Chapter 51, Chapter 51

(a) The family court shall exercise jurisdiction over the following matters: (1) All actions for divorce, annulment or separate maintenance brought under the provisions of §48-3-1 et seq., §48-4-1 et seq., or §48-5-1 et seq. of this code, except as provided in subsections (b) and…

(a) The circuit court shall have supervision and control of all proceedings before magistrates, by mandamus, prohibition and certiorari. (b) Except in cases confined exclusively by the Constitution to some other tribunal, the circuit court shall have original and general jurisdic…

Each county commission of this state has a duty to provide premises for the family court which are adequate for the conduct of the duties required of the court under the provisions of this article and of chapter forty-eight of this code and which conform to standards established …

The budget for the payment of the salaries and benefits of the family court judges and clerical and secretarial assistants shall be included in the appropriation for the Supreme Court of Appeals. The family court administration fund, heretofore created as the family law master ad…

The office and the clerks of the circuit courts shall, on or before the tenth day of each month, transmit all amounts directed to be paid to the family court fund under any provision of this code to the state Treasurer for deposit in the state Treasury to the credit of a special …

(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the provisions of Enrolled Senate Bill No. 5007, passed during the fifth extraordinary session of the 2001 Legislature, become operable on January 1, 2002. It is intended that the family law master system in existence on J…

(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, an appeal of a final order or decision entered by a family court after June 30, 2022, must be made to the Intermediate Court of Appeals, as provided in §51-11-1 et seq. of this code: Provided, That any appeal of a ju…

(a) A family court in its discretion may, at any time during the pendency of any action prosecuted under chapter forty-eight of this code, restrict contact between the parties thereto without a finding of domestic violence under article twenty-seven of said chapter. This order sh…

(a) Beginning on the effective date of this subsection and until December 31, 2024, 47 family court judges shall serve throughout the state, allocated among a total of 27 family court circuits as follows: (1) The counties of Brooke, Hancock, and Ohio shall constitute the first fa…

If any term of a circuit court is about to end without dispatching all its business, the judge thereof may, by an order entered of record, adjourn the holding of such court to any future day on which he is not required by law to hold a court in some other county; and all causes o…

(a) A family court judge must be a resident of this state, a member in good standing of the West Virginia State Bar, admitted to practice law in this state for at least five years prior to election, and must, at the time he or she takes office, and thereafter during his or her co…

If any term of such court has ended without dispatching all its business, or if there be a failure to hold any term, or whenever he thinks the public interest requires it, the judge of the circuit court may, by a warrant directed to the clerk, appoint a special term thereof and p…

Whenever any judge of a circuit court shall have appointed a special term of any circuit court in the manner directed by the preceding section, and shall afterwards ascertain that he cannot hold such special term on the day appointed for it, he may, by warrant under his hand dire…

(a) Beginning with the election to be conducted in the year 2016, family court judges shall be elected. In family court circuits having two or more family court judges there shall be, for election purposes, numbered divisions corresponding to the number of family court judges in …

Whenever the situation of a prisoner confined in jail for trial in a circuit court makes it proper that his case should be disposed of before the next regular term thereof, the judge of such court may appoint a special term to be held for the trial of the case, in the same manner…

(a) A family court judge is entitled to receive as compensation for his or her services an annual salary of $62,500: Provided, That beginning July 1, 2005, a family court judge is entitled to receive as compensation for his or her services an annual salary of $82,500: Provided, h…

(a) The family court judge will exercise any power or authority provided in this article, in chapter forty-eight of this code or as otherwise provided by general law. Additionally, the family court judge has the authority to: (1) Manage the business before them; (2) Summon witnes…

Any cause, civil or criminal, and any motion or proceeding ready for trial or hearing, may be tried, heard and determined at a special term, the same as if it were a regular term of such court. Every such special term may be held by the judge of the circuit, or, if he be dead or …

Each circuit, criminal or intermediate judge, during his continuance in office, shall reside in the circuit or county for which he was elected. When such judge is a party to a suit, or is interested in the result thereof otherwise than as a resident or taxpayer of the district or…

(a) Pleading, practice and procedure in matters before a family court judge are governed by rules of practice and procedure for family law promulgated by the Supreme Court of Appeals. (b) The West Virginia Rules of Evidence apply to proceedings before a family court judge. (c) He…

(a) In addition to the powers of contempt established in chapter forty-eight of this code, a family court judge may: (1) Sanction persons through civil contempt proceedings when necessary to preserve and enforce the rights of private parties or to administer remedies granted by t…

For every court without one, the Governor shall provide a seal to be deposited with the clerk of such court.

Though court be not held on the first day of a term, it may nevertheless be opened on any subsequent day; provided, in the case of any court of record for any county, the same be done before four o'clock in the afternoon of the third day. If, after a court is opened, it fails to …

When the place for holding any court, or the day for commencing any term, is changed, or when a court fails to sit on any day appointed for it, or to which it may have adjourned, or when, for any reason, no court shall be held on any day within a term thereof, there shall be no d…

Any court of record may, at any term, whether regular, adjourned or special, adjourn from day to day until the business before it is dispatched, or until the end of its term.

