COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2324
(By Delegates Johnson, Fleischauer, Hutchins, Riggs and Trump)
(Originating in the Committee on the judiciary)
[March 5, 1999]
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; addressing judge residency in certain
circumstances; 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 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 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
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, judges serving a judicial circuit comprised of four or
more counties with two or more judges, shall not 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.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.