Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 02/15/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton

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02/15/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton · Ask the Lawyer

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a twenty two and five eighty two. When you see HS the Voice of
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Charleston. It's Thursday morning. Good morning, I'm Jeff Jenkins and it's time
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for the Peyton Law Firm from Nitro and Tom Payton is here ready to take
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your calls and the lines are open three oh four three four five fifty eight
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fifty eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Any
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questions about the law, Tom is here to answer those three oh four,
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three four, five, fifty eight fifty eight. Tom, good morning,
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How you doing morning? I'm doing great? How you doing? John?
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Doing well? Good to see it nice. It's gonna feel like spring today.
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I feel like springe, gonna get a little snow. But i'd like
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this timing Friday night into Saturday, right, a couple three four inches maybe
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they say, but then getting up to like thirty eight degrees on Saturday,
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so I think it'll just mount good for skiing. Yeah, it's a good
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ski, good little teazer today. And it looks like we the other week
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of kind of up for forties love fifties, and then maybe we'll be heading
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uphill on the yeah, on the thermostatic. Yeah, we've got a new
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and again the lines are open. Anything about the law. We've got a
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new story just posted. I'll just hit Tom with this at wv Metronews dot
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com. And it's about what you've kind of followed, and we're falling about
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the justice properties the sporting club. And there's been another auction that's been filed
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in Greenboro County Circuit Courts to try to stop the new and today or the
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way in today, Like last night, I think I know that there was
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a filing last week in Greenboro County Circuit Corps trying to halt what is in
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essence of foreclosure sale. So what I'm understanding is that, uh, you
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know, which isn't uncommon. You have a really large business closely held to
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a certain extent, meaning it's family owned. So when they borrow significant amounts
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of money to keep the business operating or or acquire a new property, then
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you know, every principle of the business has to sign off on it,
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usually as a personal guarantee, which is what we've seen Jim Justice signing off
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on. What's a little bit unusual, which I don't think there are a
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lot of do in West Virginia, is the the creditors getting what they all
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confessions of judgment at the time of the inception of the loan, so before
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anybody's in default, they're getting essentially somebody's consenting to a court order saying they
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owe money, so that when somebody goes to court to collect, they don't
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have to prove the person owes the money necessarily, or they get to skip
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a step because they've already confessed and said we agree you have judgment against us
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for you know, up to two million dollars or something like that, and
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so it just it's a step that allows the creditor to kind of leap frog
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an element of proof and go right to collection through the court system. And
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that's what they've had hearings on in Virginia, which allows those type of documents.
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But there are parameters for it. You can get out of it if
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it's it was under duress and various things, which the Virginia i think federal
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judge found that the Justice companies hadn't proved any of the exceptions to the rule
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and basically enforced it. So now we're moving into what all property was.
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So that's collateral for the for the line. Before you tell me what was
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in there this morning, I will guess that it might have been a suit
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fouled by other members of the sporting club or private landowners that were sold lots.
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Okay, all right, well, well what it is is they the
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Justice lawyers have filed for a preliminary injunction, right, Okay, Okay,
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So it's it's so in that case, in that case, yeah, for
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a preliminary injunction. This follows up on the initial filing a pliminary injunction to
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permit this is what they say, and this is probably just orderly adjudication of
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the party's claims in the complex matter is not only prudent, it is what
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the law requires. The justice filing. Yeah, so there's a pliminary injunction
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is just an attempt you have to give the other side notice, right,
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and then it's an attempt to halt the foreclosure set. And so they're going
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to have a hearing about whether the foreclosure shell should be stopped. Now,
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preliminary injunctions, we've talked this a few times, you know. There they're
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not automatic right to keep status quo. It's more likely to be granted while
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the case plays out. But the judge's got to find that the plaintiffs have
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some real likelihood of success on the merits based on some preliminary testimony and evidence.
