Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 03-07-24 Ask the Lawyer with Harvey Peyton
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- 0:59twenty three on five eighty WCCHS The Voice Charleston, Little rainy morning here Thursday
- 1:03morning. Thanks for joining us. Jeff Jenkins with Harvey Payton at the Peyton
- 1:07Law Firm in Nitro, and he's ready to ask and answer any of your
- 1:11questions about the law. Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
- 1:15Harveyists here. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
- 1:19Good morning, sir, well, good morning, Jeff, it's great to
- 1:22be here. It's this is going to be a combined to two for one
- 1:25morning for me because shortly after we leave the air at nine o'clock the well,
- 1:30actually about eleven fifteen, the Nitro Wildcats women's team is going to play
- 1:37Wayne in the state tournament down here to the Civics semi finals. The semi
- 1:41sure, so if we win there up here, was it Friday night or
- 1:42Saturday Saturday for a championship for the championship which will be probably East Fairmont on
- 1:48the other side of the Lord, I get. I haven't talked to Fred
- 1:51about it, but so it's an exciting time and night the boys are in
- 1:53the one last time as well. So it's uplifts the community actually, and
- 2:00it gives her a be a good feeling. And I know, like one
- 2:05of the ladies who plays for Nitro, her granddad was a lawyer who worked,
- 2:09graduated law school with me. He's deceased. Now Will Steele, Michelle
- 2:13Steele's a freshman. And then of course you know Mallory Lanham. Her dad,
- 2:19Steve is the barber. He actually has the last business establishment in Kanalla
- 2:23County. His offices on the corner of twenty seventh Street and First Avenue,
- 2:27and so like sixty feet north of his building is the Putnam County line and
- 2:32then about another sixty feet north of that is the Peyton Law Firm. So
- 2:37we're the first business you see it coming into Putnam County and Steve was the
- 2:42last business you see going out. But no, we had a little dinner
- 2:46Sunday evening for the team and the parents. It was very nice and gives
- 2:52you a great hope for the future when you see you know, we talked
- 2:55about education, what happens and I don't know that you can call the Capital
- 3:02Dome an ivory tower. It's something. But you look at people who are
- 3:08really dedicated coaches, teachers, students that excel. I mean, we always
- 3:14participate at the Peyton Law Firm and the portfolio days for Putnam County High School
- 3:20students. So business people go and meet with students in the morning and look
- 3:24at their biographies they've kept over their entire career, and you get a little
- 3:30uplift. There's one thing that I cannot cannot understand. I mean, I'm
- 3:37seventy four years old and this is not this is twenty twenty four. Why
- 3:43we've become so obsessed with the negative. I mean, we're told that the
- 3:47country as a whole is this dystopic mess, that there's crime and murder everywhere,
- 3:53that we're being overrun by immigrants, that the quality of life for Americans
- 3:59is so bad we've got to almost have a revolution to But then I go
- 4:02out and go to work every day, and I talk to people every day
- 4:05and to the stores and transact business, and I don't know what. I
- 4:11just think that way off base. It's the best, the best country in
- 4:14the world if you want to get ahead of and get ahead and live in
- 4:18peace, not bother other people, educate your kids. I just we should
- 4:26be positive. I think a positive outlook candidate would go a long way.
- 4:30We'll find out tonight. We got the State of the Union address coming up.
