December 18, 2025 • 38 mins
Host Jeff Jenkins 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 ad WHS
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Of Courts Oh Created Equal.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well Mass Come here in a kadon y can box
and cope.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Good morning. It's a twenty two and five eighty us
the Voice of Charleston. I'm Jeff Jenkins filling in for
Dale Cooper today and it's time to talk to them
all Peyton at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
Tom is on the phone today. Tom, good morning, How
you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I'm doing well. Jeff doing well. Not not there in
the studio, appearing by phone this morning. Hate to not
be in the studio, but got other important obligations today.
So we're actually in Baton Ridge for my son Houston's
graduation from LSU. So Dad and I are both down
here but glad we can appear one way or another
(01:30):
because we hate to miss the show. And I think
obviously next week is Christmas, right, it's running up on
New Year's the following weeks, this may be the last
show of the year. It's New Year's Eve. We might
be able to come in, but glad to be on.
Well it did graphic report.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yeah, hey, congratulations to Houston. Big accomplishment there.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Great thanks. Yeah. You know, both my kids went out
of state for college and both of them are coming back.
But one of them's back in West Virginia working and
he is coming back to work for how too. So
we'll see if they can State of Westviginia can keep
them sticking.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Around, right, you like that in migration, that's what That's
what West Virginia needs.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
That's right, That's right. Well, I think unfortunately, I think
unless some things change, it may not be a trend.
But my two kids are doing what they can to
help with that.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
So Tom, we are, you know, toward the end of
the year here and time to look back. And I
know you guys have had a successful year, a busy
year at the Peyton Law Firm.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Oh yeah, we've stayed busy you know, I feel like
what we do, of course, our breath butter is kind
of civil litigation. We like to try cases to juries
and we usually do pretty well, and most of those
involve injuries of some sort, whether it's a financial injury
or a physical injury from an automobile accident or a fall,
(03:00):
or to speak with an insurance company. But we, as
you know, we do a lot of other things to
help people, and so we kind of pride ourselves on
being members of the community and being able to help
people with their everyday needs because hopefully you're not in
a car wreck and we're a victim of a insurance
company denying a claim. But most everybody at some point
(03:20):
in their life's going to need some basic deedwork done,
some estate planning, do some so security, disability, that kind
of things. We feel like we've helped do our part
this year, as we do every year. But yeah, we
stay quite busy. However, if you have a call on
any subject matter or a question, I guess I would say,
(03:41):
then don't hesitate to give us a call or send
us an email through the website goes right to my
email and dad's email. We don't have any kind of
answering service or can service that responds. That being said,
if we happen not to get back with you, just
send another one could have gone to junk mail, or
we could have got over overlooked by us. But we're
always glad to answer basic questions about legal matters and
(04:07):
a lot of times we can take a few minutes
and and give you some information and get you on
the right track and you don't really need to hire
an attorney to to handle the matter. So yeah, it's
been a good another good year at Peyton Law Firm.
That was Sean last week, you guys, salesperson. So we're
we'll be back for another year next year.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Every Thursday morning, all right, that's great news. And Tom,
I know, you know you see relatives this time of
year and you know it's it's it's the holiday, so
it's festive occasions, but it's you know, it's not a
bad time to discuss if someone maybe doesn't have a
will done or you know, those type of things. Maybe
that's a discussion to have and to eliminate any maybe
(04:50):
misconceptions about it being difficult, you know, because that's what
you guys, that's some of the bread and butter things
that you guys do often.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, that's you know. People of course you forget when
you grew up as a as a trial lawyer, practicing
lawyer's son, and then went right into practicing law. The
people get, you know, because some people are intimidated by lawyers.
And then when you're talking about things like wills, power
(05:20):
of attorneys, you kn'd of lose this sense of doing.
You know, probably drafted, I mean certainly thousands of wills
for folks in West Virginia. But you know, it's uncomfortable
to talk about because it's you know, you're talking about
the ultimate issue there, and so I try and be
sensitive to that. But getting wills done, getting basic power
of attorneys done, it's not too late till it's too late.
(05:43):
And on power of attorneys, for example, the financial power
of attorney and probably less important because doctors will find
a family member to make a decisions. Medical power of attorneys,
where you can choose your medical power attorneys are particularly
important if you have a may blended family where you
might have children from a different relationship than your spouse.
(06:04):
So in that situation, you really want to make sure
you designate the person you want to make medical decisions
for you if you can't do it yourself. And then
what's called a durable power of attorney. That's that's the
one that has to do with business or finances and
the you know, you may be married, maybe you're on
your spouse's bank account, you're on each other's bank accounts,
(06:27):
so naturally you can sign texts because you're an owner.
But at some point if one of you becomes incapacity,
has a stroke or something long term incapacity, you will
run into situations where you will not be able to
act on behalf of your spouse because you don't have
inherent authority to do that just because you're marriage. There
might be a utility bill that was only in one
(06:48):
person's name, there might be insurance. You know, you've got
tax returns, things like that. And if you have that
kind of long term incapacity and you don't have a
durable well, there's two ways you can act on behalf
of another person. You can if you didn't do a
durable power of attorney, or they did not while they
(07:10):
were competent to execute one, then you've got to go
through a court process. And it's not I mean, I've
done quite a few, so it's not complicated litigation for me,
but it takes time. You have to file a petition,
you got to have a doctor certify they're incapacitated. You've
got to file accountings, you might have to be bonded.
(07:31):
It's just something, and you got to pay a lawyer
if you want a lawyer to help you do it.
It's easy for me to say it's not that complicated
to do because I'm a lawyer and done a lot
of them. But if you go and try and do
it yourself, I find a lot of folks get really
overwhelmed and sometimes just don't get it done. You can
prevent all that by just getting a durable power of
attorney done. As long as you have some family member
(07:52):
or even a close friend that you trust that if
you become incapacitated, they they won't cheat field they'll help
try and help you out with your finances. Then it's
smart to get a durable power of attorney done. Why
you can and then unfortunately, Jef, you know, we have
people call it why my dad needs a power of attorney.
He's got dementia and you know he's in a care home.
(08:15):
But you can't impress one upon someone else. They have
to tell me who they want and be able to
understand it and sign it themselves. So it's once you
get to that point, it's too late. So you know,
it is something. As people get towards the end of
the year and maybe get together with family, they start
thinking about but and then doing some very simple wills,
(08:38):
which we do frequently. They aren't. We try and keep
it affordable for folks, and if you do power of
attorneys and wills, we kind of package them together as
for one one fee, and it's it's not onerous and
the process is very simple. You know, you come in
the office meet It usually takes us a half hour
to an hour just to talk about what you want
(08:58):
to do, and then come back for one more appointment,
usually a few weeks out, and we've got all the documents,
witnesses ready, et cetera. And we also never make anybody
pay during that first appointment, Jeff, So if you come
in and decide what it's I don't think I need
to have this done or et cetera, then at least
you've had the consultation. You can always call us back
and finish up later. But it's a it's a painless
(09:20):
process as far as dealing with us. We think, you
know a lot of people leave the office saying, well,
that wasn't so bad or that wasn't very difficult. Uh,
and then once they get that work done, it's just
kind of a weight off their chest because it's something
you you know, you don't really have to do, but
you know you should and it weighs on your mind.
So it is a good time to think about that.
