Latest / Ask the Lawyer / 12/26/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton, Peyton Law Firm

Transcript

12/26/2024 Ask the Lawyer with Tom Peyton, Peyton Law Firm · Ask the Lawyer

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five AD WHS
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it's employees or WVRC Media.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Put the power of Babe on the side. We have
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the court room experience. Such your need, we never give up.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: We're prepared to fight for your rights. When you need action,
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: count on us. What the power of Payton on your side,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the power.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: Of pages and a very pleasant morning to you you're
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: listening to where you can put the power of patent
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: on your side. Merry Christmas. I guess Christmas is over.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Happy New Year. That's the next holiday on the horizon.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: Tom Payton is in the studio with him this morning. This
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: is Delle Cooper. You give us call this morning. Three
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: zero four three four two eight one three one three
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: zero four three four two eight one three one Tom,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: good morning. How you doing this morning?
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: I'm doing great? How you doing?
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Dale man? I can't complain, it's it's uh, you know.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Christmas is behind us now. Had a great time with
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: h with a very's walks of my family over the
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: last several days. And my kid's six, so that's a
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: great age for Christmas.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: It was all about it We had some great saying
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: to gifts when our kids were little.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: One time we had.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: This massive plywood based oh Dinosaur Wonderland dropped off at
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: the wee morning hours before the kids got up in
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: the morning. But those days are done for us around
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: our house for now. Anyway, I even got a twenty
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: two year old and a twenty six year old, so
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: they provide lests and they want things specifically off their lists.
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. My
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: daughter had quite an easy list.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: But it's not nearly as fun, not nearly as fun.
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: But we're lucky, I think, because our family is all
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: the folks have left and kind of then they've come
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: back home. So we have a we have a routine
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: that we've done for years and years where we head
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: to my my mom and sisters to live in Saint Albans.
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: In fact, Mamma's in the house where I grew up
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: in and so we'll go over there for our noon deal.
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: And actually Dad goes up to my sisters and has
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: breakfast in the morning. We don't make it to that
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: early morning one. But then luckily for us, once you
• 2:12
  Speaker 5: get my mom's visit done and uh, my dad, my
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: in laws, my brother in law and I was all
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: live within a quarter mile of each other in Tays Valley,
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: which is odd after going uh Morgantown, Indiana, living in Texas.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: Every raised back, so uh we have that luxury and
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: it makes it easy on us and we get to
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: see everybody. So it's uh, it was a really good
• 2:35
  Speaker 5: holiday for us, and good holiday around the Peyton Law
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: firm too.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: We had we got a call.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, right, well go ahead, good to the Well, yeah,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: we'll continue conversations just a second, but you can join
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: the conversation this morning. Three zero four three four two
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: eight one three one. Bob has done that this morning, Bob,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: Good morning, thanks for calling into the show.
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: Good morning, Bob, Good morning.
• 2:56
  Speaker 6: Tom. I ask your question earning Joe Biden's commuting sentences
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: of people on death row, those two Griggs of the
• 3:13
  Speaker 6: Earth that I think they're on death row in South
• 3:15
  Speaker 6: Carolina somewhere that killed the Marshall Niver.
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah, the Burns girl, yeah, I think her name was
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: Samantha Burns. I saw a news article or two on that,
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: and they've interviewed maybe a family member or.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Two as well.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 3:27
  Speaker 6: My question, my question is when it came to commuting
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: their sentence. Is it possible that they could have bargained
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: with those guys maybe being honorable in saying, we will
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: commute your death sentence if you give us information leading
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: to the discovery of her body and ilogist listen.
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So let's back up a little bit. Just everybody's
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: on the same page. So what you've seen here lately,
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: we saw with Joe Biden. President Biden pardoned his son
• 4:06
  Speaker 5: Hunter Biden. So that means not guilty, can't be prosecuted.
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: It's almost akin to like an expungement, which is where
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: you get your criminal record I guess redacted or kind
• 4:19
  Speaker 5: of off the table as far as your criminal record goes.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: It's as close as you can get to an actual reset. Right,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: that's right.
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: So pardon pardons you're not guilty. Commuting a sentence means
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: that you're still convicted, but at least a portion of
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: your sentence is no longer valid.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: And so.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Joe Biden.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Pardoned quite a few and then granted clemency to others,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: I think, mostly non violent crimes. And then you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: are certain not every crime, even murder, is a felony crime.
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: It has to have some connection to interstate commerce for
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: it to be a federal crime versus you know, within
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: now that's.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: Very liberalized over the years.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think I don't do much criminal defense
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: and that don't do any really in the federal level anymore.