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And so there's I don't know, I mean, it's I haven't gotten
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into the weeds on these cases. But as a general matter, in the
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wall, when you have a commercial transaction complex business folks, almost universally what's
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in writing is going to you know, take presence of any verbal this or
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that, and usually it's pretty much just enforced if it's in a different When
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you have a consumer issue, like you go and borrow money to buy a
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house for your family, or personal use of an automobile or something like that,
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there's some consumer protection laws. But when you're in the commercial setting,
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it's going to be real tough. I mean, for he might get some
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delay, but I don't know. The judge's gonna have to find some likelihood
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of success on the merits or I think the creditor will probably appeal that type
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of ruling and see what happens. Because obviously this creditor has been reporting back
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to its board or maybe even stockholders. Hey we're going to because this is
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a pretty big debt portfolio for this lender, I mean, I assume,
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And so they've had to answer some questions at board meetings about and they basically,
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at least what I've read in the media is they're going to enforce this
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swiftly and fully if they can. It's kind of interesting because the governor has
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some comments last week late last week, you know, not talking very very
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good way about Carter Bank, because they had an owner and original owner of
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Carter Bank, and he was a guy that did business with Jim Justice.
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They handshook and gave him, you know, loaning millions, and he said
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he paid it back and then he died, you know, and Justice says
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he gave the eulogy at his funeral. But so there are different people put
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in charge of loaning the money. Sure, but I mean as if he
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is a complicated or a complex business owner, he should know that you cannot
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rely upon that type of relationship in the future if somebody passes away. I
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mean, it's it's it's not uncommon in Western I mean, I've seen it
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happen where you had smaller banks that were somewhat regulated, but you know,
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their underwriting loan process might be two people that's been it's been the president of
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the bank for thirty years or something like that. Well that that's fine,
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but when you get into it, and I think you see a lot of
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a change is kind of falling in place in that regard. Since we had
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the subprime lending fallout mess in like two thousand and eight or something, when
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they were loaning money to everybody and then of course they were appraisals were wrong
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and and the underwriting process was wrong. So then so many people got foreclosed
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upon those loans. Went bad, which caused a huge financial crisis. So
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I think since then you see less and less of that kind of small times.
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Yes, I wouldn't say small time, but personal relationships that allow federally
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regulated lenders to distribute money to individual So I mean he can when Jim Justice
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says that, I mean, if you thought you were just going to continue
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to be extended credit despite the fact you haven't, I mean, you have
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a lot of debt and a lot of creditors, and that's just that's really
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naive thought process and it's unfortunate. But yeah, for example, if they're
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doing balloon loans, where you know your loan money and it's immortized being spread
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over so many years, but when you get to the fifth year, you've
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got to pay the balance due. Most people never pay the full balance due,
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they just refinance it again. And so maybe there was a person there
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that would refinance those type loans consistently for the Justice companies and without a whole
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lot of underwriting to see what the risk is. And when that person passed
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away, things changed, and and maybe that's what happened. But I mean,
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I think those are all things you have to as a complex business owner
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try and anticipate and not get in this situation. And so I don't know
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that those arguments are going to get very I don't think they have. Let
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me ask you this, And it's eight thirty and the Tom Payton's with us
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is Peyton Law Firm and Nitro And this is a very good caller driven show.
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Three O four three four five fifty eight fifty any questions about the law
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three oh four three four five fifty fifty. I wanted to ask you because
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we know the mode of operation of the justice business has been, you know,
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to delay things and get delays and some things maybe eventually paid, maybe
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partial payments. You know. Yeah, they use the a litigation and delay
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taxics as leverage. Okay, so how much can you delay something like this?
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And this is a different ballgame because or how much because you well,
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it all depend on whether the you can't delay it at all. If the
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circuit judge finds that there's no grounds for a Plumbery injunction, I think it's
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set for a sale in March fifth. Now it's that's where I was going
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earlier because there's been some allusion to you know, justice companies have pledged this
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land, which I assume is the unsold lots of this. So the sporting
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club is as it's sociable sell is the golf course, right, I mean
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that's the common it's unsold lots in the common use area. Is that all
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of these property owners that bought lots bought into is a common now just because
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it's sold a lot of times when there's foreclosures, the lender will buy it
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back for around what the balanced dealing the loan is because that protects them from
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being accused of underselling it and having to deal with that later. Uh,
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this one will be interesting if it goes for sale. Is it March fifth?
