Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 05/28/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton

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05/28/2026 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
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Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight whs
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Speaker 1: it's employees or WVRC media courts.
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Speaker 2: Oh created equal.
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Speaker 1: When Nass come here in a cape can rocks up
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Speaker 1: and a very pleasant good morning to you.
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Speaker 3: You can put the law on your side this morning,
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Speaker 3: and you can do it like you have four years,
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Speaker 3: for decades, for I guess nearly a half a century.
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Speaker 1: You can put the paint the law firm on your side.
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Speaker 3: Harvey Payton is here this morning taking your phone calls
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Speaker 3: at threes or four three, four, five, fifty fifty Harvey,
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Speaker 3: good morning.
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Speaker 2: How are you doing this morning? Well, Coop, I'm doing
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Speaker 2: quite well. It's uh, you know, it's gonna be a
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Speaker 2: gorgeous sunny day today after a number of days of
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Speaker 2: rain needed Oh well, well we needed it for sure. And
1:01
Speaker 2: you know, if the Supernina that seems to be forming
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Speaker 2: out in the Pacific impacts the States the way the
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Speaker 2: last one did, we're going to see another renewed perhaps
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Speaker 2: drought season this fall.
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Speaker 3: Was it two years ago we had the cycle of
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Speaker 3: extreme range drought stream We had that cycle sometime in
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Speaker 3: the last of three or four years.
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Speaker 2: Anyway, Well you mentioned half century after a while, times
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Speaker 2: of runs together. I was thinking about that this morning
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Speaker 2: this week, because I graduated from the WU Western Endia
1:41
Speaker 2: University College.
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Speaker 1: Of Law.
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Speaker 2: The first week in May nineteen seventy four. It's fifty
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Speaker 2: two years ago. And at that time, you know, my
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Speaker 2: parents and everybody came to Morgantown and we had the
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Speaker 2: hooding ceremony and the graduation. Well then you had a
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Speaker 2: ten days or so of rest. But and at the time,
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Speaker 2: graduates of the West Virginia University College of Law enjoyed
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Speaker 2: what was called a diploma privilege. That is, you were
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Speaker 2: admitted to practice law if you passed graduated from the
2:17
Speaker 2: law school with an average of C were better. Then,
2:26
Speaker 2: upon motion by an active attorney, the Supreme Court was
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Speaker 2: obligated to admit you to the active practice of law.
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Speaker 2: They unleashed or about ninety six of us on the
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Speaker 2: general public in May nineteen seventy four, after three years
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Speaker 2: of study and testing and no bar exam. Now, I
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Speaker 2: will say that, as the faculty at WU was prone
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Speaker 2: to point out at the time, obviously if students, you know,
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Speaker 2: we had kids in my class from Pennsylvania Ohio had
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Speaker 2: somebody from Illinois. Some people planned to go other places.
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Speaker 2: In practice, if you went to another state, of course
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Speaker 2: you took their bar exam, because there was no reciprocity
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Speaker 2: anywhere with our diploma because we didn't take a bar
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Speaker 2: exam at the time. However, WVU graduates, law school graduates
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Speaker 2: who went to other states and took the bar passed
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Speaker 2: the bar exam with the same or better average pass
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Speaker 2: rate than the students who had been trained at other places,
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Speaker 2: which I mean the faculty at that time took the
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Speaker 2: attitude we are the bar exam and if you don't
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Speaker 2: toe the line, the question was what are you going
3:43
Speaker 2: to be doing next year, sir? They failed out a
3:46
Speaker 2: lot of people, you know, if you started out with
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Speaker 2: one hundred students, and we did, we got down to
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Speaker 2: ninety six. But it was that's only because we had
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Speaker 2: an influx during the three years of you know, men
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Speaker 2: who had been drafted and when they were in law
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Speaker 2: school and had to leave had to serve their commitment.
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Speaker 2: Then they were entitled to a slot when they came back.
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Speaker 2: And then there were always excuse me, you know. It
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Speaker 2: was in the days before a big student loans were
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Speaker 2: easily available, so people just ran out of money. At
4:22
Speaker 2: least two fellas graduated in my one graduated in my class.
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Speaker 2: One started in my class and graduated later. They just
4:29
Speaker 2: ran out of money and said, un I just can't
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Speaker 2: afford to got anyway. They'd drop out and get to work,
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Speaker 2: or drop out and work their job full time instead
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Speaker 2: a part time, and then come back and finish up.
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Speaker 2: And so we had a number of those. We had
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Speaker 2: one like Margaret Workman, who graduated in my class. Margaret
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Speaker 2: took a year off. She started a year ahead of me,
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Speaker 2: but she took a year off to work in the
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Speaker 2: Jay Rockefeller's first campaign for governor, which he lost by
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Speaker 2: the way to arts More. And then she uh no, no, no, yeah,
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Speaker 2: that's correct. That was seventy two, she said, so stuck
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Speaker 2: in my mind. We came down to Charleston and it
5:08
Speaker 2: was the Tuesday after Memorial Day. That was always when
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Speaker 2: the Supreme Court had motion day on Tuesdays, and it
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Speaker 2: would be the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Someone at the
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Speaker 2: State Bar thought that would be a good idea because
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Speaker 2: it was a holiday. It gave everybody a chance to travel.
