"You have to accentuate the positive eliminate the negative latch onto the affirmative and Don’t mess with Mister-In-Between."

If you are reading this, it means we have all survived the Y2K mess and the world did not come to an end. The new Millennium is here! I apologize for beginning my first column as Chief Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in the new millennium in this way, but I wanted to grab your attention. I figured the catchy words of a wonderful old Johnny Mercer tune would help. Also, I couldn’t find better words written by anybody to more accurately describe my goals and management style for the coming year as Chief Justice.

Some positives first. The Court system of West Virginia is a huge enterprise. There are about 1100 employees statewide and our current budget is over 56 million dollars. We operate in all 55 counties and maintain staff, office equipment, computers and support for all those offices. Even though the Judicial Branch is one of the three branches of state government, we operate the entire system on far less than 3% of the State Budget. In fact, the Court’s exact portion of the State Budget this year is only 2.1%. Simply put, we are one-third of State Government, but we operate the Judicial Branch on about 2% of the entire budget. And, ironically, West Virginia has the lowest crime rate in the Nation!

On the negative side, we are swamped! We are by far the busiest State Supreme Court in the Nation. Three thousand four-hundred and fifteen (3,415) petitions were filed in this Court in 1998. In 1999, that figure will exceed 3,500 cases. Similar states with no appellate courts (nine states) average only 790 cases per year. Likewise, our Circuit and Magistrate Courts in most counties are as busy every day as a K-Mart on Christmas Eve, and the Family Court system is simply overwhelmed. Crushing caseloads at all levels result in frustration and delay.

Where are we headed in 2000? First, for this new millennium we must continue to develop the wonderful programs and projects now in place, for example:

The "Electronic Courtroom" with jail-to-court video arrangements, hearings held live with lawyers and judges in different cities, and witnesses testifying in depositions and trials from remote venues.

The "Laws" program where the court goes to communities throughout the State to involve school children and the public in actual court proceedings.

The immediate goals of the Judicial Branch for the year 2000 must be to complete the new Family Court system and to get it running smoothly and efficiently, so that desperately needed services can be supplied to West Virginia families and children; and to further develop technology in the courts by installing video terminals in more courtrooms and jails and further adding resources and materials available on the Supreme Court’s web page; and to devise ways to reduce court delay and caseloads by working to increase mediation and other alternative dispute resolution methods and for the creation of an Intermediate Appellate Court. These are the urgent "hot button" goals, but there are many others which we will visit in future columns.

As you can see, the West Virginia Judicial Branch operates a court system that is very large but also trim, efficient and economical. Assuming the role as Chief Justice of such a big and busy court system is a little daunting, but also very thrilling.