty much
2:03
Speaker 5: stopped or five mile per hour traffic for maybe a
2:07
Speaker 5: mile and then it's good after that. Actually, the bottleneck
2:10
Speaker 5: there kind of helps the traffic when you get past
2:13
Speaker 5: it in towards Charleston.
2:15
Speaker 2: So now I didn't hear anything about the driver of
2:17
Speaker 2: the truck, what his condition was, whether or not he
2:19
Speaker 2: was injured. Fortunately, thank goodness, did not hear about anyone
2:24
Speaker 2: else being injured in the accident.
2:25
Speaker 3: But it goes to show.
2:28
Speaker 2: You, you know, we do a lot a lot of auto accidents, trucks, vehicles,
2:35
Speaker 2: commercial vehicles, passenger cars. At the Peyton Law firm. We
2:40
Speaker 2: have for almost fifty years. It can happen in a heartbeat.
2:45
Speaker 2: And this was around noon. You know, you think about clearly.
2:49
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not a traffic reconstructionist, but I've been
2:54
Speaker 2: involved in enough accidents to know. You've got a tanker
2:58
Speaker 2: with liquid and that's unstable in any event because the
3:02
Speaker 2: load shifts, i mean liquid rocks back and forth. You're
3:05
Speaker 2: coming down a hill too fast. I would think that
3:09
Speaker 2: eventually they'll get the GPS on that truck, which is
3:13
Speaker 2: there on all of them, find out what the speed was.
3:16
Speaker 2: And the load simply sloshed over to the right and
3:20
Speaker 2: took the vehicle over. And you know, had there been
3:23
Speaker 2: another vehicle beside it, or perhaps on either side or
3:28
Speaker 2: in front of that vehicle trying to come into a stop,
3:31
Speaker 2: or someone coming down the hill and collided with it.
3:34
Speaker 2: It could have been a really terrible situation. We've been involved,
3:37
Speaker 2: Tom and I have both been involved in cases like
3:40
Speaker 2: that before, and it's just a miracle at that time
3:43
Speaker 2: of day, although it's less traffic around noon, if it
3:47
Speaker 2: had happened this time of day, it would have been far,
3:52
Speaker 2: far worse.
3:53
Speaker 3: I fear. What do you think, Tom?
3:54
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know, I guess when you think about
3:58
Speaker 5: people that drive trucks, they're kind of like a necessary
4:02
Speaker 5: evil the way the way I see it, And of
4:04
Speaker 5: course I feel for the men and women who drive them.
4:07
Speaker 5: I've never driven a semi truck, but to do that
4:11
Speaker 5: day in day out, you know, you feel for them.
4:15
Speaker 5: But at the same time, and people talk about about
4:20
Speaker 5: folks that drive trucks, but you know, at the same
4:23
Speaker 5: time they it is dangerous because they've got so much
4:28
Speaker 5: weight hauled. I mean, this wreck happened just as you
4:33
Speaker 5: come out of the you know, downhill curve there at
4:38
Speaker 5: the Institute, at just past the Institute exit. And I
4:44
Speaker 5: didn't see details yet, but I'm sure it was speed
4:46
Speaker 5: with the with the driver. And and when you get
4:49
Speaker 5: cases like like that, you know, maybe the drive, certainly
4:55
Speaker 5: the driver had a problem going too fast, but then
4:57
Speaker 5: you look at well, why was he doing that? They're fatigue?
5:01
Speaker 5: Was there pressure to get somewhere by a certain time?
5:04
Speaker 5: How are they getting paid? And that's what you look
5:07
Speaker 5: at when you get those cases, to see if there's
5:09
Speaker 5: some liability or a problem there beyond I mean, anybody
5:13
Speaker 5: can be negligent driving. I mean, it's just something that
5:17
Speaker 5: can happen, but you you always need to look behind
5:20
Speaker 5: that and see what is there some kind of motivation
5:24
Speaker 5: for this person to be driving too fast? And if
5:27
Speaker 5: there is, and it's not just within themselves, is it
5:31
Speaker 5: something from the ship or the company they work for?
5:34
Speaker 5: And and yeah, so we've done we've had pretty good
5:39
Speaker 5: success with with.
5:40
Speaker 3: Those type cases.
5:42
Speaker 5: And actually, Dad and I we've tried I don't know,
5:46
Speaker 5: probably quite a few jury trial cases, and you never
5:50
Speaker 5: you hate to nobody wins every case and it doesn't happen.
5:53
Speaker 5: But I really think looking back on what we've done
5:56
Speaker 5: when we've tried cases together, we'll share responsibility on some
6:01
Speaker 5: cases if we get to trial. Maybe I'll do an
6:04
Speaker 5: opening and Daw I'll do a closing and asked you know,
6:10
Speaker 5: I'll do a cross exam or he'll do a direct
6:11
Speaker 5: exam of different witnesses we've had. We've never lost a
6:14
Speaker 5: case when we were both there trying to a jury,
6:19
Speaker 5: and so that's a that's a pretty good, pretty good record.
6:24
Speaker 5: That's a good tandem.
6:25
Speaker 3: You know.
