Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 09/14/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
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- 0:59one and this is five eighths the voice of Charleston. Good morning to you,
- 1:03Good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jeff Jenkins, and it is time
- 1:07for the Paytent Law Firm. Tom Payton's with us of the Paytent Law Firm,
- 1:11like the Peyton Law Firm has been for a quarter of a century on
- 1:15Thursday mornings here on five ad W CHS. The Voice of Charleston or right
- 1:19at a quarter of a Century. Tom is on location this morning, so
- 1:23he's on the phone line. Tom, Good morning, How you doing great?
- 1:26How you doing jail? I'm doing well. Good to hear you this
- 1:30morning. Getting this show underway. What's going on? Well, sorry,
- 1:34can't be in the studio. I always like to be there in person,
- 1:37but Dad's Dad's out of the country, and actually so am I right now.
- 1:41But we hate to miss Thursday Morning spot. I actually look forward to
- 1:44doing the show every week, so I'm glad I can at least be here
- 1:47about fine. I've been in the leap a whole lot on the news,
- 1:51but I did see they are again discussing jail overcrowding with the I think I'm
- 1:57an overcrowding jail committee or something with the legislature kind of keeping a tune to
- 2:04that. Bail is one of those things, and we're talking about bail and
- 2:08maybe explain that process a little bit, because bail, if you're not a
- 2:12lawyer, it's one of those things you really don't want to know about,
- 2:15because if you do, you probably added some experience with This is not a
- 2:20good thing in most circumstances. So, as you've heard the news a lot
- 2:25lately, we have a significant jail overcrowding problem, which the legislature is trying
- 2:30to solve via at least I have enough employees and they have too many people
- 2:36incarcerated, and so they've tried to increase salary and benefits to get more employees
- 2:39to work the jails, which is going to be maybe a long term fix.
- 2:45Right now, they're trying to figure out, I suppose, how they
- 2:46can get some of these folks out of jail that maybe don't need to be
- 2:50there. So bail is, you know, somebody is arrested for a misdemeanor.
- 2:57Usually the law enforcement officer we'll go to a magis shate fiends calls,
- 3:01calls, a person's arrested. Then of course they're not having their trial on
- 3:07the spot, so there's going to be some lag time. And the magistrate
- 3:12is the one that initially sets the bail amount, and that's what needs to
- 3:15be posted by a criminal defendant in order to be released from jail. So
- 3:21I think it was an article in the gazette actually that had some there was
- 3:24some inaccuracies, and I think it was probably just going to maybe the reporter
- 3:29didn't hear the testimony correctly, but set bail in all cases initially unless they're
- 3:36direct indictments like we've seen with mister Trump. You know, he hasn't been
- 3:39our former president Trump. He hasn't been arrested with a mag shrip one as
- 3:45of gone through the grand jury process. And then he's invited in that form,
- 3:50but wouldn't if you have a friend or family member, if not yourself,
- 3:54that needs to host bail. In West virginiators multiple mechan the match set
- 4:00to the amount. So, for example, Jenkins gets gets arrested, somebody
- 4:06with no prior criminal record, upstanding citizen most likely depending on what the criminal
- 4:12charges, the match is going to set it what they call pr personal recognisance
- 4:15pond and that's where the mashion sets an amount. But Jeff Jenkins doesn't have
- 4:20to actually post any money with the clerk's office. Jeff just promises personal word
- 4:29that he will show up for his hearings. Now, then if it's a
- 4:33more serious crime where somebody's had some trouble in the past, then the match
- 4:38is going to set up property or or cash bawn where you have to you
- 4:41have to actually post land, which then has a lean on it. And
- 4:47as long as thettend all your hearings, the loon is released, so you
- 4:51actually don't occur any costs to post land for your bail to get out the
- 5:00Then the two other mechanisms primary mechanisms are one you can pay cash chef and
- 5:03nash sits a bond to one hundred thousand dollars cash. You can come in
- 5:06and one hundred thousand dollars and post it. Then you'll be released from jail
- 5:12and can all kind of they said it at ten percent. Sometimes they allowed
- 5:15the person to pay just ten percent and promise the rest. And then the
- 5:19other mechanism that we hear are bail bondsman. And that's do you remember the
- 5:26show dog the Downey Hunter, He was a bail bondsman. So that's where
- 5:30you pay someone to post your bond for you. Pretty well regulated in West
- 5:33Virginia. But you paid ten percent to the bail bondsman ordinarily, but you'd
- 5:42never get that back. And that's what folks gotta be careful. But I've
- 5:45had some clients, you know, we could have got their bail lowered,
- 5:48but they went ahead and paid significant sun Still bail bondsman have been that money
- 5:54is not returned. It's kind of like an insurance premium. But even if
- 5:59you never have to make another appearance in court because it's dismissed, you don't
- 6:02get any of your funds back. So that's kind of what they were talking
- 6:08about the legsterature. And there's been some bills introduced the last couple of sessions.
