Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 12/18/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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12/18/2025 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · WCHS Network Podcasts

0:00
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Speaker 2: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
0:18
Speaker 2: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ad WHS
0:22
Speaker 2: it's employees or WVRC Media.
0:25
Speaker 3: Of Courts Oh Created Equal.
0:34
Speaker 4: Well Mass Come here in a kadon y can box
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Speaker 4: and cope.
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Speaker 5: Good morning. It's a twenty two and five eighty us
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Speaker 5: the Voice of Charleston. I'm Jeff Jenkins filling in for
0:56
Speaker 5: Dale Cooper today and it's time to talk to them
0:58
Speaker 5: all Peyton at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
1:02
Speaker 5: Tom is on the phone today. Tom, good morning, How
1:05
Speaker 5: you doing.
1:06
Speaker 3: I'm doing well. Jeff doing well. Not not there in
1:09
Speaker 3: the studio, appearing by phone this morning. Hate to not
1:12
Speaker 3: be in the studio, but got other important obligations today.
1:16
Speaker 3: So we're actually in Baton Ridge for my son Houston's
1:21
Speaker 3: graduation from LSU. So Dad and I are both down
1:23
Speaker 3: here but glad we can appear one way or another
1:30
Speaker 3: because we hate to miss the show. And I think
1:31
Speaker 3: obviously next week is Christmas, right, it's running up on
1:35
Speaker 3: New Year's the following weeks, this may be the last
1:38
Speaker 3: show of the year. It's New Year's Eve. We might
1:40
Speaker 3: be able to come in, but glad to be on.
1:44
Speaker 3: Well it did graphic report.
1:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, hey, congratulations to Houston. Big accomplishment there.
1:49
Speaker 3: Great thanks. Yeah. You know, both my kids went out
1:54
Speaker 3: of state for college and both of them are coming back.
1:57
Speaker 3: But one of them's back in West Virginia working and
1:59
Speaker 3: he is coming back to work for how too. So
2:04
Speaker 3: we'll see if they can State of Westviginia can keep
2:07
Speaker 3: them sticking.
2:07
Speaker 5: Around, right, you like that in migration, that's what That's
2:12
Speaker 5: what West Virginia needs.
2:14
Speaker 3: That's right, That's right. Well, I think unfortunately, I think
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Speaker 3: unless some things change, it may not be a trend.
2:21
Speaker 3: But my two kids are doing what they can to
2:24
Speaker 3: help with that.
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Speaker 5: So Tom, we are, you know, toward the end of
2:28
Speaker 5: the year here and time to look back. And I
2:31
Speaker 5: know you guys have had a successful year, a busy
2:34
Speaker 5: year at the Peyton Law Firm.
2:36
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, we've stayed busy you know, I feel like
2:41
Speaker 3: what we do, of course, our breath butter is kind
2:46
Speaker 3: of civil litigation. We like to try cases to juries
2:48
Speaker 3: and we usually do pretty well, and most of those
2:51
Speaker 3: involve injuries of some sort, whether it's a financial injury
2:56
Speaker 3: or a physical injury from an automobile accident or a fall,
3:00
Speaker 3: or to speak with an insurance company. But we, as
3:04
Speaker 3: you know, we do a lot of other things to
3:06
Speaker 3: help people, and so we kind of pride ourselves on
3:08
Speaker 3: being members of the community and being able to help
3:10
Speaker 3: people with their everyday needs because hopefully you're not in
3:13
Speaker 3: a car wreck and we're a victim of a insurance
3:17
Speaker 3: company denying a claim. But most everybody at some point
3:20
Speaker 3: in their life's going to need some basic deedwork done,
3:23
Speaker 3: some estate planning, do some so security, disability, that kind
3:27
Speaker 3: of things. We feel like we've helped do our part
3:30
Speaker 3: this year, as we do every year. But yeah, we
3:34
Speaker 3: stay quite busy. However, if you have a call on
3:38
Speaker 3: any subject matter or a question, I guess I would say,
3:41
Speaker 3: then don't hesitate to give us a call or send
3:44
Speaker 3: us an email through the website goes right to my
3:48
Speaker 3: email and dad's email. We don't have any kind of
3:50
Speaker 3: answering service or can service that responds. That being said,
3:54
Speaker 3: if we happen not to get back with you, just
3:56
Speaker 3: send another one could have gone to junk mail, or
3:59
Speaker 3: we could have got over overlooked by us. But we're
4:01
Speaker 3: always glad to answer basic questions about legal matters and
4:07
Speaker 3: a lot of times we can take a few minutes
4:09
Speaker 3: and and give you some information and get you on
4:12
Speaker 3: the right track and you don't really need to hire
4:13
Speaker 3: an attorney to to handle the matter. So yeah, it's
4:18
Speaker 3: been a good another good year at Peyton Law Firm.
4:21
Speaker 3: That was Sean last week, you guys, salesperson. So we're
4:25
Speaker 3: we'll be back for another year next year.
4:27
Speaker 5: Every Thursday morning, all right, that's great news. And Tom,
4:31
Speaker 5: I know, you know you see relatives this time of
4:33
Speaker 5: year and you know it's it's it's the holiday, so
4:36
Speaker 5: it's festive occasions, but it's you know, it's not a
4:39
Speaker 5: bad time to discuss if someone maybe doesn't have a
4:42
Speaker 5: will done or you know, those type of things. Maybe
4:45
Speaker 5: that's a discussion to have and to eliminate any maybe
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Speaker 5: misconceptions about it being difficult, you know, because that's what
4:55
Speaker 5: you guys, that's some of the bread and butter things
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Speaker 5: that you guys do often.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's you know. People of course you forget when
5:03
Speaker 3: you grew up as a as a trial lawyer, practicing
5:10
Speaker 3: lawyer's son, and then went right into practicing law. The
5:13
Speaker 3: people get, you know, because some people are intimidated by lawyers.