(09:42):
And it's if you want some of that type work done,
it's real simple. You can email our office, but probably
best to call and staff will set an appointment and
uh then we take it from there.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
And also that's where you can get into, uh the
transfer on death d that we've talked about before. You
know that that that that can also be a headache reliever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, that's right. Everybody's you know, well, you hear awful
lot of times. I hear about, well, the nursing home
is going to take my home, and you know, there
are concerns about that at the nursing home doesn't take
your home. But you know there's only right now, you
either have long term care insurance if you need to
go into a care home, like a nursing home type facility.
(10:24):
I don't know what the percentage is of folks that
have long term care insurance, but it is extremely low.
Otherwise you have to pay your own way, pay cash,
and nursing home or intensive skilled nursing care is very
expensive and a lot of times folks have to spend
(10:46):
down they and right now, the only mechanism to pay
for it other than yourself is through medicaid. And medicaid's
a welfare program which has negative connotations, but what that
really means is that anybody qualifies for it as long
as you qualify financially, so you really can't own property,
with some exceptions. You can own a home as long
as it's under a certain amount. It's an extremely high amount,
(11:08):
so most of my client's value, So most of my
clients don't have to worry about that they can keep
their home. But we can do some things with some
deed work that'll make sure that, for example, the government
doesn't come back and put a lean on it or
affect their ability to pass their home down maybe to
their children if they happen to need a going to
(11:30):
a nursing home. So when you come in for that
initial consultation about your estate planning wills. That's one of
the things we might talk about if you have those concerns.
And most people now that google it, they'll see transfer
on death deed and I still call it new, but
the legislature created it ten years ago, and it's a
really effective way to keep your home out of probate
(11:54):
and get it passed to your heirs without you losing
any othership interest in your home. You used to hear
about all dating it to kids, but reserving a life
of state or maybe making adult children joint owners. Transform
death deeds are really good because you essentially make your
heirs your death beneficiary of your home, but you don't
(12:19):
lose any ownership interest in it. So if you decide
you want to borrow some money against take a home
equity line or a reverse mortgage, or you want to
sell it, even though there's a deed recorded naming for example,
maybe your children as beneficiaries, they don't have any say
so in that it doesn't affect your ownership and so
you get full free control of your property dislike you
(12:40):
would otherwise. But if you pass away the moment you do,
your heirs in it that are designated on that deed
and that can help with a lot of things, the
fact that it just passes title immediately upon death, and
so yeah, we go over all that during our state
planning appointments and if that's a concern, we can get
that done and that that process is or if you
(13:01):
don't need it, will you just need to transform death deed.
That's a really easy process because with technology these days,
in most counties in West Virginia, we can see they're
recorded deeds, and if you want to transform death deed done,
you can literally just call our office and tell us
that you want to have one done, identify what county
to properties in, and who your beneficiaries are. We draft
(13:22):
it and of course I answer any questions you might
have about it, and then you come in just during
regular business hours and sign it and we take care
of it. And again it's a real reasonable price, so
it's for our fee and we record it for you
and take care of it. So that's a very very
easy process. If you're listening out there and want to
have a transform death deed done, you research it, you
(13:44):
know what you want to do. All you will need
to do is call the office the days of having
to bring deeds in and copy the deeds are for
the most part over with technology because we have accounts
that allow us to access, you know, all the records
and almost I don't know if it's every county in
West Virginia, certainly the counties that we operate in regularly, Jeff,
we can go on the internet and print off the
(14:04):
deeds and take care of it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Tom Peyton's with us Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
this is his show, the Peyton Law Firm every Thursday
morning for a couple of decades. Now here on five
eight WCCHS and Tom as as the transfer on death
deed would indicate in its name, it doesn't transfer until
there's the death right. I mean it doesn't it It
has no effect until the death.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, that's probably a good you know, couple different things
that older folks have concerns with, going back to the
power of attorney, and this is a kind of a misconception.
So if you if you sign a durable power of attorney,
let's say you appoint one of your children, now they
can use if you want them to use it, while
you're perfectly competent as a convenience matter, let's you know,
(14:48):
you want them to talk to X, Y and Z
creditor because you can't deal with it. You can let
them use it, but they they can override you as
long as you're competent. So when you sign a durable
power attorney, it does not appoint somebody to take over
your affairs. That's not what happens. And that's an important
(15:09):
aspect is if you've become incapacitated, then then certainly yes
they can use that and do whatever you could do,
but they can't trump you, so to speak. So if
you want to. I do have calls from time to
time where you know, maybe a child's concerned about their
parents' expenditures or what they're doing with their money. But
(15:30):
whether it's eccentric, not smart, financially, et cetera. You know,
that's the parents' money and if they want to give
it to some particular entity or some foundation or whatever,
they're entitled to do that, and a child can't use
a durable power attorney to override that, of course, unless
(15:50):
the parent is deemed incapacitated, and that usually has to
be done by medical professional or a psychologist. But the
transfering death deed kind of that same concept as you're
you know, even though you designate beneficiaries and the deed,
they have no interest in it until you pass away.
(16:11):
And you can even if you change your mind, which
we have clients do that you call us and we
can do a new transfer and death deed that only
you need to sign your your kids for example, or
whoever your beneficiaries were in the first transform death deed
don't need to get notice of it, they don't need
to sign off on it. So you can change your
mind by us just simply doing another deed. Or you
(16:34):
can even just revoke the transfer on death deed and
have it passed by will or otherwise. We have we
draft those documents as well. Doesn't happen as frequently, but
that's again that's that's the unique benefit of the transfer
and death deed is that it's recorded, it's effective upon death,
but it does not prevent you from doing anything with
(16:56):
your property while you're still living. But it avoids people
get concerned about quote probate, which is not complicated in
West Virginia compared to other states, but to have things
passed outside probate, outside the probate process, which is essentially
a term for the application of regular inheritance law or
(17:16):
things passing by the will in West Virginia, it does
expose your assets to potential creditors. And when it passes
outside probate, which is transformed death d does, then you
potentially bypass some creditors making claims against your home. So
a lot of it, there's really nothing bad about it
transforming deafty and if you can afford the maybe a
few hundred dollars to get it done, and you know
(17:38):
who you want to get your property, and it's not
too complicated, too complicated, you got to do it through
a will. But there's really I've found little to no
downside to these transformed death dys since they've been in place,
and so it's it's always a good idea if you
have the wherewithal to get it done.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
It's a thirty nine on five eighty, would you sehs
the voice of try Tom Payton with the Peyton Law
Firm is with us this morning. We'll take our one
and only break and rejoin Tom in just a moment.
Thanks for joining us this morning. It's a thirty nine
on five eighty wchs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
If you've been.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Injured, you need a lawyer who knows West Virginia because
they live in West Virginia. Tom and Harvey Peyton were
born and raised here. They've spent decades fighting for injury victims,
and they know how to get results. At the Peyton
Law Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation, and local
attorneys who care. Call seven five five fifty five fifty
(18:34):
six today or visit Peyton Lawfirm dot com. The attorney's
referenced in this ad or lifelong residence and are licensed
to practice law in the state of West Virginia.
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Speaker 5 (19:54):
Eight forty one five eight w cchs The Voice of Charleston.
Day of December twenty twenty five. Jeff Jenkins with you
this morning with Tom Peyton, the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
Tom on the road today, big family event graduation at
LSU of his son Houston, and so the Peytons are
celebrating that down in Baton Rouge. And what's the weather
(20:16):
like there today?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Tom? It's going to be mid seventies, maybe upter seventies.