- 6:11I think there was one in a special session as well to kind of
- 6:15mandate lower bonds for particular criminal defendants. And they're trying to work on that
- 6:20see if they can get some folks out of the jail. That's kind of
- 6:24a That scenario about posting bond is something that you really don't want to know
- 6:29unless you're a lawyer, because you're most likely only going to know it if
- 6:31you've gone through it. Tom, I guess in Tom's worth this, Tom
- 6:34Payton to the Painton law from a nitro and I guess it's a delicate balance
- 6:38right there, trying to reach because you know, you got the jail overcrowding
- 6:42you've got and that's you know, made worse because of the worker situation,
- 6:48and you've got jail bills at County's pay right, So it's a delicate balance
- 6:53if bonds too high or not, that's right, And then the Supreme Court
- 6:58has put out some cases. Another there's a Gives case g h I Z
- 7:01where they put out some factors that you know, someone setting a bond,
- 7:05whether it's a circuit judge or a measure, is to consider. But for
- 7:10example, some of the testimony yesterday was, well, there's a particular manasure
- 7:15in particular county, and every misdemeanor criminal defendant that comes before him or hurt
- 7:21or setting the bail extremely high and then the dependent can have a hearing supposed
- 7:28to be in pig business days to consider a bond reduction. And that match
- 7:32has been at least it was brought up in the in the article that that
- 7:36matter strategy as well. They just need to sit in jail for five days
- 7:42before they can get out, and it's that's a punishment mechanism and that's not
- 7:46what bond is supposed to be. Certainly, if you look at the factors
- 7:49own bond, as far as helmets, it should be. It's you know,
- 7:53if you get a serious violent offense, that's got to be considered because
- 7:57you do have to consider protection of the public. But otherwise it's generally does
- 8:01this person have connections to the community, do they have a criminal history,
- 8:05are they going to show up at hearings? And how high do I need
- 8:07to set the bond to ensure they will appear at their next hearing. Unfortunately,
- 8:11sometimes in this process those factors get lost because when a person is initially
- 8:16arrested, they don't have a lawyer there at that initial appearance to argue a
- 8:20lower bond. So it's the magistrate, oftentimes a law enforcement officer, and
- 8:24then a criminal defendant. And so you have these elected matishments across the state.
- 8:31Very few of them are attorneys. You don't have to be a licensed
- 8:35attorney to be a magistrate, and so you have fifty different personalities, probably
- 8:41not that many. There's probably more than fifty matterments across the state setting bonds,
- 8:45and it's kind of all over the place. You don't know where you're
- 8:48going to get. But you have some aprile dynamics because the counties there are
- 8:54no county jails anymore. There everything is in the regional jail and run by
- 8:58the state within the camp the master court system. Those inmates they have a
- 9:05daily feel that has to be paid by the counties. So you got the
- 9:07dynamic of the counties simply not having enough money to pay the reason to state
- 9:11back for housing inmates. So you have financial factors that really shouldn't be in
- 9:20play and whether a person's bond is high or low. But that's the reality
- 9:24that we're living in right now because of overcrowding and financial She's really with a
- 9:28lot of the rural can I needs to think for having trouble? Tom is
- 9:33it? Tom Peyton's with the Payton Law firm in Nitro on the phone with
- 9:37us this morning on the weekly appearance here on five ad WCHS. We're talking
- 9:41about bond and the legislature kicking that around. So bonds, so there's a
- 9:46lot of freedom there from magistrates. Would it help at all to mandate what
- 9:50bonds should be for certain crimes? Is that you know? To be more
- 9:54specific, Yeah, generally I've removing discretion from a judicial officer on things like
- 10:03bond. I generally think is not a good thing because you know, theoretically
- 10:07the measures there is seeing the person. I should have some discretion. But
- 10:13I think that's what's been in some of the bills is if you have some
- 10:16you know, certain non violent offenses, misdemeanors, misdemeanor in Westginia just means
- 10:22it's a crime that you can never get more than one year in jail.