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Speaker 2: You could come to Charleston except fifty two years ago,
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Speaker 2: unlike today. Do you know what was open for business
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Speaker 2: on Memorial Day in Charleston in nineteen seventy four. It's
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Speaker 2: not a tough question. Nothing. So if you wanted to
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Speaker 2: get a meal or go buy some toilet trees or anything,
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Speaker 2: it was just locked down. So it was somewhat inconvenient
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Speaker 2: because we'd go to the first thing stop. You went
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Speaker 2: to the State House to be sworn in in mass.
5:52
Speaker 2: John Hoblitzel, who's attorney here with kay Casto and Cheney
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Speaker 2: at that time, was I think he was director of
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Speaker 2: the Young Young Lawyer's Section of the Statemar. He made
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Speaker 2: this mass motion for all of us. If somebody had
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Speaker 2: an individual person to make emotion, like when Tom got admitted,
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Speaker 2: I made his motion to be admitted individually. But Cobinsil
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Speaker 2: got up and moved made this pronouncement that we were
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Speaker 2: all good and solid citizens and qualified to practice law.
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Speaker 2: Of course, he didn't have a clue because it was
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Speaker 2: just his job from his status. And then we went
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Speaker 2: down to the federal Court and got sworn in down
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Speaker 2: here and after that. At that time, a lot of
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Speaker 2: these circuit judges required you to be admitted in their court.
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Speaker 2: Now that was completely contrary to the rules. I mean
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Speaker 2: the Supreme Court that was after the Judicial Reform Amendment
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Speaker 2: was passed. These individual circuit judges said, well, you got
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Speaker 2: to take the oath, so you had to find a
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Speaker 2: lawyer from that to stand up and make a motion
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Speaker 2: to get admitted in front of each individual circuit judge
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Speaker 2: in order to open your mouth in court. It will
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Speaker 2: come a long way. But you know one thing that
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Speaker 2: it did create, to my estimation and which continues till today,
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Speaker 2: is West Virginia does not have a big bar. We
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Speaker 2: don't have tens of thousands of lawyers. I think we
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Speaker 2: have less than ten thousand licensed attorneys on the rolls,
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Speaker 2: and many of those don't practice. Ay. You're either in
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Speaker 2: government work there in other fields of enterprise. One of
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Speaker 2: the ladies in my class I got a law degree
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Speaker 2: in and became a counselor, providing counseling service to folks,
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Speaker 2: using the law degree as sort of a springboard. So
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Speaker 2: you've probably got I would wager in a state of
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Speaker 2: a million, eight hundred thousand people, maybe six thousand practicing attorneys,
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Speaker 2: and the number is not going up, it's staying relatively
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Speaker 2: the same, which leads to it's a small bar. People
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Speaker 2: know each other, they recognize each other's names. Our lawyers
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Speaker 2: are generally well behaved. They're collegial because you're practicing in
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Speaker 2: circuits where there's only one judge or two judges. Here
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Speaker 2: in Kannack County you've got what seven or eight now,
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Speaker 2: but it's still relatively small compared to other big jurisdictions.
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Speaker 2: So if you misbehave, or you're not prepared, or you
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Speaker 2: engage in sharp practice, everybody knows about it, and those
8:46
Speaker 2: folks soon find themselves isolated. Neither change their ways and
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Speaker 2: move on. It's a good thing and the people at
8:53
Speaker 2: West Virginia benefit mightily from that. I think we take
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Speaker 2: great pride at the Peyton Law Firm. I mean Tom
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Speaker 2: and I are both life long residents of West Virginia.
9:02
Speaker 2: I've been at it fifty two years, he's been doing
9:05
Speaker 2: it twenty five. So now we've got was that seventy
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Speaker 2: seven years of combined experience in you know, counties wherever,
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Speaker 2: we know everybody pretty much, and that makes a big difference,
9:19
Speaker 2: and it also leads to one of the problems we've
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Speaker 2: got now. Hop East commentary.
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Speaker 1: This morning.
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Speaker 2: I heard it on the radio on the way in
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Speaker 2: was about the persistent problem of population loss. I mean,
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Speaker 2: in the last five years, West Virginia has lost about
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Speaker 2: one and a half percent of its population. And you think, well,
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Speaker 2: that's sounds like a lot. Well wait a minute. If
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Speaker 2: the rest of the country is growing in population as
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Speaker 2: it has over the last half century at often double
9:51
Speaker 2: digit rates of population growth, and we were down by
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Speaker 2: one and a half percent, that means we're in negative
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Speaker 2: double digit loss relative to everybody. The aggregate over years
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Speaker 2: is significant. Yeah, and it's telling. And you know where
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Speaker 2: it makes a big difference that I've noticed is, uh,
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Speaker 2: you know, at the Peyton Law Firm, we do a
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Speaker 2: lot of our bread and butter is and always has been,
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Speaker 2: or has been for the last thirty five years, bodily
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Speaker 2: injury claims, automobile accidents, railroad workers, workers' compensation, some products, liability,
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Speaker 2: social security, disability where there are issues about disability, insurance claims.
