SB 622 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Authorizing compensation for certain lower court staff

Senate Bill 622 changes how salaries are set for specific lower court staff in West Virginia. It replaces fixed annual salary amounts for magistrate court clerks, magistrate assistants, magistrate court deputy clerks, family court secretary-clerks, and family case coordinators with a pay scale determined by the Administrative Director of the Supreme Court of Appeals. This means future salary adjustments for these positions will follow the same process as other state employees' raises, rather than using the previously set statutory figures. The bill directly affects these court staff members across all West Virginia counties.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Feb 27, 2025 Last action Mar 4, 2025
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Introduced Version Committee Substitute · 5 edits
MODERATE
This bill changes how salaries for certain lower court staff are set in West Virginia. Instead of using fixed dollar amounts in the law, the Administrative Director of the Supreme Court of Appeals will now establish a pay scale for magistrate court clerks, magistrate assistants, magistrate court deputy clerks, family court secretary-clerks, and family case coordinators. The bill also adds a new position, magistrate court deputy clerks, to the list of staff whose salaries are determined by this pay scale.
Scope change
The bill expands the scope of staff whose salaries are set by a pay scale to include magistrate court deputy clerks, secretary-clerks of family court judges, and family case coordinators, in addition to magistrate court clerks and magistrate assistants.
FISCAL

Fixed salary amounts for magistrate court clerks, magistrate assistants, and magistrate court deputy clerks are removed and replaced with a requirement that salaries be determined by a pay scale established by the Administrative Director of the Supreme Court of Appeals.

SCOPE

Magistrate court deputy clerks are added as a new staff position whose salaries will be determined by the pay scale.

Secretary-clerks of family court judges and family case coordinators are added to the list of staff whose salaries are determined by the pay scale.

REQUIREMENT

The bill adds eligibility requirements for magistrate court deputy clerks, including restrictions on immediate family relationships with magistrates, clerk, assistants, or circuit judges within the same county.

The bill adds authority for the Supreme Court of Appeals to authorize additional family case coordinators if workload requires extra staff support.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
6
Key actions
1
Committee
4
Mar 4, 2025
Committee
To Finance
upper
Mar 4, 2025
Upper · Passed
Committee substitute reported, but first to Finance
upper
Feb 27, 2025
Committee
To Judiciary
upper
Feb 27, 2025
Introduced
Introduced in Senate
upper
Feb 27, 2025
Committee
To Judiciary then Finance
upper
0 primary · 3 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.