Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 12/21/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
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- 0:51twenty two on five ADWCCHS the Voice of Charleston and Good Thursday morning to twenty
- 0:56first day of December twenty twenty three. In in the studio with me this
- 1:00morning is Tom Peyton, now the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. Three oh
- 1:03four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Number to call three oh four
- 1:07three four five fifty eight fifty eight in questions about the law. Three oh
- 1:11four three four five fifty eight fifty eight Tom good morning. How you doing.
- 1:15I'm doing great. Jeff, how you doing. I'm doing well.
- 1:18Good to see you. Getting ready for the holidays. Yeah, Christmas.
- 1:22So I'm my usual. I got on it real early on the internet and
- 1:26I'll knock this out. Well that that momentum wane, and then I still
- 1:30got to do a little bit of shopping. But uh, that's all.
- 1:33I have to go into a real store instead of sitting at my desk and
- 1:37clicking button. They like to see men coming in. Oh yeah, the
- 1:41last couple of cause men aren't looking, men are buying. Well, it
- 1:44gives me a good excuse to go to the new target in Tays Valley.
- 1:47There you go, Here you go. We'll check that out. Making progress
- 1:49in Tays Valley. There no glad to be here. Hopefully get some calls
- 1:55kind of following. Our Mountaineers played last night and basting the game because I
- 2:00was playing my outdoors or my indoor soccer league where I play or try to
- 2:05play. But uh, I guess we lost on the last second shot.
- 2:07They can't. They have a tough time playing defense. And now Jesse Edwards
- 2:12out, they have a tough time rebound. Right. They got out rebounded
- 2:14by Rafford right by Yeah, like eight or nine, Yeah like that.
- 2:17Yeah, forty some rebounds. That those some rebounds. So that's too bad.
- 2:21We're gonna go up to the game Saturday and see, you know,
- 2:23it's a one o'clock game, so it's an easy up and back. But
- 2:27uh, just real unfortunate right when we get things set for our players to
- 2:30come back. First, Rake one Battle had the flu last Saturday, right
- 2:34when he could play and couldn't play. And then in that game, Jesse
- 2:38Edwards, then our kind of star center, uh, fractured his rest and
- 2:44I thought, well, maybe it's just a slight but I guess they did
- 2:46surgery. So that's gonna be a good month before him comes back. And
- 2:50that's a real, real hole. But uh, but in the meantime,
- 2:53since I was here last week, you know, we talked about the temporary
- 2:57restraining order that Judge Bailey had entered, which gave the basically set aside the
- 3:04transfer wole and opened up on Avenue for one hundred and some athletes to start
- 3:07playing if they chose to the risk being you know, they had a hearing
- 3:13set for next week and Mountaineers had three games, so if raekwon Battle or
- 3:16I guess fery Con played in those and then Judge changes his mind, then
- 3:22you might have blown your full season of eligibility by playing three games, So
- 3:24put them in a real catch twenty two. And you brought that up last
- 3:28week because you were right on it, because then the NCLA came out later
- 3:31on Thursday, and that's the way they were interpreting it, like, if
- 3:36you play, they know you might your season eligibility. Potentially, They didn't,
- 3:40you know, say that, but they reserved the right to do that,
- 3:44and that was part of that. You heard Rayquon Battle's personal lawyers addressing
- 3:47that situation. So they had to hammer that out. Now, I thought
- 3:53that was kind of bad faith for the nc DOUBLEA, but I mean they
- 3:55put it out there. I thought when they put it out there, well,
- 3:58this is a negotiating tool because they're working on something. And so what
- 4:01happened then subsequently, I think Friday, they all the lawyers got together and
- 4:06the parties and it essentially agreed to keep the provisions of the temporary restraining order
- 4:14in place as a preliminary injunction, which is the more permanent injunction through the
- 4:19permanent in that it stays in place until there's a ruling on the merits at
- 4:24the end. And so probably I don't know what percentage is, but probably
- 4:28seventy five percent of the time when those are in place, a major factor's
- 4:32likelihood of winning on the merits in the end enter an injunction. So you
- 4:36know, majority of the time the pleminary injunction ruling will be the final ruling
- 4:43ultimately, unless there's some new evidence or something. When I went back and
- 4:46you provided that order for the temporary restraining order, it was like thirty one
- 4:50pages I think when I went back and read it after our show, I
- 4:54mean it was Judge Bailey didn't hesitate on whether this was potential viole violation of
- 5:00anti competition rules on the federal level, and actually used the Austin case and
