Personal Injury Lawyers Trying to Buy WV Supreme Court, Again

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – As the West Virginia Supreme Court candidate campaign filing deadline ends, the personal injury lawsuit industry has given nearly $1 million in an attempt to restore “Jackpot Justice” to West Virginia’s legal system. According to research by West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit has received the most campaign contributions from “Personal Injury Lawyer Interests” having received $129,550.00 in 2019. Coming in at the second largest campaign contributions from “Personal Injury Lawyer Interests” is recently appointed Supreme Court Justice John Hutchison, having received $106,109.00. Finally, the largest amount of personal injury lawyer money injected into the state supreme court campaigns is a loan of $549,155.51 from former Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely to his own campaign. West Virginia Citizens Against lawsuit Abuse Executive Director Jordan Burgess said, “Some things never change. The greedy personal Injury lawyers are once again trying to buy control of our State’s Highest Court and return our state’s legal system to bad ol’ days of personal Injury lawyers buying private jets that also held our state’s economy hostage. It is one of the main reasons why West Virginia has had the lowest workforce participation rate in the country.” Burgess continued, “We are excited about the candidacies of State Supreme Court Justice Tim Armstead, Circuit Judge Lora Dyer, and Putnam County Assistant Prosecutor Kris Raynes.” “We will continue to do this research throughout the Supreme Court elections so that citizens will know who is behind the campaigns of the candidates, and we are hopeful they will yet again send the message to the greedy personal injury lawyers that West Virginia is Not for Sale,” said Jordan Burgess. West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is a grassroots organization and the state’s only legal watchdog organizations with nearly 25,000 members statewide.