Charleston, WV – Personal injury lawyers have been giving big money to Republican State Senate candidates in the last few weeks—over $100,000 to the members highlighted on our notorious Dirty Dozen the other week. Over the last decade, the West Virginia Legislature has passed dozens of legal reform bills, which have greatly improved our state’s business climate, resulting in more jobs and more revenue that enabled the largest tax cut in state history.
However, the last two legislative sessions have seen no significant legal reform, and many of the members of this updated Dirty Dozen list have sponsored bills to create new causes of action or expand liability in West Virginia.
“West Virginia may not be for sale, but many of the incumbent Republican State Senate candidates have put their votes out to the highest bidder—greedy personal injury lawyers,” said Greg Thomas, Executive Director of West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. “If these corrupt legislators are not defeated in the May primary elections, the liberal personal injury lawyer agenda will continue to infiltrate next year’s legislative session.”
Chris Pritt still tops the list with $53,100 of his campaign funds coming from personal injury lawyers’ interests, along with Laura Chapman and Lance Wheeler from the previous list. Two new members have worked their way up the list—Anne Charnock with $35,000 and Rollan Roberts with $20,350. Almost all of the members of current anti-jobs State Senate President Randy Smith’s team are now on the list, with over a quarter of a million dollars from personal injury lawyers so far in this year’s primary.
