Business, Government Legal News from throughout WVHouse Judiciary Committee discusses family court compensation and law libraries

House Judiciary Committee discusses family court compensation and law libraries

The House Judiciary Committee moved several bills to the House floor Jan. 26, covering areas from increasing compensation caps of family court secretary clerks and case coordinators to evaluating state law libraries.  

One bill addressed raises for state employees that resulted in some family court secretary clerks and case coordinators being paid more than current caps.

Currently, family court secretary clerks may not exceed an annual salary of $35,000 and case coordinators may not exceed $36,000. The bill aims to increase secretary clerk caps to $35,000 and case coordinator caps to $52,000.

Annual salary is determined by the administrative director of the state Supreme Court and both positions can receive annual incremental salary increases.

Salary increases would not exceed the cap, explained West Virginia Supreme Court Administrative Director Steve Canterbury.  

"The whole reason for it is because you have people coming in at different levels of background and experiences," Canterbury told the committee. "If you have a person who worked at a multi-judge circuit for eight years and someone coming off the street making the same money, it's problematic. There are raises given where they come in from different levels depending on backgrounds but it does not exceed the ceiling."

Canterbury also told the committee that even people with much experience are not hired at the very top of the salary range.

However, Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, asked Canterbury if these caps would be proportionally raised when compared to other states. Canterbury said he currently did not have the numbers to compare.

"We pay family court judges less than they would make in a lot of other states," he said. "Are these folks being proportionally paid? We shouldn't be the top 10 in case coordinators and the bottom 10 in judges."

Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, said the Supreme Court is allowed to exceed caps by law.

"If you are allowed to exceed the cap, why do we need a cap raise?" he asked.

Canterbury replied that the only time salaries are allowed to exceed the cap is when the Legislature appropriates an across-the-board raise.

"But if it's not going to affect the budget and you can exceed the cap, why is the bill necessary?" Doyle asked.

"People would read into this and say why are they making more than the cap?" Canterbury answered.

Committee members voted to move the bill to the committee on finance and then to the House floor.

Another bill that was moved to the House floor dealt with authorizing the state Supreme Court to establish a rate of compensation for mental hygiene services.

The bill also would require mental hygiene commissioners to submit compensation requests to the administrative director of the courts instead of a circuit court judge. Committee members said the bill would clean up the auditing process and make it easier to track expenses.

Committee members also discussed a bill that would determine the fate of public law libraries. The bill would allow state Supreme Court officials to evaluate library usage and to determine which libraries to keep.

State Supreme Court officials announced in May that many law libraries would be closed because of advances in technology and a general lack of interest.

In a May 2011 interview, Canterbury explained that law libraries, depending on size, can cost about $125,000 per building to operate annually.

Committee members voted to move the bill to the House floor.