H. B. 2493
(By Delegates Barker, Eldridge, Hrutkay,
Butcher and Ferrell)
[Introduced
February 18, 2005
; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §51-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, requiring that of the two judges allotted
for the twenty-fifth circuit, one must be a resident of Boone
County and one a resident of Lincoln County.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §51-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CIRCUIT COURTS; CIRCUIT JUDGES.
§51-2-1. Judicial circuits; terms of office; legislative findings
and declarations; elections; terms of court.
(a) The state shall be divided into the following judicial
circuits with the following number of judges:
The counties of Brooke, Hancock and Ohio shall constitute the
first circuit and shall have four judges; the counties of Marshall,
Tyler and Wetzel shall constitute the second circuit and shall have
two judges; the counties of Doddridge, Pleasants and Ritchie shall
constitute the third circuit and shall have one judge; the counties of Wood and Wirt shall constitute the fourth circuit and shall have
three judges; the counties of Calhoun, Jackson, Mason and Roane
shall constitute the fifth circuit and shall have two judges; the
county of Cabell shall constitute the sixth circuit and shall have
four judges; the county of Logan shall constitute the seventh
circuit and shall have two judges; the county of McDowell shall
constitute the eighth circuit and shall have two judges; the county
of Mercer shall constitute the ninth circuit and shall have two
judges; the county of Raleigh shall constitute the tenth circuit
and shall have three judges; the counties of Greenbrier and
Pocahontas shall constitute the eleventh circuit and shall have two
judges; the county of Fayette shall constitute the twelfth circuit
and shall have two judges; the county of Kanawha shall constitute
the thirteenth circuit and shall have seven judges; the counties of
Braxton, Clay, Gilmer and Webster shall constitute the fourteenth
circuit and shall have two judges; the county of Harrison shall
constitute the fifteenth circuit and shall have three judges; the
county of Marion shall constitute the sixteenth circuit and shall
have two judges; the county of Monongalia shall constitute the
seventeenth circuit and shall have two judges; the county of
Preston shall constitute the eighteenth circuit and shall have one
judge; the counties of Barbour and Taylor shall constitute the
nineteenth circuit and shall have one judge; the county of Randolph
shall constitute the twentieth circuit and shall have one judge;
the counties of Grant, Mineral and Tucker shall constitute the
twenty-first circuit and shall have two judges; the counties of Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton shall constitute the twenty-second
circuit and shall have one judge; the counties of Berkeley,
Jefferson and Morgan shall constitute the twenty-third circuit and
shall have four judges; the county of Wayne shall constitute the
twenty-fourth circuit and shall have one judge; the counties of
Lincoln and Boone shall constitute the twenty-fifth circuit and
shall have two judges:
Provided, That, in the twenty-fifth
circuit, one judge shall be a resident of Boone County and one
judge shall be a resident of Lincoln County; the counties of Lewis
and Upshur shall constitute the twenty-sixth circuit and shall have
one judge; the county of Wyoming shall constitute the
twenty-seventh circuit and shall have one judge; the county of
Nicholas shall constitute the twenty-eighth circuit and shall have
one judge; the county of Putnam shall constitute the twenty-ninth
circuit and shall have two judges; the county of Mingo shall
constitute the thirtieth circuit and shall have one judge; and the
counties of Monroe and Summers shall constitute the thirty-first
circuit and shall have one judge:
Provided, That the Kanawha
County circuit court shall be a court of concurrent jurisdiction
with each single judge circuit where the sitting judge in such
single judge circuit is unavailable by reason of sickness, vacation
or other reason.
(b) Any judge in office on the effective date of the
reenactment of this section shall continue as a judge of the
circuit as constituted under prior enactments of this section,
unless sooner removed or retired as provided by law, until the thirty-first day of December, two thousand.
(c) The term of office of all circuit court judges shall be
for eight years. The term of office for all circuit court judges
elected during the general election conducted in the year two
thousand shall commence on the first day of January, two thousand
one and end on the thirty-first day of December, two thousand
eight.
(d) Beginning with the primary and general elections to be
conducted in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-two, in all
judicial circuits having two or more judges there shall be, for
election purposes, numbered divisions corresponding to the number
of circuit judges in each circuit. Each judge shall be elected at
large from the entire circuit. In each numbered division of a
judicial circuit, the candidates for nomination or election shall
be voted upon and the votes cast for the candidates in each
division shall be tallied separately from the votes cast for
candidates in other numbered divisions within the circuit. The
candidate receiving the highest number of the votes cast within a
numbered division shall be nominated or elected, as the case may
be:
Provided, That beginning with the primary and general
elections to be conducted in the year two thousand, judges serving
a judicial circuit comprised of four or more counties with two or
more judges, shall not be residents of the same county.
(e) The Supreme Court shall, by rule, establish the terms of
court of circuit judges.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
require that of the two
judges allotted for the twenty-fifth circuit, one must be a
resident of Boone County and one a resident of Lincoln County.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.