CHARLESTON — The Judicial Vacancy Advisory Commission is currently receiving applications for two pending vacancies in the First Judicial Circuit and the 12th Judicial Circuit.
The deadline for the applications is Oct. 9 and the deadline for submitting letters of recommendation is Oct. 16. The JVAC will hold interviews Oct. 23 and 24.
Judge John W. Hatcher Jr. will be retiring, while Judge James Mazzone will be moving to the federal bench.
Debra Scudiere, chair of the JVAC, said the process to fill vacancies begins when the Governor's Office is notified of a present or upcoming vacancy.
"[Gov. Jim Justice's] staff and I then work to set a schedule for the organizational meeting, for the appropriate deadlines for the applications and letters of recommendation or comment and for in-person interviews of the applicants," Scudiere said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "Although the applicable statute does not require that we interview everyone who applies, so far, we have been able to do that."
Scudiere said JVAC deliberates after the interviews and then sends to the governor a list of the two to five persons who JVAC believes are the most qualified candidates.
"Then the governor makes his pick," Scudiere said. "He can choose from the names that we have offered, or he can make a selection outside that list."
Scudiere said it is a bit simpler to have two vacancies at once.
"When there are two that come up simultaneously, we usually just use the same deadlines for each," Scudiere said.
Scudiere said the JVAC commissioners are a mix of attorneys and lay members.
"To a person, they are each dedicated to our assigned duty of providing to the governor the best candidates that we can," Scudiere said. "The commissioners are very cognizant of how important it is that West Virginia has good judges. Each of our commissioners, working together as a volunteer unpaid body, tries their best to give to the applicants an appropriate interview process and to send on to the governor the best candidates possible."