- 5:04cited it a couple of times. That's what led to the nil, you
- 5:09know, the ability of college athletes to get paid for their name, image
- 5:12and likeness. And so I look at that, I thought, you know,
- 5:16he's not going to change his mind at this hearing coming up next week,
- 5:19and NCUBA probably realized that. Plus, I mean, they're jeopardizing the
- 5:25more of these cases get there on these anti competition grounds, the more difficult
- 5:31it's going to be in the future for the NCAA to operate in any man
- 5:34are consistent with what it's operated at in the past. And I don't know,
- 5:40I'm I don't recall personally because I was too young, but I mean,
- 5:44I think this advent of huge money in television rights and just the amount
- 5:49of money in college football and basketball NCAA tournament, I mean, that's that's
- 5:55something that's probably come on, what in the last thirty years maybe. I
- 5:57mean, I think in the early eighties, late seventies there was on attempts
- 6:00to control TV rights by the NCAA and things like that, and of course
- 6:03the NCAA tournament was not what it is today, I mean, generating that
- 6:08kind of income. So you know, it's just something that's developing when there's
- 6:12there's so much money involved in the in the situation. But anyway, so
- 6:16all the parties presented a joint motion and an order proposed order to Judge Bailey
- 6:21on Friday, and that was in essence to keep the temporary restraining order in
- 6:27place until the conclusion of the case. Okay, that's easy now. Then
- 6:32importantly they designated that the trial, which it will either be probably not a
- 6:40jury trial, but maybe the judge will take some evidence that will not be
- 6:45noticed and sept for hearing until the last day of competition of the twenty twenty
- 6:49three twenty twenty four winter spring sports seasons and tournament play. So they said,
- 6:55one, we're going to keep this in place and let them play too.
- 6:58We're not going to have a decision on the merits and potentially reverse this
- 7:02preliminary ruling until all the competitions are done for the early summer. We take
- 7:11Yeah, so, uh, that's good. So that opens up that that
- 7:14eliminates the concern that you might only play a few games and lose your season
- 7:18of eligibility. So now these student athletes can play through the rest of their
- 7:23season, and even if it's reversed, you know, they got to play
- 7:28and so they're not losing a season based on like three games. Then something
- 7:32different that was in this order clearly by agreement of the parties. It says
- 7:39that the NC double A S will take no action to retaliate against any athlete
- 7:44that participates in athletic competition during the period of this preliminary injunction or the member
- 7:49institution that such athlete attends based on the athlete's reliance upon the terms of the
- 7:55preliminary injunction. So to me it penalize them obviously. Is that so if
- 8:01the judge, if the ruling is different in the end on the merits,
- 8:05and says that, and the judge says the transfer rule is valid generally,
- 8:09and of course Raekwon Battle's got his own argument about his particular situation, but
- 8:13the judge upholds that. Then I think reading is, you know, you
- 8:18can't go back and forth foot the team's games, so they're basically protected during
- 8:22this entire period, and then they'll just be a technical decision later whether the
- 8:26transfer rule is a violation of anti competitive rules. So here's my question Tom
- 8:31Payton's with is the Peyton Law Firm in nighter three or four three four five
- 8:35fifty fifty three or four three four five fifty fifty what's the possibility that they
- 8:39could reach further settlement the NCLA comes out with a new transfer significant Yeah,
- 8:46I think they'll probably my guess would be not to have some time. They'll
- 8:52probably participate in some kind of mediation where you get a you know, a
- 8:56third party attorney that's not representing anyone in place that's familiar with this area of
- 9:01the law, and my guess will be they'll work something out where the transfer
- 9:09rule is modified with more objective factors. Yeah, just to say, well,
- 9:13we decided that, you know, Rae Kwon doesn't really have mental health
- 9:16issues, or we just decided that he does, but they're not significant enough.
- 9:22You know, there's just just too subjective. I think. I think
- 9:24if you get some objective criteria that is more black and white, that'll probably
- 9:31satisfy the attorney generals that filed the case and the individual student athletes that are
- 9:37participating in the case as well. That's where I see it going now on
- 9:41the personal case, which still is pending, right uh naming you know that
- 9:46ri Quan battle filed in his attorney also in federal court. I mean there
- 9:50could be some damages there, right potentially, Yeah, but I don't know.
