The Court yesterday refused a petition for a writ of prohibition sought by Union Carbide to prevent mass litigation related to asbestos exposure from proceeding in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County. See this post for background. The vote was 4-0 (Justice Davis disqualified).

This morning I posted summaries of 22 opinions issued by the WV Supreme Court over the past month. (Review them on one page, or split by category among civil, criminal, and family.) Subscribers to the e-mail opinion summary service will receive all the summaries this morning. Of the 22 opinions covered, twelve are signed opinions that articulate new points of law. (In West Virginia, new points of law are articulated in signed opinions through syllabus points; per curiam opinions cite previously-articulated points of law only.) For civil practitioners in our fair state, notable issues covered in those opinions include:

• newly-construed limitations period for actions arising from closed-ended credit transactions
• legal representation of county school boards
• further elucidation of attorney-client privilege and work product claims in bad faith litigation; see also Justice Davis' concurring opinion in the Medical Assurance case, discussing the crime-fraud exception in this context
• finality of partial summary judgment in multiple defendant actions, inherent power of courts to reconsider interlocutory orders
• calculation of tax credit for gas storage business
• assignment of legal malpratice claims is void as against public policy
• high school athlete was not a public figure for purposes of defamation action against newspaper; general review of public figure analysis in defamation actions
• requirements for finality of infant settlement

For criminal practitioners, new points of law were announced regarding the offenses of removing signs from property and failing to identify oneself to a law enforcement officer, as well as the process for allocating credit for time served by youthful offenders in certain situations. In addition, the Court revisited and modified the bifurcation and status element holdings previously announced in State v. Nichols.