Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 10/19/2023 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton
Transcript
- 0:00Our area's most beautiful properties deserve the finest Wilters Meeks Realty Group. We focus
- 0:05on buying and selling residential and commercial properties throughout the Tri State area. Contact
- 0:09Meeks Realty Group online at Meeks dot us or call three oh four four four
- 0:13zero one one zero one. The views and opinions expressed on this program do
- 0:18not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wchs it's employees or WVRC
- 0:24Media. Put the power of maybe on the side. We have the court
- 0:30room experience that you need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight
- 0:37for your rights. When you need action, count on us. Put the
- 0:46power of pasion on your side, the power of paying. It's a twenty
- 0:59three in good Thursday morning to you. This is five eighty WLEUHS the voice
- 1:03of Charleston, Jeff Jenkins with you and Tom Payton to the Peyton Law Firm
- 1:06in Nitro. Here and ready to go like he has every Thursday morning.
- 1:10The number to call three O four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
- 1:14Three oh four three four five fifty eight fifty eight. Any questions about the
- 1:19law. Tom is here, He can handle those morning. Tom what's up
- 1:23all us get in by this morning recovering from the Big West Virginia Derby yesterday.
- 1:30Yeah, how about that? You know Derby? I started watching getting
- 1:33into soccer a little bit when my son did when he was young. And
- 1:36uh, it's like rivalry in close rivalry, right, yes, usually geographically
- 1:44located and you have the big pro teams in England and of course they're I
- 1:49don't know how many teams are in London, I mean multiple, so you
- 1:53have teams that might be their stadiums are only miles away from each other,
- 1:57and it's the Derby. But yeah, I think they were ranked five coming
- 2:01into the soccer game last night played in Morgantown Marshall was ranked one. Hadn't
- 2:07lost or drawn a game yet. They hadn't tied or lost a game yet
- 2:09this season, which is that can't in soccer. I don't know how many
- 2:14regular season games there are, probably twenty or something, but you're not going
- 2:20to stay undefeated and untied the whole way through. And it came to fruition
- 2:23last night, a good game, packed house that had been listed as a
- 2:28sellout in Morgantown for like a month or something, and three thousand some people
- 2:34attended, which is great. The largest crowd to watch a men's soccer game.
- 2:38Women might have had a bigger crowd before. I'm not sure they played
- 2:43some NCAA tournament games there, I believe. But good game, really good.
- 2:46I mean, I'm into soccer, so if you watch a one zero
- 2:51game or zero zero is even boring for me. But sometimes you have games
- 2:54like that. But last night was good because folks that aren't necessarily soccer enthusiasts
- 2:59but two would have seen a lot of action. So it was and I
- 3:04missed some of it. I was actually playing old man's soccer last night.
- 3:07But yeah, W pulled away with the window five to two, h five
- 3:13goals totals scored in the first half. It was three to two at halftime,
- 3:15and then WU got a couple of goals. But and both teams are
- 3:20really good and they play you know, I'm not sure about W's roster.
- 3:23I would say it's very similar, but you know a lot of international players
- 3:29which play, in my opinion, usually a little different style game, really
- 3:31good footwork, skill work. It's funny Marshall's played Indiana University a couple of
- 3:37times. Well, they beat him in the National championship game and twenty twenty
- 3:40one and then last year were eliminated by Indiana by one goal I think in
- 3:46a game. But Indiana has a I mean, they're probably one of them
- 3:50more heralded. They have got a lot of history, won some more than
- 3:53one, multiple national titles in soccer in soccer, and they have a different
- 3:57I mean, they only had one or two international players starting for their team.
- 4:00They just play a different style of game. But Marshall W's styles are
- 4:04fun to watch, say I had to find it was like a little more
- 4:08flair to their game, and so it's interesting to watch those really skilled players
- 4:12play and cocause Marshall got caught last night. Just the goals I saw by
- 4:15West Virginia, just a lot of defensive lapses on Marshall's part. Actually W
- 4:19could have had more goals. Marshall's defense getting out of position, things that
- 4:25maybe they've gotten by with some other teams but didn't get by with last night.
- 4:29So W got them. And a lot of people don't know. They
- 4:32only play one time during the regular season, but they're in the same conference
- 4:35because Big twelve doesn't have men's soccer and actually SEC doesn't have men's soccer,
- 4:42so UK is also in the Sun Belt Conference, usually a pretty good team
- 4:48for soccer. So but there's so many teams in the Sun Belt Conference that
- 4:51you only play your other conference teams one time. So there won't be a
- 4:58return game to Marshall Fors like you see in basketball, but they could play
- 5:01again because there's a conference tournament, right. So that's the way soccer is
- 5:05similar to basketball, and that I believe if you win your conference tournament,
- 5:10you get an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and then hopefully knock on wood.
