CODE REORGANIZATION SURVEY

The West Virginia Legislature is considering a recodification and reorganization of the West Virginia State Code. The last recodification of the Code was in 1931. Reorganization of the Code has occurred several times, the last time in 1966. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees have been directed to undertake this process. Senate Judiciary Chairman Bill Wooton and House Judiciary Chairman Rick Staton have generated this survey to assess from state Bar Members and others who regularly use the code, their overall support for recodification and reorganization, and to solicit input to determine what revisions to the Code are needed.

Recodification
Recodification is done by reenacting all previously passed Acts of the Legislature in one bill
for the purposes of eliminating archaic Code provisions, wording and writing styles. There is
the possibility of undertaking limited codification of well established case law, for which we
would like your input as well.

The Judiciary Committee Chairmen are very interested in receiving input from State lawyers
and others who refer regularly to the Code to gain insight as to what types of revisions will
make the Code more understandable and user-friendly. Please take the time to offer your
comments in the survey regarding aspects of the Code you feel are in need of revision,
specifically Code provisions where revisions are needed to clarify procedures and processes,
update old style sentence structures which cause confusion, chapters and articles that need
to be reorganized, and any other changes you believe need to be made. Consideration is
being given to forming committees to work on specific chapters of the Code.

If you are interested in participating, please provide the appropriate information on the
survey. Click here for the survey http://129.71.161.247/surveys/lawsurv/Law_Survey.html

(The information above was provided by Joe Altizer, Legislative Analyst. Please provide your input directly to him on the survey document.)