- 4:32I assume President Biden will take a more upbeat stance than his at least
- 4:38a punitive opponents who winds constantly about how bad the country is. Well,
- 4:45the rise that you're talking about in the street, DJ, we're on your
- 4:49watch. You know they spiking crime was on your watch. I did hear
- 4:53that, Speaker Johnson her a report this more Speaker Johnson's calling for to Korum,
- 4:58well he should mine House members during the speech. Well, sure,
- 5:00it was disgraceful. Last you get this woman from Georgia and this is whatever
- 5:03her name is, the fondler from out there in Colorado. I'm just yelling
- 5:08stuff out during the speech by the President of the United States. The immies
- 5:11didn't do that to anybody that I'm aware of, which was disgraceful. I
- 5:15think it. Johnston seems like a nice enough guy. I don't agree with
- 5:18it all of his outlooks, of course, but whether his call for the
- 5:23corm is going to make any difference, we'll see. It's one reason to
- 5:25watch. But we got the legislature in town here, and this is the
- 5:28really dangerous time, right coming up on that last day on Sunday. I
- 5:33mean they may pass a budget before Saturday. I mean last day's on Saturday,
- 5:38right Saturday night midnight, because the budget really doesn't mean anything until I
- 5:42guess May June into in the June, and we have to find out what's
- 5:46going to happen with this four hundred and fifty million dollar elephant in the room
- 5:53about funds allocated for educational purposes from the federal government under the COVID relief plans,
- 6:01but the requirement that the states maintained there, they're spending at the same
- 6:06level as part of the pandemic. They said, he don't want you to
- 6:11just take the federal money and just maintain the status quo. It'd be interesting
- 6:15to see it to be particularly interesting to see how the federal government looks at
- 6:24over about ten million dollars being put into a baseball field. Now that one
- 6:31very few things that I agree with Eric Carr about. That is a disgrace
- 6:34to take ten million dollars from COVID relief funds, transfer him into a governor's
- 6:41slush fund, and go down and get your picture taken. Look, Governor
- 6:44Justice did. It's called spade of spade. He just went down to his
- 6:46alma mater. He didn't give him his money because obviously he doesn't have any
- 6:49money. He's broke for today it's seventy two hours. I think it had
- 6:56it's up. Yeah, And to hand out a big check ten million dollars
- 7:00to build a baseball field. God blessed Marshall. I'm glad to have a
- 7:02field. All three of my children went there, all three of their spouses
- 7:05went there, but for a politician that put his hands on ten million dollars
- 7:11that was allocated to help corrections and give it away for a baseball field.
- 7:15It's just disgusting and it doesn't seem but it doesn't seem to make any difference,
- 7:20right because in polls with regard to the United States Senate, you know,
- 7:27I guess it doesn't make any difference. We got a governor in the
- 7:30last days of the session when you would think things like teachers pay raises and
- 7:34adjustments to unemployment and putting guns in schools would be really acute issues that you
- 7:43would want to deal with. The gas coashing girls basketball. What can you
- 7:49say? Not that you can't say, Well, you know, we got
- 7:51another case to talk about this week the United States Supreme Court. Last week
- 7:56we talked about, you know, the case from Alabama, which was a
- 7:59civil case for wrongful death, and that's still on the news too. I
- 8:01heard they passed a bill that medical provide couldn't be soothed. I guess they
- 8:07could restart the treatments. Yeah, I mean it's a bill that actually I
- 8:13think the Alabama legislature did what they should have done and that has passed the
- 8:18minimum items of legislation to solve the problem that immediately cropped up after this,
- 8:24Alabama Supreme Court ruled in any wrongful death case under a wrongful death statue from
- 8:31eighteen seventy two, a quote parent could maintain a wrongful death action for the
- 8:37negligent destruction of a frozen embryo in an IVF lab civil liability, not criminal
- 8:45liability. Well, the University of Alabama Birmingham, which had the largest in
- 8:50vitro fertilization program in the state of Alabama, then said, well, we're
- 8:54going to stop. So the legislature went into session, and they didn't address
- 8:58the issue of when does a thing become a person, when does the person
- 9:05become protected? They just said, if you have an a vitro lab,
- 9:09you are immune from damages under their Ownful Death Act. Nor can you be
- 9:13prosecuted criminally for a negligent homicide or even the intentional destruction of an embryo at
- 9:22the direction of the parents. So, I mean that's they addressed the minimum
- 9:26Heaven forbid that you get into the situation of, you know, when this
- 9:30person had arise, which is the wholeest debate. But now in the United
- 9:35States Supreme Court and a unanimous decision this Monday held as a matter of law
- 9:41that a state and a state court in this case Colorado did not have the
- 9:50power under the Clause three of the fourteenth Amendment to simply refuse to put a
- 10:00he added it on the ballot. In this case, Donald J. Trump
- 10:03based upon a factual finding that he had participated in an insurrection against the United
- 10:09States, having previously taken an oath to uphold the Constitution. Just following the
- 10:13language of Supreme Court. There are mixed reviews on the case. The case
- 10:18did the right thing. I think he said, you know, look,
- 10:22the disqualification clause under the fourteenth Amendment applies to all elected offices. They didn't
- 10:28say it applies specifically to the president, So that argument is still out there.
