Senate Bill No. 86

(By Senators Hunter, Ball, Dawson, Dittmar, McCabe, McKenzie, Mitchell, Redd and Snyder)


[Introduced January 14, 2000; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]





A BILL to amend section thirty-nine-i , article three, chapter
sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to lists of worthless check warrants.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirty-nine-i , article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
 ARTICLE 3. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY.
§61-3-39i. Preparation and distribution of list of worthless check warrants.
(a) Beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-three, the The magistrate court clerk of every county shall, between the first and fifth day of each month thereafter, prepare a cumulative list of all worthless check warrants issued by the magistrates of the county during the preceding twelve calendar months and after the effective date of this section: Provided, That upon completion of each cumulative list, the list which was completed for the next preceding month and any copy thereof shall be destroyed by the magistrate court clerk. Upon completion of each cumulative list, the magistrate court clerk shall destroy the list completed for the next preceding month and any copies of the list. The list is to contain the full name of the person charged in the warrant, his or her home address, the county of his or her residence, date of birth, and motor vehicle operator's number, as these items are available in the warrant. The persons charged in such the warrants shall be are to be listed alphabetically. Such The list shall must also contain the total number of warrants issued against each named person for the period covered by the report list, the number assigned to each warrant, and the date each such warrant was issued. A copy of such the cumulative list of worthless check warrants shall is to be forthwith forwarded to each magistrate in the county and to, the prosecuting attorney, thereof, and the criminal identification bureau of the West Virginia state police. Upon the request of magistrates or prosecutors in other counties of this state, such the lists shall are to be regularly forwarded to them.
(b) Upon the request of a member of the public, magistrate court clerks shall make available the most recent list of worthless check warrants prepared pursuant to subsection (a) of this section. Magistrate court clerks may charge those making a request the reasonable costs of duplication, pursuant to the administrative rules for magistrate courts.
(c) Upon receipt of the lists of worthless check warrants from each county, the criminal identification bureau of the West Virginia state police shall combine the lists to create a worthless check registry. Upon the request of a member of the public, the criminal identification bureau of the West Virginia state police shall make available copies of the worthless check registry. The criminal identification bureau may charge those making a request the reasonable costs of duplication. In addition to making copies of the worthless check registry available, the criminal identification bureau shall make the information contained in the worthless check registry accessible through the internet.
(d) No public employee or public agency engaged in the receipt and distribution of the lists of worthless check warrants or the worthless check registry may incur any civil liability for damages arising out of any action relating to the provisions of this section, except when the employee or agency acted with gross negligence or in bad faith.
(e) Upon the dismissal of a worthless check warrant, the magistrate court clerk shall remove the information listed relating to that warrant from the current list of worthless check warrants and shall notify the criminal identification bureau of the removal. Upon notification from a magistrate court clerk of the removal of information from the current list of worthless check warrants, the criminal identification bureau shall remove that information from the worthless check registry.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that members of the public may obtain worthless check lists subject to the costs of duplication.

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