Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 01/04/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton
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- 0:58twenty two and it's fivechs the Voice of Charleston. And this is the first
- 1:03Thursday of twenty twenty four. I'm Jeff Jenkins and joined by Harvey Payton of
- 1:07the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. And as always when Harvey's here, the
- 1:11lines are open three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three oh
- 1:15four three four five fifty eight fifty any questions about the law. And this
- 1:19is beginning the twenty sixth year on the air on Thursdays on five ADWCHS for
- 1:26the Peyton. That is true. I've just dawned on me this morning.
- 1:32It goes last week. Tom and I were both on the road. We
- 1:36had got separate vehicles to Charlotte to see the Mountaineers triumph in the Bowl game
- 1:42and literally get this oriented about your days of the week during the holidays.
- 1:49And so my wife and I are flying back up I seventy seven out of
- 1:53Charlotte in the express lane, and it just dawned on me, Well,
- 1:57what about the radio. I didn't because he's Tom and I will just text
- 2:00to yeah, email or talk to each other in the office. Well,
- 2:07nothing to be done now. So and you know, actually when I got
- 2:10back to the office, I forgot to ask Tom about it, and uh,
- 2:16yeah he was on called in Yeah, in basketing in the victory.
- 2:21Well it was a victory to basket It was great. It was Actually I've
- 2:24been to some of the what's it appropriate because they had the ESPN money making
- 2:30Bowl games, of which there are proliferation now. I can remember the first
- 2:35time when I was in school at Morgantown, the Mountain. Here's got a
- 2:38bull bid of the Peach Bowl to play South Carolina, And it was a
- 2:40big deal because they were only there are ten bowl games in the country.
- 2:46Uh so to get a bid, really it was a big deal. And
- 2:51they had to beat Pitt remember on a last minute field goal, but Bill
- 2:54McKenzie to get themselves into the Peach Ball next time, get beat on NC
- 3:00State. Yeah, the odious low holes. But no, there was a
- 3:05real I mean they're literally in the stadium. There were forty two thousand people
- 3:09there, which is a big crowd for an off bowl game. I would
- 3:14estimate thirty thousand were dressed in gold and probably the probably thirty five thousand of
- 3:24the forty two thousand were Mountaineer supporters. It was a big deal. And
- 3:29the crowded around the stadium and crowded in the restaurants. And then I actually
- 3:32had the feeling of a bowl game. Yeah, how about that? How
- 3:35about that? And said and has Brad Howise sat on sports Line the last
- 3:38couple of days. You know, maybe at some point the people who run
- 3:43this whole thing will realize how regionalism is important. It is important even I
- 3:49mean the last closest game we had was in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl.
- 3:53But yeah, that's a twelve hour drive, that's all. That's a long
- 3:57haul to make it in one day. And if you want to break it
- 4:01up into two days, that means you're going to be staying somewhere between Nashville
- 4:04and Memphis. And it's not a part of it. You're driving into Sea
- 4:06Again, it's like going to an away game. It's only going to a
- 4:10bowl game. So West Virginia fans know Charlotte's nothing. They drive to Myrtle
- 4:14Beach. That's just you know, it's just like, wow, he's Charlotte
- 4:17Buck. You know. Yeah, well, mean there people in Backley in
- 4:19President have little vacation homes of Lake Norman. They just zip down there every
- 4:24weekend. So we got back. You know, it was a nice New
- 4:26Year's Uh, not much to do. Starting off yesterday. You know Matt
- 4:30Roorbach is in the House of Delicate Doctor. Well he's my doctor from Capple
- 4:34County. So yesterday was well, Monday was New Year's Day. Tuesday was
- 4:40my prep day for my colonoscopy exam, which you should have if you get
- 4:46to the age where your doctor says do it. Because I put it off
- 4:48like six years ago and ended up had colon cancer. Right, I had
- 4:51to have part of my colon taken out, and you know, you never
- 4:56know if you beat it the bad The thing about cancer is a psychological where
- 5:00is on you? So this was my follow up colonoscopy. Well is it
- 5:08going to be oh okay or is it going to be Harvey? I need
- 5:11to see in the office Friday, which was the last time. So we
- 5:14came in the recovery room and put up two fingers at hey, I'll see
- 5:17you in two years. Everything's final. It's like somebody saying you're going to
- 5:21live two more years. It's like I'm giving you two years. Which I
- 5:26immediately started looking, well, who's going to who are the Mountaineers a week?