Signing some class all right, it was sick. What's the
weather like there?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Nice?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yes, night, yeah, yep, We've got sunshine. We're going to
head Dow. I think to the sixties and get some rain,
get some winds, so it's going to think change it
a little bit there tomorrow, gotcha.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, And speaking of rain and win one thing that
we are I kind of beat this drum a few
shows ago, but we're still seeing some filter in that
they're fallout from the big hail storm. I don't know
if it hit Charleston as hard, but last April I
almost remember. I think it was April fourteenth. If I remember, crack,
I know it because we've got so many claims arising
(20:59):
from that storm, mostly hit Putnam County and Nitro Cross
Lanes got hit as well. But that's the storm where
we had Unfortunately I was driving in it almost probably
golf ball size hail. And the cases that we're handling
pretty regular. We even getting some referrals from other attorneys
to our office to handle arise from homeowners or hazard
(21:23):
insurance companies denying claims, and we've had some success with us.
So if you're out there and you're still having a
dispute with your homeowner's insurance care about whether they will
repair sighting or rough then don't hesitate to give us
a call because those type claims if we take them on.
(21:45):
We take them on contingency, so you don't have to
pay a servi atain or an hourly rate, and we
can do it, get some basic information, look at some
documents and kind of screen those rather quickly to see
if it's something that we can help you with. So
if anybody out there has got those, you know. I
think what also happened with these is at the beginning
(22:05):
a lot of insurance and gestures were sent in the
same things seem to be going smoothly. That first wave
kind of passes as a gestures go back out of
state wherever they're from, and then folks have had real
trouble communicating with their insurance care. They might get a
check for a portion of their repairs, but maybe garage
(22:28):
or you know, something next to their primary house ref
isn't getting paid for it, and it's become rather difficult
to get insurance companies to pay for those at times.
But if you have that type issue, you're still dealing
with it certainly. If if you want us to help,
then don't hesitate to give us a call an email.
We can get some basic information rather quickly and see
(22:48):
if it's something that we can handle. For you. So
we are doing. We probably have ten or so of
those pending right now. We've had some success with them,
so don't that's another thing not to hesitate to give
us a call if you have a question. I know
a lot of folks will file through the Insurance Commissioner's
Office West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, because when you get letters
(23:09):
from your insurance career that might deny a claim, they
have the disclaimer at the bottom. But you can call
the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office, which is a administrative process.
I would say the insurance commissioner is really good if
you're just trying to get your insurance company to communicate.
Sometimes you can't get them to respond at all. I
(23:30):
would say that if you actually have an insurance company
who did communicate and denied your claim, in most cases,
you're better off to hire a private attorney to handle
your claim versus going through the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office.
And that's not to be negative about the Western Insurance
Commission's Office, but they are limited in what they can
do versus a regular circuit court of general jurisdiction. So
(23:54):
the relief you can get there is not the same
that you can't get a jury trial. For example, when
there's certain damages or or monetary relief that you just
can't get to the insurance Commissioner's office, and a lot
of people would file there and then contact us, and
we just if you did do that, it's not too
late to call us. We can we regularly just dismiss
(24:16):
the insurance commissioner administrative proceeding and then we think it
to conventional court, to a potential jury trial. Of course,
most of them don't get to a jury trial there.
You know, ninety eight percent of civil cases settle and
they don't any different.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Tom, What is the is there similar reasons why those
are being denied?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, what we're seeing, well, some of them we just see, well,
there's no hell damage on this rough Now we think
of conventional asphalt singles like we have on most of
our roads, and say, I've had some really you know,
I kind of look at the common sense aspect, because
(24:57):
you know, they can hire an expert. We can hire
an expert. But when you have a neighborhood and you
know eight other people around you had their robes repaired
by their insurance company because they had heal damage to me,
it's hard to fathom how you couldn't have heal damage
when when you're rough and sometimes just get this, there's
not like your house is the death Star off Star
Wars with these field around it. So it kind of
(25:20):
decides coming since I've seen some of those, and I
think those you just get rogue, bad adjusters. Sometimes no
things we see, well it's you know, wear and tear
and not from hail and and you know there's robes.
Conventional asphalt shingles only have a life of so long
before they're supposed to be replaced. But at the same time,
(25:41):
whether it's two years old or ten years old, you know,
if you have heal damage, you're there's not a good
way to repair that damage other than rough replacement. So
we'll see a lot of kind of maybe partial payments
and things like that, and so that's that's kind of
what we're seeing. And then there are roads that may
be commercial settings where they're made of different materials. You
(26:04):
have metal robes, you have different kind of materials that
there might be a dispute about whether that material did
actually withstand the hail storm and didn't suffer damage that yeah,
causes leagues, but you know, that's not necessarily issue. It
might have damaged it so bad the warranty has not
(26:25):
got any longer, or it might have damaged it in
a way that you can't see from the outside that
shortened its useful life. And so those are those are
some common examples.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
In some of those cases, time if people already make
got the repairs done, but they've taken photos or whatever,
you know, because it has been over a year.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well it's been less than it was April of uh
this year, so yeah, it will be Yeah. But in
any of if there's any case where I mean insurance companies,
what then I'm going to do with adjusters. They they
don't go out and find a contractor to fix your rough.
They have unitized values. You'll see these kind of the
(27:09):
same type format on these computer generated adjusting tools, and
so they spit out a number minus you're deductible of
what you know theoretically it would cost to have your
real fix. For example, well you might get one, two
or three local contractors who know it's going to cost
(27:30):
this to pay for it. So if even that differential
is the same as a den ad claim and you
you generally have replacement coverage replacement value coverage. So if
you have an estimate for what it will actually get
get your real repaired versus what your insurance company says
(27:50):
they're going to pay you, they really need to pay
you what it will actually cost. And what they should
do if they behave properly, is just supplement their initial
payment to with the difference between what it'll cost to
actually get it repaired and what they thought it would
cost to get it repaired initially. But even that differential
is enough for us to step in on handing those claims.
(28:11):
And of course our goal, and we're almost universally successful
in these claims, is to make sure our clients, you know,
recover enough where the already gets paid and then they
get certainly enough in their pocket to make sure they
get all the repairs paid for. But yeah, if you've
already had some work done and you know you've got
(28:32):
a contractor that you can't afford to pay the balance to,
or you've already paid out of pocket, that doesn't necessarily
foreclose your claim. Certainly, there would have been some pictures taken,
and I you know, folks can hire expensive engineers and
things like that, but I think a good experienced riffing
contract that's local is an excellent and there's nothing that
(28:56):
forbids that person from being an expert witness on heal damage.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
We use them frequently, Okay, so they can just give
your office a call or contact you.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, yeah, it can cost at the office. It's and
our office number is three or four seven five five, five,
five five six, so it's three or four seven, a
bunch of fives and a six, or you just get
to our website at Peyton Law Firm dot com that's
pe wise as opposed to pay and you can submit
an inquiry there and we'll email back and you know,
(29:28):
ask for maybe some documentation, We take a look at
it and if it's the claim we can handle, we'll
you know meet or talk in detail by telephone about
the process and how we do it. And it's it's
pretty simple and we've been very successful with them. But
they're just you didn't really see them right after the
storm because seem like insurance companies were processing these claims
(29:50):
quickly and being responsive, and they just probably from September forward,
we're starting to see these claims kind of come to
culminate because you're not getting responses from insurance companies sometimes
and you just you never know. You know, I've seen
the same I won't name them, but you know I've
seen particular really popular known homeowners insurance carriers handle claims smoothly,
(30:16):
treat they're insured really well, and then all of a
sudden you have a random where they're just you got
maybe a problem adjuster or just can't get responses from them,
and there's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason
to it sometimes but we get those corrected, usually rather quickly.
