A new intermediate court has taken another intermediate step toward passage.
The House Finance Committee reviewed a bill that would establish a new mid-level court for about an hour Wednesday, passing it. The bill now goes to the House floor.
The Senate earlier passed the bill, but it has been changed in a few ways in the House.
The big change is that the Senate had envisioned two districts, north and south. The House version has only one district that covers the whole state.
The estimated cost to establish the intermediate court for 2023 was almost $7.9 million for the Senate bill. The House bill trims that to $3.6 million.
Every year after that, Senate version would be about $5.7 million. The bill under consideration by the House would have an estimated continuing cost of $2.1 million.
And the Senate bill had judges serving 12-year terms. The House bill trims that to 10-year terms.
The issue has been promoted for years in West Virginia and was among the recommendations of a 2009 judicial reform panel established by then-Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat.
Advocates have said the midlevel court would provide an increased layer of certainty.
“The lack of an intermediate court has been viewed by the outside world as lack of predictability in our court system,” attorney Danielle Waltz, lobbying for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in House Finance today.
Senate Bill 275 would establish an intermediate court to review civil cases between the circuit court and Supreme Court levels. It would also review issues such as workers compensation cases and final orders from family court.
The three judges on the intermediate court would receive appointments to staggered terms to fill out the court at first, with regular elections for 10-year terms after that. The judges would make $142,000 a year. Proceedings are anticipated to take place in already-available public buildings.
Delegates asked today whether it’s wise to appoint the judges and then wait six years for the third judge to finally be on the ballot.
“That’s a bit unusual, is it not?” asked Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha.
Skeptics have said the intermediate court is unnecessary in West Virginia, where the Supreme Court already provides review of every appeal.
“This is really a bad idea. This is creating a new state bureaucracy,” Rowe said. “The Supreme Court has plenty of time to handle the cases it’s got.”