Senate Bill No. 606
(By Senator Boley)
____________
[Introduced February 16, 2006; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §51-2A-5 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to reducing the term of office of
family court judges to four years.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §51-2A-5 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. FAMILY COURTS.
§51-2A-5. Term of office of family court judge; initial
appointment; elections.
(a) Before the first day of December, two thousand one, family
court judges shall be appointed by the Governor to serve in the
family court circuits as provided
for in section three of this
article. The initial term of office for the family court judges
first appointed shall commence on the first day of January, two
thousand two, and end on the thirty-first day of December, two thousand two.
(b) Beginning with the primary and general elections to be
conducted in the year two thousand two, family court judges shall
be elected. In family court circuits having two or more family
court judges there shall be, for election purposes, numbered
divisions corresponding to the number of family court judges in
each area. Each family court judge shall be elected at large by
the entire family court circuit. In each numbered division of a
family court 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 family court
circuit. The candidate or candidates receiving the highest number
of the votes cast within a numbered division shall be nominated or
elected, as the case may be.
(c) The term of office for all family court judges elected in
two thousand two shall be for six years, commencing on the first
day of January, two thousand three, and ending on the thirty-first
day of December, two thousand eight.
Subsequent terms of office
for family court judges elected thereafter shall be for eight
years. Effective with the general election held in two thousand
eight, each family court judge shall be elected for a term of four
years.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to reduce the term of
office of family court judges to four years.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
Email
Webmaster | © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **
