West Virginia Code
Article 1. Courts and Officers
§50-1-2. Number of Magistrates

(a) The number of magistrates to be elected in each county of this state shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this section.
(b) The Supreme Court of Appeals shall conduct or otherwise arrange for a caseload study of the magistrate courts of this state for the purpose of determining how many magistrates are needed in each county. Based upon the results of this study and upon consideration of county population data from the most recent decennial census, the Supreme Court of Appeals shall enter an administrative order on or before January 5, 2023, containing the Supreme Courts recommendations as to the number of magistrates who are needed in each of the states 55 counties for the four-year terms of office to be filled by election in the year 2024. The administrative order shall allocate no more than 170 magistrates for the entire State of West Virginia, nor shall the allocation reduce the number of magistrates in any county below that in effect on the effective date of the amendments to this section enacted during the 2022 regular session of the Legislature. Attested copies of the administrative order shall be provided to the President of the West Virginia Senate, the Clerk of the Senate, the Clerk and the Speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates, and the West Virginia Secretary of State.
(c) The West Virginia Legislature may, in the regular session of the Legislature, 2023, reject the allocation of magistrates recommended by the Supreme Court and allocate magistrates for the four-year terms commencing in January of 2025 and serving through December of 2028, as the Legislature may choose by enactment of a bill containing such an allocation.
(d) If the Legislature does not enact a different allocation of the magistrates to be elected in 2024 pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, then the administrative order of the Supreme Court of Appeals required by subsection (b) of this section shall become the certification to the ballot commissioners of each county in this state of the number of magistrates to be elected in each county of this state at the judicial elections to be held concurrently with the primary election in 2024.
(e) The process set forth in this section shall be repeated every four years in the first and second years immediately preceding the quadrennial election of magistrates.

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