To help shine a spotlight on the importance of small businesses to West Virginia and the harm these businesses can face from abusive lawsuits, West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (WV CALA) announced the start of its Small Business Summer Tour today.
“We are very excited to kick off our fourth annual statewide tour to highlight how lawsuit abuse can hurt small businesses. Small businesses are often targeted by the personal injury lawyers, and one abusive lawsuit can close the doors of a small business for good,” said Roman Stauffer, Executive Director of WV CALA.
“Thanks to the continued hard work of our legislature under the leadership of Senate President Bill Cole and Speaker Tim Armstead we will have an opportunity to talk about some of the much needed lawsuit reforms that were passed during the legislative session. We will also highlight the important work of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in implementing the outside counsel policy, which has saved our state millions of dollars,” Stauffer added.
WV CALA will host several small business roundtable meetings across West Virginia. The first took place last week in Beckley with State Senator Sue Cline and Delegates John D. O’Neal, IV, Kayla Kessinger, and Marty Gearheart. Several others are planned during the summer months – in Charleston, Fairmont, Martinsburg, and Wheeling.
“We’re talking with small businesses, community leaders, and elected officials this summer to bring attention to much needed fixes for our legal system, to highlight the importance of recent lawsuit reforms, and also to show the effects of abusive lawsuits on small businesses across West Virginia filed by millionaire personal injury lawyers. Some lawsuits have merit, but many are more about greed than about seeking justice,” concluded Stauffer.
According to survey research by the Institute for Legal Reform, approximately seven in ten small business owners say that a lawsuit would force them to reduce benefits for current employees and hold back on hiring new ones. Also, states that have passed legal reforms have seen meaningful economic growth.
