CHARLESTON — The new West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals clerk says his first month on the job has been a great experience so far.
"I would say that the transition so far has been as seamless as it possibly could have been," Supreme Court of Appeals Clerk Casey Forbes told The West Virginia Record. "I was in the rare vantage point of working in this office for years as deputy clerk, and I got to see the inner workings of how the court system worked from this vantage point."
Forbes said that vantage point was quite beneficial in moving from the deputy clerk to the clerk's position.
"It was still eye-opening, but it would've been a much more difficult transition had I not already experienced some of what this role was like," Forbes said.
Forbes started in the clerk's office in 2018 and moved from staff attorney to senior staff attorney to deputy clerk before taking over as clerk in January.
"In those roles, I worked in different areas of the clerk's office," Forbes said. "I thought I had a very good understanding of how this office operated, but being clerk has still been eye-opening. Sometimes, if you don't see things from a certain perspective, you can't fully understand them.
"And even though I've been in the office for more than five years, in the last month as the clerk of court, I have still learned things."
Forbes said his previous roles prepared him for a lot of what he had to know and things he had to ask, but it is a different role and it's a lot different when your name is attached to all the different files, documents and opinions.
"It's a much different perspective," Forbes said. "I'm most looking forward to settling in. Any transition has certain difficulties to it, and I'm looking forward to making things very stable and very organized and allowing the court to function as best it can."
Forbes said things will only continue to get better.
"Transitions can be difficult, but I really think that I'm settling in now and it's only going to get better," Forbes said.
Forbes said that even though he was appointed to clerk and his name is on the door, no one person can complete the tasks in the clerk's office.
"There are 22 people who work in the clerk's office, and they work with two different courts," Forbes said. "We handle a lot of information and one thing that is important to note is that even though I'm clerk of court, this is not just me. It is a great team and a great effort. I'm surrounded by people who are dedicated and hardworking and I am very appreciative of that. There are a lot of people who make this work."
Forbes said the clerk's office is really the face of the court.
"So if someone out there wants to file something or has a question about a case, they can't just call the judge or justice, because that's unethical and can create the appearance of impropriety, and that's not how the system works," Forbes said. "That individual contacts the clerk's office. In a lot of ways, we are the first point of contact for the court and that functions on a lot of different levels."
Forbes said all case filing goes through the clerk's office, but it also has different areas where it tries to help the public understand the court system better for that point of contact.
"We help with cases, we help with the calendaring, and we help to manage and proctor to Bar examination twice a year," Forbes said. "A lot of states hire out the management of the Bar exam but in West Virginia, we try to save the state money by doing that in-house with trained supervisors."
Forbes said the clerk's office does a lot that doesn't just deal with court filings in Charleston. He said the team works great together to get things done.
"I think right now we have such a good team," Forbes said. "It's easy to work with the justices on the court when we have an issue that we need to resolve and it's been a very good experience the last month as clerk so far."
Forbes said he was very appreciative to his wife and children for bearing with him during the transition.
"I am also so appreciative of the Supreme Court justices, intermediate court judges and the judges around the state," Forbes said. "I think that underscores that the clerk of the Supreme Court is a central role in the judiciary in the state, but you can't function on an island. We have to be a unified judiciary to make it all work."
Forbes took over Jan. 1 after Edyth "Eydie" Nash Gaiser retired.
Forbes is a native of Charleston and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Shepherd University, a master’s degree in English from the College of Charleston in South Carolina and a law degree from the Alexander Blewitt III School of Law at the University of Montana, where he was editor of the Public Land & Resources Law Review.