5:16
Speaker 3: And then when you're talking about things like wills, power
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Speaker 3: of attorneys, you kn'd of lose this sense of doing.
5:24
Speaker 3: You know, probably drafted, I mean certainly thousands of wills
5:27
Speaker 3: for folks in West Virginia. But you know, it's uncomfortable
5:31
Speaker 3: to talk about because it's you know, you're talking about
5:34
Speaker 3: the ultimate issue there, and so I try and be
5:36
Speaker 3: sensitive to that. But getting wills done, getting basic power
5:39
Speaker 3: of attorneys done, it's not too late till it's too late.
5:43
Speaker 3: And on power of attorneys, for example, the financial power
5:47
Speaker 3: of attorney and probably less important because doctors will find
5:52
Speaker 3: a family member to make a decisions. Medical power of attorneys,
5:55
Speaker 3: where you can choose your medical power attorneys are particularly
5:58
Speaker 3: important if you have a may blended family where you
6:01
Speaker 3: might have children from a different relationship than your spouse.
6:04
Speaker 3: So in that situation, you really want to make sure
6:07
Speaker 3: you designate the person you want to make medical decisions
6:10
Speaker 3: for you if you can't do it yourself. And then
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Speaker 3: what's called a durable power of attorney. That's that's the
6:16
Speaker 3: one that has to do with business or finances and
6:21
Speaker 3: the you know, you may be married, maybe you're on
6:24
Speaker 3: your spouse's bank account, you're on each other's bank accounts,
6:27
Speaker 3: so naturally you can sign texts because you're an owner.
6:30
Speaker 3: But at some point if one of you becomes incapacity,
6:33
Speaker 3: has a stroke or something long term incapacity, you will
6:38
Speaker 3: run into situations where you will not be able to
6:40
Speaker 3: act on behalf of your spouse because you don't have
6:44
Speaker 3: inherent authority to do that just because you're marriage. There
6:46
Speaker 3: might be a utility bill that was only in one
6:48
Speaker 3: person's name, there might be insurance. You know, you've got
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Speaker 3: tax returns, things like that. And if you have that
6:56
Speaker 3: kind of long term incapacity and you don't have a
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Speaker 3: durable well, there's two ways you can act on behalf
7:04
Speaker 3: of another person. You can if you didn't do a
7:07
Speaker 3: durable power of attorney, or they did not while they
7:10
Speaker 3: were competent to execute one, then you've got to go
7:13
Speaker 3: through a court process. And it's not I mean, I've
7:17
Speaker 3: done quite a few, so it's not complicated litigation for me,
7:22
Speaker 3: but it takes time. You have to file a petition,
7:25
Speaker 3: you got to have a doctor certify they're incapacitated. You've
7:28
Speaker 3: got to file accountings, you might have to be bonded.
7:31
Speaker 3: It's just something, and you got to pay a lawyer
7:33
Speaker 3: if you want a lawyer to help you do it.
7:35
Speaker 3: It's easy for me to say it's not that complicated
7:37
Speaker 3: to do because I'm a lawyer and done a lot
7:39
Speaker 3: of them. But if you go and try and do
7:40
Speaker 3: it yourself, I find a lot of folks get really
7:42
Speaker 3: overwhelmed and sometimes just don't get it done. You can
7:47
Speaker 3: prevent all that by just getting a durable power of
7:50
Speaker 3: attorney done. As long as you have some family member
7:52
Speaker 3: or even a close friend that you trust that if
7:56
Speaker 3: you become incapacitated, they they won't cheat field they'll help
8:00
Speaker 3: try and help you out with your finances. Then it's
8:04
Speaker 3: smart to get a durable power of attorney done. Why
8:07
Speaker 3: you can and then unfortunately, Jef, you know, we have
8:09
Speaker 3: people call it why my dad needs a power of attorney.
8:12
Speaker 3: He's got dementia and you know he's in a care home.
8:15
Speaker 3: But you can't impress one upon someone else. They have
8:19
Speaker 3: to tell me who they want and be able to
8:22
Speaker 3: understand it and sign it themselves. So it's once you
8:25
Speaker 3: get to that point, it's too late. So you know,
8:29
Speaker 3: it is something. As people get towards the end of
8:31
Speaker 3: the year and maybe get together with family, they start
8:34
Speaker 3: thinking about but and then doing some very simple wills,
8:38
Speaker 3: which we do frequently. They aren't. We try and keep
8:42
Speaker 3: it affordable for folks, and if you do power of
8:45
Speaker 3: attorneys and wills, we kind of package them together as
8:47
Speaker 3: for one one fee, and it's it's not onerous and
8:51
Speaker 3: the process is very simple. You know, you come in
8:53
Speaker 3: the office meet It usually takes us a half hour
8:57
Speaker 3: to an hour just to talk about what you want
8:58
Speaker 3: to do, and then come back for one more appointment,
9:01
Speaker 3: usually a few weeks out, and we've got all the documents,
9:04
Speaker 3: witnesses ready, et cetera. And we also never make anybody
9:07
Speaker 3: pay during that first appointment, Jeff, So if you come
9:09
Speaker 3: in and decide what it's I don't think I need
9:12
Speaker 3: to have this done or et cetera, then at least
9:15
Speaker 3: you've had the consultation. You can always call us back
9:17
Speaker 3: and finish up later. But it's a it's a painless
9:20
Speaker 3: process as far as dealing with us. We think, you
9:23
Speaker 3: know a lot of people leave the office saying, well,
9:25
Speaker 3: that wasn't so bad or that wasn't very difficult. Uh,
9:28
Speaker 3: and then once they get that work done, it's just
9:31
Speaker 3: kind of a weight off their chest because it's something
9:33
Speaker 3: you you know, you don't really have to do, but
9:36
Speaker 3: you know you should and it weighs on your mind.