- 5:15Both w and Marshall won't won't need that. They've both been highly ranked,
- 5:18but you know that can one game is important in soccer, and if
- 5:23you lose three or four in a row, right, yeah, you got
- 5:26they could have some problems. So they got to keep it rolling and keep
- 5:28playing well. Marshall doesn't have to win all the rest of their games like
- 5:31they did their first ten or eleven twelve games. But hopefully they'll both make
- 5:35the NCAA tournament. I'd like to see them meet again in the conference tournament.
- 5:39That would be interesting. What you noticed from last night and Tom Payton's
- 5:42with us A Peyton Long firm a Nitro number to call any questions about the
- 5:45law. Three oh four three four five fifty fifty. Just kind of the
- 5:47emotion of soccer. Right, there is one play that that you know,
- 5:53it's physical, right, so there is a physical kind of alter kate,
- 5:56you know, you know, kind of a physical endgame altercation, like right
- 5:59next to where a lot of fans were like, you know, the fans
- 6:01are right on topic. Fans are right on topic. It's crazy. Soccer
- 6:06is an interesting sport. It's one of those if you know me having played
- 6:11it for a number of years and into a little more, I mean I'll
- 6:13kind of watch the individual battles, so I enjoy a game when even when
- 6:15it's you don't get a lot of goals, but to have that many goals
- 6:19in that big game was really will help the game. I think the game
- 6:24of soccer in West Virginia and should have been exciting even for those who it's
- 6:28not that hard to I mean, there's there's there's various minute rules about handballs,
- 6:32et cetera. But basically this team's trying to kick it in that goal
- 6:35and that team's trying to stop them from doing it, and there are no
- 6:38timeouts, and you play all the way through unless somebody gets hurt, and
- 6:42that's it. You don't really need to know much more than that, can't
- 6:44touch it with your hands unless you're the goalie, and that's it. So
- 6:47you got off side, and are the things that are more complicated, but
- 6:49you don't really need to know those rules to enjoy watching soccer matches like we
- 6:53saw last night. Tom's here three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
- 6:58three or four three four five fifty. We've got some legal things that are
- 7:01happening. Brad mclaheney posted a story at our website wv metronews dot com of
- 7:06emotion coming from attorneys representing the governor in chief of Staff Brian Abraham in connecting
- 7:12with this class action lawsuit about conditions in the jails and prisons and they do
- 7:17not want to be deposed. Yeah. So we've seen some of this on
- 7:20the federal level with all the Trump cases that are going on, and so
- 7:24of course not surprising that the governor and his chief of staff don't want to
- 7:31be deposed, and not surprising they would foul a motion trying to stop it.
- 7:35I think when I've read in WV Metro News articles that my inclination is
- 7:43the judge's going to make him sit for a deposition because there are already some
- 7:47other witnesses from the government that say, make Governor Justice appear to have some
- 7:56factual information that will be useful to the plaintiff in that case. And it
- 8:01doesn't take much to bed I mean, you can take a deposition normally of
- 8:05any witness you want, as long as it's not I mean, even if
- 8:09they you're just trying to see if they if they know something, I mean
- 8:13they might be they might not know anything. You're still allowed to take their
- 8:15deposition, which a deposition is where they're held into uh, they can be
- 8:18subpoenaed, which is what's happened here into usually a lawyer's office when the lawyers
- 8:24using a party of the case and the courtporters there. They're placed under oath.
- 8:26There's no judge there monitoring the questions. So it's it's pretty the rules
- 8:31are pretty liberal and what you can ask and they're really liberal on who you
- 8:37can subpoena to make testify the deposition. So I think you know under and
- 8:43what I think will happen here is there'll be some parameters set on this deposition,
- 8:48probably because obviously, I mean everyday depositions with normal private citizens, you
- 8:54really can get into a lot of areas that it's hard to see how they
- 9:01have any direct connection to the case. But a deposition is an investigative til
- 9:05you ask questions there that you couldn't ask in front of a jury that wouldn't
- 9:09be relevant or wouldn't be admissible for a jury to hear because of various rules
- 9:16of evidence. But you can still ask them at these depositions. So I
- 9:18think what will happen is is there'll be some parameters set for these depositions,
- 9:24the judge will make them take them, but before they get in there,
- 9:26they'll already be some kind of some governing rules on areas that can be covered,
- 9:31and maybe even the amount of time the deposition can take something like that.