- 9:56I don't know what the area of deem it just would be on that
- 9:58actually that I haven't And that's like like lost in IL money, Well that's
- 10:03true, Yeah, that's true. If he lost, if he actually lost
- 10:05in IL money because you couldn't play the whole season and right, you didn't
- 10:09hit the incentives or the the right ray Kwan battle has a and of course
- 10:15it's been consolidated into one case, so it's all before the same judge,
- 10:18all the same case. So he's his individual claim I believe is encompass within
- 10:22this expliminary injunction junction order. Now does he have damnities? I don't know.
- 10:26I think his case is a bit more difficult because when you're talking about
- 10:31an association or a kind of a voluntary association you're involved in, and they
- 10:37enact some rules and then you're challenging their discretion discretionary decision, it's difficult.
- 10:43Usually courts give deference to the entity that made their decisions. So a lot
- 10:48of times, and I don't know in this particular case, because I've not
- 10:52seen one of these appealed like this before, there may not be any precedent
- 10:54for this. But normally, UH, courts will not necessarily go take you
- 11:01know, they don't take a hold what they call Danovo review. They don't
- 11:03do that. They don't start from scratch and say, as the judge and
- 11:07say what I've decided. It's different. They have to use a what's called
- 11:11a deferential standard of review, meaning give them some difference to the NTY that
- 11:16made the decision in the first place. So they're nt double A's decision if
- 11:20you apply that process would be is it's so unreasonable that it you know,
- 11:24it wasn't based on any real factor, totally arbitrary and capricious, capricious,
- 11:28and that depends. You know, they'll be able to take depositions and things
- 11:33like that if they want to and go back to the decision makers at the
- 11:35nt double A and figure out what their reasoning was and get more detail.
- 11:41And if it's arbitrary and capricious, he'll probably win. Uh, if it
- 11:45ever gets to fruition, I think it's probably going to be absorbed in the
- 11:48other case. And I haven't seen whether he's you know, he's asking for
- 11:52a declaratory judgment to declare that he's eligible in that case. I didn't see
- 11:56whether he was asking for monetary damages based loss of income in essence for losing
- 12:03n I L money because they initially ruled that he couldn't play. It's it's
- 12:07interesting that the n C double A obviously they decided, okay, we're not
- 12:13gonna I mean, they saw they went to the they went to the hearing
- 12:16obviously, you know, to the to the to the initial hearing, and
- 12:20then they saw I hate I mean handwriting on the wall obviously right in that
- 12:26that when you see the judge's temporary restraining order, it's just not one of
- 12:31those where he's saying this is a close call here or there. I mean,
- 12:35you know, it's just he basically found out, well, this is
- 12:39I do not He didn't hesitate to rule. This is a violation of the
- 12:43with the Sherman Act, to the anti competition rules or laws governing business.
- 12:48So he can't clude. I mean, they have a and it's hard to
- 12:52apply, but you know it's it's the n C double A basically has a
- 12:54functional monopoly on the top tier UH sports organizations for college So when you have
- 13:03that monopoly kind of in fact monopoly, that's when you start getting to these
- 13:09anti competition federal law. It's just like you know, the I use the
- 13:13example of the l IV Tour and the PGA Tour that reached some agreement because
- 13:18you know, there's challenges to the PGA Tour's entire scheme, and you know
- 13:22they were a player goes to play in a different for a different tour and
- 13:26all of a sudden they're getting essentially blackballed from the PGA tour. So there's
- 13:31anti competition issues there. But then that it's kind of a merger between the
- 13:37l I V and the PGA Tour that's being monitored. They haven't put out
- 13:41any final terms of that deal yet because that's monitored by the Department of Justice
- 13:46as well to see whether that creates too big of a monopoly to you know,
- 13:52didn't allow mergers. It was. There's been a couple of other sales
- 13:54over the last couple of years. I can't recall them off the top of
- 13:56my head where the Department of Justice denied you they wouldn't let them, and
- 14:01it's been that way. I think that's how Again, this predates me somewhat,
- 14:05but like the Gazette and the Daily Mail, I mean, it was
- 14:07all think even when they combined, there had to be some kind of editorial
- 14:11separation because of an monopoly issue. So the in the greatest example of monopolies
- 14:18are like utility companies, but of course they're heavily regulated by the Public Service
- 14:22Commission, which you know, they get the privilege of being the monopoly and
- 14:26the burden of being heavily regulated by the by the state regulatory boards. Right
- 14:33three or four three four five fifty fifty eight. Three oh four three four
- 14:37five fifty eight fifty eight eight thirty six going to take our one and only
- 14:39break and the lines are open. Give us a call, Give Tom a
- 14:41call. Any questions maybe about a family, maybe like about a deed,
- 14:48or about a will, or just any maybe you're injured in an accident,
- 14:52anything Tom can help you. Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
- 14:56eight three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight back in a moment
- 14:58on five eighty. Yup, what you see hs looking to replace your car
- 15:01with a reliable and stylish ride without breaking the bank. Walker, Chevrolet and
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- 15:11suv that you've been waiting for. So what are you waiting for? Not
- 15:16only is the selection plentiful at Walker right now, but you know that Gene
- 15:20and Ryan built their business the old fashioned way by making friends. There are
- 15:24no gimmicks or games at Walker, just honest, fair deals. And don't
- 15:28forget that Walker is still buying cars too. That's right, all makes and
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- 15:41and take advantage of all of this inventory. Cars, trucks and SUVs.
