A Judicial Hellhole
by admin on 16/12/08 at 1:29 pm
WV MetroNews Talkline
It’s the seventh year West Virginia has made the list.
Joyce says there are a number of reasons for that including the lack of an intermediate appellate court in West Virginia. In West Virginia, the state Supreme Court is the only venue for appeal.
“It’s one of only two states where there isn’t a guaranteed right to appeal a multiple, hundreds of millions of dollars award….I think you have to ask yourself, ‘Where’s the fairness in that?’ It’s just fundamental to have the right to an appeal,” Joyce says. The state Supreme Court has full discretion when it comes to whether or not to consider a case.
The report also cites the way damages for medical monitoring are paid out in West Virginia. Joyce says the problem is that those who may have been exposed to a dangerous substance can get a cash award even if they have no symptoms of an illness.
“If money is to be awarded for this purpose, it ought to be done for the purpose of insuring that it’s to be a screen against somebody who may develop an injury.” Joyce says the way West Virginia’s speculative law is written right now, plaintiffs paid for future injuries can use the money for other things.
Other alleged problem areas cited in the report include the degree to which the state Supreme Court has waded into the workers’ compensation system, the liability prescription drug manufacturers still face in this state even if a doctor advises a patient of the risks associated with a particular drug and the Attorney General’s hiring of private attorneys for state cases.
Even with all of that, Joyce admits there are some good things happening.
“There are a lot of excellent judges who do excellent work and do their very best to be fair and, I would add further that, Governor Manchin and bipartisan members of the West Virginia Legislature in recent years have passed some very significant reforms.” But Joyce says all of that is not enough to get West Virginia off of the judicial hellhole list.
Other areas on the list include the following: South Florida; Cook County, Illinois; Atlantic County, New Jersey; Montgomery and Macon Counties, Alabama and Los Angeles County, California.
Members of the West Virginia Association of Justice say the AFTA is using “scare tactics.”
