August 14, 2025 • 38 mins
Host Dale Cooper and Harvey or Tom from the Peyton Law Firm discuss legal issues from listeners and matters affecting local politics.
More info: www.PeytonLawFirm.com
(304) 755-5556
2801 1st Ave, Nitro, WV 25143
The Peyton Law Firm was founded more than 30 years ago by Harvey Peyton, who was joined by his son, Tom Peyton. For more than 50 years, the Peyton team has successfully represented clients in courtrooms throughout WV and southeastern Ohio. The firm is known for its active community involvement and straightforward advice.
More info: www.PeytonLawFirm.com
(304) 755-5556
2801 1st Ave, Nitro, WV 25143
The Peyton Law Firm was founded more than 30 years ago by Harvey Peyton, who was joined by his son, Tom Peyton. For more than 50 years, the Peyton team has successfully represented clients in courtrooms throughout WV and southeastern Ohio. The firm is known for its active community involvement and straightforward advice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wchs
it's employees or WVRC Media O Courts.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Oh created equal. When nass come here to Kapony.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Can rock, you can put the power of Paton on
your side. This morning, Tom Peyton in studio with us
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
four Ask the lawyer with Tom Payton from the Paton
(00:58):
Law Firm online, Payton Lawfirm dot com. P E Y
T O N. Tom. Good morning. How are you doing
this morning?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
How are you del I'm doing very well. It's uh,
it's a uh. We've taken a step back from the
temperatures a little bit, so we're not getting you know,
the ninety fives anyway.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I heard you doing traffic this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm doing a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, you didn't have the I thought you just had
like a pre recording of the Who's the person that
usually does traffic.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uh, Chapel usually Iran.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, okay, she just has I think a uh it's
just a sound bite about exit fifty Virginia Street.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Xcent fifty right, that's yeah. Yeah, I figure that people
know if I just say congestion, that that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But maybe should do traffic more. There was hardly any
traffic this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I had to fill in this morning because there's a
special event going on with the station that Chapel works for,
and she had to and she had to dial in
on that this morning. So I was doing traffic this morning.
I actually forgot it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And Virginia Street exit was smooth.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It was the most uneventful traffic I've ever done. There
was nothing going on. I like that. That makes it
a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Are you in charge the rest of the day at traffing?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, let's see, no, Ryan will be back this afternoon. Tray.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, that's a yeah, that's a morning thing, I guess afternoon, Yeah,
exactly exactly. Anyway, he did an excellent job and to
the extent that has any control on the track. It was, hey, plus.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Give me credit, man to take you give me credit
for something. I'll take your credit for something.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Though.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's not so bad.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Glad to be here today. I heard was it the
Also on Tuesday, I was traveling to Spencer and Roon
County had of hearing at nine am up there and
so I got a chance to listen to the show.
They asked the expert show and also I think Tuesday
(02:34):
was the that was the fortieth forty. Now that's Metro News.
What about five eighty w c each.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We will be celebrating our one hundredth anniversary in twenty
twenty seven. November of twenty twenty seven will be our
one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
All right, good, Well, we've been here at least the
majority of the time dev Metro News has been around,
because we've been doing the show since maybe end of
ninety eight, beginning of ninety nine and every Thursday. But
I did want to, you know, take a moment because
I know a lot of it's been good to us.
(03:10):
So we wouldn't be here doing advertising and our course,
we like doing the show. Every Thursday because we like
to talk, probably and and it gives me a break
from the office. I like coming out here and coming
to hint in town in the morning and answering folks
questions when I have time without having to do a
lot of things all at once to distract you. But uh, uh,
(03:32):
you know, so we've been doing it twenty five going on.
What we've been doing a twenty six years, I guess
every Thursday, but but I just wanted to echo what
was really said on Tuesday. It's it's really is about
the people, you know. And we've we've of course, we've
we've done some work with Matriny He's not just locally.
(03:53):
We're kind of we have not as much lately, but
we have kind of been the uh unofficial uh legal
angle opinion for Hoppy would have us on from time
to time, and then we did the pretty much every
day during the Blankenship trial, either Dad or I attended
for some period of the trial, and then we would
(04:14):
pop out during statewide and get on the horn with
Hoppy and do a little update on what was going
on with the trial, which was interesting, although yeah, it
was a long trial and not all what was really
exciting in the long run, right, Well, I just wanted
(04:34):
to comminate, you know, everybody, the longevity of staff is important.
Everybody treats us well around here. It's professional. So I just
wanted to echo what was said really on Tuesday and
compliment everybody at WV Metro News for doing a great
job over the years. And I guess we're just the
five eighty station for this show, but we've done a
(04:56):
lot of work here and there over the years with
statewide and it's been good to us. We wouldn't still
be here doing it twenty some years later, so hopefully
we'll keep it going.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we actually appreciate it. And on five ad B
in the flagship for Metro News, it's alure's a lot
of crossover there, so there's definitely a lot of stuff
that's been there. And just briefly, Metro News is something
that's a bit of a unicorn. I've lived in I
don't know, five different states, different regions across the United States.
Say what network that's that's locally owned is very rare.
It was very rare even twenty years ago. It's even
(05:27):
more rare today. You know there these are it's West
Virginia News being brought to you by West Virginians from
equipment that was purchased not in West Virginia, but by
West Virginians. The end of the whole thing is basically
a small business run out of West Virginia, and that's
very unusual in the media space.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, and the long term guys that have been are based
in Charleston, like Chris Lawrence, and we also sponsored his
Western Outdoors show at least here on this channel every
Saturday morning, which we we love doing that because that's
right up our alley there, hunting and fishing. And I
don't know when and then Jeff Jenkins, I just don't
(06:03):
know when they sleep, because Chris is here in the
morning when we get here. Jeff's here in the morning
when we get here. And when it gets into football
and basketball season, you'll hear those same guys doing play
by play on the either the streaming broadcast now or
the of course the radio broadcast for the high school
sports and those go late.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's true, man.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
They they must have a hyperbaric chamber back here to
let you go in and get rejuvenated in an hour
or something.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Massive. Respect, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, they're they're pros, they're good. But we're glad to
be a part of it and glad to be here today.
I also listening to the the news this morning. We
had Paul Hardesty on the who's the president of the
state Board of Education. Yes, yeah, and so he was
a I guess he gave a little talk at the
beginning of their meeting. Was here yesterday or the day before.
(06:52):
But we have an interesting you know, you have the
we talked about a little bit and a few weeks
ago this if you recall that there was some it
was a bill in a session in the legislative session
trying to which would have provided had various forms, but
(07:13):
it would have provided exemptions to the mandatory additional exemptions
to the mandatory immunization for children to attend public schools.
And as the law stood going into the session and
I read it, but there's a medical exemption. It requires
like a real licensed professional. I mean, some people have
(07:35):
allergies or other issues that make they know immunizations will
give them a side effect that's unsafe, and so they
can get an exemption. And then of course, going through
the legislature or bills that would allow religious exemptions or
philosophical exemptions, which essentially means if you don't want to
get vaccinated or your parents don't want you to, because three, four, five,
(07:59):
six year olds don't make their own decisions, obviously, then
you get out of the mandatory vaccination. So governing and
so that bill didn't pass, It didn't pass at all
in any form. And surely after the session, Governor Morsey decided, well,
that's I'm in an executive order saying that there's a
(08:21):
there's a separate statute that's general about religious freedom that
was passed maybe two three years ago, does not address
specific anything about vaccines specifically, as I recall, but he
decided to interpret that or his administration that that means
that there's a religious exemption under that law, or that
(08:43):
law provides an individual the right to opt out of
mandatory imanizations based on religious reasons. And and but the
law is still in the books, it's more specific about
(09:06):
mandatory organizations and and so you had a conflict there.