- 5:29Next football opponents? I know who they are nextra years that is our
- 5:31Western game in Colorada of the year after Yeah. Yah, So now I
- 5:35can make the plans for twenty twenty five. And then I thought, wait
- 5:38a minute, if this is the start of twenty twenty four. We started
- 5:45on the air the first twenty or nineteen ninety nine, that's twenty five years,
- 5:53so that's a quarter century. That's a long time to do anything.
- 5:56That is and that is just yeah, I mean what a great I mean,
- 6:00you've been here, Harvey, longer than you've been on the air longer
- 6:04than and in this building longer than any employee. But two, okay you
- 6:13said that, Well, well, well I came to this building, came
- 6:16from I came to this building in two thousand. I worked in Morgantown fourteen
- 6:19years before that. So but uh, Joe Parsons our general manager, and
- 6:26Anthony yeah, maybe Steve Bishop with Stephen Jenny to Stephen Jenny so for so
- 6:32yeah, there you go, and that'd be you know, so where's my
- 6:35cap? Right? That's right? Well, you know that comes in in
- 6:40line with the fact I got a letter before the first of the year from
- 6:44the State Bar saying in that congratulations because they look at the admissions and the
- 6:51membership information, and once you practice law for fifty years, they honor you
- 6:56at the State Bar convention. Oh you know that's that's not you know they
- 7:00have him with the greenbrier. I was I was imagining myself, you know,
- 7:03in a tuxedo, get an award and standing under those black and white
- 7:08marble floor towels and in front of the big mirrors under the chandeliers now.
- 7:12But this year our convention is at the Embassy Suites in Charleston. There's no
- 7:17rip on Embassy Sweet so that's where the trial lawyers we have already no meeting
- 7:21the Mathena. I get to drive eighteen miles. It's sort of like and
- 7:28here's your or you can just drop by the front desk and pick up your
- 7:30certificate. I'll give you a pat on the back and a warm man shape.
- 7:34I'm looking forward to it. You know, there are a lot of
- 7:38unfortunately a lot of members of my class a little you know, people who
- 7:41started pretty much twenty one, twenty two years old was the age when you
- 7:46would start lost. It's an all star cast. Your your class is well,
- 7:51you know, we've got well John McCosky will be there. He is
- 7:56my class. And Margaret Workman at one time of course l it he's gone.
- 8:01Uh but Mike Farrell, and Mike's been dis acting president of Marshall University.
- 8:05He's head of the Higher Education Control bunch got Tom Flaherney who represented us
- 8:13in the rich Rod case, and Stuart Callwell with Calwell Practice. A lot
- 8:18of us around. Tom Catle was a judge, Rust Claudus was a judge.
- 8:20I think at one time there were like ten members of my class who
- 8:24were judges. How I'm eager to see who all Chambers? Right, Well
- 8:28her from Chambers yesterday? Well did you really you have on the LG announcement.
- 8:33Well, yeah, you're part of it. He came, I came
- 8:35on video. I think, okay, Skype, Yeah, I haven't seen
- 8:37Chambers. Yeah really since we lost him, I've seen him. I mean
- 8:43you think, well, Chambers, that's just how I know him law school.
- 8:46He wouldn't know me from Adam. It's been fifty years. But proud
- 8:50of that, you know, he's he's gone a long way in the States.
- 8:54Would be proud of him. It's so look what happens in April.
