LOG ON!

No, it’s not cable re-runs of Judge Wapner, or last week’s "Law and Order." It’s a lot closer to home -- the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals World Wide Website: http://www.state.wv.us/wvsca.

Our site is maintained by Webmaster Angie Harless. All of our opinions since 1991, in a fully searchable format, are just a click away. Opinions usually go up within a day of being released.

Our site was recently given a Votenet "Outstanding Political Web Site Award." Our docket and calendar are there, along with such materials as our annual statistical reports. Recently we added information, including a map, as to how persons with disabilities can access and use our Court facilities. And our Law Library has a great page, with outstanding links to other law-related sites (they welcome e-mail suggestions for sites they should add).

In February 1999, an average of 416 users a day came to the site, for an average of 13 minutes each. The number one usage area is the opinions, which pleases me greatly. Many of our West Virginia lawyers are making regular, practical use of this free, up-to-the-minute service -- to get the latest law, and to stay current about Court activities. I like knowing that nearly 500 people a day are visiting their Court and their library. This is public service at its best.

I’m proud of our Internet Committee, consisting of Webmaster Angie Harless, Assistant Law Librarian Toni Blessing, Information Services Director Michelle Mensore, Deputy Clerk Rory Perry, Chief Deputy Administrator Richard Rosswurm, Director of Technical Services Mark Smith, Nancy Black from the Judicial Investigation Commission, Sue Rubenstein from the Board of Law Examiners -- and one of our newest employees --Lynn Sheehan, who will be handling technology services in our Library.

I’m told that our web site is way ahead of most state courts’. All of you who are already using it, thanks -- and let us know how we can improve it. The rest of you, log on and take us for a spin!

***

I delivered the "State of the Judiciary Address" at this year’s annual meeting of the West Virginia State Bar, in Morgantown, on April 30, 1999.

One of the high points of that occasion, for me, was to administer the oath of office to your new State Bar President, Dan Ringer.

As a trial judge, I had Dan Ringer in my courtroom on many occasions, and I’m proud to call Dan my friend. I know that Dan is "tan, fit and ready" to lead our Bar in the coming year. Congratulations, Dan!

Following are a few excerpts from my remarks at the annual State Bar meeting.

***

Last year, then-Chief Justice Robin Davis, in her State of the Judiciary address, said that "the best way to describe the state of the West Virginia judiciary in 1998 is to say it is in a state of change."

In my State of the Judiciary report, I don’t think that I can improve on Justice Davis’ assessment that our court system is in a state of change.

In fact, when I looked back at the last 10 years or so of "State of the Judiciary speeches" by such luminaries as Tom McHugh, Richard Neely, and Justice Margaret Workman -- lo and behold, each one of them had also said that the most notable characteristic of our West Virginia judicial system, in their term of being Chief Justice, was -- you guessed it -- "change."

So I am not going to tamper with the accumulated wisdom of my peers on this issue. I will join the chorus and report that -- as usual -- our West Virginia judicial system is in a state of change.

And I hope that you all will find it reassuring that -- when it comes to change -- things haven’t changed much in the past 10 years!

Let me briefly mention just a few of the many areas of change in our court system. We have changes in our caseload, with family law just one of several areas that have grown substantially. We have rapidly changing technologies -- for example, live video gives us new options for conducting court business. And we have changing social paradigms, with courts being called on to vindicate rights -- like the rights of disabled people -- that were not recognized a decade ago.

In 1997, in response to this climate of constant change, then-Chief Justice Workman appointed a Commission on the Future of the West Virginia Judiciary, under WVU President David Hardesty’s leadership.

That Commission delivered its report on December 1, 1998. The Futures Commission Report describes many areas of change in our judicial system. The report also makes 126 practical recommendations for managing that change.

The report also gives a good overview of our state’s judicial branch, and makes many suggestions about how we can and must improve our court system. Another good overview is found in our Supreme Court’s statistical report on our 1998 caseload. Believe it or not, that report is also surprisingly readable. Both can be found on our web site.

One of my law clerks, who likes soul music, calls our 1998 statistical report the "James Brown" report. The singer James Brown, you may remember, is known as "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business."

And our 1998 statistical report provides good evidence that we are "the Hardest Working Court in America."

Of course, I am not suggesting that we justices are breaking into a "cold sweat" and collapsing on the bench, under a grueling workload. What I am suggesting is that our Supreme Court processes a very heavy caseload, using a substantial and highly professional staff of whom we are very proud.

I want to quote from a review of a new book by Helle Porsdam, about the importance of the law and the legal system in our national culture.

"Since the founding of the republic, the law has come to make itself felt at every level of American society. Indeed, in a country with no monarchy or hereditary aristocracy and no established church, the law has become America’s ‘civil religion,’ helping to form a collective national identity.

"What is distinctive about the role of law in the United States is not simply the prevalence of legal language and practice in everyday life, nor the fact that people go to court more often on more matters than do citizens of other countries. It is that Americans appeal to the law with a singular faith and hope deeply rooted in the culture. For all their complaints about excessive litigiousness, greedy lawyers, and the shortcomings of the adversarial system, when conflicts occur, it is to jurists rather than to politicians or the clergy that Americans turn in their search for solutions.

"To demonstrate how thoroughly the idea of law permeates American life, this author looks at a wide variety of cultural evidence, from the novels of Scott Turow and Sara Paretsky to the television show ‘The People’s Court.’ In each case she unveils and explores telling links between culture, self, and society -- all forged by the law."

I think these remarks help us to appreciate the depth and breadth of the system we work in, as a part of our national culture and history.

I want to close on a note of congratulation, and a note of caution.

First, the people who make our legal system work -- and that includes judges and lawyers, and also clerks and custodians -- should be congratulated for doing well, in a time of continuous and challenging change. I offer those congratulations.

But I would be remiss if I did not recognize that the personal, social, and spiritual costs associated with working in the legal, court and judicial system can be very high. The subject matter of our system is very often permeated with human suffering, greed, and venality. When we are constantly dealing with these difficult realities, there are great risks of depression, burnout, and cynicism.

I know too many people who, even though successful in a material sense, seriously question the wisdom of ever having gone into the legal system for a career -- because of how they have suffered as people.

Perhaps this is one of our greatest challenges, in these times of continuous change. How can we better see that people in our judicial system can lead sustainable personal and work lives, lives of which we can be proud?

I conclude with this challenge. I wish us all good luck in meeting it.