And so initially I think the maybe the executive director
of the State Board of Education sent out a memos.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You know, we.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Despite what the governor's executive order says, we're going by
the specific law that addresses this issue. And then all
it was all kinds of grandstanding I think by the
Governor's office, and then that memo was rescinded. But then
ultimately I think the State Board of Education is took
(09:41):
the position that the more specific law applies versus Governor
Morris's interpretation of the executive order. Well, here come the lawsuits,
of course, to settle it, which is, I suppose you
have a conflict in the in the statutes there, and
so someone found a laws so I think in the
Circuit Court of Raleigh County, and then there was an
injunction order entered, meaning you basically preliminarily ruling in favor
(10:08):
of the parent who didn't want their child to be
immunized based on religious reasons. And so that's that's in
place right now, but it's being appealed and it's going
to go through the court system, and then we'll have
an answer. I mean, that's how you get answers to
legal questions. They filter up and then once our Western
(10:30):
Supreme Court of Appeals decides that that's going to be
the law of the land in West Virginia, and we'll
we'll know here before too long what the law is.
But well, it was interesting going back to Paul Hartesty,
you made a little statement because of course Governor Morsey,
with his modus operandi, began name calling as a part
of the process, which is I think over and over
(10:52):
again calling State Board of Education unelected bureaucrats, which of
course they aren't elected. I don't know what their bureau
And it was certainly a derogatory, uh label for the
members of the State Board of Education. So Paul Hardsty
I give him a lot of credit for this. He's
(11:13):
made a statement at the beginning, like you know, where
he takes offense to to that he's a public servant.
He doesn't have to be on the State Board of Education.
I'm sure he's he's done well professionally, otherwise I can't
be an easy job. And I kind of labeled him
as the grown up in the room because we're gonna
(11:33):
he said, we're gonna abide by whatever the court's decide,
but we don't need to be calling each other names
and derogatory terms. And I just thought that was refreshing
to hear, and and it's gonna filter through the court system.
And he said, you know, whatever, the decision is by
the highest court that governs our state. State Board of
Education is going to abide by it, and that's it.
(11:56):
But it was refreshing to hear somebody push back a
little bit on thiss. What I have noticed over the
last ten years of this childish behavior from politicians and
I don't know, baby, in this day of mass information
that appeals to people just turns me off. And of
course we've gotten conditioned to it now. I mean ten
(12:17):
years ago it would have been headlines. Some of the
things that these politicians say that are just absolutely childish
and unprofessional. And I think labeling public servants who you
know are perhaps taking a pay cut to do that job,
might be are well qualified to do that job, which
is who you want, and they aren't. They aren't. They
(12:39):
are unelected, but they are appointed by at least nominated
by the governor and then confirmed by the I think
the Senate, or at least.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Which is how we work in a representative democracy. You
have appointments and different things like that. Not everything is
a straight election. My suggestion to the governor would be,
if he thinks that voting is the answer for everything,
then we should just vote on all of his initiatives.
Let's see how they go. Yeah, but you can't, I know,
that's what I'm saying. I mean, not everything could be allowed.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That they Politicians generally want things to be voted on
that they think will pass, and then they don't leave
it to the voters for things that they think they
know better than everybody else. And there's something to that
because you know, we all of us non politicians that
are working every day and trying to make a living.
You know, you don't there's technical issues. There are a
(13:25):
lot of things that everybody can't research and know about,
and so you have to rely and trust your elected
officials to take into account the reliable information and make
good informed decisions. I don't know that we see a
whole lot, but you know that's the point, is that
the State Board of Education should be, to the extent
(13:45):
possible a political And of course that devetails into what
the legislature did this session, which is, you know, require
that was a reference, let the people vote on it.
And there's a referendum a few years ago to it
men the state constitution to allow the legislature to have
oversight over the rules and regulations passed by the State
(14:06):
Board of Education, and that failed, the voters turned it down.
So then what did the legislature do. Wait a couple
of years, and then they just passed a statute and
said exactly the same thing that they couldn't alter in
the constitution. So now we got that one's going up
to the to the court too, because the legislature has,
I guess to me, attempted some kind of warped interpretation
(14:32):
of the constitution, which it's in the constitution. I don't
have the language in front of me that you know,
essentially gives the details of the governing the public school
system to State Board of Education. Now it does say
the legislature's overall responsible generally for it, like allocating funds,
things like that. But so that one's filtering through the
(14:53):
system too, And I'm sure maybe Governor Morsey will use
that same label to criticize the State Board of Education,
although he would have to also be, by implication, criticizing
the voters who voted down the legislature overseeing we're approving
the regulations or rules enacted by the State Board of Education.
(15:14):
And the whole point is that you you know, these
folks are to have some expertise, and they're not be
worrying about are they going to get elected next year
or the year after, and then making decisions about kids
education based on how it will affect constituents or how
they can spin it in the public so they can
maybe even go to a higher office somewhere else. So
(15:36):
I thought that was refreshing to hear the actual sand
Bite was playing. Paul Hardesty was playing playing this morning,
and it was good. He I think he should run
for governor. He's probably too smart for that. But anyway,
so we're and then listening Tuesday as well, you had
(15:56):
I was listening to asked the expert, and we had
you had Is it Don Wilson with UH Capital Insurance Group, Yeah,
Capital Insurance Group, which she was good. And you know,
I was listening to him explain some aspects of automobile
insurance which I have interested in, and he was he
was accurate. I thought, But it's kind of good for
everybody to have a little refresher from time to time,
(16:17):
and because a lot of people are buying insurance on
the internet now and or you know, at least calling
in or online, and and the old days of visiting
your local insurance agent are still still available, and I
encourage that go find a local agent like Don Wilson
he was talking about. He's an independent agent, so he
(16:38):
can take in your situation and then he can, you know,
seek coverage from various insurance company. He's not a captive agent.
I don't know that there's a whole lot of cap
I think state farm or captive agents. So if you
go to a state and state Farm has a lot
of lines of coverage, so I'm not criticizing that, But
when you go to a state farm agent, I think
you're I think you're limited to state farm insurance products.
(17:01):
But if you go I know, like nationwide agents, at
least have a friend who Shenandin and Nitro. He I
know he can market to other uh. Even though he's
got the nationwide flag at his office and has for
probably decades. UH, he does have the ability to market
to other insurance carriers and select insurance. But it's always good,
(17:22):
I think to go in person and have an agent
spend some time with you, tell them your situation. And
of course there are salespeople in a way, but well
they are salespeople. I mean, if you have a claim,
you can report it through them, but then you'll notice
frustration sometimes even with your agent. My experience is they
generally want the claims paid because they're the ones on
the front lines dealing with your customer. But it's out
(17:44):
of their hands really once, once there's a claims made,
it goes to a different different uh, different agency or
a part of the company the adjusting underwriting. It's not
it's out of underwriting and into adjusting at that point.