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I think something like that. Yeah, we'll see who bids on it
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other than the lender, because that's going to be interesting. Now. It
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doesn't mean just because it's sold at foreclosure, all the folks that bought lots
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are not going to have a golf course or not going to have, you
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know, a clubhouse. But it could in the future because if I believe
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if some of these notes or these deeds of trust pledging that property were signed,
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you know, our extensions and extensions, and we're signed before private property
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owners bought those lots, then they're just subject to the I mean, the
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lender can do what they want to without restriction based on what existed at the
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time they were pledged the property. Does that makes sense. So if this
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was a loan that originated in year two thousand before private lots were and I
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don't know the timeframe, I'm just using an example, it's probably about right
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before any private lots were sold at the Sporting Club, then you know restrictions
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on what you can do with the golf course and how that ben fits everybody
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else. If that was put in place later, the lender's not really subject
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to those restrictions because they were conveyed their interests before you know those were put
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in place. So if that's the case, then there's concern that it might
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not be operated as kind of a golf course. They could turn that into
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more residential lots or anything. So we'll see how it plays out. If
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I was a property inner there and put substantial amounts of money in it,
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I would be concerned. And there's also been some kind of where I was
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going earlier, whether Justice depending on the timing, whether the Justice companies or
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whatever. The Sporting Club Landholding Company's name is where they had the power to
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even pledge of that property without the private property owners signing off one as well,
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because they buy in as kind of equity owners in the club, as
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I understand it. So we'll see if any of that would be a more
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compelling reason to me to grant a plumbary injunction, say hold off on this
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as if some of those private owners intervene and start making some arguments, well,
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this isn't fair to us, and we think there's a legit legal issue
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about whether the lender has a right to foreclose on these because it has to
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do with whether the original borrower had a right to even pledge this property or
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are their interests by the private property owners in equity or some other interests where
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they can intervene and say, well, we didn't sign anything, they can't
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foreclose on our interests, and our interests includes maintaining the common area and the
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golf course and the things we were promised. So we'll see how that plays
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out. It wouldn't surprise me if there isn't some attempt intervene. Well,
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those property owners could already have a group together dealing with the lender on the
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back end and saying hey, if this happens, it's gonna happen with us,
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and if they feel safe enough, they may not step in. So
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we'll see if that maneuver happens. Right, it'll be a close call on
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if they don't jump in. I don't know. I tend to think a
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plumbering in junction probably won't be granted, or it'll be it could be delayed
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for a short period of time, not the entire case. You know,
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they said, let's give it another month and see what the arguments are.
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But well, it's it's it's difficult on these foreclosures because I mean, it's
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a business deal and things are signed in writing, given the bank the right
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to do this, right, so you got to get around the written documents
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that probably Governor Justice signed himself. Yeah, it sounds like it all right.
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Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Three oh four
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three four five fifty eight fifty eight line drope. We're gonna take our break
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here and then come back with Tom Payton at the Paytent Law Firm in Nitro.
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fifty eight fifty eight three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight lines
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Ropen. Tom Peyton with the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro is with us.
15:35
One of the tragic cases we've had, like in the last three months,
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cases involving young people being killed or being charged with murder. Yeah, we
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were talking about that one a few weeks ago where, uh, it's just
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awful. Fourteen year old I think went into this went to the tobacco shop.
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Was that in Dunbar on the West. It was on the seventh Avenue,
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okay, with Charleston, So you know, just robbed the cashier who
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was a nineteen year old kid, and as he's going out, just turns
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on and shoots him. You know, in my mind, of course,
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it's just completely senseless. You almost hope there's something else to it, so
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you know, maybe somebody was forcing the kid to do it, or it's
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gang related and they somebody's outside, you know, seeing you better kill this
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person or something. We haven't seen any evidence of that. It just seems
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like pure miles maybe at this point because I think it was on surveillance video.
