West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse released the following statement regarding H.C.R. 44, which passed the West Virginia House of Delegates by a voice vote today.

“The leadership of the House of Delegates continues to have its head in the sand when it comes to the need for legal reform. West Virginia lost more jobs that any other state last year, yet the House of Delegates has done nothing to try and create more jobs.”

 ”Every year, the American Tort Reform Association identifies the most unfair and out-of-balance legal jurisdictions in the nation, and West Virginia has made the list for ten consecutive years. Also, West Virginia has been ranked dead last every year since 2006 on the litigation fairness survey published by the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. Until West Virginia guarantees an automatic right of appeal, our state will continue to be ranked last on these lists.”

– Greg Thomas, Executive Director, West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse

Yikes!  No doubt most West Virginians would agree with us that it is a relief to hear that suspected kidnapper Jeremy Carter is once again behind bars after Circuit Judge Carrie Webster accidentally released him on Friday evening, according to news reports.

Carter, a Tennessee man, was returned by authorities to the South Central Regional Jail, where they say they plan to indict him on the kidnapping charge. According to West Virginia MetroNews:

Judge Webster originally took the blame for the Carter’s surprise release.

 “I’m very upset,” said Webster to the Charleston Gazette Friday night. “I own that, is what I mean. It is extraordinarily regretful that it happened, and it shouldn’t have happened.”

 But Webster had backtracked by Sunday night when she put out a three-page statement seeking to explain what happened.

 “I inadvertently took responsibility for the mistaken release of Jeremy Carter,” Webster said.

Judge Webster’s mistake (or is the count up to two mistakes now?) will play a role in furthering the nation’s negative impression of West Virginia’s court system. It also raises the question whether the partisan election of judges at the circuit court and Supreme Court of Appeals level in West Virginia is the best method of selecting our judges.

It would seem that, from the West Virginia perspective, having partisan elections for judges can result in the election of the best politician and not the most qualified candidate for judge.

Judge Webster began her time as a judge after a partisan political appointment made by then Governor Joe Manchin to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of a circuit judge.  Judge Webster subsequently retained her seat in the partisan circuit court election.

The use of partisan election of judges and the lack of an intermediate court of appeals will continue to play a role in West Virginia’s poor judicial reputation based on  the views of job creators from all across the country

What these rankings underscore is that major employers and others who have a national perspective see West Virginia as a bad place to do business. Given our state’s reputation, it should come as no surprise that West Virginia lost more jobs than any other state in the nation last year.

The no-brainer response to the job problem in West Virginia is to improve our state courts through common-sense legal reforms.  We’re still waiting for them…

West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (WV CALA) today called out Delegate Doug Reynolds and several other legislators for sponsoring a bill targeting one employee of the Attorney General’s office.

The lawmakers’ proposed legislation targets a staff member of Attorney General Morrisey for being hired from out-of-state, while, WV CALA says, no concern was ever expressed over a period of decades when former Attorney General Darrel McGraw gave no-bid contracts totaling millions and millions of dollars to his campaign contributors – many of whom were out-of-state.

“At a time when so many West Virginians are out of work, our Delegates should be focusing on laws that would make our state more attractive to employers and new jobs, rather than playing party politics over one state employee,” said WV CALA Executive Director Greg Thomas. “What is astounding is that they are concerned about the qualifications of a staff member whose background includes a Yale education, clerking at the U.S Supreme Court and working at the Department of Justice.”

”It appears that what mostly qualified the former Attorney General’s out of state lawyer contractors was their sizeable contributions to his campaigns, yet these same Delegates did nothing to stop McGraw’s ethical lapses,” Thomas added. “Where were Delegates Reynold, Skaff, and Lawrence when lawyers not from West Virginia were getting paid millions of dollars through the actions of a member of their own party?”

The controversial bill is HB 2788.

WV CALA provided several examples of out-of-state attorneys being paid through actions of former Attorney General McGraw.

• The Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll firm of Washington, DC shared in a $3.3 million fee for the work they received from a no-bid contract in a case against Purdue Pharma.
• The Cook, Hall, and Lampros firm of Atlanta was given a no-bid contract by McGraw to work case against Marsh and McLennan and AIG. Edward S. Cook is part of this firm and a relative of Darrel McGraw.
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania attorney Joseph N. Kravec, Jr. was also given several no-bid contracts to do work on behalf of the state.

