ENROLLED
H. B. 4388
(By Delegates Webster, Mahan, Hrutkay, Guthrie, Fleischauer,
Lane, Shook, Burdiss, Azinger, Brown and Ellem)
[Passed March 8, 2008; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section designated §51-1-21, relating to
authorizing the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to
maintain a domestic violence database.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section designated §51-1-21, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. WEST VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS.
§ 51-1-21. Authority to maintain domestic violence database.
(a) The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals is hereby
authorized to maintain a domestic violence database containing
certified copies of protective orders entered by the courts of this
state and granted pursuant to the provisions of article twenty-
seven, chapter forty-eight of this code. Further, the domestic
violence database shall also include, whenever possible, protective orders issued by other jurisdictions pursuant to its law.
(b) A petitioner who obtains a protective order pursuant to
article twenty-seven, chapter forty-eight of this code, or a
protective order from another jurisdiction pursuant to its law, may
register that order with the West Virginia Supreme Court of
Appeals.
(c) Nothing in this section precludes the enforcement of an
order in a county other than the county or jurisdiction in which
the order was issued if the petitioner has not registered the order
with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.