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Yeah, and fourteen old is going to probably know that. I mean,
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they know technology. So I'm not sure, you know, to shoot
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somebody for example, to not have a witness isn't really play out these days
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with cameras. But but no, we talked about it. I hadn't really
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looked into this much, so I wasn't sure what penalty diet. I think
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I researched it a little bit, and I thought there was a little something
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a little different than an adult committing the crime. First, he'll be transferred
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to adult status at some point, so there's no question on that. Yeah,
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I mean, I think it's one of the enumerated things, and so
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as long as the prosecutor requests it, then it's going to happen. Then
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if he's found guilty of first degree murder, which you know it's going to
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be fell any murder anyway, if anybody dies while you're committing a felony like
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robbery in the first degree, which is what he was doing. Then you're
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charged with murder without the prosecutor having to prove a lot of the mental intent
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elements normally necessitated by first premeditation, malice, that kind of thing. But
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if he is convicted, then you know the difference in sentencing because the crime
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would have been committed as a juveniles that he could he would get life,
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but he has to have mercy. So in West Virginia that means after fifteen
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years you get a prohering. I mean, the possibility of pro doesn't mean
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it would be paroled. Obviously, that would be a long time from now,
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and so you can't predict. I mean, who knows if you had
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mental problems or some drugs or whatever. I mean, I suppose in sometime
17:53
in his lifetime there could be some opportunity for rehabilitation. But that's the situation
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with that. When I expect that what I've read, that's where it's going
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to end up going. Yeah, so you'd be twenty nine or thirty,
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depending on you know, if he's convicted and everything. And and then I
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think there's also a lull about you know, because you're fourteen. I think
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you would stay in juvenile custody maybe until you're yeah, right, they won't
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transfer into an adult facility until some point, and you're not an adult until
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you're eighteen, so they'll keep him in a secure juvenile detention facility for a
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certain amount of time and then he'd be transferred. So he gets convicted,
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yeah, and then yeah, because sometimes there are tom right, there's a
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question on whether you know adult status in some cases if a juvenile is going
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to be Yeah, there's fact like lesser crimes, right, there are other
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crimes that can be where juveniles can be transferred to adult status, And there's
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various factors in the statue. I haven't litigated that. Oh gosh, I
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don't know if or maybe actually it might be one thing I haven't handled personally
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myself in the juvenile justice realm. But yeah, there's factors, you know,
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maturity, different things that the judge and the prosecutor can can consider.
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All that. Obviously, the serious nature of the crime is the primary,
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and there's some even the juvenile if their attorney can try and have certain things
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converted to adult status. Sometimes sentences are shorter, there's not as much lengthy
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monitoring by the court system and things like that. So there's different different motives
19:30
there in that regard. We'll see, we'll see how it plays out.
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I'd say it'll move pretty quickly, but you never know. I mean,
19:34
there's gonna have to be psychological exams. A kid might have had it obviously
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has some mental health issue. Whether it's a legitimate disease or disorder, I
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don't know. We'll see how it plays out, but just real bad one.
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And it's just when I thought about after we got the radio and I
19:51
wanted to look it up and give a little more information. But see that's
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where that one's going. And there's some new stuff in the Trump. Yes
19:57
we have the Trump. Well there's always new stuff the Trump sort of,
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but it's always the same thing. One of the kind of seed or interesting
20:04
things I found. You know, they're having a hearing today on the special
20:07
prosecutor in I think in Georgia, the primary prosecutor and hired a special prosecutor,
20:14
and there's an allegation by Trump and the other defendants. I guess that
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uh, she would have some kind of intimate relationship with him, and that
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therefore gives them some relief on their criminal case. I think she's admitted there
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was some kind of personal intimate relationship. She was the elections officers at the
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well. No, no, she's she's the prosecutor's yeah, she's the she's
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the original prosecutor. I understand then a special prosecutor to come in and handle
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this deal, which is of course paid by government money, and they're they're
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trying to claim there's some kind of quid pro quo between because she was having
20:49
a relationship with that person. Maybe he got paid more, was motivated somehow.
20:55
So we'll see how it plays out. I mean, there could be
20:56
a potential conflict I guess what the pros office. Normally, that just means
21:00
the prosecutor gets out of it and a new one subs in. That's basically
21:03
of the same ilk. And I mean that doesn't always happen. They can
21:07
take a fresh look at it, but normally it's just going to keep going.
21:11
Now, there is a there is in criminal cases a doctrine where some
21:17
criminal cases can be dismissed for quote outrageous government conduct, and that can run
21:22
the gamut. I don't think this is going to get him there. I'm
21:26
not really seeing a whole lot. It's almost a red Herring type deal.