- 10:26Those are misdemeans in West Ruinias. So technically a speeding citation would be a
- 10:33misdemeter. Now it's probably not going to go on your criminal record. Still
- 10:35a misdemeanor, so and that's not jailable, So you're not going to bond
- 10:39for a speeding citation word in airic. But yes, they some of the
- 10:46bills introduced, which I've read, the one from the special session the summer.
- 10:50It was in artfully drafted, i would say, and then it didn't
- 10:54get any traction. But there were some specific enumerated crimes where that would mandate,
- 11:00for example, a personal recognizance bond to that way we can get folks
- 11:03out of the jail system. But there was, oh, I think there
- 11:07were quite a few. It's five hundred was the number I heard in the
- 11:13committee meeting of folks that have been sitting in jail for significant time and they
- 11:18haven't had their trial yet. And by the time they have a trial on
- 11:20some of these misdemeanors, they've already certain you get credit for all the time
- 11:24you're incarcerated. If you alsom get convicted so that they get to trial in
- 11:28a maister court. They've already served most, if not all, of their
- 11:33sentence, and that's that really shouldn't happen. You should certainly have a trial
- 11:39on a misdemeanor promptly if you're still in jail. That's yeah, they're going
- 11:45to start mandating i'd say, maisterans to release on personal recognizance based on particular
- 11:52offenses. As you're referenced, nonviolent offenses with folks with little or no criminal
- 11:58records, I think is what they were looking at. Is it more difficult
- 12:01toime to look at because on some things you can see, well what other
- 12:03o what are other states doing? But you know that can just take example
- 12:09one of the neighbors, you know, the state of Pennsylvania. They do
- 12:11things so much differently. Maybe it's hard to draw and how they do these
- 12:13things. Yeah, they every state is different. And then Western is somewhat
- 12:20unique. And you know, we have misdemeanors and felonies and that's kind of
- 12:24how you categorize all of the criminal statute in West Virginia. Felonies being the
- 12:28fans that can carry more than one year in jail. Or or imprison present
- 12:35rather than a regional jail, and then misdemeanor is being a year or less.
- 12:39And I think mostis are probably you know, you have a right to
- 12:45to bail in every constitutionally, and in West Virginia that's everybody has a right
- 12:52to have a bail set. It doesn't mean it will be reasonable in the
- 12:56defendant's mind, with the exception of capital offenses. So I've had managements set
- 13:01bond and murder cases and then some just deferred. They well, I can't
- 13:07set bond in a murder case because it's a capital offense and it has to
- 13:09go up to the to the circuit judge and be set. But other than
- 13:13capital offenses like murder, than everybody's intending to some bond the man. I
- 13:16think that's probably the uniform and in most states. But you know, the
- 13:20funding mechanisms are certainly different in each state, and so Pennsylvania may have a
- 13:26better funding mechanism to take some burden off some of the more royal counties.
- 13:31I think in West Virginia was maybe Webster County in the last few years.
- 13:37I mean, they're jail their regional jail build that they owed was just astronomic
- 13:41and I'm not sure if the state came in and helped. I haven't heard
- 13:43much news on that front lately. But but you can't stop. I mean,
- 13:50it's just one. You have to have the certain certain convictions of defendants
- 13:56that this have there need to go to jail and say you have to keep
- 14:00partstrating individuals. And the problem with some of these real kind is they just
- 14:03there's no funding mechanism to pay for it anywhere. So so you think the
- 14:09result time, You think the result will be that there will be more that
- 14:13maybe. I mean, who knows what the legacy is going to do,
- 14:15but they may come out of here with more PR, more crimes with PR.