- 9:35But I don't foresee a judge allowed, you know, entering in order
- 9:43that prevents the depositions from being taken. I just don't see that happening in
- 9:48this case. I don't see anything in the pleadings that lead me to believe
- 9:50that Governor Justice is going to win that argument. But at the same time,
- 9:54they've taken the position of no deposition, I think somewhere in between is
- 9:58what's going to end up. So is that point are the strategy of the
- 10:01justice attorneys? I mean in their mind, are they telling their client,
- 10:05we're going to get you out of this deposition, or we're going to win
- 10:07this motion to prevent you having your deposition taken. I don't know what they're
- 10:11telling Governor Justice, and I don't know exactly what's in their mind, But
- 10:16to take that position that it shouldn't be taking it all starts some way up
- 10:22here, and it gives them some room to negotiate down for some parameters if
- 10:26because ultimately that's probably what's going to happen anyway, although the judge could just
- 10:33say no, take a deposition like anybody else. If you think it's going
- 10:35too long or the questions are way out of bounds, then we'll address it
- 10:39at the time that they may very well happen. And then so it's a
- 10:45tool by the plaintiffs in this, you know, to try to find out
- 10:48to discover information the facts about the case. And I think one of the
- 10:52things that had been argued by the plaintiff is that well we've got other I
- 10:56think it was Jeff Sandy, the former Homeland Security secretary. He had and
- 11:03I don't know if this is true. It's represented by the plane of Slaurer.
- 11:05There might be some deposition testimony from mister Sandy, but since the implication
- 11:11as he was informing the governor's office, we need these funds, here's the
- 11:13problem. Something like that maybe didn't get responses that he liked from the governor's
- 11:20office. Some of that effect so implicates some responsibility for the alleged bad conduct
- 11:26for the on the governor's office. So you think, well, let's ask
- 11:28the governor and his chief of staff makes perfect sense. So I think,
- 11:35yeah, and they're just going to try and figure out what he's got to
- 11:37say and then they can use it in the case, or they can at
- 11:39least preserve the testimony. Yeah, okay, so we'll see what happens there.
- 11:41You can read that story wv Metronews dot com. Tom Payton's with us
- 11:46with the Peyton Law Firm and Nitro lines are opening questions about the law and
- 11:50we'll be back in just a moment, So stay tuned. Three oh four,
- 11:52three four five fifty eight fifty eight Three oh four, three four five
- 11:56fifty eight fifty eight. This is five eighty WCHS elevators. You take them
- 12:01for granted until they let you down. If you're working to maintain a cellar
- 12:05reputation, then let me introduce you to DC Elevator. We want to work
- 12:07with you to make sure your people get where they are going. What could
- 12:11be better than a new company coming to the area and already having forty five
- 12:16years of experience. DC Elevators bring the new culture of elevator maintenance, repairs,
- 12:20modernization and installation to West Virginia. Don't leave your people hanging for a
- 12:24free consultation called DC Elevator at three zero four three four five seven two two
- 12:30two. Right, it's super Stark Battery Month at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Get
- 12:37up to a twenty five dollars gift guard after rebate with the purchase of select
- 12:39Superstark batteries. Our professional parts people will test your old battery for free and
- 12:45recommend the right battery for your vehicle for power performance and reliability. Choose super
- 12:50Stark Batteries Hodly at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Oh Oh Auto Parts, YEA.
- 13:03Put the power of Peyton on your side. We have the court room experience
- 13:09that you need. We never give up. We're prepared to fight for your
- 13:15rides. When you need action, count on us. Put the power of
- 13:24Payton on your side, the power of page. It's eight thirty seven on
- 13:35this Thursday morning. Jeff Jenkins with Tom Peyton and the Peyton Law Firm and
- 13:39Nitro give us a calling questions about the law three h four three four five
- 13:43fifty eight fifty eight. Three or four three four five fifty eight fifty neither
- 13:46got a question about a property dispute or about a will or been injured in
- 13:50an automobile accident. Tom can take that question. Three or four three four
- 13:54five fifty eight fifty eight. Those are the type of things we handle over
- 13:56absolutely. We can answer those questions, no problem. Hey, before I
- 14:00forget one of the other reasons people tune in sometimes us. We've got a
- 14:05free giveaway at your giveaway and we'll have a last time. Nobody got my
- 14:11trivia question right, I'll try and throw a little softball out there this time
- 14:13we'll see it. Look, here's what we're getting into basketball season. So
- 14:16we actually just got our hard copy season tickets in the mail this week,
- 14:22and we can't go to the exhibition game, but it's played like a regular
- 14:28game. And so WVU is playing George Mason twenty seventh next Friday at seven
- 14:35pm. So we have parking pass first of all, so you can park
- 14:41in the white lot right next to the coliseum. We have four tickets.
