Question 1

What personal injury case types do you cover in West Virginia?

Accepted Answer

Premises liability and slip and fall are our headline West Virginia categories: big-box and grocery (Walmart, Sam's Club, Target, Costco, Kroger, Food Lion), restaurant and hotel, parking lot, apartment complex, condominium common areas, and shopping-center files. We also cover auto / car accident, truck and 18-wheeler (I-77 WV Turnpike mountain-grade trucking, I-79 north-south spine for natural-gas industry, I-81 Eastern Panhandle DC-Baltimore commuter and freight, US-119 Coal Heritage Trail southern coalfields), motorcycle, rideshare (Uber and Lyft), pedestrian and bicyclist, dog bite (hybrid framework: § 19-20-13 strict liability for at-large dogs / common-law one-bite scienter for confined dogs), wrongful death, coal-mining and Marcellus Shale natural-gas industrial workplace, and product. Most firms buying WV leads from us mix a slip-and-fall and big-box premises base with steady auto, I-77/I-79/I-81 trucking, and coal/gas industrial flow.

Question 2

How does West Virginia premises liability law work?

Accepted Answer

Mallet v. Pickens, 205 W. Va. 261, 522 S.E.2d 436 (1999) is the modern statement. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals abolished the common-law invitee/licensee distinction and imposed a unitary duty of reasonable care under the circumstances to all non-trespassing entrants, evaluated under a five-factor test (foreseeability, severity, manner of entry, expected use, burden to guard). Trespassers receive the narrower historic duty. WV is one of few states to have abolished the invitee/licensee distinction (alongside Iowa, Nebraska, and several others). The 2015 reform did not disturb Mallet's non-trespasser unification. The open-and-obvious doctrine was reinstated by W. Va. Code § 55-7-28 (SB 13, 2015), superseding Hersh v. E-T Enterprises, 232 W. Va. 305 (2013); a possessor of real property generally owes no duty to protect entrants from open and obvious hazards. Surveillance preservation and prior-complaint discovery drive WV slip-and-fall outcomes.

Question 3

How much do West Virginia premises liability and slip-and-fall leads cost?

Accepted Answer

West Virginia premises and slip-and-fall lead pricing tracks the Google Ads auction. Personal injury commercial-intent CPCs across WV generally run $40 to $160, with Kanawha (Charleston), Berkeley (Martinsburg, DC commuter belt), Monongalia (Morgantown / WVU), and Cabell (Huntington) at the top end and Raleigh (Beckley), Wood (Parkersburg), and rural counties meaningfully lower. Our published West Virginia pricing is $125-$655 per exclusive lead by case type ($360 for car accident (MVA, including motorcycle and pedestrian), $540 for commercial MVA (trucking, rideshare, bus), $655 for wrongful death, $195 for premises liability, and $125+ for workers' compensation), flat and the same for every firm, with no minimums or contracts (see the pricing section above).

Question 4

What is the statute of limitations for West Virginia personal injury claims?

Accepted Answer

Two years from the date of injury under W. Va. Code § 55-2-12(b) for most personal injury claims, including premises, slip and fall, dog bite, auto, and product. Wrongful death runs on a 2-year clock from the date of death under § 55-7-6(d), strictly enforced as an essential element of the cause of action. Discovery rule recognized for latent injuries; in medical professional liability, 2 years from injury or 2 years from when injury was or should have been discovered, with a 10-year statute of repose under § 55-7B-4(a). Nursing home and long-term care medical injury 1-year SOL with discovery rule under § 55-7B-4(b). Political subdivisions: 2-year SOL under § 29-12A-6 of the Governmental Tort Claims and Insurance Reform Act. Claims against the State filed in the West Virginia Legislative Claims Commission (formerly Court of Claims) under W. Va. Code § 14-2-1 et seq.

Question 5

How does West Virginia's 50% bar comparative fault affect premises and PI cases?

Accepted Answer

West Virginia adopted modified comparative fault by statute in the 2015 Tort Reform Act, codified at W. Va. Code § 55-7-13a (effective May 25, 2015). Plaintiff fault must not be greater than the combined fault of all other parties; recovery is barred when plaintiff fault exceeds 50%, and damages are reduced proportionally otherwise. § 55-7-13c abolished joint and several liability and replaced it with several-only liability; § 55-7-13d preserves limited carve-outs. The 2015 statute superseded the comparative-fault framework in Bradley v. Appalachian Power Co., 256 S.E.2d 879 (W. Va. 1979). The same rule governs premises, dog bite, auto, and most negligence claims. Borderline-fault WV PI leads (slip-and-fall with prior wet-floor warning posted, premises files where plaintiff partially ignored a marked hazard) are flagged at intake with the 50/51 line as the critical threshold.