6:25
Speaker 2: One of the problems, you know, having had a historical
6:29
Speaker 2: perspective of this area in particular, which is I think
6:33
Speaker 2: one of the strengths of the Peyton Law firm. I mean,
6:35
Speaker 2: we both grew up here. I've been practicing law here
6:39
Speaker 2: for fifty two years. Tom's been at it twenty five
6:42
Speaker 2: years in pretty much the same locale I did practice well,
6:45
Speaker 2: I was a law clerk for a federal judge for
6:48
Speaker 2: a couple of years and practiced here in Charleston for
6:51
Speaker 2: year and a half before I went to Putnam County,
6:53
Speaker 2: And so, you know, it's changed. When I first started
6:58
Speaker 2: to practice law, I mean, I represented a truck driver
7:01
Speaker 2: in a case down in Roanoke, Virginia. He drove for
7:05
Speaker 2: a Bell Lines. Well, at that time, truck drivers were
7:07
Speaker 2: all teamsters. They were good jobs. They laid over at terminals,
7:12
Speaker 2: they kept accurate logs. He was cut off on four
7:17
Speaker 2: to sixty by another motorist who actually blamed the truck
7:22
Speaker 2: driver for the accident and sued him, and we filed
7:25
Speaker 2: the counterclaim and got at that time, which was a
7:27
Speaker 2: ton of money on the counterclaim, because you know, you
7:30
Speaker 2: just stand up, say, look this man draus for a living.
7:33
Speaker 2: He's fifty six years old, he's been driving since he
7:35
Speaker 2: was in the army. He's not out there cutting people
7:37
Speaker 2: off now. But they rolled that forward in the shortage
7:42
Speaker 2: of truck drivers and I think, you know, actually the
7:44
Speaker 2: opening of the market the NAFTA to you know, offshore drivers.
7:51
Speaker 2: It's up to the companies to qualify these people. One
7:53
Speaker 2: of the cases that I tried it by myself. You know,
7:57
Speaker 2: this kid was like twenty one years old. Most first
8:00
Speaker 2: class carriers won't qualify a driver. Untiller twenty three had
8:05
Speaker 2: a horrible driving record, speeding, reckless driving. Yeah, he clipped
8:09
Speaker 2: on one of our clients on Ice sixty four down
8:11
Speaker 2: between here and Huntington. We tried it down in Huntington
8:14
Speaker 2: and you know, he didn't show up. Obviously, the company
8:18
Speaker 2: was foolish to try it and you know, it gives
8:20
Speaker 2: you the opportunity to get up in front of the
8:22
Speaker 2: dream and saying, I don't know where this person is.
8:24
Speaker 2: He might be back down in South Carolina driving ninety
8:27
Speaker 2: five miles an hour. You know what, he might be
8:29
Speaker 2: right out there on Ice sixty four where one of
8:31
Speaker 2: your family members is going to go to work or
8:34
Speaker 2: to church today. Well that's instant. But yeah, then you
8:39
Speaker 2: get these people with falsified logs. It's just become I
8:42
Speaker 2: was going to ask about that.
8:43
Speaker 4: Is that where some of the like the pressure that
8:46
Speaker 4: leads to the driving, and does that lead to like
8:48
Speaker 4: some cooking the books and so forth?
8:50
Speaker 3: Is that? What is that?
8:51
Speaker 4: What you look for is that they've actually been on
8:53
Speaker 4: the road more than what is logged or whatever that is.
8:56
Speaker 4: I don't know the details, but.
8:57
Speaker 2: Well, another one I had where I represented a railroad
9:01
Speaker 2: worker on a case where a truck pulled off a
9:03
Speaker 2: crossing and caused a terrible accident. You know the guy,
9:07
Speaker 2: once we got all of his receipts and his timestamps,
9:10
Speaker 2: you know, he supposed he drove across picked up a
9:14
Speaker 2: load on Long Island, and drove through Harlem and through
9:17
Speaker 2: the cross Bronx Expressway ands into New Jersey on the
9:21
Speaker 2: Turnpike in like forty minutes. If you believed his logs,
9:25
Speaker 2: well that's like a three hour trip. It's just incredibly
9:28
Speaker 2: and it was for you just you guys, a foreign national. No,
9:34
Speaker 2: he was actually an American citizens from Puerto Rico. But
9:36
Speaker 2: he was just desperate to work. He was sleeping in
9:38
Speaker 2: the back of his truck, eating crackers and just trying
9:41
Speaker 2: to drive every miley could because he was getting paid
9:44
Speaker 2: zip code to zip code for the mile. And that's
9:47
Speaker 2: the kind of things that you find when you really
9:49
Speaker 2: get into it. We took massive depositions in that case
9:53
Speaker 2: all over Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and ended up it was
9:59
Speaker 2: a big case from the settlement standpoint. They didn't take
10:01
Speaker 2: it to trial. We managed to settle it. The Tom's
10:04
Speaker 2: got similar experience time, let them have it, you know.
10:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, so no, but when you when you get the
10:14
Speaker 5: of course you have the average uh negligence case with truckers.
10:19
Speaker 5: But yeah, if you've not every case you find them
10:22
Speaker 5: quick cooking the books. But usually it's and it's how
10:26
Speaker 5: they get paid too. I mean, my understanding is sometimes
10:29
Speaker 5: it's like they have a saying zip codes zip code.
10:31
Speaker 5: It's like airplane miles and and uh and so they're
10:35
Speaker 5: trying to get to their destination as soon as possible
10:38
Speaker 5: and move on. And then of course you've got to
10:40
Speaker 5: keep your logs. You have to have so much rest
10:43
Speaker 5: and non drive time. And and now that I think
10:49
Speaker 5: the case Dad's references probably before GPS was in place.
10:55
Speaker 5: And did they have a GPS in that truck, I
10:57
Speaker 5: can't remember, No, it was that was the case in contractor.
11:00
Speaker 5: He was a contractor for a company in Florida that
11:04
Speaker 5: was shipping plants, nursery plants up north, and so he
11:08
Speaker 5: was just you know, he would take his tractor down,
11:11
Speaker 5: pick up a trailer, load head off right from the distributor.
