Ketchum
CHARLESTON -– Judicial offices in West Virginia will be open Tuesday unless a chief judge of a judicial circuit determines that, due to lack of power, court offices in an individual county should not be open.
A chief judge's order would cover all court offices, including magistrate and circuit clerk offices.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Menis Ketchum issued an order Sunday closing all courts in the state of West Virginia on Monday because of Friday's storm and aftermath. Magistrates continued their regular on-call rotations.
Ketchum said he and the other Justices have been monitoring the situation since Friday when a storm with unusually high winds caused widespread power outages affecting hundreds of thousands of people in every county. The Justices continue to assess the situation from Supreme Court offices, along with other essential personnel.
The judiciary's central data center never was without power. A backup generator kicked in as it was designed to do, so essential information streams like that needed to enter domestic violence protective orders into the National Information Crime Computer has continued uninterrupted.