- 15:46They're all here and they're waiting to go home with you. Today at Walker
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- 16:02Put the power of Peyton on the side. We have the court room
- 16:07experience that you need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight for
- 16:15your rights when you need action, count on us. What's the power of
- 16:22Page eight thirty eight on five A WHSs Charleston, Jeff Jenkins with you,
- 16:27Tom Peyton and the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro three oh four three four five
- 16:32fifty eight fifty eight three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight and
- 16:34never to call. Located right there first Avenue Route twenty five in Nitro went
- 16:41Pie went by your place two days ago. Uh, A couple of weeks
- 16:45ago. I was inside, Yeah, yeah, decorated lovely for Christmas.
- 16:51Uh in just uh, I mean just a nice place, really just to
- 16:53stop Bob. That's right. You got you got our book exchange. You
- 16:56can come in and pick a book out and read it. And you know,
- 17:00we have decent amount of clients and actually lawyers come to do business and
- 17:03they just kind of hang out afterward if we're not using the conference room.
- 17:07Guess the way you want your office to be. You know, it's not
- 17:10that people are real hesitant to you forget when you're been a lawyer forever and
- 17:14your dad was a lawyer in your entire life, how you know people getting
- 17:17nervous going to see lawyers and you just kind of forget about that as an
- 17:21attorney. But you know, we try and make it as comfortable and as
- 17:26friendly and easy as possible when you come to see see us and actually get
- 17:30a lot of comments after people heal like that wasn't so bad. It's not
- 17:33like you were coming to have your wisdom teeth poll. But which it depends
- 17:37on what we're doing. There's obviously some really difficult things we help folks deal
- 17:42with. But yeah, you were talking about earlier, call us with about
- 17:45anything, and that's true. We don't do any bankruptcy, your income tax
- 17:48work. If you have some issues on that. You can give us a
- 17:51call and we'll try and find in a you know, being around forever.
- 17:53We know lawyers that do that type work regularly and do referrals. But you
- 17:57know, bread and butter civil litigation, if you've been hurt or had a
- 18:02family member hurt in a car accident for example, trucking accident, industrial accident
- 18:07fall. We do a decent amount of SoC security disability. We've done a
- 18:12lot of family law over my career. I don't do as much anymore,
- 18:17and criminal defense work as well. Actually have a big trial coming up in
- 18:19January. I'll be in it for two weeks. Done in Cavell County.
- 18:23So kind of a difficult case to somebody was killed and some officers were shot
- 18:30actually, but looking forward to trying it. It's an interesting case to try.
- 18:34I'm actually pointed in that one because the judge asked me if I would
- 18:37be willing to do it, So I'm public defender in essence, but I
- 18:41don't normally do that anymore. Did a lot of it. That's how I
- 18:45cut my teeth trying cases. You know, in Putnam County you don't have
- 18:48a public Defender's office, so you just have lawyers that volunteer to go on
- 18:52a list. They're called panel attorneys, and then you have to send your
- 18:55billing into the state at some really low rate, unfortunately, but you get
- 19:00to try a lot of cases that way. So I mean, I don't
- 19:03know how many cases I tried right out of law school as a kind of
- 19:07a public pseudo public defender, but it was double digits. I mean it
- 19:11was a lot. And so it's a good way to cut your teeth and
- 19:12get used to trying cases in front of juri's and that's what we like to
- 19:15do. I think we do well in front of jury's one because we have
- 19:19a broad base of knowledge because we do a lot of different things and we
- 19:22deal with regular people all the time, and that's generally who sit on juries,
- 19:29and we're well prepared and we pay attention to our cases because we are
- 19:32hands on in all of our cases. That helps us do a good job
- 19:34as well. And I think we are even though we're lawyers, we're pretty
- 19:40much operate at ground level. So I think we have a good job of
- 19:42identifying with normal folks and it's helped us over the years get good results.