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: But if you have something that involves travel from one
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: state to another, of course, then it can become federal.
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: Abuse of a firearm can be because it's kind of
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: presumed it's been used in interstate commerce at some point.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: What Bob was referencing is there was a case this
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: is probably early two thousands maybe, if I remember correctly,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: really sad two men I think Samantha Burns, and this
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: is my memory may be wrong here, but I believe
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: she either worked or was that Huntington Mall maybe and
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: had left She's probably around college age, and then just disappeared.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: And eventually they solved the crime and convicted these two
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: into two men who had also they were on sort
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: of a spree and I think they'd killed somebody in
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: the state of South care Lina as well ultimately got convicted.
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: But and if I remember correctly, one or two of
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: them also kept kind of feeding information to law enforcement
• 6:09
  Speaker 5: officials about where Samantha Burn's remains were located. They never
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: found her, and I couldn't recall whether they did. I
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: suppose they never found her remains, because that's what Bob
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: was asking about. So would it have been possible. Where
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: did they when we don't know? I would think if
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: that happened and they secured information about where her remains
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: were in exchange for commuting the death sentence, then that
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: would be publicized and we would know about it. So unfortunately,
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: it probably didn't happen. But what President Biden.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Did, and remembering there's only a limited.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: Jurisdiction for federal courts, there was I think forty some
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: inmates on death row under the federal death penalty, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: Joe Biden commuted all but three of those. And I'm
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: not gonna get all three of them right. But it
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: was like the Boston marathon, bomber synagogue and I think
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: outside Pittsburgh, and then a church in Charleston, South Carolina,
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: where it was just like mass killing. Those three are
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: still in death row. The rest had their des sentences commuted,
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: but they're still in prison for life without chance of parole.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: But no, I guess to answer your question, bog went
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: through all that, there wouldn't have been anything wrong with
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: that type of negotiation. If you can negotiate with monster
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: people like I mean, you know, who knows what their
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: attitude is at this point, if that was something they
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: saw as a carrot that could have been used to
• 7:43
  Speaker 5: figure or if they even know where the remains are
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: now with thee some drug binge killing spree or something.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: And I don't remember whether those guys were from West
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: Virginia are just passing through, but it was, yeah, I
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: know over the last I think within the last six
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: seven years, there has been some search for her remains,
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: again based on some information one of those two guys
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: had provided to law enforcement. It didn't come up with
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: any any results.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: So I was reading a It was a separate account
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: of a not a similar situation. It was basically just
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: a search for a body where somebody had been had
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: been murdered and the body was disposed of, and there
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: was kind of this cat and mouse king between the
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: killer and the police and stuff like that. What it
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: ended up was that the guy was stringing along, but
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: he wasn't really stringing along necessarily on purpose. He just
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: he wasn't from the area. And it was a it
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: was a crime of opportunity, and he really didn't just
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: didn't know, you know, he pretended like he knew for
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: the leverage. It's like, oh, I'll tell you where the
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: where you can come, but he actually just never knew
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: it was So you wonder sometimes when when years are
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: removed and if people were just passing through an area anyway,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: did they really even know do they know the names
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: of roads? I mean, how are they gonna go to
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: give you a geographic locations and stuff like that?
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: Very difficult negotiation when you have no I mean, unless
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: I think law enforcement generally try and get, you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: where's some objective evidence that we can see that this
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: is actually has some legs to it and might actually
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: be true or else You just you can't rely on
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: the credibility of people that behave like that and that
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: are incarcerated for the rest of your life, and how
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: they value not being put to death and serving the
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: rest of their life in a prison cell. I don't know,
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: but it happens all the time. I mean, I mean,
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: I'm not a death penalty person. I think it's that
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: gut feeling you have when really heinous crimes are committed
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: that that person should die. I just think that the
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: government has government airs or certainly been innocent people, not
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: guilty people that have been put to death, and there
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: will be as long as there is.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: The death penalty.
