The 2022 Annual Report for West Virginia’s Business Court Divisions has been issued. This is not a high volume business court in terms of case numbers, but focuses on the most complex cases.
A copy of the report can be found here.
To quote the report’s summary:
In 2022, 20 motions to refer to the Business Court Division from 14 counties were filed (including 2 direct referrals by the Chief Justice). There was also one motion to refer pending from 2021. Of those 21 motions to refer (including the two direct referrals by the Chief Justice), 10 were deemed to be complex business litigation, as required by Trial Court Rule 29.04(a)(1) and were transferred to the Business Court Division. Eleven were denied. The Chief Justice rendered a decision in an average of 43 days from the date the motions to refer were filed.
As of the end of 2022, there were 13 active pending cases and 14 additional pending cases that were not active due to a stay or having an issue on appeal thus limiting the activity in the case. The average case age of the active cases as of the end of 2022 was 572 days.
The division judges disposed of nine cases in 2022 and the average case age of the disposed cases was 479 days. Six out of the nine disposed cases were settled by agreement of the parties, resulting in agreed dismissal orders.
The division judges scheduled approximately 47 hearings, entertained approximately 106 motions, and entered 192 orders in 31 cases in 2022. There were approximately nine mediations or mediation status hearings scheduled by the resolution judges in 2022, excluding any follow-up conference calls. There were no jury trials and one bench trial.
Since inception (October 2012), 239 motions to refer have been filed in 41 counties. Of those, 137 cases from 36 counties have been transferred to the Business Court Division. The overall transfer rate is 57 percent. There have been 110 cases resolved, leaving 27 cases still pending with the division at the end of 2022.
Again, a copy of the report can be found here.
