The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals shall, on an annual basis, designate five active circuit court judges to individually hear and rule upon applications for orders authorizing the interception of wire, oral or electronic communications: Provided, That no designated circuit judge may consider any application for such an order if he or she presides as judge of the circuit court of the county wherein the applied for installation would occur or of the county wherein the communications facility, line or device to be monitored is located.
W. Va. Code § 62-1D-7
Designated judges
Known as the West Virginia Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act
The act spans §§ 62-1D-1 to 62-1D-9 (16 sections).
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 221 W. Va. 70 - State v. Mullens (2007)
Most recently applied in SER State of West Virginia v. Hon. Robert A. Burnside, Jr., and Richard Hardison, Jr. (April 2014)
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.