21:30
But it's interesting. The judges are going to have an avidenc your hearing on
21:32
it though, which Fanny Willis the original prosecutor didn't want him to do,
21:34
but he's going to and then get some details on when this relationship started and
21:41
the extent of it and that kind of thing. I think the judge is
21:44
probably doing that because he wants everything on the table. But in the end
21:48
it's probably not going to change who prosecutes the case or anything like that,
21:52
unless, I mean, the prosecutor could bail out and just have somebody else
21:56
substitute in and solve that problem, unless they get it thrown out for outrageous
22:00
government conduct. But I don't think that's going to happen. I've had only
22:03
one outrageous government conduct case that I recall, and it was it was kind
22:08
of interesting. It was a confidential informant, meaning somebody that had probably got
22:12
caught with possession or something before and the police recruit it was a female you
22:18
know, where's a recording device and goes and solicits. In this case,
22:22
it was a man was my client at a bar and tries to get them
22:26
to sell her or deliver to her illicit substances. In our case, though,
22:33
we had significant evidence that this condul's informant, in order to entice my
22:38
client to deal drugs, had been offering and trading sexual favors as a government
22:45
I mean essentially they're a government agent at that time. So we fold a
22:48
motion to dismiss. This is outrageous. I mean you're trying to you know,
22:52
So judge didn't dismiss it. It was an interesting hearing, but it
22:56
didn't didn't work. And then although that you hear about in trap so you
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see on TV or if you ask a law enforcement officer if they're an officer
23:03
and they tell you there, they have to tell you where they are or
23:06
not, or it could be that's not it's not entrapment. And then you
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know an officer undercover as a prostitute in the corner, that's not entrapment.
23:15
Entrapment is usually tried to a jury and it's a defense, but it basically
23:19
has to be some conduct by law enforcement that was so enticing that it essentially
23:29
overcome, overcame a reasonable person's free will. So you know, it's so
23:33
bad, so enticing that a reasonable person would have just gone along with that
23:37
conduct and committed that crime. And so I think the scenario I had with
23:40
my client would have been a really interesting entrapment argument to a jury. It's
23:44
said, well, she's not just offering money, she's offering something else to
23:48
this fella, and then you can and uh. That one didn't play out,
23:52
though, because we worked a plea agreement before we got to trial,
23:56
which is fair one to my client. So we've got a good, good
23:59
resolution, but we never saw that one go to fruition. But that's moutrageous
24:03
conduct price, Right. We'll see if they make that argument in the Trump
24:07
case. I don't think that kind of prostateurial behavior between each other that doesn't
24:11
really involve witnesses and things like that is going to get anywhere near that level.
24:15
And I think you'll hear some details about the relationship, which the media
24:18
will love, but the judge will ultimately probably not take any action, right,
24:22
maybe admonish or I mean, he could do something like that, but
24:26
I don't know that he's going to require anybody to be removed from the case
24:29
or take any action legally in relation to the ultimate resolution of those charges,
24:33
right, three or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three o four
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three four five fifty fifty eight lines or open for your calls for Tom three
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oh four three four five fifteen fifty. Your dad likes to say, he
24:45
likes to He'll like say a lot sometimes, right, So, but he
24:51
likes to say that the Paint Law Firm can operate and does operate at sea
24:55
level. That's right, you know. And so Jess, I just want
24:57
to share a personal note that we had my family had to have some things
25:00
done. Uh, and we chose to paint Law firm. And I appreciate
25:06
that. Yeah, and uh and and actually on a couple of a couple
25:10
of things and uh and just uh, just I really appreciate and we dealt
25:15
with Harvey, did some things with Harvey last week, and and just really
25:18
appreciate him and how he just handled you know, I mean to me,
25:25
it was like I was sitting at the studio with him. But you know,
25:29
but just the way he handled handled things with some of my family members
25:32
and different things. And I really, you know, I really appreciate that
25:33
we need we need some things done and efficiently and effectively. Yeah. And
25:38
you don't want to to you know, it's it's never too late on for
25:41
example, state planning things until it's too late. Yeah, so if you
25:44
put it off, don't worry about it's not too late yet. But yeah,
25:48
I mean we kind of uh we we we pride ourselves at operating on
25:53
ground level, and because we view ourselves as people that are on ground level,
25:57
I think, so we're very comfortable with that. But I also haven't
26:00
done it for so many years. You know. We try and try and
26:03
keep in mind that people aren't used to coming in lawyers' offices and they get
26:07
nervous and things like that. So we it's a balancing out between making people
26:11
feel comfortable at the same time. We don't have all all the time in
26:15
the world, so sometimes we got to get to the point. But yeah,
26:17
it's important to make people feel comfortable and everybody. I don't like anybody
26:22
leave my office saying well, I still don't understand this, right, you
26:25
know, that shouldn't really happen. Now. There's some things that are so
26:26
complex. They're the nitty gritty of it. Maybe some folks can't understand,
26:32
but they ought to understand. You know, when you have a lawyer and
26:33
you have an issue, you should be able to understand what the situation is
26:37
and make make good choices with it's you're a state plan or a litigation matter,
26:41
and so it's communication is really key. And I think we've we've done
26:45
it so long that we're pretty good communicators and we get good results right too.
