WV Supreme Court OKs 3-Year Pilot Program To Help Lawyers With Addiction, Other Conditions

The West Virginia Supreme Court has approved a three-year pilot program to help attorneys who have addictions, or physical or mental health conditions, that impact their ability to practice law.

Officials say the purposes of the program are to protect the public and assist attorneys who need help to begin and continue recovery.

The program also will be used to educate the judges, attorneys, and the public about the causes of impairment, and develop prevention programs to help attorneys.

The West Virginia State Bar is required to file a report with the court after the first two years of the program so that it can be evaluated.

It will be funded through the West Virginia State Bar. The total costs of the program may not exceed $60,000 per year.

Truly amazing! This proves that WV’s legal system is stacked in favor of lawyers. Practically every person can cite knowledge of lawyers who have used their positions of power to lie, cheat, and steal to make money from people they prey on. When a complaint is filed with the Bar’s ODC lawyers review it, and in about 98% of the cases the ruling is in favor of a lawyer. Yet, on the Bar’s web site it is proclaimed that WV’s law profession has the highest standards of conduct. Self-policing has never worked and it never will for the law profession. WV needs a civilian panel to review complaints similar to what is done in many progressive cities for issues involving alleged misconduct by law enforcement officials. Lawyers oppose this by claiming that misconduct allegations are too complex for laypersons to understand. Isn’t it interesting though that a jury can sort through extremely complex issues to arrive at the truth? If you want to get a feel of what truly goes on with WV lawyers click onto http://www.wvrecord.com. The reported misconduct is merely a tip of the iceberg so watch out.

Gilmer Prosecutor should be the first to sign up since he is addicted to misconduct. Paying witnesses to lie giving testimony is about as low as any attorney can go, ever, and you would have to be on drugs to actually pull that one off, and he did.

It’s also AMAZING is how some of those same small town lawyers can be charging people $175 an HOUR.  Talk about taking advantage!  That’s crazy for the economics of the area.  And yet, there it is.

Why could’t we post hourly costs of local lawyers? There is a trap to avoid here too learned the hard way. At one local law firm the lawyer said that “this office charges _____ per hour”, but when the bill came that same amount was charged for typing, copy work, running to the post office by a staffer, and everything else to run up a bill unexpectedly. The recommended approach for getting advance billing costs per hour is to request the hourly amount to be charged for each service. Better yet, deal with a lawyer who will cite a fixed fee for a needed service. At least a lawyer should be willing to give an estimate for total costs for a service. That is done by every other profession including automobile mechanics.

I agree, Burnt.  For a lawyer to charge $175 an hour to prepare legal forms or present you in court is one thing, but charging the same for talking to his secretary about the case is quite another thing….

I have the receipts to show it.

So, if addiction is such a huge problem for attorneys that the Supreme Court Justices acknowledge it, are they going to get treatment before or after they have been disbarred Have their clients been advised of the situation? Will all of the cases these attorneys represented while under the influence have an opportunity to be reimbursed and retried?  How many have been disciplined for illegal drug activity, alcohol abuse and representing clients under the influence? When did they discover that certain members of the bar have mental health issues?  How did that get by?

This just shows everyone both in state and out of state how STUPID,IGNORANT, SELF SERVING, CRAZY, GREED/POWER/MONEY HUNGRY LOVING, CROOKED, CRIME COVERING people that our local and state elected officials have become. What a total embarrassment to our State. What other states offer this type program?

Attorneys are paid to prosecute or defend the person who has been charged with a crime and now our State Supreme Court of WV has approved to finance this 3 year program to help those same attorneys with addictions or mental or physical problems that may impact the ability to do their jobs a free ride thru the SYSTEM.  Unbelievable.  Maybe we can talk them into giving help to the top administrators of the Gilmer County High School System. They suffer addictions and mental conditions too.  What is happening to our County, State and Nation is disgusting and disheartening
to say the least.  Will be interesting to see how many ask for a new trial due to their attorney being impaired in one form or another and we the State of WV taxpayers will foot the bills.