- 8:56I will get to see. I mean, I don't know where they take
- 9:01the pictures in the m six weeks. Just stand in front of the little
- 9:03fountain of Judge Claudgers was in your class too. Restaurants and has had a
- 9:07son that was a really good ball player for the Mountaineers. Yeah yeah,
- 9:11and well Catle was up in Yeah. Judge Cannon, yeah yeah, No,
- 9:16federal judges. I don't not that I can think of. I don't
- 9:20think we even had a magistrate judge. Well, I see yesterday a magistrate
- 9:24judge is ruling on some detentions. Was going from yeah, it was judge
- 9:28good Ones, So judge good Ones. So they so these are these Federal
- 9:31court's always really interesting. You and I've been in federal court together, and
- 9:35obviously, uh so these are the correctional officers. Was a total six charges,
- 9:41but really and in total of eight you had two have already plaid and
- 9:45they're kind of working with prosecutors on these others with these other six, uh
- 9:48in the case and these are the they're charged in connection with the inmate's death
- 9:54in March twenty twenty two. Uh and and they were and they've been arrested,
- 10:00they've been and died, they've been arrested and uh and you have said
- 10:03on this there it's a very rare not to get bond in most cases in
- 10:07federal court, right, I mean you're well, yeah, I mean there's
- 10:11a bit of a dichotomy between the state court practice in West Virginia and the
- 10:15federal courts. I personally favor the federal court system in West Virginia so often
- 10:20where it's a matter of the discretion of the magistrate exclusively, you'll see put
- 10:24what I call punishment bonds. You'll get some you know, penniless, single
- 10:31mom, maybe got a drug problem, who leaves her child in a car
- 10:35while she goes in the store, and which that shouldn't happen, it's too
- 10:39and so they charge her with the child abuse with the risk of the child.
- 10:43Well, we're going to impose a five hundred thousand dollars bond. Well
- 10:46why if bond is not you're not You're not a magistrate to punish people.
- 10:50You're a magistrate to administer justice, and a bond is meant to just assure
- 10:56that someone will appear. Well, where is that poor person going to go?
- 11:01If they had any money, they wouldn't have anywhere to go. The
- 11:05child's been put in protective custody. I mean, you see somebody charged with
- 11:11possession of pornographic materials. Well, let's make the bond a half million dollars.
- 11:15So they ate fourteen grapes. Remember that happened during the hostage crisis,
- 11:20the Iranian hostages. Some guy ate some grapes while he was shopping at I
- 11:24think it was the Kroger that closed down up in up above London and so
- 11:31like, well, your bond's going to be fourteen thousand dollars one hundred and
- 11:35eighty some thousand and one thousand for every hostage. That's wrong. I mean,
- 11:39that is an overreach. Our Supreme Court has never done what they should
- 11:43have done and addressed those situations. It is, in my opinion, judicial
- 11:50misconduct, whis just trying to be quote a part of law enforcement. You're
- 11:54not. You're a judge. Now in the federal court, almost exclusively,
- 12:00first default for bond is ten thousand dollars personal recognizance, which means that you
- 12:05individually sign a document on undertaking saying I promise that if I do not show
- 12:11up, I will pay the federal government ten thousand dollars where they can pursue
- 12:16my assets for that amount. No surety, no security. In West Virginia
- 12:22you can have a personal recognizance bond. It's very seldom the magistrates award it
- 12:26because prosecutors don't like it. Magistrates tend to do what the prosecutors tell them
- 12:30to do. In the district court, it just just what it is.
- 12:35The magistrate judge sets generally a ten thousand dollars PR bond. Now it can
- 12:45be a higher bond if the government asks for it and can establish a reason
- 12:48for a higher bond, or the situation with these individuals under the Crime Safe
- 12:54Streets Act, which was passed, I believe under the Nixon administration, the
- 13:05government could ask for pre trial detention. In other words, they can tell
- 13:09the judge or the magistrate judge, look, this person is like a flight
- 13:11risk, a risk crime. It's a risk to be left at large because
- 13:18of possible intimidation of witnesses or participation of the criminal activity, and therefore they
- 13:22should be detained indefinitely pending a trial of this case, kept in jail.
- 13:28Well, that's completely the reverse what we do in stakehoard, and it's really
- 13:37it was quite controversial when the idea of pre trial detention was first introduced,
- 13:41because you're in title lebon I mean, the Constitution says you're entitled le bond.
- 13:48But the burdens on the government to establish by substantial evidence that they conditions
- 13:56exist to keep a person deprived of their liberty pending trial because they're resumed innison.
