Oxycontin News Blog

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The American Tort Reform Association has long had West Virginia on its radar, so it should surprise no one that the state was one of five chosen to be surveyed on the transparency of its attorney general's office.

The organization already ranks the entire state as the No. 1 Judicial Hellhole in the country, and, according to the survey's results released Monday, the state's citizens are looking for change.

"Our survey is a first step in ATRA's renewed effort to shine more light on and demand greater accountability from our state attorneys general," ATRA President Tiger Joyce said. "There is overwhelming public support for much more transparency, and more than three-quarters of our survey respondents in West Virginia go so far as to support a national code of ethics to regulate the relationships between personal injury lawyers and state AGs."

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw has been the subject of controversy during his time in office, particularly for his practice of hiring outside counsel and his appropriation of settlement funds.

McGraw's $10 million settlement with Purdue Pharma in 2004 has also been a source of headlines. Out of the settlement, $2 million went to attorneys' fees for trial lawyers hired by McGraw, who also doled out much of the settlement himself instead of turning it over to the Legislature.

Chief Deputy Attorney General Fran Hughes recently told the Legislature that McGraw's office would stop spending the money, though in the next month McGraw handed out more $1 million (earlier Legal Newsline coverage can be found here ).

"For several years our state leaders have considered legislation to rein in McGraw's giveaway of state money," said Steve Cohen, president of West Virginia's Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. "He hasn't stopped this questionable practice. It's time for our leaders to stop this abuse of public funds."

Hughes, though she could not be reached at presstime, has maintained that organizations like the ATRA, U.S. Chamber of Commerce (owner of the West Virginia Record) and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which included McGraw in its report of the 10 worst state attorneys general, have the same anti-McGraw agenda because he has been successful in his litigation against big businesses.

"We were the only party ever to make Purdue Pharma pay for their marketing practices of Oxycontin, and that's why Darrell McGraw is being targeted (by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce)," Hughes said in January.

"The people that contributed to Darrell McGraw always were supporters and contributors of Darrell McGraw. We don't consider that when we pick and choose people appointed special assistant attorneys general. We have written criteria that we have provided to The Record, but they have failed to include in any article what we consider when we appoint outside counsel. The people we have appointed fill those criteria."

Joyce said that several state attorneys general are working "hand-in-glove" with their political supporters in private sector law firms, and "nowhere is that more true than in West Virginia."

"With so much of West Virginia's civil enforcement authority being delegated to private sector lawyers with contingency fee incentives to maximize civil damages, it's critical that these relationships be more fully monitored through public disclosure and appropriate oversight," Joyce said.

This is cache, read story here