{"id":3219,"date":"2018-01-29T13:04:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T18:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3219"},"modified":"2018-01-29T18:23:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T23:23:03","slug":"charles-trump-the-chamber-of-commerce-and-west-virginia-courts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=3219","title":{"rendered":"Charles Trump the Chamber of Commerce and West Virginia Courts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Berkeley Springs attorney Charles Trump (R-Morgan) is chairman of the West Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Charles Trump
(R-Morgan)<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the past couple of years, Trump has helped move into law provisions that make it easier for businesses to cheat workers and consumers. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This week, Trump is moving another piece of legislation that is dear to the hearts of national big business groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump is holding a hearing today on SB 341 <\/a>\u2013 a bill that would create a new West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority in the West Virginia legislature is always talking about cutting government, reducing the size of government to save scarce taxpayer dollars. <\/span><\/p>\n

Why then would the legislature turn around and spend millions of dollars a year to create an Intermediate Court of Appeals?<\/span><\/p>\n

Because big business \u2013 in this case the U.S. Chamber of Commerce \u2013 wants it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone in Charleston knows this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, statewide radio host Hoppy Kercheval tried to get Charles Trump to admit as much. <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about the business community \u2013 it does not feel it can get a fair shake in the court system by only being able to appeal to the state\u2019s Supreme Court,\u201d Kercheval said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBusinesses who are on the losing end of large dollar civil cases don\u2019t feel like they are getting a fair shake under the current system. Is that a fair statement that contributes to what is going on here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know Hoppy,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI\u2019m not competent to say what the business community thinks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not the business community pushing for this, then what is it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking about what is a rational, logical structure for appellate review of cases in the judicial branch of our government in West Virginia,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe only reason to do this would be to allow the development of more of a body of a decisional law than we have now because our Supreme Court, which is having to review every case of every kind on its own, is strapped to a fairly enormous workload.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Charlie, the Supreme Court is against this,\u201d Kercheval pointed out. \u201cThe Supreme Court doesn\u2019t come back to you and say \u2013 we are really busy, we need an Intermediate Court. They come back to you and say \u2013 to a man and woman \u2013 we don\u2019t want this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Steve Canterbury was the administrative director of the West Virginia Supreme Court for eleven years before being fired in January 2017. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury knows the ins and outs of the West Virginia court system and was featured last year on Kennie Bass\u2019 WCHS-TV report that exposed the Supreme Court\u2019s $32,000 couch and triggered Couchgate.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury calls Charles Trump \u201cone of the most decent people in the legislature I have ever known, not to mention one of the very brightest and well-intended.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But along with Kercheval, Canterbury has no doubt as to what is driving the move to create an Intermediate Court of Appeals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe creation of the Intermediate Court of Appeals has been pushed hard in West Virginia for the last several years by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,\u201d Canterbury said. \u201cA primary mover in that body is the insurance industry. Insurance companies view intermediate appellate courts favorably \u2013 even though those decisions can all be appealed to the state’s Supreme Court and, thereby, to Justices in whom they may have no faith \u2013 simply because of the delay in the possible payouts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury said that one Chamber of Commerce lawyer told him once \u2013 \u201cSome people say justice delayed is justice denied. That’s not our point-of-view. \u00a0Instead, we understand that justice delayed is money in the bank.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s true that, the longer cases take, the more likely plaintiffs want to get them over with, to settle for pennies on the dollar,\u201d Canterbury said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Canterbury says that the legislation currently before the Senate Judiciary Committee is the Chamber of Commerce\u2019s dream \u2013 the intermediate court would hear primarily business-related civil suits and delay payouts by at least a few more years.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Berkeley Springs attorney Charles Trump (R-Morgan) is chairman of the West Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee. Over the past couple of years, Trump has helped move into law provisions that make it easier for businesses to cheat workers and consumers. This … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3219"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3227,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions\/3227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}