Here Come the Judges

West Virginia would get more circuit court and family court judges under separate proposals that advanced Tuesday in the Legislature. But a top lawmaker (Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin) is questioning Gov. Joe Manchin's mood for funding additional jurists.

The House Judiciary Committee endorsed a bill that would add 10 family court judges to as many of the state's 26 family court circuits. The bill would also redraw nine of those circuits to help judges with their caseloads.

The provisions are drawn from a recent Supreme Court-commissioned study of the five-year-old family court system.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee, meanwhile, sent that full committee a measure adding 7 circuit judges statewide. Chafin, D-Mingo, objected to this bill, as amended.

When introduced, the bill had proposed creating 10 circuit judgeships, based on another recent study. The subcommittee whittled that list down to five, but then tacked on two more judges.

The five included one for Chafin's district as well as one for Kanawha (the largest, with 7 judges currently) .

Subcommittee Chairman Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, had one added for his circuit. Chafin said that this county made neither the original bill nor the underlying study's recommendations. Oliverio criticized the study as failing to consider population growth.

Sen. John Yoder, R-Jefferson and a subcommittee member, then had a judge added to his circuit. It had been left out of the original bill, partly because it received an additional judge under legislation passed last year.

Critics have already emerged to question why both bills add judges in counties that have been losing population. Besides Mingo and Wayne counties, that list includes Lincoln, Boone and Logan counties for the family court judge bill.