- 14:46There are two and two, so you'd have to if you have little small
- 14:50children or something, you need to split them up with an adult by two
- 14:52in one location, which is actually technically floor seats right at the end of
- 14:56the visitors bench. So those are really cool because you're st and down.
- 15:00If you watch close enough on the TV games, you can see you guys.
- 15:01Yeah, that's right. And then the other two are third row,
- 15:09but they're up on the regular seats. They're actually just kind of behind the
- 15:11ones that are on the court. But they're really good ticket. It's a
- 15:15good place to watch a game. So if anybody wants to go to that
- 15:18game, you can get the trivia question here. And this kind of dovetails
- 15:22in I talked about last week. The Supreme Court came to Putnam County this
- 15:26week. Yeah, who's day. I saw a photo of you on the
- 15:28okay, good well, WV Courts gallery. They didn't cut me out there.
- 15:33You're there, right there on the front road. That's right, we
- 15:35were there. I helped, you know, as I talked about before,
- 15:37we had all four high schools go in and watch all the seniors I think
- 15:41that wanted to attend, and so I was helping the pokey kids get ready
- 15:43so they would understand what's going on. Went really well. Students were well
- 15:46behaved. Had they got to ask the lawyers that did the arguing some questions
- 15:50afterward, and at least in my session, all the kids had quite a
- 15:56few good questions. Lawyers did a good job. It's quite a monumental task
- 16:00because and chief well, and so they the staff has to basically come and
- 16:07set up a portable. You know, you got security you got to have.
- 16:10It's got to be videos, it be recorded, and all this stuff.
- 16:12So it's kind of neat to have all that set up in the auditorium
- 16:17of the Buffalo High School. But so let me get into the tribute question.
- 16:21So who are the current five West Virginia Supreme Court justices that heard the
- 16:27cases in Buffalo on Tuesday. And we'll put a second part to it to
- 16:33make a little bit more difficult, which if any of the justices were initially
- 16:37appointed to the court as opposed to elected to the court, and doesn't mean
- 16:41they didn't win elections later. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, all
- 16:45right, how about that? Yeah yeah. They only had to answer one
- 16:47of the second part, or the you gotta get it all right, you
- 16:51got to name the five and then name which ones if any were appointed when
- 16:55they initially got on the court versus being elected their elected position as there are
- 17:00twelve year terms, but vacancy then the governor appoints. And so how about
- 17:06that two part question. Okay, we're going to take the answers here.
- 17:08Sure if we get some call. If not, well, all right to
- 17:11do something else with it. Okay, three or four three four, we'll
- 17:15get some calls on yeah, three or four three four five fifty eight fifty
- 17:18eight three or four three four five fifty eight fift So named the five members
- 17:22of the West Virginia State Supreme Court or it's called the Supreme Court of Appeals.
- 17:27And then the second part of the question, so name there's five,
- 17:30and then if there were any that were appointed and was elected when they initially
- 17:36got court. Right, right, that's pretty googleable, So call it.
- 17:40Yeah, that's what I say. It's interesting. We got kind of moving
- 17:42off that topic till we get a call on the federal level. These Trump
- 17:48cases, they're hard to keep track of, and of course you got politics
- 17:49involved, and I'm not really getting into that, but it's really going to
- 17:52be interesting to see because this is going to be pressed probably the US Supreme
- 17:57Court, because this interesting dynamic between the First Amendments and then the justice system
- 18:06and the in the courts trying to maintain a fair trial with h Trump consistently
- 18:12what he can say, yeah, what he can say and can't say.
