Legislative session debate continues
by admin on 22/03/10 at 7:13 am
West Virginia Record
By Chris Dickerson
March 19, 2010
CHARLESTON — The 2010 regular Legislative session is over, but talk about the actions — and inactions — of lawmakers will continue for quite a while.
Regarding court-related issues, the biggest topic seems to be that the Legislature didn’t create create an intermediate appellate court, which was recommended by Gov. Joe Manchin’s Independent Commission on Judicial Reform last year.
West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse Executive Director Richie Heath called that move “an unacceptable failure to move the state forward.”
“It’s puzzling that some state lawmakers can’t see the merit of providing West Virginians the right to a full appellate review for potential legal errors,” Heath said. “It is difficult to imagine any other spending measures more important this session than guaranteeing the right of individuals to have their full day in court.”
Manchin’s Independent Commission on Judicial Reform, which included Retired United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, said in its final report that West Virginia’s appellate court system currently operates with “no appeal as of right,” giving the Mountain State the significant distinction of having the most restrictive appeals process in the nation. The Commission concluded that an intermediate appeals court “would increase the ability to address potential errors by trial courts.”
“At a time when the Legislature should be focused on job creation, nothing would have encouraged job growth more than legislation to fix our appeals process,” Heath said. “Job providers will continue to ignore West Virginia until we place more of an emphasis on having fair courts.”
The creation of an intermediate appeals court has been recommended in West Virginia for more than a decade, dating back to the state Supreme Court’s own “Commission on the Future of the West Virginia Judicial System.” West Virginia is now one of only 11 remaining states without an intermediate appeals court, and three other states with caseloads smaller than the Mountain State have created such a court since our Supreme Court first recommended its adoption.
WV CALA did praise the efforts of state Sen. Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, and others legislators in passing the appeals court bill out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, allowing for further debate on the topic.
CALA also said that while passage of legislation aimed at creating several business court designations is a positive first step, the impact of such legislation pales in comparison to the appeals court bill.
“The state’s lack of an automatic right of appeal is probably cited more than any other civil justice reform issue as the problem West Virginia must address,” Heath said. “Consequently, our state lawmakers would be well served to examine this issue further in a special session.”