So you've got one of those type of issues, don't
(30:38):
hesitate to give us a call. And those are all
contendency if we take them, so you won't be paying
us an hourly rate or going paying out of pocket
for twenty fees or cost to handle the case.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Tom Payton's with this Peyton Law firm in Nitro. Got
a couple more minutes here. It's eight point fifty two.
Tom joining us by phone today here on five ADWCHS
and Tom, we head into the new year. What you know,
we got the legislature, We've got judicial elections next year
in May. There's a there's a couple of seats in
the Supreme Court Judge Kirkpatrick has announced from down in
(31:13):
Raleigh County, retired Jesse he's going to run for Supreme Court.
So we'll have some we'll have.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Some challenge that. Yeah, I know that Justice Ewing was
dis appointed and he's running.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
And then Justice Titus, I think is going to run.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
You know, I've had he worked for Spielman, uh, Thomas
Battle and Charleston, but uh, Gill Titus is a really
good person in my estimation. I served with him on
the Board of Governors and had a couple cases with him.
But I think he'll be sworn in I think the
first if he's not already sworn in.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
But yeah, I think I think he's already been. I
think he's already been sworn in like like a private
ceremony because they've because they had to do they had
to make some decisions on a couple of cases.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Okay, yeah, yeah, so those of course those are non partisan,
and I didn't know Judge kirk Patrick was going to run.
But yes, we'll have some action there. What we've got,
probably the most interesting thing we've talked about lately, or
the most publicity that's been garnered, is the compulsory vaccine case,
(32:20):
and how it compares to the I think, was it
the Religious Freedom Act that Governor Morrisey is relying upon
one to say that that overrides the requirement that public
school children have certain vaccinations for the inner school. And
then the judge down that's Treble, I believe done in
Raleigh County ended up issuing a rather lengthy order saying
(32:42):
that the mandatory vaccine law is in essence trumped by
the religious freedom Law, and you don't you know, all
you have to do is basically sending a piece of
paper saying your child's name, identification information, and you don't
want to have to get the mandatory vaccine for them,
and you can go to public school. That's been halted.
(33:02):
It was halted rather quickly by our Supreme Court. So
right now status close in place. And so you know,
the state Board of Education and the local county boards
still must require certain vaccinations for a child to attend
public school. There was a little window when that wasn't
the case, although the Trouble may have stayed his order
(33:24):
pending the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court stayed Judge
Freble's order, meaning said wait a minute, it's hold up
and I know they those civil cases generally go to
the Intermediate Court of Appeals first and then the Western
Supreme Court, but this one, because of such public concern,
has now been brought straight to the Westernian Supreme Court.
So I think we'll see a final ruling on that
(33:45):
in the spring, would be my guess. And so that'll
be an interesting one to kind of keep track of
and how it kind of jobs with the legislature, because
as you recall, last year there were discussions about there
were built introduced that wouldn't require mandatory vaccinations if a
(34:06):
parent claimed a religious exemption and didn't didn't get any traction.
And so now we'll see if they maybe react to
what the courts are doing and modify with the legislature,
which they can do, which may move the court case
at that point.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
I've seen some discussion tom where because that began in
the Senate, passed the Senate last year, where the Senate
Health Chair is said, if it's going to run, it's
going to have to come from the House. And I
don't think the how it doesn't seem how you think
it happened, as you know, but it doesn't seem like
right now there might be an appetite in the House
to at least in the Health Committee to do anything
(34:42):
about that. So it might just come down to this
court case.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Yeah, and you know, it's a political hot potato. So
it seems that sometimes when the legislature can just kind
of put it off on the courts, that's the most
appealing thing to do. Probably, if I was predicting, the
legislature will let it rie and have the court decided,
and then, of course then oftentimes you see the reaction
(35:06):
after that, maybe in a future session in the years
to come, if they you know, if the majority of
the legislature disagrees with the how the courts resolved that,
then they might modify after that. But yeah, I think
you're probably right. It's just such a hot button issue,
strong feelings on each side right now. The legislature's got
it in a position where they don't have to deal
(35:27):
with it because the court's going to deal with it.
So I suspect we'll see it see it play out
that way. I really looking at me, I've kind of
I've read the breeze for the orders. You know, I
would guess that Judge Froebel's ruling is probably not going
to hold up. But that's real speculation at this point
with our Supreme Court. But I my initial gut feeling was, well,
(35:52):
we have a specific law about mandatory vaccinations, compulsory vaccinations,
and then you have this very general law all about
religious freedom that when it was passed an intent. I
don't think compulsory vaccination law was never brought up. If
if that would have been the intent, then they would
(36:12):
have stated so in the bill or in the in
the statute on the religious freedom issue, and so I
just thought the more specific statute would probably control. But
there's a lot of dynamics to it. How do you
tell if somebody has a sincere religious belief or just
you know, some other reading doesn't want their child to
get vaccines and the Religious Freedom Act is supposed to
(36:35):
be based on sincere religious beliefs. Now, the judge Frobil found, well,
you just can't. There's no ellipmus test to figure that out.
So as long as the parent says it, then that's it.
There's no looking behind it. It doesn't seem to be
what the stetute requires, but it's it's interesting issues when
you see language on paper, but how do you apply
it in practice, and then you get into intent and
(36:57):
sincere beliefs, you know, it's there is no path to
determine someone's thought processes and belief so it's it's an
interesting case and we'll see how that plays out here
in the spring. I think I'll decide that the spring
term that way will be some clarity going into the
school year next.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Year, Tom, get us a we got about a minute here.
Best way to contact you and your dadt the Peyton
Law Firm.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah, we can stop by the office when we're there.
If we're not there or available, then we have you know,
good staff and all he's out front. We have the nice, nice,
nice continual staff. So you can stop in there at
twenty oh one First Avenue. That's the main Dragon Night
rare just to minute off the interstate. You can of
course give us a call at three oh four seven
five five five five five six, or perhaps the best
(37:44):
way to reach Dad and I, even when we're traveling
is just go through the website at Peyton Law Firm
dot com and send us an email and we you
know turns these days, we get them wherever we are.
If it's something that requires some real urgency, then we
respond respond, I was responding to emails last night here
from Baton Ridge. So and you won't hear from any
canned services, are AI. You will hear from actual humans
(38:08):
that grew up, worked here and are glad to help
the folks there in West Virginia.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
All right, congratulations to Houston today and enjoy Thanks.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
We'll pass that along, okay, Merry Christmas?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
All right, you too, Tom Peyton, Peyton Law Firm, and Nitro,
thanks for joining us again this Peyton Lawfirm dot Com
at seven five five five, five, five six a, ABC
News on the way, next in local news and then
five and you're live at day album. Dave Allen on
five eight w c CHS The Voice of Charles.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Five AD w C HSA ninety six point five Charleston
one oh four point five Cross Lanes.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
WVRC Media Station. We're proud to live here too,
Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich
the realtor makes real estate dreams a reality, whether it's
residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to Huntington covered. Your
key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks
Realty Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
The views and opinions expressed on this program do not
necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five ad WHS
it's employees or WVRC Media.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Of Courts Oh Created Equal.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well Mass Come here in a kadon y can box
and cope.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Good morning. It's a twenty two and five eighty us
the Voice of Charleston. I'm Jeff Jenkins filling in for
Dale Cooper today and it's time to talk to them
all Peyton at the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
Tom is on the phone today. Tom, good morning, How
you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I'm doing well. Jeff doing well. Not not there in
the studio, appearing by phone this morning. Hate to not
be in the studio, but got other important obligations today.
