Appeals Court Legislation Dies in State Senate
As the 2010 legislative session draws to a close, it is apparent that legislation to fix West Virginia’s appeals process, and attract well-paying jobs to our state, will not become law anytime soon.
Legislation proposed to implement the most significant recommendation of Governor Joe Manchin’s Independent Commission on Judicial Reform — the creation of an intermediate appeals court with corresponding right of appeal — failed to pass out of the Senate Finance Committee.
As the Governor’s Commission and other noted legal experts have found, our state currently grants no appeal of right. And our Supreme Court is the only state in the nation with a completely discretionary appellate docket, making West Virginia the most restrictive state in the nation when it comes to filing appeals.
While the state Supreme Court is currently considering rule changes to clarify its appellate process, members of the Court have criticized an intermediate appeals court as a waste of time and money. Consequently, West Virginians must now wait and see if the expected rule changes will ensure full appellate review for state litigants.
WV CALA will continue the push for full appellate review for all litigants. Keep checking back here for the latest updates on the current civil justice reform efforts.
Tell Your Elected Officials that Health Care Reform Must Include Legal Reform!
As the national health care debate continues, WV CALA urges West Virginians to tell their elected officials that medical liability reforms will help curb sky-rocketing health care costs. At present, none of the proposed health care “reforms” actually tackle the junk lawsuits that help drive up the cost of medicine in America. Personal injury lawyers have contributed millions of dollars to those in Congress in an effort to prevent meaningful reforms. Legal reforms have worked in West Virginia, and they can work in Washington too! Tell your elected officials to put your interests over those of the personal injury lawsuit industry.
Sign the Petition Now!
To our elected officials,
As the health care reform debate continues in Washington, we urge you to consider meaningful legal reform as a simple and effective way to cut some of our nation’s spiraling health care costs. Frivolous lawsuits, liability pressures and the resulting practice of defensive medicine costs our health care system between $84 and $151 billion per year according to the American Medical Association. The Harvard School of Public Health has estimated that 40% of all medical malpractice claims filed in the United States are groundless.
It’s time to take a stand against personal injury lawyers looking to profit from our broken health care system! Please support meaningful legal reforms like the ones recently passed in West Virginia, which have helped weed out meritless claims and encouraged doctors to move back to our state. Please vote against any legislation that fails to combat lawsuit abuse.
Sincerely,
