COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 182
(By Senators Kessler, Dittmar, Snyder, Deem, Mitchell, McCabe,
Unger, McKenzie, Minard, Ball, Sharpe, Plymale and Bowman)
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[Originating in the Committee on Judiciary;
reported March 3, 1999.]
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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 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 judges; the county of Raleigh shall constitute the tenth
circuit and shall have three 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 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 ttwo 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; 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; 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 of the second and third circuit court
judges of the twenty-third circuit additional judges of the fifth, fifteenth
and twenty-third circuits created by the reenactment of the
provisions 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 thousand nine hundred
ninety-three two thousand one. 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 two thousand.
(b) (c) The terms term 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. The term
of office for all circuit court judges elected during the general
election conducted in the year two thousand shall commence on the
first day of January, two thousand one and end on the thirty-first
day of December, two thousand eight.
(c) (d) 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. Beginning with the primary and
general elections to be conducted in the year two thousand, in any
judicial circuit comprised of four or more counties with two or
more judges, then all judges cannot be residents of the same
county. 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) (e) 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 ,
fifteenth
and
twenty-third circuits; and by providing that all judges cannot be
residents of the same county in judicial circuits with four or more
counties and two or more judges.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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