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Speaker 2: But because I was trained at the law school in
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Speaker 2: the seventies where their their attitude was we're were are
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Speaker 2: the bar exam and so we're going to hone you
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Speaker 2: lawyers to at least be able to be conversant in
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Speaker 2: what people need at sea level, and so we still do.
10:51
Speaker 2: I do a lot of what you call transactional work.
10:54
Speaker 2: Someone needs some little some light of state planning, they
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Speaker 2: need some advice about a real estate issue, a property matter,
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Speaker 2: or something regarding a small business contract or dispute. Well,
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Speaker 2: lawyers who provide those services are becoming more and more scarce.
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Speaker 2: One of the reasons, you know you attributed a lot.
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Speaker 2: I was down in one of the southern coalfield counties
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Speaker 2: probably six months ago, mediating a case, and the mediators
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Speaker 2: was a highly experienced lawyer, has been practiced about as
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Speaker 2: long as I have. And we got to talking about
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Speaker 2: this issue, and the town where we were mediating was
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Speaker 2: the county seat, and he pointed out and it reminded
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Speaker 2: me that twenty years ago there were ten law firms
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Speaker 2: in that town anywhere from solo practitioners, the three or
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Speaker 2: four lawyers who provided basic everyday service the folks needed.
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Speaker 2: They did some criminal defense, they did they would help
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Speaker 2: people with domestic matters. There were a few specialized in
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Speaker 2: property law, but many of them their bread and butter
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Speaker 2: was they would do some bodily injury work, make some money.
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Speaker 2: And that's all been sucked up now by the advertisers.
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Speaker 2: That's dried up. The populations have shrunk, and so now
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Speaker 2: in that county there are no law firms. There's the
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Speaker 2: prosecuting Attorney's office. There's the public Defender's office, which is
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Speaker 2: a necessity because the constitutional right to council and the
12:33
Speaker 2: fact that we have a public defender's office established. There
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Speaker 2: are lawyers who come from the outside because they are
12:41
Speaker 2: trained in the matters of abuse and neglect, and they
12:44
Speaker 2: may practice in one family court circuit which overlaps counties.
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Speaker 2: But just to go down the street to see a
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Speaker 2: law firm that's been there for twenty or thirty years
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Speaker 2: that you can say, hey, I'm going to go down
12:56
Speaker 2: and see Jerry Bob because he helped dad out and
13:01
Speaker 2: help grandpa. And it's just gone and it's not a
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Speaker 2: good thing. It's not a good thing. The law school
13:08
Speaker 2: in Morgantown, I think does a good job of graduating
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Speaker 2: well polished and well schooled students. They have an excellent
13:16
Speaker 2: program I think now in mineral resources sustainability. Their moot
13:22
Speaker 2: court program is good. They turn out but I think
13:26
Speaker 2: are pretty good young trial lawyers. But there is no
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Speaker 2: basic track of how do you do things that the
13:35
Speaker 2: people who live in the little white houses need done.
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Speaker 2: I don't know how we address that. It's Hopy noted
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Speaker 2: in its commentary that you have to grow that population.
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Speaker 2: How we do that, I don't know. If I knew
13:47
Speaker 2: that well, i'd be king for a day. But it
13:52
Speaker 2: is I think a serious problem. And I think people
13:55
Speaker 2: have difficulty finding lawyers to do the type of work
14:02
Speaker 2: that a lot of people need done. And and you know, unfortunately,
14:05
Speaker 2: sometimes you know, I see work done now that thirty
14:11
Speaker 2: years ago would never have been acceptable, never ever have
14:14
Speaker 2: been acceptable. But that's that's the situation in so it's
14:18
Speaker 2: not just a matter of when Hopey talks about economics
14:21
Speaker 2: and economic development and economic growth, that's true. Without at
14:26
Speaker 2: least the possibility or the foreseeability of a well trained,
14:30
Speaker 2: proficient workforce, you're not going to see a lot of
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Speaker 2: economic growth in a lot of counties in West Virginia
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Speaker 2: today until you can find a way to correct that problem.
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Speaker 2: But the underlying fact is, and it's not just lawyers,
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Speaker 2: it is engineers. You see engineering offices, surveying offices closed down,
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Speaker 2: You see insurance offices dwindle more folks go online for
14:56
Speaker 2: their coverage. Accounting firms in some of in these any struggle.
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Speaker 2: So you're seeing a sort of a sapping and a
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Speaker 2: dissipation of the mid level service industries that are really
15:09
Speaker 2: pretty significant in a basis for good economic development. And
15:15
Speaker 2: if you go to a if you work for a
15:17
Speaker 2: new course steel and you're transferred in here and you
15:21
Speaker 2: say I need a lawyer to do some state plan,
15:24
Speaker 2: well you know you can go. If you're an executive,
15:27
Speaker 2: you may go to one of the larger firms in
15:29
Speaker 2: Charleston that represents the company that's really not a good
15:32
Speaker 2: fit for most people. So, I mean, I hope people
15:37
Speaker 2: if you read Hobby's commentary, he can be accused of
15:40
Speaker 2: being negative. I mean, I understand, I know that there
15:43
Speaker 2: are folks who say, well, the moving van statistics show
15:47
Speaker 2: that some folks are moving more young people are moving
15:50
Speaker 2: here than are moving away. But if at the end
15:52
Speaker 2: of the day then that result is still a percent
15:55
Speaker 2: and a half population loss, then the impact is the same.