Thomas concluded, “The bad news in this is that ‘good-old-boy old-school partisan politics’ is alive and well in the House of Delegates. The good news is we’ve found this year’s ‘Barbie Bill’ thanks to Doug Reynolds.”

Patrick Morrisey was sworn-in Monday, more than two months after he defeated longtime Attorney General Darrell McGraw in the general election.

“I’m honored and humbled to serve as your next attorney general and pledge that I will carry out the duties of this office in a transparent and ethical manner,” Morrisey said in a statement.

“I intend to adhere to the oath of office I took and will passionately defend the Constitution of the State of West Virginia and the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Morrisey has big plans for the office, including changes to the consumer protection division.

Former Attorney General Darrell McGraw drew criticism during his tenure for his practice of hiring private lawyers on a contingency fee to file lawsuits on behalf of the state against corporations. In many instances, the lawyers he hired were his campaign contributors.

McGraw also used his Consumer Protection Fund, filled with lawsuit settlement monies, for consumer awareness efforts that brazenly promoted the McGraw name and were essentially taxpayer-funded campaigning.

Morrisey says one of his first priorities will be implementing reforms within the consumer protection division.

WVNS-TV reported on its interview with, Morrisey:

I think the consumer protection division need to evolve a little bit, said Morrisey on Monday. By that I mean we need to be better in providing compliance programs to regulated individuals and businesses in our state.

 

That will translate into more predictability and fairness for businesses, according to Morrisey.

 

Morrisey will first bring in new personnel to the office. Several of the attorneys from the McGraw administration have left the office.

 

The new employees will work on those compliance programs.

 

A plan for the first 100 days of the new Morrisey [term] will be finalized in the coming days.

In addition to changes within the consumer protection division, Morrisey plans to eliminate trinkets with the Attorney General’s name on them, send settlement funds back to the state Legislature and use competitive bidding for hiring outside counsel.

“We have a bold vision for what the Office of Attorney General can do to protect jobs and consumers in this state, improve West Virginia’s business and legal climate and advance ethics reforms,” concluded Morrisey.

West Virginians shouldn’t be surprised by the lawsuit lunacy that tends to follow the McGraw family.

Former Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw was considered one of the most-biased jurists in the nation during his tenure on the Court. When West Virginians voted to kick him out of office, McGraw sued a local truck driver - claiming a fender bender between the two was the real reason McGraw lost his seat on the Supreme Court. Thankfully, McGraw’s ridiculous attempt to claim twelve years of salary from the active Navy member flamed out.

Attorney General Darrell McGraw

As Attorney General, Darrell McGraw had his own fair share of questionable lawsuit filings.  McGraw’s actions frequently garnered the state negative attention nationally, and even cost the state millions of dollars in precious federal Medicaid funding.

Now, The Charleston Daily Mail wonders whether McGraw’s wife – former state school superintendent Jorea Marple – has “cemented” the state’s “Judicial Hellhole” status with a frivolous lawsuit filing that challenges her recent firing – and puts at risk much-needed taxpayer funding for our local schools.

The Charleston Daily Mail specifically writes that:

Some of the biggest tort lawyers in the state may have cemented West Virginia’s reputation as a judicial hellhole. Their threat to sue taxpayers over the firing of Jorea Marple as state school superintendent is completely without merit.

 

The state Board of Education should fight, not settle, any lawsuit. Taxpayers cannot afford any out-of-court settlement to Marple or her attorneys.

 

Marple contended in a letter to the state board that she has “suffered humiliation” and “anguish,” that “her right to enjoy life free from the unfounded action by the board has been impaired,” and she has been “severely inconvenienced in her life.”

 

This claim so lacks merit that the board should countersue for legal fees and punitive damages.

In conclusion, The Charleston Daily Mail sums up the situation correctly - “paying Marple to make her threat of litigation disappear, as has become common in West Virginia, would be an unacceptable outcome.” This is just another junk lawsuit for which West Virginia taxpayers shouldn’t foot the bill.

With the New Year upon us, it’s almost time for state lawmakers to return to Charleston for the 2013 legislative session.  Hopefully, the holidays gave our policymakers something to ponder, as December brought the Mountain State another appearance on the annual “Judicial Hellholes” report AND a designation as the 5th worst state for business. A new year brings the Legislature yet another opportunity to finally pass the common-sense legal reforms that would help attract jobs to our state.  

