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The Fifth Family Circuit resides in West Virginia. Click on the links below to learn more about the court's...
This court holds the following jurisdiction:[1]
| “ | Family court judges hear cases involving divorce, annulment, separate maintenance, paternity, grandparent visitation, name change, infant guardianship, child custody, and issues involving allocation of parental responsibility and family support proceedings, except those incidental to child abuse and neglect proceedings. Family court judges also may perform marriages.[2] | ” |
Judges of the West Virginia Family Courts are each elected to six- and eight-year terms. Their initial term is six years and every subsequent term is eight years.[3] The elections for this court are nonpartisan contested elections. To serve on this court, a judge must be a state citizen, a circuit resident, at least 30 years of age and have five years of law practice in the state.[4]
West Virginia is one of 10 states that uses nonpartisan elections to select judges and does not use retention elections for subsequent terms. To read more about how states use judicial elections to select judges across the country, click here.
Judges in West Virginia compete in nonpartisan elections in even-numbered years. They run in a general election in that takes place on the same day as West Virginia's primary for partisan offices.
Federal courts:
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of West Virginia, Southern District of West Virginia • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of West Virginia, Southern District of West Virginia
State courts:
Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia • West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals • West Virginia Circuit Courts • West Virginia Family Courts • West Virginia Magistrate Courts • West Virginia Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in West Virginia • West Virginia judicial elections • Judicial selection in West Virginia