11:16
Speaker 5: There are very little off any control over him. The
11:19
Speaker 5: you know, the GPS, the one we had down in
11:21
Speaker 5: Fraser's bottom, the terrible case that man was killed that
11:24
Speaker 5: not only was there GPS involved, but that was the
11:28
Speaker 5: truck as well as the vehicle involved had event data recorders,
11:34
Speaker 5: which is something that we know a lot about.
11:37
Speaker 3: You know, you hear a.
11:37
Speaker 2: Lot of this these ads about well we're the trucking
11:41
Speaker 2: experts and we're the team, and it's because there's minimum
11:46
Speaker 2: insurance coverage for interstate motor carriers a million dollars per judgment.
11:51
Speaker 2: It can be as low seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
11:54
Speaker 2: but a million dollars per judgment is the norm. And
11:58
Speaker 2: of course, so that's what the big advertisers want to
12:04
Speaker 2: filter through, and let's handle these well. There's often a
12:08
Speaker 2: lot more coverage than that, and it's often layered up.
12:12
Speaker 2: And if you don't know what you're doing, and we do,
12:15
Speaker 2: you can, truthfully, you can sell those cases short. You know,
12:19
Speaker 2: I had one case where they offered a million dollars.
12:22
Speaker 2: We never offered that kind of money and it ended
12:24
Speaker 2: up at thirteen. So, you know, it's it is important
12:30
Speaker 2: to have qualified lawyers, but it doesn't mean that you
12:32
Speaker 2: have to be the biggest in the world or that
12:35
Speaker 2: you have to have the biggest TV budget. Results speak
12:39
Speaker 2: for themselves, and I think as Tom said, and the
12:41
Speaker 2: cases we try to just just absolutely smooth the railroad
12:46
Speaker 2: over in Columbus. In a case, smart attic lawyer from
12:50
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh just got his rearent handed to him. And we
12:53
Speaker 2: did the same thing with a smart attic lawyer from
12:55
Speaker 2: Huntington down in Buttnam County.
12:58
Speaker 3: You want to go to that one to right the well,
13:01
Speaker 3: that was we were representing the truck driver.
13:02
Speaker 5: And in that case, actually it was a company that's
13:06
Speaker 5: now I think defunct in Nitro, but he was It
13:10
Speaker 5: wasn't a driving incident. He was delivering uh, some kind
13:14
Speaker 5: of petroleum based product and then they had an ill
13:18
Speaker 5: equipped system for him to unload and just pulled his
13:22
Speaker 5: bick really bad. And I remember that one because they
13:25
Speaker 5: just offered almost nothing that mediation, which is a kind
13:30
Speaker 5: of a longer term for a settlement conference with a
13:33
Speaker 5: third party presiding. But we did really well. And that
13:36
Speaker 5: when I was thinking back to the one you were
13:37
Speaker 5: talking about where the Fellows started in New York, that
13:40
Speaker 5: was the we we actually represented. That's the one we
13:44
Speaker 5: represented the train conductor, right, the engineer engineer, Yeah, he
13:49
Speaker 5: was actually this more to the point. The case arose
13:53
Speaker 5: because the truck driver was trying to beat a train
13:57
Speaker 5: at a crossing, right, Yeah, And so the I can't
14:01
Speaker 5: remember the the impact the train. He didn't beat the
14:04
Speaker 5: train obviously, and then it hit I don't know if
14:07
Speaker 5: it hit the trailer. I think it did hit the trailer,
14:10
Speaker 5: hit it right where they were coupled up, hit the
14:11
Speaker 5: trailer primarily, but it hit the back of the cab
14:14
Speaker 5: and it knocked the train off the track so derailed it.
14:17
Speaker 5: And what happened our engineer, of course, he saw it
14:20
Speaker 5: coming and he slammed on emergency and got down in
14:24
Speaker 5: a crouch. Uh the other people who were injured. It
14:29
Speaker 5: was a train going from here to Columbus, and there's
14:32
Speaker 5: a high point between here and Columbus mocks a halo.
14:35
Speaker 5: There's a tunnel there. It's an upgrade, so they put
14:38
Speaker 5: on they stop it at ad it used to be
14:43
Speaker 5: just across the river and Ohio. They put on a
14:45
Speaker 5: pirate unit on the back to push the train while
14:47
Speaker 5: the front poles. While the guy's right in the back
14:50
Speaker 5: where he really got pounded around because it whipped them
14:52
Speaker 5: off the tracks when the thing derailed. It was a yeah,
14:55
Speaker 5: we were actually we were Coke Council with the railroad.
14:58
Speaker 5: The railroad sued. The track company had a really really
15:01
Speaker 5: good lawyer over in Columbus, Pat Smith, and uh I
15:06
Speaker 5: represented We represented the individual plane if another lawyer from
15:10
Speaker 5: down in Virginia represented the two guys that were.
15:13
Speaker 3: In the back power unit.
15:15
Speaker 2: But it was, I mean, it was almost bizarre to
15:19
Speaker 2: take this guy's deposition.
15:21
Speaker 3: It was like, you know, the driver position. I mean
15:25
Speaker 3: it was.
15:27
Speaker 2: Literally bizarre. We were doing this town in Florida and
15:30
Speaker 2: you're just shaking your head, what what's this guy doing
15:33
Speaker 2: behind the wheel?
15:34
Speaker 4: Does it sounds as really ridiculous as it? I mean,
15:37
Speaker 4: because the on the on the outside, it just sounds ridiculous.
15:40
Speaker 4: I mean, I got trying to beat a guy ship
15:41
Speaker 4: in a was he in a big truck? I guess
15:43
Speaker 4: like trying to be a train sound trailer sounds very
15:47
Speaker 4: not smart.
15:48
Speaker 2: Fladed with glassware obviously didn't. But yeah, I mean it's
15:53
Speaker 2: it's a fascinating business to be and you learn so much.
15:57
Speaker 2: Tom can tell you about cases that he has had.
