New U.S. Chamber Study: West Virginia’s Tort Costs Down, Thanks to Legal Reform

Mountain State's Per Household Cost Lowest in the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A new economic study released today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) found that West Virginia's tort costs declined 20 percent between 2016 and 2022, and its per-household tort cost was the lowest in the country in 2022 at about $2,100. For the past decade, state lawmakers in West Virginia prioritized efforts to create and maintain a fair legal system, enacting at least one legal reform almost every legislative session, which contributed to lower costs for West Virginians.

Tort Costs in America: An Empirical Analysis of Costs and Compensation of the U.S. Tort System - Third Edition found that, nationally, costs paid into the U.S. tort system reached an all-time high of $529 billion in 2022. While the study shows the challenges of rising tort costs, it also shows that meaningful reforms to improve state legal climates can drive down those costs.

Some of the reforms West Virginia has enacted in the past decade include:

• Protecting consumers from predatory lawsuit lending and misleading lawsuit advertising.
• Ensuring that defendants pay for damages that they-not another party-are responsible for.
• Limiting unreasonable punitive damages awards to reduce nuclear verdicts.
• Making sure lawsuit awards reflect the actual cost of medical care.
• Preventing plaintiffs' lawyers from hand-picking courts they prefer the most.

"West Virginia is a legal reform success story. For years, lawmakers took seriously the state's reputation as one of the worst lawsuit climates and prioritized fixing it by enacting meaningful reforms, such as reining in misleading lawsuit advertising tactics and caps on out-of-control damages," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform President Stephen Waguespack.

Along with the economic study, the Chamber also released a new 50-state data center that breaks down the hidden costs of lawsuits per household.

Tort Costs in America was conducted by the Brattle Group on behalf of ILR and can be downloaded and viewed here.