9:38
Speaker 3: So it is a good time to think about that.
9:42
Speaker 3: And it's if you want some of that type work done,
9:44
Speaker 3: it's real simple. You can email our office, but probably
9:47
Speaker 3: best to call and staff will set an appointment and
9:49
Speaker 3: uh then we take it from there.
9:52
Speaker 5: And also that's where you can get into, uh the
9:55
Speaker 5: transfer on death d that we've talked about before. You
9:58
Speaker 5: know that that that that can also be a headache reliever.
10:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Everybody's you know, well, you hear awful
10:06
Speaker 3: lot of times. I hear about, well, the nursing home
10:08
Speaker 3: is going to take my home, and you know, there
10:11
Speaker 3: are concerns about that at the nursing home doesn't take
10:14
Speaker 3: your home. But you know there's only right now, you
10:19
Speaker 3: either have long term care insurance if you need to
10:21
Speaker 3: go into a care home, like a nursing home type facility.
10:24
Speaker 3: I don't know what the percentage is of folks that
10:26
Speaker 3: have long term care insurance, but it is extremely low.
10:31
Speaker 3: Otherwise you have to pay your own way, pay cash,
10:35
Speaker 3: and nursing home or intensive skilled nursing care is very
10:40
Speaker 3: expensive and a lot of times folks have to spend
10:46
Speaker 3: down they and right now, the only mechanism to pay
10:48
Speaker 3: for it other than yourself is through medicaid. And medicaid's
10:51
Speaker 3: a welfare program which has negative connotations, but what that
10:55
Speaker 3: really means is that anybody qualifies for it as long
10:58
Speaker 3: as you qualify financially, so you really can't own property,
11:03
Speaker 3: with some exceptions. You can own a home as long
11:05
Speaker 3: as it's under a certain amount. It's an extremely high amount,
11:08
Speaker 3: so most of my client's value, So most of my
11:10
Speaker 3: clients don't have to worry about that they can keep
11:11
Speaker 3: their home. But we can do some things with some
11:14
Speaker 3: deed work that'll make sure that, for example, the government
11:18
Speaker 3: doesn't come back and put a lean on it or
11:20
Speaker 3: affect their ability to pass their home down maybe to
11:25
Speaker 3: their children if they happen to need a going to
11:30
Speaker 3: a nursing home. So when you come in for that
11:31
Speaker 3: initial consultation about your estate planning wills. That's one of
11:36
Speaker 3: the things we might talk about if you have those concerns.
11:38
Speaker 3: And most people now that google it, they'll see transfer
11:42
Speaker 3: on death deed and I still call it new, but
11:47
Speaker 3: the legislature created it ten years ago, and it's a
11:49
Speaker 3: really effective way to keep your home out of probate
11:54
Speaker 3: and get it passed to your heirs without you losing
11:58
Speaker 3: any othership interest in your home. You used to hear
12:00
Speaker 3: about all dating it to kids, but reserving a life
12:03
Speaker 3: of state or maybe making adult children joint owners. Transform
12:08
Speaker 3: death deeds are really good because you essentially make your
12:14
Speaker 3: heirs your death beneficiary of your home, but you don't
12:19
Speaker 3: lose any ownership interest in it. So if you decide
12:21
Speaker 3: you want to borrow some money against take a home
12:23
Speaker 3: equity line or a reverse mortgage, or you want to
12:27
Speaker 3: sell it, even though there's a deed recorded naming for example,
12:30
Speaker 3: maybe your children as beneficiaries, they don't have any say
12:33
Speaker 3: so in that it doesn't affect your ownership and so
12:35
Speaker 3: you get full free control of your property dislike you
12:40
Speaker 3: would otherwise. But if you pass away the moment you do,
12:44
Speaker 3: your heirs in it that are designated on that deed
12:46
Speaker 3: and that can help with a lot of things, the
12:50
Speaker 3: fact that it just passes title immediately upon death, and
12:53
Speaker 3: so yeah, we go over all that during our state
12:56
Speaker 3: planning appointments and if that's a concern, we can get
12:58
Speaker 3: that done and that that process is or if you
13:01
Speaker 3: don't need it, will you just need to transform death deed.
13:04
Speaker 3: That's a really easy process because with technology these days,
13:07
Speaker 3: in most counties in West Virginia, we can see they're
13:11
Speaker 3: recorded deeds, and if you want to transform death deed done,
13:14
Speaker 3: you can literally just call our office and tell us
13:17
Speaker 3: that you want to have one done, identify what county
13:19
Speaker 3: to properties in, and who your beneficiaries are. We draft
13:22
Speaker 3: it and of course I answer any questions you might
13:25
Speaker 3: have about it, and then you come in just during
13:28
Speaker 3: regular business hours and sign it and we take care
13:31
Speaker 3: of it. And again it's a real reasonable price, so
13:33
Speaker 3: it's for our fee and we record it for you
13:36
Speaker 3: and take care of it. So that's a very very
13:39
Speaker 3: easy process. If you're listening out there and want to
13:41
Speaker 3: have a transform death deed done, you research it, you
13:44
Speaker 3: know what you want to do. All you will need
13:45
Speaker 3: to do is call the office the days of having
13:48
Speaker 3: to bring deeds in and copy the deeds are for
13:51
Speaker 3: the most part over with technology because we have accounts
13:54
Speaker 3: that allow us to access, you know, all the records
13:57
Speaker 3: and almost I don't know if it's every county in
13:59
Speaker 3: West Virginia, certainly the counties that we operate in regularly, Jeff,
14:02
Speaker 3: we can go on the internet and print off the
14:04
Speaker 3: deeds and take care of it.
