Except where the provisions of this code or rule of the Supreme Court of Appeals permit the commencement of a criminal prosecution through the issuance of a citation, a criminal prosecution shall be commenced by the filing of a complaint in accordance with the requirements of rules of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
W. Va. Code § 50-4-2
Commencement of criminal prosecutions
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case WEST VIRGINIA JUD. INQUIRY COM'N v. Casto (1979)
Most recently applied in 212 W. Va. 599 - State ex rel. Clifford v. Stucky (November 2002)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: West Virginia Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain West Virginia statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.