SENATE
HOUSE
JOINT
BILL STATUS
STATE LAW
REPORTS
EDUCATIONAL
CONTACT
home
home
SB291 SUB1 Senate Bill 291 History

OTHER VERSIONS  -  Introduced Version  |  Enrolled Version - Final Version  |     |  Email
Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 291

(By Senators Helmick and Yoder)

____________

[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;

reported February 14, 2008.]

____________



A BILL to amend and reenact §51-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to authorizing an additional circuit court judge to each of the ninth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth judicial circuits.

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) Thethe counties of Brooke, Hancock and Ohio shall constitute the first circuit and shall have four judges;
(2) Thethecounties of Marshall, Tyler and Wetzel shall constitute the second circuit and shall have two judges;
(3) Thethecounties of Doddridge, Pleasants and Ritchie shall constitute the third circuit and shall have one judge;
(4) Thethe counties of Wood and Wirt shall constitute the fourth circuit and shall have three judges;
(5) Thethecounties of Calhoun, Jackson, Mason and Roane shall constitute the fifth circuit and shall have two judges;
(6) Thethecounty of Cabell shall constitute the sixth circuit and shall have four judges;
(7) Thethecounty of Logan shall constitute the seventh circuit and shall have two judges;
(8) Thethecounty of McDowell shall constitute the eighth circuit and shall have two judges;
(9) Thethecounty of Mercer shall constitute the ninth circuit and shall have two judges; : Provided, That effective the first day of September, two thousand eight, said circuit shall have three judges;
(10) Thethecounty of Raleigh shall constitute the tenth circuit and shall have three judges;
(11) Thethecounties of Greenbrier and Pocahontas shall constitute the eleventh circuit and shall have two judges;
(12) Thethecounty of Fayette shall constitute the twelfth circuit and shall have two judges;
(13) Thethecounty of Kanawha shall constitute the thirteenth circuit and shall have seven judges;
(14) Thethecounties of Braxton, Clay, Gilmer and Webster shall constitute the fourteenth circuit and shall have two judges;
(15) Thethecounty of Harrison shall constitute the fifteenth circuit and shall have three judges;
(16) Thethecounty of Marion shall constitute the sixteenth circuit and shall have two judges;
(17) Thethecounty of Monongalia shall constitute the seventeenth circuit and shall have two judges;
(18) Thethecounty of Preston shall constitute the eighteenth circuit and shall have one judge;
(19) Thethecounties of Barbour and Taylor shall constitute the nineteenth circuit and shall have one judge;
(20) Thethecounty of Randolph shall constitute the twentieth circuit and shall have one judge;
(21) Thethecounties of Grant, Mineral and Tucker shall constitute the twenty-first circuit and shall have two judges;
(22) Thethecounties of Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton shall constitute the twenty-second circuit and shall have one judge: Provided, That effective the first day of September, two thousand eight, said circuit shall have two judges;
(23) Thethecounties 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) Thethecounty of Wayne shall constitute the twenty-fourth circuit and shall have one judge: Provided, That effective the first day of September, two thousand eight, said circuit shall have two judges;
(25) Thethecounties of Lincoln and Boone shall constitute the twenty-fifth circuit and shall have two judges;
(26) Thethecounties of Lewis and Upshur shall constitute the twenty-sixth circuit and shall have one judge;
(27) Thethecounty of Wyoming shall constitute the twenty-seventh circuit and shall have one judge;
(28) Thethecounty of Nicholas shall constitute the twenty-eighth circuit and shall have one judge;
(29) Thethecounty of Putnam shall constitute the twenty-ninth circuit and shall have two judges;
(30) Thethecounty of Mingo shall constitute the thirtieth circuit and shall have one judge; and
(31) Thethecounties of Monroe and Summers shall constitute the thirty-first circuit and shall have one judge: Provided that the judge.
(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 the Governor to appoint an additional judge to the twenty-second judicial circuit, consisting of Pendleton County, Hardy County and Hampshire County, the ninth judicial circuit consisting of Mercer County and the Twentieth Judicial Circuit consisting of Wayne County to alleviate case loads.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.)

________


FINANCE COMMITTEE AMENDMENT


By striking out the title and substituting therefor a new title, to read as follows:
Eng. Com. Sub. for Senate Bill No. 291--A Bill to amend and reenact §51-2-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to authorizing an additional circuit court judge to each of the ninth, twenty-second and twenty-fourth judicial circuits.

This Web site is maintained by the West Virginia Legislature's Office of Reference & Information.  |  Terms of Use  |   Email WebmasterWebmaster   |   © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **


X

Print On Demand

Name:
Email:
Phone:

Print