Senate Bill No. 182
(By Senators Kessler, Dittmar, Snyder, Deem, Mitchell, McCabe,
Unger, McKenzie, Minard, Ball, Sharpe, Plymale and Bowman)
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[Introduced January 21, 1999;
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 two, chapter
fifty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the division of
judicial circuits; realigning certain circuits; increasing the
number of judges in certain circuits; clarifying terms of
offices; and making certain technical revisions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article two, 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 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 one judge two
judges; the county of Cabell shall constitute the sixth circuit and
shall have four five 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 three judges; the county of Raleigh shall constitute
the tenth circuit and shall have three four 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 nine 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 two 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 three four judges; the county
of Wayne shall constitute the twenty-fourth circuit and shall have
one judge two judges; the counties of Lincoln and Boone shall
constitute the twenty-fifth circuit and shall have two judges; 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 counties of Mason and 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 two judges; 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) The term of office for all circuit judges is eight years
beginning on the first day of January following the general
election in which they were elected. The term of office of the
second and third circuit court additional judges of the
twenty-third circuit fifth, sixth, ninth, tenth, thirteenth,
fifteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth and thirtieth circuits
created by the provisions reenactment of this section during the
regular session of the Legislature in the year one thousand nine
hundred ninety-nine shall commence on the first day of January, one
two thousand one nine hundred ninety-three. Any judge in office at
the time of 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,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-two.
(b) The terms of office of all circuit court judges shall be
for eight years, the first commencing on the first day of January,
one thousand nine hundred eighty-five, and ending on the thirty- first day of December, one thousand nine hundred ninety-two.
Subsequent terms of said judges shall be for eight years.
(c) 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.
(d) The supreme court shall, by rule, establish the terms of court of circuit judges. Until such rule is effective, terms of
court shall continue to be set in accordance with the last
enactment of sections one-a through one-ee of this article prior to
the repeal of such sections.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to amend the law providing
for the various division of judicial circuits and numbers of judges
in such circuits by moving Mason County from the twenty-ninth
circuit to the fifth circuit, and increasing the number of judges
in the fifth circuit to two; adding an additional judge to the
fifth, sixth, ninth, tenth, fifteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth
and thirtieth circuits; and adding two additional judges to the
thirteenth circuit.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
This bill was recommended by the Joint Standing Committee on
the Judiciary for introduction and passage in the 1999 Legislative
Session.
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