16:03
Speaker 2: We just have to do a better job. And taxation
16:06
Speaker 2: it's an issue. But if you cut the income tax
16:10
Speaker 2: and don't pay the roads, or you don't have special
16:16
Speaker 2: needs education for someone who moves here with a special
16:18
Speaker 2: needs child, or primier and secondary education. Higher education are underfunded.
16:23
Speaker 2: It's going to be harder and harder to fill that gap.
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Speaker 3: It's really something, it seems. The stuff in this obviously
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Speaker 3: this is my opinion, but the stuff that needs to
16:33
Speaker 3: be done. But we're talking about mostly infrastructure, it's hard work.
16:39
Speaker 3: I use where my mom lives. She only lives forty
16:42
Speaker 3: minutes from Charleston. She lives out towards the Beaumont so
16:45
Speaker 3: it's rural, but it's not in the middle of nowhere necessarily,
16:48
Speaker 3: you know, it's just it's mountainous, you know. But to
16:51
Speaker 3: this day, no sales service at her house. You can't
16:53
Speaker 3: get sales service at her house. They her neighborhood, her
16:57
Speaker 3: zip code commissioned a report through the ps of couple
17:00
Speaker 3: of years ago on the amount of time that they
17:02
Speaker 3: were without electricity, and it was a remarkable number over
17:06
Speaker 3: like a three year period.
17:06
Speaker 1: It was.
17:08
Speaker 3: Dozens and pulling dozens of times of periods of time
17:12
Speaker 3: of over six hours or whatever. I can't remember what
17:15
Speaker 3: it is. It made her, you know, she went and
17:18
Speaker 3: invested in a in ground generator that generates her whole house.
17:22
Speaker 3: She went out and got Star Links so she has
17:24
Speaker 3: internet service all the time and has a cell phone
17:26
Speaker 3: expander so she can actually get cell phone service on
17:29
Speaker 3: her property.
17:29
Speaker 1: I mean, she's made.
17:30
Speaker 3: Improvements so she can live a relatively modern connected life
17:34
Speaker 3: because she lives by herself. If something would happen and
17:36
Speaker 3: you don't have cell phone service, and oh, by the way,
17:38
Speaker 3: when the electricity goes out out there, the phone lines
17:41
Speaker 3: go offline because the battery pack at the station eventually
17:45
Speaker 3: runs out, and so you don't get landlines either. Once
17:47
Speaker 3: the electricity goes out, she would have no way to
17:50
Speaker 3: contact emergency services. Things like that. It seems like if
17:54
Speaker 3: we want people to come to the state, are the
17:55
Speaker 3: things we need to fix.
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Speaker 2: Well, I hardly agree with you for one thing. How
18:01
Speaker 2: do you expect anyone to And it's a gorgeous area, beautiful,
18:06
Speaker 2: she owns a mountain, man, It's it's gorgeous. I mean,
18:10
Speaker 2: Whyooming County is just a priceless spot, nicest people in
18:14
Speaker 2: the world. But how do you go when you turn
18:16
Speaker 2: on the tap and the water looks like weak coffee
18:19
Speaker 2: and somebody from the DP says, well, it's safe to drink.
18:22
Speaker 2: But nobody's going to drink that. It's just not going
18:25
Speaker 2: to happen. I grew up on the west side of
18:28
Speaker 2: Saint Albans. We didn't have Saint Albans water. We had
18:30
Speaker 2: West Virginia water, which was before Western American took them over,
18:34
Speaker 2: and it was literally horrible. It smelled terrible, it tasted bad,
18:40
Speaker 2: and it was just awful. Now that's been cured with
18:43
Speaker 2: the Elk River plant. But you magnify that times ten
18:46
Speaker 2: and put in this coloration and odor and the inability
18:50
Speaker 2: to do laundry, and you're absolutely correct. And one of
18:54
Speaker 2: the problems we've got is lingering. I don't know who
18:58
Speaker 2: provides the electric service, but there are the and areas
19:00
Speaker 2: in West Virginia where there are public utilities which are
19:06
Speaker 2: really no more than investors who bought out utilities established
19:11
Speaker 2: by coal companies eighty years ago because they can make
19:16
Speaker 2: some money on them. And they simply might be one
19:22
Speaker 2: invoice customers of the power company. They buy power, send
19:26
Speaker 2: it out over antiquated lines of very little maina. The
19:29
Speaker 2: same thing happens with these water companies. You know, if
19:33
Speaker 2: you built a coal camp after the days when you
19:37
Speaker 2: can make people live with just a pump in an outhouse,
19:41
Speaker 2: built a little water plant, got some water out of
19:43
Speaker 2: the creek or out of one of the old mines.