- 14:18I think they're going to refine the bill that they introduced this past summer
- 14:22and get something. But it's difficult, you know, because they are elected
- 14:28officials and nobody wants to you certainly don't want to be quite soft on crime
- 14:37and have a political opponent attack you for that purpose. So it's a bit
- 14:41of a sense of this year from a political standpoint. But yeah, I
- 14:43think they're gonna they're gonna have to do something because you can't get well trained.
- 14:50You can't go from not having enough personnel to have well trained, experienced
- 14:54personnel instantaneously by increasing salaries and benefits. So they're going to have to get
- 14:58some folks out of the bail. And I'd say in this regular session we'll
- 15:01see another bill introduced, its probably better crafted, and then we'll see if
- 15:07they can get through the legislature. That's you can have the greatest still in
- 15:11the world and it may not go anywhere. Okay, Tom Payton's with this
- 15:16Payton Law Firm in Nitro calling in on the phone this morning. Good to
- 15:20talk to Tom and we'll take our one and only break. They be back
- 15:24with Tom in just a moment. This is five eight whs. The voice
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- 16:57Veris in May twenty twenty three. What are the power of Payton on your
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- 17:15Count on us. What's the power of patents on your side? The power
- 17:25of baby? It's a thirty eight on five ad W c HS, the
- 17:32Voice of Charleston. Thanks for joining us on this Thursday morning on our Thursday
- 17:36morning institution on five ad W c HS is the Payton Law firm in Nitro.
- 17:41Tom Peyton is on the phone this week and good to be joining Tom
- 17:45today. And Tom, you guys you know, busy as always there in
- 17:51Nitro. And uh what's uh you know your Yeah, we'll talk about Yeah,
- 17:56we do a little bit ahead up into the bail thing. We do
- 17:57do some criminal defense, but we don't do a whole lot. Certainly to
- 18:00have a coom on a problem andst in talking to us about it, will
- 18:04be glad to speak with you. We do do them, but we're fairly
- 18:10selective in the cases we take. But primarily what we do is civil litigation
- 18:15cases folks have been hurting OnMobile accidents, falls, really any kind of dispute
- 18:22rising out of financial loss or a physical loss where you might be trying to
- 18:26deal with an insurance company, I'm a bill insurance, homeowners insurance, maybe
- 18:32a bigger business. You feel like you've been harmed in some way and it's
- 18:37the thought of your own that's primarily what we do. If we try lawyers
- 18:40who like to try cases, however, because we we like to help people
- 18:45and kind of think that's what lawyers should be. We do deeds, wills,
- 18:49just crey, disability, a little bit of workers compensation, the kind
- 18:52of thing that everyday people need help with. So if you have any issue
- 18:57from a legal standpoint, I feel free to give us a call at the
- 19:02office, where you can send us an email through our website at Peyton Law
- 19:04Firm dot com. That's an excellent way to get some basic information, and
- 19:10we don't if it's a initial call or initial consultation and person we've never charged
- 19:15a fee no matter what the issue is initially, if you want to engage
- 19:19us more formerly, then we'll talk about a fee at that point. And
- 19:23if you have an injury, you're fighting an insurance. Come think most of
- 19:26those cases that we candle, it's uh, no fee unless week recover,
- 19:30so there's really no financial risk on the on the client in those cases.
- 19:36Yeah, they want to give a shout out to Gret. Remember Greg last
- 19:38week got the ticket to the WU the game, Yeah, whichually he got
- 19:45to see maybe one for the longest games in history. Turned out well.