- 19:49And you can't win them all large says they never lose a case is either
- 19:52lying or they dump every case. It's difficult. So it never gets to
- 19:56a point where they lose a case, because you can lose the best case
- 20:00and you can win the worst case. Man, I've gone into jury trial
- 20:03saying, oh, this is a this is going to be difficult, and
- 20:06come out with really good results. And then I've gone into cases where I
- 20:08don't know that. I've absolutely lost a case where I thought we had a
- 20:14great, great, great chance of doing of winning whatever winning means, because
- 20:18there's a lot of gray area in these cases. But I've certainly had results
- 20:22that weren't as good as I as I thought we were going to get it
- 20:25at trial. And that's the way it goes. But all you can ask
- 20:26if a lawyer, in my opinion, is be honest with you, communicate
- 20:30with you, be prepared, and work hard. And that's all you can
- 20:34really ask for you go to a lawyer, you know, they I have
- 20:38people call me and say, well, this lawyer said my case is worth
- 20:41xxxts. Well, there's no way they can know that from one phone call
- 20:45with you, and so that's that's puffery. You know, it's a sales
- 20:49tactic. So you just got to watch that kind of thing. And people
- 20:52don't know any better that are that are non lawyers. But but if you
- 20:56call us and hire us, you'll get what I just said. For sure.
- 21:00Nobody can guarantee a result, but you'll get what I just said,
- 21:03and I'll guarantee that and and so and that. That's the that's the uh
- 21:07kind of the theory. We've operated on my entire career and Dad's career too,
- 21:11and that's why we end up getting lots of clients. I mean,
- 21:15we do. Uh. You know, there's a lot of a lot of
- 21:18advertising on the radio and anybody considering it out there. It's been really good
- 21:21for us, period, or else we wouldn't. I mean, every Thursday
- 21:25we rarely miss. I'll be at the Bowl game next Wednesday and Dad will
- 21:29too, but I'll call in Thursday morning while I'm still in Charlotte and we'll
- 21:33have our show. Oh, we have a little post game. We'll have
- 21:34a little post sure. That's more fun than the law anyway. Or at
- 21:38the end of the year, so maybe we can leave it up to the
- 21:41h Hopefully it'll be I think not to change gears from the wall, but
- 21:45I think we got a hopefully we got an excellent shot down there to go
- 21:48when the uh, you know, Dukes doesn't just make mayonnaise, they also
- 21:52make mustard. So my my fridge is full of it right now. Okay,
- 21:56there there you go. And uh in something that your dad talks about
- 22:00and he just and this is how he was kind of raised in the profession,
- 22:04you know, at the old WVU School of law, is to be
- 22:07able to do a little bit of everything as far as as far as what
- 22:10people need. Like I don't know if you call it the consumer type,
- 22:14Yeah, that's I do. And it's kind of the work that everyday people
- 22:18need. It's not always consumers, because we do a lot of small business
- 22:19work to somebody's an LLC creative or an operating agreement or something. I mean,
- 22:23we're not doing big, large, you know, one hundred and sum
- 22:29employee employer corporate work and things like that. And we don't do any work
- 22:33for insurance companies. But you always feel like, you know, there's maybe
- 22:37a couple of lawyers in Nitro, but you know, if somebody needs to
- 22:38I shouldn't have to drive downtown Charleston if they need to get a deed done
- 22:42competently, or a title search or have a will made, or a question
- 22:48about a boundary line issue or something like that, and so we've kind of
- 22:52prided ourselves of knowing how to do that. Now, I was sure if
- 22:55you call a lot of these and this isn't a dig on them. Everybody
- 22:57has their own, you know, method, and maybe I'm just in this
- 23:02situation because that's how I was trained and brought up. But you know,
- 23:04you call a lot of these law firms that are all over the TV about
- 23:08if you've been hurt seriously, YadA YadA, YadA. I mean, they're
- 23:11not going to be able to answer a question for you about, oh,
- 23:15by the way, how can I get a wheel done? Or you know,
- 23:18how do I handle this estate where my mom or grandma passed away and
- 23:22there's some airship land out there. How do we get that straightened out?
- 23:26And there's thirty two people or whatever it is, that's right, that's right.