14:07
Speaker 5: Tom Peyton's with us Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
14:10
Speaker 5: this is his show, the Peyton Law Firm every Thursday
14:14
Speaker 5: morning for a couple of decades. Now here on five
14:16
Speaker 5: eight WCCHS and Tom as as the transfer on death
14:20
Speaker 5: deed would indicate in its name, it doesn't transfer until
14:23
Speaker 5: there's the death right. I mean it doesn't it It
14:26
Speaker 5: has no effect until the death.
14:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's probably a good you know, couple different things
14:30
Speaker 3: that older folks have concerns with, going back to the
14:33
Speaker 3: power of attorney, and this is a kind of a misconception.
14:36
Speaker 3: So if you if you sign a durable power of attorney,
14:39
Speaker 3: let's say you appoint one of your children, now they
14:43
Speaker 3: can use if you want them to use it, while
14:44
Speaker 3: you're perfectly competent as a convenience matter, let's you know,
14:48
Speaker 3: you want them to talk to X, Y and Z
14:51
Speaker 3: creditor because you can't deal with it. You can let
14:53
Speaker 3: them use it, but they they can override you as
14:57
Speaker 3: long as you're competent. So when you sign a durable
15:01
Speaker 3: power attorney, it does not appoint somebody to take over
15:05
Speaker 3: your affairs. That's not what happens. And that's an important
15:09
Speaker 3: aspect is if you've become incapacitated, then then certainly yes
15:13
Speaker 3: they can use that and do whatever you could do,
15:17
Speaker 3: but they can't trump you, so to speak. So if
15:20
Speaker 3: you want to. I do have calls from time to
15:23
Speaker 3: time where you know, maybe a child's concerned about their
15:26
Speaker 3: parents' expenditures or what they're doing with their money. But
15:30
Speaker 3: whether it's eccentric, not smart, financially, et cetera. You know,
15:36
Speaker 3: that's the parents' money and if they want to give
15:39
Speaker 3: it to some particular entity or some foundation or whatever,
15:44
Speaker 3: they're entitled to do that, and a child can't use
15:46
Speaker 3: a durable power attorney to override that, of course, unless
15:50
Speaker 3: the parent is deemed incapacitated, and that usually has to
15:53
Speaker 3: be done by medical professional or a psychologist. But the
15:58
Speaker 3: transfering death deed kind of that same concept as you're
16:03
Speaker 3: you know, even though you designate beneficiaries and the deed,
16:07
Speaker 3: they have no interest in it until you pass away.
16:11
Speaker 3: And you can even if you change your mind, which
16:14
Speaker 3: we have clients do that you call us and we
16:17
Speaker 3: can do a new transfer and death deed that only
16:19
Speaker 3: you need to sign your your kids for example, or
16:22
Speaker 3: whoever your beneficiaries were in the first transform death deed
16:26
Speaker 3: don't need to get notice of it, they don't need
16:28
Speaker 3: to sign off on it. So you can change your
16:31
Speaker 3: mind by us just simply doing another deed. Or you
16:34
Speaker 3: can even just revoke the transfer on death deed and
16:37
Speaker 3: have it passed by will or otherwise. We have we
16:40
Speaker 3: draft those documents as well. Doesn't happen as frequently, but
16:44
Speaker 3: that's again that's that's the unique benefit of the transfer
16:48
Speaker 3: and death deed is that it's recorded, it's effective upon death,
16:53
Speaker 3: but it does not prevent you from doing anything with
16:56
Speaker 3: your property while you're still living. But it avoids people
17:00
Speaker 3: get concerned about quote probate, which is not complicated in
17:04
Speaker 3: West Virginia compared to other states, but to have things
17:08
Speaker 3: passed outside probate, outside the probate process, which is essentially
17:11
Speaker 3: a term for the application of regular inheritance law or
17:16
Speaker 3: things passing by the will in West Virginia, it does
17:19
Speaker 3: expose your assets to potential creditors. And when it passes
17:23
Speaker 3: outside probate, which is transformed death d does, then you
17:26
Speaker 3: potentially bypass some creditors making claims against your home. So
17:31
Speaker 3: a lot of it, there's really nothing bad about it
17:33
Speaker 3: transforming deafty and if you can afford the maybe a
17:36
Speaker 3: few hundred dollars to get it done, and you know
17:38
Speaker 3: who you want to get your property, and it's not
17:40
Speaker 3: too complicated, too complicated, you got to do it through
17:44
Speaker 3: a will. But there's really I've found little to no
17:48
Speaker 3: downside to these transformed death dys since they've been in place,
17:51
Speaker 3: and so it's it's always a good idea if you
17:54
Speaker 3: have the wherewithal to get it done.
17:56
Speaker 5: It's a thirty nine on five eighty, would you sehs
17:59
Speaker 5: the voice of try Tom Payton with the Peyton Law
18:01
Speaker 5: Firm is with us this morning. We'll take our one
18:03
Speaker 5: and only break and rejoin Tom in just a moment.
18:07
Speaker 5: Thanks for joining us this morning. It's a thirty nine
18:09
Speaker 5: on five eighty wchs.
18:11
Speaker 2: If you've been.
18:12
Speaker 4: Injured, you need a lawyer who knows West Virginia because
18:15
Speaker 4: they live in West Virginia. Tom and Harvey Peyton were
18:18
Speaker 4: born and raised here. They've spent decades fighting for injury victims,
18:23
Speaker 4: and they know how to get results. At the Peyton
18:25
Speaker 4: Law Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation, and local
18:30
Speaker 4: attorneys who care. Call seven five five fifty five fifty
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Speaker 4: six today or visit Peyton Lawfirm dot com. The attorney's
18:37
Speaker 4: referenced in this ad or lifelong residence and are licensed
18:40
Speaker 4: to practice law in the state of West Virginia.
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Speaker 5: Eight forty one five eight w cchs The Voice of Charleston.