15:59
Speaker 2: I can tell you case where if you're involved with
16:02
Speaker 2: a particular fact set or uh, some area of expertise,
16:07
Speaker 2: you really get into that, right though. I mean sure
16:11
Speaker 2: cases you've said where you just dug into like landlord
16:15
Speaker 2: liability and things of that nature. The case up in
16:17
Speaker 2: Morgantown where the young lady was so when you've got
16:20
Speaker 2: the landlord of the bar to pay a significant sum
16:23
Speaker 2: of money, and yeah, it's just you just learn a
16:26
Speaker 2: lot about a lot of different things.
16:30
Speaker 5: Yeah, of course, you know, you rely on experts if
16:33
Speaker 5: you have anything where you need specialized knowledge being told
16:36
Speaker 5: to the jury. But at the same time, and I
16:38
Speaker 5: think that's where you know, when you get cases, the
16:42
Speaker 5: more you know about the facts as the lawyer, whether
16:44
Speaker 5: it's I mean, I think when people come to see lawyers,
16:47
Speaker 5: it's kind of like going to see your dentist. I mean,
16:49
Speaker 5: I don't go to see a lawyer because I am one,
16:51
Speaker 5: But I go to the dentist. He's like, well, yeah,
16:54
Speaker 5: I've been flossing twice a day and brushing three times. Well,
16:58
Speaker 5: you know, you tend to tell the dentist or the doctor,
17:01
Speaker 5: you know, put it in the best light for yourself.
17:05
Speaker 3: Round up. Yeah, that's what you around up. And you
17:08
Speaker 3: know it's human nature. Do that.
17:09
Speaker 5: See when your clients come in, you get because we're
17:12
Speaker 5: doing this for twenty some years and and really most
17:17
Speaker 5: I mean most of our clientele are from from around
17:20
Speaker 5: here and that's where we grew up, and so we
17:23
Speaker 5: we kind of see hot eye. But you learn over
17:25
Speaker 5: the years just kind of what questions to ask to
17:28
Speaker 5: make sure we get all the information. Because of course,
17:31
Speaker 5: when you come to the lawyer, we're on your side.
17:34
Speaker 5: Once you hire us no matter what. And so we
17:37
Speaker 5: gathering the facts and knowing all the facts helps you.
17:40
Speaker 5: And so, but when you get into some you know,
17:44
Speaker 5: a trucking accident or a particular industry or behaviors or
17:50
Speaker 5: when Dad was referencing, you know how it's it's kind
17:55
Speaker 5: of a it's a dram dram shop case, is what
17:59
Speaker 5: I had there. And that's a that's also an old
18:01
Speaker 5: term for liability on bars when they maybe over serve
18:06
Speaker 5: someone or serve someone under age and then that person
18:08
Speaker 5: leaves the facility without any escort or any any help
18:16
Speaker 5: from the bar to make sure they get home safe
18:19
Speaker 5: and don't hurt anyone else. And and you get into
18:23
Speaker 5: that and learn, you know, the rules, like you know,
18:27
Speaker 5: it's illegal, it's under Western your code and the regulations
18:30
Speaker 5: to serve a person at a facility to the point
18:37
Speaker 5: of intoxication. But in the case I had, for example,
18:41
Speaker 5: it was in Morgantown, so it's a little different dynamic
18:43
Speaker 5: than here. But you know, we found social media advertising
18:47
Speaker 5: material where her.
18:49
Speaker 3: Off and this is a bar where I think it's
18:53
Speaker 3: still the law.
18:54
Speaker 5: You can have obviously we know because you go to
18:56
Speaker 5: restaurants and things like that, but they were allowing eighteen
18:59
Speaker 5: year olds in the bar, who of course can't drink
19:03
Speaker 5: drinking age twenty one. But it became the bar would
19:09
Speaker 5: get so crowded and morget down to mean, I don't
19:11
Speaker 5: know how they would ever police it. And you know,
19:13
Speaker 5: there was evidence of well, they put the stamps on
19:17
Speaker 5: their hand show they're twenty one or over, or they
19:19
Speaker 5: put a wristband on. Well, of course, you know, kids
19:22
Speaker 5: are kids before they do lick the stamp and turn
19:25
Speaker 5: it over and put it on their friend's hand, right,
19:27
Speaker 5: and it imposed on them where they loosen up that
19:31
Speaker 5: wristband and put it on their nineteen year old buddy's hand.
19:35
Speaker 5: But we in that case, we were able to uncover
19:38
Speaker 5: some social media advertising material, things like old twenty five
19:43
Speaker 5: cent shots of liquor. Now whether that was you know,
19:49
Speaker 5: strong whiskey or not, I don't know what they were serving.
19:52
Speaker 5: But I mean, while I mean, the whole point of
19:57
Speaker 5: the advertising was to get these young people in the
20:01
Speaker 5: bar so they can drink as much as they can
20:05
Speaker 5: for as cheap as they can, which is almost just
20:07
Speaker 5: an express violation of the law. And of course, in
20:10
Speaker 5: that case, unfortunately, sadly, they overserved a person I can't
20:16
Speaker 5: remember that if that person was under.
20:18
Speaker 3: Age or not.
20:18
Speaker 5: And then they drove and killed our clients daughter and
20:25
Speaker 5: it was a hit and run. Actually a good police
20:27
Speaker 5: work by the Morgantown Police tracked them down and then
20:31
Speaker 5: we took it, wouldn't settle it, and took it to
20:34
Speaker 5: trial and we got a really good result. I think
20:37
Speaker 5: it was a seven point some million dollar verdicts, So
20:41
Speaker 5: that was a good one.
20:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, why don't we do this.
20:43
Speaker 4: Let's go and take a break here. Let's take our break.
