H. B. 4543
(By Delegates Long, Frederick, Crosier,
Browning, Burdiss and Moore)
[Introduced February 14, 2008; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §51-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to appointing an additional circuit
court judge to the ninth judicial circuit.
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:
(1) The counties of Brooke, Hancock and Ohio shall constitute
the first circuit and shall have four judges;
(2) the The counties of Marshall, Tyler and Wetzel shall
constitute the second circuit and shall have two judges;
(3) the The counties of Doddridge, Pleasants and Ritchie shall
constitute the third circuit and shall have one judge;
(4) the The counties of Wood and Wirt shall constitute the
fourth circuit and shall have three judges;
(5) the The counties of Calhoun, Jackson, Mason and Roane
shall constitute the fifth circuit and shall have two judges;
(6) the The county of Cabell shall constitute the sixth
circuit and shall have four judges;
(7) the The county of Logan shall constitute the seventh
circuit and shall have two judges;
(8) the The county of McDowell shall constitute the eighth
circuit and shall have two judges;
(9) the The county of Mercer shall constitute the ninth
circuit and shall have
two three judges;
(10) the The county of Raleigh shall constitute the tenth
circuit and shall have three judges;
(11) the The counties of Greenbrier and Pocahontas shall
constitute the eleventh circuit and shall have two judges;
(12) the The county of Fayette shall constitute the twelfth
circuit and shall have two judges;
(13) the The county of Kanawha shall constitute the thirteenth
circuit and shall have seven judges;
(14) the The counties of Braxton, Clay, Gilmer and Webster
shall constitute the fourteenth circuit and shall have two judges;
(15) the The county of Harrison shall constitute the fifteenth
circuit and shall have three judges;
(16) the The county of Marion shall constitute the sixteenth
circuit and shall have two judges;
(17) the The county of Monongalia shall constitute the
seventeenth circuit and shall have two judges;
(18) the The county of Preston shall constitute the eighteenth
circuit and shall have one judge;
(19) the The counties of Barbour and Taylor shall constitute
the nineteenth circuit and shall have one judge;
(20) the The county of Randolph shall constitute the twentieth
circuit and shall have one judge;
(21) the The counties of Grant, Mineral and Tucker shall
constitute the twenty-first circuit and shall have two judges;
(22) the The counties of Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton shall
constitute the twenty-second circuit and shall have one judge;
(23) the The counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan shall
constitute the twenty-third circuit and shall have
four judges:
Provided, That effective the first day of August, two thousand six,
said circuit shall have five judges;
(24) the The county of Wayne shall constitute the
twenty-fourth circuit and shall have one judge;
(25) the The counties of Lincoln and Boone shall constitute
the twenty-fifth circuit and shall have two judges;
(26) the The counties of Lewis and Upshur shall constitute the
twenty-sixth circuit and shall have one judge;
(27) the The county of Wyoming shall constitute the
twenty-seventh circuit and shall have one judge;
(28) the The county of Nicholas shall constitute the
twenty-eighth circuit and shall have one judge;
(29) the The county of Putnam shall constitute the
twenty-ninth circuit and shall have two judges;
(30) the The county of Mingo shall constitute the thirtieth
circuit and shall have one judge; and
(31)
the The counties of Monroe and Summers shall constitute
the thirty-first circuit and shall have one judge:
Provided,
however, That the
(b) The Kanawha County circuit court shall be a court of
concurrent jurisdiction with each single judge circuit where the
sitting judge in
such the single judge circuit is unavailable by
reason of sickness, vacation or other reason.
(b) (c) 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
eight.
(c) (d) 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
eight shall commence on the first day of January, two
thousand
one nine, and end on the thirty-first day of December, two
thousand
eight sixteen.
(d) (e) 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 For
election purposes,
in every judicial circuit having two or more
judges there shall be
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
(f) 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) (g) The Supreme Court of Appeals shall, by rule, establish
the terms of court of circuit judges.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize an additional
judge to the 9th Judicial Circuit consisting of Mercer County.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.