- 18:15And it's you know, it's tightrope there because you you have to be able
- 18:19to criticize the government. That's the whole core of the First Amendment. But
- 18:25at the same time, you know, can you and this is not going
- 18:29to be direct quotes, but you know, can you call it call out
- 18:32a law clerk or something that works for a federal judge and and and basically
- 18:37name call them and things like that and and impugne them and and so there's
- 18:41certainly and then you've got you know, issues about trying to get pick a
- 18:47jury and fair trials and and if you've got folks, you know, bad
- 18:52mouthing potential witnesses in a public when they have maybe millions of followers on social
- 18:57media, and said, that's thing we haven't really dealt with in the past,
- 19:02because I mean, unless you do an interview, you know, a
- 19:07politician's not going to get that type platform and they're not going to pay for
- 19:11a commercial ordinarily too. You know, go call somebody deranged, you know,
- 19:18but you can if you just spend five minutes typing something into true social
- 19:23or X or whatever Trump is using at this point. So that'll be interesting
- 19:27to see how that comes down. Balanced a tough, tough call. I
- 19:33mean, I think there's a judge what the New York maybe or two of
- 19:37them have assually quot gag orders limiting what can be said or done, and
- 19:41the most recent one was this week or late last week, and that she
- 19:45did the judge did a real good job of being really careful how she worded
- 19:52the limiting order. And we'll but I mean, Trump hasn't needed any any
- 19:59of these warnings, so we'll see. You know, you got then you
- 20:00got that dynamic. If he won't, if he violates what the terms of
- 20:04her gag order, then what happens to them? He's going to get contempt
- 20:07contempt which can then result in find posting a bond to ensure compliance or being
- 20:14incarcerated until you you know, conferred yourself with contempt and stop behaving that way.
- 20:19So we'll see. My incnnation is he'll probably ratchet back. But you
- 20:26know Trump's going to push the line. So be wishing to see what he
- 20:29posts now if the gag order is in place, or two of them,
- 20:33and how close he'll come to that line and risk financial or whereas freedom temporarily
- 20:41if he violates the order blatantly. Yeah, three or four three four five
- 20:45fifty eight fifty eight three or four three four five fifty fifty Once again our
- 20:49trivia question for four basketball tickets and a parking pass at the coliseum for a
- 20:56week from tomorrow night. It's an exhibition game, but it's it's basically a
- 20:59game. It's yeah, George the regular record w W and George Mason and
- 21:06uh, so we've got uh And so the trigger question is named the five
- 21:10members of the West Virginia Supreme Court and and say if there's any that have
- 21:15been appointed they may have been elected since then, but are there any of
- 21:19that have been appointed to the Court by the governor first. That's right,
- 21:22right, Okay, all right, we're gonna go to the lies. Dwayne.
- 21:26Is only you've got to answer to the trivia question or a basic question.
- 21:29Duwayne, I believe I have an answer to the trivia question. Okay,
- 21:33here we go. The five Supreme Court judges and best Walker judge everyone's
- 21:41first name, Judge Hutchinson, Sude, Woots and Fun and also Tim Armstead.
- 21:48It's right, all right. Do you know how many of them or
- 21:52any of them that were appointed before they were elected? That's that's the tougher
- 21:56part. I remember him Armstead was appointed, and who's an outstanding individual,
- 22:04by the way, just want to throw that out there. And uh,
- 22:10I believe Hutchinson and Fun from what I can tell, we're also appointed.
- 22:14I think that's it. I hope those three and no more and no less.
- 22:18Then you got it? Got it, Dwayne? I what should he
- 22:21do? Tom? So? The tickets are at our office when the game
- 22:23obviously isn't until next Friday, so we'll have him out front. You can
- 22:27stop by any time between eight and five and pick them up. Great.
- 22:32That sounds sounds awesome. Thank you, and thank you so enjoy it and
- 22:37I always enjoyed listening. Thanks appreciating having the time. Today. It's an
- 22:41exhibition, but it will be the first time you get to see this most
- 22:45of the Scotshler new interim head coach. All right, we'll see and maybe
- 22:48we'll get what's the Roquez battles the kids last night? Was there a little
- 22:53foreshadowing yesterday by him because there were some comments by Eilert. I mean,
- 22:59they're not getting any tips on but some comments he made at Big twelve media
- 23:04days yesterday, he sounded a little more confident that they might get okay,
- 23:08roccing battle right, rocking battle. Yeah, I couldn't remember his first name.
- 23:12Yeah, yeah, that'll be key or helpful and uh hopefully some very
- 23:17bad luckalness score right, and they really need points, that's right, need
- 23:21some points. We've had some back of buckle on those decisions. But maybe
- 23:25the fact that it's taking a little bit longer is good for us. Yeah,
- 23:27but who can figure out the NC double A? I don't know.