- 19:48But Greg brought the staff when it came to the tickets about the staff two
- 19:53dozen Krispy Kreme donuts from so I wanted to give Greg a shout out in
- 19:59the staff. We appreciated that you can find get the tickets, so they
- 20:03were they were tickled about that. So Greg's out there. Thanks from all
- 20:07of our staff of Pitton Law offer. All right, thank you Greg,
- 20:10guy. Tom. I wanted to you know, I've heard you say this
- 20:12several times that you know you might be in a wreck, and at first
- 20:17you may not think you're injured, right, And it's always you know,
- 20:22when it's most important familiar with traffic crash reports in western New Year. But
- 20:26there's a law enforcement officer investigating Texa box and it's no injury, possible injury,
- 20:34I deltating injury and then of course passed away. I would say that
- 20:41eighty percent of the cases that we see where folks haven't an injury from an
- 20:48honor bla extent, the officer has marked no injury on the report. And
- 20:55that's I think it's because you know when you're getting if you've been in a
- 20:59crash, you know your adrenaline's running and to Sometimes you'll have injuries that when
- 21:06you don't feel at the time. Well, there's also injuries. Just think
- 21:10about when you work out at the gym or do something extremely list you don't
- 21:14get sort of the same day, you get sort of the next day or
- 21:17two days later. We will see a lot of that. When the folks
- 21:19have whip whip last type of injuries, they don't feel it, come on
- 21:23for a few days and suddenly doesn't mean they didn't have an injury. And
- 21:27there's no black and white timeline, you know, for how soon you have
- 21:30to report an issue to an insurance company. That kind of things. If
- 21:34you have some delay and treatment for example, or your symptoms are delayed.
- 21:41That's not an impediment to a claim, but certainly the way in which you
- 21:47talk to an insurance adjuster about it can be really important, and they habits.
- 21:52Gathering it the beginning shortly after a crash can be really important. And
- 21:57so if you have on the go accident and you're injured or you have a
- 22:03serious you know a major property to them is lost, and it's a good
- 22:07idea to give us or an email already off the bat. I can usually
- 22:11take ten or fifteen minutes and make sure that while you may not be might
- 22:17not be the type of claim where you would need to hire us. You
- 22:19can kind of give some pointers and make sure in the right direction, have
- 22:22an understanding of how the players fit in the in the in the claim,
- 22:33and we do a lot of that, and then it's it's you know,
- 22:37when you it never hurts the call early. I mean you have to hire
- 22:41us. But that way, if it's something where you get your injury gets
- 22:45worse later and you need to hire us, you haven't made some mistakes that
- 22:48I see sometimes when folks don't insurance companies are the men they have whole teams
- 22:53that are assessing the situation and handling the claim. It's somebody else that caused
- 23:00the accident and it's their insurance company, then you've got to be I would
- 23:04say a little way of what representations are being made to you because they are
- 23:08not your insurance company. And there's some of these insurance companies are so large
- 23:12that I'm oftentimes seeing you know, person and person be will have the same
- 23:18automabile insurance company, and that's not unusual, but to avoid compact, they
- 23:23would really assigned two different adjusters. But you just have to be careful and
- 23:26what type coverages you have. Some folks have automobile coverage, they don't know
- 23:30they have until they call us and then we can help them out to get
- 23:33the benefits. Step there entirely too time in this day and age, there's
- 23:37a lot of people driving without insurance too. So what if it's you know,
- 23:42you get hit, you get in an accident the other side doesn't have
- 23:45and it's something you do with all the time people i other side do not
- 23:48have insurance, what happens then, Yeah, unfortunate to see a lot of
- 23:52that. And you'll see, you know, depends on the insurance carry are
- 23:56you compay an annual premium, a six month premium or a buy month premium
- 24:00for automodo insurance, and so you have a proof of insurance card you see
- 24:06from the other person who calls the accident, right, you go call the
- 24:10insurance company. Oh, they're not insured anymore. Well, they just didn't
- 24:14pay a premium sometime during the coverage period. So the peers they have insurance.
- 24:18When the officer asked for prief of insurance, it's there, but they
- 24:21officer doesn't call it a confirm it exist. So I'm seeing a lot of
- 24:23that, and then I'm seeing people, well just not have insurance at all,
- 24:30or I've actually seen fraudulent registration cards and insurance cards before. But everybody
- 24:37that is minimally responsible list mean it has their automodill insurance has what's called uninsured
- 24:42Motorus coverage. So you can protect yourself from an irresponsible driver by purchasing uninsured
- 24:49motorus coverage. It's required at the minimum level, which means you have to
- 24:55have at least twenty five thousand dollars in coverage for uninsured. That's when a
- 24:59person hits you and have insurance your own interned the company will essentially step in
- 25:03their shoes and compensate you for your injury claim as if it was the other
- 25:10person that caused the accident. Then the other coverage that is my clients something's
- 25:17found out too late that they really needed it as underinsured motorist coverage, and
- 25:21that's where a person that hits you might have the minimum and coverage in musurance
- 25:26would be twenty five thousand dollars, which you might have one hundred thousan dollars
- 25:30in medical bills, you might have one hundred thousand dollars in lost wages.