• 9:41
  Speaker 5: And just from a personal stand first of all, I
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: don't think it's a I don't think it's a deterrent.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: I don't think people that commit those type crimes are
• 9:49
  Speaker 5: doing any kind of analysis about whether they're going to
• 9:51
  Speaker 5: be in prison or caught even a lot of times
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: versus you know, having to be on death row. Naturally,
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: because it's the most serious penalty there is under the law,
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: appeals take forever. They're extremely expensive, and I think when
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: you get folks that like the two that Bob was
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: calling about, I mean, I don't know what their conditions
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: are and when they're when they're in for life without
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: the chance of parole in the federal prison system, I
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: would hope it's not very amenable and not very good conditions, frankly,
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: and so folks like that, I think we get more
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: value out of a society by keeping them incarcerated and
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: trying to learn. I mean, they're humans. I mean what
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: triggers this type of how does somebody go so wrong
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: that they blow up the tens of innocent people at
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: a Bossom marathon for example. I mean, I just don't
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: think it. Where does it get us by killing that
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: person as a government, And so I just your gut
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: feeling is, yeah, you know, if you see if you've
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: seen a he in this crime or maybe a child
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: victim or something like that, it's like we got a retribution.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: And but I try and look at it more from
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: a policy level and say, is that something that the
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: government should be doing to folks that live here in
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: the United States? And we're you know, most other countries
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: have advanced beyond that, we're really back with some. If
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: you look at the other countries that have any amount
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: of death penalty imposed, it's it's a bad fellows we
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: wouldn't really want to be with, I think for the
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: most part. So we'll see how that develops. I know
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: that it was obviously done because I think President seemed
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: to be President again Trump will you know, that's what
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: he likes, the sound bites and sent to simplify things
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: and kind of feed that those initial urges, and you
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: know he's, well, he would. We'll see what happens with
• 11:57
  Speaker 5: the three that are still on death row if they
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: get pushed through while President Trump is in but they
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: have appeals. Those are relatively new ones in the grand
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: scheme of things. As far as cases, Yeah, I mean,
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: I mean, like the these two guys that Bob called about.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think it happened in the early two thousands,
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: but they weren't captured and convicted immediately, and so they're
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: they're even older than and they still had appeals going.
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: I think that's the only thing that's holding up the
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: death penalty so well.
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but I don't know whether they I doubt they
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: negotiate anything, unfortunately, but they certainly could have tried, and
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: maybe they did. I mean, they've been law enforce has
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: been trying over the years, obviously to get information from
• 12:36
  Speaker 5: these two guys about where her remains are located, and
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: unfortunately it's been hasn't been fruitful.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: And sometimes this goes back into it. And as far
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: as the death penalty goes, my opinion doesn't matter on
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: it at all, but it's from a personal standpoint to me,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: it seems like it's hard to where you have to
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: arbitrarily draw a line somewhere. It's it's hard not to
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: be a hypocrite at some point. It just seems like
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: at some point hypocrisy crosses that line. I mean, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: you're arbitrarily drawn the line on which crimes are the
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: most heinous. I mean, all of them are heinous. So
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know where you would say, well,
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: that wasn't quite a bad enough death.
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: I mean punishment clause that's so that, and then you
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: have to have a proportionate sentence to the crime, and
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: so certain Oh, I'm pretty sure. I mean I haven't
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: gone back and looked at the case, but like, I don't.
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: I think it's very there are very few crimes that
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: will withstand constitutional muster where a murder or a homicide isn't
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: involved in the penalty's death penalty. Like, I don't think
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: you can. I don't believe you can uh send somebody
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: to death penalty for like kidnapping or rape, for example.
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: There's laws on the books to that effect, but I
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: think generally the the decisions a by the US Supreme
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: Court have have forbid bidden that at this point. There
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: might be some there might be some exceptions to that,
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: but that's that's generally. And then you have cruel and
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: unusual punishment, which is how is the does the death occur?
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: And then you have all kinds of controversy they about,
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: you know, injection versus we've had gas chamber or firing
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: squad all that stuff.
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: So not to be too pessimistic about it either, but
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I've seen cases where things like that have been weaponized
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: in cases where maybe somebody wasn't completely innocent or completely
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: guilty of something. Where you have anytime that you have
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: where you're worried about the innocence of somebody, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: you worry about something like that sliding through. And one
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: of the things I've always found fascinating the same thing
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: with defense attorneys is, for example, something like the Innocence Project,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: which you know, you go and you try to find
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: people that are on death row that have been convicted wrongly,
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: and sometimes it gets very it gets very interesting because
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: it could be somebody convicted wrongly of a crime that
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: they're on death row for, but they're actually heinous individuals,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: you know, I mean, they deserve to be in jail,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: they deserve to have punishment, but the thing that they're
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: on death row for ends up not being a lock case,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: or maybe evidence has come up later that shows that
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: they probably weren't guilty of it or something like that.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: That's a real fine line there, because you have somebody
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: that's not guilty of the crime they're own death row for.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: But they are heinous individual otherwise.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Right, And you know, they get the constitutional protection of
• 15:04
  Speaker 5: they have to be charged with a particular crime and
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: the government has to prove each element of that crime
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: beyond a reasonable doubt and that's it. And you know,
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: you've really seen probably something they wouldn't have fathomed in
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: the early eighties even but you get into the mid
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: to late nineties through present, you've got DNA all this
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: DNA evidence that has exonerated quite a few people, but
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: doesn't mean they didn't do something wrong, like you're saying.