20:00
Speaker 5: Day of December twenty twenty five. Jeff Jenkins with you
20:03
Speaker 5: this morning with Tom Peyton, the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
20:06
Speaker 5: Tom on the road today, big family event graduation at
20:11
Speaker 5: LSU of his son Houston, and so the Peytons are
20:13
Speaker 5: celebrating that down in Baton Rouge. And what's the weather
20:16
Speaker 5: like there today?
20:17
Speaker 3: Tom? It's going to be mid seventies, maybe upter seventies.
20:22
Speaker 3: Signing some class all right, it was sick. What's the
20:26
Speaker 3: weather like there?
20:27
Speaker 2: Yes?
20:28
Speaker 3: Nice?
20:28
Speaker 5: Yes, night, yeah, yep, We've got sunshine. We're going to
20:31
Speaker 5: head Dow. I think to the sixties and get some rain,
20:33
Speaker 5: get some winds, so it's going to think change it
20:35
Speaker 5: a little bit there tomorrow, gotcha.
20:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, And speaking of rain and win one thing that
20:39
Speaker 3: we are I kind of beat this drum a few
20:44
Speaker 3: shows ago, but we're still seeing some filter in that
20:47
Speaker 3: they're fallout from the big hail storm. I don't know
20:49
Speaker 3: if it hit Charleston as hard, but last April I
20:53
Speaker 3: almost remember. I think it was April fourteenth. If I remember, crack,
20:57
Speaker 3: I know it because we've got so many claims arising
20:59
Speaker 3: from that storm, mostly hit Putnam County and Nitro Cross
21:03
Speaker 3: Lanes got hit as well. But that's the storm where
21:05
Speaker 3: we had Unfortunately I was driving in it almost probably
21:09
Speaker 3: golf ball size hail. And the cases that we're handling
21:15
Speaker 3: pretty regular. We even getting some referrals from other attorneys
21:18
Speaker 3: to our office to handle arise from homeowners or hazard
21:23
Speaker 3: insurance companies denying claims, and we've had some success with us.
21:29
Speaker 3: So if you're out there and you're still having a
21:32
Speaker 3: dispute with your homeowner's insurance care about whether they will
21:36
Speaker 3: repair sighting or rough then don't hesitate to give us
21:41
Speaker 3: a call because those type claims if we take them on.
21:45
Speaker 3: We take them on contingency, so you don't have to
21:48
Speaker 3: pay a servi atain or an hourly rate, and we
21:52
Speaker 3: can do it, get some basic information, look at some
21:55
Speaker 3: documents and kind of screen those rather quickly to see
21:58
Speaker 3: if it's something that we can help you with. So
22:00
Speaker 3: if anybody out there has got those, you know. I
22:03
Speaker 3: think what also happened with these is at the beginning
22:05
Speaker 3: a lot of insurance and gestures were sent in the
22:07
Speaker 3: same things seem to be going smoothly. That first wave
22:11
Speaker 3: kind of passes as a gestures go back out of
22:14
Speaker 3: state wherever they're from, and then folks have had real
22:16
Speaker 3: trouble communicating with their insurance care. They might get a
22:21
Speaker 3: check for a portion of their repairs, but maybe garage
22:28
Speaker 3: or you know, something next to their primary house ref
22:32
Speaker 3: isn't getting paid for it, and it's become rather difficult
22:34
Speaker 3: to get insurance companies to pay for those at times.
22:37
Speaker 3: But if you have that type issue, you're still dealing
22:39
Speaker 3: with it certainly. If if you want us to help,
22:44
Speaker 3: then don't hesitate to give us a call an email.
22:45
Speaker 3: We can get some basic information rather quickly and see
22:48
Speaker 3: if it's something that we can handle. For you. So
22:52
Speaker 3: we are doing. We probably have ten or so of
22:55
Speaker 3: those pending right now. We've had some success with them,
22:59
Speaker 3: so don't that's another thing not to hesitate to give
23:01
Speaker 3: us a call if you have a question. I know
23:03
Speaker 3: a lot of folks will file through the Insurance Commissioner's
23:05
Speaker 3: Office West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, because when you get letters
23:09
Speaker 3: from your insurance career that might deny a claim, they
23:12
Speaker 3: have the disclaimer at the bottom. But you can call
23:15
Speaker 3: the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office, which is a administrative process.
23:20
Speaker 3: I would say the insurance commissioner is really good if
23:22
Speaker 3: you're just trying to get your insurance company to communicate.
23:26
Speaker 3: Sometimes you can't get them to respond at all. I
23:30
Speaker 3: would say that if you actually have an insurance company
23:33
Speaker 3: who did communicate and denied your claim, in most cases,
23:38
Speaker 3: you're better off to hire a private attorney to handle
23:41
Speaker 3: your claim versus going through the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office.
23:44
Speaker 3: And that's not to be negative about the Western Insurance
23:47
Speaker 3: Commission's Office, but they are limited in what they can
23:50
Speaker 3: do versus a regular circuit court of general jurisdiction. So
23:54
Speaker 3: the relief you can get there is not the same
23:57
Speaker 3: that you can't get a jury trial. For example, when
24:00
Speaker 3: there's certain damages or or monetary relief that you just
24:05
Speaker 3: can't get to the insurance Commissioner's office, and a lot
24:07
Speaker 3: of people would file there and then contact us, and
24:09
Speaker 3: we just if you did do that, it's not too
24:12
Speaker 3: late to call us. We can we regularly just dismiss
24:16
Speaker 3: the insurance commissioner administrative proceeding and then we think it
24:21
Speaker 3: to conventional court, to a potential jury trial. Of course,
24:24
Speaker 3: most of them don't get to a jury trial there.
24:26
Speaker 3: You know, ninety eight percent of civil cases settle and
24:29
Speaker 3: they don't any different.
