Every defendant charged in a magistrate court in a criminal proceeding which is within the jurisdiction of the court shall have the right to a trial on the merits in the magistrate court.
W. Va. Code § 50-5-7
Right to trial in criminal cases
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 214 W. Va. 188 - State v. McCraine (2003)
Most recently applied in 217 W. Va. 748 - Carroll v. Stump (July 2005)
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.