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: But and then you have even harder his stomach sometimes
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: for normal citizens and and me, but I'm always I'm
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: usually on the well, I've never been a criminal prosecutor
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: before as a member of the government. But you have
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: what they call the exclusionary rule, which is if under
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: certain circumstances, evidence is gathered or statements are taken in
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: contravention of the let's say, the Fourth Amendment, and it's
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: a result of an unreasonable search and seizure. Then that
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: evidence is excluded from the trial, so a jury would
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: never hear it. And what they call anything that's the
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: quote fruit of the poisonous tree, meaning that was gathered
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: by the government as a direct result of that unlawful
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: search or seizure, is also excluded.
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: So it can you.
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: Know, there is evidence that's gathered in an uncon constitutional
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: manner that is extremely relevant. It might be the most
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: relevant evidence there is, but under the law it can
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: be excluded from evidence. And let's say if a jury
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: would know that evidence, it would be rather clear that
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: that person is guilty, but they're not able to hear it.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: Sometimes it results in just the dismissal of cases because
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: you know, substantial portion of the evidence is inadmissible and
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: the case goes away. And that's a case where a
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: person is acquitted, I mean there's found not guilty, a
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: case dismissed and they committed the crime. But that's the
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: that's the protection and there's a balancing act there. It's
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: meant to deter that's the way in which government officials
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: can be deterred when they're trying to investigate crimes and
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: prosecute individuals from committing unlawful suches and seizures under the constitution.
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: That's that that's a really hard one to stomach, but
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: that's the law right now and what has been for
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: a deck well a century pretty much.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: But that's also the strength of the law that right.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: I mean, you have to make sure that people are
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: treated fairly and seizures are or searchers are done correctly
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: in things like those lines, because if you have what
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: I was alluding to a moment ago, if you have
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: one bad actor in the chain of an investigation who
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: has like a personal vendetta against a person, you can
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: see evidence along the way, not saying that it's a
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: common thing or even how often does it actually happen,
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: I don't know, but it could. And if you don't
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: have all of these barriers in place to make sure
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: evidence is handled correctly, so on and so forth, and.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: It's not often I mean.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: And then you have things where you know confessions to
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: be voluntary, you see some coercion and stuff like that,
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: well maybe that maybe that isn't trustworthy evidence anyway. But
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: if you have, for example, a murder weapon inside of
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: a home and instead of stopping as a law enforcement officer.
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: Maybe you're inexperienced, or you get it excited because you
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: know where this evidence is, and instead of going back
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: to a magistrate and writing out the evidence you have
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: and asking the matter to find a probable cause and
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: issuing a search warrant so you can go look through
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: that house, you just barge in there and grab that
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: gun with bloody fingerprints on it. Well, there's exceptions, but
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: if that was an unconstitutional search. For example, in that case,
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: that gun is indimissible, and anything that arose from it
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: or resulted directly from you finding that gun is also
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: indmissible at trial and it's gone, So.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: That person could be like a serial killer or something.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: It doesn't you find the murder weapon that's tied to
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: all these other ones. But if you found it illegally.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: Generally, you know, I'm pretty confident on this statement that
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: it doesn't really matter. If it's an unconstitutional search, clearly,
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: then it doesn't really matter what the crime is that
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: the defendant is charged with.
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: It can be something as.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: Basic as shoplifting or something as serious as mass murder.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: Now you know, maybe there's other evidence that can link
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: it and the case can continue on. But yeah, that
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: that's not a I mean, it's not a major factor.
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: For sure, it may not in many cases. It's not
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: a factor at all what the defendant is charged with
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: under that scenario. If it's if that evidence, the key
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: evidence was seized illegally by violating somebody's constitutional rights, now
• 19:47
  Speaker 5: there's that doesn't happen a lot.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: You know, I've had tens of tens of cases over
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: the years where I've done criminal defense work trying to
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: have evidence excluded against my client. It's, uh, most of
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: the time it gets in one way or another into
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: evidence that is, but uh.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Sometimes not.
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: And and you know, and there's there's there's rights to
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: confront witnesses. So if a witness it can't be there
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: in person, for example, then uh, there's very few exceptions
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: to their ability to a prosecutor's ability to give their
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: statement to a jury for example in here, and so
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: all those things are protections you have as a criminal defense.
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: They're important.
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: But when you look back at them, like it would
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: if you did a poll on the scenario we just
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: went through, like does the does the public believe that
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: that person that that evidence should be excluded even if
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: they committed some of the worst of Trump, maybe killed
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: a child or something. Uh, and then knowing that when
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: that's yes, that should be excluded because that was an
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: unlawful search. Well, but guess what happens then that person walks,
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: you know, I think you would see, uh, most people
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: would not.