But for insurance coverage, you know, it's interesting to hear
talk about you know, we used to be twenty forty
ten where her automobile insurance limits and that he was explaining,
(18:07):
So twenty forty ten was changed probably ten years ago
to twenty five fifty twenty five. What's that mean? So
that's the minimum limits of insurance coverage you must have
to own and operate a vehicle on the road in
West Virginia and the twenty five thousand and this is
(18:27):
to protect you generally, at least the liability portion is
to protect you and your family or anybody you give
permission to or has permission to operate your vehicle. They're
covered by your pulse that covers your vehicle. Like if
I said, yeah, you can drive my car around there
and go pick up a pop or something, and then
you rear in somebody, My coverage will apply first because
(18:51):
it's on the vehicle, even though I had wasn't at fault,
un list, I knew you had a problem, and let
you drive my car. You're drunk, and I say, go
drive around the corner, and then that there's probably fault
on me. But you're a good safe driver. He just
had an accident, So my coverage would kick in. Now,
if you hurt a person and then we get sued
(19:12):
and I only have the twenty five minimum limits, that's
all there is under my insurance to cover that person's damages,
And so it can be things like medical bills, loss wages,
pain and suffering. And if the person you hit, you know,
has two hundred thousand dollars in medical bills, is disabled
(19:35):
for a period of time, you know they're they're desperate
at that point. They need help because they're they and
their family are probably in financial crisis and dealing with
a tough situation. And say, all right, well let's see
what mister Peyton has for insurance. Well, he's only got
twenty five thousand dollars in coverage. Oh, well, the insurance
(19:55):
company will only pay that twenty five thousand dollars if
the person that's hurt one signs of release letting me
off the hook. Like they have to accept the twenty
five thousand dollars and go away as far as I'm concerned.
So if you have, if that person is seriously injured,
and me, I have some assets, and then that person's
(20:24):
going to get a lawyer or they should because they're
at a life changing event. And if they're hurt that bad,
they're not going to accept twenty five thousand dollars and
go away. Like I said, no, no, no, we're not going
to take that twenty five thousand dollars. We're just going
to sue. And then well, unless mister Peyton wants to
(20:45):
put in some of his impersonal money. Hey, if he'll
pay us an extra five hundred thousand dollars himself, then
we'll sign a release. Otherwise you get in a lawsuit
and that's where you're asked. Sets are exposed, and people
talk about trust and titling things, other people's names and
stuff that that works. Sometimes not very often when somebody's
(21:11):
hurt really bad, because if they have a lawyer knows
what they're doing for the injured person, and they're hurt
really bad, they're not going to leave any stone unturned.
So they're gonna foul lawsuit where they have the power
subpoena and they can make you come in and answer
questions about your assets and things like that. And if
you've got to trust or some don some weird things
(21:31):
to try and put your assets in another person's name
in the face of that kind of claim, then they're
going to find find that money and it's just going
to be problem unless file bankruptcy. You're exposed. Then Now
I will say that in West Virginia, your autobile insurance
company has a duty to defend you no matter what
until they pay that twenty five grand out which they
(21:53):
can't pay unless the hurt person signs a release. You'll
always have a lawyer to defend you because they have to.
Even if the cost to have a lawyer to defend
you is two hundred thousand dollars, the insurance carrier still
has to pay that despite the fact you only have
twenty five thousand dollars in coverage. Yeah, so you will
(22:14):
get a lawyer to defend you. But as soon as
my insurance company pays that twenty five grand, that lawyer's out.
So if you if you lose your case and there's
a judgment for two million dollars against me, then my
insurance company will pay that twenty five grand against that judgment.
And then they're they're done. And then here we go
(22:34):
with collection efforts where your wages could be garnished, your
bank accounts could be attached, all of your land could
have loans placed on it. So that's the minimum twenty
five thousand dollars, which I think Dom was saying he
doesn't even he starts with one hundred right with his
which I think is a good good practice. I mean,
(22:56):
if somebody says, no, I just want absolute cheap, obviously,
adjusting your coverage limits will adjust your premiums, you'd be
surprised it's not that much more to get some extra
coverage coverage. But that's where you hear the twenty five
thousand dollars. Then fifty is the middle number. That's the
minimum that means per accident. So same scenario I just
(23:20):
set forth there, except let's say there were four people
in that vehicle that were rear ended and they were
all hurt, then no one person can get more than
twenty five thousand dollars because that's the per person limit.
But everybody in that vehicle that was hurt combined, your
insurance company won't pay more than fifty for any of them.
(23:43):
So let's say I had five people in the vehicle
and they're all hurt equally, or they agree to divide it,
there's only fifty thousand dollars to spread between all five
of those people to in granting game in grand. Then
the final twenty five is the property damage. So that's
in that same scenario, obviously you've totaled or damaged their car.
(24:03):
Let's say it's total and it's a electric commer or
something who knows, but you know car you at eighty
nine thousand dollars. Car today is not uncommon on the road,
and so if you have the minimums, there's only twenty
five thousand dollars there to pay to fix that vehicle
(24:24):
or to replace that vehicle, and they can just say no,
and here comes the lawsuit again for the very same reason.
So I agree with Don that if you you check
out the prices and talk to your local agent about it,
But really starting at one hundred three hundred hundred is
is the lowest safe limit I think in West Virginia.
(24:46):
It depends on your on your on your finances obviously,
that's you know, everybody hopes that scenario won't happen to
them and if it, if it doesn't, you're fine. And
that's why it's kind of hard to prioritize paying extra
for a little extra coverage because you just don't know
when you're going to be in a wreck and well,
(25:08):
never happened. It's that's right, and so it's now you
can protect yourself in West Virginia. So every it's also
mandatory that everyone had uninsured motorist coverage, so you have
to have that at least at the minimum levels as well.
(25:29):
That way, if I did not have coverage on my
vehicle and I hit someone and they had a policy,
that's uninsured coverage, so that their own insurance company would
essentially step into my insurance company's shoes, so to speak,
and then pay that claim out the twenty five grand
(25:52):
or whatever limits you have, so you can you can
protect yourself from uninsured drivers by increasing those uninsured motorist
limits that we have. Some it is it responsible and
doesn't have insurance, hits you or your family. You still
have coverage for that, and it's the same minimum requirements
that you have for regular liability insurance. So and there's
(26:15):
my clients end up having uninsured motorists claims. Are frustrated because, well,
how is this person getting off scot free that that
didn't have insurance and was just negligent and wouldn't respond.
We tried to call them and ask them about it.
There are consequences for uninsured drivers. There's a most insurance
companies when they pay an uninsured claim will also report
(26:36):
that driver who didn't have insurance to DMV and there's
a licensed suspension aspect of the law. Your insurance company
also has the ability to two weird legal words subrogation.
But essentially, if your insurance company pays you uninsured motorists
(26:58):
coverage of say one hundred dollars, they can step into
your shoes, so to speak, and then go after the
person that did not have insurance to get their money back.
And that it happens more than you would think they
You know, you and I probably wouldn't spend the money
to do that because the the amount of time we'd
(27:19):
put into it. There's no you might win a judgment,
but the chance of actually getting money out of somebody
that was uninsured, didn't even have insurance.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Probably uninsured for a reason.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, it's your odds aren't great. But when
you have really big insurance companies, it's kind of a
cost of doing business. And they I've seen them kind
of package those claims together and then they certain law
firms will do that collection work for them. So you know,
it doesn't really make my clients feel that much better
when they have to go under their own insurance policy
because other person didn't have insurance. But there are consequences too,
(27:54):
And first of all, they can also be cited for
failure to have insurance. A lot of times officers don't
know that because they might be given an insurance card
at the scene of the wreck, but they don't I
don't think they have a good way to verify there's
actually coverage when they're out there on the road. Meaning
you could get a month to month insurance policy to
get your registration and not pay the premium, and you
(28:16):
still got a card in your proof of insurance card
in your in your glove box that indicates you're covered,
but in fact you aren't because you haven't paid your premiums.