- 10:33But all it does apply to state offices because the Fourteenth Amendment, all
- 10:39of the you know, the Rights Amendments, the eighteen sixty, eighth,
- 10:43thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth Amendments restrict the power of the straight states.
- 10:46They specifically tell states what they cannot do. But with regard to the Class
- 10:58three of the fourteenth Minute, where it talks about no person having no person
- 11:05having engaged in insurrection that can hold an office. Well, what the court
- 11:09essentially said was, well, let's fine, but under the Federalists set up
- 11:16of our national government, with regard to federal matters, the federal government has
- 11:22supremacy overaction by the state. A state court cannot disqualify someone from holding a
- 11:26federal office. Pretty simple. But they said, obviously, Colorado and every
- 11:35other state can set the requirements for state offices and enforcement like we had what
- 11:41two years ago when a lady was wanted to run for the Senate in a
- 11:46district. I think that included Jackson County Y Y. Yes, state Senate
- 11:50and send me to the residency requirement. So the court disqualified her. That
- 11:56certainly is. And let's take an example. Well, Derrick Evans who took
- 12:05an oath to uphold the Constitution because he was sworn into the state legislature before
- 12:09he went to d C on January the sixth and engaged in and participated in
- 12:16the violid entry into the capitol and later pleaded guilty to a felony and went
- 12:20to jail. Now he would be doing disqualified for a state office regardless because
- 12:26he's been convicted of a fellony in West Virginia. He's disqualified. That does
- 12:28not apply to Congress. He's not going to win because he's got a two
- 12:35term going on three term, incumbent, well funded, well well advertised.
- 12:41But let's take like the court, right girl, and I don't want to
- 12:46pick on her. She's from Hurricane, but she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
- 12:52Let's assume she filed to be in the House of Delegates from Putnam County.
- 12:56Well, a court could disquality her if someone chose to bring an action
- 13:01said, well, she participated in an insurrection, although the question was says
- 13:05she previously taken an oath, but it's right of being. The states can
- 13:13decide state issues in the federal court, and the federal government decides federal issues.
- 13:16That's all they needed to say. They said a little more. Congress
- 13:22needs to pass an act establishing some parameters. Pretty strong message to with a
- 13:30Ninezero vote. Yeah, well, that was very important. I think everybody.
- 13:33I think everyone on the Supreme Court agreed that a state court's power is
- 13:39limited under the Fourteenth Amendment to dealing with state office holders with regard to persons
- 13:46who had taken an oath of service and later engaged in insurrections. Interestingly enough,
- 13:54well, I think the Court didn't have to. They never confronted the
- 13:56issue whether former President Trump was an extraor insurrection actionist. There was a specific
- 14:01finding of fact in that regard in the Colorado case, but that wasn't for
- 14:05the Supreme Court of the United States to even address. They just said,
- 14:09well, you look at an issue like this, let's just assume the worst.