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: Agree with that in general public.
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: But this is a policy that's been in place for
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: I think nineteen fifty or something like that, the exclusionary rule.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: So that's how it works.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's we have a question before we go to
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: the break. We've got a text line question, and the
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: text line numbers threes are four, nine, three, five, five,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: zero or eight. If you like the text in a
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: question to Tom, you can also call it in today
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: if you have a question. Threes are A four, three, four,
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: two eight, one three one, three, four, two eight one
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: three one From the three zer A four, five, three nine.
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: What is the likelihood of a successful overturn of Biden's
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: recent pardons due to his mental acuity?
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah? I think zero. Probably.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Whatever you think of the president and this president in
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: order the previous one or anybody else where people talk
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: about their mental derangement or their problems, those are media diagnosis.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's no medical diagnosis out there for it.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, if he was deemed.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, this is not going to happen and it's
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: not reality, so it's not going to be challenged. But
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: I guess if he was deemed incompetent retroactively somehow, then
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: maybe all of his actions could be set aside or something.
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: But I think they're I've never seen like a I'm
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: not heard of a subsequent administration trying to reverse I
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: don't think you can remember.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: It was just like the previous administration when Trump was
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: in before and when everybody called him crazy and that
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: he was insane and had to mention stuff, and the
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: same thing with Biden. The media doesn't prove somebody's insane.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You can't. You can't take neither the news that you
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: watch in the afternoon be like, oh well that's the proof.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Now what.
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: We've made some progress in West Virginia lately on if
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: you do have a criminal conviction or even a dismissal,
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: so if somebody goes to do a background check on you,
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: I mean I see a lot of criminal record checks
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: because when you have criminal defense cases that if it
• 22:29
  Speaker 5: gets far enough, the proscut has to give you your
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: client's criminal record, not that they can basically use it,
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: but you can even push for key witnesses past criminal records.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: And so I see what comes from law enforcement, which
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: is pretty detailed. And of course if you go apply
• 22:42
  Speaker 5: for a job or a licensure, then they're going to
• 22:44
  Speaker 5: run your background check a professional license, and so what
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: it used to be, it was very limited ability to
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: get your record expunged in West Virginia when I first
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: started practicing law. I mean it was kind of like
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: some judges would do it and assume they had kind
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: of the general authority to do it or jurisdiction, but
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: there really wasn't a statutory basis for it. Well, we've
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: we've now got those in place, so actually get ready
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: to do an expungement for a person's who's really rehabilitated
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: themselves after being a young person just went on a
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: spree of not feel any convictions, but multiple misdemeanors. But
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: it's it's causing problems now with employment, and so we're
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: going to try and get those expongs. But that's something
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: we do a decent amount. If you have a case
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: just outright dismissed, not in exchange for you pleading to
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: something else, you're found not guilty or the case is dismissed,
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: then there's a actually fairly simple procedure to get those.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: Expunged.
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: Because if somebody runs your record right now and you
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: don't have it exponged, they're going to see that charge
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: on your record, at least the detailed records I see now,
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: they might see that it was has no disposition or
• 23:51
  Speaker 5: was dismissed or something. You were found not guilty, but
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: that charge will still be on there. And so if
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: somebody with a licensing agency or a potential employer wanted
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: to see the details of that charge, they can get
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: right over to the courthouse. Criminal records are generally all public,
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: and look and see what the underlying facts were can
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: make a difference. So if you've been found not guilty, acquitted,
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: or dismissed without it being exchanged for some kind of
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: plead to another crime, then you there's no filing fee, actually,
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: and they have some forms for it. We do them
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: for folks for a reasonable fee, but it's fairly simple.
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: Now that's not even automatic. There was actually a first
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: case I saw that went to the Arapellate court. It
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: was a murder conviction out of Huntington or Cabal County,
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: and it was.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: May get it wrong a bit, but a woman.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: Had shot a man sleeping on the couch. But her
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: defense was battered woman syndrome, where you know, maybe this
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: is hypothetical because I don't remember the facts, but just
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: chronic physical and mental abuse of her so that in
• 25:00
  Speaker 5: her mind, you know, obviously us sitting here said, well,
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: he's sleep on the couch, just leave and go get help,
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: but in her mind she couldn't leave, and she shot him.
