Settlements With Former West Virginia State Employees Top $3M

West Virginia has paid more than $3 million to settle wrongful termination lawsuits brought by 10 former state employees.

When Mac Warner (R) became West Virginia Secretary of State in January 2017, 16 employees of the office were fired. A dozen of them sued, and the state Board of Risk & Insurance Management reached deals with 10 of them.

Mike Queen, a spokesman for Warner, told Bloomberg Law Nov. 20 that the secretary maintains that the workers were “at will” public employees who can be terminated without reason or cause. The state insurance panel was wrong to unnecessarily settle for ...