- 14:01Well, in this case, these are individuals and if you read what
- 14:05the government is alleged happened it's disgusting. I mean, it would be individuals
- 14:13who took a person who was handcuffed, who was helpless, who was in
- 14:18their custody because of the government characteristic and was then just beaten to death,
- 14:26taken from police to place and in a penal facility where they knew there were
- 14:31dead spots in the security cameras. Just beaten to death. Well, that's
- 14:35mean to start with, it's deceitful, and it's it indicates a deep character
- 14:41flawed. May be the first time for everyone, I mean, I understand
- 14:45the testimony was that these folks are otherwise parts of the community. Well they
- 14:52weren't that day. And apparently Judge Goodwin, who's been around the wyoming Judge
- 14:58Goodwan has been on the bench. Lord, I've been on this show.
- 15:01He've gone there. Awhile uh. He was a Clinton appointee from back in
- 15:05the nineties and heard all the testimony and looked at everybody testifying from the witness
- 15:11stand. This wasn't like a zoom hearing. This was a hearing. They
- 15:13were all there. They each attorney had so he took two hours to hear
- 15:18from each attorney. So there are four attorneys for the four defendants, and
- 15:22he went over all the charges individually. He heard from each attorney individually,
- 15:28and they had offered some testimony earlier in the earlier hearing before Joe jo Abahassen
- 15:33metress Joe Jarjoboffs, who they didn't really rehash that because he's read the file.
- 15:37He said, he'd read the file and so he came down to it,
- 15:39saying, listen, it weighs in your favor that you guys are your
- 15:45property owners, you grew up in you know, never left Raley, counting
- 15:48your your community ties. But he said, I'm just very concerned about these
- 15:52intimidation of witnesses charges, you know, he says, I'm just he said,
- 15:58and he's concerned about the the alleged crime. He said, I can't
- 16:02think of a more serious, well it is charge. And part of the
- 16:04charges are that, number one, there was a cover up and that there
- 16:08was some pressure exerted by these individuals against other people not to tell the truth.
- 16:14And that's probably the deciding factor, I mean had but for that,
- 16:18even though the charges of a heenus and violent nature, but for the fear
- 16:22of potential for witness intimidation or interference, I would think Judge good. I'm
- 16:27going to turn them loose, probably on some sort of home confinement. That's
- 16:32that's what they were asking for, home confinement. Yah, Which in the
- 16:34federal system, it's I don't think they used monitors in the federal system.
- 16:38You're just subject to random visits by the Federal Probation and prolog. Yes.
- 16:44He even went on to say, which kind of interesting, Harvey, that
- 16:47he thought the government's case was strong. I mean he said that the evidence
- 16:52because he's considering the evidence there in his decision. Oh yeah, it wasn't
- 16:55a trial obviously, it's not a trial. It's just a review hearing on
- 16:57bond. But he said he thought the evidence. He said that a couple
- 17:00of times. Well, and that's always a factor. That's even if that's
- 17:03a factor in state court as well. If you if you have a person
- 17:07who's confined and you believe the magistrate has set excessive bond. Now in a
- 17:11murder case in west Ron, Genitay, the magistrate can't set bond in capital
- 17:15case. It's only a circuit court. So they're going to be confined to
- 17:18jail till you can get to a circuit court and ask for bond and they
- 17:21grant bonds here in murder cases. On occasion, I actually had the Supreme
- 17:26Court ran a bond to a klan of mine circuit Dunts wouldn't do it,
- 17:29went up to the Supreme Court and they bonded him out. You can consider
- 17:34there's an old famous Western in the case State Ex Royal Gizz v. Johnson.
- 17:40Pete Johnson was the sheriff of Knack County. He had a man named
- 17:42Ghiz in jail with an exceptionally high bond for a leslie robbing a pharmacy what
- 17:48at that time was Charleston General Hospital. And the Supreme Court set standards and
- 17:55with the violence of the crime, the probability of conviction, community contacts,
- 17:59and ability risk of the public Dependsy's been other crimes and that check. Let's
- 18:06pretty well apply to the common sense standard. To the federal courts apply.