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: And I think the trial court prevented her from pushing
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: the battered woman's syndrome defense. That's a syndrome that results
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: in that kind of mental aspect, And our Supreme Court
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: reversed it completely and said, no, the evidence was clear
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: that this supplies and no jury could find beyond a
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: reasonable doubt that this wasn't self defense, and they reversed it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: So then she went back and tried to have her
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: record exponged because ultimately she was found not guilty, and
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: actually maybe in the same trial judge that handled the
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: trial inderlying and that judge did not let her expunge
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: her acquittal, so that charge would always be there, and
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: when it's expunged, the whole file is essentially sealed. All
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: law enforcement agencies, et cetera are told to destroy or
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: seal the records and you don't have to volunteer it
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: on inquiries from employers and that kind of thing. But
• 26:00
  Speaker 5: so there is some discretion, uh with judges. You don't
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: automatically get your record expongs even when you're found not guilty.
• 26:06
  Speaker 5: But in that when there was a recitation of facts
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: about what happened underlying that, and the judges said, well,
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: I don't I think this The public should still be
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: able to know about this charge even though you were
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: found not guilty and refuse to fungde it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: Yeah. But and then now we've got some nice statutes.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: That let even if you've got convictions, there's ways to
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: get them exponged if you rehabilitated yourself.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: And so there's that's.
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: A really good progress from from nothing, which is basically
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: what we had on the books twenty five years ago.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: We take a break.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's good stuff. Tom Payton is here from the
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: Peyton Law Firm. We've had several interactions this morning. You
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: can get in on the conversation as well. You can
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: text over any questions. You have to three zero four
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: nine three five five zero zero eight. Threes are four nine,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: three five five zero zero eight. You can also get
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: ahold of us on the phone. Threes are four three
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: four two eight one three one three four two eight
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: one three. One has to talk to Tom. Will ask
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: the expert and we'll get you back to that. We'll
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: get and take a break and be backward after this.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: You're listening to ask the lawyer with Tom Payton from
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: the Peyton Law Firm, and that's West Virginia Payton Lawfirm
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: dot com. That's with an ep E y tu and
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Peyton Lawfirm dot com. Take a break and be backward
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: after this one five adwchs the Voice of Charleston.
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: There's a lot to be thankful for during the holiday season,
• 27:10
  Speaker 7: and the number one thing the folks at Walker, Chevrolet
• 27:12
  Speaker 7: and Nitro are thankful for is you. You. They're friends
• 27:16
  Speaker 7: that put their trust in Walker for an honest, fair
• 27:18
  Speaker 7: deal on your next vehicle. You they're neighbors that stop
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: in to visit from time to time and bring holiday cheer.
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: And it's you that makes the Canal Valley one of
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: the greatest places in the world. It's folks like you
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: that keep Gene and Ryan in the car business and
• 27:31
  Speaker 7: made them want to build their business the old fashioned
• 27:34
  Speaker 7: way by making friends. By now you know there are
• 27:37
  Speaker 7: no gimmicks or games at Walker, just the honest, fair
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: deals that you've come to expect. And you know that
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: if you have a vehicle to sell, Walker Chevrolet will
• 27:45
  Speaker 7: buy it from you and give you top dollar for it,
• 27:47
  Speaker 7: even if you plan to buy somewhere else. So to
• 27:49
  Speaker 7: you and your family from the entire gang in Nitro,
• 27:52
  Speaker 7: Merry Christmas, and don't be surprised if this year Santa's
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: on his way in a brand new Walker Chevrolet. Walker
• 27:59
  Speaker 7: Chevrolet in the Chef I know of the Interstate Bridge
• 28:01
  Speaker 7: just off the Nitro exit of I sixty four. Walker Chevrolet,
• 28:04
  Speaker 7: making friends, one deal at a.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Time, fought to you. Buy City Insurance, a division of
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: City National Bank, where you can find the right coverage
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: to protect the things that matter most. For a free quote,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: log on to bank Atcity dot com.
• 28:19
  Speaker 8: Good morning, here's your traffic update to bridge work on
• 28:22
  Speaker 8: I seventy seven south and north at mile marker one
• 28:25
  Speaker 8: point fifteen around Sissonville Road widening project on west Virginia
• 28:29
  Speaker 8: sixty two from mile marker six to mile marker six
• 28:32
  Speaker 8: point thirty six and bridge deck repairs on West Virginia
• 28:35
  Speaker 8: eight seventeen from mile marker one to mile marker one
• 28:38
  Speaker 8: point twenty six. Drive safely. I'm Chapel in the WCCHS
• 28:43
  Speaker 8: Network traffic studio.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: Put the bower of paybe on the side. We have
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: a court room experience on setting me. We never give up.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: We're prepared to fight for your When you need action,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: count on us.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: What the power.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: On your side?
