§5-3-1. Written opinions and advice and other legal services;
expenditures by state officers, boards and commissions
for legal services prohibited.
The attorney general shall give written opinions and advice
upon questions of law, and shall prosecute and defend suits,
actions, and other legal proceedings, and generally render and
perform all other legal services, whenever required to do so, in
writing, by the governor, the secretary of state, the auditor, the
state superintendent of free schools, the treasurer, the
commissioner of agriculture, the board of public works, the tax
commissioner, the state archivist and historian, the commissioner
of banking, the adjutant general, the director of the division of
environmental protection, the superintendent of public safety, the
state commissioner of public institutions, the commissioner of the
division of highways, the commissioner of the bureau of employment
programs, the public service commission, or any other state
officer, board or commission, or the head of any state educational,
correctional, penal or eleemosynary institution; and it is unlawful
from and after the time this section becomes effective for any of
the public officers, commissions, or other persons above mentioned
to expend any public funds of the state of West Virginia for the
purpose of paying any person, firm, or corporation for the
performance of any legal services: Provided, That nothing
contained in this section impairs or affects any existing valid
contracts of employment for the performance of legal services heretofore made.
It is also the duty of the attorney general to render to the
president of the Senate and/or the speaker of the House of
Delegates a written opinion or advice upon any questions submitted
to the attorney general by them or either of them whenever he or
she is requested in writing so to do.