Senate Bill No. 621

(By Senator Dittmar)

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[Introduced February 21, 2000; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article two-a, chapter fifty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring each family law master serving more than one county to have an office in each county served.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article two-a, 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 2A. CIRCUIT COURTS; FAMILY COURT DIVISION.
§51-2A-3. Assignment of family law masters by family court circuits.
(a) A total of thirty-three family law masters will shall serve throughout the state. The state will shall be divided into twenty-four family court circuits with the number of family law masters allocated as follows:
The counties of Brooke, Hancock and Ohio shall constitute the first family court circuit and shall have two family law masters; the counties of Marshall, Wetzel and Tyler shall constitute the second family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Pleasants, Wood, Wirt, Ritchie and Doddridge shall constitute the third family court circuit and shall have two family law masters; the counties of Jackson, Roane, Calhoun and Gilmer shall constitute the fourth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Mason and Putnam shall constitute the fifth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Cabell shall constitute constitutes the sixth family court circuit and shall have two family law masters; the county of Wayne shall constitute constitutes the seventh family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Mingo shall constitute constitutes the eighth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Logan shall constitute constitutes the ninth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Lincoln and Boone shall constitute the tenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Kanawha shall constitute constitutes the eleventh family court circuit and shall have four family law masters; the counties of McDowell and Mercer shall constitute the twelfth family court circuit and shall have two family law masters; the counties of Raleigh and Wyoming shall constitute the thirteenth family court circuit and shall have two family law masters; the counties of Fayette and Summers shall constitute the fourteenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Greenbrier, Monroe and Pocahontas shall constitute the fifteenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Clay, Nicholas and Webster shall constitute the sixteenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Braxton, Lewis and Upshur shall constitute the seventeenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Harrison shall constitute constitutes the eighteenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Marion shall constitute constitutes the nineteenth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the county of Monongalia shall constitute constitutes the twentieth family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Barbour, Preston and Taylor shall constitute the twenty-first family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Grant, Tucker and Randolph shall constitute the twenty-second family court circuit and shall have one family law master; the counties of Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy and Pendleton shall constitute the twenty-third family court circuit and shall have one family law master; and the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan shall constitute the twenty-fourth family court circuit and shall have two family law masters.
(b) In the event a family law master serves in two or more counties, he or she shall be provided with an office in each county, sufficiently equipped and staffed, to provide a satisfactory environment in which to preside over his or her caseload and otherwise perform the duties for which he or she was appointed or elected.
(b) (c) The chief justice of the supreme court of appeals may temporarily assign a family law master from one family court circuit to another family court circuit, as caseload, disqualification, recusal, vacation or illness may dictate. In each case of temporary assignment, the chief justice shall appoint only a family law master who is actually serving at the time of such the appointment.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that law masters be provided with offices in each county they serve.

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