West Virginia cannot seriously expect to attract jobs without addressing the ongoing problems in our legal system.  A recent New York Times story shows that the state spends more money per person on tax credits and incentives than any other state in the nation.  And yet national employment data shows that West Virginia experienced “the largest percentage decrease in employment in the country” for 2012.  It’s clear that the status quo isn’t working for West Virginia workers and their families.

WV CALA explains the better option for lawmakers in a recent op-ed piece published by The Herald-Dispatch and The Martinsburg Journal:

National reports beg the question of whether West Virginia is better served by continuing its policy of giving away billions of dollars in selective tax incentives, with hopes of attracting specific businesses of locating here, or finally addressing the core problems with a legal system that, by most accounts, makes West Virginia an unattractive place for all businesses.

 

It’s about time that state lawmakers give the legal reform option a chance.

 

In recent years, state lawmakers have balked at passing the meaningful legal reforms that so many job providers cite as necessary for attracting jobs in West Virginia. West Virginia is one of only a handful of states without an intermediate appeals court, and the track record of our state’s appellate process is regularly cited as a deterrent to job providers. Nevertheless, lawmakers in the House of Delegates have dragged their feet on passing what was a signature reform proposal of then-Governor Joe Manchin’s Independent Commission on Judicial Reform, citing concerns over the annual costs of an intermediate appeals court. Ironically, the cost of such a court – which is attractive to most businesses looking to locate jobs – pales in comparison to some of the multi-million dollar tax giveaways that lawmakers have passed in an attempt to attract just one business to the state.

 

Every year that the West Virginia Legislature passes on legal reforms, our state economy falls further behind. Our neighboring state of Ohio ranks a whopping 12 spots higher than West Virginia in Forbes’ latest business rankings, and the state was just praised in a Wall Street Journal editorial for passing legislation which would curb fraudulent asbestos lawsuits that continually hurt the reputation of our legal system. West Virginia is closer to 50th than it is to Kentucky (28th) and Pennsylvania (30th), both of which have passed significant legal reform measures in the last two years. Throw in Virginia (second) and Maryland (16th), and West Virginia compares rather poorly to all of its neighboring states, which unsurprisingly rank significantly higher than the Mountain State in regulatory/legal climate.

2013 provides the perfect opportunity for lawmakers to form the bi-partisan coalition needed to finally pass the legal reforms necessary to attract jobs to our state.

We will soon learn whether or not state lawmakers have the courage to act.

West Virginia has long been criticized for the state’s “overwhelming abuse of asbestos litigation.” A national web site dedicate to covering asbestos-related claims – which just so happens to be sponsored by a prominent personal injury law firm – calls the Mountain State “fertile ground for asbestos litigation,” thanks to the state’s “plaintiff-friendly courts and sympathetic juries.”  

However, a Wheeling jury sent a strong message late last week to any lawyers who are thinking of using West Virginia’s courts as a dumping ground for fraudulent asbestos filings.

As The West Virginia Record reports:

A jury has found two members of a former Pittsburgh law firm engaged in racketeering when they conspired with a Bridgeport radiologist to fabricate asbestos claims.

 

The verdict, reached Dec. 20, comes more than seven years after CSX Transportation filed its lawsuit against the former firm Peirce, Raimond & Coulter. CSX alleged that many plaintiffs with fraudulent asbestos claims were diagnosed by Ray Harron, who was found by a Texas federal judge in 2005 to have created fraudulent silica claims and lost his license in 2007.

 

A jury found for CSX on its claims of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud against Robert Peirce, Louis Raimond and Ray Harron.

The jury awarded nearly half a million dollars in damages, but that award could be tripled as a result of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act claims – which are typically associated with organized crime.

This verdict could be critical for rehabilitating the unfortunate reputation of our state courts when it comes to handling asbestos claims.  Over the years, personal injury lawyers have filed thousands of junk asbestos lawsuits in our courts, many of which had no business in West Virginia and were unable to survive scrutiny on their merits. Notable filings include a case based on the medical diagnosis of a doctor who never existed, and a scheme by one plaintiff to faking illness by having his sick co-worker sit for medical screenings.

If West Virginia is ever going to shed its reputation as a “Judicial Hellhole,” we’ve got to stop encouraging frivolous asbestos lawsuits.  Last week’s verdict is a good first step.

