A February NOT Forgotten
We all know February to be the shortest month of the year. In fact, the original Roman calendar didn't even include February as a month. It wasn't until late 100 B.C. that February was added as one of the 12 months on our existing calendar. Maybe the Romans refused to acknowledge the months of January and February because they were associated with Winter.

Well, clearly the attorneys at Bailey & Wyant PLLC have not forgotten about the month of February as they have been working diligently representing their clients while attending achievement luncheons, annual conferences and trade shows. Please read on and as always we thank you for your continued interest and support of our attorneys and organization.
2022 KVBR Trade & Education Show
Equity Member Marc J. Slotnick, Member Amy Haynie
and Associate Jessica L. Harper of Bailey & Slotnick PLLC
Bailey & Slotnick, PLLC's Equity Member Marc J. Slotnick, Member Amy Haynie and Associate Jessica L. Harper attended the 2022 Kanawha Valley Board of Realtors Trade and Education Show held at the Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center. This is an annual Expo that allows Lenders, Realtors and Real Estate Attorneys to assemble to build and strengthen relationships as well as provide continuing education credits for licensed Realtors in the County.
WVACo 2022 Annual Meeting
Bailey & Wyant PLLC's Equity Member Charles R. Bailey and Member Michael W. Taylor host attendees from the WVACo Annual Meeting in Charleston
Bailey & Wyant PLLC's Charleston office was a proud sponsor of the 2022 West Virginia Association of Counties annual meeting. The Association gathered at the Embassy Suites in downtown Charleston. During the annual meeting our attorneys were able to socialize with county officials and representatives. Our very own Member, Michael W. Taylor gave a presentation to the group titled, "Policing & Governing in Times of Emerging Social Issues: Potential Legal Pitfalls."

Following the event the attorneys of Bailey & Wyant PLLC hosted a reception for the attendees at the Charleston office.
Pictured is Equity Member Kelly C. Morgan and Associate Samuel M. Bloom
Member Michael W. Taylor presenting to the WVACo Audience.
Women of Achievement
Pictured above are the 2022 YMCA Women of Achievement
Left to right: Dr. Jacqueline Stump, Shimaya Jones, Dr. Sherri Young, Judge Stephanie Thacker and Kenyatta Coleman Grant.
Bailey & Wyant PLLC in collaboration with Bailey & Slotnick PLLC annually sponsors the YWCA organization and the Women of Achievement Luncheon.

For over 160 years, YWCA has been on a mission to eliminate racism and empower women. Since the inception, YWCAs across the country have been on the front lines advocating for the rights of women, girls, and marginalized people and addressing community needs. Today, they continue to drive an inclusive agenda to address the underlying gender equity and racial justice tensions that are so deeply embedded in our nation. We invite you to join them and take action on health, economic, safety, and racial justice priorities directly affecting women and communities of color. Please visit their website at www.ywca.org to learn how to join or to make a donation.

Update from Samuel M. Bloom
Article by Samuel M. Bloom
Last year, West Virginia established the Intermediate Court of Appeals pursuant to West Virginia Code § 51-11-1, et seq (“the West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act”). Since then, there have been minor tweaks added to the West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act, implemented by SB3030, but the West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act is still virtually the same as the one originally passed in early 2021. This new appellate court will be made up of three judges, with Governor Jim Justice already appointing the first three judges on December 28, 2021. These new judges are to be sworn in on May 1, 2022, and should begin hearing cases on July 1, 2022.
Currently, the Intermediate Court of Appeals will have no original jurisdiction to hear matters. The West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act provides that there will be seven different types of cases that may generally be appealed to the Intermediate Court of Appeals after June 30, 2022: (1) final judgments or orders of a circuit court in civil cases; (2) final judgments or orders of a family court; (3) final judgments or orders of a circuit court concerning guardianship or conservatorship matters; (4) final judgments, orders, or decisions of an agency or an administrative law judge; (5) final orders or decisions of the Health Care Authority issued prior to June 30, 2022, in a certificate of need review, but transferred to the jurisdiction of the Intermediate Court of Appeals upon termination of the Office of Judges; (6) final orders or decisions issued by the Office of Judges, and prior to its termination; and (7) final orders or decisions of the Workers’ Compensation Board of Review pursuant to §23-5-1 et seq.
There are a class of matters that the Intermediate Court of Appeals will have no jurisdiction to hear. The Intermediate Court of Appeals will not be able to hear appeals of judgments or final orders from the following types of proceedings and matters: criminal proceedings, juvenile proceedings, child abuse and neglect proceedings, orders of commitment, proceedings of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board, final decisions of the Public Service Commission, interlocutory appeals, certified questions of law, extraordinary remedies, and judgments or final orders issued by circuit court upon its review of a family court judgment or final order in any domestic violence proceeding. Thus, these matters will only be appealable to the Supreme Court of Appeals.
The West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act also lays out that written opinions, orders, and decisions of the Intermediate Court of Appeals will be binding precedent for the decisions of all circuit courts, family courts, magistrate courts, and agencies unless the opinion, order, or decision is overruled or modified by the Supreme Court of Appeals. Finally, the West Virginia Appellate Reorganization Act provides that a party may petition the Supreme Court of Appeals for appeal of a final order or judgment of the Intermediate Court of Appeals. However, the Supreme Court of Appeals has the discretion to grant or deny the petition for appeal or certiorari of a decision by the Intermediate Court of Appeals.
           