You need to take a little break.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, well we'll take a break. We're gonna take a break.
When we come back, we still have plenty more we
want to talk about. This is an interesting discussion as
far as with insurance goes. I know that from personal experience.
I've known people that's had complete losses of their vehicle
and they owed some money on it and it caused
them financial difficulties. To some agree if it didn't work out,
but it didn't ruin them. I've known people absolutely ruined
by not having enough coverage for liability for I know
(28:53):
people a ruined for that.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
It can put folks in bankruptcy. And I've had cases
where I know they have some assets, not enough injury,
not enough coverage, and we've gone after him personally, and
then sometimes they just get forced into bankruptcy. But you know,
I don't think anybody really likes to sue other people,
and nobody really likes to be sued I've ever found.
But you know, you get in an automobile accident where
(29:18):
you're the you're the primary wage joarner, and you've got
a family. I mean, it's you don't have a choice
really right at that point.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And that's and I was going to bring that up
as we go to the break you mentioned. We've been
talking about protecting yourself but also from people that might
be contracting your services. Don't be uh, don't be misled
by somebody saying my maximum coverage is fifty thousand dollars
or whatever it might be, and so your capped at
fifty thousand dollars. If you have damages to exceed that,
don't think that you don't have other recourse. You could
(29:45):
contact a lawger and that's an you can.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
There's a Western of Code section that it's it's a
little technical, but once you come to us and hire us,
we send those letters out right off the bat, and
it requires that autobile insurance company to send me either
entire policy or a certified declarations page. If you hear
the word deck page, that just that's the page that
lists that person's coverage amounts. So that's the first thing
(30:09):
we do is verify, make them send us official information
of what amount of coverage is there. And it's it's
it's a little technical, so you don't have to have
a lawyer to get that information out of the other
insurance company, but most folks that aren't attorneys have have
trouble doing it because the insurance company won't give it
to you unless you comply with these specific technical requirements
(30:29):
in westernion code.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, it's a good information and a good way to
tap into that information and give us a call this morning.
We do have a text message that came in. We'll
get to that as soon as we get back from
the three zero four three eight nine, So listener, thank
you for that. We'll get to that as soon as
we get back. You can text in a question as well.
If you have one threes aer A four nine three
five five zero zero eight threes or four nine three
five five zero zero eight, you can also give us
a call. We'll have a few minutes when we come back.
(30:51):
Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
You're asking him to ask the lawyer with Tom Payton
from the Payton Law Firm Online, Paton Lawfirm dot com
and Nitro West Virginia more details when we come back.
When asked the law you're a FAVEDWCHS the Voice of Charleston.
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Speaker 2 (32:47):
You're listening to the voice of Charleston Bob ad Hs
and this is asked the lawyer Tom Payton is here
this morning from the Pathon Law Firm on line. Paythonlawfirm
dot com. Pathon Lawfirm dot com you can find out
more information. Located in t West Virginia. We got a
text message of right before we went to the break,
so we want to make sure we get to this.
This is from the three zero four three eight nine.
Good morning. Could Tom briefly touch on umbrella policies and
(33:09):
this comes from Joe.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, so that's a good question to an umbrella policy.
If you hear that that is a policy that you
can purchase oftentimes to the same autobill ensure that provides
your primary coverage, but that's like an excess policy. So
for example, and you always have to have a certain
amount of underlying coverage, so you might have two hundred
(33:31):
and fifty five hundred, one hundred or I don't know
that you need more than one hundred in property damage
for regular policies, but or two fifty five hundred two
fifty set your personal per accident and then property damage.
Then on top of that, you can purchase what's called
an umbrella policy. It's kind of a catch all policy,
(33:54):
and it usually covers most types of liability as certainly
automobile for sure, and so that normally would be about
a million, would be a million dollars. So you if
you buy an umbrella policy, then you have your underlying coverage,
which if one person's hurt, that's two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, and then you have an umbrella policy that's
(34:15):
a separate policy that stacks on top of that. So
you would have one point twenty five million dollars in
liability coverage. And I honestly think, I mean you rely
on your insurance local insurance agents to analyze your situation.
Depends on what kind of assets you have your risk tolerance.
But I think in West Virginia, for personal insurance, if
you've got that umbrella, you've got to feel safe that
(34:38):
you're you're pretty well protected by insurance. And that's the
way to versus doing the trying to put things in
trust and shielding your assets. Somehow, a lot of those
mechanisms don't work, if I mean, they just don't work.
They'll be pierced and they'll get access to that those
assets anyway if somebody's hurt. So if you, if you
(34:59):
have concerned about risk, get an umbrella policy. And I
think on auto the average West Virginia, if you can
afford it, if you can get that million plus the
underlying two point fifty, that's that's sufficient liability coverage for
you to feel comfortable and safe that if you were
a family member or somebody with permission causes a wreck
(35:20):
that hurts somebody really bad, you can feel pretty safe
that you know your insurance will take care of that
claim for you and you won't be sued for your
personal assets or forced into bankruptcy or something like that.
So it's an umbrella policy just stocks on top of
your other policy, and it's it's a good idea to
have them. So, hey, before we go, Dad's coming back
(35:42):
from his fishing trip this week, so he might be
here the next two weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
We'll see how it plays out. So I wanted to
lay out my not near football. There we go. Okay,
we got an exciting seat. It's hard got.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
About ok because we got all new players, right, that's right,
and it's a rotten round two.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
That's right, and I'm I'm excited about it. So we
started off. We started off with Robert Morrison Morgantown. I'm
gonna Dad and I'll probably up for that game just
to see the new new folks. That's a win. And
we play at Ohio. I'm gonna plan to go to
that one too, and drive an hour, hour and fifteen
minutes to get there. Tickets are sold out, we'll get
them through w I think. But that's a win for
(36:21):
the Mountaineers. Then we got Pit at home in Morgantown.
I won't be there. I got a step by graduated Florida,
so we're going to the Florida LSU game. My son's
last semesters down there, so I'm gonna miss the Pit game.