- 18:11Here's the interesting I mean, it's a really tough call because people are constitution
- 18:17entitled to bond unless under this violent crime state street sack the government, and
- 18:23I can tell you the government sometimes just does that to show off. I
- 18:27mean, I've had a case with a young kid that got charged with a
- 18:30drug case down in Williams and anything to do with it. He didn't even
- 18:33know why he was there. He was down there with his cousins, right,
- 18:37and they're all yuch, yuk yuk. And then he end up on
- 18:38a street in Williamson where drugs are changing hands and he's standing there and he
- 18:42may have had some weed on him. They pick him up and it's like,
- 18:48you know, can we get him out of here today? Well,
- 18:52of course the DA agent show up say well, we want to file attention
- 18:55on this guy. So the US attorney does what they say, and they
- 18:56just did it to keep him in jail for a couple over the weekend.
- 19:00It's just one of those little crummies that the federal government can do did do.
- 19:04Of course, as soon as it came up for the detention hearing,
- 19:07the US Attorney said, we don't have any evidence, let him go,
- 19:11which Judge caben Abor did and then sentenced him to a period of confinement significantly
- 19:15less than the guidelines, which also drove them nuts. But I don't care.
- 19:21It's not my job to do their job. I mean, it's a
- 19:25really I gotta certainly understand how the families feel. You see other people uh
- 19:30charged with violent, heenous crimes, who are out on bond. You know,
- 19:33you see here in Kannall County. How often do you see someone charge
- 19:36with a murder or stabbing who's out on bond from another offense those committed while
- 19:40they were out on bond from a first offense. Uh, And now they
- 19:45have then they all live in Rowley County. They're not going any place.
- 19:48They're saying, I didn't do this, no matter how bad it was,
- 19:52and they think, you know that they got a highway. The jury's going
- 19:56to turn them loose. I mean, jury's turn police officers loose pretty often
- 20:00when you think the evidence would support a conviction. Civil cases, I had
- 20:06one yesterday sucided by the Fourth Court of Appeals where an officer had a lot
- 20:11of trouble with the charges of unlawful excessive force was let off the hook by
- 20:18civil jury. Everything they found out that both the lawyer, but the deputy
- 20:22and his lawyer lied about the fact that they were prior lawsuits and cases penning
- 20:30against the guy. Of course, the circuit judge district court judge here wouldn't
- 20:34set the case aside. The Court of Appeals did, said, you know,
- 20:37you can't get a whole lot worse than number one, sitting and listening
- 20:44to your client give perjury testimony. Number two allowing it. So they just
- 20:51said the lawyer who was representing the deputy or the policeman was the same lawyer
- 20:55who was representing them in the power lawsuits, because it was the same law
- 20:57firm on the dole for brim to do it. And it just developed that
- 21:03culture, which is the culture that we saw at the Southern Regional Jail.
- 21:07Same group involved the same circle of lawyers to which this Attorney General completely abdicates
- 21:15responsibility for what gos on and they got in trouble. Cost to state three
- 21:18million bucks Southern Regional Jail, and I suspect this one at the Court of
- 21:22Appeals says size is going to cost another chunk of change, but it's a
- 21:26forty two. We're going to take our break. Harvey is here. Year
- 21:30twenty six is underway. Your way underway underway, so the lines are open
- 21:34and questions about the law. Harvey's here to take your calls. Three oh
- 21:38four, three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four, three
- 21:41four five fifty eight fifty eight lines are open. Three oh four, three
- 21:45four five fifty eight fifty eight back in the moment on five eight WCCHS.
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- 22:51What is the power on the side? We have a court room experiences that
- 22:57you need give up. We're prepared to fight for your rights. When you
- 23:06need action, count on us. What's the power of pison on your side?
- 23:14The power of bag It's a forty five on five eighty whs the Voice
- 23:25of Charleston Jeff Jenkins with Harvey Payton and the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro lines
- 23:29are open three o four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Any questions
- 23:32about the law three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty one. Thing
- 23:34we've talked about on and off over the last couple of years, or something
- 23:37you heavily support. Oh yeah, is e filing and that is coming.
