CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The West Virginia Supreme Court is refusing to hear as many legal appeals as it has in the past, according to court statistics - and two Supreme Court candidates say that should change.

The court accepted 41 percent of the appeals it reviewed in 1999 and 52 percent in 2000, according to the Supreme Court's "2007 Statistical Report."

Those percentages were 11 percent in 2006 and 17 percent in 2007.

Former Justice Margaret Workman, running for the court as a Democrat, said on Friday, "Obviously the number of appeals accepted has been declining.

"When I was on the court, we handled the largest number of cases the court has ever ruled on in the history of West Virginia. It was a very hard-working court. Over time, those numbers have gone down."

Democrat Menis Ketchum, a Huntington lawyer also running for the court, said on Friday, "The court is not hearing enough of our citizens' appeals. This year, the Supreme Court will be 'in vacation' three months and 22 days.

"If the court took an average amount of vacation - two to three weeks - they could grant full hearings to many more citizens who apply to have their appeals heard."

Beth Walker, the only Republican candidate running for one of the two open seats, did not return a telephone call to her office Friday.

Justice Larry Starcher, who is retiring from the court at the end of the year, spoke about the issue to the West Virginia Employment Lawyers Association in October 2007.

"I have consistently voted against these lengthy vacations," Starcher said. "Justice [Joe] Albright ... has also voted against them."

Justices Robin Davis, Elliott "Spike" Maynard and Brent Benjamin have consistently favored nearly four months of court recesses each year, Starcher said.

Court defenders, who asked not to be quoted, said statistics don't tell the whole story. Justices do more than hear cases, they said - they administer the whole state's court system.

Also, just because a justice is "in vacation" doesn't necessarily mean they take a vacation from their court duties, they said.

During the 143-year history of the court, the number of cases it accepted has varied widely.

After Justices Tom Miller and Sam Harshbarger were elected in 1976, the number of opinions issued rose dramatically, from 75 in 1976 to 325 in 1984.

The Supreme Court issued only 121 opinions in 2006 and 120 opinions last year.

In his speech, Starcher said the number of opinions he wrote dropped because the court was accepting fewer cases on appeal - often against the wishes of Starcher and Albright.

"The court is now producing about one-third the number of opinions today as it produced 10 years ago," Starcher said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The West Virginia Supreme Court is refusing to hear as many legal appeals as it has in the past, according to court statistics - and two Supreme Court candidates say that should change.

The court accepted 41 percent of the appeals it reviewed in 1999 and 52 percent in 2000, according to the Supreme Court's "2007 Statistical Report."

Those percentages were 11 percent in 2006 and 17 percent in 2007.

Former Justice Margaret Workman, running for the court as a Democrat, said on Friday, "Obviously the number of appeals accepted has been declining.

"When I was on the court, we handled the largest number of cases the court has ever ruled on in the history of West Virginia. It was a very hard-working court. Over time, those numbers have gone down."

Democrat Menis Ketchum, a Huntington lawyer also running for the court, said on Friday, "The court is not hearing enough of our citizens' appeals. This year, the Supreme Court will be 'in vacation' three months and 22 days.

"If the court took an average amount of vacation - two to three weeks - they could grant full hearings to many more citizens who apply to have their appeals heard."

Beth Walker, the only Republican candidate running for one of the two open seats, did not return a telephone call to her office Friday.

Justice Larry Starcher, who is retiring from the court at the end of the year, spoke about the issue to the West Virginia Employment Lawyers Association in October 2007.

"I have consistently voted against these lengthy vacations," Starcher said. "Justice [Joe] Albright ... has also voted against them."

Justices Robin Davis, Elliott "Spike" Maynard and Brent Benjamin have consistently favored nearly four months of court recesses each year, Starcher said.

Court defenders, who asked not to be quoted, said statistics don't tell the whole story. Justices do more than hear cases, they said - they administer the whole state's court system.

Also, just because a justice is "in vacation" doesn't necessarily mean they take a vacation from their court duties, they said.

During the 143-year history of the court, the number of cases it accepted has varied widely.

After Justices Tom Miller and Sam Harshbarger were elected in 1976, the number of opinions issued rose dramatically, from 75 in 1976 to 325 in 1984.

The Supreme Court issued only 121 opinions in 2006 and 120 opinions last year.

In his speech, Starcher said the number of opinions he wrote dropped because the court was accepting fewer cases on appeal - often against the wishes of Starcher and Albright.

"The court is now producing about one-third the number of opinions today as it produced 10 years ago," Starcher said.

Some types of appeals were more likely to be accepted than others.

For example, the Supreme Court accepted 30 percent of the "civil petitions" it received in 1999, focusing on issues like contract disputes, car wrecks and medical malpractice.

The court accepted 39 percent of all civil appeals in 2001 and 27 percent last year.

In workers' compensation disputes, however, the percentage of appeals accepted by the court dropped from 51 percent in 1999 to 8 percent in 2006 and 17 percent in 2007.

West Virginia is unlike most states, Workman pointed out, that have intermediate courts that hear cases before they can be appealed to state supreme courts.

"Since we do not have an intermediate appeals court, the Supreme Court has an even stronger obligation to hear cases," Workman said.

Workman said, "I have heard it said this is the busiest court in the nation. Many of those cases are workers' compensation cases. I believe those cases never received the proper quality of review."

Workman says the state should "create a board of review, a specialized court for workers' compensation cases."

John Skaggs, a Charleston lawyer who often represents injured workers, said, "Today, the Supreme Court accepts such a small number of workers' comp cases that they provide little direction to administrative law judges and review judges on lower levels.

"People who suffer serious injuries deserve better consideration than they are getting."

The state Supreme Court has been getting more attention, and criticism, because of national publicity about some controversial rulings - especially because of ties between some justices and parties filing appeals.

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court will discuss whether to accept an appeal by Hugh Caperton and Harman Mining. They seek to reverse two West Virginia Supreme Court decisions in favor of Massey Energy.

Those 3-2 rulings overturned an August 2002 Boone County jury verdict against Massey, now worth more than $76 million, for allegedly hijacking Harman's coal supply contract with a Pittsburgh steel company.

Maynard recused himself from the April decision, after his vacation with Blankenship on the French Riviera received national publicity.

Benjamin refused to recuse himself, even though Blankenship personally contributed more than $3 million to help elect him in November 2004.

The court also is being criticized for declining to hear two major corporate appeals:

Davis recused herself from this case, since her husband, Scott Segal, represented the plaintiffs.

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 348-5164.