20:45
Speaker 4: Harvey and Tom Paton are here from the Payton Law Froom.
20:47
Speaker 4: If you have questions this morning, I know that we're
20:50
Speaker 4: learning a lot, but if you have questions, you want
20:51
Speaker 4: to put the power of Payton on your side. Any
20:52
Speaker 4: question that you might have about a legal difficulty, something
20:55
Speaker 4: that the Payton Law Froom handles, more than welcome to
20:57
Speaker 4: give us a call this morning. You can give us
20:58
Speaker 4: a call it three or a four three four or
21:00
Speaker 4: five fifty to fifty eight three four five fifty eight
21:01
Speaker 4: fifty eight. You can text threes are a four non
21:03
Speaker 4: three five five zero zero eighth. We'll take a break
21:05
Speaker 4: and be back right after this. You're listening to ask
21:07
Speaker 4: the lawyer with the Paton Law Firm. Harvey and Tom
21:09
Speaker 4: are here when five adwchs the voice returning.
21:11
Speaker 1: The spring sports seasons are winding down, and Metro News
21:14
Speaker 1: TV has complete coverage of the state tournaments from Joe
21:17
Speaker 1: Roccato and Great Care. Plus watch all four state baseball
21:21
Speaker 1: title games live and free on June thirteenth from Huntington.
21:24
Speaker 1: Download the app on your smart TV or streaming device
21:28
Speaker 1: and get more information at wvmetronewstv dot com. Metro News
21:33
Speaker 1: Television is powered by Dan Kavi, gmz Go, Mark lou
21:37
Speaker 1: Wendell Marine and Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration.
21:41
Speaker 6: Retirement is in a finish line. It's a new beginning,
21:43
Speaker 6: but are you really ready. I'm John Burdett with Fourth
21:46
Speaker 6: Avenue Financial and I help people just like you turn
21:48
Speaker 6: confusion into confidence. Whether retirement is five years away or
21:53
Speaker 6: right around the corner, now is the time to make
21:55
Speaker 6: a smart plan. Let's make sure your retirement income last
21:58
Speaker 6: as long as you do. Call it or visit Fourth
22:01
Speaker 6: Avenue Financial dot Com. Fourth Avenue Financial Retirement Done Right
22:05
Speaker 6: Securities offered to Jenny Cole Financial Incorporated. Member fin Recipic
22:08
Speaker 6: Advisory Services offered to Jenny be Call Advisers Incorporated.
22:23
Speaker 4: It's fifteen minutes now until the top of the hour.
22:25
Speaker 4: That's Harvey Peyton, Tom Pagos here this morning as well.
22:27
Speaker 4: He gives the call three zero four three four five
22:28
Speaker 4: fifteen fifty eight three four five fifty eight fifty eight
22:31
Speaker 4: text Threser four nine three five five zero zero eight
22:33
Speaker 4: one line, Patonall from dot com, p y t N
22:35
Speaker 4: Petanmall from dot column.
22:36
Speaker 5: Hey Country Roads. So, uh, probably a lot of our
22:40
Speaker 5: listeners watched the Mountaineer baseball game Monday night when we
22:45
Speaker 5: had a historic win. I guess, I guess we've made
22:48
Speaker 5: it this far before in the NCAA tournament. But uh,
22:52
Speaker 5: but it was a historic broadcast I think because uh,
22:59
Speaker 5: just real quick, you know, we beat Kentucky to move
23:01
Speaker 5: on in the in the playoffs basically for the n
23:05
Speaker 5: cua A Baseball Tournament. It was in Morgantown and I
23:09
Speaker 5: went to extra innings. It was a walk off single
23:11
Speaker 5: RBI to win it. But uh, and the and the
23:16
Speaker 5: the baseball stadium was packed. I think they seat maybe
23:20
Speaker 5: forty six hundred. They have a grass area there so
23:22
Speaker 5: you can do standing room only, although it's really steep,
23:25
Speaker 5: so there's only certain areas I think you can safely sit.
23:29
Speaker 5: But what was different about this than other significant Mountaineer victories.
23:36
Speaker 5: After the game, the players all lined up and the
23:39
Speaker 5: crowd not a person left, and they they sang Country
23:43
Speaker 5: Roads like we always do normally. They as soon as
23:45
Speaker 5: that starts, they fade out and go to the next broadcast.
23:48
Speaker 5: And actually the game that was supposed to come on
23:50
Speaker 5: ESPN two where the Mountaineers were playing, was had already
23:54
Speaker 5: started because we went into extra innings, was playing on
23:56
Speaker 5: ESPN News or something. It's Texas A and M and
23:58
Speaker 5: somebody I thought, well, they're going to flop over to
24:02
Speaker 5: you know, gonna switch us out, but they didn't. And uh,
24:05
Speaker 5: if you it's on social media, if you go to
24:07
Speaker 5: SportsCenter dot com or you're on Facebook, it won't take
24:11
Speaker 5: you but a minute to find it.
24:13
Speaker 3: But it was.
24:18
Speaker 5: It was really good because the announcers said, all they're
24:21
Speaker 5: going to send Country Roads and then announcers just stop.
24:24
Speaker 5: There's three minutes of quiet on a TV bro other
24:27
Speaker 5: than the fans and the players singing, and you just
24:31
Speaker 5: never see that. And uh, then Guzman, the guy who
24:35
Speaker 5: hit the walk off single. You know, they were interviewing him,
24:38
Speaker 5: but he he wouldn't do the.
24:40
Speaker 3: Interview until he got done singing country roads.