So we're actually in Baton Ridge for my son Houston's
graduation from LSU. So Dad and I are both down
here but glad we can appear one way or another
(01:30):
because we hate to miss the show. And I think
obviously next week is Christmas, right, it's running up on
New Year's the following weeks, this may be the last
show of the year. It's New Year's Eve. We might
be able to come in, but glad to be on.
Well it did graphic report.
Speaker 5 (01:46):
Yeah, hey, congratulations to Houston. Big accomplishment there.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Great thanks. Yeah. You know, both my kids went out
of state for college and both of them are coming back.
But one of them's back in West Virginia working and
he is coming back to work for how too. So
we'll see if they can State of Westviginia can keep
them sticking.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Around, right, you like that in migration, that's what That's
what West Virginia needs.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
That's right, That's right. Well, I think unfortunately, I think
unless some things change, it may not be a trend.
But my two kids are doing what they can to
help with that.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
So Tom, we are, you know, toward the end of
the year here and time to look back. And I
know you guys have had a successful year, a busy
year at the Peyton Law Firm.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Oh yeah, we've stayed busy you know, I feel like
what we do, of course, our breath butter is kind
of civil litigation. We like to try cases to juries
and we usually do pretty well, and most of those
involve injuries of some sort, whether it's a financial injury
or a physical injury from an automobile accident or a fall,
(03:00):
or to speak with an insurance company. But we, as
you know, we do a lot of other things to
help people, and so we kind of pride ourselves on
being members of the community and being able to help
people with their everyday needs because hopefully you're not in
a car wreck and we're a victim of a insurance
company denying a claim. But most everybody at some point
(03:20):
in their life's going to need some basic deedwork done,
some estate planning, do some so security, disability, that kind
of things. We feel like we've helped do our part
this year, as we do every year. But yeah, we
stay quite busy. However, if you have a call on
any subject matter or a question, I guess I would say,
(03:41):
then don't hesitate to give us a call or send
us an email through the website goes right to my
email and dad's email. We don't have any kind of
answering service or can service that responds. That being said,
if we happen not to get back with you, just
send another one could have gone to junk mail, or
we could have got over overlooked by us. But we're
always glad to answer basic questions about legal matters and
(04:07):
a lot of times we can take a few minutes
and and give you some information and get you on
the right track and you don't really need to hire
an attorney to to handle the matter. So yeah, it's
been a good another good year at Peyton Law Firm.
That was Sean last week, you guys, salesperson. So we're
we'll be back for another year next year.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Every Thursday morning, all right, that's great news. And Tom,
I know, you know you see relatives this time of
year and you know it's it's it's the holiday, so
it's festive occasions, but it's you know, it's not a
bad time to discuss if someone maybe doesn't have a
will done or you know, those type of things. Maybe
that's a discussion to have and to eliminate any maybe
(04:50):
misconceptions about it being difficult, you know, because that's what
you guys, that's some of the bread and butter things
that you guys do often.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yeah, that's you know. People of course you forget when
you grew up as a as a trial lawyer, practicing
lawyer's son, and then went right into practicing law. The
people get, you know, because some people are intimidated by lawyers.
And then when you're talking about things like wills, power
(05:20):
of attorneys, you kn'd of lose this sense of doing.
You know, probably drafted, I mean certainly thousands of wills
for folks in West Virginia. But you know, it's uncomfortable
to talk about because it's you know, you're talking about
the ultimate issue there, and so I try and be
sensitive to that. But getting wills done, getting basic power
of attorneys done, it's not too late till it's too late.
(05:43):
And on power of attorneys, for example, the financial power
of attorney and probably less important because doctors will find
a family member to make a decisions. Medical power of attorneys,
where you can choose your medical power attorneys are particularly
important if you have a may blended family where you
might have children from a different relationship than your spouse.
(06:04):
So in that situation, you really want to make sure
you designate the person you want to make medical decisions
for you if you can't do it yourself. And then
what's called a durable power of attorney. That's that's the
one that has to do with business or finances and
the you know, you may be married, maybe you're on
your spouse's bank account, you're on each other's bank accounts,
(06:27):
so naturally you can sign texts because you're an owner.
But at some point if one of you becomes incapacity,
has a stroke or something long term incapacity, you will
run into situations where you will not be able to
act on behalf of your spouse because you don't have
inherent authority to do that just because you're marriage. There
might be a utility bill that was only in one
(06:48):
person's name, there might be insurance. You know, you've got
tax returns, things like that. And if you have that
kind of long term incapacity and you don't have a
durable well, there's two ways you can act on behalf
of another person. You can if you didn't do a
durable power of attorney, or they did not while they
(07:10):
were competent to execute one, then you've got to go
through a court process. And it's not I mean, I've
done quite a few, so it's not complicated litigation for me,
but it takes time. You have to file a petition,
you got to have a doctor certify they're incapacitated. You've
got to file accountings, you might have to be bonded.
(07:31):
It's just something, and you got to pay a lawyer
if you want a lawyer to help you do it.
It's easy for me to say it's not that complicated
to do because I'm a lawyer and done a lot
of them. But if you go and try and do
it yourself, I find a lot of folks get really
overwhelmed and sometimes just don't get it done. You can
prevent all that by just getting a durable power of
attorney done. As long as you have some family member
(07:52):
or even a close friend that you trust that if
you become incapacitated, they they won't cheat field they'll help
try and help you out with your finances. Then it's
smart to get a durable power of attorney done. Why
you can and then unfortunately, Jef, you know, we have
people call it why my dad needs a power of attorney.
He's got dementia and you know he's in a care home.
(08:15):
But you can't impress one upon someone else. They have
to tell me who they want and be able to
understand it and sign it themselves. So it's once you
get to that point, it's too late. So you know,
it is something. As people get towards the end of
the year and maybe get together with family, they start
thinking about but and then doing some very simple wills,
(08:38):
which we do frequently. They aren't. We try and keep
it affordable for folks, and if you do power of
attorneys and wills, we kind of package them together as
for one one fee, and it's it's not onerous and
the process is very simple. You know, you come in
the office meet It usually takes us a half hour
to an hour just to talk about what you want
(08:58):
to do, and then come back for one more appointment,
usually a few weeks out, and we've got all the documents,
witnesses ready, et cetera. And we also never make anybody
pay during that first appointment, Jeff, So if you come
in and decide what it's I don't think I need
to have this done or et cetera, then at least
you've had the consultation. You can always call us back
and finish up later. But it's a it's a painless
(09:20):
process as far as dealing with us. We think, you
know a lot of people leave the office saying, well,
that wasn't so bad or that wasn't very difficult. Uh,
and then once they get that work done, it's just
kind of a weight off their chest because it's something
you you know, you don't really have to do, but
you know you should and it weighs on your mind.
So it is a good time to think about that.
(09:42):
And it's if you want some of that type work done,
it's real simple. You can email our office, but probably
best to call and staff will set an appointment and
uh then we take it from there.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
And also that's where you can get into, uh the
transfer on death d that we've talked about before. You
know that that that that can also be a headache reliever.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, that's right. Everybody's you know, well, you hear awful
lot of times. I hear about, well, the nursing home
is going to take my home, and you know, there
are concerns about that at the nursing home doesn't take
your home. But you know there's only right now, you
either have long term care insurance if you need to
go into a care home, like a nursing home type facility.