It is exciting to see how this new Intermediate Court of Appeals will reshape litigation in West Virginia. Time will tell the ultimate effect, but hopefully this will allow the Supreme Court of Appeals to focus more on important, policy-driven and precedential cases instead of correcting trial court errors. Come July 1, 2022, we will start to find out. 

Dismissal of Medical Care Providers
Member Jordan K. Herrick and Associate Samuel M. Bloom
Member Jordan K. Herrick and Associate Samuel M. Bloom of Bailey & Wyant PLLC's Charleston office obtained dismissal of medical care providers at Mount Olive Correctional Complex in regard to a lawsuit filed by an inmate claiming that his constitutional rights were violated by the medical care he was rendered following surgery.

The Court found that the inmate failed to exhaust his administrative remedies prior to filing the lawsuit and therefore, he was barred from asserting his claims against the medical care providers.
Celebrating Black History Month and C. H. Payne

This year in honor of Black History Month, we have chosen to honor Mr. Christopher Harrison Payne. Christopher Harrison (C.H.) Payne was elected to the West Virginia legislature in 1896, becoming the first Black to serve in that elective body.

Christopher Harrison (C.H.) Payne (1845–1925) was born in Monroe County, Virginia (now West Virginia), on September 7, 1845. His parents, both of whom were by then free Blacks, were Thomas Payne and Barsheba Ellison. He was their only child.

During the American Civil War, Payne was forced to serve as an orderly in the Confederate Army. He was able to return home in 1864 and begin formal education for the first time after the war by attending night school while working as a farmhand during the day. He received a teaching certificate in 1868, becoming one of the first Black teachers in Summers County, West Virginia. He continued to teach and farm until 1875, when he was baptized. He was licensed to preach in February 1876 and in May 1877 was ordained as a Baptist minister
Following Payne's ordination, he founded the Second Baptist Church in Hinton, West Virginia. He pastored many other churches and was said to have delivered over 1,500 sermons and converted 500 people. He graduated from the Richmond Theological Institute in 1883 and State University, now the Virginia Union University. Payne presided over the West Virginia Baptist state convention for 16 years. On several occasions, he spoke at the national assemblies of white Baptists.

Payne established three newspapers in West Virginia. They were the West Virginia Enterprise, The Pioneer and Mountain Eagle. When founded, the West Virginia Enterprise was the only black newspaper in West Virginia. He was also a correspondent for other journals, including those geared for the white community. Payne used these venues to pursue equality between the races as well as to encourage other Blacks to better themselves through education and the purchase of their own land and homes.
Payne's growing stature within both the Black and white communities led to his appointment as an alternate delegate to the 1884 Republican national convention.

He would serve as a regular delegate to the Republican national convention in 1888, where Benjamin Harrison was nominated for President of the United States. State leaders pushed for Payne's appointment as Ambassador to Liberia. Instead, he was appointed Deputy Collector for the United States Internal Revenue Service in Charleston, West Virginia. In 1896, Payne was elected to the West Virginia legislature, becoming the first Black to serve in that elective body. Along with Byrd Prillerman, another prominent African American, Payne was able to persuade the West Virginia Legislature to establish the West Virginia Colored Institute, now West Virginia State University, in 1891.

During the Spanish–American War of 1898, Payne raised a volunteer Black regiment and saw to their arrival at the war time encampment of Camp Atkinson. Payne studied law and was admitted to the West Virginia bar in 1889, becoming one of the first black lawyers in West Virginia.

Due to his faithful service to the Republican party, United States President Theodore Roosevelt named Payne as Consul General to the Danish West Indies in 1903, a very rare appointment for an African American at that time. Payne worked with the NAACP, serving on the planning committee for the historic 1917 Negro Silent Protest Parade.
Payne remained in the Danish West Indies after they were sold to the United States in 1917 and became the United States Virgin Islands. With the closing of the consulate, he then became prosecuting attorney and police judge in St. Thomas, capital of the Virgin Islands. He died in the Virgin Islands on December 5, 1925, at the age of eighty.

Sustainability refers to conducting business and living life without negatively impacting the environment, community, or society as a whole.