- 25:33So if somebody only has twenty five thousand dollars in aunobile insurance to help you
- 25:40make up for those losses, yes, you can continue to go after that
- 25:45person personally, but that's usually not a fruitful endeavor. So you protect yourself
- 25:52from the person who doesn't have enough coverage by purchasing your underinsured motors coverage for
- 25:57yourself and everyone. To go to a local agent, because if you go
- 26:02to a local agent, it's in an office, see a real person.
- 26:06They can explain these coverages to you. A good agent will explain uninsured and
- 26:10underinsured in detail to make sure you understand, underinsured is not required in West
- 26:15Virginia, so it has to be offered by the agent but is not required
- 26:19unlike uninsured motoris coverage. So when I was referencing earlier as I have clients,
- 26:26unfortunately you can't make it retroactive. I've had so many folks that get
- 26:30in an accident caused by someone who doesn't have enough insurance, and boy,
- 26:36my folks wish they would have paid that little bit of premium to get some
- 26:38extra underinsured risk coverage. And it's important to have. It's not xpensive,
- 26:45So next time you're renewed out there, you might check your policy and make
- 26:49sure you have underinsured motors coverage. It's just kind of one of those things
- 26:55that you don't need it until you need it, and then you really wish
- 26:57you had it if you get hurt ad and the other person doesn't have enough
- 27:02coverage to protect you. Tom, is it in all your experience in Tom
- 27:06Payton's with us of the patent law firm in Nitro, is it your experience
- 27:10that when when you talk to someone who's been in an accident on the other
- 27:15side, is it does it come into play more that the other side is
- 27:18not insured or the underinsured. You know they're under insured. Well, I
- 27:27would most of its. First of all, to get to underinsured, you
- 27:32have to have a claim that seeds whatever coverage is there and said that problem,
- 27:37I would say it would see. Unfortunately, you really shouldn't have uninsured
- 27:41motorists claims if it was a everyone avided by the law, because everyone's supposed
- 27:48to have automobill insurance. It's mandatory. But you know, you just see
- 27:51awful lot of them a lot of times. You know, folks that have
- 27:57not kept up their auto villain insured rents often times, and the ones that
- 28:04seem to call it accident. So let's say we see more uninsured motorist claims.
- 28:08But again, under if you're only going to come into play if you
- 28:11have a really significant injury or claim, say you just see those is left
- 28:15off less often. But those are the ones that you really need to protect
- 28:19yourself because if you're if you have a good a chiropractor for two months and
- 28:26you have four or five thousand dollars in bills, most likely you know,
- 28:32even the minimum coverage perhaps maybe a little more, will fully compensate you.
- 28:36But if you have a catastrophic injury. Those are the bad ones because if
- 28:41you don't have underinsured motors coverage, you might be the primary way journey for
- 28:45your family and not be able to work again. And if you want to
- 28:49get protection for that, you have to buy your own underinsured motorist coverage,
- 28:53so you don't see those is often probably to answer your question because you have
- 28:57to meet a certain thresholders is how bad you're injured or what type of claim
- 29:03that you have before you get there. But despite not maybe using it as
- 29:07much, I still think it's more important because if you become totally disabled and
- 29:11you don't have a private disability policy, you're going to be applying for SO
- 29:15Security disability, which we handle quite a bit. But you know that's pretty
- 29:22well never going to be a full wageworth replacements. So if the maximum benefits
- 29:27every three grand right now for monthly benefits for SO security, maybe less than
- 29:33that disability. So if you want to get fully compensated to help you and
- 29:38your family out financially, buy under insured motors coverage at a high level,
- 29:42and it's usually relatively inexpensive because it is a supplemental coverage. It doesn't come
- 29:48into play most of the time tom In speaking of that you mentioned, and
- 29:53it's a fifty three on five a WHS the voice of eight fifty eight fifty
- 29:57one. You do do some social security disability. We've talked in the past
- 30:04about kind of how those can get bogged down. Have just during the time
- 30:11it takes. Has that improved in here? Is that still kind of a
- 30:17been slow process, slowly getting better. But they're so when you process.
