Senate Bill No. 731
(By Senator Chafin)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee
.]
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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 circuit court
judges; and adding a circuit judge for the thirtieth
judicial circuit.
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 and Roane shall constitute the fifth circuit and shall
have one judge; 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 two 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 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 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 two judge 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.
The term of office of the second and third circuit court
judges of the twenty-third circuit created by the provisions of
this section shall commence on the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-three. Any judge in office at the
time of the effective date 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 provide an additional
circuit judge for the thirtieth judicial circuit.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.