But I'm marking it down as a win. There'll be
plenty of fans there. I think it'll be a charged
up attitude. I like going in with rich Rodriguez with
his attitude in that game, so I.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Think might want to be this time.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
He might jump on the field and tackle somebody if
it's going bad. Uh. Then we play at Kansas. Kansas
been better the last few years, but I think we
get a win there. Utadd home win, b y U
away loss, UCF win, TCU win, Houston win, Colorado win,
ASU in Texas Tech at the end. I think we
tend to play bad at the end of the season
(37:03):
under Rich Rod and ASU is pretty good. So I'm
good to mark those down and losses. So somewhat predicting
with my heart, but I've picked nine and three.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Whoa nine in three. I like it.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
That still probably only puts us somewhere between four and
six and the commerce, but much better than they predict
quick question.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Would you prefer to lose to pit and play for
the conference championship or beat.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Pitt conference championship?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, that was a question today we have I think
it'll go the other way, yeah, and we won't play
for the conference Championship, Peyton Law Firm Online, Peyton Lawfirm
dot com seven five five fifty five fifty six three
zero four seven five five fifty five fifty six see
if back here next week. You're a Harvey Tom. Thanks
a lot. Thanks, have a great day everyone on five
at e w CCHS. I'll see him two seconds fin
(37:49):
whs aminty six point five that Charleston one zero four
point five Cross Lanes WVRC Media Station. We're proud to
live here too,
Unlock your dream property with Meex Realty Group, where rich
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Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight wchs
it's employees or WVRC Media O Courts.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Oh created equal. When nass come here to Kapony.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Can rock, you can put the power of Paton on
your side. This morning, Tom Peyton in studio with us
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
four Ask the lawyer with Tom Payton from the Paton
(00:58):
Law Firm online, Payton Lawfirm dot com. P E Y
T O N. Tom. Good morning. How are you doing
this morning?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
How are you del I'm doing very well. It's uh,
it's a uh. We've taken a step back from the
temperatures a little bit, so we're not getting you know,
the ninety fives anyway.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Well, I heard you doing traffic this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I'm doing a little bit of everything.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Yeah, you didn't have the I thought you just had
like a pre recording of the Who's the person that
usually does traffic.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Uh, Chapel usually Iran.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, okay, she just has I think a uh it's
just a sound bite about exit fifty Virginia Street.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Xcent fifty right, that's yeah. Yeah, I figure that people
know if I just say congestion, that that's what it is.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
But maybe should do traffic more. There was hardly any
traffic this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I had to fill in this morning because there's a
special event going on with the station that Chapel works for,
and she had to and she had to dial in
on that this morning. So I was doing traffic this morning.
I actually forgot it.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
And Virginia Street exit was smooth.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
It was the most uneventful traffic I've ever done. There
was nothing going on. I like that. That makes it
a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Are you in charge the rest of the day at traffing?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, let's see, no, Ryan will be back this afternoon. Tray.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, that's a yeah, that's a morning thing, I guess afternoon, Yeah,
exactly exactly. Anyway, he did an excellent job and to
the extent that has any control on the track. It was, hey, plus.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Give me credit, man to take you give me credit
for something. I'll take your credit for something.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Though.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's not so bad.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Glad to be here today. I heard was it the
Also on Tuesday, I was traveling to Spencer and Roon
County had of hearing at nine am up there and
so I got a chance to listen to the show.
They asked the expert show and also I think Tuesday
(02:34):
was the that was the fortieth forty. Now that's Metro News.
What about five eighty w c each.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We will be celebrating our one hundredth anniversary in twenty
twenty seven. November of twenty twenty seven will be our
one hundredth anniversary.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
All right, good, Well, we've been here at least the
majority of the time dev Metro News has been around,
because we've been doing the show since maybe end of
ninety eight, beginning of ninety nine and every Thursday. But
I did want to, you know, take a moment because
I know a lot of it's been good to us.
(03:10):
So we wouldn't be here doing advertising and our course,
we like doing the show. Every Thursday because we like
to talk, probably and and it gives me a break
from the office. I like coming out here and coming
to hint in town in the morning and answering folks
questions when I have time without having to do a
lot of things all at once to distract you. But uh, uh,
(03:32):
you know, so we've been doing it twenty five going on.
What we've been doing a twenty six years, I guess
every Thursday, but but I just wanted to echo what
was really said on Tuesday. It's it's really is about
the people, you know. And we've we've of course, we've
we've done some work with Matriny He's not just locally.
(03:53):
We're kind of we have not as much lately, but
we have kind of been the uh unofficial uh legal
angle opinion for Hoppy would have us on from time
to time, and then we did the pretty much every
day during the Blankenship trial, either Dad or I attended
for some period of the trial, and then we would
(04:14):
pop out during statewide and get on the horn with
Hoppy and do a little update on what was going
on with the trial, which was interesting, although yeah, it
was a long trial and not all what was really
exciting in the long run, right, Well, I just wanted
(04:34):
to comminate, you know, everybody, the longevity of staff is important.
Everybody treats us well around here. It's professional. So I just
wanted to echo what was said really on Tuesday and
compliment everybody at WV Metro News for doing a great
job over the years. And I guess we're just the
five eighty station for this show, but we've done a
(04:56):
lot of work here and there over the years with
statewide and it's been good to us. We wouldn't still
be here doing it twenty some years later, so hopefully
we'll keep it going.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, we actually appreciate it. And on five ad B
in the flagship for Metro News, it's alure's a lot
of crossover there, so there's definitely a lot of stuff
that's been there. And just briefly, Metro News is something
that's a bit of a unicorn. I've lived in I
don't know, five different states, different regions across the United States.
Say what network that's that's locally owned is very rare.
It was very rare even twenty years ago. It's even
(05:27):
more rare today. You know there these are it's West
Virginia News being brought to you by West Virginians from
equipment that was purchased not in West Virginia, but by
West Virginians. The end of the whole thing is basically
a small business run out of West Virginia, and that's
very unusual in the media space.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Yeah, and the long term guys that have been are based
in Charleston, like Chris Lawrence, and we also sponsored his
Western Outdoors show at least here on this channel every
Saturday morning, which we we love doing that because that's
right up our alley there, hunting and fishing. And I
don't know when and then Jeff Jenkins, I just don't
(06:03):
know when they sleep, because Chris is here in the
morning when we get here. Jeff's here in the morning
when we get here. And when it gets into football
and basketball season, you'll hear those same guys doing play
by play on the either the streaming broadcast now or
the of course the radio broadcast for the high school
sports and those go late.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's true, man.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
They they must have a hyperbaric chamber back here to
let you go in and get rejuvenated in an hour
or something.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Massive. Respect, there's no doubt about that.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, they're they're pros, they're good. But we're glad to
be a part of it and glad to be here today.
I also listening to the the news this morning. We
had Paul Hardesty on the who's the president of the
state Board of Education. Yes, yeah, and so he was
a I guess he gave a little talk at the
beginning of their meeting. Was here yesterday or the day before.
(06:52):
But we have an interesting you know, you have the
we talked about a little bit and a few weeks
ago this if you recall that there was some it
was a bill in a session in the legislative session
trying to which would have provided had various forms, but
(07:13):
it would have provided exemptions to the mandatory additional exemptions
to the mandatory immunization for children to attend public schools.
And as the law stood going into the session and
I read it, but there's a medical exemption. It requires
like a real licensed professional. I mean, some people have
(07:35):
allergies or other issues that make they know immunizations will
give them a side effect that's unsafe, and so they
can get an exemption. And then of course, going through
the legislature or bills that would allow religious exemptions or
philosophical exemptions, which essentially means if you don't want to
get vaccinated or your parents don't want you to, because three, four, five,
(07:59):
six year olds don't make their own decisions, obviously, then
you get out of the mandatory vaccination. So governing and
so that bill didn't pass, It didn't pass at all
in any form. And surely after the session, Governor Morsey decided, well,
that's I'm in an executive order saying that there's a
(08:21):
there's a separate statute that's general about religious freedom that
was passed maybe two three years ago, does not address
specific anything about vaccines specifically, as I recall, but he
decided to interpret that or his administration that that means
that there's a religious exemption under that law, or that
(08:43):
law provides an individual the right to opt out of
mandatory imanizations based on religious reasons. And and but the
law is still in the books, it's more specific about
(09:06):
mandatory organizations and and so you had a conflict there.