26:52
And that is because in some of the you know, there's certain questions
26:56
that have to be asked and answered. And I was, you know,
26:59
it wasn't like, you know, we're in a court room. But I
27:00
also could tell with your father how you know, he would handle himself in
27:06
court too, but you know by the way he you know, by the
27:08
way he handled him, by the way he presented himself in just different things.
27:11
So I just wanted to say thank you, thank you to the Paytent
27:15
Law firm. Well, we appreciate that. We're glad to help, and
27:17
we keep planning to keep on being here and keep doing it. So,
27:19
yeah, it's interesting, Dad, and I I was just trying to think
27:23
nobody wins every case. Have you ever heard a lawyer say that that's just
27:26
that's I laugh at that kind of statement, but but I was just trying
27:32
to think, Dad, and I've tried, you know, he sat second
27:34
chair with me at that criminal case hitdn't do any actually was there gratuitously because
27:41
I was court appointed, so you only get one lawyer. But Dad wanted
27:45
to come, so he actually didn't get paid for that extra lawyer sitting there,
27:48
which I hope my client appreciates. But I was just thinking we did
27:52
well on that one. I mean, I think it was a you know,
27:55
I don't know if you win that when your client's convicted of one thing,
27:57
but it felt like we had a result for the climb. I was
28:00
when Dad and I have tried k we've tried, you know, versus me
28:04
being there alone or him being there alone. We've probably tried eight to ten
28:08
jury trials over the years. I don't think we've technically quote lost any of
28:14
them. We've we've done really well. Was he with you during your first
28:17
jury trial, my first jury trial? Yes, in fact, it was
28:23
an injury case that I mean, it was like two thousand and two.
28:27
I graduated two thousand and one, and it was I mean, I still
28:30
remember it. And Dad, did you know by the time we got to
28:33
the trial and he had to pretty much he did about half and I did
28:36
about half. So yes, we did and we won out. That was
28:37
a real difficult. It was still remembered as a fellow that had driven up
28:41
from Texas to unloads some an oil or a grease tanker over in Nitro.
28:45
It used to be a place called Horn Brothers Oil, which is not the
28:49
name anymore. And they had just some kind of rigged up tank where you
28:53
had to get the big hose off the back of the tanker truck and drag
28:56
it underneath and try and get it up on this couple. And we pulled
29:00
his back out doing that. Normally you would either have a helper there or
29:03
some other valve, either eye level or a little higher. We just plug
29:07
it right in, and so he pulled his back out, And so there
29:11
was controversy about whose fault it was and that kind of where it was his
29:14
fault for just trying to do it and that kind of thing. Right,
29:17
So, because it was a forty sixty percent verdict, so we the defendant
29:21
was found sixty percent at fault in our client forty percent. So then and
29:25
then he got a pretty good chunk of damages. Of course, it's reduced
29:27
still a law in West Virginia. It's reduced by my client's forty percent.