- 23:29Things like that, or you know, worker's comp kit. You know,
- 23:32I don't really do those very much, but I will do them if
- 23:34you're For instance, I've got multiple cases where folks were driving for work and
- 23:37somebody else hit them and so they have a worker's comp claim because they were
- 23:42actually driving for work at the time of the accident. Now we also have
- 23:47the injury claim where the person t boned them and hurt them. But we
- 23:49can guide them on the workers comp side, even represent them if there's problems.
- 23:53Because we know how to do the workers' comp claims. We can do
- 23:56SO security disability from beginning to end. Tell them, yeah, you need
- 24:00to go ahead and apply for disability now, even though you might go back
- 24:03to work a year year and a half from now when you recover SOB security.
- 24:07We know it takes two years to get to a hearing in so security,
- 24:11So you bound as will file now. If you wait a year from
- 24:14now, you're just that farther back in the line. So that's a good
- 24:17example of you know how we can give you kind of a global representation on
- 24:22things. And like I said, knowing how that works, I think helps
- 24:26us in court as well on the injury cases, because we have a broad
- 24:30base of knowledge on how the law works and what everyday people deal with on
- 24:33an everyday basis. Right, and as you have said, the meter doesn't
- 24:37start running when somebody gives your call. That's right, No, it's in
- 24:41an email. If you've got a question, sit an email, give us
- 24:42a call. Those first sets of inquiries and responses, we don't ever charge
- 24:48a fee. We don't really charge a fee. Ever, We're not going
- 24:51to unless we for just consultation, unless we tell you you know, here's
- 24:55what we're going to charge. And injury cases the bulk of what we do
- 24:59as far as I somebody's been heard or injured, and all lawyers do this.
- 25:02So when you see the advertisements that say that, I mean it's you
- 25:06don't pay unless we win. Well, that's how every lawyer handles those cases
- 25:08for the most part. So you know, if you hire us for an
- 25:11accident or injury claim or a wrongful death if a family members unfortunately passed away,
- 25:18then they're all contingency fees. So we take it on. We normally
- 25:22front all the cost advance, which can be significant, and then if something
- 25:29goes bad and we don't recover, then you of course don't pay us for
- 25:32a time and you don't reimburse us for the expenses we advance. It's can
- 25:34be significant. Let's go to the line. Jerry, you're on the time,
- 25:37Go ahead, Jerry, Hey, good morning, Tom, and fellas,
- 25:41good morning. I have a question you probably won't be able to answer,
- 25:45but maybe you can find out and maybe say something on your next show.
- 25:51Sure. Here in Charleston, over the last couple of years, we've
- 25:56had a plethora of motorcycles, and I'm talking about the smaller ones that are
- 26:02like fifty cc motorcycles motor scooters that are running around without license. And the
- 26:11people who are driving these all say the same thing. They say, it's
- 26:18fifty cc or it's forty nine cc, and the law states that we can
- 26:23ride these without a license. So yesterday I saw one on Capitol Street parked
- 26:32on the sidewalk, and it looked like a you know, it looked like
- 26:34a full sized motorcycle, but I know from experience it was probably in the
- 26:40fifty cc range. It looked bigger than it probably was, had no license
- 26:45plate or anything. So I've talked to several of these people and they all
- 26:49say the same thing. No, no, you're wrong. We've been told
- 26:52that we can ride these without a license. That means they don't have insurance
- 26:59to ride these motor vehicles on the streets. If you should get in an
- 27:04accident with one of these people, let's say it's a serious accident, and
- 27:11let's say it's their fault, and you wind up in the hospital, and
- 27:15you've got one hundred thousand dollars hospital bill. These people have no insurance or
- 27:19anything else, so what I would And by the way, I've gone to
- 27:25the West Virginia website and tried to understand the language that was used towards these
- 27:34vehicles, and because it's written in lawyer jargon, it's almost impossible to understand
- 27:44what they're saying. So I just can't find For a whole year, I've
- 27:49been trying to find out exactly what the law is concerning these motorized vehicles running
- 27:59up and down the streets of Charleston without a license, without insurance or anything
- 28:03else. And I was hoping you might look into that for me. Sure,
- 28:07I'll check it out. Now. I've had I've had a case in
- 28:10the past where unfortunately, somebody was hurt really bad as a guest passenger on
- 28:14a four wheeler I think it was a four wheeler or three wheeler, and
- 28:17so the person who was driving didn't have specific insurance for that all terrain vehicle.