- 23:42The new chief Circuit judge in Kanna County's Mayor, Claire Akers for this calendar
- 23:47year, and she said, she put out a little news release said,
- 23:49one of the transitions we'll be making this year is e filing in the clerk's
- 23:53office that begins in April. That's wonderful. I mean, the public will
- 23:57begin to immediately see in the lawyer will immediately see a more efficient and more
- 24:03timely administration of justice and interaction of the public with the court system immediately.
- 24:11It is. It's been the rule in federal courts for over a decade.
- 24:15Two decades. It's been the rule in most circuit courts. It's sort of
- 24:19a rolling process to implement. Kinnall County is sort of the big way over
- 24:22because it's the biggest circuit court docket in the state, and it's an e
- 24:29filing process. The lawyers, you sign up, you get an account,
- 24:33and if you want to file a lawsuit, let's start at the beginning filing
- 24:40a lawsuit. You sat at your desk and you prepare the complaint with your
- 24:45client, get it in form to be filed. You prepare a civil action
- 24:51cover sheet, and then you convert it from word to PDF, and then
- 24:56you go to your computer. You open your account, send that to the
- 25:00clerk's office. You already have a use a credit card or a debit card
- 25:04on file, and then cases filed that day. The clerk then does the
- 25:10does the whatever the instructions are as far as service on the civil action cover
- 25:14sheet that the circuit clerk implements that and booms filed. You want to file
- 25:22an answer, you do the same thing. You prepare depleting, you review
- 25:26it, you convert it to a PDF, which I don't know what that
- 25:30stands for, but it's something other than word. It's an image, and
- 25:36file it. You don't file the papers, right, you know, you
- 25:40do file those papers, but for instance, there after comes discovery interrogatory's requests
- 25:45for production, those things are not filed anymore. It's just an electronic certificate
- 25:51of service and all that the public will be able to see. Oh yeah,
- 25:53you can look at it. Yeah, all right, it's great.
- 25:56Bill's on the line, Bill on with Harvey. Bill first called twenty twenty
- 26:00for with Harvey. Morning Belle, good morning, good morning, Happy new
- 26:03year. Happy to you yet, Good morning, Bill, Happy new year,
- 26:07sir. Have a question for you on these new electric vehicles coming out,
- 26:15where does the liability or the responsibility of ensuring that vehicles stand well?
- 26:25Uh, I mean, my son has a has a tessel of the insurance
- 26:32of State Farm under a semi conventional policy of liability insurance is the standard State
- 26:40Farm form auto policy. I've got a Toyota hybrid, which is not an
- 26:45EV, but it's an electrically assisted vehicle that I insure with the EERIE under
- 26:49the same terms. Well, let me let me ask you this. Uh
- 26:55say, for instance, that it is driverless. We're just being driven by
- 27:00the computer on board. There is an accident, I'm injured. Where do
- 27:11I go to get satisfaction for that? Do you mean there's no driver in
- 27:18the vehicle. It's completely remote, yes, right, Well with some of
- 27:22them though, that can be remote with the drivers in the vehicle, they
- 27:26drive themselves with the driver obviously, Well, who owns the vehicle? It
- 27:30has to fall to the owner of the vehicle primarily, or whoever leased the
- 27:36vehicle and put it into service on the highway, whoever's responsible for putting that
- 27:38vehicle on the highway, it would be primarily liable for that injury, and
- 27:44secondarily, perhaps if there's a defect in the system, it would be the
- 27:48manufacturer, either the guidance system or the overall vehicle or both. So,
- 27:52in other words, you're turning your legal liability over to whoever the manufacturer or
- 27:57the leasing agent or whoever might be. Yeah, but yeah, really,
- 28:03in practice, that's not a whole lot different from the standpoint of serious injury
- 28:07than we have right now. You have a trucking company, let's say Acme
- 28:11Trucking signs a freight contract with the Widget Incorporated to deliver widgets to West Virginia.
