West Virginia § 51-2A-5 Term of office of family court judge; initial appointment; elections

West Virginia Statutes

§ 51-2A-5 — Term of office of family court judge; initial appointment; elections

West Virginia § 51-2A-5

Ch. 51COURTS AND THEIR OFFICERS

Art. 2AFAMILY COURTS

This text of West Virginia § 51-2A-5 (Term of office of family court judge; initial appointment; elections) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

W. Va. Code § 51-2A-5 (2026).

Text

(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 each area. Each family court judge shall be elected at large by the entire family court circuit. In each numbered division of a family court 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 family court circuit. The candidate or candidates receiving the highest number of the votes cast within a numbered division shall be nominated or elect

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(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 each area. Each family court judge shall be elected at large by the entire family court circuit. In each numbered division of a family court 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 family court circuit. The candidate or candidates receiving the highest number of the votes cast within a numbered division shall be nominated or elected, as the case may be. Effective with the primary election of 2016, all elections for family court judges in the respective circuits will be on a nonpartisan basis by division. Beginning in 2016, there will no longer be primary elections held for family court judges and all elections for family court judges are to be held in the nonpartisan judicial election as set forth in article five, chapter three of this code. All indications of party identification on election ballots for family court judge shall be omitted.

(b) The term of office for all family court judges elected in 2002 shall be for six years, commencing on January 1, 2003, and ending on December 31, 2008. Subsequent terms of office for family court judges elected thereafter shall be for eight years.