- 28:26So I got the automobile insurance policy that covered that person or the people
- 28:30where he was living because he's covered as a family living in the home,
- 28:33and was able to argue that I think the word auto or something like that,
- 28:40it wasn't really defined to exclude four wheelers in the mandatory automobile insurance policy
- 28:47that you have to have, and we actually won that case and then got
- 28:49some coverage, so potent even though there may not be and in that you
- 28:55know, four wheelers aren't part of the mandatory insurance provisions under West Virginia Code,
- 29:00I don't recall. They definitely were not, and they're higher powered than
- 29:07I mean, they can drive on streets right if there's no line or something
- 29:11like that, or for a short period of time, and they can go
- 29:15extremely fast, probably faster than the vehicles that you're talking about, and they're
- 29:18not required to have mandatory insurance like you are with a true automobile. So
- 29:26my suspicion is I'll look it up, but yeah, they're not required probably
- 29:30based on it depends. I mean, you got to eat things from e
- 29:33bikes all the way to small motorcycles I mean and mopeads and scooters and things.
- 29:37So now I'll check that out, though Jerry and get back with you
- 29:42next week. And then now, if you take your scenario and you're hurt
- 29:48by them one, then what I said earlier, their automobile insurance may have
- 29:55a provision that covers them operating that particular. Can I stop you right there
- 30:00and say, these people, I'm ninety nine percent sure they don't have automobiles,
- 30:06which is why they're writing these right, Okay, yeah, they can't
- 30:10get licensed or so. Then secondary to that, if you have automobile insurance
- 30:17on any type of vehicle, then in West Virginia it's mandated that you have
- 30:22uninsured motorists coverage. So if anyone, if you're operating your vehicle, uh,
- 30:29and then there's a wreck caused by someone in any manner that was negligent
- 30:34that does not have insurance, you have uninsured motorist coverage on your policy or
- 30:38policies that may not cover all your expenses. Well, that's true, but
- 30:42that's that's how I mean, that's why you need to look at your policy
- 30:47and many if they have coverage and it's the minimums. You know, it's
- 30:51only twenty five grand in West Virginia for per person for all of your damages,
- 30:55you know, pain suffering lost wages, medical bills, and that's it's
- 31:00the same minimum amount that's required and must mean for uninsured motorists coverage that you
- 31:04are required to have. You can bump up that limit to protect yourself.
- 31:08I mean I do that. You know, I've got a higher limit.
- 31:11And it all depends on people's economics and finances. But I mean, good
- 31:15time to look if that's a concern, because I don't think the premium changes
- 31:21a whole lot if you go from twenty five grand in coverage on uninsured motorists
- 31:26to one hundred grand, for example, And so if that's a concern,
- 31:30gets that's all you can do to protect yourself. Ultimately, Yeah, it's
- 31:34a shame that the weight is on us and not them, and if they
- 31:40are doing something illegal, I wish the authorities would do something about it.
- 31:45Yeah, it's weird and some of the laws are contradictory. I'm like,
- 31:48I'm fairly certain those vehicles that you're talking about, what you can get a
- 31:55dui, I'm fairly certain. I've heard of riding lawnmower DUIs. And you
- 32:00know, I think that you can get a dui into the dui statute,
- 32:02but that has its own separate definition of vehicle motorized vehicle. I believe so.
- 32:12But yeah, another problem is if they don't have license. You know,
- 32:14one of the consequences of being an uninsured driver potentially if there's an uninsure
- 32:17motors claim one. Now, your insurance will pay you for damages, but
- 32:22then oftentimes they'll sue. Your insurance will do what they call subrogator step in
- 32:27your shoes, and they can sue the person who calls the accident didn't have
- 32:30insurance if you're if your auto insurance company wants to. So there's there's still
- 32:35consequences potentially for the person who didn't have insurance. Plus there's a provision that
- 32:38can revoke or suspend their driver's license if they're uninsured and it's reported to DMV.
- 32:45But of course that's not going to help here if they don't have a
- 32:47driver's license in the first place. So good questions, Jerry, Tom will
- 32:52get the answer. Appreciate it all right, Jerry calling in there and we'll
- 32:54get that. Get that answer next week. Three or four three four five
- 32:58fifty fifty eight three or four three four five fifty fifty A couple of minutes
- 33:01left in the show. I know of interest is what they did in the
- 33:07what they did in the state of Colorado. Yeah, so that's interesting.