24:42
Speaker 5: So everybody out there listening, baseball fan or not, if
24:45
Speaker 5: you're a West Virginia and you really ought to go
24:47
Speaker 5: back and uh watch that broadcast because it wasn't on
24:51
Speaker 5: ESPN Plus or these specials. I mean, it was on
24:53
Speaker 5: the regular, It wasn't main ESPN. It was ESPN two.
24:56
Speaker 5: So if you had basic cable package, you're gonna you're
25:00
Speaker 5: going to get get that. But it's it was a
25:03
Speaker 5: problem that it gave me chills watching that, and uh,
25:07
Speaker 5: you know, hopefully and the Mountains played tomorrow noon and
25:10
Speaker 5: if they win that one, well either way, they played
25:12
Speaker 5: noon on Saturdays, best of three series against cal poly
25:17
Speaker 5: Tech Polytechnical.
25:19
Speaker 4: The scuttle butt is that, at least from like a
25:22
Speaker 4: media standpoint, is that because of the basically West Virginia
25:25
Speaker 4: just imported their football fans to the baseball field and
25:27
Speaker 4: they're rowdy, they're a loud, they're amazing, Like it just
25:30
Speaker 4: sounds so good on TV that the national broadcast are
25:33
Speaker 4: kind of favorite. There's as many as we run our
25:35
Speaker 4: conspiracies right now, we're kind of in on the positive side.
25:38
Speaker 4: Of things, because they love that sound, they love that
25:41
Speaker 4: excitement that it looks like at these baseball fields. And
25:43
Speaker 4: so they're gonna put the Mountaineers on and leave them
25:44
Speaker 4: on as long as they keep winning. So we're going
25:46
Speaker 4: to be able to see them. And of course now
25:47
Speaker 4: they're close enough where it wouldn't matter anyway. I mean
25:50
Speaker 4: that we're getting into the super Regionals and got to
25:52
Speaker 4: win two to get to the Omaha.
25:54
Speaker 3: That's that's huge.
25:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, and credit to us or that I wasn't there,
25:57
Speaker 5: but the Mountaineer fans, because you know, I was flipping
26:00
Speaker 5: back and forth. There's games going on simultaneously, and these
26:02
Speaker 5: are all Monday. They were all knockout games or elimination
26:05
Speaker 5: games in the evening anyway, So, uh, winter moves on,
26:10
Speaker 5: loser goes home. And there was Florida was playing in Gainesville,
26:15
Speaker 5: Texas A and m was playing in College Station that's
26:18
Speaker 5: their home field. And I was flipping back and forth,
26:21
Speaker 5: and you go to those broadcasts and yeah, there's a
26:25
Speaker 5: pretty good crowd there, but there are scattering of empty
26:29
Speaker 5: seats at both of those facilities. Then they go back
26:32
Speaker 5: to you know, Mountaineer Field. I'm not sure what the
26:37
Speaker 5: name of the what's the name of the baseball park.
26:39
Speaker 2: I can't remember. The Kendrick Family Stadium. Okay, yeah, Ken Kendrick.
26:43
Speaker 5: But some of the games, right, and you go back
26:45
Speaker 5: to our broadcast and there's I mean there's not a
26:47
Speaker 5: seat lest somebody's going to get a snack or go
26:49
Speaker 5: to the bathroom. I mean there's not a seat available
26:51
Speaker 5: and it's standing room only, and so certainly that plays
26:55
Speaker 5: well for for ESPN. And then that, I mean, it's
26:59
Speaker 5: it's the whole week. It's spread across media. That scene
27:03
Speaker 5: of everyone singing country roads there together. Hopefully had some
27:07
Speaker 5: nice recruits there watching it. It's not gonna hurt. I know,
27:10
Speaker 5: we got a nice offensive lineman that committed I think
27:14
Speaker 5: yesterday the Mountaineers, but that that kind of stuff really helps.
27:17
Speaker 5: But credit to all the Mountaineer fans, and I really
27:20
Speaker 5: encourage everybody to go back if they didn't watch the
27:22
Speaker 5: end of that. Uh, the clips all over Facebook at
27:26
Speaker 5: least that's the only social media I do.
27:27
Speaker 3: So it was.
27:29
Speaker 5: It was a great win for the Mountaineers. Hopefully they'll
27:31
Speaker 5: come through here in the next couple of days and
27:32
Speaker 5: get to the It will be a historical event if
27:34
Speaker 5: we win this best of three series because we've never
27:37
Speaker 5: made it to the uh College World Series.
27:40
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you gotta be cal poly sa. I mean,
27:42
Speaker 4: of all the teams that you got that you're that
27:44
Speaker 4: you circle at the beginning of the season and maybe
27:46
Speaker 4: you have to go somewhere, probably not the one that
27:48
Speaker 4: you that you that you queued up the Mustangs, by
27:50
Speaker 4: the way, the Mustangs.
27:51
Speaker 3: That's right. Be careful, be careful. They won thirty five.
27:54
Speaker 2: Oh, I know.
27:54
Speaker 4: They have a very good program, there's no question.
27:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've got a big guy, I think, uh super hitter,
27:59
Speaker 2: and they played in the Big West Conference, which is
28:02
Speaker 2: Hawaii plus every California state school other than cal Berkeley
28:07
Speaker 2: and UCLA, So it's not going.
28:10
Speaker 4: To be you know, they have a traditionally good baseball program.
28:13
Speaker 2: Baseball anything can happen, you know, you you know, it
28:17
Speaker 2: was chilling to watch that. The only other thing I
28:20
Speaker 2: can think about that was emotionally impactful for me was
28:24
Speaker 2: when Owen Smith broke into tears being interviewed after the
28:29
Speaker 2: Fiesta Bowl. I mean, it was just an incredible moments
28:33
Speaker 2: which is still replayed on the Runaway Beer Truck.