And so initially I think the maybe the executive director
of the State Board of Education sent out a memos.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
You know, we.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Despite what the governor's executive order says, we're going by
the specific law that addresses this issue. And then all
it was all kinds of grandstanding I think by the
Governor's office, and then that memo was rescinded. But then
ultimately I think the State Board of Education is took
(09:41):
the position that the more specific law applies versus Governor
Morris's interpretation of the executive order. Well, here come the lawsuits,
of course, to settle it, which is, I suppose you
have a conflict in the in the statutes there, and
so someone found a laws so I think in the
Circuit Court of Raleigh County, and then there was an
injunction order entered, meaning you basically preliminarily ruling in favor
(10:08):
of the parent who didn't want their child to be
immunized based on religious reasons. And so that's that's in
place right now, but it's being appealed and it's going
to go through the court system, and then we'll have
an answer. I mean, that's how you get answers to
legal questions. They filter up and then once our Western
(10:30):
Supreme Court of Appeals decides that that's going to be
the law of the land in West Virginia, and we'll
we'll know here before too long what the law is.
But well, it was interesting going back to Paul Hartesty,
you made a little statement because of course Governor Morsey,
with his modus operandi, began name calling as a part
of the process, which is I think over and over
(10:52):
again calling State Board of Education unelected bureaucrats, which of
course they aren't elected. I don't know what their bureau
And it was certainly a derogatory, uh label for the
members of the State Board of Education. So Paul Hardsty
I give him a lot of credit for this. He's
(11:13):
made a statement at the beginning, like you know, where
he takes offense to to that he's a public servant.
He doesn't have to be on the State Board of Education.
I'm sure he's he's done well professionally, otherwise I can't
be an easy job. And I kind of labeled him
as the grown up in the room because we're gonna
(11:33):
he said, we're gonna abide by whatever the court's decide,
but we don't need to be calling each other names
and derogatory terms. And I just thought that was refreshing
to hear, and and it's gonna filter through the court system.
And he said, you know, whatever, the decision is by
the highest court that governs our state. State Board of
Education is going to abide by it, and that's it.
(11:56):
But it was refreshing to hear somebody push back a
little bit on thiss. What I have noticed over the
last ten years of this childish behavior from politicians and
I don't know, baby, in this day of mass information
that appeals to people just turns me off. And of
course we've gotten conditioned to it now. I mean ten
(12:17):
years ago it would have been headlines. Some of the
things that these politicians say that are just absolutely childish
and unprofessional. And I think labeling public servants who you
know are perhaps taking a pay cut to do that job,
might be are well qualified to do that job, which
is who you want, and they aren't. They aren't. They
(12:39):
are unelected, but they are appointed by at least nominated
by the governor and then confirmed by the I think
the Senate, or at least.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Which is how we work in a representative democracy. You
have appointments and different things like that. Not everything is
a straight election. My suggestion to the governor would be,
if he thinks that voting is the answer for everything,
then we should just vote on all of his initiatives.
Let's see how they go. Yeah, but you can't, I know,
that's what I'm saying. I mean, not everything could be allowed.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That they Politicians generally want things to be voted on
that they think will pass, and then they don't leave
it to the voters for things that they think they
know better than everybody else. And there's something to that
because you know, we all of us non politicians that
are working every day and trying to make a living.
You know, you don't there's technical issues. There are a
(13:25):
lot of things that everybody can't research and know about,
and so you have to rely and trust your elected
officials to take into account the reliable information and make
good informed decisions. I don't know that we see a
whole lot, but you know that's the point, is that
the State Board of Education should be, to the extent
(13:45):
possible a political And of course that devetails into what
the legislature did this session, which is, you know, require
that was a reference, let the people vote on it.
And there's a referendum a few years ago to it
men the state constitution to allow the legislature to have
oversight over the rules and regulations passed by the State
(14:06):
Board of Education, and that failed, the voters turned it down.
So then what did the legislature do. Wait a couple
of years, and then they just passed a statute and
said exactly the same thing that they couldn't alter in
the constitution. So now we got that one's going up
to the to the court too, because the legislature has,
I guess to me, attempted some kind of warped interpretation
(14:32):
of the constitution, which it's in the constitution. I don't
have the language in front of me that you know,
essentially gives the details of the governing the public school
system to State Board of Education. Now it does say
the legislature's overall responsible generally for it, like allocating funds,
things like that. But so that one's filtering through the
(14:53):
system too, And I'm sure maybe Governor Morsey will use
that same label to criticize the State Board of Education,
although he would have to also be, by implication, criticizing
the voters who voted down the legislature overseeing we're approving
the regulations or rules enacted by the State Board of Education.
(15:14):
And the whole point is that you you know, these
folks are to have some expertise, and they're not be
worrying about are they going to get elected next year
or the year after, and then making decisions about kids
education based on how it will affect constituents or how
they can spin it in the public so they can
maybe even go to a higher office somewhere else. So
(15:36):
I thought that was refreshing to hear the actual sand
Bite was playing. Paul Hardesty was playing playing this morning,
and it was good. He I think he should run
for governor. He's probably too smart for that. But anyway,
so we're and then listening Tuesday as well, you had
(15:56):
I was listening to asked the expert, and we had
you had Is it Don Wilson with UH Capital Insurance Group, Yeah,
Capital Insurance Group, which she was good. And you know,
I was listening to him explain some aspects of automobile
insurance which I have interested in, and he was he
was accurate. I thought, But it's kind of good for
everybody to have a little refresher from time to time,
(16:17):
and because a lot of people are buying insurance on
the internet now and or you know, at least calling
in or online, and and the old days of visiting
your local insurance agent are still still available, and I
encourage that go find a local agent like Don Wilson
he was talking about. He's an independent agent, so he
(16:38):
can take in your situation and then he can, you know,
seek coverage from various insurance company. He's not a captive agent.
I don't know that there's a whole lot of cap
I think state farm or captive agents. So if you
go to a state and state Farm has a lot
of lines of coverage, so I'm not criticizing that, But
when you go to a state farm agent, I think
you're I think you're limited to state farm insurance products.
(17:01):
But if you go I know, like nationwide agents, at
least have a friend who Shenandin and Nitro. He I
know he can market to other uh. Even though he's
got the nationwide flag at his office and has for
probably decades. UH, he does have the ability to market
to other insurance carriers and select insurance. But it's always good,
(17:22):
I think to go in person and have an agent
spend some time with you, tell them your situation. And
of course there are salespeople in a way, but well
they are salespeople. I mean, if you have a claim,
you can report it through them, but then you'll notice
frustration sometimes even with your agent. My experience is they
generally want the claims paid because they're the ones on
the front lines dealing with your customer. But it's out
(17:44):
of their hands really once, once there's a claims made,
it goes to a different different uh, different agency or
a part of the company the adjusting underwriting. It's not
it's out of underwriting and into adjusting at that point.
