Editorial: The Names Change; The Struggle Doesn't

DEMOCRATIC delegates voted 42-29 Sunday that Rick Thompson, D-Wayne, should be the next speaker of the House of Delegates, and so it will be. Thompson had the backing of the labor and trial lawyer camps, and some think he will swing the House to the left. His election is seen as a reaction to the strong leadership style of current Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, who did not run for re-election to the House.

Certainly Thompson can't run away from his legislative history. He voted against much of the tort-reform legislation of recent years, and he voted against privatizing the Workers Compensation Commission.

Thompson has said he considered those issues "settled," and surely no one would argue that it would make little sense to undo what it just recently did.

But if the majority party takes the position that it has done all it can or should with regard to the state's legal climate, it is decidedly at odds with the state's largest business group.

The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce thinks lawmakers should:

• Change the law so defendants pay damages in proportion to the degree to which they contributed to the injury.
• Consider caps on punitive damages or direct their use for a public benefit.
• Adopt a collateral source rule so juries know when plaintiffs have received compensation from other sources.
• Establish a uniform standard for awarding damages for "pain and suffering."
• Require the state to hire attorneys in an open bidding process, and make all settlements available for public disclosure and appropriation.
• Require lawyers to inform clients of all the costs of representation.
• Correct a cause of action invented by the state Supreme Court in 1999 that allows people exposed to hazardous substance to collect damages for medical monitoring even when they have no physical injuries.

Those contributors to the state's poor business climate have not been settled, and should be.

Republican members of the House elected Delegate Tim Armstead of Elkview as minority leader. Republicans, Armstead said, do favor continued tort reform.

The names change, but the struggle for growth continues.