Forbes Magazine recently listed Charleston, WV as one of America’s fastest dying cities. In response to the ranking, one local official placed part of the blame on the creation of roads. That’s right. Roads are partly to blame for Charleston’s dying population. Specifically, the political leader told the Charleston Daily Mail that “the interstates were built and so people left.”

Oddly, it doesn’t seem like the creation of interstate roads has hurt Charlotte, NC, which has seen countless West Virginians relocate to the city in recent years. Perhaps we could prohibit younger West Virginians from driving cars, so that they would be unable to leave the state for greener pastures once they are of working age. Or we could prohibit them from watching the news. That way, they wouldn’t know that Virginia is the best state in the nation for jobs. Heck, we could go really old school and build a wall around the city! That would keep them from leaving.

Isn’t it time for some real solutions from our political leaders. It is getting rather tiresome hearing our politicians continually deflect blame for our state’s economic woes. Instead of blaming the creation of the wheel and other technological advances, perhaps we should look at our state’s out-of-step legal system, as well as regulatory and tax burdens pointed out by Forbes recently.

West Virginia’s business climate was ranked dead last AGAIN! This time, Forbes Magazine ranks West Virginia as the worst state in the nation for business for the second year in a row. Are any of West Virginia’s politicians beginning to detect a pattern here?

Click here to check out the latest Forbes rankings.

By now, most West Virginians are in agreement that Governor Joe Manchin’s “Open for Business” slogan was a complete and utter joke. Unfortunately, the reminders of just how “Closed for Business” our state is keep rolling in. Last week, DialAmerica Marketing – which makes marketing calls for Fortune 500 companies – closed its South Charleston facility, costing our state another 160 jobs.

Less than a week later, the buzzards…um, lawyers are already picking at the remains. A local lawyer has filed a lawsuit against DialAmerica for failing to adequately warn its employees of the closure. Give us a break! West Virginia’s trial bar has already tried its best to sue many employers out of business here. Now they want to make it state policy to sue the businesses for going out of business?

Just the other day, one of the longest serving tenants in the Charleston Town Center’s history – Bennigan’s Restaurant – was forced to close its doors. Watch out Bennigan’s! Somewhere in Charleston, there’s a personal injury lawyer who is probably drafting the lawsuit against you right now.

It’s no wonder that West Virginia is one of only a handful of states with no listings on the Fortune 500.

West Virginia continues to be closed for business. While many of our political leaders like to paint a rosy picture of our state’s economic outlook, real economic indicators don’t lie. Recently released figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis indicate that West Virginia’s economic growth slowed to 0.1% over the past year – a rate that is considerably lower than the growth rate of all of our neighboring states as well as the national rate. West Virginia also ranked second worst in the nation in per capita real gross domestic product, again only managing slightly better than Mississippi.

Meanwhile, State Senator Brooks McCabe pointed out the real possibility that Charleston’s overall population could drop below the 50,000 person mark when the 2010 census is completed. “If we’re saying we’re open for business, and don’t have even one city over 50,000, I would argue we’re being naïve,” McCabe frankly noted.

Until our legal system is competitive with those of other states, especially our neighbors, West Virginia will continue to rank as one of the worst states in the nation for business.

For those who don’t think a state’s business climate matters, just look to the Northern Panhandle where a long-time West Virginia business is willing to move across the river for lower business expenses. News out of Wheeling is that Huffner Contracting, which has been headquartered in West Virginia for more than 40 years, is moving across the Ohio River for a better deal. One of the reasons cited for the move is a “huge reduction in business operating expenses in the state of Ohio.”

Can you blame Huffner Contracting? West Virginia ranks as the worst state in the nation in which to do business. Until our Legislature enacts much needed reforms, including civil justice and tax reforms, West Virginia will continue to lose jobs to our neigbhor states. If a company located in West Virginia for decades is willing to move just across the border for a better business climate, imagine the deterring effect our state’s broken business and legal climates have on employers looking to bring good-paying jobs to a state.

Click here to read more on Huffner’s decision to relocate.

In the face of much criticism, Governor Manchin has temporarily yanked his proposed changes to West Virginia’s Promise Scholarship. Several critics attacked the Governor’s proposal to force Promise scholars to either stay and work in West Virginia after their graduation from college, or pay back their Promise scholarship to the State. Many current Promise scholars also questioned the proposal, noting that it is still quite difficult to find good-paying jobs in West Virginia. Perhaps Governor Manchin will take this as yet another indication that more work must be done before our state is truly “Open for Business.”

Click here to read more on the Governor’s decision.

2008 looks to be a busy year for civil justice reform in our state. The Legislature must decide if they are finally willing to rein in the abusive practices of Attorney General Darrell McGraw. Two seats for our state Supreme Court and all of our state Circuit Judges will be up for election this year as well.

With that in mind, WV Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse decided to create this blog as a way to exchange thoughts and ideas on current events affecting West Virginia’s civil justice system. We hope our readers will enjoy a broad range of civil justice reform topics, and post comments of their own. We do please ask that comments posted to our blog be kept civil, otherwise they will be removed from the site.