- 14:13Let's just assume the ultimate that he did participate in insurrection still doesn't give
- 14:18the state of Colorado the right to take him off the ballot. Now,
- 14:22what if he wins? Do you go to the House of Representatives or the
- 14:24Congress as a hale when they meet to certify the election. Somebody's going to
- 14:31object and say that the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifih And then you're going to have to
- 14:35have some debate I assume in Congress, and if you would be disqualified on
- 14:41some happened stance, it's not going to happen because the Senate's not going to
- 14:46go for that. Then you have to go back to the Supreme Court to
- 14:50say, well, what procedures should we have followed. It's I mean,
- 14:54it's a calming case because it was a nine zero opinion. I mean,
- 15:03the four women all said, well, we certainly agree with the majority,
- 15:07but we wouldn't have gone this far. We would have exercised more restraint and
- 15:11just said period, a state can't do this, No needan to address the
- 15:15issue of what perhaps we could do with the national candidate. But they did
- 15:20and it calms the waters at least for now. We'll see what happens if
- 15:26it's another close called Let's take a break three O four three four five fifty
- 15:30eight fifteen. Harvey Peyton's with us of the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
- 15:33Give us a call three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty any questions
- 15:37about the law. Harvey is here to answer your questions. Lines are open
- 15:41three O four three four five fifty fifty eight. Back in a moment on
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- 16:53to schedule a complimentary review of your current accounts. Good morning, here's your
- 16:59traffic updates to maintenance on I seventy seven south at mile marker seventy three,
- 17:03the southbound right lane is closed. That's right before Paint Creek Road maintenance.
- 17:07On I seventy seven south at mile marker eighty five, the southbound right lane
- 17:11is closed. That's at Cedar Grove. And in Putnam County, a pothole
- 17:15patching operation on West Virginia sixty two from mile marker zero to mile marker point
- 17:21ninety three. I'm Chapelin THEWCHS Network Traffic studio. Put the power maybe on
- 17:29the side. We have the courtroom experience such a need. We never give
- 17:36up. We're prepared to fight for your rides. When you need action,
- 17:42count on us. What's the power up? Pat on your side? The
- 17:51power up? It's a it's a forty and this is five eighty w c
- 18:03A just boys Charleston, Jeff Jenkins with Harvey Payton and the Peyton Law Firm
- 18:06in Nitro three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three or four
- 18:10three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Harvars reminded on these state tournament broadcasts,
- 18:15we do these locators. You know where, you know where the the
- 18:18teams are from. And little flactoyds about him. Chris cuts those Chris Lawrence
- 18:22cuts those in and he was doing one for Jefferson County. Uh And I
- 18:27was talking about the courthouse there in Charlestown and the the the John Brown trial
- 18:33and then the trial that had forgotten about the Umwa trial that went over there
- 18:40and acquitted there though of treason. He was was that blizzard Bill Bard name
- 18:48brother Jones was one, right, yeah, acquitted there treason. John Brown
- 18:52obviously convicted of and not long after that, not long after the event,
- 18:57he was convicted and executed with about six seven weeks after the event at the
- 19:03armory in the Partmer's Ferry. But sure, gosh, I wis they're gonna
- 19:07think of the fred somebody. But the leaders of the Paint Creek cabin right
- 19:12the charged with trees and they got to change the venue. They went up
- 19:17to Jefferson County, and the jury's up there just turning them loose because in
- 19:21fact they weren't guilty of trees, and they were mostly protecting themselves from gun
- 19:25thugs hired by a coal company used to run to armored trains up and down
- 19:27the train track. You know, my mother grew up in a coal camp
- 19:33called Raleigh, and up where the baseball park was was what they referred to
- 19:37as gun Tower Hill. Well they didn't call it gun Tyre Hill from anything
- 19:40that happened in the Civil War. They called it gun Tower Hill because that's
- 19:42where the people that owned the coal which was JP Morgan and William Bullet and
- 19:48others or ran the coal company. The Children's just had a few machine gun
- 19:55nests up there to make sure the men didn't get too rowdy down there in
- 19:57the bottom in Raleigh, that they stayed to work, and then kept the
- 20:00union out. I mean, you go up Cavan Creek today and see or
- 20:06paint creak either one, and see locations where there were a good machine gun
- 20:10nests and people hired and made to come in here and kill coal miners to
- 20:15keep them working. Now they don't do that anymore. What we do now
- 20:19is cut their unemployment so that the person who's making the maximum maybe sixty seventy
- 20:25thousand dollars a year, who draws, you know, about fifty five percent
- 20:30of that or less on unemployment, Well let's start cutting that off after three
- 20:33weeks so we can force it, well, starve them into looking for a
- 20:37job. At a lower standard of living than they had when they were laid
- 20:41off, which is the whole purpose. Let's just starve them. Fact these
- 20:47rich people. If you give rich people a lot of money by tax breaks,
- 20:49they'll become more productive and good citizens. If it take people who worked
- 20:55hard all their lives and given their physical labor and broken their health to make
- 21:00money for the rich people, they get little more money, it makes them
- 21:03lazy. So I never understood that paradoxical thinking, but it seems to certainly
- 21:07be deeply entrenched here. Well, that's one of the things in our discussion.
