CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Two weeks from now residents in West Virginia will be able to access circuit court records online.
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia announced Monday that the West Virginia Public Access Search System, WVPASS, will launch on March 10.
Chief Justice Bill Wooton said that the supreme court is happy to be able to provide this to the public.
“This is a frequent request from a number of entities from our state, we’re happy to finally be able to provide a solution that will allow the public, allow litigants, and allow members of the media the ability to search statewide circuit court civil and criminal court records going back to 1999,” Wooton said.
He also said that attorneys will have access to cases in which they are counsel of record.
They were able to obtain this with an amended contract through the lower courts e-filling system. The only records that will not be available will be filings that were made under seal and juvenile cases.
Residents will be able to register and search the records for free, however, to download the documents, there will be a 25 cent-per-page charge plus a credit/debit processing fee.
Wooton hopes that the new record search will help with transparency with residents in West Virginia.
“We hope this long sought modernization of our circuit court record system demonstrates our courts continuing commitment to make the judicial branch as transparent and accessible to the public as possible,” he said.
He said they were able to provide this for residents because of the collaboration between the different people that were involved.
“This has been a monumental task made possible through many years of hard work, not just supreme court administrator officials and staff, but by officials and staff in court houses across all 55 counties of our state,” Wooton said.
The launch of this circuit court record system follows the Court Magistrate Case Record System that the supreme court launched last year. They also have plans for a records system for an appellate case level, sometime in the future.
Once it launches it will be available on the Court’s website www.courtswv.gov.