With the holiday season in full swing, West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is encouraging everyone to enjoy the season with family and friends – but take care to avoid the pitfalls of social host liability when planning any holiday celebrations that may involve party libations.

Whether in the home or at the office, holiday parties can keep social calendars busy in December.  But they could also result in unfortunate lawsuits being served along with traditional holiday fare!

Over the years, social hosts have landed in West Virginia courts on numerous occasions thanks to alleged injuries sustained by party guests. With that in mind, WV CALA recommends the following “holiday host suggestions” for keeping a lawsuit out of your stocking:

• When planning a party at home, prepare for adequate transportation for your guests, including designated drivers or cabs for a safe ride home, and have ample appealing non-alcoholic beverages for designated drivers;
• For office parties, consider a bus or taxi service for your employees if alcohol is being served;
• Avoid providing a self-service bar, opting instead for a bartender well-versed in identifying underage and intoxicated drinkers; and,
• Halt the flow of alcoholic beverages long before the party ends; and, Take appropriate action if a guest does overindulge, arranging for transportation home

Drinking and driving don’t mix.  So if you are hosting a holiday party at which alcoholic beverages are being served, please take necessary precautions so that all of your guests get home safely.

WV CALA wishes all West Virginians a safe and happy holidays!  

West Virginia received a one-two punch in the national rankings today, as we saw the state named both a “Judicial Hellhole” and one of the “worst states for business” in two separately released reports.  

For the 11th straight year, West Virginia appears on The American Tort Reform Foundation’s annual “Judicial Hellholes” report, as the Mountain State jumped “up” to the No. 2 “Judicial Hellhole” this year.  At the same time, Forbes Magazine rates West Virginia as the 5th worst state in the nation for business.  The rankings are not unrelated, as Forbes takes into account the regulatory and legal climate of all fifty states – a factor in which West Virginia ranks 47th!

The “Judicial Hellholes” report summarizes West Virginia’s problems as follows:

While there are occasional glimmers of hope that West Virginia will overcome its reputation as a Judicial Hellhole, in many ways, each year seems like déjà vu. With law that is out of the mainstream, a lack of appellate due process, [and] stunningly high verdicts…Wild, Wonderful West Virginia continues to astound.

The importance of a fair legal climate is echoed in Forbes’ “Best States for Business” rankings, which praises top-ranked Utah for being “less likely to reward frivolous lawsuits or hand out excessive judgments.”

It’s clear that West Virginia isn’t doing enough to attract job providers, who view our state as an unfavorable place to do business – in large part thanks to an unbalanced legal system.

The question remains as to whether or not state lawmakers are actually going to do something about the problems that are currently hurting our state. In recent years, state lawmakers have balked at passing the meaningful legal reforms that so many job providers cite as necessary for attracting jobs in West Virginia. Personal injury lawyers have had a stranglehold on leadership in the House of Delegates, resulting in the premature death of many reform measures passed by the state Senate.

Now that the membership of the House of Delegates appears to be more balanced, many will be looking to see whether “business-friendly” Democrats are willing to form a bi-partisan coalition to pass the legal reforms necessary to attract jobs to our state.  Or will the personal injury status quo in the House of Delegates prevail?

Time will tell.

As West Virginia looks to reform its “Judicial Hellhole” reputation, The Parkersburg News & Sentinel writes that a business court measure pushed by the West Virginia Supreme Court is a good start.

The state Supreme Court’s business court proposal would allow for judges with specialized training to handle complex business-vs-business litigation.  In support of the proposal, The News & Sentinel notes:

West Virginia’s Supreme Court has taken an important step to improve the state’s economic prospects by opening the new West Virginia Business Court Division headquarters, in Martinsburg.

 

As recently as 2011, the American Tort Reform Association included the state on its list of “judicial hellholes.” The association prefaced its list, explaining traditionally such judicial systems “have been considered places where judges systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits.”

 

But the state Supreme Court hopes to restore a bit of balance by designing a court that will focus on the issues that arise from commercial litigation…

 

….Employers looking at the broad range of benefits to putting down roots in West Virginia can now add the business court to the list.

We agree that business courts are a positive step for West Virginia.  However, business courts alone cannot address some of the problems that currently exist with West Virginia’s legal system.

With nearly a dozen newly elected pro-legal reform legislators in the House of Delegates, perhaps this year will finally bring the additional reforms needed to attract jobs back to our state.