Why not reassure potential investors?
by admin on 03/02/10 at 6:54 am
Charleston Daily Mail
February 3, 2010
When DuPont and Chesapeake Energy were hit with large damage awards in West Virginia circuit courts, they were dismayed to find that this state did not afford them an automatic right of appeal to a higher court, as do the other states in which they operate.
Unfortunately, the state has earned a reputation for allowing plaintiffs to forum-shop for friendly judges and juries, as well as for slamming “deep pocket’ defendants like corporations for large damage awards.
Potential investors naturally want protection from such proclivities. The state Chamber of Commerce, which represents most businesses in the state, says this is the only one of the 50 states that has a “completely discretionary docket, with no appeal as of right.”
It wants the state to provide an automatic right of appeal of lower court rulings.
However, Chief Justice Robin Davis of the state Supreme Court, speaking to a rare joint session of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, said the chamber is “flat-out wrong” that West Virginia is the only state that doesn’t have a right of appeal of lower court rulings, and added that the chamber’s contention was “almost inexcusable.”
Litigants in West Virginia do have an absolute right of appeal to the state Supreme Court, Davis said. All five justices review each petition for appeal.
But not every appeal results in oral arguments or written opinions. The court approves some petitions and denies others without explanation.
The chamber’s position is that a formal appeal process “that includes the court’s written explanation about approving or denying appeals would provide predictability in the outcomes and management of cases, particularly to litigants and circuit court judges.
“It creates a rational, consistent and stable jurisprudence or body of law within a jurisdiction, and, in its appropriate role, boosts public confidence that the courts even-handedly apply the law.”
The chamber is right.