28:37
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, I mean, the guy came back here
28:39
Speaker 4: and opened up a bar and restaurant. Has been to
28:41
Speaker 4: fixedure of the community up north for a long time now.
28:43
Speaker 4: I mean he loved the state, there's no question about it.
28:45
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say a little something about the law. First
28:48
Speaker 2: of all, at the Peyton Law Firm, you know, we
28:50
Speaker 2: have a wealth of local knowledge and experience, primarily in
28:55
Speaker 2: the accident and injury field. We also do things that
28:58
Speaker 2: just regular folks needs. Little state planning doesn't mean we're
29:02
Speaker 2: jacks of all trades. It simply means that we focus
29:05
Speaker 2: to some small degree on what our clients need after
29:09
Speaker 2: they get the money or with the money they've earned
29:13
Speaker 2: all their lives. How to dispose of, how to handle
29:15
Speaker 2: a business transaction, to how to deal with a dispute
29:20
Speaker 2: about their family farm. We can do that, although our
29:23
Speaker 2: primary focus is accident injury work, which involves work in court.
29:27
Speaker 2: One sort of distressing thing that yesterday I was listening
29:31
Speaker 2: to the afternoon show, or may have been the morning
29:33
Speaker 2: show talk Line.
29:36
Speaker 6: And.
29:38
Speaker 2: The treasurer was on Larry pack Pack. Yeah, who understands
29:44
Speaker 2: a really nice guy. I don't know Larry Pack, but
29:45
Speaker 2: Steve White was his business partner in Tessa, Steve's daughter
29:48
Speaker 2: was executive director of the Bar Association while I was president.
29:52
Speaker 2: But he was talking about, you know, they asked him
29:55
Speaker 2: about the disarray and the Republican Party and he started
29:59
Speaker 2: to mention, well, now because of that, we've got a
30:01
Speaker 2: quote activist court, we have to and he used the
30:04
Speaker 2: word activist court that phrase probably a half dozen times,
30:08
Speaker 2: so I assume he's talking about, Uh was it Bill
30:12
Speaker 2: Flanagan And.
30:13
Speaker 3: Bill Flanagan won the election and.
30:16
Speaker 2: From Wheeley and Kirk Kirkpatrick, who's a longtime circuit judge
30:21
Speaker 2: and Rawley County, And I'm thinking, well, what do you mean?
30:25
Speaker 2: You know, I don't think it's any secret Tom and
30:28
Speaker 2: our office endorsed the other side, Tom Ewing, and what's
30:33
Speaker 2: your friend's name, Jerial Titus. Ye, Gerald Titus. They're talking
30:37
Speaker 2: about contemporary with Tom, and I know both of them.
30:40
Speaker 2: I know Gerald Titus's father, and Tom Ewing was you know,
30:43
Speaker 2: the firm that he was with. They certainly would have
30:46
Speaker 2: been acceptable and competent on the bench. But what is
30:49
Speaker 2: to say that because you've got a lawyer from Wheeling
30:54
Speaker 2: and I retired judge from Rawley County, that suddenly we're
30:56
Speaker 2: confronted with this dangerous active escort. Kirkpatrick in his seventies.
31:00
Speaker 2: He's not a raging liberally got good sense. I mean,
31:07
Speaker 2: he and Bill Wooton, I'm sure have some camaraderie because
31:10
Speaker 2: there are contemporaries from Donner Beckley. But I thought that
31:14
Speaker 2: was a bit I'm and I've heard that phrase used
31:16
Speaker 2: a couple of times in newspaper articles. Well now we
31:20
Speaker 2: have this activist score, Well, what what is that? What
31:24
Speaker 2: are we afraid of? What's what do you think that
31:26
Speaker 2: these two new judges are going to do? So poison
31:31
Speaker 2: the well for legitimacy? Is that what the point is?
31:33
Speaker 3: You think? Yeah, well, I think that's absolutely the case.
31:37
Speaker 2: It's like someone on a national's scene saying every elections
31:41
Speaker 2: rigged and there was big cheating in California. You just
31:44
Speaker 2: want to poison the well because when you get walloped
31:47
Speaker 2: in an election, you want to do well because it
31:49
Speaker 2: was because something happened or but you know, people campaigns
31:54
Speaker 2: a state wide race. It was a race that was
31:56
Speaker 2: available to Democrats, independents, and Republicans, and I don't think
32:01
Speaker 2: independent voters had any adverse reaction to Republicans for being
32:04
Speaker 2: shut out of the primary. I think, you know, it's
32:07
Speaker 2: clear from the wards of the victory that most people
32:10
Speaker 2: in the state of West Virginia opted for a little
32:13
Speaker 2: more age and experience period. So in that regard, I
32:17
Speaker 2: mean I disagree with the Treasurer. I do agree with
32:21
Speaker 2: him at his request for information about the auditor hiring
32:24
Speaker 2: a state senator, which seems to be pretty clearly against
32:27
Speaker 2: the law. Yeah, and that's I think I saw you
32:32
Speaker 2: guys are going to have on statewide talk line maybe
32:35
Speaker 2: at around eleven thirty Mark cunnellby on the treasure So
32:39
Speaker 2: and what just for a background on that, that's where
32:42
Speaker 2: a sitting member of the legislature was hired by the Treasurer,
32:46
Speaker 2: which if they're employed by the trade, mean that's prohibited
32:49
Speaker 2: I think in the constitution. So you can't be employed
32:53
Speaker 2: by the treasure and also be serving on the state legislature.
32:58
Speaker 5: So what the Treasure's office at least attempted to do
33:02
Speaker 5: or it kind of categorized him as an independent contractor.
33:05
Speaker 5: And and yesterday I think it's the auditor, right, Mark
33:13
Speaker 5: kunn is the treasurer of the auditor. He's the auditor. Okay,
33:15
Speaker 5: he's the auditor. So I'm misspoke there. The Auditor's officer.
