Last month we trumpeted a progressive development in West Virginia: a new and growing effort to change direction and make our business climate a more friendly one.
Having long suffered the deleterious effects of our anti-business climate, we find this turnabout heartening. Maybe companies that left West Virginia for friendlier environments will consider coming back. Maybe some that rejected us as a possible site for relocation or expansion will take another look.
As an example of this positive trend, we cited House Bill 4013, passed unanimously in both chambers of our state legislature, which will prohibit most instances of out-of-state plaintiffs filing lawsuits in West Virginia for alleged harm that happened elsewhere.
Unfortunately, some unproductive tendencies persist and there are counter trends to address, such as the alarming increases in asbestos cases in Kanawha County.
The number of new asbestos cases docketed is actually going down across the country, which could signal the “beginning of a long, slow decline in filings that may go on for several decades,” said Mark Behrens, a Washington attorney involved in asbestos litigation reform efforts.
Behrens said that this nationwide decline “may reflect that the dominant plaintiff law firms are diversifying into other litigation such as opioids or that some of the less reliable or weaker claims are being pursued in the trust system. Tort reforms such as asbestos trust transparency laws and court rulings excluding some plaintiff experts also could be a factor.”
Even though West Virginia has recently enacted legislation to make the asbestos trust submission process more transparent, and HB 4013 is sure to have positive effects in the long run, we're still experiencing increases in asbestos litigation, rather than decline.
Last year, Kanawha County saw a 24.5 percent increase in asbestos cases over 2016, and almost 40 percent of the cases in West Virginia were filed by nonresidents.
We may be heading in the right direction, but there's plenty of room for improvement.