CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Court System released its annual statistics report, which found there was a 12.5 percent decrease in cases filed in 2020 versus the previous year.
In 2020, there were 38,248 cases filed across West Virginia’s circuit courts — that is more than 12 percent less than 2019. Of the 2020 circuit court cases, 19,106 were civil case filings — 49.9 percent, 12,021 were criminal case filings — 31.4 percent and 7,121 were juvenile case filings — 18.6 percent.
West Virginia had 75 judges across 31 judicial circuits in 2020, which some having as many as seven judges and some having only one. Every county has a courthouse, but a single circuit can comprise as many as four counties.
Pertaining to the state's electronic filing and service with mass litigation, there were a total of 97,362 documents filed electronically and 3,290,141 documents electronically served between January 2020 and December 2020, according to the report.
"670,935 pages were electronically filed in all Mass Litigation cases subject to electronic filing and service during 2020," the report states. "This translates to over 279 boxes of paper, based on 2400 pages per box. From December 2008, when electronic filing and service was first implemented in certain Mass Litigation cases, through the end of December 2020, a total of 1,088,803 documents were electronically filed, and 7,097,349 pages were electronically filed in all Mass Litigation cases subject to electronic filing and service. This translates to over 2,957 boxes of paper."
In Family Court, there was a 17 percent decrease from the previous year in new cases, with 20,510 new cases filed. There were also 6,081 modifications and contempt proceedings and 469 weddings performed.
In Magistrate Court, there were a total of 112,176 criminal cases, 39,002 civil cases, 2,120 special proceedings and 1,165 juvenile cases filed, according to the report.
There are a total of 158 magistrates in West Virginia. There are at least two in every county and 10 in Kanawha, which is the largest county.