But for insurance coverage, you know, it's interesting to hear
talk about you know, we used to be twenty forty
ten where her automobile insurance limits and that he was explaining,
(18:07):
So twenty forty ten was changed probably ten years ago
to twenty five fifty twenty five. What's that mean? So
that's the minimum limits of insurance coverage you must have
to own and operate a vehicle on the road in
West Virginia and the twenty five thousand and this is
(18:27):
to protect you generally, at least the liability portion is
to protect you and your family or anybody you give
permission to or has permission to operate your vehicle. They're
covered by your pulse that covers your vehicle. Like if
I said, yeah, you can drive my car around there
and go pick up a pop or something, and then
you rear in somebody, My coverage will apply first because
(18:51):
it's on the vehicle, even though I had wasn't at fault,
un list, I knew you had a problem, and let
you drive my car. You're drunk, and I say, go
drive around the corner, and then that there's probably fault
on me. But you're a good safe driver. He just
had an accident, So my coverage would kick in. Now,
if you hurt a person and then we get sued
(19:12):
and I only have the twenty five minimum limits, that's
all there is under my insurance to cover that person's damages,
And so it can be things like medical bills, loss wages,
pain and suffering. And if the person you hit, you know,
has two hundred thousand dollars in medical bills, is disabled
(19:35):
for a period of time, you know they're they're desperate
at that point. They need help because they're they and
their family are probably in financial crisis and dealing with
a tough situation. And say, all right, well let's see
what mister Peyton has for insurance. Well, he's only got
twenty five thousand dollars in coverage. Oh, well, the insurance
(19:55):
company will only pay that twenty five thousand dollars if
the person that's hurt one signs of release letting me
off the hook. Like they have to accept the twenty
five thousand dollars and go away as far as I'm concerned.
So if you have, if that person is seriously injured,
and me, I have some assets, and then that person's
(20:24):
going to get a lawyer or they should because they're
at a life changing event. And if they're hurt that bad,
they're not going to accept twenty five thousand dollars and
go away. Like I said, no, no, no, we're not going
to take that twenty five thousand dollars. We're just going
to sue. And then well, unless mister Peyton wants to
(20:45):
put in some of his impersonal money. Hey, if he'll
pay us an extra five hundred thousand dollars himself, then
we'll sign a release. Otherwise you get in a lawsuit
and that's where you're asked. Sets are exposed, and people
talk about trust and titling things, other people's names and
stuff that that works. Sometimes not very often when somebody's
(21:11):
hurt really bad, because if they have a lawyer knows
what they're doing for the injured person, and they're hurt
really bad, they're not going to leave any stone unturned.
So they're gonna foul lawsuit where they have the power
subpoena and they can make you come in and answer
questions about your assets and things like that. And if
you've got to trust or some don some weird things
(21:31):
to try and put your assets in another person's name
in the face of that kind of claim, then they're
going to find find that money and it's just going
to be problem unless file bankruptcy. You're exposed. Then Now
I will say that in West Virginia, your autobile insurance
company has a duty to defend you no matter what
until they pay that twenty five grand out which they
(21:53):
can't pay unless the hurt person signs a release. You'll
always have a lawyer to defend you because they have to.
Even if the cost to have a lawyer to defend
you is two hundred thousand dollars, the insurance carrier still
has to pay that despite the fact you only have
twenty five thousand dollars in coverage. Yeah, so you will
(22:14):
get a lawyer to defend you. But as soon as
my insurance company pays that twenty five grand, that lawyer's out.
So if you if you lose your case and there's
a judgment for two million dollars against me, then my
insurance company will pay that twenty five grand against that judgment.
And then they're they're done. And then here we go
(22:34):
with collection efforts where your wages could be garnished, your
bank accounts could be attached, all of your land could
have loans placed on it. So that's the minimum twenty
five thousand dollars, which I think Dom was saying he
doesn't even he starts with one hundred right with his
which I think is a good good practice. I mean,
(22:56):
if somebody says, no, I just want absolute cheap, obviously,
adjusting your coverage limits will adjust your premiums, you'd be
surprised it's not that much more to get some extra
coverage coverage. But that's where you hear the twenty five
thousand dollars. Then fifty is the middle number. That's the
minimum that means per accident. So same scenario I just
(23:20):
set forth there, except let's say there were four people
in that vehicle that were rear ended and they were
all hurt, then no one person can get more than
twenty five thousand dollars because that's the per person limit.
But everybody in that vehicle that was hurt combined, your
insurance company won't pay more than fifty for any of them.
(23:43):
So let's say I had five people in the vehicle
and they're all hurt equally, or they agree to divide it,
there's only fifty thousand dollars to spread between all five
of those people to in granting game in grand. Then
the final twenty five is the property damage. So that's
in that same scenario, obviously you've totaled or damaged their car.
(24:03):
Let's say it's total and it's a electric commer or
something who knows, but you know car you at eighty
nine thousand dollars. Car today is not uncommon on the road,
and so if you have the minimums, there's only twenty
five thousand dollars there to pay to fix that vehicle
(24:24):
or to replace that vehicle, and they can just say no,
and here comes the lawsuit again for the very same reason.
So I agree with Don that if you you check
out the prices and talk to your local agent about it,
But really starting at one hundred three hundred hundred is
is the lowest safe limit I think in West Virginia.
(24:46):
It depends on your on your on your finances obviously,
that's you know, everybody hopes that scenario won't happen to
them and if it, if it doesn't, you're fine. And
that's why it's kind of hard to prioritize paying extra
for a little extra coverage because you just don't know
when you're going to be in a wreck and well,
(25:08):
never happened. It's that's right, and so it's now you
can protect yourself in West Virginia. So every it's also
mandatory that everyone had uninsured motorist coverage, so you have
to have that at least at the minimum levels as well.
(25:29):
That way, if I did not have coverage on my
vehicle and I hit someone and they had a policy,
that's uninsured coverage, so that their own insurance company would
essentially step into my insurance company's shoes, so to speak,
and then pay that claim out the twenty five grand
(25:52):
or whatever limits you have, so you can you can
protect yourself from uninsured drivers by increasing those uninsured motorist
limits that we have. Some it is it responsible and
doesn't have insurance, hits you or your family. You still
have coverage for that, and it's the same minimum requirements
that you have for regular liability insurance. So and there's
(26:15):
my clients end up having uninsured motorists claims. Are frustrated because, well,
how is this person getting off scot free that that
didn't have insurance and was just negligent and wouldn't respond.
We tried to call them and ask them about it.
There are consequences for uninsured drivers. There's a most insurance
companies when they pay an uninsured claim will also report
(26:36):
that driver who didn't have insurance to DMV and there's
a licensed suspension aspect of the law. Your insurance company
also has the ability to two weird legal words subrogation.
But essentially, if your insurance company pays you uninsured motorists
(26:58):
coverage of say one hundred dollars, they can step into
your shoes, so to speak, and then go after the
person that did not have insurance to get their money back.
And that it happens more than you would think they
You know, you and I probably wouldn't spend the money
to do that because the the amount of time we'd
(27:19):
put into it. There's no you might win a judgment,
but the chance of actually getting money out of somebody
that was uninsured, didn't even have insurance.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Probably uninsured for a reason.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I mean, it's your odds aren't great. But when
you have really big insurance companies, it's kind of a
cost of doing business. And they I've seen them kind
of package those claims together and then they certain law
firms will do that collection work for them. So you know,
it doesn't really make my clients feel that much better
when they have to go under their own insurance policy
because other person didn't have insurance. But there are consequences too,
(27:54):
And first of all, they can also be cited for
failure to have insurance. A lot of times officers don't
know that because they might be given an insurance card
at the scene of the wreck, but they don't I
don't think they have a good way to verify there's
actually coverage when they're out there on the road. Meaning
you could get a month to month insurance policy to
get your registration and not pay the premium, and you
(28:16):
still got a card in your proof of insurance card
in your in your glove box that indicates you're covered,
but in fact you aren't because you haven't paid your premiums.
You need to take a little break.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, well we'll take a break. We're gonna take a break.