19:45
Speaker 2: You piped it into people's homes. Well, coal ran out,
19:48
Speaker 2: company ran out. What happens to the water plant? It
19:52
Speaker 2: just sits there in interior rates. People get together and say, well,
19:55
Speaker 2: let's rehab this and run it. Well, you can't for
19:57
Speaker 2: very long. It's just a it's a mind boggling state
20:03
Speaker 2: of affairs that I don't think we've ever realistically come
20:06
Speaker 2: to grips with. And now, unfortunately we're dominated by the
20:10
Speaker 2: spillover from national issues that have nothing to do with us. Now.
20:17
Speaker 2: Last weekend at the state track meet, a transgendered girl
20:23
Speaker 2: won the shot put and to look online, you would
20:28
Speaker 2: think the world ended well. I have an issue with
20:34
Speaker 2: x Y chromosome boys girls competing in women's sports.
20:41
Speaker 1: Not fair.
20:43
Speaker 2: I think the parents are right, it's not fair. But
20:47
Speaker 2: because of a court decision by the fourth Sir Court
20:49
Speaker 2: of Appeals, secondary school's Activities Commission had no choice but
20:54
Speaker 2: to allow the young lady to compete, and she won. Uh.
20:59
Speaker 2: But that to make that a dominant issue in state politics,
21:02
Speaker 2: I mean I heard all the ads that were run,
21:07
Speaker 2: particularly with regard to Senator to Kubo, I mean accusing
21:11
Speaker 2: him of everything except pedophilia and the anti Muslim sentiment
21:18
Speaker 2: and the anti immigrant sentiment, which is very little effect,
21:23
Speaker 2: if any I see on the day to day lives
21:26
Speaker 2: of the people I represent.
21:28
Speaker 3: The factor of people that are affected by no good
21:31
Speaker 3: source of water, with inconsistent electricity, with no cell service
21:35
Speaker 3: and things like that is multitude a factor of how
21:38
Speaker 3: many of her single digit trans athletes you might have
21:40
Speaker 3: in the state.
21:42
Speaker 2: Yes, And although I will say this, the Democratic Party
21:47
Speaker 2: on the national level has hooked their wagon to that
21:50
Speaker 2: star and refuse to even tolerate a person or potential
21:57
Speaker 2: candidate who says, well, you know, maybe this is not fair.
22:01
Speaker 2: You know, maybe we need to adjust and maybe we
22:04
Speaker 2: need another classification for a participation by particular individuals, or
22:08
Speaker 2: maybe this is not you know, it's a marginalized population.
22:12
Speaker 2: Is there something else we can do to protect those
22:16
Speaker 2: folks who feel like they're being put upon by this?
22:18
Speaker 2: I mean, but we make no effort to do that because
22:20
Speaker 2: at the national level, we're just hogg time.
22:23
Speaker 1: Now.
22:24
Speaker 2: You want to take a break, Yeah, let's take a break.
22:26
Speaker 2: I want to talk about a couple of bills that
22:28
Speaker 2: passed in the legislature.
22:29
Speaker 3: That's a good point. If you want to get in
22:30
Speaker 3: on the conversation this morning, you're welcome to you and
22:32
Speaker 3: give us a call.
22:32
Speaker 1: Of course.
22:32
Speaker 3: Threes are four three, four five fifty eight fifty eight
22:34
Speaker 3: To get online with Harvey Payton from the Payton Law Firm,
22:36
Speaker 3: and also send us over a text if you'd like
22:38
Speaker 3: to as well. Text line is up and firing. Nothing
22:40
Speaker 3: yet this morning, but you're welcome to send over a
22:42
Speaker 3: text to threes z are four nine three five five
22:44
Speaker 3: zeros or eighth. Threes are four nine three five five
22:46
Speaker 3: zeros are eight. Get a hold of Harvy Peyton from
22:47
Speaker 3: the Payton Law Firm online Payton Lawfirm dot com. That's
22:50
Speaker 3: with an ep E y t O and Peyton Law
22:52
Speaker 3: Firm dot com. We'll take a break and be back
22:54
Speaker 3: right after this. You're at listening to ask the lawyer
22:56
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Speaker 3: It is fourteen minutes into the top of hour. Always
24:47
Speaker 3: nice to come back with this version of country Roads.
24:50
Speaker 3: It takes the temperature down a little bit.
24:52
Speaker 2: It makes me And that is indeed the esteemed Brian Roberts,
24:56
Speaker 2: my son in law. He's the husband of Sarah Roberts,
24:59
Speaker 2: that angel of the Veterans Administration. Ryan's quite accomplished the
25:04
Speaker 2: guitarist and gives lessons and plays in some groups. He
25:07
Speaker 2: had the Dead Pirate Roberts or the Dread Pirate Robs
25:11
Speaker 2: probably yeah, and others. So it's always I mean, it
25:14
Speaker 2: sounds like there were more than one guitar there, but
25:16
Speaker 2: that's Brian. I think he's playing at twelve straight in
25:18
Speaker 2: that one sounds like it. So yeah, it's uh, that's
25:22
Speaker 2: almost the universal ubiquitous song from all over the all
25:26
Speaker 2: over the world, people sing country Roads.
25:29
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what.
