The State of W.Va.'s Courts

Two WVU political science professors have sought to shine a light on the actual workings of the Mountain State's civil justice system by highlighting available data and the lack thereof.

As The Associated Press reports, the resulting report out of the school's Institute for Public Affairs finds "a good deal of sound and fury, but few facts to support the notion that the Mountain State is a 'judicial hellhole.'"

The report appears in the latest issue of the Public Affairs Reporter.

The report culls data from the National Center for State Courts to present what available figures say about civil filings in the state. But the researchers also found that in the absence of supporting data, "business interest groups" have nonetheless portrayed West Virginia as lawsuit-happy."

"As a social scientist, what is so troubling is looking at what they do. It's a totally unscientific, self-fulfilling cycle,'' a co-author of the report told AP. "To them, we're this hellhole without them ever trying to measure whether we are.''

Those interests include the state Chamber of Commerce, which includes the state's court system among its legislative proposals pitched to The Register-Herald of Beckley.

The Charleston Gazette focused on the researchers' survey of circuit judges. "The vast majority of circuit court judges — 77 percent — responded that there had not been an 'explosion of frivolous litigation,'" the Gazette notes.