- 21:11We'll find out in the next day lesson, you know, a little
- 21:18less than two days. What's going to happen with that the Senate we're talking
- 21:22about the unemployment bill. The Senate's tied it to some triggers. They've tied
- 21:25a pay raise to triggers. I don't think the House has a lot of
- 21:26appetite for that. No, So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
- 21:32Well, you know, one thing I wanted to say a word about,
- 21:36since you know, I'm pretty near retirement and I do a lot of transactional
- 21:41work, and I've done a lot of litigation regarding the states and the distribution
- 21:47of the states, and the application of law to the product of wealth,
- 21:52health, or the bounty of the deceased. So one issue that I've seen
- 21:59come up and a general public. I mean, if you have a will
- 22:06and somebody that you have named in your last will and testament dies during your
- 22:11lifetime, I really would recommend that you take that will to a lawyer and
- 22:18let them look at it to make sure it still does what you want to
- 22:22do. We and Westbury we have a what's called an anti lapse statute.
- 22:27So if you think you specifically want your son, Billy Bob to have this
- 22:33piece of property, this land, you give it to Billy Bob and your
- 22:36will. But you don't like Billy Bob's kids. They are they're disrespectful and
- 22:42never come and see you. Well, if Billy Bob dies before you and
- 22:49you make no changes in your will, you don't make any other disposition disposition
- 22:56under our anti lap statue, his descendants, the children you don't want to
- 23:03have the property are going to get it. And I'm involved in one right
- 23:07now where you get somebody who died in one county and there was real estate
- 23:11involved in another county, and you just look at the two appraisements and they're
- 23:15completely inconsistent because the anti lap Statute was improperly applied in one case. My
- 23:23point being, don't be afraid to get the document and call a lawyer and
- 23:26have him take a look at it. You know, the statue specifically says
- 23:32that's the way it happens, unless the document provides otherwise. We can easily
- 23:36provide for an alternate with regard to your real estate or your state generally,
- 23:41which you should, because if one of your beneficiaries predeceases you, there may
- 23:45well be a result that you don't want happening. And it's not that expensive
- 23:52to have those things addressed. We don't really charge for a consultation at our
- 23:56office. I don't think most lawyers do. If there's a change to be
- 24:00made, the document needs to be rewritten, we charge for that, but
- 24:04the fees not. We're not talking about thousands of dollars, we're talking about
- 24:07hundreds of dollars. But to get things done the way you want them done
- 24:11and give you some peace of mind. It seemed to me that that might
- 24:15pop up a good bit. Well it does, yeah, actually it does
- 24:19pop up quite a bit. It doesn't pop up that way if we write
- 24:26the will, because in our office we know what the anti lapse statute is
- 24:30and put in language to avoid its applications, like a general resident residuary clause
- 24:37anything else and specifically saying not otherwise disupposed of or any lapse gifts becomes a
- 24:44part of So you have language in there to defeat the statute. But if
- 24:48you don't, it can result in consequences. You don't intend and you don't
- 24:55want right. And you know what, almost fifty years one of the you
- 25:04know, people who disrespect and don't pay any attention to their parents and grandparents.
