WASHINGTON – For the first time since the Judicial Hellholes report began, West Virginia is not on the annual list or even the accompanying Watch List.
In fact, the Mountain State appears on the “Escaped List” for the 20th anniversary edition of the report, published each year by the American Tort Reform Association. And in the latest edition of the report, which was released December 7, the West Virginia Legislature is listed as a “Point of Light.”
The passage of Senate Bill 275, which will create an intermediate appellate court, was a key reason for the state is no longer part of the list. Before the bill’s passage, West Virginia was one of just nine states that didn’t have such a court.
Joyce
“West Virginia’s Legislature has prioritized civil justice reforms in a serious way in recent years,” ATRA President Tiger Joyce said. “With the creation of an intermediate court of appeals this year, West Virginia put itself on solid ground and will have a more balanced civil court system in coming years.”
For 10 years starting in 2003, West Virginia was ranked as a Judicial Hellhole, frequently at the top of the list. Judicial Hellholes are deemed by ATRA as the most unjust local courts and state civil justice systems in the country. And for the past seven years, the state has been named in the report’s Watch List.
“Following another successful legislative session, West Virginia no longer finds itself on the Judicial Hellholes or Watch Lists,” the report states. “West Virginia has taken great strides toward creating a fair and balanced civil justice environment.
“The ATRF will keep a close eye on future developments in the Mountain State to ensure it continues to protect the rights of both parties.”
In addition to the creation of the intermediate appellate court, ATRA praised state lawmakers for addressing the issue of over-naming in asbestos litigation with House Bill 2495, which requires a plaintiff to file a sworn information form specifying the evidence that provides the basis for each claim against each defendant and include supporting documentation.
The report also cites Senate Bill 439, which will allow juries to consider and use evidence regarding seat belt usage when deciding damages in motor vehicle cases.
California topped this year’s Judicial Hellhole list, followed by New York, the Georgia Supreme Court, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and Pennsylvania Supreme Court, three counties (Cook, Madison and St. Clair) in Illinois, Louisiana, St. Louis and South Carolina’s asbestos litigation.
Greg Thomas with West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse hailed the state’s removal from the Judicial Hellholes lists.
“We’re very excited about essentially coming totally off of the Judicial Hellhole list,” Thomas told The West Virginia Record. “The governor and the Legislature have made many reforms over the last five years or so, and the state Supreme Court has stabilized and is consistent.
“They’re setting up the Intermediate Appellate Court, so we’re no longer the only state in the country that doesn’t have an automatic right of appeal.”
Even after seeing more than 30 legal reform bills passed since 2015, Thomas said WV CALA has an “aggressive agenda” planned for the upcoming legislative session.
“We’re excited about the opportunities we’ve created here in West Virginia,” Thomas told The Record. “We think legal reform has helped the economy and created affordable accessible healthcare. But, there still is more work to do.”
The entry about West Virginia in the report’s “Escaped List” details the state’s history on the report.
“A troubling alliance among plaintiffs’ lawyers, the courts and (former) Attorney General Darrell McGraw in the early 2000s made West Virginia a ‘field of dreams’ for plaintiffs’ lawyers,” it states. “Some of the worst issues included: Supreme Court justices who were openly biased against corporate defendants; unfair consolidation of vastly dissimilar claims; asbestos fraud; a loophole permitting injured workers to file tort lawsuits rather than pursue their claims through the no-fault workers’ compensation system; a hostile medical liability climate; and excessive punitive damages.”
It says plaintiff’s attorneys serving in the Legislature blocked legal reform. But that began to change in 2014 when both houses turned red.
“The new Legislature … prioritized meaningful reforms and made several major achievements,” the entry states before listing numerous bills passed over the last few years. “Thanks to additional positive developments in 2021 … West Virginia is neither a Judicial Hellhole nor a Watch List jurisdiction for the first time in report history.”