You may ask yourself why is sustainability important?
Unsustainable conditions can cause an economic or environmental crash. Crashes can occur in our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children. Flooding, loss of homes due to storms, plagues, and lost retirement accounts all arise from unsustainable conditions. When conditions anywhere become unsustainable, there is usually a lack of foresight and planning to blame. 
“Sustainability” is most often used to describe environmental conditions, especially as they intersect with economic conditions. And, now more than ever it is important for us as a society to understand the importance of sustainability and to implement practices in our everyday lives to do our part to promote sustainability in this generation and those to follow.

It can be very overwhelming trying to identify a place to begin where you feel a true impact is going to be made. In this day and age everyone is so focused on immediate gratification that they can hardly wait for the final product or 'end game." In fact most impactful things in life begin with a small gesture or a minor change in habit or routine. Here are a few suggestions of minor lifestyle or behavioral changes that overtime can and will make a significant impact, and make our communities and society more sustainable.

We all have to eat. Food is a basic necessity of life, and what better way to cite examples of sustainability than with a very basic concept/scenario. FOOD.

Eat local
It’s not just what you eat. Where you get your food is potentially more important. The local food movement was born when people realized how unsustainable most food distribution really is. Consider the transportation costs involved in eating grapes imported from Chile. Those grapes probably had to board a train and then a jet before disembarking onto a truck that brought them to your store. That’s a lot of fossil fuel that got burned. Food transportation is a huge contributor to climate change. Ultimately, that model of bringing food in from all corners of the earth is unsustainable. It causes too much air pollution. Shop at your local Farmer's Markets instead. Not only are you going to be purchasing fresh and local produce but in turn supporting a local small business in your community.

Patronize socially responsible restaurants
If you like to dine out, choose restaurants that brag about using ingredients that they bought locally. Some restaurants even have their own local farms! Others forge agreements with local growers to buy a certain amount of produce weekly. That’s good for everyone because it encourages the creation of small farms. Meanwhile, customers get great food that hasn’t gone stale inside layers of plastic. 

Reduce food waste
It can take a while to wrap your head around food waste as a major contributor to climate change. But it is. According to some estimates, a third of the world’s food goes to waste. That is, indeed, tragic, especially when we consider how many people are starving. Wasting food is unsustainable in two ways. When you throw out a tomato, you are also throwing out all the water, air, and fertile soil that went into growing it. 
Simultaneously, you are also sending food to a landfill. There, it rots and creates methane, that same toxic fume that cattle emit. 

Eat lower on the food chain
Raising livestock is rarely a sustainable undertaking. Beef cattle eat enormous amounts of grain. Many forests have been decimated to create fodder for beef. Cows and steers also emit methane which is a major source of air pollution and contributes to climate change. These ecological problems exist with chicken and turkey farming as well, but the overall costs of raising poultry are quite a bit lower. Except for farmed salmon, the ecological costs of eating fish are even lower. When people recommend “eating lower on the food chain,” they mean: Eat less red meat and more plant food. Eat more turkey and less lamb and beef. 

Be sure to check back next month for more insightful tips on how to be socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Bailey & Wyant PLLC Attorney Spotlight
Suleiman O. Oko-ogua is a member in Bailey & Wyant, PLLC’s Charleston Office.
Suleiman is originally from Nigeria, West Africa and moved to the United States in 1997 to attend College. He graduated from Berea College in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology. At Berea, he was actively involved in human rights awareness and traveled extensively around Eastern and Western Europe, where he conducted several independent projects on international human rights, conflict resolution and diplomacy. He then graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 2004. While in law school, he was a Senior Staff Member of the Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture and Natural Resources (formerly Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law).

As a member of Bailey & Wyant, Suleiman practices in the areas of civil litigation, most notably civil rights litigation, employment law and insurance defense. Notably, Suleiman has successfully defended various government agencies and employees in various civil rights and employment law cases filed against them. Recently, Suleiman was involved in a two week trial- defending an organization and some of its board members in a lawsuit filed by an individual alleging gender and sexual orientation discrimination that resulted in a successful defense verdict.

He was named to Leadership Council on Legal Diversity Fellow 2017-18, Lawyers of Color Nation's Best 2020, 2021 Annual Hot List, and National Black Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers.
Suleiman is also an active member of the Defense Research Institute and Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia.
Our philosophy is simple. We provide aggressive and effective legal representation, while being ever mindful of each client's individual needs, goals, and economic interests. No matter how complex or novel, our focus in a case is always to reach the right resolution for our client.

To discuss your case, e-mail us (baileywyant@gmail.com) or give us a call.
304.345.4222 CHARLESTON
304.233.3100 WHEELING
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Sincerely, 

Bailey & Wyant, PLLC
304-345-4222