- 25:10If you think that that's not noticed, I can tell you it is
- 25:12because I've got a lot of folks I want to change this. I wrote
- 25:18this years ago, and you know, he moved down to Kentucky. He
- 25:21hasn't called me, he hadn't sent me a birthday card, he hasn't been
- 25:23around. I haven't seen him since his dad's funeral and he's out, you
- 25:29know. And it's not a mean spirited thing. I mean I always tell
- 25:33people that commit looks. They I'll say, well is that right? You
- 25:34think that's okay to us, it's yours. You have to acknowledge that an
- 25:41inheritance is an absolute act of pure grace. That's all it is. You're
- 25:47giving somebody something which they for which they've done nothing except perhaps by accident of
- 25:52birth or a lot of folks, this will happen. Maybe a child or
- 25:57grandchild who lives out of state comes in. They're upset because their grandma left
- 26:03oliver property to a lady next door or to a caregiver. Well that caregiver.
- 26:07No, no, no, no, you can't. You can't impuch
- 26:11something evil to the caregiver if she spent twenty four hours a day with that
- 26:15person for the last years of her life. Where were you how often did
- 26:18you visit? Oh, you just can't contest a will because you're not happy
- 26:23with the result. And that's one of the things we tell people, and
- 26:27often they're just not happy about It's well, you don't have to be happy
- 26:30about it. But that's the fact period. So on this So it wouldn't
- 26:37you would take a look at the will. If that's the case for someone,
- 26:40I'm not worth it laps clause. You take a look at see if
- 26:44the language's good. And I mean, I have people come in that had
- 26:48wills written in the seventies or the eighties, and they're well written, and
- 26:52they were done by competent attorneys. And I said, you know, I'll
- 26:55just tell you if you want to write a new will, you can.
- 26:56But there's nothing wrong with this will. It's perfectly valid and it has all
- 27:02the language in it you need. Now, I'll say, usually that's they
- 27:06bring those documents in as a part of another an overall transaction. But they
- 27:11probably do need a durable general power of attorney to take care of their business
- 27:15affairs. They do need a medical power of attorney, living will. Maybe
- 27:19they need to do a transfer on death on their house. But you know,
- 27:23I've looked. I've looked at dozens of wheels, probably within the last
- 27:26year for folks that are old and well, this is old. Well,
- 27:30age doesn't hurt them. But if somebody's died, you probably want to change
- 27:36it, bring it up to date. Right now, where's the bit And
- 27:38this is a basic question, but where is the best place to keep a
- 27:41will? Well, the best place under today's circumstances. If you have a
- 27:48lock box at home or this fireproof, get yourself one of these little boxes.
- 27:52That's got about a four hour fire reading. So if the wheel's in
- 27:56your house, it doesn't get destroyed in the fire and you die fire,
- 28:00which would be the worst thing. And either have a combination or a key
- 28:03lock, and whoever you name as the personal representative. But if you will
- 28:07make sure they have access, they give them the combination. Here, here's
- 28:10the key. My will's in this box. Now, there's nothing wrong with
- 28:15the safety positive box at the bank. It's safe and secure. But only
- 28:22if you make the person who is your personal representative, if you go that
- 28:26extra step take them down to the bank and have their name put on that
- 28:30box. Otherwise the bank's not going to give you what's in the box.
- 28:33Now. In the old days, before we had companies from Florida and Ohio
- 28:37and Michigan and North Carolina owning all the banks. Not all the banks.
- 28:44Citty in National and the United are still well, they're owned locally. You
- 28:49can go down to the courthouse or to the bank and say, well,
- 28:52here here's mister smith, there's a will. I believe there's a will in
- 28:56my mom's safe depositive box. It names me the executor. Here's the key.
