A local personal injury lawyer takes the stakes for a lawsuit he filed on behalf of a woman who sued the owner of a horse she rode while intoxicated.

Rich Holtzapfel recently filed the case in Kanawha County Circuit Court, alleging injuries sustained two years ago when his client was horsing around. The woman alleges that her host threw a party in which both alcohol and horseback rides were available to guests. After consuming alcohol, the guest apparently agreed to the partygiver’s offer of a horseback ride. The woman fell while attempting to get on the horse, sustaining alleged injuries.

Shouldn’t common sense dictate the outcome of this case? By alleging negligence on the part of the host, the party guest apparently excuses herself from any responsibility whatsoever. Mounting a horse can be quite the challenge. It is likely even more difficult once you’ve knocked back a couple of cocktails. Shouldn’t the woman be held equally accountable for stupidly deciding to ride a horse whil intoxicated?

Sadly, this is just another example of personal injury lawyers chipping away at the idea of personal responsibility. We wonder if Holtzapfel will subpoena Mr. Ed to testify as his “mane” witness.

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 got another stark reminder of why our state’s legal climate is routinely ranked the worst in the nation. Last week, the State Supreme Court refused to hear appeals of two of the largest verdicts in the entire nation last year, totaling more than $664 million in damages. As a result of the Supreme Court’s actions, natural gas company Chesapeake Energy has halted construction on its proposed Charleston-based headquarters, choosing instead to invest its $35 million elsewhere.

Once again, our state finds itself outside the legal mainstream. West Virginia is one of only two states in the nation that doesn’t provide civil litigants with an automatic right of appeal of some sort. Our state’s lack of an intermediate appellate court also places West Virginia in the minority. In most instances, circuit judges essentially serve as the court of last resort for West Virginia litigants. That’s a scary proposition considering the recent election of Warren McGraw to the Wyoming County Circuit Court.

How many jobs must our state lose before our political leaders decide to actually do something about our broken court system? All West Virginians deserve the right to be heard. Until we provide civil litigants with some sort of automatic right of appeal, job providers will continue to take their jobs to states that emphasize fairness, and not legal fees for personal injury lawyers.