33:18
Speaker 5: Larry Pike's the treasurer and he of course he's in
33:21
Speaker 5: charge of the purse string. So yesterday he issued a
33:23
Speaker 5: letter to the Auditor's office and hey, give me details
33:27
Speaker 5: on this arrangement.
33:29
Speaker 3: And whether a person is.
33:32
Speaker 5: Truly an employee versus an independent contractor is not based
33:37
Speaker 5: on how you label them. It's based on what's actually
33:40
Speaker 5: going on. And I've handled those, Kate, you know, generally
33:45
Speaker 5: as a general matter or more benefits. And it's better
33:48
Speaker 5: you're covered by wage in an hour law if you're
33:50
Speaker 5: an employee versus an independent contractor. And so just because
33:55
Speaker 5: someone who hires another person says you're an independent contractor
33:59
Speaker 5: doesn't mean the actually are under the law. And it
34:01
Speaker 5: looks like that's what the treasure is kind of looking into.
34:04
Speaker 5: Is this person really they just label him an independent conductor,
34:08
Speaker 5: but he's actually doing work of an employee. And so
34:11
Speaker 5: we'll see what what TJ and Dave have to ask. Well,
34:17
Speaker 5: mister Hunt, and you know it's one of.
34:19
Speaker 2: Those things is barely legal, right, Uh, that's the issue. Uh,
34:27
Speaker 2: you can label I mean the state constitution says, if
34:30
Speaker 2: you're in the legislature, have no other officer post with
34:32
Speaker 2: the state period.
34:34
Speaker 3: So is it right? Is it moral?
34:39
Speaker 2: Is it keeping faith with the electorate that they're trying
34:43
Speaker 2: to bypass that by labeling someone putting him in an
34:46
Speaker 2: office where they have oversight over other people. And I mean,
34:49
Speaker 2: we have seen enough of that on the national level.
34:51
Speaker 2: We have said. Here's my favorite example. We had an
34:55
Speaker 2: Act of Congress that renamed a number of bases that
34:59
Speaker 2: were in i'm properly named for Confederate generals. So Fort
35:04
Speaker 2: Bragg was named for Braxton Bragg, not a very good general,
35:08
Speaker 2: but a Confederate slaveholder skunk, and that was changed to
35:15
Speaker 2: Fort Freedom. Well that's Fort Bragg again. But oh no, no,
35:19
Speaker 2: not Braxton Bragg, but some serviceman by the name of
35:22
Speaker 2: Bragg who was awarded the Silver Star in the Korean War.
35:26
Speaker 2: Now that's sophomoric, that's underhanded, And it's the barely legal
35:32
Speaker 2: sort of stuff that I think the general American public
35:35
Speaker 2: is sick of, and I hate to see it even
35:37
Speaker 2: get its roots here in West Virginia. And that's what,
35:40
Speaker 2: in my opinion, this is, and I don't care what
35:43
Speaker 2: anybody says about it. It's if it's legal, it's barely legal,
35:47
Speaker 2: and you're skunking around the system to get it done,
35:50
Speaker 2: to reward an ally period and hopefully the next election
35:56
Speaker 2: cycle people will remember that. Although I think the half
35:59
Speaker 2: life of bad memory he's pretty short in this place.
36:02
Speaker 2: So all right, that's enough for me. Got a minute left.
36:07
Speaker 4: It makes about it a lot of sense about a
36:08
Speaker 4: minute left if you want to wrap it up here.
36:10
Speaker 3: All right, good?
36:10
Speaker 5: Yeah, So yeah, of course, accident and injury and trying
36:14
Speaker 5: case is really what we like to do. I mean,
36:16
Speaker 5: it's yeah, you know, you hate to analogize it to this,
36:19
Speaker 5: but I mean it's kind of like practice, practice, practice, prepare, prepare, prepare,
36:24
Speaker 5: and then trials your game and we perform really.
36:27
Speaker 3: Well there that helps us.
36:27
Speaker 5: I mean, not that many cases get tried, we settle
36:30
Speaker 5: almost all of them, but that's what gets them settled
36:33
Speaker 5: because you're prepared and ready to go, and you've got
36:35
Speaker 5: a history of performing well at trials. But if you
36:38
Speaker 5: have a question about any particular legal issue, you can
36:41
Speaker 5: pop us an email through the website, stop by, or
36:43
Speaker 5: give us a call to office at seven five five
36:46
Speaker 5: five five five six, and we'll be.
36:48
Speaker 3: Glad to talk to you.
36:49
Speaker 5: And if it's something not in our wheelhouse, we'll be
36:51
Speaker 5: glad to give you a referral.
36:52
Speaker 4: Or at Peyton Lawfirm dot com. That's right, Peyton Lawfirm
36:55
Speaker 4: dot com. P E y t O in Peyton Lawfirm
36:57
Speaker 4: dot Com. Every Thursday right here at eight twenty one
37:00
Speaker 4: five adw CHS has asked the lawyer, first time ever.
37:02
Speaker 4: Harvey and Tom in studio with us. This will be
37:04
Speaker 4: on podcast at WHS network dot com slash podcast here
37:08
Speaker 4: in just a little bit. Dave Allan's up next on
37:10
Speaker 4: five eight Live. I'll be back this afternoon with Dave
37:12
Speaker 4: Weekly on hotline. Have a great day, everyone, listening to
37:14
Speaker 4: your Voice of Charleston five ADWHS f A w c
37:29
Speaker 4: HS A M ninety six point five Charleston one oh
37:31
Speaker 4: four point five Cross Lane WVRC Media Station.
37:36
Speaker 3: We're proud to live here too,