- 23:30I mean all these a lot of these decisions, like whether it's w V
- 23:33or it's in C double A for whatever reason, we don't really I haven't
- 23:37read like these rejection letters to say, do they just have such discretion that
- 23:42they don't really have to even explain much. I wouldn't think so so,
- 23:47but maybe. But I mean, you think you get something in writing,
- 23:48like here's our decision, and then normally there's some kind of administrative appeal process.
- 23:53But I guess that's what we're getting is the final part of that tract.
- 23:57Record hasn't been very good on their bills, and we'll see what.
- 24:02But there's some was the Perez was allowed to play. He's just not on
- 24:07the team anymore, but there was some of these kids in Battle might be
- 24:10in the situation where basically they transferred while the rule essentially indicated they were sure
- 24:15shot to be able to play. And then now the rule was changed somehow
- 24:22by NCAA after the student athlete has changed schools. Now there, I mean,
- 24:26there could be some legal concepts there if somebody took that you know,
- 24:30the coord and so well, you know you can't do the switcher reel on
- 24:33me after I relied upon what the rule was when I changed. You know,
- 24:37there's some legal concepts that might apply there. I don't somebody talks about
- 24:41final lawsuit. Every one of the decisions and it just never came to for
- 24:44a WSH and I can't remember who it was, so it'll be interesting and
- 24:48a nice job to Wayne on that. That's good on five adwhs. Tom
- 24:53Payton's with us of the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro. Yeah, those were
- 24:56the five justices that were there. Sometimes you have just hours played a big
- 25:00part in pulling this together. And it was real cool to have all the
- 25:03justices down in Putnam County with all five actually sitting. Justices were the ones
- 25:08that heard the arguments. We didn't have a they'll plug in a circuit court
- 25:12judge if there's a convict or something, but there were no conflicts in these
- 25:17four cases, and it was too trum two criminal cases to civil cases.
- 25:21It's kind of interesting. The kids got to watch the arguments, and because
- 25:25we'd helped them out beforehand, they knew the background. And then you know,
- 25:27obviously, when you hear arguments at the Supreme Court, you know there's
- 25:30no like Judge Judy where they ruined one way or the other right there,
- 25:34and you can't tell which way they're going to rule right for sure. Now
- 25:38you can get a tone. But I've had cases at the Supreme Court where
- 25:44where I was getting peppered with questions and critique from one of the justices.
- 25:48Well, then when they come out and issue their written opinion, that's the
- 25:51justice that wrote it, and that's and the opinion was in my client's favor.
- 25:55So he was just probably throwing questions at me that he might be getting
- 26:00from his fellow justice about why he has the opinion he held, and then
- 26:03it you know, was using me to to to see what I would say
- 26:08to the questions he might be getting as they deliberate on their decision. I
- 26:11talked to Judge Bunn on the phone, yeah, from from Buffalo High School,
- 26:17and she was we always able to talk to her on the phone,
- 26:18and she talked about how you know, she she really enjoys going out and
- 26:25she thinks it has a lot Also she mentioned like respect for government, respect
- 26:27for the process right, and how how is you going to garner that respect?
- 26:33You know, unless these kids really know how it works. That's right,
- 26:34That's that's really important. And you know the fact of the matter is
- 26:37all these are all oral argument before the Supreme Court as far as I know,
- 26:42is public. I mean, anybody can go. But you know,
- 26:45the you know who what normal people are going to go travel to Charleston and
- 26:49sit to watch oral arguments at the Capitol building. I mean, these kids,
- 26:53probably most of them would never have seen that process at work unless but
- 27:00for this program. So I'm not sure who. Uh I know, Judge
- 27:06Tours uh the Circle, one of the circuit judges in Putnam County kind of
- 27:10pulled it together, I believe. But hopefully we can get the Supreme Court
- 27:12back down there another time because it went really well. All the just the
- 27:15uh Geno's also helped with the food afterwards, so we want to give them
- 27:19a shout out. But uh yeah, and the justice were able to they
- 27:22stayed after the arguments and I ate lunch with the kids and that kind of
- 27:27thing. So it was a really good opportunity to kind of put what happens
- 27:32at the highest levels of government in West Virginia in front of the kids so
- 27:36they can see how it works. And then you know, two of the
- 27:37criminal cases, you know, uh, these are cases that have been going
- 27:41on for quite some time, and you know they were convicted and sent sentenced
- 27:47to prison. So and then but actually I know one of them that that
- 27:51one of the cases I was zeroed in on for the poker students, that
- 27:55person had already discharged their sentence and we're on parole one of the two.