24:31
Speaker 5: Tom, What is the is there similar reasons why those
24:34
Speaker 5: are being denied?
24:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, what we're seeing, well, some of them we just see, well,
24:42
Speaker 3: there's no hell damage on this rough Now we think
24:46
Speaker 3: of conventional asphalt singles like we have on most of
24:49
Speaker 3: our roads, and say, I've had some really you know,
24:54
Speaker 3: I kind of look at the common sense aspect, because
24:57
Speaker 3: you know, they can hire an expert. We can hire
24:59
Speaker 3: an expert. But when you have a neighborhood and you
25:02
Speaker 3: know eight other people around you had their robes repaired
25:05
Speaker 3: by their insurance company because they had heal damage to me,
25:09
Speaker 3: it's hard to fathom how you couldn't have heal damage
25:11
Speaker 3: when when you're rough and sometimes just get this, there's
25:14
Speaker 3: not like your house is the death Star off Star
25:17
Speaker 3: Wars with these field around it. So it kind of
25:20
Speaker 3: decides coming since I've seen some of those, and I
25:22
Speaker 3: think those you just get rogue, bad adjusters. Sometimes no
25:25
Speaker 3: things we see, well it's you know, wear and tear
25:28
Speaker 3: and not from hail and and you know there's robes.
25:34
Speaker 3: Conventional asphalt shingles only have a life of so long
25:38
Speaker 3: before they're supposed to be replaced. But at the same time,
25:41
Speaker 3: whether it's two years old or ten years old, you know,
25:44
Speaker 3: if you have heal damage, you're there's not a good
25:48
Speaker 3: way to repair that damage other than rough replacement. So
25:52
Speaker 3: we'll see a lot of kind of maybe partial payments
25:55
Speaker 3: and things like that, and so that's that's kind of
25:57
Speaker 3: what we're seeing. And then there are roads that may
26:01
Speaker 3: be commercial settings where they're made of different materials. You
26:04
Speaker 3: have metal robes, you have different kind of materials that
26:09
Speaker 3: there might be a dispute about whether that material did
26:11
Speaker 3: actually withstand the hail storm and didn't suffer damage that yeah,
26:18
Speaker 3: causes leagues, but you know, that's not necessarily issue. It
26:21
Speaker 3: might have damaged it so bad the warranty has not
26:25
Speaker 3: got any longer, or it might have damaged it in
26:28
Speaker 3: a way that you can't see from the outside that
26:31
Speaker 3: shortened its useful life. And so those are those are
26:36
Speaker 3: some common examples.
26:38
Speaker 5: In some of those cases, time if people already make
26:42
Speaker 5: got the repairs done, but they've taken photos or whatever,
26:45
Speaker 5: you know, because it has been over a year.
26:48
Speaker 3: Well it's been less than it was April of uh
26:51
Speaker 3: this year, so yeah, it will be Yeah. But in
26:54
Speaker 3: any of if there's any case where I mean insurance companies,
26:59
Speaker 3: what then I'm going to do with adjusters. They they
27:01
Speaker 3: don't go out and find a contractor to fix your rough.
27:05
Speaker 3: They have unitized values. You'll see these kind of the
27:09
Speaker 3: same type format on these computer generated adjusting tools, and
27:16
Speaker 3: so they spit out a number minus you're deductible of
27:18
Speaker 3: what you know theoretically it would cost to have your
27:22
Speaker 3: real fix. For example, well you might get one, two
27:25
Speaker 3: or three local contractors who know it's going to cost
27:30
Speaker 3: this to pay for it. So if even that differential
27:34
Speaker 3: is the same as a den ad claim and you
27:37
Speaker 3: you generally have replacement coverage replacement value coverage. So if
27:44
Speaker 3: you have an estimate for what it will actually get
27:47
Speaker 3: get your real repaired versus what your insurance company says
27:50
Speaker 3: they're going to pay you, they really need to pay
27:53
Speaker 3: you what it will actually cost. And what they should
27:56
Speaker 3: do if they behave properly, is just supplement their initial
27:59
Speaker 3: payment to with the difference between what it'll cost to
28:02
Speaker 3: actually get it repaired and what they thought it would
28:05
Speaker 3: cost to get it repaired initially. But even that differential
28:08
Speaker 3: is enough for us to step in on handing those claims.
28:11
Speaker 3: And of course our goal, and we're almost universally successful
28:16
Speaker 3: in these claims, is to make sure our clients, you know,
28:18
Speaker 3: recover enough where the already gets paid and then they
28:21
Speaker 3: get certainly enough in their pocket to make sure they
28:24
Speaker 3: get all the repairs paid for. But yeah, if you've
28:28
Speaker 3: already had some work done and you know you've got
28:32
Speaker 3: a contractor that you can't afford to pay the balance to,
28:35
Speaker 3: or you've already paid out of pocket, that doesn't necessarily
28:37
Speaker 3: foreclose your claim. Certainly, there would have been some pictures taken,
28:41
Speaker 3: and I you know, folks can hire expensive engineers and
28:46
Speaker 3: things like that, but I think a good experienced riffing
28:51
Speaker 3: contract that's local is an excellent and there's nothing that
28:56
Speaker 3: forbids that person from being an expert witness on heal damage.
29:00
Speaker 5: We use them frequently, Okay, so they can just give
29:03
Speaker 5: your office a call or contact you.
29:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it can cost at the office. It's and
29:07
Speaker 3: our office number is three or four seven five five, five,
29:11
Speaker 3: five five six, so it's three or four seven, a
29:15
Speaker 3: bunch of fives and a six, or you just get
29:17
Speaker 3: to our website at Peyton Law Firm dot com that's
29:20
Speaker 3: pe wise as opposed to pay and you can submit
29:23
Speaker 3: an inquiry there and we'll email back and you know,
29:28
Speaker 3: ask for maybe some documentation, We take a look at
29:31
Speaker 3: it and if it's the claim we can handle, we'll
29:33
Speaker 3: you know meet or talk in detail by telephone about
29:37
Speaker 3: the process and how we do it. And it's it's
29:40
Speaker 3: pretty simple and we've been very successful with them. But
29:43
Speaker 3: they're just you didn't really see them right after the
29:46
Speaker 3: storm because seem like insurance companies were processing these claims
29:50
Speaker 3: quickly and being responsive, and they just probably from September forward,
29:56
Speaker 3: we're starting to see these claims kind of come to
29:59
Speaker 3: culminate because you're not getting responses from insurance companies sometimes
30:03
Speaker 3: and you just you never know. You know, I've seen
30:05
Speaker 3: the same I won't name them, but you know I've
30:07
Speaker 3: seen particular really popular known homeowners insurance carriers handle claims smoothly,
30:16
Speaker 3: treat they're insured really well, and then all of a
30:21
Speaker 3: sudden you have a random where they're just you got
30:23
Speaker 3: maybe a problem adjuster or just can't get responses from them,
30:27
Speaker 3: and there's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason
30:30
Speaker 3: to it sometimes but we get those corrected, usually rather quickly.
30:35
Speaker 3: So you've got one of those type of issues, don't
30:38
Speaker 3: hesitate to give us a call. And those are all
30:41
Speaker 3: contendency if we take them, so you won't be paying
30:43
Speaker 3: us an hourly rate or going paying out of pocket
30:47
Speaker 3: for twenty fees or cost to handle the case.
30:50
Speaker 5: Tom Payton's with this Peyton Law firm in Nitro. Got
30:53
Speaker 5: a couple more minutes here. It's eight point fifty two.
30:55
Speaker 5: Tom joining us by phone today here on five ADWCHS
30:59
Speaker 5: and Tom, we head into the new year. What you know,
31:01
Speaker 5: we got the legislature, We've got judicial elections next year
31:06
Speaker 5: in May. There's a there's a couple of seats in
31:09
Speaker 5: the Supreme Court Judge Kirkpatrick has announced from down in
31:13
Speaker 5: Raleigh County, retired Jesse he's going to run for Supreme Court.
31:16
Speaker 5: So we'll have some we'll have.
31:17
Speaker 3: Some challenge that. Yeah, I know that Justice Ewing was
31:21
Speaker 3: dis appointed and he's running.
31:24
Speaker 5: And then Justice Titus, I think is going to run.
31:28
Speaker 3: You know, I've had he worked for Spielman, uh, Thomas
31:33
Speaker 3: Battle and Charleston, but uh, Gill Titus is a really
31:37
Speaker 3: good person in my estimation. I served with him on
31:40
Speaker 3: the Board of Governors and had a couple cases with him.
31:43
Speaker 3: But I think he'll be sworn in I think the
31:47
Speaker 3: first if he's not already sworn in.
31:49
Speaker 5: But yeah, I think I think he's already been. I
31:51
Speaker 5: think he's already been sworn in like like a private
31:53
Speaker 5: ceremony because they've because they had to do they had
31:56
Speaker 5: to make some decisions on a couple of cases.
31:58
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, yeah, so those of course those are non partisan,
32:02
Speaker 3: and I didn't know Judge kirk Patrick was going to run.
32:05
Speaker 3: But yes, we'll have some action there. What we've got,
32:10
Speaker 3: probably the most interesting thing we've talked about lately, or
32:15
Speaker 3: the most publicity that's been garnered, is the compulsory vaccine case,
32:20
Speaker 3: and how it compares to the I think, was it
32:23
Speaker 3: the Religious Freedom Act that Governor Morrisey is relying upon
32:28
Speaker 3: one to say that that overrides the requirement that public
32:31
Speaker 3: school children have certain vaccinations for the inner school. And
32:35
Speaker 3: then the judge down that's Treble, I believe done in
32:37
Speaker 3: Raleigh County ended up issuing a rather lengthy order saying
32:42
Speaker 3: that the mandatory vaccine law is in essence trumped by
32:46
Speaker 3: the religious freedom Law, and you don't you know, all
32:49
Speaker 3: you have to do is basically sending a piece of
32:51
Speaker 3: paper saying your child's name, identification information, and you don't
32:57
Speaker 3: want to have to get the mandatory vaccine for them,
32:59
Speaker 3: and you can go to public school. That's been halted.
33:02
Speaker 3: It was halted rather quickly by our Supreme Court. So
33:04
Speaker 3: right now status close in place. And so you know,
33:09
Speaker 3: the state Board of Education and the local county boards
33:12
Speaker 3: still must require certain vaccinations for a child to attend
33:17
Speaker 3: public school. There was a little window when that wasn't
33:20
Speaker 3: the case, although the Trouble may have stayed his order
33:24
Speaker 3: pending the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court stayed Judge
33:26
Speaker 3: Freble's order, meaning said wait a minute, it's hold up
33:30
Speaker 3: and I know they those civil cases generally go to
33:33
Speaker 3: the Intermediate Court of Appeals first and then the Western
33:35
Speaker 3: Supreme Court, but this one, because of such public concern,
33:39
Speaker 3: has now been brought straight to the Westernian Supreme Court.
33:42
Speaker 3: So I think we'll see a final ruling on that
33:45
Speaker 3: in the spring, would be my guess. And so that'll
33:47
Speaker 3: be an interesting one to kind of keep track of
33:50
Speaker 3: and how it kind of jobs with the legislature, because
33:54
Speaker 3: as you recall, last year there were discussions about there
33:58
Speaker 3: were built introduced that wouldn't require mandatory vaccinations if a
34:06
Speaker 3: parent claimed a religious exemption and didn't didn't get any traction.