25:30
Speaker 3: There is a I'm obviously a huge fan of the
25:33
Speaker 3: state and watch baseball all the time, and there is
25:36
Speaker 3: a player for the Phillies. I can't remember who it
25:39
Speaker 3: is now, but there's a player for the Phillies. His
25:41
Speaker 3: walk up music is country Roads, which I don't care.
25:44
Speaker 3: I mean it's great. I'm glad he's using it. But
25:45
Speaker 3: I'm a Reds fan man, and so every time I
25:47
Speaker 3: guy was coming to the plate they were playing Country Roads,
25:49
Speaker 3: I was like, no, don't play that.
25:50
Speaker 2: Well. You would think the Reds would work that in somehow.
25:53
Speaker 2: As many Reds fans in this area, I mean they're rabbit.
25:56
Speaker 2: I mean I grew up here, you know, in Saint Albans,
25:59
Speaker 2: and the Reds were the I mean the Red's caravan.
26:01
Speaker 2: They had the train that came in from Cincinnati. By
26:06
Speaker 2: the time I was in college, you had the big
26:07
Speaker 2: Red machine. I mean you could go down to Cincinnati
26:09
Speaker 2: and see like four or five Hall of Famers at
26:12
Speaker 2: any given time. But they didn't go to Morgantown. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
26:17
Speaker 2: no the Pirates.
26:19
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah. The states divided pretty well anymore.
26:22
Speaker 2: That the broadcaster for Cincinnati used to drink so much
26:26
Speaker 2: of you to pull me nut cahall about the eighth inning,
26:30
Speaker 2: the old left hander, the old left so you got
26:34
Speaker 2: you went up to Pittsburgh and there was Bob Prince.
26:36
Speaker 2: The best story I heard about Prince, I think it
26:38
Speaker 2: was in Sports Illustrated he's about half nuts. He had
26:42
Speaker 2: Warris wear the bright sports coach brash that they had
26:46
Speaker 2: the spring training in Bradenton, Florida. I had my mom's
26:49
Speaker 2: young sister lived in Bradenton with her family, and so
26:52
Speaker 2: he would go down and her husband, Bobby, was a
26:54
Speaker 2: sports writer for the Saint Pete Times, and he would
26:57
Speaker 2: cover the Pirates spring training. And it wasn't high tech
27:02
Speaker 2: like it is now. The press box was just that.
27:04
Speaker 2: That's a shed really made out of a corrugated metal
27:09
Speaker 2: with a counter, and you know, so it's Florida in
27:13
Speaker 2: the spring and it's warm, and so one of the
27:16
Speaker 2: writers there's up to the press box and there's Prince
27:21
Speaker 2: sitting there naked. There's too odd in here. Another time
27:26
Speaker 2: he found him any skivvy shorts. I mean he was.
27:29
Speaker 3: It was really baseball broadcasting used to I mean it
27:31
Speaker 3: just used to be the best. So many characters involved
27:33
Speaker 3: in that, and we're losing most of those guys unfortunately.
27:36
Speaker 2: I remember watching Dizzy Dean, you know, on the whatever,
27:40
Speaker 2: the game of the week. Yeah, oh yeah, right, there's
27:42
Speaker 2: a lot of clips of that. That was a little
27:44
Speaker 2: bit before my time.
27:45
Speaker 3: When I moved to Detroit, we got I got the
27:47
Speaker 3: last few years of Ernie Harwell, which was which is nice.
27:49
Speaker 1: That was really nice. He was a great play I
27:51
Speaker 1: played guy. I know you had some local bills, some local.
27:55
Speaker 2: Left. Uh, they didn't do much in the realm of
27:59
Speaker 2: civil litigation that I can tell. The rights of the
28:04
Speaker 2: injured and the abused have been fairly well protected and
28:08
Speaker 2: not subject to the myth of this great tort tax
28:13
Speaker 2: et cetera. Largely because we've got really good people. I mean,
28:16
Speaker 2: you've got jb. Acres, he's the judiciary chairman in the House.
28:21
Speaker 2: And JB's you know it obviously. I mean his wife
28:27
Speaker 2: could have been a gubernatorial candidate. After she left the
28:31
Speaker 2: Kaal County Prosecutor's office, she went to work for McGraw
28:35
Speaker 2: at the AG's office. Now an excellent lawyer from his
28:39
Speaker 2: family of law. I mean, I know her dad garth
28:41
Speaker 2: really well. Had she been pushed by the occupant of
28:47
Speaker 2: the office, I thought she could have run for the
28:49
Speaker 2: statewide office of Attorney General, probably won and would be
28:53
Speaker 2: a springboard to the governorship. She's now on the circuit
28:58
Speaker 2: court bench. But you got to think when you hear
29:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I like he said he worked in our
29:07
Speaker 2: office briefly back in the guy the late nineties. Maybe, uh,
29:11
Speaker 2: the Republican but you know, nothing wrong with our is
29:14
Speaker 2: not a it's not a scarlet letter. Uh. But he
29:18
Speaker 2: has a lot of ads, you know, speaking out to
29:20
Speaker 2: his constituents. Well that's sort of building a little mo right,
29:25
Speaker 2: it sounds like it. And you know, the Judiciary chairman,
29:28
Speaker 2: that's not a bad job to have. You've got a
29:31
Speaker 2: lot of influence. A lot of people are coming to you.