- 28:02And so really this appeal, I think she had discharged her complete sentence.
- 28:06She was off, she was done. So this appeal is just whether she
- 28:10stays convicted of three felonies or not, because she's already served out her sentence.
- 28:15And actually the students asked, where was your client, and this lawyer
- 28:19had never even met the client in person, rested upon the response I heard,
- 28:23and so just didn't do the trial. You had a different lawyer arguing
- 28:27the appeal than actually tried the case. So that was interesting. But yeah,
- 28:33so we'll wait for those decisions to come out. Then we'll be able
- 28:36to get those to the students and have them take a look and see,
- 28:38well, here's how it came out. Now here's the result. And better
- 28:41civil case we had in my group was just a person who was shocked by
- 28:45a hot power line up in Mond County, hurt really bad and in case
- 28:52ended up being dismissed. And then this is the injured party appealing saying we
- 28:57should have had a right toury trial and a lot of the kids are how
- 29:02come I thought you had an absolute right to have a jury trial, which
- 29:06you do in a criminal case generally for some jail time involved. Even if
- 29:10you it looks like a slam dunk for the prosecutor, for example, you
- 29:14still have a right to a jury trial no matter what, and the government
- 29:17has to prove. Now, civil's different. Yes, you can request a
- 29:19jury trial and you will always get a jury trial ultimately unless your evidence is
- 29:26insufficient to get to that point. And that's what the judge found up in
- 29:29Morgantown. Actually, Judge Tucker, I think, had dismissed it, which
- 29:32I think she's retired. Now he goes back, there'll be a different judge
- 29:36hearing it. But that's an interesting one and we'll see all that comes out.
- 29:40So the students are monitoring it and they're into it, and maybe one
- 29:45of the will get in the legal field because we'll see, Yeah, three
- 29:48or four three four five fifty eight fifty eight coupable minutes left with Tom any
- 29:52questions about the law. Three or four, three four, five fifty fifty
- 29:55Another kind of interesting development we had in the legal world here in Kanak County
- 29:59this week. And we know we've done stories you've handled abuse and neglect cases.
- 30:03I mean, it's just to overrun the court system over the last several
- 30:07years because just of all the situation with the drug epidemic and everything, there's
- 30:11a lot of difference, a lot of different neglect of the Department of Health
- 30:18and Human Resources over a number of years and not funding it and not addressing
- 30:22it correctly. Not just the court systems are overwhelmed. They get you know,
- 30:26the court can't. Court only gets the cases that are put before it.
- 30:30I mean, the whole d DHR or CPS system is completely completely overwhelmed.
- 30:34But yet you're referencing the article where Judge Acres was I would say,
- 30:40called the prosecutor'sternally addressing with the Kenaw County Prosecutor why some of the cases hadn't
- 30:44moved along faster, and particularly what I heard from my perspective is that some
- 30:48orders weren't being done as quickly or as they should be, or at all.
- 30:52So when a court makes a ruling from the bench, ultimately they speak
- 30:56to their written orders, so somebody has to type up that order that the
- 30:57judge signs. Usually it's sometimes the judge will do it. My experience with
- 31:03these type cases where the prosecutors representing the Department Health and Human Resources is almost
- 31:07uniformally, the prosecutor drafts these orders and so they'll say when the next hearing
- 31:11is, I'll say what the parties must do. But maybe more importantly,
- 31:14a lot of these cases where kids are removed from the home are subsidized cases.
- 31:18So there's federal benefits and things that come along with those that can help
- 31:22the families that are helping take care of these kids that aren't the abuse abusing
- 31:26parents. And you've got to get certain technical language in those orders. You
- 31:30know, if you haven't done an abuse in the neglect case and you get
- 31:33an order from the prosecutor, if the hearing, you'll be surprised because,
- 31:34well, this has got all this language. The judge didn't say, well,
- 31:37that's just language that we have to put in there, and there's certain
- 31:40findings and things that have to be referenced in order to kick in those benefits.