The limitations upon the powers of circuit court judges to act in or during the vacation of the court as heretofore existed, either at common law or as may exist elsewhere in this code, to the contrary notwithstanding, a judge of a circuit court may do any act or take any proceed…

(a) The offices and the clerks of the magistrate courts and the circuit courts shall, on or before the 10th day of each month, transmit all fees and costs received for the Court Security Fund in accordance with the provisions of §50-3-1 and §50-3-2 of this code and §59-1-11 of th…

(a) There is hereby created a Court Security Board who shall make decisions on how the money in the Court Security Fund is to be spent to enhance the security of courts. The board shall consist of six members and the administrative director of the Supreme Court of Appeals who sha…

(a) The sheriff of each county in conjunction with the circuit judges, magistrates and family law master may develop a security plan to enhance the security of all the court facilities in use in the county and submit said plan to the court security board. (b) Each security plan s…

(a) The Legislature finds that when judicial offices created under the Constitution and laws of the state are vacant for extended periods of time, the proper functioning of the judicial branch of the government is impeded. The Legislature further finds that when a vacancy in a ju…

(a) In furtherance of enhanced courthouse security for court personnel, litigants, and the general public, courthouse security officers charged with effecting courthouse security may arrest any person committing a violation of the criminal laws of the State of West Virginia, the …

Until provided with an official seal, every clerk of such court may use his private seal or scroll by way of seal, in cases where the use of the seal is required by law or usage; and whenever so used, his attestation of the instrument, record or copy to which it is annexed shall …

(a) The Supreme Court of Appeals may, in its discretion, pay a newly appointed or elected circuit judge, family court judge, or magistrate per diem compensation and expenses for attending any training and education session prior to taking the oath of office and beginning his or h…

When any river or watercourse lies between any counties in this state, the circuit and county courts and justices for the counties on each side, respectively, shall have concurrent jurisdiction over so much thereof as is opposite said counties. And the circuit and county courts a…

The orders of every court shall be entered in a book or kept digitally by the clerk of court.

The Supreme Court of Appeals shall not be attended by any sheriff, but every circuit court, county court, and other court of record of any county shall be attended by the sheriff of the county in which it is held, who shall act as the officer thereof.

No judge of any court, and no sheriff or other officer of a court, shall be disqualified from performing his official duties with respect to any cause by reason of the fact that he is a citizen and taxpayer of a county, district, school district or municipal corporation which is …

Every circuit court, county court and other court of record of any county shall be held at the courthouse of such county, except where some other place is prescribed by law or lawfully appointed. When the courthouse of a county is destroyed or is not in a condition to be occupied…

Whenever, by reason of the destruction of the building in which the Supreme Court of Appeals was held, or by reason of any building in which any courts are appointed to be held being in the possession of, or threatened by, a public enemy, or infected with a contagious disease, it…

No such place of session for a circuit court, county court, or other court of record of any county, shall be without the limits of the county in which it is to be held; and when such place is appointed because of the destruction of the building in which the Supreme Court of Appea…

The clerk's office of the Supreme Court of Appeals shall be kept at the seat of government, unless such court shall direct it to be kept elsewhere. The clerks' offices of the circuit court and county court of every county shall be kept at the courthouse of such county, unless the…

There shall be no duplicate certificate of any allowance of a court to be paid out of the treasury, unless the court, upon proof, by the oath of the party or otherwise, of the loss or destruction of the original certificate, shall order a duplicate, which shall show on its face t…

A discharge, other than dishonorable, from the Armed Forces of the United States, and a certificate of satisfactory service in said Armed Forces held by any and all persons, shall be recorded by a county clerk in a special record book, free of any and all fees or costs therefor. …

The records and papers of every court shall be open to the inspection of any person, and the clerk shall, when required, furnish copies thereof, except in cases where it is otherwise specially provided.

All papers lawfully returned to or filed in the clerk's office shall be preserved therein, subject to the conditions set out herein, until legally delivered out. Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, the clerk may destroy all documents, records, instru…

None of the records or papers of a court shall be removed by the clerk, nor allowed by him or by the court to be removed, out of the county wherein the clerk's office is kept, except on an occasion of invasion or insurrection, actual or threatened, when, in the opinion of the cou…

Any clerk of a court, or his deputy, may administer an oath in any case wherein an affidavit is necessary or proper.

Every clerk shall prepare in a proper manner any bond to be taken by or given before him or his court or the judge thereof in vacation.

The clerk of the court wherein there is any partition of, or assignment of dower in, or any recovery of, land under any judgment, decree or order, shall transmit, to the clerk of the county court of each county wherein such land is, a copy of such judgment, decree or order, and o…

Each circuit court and every other court of record now existing, or which may hereafter be established, having jurisdiction to try or hear suits in chancery or actions at law, may from time to time appoint not more than four commissioners in chancery or for stating accounts, exce…