(10:24):
I don't know what the percentage is of folks that
have long term care insurance, but it is extremely low.
Otherwise you have to pay your own way, pay cash,
and nursing home or intensive skilled nursing care is very
expensive and a lot of times folks have to spend
(10:46):
down they and right now, the only mechanism to pay
for it other than yourself is through medicaid. And medicaid's
a welfare program which has negative connotations, but what that
really means is that anybody qualifies for it as long
as you qualify financially, so you really can't own property,
with some exceptions. You can own a home as long
as it's under a certain amount. It's an extremely high amount,
(11:08):
so most of my client's value, So most of my
clients don't have to worry about that they can keep
their home. But we can do some things with some
deed work that'll make sure that, for example, the government
doesn't come back and put a lean on it or
affect their ability to pass their home down maybe to
their children if they happen to need a going to
(11:30):
a nursing home. So when you come in for that
initial consultation about your estate planning wills. That's one of
the things we might talk about if you have those concerns.
And most people now that google it, they'll see transfer
on death deed and I still call it new, but
the legislature created it ten years ago, and it's a
really effective way to keep your home out of probate
(11:54):
and get it passed to your heirs without you losing
any othership interest in your home. You used to hear
about all dating it to kids, but reserving a life
of state or maybe making adult children joint owners. Transform
death deeds are really good because you essentially make your
heirs your death beneficiary of your home, but you don't
(12:19):
lose any ownership interest in it. So if you decide
you want to borrow some money against take a home
equity line or a reverse mortgage, or you want to
sell it, even though there's a deed recorded naming for example,
maybe your children as beneficiaries, they don't have any say
so in that it doesn't affect your ownership and so
you get full free control of your property dislike you
(12:40):
would otherwise. But if you pass away the moment you do,
your heirs in it that are designated on that deed
and that can help with a lot of things, the
fact that it just passes title immediately upon death, and
so yeah, we go over all that during our state
planning appointments and if that's a concern, we can get
that done and that that process is or if you
(13:01):
don't need it, will you just need to transform death deed.
That's a really easy process because with technology these days,
in most counties in West Virginia, we can see they're
recorded deeds, and if you want to transform death deed done,
you can literally just call our office and tell us
that you want to have one done, identify what county
to properties in, and who your beneficiaries are. We draft
(13:22):
it and of course I answer any questions you might
have about it, and then you come in just during
regular business hours and sign it and we take care
of it. And again it's a real reasonable price, so
it's for our fee and we record it for you
and take care of it. So that's a very very
easy process. If you're listening out there and want to
have a transform death deed done, you research it, you
(13:44):
know what you want to do. All you will need
to do is call the office the days of having
to bring deeds in and copy the deeds are for
the most part over with technology because we have accounts
that allow us to access, you know, all the records
and almost I don't know if it's every county in
West Virginia, certainly the counties that we operate in regularly, Jeff,
we can go on the internet and print off the
(14:04):
deeds and take care of it.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Tom Peyton's with us Peyton Law Firm in Nitro and
this is his show, the Peyton Law Firm every Thursday
morning for a couple of decades. Now here on five
eight WCCHS and Tom as as the transfer on death
deed would indicate in its name, it doesn't transfer until
there's the death right. I mean it doesn't it It
has no effect until the death.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Yeah, that's probably a good you know, couple different things
that older folks have concerns with, going back to the
power of attorney, and this is a kind of a misconception.
So if you if you sign a durable power of attorney,
let's say you appoint one of your children, now they
can use if you want them to use it, while
you're perfectly competent as a convenience matter, let's you know,
(14:48):
you want them to talk to X, Y and Z
creditor because you can't deal with it. You can let
them use it, but they they can override you as
long as you're competent. So when you sign a durable
power attorney, it does not appoint somebody to take over
your affairs. That's not what happens. And that's an important
(15:09):
aspect is if you've become incapacitated, then then certainly yes
they can use that and do whatever you could do,
but they can't trump you, so to speak. So if
you want to. I do have calls from time to
time where you know, maybe a child's concerned about their
parents' expenditures or what they're doing with their money. But
(15:30):
whether it's eccentric, not smart, financially, et cetera. You know,
that's the parents' money and if they want to give
it to some particular entity or some foundation or whatever,
they're entitled to do that, and a child can't use
a durable power attorney to override that, of course, unless
(15:50):
the parent is deemed incapacitated, and that usually has to
be done by medical professional or a psychologist. But the
transfering death deed kind of that same concept as you're
you know, even though you designate beneficiaries and the deed,
they have no interest in it until you pass away.
(16:11):
And you can even if you change your mind, which
we have clients do that you call us and we
can do a new transfer and death deed that only
you need to sign your your kids for example, or
whoever your beneficiaries were in the first transform death deed
don't need to get notice of it, they don't need
to sign off on it. So you can change your
mind by us just simply doing another deed. Or you
(16:34):
can even just revoke the transfer on death deed and
have it passed by will or otherwise. We have we
draft those documents as well. Doesn't happen as frequently, but
that's again that's that's the unique benefit of the transfer
and death deed is that it's recorded, it's effective upon death,
but it does not prevent you from doing anything with
(16:56):
your property while you're still living. But it avoids people
get concerned about quote probate, which is not complicated in
West Virginia compared to other states, but to have things
passed outside probate, outside the probate process, which is essentially
a term for the application of regular inheritance law or
(17:16):
things passing by the will in West Virginia, it does
expose your assets to potential creditors. And when it passes
outside probate, which is transformed death d does, then you
potentially bypass some creditors making claims against your home. So
a lot of it, there's really nothing bad about it
transforming deafty and if you can afford the maybe a
few hundred dollars to get it done, and you know
(17:38):
who you want to get your property, and it's not
too complicated, too complicated, you got to do it through
a will. But there's really I've found little to no
downside to these transformed death dys since they've been in place,
and so it's it's always a good idea if you
have the wherewithal to get it done.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
It's a thirty nine on five eighty, would you sehs
the voice of try Tom Payton with the Peyton Law
Firm is with us this morning. We'll take our one
and only break and rejoin Tom in just a moment.
Thanks for joining us this morning. It's a thirty nine
on five eighty wchs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
If you've been.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Injured, you need a lawyer who knows West Virginia because
they live in West Virginia. Tom and Harvey Peyton were
born and raised here. They've spent decades fighting for injury victims,
and they know how to get results. At the Peyton
Law Firm, you get straight talk, strong representation, and local
attorneys who care. Call seven five five fifty five fifty
(18:34):
six today or visit Peyton Lawfirm dot com. The attorney's
referenced in this ad or lifelong residence and are licensed
to practice law in the state of West Virginia.
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O.
Speaker 5 (19:54):
Eight forty one five eight w cchs The Voice of Charleston.
Day of December twenty twenty five. Jeff Jenkins with you
this morning with Tom Peyton, the Peyton Law Firm in Nitro.
Tom on the road today, big family event graduation at
LSU of his son Houston, and so the Peytons are
celebrating that down in Baton Rouge. And what's the weather
(20:16):
like there today?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Tom? It's going to be mid seventies, maybe upter seventies.
Signing some class all right, it was sick. What's the
weather like there?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Nice?
