CHARLESTON – As he begins his second stint as Chief Justice, Tim Armstead says he sees a busy year ahead.
“We always are looking at what we can do to improve our court system,” Armstead said in an exclusive interview with The West Virginia Record. “We want to continue trying to do what we can to make our court more open and more accessible and more accountable.”
He noted the recent opening of the Learning Center on the third floor of the state Capitol adjacent to Supreme Court.
“We’re looking forward to expanding that to bring student groups and adults to help educate people about what the court system does and how it impacts their lives,” said Armstead, who also was chief justice in 2020. “Hopefully that will inspire students to have an interest in law.”
“And we will be continuing the LAWS program at schools where we go to . And we’ll go to the West Virginia University College of Law.
“All of the justices are interested in is exploring ways to make the court more open. We recognize this court system belongs to the people of our state.”
On January 25, Armstead had a press conference to announce online access to state magistrate court records. And the statewide circuit court e-filing system will have 53 of the 55 counties online as of February 5. Kanawha and Monongalia counties are expected to be folded in by summer.
One issue Armstead wants to address quickly is a “critical need” for guardians ad litem.
“These are the attorneys for children in an abuse and neglect case,” Armstead said. “The guardian ad litem represents the children in these cases. Every other entity involved in a case has an attorney. The former DHHR has attorneys, the parents have attorneys and, when applicable, the children have one.
“But we’ve seen a real decline in the number of attorneys doing that work in the state. There are only 165 registered in the state, and there are about 6,000 children in foster care as of late last year.”
Armstead said the court is working to find ways to encourage attorneys to serve in this role.
“We’re talking to the Legislature about ideas to encourage it and working with the State Bar as well,” he said. “I really hope we can take some steps this year to increase the numbers. We are looking at ways to help through pay, obtain CLE (continuing legal education) credits, even loan forgiveness. We’re looking at all sorts of options. We’re even talking to the law school (WVU College of Law) about additional training.”
Armstead also noted upcoming changes in 2025 to the state’s circuit and family court alignments. Five new circuit judge positions, one new family court judge position and 10 magistrate positions are being added across the state.
All of that is on top of the court’s primary job of hearing and ruling on cases.
“We just started our oral arguments back up for the spring term,” he said. “We want to keep everything moving along through the court system in a proper and timely way.
“We’re fortunate that our Supreme Court really works well together.”