- 33:10I've been kind of watching those cases. That's the it's section three of the
- 33:16fourteenth Amendment, which basically says, i'll summarize, you know, somebody who
- 33:22was in office who was involved it's not involved in, but committed maybe it
- 33:30was insurrection or rebellion, then is disqualified from running for office, although Congress
- 33:36can restore that disability. So there's been various There was a filing in West
- 33:39Virginia. I think is it dismissed or is it still penny I think it
- 33:43still pennsy. Some of them have been dismissed for lack of standing. The
- 33:45person filed the lawsuit didn't have enough in it to create a case. In
- 33:50controversy across the country, and it's you know, it's being applied to Trump,
- 33:57and so most of have been dismissed based on one or two grands one.
- 34:06Some courts, I think have said, at least it's been argued to
- 34:07them that this Act doesn't apply to the office of the President because the president
- 34:13isn't expressly mentioned in there. I think that's a not a very good argument.
- 34:16Because it also says any other officers after it, after it references some
- 34:21specific office offices. And the second one is whether it's it's a self executing
- 34:28clause or not, so meaning that you know, can a court just declare
- 34:32that this person participated in a rebellion, insurrection or a rebellion, whereas there
- 34:38have to be some separate finding like a criminal conviction or or I've seen some
- 34:45maybe there's got to be a sort of a trial before the Congress somehow and
- 34:49there's a finding there, and then that person will be disqualified. So I
- 34:53think that's where a lot of the courts are dismissing these cases. Colorado Supreme
- 34:58Court on a is your four to three or five four was it was one.
- 35:01I don't know how many justices they have on the Supreme Court, but
- 35:04it's by one they they found that that uh, Trump is not he's disqualified
- 35:09by virtue of that statute. And so now I'm sure it's gonna end up
- 35:14at the US Supreme Court and we'll get an answer in it. It's a
- 35:16it's a it's a constitutional provision that stems from you know, post Civil War
- 35:22not having you know, officeholders stay in office. That participant members of the
- 35:28Confederacy and then you know, advocated still continue to advocate for slavery and things
- 35:34like that, and then eventually a lot of that there was a there was
- 35:37an Amnesty Act I think in eighteen seventy two that that removed a lot of
- 35:40that, and they otherwise removed that disability from holding office later because it's trying
- 35:45to compromise and keep the country together, as I understood it, and so,
- 35:50uh, it hasn't there's not much case law in the last one hundred
- 35:53years on this, So it's it's it'll be good to get the ruling from
- 35:57the Supreme Court. Of course legal, but political is just going to help
- 36:00Trump. I'm sure he's using it as a and it doesn't matter. He's
- 36:05going to lose Colorado, I presume anyway, So he's you know, probably
- 36:09doesn't make him too unhappy to have them make this finding. I guess it
- 36:13sees where other states would go on this. Well, that's the that's the
- 36:16that's the consent. That's the only concern there is if it's sets a precedent
- 36:20that other states follow, uh, which is why I think he'll get it
- 36:23up to the Supreme Court or somebody will, and they'll rule on it probably
- 36:28this spring, and and and you know, I don't know. My inclination
- 36:34is they'll, you know, overturn Colorado. I don't think they can get
- 36:37into that. If you look at Bush v. Gore where they got into
- 36:39the state election process there, and they'll probably do the same thing here.
- 36:43It's based on a federal provision, so they have some kind of jurisdiction to
- 36:47uh to interpret it. So I think that one will probably get reversed.
- 36:51It's gonna Trump's going to use it in his campaign all he can now though,
- 36:54because it's just more of a look at this conspiracy against me, and
- 36:58then the Supreme Court will he'll bail him out. All right, you got
- 37:01ten seconds. We talked a lot about the firm obviously, but yeah,
- 37:05give our foot. So yeah, if you want to give us a call
- 37:07three oh four seven five five five five five six, or go to Peyton
- 37:10Lawfirm dot com. It's p E Y t O N. You can you
- 37:14can do a chat message there through Facebook Messenger, or you can send an
- 37:16email directly and it goes right to our desk and we'll get back with you.
- 37:21If we don't just send us a little reminder because we may have overlooked
- 37:23it. All right, Merry Christmas, Talk to you from Charlton. Is
- 37:25everybody out there all right? Talk to you from Charlotte. Next week Tom
- 37:29Payton at the Payton Law Firm in Nitro. Stay tuned. ABC News is
- 37:30next on five eighty w c hs F w c HS A MTY six point
- 37:40five. That then Trelston one oh four point five Cross Lanes, w v
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