January 17, 2019
Proposed Intermediate Court Unnecessary, Waste of Tax Dollars
Three Key Changes in Last 10 Years Have Eliminated Any Need for Extra Court
Charleston, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Association for Justice today urged lawmakers to block efforts to create an intermediate appellate court in the state. WVAJ President Stephen New called the new court proposed in SB 266 an unnecessary expansion of state government and waste of tax dollars.
"West Virginia does not need an intermediate court of appeals. States our size do not have intermediate courts because our case loads do not justify forcing that expense onto taxpayers," said New.
Some proponents of the proposed new court cite the findings of West Virginia's 2009 Independent Commission on Judicial Reform, which was established by Gov. Joe Manchin to study our court system that year.
"Those findings are nearly 10 years old now, and a lot has changed over the decade since that report was produced. Since 2009, automatic right of appeal has been affirmed without question, case filings have declined 40 percent and our legislature has gained oversight of the court's budget and spending. The intermediate court is not needed," said New.
In 2010, the West Virginia Supreme Court implemented revised appellate rules that addressed the concern that automatic right of appeal did not exist in West Virginia. Under those revised rules, all properly prepared appeals are reviewed, decided on the merits and either a memorandum or published opinion is released. The new rules resulted in a 700 percent increase in the number of decisions on the merits, from only 670 total from 2006 - 2010 to more than 5,000 from 2011 - 2015. In its 2014 State v. McKinley opinion, the West Virginia Supreme Court made clear that memorandum opinions may be cited as "legal authority and are legal precedent."
"Despite claims to the contrary, automatic right of appeal does exist in West Virginia. It has been verified by the independent National Center for State Courts. You don't need to create a whole new court to fix something that's not broken," said New.
In 2009, the year the commission met, cases filings totaled 1,917. By 2017 filings had declined to just 1,151, a decline of 40 percent. Since 1999, when 3,569 cases were filed, appeals in West Virginia have declined 67 percent--a rate four times the national average. Civil case appeals have declined from 315 in 2009 to 174 in 2017. Since 2004, civil appeals have declined more than 56 percent.
"Historically other states were required to add intermediate appellate courts because their judicial systems were backlogged. Their high courts were being crushed by the sheer number of cases. It's ridiculous to think the West Virginia Supreme Court needs help when its case load is one-third what it was 20 years ago," said New.
"West Virginia doesn't need to follow in North Dakota's footsteps and create a whole new court in a state where the case numbers don't justify it. It's a waste of time and money."
North Dakota, like West Virginia, has a population of less than two million. It established its intermediate court in 1987. Since its creation, that court has heard a total of just 37 appeals. No appeal has been heard by the court since 2007. The statute that created the court sunsets on January 1, 2020.
New also cited the passage of Amendment 2 last November by West Virginia voters.
"Proponents claim that the intermediate court is necessary to restore public integrity to our courts. The passage of Amendment 2 has already addressed the primary concern raised by last year's investigations. The legislature now has oversight of the court's budget and spending and will help ensure that it's fiscally responsible."
"What is not fiscally responsible is increasing the size of the judicial branch and spending our limited tax dollars on an intermediate court we don't need. I believe that if anything would threaten the public integrity of both the courts and our legislature, that would."
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