HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION 116
(By Delegates Fleischauer, Staton, Osborne, Givens, Kominar,
Webb and Smirl)
[Originating in the Committee on Constitutional Revision]
[March 4, 1998]
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending sections one and five, article eight
thereof, authorizing the Legislature to create courts of
original and appellate jurisdiction and permitting the
legislature to determine the original and appellate
jurisdictions of the courts; numbering and designating such
proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of
the purpose of such proposed amendment.
Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of
the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:
That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment
to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to
the voters of the State at the next general election to be held in
the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, which proposed
amendment is that sections one and five, article eight thereof be
amended to read as follows:
ARTICLE VIII. THE JUDICIARY
§1. Judicial power.
The judicial power of the state shall be vested solely in a supreme court of appeals, and in the circuit courts, and in such
intermediate other courts of original or appellate courts and
magistrate courts as shall be hereafter established by jurisdiction
subordinate to the supreme court of appeals as the Legislature,
may from time to time establish and in the justices, judges and
magistrates of such courts.
§5. Circuit courts.
The judge or judges of each circuit court shall be elected by
the voters of the circuit for a term of eight years, unless sooner
removed or retired as authorized in this article. The Legislature
may prescribe by law whether the election of such judges is to be
on a partisan or nonpartisan basis. Upon the effective date of
this article, each statutory court of record of limited
jurisdiction existing in the state immediately prior to such
effective date shall become part of the circuit court for the
circuit in which it presently exists, and each such judge of such
statutory court of record of limited jurisdiction shall thereupon
become a judge of such circuit court. During his or her
continuance in office, a judge of a circuit court shall reside in
the circuit of which he or she is a judge.
The Legislature may increase, or other than during term of
office decrease, the number of circuit judges within any circuit.
and may determine the original and appellate jurisdiction of the
courts of this state. The judicial circuits in existence on the
effective date of this article shall remain as so constituted until
changed by law, and the Legislature, at any session thereof held in
the odd-numbered year next preceding the time for the full-term
election of the judges thereof, may rearrange the circuits and may
increase or diminish the number of circuits. A judge of a circuit
court in office at the time of any such change shall continue as a
judge of the circuit in which he or she shall continue to reside
after such change until his or her term shall expire, unless sooner
removed or retired as authorized in this article.
There shall be at least one judge for each circuit court and
as many more as may be necessary to transact the business of such
court. If there be two or more judges of a circuit court,
provision shall be made by rules of such circuit court for the
selection of one of such judges to serve as chief judge thereof. If
the chief judge is temporarily disqualified or unable to serve, one
of the judges of the circuit court designated in accordance with
the rules of such court shall serve temporarily in his or her
stead.
The supreme court of appeals shall provide for dividing the
business of those circuits in which there shall be more than one
judge between the judges thereof so as to promote and secure the
convenient and expeditious transaction of such business.
In every county in the state the circuit court for such county
shall sit at least three times in each year. The supreme court of
appeals shall designate the times at which each circuit court shall
sit, but until this action is taken by the supreme court of
appeals, each circuit court shall sit at the times prescribed by
law. If there be two or more judges of a circuit court, such
judges may hold court in the same county or in different counties
within the circuit at the same time or at different times.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of
article eleven, chapter three of the code of West Virginia, on
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, such proposed
amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment No. 1 " and designated as
the "Judicial Reform Amendment" and the purpose of the proposed
amendment is summarized as follows: "To amend the Constitution of
West Virginia to authorize the Legislature to create courts of
original and appellate jurisdiction and permitting the Legislature
to determine the original and appellate jurisdiction of the courts
of this state."
(NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to authorize the
Legislature to create statutory courts, to establish specialized
courts as are necessary to promote the economical and efficient
administration of justice.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present Constitution, and underscoring indicates language that
would be added.)