Question 6

Does West Virginia cap PI noneconomic damages?

Accepted Answer

No statutory cap on general PI noneconomic damages outside MPLA contexts. Caps confined to medical malpractice, public entity, and punitive damages. The MPLA noneconomic cap under W. Va. Code § 55-7B-8 is $250,000 per occurrence baseline / $500,000 catastrophic, CPI-indexed annually since 2004 to a 150% maximum (so the standard cap maxes at $375,000 and the catastrophic cap at $750,000); both currently sit at or near their statutory ceilings after 20 years of CPI. The MPLA cap does not apply to general PI. MacDonald v. City Hospital, 715 S.E.2d 405 (W. Va. 2011) upheld the MPLA cap. Punitive damages capped at the greater of 4x compensatory or $500,000 under § 55-7-29; clear-and-convincing actual malice or conscious reckless and outrageous indifference; defendant may demand bifurcated trial. Political-subdivision noneconomic cap $500,000 per person per occurrence under § 29-12A-7(b); punitive damages against political subdivisions are barred outright.

Question 7

Do you handle West Virginia coal-mining and Marcellus Shale industrial workplace files?

Accepted Answer

Yes. West Virginia's coal-mining and Marcellus Shale natural-gas industries drive concentrated third-party workplace exposure outside the workers' compensation exclusive remedy. Coal-haul trucking on US-119 Coal Heritage Trail (southern coalfields) and Marcellus Shale natural-gas service routes (northern panhandle and north-central counties) generate confined-space deaths, equipment-defect claims, mining-explosion files, and gas-pipeline files. Plaintiff firms in Raleigh, Mercer, Boone, and Logan counties have a long-standing reputation for substantial verdicts in coal-truck and industrial-injury cases. We screen industrial files for direct-employer status (workers' comp bar), non-employer co-tortfeasors (equipment manufacturers, contractors, premises owners), and contracting-relationship analysis at intake.

Question 8

How does the Mallet v. Pickens premises framework change the calculus on West Virginia files?

Accepted Answer

Mallet v. Pickens, 522 S.E.2d 436 (W. Va. 1999) abolished the common-law invitee/licensee distinction, imposing a unitary reasonable-care duty to all non-trespassing entrants under a five-factor test. Property owners no longer get the lower licensee duty when a social guest, business invitee, or other lawful entrant is on the property. Trespassers remain a separate (lower) duty category. WV joins Iowa, Nebraska, and a handful of other states in unifying the lawful-entrant duty, which is materially more plaintiff-friendly than tripartite-framework states (Idaho, Texas, Mississippi, Maryland, North Carolina). The 2015 reform reinstated the open-and-obvious doctrine under § 55-7-28, partially offsetting Mallet for hazards a reasonable visitor would readily see. The interaction of Mallet (plaintiff-friendly duty) and § 55-7-28 (defendant-friendly open-and-obvious) is the operationally significant dynamic on WV premises files.

Question 9

Are your West Virginia leads pre-screened against the 2-year SOL and the political-subdivision regime?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every WV lead is screened for SOL position under W. Va. Code § 55-2-12(b), representation status, injury, and 50% bar comparative-fault sanity check under § 55-7-13a. Premises files include surface-condition and open-and-obvious context (since the 2015 reform reinstated the doctrine under § 55-7-28). Auto and trucking files include I-77 Turnpike, I-79, I-81 Eastern Panhandle, and US-119 Coal Heritage Trail corridor and FMCSA context where applicable. Political-subdivision leads are flagged at intake for the 2-year SOL under § 29-12A-6 and the $500,000 noneconomic cap under § 29-12A-7(b). State-defendant leads are flagged for the West Virginia Legislative Claims Commission process under § 14-2-1 et seq. Med-mal leads are flagged for the cap structure under § 55-7B-8 and the 10-year statute of repose under § 55-7B-4(a).

Question 10

Any contracts, minimums, or setup fees?

Accepted Answer

None. No monthly minimums, no subscriptions, no setup fees for standard onboarding. Pay per lead. Pause or resume anytime. Invalid leads are replaced under our standard policy.

West Virginia Personal Injury Leads for Law Firms

West Virginia Personal Injury Leads: Quick Reference

How Much Do West Virginia Personal Injury Leads Cost?

Screening Criteria on Every Lead

Why West Virginia Premises & PI Files Reward Pre-Screening

West Virginia Case Types We Generate

West Virginia Personal Injury Law: Quick Reference

Notable West Virginia Personal Injury Verdicts and Settlements

Lead Pricing Across West Virginia Practice Areas

Ready for Exclusive West Virginia PI Leads?

Frequently Asked Questions

References

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