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yes, night, yeah, yep, We've got sunshine. We're going to
head Dow. I think to the sixties and get some rain,
get some winds, so it's going to think change it
a little bit there tomorrow, gotcha.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Yeah, And speaking of rain and win one thing that
we are I kind of beat this drum a few
shows ago, but we're still seeing some filter in that
they're fallout from the big hail storm. I don't know
if it hit Charleston as hard, but last April I
almost remember. I think it was April fourteenth. If I remember, crack,
I know it because we've got so many claims arising
(20:59):
from that storm, mostly hit Putnam County and Nitro Cross
Lanes got hit as well. But that's the storm where
we had Unfortunately I was driving in it almost probably
golf ball size hail. And the cases that we're handling
pretty regular. We even getting some referrals from other attorneys
to our office to handle arise from homeowners or hazard
(21:23):
insurance companies denying claims, and we've had some success with us.
So if you're out there and you're still having a
dispute with your homeowner's insurance care about whether they will
repair sighting or rough then don't hesitate to give us
a call because those type claims if we take them on.
(21:45):
We take them on contingency, so you don't have to
pay a servi atain or an hourly rate, and we
can do it, get some basic information, look at some
documents and kind of screen those rather quickly to see
if it's something that we can help you with. So
if anybody out there has got those, you know. I
think what also happened with these is at the beginning
(22:05):
a lot of insurance and gestures were sent in the
same things seem to be going smoothly. That first wave
kind of passes as a gestures go back out of
state wherever they're from, and then folks have had real
trouble communicating with their insurance care. They might get a
check for a portion of their repairs, but maybe garage
(22:28):
or you know, something next to their primary house ref
isn't getting paid for it, and it's become rather difficult
to get insurance companies to pay for those at times.
But if you have that type issue, you're still dealing
with it certainly. If if you want us to help,
then don't hesitate to give us a call an email.
We can get some basic information rather quickly and see
(22:48):
if it's something that we can handle. For you. So
we are doing. We probably have ten or so of
those pending right now. We've had some success with them,
so don't that's another thing not to hesitate to give
us a call if you have a question. I know
a lot of folks will file through the Insurance Commissioner's
Office West Virginia Insurance Commissioner, because when you get letters
(23:09):
from your insurance career that might deny a claim, they
have the disclaimer at the bottom. But you can call
the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office, which is a administrative process.
I would say the insurance commissioner is really good if
you're just trying to get your insurance company to communicate.
Sometimes you can't get them to respond at all. I
(23:30):
would say that if you actually have an insurance company
who did communicate and denied your claim, in most cases,
you're better off to hire a private attorney to handle
your claim versus going through the Western Insurance Commissioner's Office.
And that's not to be negative about the Western Insurance
Commission's Office, but they are limited in what they can
do versus a regular circuit court of general jurisdiction. So
(23:54):
the relief you can get there is not the same
that you can't get a jury trial. For example, when
there's certain damages or or monetary relief that you just
can't get to the insurance Commissioner's office, and a lot
of people would file there and then contact us, and
we just if you did do that, it's not too
late to call us. We can we regularly just dismiss
(24:16):
the insurance commissioner administrative proceeding and then we think it
to conventional court, to a potential jury trial. Of course,
most of them don't get to a jury trial there.
You know, ninety eight percent of civil cases settle and
they don't any different.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
Tom, What is the is there similar reasons why those
are being denied?
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Yeah, what we're seeing, well, some of them we just see, well,
there's no hell damage on this rough Now we think
of conventional asphalt singles like we have on most of
our roads, and say, I've had some really you know,
I kind of look at the common sense aspect, because
(24:57):
you know, they can hire an expert. We can hire
an expert. But when you have a neighborhood and you
know eight other people around you had their robes repaired
by their insurance company because they had heal damage to me,
it's hard to fathom how you couldn't have heal damage
when when you're rough and sometimes just get this, there's
not like your house is the death Star off Star
Wars with these field around it. So it kind of
(25:20):
decides coming since I've seen some of those, and I
think those you just get rogue, bad adjusters. Sometimes no
things we see, well it's you know, wear and tear
and not from hail and and you know there's robes.
Conventional asphalt shingles only have a life of so long
before they're supposed to be replaced. But at the same time,
(25:41):
whether it's two years old or ten years old, you know,
if you have heal damage, you're there's not a good
way to repair that damage other than rough replacement. So
we'll see a lot of kind of maybe partial payments
and things like that, and so that's that's kind of
what we're seeing. And then there are roads that may
be commercial settings where they're made of different materials. You
(26:04):
have metal robes, you have different kind of materials that
there might be a dispute about whether that material did
actually withstand the hail storm and didn't suffer damage that yeah,
causes leagues, but you know, that's not necessarily issue. It
might have damaged it so bad the warranty has not
(26:25):
got any longer, or it might have damaged it in
a way that you can't see from the outside that
shortened its useful life. And so those are those are
some common examples.
Speaker 5 (26:38):
In some of those cases, time if people already make
got the repairs done, but they've taken photos or whatever,
you know, because it has been over a year.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Well it's been less than it was April of uh
this year, so yeah, it will be Yeah. But in
any of if there's any case where I mean insurance companies,
what then I'm going to do with adjusters. They they
don't go out and find a contractor to fix your rough.
They have unitized values. You'll see these kind of the
(27:09):
same type format on these computer generated adjusting tools, and
so they spit out a number minus you're deductible of
what you know theoretically it would cost to have your
real fix. For example, well you might get one, two
or three local contractors who know it's going to cost
(27:30):
this to pay for it. So if even that differential
is the same as a den ad claim and you
you generally have replacement coverage replacement value coverage. So if
you have an estimate for what it will actually get
get your real repaired versus what your insurance company says
(27:50):
they're going to pay you, they really need to pay
you what it will actually cost. And what they should
do if they behave properly, is just supplement their initial
payment to with the difference between what it'll cost to
actually get it repaired and what they thought it would
cost to get it repaired initially. But even that differential
is enough for us to step in on handing those claims.
(28:11):
And of course our goal, and we're almost universally successful
in these claims, is to make sure our clients, you know,
recover enough where the already gets paid and then they
get certainly enough in their pocket to make sure they
get all the repairs paid for. But yeah, if you've
already had some work done and you know you've got
(28:32):
a contractor that you can't afford to pay the balance to,
or you've already paid out of pocket, that doesn't necessarily
foreclose your claim. Certainly, there would have been some pictures taken,
and I you know, folks can hire expensive engineers and
things like that, but I think a good experienced riffing
contract that's local is an excellent and there's nothing that
(28:56):
forbids that person from being an expert witness on heal damage.
Speaker 5 (29:00):
We use them frequently, Okay, so they can just give
your office a call or contact you.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
Yeah, yeah, it can cost at the office. It's and
our office number is three or four seven five five, five,
five five six, so it's three or four seven, a
bunch of fives and a six, or you just get
to our website at Peyton Law Firm dot com that's
pe wise as opposed to pay and you can submit
an inquiry there and we'll email back and you know,
(29:28):
ask for maybe some documentation, We take a look at
it and if it's the claim we can handle, we'll
you know meet or talk in detail by telephone about
the process and how we do it. And it's it's
pretty simple and we've been very successful with them. But
they're just you didn't really see them right after the
storm because seem like insurance companies were processing these claims
(29:50):
quickly and being responsive, and they just probably from September forward,
we're starting to see these claims kind of come to
culminate because you're not getting responses from insurance companies sometimes
and you just you never know. You know, I've seen
the same I won't name them, but you know I've
seen particular really popular known homeowners insurance carriers handle claims smoothly,
(30:16):
treat they're insured really well, and then all of a
sudden you have a random where they're just you got
maybe a problem adjuster or just can't get responses from them,
and there's not a whole lot of rhyme or reason
to it sometimes but we get those corrected, usually rather quickly.