- 28:18Well, they hire a driver, put him behind the wheel, and
- 28:22he drives the vehicle and a vehicle lose control and injrew someone. Well,
- 28:27where's the liability falled. Of course, it falls technically on the driver,
- 28:32who generally has no assence. We're very limited assens It then falls on the
- 28:37back to the common carrier, who, under the law is required to have
- 28:40a million dollars in liability coverage, which is pretty expensive because it's you know,
- 28:47it's out of sight line conduct. You can't suit. You know,
- 28:51most companies now have good GPS, they can tell what the driver's doing.
- 28:53But I mean the liability is falling back on the person who caused that vehicle
- 28:57to be placed on the highway and operate, because they have a duty to
- 29:02see that that vehicle is equipped and manufactured to operate within certain parameters. That
- 29:06is, stay in its own lane, not speed, not make turns across
- 29:08traffic. So in that regard, I mean you're looking at the person who's
- 29:14financially responsible for that conduct. And while a truck driver or a driver of
- 29:21a uber or a taxi or a delivery truck is technically also a responsible party,
- 29:26seldom are they. Sometimes they don't even sue them because it just gets
- 29:32another party and another lawyer involved in the case. Do you see this really
- 29:37clogging up the court system? You know, I don't think so. I
- 29:42think I think Congress may have to take a Congress or the Service Transportation Board
- 29:47may have to take another look. You know, the idea of a million
- 29:49dollars in and minimum coverage for interstate carriers has been in a e fact for
- 30:00decades, and it needs to be increased. Obviously it hasn't been. The
- 30:07Federal Transportation Administration rules and regulation need to be amended. And I think Congress
- 30:12probably needs to take some action with regard to the insurability and limits of insurance
- 30:18on driverless vehicles because to me, Bill, I don't care what Elon Musk
- 30:22says. I don't care what Elon Musk says. Been a lot of things,
- 30:26but about a Tesla or everybody else about a vehicle if you don't have
- 30:30any human being in there to override this system listening. It's a mechanical system
- 30:36where it's a digital system created by men. It is going to fail sometime.
- 30:40I mean, they have autopilots and airplanes, but you don't fly on
- 30:44a plane coast to coast without a pilot and co pilots sitting in there.
- 30:48So they're gonna have to be some changes made. Those aren't fun things to
- 30:52talk about for Congress or for the administrative agencies, but their practical matters.
- 30:57And you bring up a really good point. Insurance law and autoliability and rules
- 31:02of the road need to be looked at and modified an in view of what's
- 31:07happening right now. I mean, you've got artificial intelligence. Maybe they can
- 31:11Maybe the computer on the dashboard of my vehicles, I'm sure it's powerful enough
- 31:18to simply or make out a route and view symbols along the road and figure
- 31:25out in its own mind when it should turn left, when it should turn
- 31:26right, and what's safe and what's not. Until we're firmly convinced of that
- 31:32one hundred percent human being ought to be everywhere, they don't have any business,
- 31:36you know, you can down here to sell Charleston, and you've got
- 31:38to see that sign where the railroad tracks across mccorkill Avenue that these vehicles may
- 31:42not have an operator. That means the engines, the railroad engines may be
- 31:48operated by somebody on the ground. Instead of having an engineer and a conductor
- 31:52and maybe a brake went over there switching cars. They've got one person with
- 31:56a remote control running an engine across the major highway. But the other factors,
- 32:01you know, that really concerns me. You know when you when you
- 32:06get talking about the liability of this situation, what is this going to do
- 32:15to cost to the public out here. Well, it may well increase it.
- 32:22However it will increase it drastically. Yeah, that's the that's benefit of
- 32:27insurance. That's the benefit of a viable, economically sound system of property and
- 32:36liability and all risks insurance, which we have in the United States because you
- 32:40have a good solid rule of law, We've got an investment market for insurance
- 32:45companies to invest in. I mean, life insurance pretty simple. You're writing
- 32:47against your underwriting against very well established mortality tables. You to take somebody like
- 32:53State Farm or Yerie or All State or Nationwide, all really good solid companies.
- 32:59They underwrite the risk. They look across the whole country and see what
- 33:02the risk is, it paint it out, and then they spread it among
- 33:07theoretically three hundred and thirty one million people that live in the United States,
- 33:10so that the burden doesn't fall excessively on any one personal group of persons.