- 29:00It was on her dresser. Well, your name's not on the box.
- 29:03Okay, So the bank officer goes back, takes your key, They
- 29:07open the box. There's the will. Are you John Smith? Yes I
- 29:11am. So they'll make a copy of the will, put it back in
- 29:15the box, lock the box, give you the originalsy. Now when you
- 29:18come back with your appointment papers, we'll open the box for you and you
- 29:22can get whatever's in there. Now that that was not an uncommon practice,
- 29:26but now if you don't have access to the box, you could be paying
- 29:33as much as five six, seven hundred dollars to the bank to have one
- 29:38of their people, quote drill the box or drillion amounts to nothing more than
- 29:41go ound and changing the tumblers. I mean a blocksmith would do it for
- 29:45like fifty dollars. But and cause delay as well. Well, we have
- 29:48to get clearance from so and so, and you have to set an appointment.
- 29:51So what used to be I think is a good thing and still is
- 29:55the most secure place to put a document if you have the personal representative on
- 30:00the box with you and they have access to the key, so they can
- 30:04go get it without involving other procedures with the bank. Right, Okay,
- 30:08well, gun save for instance, a gun saves a great place. But
- 30:11things they're fireproof, they're solid as a rock. Just be sure that somebody
- 30:15has the combination or the keys to get in there, and be sure they
- 30:18has a fire rating of about four hours. That should cover about everybody.
- 30:22How soon do you have to and I know we've gone over this before,
- 30:26but it's a good to update. How soon after a person dies should you
- 30:30then start thinking about if you're the person that's going to handle this well the
- 30:36senters you're emotionally adjusted to the loss and feel up to it. Some people
- 30:41take wills to the courthouse within a week, some people wait a month.
- 30:48Some people just don't probate them until they have to, until somebody else makes
- 30:53an inquiry. It's all a matter. There's no real I mean the law
- 30:56that says you should present it within a reasonable time. But it's not an
- 31:00easy thing to do. You know, I've been with the people. I've
- 31:03done it myself. I was a personal represented for my mom and my dad.
- 31:07You know, it's hard to do. It's emotionally. You can internest
- 31:10it and talk about somebody dying and you have to give them a list of
- 31:11the heirs. But I would think within sixty days you ought to get it
- 31:17started, you know, particularly if it's the last survivor of a couple and
- 31:22a man and men and women generally married couples leave everything to themselves, so
- 31:26hey, who's going to lose track and who's going to cheat anybody? You're
- 31:30leaving it to yourself. But when you talk about third parties, either charitable
- 31:33organizations or other heirs or friends who inherit things, you should get on as
- 31:38soon as you feel emotionally capable to do that. I would think within thirty
- 31:44days it's preferable. Sixty days is stretching it, because people are going to
- 31:48start asking questions, well, where's about. You'd be surprised. There are
- 31:53people who walk the streets among us who have a lot of money that you
- 31:59would never think would have a lot of money. I mean a lot to
- 32:01me. A lot of money is if you're talking about six figure cash or
- 32:06low seven figure cash, that is a lot of money. And if someone
- 32:12is a relative or a close friend of the decedent and have reasonably they may
- 32:16be included in their will, They're gonna start asking questions. And the worst
- 32:21thing you can do is get those questions started my people get spiteful. Well
- 32:25I didn't give my sister that nonprobate schedule because well, she talks sharp to
- 32:34me at the funeral, so well if you don't give it to her,
- 32:37she's gonna talk sharper even yet, because now they're going to accuse you of
- 32:42hiding something. And you just have to put all that venom and all that
- 32:45rancorps out of your system and say, you know, just bite the bullet.