- 30:22If you believe you have a injury, illness disease is going to prevent you
- 30:26from doing full time work and it's going to last twelve months or longer,
- 30:30you should apply for so security. It's a protective filing. If you get
- 30:33better, you can drop your claim, but you need to file to get
- 30:37in line because the process, unless you've got a clear cut claim, which
- 30:41according to Social Administration, those are extremely rare, You're probably going to wait
- 30:45a couple of years from the time you file your application before you actually get
- 30:49to a hearing level, which is where most of the claims are resolved.
- 30:53It could take longer than two years. So you want to apply right off
- 30:57the bat, and if if you end up getting better or recovering, you
- 31:02just drop your claim. It doesn't cost anything to file, and they're doing
- 31:04them by phone. So it seems that the backlog is starting to get better.
- 31:08I'm getting more hearing set but so security administration is still in pandemic.
- 31:17But I guess you would say, to a certain extent. So a lot
- 31:18of the hearings are still being conducted by phone. We've been demanding some of
- 31:25our hearings take place in person, and it takes a little bit longer,
- 31:27but the value of in person hearings with a judge, for example, in
- 31:33Charleston, West Virginia, as opposed to somebody in Saint Louis, Missouri,
- 31:38because when you do these by phone, it could be anywhere across the country.
- 31:42The judge is said, even never gets to see the person who they're
- 31:47trying to determine whether they're disabled or not. It's a significant, significant hearing
- 31:52because that person may have been waiting two years or more to get to that
- 31:56point, and there is no income from the government. You don't get paid
- 32:04until you win your case. If you win it, and then you do
- 32:06get back pay, but it's just a People that really can't work have no
- 32:12income for that waiting period unless they're lucky enough to have friends or family members
- 32:19that are assisted them, and that's what you see a lot of bankruptcies while
- 32:22they're waiting. You see people having to take high interest loans, live in
- 32:28with friends and family, and borrow money. It's it is a backlog system,
- 32:35I think probably unless you claims are moving a little faster than in some
- 32:38of the more populous areas across the country. But yes, you have to
- 32:43apply for sister usability unless you're it's an obvious case. It sistry administrations.
- 32:50You're going to be waiting two plus here before you see any benefits. So
- 32:53it's folks are hesitant to file for disappointment to understanding. Despite what you hear,
- 33:00I would say most all of my clients would much rather be working than
- 33:04trying to get disability. And if you're a working person that's worked all your
- 33:08life, you don't necessarily want to cross that threshold where you file you declare
- 33:14that you are disabled. But filing early is extremely important. Get your spot
- 33:22in line, and you can always hop out of line with no pedaling.
- 33:27It doesn't cost anything to file writing and those are all contendency few cases as
- 33:32well. You don't pay a fee for US to represent you and assist your
- 33:37disability appeal unless we prevail, and then the government sets the fee and pays
- 33:42the attorney, right and you'll take calls on that obviously, or if people
- 33:45want to drive by and talk about those cases. Sure, yeah. A
- 33:49lot of times if we have an unfortunate case where somebody severely injured, because
- 33:53we do a wide variety of work. For example, if they're driving for
- 33:58work and get and a car rect caused by someone else wanted, they have
- 34:01a worker's compensation planim. We've done a thousand of those over the years,
- 34:06so we are experienced with the workers compensation process. We've then also in addition,
- 34:10if you need the filesistory of disability, then we can handle that.