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: You can put the power repeat, you can put the
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: power painting on your side this morning for ten more minutes.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: Give us a call threes or four three, four two
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: eight one three one three four two eight one three one.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: You can also text over any questions you have to
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: threes four nine three five five zeros or eighth Harry
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: conversation this morning.
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's good. Ten more minutes today, It'll be ten
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: more minutes for the rest.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Of the year. Right, Oh that's true.
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so we uh, it'll be back on the.
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: Seconds, right, Yeah, we'll be back on this not the
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: first second, the second first first Wednesday, right, Yeah, we'll
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: be back either Dad or I'll be. I'll be out
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: of town next week, but I can do it by
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: a phone because we hate to miss We're here every Thursday,
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: and this will be I'm pretty sure my calculations are right.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: We just this will be completing our twenty fifth.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: Year, twenty five. I was going to ask you about that,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: twenty five years on the radio here.
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: That's excellent, salesman, Shawn. He stucked me in again for
• 29:58
  Speaker 5: another year, so we'll be back. We'll be back next
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: year at least for sure.
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: We do a year year term.
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: But uh hope to keep doing I don't. I'm sure
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: there's been no other ask the Expert shows that have
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: gone for twenty five years.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, the Larry's is probably the next closest. Yeahs
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: I think, yeah.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: And there's nobody else that does it every week.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: No, No, rairiy was twice a month.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: We've got a lot of lot to talk about it.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean when you look at twenty five years
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: and two shows a week, I mean you're you're roughly
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: looking at you know, after holidays stuff, about one hundred
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: shows a year, right, We probably mill a lot of
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: them out.
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: We might donate our time every now and then to
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: the you know, charitable organizations, let them come in and
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: do sos. But beyond that, I'd say you could probably
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: count on two hands the number of Thursdays we've missed
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: over the last.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: So well over two thousand shows and probably right near
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: the twenty five hundred markets.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: A lot of hot air, that's a lot of that's
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of good at talking, I guess that's for sure.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: But no, I you know, I really enjoy coming on
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: the radio and answering people's questions and talking and probably
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: got a little too comfortable with it at times. But uh,
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: but we pay for the time, so we can, uh,
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: we can talk about football, or we can talk about
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: whatever we want to talk about, but we we do
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: enjoy doing it. I think people get some you know,
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: we do have some listeners clearly, and and uh hopefully
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: we can we can help people a little bit. And
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: if you uh don't want to call or text on
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: the radio, you can always send us an email or
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: give us a call at the office because we answer
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: these type of general questions and provide general information without
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: any charge, and we do we do have multimillion dollar verdicts.
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: Over the years.
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: We don't post those on uh necessarily on billboards and
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: and TV ads. But we've uh done and continue to
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: handle very significant cases. But at the same time we've learned,
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: you know, from the from what we do over the years,
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: how to do deeds and wills and social security disability,
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: some domestic work, that kind of thing.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: If we don't don't.
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: Really take any workers company more n less it's connected
• 31:59
  Speaker 5: to some other ca we're handling, like an automobile accident
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: while you're working or something. But we know how it
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: works because we've done it over the years, and we're
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: unemployment or something like that. What are the standards? So
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: if you have, you know, questions about matters like that,
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: it might not be something you need to hire us on.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: But we are pretty well rounded, I guess, is what
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: I'm saying in relation to legal issues. So we were
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: able to help a lot of people. Hopefully we've helped
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: a lot of people this year. It probably helped.
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Of course, we have a lot of clients, but we've
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: we've helped at least.
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: Many more, probably ten times as more people as we've
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: actually had hire us as clients because.
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: They don't they just need some information.
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it doesn't take us, but a few minutes, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: we try and try and help people in that way.
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: And so that's I think about how you've been successful
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: this year. I mean, that's that's kind of what I
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: think about versus how much money you've made. And and
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: we make a decent living, but we work hard doing
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: it too, but we're glad to help and if you
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: do get in a because we do those things. What
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: we do a lot of estate planning and just everyday needs.
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: And all we ask is, you know if just because
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: we do that doesn't mean we don't know how or
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: aren't very good at doing the high end work. Obviously,
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: lawyers make it's more lucrative at times, at least to
• 33:11
  Speaker 5: do serious injury or wrongful death cases. That's why you
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: see at new News there's twenty different lawyer commercials all
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: on the same subject matter. Or you don't see a
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: lot of billboards about a state planning, for example, they're
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: all about automobile accidents. So and we do a really
• 33:27
  Speaker 5: good job at it because we are well rounded. If
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: it's a case around here, we're from here, so we
• 33:33
  Speaker 5: kind of know. I feel like we have a good
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: handle on juries and judges and that kind of thing.