- 33:15Now, that's not always going to be the case if you want to buy
- 33:19a If today you want to buy insurance on a newly built ocean front home
- 33:23on the east coast of Florida, you're probably going to pay as much in
- 33:29insurance as you do in a full year's payments, because underwriting says so.
- 33:34But generally, operating on the system of highways, I think the insurance industry
- 33:39has a pretty good grasp on that. Now, it's my experience hunder insured
- 33:45drivers. You know we've got under insurance. It's now steps in. It's
- 33:49a part of policies. Voluntarily everybody has uninsured coverage because it's mandatory. The
- 33:53limits probably are high enough, but you know, if you deal with a
- 33:58major company, you're going to find a true rates are and should fall pretty
- 34:01well and in conformity. But they are in the rest of the country.
- 34:06So I think that's one that we need the light hand of the government to
- 34:10get in there and say, well, here's what you have to do in
- 34:14order to comply with basic reasonable conduct. And then let the insurance industry,
- 34:19which here the four has done a pretty good job, let them take the
- 34:22first crack at it. Then it becomes a problem, then we can look
- 34:24at it again. All right, and nitro your resetting first of the year
- 34:29twenty twenty four. You guys continue to do what you do. Well,
- 34:31we do what we do. You know. I want to say one thing.
- 34:34Our offices in Putnam County, and I picked up the pavement this morning.
- 34:38It's just heartbreaking. There's a family that suffered a tremendous loss in Putnam
- 34:44County. I mean, I'm going to say what the name is. I
- 34:45saw the story last week. A young man who's the same age as my
- 34:50oldest granddaughter. You know, he's killing the car accident right here around the
- 34:53holiday season. I mean, I had a nephew, my sister's boy got
- 34:58killed in the car wreck. And you get that call in the night.
- 35:01It's just horrible and heartbreaking. And wherever those members of the family are,
- 35:06and they're al mostly right around in Putnam County, and we keep in mind
- 35:08to Putnam County has a big heart, and it's the hearts and the prayers
- 35:13of everybody down there with you. It's never never easy. I mean,
- 35:16my dad died suddenly. That's one of the things I don't ever want to
- 35:20do. I'd rather linger in pain, and so saved my kids the agony
- 35:27of getting the call in the middle of the night than tap out right because
- 35:31it's just not a good thing. But moving on. Yeah, we are
- 35:37in Nidro Putnham County. We have a lice office. We've been in the
- 35:38same buildings as nineteen ninety four. We do primarily automobile accidents injuries. We
- 35:45do insurance questions such as bills, talking about who has coverage, who should
- 35:51pay. We do some property damage litigation. Tolm does a significant bit of
- 35:57a social security ability. He does some criminal work. I primarily, I'll
- 36:04be honest, can find myself what we call transitional work right now. I
- 36:07mean I serve us families. I mean I've been representing some people for four
- 36:12generations, right, it can't be in one place almost fifty years. But
- 36:17we work together, so two heads are always better than one, even if
- 36:21one's an old head and can I give us a call? The gray hair
- 36:25wisdom it is and old age and stress. But if you get a Peyton
- 36:30Law Firm dot com you can see who we are and you can read about
- 36:32us. We don't do any television advertising or a big deal billboards, or
- 36:38we don't have William Shatner. We certainly don't set ourselves in front of a
- 36:44private airplane walking down the street in Florida and ask you to sign up and
- 36:47let us be your lawyer. But just give us something. I mean,
- 36:51if you have some issue, got a lot of experience, a lot of
- 36:53successful experience, come in and talk to us, give us a thought,
- 36:58and if we can help you, we are here to help you. To
- 37:00leave here to the theory that the law, the case is as big as
- 37:04the lawyer thinks it is, and it's the most important to the client at
- 37:07any given time and the period. And we look forward to them maybe another
- 37:10I don't think. I don't think Matt Roorbock can get me twenty five more
- 37:14years, but I'm looking maybe for five or ten seven five five five five
- 37:17five six or Peinton Lawfirm dot Com seven five five five five five six or
- 37:22Peton lawfirm dot com, See Harvey, see it all right. ABC News
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