Senate Bill No. 333
(By Senator Boley)
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[Introduced February 13, 1995; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one, article three, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring the attorney
general to provide opinions of law to the minority leaders
of the House of Delegates and the Senate in addition to the
speaker of the House of Delegates and the president of the
Senate.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article three, chapter five of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. ATTORNEY GENERAL.
§5-3-1. Written opinions and advice and other legal services; expenditures by state officers, boards and commissions
for legal services prohibited.
The attorney general shall give written opinions and advice
upon questions of law, and shall prosecute and defend suits,
actions, and other legal proceedings, and generally render and
perform all other legal services, whenever required to do so, in
writing, by the governor, the secretary of state, the auditor,
the state superintendent of free schools, the treasurer, the
commissioner of agriculture, the board of public works, the tax
commissioner, the state archivist and historian, the commissioner
of banking, the adjutant general, the director of the division of
environmental protection, the superintendent of public safety,
the state commissioner of public institutions, the commissioner
of the division of highways, the commissioner of the bureau of
employment programs, the public service commission, or any other
state officer, board or commission, or the head of any state
educational, correctional, penal or eleemosynary institution;
and it is unlawful from and after the time this section becomes
effective for any of the public officers, commissions, or other
persons above mentioned to expend any public funds of the state
of West Virginia for the purpose of paying any person, firm, or corporation for the performance of any legal services: Provided,
That nothing contained in this section impairs or affects any
existing valid contracts of employment for the performance of
legal services heretofore made.
It is also the duty of the attorney general to render to the
president of the Senate, and/or the speaker of the House of
Delegates, the minority leader of the Senate and the minority
leader of the House of Delegates a written opinion or advice upon
any questions submitted to the attorney general him or her by
them or either any of them whenever he or she is requested in
writing so to do to do so.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the attorney
general to provide opinions of law to the minority leaders of the
House of Delegates and the Senate in addition to the speaker of
the House of Delegates and the Senate president.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.