The American Association for Justice and the West Virginia Association for Justice are saying, "not so fast," to the American Tort Reform Foundation's judicial hellhole report.
Authorities with both organizations say the information in the judicial hellhole report, which was released today and ranked the Mountain State No. 3, has been widely ridiculed and debunked.
"Despite receiving millions in corporate cash, ATRA continues to produce the same stale, recycled report year after year," said AAJ President Gary M. Paul. "ATRA's multinational corporate funders should start to question if their dues are spent wisely on such an amateur piece of propaganda."
According to a news release from the AAJ, the tort reform association has been funded by corporations such as Phillip Morris, Dow Chemical, Exxon, General Electric, Aetna, Geico, State Farm, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Nationwide, which the AAJ said is a "who's who of corporations with the most gain by shutting the courthouse doors on consumers."
A release from the WVAJ also criticized the report, calling it a "farce and a baseless attack on West Virginia."
"I haven't quite figured out how you make the hellhole list or who votes on it," said Paul T. Farrell Jr., president of WVAJ. "I envision a bunch of mice voting for the owl as the most vile of birds. Cows campaigning for people to eat more chicken. Rush Limbaugh publishing a list of his least favorite Democrats. Most good lawyers recognize the list as a farce."
Farrell additionally stated the tort reform association should disclose West Virginia lawyers who voted on the list but said he doubted there were any.
"If there are some lawyers in West Virginia that cannot find a fair judge, perhaps they are in the wrong line of work," Farrell said.
According to the WVAJ release, the New York Times previously criticized the report by saying, "the question is whether the report's arguments make sense, are supported by evidence and are applied evenhandedly. Here the report falls short… It has no apparent methodology."
WVAJ said in response to this New York Times article ATRA stated the report was not "based on an analysis of the actual facts."
"The ATRA report repeatedly claims that in West Virginia there is no right of appeal, yet every defendant has the right to petition the West Virginia Supreme Court," the WVAJ news release stated.
WVAJ cited a study by the National Center for State Courts which ranked West Virginia 39th for the number of lawsuits filed per capita. According to that report, Maryland ranked first, Virginia second and Ohio seventh for the number of lawsuits filed.
"Appeals to the West Virginia Supreme Court declined to just 1668 in 2010, the lowest number of since 1990… Civil appeals comprise just 20 percent of that total and have declined 45 percent in the last decade from 606 in 2001 to 343 in 2010," a study by Richard Brisbin Jr. and John C. Kilwein stated.
This judicial hellhole report also has had an impact on legislation, according to the WVAJ.
"West Virginia's ranking gets worse when the state legislature passes the so-called reforms pushed by ATRA and the corporate interests it represents," WVAJ said citing the state's rankings from 2003 to 2006. "In that same time period, the West Virginia Legislature passed significant tort reforms pushed by ATRA including caps on medical malpractice to joint and several liability."
Farrell said West Virginians must be careful when reading the report.
"West Virginians need to recognize this list for what it is: a corporate public relations campaign packaged as a bad pun. It is nothing more than an editorial cartoon by those with a political agenda."
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