29:34
Speaker 2: You know, there are bills that people are interested in,
29:37
Speaker 2: so I would keep an eye on that. You know,
29:39
Speaker 2: it's like you've got these two power couples here. You
29:42
Speaker 2: got Ben and Tarra Selango, and then you've got JB
29:47
Speaker 2: and Mary Claire Akers. You've also you've got you know,
29:51
Speaker 2: Booth and his wife, the mayor, and you got Krt
29:56
Speaker 2: his first cousin, who's what was in the United States Senate.
29:59
Speaker 2: It's it's going to be interesting to see what develops.
30:01
Speaker 2: There's going to be some changes I think at the
30:03
Speaker 2: top of these tickets, largely because of this influx of
30:08
Speaker 2: national meaningless issues. But one of the bills, and I
30:12
Speaker 2: mentioned Ben Selango, another good guy. He's been down around
30:15
Speaker 2: Beckley or Daniels originally and Tera, his wife from Leitro
30:21
Speaker 2: and her brother. Most people know is murdered at Nanny
30:25
Speaker 2: Jones ribshack down in Nitro about twenty five twenty six,
30:30
Speaker 2: twenty eight years ago, and he was convicted of first
30:33
Speaker 2: degree murder and there was a recommendation of mercy at
30:36
Speaker 2: that time if I mean the punishment for a first
30:39
Speaker 2: degree murder's life in prison. But the jury has an
30:42
Speaker 2: option they can make a mercy finding which makes the
30:47
Speaker 2: defendant eligible for parole after a given number of years.
30:51
Speaker 2: At that time it was ten years. Now by the
30:54
Speaker 2: time that Fellow was tried, it was fifteen years, which
30:57
Speaker 2: it is today. But because the crime was committed at
31:01
Speaker 2: the ten year bards and that that was what was applied.
31:04
Speaker 2: Now he's still in prison. And ben so I Commission
31:11
Speaker 2: Commission President, I think right of Canack count He lobbied
31:15
Speaker 2: heavily for a bill to increase that minimum. It went
31:20
Speaker 2: up to fifteen years. Now, the average period of time
31:25
Speaker 2: service someone convicted a first degree murder, even with the
31:28
Speaker 2: mercy recommendation is well over twenty years. The pro board
31:31
Speaker 2: does not now that's an average, and they have an
31:33
Speaker 2: occasion released convicts of first degree murder shortly after the minimum,
31:41
Speaker 2: but not often. It's over somewhere over about twenty five
31:45
Speaker 2: years to thirty. So my thought was, at Ben's point,
31:50
Speaker 2: if you're the family of the victim, then you're compelled
31:54
Speaker 2: every so many years after the eligibility date to appear
31:57
Speaker 2: before the pro board open the wound again, put forth
32:02
Speaker 2: your position of why this person should stay in prison
32:05
Speaker 2: not be released. And it really it's a burden on
32:13
Speaker 2: the family is of the victim without really any corresponding
32:19
Speaker 2: burden on the person who killed them. I mean, there's
32:21
Speaker 2: no more serious crime than taking a human life. So
32:26
Speaker 2: the legislature did the right thing AA increased the minimum.
32:30
Speaker 2: I think my thought was, if it's twenty five years,
32:33
Speaker 2: it's make it thirty years. I mean, if somebody killed,
32:36
Speaker 2: it's a premeditated, malicious, intentional killing, thirty years in prison
32:41
Speaker 2: before year eligible for pros. You know, person who's kills
32:45
Speaker 2: never going to be here. The legislature decided on twenty
32:48
Speaker 2: five years, So now I think it doesn't come into
32:50
Speaker 2: effect until July tot first. So I've seen a couple
32:54
Speaker 2: of pretty heenous murder arrests here lately, one in Kanaal
33:00
Speaker 2: County where a young woman's remains were found. There was
33:03
Speaker 2: one in the rich Wood this week where you know,
33:09
Speaker 2: a lot of mattress side a child killing by a mother,
33:13
Speaker 2: and you know, but that because they are before this
33:16
Speaker 2: act is into effect, they're still eligible for prole Now,
33:20
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean they're going to get it. I suspect
33:22
Speaker 2: the pro board is going to apply the new parameters
33:24
Speaker 2: and they and also the legislature increased the minimum for
33:29
Speaker 2: UH second degree murder, which was ten years. I think
33:33
Speaker 2: that went up to fifteen for other life sentences and
33:38
Speaker 2: you can be sentenced to life in prison for things
33:40
Speaker 2: other than murder. You can have a recent of a
33:42
Speaker 2: sentence if you're convicted of three felonies, not all at
33:47
Speaker 2: one time, but you're convicted of a felony.
33:49
Speaker 1: That's three strikes thing, right, it's a three strike thing.
