ENROLLED

H. B. 4735


(By Delegate Webb)

[Passed March 10, 2000; in effect ninety days from passage.]





AN ACT to amend and reenact section three, article two-a, chapter fifty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to allowing the appointment of a person who has previously served as a family law master as a temporary family law master; and establishing limitations thereon.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article two-a, chapter fifty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. CIRCUIT COURTS; FAMILY COURT DIVISION.
§51-2A-3. Assignment of family law masters by family court circuits.
(a) A total of thirty-three family law masters shall be appointed to serve throughout the state. The state is divided into twenty-four family court circuits with the number of family law masters allocated as follows:
The counties of Brooke, Hancock and Ohio constitute the first family court circuit and have two family law masters; the counties of Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler constitute the second family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Pleasants, Wood, Wirt, Ritchie and Doddridge constitute the third family court circuit and have two family law masters; the counties of Jackson, Roane, Calhoun and Gilmer constitute the fourth family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Mason and Putnam constitute the fifth family court circuit and have one family law master; the county of Cabell constitutes the sixth family court circuit and has two family law masters; the county of Wayne constitutes the seventh family court circuit and has one family law master; the county of Mingo constitutes the eighth family court circuit and has one family law master; the county of Logan constitutes the ninth family court circuit and has one family law master; the counties of Lincoln and Boone constitute the tenth family court circuit and have one family law master; the county of Kanawha constitutes the eleventh family court circuit and has four family law masters; the counties of McDowell and Mercer constitute the twelfth family court circuit and have two family law masters; the counties of Raleigh and Wyoming constitute the thirteenth family court circuit and have two family law masters; the counties of Fayette and Summers constitute the fourteenth family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Greenbrier, Monroe and Pocahontas constitute the fifteenth family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Clay, Nicholas and Webster constitute the sixteenth family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Braxton, Lewis and Upshur constitute the seventeenth family court circuit and have one family law master; the county of Harrison constitutes the eighteenth family court circuit and has one family law master; the county of Marion constitutes the nineteenth family court circuit and has one family law master; the county of Monongalia constitutes the twentieth family court circuit and has one family law master; the counties of Barbour, Preston and Taylor constitute the twenty-first family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Grant, Tucker and Randolph constitute the twenty-second family court circuit and have one family law master; the counties of Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton constitute the twenty-third family court circuit and have one family law master; and the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan constitute the twenty- fourth family court circuit and have two family law masters.
(b) The chief justice of the supreme court of appeals may temporarily assign a family law master from one family court circuit to another family court circuit, as caseload, disqualification, recusal, vacation or illness may dictate.
(c) The chief justice of the supreme court of appeals may appoint a person who has previously served as a law master to serve as a temporary law master as disqualification, recusal, vacation or illness may dictate. Only persons who have completed courses of continuing education instruction in principles of family law and procedure, as required by supervisory rule of the supreme court of appeals, are eligible for such appointment.