29:30
But right, yeah, we won that one and got a nice verdict and
29:33
that was satisfactory because, like a lot of these cases we try, the
29:37
client really had no choice because the defendant didn't offer really anything meaningful before we
29:41
went to trial. So was that in the Putnam Counting party It was Putnham
29:45
County. Part of it is that OC Spaulding. It was in front of
29:47
that was Judge Gloski. Okay, yeah, two thousand and two Judge Spaulding
29:51
was there, But we have two circuit judges at the time, so that
29:52
between two thousand and one and two thousand and eight was Judge of Gloski.
29:57
So yeah, we had that one, which was ma had been his first
30:00
jury trial. I'm pretty sure Judge ours is the sitting judge now in that
30:03
position. I think I might have been the one to try the first one
30:07
or two jury trials before him as well. So yeah, I remember those,
30:10
yeah, yeah, exactly three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
30:14
eight. Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Time Peyton
30:17
of Peyton Law firmers with US three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
30:19
eight legislatures into some things. Well, we're speaking about operating on ground level.
30:23
So I did have we were talking off there. I had hearing this
30:26
week for the first time with the new judge, Dave Hardy. Dave Hardy,
30:30
Yeah, yes, so he was good. I mean they Judge Hardy.
30:36
He was in the County Commission for like ten years or something from time
30:37
to time, you know, when you have state issues ultimately probate quarters of
30:41
the County Commission in West Virginia, and so that they deal with a lot
30:45
of kind of everyday folks in relation to state matters and things like that.
30:48
So it gives him a good flavor there. And of course he's been in
30:52
finance sector of the state government for a while, that kind of thing.
30:56
So he's he's what we had going on this week obviously something I don't I
31:00
don't know that he'd handled one. It was a complex wrongful death settlement proceeding,
31:06
and I don't I got the feeling maybe he hadn't been through one of
31:08
those before. But he was very well prepared, asked the right questions and
31:14
and and got through it really well. So I think he's going to be
31:18
And if you know Judge HARDI he's this courteous, nice person, laid back,
31:22
I think you'll have a great demeanor for a judge, and he was
31:23
very well prepared for the hearing. And as he gets more experience, I
31:29
think he'll just keep getting better. I mean, obviously it's going to be
31:30
no lawyer's done everything. But you know, he hadn't doing what he had
31:36
done. He hadn't been actively practicing will train cases and doing a lot of
31:38
different things in circuit courts. But he'll learn that and catch up. And
31:42
as long as he's prepared. Of course, he's smart too, so he'll
31:45
he won't have any trouble. But I was pretty impressed Monday with with his
31:49
uh you know, his attitude during the court process, in the fact he
31:55
was really prepared, I mean, had questions ready for the lawyers already,
31:57
so you know, he in his law clerk had been looking at our our
32:01
documents and things like that. So we'll see how did Hardy does. I
32:06
don't know when, yes, he does, all right. I think he's
32:09
unopposed for that seat. So I think there's only two opposed race. Because
32:15
here's something that voters may not know, and we've done a couple of things
32:19
on it, but they, you know, may not note there's an additional
32:22
circuit judge added to Knaw County, and so there's a new seat through.
32:24
I think there's two people running for that. And then I think maybe Judge
32:28
Bailey is opposed opposed by Dean Ashley Dean actually Dean, Yeah, it posed
32:35
there and then then the new then the new judge ship is has two people
32:39
running for it. One of the assistants prosecutor. Uh yeah, but one
32:46
of the assistant prosecutors is and Lensley or the former state center d Lindsay,
32:53
the former state Okay, so uh but you look at that, and so
32:59
can all County then will have nine that's right, that'll make nine circuit judges
33:02
for Kannell County. Yeah, okay, So but you look at and I
33:06
look at their dockets every day, they're they're busy. Oh yeah, they're
33:10
hugely busy. I mean all eat of them right now are busy every day.
33:14
It's the busiest county. You got so much abuse neglect, and then
33:16
uh, you know there are there are various things under western of all that
33:20
have to be filed in kanawh County Circuit Court involving state government and things like
33:23
that. So they also get not just because they were the biggest county in
33:27
the state, but I'm sure we're still the most populous county canaw But so
33:32
yeah, that being busy, but you also have this added uh body of
33:38
cases that come in because Kanawh County Circuit Court is the only UH court with
33:44
jurisdiction ever certain matters against the state no matter where they happen in the state.
