House Speaker Rick Thompson says he wants to know whether the appellate procedures the state Supreme Court first implemented in 2010 are working.
On Wednesday, he introduced a resolution at the State Capitol that calls for a year long study of those rules from the Joint Legislative Committee on Government and Finance.
“I want to have an open and frank discussion about our new rules of appellate procedures that guarantee everyone has a right of appeal and a right to a written decision on each and every case presented to the Supreme Court which is what they say they’re doing at this time,” Speaker Thompson said.
The new appellate procedures were a response to criticisms of the Supreme Court that, up until the changes were made, could reject a case on appeal without providing a reason.
Members of the Supreme Court have said the additions have been successful and eliminate the need for an intermediate court of appeals in West Virginia
Speaker Thompson says he’s hoping the study will provide factual information about that claim. “Let’s see if these work before we go spend millions of dollars that, frankly, we don’t have now,” he said of the intermediate court possibility.
“If these rules are working, we shouldn’t waste that money on some other project.”
If the resolution is approved, the Joint Committee on Finance would report back to the Legislature on its findings during the 2014 Regular Legislative Session.
