CHARLESTON – While many have complained about the lack of results in the recently completed legislative session, a few legal reform bills were passed.
“We are relatively pleased with the session, and we appreciate the legislators who worked with us on these and other bills, including the lawmakers who helped us come up with compromises on some legislation,” said Greg Thomas with West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. “We look forward to continue working with legislators and to have even more successful sessions next year and in the future.”
Thomas said WV CALA had two important and “much needed" reform bills that passed.
Thomas
| File photo
One was Senate Bill 583, which relates to trucking lawsuit liability.
“It essentially prevents nuclear verdicts and very large settlements in trucking lawsuits,” Thomas said. “This bill puts a cap on non-economic damages at $5 million.
“That makes sure everyone involved is made whole, but it taps the breaks on personal injury lawyer greed.”
Thomas said the average settlement in such cases has increased from about $2 million to $20 million in the last 10 years.
“And while we haven’t had any large verdicts like this in West Virginia, there are several personal injury law firms that advertise on TV that have promoted these large settlements they’ve won,” he said.
Another bill that passed with is an update to the Consumer Credit and Protection Act, specifically litigation funding issues that were first addressed in 2019.
“West Virginia was one of the first states to deal with this back when the Republicans took control of the Legislature, Thomas said. “This just ensures transparency to see who’s funding litigation because there are some foreign investors out there now involved in this. This legislation doesn’t prevent litigation funding, but it just makes the process more transparent.
“This is something that was a big problem in 2019 when we first passed it. Now, it’s a much bigger issue, and it’s only going to get worse.”
Danielle Waltz, a lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed, saying litigation funding is now a $13-$14 billion industry annually in the United States. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform owns The West Virginia Record.)
“We had passed the original funding bill in 2019,” said Waltz, who also is an attorney for Dinsmore in Charleston. “It was limited to consumer funding agreements. This bill extends it out to commercial entities and portfolio funding. It’s now a much broader bill to basically update the current law.”
Waltz said the West Virginia Association for Justice and the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia were involved in negotiations about the bill.
“This bill is important because it protects the citizens of West Virginia and our courts to make sure people know this funding is involved and that it exists. It makes sure parties involved in the litigation have access to the information. And it protects the ethics of our legal system because it brings any groups involved in litigation funding from out of the shadows.
“West Virginia has been a leader on the issue, and it’s good that legislators continue to lead and understand the importance of this issue.”
Another bill that pass with overwhelming support in both houses is a cybersecurity bill aimed to help businesses.
House Bill 5338 creates a safe harbor for businesses with cybersecurity programs.
Azeem Khan, a senior at West Virginia University studying political science and business cybersecurity, worked with WVU professor Dr. Chris Ramezan for about two years on the legislation.
Khan, who is part of WVU’s Honors Excel Program, said a few other states have similar safe harbor laws, but he thinks this legislation makes West Virginia a national leader.
“It provides businesses that create maintain and comply with a comprehensive cybersecurity program aligned to federal frameworks and standards,” Khan, a Charleston native, said. “If a business does this, they’re provided with an affirmative legal defense in the event of a cybersecurity breach.”
In short, if a business can prove it has complied with the guidelines of the bill, it will be safe from data breach litigation.
“It doesn’t give the business immunity,” Khan said. “A lawsuit still could be filed. But if the business shows it complied with the law, then it’s safe.”
He said the legislation should be especially beneficial to medium- and small-sized businesses. And, he said WVU is leading a proposal to create the first cybersecurity resilience business center to provide free expertise from faculty and upper level students to help businesses achieve one of these standards to gain this safe harbor.
“We would be the first to do that,” Khan said, adding the legislation allows other state higher education institutions to take part as well. “It will help West Virginia become a national leader.”
