The Workers' Compensation Litigation Division currently has a staff of fifty-four persons of which seventeen are lawyers. The responsibility of the Workers' Compensation Litigation Division is to defend decisions made by the Workers' Compensation Commission (now the Office of Insurance Commissioner as administrator of the Old Fund through its third party administrator, BrickStreet Administrative Services and/or Cambridge Integrated Services). Prior to January 1, 2006, the Division provided defense to workers' compensation claims, as directed by the client, in protests by claimants and/or employers at the Office of Judges, in appeals to the Board of Review, and in appeals to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Although the Division was limited in the types of claim issues that it defended at these levels of the workers' compensation administrative procedure, it was essentially "in-house" attorneys for the Workers' Compensation Commission, its predecessor and successor. Today, with the change in workers' compensation legislation in 2005 which brought about the privatization of the workers' compensation system in West Virginia, the Division now represents the Office of Insurance Commissioner in its capacity as administrator of the Old Fund in all claims' issues. The Old Fund is defined by statute as being any claimant's injury or disease with a date of injury or date of last exposure on or prior to June 30, 2005. The Division also defends uninsured employers' fund claims notwithstanding the date of injury/date of last exposure.

Because of the transition from a monopolistic system to privatization, the Division is now a work in progress rapidly changing from an issue oriented law firm to a claims oriented law firm where many of the attorneys will be defending all claims' issues but with certain of those issues to be referred to an issue specialist such as permanent partial disability, permanent total disability or occupational pneumoconiosis. The Division and its staff are managed, in large part, by the director and five managing attorneys. In addition to the administrative process, claims' issue defense for decisions made by the Office of Insurance Commissioner as administrator of the Old Fund through its third party administrator, the Division is also called upon from time to time to defend the Workers' Compensation Commission/Division and/or the Office of Insurance Commissioner in its capacity as administrator of the Old Fund in petitions for writs of mandamus or prohibition filed against it (them) in the Circuit Courts of West Virginia or at the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

Because claims in the workers' compensation administrative process have been determined to contain information that is confidential or private, it is not possible to list cases or provide a synopsis of those cases. However, major Supreme Court decisions impacting current and future workers' compensation claims are:

1. Wampler Foods, Inc. v. Workers' Compensation Division, 216 W.Va. 129, 602 S.E.2d 805 (2004)
2. Beirne v. Commissioner, West Virginia Bureau of Employment Programs, 214 W.Va. 771, 591 S.E.2d 329 (2003)
3. State ex rel. Crist v. Cline, 219 W.Va. 202, 632 S.E.2d 358 (2006)
4. Bias v. Eastern Associated Coal Corp., ___ S.E.2d ___, 2005 WL 4076760 (decided June 8, 2006)
5. Fitzgerald v. Fitzgerald, ___ S.E.2d ___, 2006 WL 3454995 (decided November 30, 2006)