33:51
Speaker 2: But it means you have to be convicted of a
33:53
Speaker 2: violent felony, sentenced, punished, thereafter, commit another violent felony and
34:00
Speaker 2: spunice and thereafter, so it's UH. Then you can be
34:04
Speaker 2: sentenced on a third on a fourth charge of recidivism
34:07
Speaker 2: and life in prison. Those have been extended, I think
34:11
Speaker 2: the twenty years so that's a good thing the legislature did.
34:14
Speaker 2: My fear was and it didn't happen, that that was
34:18
Speaker 2: going to allow somebody to get the bit in their
34:20
Speaker 2: teeth and then we're going to hear a death penalty
34:23
Speaker 2: hue and cry, which we haven't had in West Virginia
34:26
Speaker 2: since back in the sixties. You know, it's societal retribution.
34:35
Speaker 2: You can't nobody can say that that deters people, because
34:40
Speaker 2: people who are capable and reasonable enough to be deterred
34:43
Speaker 2: by consequences don't commit murders. So let me talk about
34:45
Speaker 2: the Peyton Law Firm. Peyton Lawfirm dot com. Now, I'll
34:48
Speaker 2: be here this week. I am the next few weeks,
34:50
Speaker 2: Tom will be here, my youngest by my oldest son.
34:54
Speaker 2: He'll be fifty in September, and I'm still saying he's
34:56
Speaker 2: the best young lawyer under the age of fifty in
34:59
Speaker 2: this region. If you've got an injury or any issue
35:02
Speaker 2: like insurance or on the job problem, Peytonlawfirm dot com.
35:07
Speaker 2: Best way to get in touch with us. You can
35:08
Speaker 2: call us on the phone at three oh four seven
35:10
Speaker 2: five five fifty five fifty six. We try and return
35:14
Speaker 2: every call every day. But if you go online and
35:17
Speaker 2: Peytonlawfirm dot com. Send us a text or an email.
35:21
Speaker 2: It comes only to my de escort to Tom's. We
35:22
Speaker 2: can return those any hour of the day or night.
35:25
Speaker 2: We can stop by the office. Can't tell you who
35:27
Speaker 2: to hire, but I can tell you we've been here
35:29
Speaker 2: for a total of over seventy five years. We know
35:32
Speaker 2: what we're doing, we get good results, and we're here
35:36
Speaker 2: to help you. And that's all I can say.
35:38
Speaker 3: Really, it's a great information as always with Harvey Payton
35:41
Speaker 3: from the Peyton Law Firm every Thursday right here on
35:43
Speaker 3: five adwhs ask the lawyer at eight twenty either Harvey
35:47
Speaker 3: or Tom stops by.
35:48
Speaker 2: Then.
35:48
Speaker 3: It's been an institution here for I guess decades here
35:51
Speaker 3: at this point.
35:52
Speaker 2: Twenty seven years. Wow started in January nineteen ninety nine.
35:59
Speaker 2: We talked to about that last week, all right, because
36:01
Speaker 2: I asked the expert with the lawyers was generally and
36:04
Speaker 2: that was an election year, so there was a lawyer
36:06
Speaker 2: who was running for the House of Delegates and he
36:09
Speaker 2: had to ask the lawyer's show. And Linda Arnold approached
36:11
Speaker 2: me and said, well, that's going to open up after
36:13
Speaker 2: the election because he's not going to renew it almost
36:17
Speaker 2: thirty years ago. Yeah, yeah, it's incredible. Jumped in last
36:20
Speaker 2: really so it seems like time flies but.
36:23
Speaker 3: Really something else. And a lot of those shows you
36:24
Speaker 3: can find online WCHS network dot com. You can find
36:27
Speaker 3: our podcast section and we have a whole archive over
36:29
Speaker 3: there that you can go back and listen to at
36:31
Speaker 3: any point.
36:31
Speaker 1: But that's going to do it for us today.
36:33
Speaker 3: You can tune in next week for Ask the Lawyer
36:35
Speaker 3: right here on five ADWCHS the Voice of Charleston at
36:37
Speaker 3: the same time at eight twenty. Coming up later on today,
36:40
Speaker 3: Dave Allen is up on The Dave Allen Show next
36:43
Speaker 3: on five DY Live. After that, it's going to be
36:45
Speaker 3: a talk line with with Well TJ's on vacation, so
36:47
Speaker 3: Dave Wilson has a talk Lon solo this week, and
36:50
Speaker 3: then later on this afternoon, Dave Allen will be back
36:53
Speaker 3: with Amanda Baronal midday and then at three oh six
36:55
Speaker 3: I'll be back with Dave weekly on the Network of
36:57
Speaker 3: Days for Metro News Hotlines. So thanks for tuning in everyone.
37:00
Speaker 3: Reads are off tonight. They pick up a series tomorrow
37:03
Speaker 3: that it will be back at Great American Ball Park.
37:05
Speaker 3: We'll have that series all week and long against the
37:07
Speaker 3: Atlanta Braves and also NBA Action tonight, Western Conference game
37:12
Speaker 3: number six. You can catch that at eight o'clock tonight
37:14
Speaker 3: right here on five eight w CHS. Have a great day,
37:16
Speaker 3: everyone listening to your voice for Charleston. We are five
37:19
Speaker 3: eighty WHS.