SB400 H JUD AM 3-4

SB400 H JUD AM 3-4 #1
The Committee on the Judiciary moves to amend the bill on page two, following the enacting section, by striking out the remainder of the bill and inserting in lieu thereof the following language:
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 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: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have three 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: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have eight 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 three 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 judge: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have three 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: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have two judges; the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan shall constitute the twenty-third circuit and shall have ~~four~~ five judges; ~~Provided, That effective the first day of August, two thousand six, said circuit shall have five judges;~~ the county of Wayne shall constitute the twenty-fourth circuit and shall have one judge: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have two judges; 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 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: Provided, That effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, said circuit shall have two judges; and the counties of Monroe and Summers shall constitute the thirty-first circuit and shall have one judge. ~~Provided, however~~, ~~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) Any judge in office 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, ~~two thousand~~ two thousand eight. Any additional judicial positions which have been added to individual circuits, effective the first day of January, two thousand nine, shall be placed on ballot for the primary and general elections conducted in the year two thousand eight.
(c) The term of office of all circuit court 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~~ eight, and end on the thirty-first day of December, two thousand ~~eight~~ sixteen.
(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. 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: Provided, That 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.
(e) The Supreme Court of Appeals shall, by rule, establish the terms of court of circuit judges.