ENROLLED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 4009

(By Delegate Hines)


[Passed March 11, 2000; in effect July 1, 2000.]



AN ACT to amend and reenact section two, article one, chapter fifty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact section four, article three of said chapter, all relating to magistrate courts; providing for the number of magistrates; eliminating the formula for determining the number and location of magistrates for elections held after the year two thousand; providing for the disposition of court costs collected in magistrate courts; continuing and increasing allowable deposits in magistrate court funds to be used to defray expenses incurred by counties for providing services to magistrate courts; and allowing court costs collected in excess of limitations on deposits in magistrate court funds to be placed in a newly created surplus account for distribution to counties with underfunded magistrate court funds.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, article one, chapter fifty of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section four, article three of said chapter be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. COURTS AND OFFICERS.
§50-1-2. Number of magistrates.
(a) The number of magistrates to be elected in each county of this state shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(b) The number of magistrates serving in each county of the state shall comport with the numbers certified by the supreme court of appeals to the ballot commissioners of each county on or before the thirty-first day of January, two thousand, for purposes of the primary and general elections to be held in the year two thousand.
(c) (1) The Legislature finds that there exists among the various counties large and unwarranted disparities of caseload between the magistrate courts. The Legislature further finds that the disparity causes an inequity with regard to magistrate court resources and the ability of such courts to effectively meet the needs of the citizens of this state who need to avail themselves of this judicial resource. The Legislature further finds that the system currently in place for allocating magistrate court resources which has been in effect since the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-one produces certain anomalies which cause quadrennial reallocation of magistrate resources based upon said anomalies which in turn cause a waste of funds, inequitable workloads, unnecessary shifting of resources and confusion among the various counties.
(2) The office of legislative services is hereby directed to undertake a comprehensive study of the magistrate courts of the various counties to determine, among other things, the work performed by various personnel in the magistrate court system, how work time is spent by said employees and to report its findings no later than the tenth day of December, two thousand one, to the joint standing committee on the judiciary.
(3) The division of criminal justice and highway safety shall, in conjunction with the administrative office of the West Virginia supreme court of appeals, compile for consideration by the Legislature statistical information and documentation regarding caseloads, cases handled per year per magistrate, cases per county, cases per circuit and provide to the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates no later than the first day of the regular session of the Legislature, two thousand two, their recommendations for improving the magistrate process, better utilization of court resources, including but not limited to, categorizing the various types of cases heard in magistrate court and developing a new weighted formula to evaluate types of cases by the amount of time necessary to bring said cases to a resolution.
ARTICLE 3. COSTS, FINES AND RECORDS.
§50-3-4. Disposition of costs; magistrate court fund.

(a) All costs collected in magistrate courts in a civil proceeding pursuant to the provisions of section one of this article, and all costs collected in magistrate courts in a criminal proceeding pursuant to the provisions of section two of this article, shall be submitted on or before the tenth day of the month following the month of their collection to the magistrate court clerk or, if there is no magistrate court clerk, to the clerk of the circuit court along with such information as may be required by the rules of the supreme court of appeals and by the rules of the chief inspector of public offices.
(b) (1) The special county fund known as the magistrate court fund established in each county by chapter thirty-three, Acts of the Legislature, regular session, one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, as amended and reenacted in subsequent Acts of the Legislature, is hereby continued. The moneys credited to the fund may be used solely for the purposes provided in this section.
(2) The magistrate court clerk of each county shall pay the sum of ten dollars collected by magistrates in each civil and criminal proceeding into the magistrate court fund during each fiscal year until there is paid a sum equal to fifteen thousand dollars multiplied by the number of magistrates authorized for the county.
(3) A county may, in accordance with the supervisory rules of the supreme court of appeals, appropriate and spend from the fund such sums as are necessary to defray the expenses of providing services to magistrate courts.
(c)(1) There is hereby created in the state treasury a special escrow account designated as the "magistrate court surplus account." The moneys credited to the account may be used solely for the purposes provided in this subsection.
(2) Beginning on the first day of July, two thousand, all costs collected during a fiscal year in excess of the sum specified in subdivision (2), subsection (b) of this section shall be deposited in the magistrate court surplus account in the state treasury.
(3) Beginning on the first day of September, two thousand one, and on the first day of September of each year thereafter, in accordance with the supervisory rules of the supreme court of appeals, funds from the magistrate court surplus account deposited therein as excess costs collected in the prior fiscal year pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (2) of this subsection shall be disbursed as a supplement to any county magistrate court fund which generated less than fifteen thousand dollars per magistrate in the prior fiscal year in accordance with the provisions of this subsection.
(4) The amount disbursed to a county magistrate court fund from the magistrate court surplus account, when combined with the court costs generated by the magistrate court fund of the county in the prior fiscal year, may not exceed fifteen thousand dollars per magistrate.
(5) The disbursements described in subdivision (3) of this subsection shall be made as follows:
(A) There shall be distributed to each county magistrate court fund that generated less than nine thousand dollars in the prior fiscal year the sum of nine thousand dollars less the amount of court costs generated by the county magistrate court fund in the prior fiscal year. To the extent that the funds available for this disbursement are insufficient to fully fund this disbursement, the funds available shall be disbursed to these counties on a pro rata basis.
(B) Any funds that remain available for disbursement after disbursements made pursuant to paragraph (A) of this subdivision shall be disbursed in equal shares to each county magistrate court fund that generated less than fifteen thousand dollars per magistrate in the prior fiscal year. The shares to be disbursed to each county magistrate court fund are to be equal to the number of magistrates in the county. Any disbursement made under this paragraph shall be subject to the limitations specified in subdivision (4) of this subsection.
(6) Any funds that remain available in the magistrate court surplus account after the disbursements have been made pursuant to the provisions of paragraphs (A) and (B), subdivision (5) of this subsection shall be deposited by the state treasurer into the general revenue fund of the state.