34:11
Speaker 3: And so now we'll see if they maybe react to
34:13
Speaker 3: what the courts are doing and modify with the legislature,
34:17
Speaker 3: which they can do, which may move the court case
34:19
Speaker 3: at that point.
34:20
Speaker 5: I've seen some discussion tom where because that began in
34:24
Speaker 5: the Senate, passed the Senate last year, where the Senate
34:27
Speaker 5: Health Chair is said, if it's going to run, it's
34:30
Speaker 5: going to have to come from the House. And I
34:32
Speaker 5: don't think the how it doesn't seem how you think
34:34
Speaker 5: it happened, as you know, but it doesn't seem like
34:37
Speaker 5: right now there might be an appetite in the House
34:39
Speaker 5: to at least in the Health Committee to do anything
34:42
Speaker 5: about that. So it might just come down to this
34:44
Speaker 5: court case.
34:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, it's a political hot potato. So
34:49
Speaker 3: it seems that sometimes when the legislature can just kind
34:53
Speaker 3: of put it off on the courts, that's the most
34:55
Speaker 3: appealing thing to do. Probably, if I was predicting, the
34:58
Speaker 3: legislature will let it rie and have the court decided,
35:02
Speaker 3: and then, of course then oftentimes you see the reaction
35:06
Speaker 3: after that, maybe in a future session in the years
35:09
Speaker 3: to come, if they you know, if the majority of
35:11
Speaker 3: the legislature disagrees with the how the courts resolved that,
35:15
Speaker 3: then they might modify after that. But yeah, I think
35:18
Speaker 3: you're probably right. It's just such a hot button issue,
35:22
Speaker 3: strong feelings on each side right now. The legislature's got
35:24
Speaker 3: it in a position where they don't have to deal
35:27
Speaker 3: with it because the court's going to deal with it.
35:29
Speaker 3: So I suspect we'll see it see it play out
35:31
Speaker 3: that way. I really looking at me, I've kind of
35:34
Speaker 3: I've read the breeze for the orders. You know, I
35:38
Speaker 3: would guess that Judge Froebel's ruling is probably not going
35:42
Speaker 3: to hold up. But that's real speculation at this point
35:47
Speaker 3: with our Supreme Court. But I my initial gut feeling was, well,
35:52
Speaker 3: we have a specific law about mandatory vaccinations, compulsory vaccinations,
35:57
Speaker 3: and then you have this very general law all about
36:00
Speaker 3: religious freedom that when it was passed an intent. I
36:05
Speaker 3: don't think compulsory vaccination law was never brought up. If
36:09
Speaker 3: if that would have been the intent, then they would
36:12
Speaker 3: have stated so in the bill or in the in
36:15
Speaker 3: the statute on the religious freedom issue, and so I
36:19
Speaker 3: just thought the more specific statute would probably control. But
36:22
Speaker 3: there's a lot of dynamics to it. How do you
36:24
Speaker 3: tell if somebody has a sincere religious belief or just
36:29
Speaker 3: you know, some other reading doesn't want their child to
36:31
Speaker 3: get vaccines and the Religious Freedom Act is supposed to
36:35
Speaker 3: be based on sincere religious beliefs. Now, the judge Frobil found, well,
36:39
Speaker 3: you just can't. There's no ellipmus test to figure that out.
36:42
Speaker 3: So as long as the parent says it, then that's it.
36:44
Speaker 3: There's no looking behind it. It doesn't seem to be
36:47
Speaker 3: what the stetute requires, but it's it's interesting issues when
36:51
Speaker 3: you see language on paper, but how do you apply
36:54
Speaker 3: it in practice, and then you get into intent and
36:57
Speaker 3: sincere beliefs, you know, it's there is no path to
37:02
Speaker 3: determine someone's thought processes and belief so it's it's an
37:07
Speaker 3: interesting case and we'll see how that plays out here
37:10
Speaker 3: in the spring. I think I'll decide that the spring
37:11
Speaker 3: term that way will be some clarity going into the
37:14
Speaker 3: school year next.
37:15
Speaker 5: Year, Tom, get us a we got about a minute here.
37:18
Speaker 5: Best way to contact you and your dadt the Peyton
37:20
Speaker 5: Law Firm.
37:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, we can stop by the office when we're there.
37:24
Speaker 3: If we're not there or available, then we have you know,
37:27
Speaker 3: good staff and all he's out front. We have the nice, nice,
37:31
Speaker 3: nice continual staff. So you can stop in there at
37:34
Speaker 3: twenty oh one First Avenue. That's the main Dragon Night
37:36
Speaker 3: rare just to minute off the interstate. You can of
37:38
Speaker 3: course give us a call at three oh four seven
37:41
Speaker 3: five five five five five six, or perhaps the best
37:44
Speaker 3: way to reach Dad and I, even when we're traveling
37:47
Speaker 3: is just go through the website at Peyton Law Firm
37:49
Speaker 3: dot com and send us an email and we you
37:52
Speaker 3: know turns these days, we get them wherever we are.
37:54
Speaker 3: If it's something that requires some real urgency, then we
37:59
Speaker 3: respond respond, I was responding to emails last night here
38:02
Speaker 3: from Baton Ridge. So and you won't hear from any
38:04
Speaker 3: canned services, are AI. You will hear from actual humans
38:08
Speaker 3: that grew up, worked here and are glad to help
38:12
Speaker 3: the folks there in West Virginia.
38:14
Speaker 5: All right, congratulations to Houston today and enjoy Thanks.
38:19
Speaker 3: We'll pass that along, okay, Merry Christmas?
38:21
Speaker 5: All right, you too, Tom Peyton, Peyton Law Firm, and Nitro,
38:24
Speaker 5: thanks for joining us again this Peyton Lawfirm dot Com
38:27
Speaker 5: at seven five five five, five, five six a, ABC
38:30
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