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Reviewed 15 November 2009 See also Legal Research and Assistance, below.  E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

West Virginia Court Decisions

Supreme Court of Appeals (W. Va.) Court of Claims (W. Va. Ct. Claims) U.S. District Court—Northern District (N.D. W. Va.) U.S. District Court—Southern District (S.D. W. Va.)

Appellate cases can be retrieved by citation (e.g., “196 W. Va. 35” or “468 S.E.2d 167”) from a LEXIS database (free searching goes back five years only). There is also a text-search function. (Registration is required but is free.)

West Virginia Constitution and Legislation

1. Constitution (W. Va. Const.)

2. Bills

3. Acts of the Legislature of West Virginia (W. Va. Acts)

4. West Virginia Code (W. Va. Code)
   This presentation of the code is difficult to use. Browsing is tedious. A search function is available.

West Virginia Rules of Procedure and Practice

Court Rules ♦ Rules of Procedure
See also miscellaneous links to rules.
Rules of Appellate Procedure (W. Va. R. App. P.) ————— Rules of Civil Procedure (W. Va. R. Civ. P.) Rules of Criminal Procedure (W. Va. R. Crim. P.) ————— Trial Court Rules Family Court Rules Magistrate Court Rules ————— Rules for Child Abuse & Neglect Proceedings Rules for Domestic Violence Proceedings Rules for Post-Conviction Habeas Corpus Proceedings ————— Court of Claims Rules ————— U.S. District Court Rules—Northern District (N.D. W. Va. R.)     —Southern District (S.D. W. Va. R.) U.S. Bankruptcy Court Rules—Northern District (N.D. W. Va. Bankr. R.)     —Southern District (S.D. W. Va. Bankr. R.)
Rules of Practice
Rules of Professional Conduct Rules of Lawyer Disciplinary Procedure Rules for Admission to Practice ————— Code of Judicial Conduct Rules of Judicial Disciplinary Procedure

West Virginia Administrative Law Sources

1. Regulations
   Code of State Rules
   1. State Register
   Opinions ♦ Decisions ♦ Orders ♦ Rulings
   Education and State Employees Grievance Board — Decisions Tax Department — Administrative Notices Tax Department — Technical Assistance Advisories
   Additional Resources
   ¶  Public Employees Grievance Board: Procedural Rules [156 C.S.R. 1] • Notice and Meeting Rules [156 C.S.R. 2] • Decisions Search ... Search summaries of all decisions by the board's administrative law judges, in specific employment categories; or search the full text of decisions after 1993. Decisions also can be downloaded in RTF format. (This board was formerly, until July 1, 2007, called the Education and State Employees Grievance Board.)
   ¶  Tax Department — Proposed Rules ... proposed rules, in PDF files, posted for public comment

West Virginia Local Law Sources

Charters
Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
Ordinances
For a county or municipality not listed here (or if a link here is broken), check a publisher's web site linked at the end of this list.
Beckley Bluefield Charleston Charles Town Fairmont Hurricane Martinsburg Montgomery Morgantown Oak Hill Parkersburg Ranson Ripley South Charleston Spencer St. Albans St. Marys Vienna Weirton Westover Wheeling Winfield American Legal Publishing Corp. Conway Greene Co. Municipal Code Corp.  

West Virginia Law-Related Periodicals

1. Law and Politics Book Review (L. & Pol. Book Rev.) ... [American Political Science Ass'n, Law and Courts Sec.]
2. West Virginia Journal of Law & Technology (W. Va. J.L. & Tech.) ... [West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law]
3. West Virginia Lawyer (W. Va. Law.) ... [West Virginia State Bar]

Other West Virginia Commentary

1. West Virginia Judicial Benchbook for Child Abuse and Neglect Proceedings. West Virginia Court Improvement Oversight Board & West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

West Virginia Law-Related Topical Web Sites

West Virginia Court Information

Web Sites
Supreme Court of Appeals ————— U.S. District Court—Northern District     —Southern District U.S. Bankruptcy Court—Northern District     —Southern District
Additional Resources
¶  Circuit Courts — Contact Information
¶  Family Courts — Contact Information • Judges • Mediators
¶  Magistrate Courts — Contact Information

West Virginia Forms

1. Court Forms ... [Supreme Court of Appeals] — Miscellaneous forms.

2. Litigation Forms
   Family Court Forms
   Jury Instructions ... Model jury instructions are not currently available on the web site of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, but forms of instructions that were formerly presented on the court's web site can be accessed at the Internet Archive web site.
   Mental Hygiene Proceedings Forms

3. Motor Vehicles Division — Forms

4. Secretary of State — Forms
   Tax Department
   See also publications from the Tax Department.
   Business Tax Forms and Registration Miscellaneous Tax Forms Personal Income Tax Forms

5. Vital Registration Program
   Birth Certificate Request — Form and Information
   Death Certificate Request — Form and Information

6. Business Entity Forms ...[Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.

Other West Virginia Resources

Government-Related Web Sites
Legislature ————— Attorney General Public Defender Services ————— Secretary of State Tax Division [Tax and Revenue Department]
See also the Piper Resources list of sites.
Additional Resources
¶  Vital Records — Contact Information ... [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
¶  Workers' Compensation — Agency Contact and Staff Contact Information ... [Robert W. McDowell / North Carolina Industrial Commission]
Bar Associations ♦ Law-Related Organizations
West Virginia State Bar ————— West Virginia Bar Association West Virginia Association for Justice [formerly: Trial Lawyers Association]
See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
Law Schools ♦ Admission to Practice ♦ Continuing Legal Education
West Virginia Continuing Legal Education ————— Board of Law Examiners ————— West Virginia University College of Law

Legal Research and Assistance

Law Libraries
West Virginia Supreme Cout of Appeals West Virginia University: George R. Farmer, Jr. Law Library
See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
1. West Virginia State Bar Publications
   Advance Directives for Health Care Decisionmaking in West Virginia ... See also a very brief pamphlet on the subject.
   Know Your Rights: Consumer Protection

2. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for West Virginia Residents ... [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of West Virginia law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in West Virginia.

3. Low-Cost Legal Aid ... See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
   1. West Virginia Legal Help for the Poor ... [Am. Bar Ass'n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA's Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs' web sites.
   2. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help ... [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.