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: And we're big enough to handle any case, especially with
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: technology these days, but we also pay particular attention to
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: your case, and so that gets us. I think you
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: don't know what every case settles for. I certainly don't
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: what other lawyers handle, but I would wager that our
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: results are as good or better than anyone else if
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: they were to take the same cases that we take on.
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: So if you have somebody that has a serious injury,
• 34:06
  Speaker 5: or hopefully not, if you have a band member killed
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: or or wrongfully, then just consider us because we'll we'll
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: we'll go at it hard and aggressively, and we're also
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: honest with you and tell you the truth about your
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: case and your odds and and that kind of thing.
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: And I think that's what kind of sets us apart
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: to a certain extent.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: I mentioned and by the way, the phone number for
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: the Payton Law Firm three zero four seven five five
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: fifty five fifty six seven five five fifty five fifty
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: six Paytent Lawfirm dot com. That's Pey Peyton Lawfirm dot com.
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: You can go there, find the number of the address,
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: and also shoot an email that Tom and Harvey always
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: respond to, so you could be sure to get ahold
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: of him. But I always mentioned this on the show
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: because of some experiences I've had with people that I
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: know in my life. Though. The one thing that you
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: and Harvey do a great job of, and I think
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: it's very important, is people need to realize that there's
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: nothing wrong with at least inquiring to see if you
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: can put the law on your side in some way shape,
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: if you need to protect yourself, if there's something coming up,
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: making a phone call is not a bad thing. You
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: should at least see if you need protection, if there's
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: something that you need to find out about, and make
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: sure that you have all of the the odds dotted,
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: so to speak, because there are circumstances where you may
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: have law on your side in some way shape or
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: for me, you just don't know.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you don't know. There's no no dumb question.
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: And if you have a question that's you really want
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: to answer it, then send us an email or give
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: us a call and we can. It may not be
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: something where you're not necessarily going to get the answer
• 35:29
  Speaker 5: that you want. I mean, that's you know, that's not
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: really our job is to tell you the answer. We'd
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: like to help you, we'd like to get your goal accomplished.
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: But if the legal answer is not the one you
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: want to hear, it's still the right answer. And so
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: that's what you get kind of from our office. But yeah,
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: as far as you know, I hear a lot, Well,
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: I'm not that kind of person when they're talking about
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: making a claim like for injury, for example, a by lander.
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: I don't want that kind of person to make that
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: tech claim and say, well, listen, there is uh. You're
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: not going to treat large insurance companies unfairly. They make
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: sure of that, so you're not going to shorten them.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: And all you're doing is seeking what you're entitled to
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: when there's insurance for that most of the time, to
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: cover your injuries and pain and suffering, loss wages, all
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: those type things. And so I think over the years
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: probably been as whether it has been a mass media
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: campaign by big business, some big insurance just to it's
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: it's it's something almost subtle, but it's been pounded in
• 36:34
  Speaker 5: people's minds that it's bad to exercise your civil rights.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: Being called litigious is.
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: Well yeah, well, I mean litigious can be a bad thing.
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: But people call it, even if it's just one person
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: asking one question. It's like, oh, you don't want to
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: be ligious about it, right.
• 36:47
  Speaker 5: And and you know, there's nothing wrong with exercising your
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: civil rights and and and that's the whole point is
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: that if you have somebody you know, maybe a child's hitting,
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: a hit and run, or you know, who knows what
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: happens to get rear ended, and somebody's hurt really bad,
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: maybe has a really broken bron or paralysis, or it
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: can't work. That's the point of the civil justice system.
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: That's that all that's say, all it can do in
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: essences compensate you via money. But also that's how you
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: take the law into your hands if you get hurt
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: in that way.
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: But it's not you're not the victim of a crime.
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: You don't get a gun and go out and confront
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: that person or you know, call and harass them. You
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: contact an attorney and exercise your civil rights.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: And there's nothing wrong with that at all.
• 37:34
  Speaker 3: About out of time, Yeah, about out of time, that's
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: a lot of great information. You've got to be able
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: to apply that to your life. You can do that
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: by giving the Payton Law Firm a call. It's three
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: zero four seventy five five fifty five to fifty six
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: three zero, four seven, five, five fifty six Payton Lawfirm
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: dot Com. Payton Lawfirm dot Com. Every Thursday here on
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: Ask the Lawyer at eight twenty on five EWCHS, The
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: Voice of Charleston. Tom Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year,
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: and we'll see you next week.
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: I same to you, Same to all the listeners out there. Everybody,
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: have a happy new year. It's going to be a
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: great twenty twenty.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Five sounds great. You're listening to five adwchs, The Voice
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: of Charleston,