Some believe judicial pay raise long overdue in West Virginia

CHARLESTON — At some point, most West Virginians will have their lives, or the lives of their family or friends, impacted by one of the state’s circuit judges.

While circuit judges have only a very limited appellate role in their roles as judges of general jurisdiction, they basically hear everything else, according to Charleston attorney William Tiano of Tiano O’Dell PLLC.

“They hear civil, criminal, abuse and neglect, mental hygiene cases in some cases, appeals from divorces in some cases. Any kind of case that’s filed in West Virginia, there’s a possibility of that case being heard at some point at some level in a circuit courtroom in West Virginia,” Tiano said.

If the $126,000 that each West Virginia circuit judge makes annually seems like a king’s ransom to someone working at a fast-food restaurant in the Kanawha Valley or a mall in Morgantown, it doesn’t fare well when comparing apples to apples.

Read more: https://www.wvnews.com/news/wvnews/some-believe-judicial-pay-raise-long-overdue-in-west-virginia/article_673f5558-4fd4-5ed3-aa55-328fa76809df.html