- 32:51You know, I have to speak a word to these folks for the
- 32:52rest of their lives. And of course I always trying to shame. If
- 32:54that's what you think your mother and father would want for you children to fight
- 32:59over a little bit of mone money and never speak to each other, well
- 33:00you can do that, but in the meantime, you're going to do this
- 33:04my way. And in general, you know, people come around and realize
- 33:07that I just can't ruin a good relationship with my siblings or my nieces and
- 33:13nephews over a little money. Now it's a lot of money, you know,
- 33:16it makes a difference. You see some pretty bad shenanigans, but there's
- 33:21a lot of money involved, right. Well, the Peyton law will talk
- 33:22about the what you guys, do you do that? But that's not all
- 33:25you do. Obviously that Tom was and you were co counsel with him.
- 33:30Tom had a successful somewhat successfully I could split verdict on a criminal trial,
- 33:35but trailed out in Campbell County, and there were really serious fell in each
- 33:38charges against the defendant, and three of those resulted in not guilty verdicts.
- 33:43One was a misdemeanor of which the man was arguably guilty. I mean,
- 33:47the evidence was quite well presented of obstruction. And now he's going to be
- 33:52sentenced. Well it's coming Monday in Campbell County, but it is a misdemeanor.
- 33:58So the mix one he's up to two year I guess year jail.
- 34:00All he's already served a couple of months. And then we'll see what happens.
- 34:07If there was one or two falloony charges that the jury he could not
- 34:10agree on, we'll see if the state wants to pursue that further. I
- 34:15don't know. It's hard to do, you know, unless it's a really
- 34:20sensational, brutal case. You know, retrying these cases really hard to do.
- 34:23Try a couple of them, and because everybody then you have no edge
- 34:27everybody knows what everybody's going to say, and everybody knows what unless you find
- 34:31some new and shocking evidence. It's it's tough to do right right well paint
- 34:38law firm in Nit. Yeah, yeah, I know. One first avenue.
- 34:42Uh. Our primary work is civil litigation accidents autobile Automobile accidents, of
- 34:49course, are a significant amount of social security disabilities, which were quite successful,
- 34:53actually quite successful. And he has a somewhat limited but successful criminal practice,
- 35:00and I do most now the transactional works. If you're call and you
- 35:04have an issue about just a general questions about something in your lifetime. You
- 35:08want to buy some property, you want to give some property away, you
- 35:12want to know how to collect the debt, we want to write a will.
- 35:15The odds are probably eight to one that I'm the one. You'll have
- 35:21to see how the governor. Governor could call you. The governor could call
- 35:24you, he could I might want to buy a helicopter any I don't know.
- 35:29It's just there's simply nothing that rational human beings can say about this anomaly.
- 35:37You know, I thought it was bad. I mean, Clinton was
- 35:39a branded a draft dodger, and I had a really good friend in the
- 35:44Saint Albans as the veterans. And I can't believe the American people elected a
- 35:46draft dodger over over a fellow who was legitimately a warrior. Rate of George
- 35:52H. W. Bush was shot down to the Pacific rescue by submarine.
- 35:55Uh. But apparently now it makes no difference bcific it's active of so I
- 36:00phoned up medical report, I mean, and now apparently lies to see felloity
- 36:07charges don't make any difference to anybody. And with the governor his financial shenanigans
- 36:12just don't seem to matter. Well, maybe we'll see it in general.
- 36:15Actually maybe it we'll be different depending on what happens on the right Democrat.
- 36:20I think that's from Wheeling and it's filed for the Senate. Yes, playing
- 36:23Elliott, all right, so yeah, Peyton Law Firm. Best way to
- 36:28content with Peyton Lawfirm. Dot com is a good way. Uh. You
- 36:30can send us an email. It only comes to my desk for Tom's desk,
- 36:34and we'll answer your questions. We like the email because we can get
- 36:37back with the day or night and over the weekends anytime we have a few
- 36:42minutes or just call us three or four, seven, five, five five
- 36:45five five six. We're stop by the office, okay. Love to go
- 36:49Wildcats, Wildcats right. Boys and girls, Girl, Boys and girls. Okay.