- 34:14And then we also handle of course your primary autobill claim, where we can
- 34:17steer you through the claim process and advocate for your interests there. So that's
- 34:22one of the benefits I think you see retire on our firm once you get
- 34:27personal attention because I actually do all of the hands on and work myself in
- 34:31cases and parts call and tail this is so and so, and I have
- 34:36a case with you. Well I know because I know what's going on in
- 34:39every one of my cases. They do not get lost in the shuffle,
- 34:44and then we can handle all the different aspects of the claim without having to
- 34:47having to go to two or three different attorneys. Tom Payton and the Payton
- 34:54offers. Riffer's got a couple of minutes left. It's backyard brawl and Saturday
- 34:59time, so you and your dad will not be at the game, right.
- 35:02Oh No, you're gonna make it back. You're gonna make it back,
- 35:05right, So give me a little thumbnail sketch on the prediction I'm returning.
- 35:09Yeah, I think it was good for the Mountaineers. I like the
- 35:13way they came back after the break. I will say that I think this
- 35:15is I think this is Neil Brown's maker break game. I'd say if he
- 35:21loses this game, he will not be the coach next year. If he
- 35:24wins and seven and five, maybe secon and six and be Pitt, He'll
- 35:30probably be okay. But I'm thinking night game, rowdy crowd. I'd say
- 35:37Untaineers about ten, and I'm predicted to beat Pit the season, so I'm
- 35:40sticking with that. It didn't look very impressive last week whilst to Cincinnati,
- 35:45I believe. So it's amazing how long it's been, Tom, It's amazing
- 35:51how long it's been since there's been a true night game in Morgantown. Yeah.
- 35:55Actually, I didn't think about that. I can't remember. This one
- 36:00should be good. I think it's it's probably a sellout. I presume it
- 36:05is, I hope. Yeah. So I'm thinking there's about ten get the
- 36:10win over pit and hopefully we can keep it going from there. All right,
- 36:15Tom, two minutes left here. Give us the low down on how
- 36:19to contact the paytent offer. Sure. Well, we're on the corner of
- 36:22twenty eighth Street and First Avenue in Nitro, which is the main drag off
- 36:27the interstate there in Nitro. We're about a mile now and a half off
- 36:30the interstate, so you can stop buying anytime. We're normally open eight to
- 36:34five during weekdays. You can also give us a call at the office three
- 36:38zero four seven five five five five five six, And maybe the best way
- 36:45would be to go through our website at Peyton Law Firm dot com and there's
- 36:49a tab there to submit an inquiry that does not go to some can service.
- 36:53It actually goes to my email and dad email and then we respond to
- 36:59quarter. We're usually the same day if if you don't get a response just
- 37:02to another email, it could have gotten junk mail. But all those type
- 37:06of initial communications there's no feed. And if we can help you on a
- 37:09phone call, we certainly will. But yeah, all we ask is that
- 37:14we do a good job. We have a particular personal attention to every case
- 37:19and we just ask you to consider us. If you have somebody a friend
- 37:22erground number that's hurt and he's interested in talking to a lawyer. Okay,
- 37:28Tom, have a safe trip back. We'll talk to us. That the
- 37:30Peyton Law Firm providing as Tom said, the number three oh four seven five
- 37:34fifty five fifty six. That's the office in Nitro. Three oh four seven
- 37:38five fifty five fifty six. They're right along the main drag if you're down
- 37:43there the Dairy Queen. They're right down the street from the Dairy Queen.
- 37:45They're in Nitro on the main drag. You'll see a nice building. The
- 37:49Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and Peyton Law Firm dot com. You go as
- 37:54if Tom said, just to send an email, it goes directly to Tom
- 37:58and his fot. So Tom Peyton, thanks for joining us in. We'll
- 38:01talk to him next Thursday. Stay tuned here on five ad w c HS
- 38:06the Voice of Charleston. Coming up next, we'll have a news update from
- 38:08ABC News. Then we'll go to the local news desk, and then Dave
- 38:12Allen is by with five Ady Live Happy Kirchival at ten oh six Morning Here
- 38:16on five ad WCHS, the Voice of Charleston News all day long. Thanks
- 38:22for my producer, Ran Nicholson. Stay tuned. ABC News is next on
- 38:25five ad W CHS. Five ad W c HS A six point five an
- 38:39Charleston one oh four point five Cross Lanes wu VRC Media Station. We're proud
- 38:45to live here too,