- 31:44I think that's probably a little bit where judge akers might be coming from,
- 31:47is because some of the placements and some of the benefits for those adults
- 31:52stepping up to help these kids won't go through unless you get these orders entered
- 31:56and unless they have you know, the correct language in them to make sure
- 32:00that you know, when it's simp to get the federal benefits, that box
- 32:04is checked. And so I think that's some of her some of her frustration
- 32:08there. I mean, it was and it was unusual because there was a
- 32:12lower case lead and also just skyrocketed maybe within a year or a matter of
- 32:15months even and and and the prosecutor, you know, he's had trouble with
- 32:20turnover and and and that kind of thing in the office. And so it's
- 32:22it's difficult when you have young lawyers that you know, aren't experienced, especially
- 32:27if the if there's too many cases going with the prosecutor. But and it's
- 32:32tough because because prosecutor has to represent all of those cases. That's right,
- 32:37So the prosecutor normally in a criminal case is representing the kind of the public
- 32:42interest at large. It's been the prosecutor by statute is representing the Department of
- 32:47Health Human Resources in civil abuse and neglect cases where it involves parental rights and
- 32:52so and there's been some case law in this. You know, the prosecutor,
- 32:55uh, you know, discretion they would have in a criminal case,
- 33:00they don't necessarily have the and the abuse and the GLECT case because they have
- 33:02to do what their client directs them to do generally as long as its not
- 33:06unethical or something. So they'll have a DTHR person tell them here, let's
- 33:08take this position on this issue or that issue. So they're they're representing a
- 33:14public entity, but they actually have a person kind of a legal person that
- 33:16is their client. And so then they need to get these orders drafted and
- 33:22get things moving along. And you know DTHR provides the information to the prosecutor
- 33:27then a backlog of getting them moving along for whatever reason. And I think
- 33:31Chuck Miller said that as of last Friday they had like eight hundred and twenty
- 33:37four active abuse in the GLECT cases. That's ridiculously high. I mean,
- 33:44you just not go be able to give them the I mean unless you have
- 33:45increased the budget. I mean, you can get more experienced prosecutors to handle
- 33:50those cases, but you know you're gonna have to address it financially to entice
- 33:53folks to come and do that type work. Tom Payton, Peyton Law Firm
- 33:58and Nitro tell us about the Yeah, so we talked about a lot today.
- 34:01But yes, what we do are kind of bread and butter is civil
- 34:05litigation on the plane of sides. Have you been heard or had a family
- 34:07member heard or hopefully not. But if somebody killed in an accident, any
- 34:13type of accident, and uh, that's the kind of case that we handle
- 34:16when we handle them against insurance companies normally who ensure those type claims, a
- 34:22lot of automobile accidents. But because we're a suburb firm, we're trying to
- 34:25help people. We do a lot of different work as well, kind of
- 34:28like the everyday western you needs done. Small business works, some deeds wills
- 34:31we do so, scured disability, a little bit of criminal defense, not
- 34:37very much family law, but I'll do some of it depending on We're very
- 34:39selective on the cases that we take, but we do some of that.
- 34:43But if you have a legal question, are in a situation where you have
- 34:45a car wreck, you might not need a lawyer, but if you want
- 34:47to make sure that you don't do something wrong or make a misstep, contact
- 34:52us fairly quickly after the accident. Maybe a case where we don't represent you,
- 34:54but we can lead you down the right path. But if you have
- 34:57a really bad injury and you want a law firm that gives you personal attention.
- 35:02We're not the Walmart. We're not the biggest law firm in the in
- 35:05the country. We're not the Walmart law firms, but we'll give you a
- 35:07particular attention, and each case is really important to us, and we know
- 35:12it's really important to you, so we we give a particular attention, and
- 35:15we have funding sources and experience that we think our chances of success are just
- 35:21as good as a big Walmart type law firm. And when you call,
- 35:23we'll actually know who you are and know about your case, and you'll talk
- 35:28to the actual lawyer that will try your case if it gets that far.
- 35:30And the number to call is yeah, three oh four seven, five five
- 35:36five five five six, so three o four seven, munch fives and six
- 35:39ye. And you can get ahold of us through our website Peyton Lawfirm dot
- 35:43com and brand new looking website. That's right. We just revamped the website,
- 35:45so that's good. Still working on it to make it better. But
- 35:47you can go through there and send us an email and that goes right to
- 35:52the lawyer's computers and we try and respond same day or next day. And
- 35:54that's a great way to connect with us because we're running around so often.
- 35:59We play a lot of phone tag, So send email if you have an
- 36:01inquiry, and if we need to talk to you by phone, we'll tell
- 36:04you in the email and we can do that. And of course there's never
- 36:07a charge for what we do, all right, most of them are contingency
- 36:10fee. We don't get paid unless we win. Okay, ABC News is
- 36:13next. This is five eight WCHS.