When we come back, we still have plenty more we
want to talk about. This is an interesting discussion as
far as with insurance goes. I know that from personal experience.
I've known people that's had complete losses of their vehicle
and they owed some money on it and it caused
them financial difficulties. To some agree if it didn't work out,
but it didn't ruin them. I've known people absolutely ruined
by not having enough coverage for liability for I know
(28:53):
people a ruined for that.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
It can put folks in bankruptcy. And I've had cases
where I know they have some assets, not enough injury,
not enough coverage, and we've gone after him personally, and
then sometimes they just get forced into bankruptcy. But you know,
I don't think anybody really likes to sue other people,
and nobody really likes to be sued I've ever found.
But you know, you get in an automobile accident where
(29:18):
you're the you're the primary wage joarner, and you've got
a family. I mean, it's you don't have a choice
really right at that point.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And that's and I was going to bring that up
as we go to the break you mentioned. We've been
talking about protecting yourself but also from people that might
be contracting your services. Don't be uh, don't be misled
by somebody saying my maximum coverage is fifty thousand dollars
or whatever it might be, and so your capped at
fifty thousand dollars. If you have damages to exceed that,
don't think that you don't have other recourse. You could
(29:45):
contact a lawger and that's an you can.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
There's a Western of Code section that it's it's a
little technical, but once you come to us and hire us,
we send those letters out right off the bat, and
it requires that autobile insurance company to send me either
entire policy or a certified declarations page. If you hear
the word deck page, that just that's the page that
lists that person's coverage amounts. So that's the first thing
(30:09):
we do is verify, make them send us official information
of what amount of coverage is there. And it's it's
it's a little technical, so you don't have to have
a lawyer to get that information out of the other
insurance company, but most folks that aren't attorneys have have
trouble doing it because the insurance company won't give it
to you unless you comply with these specific technical requirements
(30:29):
in westernion code.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, it's a good information and a good way to
tap into that information and give us a call this morning.
We do have a text message that came in. We'll
get to that as soon as we get back from
the three zero four three eight nine, So listener, thank
you for that. We'll get to that as soon as
we get back. You can text in a question as well.
If you have one threes aer A four nine three
five five zero zero eight threes or four nine three
five five zero zero eight, you can also give us
a call. We'll have a few minutes when we come back.
(30:51):
Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight
three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight.
You're asking him to ask the lawyer with Tom Payton
from the Payton Law Firm Online, Paton Lawfirm dot com
and Nitro West Virginia more details when we come back.
When asked the law you're a FAVEDWCHS the Voice of Charleston.
Speaker 5 (31:04):
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to life wv dot org.
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Speaker 2 (32:47):
You're listening to the voice of Charleston Bob ad Hs
and this is asked the lawyer Tom Payton is here
this morning from the Pathon Law Firm on line. Paythonlawfirm
dot com. Pathon Lawfirm dot com you can find out
more information. Located in t West Virginia. We got a
text message of right before we went to the break,
so we want to make sure we get to this.
This is from the three zero four three eight nine.
Good morning. Could Tom briefly touch on umbrella policies and
(33:09):
this comes from Joe.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, so that's a good question to an umbrella policy.
If you hear that that is a policy that you
can purchase oftentimes to the same autobill ensure that provides
your primary coverage, but that's like an excess policy. So
for example, and you always have to have a certain
amount of underlying coverage, so you might have two hundred
(33:31):
and fifty five hundred, one hundred or I don't know
that you need more than one hundred in property damage
for regular policies, but or two fifty five hundred two
fifty set your personal per accident and then property damage.
Then on top of that, you can purchase what's called
an umbrella policy. It's kind of a catch all policy,
(33:54):
and it usually covers most types of liability as certainly
automobile for sure, and so that normally would be about
a million, would be a million dollars. So you if
you buy an umbrella policy, then you have your underlying coverage,
which if one person's hurt, that's two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, and then you have an umbrella policy that's
(34:15):
a separate policy that stacks on top of that. So
you would have one point twenty five million dollars in
liability coverage. And I honestly think, I mean you rely
on your insurance local insurance agents to analyze your situation.
Depends on what kind of assets you have your risk tolerance.
But I think in West Virginia, for personal insurance, if
you've got that umbrella, you've got to feel safe that
(34:38):
you're you're pretty well protected by insurance. And that's the
way to versus doing the trying to put things in
trust and shielding your assets. Somehow, a lot of those
mechanisms don't work, if I mean, they just don't work.
They'll be pierced and they'll get access to that those
assets anyway if somebody's hurt. So if you, if you
(34:59):
have concerned about risk, get an umbrella policy. And I
think on auto the average West Virginia, if you can
afford it, if you can get that million plus the
underlying two point fifty, that's that's sufficient liability coverage for
you to feel comfortable and safe that if you were
a family member or somebody with permission causes a wreck
(35:20):
that hurts somebody really bad, you can feel pretty safe
that you know your insurance will take care of that
claim for you and you won't be sued for your
personal assets or forced into bankruptcy or something like that.
So it's an umbrella policy just stocks on top of
your other policy, and it's it's a good idea to
have them. So, hey, before we go, Dad's coming back
(35:42):
from his fishing trip this week, so he might be
here the next two weeks.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
We'll see how it plays out. So I wanted to
lay out my not near football. There we go. Okay,
we got an exciting seat. It's hard got.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
About ok because we got all new players, right, that's right,
and it's a rotten round two.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
That's right, and I'm I'm excited about it. So we
started off. We started off with Robert Morrison Morgantown. I'm
gonna Dad and I'll probably up for that game just
to see the new new folks. That's a win. And
we play at Ohio. I'm gonna plan to go to
that one too, and drive an hour, hour and fifteen
minutes to get there. Tickets are sold out, we'll get
them through w I think. But that's a win for
(36:21):
the Mountaineers. Then we got Pit at home in Morgantown.
I won't be there. I got a step by graduated Florida,
so we're going to the Florida LSU game. My son's
last semesters down there, so I'm gonna miss the Pit game.
But I'm marking it down as a win. There'll be
plenty of fans there. I think it'll be a charged
up attitude. I like going in with rich Rodriguez with
his attitude in that game, so I.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Think might want to be this time.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
He might jump on the field and tackle somebody if
it's going bad. Uh. Then we play at Kansas. Kansas
been better the last few years, but I think we
get a win there. Utadd home win, b y U
away loss, UCF win, TCU win, Houston win, Colorado win,
ASU in Texas Tech at the end. I think we
tend to play bad at the end of the season
(37:03):
under Rich Rod and ASU is pretty good. So I'm
good to mark those down and losses. So somewhat predicting
with my heart, but I've picked nine and three.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Whoa nine in three. I like it.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
That still probably only puts us somewhere between four and
six and the commerce, but much better than they predict
quick question.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Would you prefer to lose to pit and play for
the conference championship or beat.
Speaker 3 (37:25):
Pitt conference championship?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, that was a question today we have I think
it'll go the other way, yeah, and we won't play
for the conference Championship, Peyton Law Firm Online, Peyton Lawfirm
dot com seven five five fifty five fifty six three
zero four seven five five fifty five fifty six see
if back here next week. You're a Harvey Tom. Thanks
a lot. Thanks, have a great day everyone on five
at e w CCHS. I'll see him two seconds fin
(37:49):
whs aminty six point five that Charleston one zero four
point five Cross Lanes WVRC Media Station. We're proud to
live here too,
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