33:49
So you got that extra So yeah, and everybody needs to keep in
33:52
mind to that. Of course, these are non partisan and although candadates still
33:54
seem to enjoy if it favors them telling everybody which uh part there ends that
34:00
non partisan thing getting mean anything when they switched it four or five years ago,
34:04
maybe longer than that. Of course, now the Republicans in control,
34:07
they want to switch it back so they can all put an R by their
34:09
name in judicial races. But keep in mind because of that, May is
34:13
the election for judges. There's no primary in general. So if you're thinking,
34:16
I I'm a Democrat, there's no like I'm in Putnam, Well there's
34:21
not a whole lot to vote for if you're a registered to a Democrat,
34:22
which I currently am, But I'm going to go because I want you got
34:28
school board and you've got judicial officers and so, yeah, hit the polls,
34:34
whether you want to vote in a primary or not, because you're going
34:37
to have the opportunity to vote for your next circuit judges. We've got one
34:40
of them opposed in Putnam, so we're going to see how that one plays
34:45
out. We can talk about that a little bit more as we get closer
34:46
to the election. Yeah, okay, it's eight fifty seven and Peyton Law
34:51
Firm in Nitro. Yeah, if you want to reach us there, you
34:52
can give us a call at three O four seven five five five five five
34:57
six. A great way to get ahold of us is just go through our
35:00
website Peyton Law Firm dot com and you can submit an email and that really
35:02
goes to it goes to my computer and dad's computer and to us. If
35:07
you don't hear back from us within a day or so, re email because
35:10
it's possible could have overlooked it. Good way to get information that way.
35:14
We don't charge for responding to emails or answering initial phone calls. And if
35:17
you're in there, you just stop by twenty eight oh one first avenue.
35:21
You can stop by the dairy Queen's like two blocks down and get a buzzard
35:25
and a hot dog or a barbecue sandwich. And yeah, we made use
35:29
of that because we we came in uh for initial and then there's some of
35:32
the things we got done could be done fairly quickly. So we went away
35:37
for a couple of hours and went down the deals there you go, had
35:42
a had had a chicken salad sandwich which is very good. And then and
35:46
then came back but yeah, the office is beautiful. The other thanks and
35:50
the other. Yeah, we're gonna get we'll start getting our outside of the
35:53
office going here. Yeah, the spring comes in. But and then just
35:57
uh, since Nitro doesn't have a law, a whole lot of eaters downtown.
36:00
Gudalajara is a Mexican restaurant there too, if you saw that. That's
36:04
down towards fortieth Street, but really good, different kind of menu than you
36:08
know, the usual I guess Mexican restaurants here in our area. So if
36:15
you get into Nitro, think about going to Gualajara too. It's down there
36:17
on forty Street, so if you get off the interstate, you'll drive right
36:21
right back. And another good eating spot there in downtown Nitro. But yeah,
36:25
you can stop by the office if we're available, will be glad to
36:28
talk to you. And of course staff has longevity at our office. They
36:30
can answer a lot of general questions things like that. But don't hesitate to
36:34
contact us. If it's not something we represent you on. We can at
36:36
least give you some information and if you do have what we ask and we
36:39
help people in a lot of things. But if you have a friend or
36:43
family member it's in an automobile accident or hopefully not somebody killed or something.
36:47
We just asked that you think about us because we do really good job on
36:51
those type cases, even though you don't see that. It's like your first
36:53
case. That's right, that's right. It's a perfect example. We work
36:57
Carl that one in one and that's that's what we do, and we do
36:59
get good results normally. So, uh, just think about us. We're
37:02
easy to get a hold of, and uh, don't hesitate to contact us.
37:06
Yeah, three oh four seven five five fifty five fifty six, So
37:09
a lot of fives there three oh four seven five five five five five six
37:14
and then ride on the main drag there in Nitro. All right, Tom,
37:16
good to see you. You too, Joe, all right, stay
37:19
tuned. ABC News is coming up next, and then we've got The five
37:22
Ed Live with Dave Allen after that, and then Metro News talk Line at
37:27
ten oh six. This is five eighty w c CHS