So you've got one of those type of issues, don't
(30:38):
hesitate to give us a call. And those are all
contendency if we take them, so you won't be paying
us an hourly rate or going paying out of pocket
for twenty fees or cost to handle the case.
Speaker 5 (30:50):
Tom Payton's with this Peyton Law firm in Nitro. Got
a couple more minutes here. It's eight point fifty two.
Tom joining us by phone today here on five ADWCHS
and Tom, we head into the new year. What you know,
we got the legislature, We've got judicial elections next year
in May. There's a there's a couple of seats in
the Supreme Court Judge Kirkpatrick has announced from down in
(31:13):
Raleigh County, retired Jesse he's going to run for Supreme Court.
So we'll have some we'll have.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Some challenge that. Yeah, I know that Justice Ewing was
dis appointed and he's running.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
And then Justice Titus, I think is going to run.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
You know, I've had he worked for Spielman, uh, Thomas
Battle and Charleston, but uh, Gill Titus is a really
good person in my estimation. I served with him on
the Board of Governors and had a couple cases with him.
But I think he'll be sworn in I think the
first if he's not already sworn in.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
But yeah, I think I think he's already been. I
think he's already been sworn in like like a private
ceremony because they've because they had to do they had
to make some decisions on a couple of cases.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Okay, yeah, yeah, so those of course those are non partisan,
and I didn't know Judge kirk Patrick was going to run.
But yes, we'll have some action there. What we've got,
probably the most interesting thing we've talked about lately, or
the most publicity that's been garnered, is the compulsory vaccine case,
(32:20):
and how it compares to the I think, was it
the Religious Freedom Act that Governor Morrisey is relying upon
one to say that that overrides the requirement that public
school children have certain vaccinations for the inner school. And
then the judge down that's Treble, I believe done in
Raleigh County ended up issuing a rather lengthy order saying
(32:42):
that the mandatory vaccine law is in essence trumped by
the religious freedom Law, and you don't you know, all
you have to do is basically sending a piece of
paper saying your child's name, identification information, and you don't
want to have to get the mandatory vaccine for them,
and you can go to public school. That's been halted.
(33:02):
It was halted rather quickly by our Supreme Court. So
right now status close in place. And so you know,
the state Board of Education and the local county boards
still must require certain vaccinations for a child to attend
public school. There was a little window when that wasn't
the case, although the Trouble may have stayed his order
(33:24):
pending the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court stayed Judge
Freble's order, meaning said wait a minute, it's hold up
and I know they those civil cases generally go to
the Intermediate Court of Appeals first and then the Western
Supreme Court, but this one, because of such public concern,
has now been brought straight to the Westernian Supreme Court.
So I think we'll see a final ruling on that
(33:45):
in the spring, would be my guess. And so that'll
be an interesting one to kind of keep track of
and how it kind of jobs with the legislature, because
as you recall, last year there were discussions about there
were built introduced that wouldn't require mandatory vaccinations if a
(34:06):
parent claimed a religious exemption and didn't didn't get any traction.
And so now we'll see if they maybe react to
what the courts are doing and modify with the legislature,
which they can do, which may move the court case
at that point.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
I've seen some discussion tom where because that began in
the Senate, passed the Senate last year, where the Senate
Health Chair is said, if it's going to run, it's
going to have to come from the House. And I
don't think the how it doesn't seem how you think
it happened, as you know, but it doesn't seem like
right now there might be an appetite in the House
to at least in the Health Committee to do anything
(34:42):
about that. So it might just come down to this
court case.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
Yeah, and you know, it's a political hot potato. So
it seems that sometimes when the legislature can just kind
of put it off on the courts, that's the most
appealing thing to do. Probably, if I was predicting, the
legislature will let it rie and have the court decided,
and then, of course then oftentimes you see the reaction
(35:06):
after that, maybe in a future session in the years
to come, if they you know, if the majority of
the legislature disagrees with the how the courts resolved that,
then they might modify after that. But yeah, I think
you're probably right. It's just such a hot button issue,
strong feelings on each side right now. The legislature's got
it in a position where they don't have to deal
(35:27):
with it because the court's going to deal with it.
So I suspect we'll see it see it play out
that way. I really looking at me, I've kind of
I've read the breeze for the orders. You know, I
would guess that Judge Froebel's ruling is probably not going
to hold up. But that's real speculation at this point
with our Supreme Court. But I my initial gut feeling was, well,
(35:52):
we have a specific law about mandatory vaccinations, compulsory vaccinations,
and then you have this very general law all about
religious freedom that when it was passed an intent. I
don't think compulsory vaccination law was never brought up. If
if that would have been the intent, then they would
(36:12):
have stated so in the bill or in the in
the statute on the religious freedom issue, and so I
just thought the more specific statute would probably control. But
there's a lot of dynamics to it. How do you
tell if somebody has a sincere religious belief or just
you know, some other reading doesn't want their child to
get vaccines and the Religious Freedom Act is supposed to
(36:35):
be based on sincere religious beliefs. Now, the judge Frobil found, well,
you just can't. There's no ellipmus test to figure that out.
So as long as the parent says it, then that's it.
There's no looking behind it. It doesn't seem to be
what the stetute requires, but it's it's interesting issues when
you see language on paper, but how do you apply
it in practice, and then you get into intent and
(36:57):
sincere beliefs, you know, it's there is no path to
determine someone's thought processes and belief so it's it's an
interesting case and we'll see how that plays out here
in the spring. I think I'll decide that the spring
term that way will be some clarity going into the
school year next.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Year, Tom, get us a we got about a minute here.
Best way to contact you and your dadt the Peyton
Law Firm.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Yeah, we can stop by the office when we're there.
If we're not there or available, then we have you know,
good staff and all he's out front. We have the nice, nice,
nice continual staff. So you can stop in there at
twenty oh one First Avenue. That's the main Dragon Night
rare just to minute off the interstate. You can of
course give us a call at three oh four seven
five five five five five six, or perhaps the best
(37:44):
way to reach Dad and I, even when we're traveling
is just go through the website at Peyton Law Firm
dot com and send us an email and we you
know turns these days, we get them wherever we are.
If it's something that requires some real urgency, then we
respond respond, I was responding to emails last night here
from Baton Ridge. So and you won't hear from any
canned services, are AI. You will hear from actual humans
(38:08):
that grew up, worked here and are glad to help
the folks there in West Virginia.
Speaker 5 (38:14):
All right, congratulations to Houston today and enjoy Thanks.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
We'll pass that along, okay, Merry Christmas?
Speaker 5 (38:21):
All right, you too, Tom Peyton, Peyton Law Firm, and Nitro,
thanks for joining us again this Peyton Lawfirm dot Com
at seven five five five, five, five six a, ABC
News on the way, next in local news and then
five and you're live at day album. Dave Allen on
five eight w c CHS The Voice of Charles.
Speaker 4 (38:39):
Five AD w C HSA ninety six point five Charleston
one oh four point five Cross Lanes.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
WVRC Media Station. We're proud to live here too,
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